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Monday, February 6, 2012

Free and Bargain Book Roundup

Today's the last official day of the Harper Voyage sale on the titles below, most of which are 99 cents, with a few at $1.99. Since the sale began before a number of readers might have received their shiny new Kindles at Christmas, I thought I'd list them one more time before the prices rise (a few on the sale actually went up in price early). These are all worth at least looking thru the synopsis; I had about half of them already and bought the other half at these prices.
  1. Den of Thieves ($0.99), the first title David Chandler's Ancient Blades Trilogy.
  2. White Tiger ($0.99), the first title in the Dark Heavens series by Kylie Chan
  3. Nightwalker ($0.99), the first in the Dark Days series by Jocelynn Drake
  4. Sandman Slim ($0.99), the first in the series by Richard Kadrey
  5. The Scent of Shadows ($0.99), the first in the Sign of the Zodiac series by Vicki Pettersson
  6. Phoenix Rising ($0.99), the first in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series by Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine
  7. Earth Strike ($1.99), the first in the Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas
  8. The Heir of Night($1.99), the first in the The Wall of Night series by Helen Lowe

Valeria's Last Stand ($1.24), by Marc Fitten (Amazon Best of the Month, May 2009)
Book Description
When it comes to the sizes of fishes and ponds, Valeria is a whale in a thimble. She harrumphs her daily way through her backwater Hungarian village, finding equal fault with the new, the old, the foreign and the familiar. Her decades of universal contempt have turned her into a touchstone of her little community - whatever she scorns the least must be the best, after all. But, on a day like any other, her spinster's heart is struck by an unlikely arrow: the village potter, long-known and little-noticed, captures her fancy, and Valeria finds herself suddenly cast in a new role she never expected to play. This one deviation from character, this one loose thread, is all it takes for the delicately woven fabric of village life to unravel. And, for the first time in a long time, Valeria couldn't care less.

Valeria's Last Stand is a joyfully wise small-town satire that takes an hilariously honest look at later-in-life romance and the notion that it's never too late to start anew.

Persona Non Grata: A Novel of the Roman Empire ($2.99), by Ruth Downie, is the third in the Medicus Investigation series (also published as "Ruso and the Root of All Evils") and the only one I was missing in my library.
Book Description
At long last, Gaius Petreius Ruso and his companion, Tilla, are headed home-to Gaul. Having received a note consisting only of the words "COME HOME!" Ruso has (reluctantly, of course) pulled up stakes and brought Tilla to meet his family.

But the reception there is not what Ruso has hoped for: no one will admit to sending for him, and his brother Lucius is hoping he’ll leave. With Tilla getting icy greetings from his relatives, Lucius’ brother-in-law mysteriously drowned at sea, and the whole Ruso family being sued for bankruptcy, it’s hard to imagine an unhappier reunion. That is, until Severus, the plaintiff in the bankruptcy suit, winds up dead, and the real trouble begins...

Engrossing, intricate, and-as always-wonderfully comic, Ruth Downie’s latest is a brilliant new installment in this irresistible series. This is everything we’ve come to expect from our charming, luckless hero.

Gold Rush Groom ($1.24), by Jenna Kernan (Harlequin Historical)
Book Description
A search for gold…

Jack Snow has learned the hard way that the only person he can rely on is himself. With his family fortune gone, he'll don his best jacket and reel out the charm to bag himself an heiress bride!

…could lead to something more precious

The last person with whom he expects to travel across the Yukon is an outspoken, impoverished daughter of an Irish immigrant. Their social standing is miles apart. But Lily Shanahan proves resourceful and dauntless in the face of raging rivers and icy mountain passes, and Jack is forced to admit her passion for life is enough to tempt him from his course…

The Proud Wife ($1.53), by Kate Walker (Harlequin Presents Extra)
Book Description
Marina thought her dreams had come true when her husband placed a wedding band on her finger. But their marriage was not the fairy tale she'd hoped for, and eventually Marina walked away, her heart broken.

Two years later Pietro D'Inzeo no longer haunts Marina's dreams. She knows the time has come to move on, and even a summons to join him in Sicily won't deter her….

However, with his wife standing before him, about to sign on the dotted line of their divorce papers, Pietro wonders why he ever let her go.

