The Dark Divine ($2.39), by Bree Despain Book Description
Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.
The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.
The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul.
The Rebound Guy ($2.80), by Jennifer ColganBook Description
When two friends share a night of unbridled passion, can their relationship withstand the consequences?
Catching her boyfriend in the act with another woman should have made Lauren James angry, indignant or even depressed. Instead, it made her horny. The only man in the world she trusts enough to help her through the sting of betrayal is her best friend, Eric Reynolds.
When Lauren shows up at Eric's apartment, it doesn't take much for her to seduce him. She finds solace for her trampled heart and bruised ego in Eric's capable hands. After an unforgettable night of passion, Lauren wakes to the cold reality that she used Eric to get revenge. Will Eric forgive her, even if she can't forgive herself?
Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex.
The Last Block In Harlem ($3.99), by Christopher Herz, is another of the AmazonEncore publications (and usually lists at $9.99)Book Description
All fire escapes lead back to the same block in Sugar Hill, Harlem- where kids run through hydrants and music blares from stereos plugged into lampposts. When a new resident (the story's unnamed narrator) notices the trash polluting the picturesque streets and tainting the block's beauty, he is spurred to action. However, his best intentions go awry when the clean-up brings media coverage that in turn, sets off a rash of evictions and ushers in an influx of new and affluent tenants. In an attempt to preserve his neighborhood, the tenant mobilizes a grassroots effort to improve the neighborhood from the inside out.
Realizing he has yet again polluted his reality with unintended consequences, his fight to clean up the block evolves into a quest to cleanse his soul. The choices he makes cannot change the past and the secrets that haunt him, but will alter the future for himself, his family...and the last block in Harlem.
A Flaw in the Blood ($1.84), by Stephanie BarronBook Description
The acclaimed author of the bestselling Jane Austen mysteries brings rich historical immediacy to an enthralling new suspense novel centered around Queen Victoria’s troubled court…and a secret so dangerous, it could topple thrones.
Windsor Castle, 1861. For the second time in over twenty years, Irish barrister Patrick Fitzgerald has been summoned by the Queen. The first time, he’d been a zealous young legal clerk, investigating what appeared to be a murderous conspiracy against her. Now he is a distinguished gentleman at the top of his profession. And the Queen is a woman in the grip of fear. For on this chilly night, her beloved husband, Prince Albert, lies dying.
With her future clouded by grief, Fitzgerald can’t help but notice the Queen is curiously preoccupied with the past. Yet why, and how he can help, is unclear. His bewilderment deepens when the royal coach is violently overturned, nearly killing him and his brilliant young ward, Dr. Georgiana Armistead, niece of the late Dr. Snow, a famed physician who’d attended none other than Her Majesty.
Fitzgerald is sure of one thing: the Queen’s carriage was not attacked at random—it was a carefully chosen target. But was it because he rode in it? Fitzgerald won’t risk dying in order to find out. He’ll leave London and take Georgiana with him—if they can get out alive. For soon the pair find themselves hunted. Little do they know they each carry within their past hidden clues to a devastating royal secret…one they must untangle if they are to survive.
From the streets of London to the lush hills of Cannes, from the slums of St. Giles to the gilded halls of Windsor Castle, A Flaw in the Blood delivers a fascinating tale of pursuit, and the artful blend of period detail and electrifying intrigue that only the remarkable Stephanie Barron can devise.
The Sex Club ($0.99), by L.J. Sellers, is an indie book that has received several good recommendations/reviews. This one is the first in her Detective Jackson Mysteries series, most of which is $2.99 in the Kindle store.Book Description
When a bomb explodes at a birth-control clinic and a young client turns up dead, Detective Jackson is assigned both cases. But are they connected? Kera, the clinic nurse who discovers that the girl's Bible group is really a sexual free-for-all, thinks they are. But confidentiality keeps her from telling the police, so she digs for the truth on her own and becomes the bomber's new target. Soon another girl is murdered. Can Jackson uncover the killer's shocking identity in time to stop the slaughter?
