$20 Off Kindle Paperwhite - Today Only

Note: This deal is over and the page at Amazon has been removed.

I initially wasn't going to write about this deal, since it didn't work for me when I tried it a couple of days ago and seemed to be targeted only to people who received an email. Some people who didn't get an email, though, were able to use the code (this appeared to be people who don't already have a device connected to their accounts) and others have reported that using the CHAT feature to contact Kindle support was working to be able to get the discount applied manually.

Get $20 Off the Kindle Paperwhite (with special offers) - thru April 30 (midnight, PST).

Try first, of course, to enter the promo code KINDLEPW after placing a single Kindle Paperwhite, with Special Offers (the code does not work on the more expensive model, although you can simply pay to get rid of them later). Go thru the full checkout process and apply the promo code KINDLEPW. If it works (check the summary box on the right side of the page), then finish checking out.

If it doesn't take $20 off, then leave that page up and open a new tab. Go back to the Kindle Paperwhite page, click on Kindle Support, then the Contact Us button on the right side of the page (about half way down). Ignore the part at the top about picking a Kindle device and skip down to section 2. Choose "Placing an Order" and then "Payments and Promotions", then click on Chat. You should quickly be connected to a Kindle support rep, who can assist in trying to get the promo code to work. They may require you to place the order and then apply the discount after the order is created -- I have done this a time or two in the past, without problems, but I always suggest both keeping a copy of the chat transcript and checking the order itself after a few minutes, to see if the promo credit was applied (it will be in the bottom section of the invoice).

So, for those wanting a Paperwhite for themselves (or as a last-minute gift for Mother's Day), give it a try.

Terms & Conditions

1. Promotion is valid for a limited time only. Amazon reserves the right to cancel it at any time.
2. Promotion applies only to new Kindle Paperwhite devices sold and shipped by Amazon Digital Services. It does not apply to the same products sold by other sellers or to Certified Refurbished Kindle products.
3. If you do not purchase Kindle Paperwhite prior to April 30, 2013 11:59 PM (PST), the promotion will not apply.
4. Customer will be responsible for payment to Amazon.com of final order total after discount, plus applicable taxes, gift-wrap charges and shipping charges.
5. Each promotion code can be used only once
6. If you return any item purchased using the discount, your refund will equal to the amount you paid for the product, subject to applicable refund policies.
7. The promotion code is not transferrable and may not be resold.
8. Limit one promotion code per customer.
9. Does not apply to orders placed with 1-Click.

Month End Bargain Books

Since it's the end of the month and it takes me quite a bit of time to look up books on B&N, Kobo, etc, to check for matching prices, I'm going to skip that for today's posts. I've linked both stores here, for those that prefer those formats; I suspect some of the larger publishers will have matching prices in all the stores (definitely Random House, which is still under Agency Pricing).

She's Come Undone ($2.99), by Wally Lamb [Atria/Simon and Schuster], an Oprah's Book Club selection.

Book Description
In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

"Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered. . ."

Meet Dolores Price. She’s thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood good-bye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she’s determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly-up.

At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She’s Come Undone includes a promise: you will never forget Dolores Price.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs ($3.99), the first Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainment novel by Alexander Mccall Smith and Iain Mcintosh (Illustrator) [Anchor/Random House]

Book Description
The Professor Dr. von Igelfeld Entertainment series slyly skewers academia, chronicling the comic misadventures of the endearingly awkward Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, and his long-suffering colleagues at the Institute of Romantic Philology in Germany.

Readers who fell in love with Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, now have new cause for celebration in the protagonist of these three light-footed comic novels by Alexander McCall Smith. Welcome to the insane and rarified world of Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld of the Institute of Romance Philology. Von Igelfeld is engaged in a never-ending quest to win the respect he feels certain he is due–a quest which has the tendency to go hilariously astray.

In Portuguese Irregular Verbs, Professor Dr von Igelfeld learns to play tennis, and forces a college chum to enter into a duel that results in a nipped nose. He also takes a field trip to Ireland where he becomes acquainted with the rich world of archaic Irishisms, and he develops an aching infatuation with a Dentist fatale. Along the way, he takes two ill-fated Italian sojourns, the first merely uncomfortable, the second definitely dangerous.

Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season ($2.99), by Jonathan Eig [Simon and Schuster], looks like a must read for those who saw the movie (42).

Book Description
April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front -- and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.
He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration.

In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Along the way he offers new insights into events of sixty years ago and punctures some familiar legends. Was it true that the St. Louis Cardinals plotted to boycott their first home game against the Brooklyn Dodgers? Was Pee Wee Reese really Robinson's closest ally on the team? Was Dixie Walker his greatest foe? How did Robinson handle the extraordinary stress of being the only black man in baseball and still manage to perform so well on the field? Opening Day is also the story of a team of underdogs that came together against tremendous odds to capture the pennant. Facing the powerful New York Yankees, Robinson and the Dodgers battled to the seventh game in one of the most thrilling World Series competitions of all time.

Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.

Reporting at Wit's End ($2.99), by St. Clair McKelway [Bloomsbury]

Book Description
"Why does A. J. Liebling remain a vibrant role model for writers while the superb, prolific St. Clair McKelway has been sorely forgotten?" James Wolcott asked this question in a recent review of the Complete New Yorker on DVD. Anyone who has read a single paragraph of McKelway's work would struggle to provide an answer.

His articles for the New Yorker were defined by their clean language and incomporable wit, by his love of New York's rough edges and his affection for the working man (whether that work was come by honestly or not). Like Joseph Mitchell and A. J. Liebling, McKelway combined the unflagging curiosity of a great reporter with the narrative flair of a master storyteller. William Shawn, the magazine's long-time editor, described him as a writer with the "lightest of light touches." His style is so striking, Shawn went on to say, that "it was too odd to be imitated."

The pieces collected here are drawn from two of McKelway's books--True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality (1951) and The Big Little Man from Brooklyn (1969). His subjects are the small players who in their particulars defined life in New York during the 36 years McKelway wrote: the junkmen, boxing cornermen, counterfeiters, con artists, fire marshals, priests, and beat cops and detectives. The "rascals."

An amazing portrait of a long forgotten New York by the reporter who helped establish and utterly defined New Yorker "fact writing," Untitled Collection is long overdue celebration of a truly gifted writer.

Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes ($1.99), by Lifetime Television [Hyperion]

Book Description
Lose weight without losing your mind!

Cook Yourself Thin, a #1 New York Times bestseller, is a healthy, delicious way to drop a dress size without all the gimmicks. Eighty easy, accessible recipes teach readers how to cut calories without compromising taste.