Desert Knights: Bodyguard Sheik\Sheik's Captive ($3.99), by Linda Conrad and Loreth Anne White (Harlequin Romantic Suspense)
Book Description
Bodyguard Sheik by Linda Conrad
Expert marksman Morgan Bell is one of the best in the world. She agreed to one last assignment, never expecting to find sexy Sheik Karin Kadir heating up the cold desert nights. It leaves her longing for more… much more than his protecting her life.

Sheik's Captive by Loreth Anne White
Kathleen Flaherty's desert search for her sister leads her into captivity by a terrorist cell. Her beauty doesn't go unnoticed by her captor, Sayeed Ali. Working undercover for the FBI, Sayeed never counted on discovering love in a land as wild and as untamed as his captive's heart. Will he be able to save her and her sister in time?

Covert Christmas: Open Season\Second-Chance Sheriff\Saving Christmas ($3.82), by Marilyn Pappano, Linda Conrad and Loreth Anne White (Silhouette Romantic Suspense)
Book Description
Love goes under cover with these three passionate holiday reads!

Open Season by Marilyn Pappano
Natalia Parker's frightening past was back to haunt her and Josh Saldana—the man she once betrayed—was the only man she could trust. Would this Christmas be a time for redemption?

Second-Chance Sheriff by Linda Conrad
Single father Cameron Farrell never expected to reunite with old flame Tara Jackson during the worst blizzard in Colorado history. Tara needed the rugged ex-sheriff's help—but seeking safety in his home might reawaken long-dormant desires….

Saving Christmas by Loreth Anne White
Four years apart from his ex-wife, Cass Rousseau, and Jack Bannister had never given up on their dream of love. Could the Special Forces soldier keep the war correspondent safe and make this the perfect Christmas for coming home—together?

Unfinished Business ($2.99), by Nora Roberts
Book Description
What was she doing here? Hyattown had changed very little in the years Vanessa Sexton had been away. In some ways her high school sweetheart, Brady Tucker, hadn't changed much either—he was still lean, athletic, rugged…But the once reckless boy had become a solid, dependable man. He'd stood her up on the most important night of her life; could she ever trust him again?

So Vanessa had finally come home, Brady thought. She could still turn him inside out with one of her sultry looks. He couldn't believe she hadn't forgiven him for that night twelve years ago—but he'd had his reasons for not showing up. He'd let her leave town then—but he wasn't going to let her get away this time…

The Summer Garden (Chesapeake Shores) ($2.99), by Sherryl Woods
Book Description
Falling for "Maddening Moira" O'Malley was the unexpected highlight of Luke O'Brien's Dublin holiday. So when she pays a surprise visit to Chesapeake Shores, Luke is thrilled…at first. A fling with this wild Irish rose is one thing, but forever? Maybe someday, but not when he's totally focused on establishing a business that will prove his mettle to his overachieving family.

Given Luke's reaction, Moira has some soul-searching of her own to do. Scarred by her father's abandonment, she wonders if Luke, with his playboy past, is truly the family man she longs for. Adding to her dilemma, she's offered an amazing chance at a dream career of her own.

Deep down, though, Moira knows home is the real prize, and that love can be every bit as enchanted as a summer garden.

Hidden Summit (Virgin River) ($2.99), by Robyn Carr
Book Description
Sick of running into her cheery ex-husband and his new wife, Leslie Petruso accepts a job at the Virgin River branch of Haggerty Construction and takes the high road right out of town. Now she's got Paul Haggerty's business running like a well-oiled machine. In fact, things are so busy Paul jumps at the chance to hire an extra set of hands.

Just like Leslie, Conner Danson has been burned by love. But if Leslie was disappointed by her relationship going bad, Conner was decimated. He's got no time for women…although he spends an awful lot of time pretending not to notice Leslie. And she's pretty busy "ignoring" the chemistry between them.

According to Conner and Leslie, they have only one thing in common—they're done with love. But everyone in Virgin River can see that things are heating up at Haggerty Construction. And as far as Paul Haggerty can tell, the best thing he can do is hang on to his hard hat and watch the sparks fly!

