I get free Kindle e-books as a Prime member thanks to this hidden program

Summary

• Amazon has a program called First Reads which offers Prime members free Kindle e-books each month.
• September’s First Reads collection has eight different Kindle e-books to choose from, plus a bonus short read.
• You must be an Amazon Prime member to get one for free (non-Prime pays $2); claimed books are yours to keep.

While switching your calendar from August to September may be challenging as summer ends, one benefit of each new month that I’ve recently started looking forward to is free Kindle e-books.

You might wonder how? Every month, Amazon offers new free Kindle e-books to Amazon Prime members through its lesser-known First Reads program, which updates with a curated selection of new Kindle e-books across various genres on the first of every month. As a Prime member, you can claim one free Kindle e-book from this collection, plus a free bonus short read, meaning you can get two free Kindle e-books this September.

The best part is that once you claim your free Kindle e-books, they are yours to keep, and you can read them whenever you want. So whether you’re searching for a new book to read or want to grow your Kindle library, I’ve found Amazon’s First Reads program a great way to do it.

As I mentioned, the main requirement to enjoy this benefit is an Amazon Prime membership. If you don’t have Prime, it costs $15 per month or $139 per year, or you can use a free trial if available. You can check out the First Reads program and Amazon Prime below.

This September, you can choose from eight different books

You can also claim a bonus short read for free

Similar to its August offering, Amazon is once again providing eight different Kindle e-books through its First Reads program to choose from. Several genres are available, so hopefully one of the books catches your eye. This month’s genres include romance, historical fiction, psychological suspense, magical realism, psychological thriller, and book club fiction.

Below is a list of all the First Reads titles available on Amazon for September 2025:

• I’ll Follow You: A Novel (Genre: Psychological Suspense)
• Call of the Camino: A Novel (Genre: Book Club Fiction)
• Dating After The End Of The World (Genre: Romance)
• As Long as You’re Mine (Genre: Historical Fiction)
• The Last Morning: A Thriller (Genre: Psychological Suspense)
• A House Between Sea and Sky (Genre: Magical Realism)
• Wanting Daisy Dead (Genre: Psychological Thriller)
• The Distant Daughter (Genre: Historical Fiction)

To claim your free e-book, head to the First Reads program, select a title, then click “Read now for $0.00” on the Amazon store page. It will then be added to your Kindle library.

Remember, while there are eight books available for you to choose from, you can only get one for free, so it’s best to check out each title individually and read the synopsis before you make your decision. For this month, I chose The Last Morning: A Thriller, by Camden Baird, as my free First Reads book, mainly because it seemed like the most suspenseful option.

If you’re an avid Kindle reader and have a Prime membership, Amazon’s First Reads program is a convenient and simple way to get free new e-books every month, and I’ve found it to be a great help for growing my Kindle library as a new user.

Additionally, Amazon is offering a bonus short read for its First Reads program this month, which is Eerie Basin: A Short Story by Ivy Pochoda, an award-winning author. The book tells a story about a Brooklyn neighborhood that “harbors terrifying secrets.” So by claiming this bonus short read and selecting one of the eight books outlined above, you’ll be getting two free Kindle e-books if you have Amazon Prime. If you’re not a Prime member, you can still look at the books through Amazon’s First Reads program, but choosing one of the titles will cost $2 instead of being free.

All the titles I mentioned in this story will be available throughout September. However, remember that on October 1, new books will be offered for free, and these titles will be replaced. If you’re an avid Kindle reader and have a Prime membership, Amazon’s First Reads program is a convenient and simple way to get free new e-books every month, and I’ve found it to be a great help for growing my Kindle library as a new user.