For some of us, losing weight has always been a struggle. The challenge: figuring out how to cook healthy, low-fat foods that won't leave you hungry, bored, or running for a gallon of ice cream! Cook Yourself Thin shows how to cut calories, change diets, and improve health without sacrificing the foods we love.

Cook Yourself Thin is not a fad diet. It gives skinny alternatives to your cravings. You can't live without your chocolate cake or mac 'n' cheese You don't have to! There's never enough time to cook Cook Yourself Thin keeps it simple&dbquo;Ÿwith easy instructions and fun recipes you'll want to make again and again.

What are you waiting for? Cook Yourself Thin!

Forgotten Sacrifice: The Arctic Convoys of World War II ($2.99), by Michael Walling [Osprey Publishing]

Book Description
Hitler called Norway the “Zone of Destiny” for Nazi Germany because convoys from Churchill's Britain and Roosevelt's United States supplied Stalin’s Soviet Russia with critical equipment and foodstuffs during the darkest days of the German invasion.

The words "Murmansk Run" conjure visions of ice-laden ships and thoughts of freezing to death in seconds. For five long years, thousands of men and women fought ferociously in the coldest corner of hell on earth. Some fought for survival, some struggled to help others survive, and some sought to crush their enemies. If man-made death didn't get you, the Arctic's weapons of ice and cold would. These natural weapons killed regardless of whose side you were on or how just was your cause. No one escaped unscathed. Author Mike Walling captures the Arctic convoys’ bitter essence in Forgotten Sacrifice.

The story launches in October 1939, when Germany and the Soviet Union began diplomatic maneuvering. The action accelerates with Winston Churchill's decision in 1941 to provide supplies to Soviet forces battling the German invasion. From this point until the closing days of WWII in spring 1945, an unremitting sea battle raged within the confines of the always-lethal, ever-shifting Arctic ice pack and the savage Scandinavian coastline. Nearly 4.5 million tons of supplies were moved in 77 convoys over the course of 5 years in order to help the Soviet war effort. The Allies fought to keep the sea lanes open to Murmansk while the Germans were determined to slaughter every ship which dared to make the attempt. By the end of the convoys, 98 ships had been lost. Forgotten Sacrifice reveals a timeless tale of determination, heroism, sacrifice, and the strength of the human spirit.

All three novels in the End/Jonshua Jordan series by Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall [Zondervan] are on sale for $1.99 apiece.

Edge of Apocalypse (was free Fall '10)

Joshua Jordan, former U.S. spy-plane hero now turned weapons designer has come up with a devastatingly effective new missile defense system -- the Return to Sender laser weapon. But global forces are mounting against America, and corrupt White House and Capitol Hill leaders are willing to do anything to stop the nation's impending economic catastrophe -- including selling-out Joshua and his weapon. As world events begin setting the stage for the 'end of days,' Joshua is forced to consider not only the truth of the biblical prophecies preached by the pastor of his brilliant attorney- wife, but also what gut-wrenching price he is willing to pay to save the nation he loves.

Thunder of Heaven

The End Series by New York Times bestselling author Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall is an epic thrill ride ripped from today's headlines and filtered through Scriptural prophecy. As world events begin setting the stage for the 'end of days' foretold in Revelation, Joshua Jordan must weigh the personal price he must pay to save the nation he loves. This eBook will appeal to the tens of millions of fans who have already made Tim LaHaye a household name and one of the best selling authors of all time. Thunder of Heaven is a return to form for Tim LaHaye, whose previous prophetic fiction series, Left Behind, has sold roughly 70 million copies. Those who have read Left Behind and who are eager for more highly charged fiction based on biblical prophesies will embrace Thunder of Heaven for the same reasons that turned Left Behind into the world's most celebrated publishing phenomenons of the last two decades

Brink of Chaos

Joshua Jordan remains in Israel during his self-imposed 'exile' out of the reach of U.S. authorities who have trumped-up false criminal treason charges against him. His wife, Abigail, continues to lead the Roundtable to prove the innocence of her husband.

Following the nuclear attack by Russia, Israel is cleaning up the bodies of dead enemy soldiers for 7 months and setting out on its 7 year plan---both per the prophecies in Ezekiel. As corruption in high government offices threaten to block the election of a worthy presidential candidate by all means necessary---including the unthinkable---Israel's leadership is tempted to sign a 'peace' proposal initiated by the UN under the authority of Coliquin. After he discusses this plan with Pastor Peter Campbell, Joshua is convinced Coliquin may well be the prophesied Anti-Christ and that his peace plan is a trap to destroy Israel.

Are the recurring dreams Joshua has had about the coming rapture from God. And is the end sooner than anyone expects?

The Professor and the Madman ($1.99), by Simon Winchester [HarperCollins]

Book Description
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

The Keeper of Dawn ($2.99/KLL Eligible), by J.B. Hickman [indie]

Book Description
Groomed for greatness, 15-year-old Jacob Hawthorne is sent to boarding school against his will. Jacob’s resentment toward his family reaches an all-time high when his father doesn’t bother to see him off for the 1980 school year. With a self-absorbed mother, an estranged father, and an older brother on the other side of the world, only the unlikely friendship with his grandfather can lure Jacob back home. But home feels like a distant memory from the shore of Raker Island, the isolated campus of one of the Northeast’s elite boarding schools.

As the surrogate bonds of a cloistered all-boys school fall into place, Jacob finds himself among other sons of privilege who suffer the same affliction—growing up in their fathers’ shadow. In fact, Jacob and his friends get dubbed “the Headliners” when their fathers make the headlines on the same day. Among them is Chris Forsythe, the rebellious son of a high-profile politician whose helicopter arrival sparks jealousy among the school’s upperclassmen.

Wellington Academy has been selected to host that fall’s senatorial debate, and Chris’ father is one of the candidates. Chris convinces Jacob—who is among the students selected to question the candidates on live television—to expose his father for embezzling money to finance his reelection campaign. Only Mr. O’Leary, Wellington’s inquisitive history teacher, stands in the way of Chris’ influence over Jacob. He alone can stop the inevitable head-on father-son collision that Chris is guiding Jacob toward. But when tragedy strikes, Jacob is forced to journey into the past to reclaim a well-guarded family secret.

Diesel Daily Deal - In the Flesh (E)

In the Flesh ($7.99 $6.15 Kindle), a Historical Romance novel by Portia Da Costa [Harlequin], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $1.60 (7 copies left).

Book Description

Society already believes she's a scarlet woman. Why not become one?

Posing nude to appease her now ex-fiancé perhaps wasn't the most prudent idea Beatrice Weatherly has ever had. With the photographs scrutinized up and down the ton and her brother running them into debt, Beatrice's hopes of making a respectable marriage are dashed.

