Nook Daily Find 6/3

Clarity ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in the Clarity Teen/YA series by Kim Harrington [Scholastic/Point], is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Be careful at B&N, as the price keeps bouncing up and down.

Book Description
When you can see things others can't, where do you look for the truth?
This paranormal murder mystery will have teens reading on the edge of their seats.

Clarity "Clare" Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch a certain object, and the visions come to her. It's a gift.

And a curse.

When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare's ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case--but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare's brother--who has supernatural gifts of his own--becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

Kindle Daily Deals 6/2

I see a neat gift idea over at AmazonLocal today: a Custom Stainless Steel Water Bottle. You can upload the photo or image of your choice and make sure your bottle never gets mixed up with all the others at the gym or office; it's also a pretty decent price ($11) and would make a great Father's Day gift with a picture of the kids (one he might use, instead of the ties hanging in the back of the closet).

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is the SAS Survival Guide! This is the full text of the classic book, plus you can download 16 videos of survival tips. In addition to photo galleries of edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, you can also use the app as a Morse Code signalling device and as a Sun Compass. I'm definitely loading this one on my phone (and on my Kindle Fire, to read on a bigger screen).

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Discretion ($1.99), by former federal sex-crimes prosecutor and critically acclaimed author Allison Leotta [Simon and Schuster], with the companion audiobook for $4.49.

Book Description
A new thriller exploring the intersection of sex and power in Washington, D.C.’s most secretive worlds

When a beautiful young woman plummets to her death from the balcony of the U.S. Capitol, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Curtis is summoned to the scene. The evidence points to a sexual assault and murder. The victim is one of the city’s highest-paid escorts. And the balcony belongs to Washington, D.C.’s sole representative to Congress, the most powerful figure in city politics.

The Congressman proclaims his innocence, but he’s in the middle of a tough primary fight, and the scandal could cost him the election. For Anna, the high-profile case is an opportunity. But as the political stakes rise, she realizes that a single mistake could end her career.

At the same time, her budding romance with Jack Bailey, the chief homicide prosecutor, is at a crossroads. Determined to gain respect in the office, Anna wants to keep their relationship under wraps. But the mounting pressure and media attention that come with the office’s most important case will inevitably expose their relationship—if it doesn’t destroy it first.

The investigation leads Anna to Discretion, a high-end escort service that caters to D.C.’s elite. But with each break in the case, the mystery deepens. And the further Anna ventures into D.C.’s red-light underworld, the larger the target on her own back.

From the secret social clubs where Washington’s most powerful men escape from public view to the asphalt “track” where the city’s most vulnerable women work the streets, Discretion is a gripping exploration of sex, power, and the secrets we all keep.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Tumbleweeds ($1.99), a coming of age novel by Leila Meacham [Hachette].

Book Description
Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham's signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is A Hunger Like No Other ($1.99), by Kresley Cole [Simon and Schuster]. This is the first novel in the Immortals After Dark series, one of the best werewolf/vampire romances I've read; since I started this series on paper, then switched to the ereaders sometime later, I'll be replacing my paper copy with this edition, today.

Book Description
Acclaimed author Kresley Cole introduces a sizzling new series with this tale of a fierce werewolf and a bewitching vampire -- unlikely soul mates whose passion will test the boundaries of life and death.

A mythic warrior who'll stop at nothing to possess her . . .

After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he's waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.

A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy . . .

Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents -- until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae -- and their notorious dark desires -- ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.

An all-consuming desire . . .

Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Judy Moody, M.D. ($0.99), by Megan McDonald and Peter H. Reynolds (Illustrator), with the companion audiobook for $1.99.

Book Description
She took her own temperature. With the fancy thermometer that beeped. It was not normal. It was not 98.6. Judy's temperature was 188.8! Judy's temperature was 00.0! Judy's temperature was beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. She, Judy Moody, had the temperature of an outer-space alien!