How To Cook A Tart ($1.99), by Nina Killham
Book Description
Cookbook author Jasmine March’s life is like a perfectly prepared béchamel-rich, satisfying, and drenched in butter. But even a great béchamel curdles sometimes. Her husband, Daniel, has taken up with one of his Zone-dieting drama students; Careme, her daughter, is bent on starving herself to death; and Jasmine’s fellow foodies have had just about enough of her astronomically caloric recipes. To make matters worse, her publisher is threatening to cancel her contract. And then there’s the small matter of the dead body she finds one morning on her kitchen floor.

Filled with mouth-watering descriptions of Jasmine’s creations-venison stew with Madeira and juniper berries, crispy chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and mint-Nina Killham’s smart and spirited first novel is good enough to eat.

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord ($0.99), by Sarah J Maas
Book Description
On a remote island in a tropical sea, Celaena Sardothien, feared assassin, has come for retribution. She's been sent by the Assassin's Guild to collect on a debt they are owed by the Lord of the Pirates. But when Celaena learns that the agreed payment is not in money, but in slaves, her mission suddenly changes - and she will risk everything to right the wrong she's been sent to bring about.

Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes ($1.17), by Will Self
Book Description
Will Self's remarkable new stories center on the disease and decay that target the largest of human organs: the liver. Set in locales as toxic as a London drinking club and mundane as a clinic in an ultraorderly Swiss city, the stories distill the hard lives of their subjects whether alcoholic, drug addict, or cancer patient.

In "Fois Humane," set at the Plantation Club, it's always a Tuesday afternoon in midwinter, and the shivering denizens of this dusty realm spend their days observing its proprietor as he force-feeds the barman vodkaspiked beer. Joyce Beddoes, protagonist of "Leberknödel," has terminal liver cancer and is on her way to be euthanized in Zurich when, miraculously, her disease goes into remission. In "Prometheus" a young copywriter at London's most cutting edge ad agency has his liver nibbled by a griffon thrice daily, but he's always in the pink the following morning and ready to make that killer pitch. If blood and bile flow through liverish London, the two arteries meet in "Birdy Num Num," where "career junky" Billy Chobham performs little services for the customers who gather to wait for the Man, while in his blood a virus pullulates.

A moving portrayal of egos, appetites and addictions, Liver is an extraordinary achievement.

Then Came the Evening ($1.99), by Brian Hart
Book Description
Bandy Dorner, home from Vietnam, awakes with his car mired in a canal, his cabin reduced to ashes, and his pregnant wife preparing to leave town with her lover. Within moments, a cop lies bleeding in the road.
Eighteen years later, Bandy's son -- a stranger bearing his name -- returns to the town, where the memory of his father's crime still hangs thick. When an accident brings the family -- paroled father, widowed mother, injured son -- back together, the three must confront their past, and struggle against their fate.

Like a traditional Greek tragedy, suffused with the mud, ice, and rock of the raw Idaho landscape, Then Came the Evening is tautly plotted and emotionally complex -- a stunning debut.

Invisible River ($1.17), by Helena McEwen
Book Description
I walked out into the autumn morning and smelt a bonfire behind the exhaust fumes. I only had to cross the road to walk into the tall glass cube that would be my art school for the next three years.

Evie has left her father, her life in Cornwall and her childhood behind her to begin a very different sort of life in London. At first the great city provides her with a world of inspiration. Her imagination is fired by the history, and the scenes of London. With Rob, Bianca and 'the ballerina', Evie discovers the ancient and ever-changing city and her paintings are filled with colour and fantasy as she indulges her need to escape.

This new life seems safe and peaceful until the moment her alcoholic father arrives and spins this new world around so that the past is again her present. Evie struggles to carry on with the life she has been building but her fears and memories are never far away. The dreams and the nightmares come together on the canvas of Evie's young life and it is her new friends, the city she has fallen in love with, and most of all, her growing friendship with a talented young sculptor, that must hold her together.

This is the story of a daughter, an artist and the moment when you realise your life is your own. Helena McEwen draws together the themes of art, love, friendship and memory with a painters skill, in a story filled with hope.