After one glance at Beatrice's infamous racy cabinet cards, wealthy, powerful Edmund Ellsworth Richie is soon obsessed with Beatrice's voluptuous figure. His indecent proposal—one month of hedonistic servitude in exchange for enough money to pay her brother's debts—is one she can hardly refuse.

Determined not to let the rogue best her, Beatrice sets out for the infamous House of Madame Chamfleur to learn how to appease Edmund's well-known appetite. Soon the couple is playing out exquisite fantasies…and feeling emotion that goes deeper than flesh. But Edmund harbors a shocking secret, and Beatrice must decide if she's prepared to give up everything for a man who can offer her nothing, but who means everything.

Get the book from Diesel; be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out.

Month End Bargain Books: Romance

Since it's the end of the month and it takes me quite a bit of time to look up books on B&N, Kobo, etc, to check for matching prices, I'm going to skip that for today's posts. I've linked both stores here, for those that prefer those formats; I suspect some of the larger publishers will have matching prices in all the stores (definitely Random House, which is still under Agency Pricing).

The Other Side of Through ($1.99), by Marsha Jenkins-Sanders [Atria/Simon and Schuster]

Book Description
Marsha D. Jenkins-Sanders' spellbinding story of love and redemption delves behind the scenes of a passionate marriage tested by the temptations of sudden fame.

Katlyn has never forgotten what her husband said to her on the night they first met: "If given a chance, you'll fall in love with me." Katlyn was determined to settle for nothing but a perfect fairy tale of true love, and Justin Kincaid--an ambitious, aspiring recording artist--set out to give it to her. True to Justin's word, Katlyn fell in love. But now, two years into their marriage, cracks are beginning to show. With a number one song in the charts and beautiful, willing women all around, Justin is being thrown back to his single life. He knows he owes Katlyn big time--his name wouldn't be a household word if it weren't for his support--but gratitude isn't enough to keep him from straying. Now, it's becoming clear that the only thing keeping them together is a commitment Justin can no longer honor. And as Katlyn is forced to let go of her fairy tale for the reality of being in love with a man she's supposed to share with the world, she embarks on a life-altering emotional and spiritual journey in this intricate and thoroughly engaging novel.

My Favorite Bride ($0.99), a Governess Brides novel by Christina Dodd [HarperCollins]

Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd brings you "The Sound of Music meets Jane Eyre" in her refreshingly humorous addition to the Governess Brides series...

When Miss Samantha Prendregast arrives at Devil's Fell to take charge of six rebellious girls, the vibrant, outspoken governess finds she can manage the children with intelligence, guile...and a little bribery. Their widowed father, Colonel William Gregory, is not so easily charmed -- and far too easy to love.

William always cherished the orderliness of his life until this captivating troublemaker arrives. Despite the fact that they clash at every meeting, William finds himself drawn to Samantha's fire. And now he's even contemplating marriage, which would be sweet madness indeed. But before he can successfully woo her, William must discover what Samantha is hiding. But the secret the lady is preciously guarding is far too shocking and dangerous to ever reveal...

Never Dare a Duke ($1.99), by Gayle Callen [HarperCollins]

Book Description
An indecent proposal

Abigail Shaw is a proper young lady, hardly the sort to boldly offer a deal to London's most distinguished and perfect duke. But Abigail, desperate to save her father's newspaper business, is after a good scandal. She'd have the sensational headlines that would keep the ton talking—and the family business thriving—if only she could uncover the secrets of Christopher Cabot, the Duke of Madingley. What better way than a pretend romance? Yet, with all his seductive glances and stolen caresses, she somehow has to keep from succumbing to temptation.

Christopher finds Abigail—and her proposal—intriguing. A fake romance with the stunning commoner would allow him time to choose a suitable wife from among the would-be duchesses nipping at his heels. It seems like a perfect plan ... as long as he can keep her from uncovering his one deep, dark secret. But as he falls for the cunning beauty, he will be tempted to reveal all—his secret, his heart, and his soul.

Mad About the Duke ($3.79), by Elizabeth Boyle [HarperCollins]

Book Description
Rita Award-winner, USA Today and New York Times bestseller Elizabeth Boyle delights once more with Mad About the Duke, the second book in her wonderfully creative, wickedly fun Widows of Standon historical romance series. It is a delectable tale of an intrepid young woman who employs an incognito duke—whom she mistakenly believes to be a common solicitor—in her quest to land a titled second husband. Featuring characters from her popular Bachelor Chronicles, Boyle proves once again to be one of today’s most imaginative writers of romantic fiction. Fans of the sensual, fast-paced historical romance of Lisa Kleypas and Christina Dodd will, likewise, be Mad About the Duke.

Never Trust a Scoundrel ($1.99), by Gayle Callen [HarperCollins]

Book Description
A pact with the devil...

Miss Grace Banbury was in shock. Her mother put her up as a prize in a high stakes card game, and now the gentleman who won is ready to claim her! But Grace has other plans. She just needs the dastardly rogue to go along with it...

A notorious rake from a scandalous family, Daniel Throckmorten has no use for blushing virgins. Yet there's no denying the attraction for the beauty standing before him, proposing an enticing wager: He will use all his charm and wit to seduce her into his bed ... and she only has to resist. If she succeeds, she wins enough funds to secure her own future. If he wins ... she'll be his. Daniel has never been so tempted—and he has no intention of losing....

Never Marry a Stranger ($1.99), by Gayle Callen [HarperCollins]

Book Description
From USA Today bestselling author Gayle Callen comes Never Marry a Stranger, a new romance that dares to pose the question, can there be true love in a pretend marriage? This Victorian-set romance from Callen, author of Never Trust a Scoundrel and Never Dare a Duke, is the latest in a series that features an aristocratic family that has been embroiled in scandal and now must reclaim their lives in society.

Along Came Trouble: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance ($0.99), by Ruthie Knox [Random House]

Book Description
Ruthie Knox’s Camelot series continues in this sizzling eBook original novel, featuring two headstrong souls who bump heads—and bodies—as temptation and lust bring nothing but delicious trouble.

An accomplished lawyer and driven single mother, Ellen Callahan isn’t looking for any help. She’s doing just fine on her own. So Ellen’s more than a little peeved when her brother, an international pop star, hires a security guard to protect her from a prying press that will stop at nothing to dig up dirt on him. But when the tanned and toned Caleb Clark shows up at her door, Ellen might just have to plead the fifth.