Hook, Line, and Single ($1.43), by Marcia King-Gamble Book Description
HOOK--As in hook-up. For newly divorced Roxanne Ingram, it's a new age of speed dating, singles parties and noncommittal encounters. Frankly, it's all a little awkward for a successful businesswoman about to hit the big four-0.
LINE--What's your screen name, Web site or text-messaging address? Is anyone out there over twenty-five? What about roses, candlelight and a lover who wants endless tomorrows?
SINGLE--Relax, it's just a state of mind. Between keeping her business afloat, coping with a teenage daughter and lying awake fantasizing about the mysterious and sexy new client who wants her to watch his cat, Roxanne feels like a fish out of water.
Luckily, she's got courage, faith and a mind of her own. Boldly going where only singles dare to go, she braves the holiday fixups, the flirty singles theme parties and the wild world of online dating. Still, Roxanne dreams of the kind of man who makes love easy. And maybe, just maybe, he's out there looking for her...
Chronicles of the Elantra Bundle ($9.99), by Michelle Sagara, is a three book bundle, which works out to $3.33 per book.Book Description
Epic fantasy meets fast-paced police procedural in Michelle Sagara’s gripping action-adventure series The Chronicles of Elantra, where law enforcer Kaylin Neya investigates crime armed with magic and a sharp wit. Bundle includes Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight and Cast in Secret.
Cast in Shadow
Seven years ago Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered -- and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin.
Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and the immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth.
But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging. Kaylin is ordered back into Nightshade with a partner she knows she can't trust, a Dragon lord for a companion and a device to contain her powers -- powers that no other human has. Her task is simple -- find the killer, stop the murders and survive the attentions of those who claim to be her allies!
The Spanish Bow ($0.93), by Andromeda Romano-LaxBook Description
I was almost born Happy.
Literally, Feliz was the Spanish name my mother wanted for me. Not a family name, not a local name, just a hope, stated in the farthest-reaching language she knew—a language that once reached around the world, to the Netherlands, Africa, the Americas, the Philippines. Only music has reached farther and penetrated more deeply.
In a dusty, turn-of-the-century Catalan village, the bequest of a cello bow sets young Feliu Delargo on the unlikely path of becoming a musician. Anarchist Barcelona and the court of the embattled monarchy in Madrid teach him his first serious lessons in creativity, principle, and passion—and their consequences. When he meets up with the charming and eccentric piano prodigy Justo Al-Cerraz, their lifelong friendship and rivalry orchestrate a tumultuous course for them both. Over the span of half a century of creative struggle and international turmoil that sees them paying house calls on Picasso one year and being courted by dictators the next, they make glorious music together, and clash over virtually everything else: love, politics, and the purpose of art. When the tensions propelling a war-torn world toward catastrophe bring Aviva, an Italian violinist with a haunted past, into their lives, Feliu and Justo embark upon their final and most dangerous collaboration.
Genghis: Birth of an Empire ($1.59), by Conn Iggulden, is one I'm definitely getting, after reading just a few pages of the sample. Be careful of other stores on this one; I know the Kobo version is only readable online (not downloadable to your Kobo reader, as they don't have it in epub). B&N has matched the price, but their EPUB is nook only, of course.Book Description
BONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Conn Iggulden's Genghis: Lords of the Bow and Khan: Empire of Silver.
Genghis Khan was born Temujin, the son of a khan, raised in a clan of hunters migrating across the rugged steppe. Shaped by abandonment and betrayal, Temujin endured, driven by a singular fury: to survive in the face of death, to kill before being killed, and to conquer enemies who could come without warning from beyond the horizon.
Through a series of courageous raids, Temujin’s legend grew until he was chasing a vision: to unite many tribes into one, to make the earth tremble under the hoofbeats of a thousand warhorses, to subject all nations and empires to his will.