Judy Moody has a mood for every occasion, and now, she is in a medical mood! It's no secret that Judy wants to be like Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman doctor, when she grows up. So when Class 3T starts to study the Amazing Human Body, Judy can hardly wait to begin her better-than-best-ever third-grade projects: show-and-tell with something way rarer than a scab, a real-live ooey-gooey operation, and a cloning experiment that may create double trouble for Judy and her friends!

Judy's latest adventures are sure to tickle your humerus (AKA funny bone) and put you in a very Judy Moody mood!

Age Range: 7 and up

Kindle Daily Deals 6/1

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Red Moon ($2.99), by Benjamin Percy [Grand Central Publishing/Hachette], with the companion audiobook for $4.99. An Amazon Best Book of the Month, May 2013.

Book Description
Award -winning author Benjamin Percy presents an explosive and deeply layered literary thriller set in the American West.

They live among us.

They are our neighbors, our mothers, our lovers.

They change.

When government agents kick down Claire Forrester's front door and murder her parents, Claire realizes just how different she is.

Patrick Gamble was nothing special until the day he got on a plane and hours later stepped off it, the only passenger left alive, a hero.

Chase Williams has sworn to protect the people of the United States from the menace in their midst, but he is becoming the very thing he has promised to destroy.

So far, the threat has been controlled by laws and violence and drugs. But the night of the red moon is coming, when an unrecognizable world will emerge...and the battle for humanity will begin.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is You Can't Plan Love ($0.99), by Synithia Williams [Crimson Romance].

Book Description
Knowing firsthand the heartbreak that comes when desire and emotion rule a relationship, Kenyatta Copeland assumes marrying Brad Johnson will lead to a safe and secure life. But as much as she believes she can plan her future, it’s hard to ignore the way her boss, Malcolm Patterson, ignites her passions with just one look.

After Malcolm learns of her engagement, he makes a play for her heart and reminds her that passion between a man and a woman has its perks… but also its costs. When Brad confirms his suspicion that there’s more than work between Kenyatta and Malcolm, he devises a sinister plan to keep Kenyatta by his side.

Torn between her promise to marry Brad and her irrepressible longing for Malcolm, Kenyatta must decide if she can live her life in a passionless marriage of convenience or once again trust her heart. Yet Brad does not intend to let her go easily, and by the time she realizes the depths of his treachery, it may be too late.

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Bluebeard: The Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian (1916-1988) ($1.99), by Kurt Vonnegut [Dial Press/RosettaBooks].

Book Description
Bluebeard, published in 1987, is Vonnegut's meditation on art, artists, surrealism, and disaster. Meet Rabo Karabekian, a moderately successful surrealist painter, who we meet late in life and see struggling (like all of Vonnegut's key characters), with the dregs of unresolved pain and the consequences of brutality. Loosely based on the legend of Bluebeard (best realized in Bela Bartok's one-act opera), the novel follows Karabekian through the last events in his life that is heavy with women, painting, artistic ambition, artistic fraudulence, and as of yet unknown consequence.

Vonnegut's intention here is not so much satirical (although the contemporary art scene would be easy enough to deconstruct), nor is it documentary (although Karabekian does carry elements of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko). Instead, Vonnegut is using art for the same purpose he used science fiction cliches in Slaughterhouse-Five; as a filter through which he can illuminate the savagery, cruelty, and the essentially comic misdirection of human existence.

Readers will recognize familiar Vonnegut character types and archetypes as they drift in and out through the background; meanwhile, Karabekian, betrayed and betrayer, sinks through a bottomless haze of recollection. Like most of Vonnegut's late works, this is both science fiction and cruel contemporary realism at once, using science fiction as metaphor for human damage as well as failure to perceive. Readers will find that Vonnegut's protagonists can never really clarify for us whether they are ultimately unwitting victims or simple barbarians, leaving it up to the reader to determine in which genre this book really fits, if any at all.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Truth About Horses, Friends & My Life As A Coward ($1.99), by Sarah P. Gibson.

