Overdrive is the cleanest, fastest, and most legal way to access millions of ebooks—not just ones in the public domain, but even recently released mainstream titles.

There is one hitch though: you’ll need a valid and active public library card or to be a student to have access to these free ebooks. Overdrive works with over 30,000 public libraries in over 40 different countries worldwide. In addition to free ebook checkouts, you can also listen to audiobooks for free.

If you can access the service, you will have instant access to the latest The New York Times Bestsellers. The list is updated weekly, so you will never miss out on a hot read.

Libby can do everything that Overdrive can; it has the big advantage of being easy to use with a sleek and refined interface. I prefer it over the traditional Overdrive App. (Note that Libby does not work on older devices.)

Like Overdrive, you do need a public library card and an internet connection. There are different ways to use and access Libby depending on your device.

**Tip: when selecting your library, be sure to select “Ohio Digital Library” in addition to the Public Library of Youngstown for access to a larger selection of e and audio books  

Hoopla is such a cool app. You do need a library card to get access to it. It is similar to Overdrive or Libby but they not only offer eBooks and audio books, but full album downloads, movies, comics, TV Shows, and more. You can borrow some of the latest album releases too. Hoopla is simple to access and use, without the hassle of having to return the items you’ve borrowed, all you need is your library card, a web browser, smartphone or tablet to get started. 

Epic is an award-winning subscription service, which gives millions of families and classrooms instant, unlimited access to thousands of books, videos and quizzes from leading publishers to help kids everywhere read, learn and grow. Epic Free allows students to have free access to ebooks during school hours plus 2 additional hours outside of school. This service is geared mostly toward readers aged 12 and under.

ManyBooks purpose is to curate and provide a library of free and discounted fiction eBooks for people to download and enjoy. Books are searchable by genre including Young Adult and Children.  The emphasis is on classic literature, but there are also a fair amount of self-published works available as well.

Downloads are available in dozens of formats, including EPUB, MOBI, and PDF, and each story has a rating out of five stars.

Centsless Books is a curator-aggregator of free Kindle books available on Amazon. Its mission is to make it easy for you to stay on top of all the free eBooks available from the online retailer. Users can search by categories such as Teen & Young Adult and Children’s eBooks.

Note that some of the “free” eBooks listed on Centsless Books are only free if you’re part of Kindle Unlimited.  Also, since Centsless Books tracks free eBooks available on Amazon, there may be times when there is nothing listed. If that happens, try again a few days later.

Amazon has over 450,000 free eBooks for you to download. I just go to Amazon and type in “free young adult eBooks” or “free teen eBooks” in the search bar and every book that is free pops up. You can use the filters on the left to narrow down your search even more. You don’t even need a Kindle to read them. You can use your phone or computer as long as you have the free Kindle app.

Also, if you have a Prime membership, you can access “Amazon Prime Reading.” You can “borrow” up to 10 eBooks for free. These titles are also searchable by genre such as Teen, Young Adult, and Children.

Free-Ebooks.net offers thousands of free eBooks. The content is broadly split into six categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Romance, Sci-Fi, Self Help, and Business.

To be able to download free eBooks from Free-Ebooks.net, you will need to sign up for an account. An account is free to create. Once you have an account, you can download up to five free titles every month.

In addition to English, books are available in dozens of other languages.

PDFs offer universal support across platforms and devices. If you want to stick to PDFs only, then you’ll want to check out PDFBooksWorld. While the collection is small at only a few thousand titles, they’re all free and guaranteed to be PDF-optimized. Most of them are literary classics, like The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, Crime and Punishment, and so on.

BookBub is a free service that helps you discover books you'll love through unbeatable deals, handpicked recommendations, and updates from your favorite authors. BookBub doesn't actually sell books. They simply introduce you to books you'll love that are available on retailers like Amazon's Kindle store, Barnes & Noble's Nook store, Apple Books, and others.

BookBub notifies you about free and deeply discounted eBook recommendations selected by their editorial team, from bestsellers to hidden gems. You choose the types you'd like to get notified about — with categories such as Young Adult, Middle Grades and Children — and we send you great deals in those genres.

With thousands of books to choose from, in tons of categories, there is definitely something for every taste, mood, or preference at DigiLibraries

Search for a certain title, author, or subject to find what you’re looking for right off the bat. Or browse through the categories neatly displayed on the left. If you sign up for a free account, you can save your favorites and share a link to the book with your friends on social media or via email.

When you’re ready to download a book, the site supports EPUB, PDF, and MOBI file formats, so you should be covered with your reader. The only real limitation the site has is that you can only download up to 50 eBooks per day.

Planet eBook is an attractive site that offers classic literature for free. Some books are out of copyright and are offered to you in an entirely legal fashion. But, be sure to click the Copyright & Usage link on the ebook details page for any restrictions on that particular book.

Right now, Planet eBook offers just over 80 books, all of which have been carefully selected. True, you will not have the buffet of thousands that you may find on other sites, but you can rest assured that each and every piece of writing on Planet eBook is of outstanding quality.

All books on the site can be downloaded as a PDF, EPUB, or MOBI file for reading at any time. So, you can enjoy titles like Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, or Great Expectations without distractions. Again, the selection may not be enormous on Planet eBook; however, if you want a quick and easy way to find the best of best when it comes to the classics, this site delivers.

Similar to BookBub, you must enter your email address and genre preferences (Teen/Young Adult is an option) to be notified of any deals available based on your preferences. 

The International Children’s Digital Library is a reliable source of free ebooks for kids. Books are available in a variety of lengths and reading difficulty levels. You can even search by criteria that might stimulate kids, such as the color of the cover. Each book is listed in a specific category for easy searching.

Titles are available in four languages—English, Persian, German, and Yiddish.