Back home after a deployment in Iraq and looking for work as a civilian, Caleb signs on as Ellen’s bodyguard. After combat in the hot desert sun, this job should be a breeze. But guarding the willful beauty is harder than he imagined—and Caleb can’t resist the temptation to mix business with pleasure. With their desires growing more undeniable by the day, Ellen and Caleb give in to an evening of steamy passion. But will they ever be able to share more than just a one-night stand?

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from these Loveswept titles: How to Misbehave, Flirting with Disaster, and About Last Night.

Heaven's Spite ($4.99), the fifth Jill Kismet novel by Lilith Saintcrow [Hachette], with the companion audiobook for $3.49. I'm highlighting this title, even though the rest of the series is also under $5 apiece, as it's the only one I'm missing in the series. These are generally classified as Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance, although the romance portion of the books is generally only a small part. If you are missing more than one title, though, splurge and get Jill Kismet: The Complete Series, currently marked down to $8.89 (from $20), as you just can't beat that price to get all six titles at once. The only downside is that it doesn't give you Whispersync with any of the audiobooks in the series.

Heaven's Spite

When a new hellbreed comes calling, playing nice isn't an option. Jill Kismet has no choice but to seek treacherous allies - Perry, the devil she knows, and Melisande Belisa, the cunning Sorrows temptress whose true loyalties are unknown.

Kismet knows Perry and Belisa are likely playing for the same thing--her soul. It's just too bad, because she expects to beat them at their own game. Except their game is vengeance.

Nobody plays vengeance like Kismet. But if the revenge she seeks damns her, her enemies might get her soul after all...

Jill Kismet: The Complete Series

Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night.

Not everyone tries.

But Jill Kismet is not just anyone.

She's a Hunter, trained by the best --- and in over her head.

Welcome to the night shift...

The omnibus edition of Jill Kismet contains: Night Shift, Hunter's Prayer, Redemption Alley, Flesh Circus, Heaven's Spite and Angel Town.

Month End Bargain Books: Science Fiction and Fantasy

Since it's the end of the month and it takes me quite a bit of time to look up books on B&N, Kobo, etc, to check for matching prices, I'm going to skip that for today's posts. I've linked both stores here, for those that prefer those formats; I suspect some of the larger publishers will have matching prices in all the stores (definitely Random House, which is still under Agency Pricing).

In addition to the selections below, Amazon is having a Sci-fi Sale: 50% Off Select Kindle Books, which appears to all be titles from their own imprints, with the highest resulting price at $2. If you need to fill in your library of Bob Mayer or Stephen Leather novels, amongst others, now is a good time to do so.

His Majesty's Dragon ($0.99), the first in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series [Del Rey/Random House], I first read in paper and picked up on Kindle 4 years ago for a re-read. I definitely recommend for Fantasy and military readers, as there are elements of both and there is nothing like a great battle on dragons. For those who are caught up on the series, don't miss out on Crucible of Gold, which released today! It's $7.99 on Kindle, but there is a great deal on the companion audiobook for $4.49.

Book Description
Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons.

When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future–and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

The Dreaming Void ($1.99) is the first novel in the Void Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton [Del Rey/Random House]. Like much of modern SciFi/Space Opera, each volume in the Trilogy is massive (this one is over 600 pages in print) and I'm tempted to buy this newer edition (mine dates back to Fictionwise), as the the companion audiobook is $3.99.

Book Description
Reviewers exhaust superlatives when it comes to the science fiction of Peter F. Hamilton. His complex and engaging novels, which span thousands of years–and light-years–are as intellectually stimulating as they are emotionally fulfilling. Now, with The Dreaming Void, the eagerly awaited first volume in a new trilogy set in the same far-future as his acclaimed Commonwealth saga, Hamilton has created his most ambitious and gripping space epic yet.

The year is 3589, fifteen hundred years after Commonwealth forces barely staved off human extinction in a war against the alien Prime. Now an even greater danger has surfaced: a threat to the existence of the universe itself.
At the very heart of the galaxy is the Void, a self-contained microuniverse that cannot be breached, cannot be destroyed, and cannot be stopped as it steadily expands in all directions, consuming everything in its path: planets, stars, civilizations. The Void has existed for untold millions of years. Even the oldest and most technologically advanced of the galaxy’s sentient races, the Raiel, do not know its origin, its makers, or its purpose.

But then Inigo, an astrophysicist studying the Void, begins dreaming of human beings who live within it. Inigo’s dreams reveal a world in which thoughts become actions and dreams become reality. Inside the Void, Inigo sees paradise. Thanks to the gaiafield, a neural entanglement wired into most humans, Inigo’s dreams are shared by hundreds of millions–and a religion, the Living Dream, is born, with Inigo as its prophet. But then he vanishes.

Suddenly there is a new wave of dreams. Dreams broadcast by an unknown Second Dreamer serve as the inspiration for a massive Pilgrimage into the Void. But there is a chance that by attempting to enter the Void, the pilgrims will trigger a catastrophic expansion, an accelerated devourment phase that will swallow up thousands of worlds.

And thus begins a desperate race to find Inigo and the mysterious Second Dreamer. Some seek to prevent the Pilgrimage; others to speed its progress–while within the Void, a supreme entity has turned its gaze, for the first time, outward. . . .

The Hum and the Shiver ($2.99), the first of The Tufa Novels by Alex Bledsoe [Tor Books/Macmillan], with the companion audiobook for 3.99.

Book Description
Named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews, The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe is an enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills. . . .

No one knows where the Tufa came from, or how they ended up in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Enigmatic and suspicious of outsiders, the Tufa live quiet lives in the hills and valleys of Cloud County. While their origins may be a mystery, there are hints of their true nature buried in the songs they have passed down for generations.

Bronwyn Hyatt, a pure-blood Tufa, has always insisting on doing things her own way, regardless of the consequences. Even though Tufa rarely leave Cloud County, she enlisted in the Army to escape the pressures of Tufa life—her family, her obligations as a First Daughter, and her dangerous ex-boyfriend. But after barely surviving a devastating ambush that killed most of her fellow soldiers, Private Hyatt returns to Cloud County wounded in body and in spirit. But danger lurks in the mountains and hollows of her childhood home. Cryptic omens warn of impending tragedy, and a restless “haint” lurks nearby, waiting to reveal Bronwyn’s darkest secrets. Worst of all, Bronwyn has lost touch with the music that was once a vital part of her identity.

Now Bronwyn finds the greatest battle to be right here at home, where her obligations struggle with her need for freedom, and if she makes the wrong choice, the consequences could be deadly for all the Tufa. . . .