Book Description
So you think you love horses? That’s what Sophie Groves thought too. But she found out that horses are a heap of trouble. Her trials began at five years old when her mom brought home Really (a.k.a. Really Mean), the nastiest pony in Maine. Two horses later, Sophie is still learning to deal with these crafty creatures, while trying to find friends who will like her for who she is—not for her horses. Filled with hilarious horse capers and the real truth about life as a weenie, this laugh-out-loud story shows why a horse isn’t always a girl’s best friend.

Age Range: 9 and up

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/1

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three titles for £0.99 each (~80% off).

The Traitor Game (Main/UK; US edition $10.49), a YA novel by BR Collins [Bloomsbury Childrens]

There was a folded bit of A4 paper wedged into the locker. It said MICHAEL THOMPSON. Michael slid it out, and flipped it open. It said I KNOW WHERE ARCASTER IS.

That was when the bottom dropped out of everything.

Michael and Francis are best friends at school, drawn together by their common secret - a complete obsession with creating, crafting, adding to and poring over their joint fantasy world, Evgard. Their friendship is put to the severest test when Michael, thinking that Francis has betrayed their world, takes the cold, deliberate decision not to help Francis when Francis is the victim of a brutal attack. Michael then has to see the consequences of his mistake, and confront his own weaknesses. This absolutely compelling charting of the boys' friendship is reflected in the fantasy world, as the fantasy characters and their actions are a clear mirror of the boys' own actions in the real world. With one difference. In the fantasy world, one of the characters does not survive.

Each world, both real and fantasy, is just as gripping as the other. The twofold narrative with alternate chapters is incredibly complex to construct, yet the talent of this writer is to create a fluid, completely unputdownable read.

An extraordinarily and compelling novel that will attract many readers at many levels and within many genres.

Faerie Wars (Main/UK; no US edition), the first novel in the series by Herbie Brennan [Bloomsbury Childrens]

Henry thinks he is simply saving a butterfly from being eaten by Mr Fogarty's cat - but he is in fact saving the life of a misdirected exiled fairy prince. A prince who has to get back to his own land in order to thwart a threatened attack by the Faeries of the Night. But time is against Pyrgus Malvae and soon he is relying on Henry and Mr Fogarty not just to get him home but also to solve the puzzle that surrounds his exile.

A wonderful, gripping, page-turning read full of the kind of detail that will ensure that this fabulous fantastic novel will have readers young and old holding their breath as the story unfolds.

The City's Son (Main/UK; US edition $7.69), the first novel in the The Skyscraper Throne series by Tom Pollock [Jo Fletcher Books]

Expelled from school, betrayed by her best friend and virtually ignored by her dad, who's never recovered from the death of her mum, Beth Bradley retreats to the sanctuary of the streets, looking for a new home. What she finds is Filius Viae, the ragged and cocky crown prince of London, who opens her eyes to the place she's never truly seen. But the hidden London is on the brink of destruction. Reach, the King of the Cranes, is a malign god of demolition, and he wants Filius dead. In the absence of the Lady of the Streets, Filius' goddess mother, Beth rouses Filius to raise an alleyway army, to reclaim London's skyscraper throne for the mother he's never known. Beth has almost forgotten her old life - until her best friend and her father come searching for her, and she must choose between the streets and the life she left behind.

This is the first of a series, an urban fable about friends, family and monsters, and how you can't always tell which is which.

Weekend Bargain Book Roundup

Beauty and the Bounty Hunter ($2.99 Kindle), the first novel in the Once Upon a Time in the West series by Lori Austin [Signet/Penguin]

Book Description
Cathleen Chase is no killer—but as Cat O’Banyon, she is a ruthless bounty hunter who always gets her man. Catching one lowlife after another, she continues her search for the only man she really cares to locate. The one whose voice she will never forget; the man who murdered her husband. She’ll stop at nothing to find him.

