Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Cubistry. This is basically a 3D Mahjongg game that uses shapes and colors, rather than oriental tiles or card faces. I just played thru one game and it looks like one I'll keep on the favorites list.
Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Swan Song ($1.99), by Robert R. McCammon, with the companion audiobook at $3.95 (if you don't want the book, you can save a dollar by getting the audiobook only at $4.95 on the members-only Win-Win sale, thru the 18th).Book Description
McCammon’s epic bestselling novel about a girl psychic struggling to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust
Something flashes in nine-year-old Swan’s brain, telling her that trouble is coming. Maybe it’s her mother, fed up with her current boyfriend and ready to abandon their dismal trailer park and seek a new home. But something far worse is on the horizon. Death falls from the sky—nuclear bombs which annihilate American civilization. Though Swan survives the blast, this young psychic’s war is just beginning.
As the survivors try to make new lives in the wasteland, an evil army forms, intent on murdering all those tainted with the diseases brought by fallout. When Swan finds a mysterious amulet that could hold the key to humankind’s salvation, she draws the attention of a man more dangerous than any nuclear bomb. To rescue mankind, this little girl will have to grow up fast.
Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Unto These Hills ($0.99), by Emily Sue Harvey. Long time readers may have this in their libraries, as it was free on Kindle and at B&N in January 2012.Book Description
Unto These Hills is an unforgettable novel of love, scandal, family, and roots by one of the most emotionally authentic authors of our time. Taking us into the deep South's Tucapau Mill Hill, it introduces us to the unforgettable Sunny Acklin. Betrayed, abandoned, and violated, Sunny faces one seemingly insurmountable challenge after another. But she never loses her spirit or the memory of the love that once so richly illuminated her world. As years go by, Sunny does everything she can to make something of her life until at last an opportunity arises, one charged with promise...and undeniable risk.
From its vivid evocation of mill hill life to its pitch perfect rendering of the complexities of family and relationships, Unto These Hills is at once epic and intensely intimate. It is the richest novel yet from a writer who fluently speaks the language of our deepest feelings.
Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Blackcollar ($1.99), the first book of the series by Timothy Zahn [Open Road]. If you read military SciFi, it's a must have for your library.Book Description
The blackcollars—an elite, genetically enhanced fighting force—may be humanity’s only hope
Decades after a successful invasion of Earth and the Terran Democratic Empire by the Ryqril—hostile, leathery-skinned aliens—resistance fighter Allen Caine is training for an undercover mission. He will assume the identity of an aide to the senate—part of the government that colludes with the invaders. But when the mission begins earlier than planned, Caine finds himself stuck on the off-planet outpost of Plinry with no idea of what awaits. He’s responsible for the most important mission undertaken by the resistance in twenty years, and when the operation goes awry, Caine’s only hope is to locate Plinry’s so-called blackcollars—the elusive, martial arts–trained guerilla force whose wartime resistance efforts are legendary. With his life and the freedom of everyone in the TDE on the line, Caine’s success will depend on whether or not he can find them. . . .
Jenny's War (£0.99 UK), by Margaret Dickinson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).Book Description
Is it possible for a ten-year-old girl to fall in love? Jenny Mercer thinks so. Evacuated to Lincolnshire from the East End of London at the outbreak of war, she is frightened of the wide open spaces and the huge skies. But the kindly Thornton family soon makes her feel welcome. And no one more so than Georgie, the handsome RAF fighter pilot who is caught up in the battle for Britain’s survival. When Georgie is posted missing, presumed dead, Jenny is devastated. More heartbreak is to come when Jenny’s mother Dot decides she wants her daughter home and Jenny is forced to return to live in the city which is now under almost daily attack from enemy bombers. Dot’s ‘fancy man’, Arthur Osborne, treats Jenny kindly. But is Arthur only interested in the girl because she can be useful to him? No one will suspect a ten-year-old of being involved with the Black Market . . . When the law comes a little too close for Arthur’s comfort, the family flees in the city and heads towards the hills and the dales of Derbyshire. There, Jenny is caught up in a life of deception. All she really wants is to go back to Lincolnshire. For Jenny has never given up hope that one day, Georgie will come back.
The Raven Boys (Book Description
"There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark's Eve," Neeve said. "Either you're his true love . . . or you killed him."
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them--not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain. He has it all--family money, good looks, devoted friends--but he's looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.
From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we've never been before.
Today's Kindle Young Adult Daily Deal is Grave Mercy ($1.99), the first title in Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin series and an Amazon "Best of the Month" pick (April, 2012). The next volume of the series, Dark Triumph, won't be released until April, but you may need the extra time, as this one runs to 550+ pages in print.Book Description
Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf? Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.
Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?