Building Harlequin's Moon ($2.99), by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper [Tor Books/Macmillan]

Book Description
The first interstellar starship, John Glenn, fled a Solar System populated by rogue AIs and machine/human hybrids, threatened by too much nanotechnology, and rife with political dangers. The John Glenn's crew intended to terraform the nearly pristine planet Ymir, in hopes of creating a utopian society that would limit intelligent technology.

But by some miscalculation they have landed in another solar system and must shape the gas giant planet Harlequin's moon, Selene, into a new, temporary home. Their only hope of ever reaching Ymir is to rebuild their store of antimatter by terraforming the moon.

Gabriel, the head terraformer, must lead this nearly impossible task, with all the wrong materials: the wrong ships and tools, and too few resources. His primary tools are the uneducated and nearly-illiterate children of the original colonists, born and bred to build Harlequin's moon into an antimatter factory.

Rachel Vanowen is one of these children. Basically a slave girl, she must do whatever the terraforming Council tells her. She knows that Council monitors her actions from a circling vessel above Selene's atmosphere, and is responsible for everything Rachel and her people know, as well as all the skills, food, and knowledge they have ever received. With no concept of the future and a life defined with duty, how will the children of Selene ever survive once the Council is through terraforming and have abandoned Selene for its ultimate goal of Ymir?

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Theft of Swords ($4.99), the first novel in the Riyria Revelations fantasy series by Michael J. Sullivan [Hachette], with the the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.
There's no ancient evil to defeat or orphan destined for greatness, just unlikely heroes and classic adventure. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are running for their lives when they're framed for the death of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it's too late.

When author Michael J. Sullivan self-published the first books of his Riyria Revelations, they rapidly became ebook bestsellers. Now, Orbit is pleased to present the complete series for the first time in bookstores everywhere.

Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond ($5.99), edited by John Joseph Adams, Douglas Cohen and Galen Dara (Illustrator) [47North], with the companion audiobook for $1.99.

Book Description
FOREWORD BY GREGORY MAGUIRE, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WICKED.

When L. Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, bestselling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Seanan McGuire to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans – and, really, any reader with an appetite for richly imagined worlds. Stories include:

• Frank Baum's son has the real experiences that his father later fictionalized in Orson Scott Card’s “Off to See the Emperor.”
• Seanan McGuire’s “Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust” finds Dorothy grown up, bitter, and still living in Oz. And she has a murder to solve – assuming Ozma will stop interfering with her life long enough to let her do her job.
• In “Blown Away,” Jane Yolen asks: What if Toto was dead and stuffed, Ozma was a circus freak, and everything you thought you knew as Oz was really right here in Kansas?
• "The Cobbler of Oz" by Jonathan Maberry explores a Winged Monkey with wings too small to let her fly. Her only chance to change that rests with the Silver Slippers.
• In Tad Williams’s futuristic “The Boy Detective of Oz," Orlando investigates the corrupt Oz simulation of the Otherland network.
• And more…

Some stories are dystopian…Some are dreamlike…All are undeniably Oz.

Neverwhere ($3.99), by Neil Gaiman

Book Description
Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinarylife, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

The Man in the High Castle ($1.99), by Philip Dick, has dropped a further dollar this month (matchin a B&N sale), but at Amazon you can get the companion audiobook for $2.99.

Book Description
It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

Winner of the Hugo Award

Anansi Boys ($3.99), by Neil Gaiman [HarperCollins], which a reader pointed out is a "sort of" sequel for American Gods (which apparently does now have a true sequel in the works! yay!).

Book Description
One of fiction's most audaciously original talents, Neil Gaiman now gives us a mythology for a modern age -- complete with dark prophecy, family dysfunction, mystical deceptions, and killer birds. Not to mention a lime.

Anansi Boys
God is dead. Meet the kids.
When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life.

Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.

Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself.

Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller, American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny -- a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him."

InterWorld ($1.99), by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves [HarperCollins]. You can't go wrong with Gaiman, especially at this price (which is so much more affordable that the forthcoming hardcover release of The Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1, which even at 51% off is over $70! I mean, sure it's 37 total issues and over a thousand pages, but still...).

Book Description
When Newbery Medal winner Neil Gaiman and Emmy Award winner Michael Reaves teamed up, they created the bestselling YA novel InterWorld.

InterWorld tells the story of Joey Harker, a very average kid who discovers that his world is only one of a trillion alternate earths. Some of these earths are ruled by magic. Some are ruled by science. All are at war.

Joey teams up with alternate versions of himself from an array of these worlds. Together, the army of Joeys must battle evil magicians Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo to keep the balance of power between all the earths stable. Teens—and tweens and adults—who obsessively read the His Dark Materials and Harry Potter series will be riveted by InterWorld and its sequel, The Silver Dream.

Month End Bargain Books: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Horror

Since it's the end of the month and it takes me quite a bit of time to look up books on B&N, Kobo, etc, to check for matching prices, I'm going to skip that for today's posts. I've linked both stores here, for those that prefer those formats; I suspect some of the larger publishers will have matching prices in all the stores (definitely Random House, which is still under Agency Pricing).

Red Rain ($2.99), by R.L. Stine [Touchstone/Simon and Schuster]

Book Description
R.L. Stine, New York Times bestselling author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street series—two of the bestselling children’s book series of all time—now sets his sights on adults with a terrifying new horror novel centered on a town in the grip of a sinister revolt.

Before there was J. K. Rowling, before there was Stephenie Meyer or Suzanne Collins, there was R.L. Stine. Witty, creepy, and compulsively readable, his books defined horror for a generation of young readers— readers who have now come of age. In Red Rain, Stine uses his unerring knack for creating terror to tap into some very grownup fears. Travel writer Lea Sutter finds herself on a small island off the coast of South Carolina, the wrong place at the wrong time. A merciless, unanticipated hurricane cuts a path of destruction through the island and Lea barely escapes with her life.

In the storm’s aftermath, she discovers two orphaned boys—twins. Filled with a desire to do something to help, to make something good of all she witnessed, Lea impulsively decides to adopt them. The boys, Samuel and Daniel, seem amiable and immensely grateful; Lea’s family back on Long Island—husband Mark, a child psychologist, and their two children, Ira and Elena—aren’t quite so pleased. But even they can’t anticipate the twins’ true nature—or predict that, within a few weeks’ time, Mark will wind up implicated in two brutal murders, with the police narrowing in.

For the millions of readers who grew up on Goosebumps, and for every fan of deviously inventive horror, this is a must-read from a beloved master of the genre.

Infected ($3.99), by Scott Sigler [Broadway/Random House]. I've got an older edition of this, from when it was self-published; if you missed it then, now is a good time to grab it.

Book Description
Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.

Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.

Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.

The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.