Con artist Alexi Romanov taught Cat every trick she knows. He is a master of deceit, disguise, and desire. He’s difficult to trust, and even more difficult to resist, but he has news she can’t ignore. The man she’s after has placed a bounty on her head. To get him before he gets her, she’ll have to team up with Alexi again....And just like before, the two of them together are nothing but trouble.

The Affinity Bridge ($2.99 Kindle), the first in the Newbury & Hobbes Investigations series by George Mann [Tor Books/Macmillan]. Now's your chance, if you missed this when it was on sale two years ago.

Book Description
Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by unfamiliar inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, while ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers, policemen, and journalists.

But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side.

Queen Victoria is kept alive by a primitive life-support system, while her agents, Sir Maurice Newbury and his delectable assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes, do battle with enemies of the crown, physical and supernatural. This time Newbury and Hobbes are called to investigate the wreckage of a crashed airship and its missing automaton pilot, while attempting to solve a string of strangulations attributed to a mysterious glowing policeman, and dealing with a zombie plague that is ravaging the slums of the capital.

Get ready to follow dazzling young writer George Mann to a London unlike any you’ve ever seen and into an adventure you will never forget....

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

Inspector Morse: The first three novels ($9.99 Kindle), is an omnibus edition by Colin Dexter [Pan - may be self-published backlist, but print editions are still available from Ivy].

Book Description
Featuring the first three books in this classic crime series starring Inspector Morse: Last Bus to Woodstock, Last Seen Wearing and The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn.

Last Bus to Woodstock: The death of Sylvia Kaye figured dramatically in Thursday afternoon's edition of the Oxford Mail. By Friday evening Inspector Morse had informed the nation that the police were looking for a dangerous man – facing charges of wilful murder, sexual assault and rape. But as the obvious leads fade into twilight and darkness, Morse becomes more and more convinced that passion holds the key . . .

Last Seen Wearing: Morse was beset by a nagging feeling. Most of his fanciful notions about the Taylor girl had evaporated and he had begun to suspect that further investigation into Valerie’s disappearance would involve little more than sober and tedious routine . . . The statements before Inspector Morse appeared to confirm the bald, simple truth. After leaving home to return to school, teenager Valerie Taylor had completely vanished, and the trail had gone cold. Until two years, three months and two days after Valerie’s disappearance, somebody decides to supply some surprising new evidence for the case . . .

The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn: Morse had never ceased to wonder why, with the staggering advances in medical science, all pronouncements concerning times of death seemed so disconcertingly vague. The newly appointed member of the Oxford Examinations Syndicate was deaf, provincial and gifted. Now he is dead . . . And his murder, in his north Oxford home, proves to be the start of a formidably labyrinthine case for Chief Inspector Morse, as he tries to track down the killer through the insular and bitchy world of the Oxford Colleges . . .

Lisa McMann's The Unwanteds and Island of Silence, the first two novels in the pre-teen The Unwanteds series, are on sale for $2.99, in anticipation of the concluding volume of the trilogy, Island of Fire, being released in September [Simon and Schuster]. If you are willing to take a chance, you can pre-order The Unwanteds Omnibus, which contains all three volumes, at the same $2.99. It's a bit of a risk because, although the hardcover edition will clearly be released on the same September 3 as Island of Fire, the Kindle edition is now marked with a 2030 release date. So, it may release at the same time as the hardcover, or the publisher may bury the listing and never release it at all; if the former, you get all three books for under a buck each and if the latter, you don't spend a cent. If you know your kids (or you) want to read the series, hedge your bets by grabbing the two titles on sale and pre-order the omnibus edition, so that you also get the third in the series at under 1/3 the regular price.

The Unwanteds

A riveting middle-grade dystopian novel from New York Times bestselling Wake author Lisa McMann that Kirkus Reviews calls “The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter.”

When Alex finds out he is Unwanted, he expects to die. That is the way of the people of Quill. Each year, all the thirteen-year-olds are labeled as Wanted, Necessary, or Unwanted. Wanteds get more schooling and train to join the Quillitary. Necessaries keep the farms running. Unwanteds are set for elimination.