Homeward Bound: American Veterans Return from War ($2.17), by Richard H. TaylorBook Description
By blending the historical experiences with the psychological and social obstacles faced by American veterans from the Revolutionary War through the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, Taylor chronicles their struggles as they try to realize their dreams when they return home from distant battlefields.
House Lights ($1.40), by Leah Hager Cohen, has a short description but very good reviews.Book Description
Late in her twentieth year, Beatrice, who dreams of a life on the stage, is confronting a home life torn asunder. She mails a letter on the sly to her grandmother, a legendary actress long estranged from the family, sparking events that will change her life forever. Powerfully written and psychologically intricate, House Lights illuminates the corrosive power of family secrets and the redemptive struggle to find truth, forgiveness, and love.
Snarl: A Werewolf Novel ($2.99), by Lorne Dixon, is a debut novella from an established short story writer.Book Description
Chev Worke thought he had found a path to easy money. It was quite simple, really: sacrifice Christmas with his family and drive his truck across the country on an overnight run for his employer. Done. Case closed.
He just didn't count on things going wrong and getting stranded on State Highway 59 with no one around except for a pack of hungry werewolves.
Barely escaping with his life, Chev makes it to a grocery store in Easter Glen only to learn of a secret pact that has been in place for centuries, the only thing that keeps the town safe from the bloodthirsty beasts.
There's just one problem: the pact has been broken and Chev is thrust into a world where nightmares run on all fours, blood flows freely and no one is ever safe.
In Easter Glen, by the time you hear a Snarl, it's too late.
Hush Money (Talent Chronicles) ($0.89), by Susan Bischoff, is another indie writer is high reviews.Book Description
They call their abilities Talents, and that’s what they call themselves as well. Talents are people born with supernatural powers, feared by the population at large. Possession of an “unregistered ability” has become illegal, and those who are discovered are forcibly removed to government-run research facilities. They do not return.
And so the Talents try, as best they can, to keep their abilities secret–some more successfully than others. For some, keeping that secret begins to define who they are. That’s where Hush Money begins…
Be normal, invisible. Don’t get close to anyone. Those are the rules to live by for seventeen-year-old Joss. She spent years as an outsider, hoping to hide what she is, until the new girl, Kat, decides she’s friend material. Kat doesn’t realize her mistake when she stands up for Joss against Marco, a guy who’s been giving Joss a hard time since freshman year. Joss is horrified when these heroics lead to the reveal of Kat’s Talent. Now she has an unasked-for best friend, who is the victim of an extortion plot by the school bully, who used to like Joss. And if all that weren’t complicated enough, Dylan, Joss’s long-time crush, is finally starting to talk to her. But as Marco’s best friend, can Dylan be trusted at all? Can Joss keep her secret and still save her friend? And what’s more important, staying safe or doing what’s right?
Hush Money is a novel of approximately 50,000 words, and is rated PG-13 for strong language and one suggestive scene. It is recommended that parents read the sample provided by their retailer before purchasing this book for tweens/younger teens.
I Love You, Man . . . but Not Like That ($1.33), by D.M. Chapman & Greg SuessBook Description
Male friendships are special bonds, but no guy wants to admit that. I Love You Man . . . but Not Like That is a hilarious way to say, "I love you maaaan," without sacrificing any testosterone.
Two rules of guydom: Don't share feelings with your buddies, and never compliment a pal without insulting him at the same time.
I Love You Man . . . but Not Like That is a humorous collection of sentiments about male friendships that convey everything beer-drinking, sports-loving, macho men may want to say but never will. Most men figure, why share brotherly love when all you really want is for your buddy to share his beer? Its tongue-in-cheek, mock-heartfelt sayings are written the way men really talk.
Some man-to-man expressions of friendship:
- Sure our friendship has passed the test of time, but could it ever pass a Breathalyzer?
- I often think about how much we've gone through together over the years . . . and the fact that most of it was your fault.
- I have to tell you, you've touched me . . . seriously. We were both really drunk, but I have a vague recollection of you touching me.