Infected is the first major print release from Internet phenom Scott Sigler, whose podcast-only audiobooks have drawn an immense cult following, with more than three million individual episodes downloaded. Now Sigler storms the bookstore shelves with this cinematic, relentlessly paced novel that mixes and matches genres, combining horror, technothriller, and suspense in a heady mix that is equal parts Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King.
Infected will crawl beneath your skin and leave fresh blood on every page.

Bloodland ($3.99), by Alan Glynn [Picador/Macmillan]

Book Description
A helicopter crash off the coast of Ireland sends unexpected ripples through the international community in this intricate new thriller from the author of Winterland and Limitless (now a major motion picture).

Susie Monaghan was on the cusp of stardom when her life was cut short by a tragic helicopter crash. After a full investigation, her death was ruled an accident: case closed. But a hungry young journalist named Jimmy Gilroy isn't buying the official story. Before dying, Susie's path had crossed with an unlikely gallery of powerful men: an ex-Prime minister with a carefully guarded secret; the businessman brother of a U.S. Senator angling for the Oval Office; and a billionaire investor with his eye on an extremely rare commodity. Might there also be a link between Susie's death and a deranged security contractor operating in Congo? Piece by piece, Jimmy uncovers a bizarre nexus of coincidence among these disparate people and events, revealing a conspiracy of frightening reach and consequence--one that could cost him his life.

Set against a vividly drawn world of corporate and political intrigue, Alan Glynn's Bloodland is a riveting paranoid thriller of uncommon depth and page-turning suspense.

The Third Pig Detective Agency ($1.99), the first in the series by Bob Burke [HarperCollins], is an even better deal for those in Canada, where it is $0.99, and those in the UK, where it is free. In the UK store, the second in the series is also deeply discounted, at just under a pound (the third is £1.99), while in the States, The Ho Ho Ho Mystery is sale-priced at $3.79 (and only $1.99 in Canada).

Book Description
A rather silly detective story in the spirit of Jasper Fforde.

Harry Pigg, the only surviving brother from the Big Bad Wolf attacks, has set up business as a private detective in Grimmtown, only things aren't going too well. Down on his luck, with bills to pay and no clients in sight the outlook is poor. But then in walks local businessman Aladdin who needs someone to help him track down an old lamp.

What follows is a case of nursery rhyme-noir. Funny, thrilling and always entertaining, Harry Pigg is an old breed of hero for a new generation. It's as if Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney had walked into the middle of a bedtime story.

A comedy caper for all ages. The first in a major new series.

Viral ($1.99), by James Lilliefors [Soho], with the companion audiobook for $5.99.

Book Description
Two brothers race to stop a political mastermind's massive bioterrorist plot in this terrifying espionage thriller.

In remote pockets of the Third World, a deadly virus is quietly sweeping through impoverished farming villages and shanty towns with frightening speed and potency. Meanwhile, in Washington, a three-word message left in a safe-deposit box may be the key to stopping the crisis—if, that is, Charles Mallory, a private intelligence contractor and former CIA operative, can decipher the puzzle before time runs out.

What Mallory begins to discover are the traces of a secret war, with a bold objective—to create a new, technologically advanced society. With the help of his brother Jon, an investigative reporter, can he break the story to the world before it is too late—before a planned “humane depopulation” takes place?

As the stakes and strategies of this secret war become more evident, the Mallory brothers find themselves in a complex game of wits with an enemy they can’t see: a new sort of superpower led by a brilliant, elusive tactician who believes that ends justify means.

Long Gone ($1.99), by Alafair Burke [HarperCollins]

Book Description
Echoing the intensity of Harlan Coben’s Tell No One and the psychological depth of Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know, Alafair Burke’s first stand-alone novel catapults her into the top ranks of modern suspense. In New York City’s cut-throat world of art, appearances can be deceiving—especially when art world newcomer Alice Humphrey becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder at a Chelsea gallery, and is thrown into a treacherous labyrinth of intrigue, crime, and conspiracy. Now, Alice must discover the truth behind the murder before the unsolved mystery claims her as its next victim.

A Dram of Poison ($1.99), the 1957 Edgar-winning mystery by Charlotte Armstrong [Open Road].

Book Description
A longtime bachelor finally marries—only to learn the corrosive power of jealousy

For fifty-five years, Kenneth Gibson has lived in backwaters. A former army clerk, he makes a quiet living teaching poetry to indifferent undergrads. His life is happily dull until the day he meets Rosemary, a damaged girl whose frailty compels Kenneth to try to make her well. They wed, and as Rosemary recovers from her depression, Gibson falls in love, transforming his world. But his wife will never love him.

She is smitten with their landlord, a dashing young chemical engineer named Paul. Gibson wants to let her go, but he cannot bear to be parted with the first love he has ever known. In Paul’s house is a case of poison, and this love triangle can only end in death.

A Dark-Adapted Eye ($1.99), by Ruth Rendell [Open Road]

Book Description
In the Edgar Award–winning classic, a niece investigates the shocking secrets that condemned her once proud family

Faith Severn has never understood why the willful matriarch of her high-society family, aunt Vera Hillyard, snapped and murdered her own beloved sister. But long after Vera is condemned to hang, a journalist’s startling discoveries allow Faith to perceive her family’s story in a new light.

Set in post–World War II Britain, A Dark-Adapted Eye is both a gripping mystery and a harrowing psychological portrait of a complex woman at the head of a troubled family.

Secret of the Seventh Son ($1.99), the first Will Piper novel by Glenn Cooper [HarperCollins], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
There are secrets that must remain buried . . .

Nine people have been slain in New York City—nine strangers with nothing in common—the apparent victims of a frighteningly elusive serial killer. Only one thing links the dead: postcards they received, mailed from Las Vegas, announcing the day they would die.

Assigned to the case is a legendary FBI profiler with a troubled past, a drinking problem, and nothing left to lose . . .

Abandoned to a monastery is an unwanted son born under a curse on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year 777 . . .

Unprepared for a momentous discovery is a post-World War II expedition into the crypts of a clandestine medieval society . . .

. . . but all lead to a secret embroiled in destiny, history, evil, faith, and corruption . . . and one terrifying truth that no one must ever know . . .

Book of Souls ($1.99), the second Will Piper novel by Glenn Cooper [HarperCollins]

Book Description
The thrilling sequel to the international bestseller Secret of the Seventh Son, Glen Cooper’s Book of Souls sets FBI agent Will Piper on the trail of an ancient volume that has had a profound and shocking effect on human history. An exciting new voice in the thriller genre, author Glen Cooper is ideal for readers who simply can’t get enough of Dan Brown, Steve Berry, Raymond Khoury, and James Rollins.