It’s hard for Alex to leave behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted, but he makes peace with his fate—until he discovers that instead of a “death farm,” what awaits him is a magical place called Artimé. There, Alex and his fellow Unwanteds are encouraged to cultivate their creative abilities and use them magically. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it’s a wondrous transformation.

But it’s a rare, unique occurrence for twins to be divided between Wanted and Unwanted, and as Alex and Aaron’s bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of Artimé that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate magical battle.

Island of Silence

Following the life-altering events at the conclusion of The Unwanteds, the stark world of Quill and the magical haven of Artimé are now home to whoever wants to live there, whether they are Wanteds, Unwanteds, or Necessaries.

In Artimé, Alex Stowe and his friends continue to hone their artistic magical spells while welcoming newcomers, wondering how long this peace between Quill and Artimé will last. Alex is stunned when Mr. Today comes to him with a very special request—one Alex questions his readiness for, until circumstances offer a dramatic answer.

And back in Quill, Aaron Stowe, Alex’s twin, faces a very different path. Devastated by his loss of status after Justine’s defeat and seething with rage toward Alex, Aaron is stealthily planning his revenge and return to power.

Alex and Aaron’s separate stories proceed with suspenseful pacing, colliding in a stunning climax that elevates sibling rivalry to epic proportions and leaves the fate of both worlds hanging in the balance.

Strangers on a Train ($2.99 Kindle), by Patricia Highsmith [W. W. Norton]

Book Description
A major new reissue of the work of a classic noir novelist.

With the acclaim for The Talented Mr. Ripley, more film projects in production, and two biographies forthcoming, expatriate legend Patricia Highsmith would be shocked to see that she has finally arrived in her homeland. Throughout her career, Highsmith brought a keen literary eye and a genius for plumbing the psychopathic mind to more than thirty works of fiction, unparalleled in their placid deviousness and sardonic humor. With deadpan accuracy, she delighted in creating true sociopaths in the guise of the everyday man or woman. Now, one of her finest works is again in print: Strangers on a Train, Highsmith's first novel and the source for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1953 film. With this novel, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

A Town Called Valentine ($1.99 Kindle), by Emma Cane [Avon/HarperCollins]. You can also pre-order what looks like a novella anthology, All I Want for Christmas Is a Cowboy ($1.99 Kindle), which lists Ms Cane, Jennifer Ryan and Katie Lane as authors (but doesn't have any descriptive copy, yet).

Book Description
Small towns, rugged cowboy heroes, and passion are a perfect combination when it comes to contemporary romance—just ask the many fans of Susan Wiggs, Robyn Carr, Lori Wilde, and Linda Lael Miller. Now newcomer Emma Cane joins their ranks, transporting readers to fictional Valentine, Colorado. In the first book in Cane’s heartwarming and deliciously sexy series, a young woman with a painful past and a rancher who’s no stranger to heartbreak find love in a tiny western town known for happily-ever-afters … A Town Called Valentine.

Amelia Peabody Omnibus ($9.99 Barnes & Noble), contains four novels by Elizabeth Peters [Constable & Robinson]; the only Kindle Edition that I see on this one, though, isn't available for sale in the US.

Book Description
Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!

In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries,mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least that's what he thinks!

Join our plucky Victorian Egyptologist , together with her devastatingly handsome and brilliant husband Radcliffe, in another exciting escapadeWhen Lady Baskerville's husband Sir Henry dies after discovering what may have been an undisturbed royal tomb in Luxor, she appeals to eminent archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson and his wife Amelia to take over the excavation. Amid rumours of a curse haunting all those involved with the dig, the intrepid couple proceeds to Egypt, where they begin to suspect that Sir Henry did not die a natural death, and they are confident that the accidents that plague the dig are caused by a sinister human element, not a pharoah's curse

The irascible husband of Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Peabody is living up to his reputation as 'The Father of Curses'. Denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, Emerson is awarded instead the 'pyramids' of Mazghunah - countless mounds of rubble in the middle of nowhere. Nothing in this barren spot seems of any interest but then a murder in Cairo changes all of that. The dead man was an antiques dealer, killed in his shop, so when a sinister-looking Egyptian spotted at the crime scene turns up in Mazghunah, Amelia can't resist following his trail. At the same time she has to keep an eagle eye on her wayward son Rameses and his elegant and calculating cat and look into the mysterious disappearance of a mummy case...