Five Smooth Stones: A Novel ($2.99), by Ann Fairbairn (Chicago Review Press)
Book Description
David Champlin is a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who achieves great success and then sacrifices everything to lead his people in the difficult, day-by-day struggle of the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the beloved and vital white girl who loved David from the moment she first saw him, but they struggled over David's belief that a marriage for them would not be right in the violent world he had to confront. Likening the struggle of black Americans to the “five smooth stones” the biblical David carried against Goliath in lieu of arms, this novel’s range encompasses decades and continents — but that range is insignificant compared with the intimate picture of its hero’s irresistible warmth and inner conflicts.

First published in 1966, this epic has become one of the most loved American bestsellers.

The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment ($0.99 Canadians only), by Isabel Losada
Book Description
You know those people who always radiate cheerful optimism? Nauseating aren't they? I want to become one of those. I want to find out how to live life completely, abundantly, joyfully, stupidly. This is my quest. Enlightenment.' So proclaims Isabel Losada, Starbucks addict, exercise allergic and self-confessed sceptic as she sets out on the road to enlightenment. Beginning with an Insight seminar where hundred people with name badges discuss their 'inner beauty', Isabel journeyed through a gruelling course of 'Rolfing' nude Goddess workshops, a weekend of tantric sex ('Yes! Yes! Yes!') and a reincarnation session, not to mention a spot of colonic irrigation. Irreverent yet open-minded, funny and always honest, The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment is also moving and ultimately illuminating. For anyone who has ever been tempted to dip a toe in the waters of self-discovery, Isabel Losada plunges you straight in.

The Substance of Hope ($1.18), by William Jelani Cobb
Book Description
Honored by universities, ministries, and institutions nationwide, called into service in the administration of two presidents, Samuel DeWitt Proctor, Th.D. has established himself as a preeminent theologian, orator, and educator in this country. In The Substance of Things Hoped For, he takes us on a personal journey that begins with his grandparents' slavery and which ends with his vision of a full fruition of the African-American experience, and a celebration of the tie that holds African-American together: simple, tenacious faith. A child of the segregation-era south, Proctor is no stranger to unwarranted hatred and widespread ignorance. He has fought against racism all his life -- in his schools, in his communities, and at the pulpit. In this compelling memoir, he candidly reveals the tumult of the civil rights movement in which he was deeply involved, the bitterness and anger of youths then that has exploded into the hopelessness, rage and despair of today's youths who feel they have no future. But through all of these times, Dr. Proctor has always been a beacon of hope; here, he recounts those inspiring times when his faith has shined brightest. One man's positive plan for today's society, The Substance of Things Hoped For is inspiration at its most heartfelt, delivered with warmth and conviction, and founded in a lifetime of faith and reflection.

The Stuff of Life ($0.99 Canadians only), by Karen Karbo
Book Description
The Oregon Book Awards presented the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction to Karen Karbo for The Stuff of Life.

When Karen Karbo's father, a charming, taciturn Clint Eastwood type who lives in a triple-wide in the Nevada desert, is diagnosed with lung cancer, his only daughter rises to the challenge of caring for him. Neither of them is exactly cut out for the job. As Dick Karbo's disease progresses, Karen finds herself sometimes the responsible adult, sometimes a stubborn teenager all over again. But in the end, what father and daughter discover more than anything is the love and the toughness that makes them alike.

Private Papers of Easter Jewel ($1.24), by Maureen Lindley
Book Description
Peking, 1914. Eight-year-old Eastern Jewel peers from behind a screen as her father, Prince Su makes love to a servant girl. Caught spying by her thirteenth sister, Eastern Jewel's sexual curiosity sees her banished to live with distant relatives in Tokyo, then forced into a passionless marriage in freezing Mongolia. Increasingly isolated, at night she is plagued by disturbing fantasies and unsettling dreams. But she refuses to be pinned down by anyone - least of all a man - and in the dazzling city of Shanghai she puts her thrill-seeking nature to work spying for the Japanese, spurning everything she once held dear…

Based on the real-life story of Yoshiko Kawashima, Chinese princess turned ruthless Japanese spy, The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel is an intoxicating tale of sexual manipulation and self-discovery that spans three countries and a world war.
Today's backlist/small press/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long; double check prices before one-clicking):
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