Kindle Daily Deals 4/30

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Pdf to Speech, which should be handy for listening to books you have in that format on your Kindle Fire.

Today is the last day to take borrow a book this month from the Kindle Lending Library, for those on Amazon Prime, and the last day of this month's $3.99 or Less Sale (although I expect a new batch of books tomorrow).

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Above World ($1.99), by Jenn Reese [Candlewick], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
A suspenseful sci-fi escapade plucks two children out of the ocean for a thrilling adventure. Thirteen-year-old Aluna has lived her entire life under the ocean with the Coral Kampii in the City of Shifting Tides. But after centuries spent hidden from the Above World, her colony's survival is at risk. The Kampii's breathing necklaces are failing, but the elders are unwilling to venture above water to seek answers. Only headstrong Aluna and her friend Hoku are stubborn and bold enough to face the terrors of land to search for way to save their people. But can Aluna's fierce determination and fighting skills and Hoku's tech-savvy keep them safe? Set in a world where overcrowding has led humans to adapt - growing tails to live under the ocean or wings to live on mountains - here is a ride through a future where greed and cruelty have gone unchecked, but the loyalty of friends remains true.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Archie Meets Nero Wolfe ($1.99), a prequel novel to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Robert Goldsborough [Open Road], who fans know continued the series after Stout.

Book Description
To become part of the Nero Wolfe legend, Archie Goodwin must prove his worth

Archie Goodwin comes to New York City hoping for a bit of excitement. In his third week working as a night watchman, he stops two burglars in their tracks—with a pair of hot lead slugs. Dismissed from his job for being “trigger-happy,” he parlays his newfound notoriety into a job as a detective’s assistant, helping honest sleuth Del Bascom solve cases like the Morningside Piano Heist, the Rive Gauche Art Gallery Swindle, and the Sumner-Hayes Burglary. But it’s the kidnapping of Tommie Williamson, the son of a New York hotel magnate, that introduces Goodwin to the man who will change his life.

Young Tommie has gone missing, and only one detective is built for the job: Nero Wolfe, the heavyset genius of West Thirty-Fifth Street. Together they will form one of the most unlikely crime fighting duos in history—but first Goodwin must find Tommie Williamson, and prove to Wolfe that he deserves a place by his side.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Rebellious Desire ($0.99), by Julie Garwood [Pocket/Simon and Schuster].

Book Description
Of all the dukes in England, Jered Marcus Benton, the Duke of Bradford, was the wealthiest, most handsome -- and most arrogant. And of all London's ladies, he wanted the tender obedience of only one -- Caroline Richmond.

She was a ravishing beauty from Boston, with a mysterious past and a fiery spirit. Drawn to the powerful duke, undeterred by his presumptuous airs, Caroline was determined to win his lasting love. But Bradford would bend to no woman -- until a deadly intrigue drew them enticingly close. Now, united against a common enemy, they would discover the power of the magnificent attraction that brought them together...a desire born in danger, but destined to flame into love!

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Extinction Point ($0.99), by Paul Antony Jones [47North], with the the companion audiobook for $1.99. I listened to the sample and the narrator is quite good and under $3 for the two is a steal.

The author's publicist provided me a copy for review and I've finished it, but had not yet completed my review. But, for now, take this short version under advisement: buy this book!

OK, there are a few nits to pick, but overall the story is good and the dialog flows (unlike some books in this genre that I've read). It isn't your typical zombie apocalypse story (not at all) and there is more introspection and attention to details (but not overwhelming lists of survival supplies or weapons models). Emily is a typical New Yorker, with little food in her apartment, no driving skills and a 100% faith and dependency on the power grid, at the start. She is on her own in NYC after the red rain falls and is no superhero, although a bit too accident prone for what her character seemed before the rain; we get more prose on how it feels to be alone, along with what seems to be more practical survival behavior (find food, find transportation, get out of town) than you'll see in the average zombie book (break into gun store, load on up unlimited ammo and shoot anything that moves) and it's pretty well done.

Yes, this is the first in a new series (isn't everything, these days?), but the good news is that you won't have to wait as long as I have for the second, as it is now available for pre-order: Exodus (and it's only $2.99! I love Amazon's imprint pricing).

Book Description
First comes the red rain: a strange, scarlet downpour from a cloudless sky that spreads across cities, nations, and the entire globe. In a matter of panicked hours, every living thing on earth succumbs to swift, bloody death. Yet Emily Baxter, a young newspaper reporter, is mysteriously spared—and now she’s all alone.

But watching the happy life she built for herself in New York City slip away in the wake of a monstrous, inexplicable plague is just the beginning of Emily’s waking nightmare. The world isn’t ending; it’s only changing. And the race that once ruled the earth has now become raw material for use by a new form of life never before seen…on this planet.

With only wits, weapons, and a bicycle, Emily must undertake a grueling journey across a country that’s turning increasingly alien. For though she fears she’s been left to inherit the earth, the truth is far more terrifying than a lifetime of solitude.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 4/30

The Summer Son (£0.99 UK), by Craig Lancaster [AmazonEncore], is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99).

Book Description
He owed a lot of people, but I was the only one left to collect. I told myself that I didn’t care about him, only about what he owed me, whatever that was.

I even tried to believe it.

When Mitch Quillen’s life begins to unravel, he fears there is no escape. His marriage and his career are both failing, and his relationship with his father has been a disaster for decades. Approaching forty, Mitch doesn’t want to become a middle-aged statistic. When his estranged father, Jim, suddenly calls, Mitch’s wife urges him to respond. Ready for a change, Mitch heads to Montana and a showdown that will alter the course of his life. Amid a backdrop of rugged peaks and valleys, the story unfolds: a violent episode that triggered the rift, thirty years of miscommunication, and the possibility of misplaced blame. In Craig Lancaster’s powerful novel, The Summer Son, readers are invited into a family where conflict and secrets prevail, and where hope for healing and redemption is possible.

Nook Daily Find 4/30

Afghanistan Revealed ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Ahmed Rashid, Jules Stewart, Yossef Bodansky, Greg Mill, et al, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Afghanistan Revealed offers the reader an incisive view into a country that has held the world’s attention for more than a decade. Hardly a day goes by without Afghanistan making news in the media – but behind the headlines, what do we really know about this complex and enigmatic country, its people, its culture and most importantly, its future? This ebook takes us beyond the media focus on politics and war into the lives of the Afghan people, and the forces that have shaped their individual and collective history.