The 1985-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Egyptologist Amelia Peabody, her dashing husband Emerson and their precocious eight-year-old son Rameses. The much-coveted burial chamber in Dahshoor is theirs for the digging. Yet there is a great evil in the wind that caresses the hot sands sweeping through the bustling streets and marketplaces of Cairo. An expedition cursed by misfortune and the daring moonlit abduction of Rameses alerts Amelia to the presence of her arch-enemy, the Master Criminal. And his is now a personal quest for the most valuable and elusive prize of all: vengeance on the meddling lady archaeologist with the parasol who has sworn to deliver him to justice...Amelia Peabody herself!

The Sam Gunn Omnibus ($7.59 Kindle; $7.99 B&N), by Ben Bova [Tor Books/Macmillan], collects a number of older stories from an author who is still writing (his Orion and King Arthur, the sixth novel in the Orion series, released last July).

Book Description
A hero without peer or scruples, Sam Gunn has a nose for trouble, money, and women--though not necessarily in that order. A man with the ego (and stature) of a Napoleon, the business acumen of a P. T. Barnum, and the raging hormones of a teenage boy, Sam is the finest astronaut NASA ever trained…and dumped.

But more than money, more than women, Sam Gunn loves justice. (And he really does love money and women.) Whether he's suing the Pope, helping twin sisters entangled in the "virtual sex" trade, or on trial for his life on charges of interplanetary genocide, you can be sure of one thing: this is one space jockey who'll meet every challenge with a smile on his lips, an ace up his sleeve…and a weapon in his pocket.

Now, for the first time between covers, Hugo-winner Ben Bova presents all the tales of Sam Gunn to date, including three never before collected in book form. Here is the entire chronicle of Sam Gunn, trailblazer and scoundrel, as he scams his way from one end of the Solar System to the other, giving bold new meaning to the term "venture capitalist."

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

The Darwath Trilogy: The Time of the Dark, The Walls of Air, and The Armies of Daylight ($9.99 Kindle), by Barbara Hambly [Open Road], gets you three novels for only a couple of bucks more than any one of them stand-alone.

Book Description
Barbara Hambly’s celebrated trilogy about a murderous force that threatens a far-off magical world and the two ordinary Californians who are drawn into the battle to save mankind

As a student of medieval history, Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories. She knows the Crusades, the Black Death, and the other horrors of the Middle Ages all too well, but it is another kind of atrocity that has begun to haunt her dreams. She sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat.

In The Time of the Dark, Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil's world. She is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined.

In The Walls of Air and The Armies of Daylight, Gil and Rudy know the world is no longer safe and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark. Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste. The land’s wizards have been slaughtered, its cities destroyed, and its people scattered in terror. Few have witnessed more of the destruction than Gil and Rudy, and both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge.

Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart. Finally, Gil, Rudy, and the rest of mankind’s survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse.

Snow Adrift ($1.99 Kindle), is a brand-new Kindle Serial by Rex Kusler [Thomas & Mercer]

Book Description
This book is a Kindle Serial. Kindle Serials are stories published in episodes, with future episodes delivered at no additional cost. This serial currently contains one episode out of an estimated six total episodes, and new episodes will be delivered every two weeks.

Former Las Vegas homicide detective Jim Snow’s luck has been going from bad to worse, spurred by a series of rash decisions and a quickly developing mid-life crisis. He quit the force a few years ago to play poker for a living and has been losing steadily for months. His money is running out—and so is his live-in girlfriend.

After one of Snow’s poker buddies—a real estate investor and landlord who worked as a clown—is found shot to death in his home following their weekly game, Snow finds himself under suspicion by his former Metro Homicide partner, Marcia Stevens.

At forty-four, Snow is in the worst mess of his life. He’s not sure what to do, who to turn to, or who to trust as he scrambles to stay one step ahead of an arrest warrant for first-degree murder.

Smart and tightly plotted, Snow Adrift is the hardboiled origin story to Kusler’s popular Las Vegas Mystery series.

Kindle Daily Deals 5/31

Today's Gold Box at Amazon saves 61% on "Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures" on Blu-ray. The current Lightning Deal is $200 off a Sony HDRPJ260V High Definition Handycam 8.9 MP Camcorder with 30x Optical Zoom, 16 GB Embedded Memory and Built-in Projector, which normally isn't discounted at all. It's a pretty neat idea, bypassing the need for anyone to figure out how to connect the camcorder to a television in order to view what you've recorded (and you can watch outside, where everyone can see). If you do want to connect to your computer, the USB cable is built-in, so you can't lose it or leave it behind.

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Genius Scan, which turns your phone or your Kindle Fire into a scanner.

Today is the last day to take advantage of these deals and it's also the last day for those on Prime to pick out and borrow a book thru Prime Lending.

• 25 Children's Books for $2 Each (AL)
• 30% Off Qualifying Kindle Accessories (AL)
• Sign Up and Get a Selected Kindle Book for Free

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Strong Poison ($1.99), the sixth novel in the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries series by Dorothy L. Sayers [Open Road].

Book Description
She is lovely, smart, and talented—and only Lord Peter can save her from the gallows

Lord Peter Wimsey comes to the trial of Harriet Vane for a glimpse at one of the most engaging murder cases London has seen in years. Unfortunately for the detective, the crime’s details are distractingly salacious, and there is little doubt that the woman will be found guilty. A slightly popular mystery novelist, she stands accused of poisoning her fiancé, a literary author and well-known advocate of free love. Over the course of a few weeks, she bought strychnine, prussic acid, and arsenic, and when her lover died the police found enough poison in his veins to kill a horse. But as Lord Peter watches Harriet in the dock, he begins to doubt her guilt—and to fall in love.

As Harriet awaits the hangman, Lord Peter races to prove her innocence, hoping that for the first time in his life, love will triumph over death.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy L. Sayers including rare images from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Scandalous Marriage ($1.99), by M. C. Beaton, writing as Marion Chesney [RosettaBooks].

Book Description
As far as matrimonial prospects were concerned, Lucy Bliss was told she’d make an excellent clergyman’s wife.

Her mother, however, had loftier aspirations for her lovely younger sister Belinda. Belinda would marry a duke. More specifically, the Duke of Wardshire. Lucy was truly horrified. “Lucifer” Wardshire! Why, he was rumored to be as wicked as the devil, with orgies and mistresses—and worse!

As the London Season unfolded, Lucy couldn’t decide who was more abominable, her vulgar mama or the arrogant yet disconcertingly handsome duke. No matter, Lucy vowed to go to any lengths to protect her sister, even if her mission should take her into the very arms of the devilish duke himself….

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Bridge ($1.99), by bestselling author and screenwriter John Skipp & Craig Spector [47North]. This was originally issued in print by Spectra/Bantam, then Leisure, but is now under on of Amazon's imprints.

Book Description
When the great storm comes, the good life ends. And hell on Earth begins. For 100 years we’ve been tossing our toxic waste over our shoulders. No more. This morning, while we slept, something woke up. It’s virulent. Malign. Intelligent. Ambitious. It’s in our food, our water, our air. It’s inside our bodies themselves. And it’s not leaving. We are.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Throw Like a Girl: How to Dream Big and Believe in Yourself ($2.99), by two-time Olympian Jennie Finch and award-winning sportswriter Ann Killion [Triumph Books].