A range of distinguished specialists shed light on Afghanistan, from the earliest Aryan migrations and the emergence of Islam, through the country's role as a key Central Asian trade centre, the Anglo-Afghan wars and the Soviet invasion, to the emergence of a post-Taliban state. We are reminded of how the Afghans have suffered in centuries of violent conflict and have stubbornly resisted all efforts to invade and dominate their land. We are presented with the tasks Afghanistan faces after the 2014 withdrawal of NATO-led combat troops, specifically the need to rebuild the country, create jobs, provide education, tap into its huge economic potential, and provide political and social harmony.

Readable and accessible, Afghanistan Revealed is essential background for anyone wishing to understand why peace and stability in the region have been so elusive. It is also an indispensable tool for foreign and Afghan policymakers who play a role in determining Afghanistan's future.

Diesel Daily Deal - Darkest Knight (E)

Darkest Knight ($10.99 $8.49 Kindle), a Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy novel by Karen Duvall [Luna], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $2.20 (9 copies left).

Book Description

"Betray your sisters or your lover. You choose."

After the warrior she loves saved her from a murderous gargoyle, Chalice watched helplessly as Aydin turned into a gargoyle himself. Now, free from the curse that enslaved her, Chalice pledges to join her sister knights in The Order of the Hatchet—and do whatever it takes to regain Aydin's humanity…and his love. What she encounters within their hallowed sanctuary is pure intrigue.

Someone—or something—is murdering her sisters in their sleep, provoking fear and suspicion among the order. Meanwhile, Aydin, unable to stay away, starts haunting Chalice's dreams, urging her onward. Ultimately, Chalice will be faced with an agonizing choice—one that will tear away at her newfound identity and force her to choose between duty and desire….

Get the book from Diesel; be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out.

Kindle Daily Deals 4/29

There is a great $5 Magazine Sale now going on. In addition to Eating Well, it's been expanded to 74 total titles, from Parenting to Popular Photography and including Popular Science and Cycle World, two that we read quite often. At this price, if you usually pick up one or two issues at the newsstand, you can now get the entire year in your mailbox for less. I signed up for one magazine and my first delivery date puts it squarely into the Father's Day season, so it looks like the sale is a good fit for setting up your dad with some new reading material, as well.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Watchman ($1.99), the first novel in the Joe Pike series by Robert Crais [Simon and Schuster], with the companion audiobook for $3.95.

Book Description
The city was hers for a single hour, just the one magic hour, only hers.

Larkin Conner Barkley lives like the City of Angels is hers for the taking. Young and staggeringly rich, she speeds through the city during its loneliest hours, blowing through red after red in her Aston Martin as if running for her life. Until out of nowhere a car appears, and with it the metal-on-metal explosion of a terrible accident. Dazed, Larkin attempts to help the other victims. And finds herself the sole witness in a secret federal investigation.

For maybe the first time in her life, Larkin wants to do the right thing. But by agreeing to cooperate with the authorities, she becomes the target for a relentless team of killers. And when the U.S. Marshals and the finest security money can buy can't protect her, Larkin's wealthy family turns to the one man money can't buy -- Joe Pike.

Pike lives a world away from the palaces of Beverly Hills. He's an ex-cop, ex-Marine, ex-mercenary who owes a bad man a favor, and that favor is to keep Larkin alive. The one upside of the job is reuniting with Bud Flynn, Pike's LAPD training officer, and a man Pike reveres as a father. The downside is Larkin Barkley, who is the uncontrollable cover girl for self-destruction -- and as deeply alone as Pike.

Pike commits himself to protecting the girl, but when they immediately come under fire, he realizes someone is selling them out. In defiance of Bud and the authorities, Pike drops off the grid with the girl and follows his own rules of survival: strike fast, hit hard, hunt down the hunters. With the help of private investigator Elvis Cole, Pike uncovers a web of lies and betrayals, and the stunning revelation that even the cops are not who they seem. As the body count rises, Pike's biggest threat might come from the girl herself, a lost soul in the City of Angels, determined to destroy herself unless Joe Pike can teach her the value of life...and love.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Intimate Deception ($1.99),the first novel in the Intimate series by Laura Landon [Montlake Romance], with the companion audiobook also $1.99.

Book Description
When Lady Grace Warren’s father sells her in marriage to the depraved Lord Fentington, she knows only the most drastic action will save her from a life of misery. In Victorian England, a woman possesses only one item of value: her virtue. Without it, Fentington will not want her—nor will any other man. But at least she will be free. Now she must find a man with whom to pass the fateful night, a man who will ask no questions, make no other demands. Because for a woman preparing to risk everything, no ordinary man will do…

After losing two wives in childbirth, Vincent Germaine, Duke of Raeburn, vows never to marry again. Racked with guilt over the lives lost in his quest for an heir, he is careful now to take his pleasure only with London’s most discreet courtesans. Yet when he learns that a passionate encounter with a bewitching stranger may have put yet another life at risk, Vincent sets out to find the unsuspecting girl—and discovers a woman of incomparable courage, beauty, and strength. But can two strangers brought together by desperation find true love against all odds?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Stranger ($1.99), a stand-alone novel by Simon Clark [47North]. You can get a second title by Clark, The Tower (horror), free by signing up for the Kindle Daily emails (which you can then unsubscribe to after getting the promo code; after all, that email doesn't tell you about deals like this!).

Book Description
The small town of Sullivan has barricaded itself against the outside world. It is one of the last enclaves of civilization and the residents are determined that their town remain free from the strange and terrifying plague that is sweeping the land—a plague that transforms ordinary people into murderous, bloodthirsty madmen. But the transformation is only the beginning. With the shocking realization that mankind is evolving into something different, something horrifying, the struggle for survival becomes a battle to save humanity.

Today's Kindle Teens Daily Deal is The Unquiet ($2.99), a Teen/YA novel by Jeannine Garsee [Bloomsbury USA Childrens].

Book Description
Over the summer, Rinn stopped taking her bi-polar meds and blames herself and the voices she heard for her grandmother's tragic death. To get a new start, Rinn and her mother are moving back to her mom's small hometown and Rinn has promised to never miss a pill again.

The fresh start is just what Rinn needs. She falls in with the popular girls at her new school and she falls for very cute "farmer boy" Nate.

But River Hills High School has a secret.

The ghost of Annaliese, a girl who died when Rinn's mother was a student there, haunts a hallway the teens call The Tunnel. Rinn's not sure she believes it, but slowly Annaliese seems to be punishing those who enter the tunnel alone. A chorus soloist loses her voice, a star cheerleader falls off the pyramid, and then it gets worse-worse as in death.

Rinn still doesn't know if Annaliese is real, and there's only one way to find out. Rinn needs to ditch her bi-polar meds again and see what the voices are really trying to say....