Book Description
Dream Big and Believe in Yourself

In a society that sends incredibly mixed identity messages, sports help preteen and teenage girls make the right choices. Athletic girls not only grow up to be healthier; they learn teamwork, gain self-confidence, and mature into society s leaders.

Throw Like a Girl inspires, motivates, and answers questions about issues specific to today s female athletes. NCAA softball champion, two-time Olympian, and sports icon Jennie Finch offers sound advice on how to translate the lessons she learned from sports into everyday life.

Topics including body image, femininity vs. sports, peer pressure, nutrition, and the balancing act today s young women construct between school, extra-curricular activities, family, and friends are addressed in an engaging and instantly relatable personal style. Fiercely competitive and fashionably cool, Jennie fills the role of girlfriend, big sister, team captain, and mentor as she offers candid observations from personal experience bound to resonate with young women everywhere and inspire them to dream big, work hard, and believe in themselves.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/31

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is all three titles in the Tir Tanagiri/Sulien series by Jo Walton [Corsair] for £0.99 each (~80% off).

The King's Peace (Main/UK; US edition $7.59)

Sulien ap Gwien is seventeen years old when the Jarnish invasion begins, and strong enough to match any one of their raiders in battle. But when they do come, she finds herself unarmed and at their mercy. As she watches her attackers walk away from where she lies bound, she vows revenge.

With the land around her disintegrating and no help forthcoming, Sulien rides out in search of King Urdo, a young ruler fighting to create unity in a country where there is none.

What follows is the beginning of an alliance that will shape the course of history in Tir Tanagiri as well as the rest of Sulien's life.

The King's Name (Main/UK; US edition $7.59)

Years have passed since the Jarnish invasion, and Sulien ap Gwien has worked tirelessly alongside her lord, King Urdo, to restore the King's Peace to Tir Tanagiri. But the man Sulien believes to be the greatest of his time is seen by others as a potential tyrant. Urdo's vision of a nation of citizens bound by a single code of law is viewed with increasing mistrust, and this soon gives way to civil war.

Sulien must take up arms again. But where once her enemies were barbarian invaders, now they are former comrades and loved ones. As the conflict tears her country and her family apart, Sulien must fight harder and harder to hold onto Urdo's vision of the future.

The Prize in the Game (Main/UK; US edition $7.59)

On the island of Tir Isarnagiri, Gods stalk the land, laying subtle but inescapable dooms upon the feuding kingdoms there.

The lives of four young friends - Conal, Emer, Darag, and Ferdia - have been intertwined since their births. Each is destined for kingship in his own land. But when they unwittingly incur the wrath of the Horse Goddess, they find that ties of friendship - and even love - may not be enough to prevent their countries from attacking each other in a war that will devastate the island - and alter their fates are forever.

Two Free Audiobooks - Of Poseidon & The Tempest

It's time once again for free audiobooks from Sync! There is a new set each week, pairing a Teen/Young Adult novel with one of the classics. Be sure to fully download your books each week, as they are only available during the one-week promotion (there is no "library" to track your purchases and redownload later). I've linked in the info from the ebook or audiobook version of each title (Amazon has the best reviews), followed by the link to get your copies free, with directions to ensure you get the complete download.

Start off with Of Poseidon ($6.76 Kindle; $18.17 Audible), by Anna Banks, narrated by Rebecca Gibel, a teen romance with an element of fantasy.

Book Description
Emma and her friend Chloe are spending vacation in Florida. When Emma (literally) runs into a hot guy named Galen on the beach, little does she know he's a prince of the Syrena. Galen and Emma both feel something strange - is it attraction? - and Galen suspects that Emma might well be the girl he's heard of - a human who can communicate with fish. What follows is a deadly scene with a shark in which Galen witnesses Emma's gifts. He must know more about her, and follows her back to New Jersey, and high school, to find out for sure if she's the key to saving his kingdom.

Soon, Emma can't deny her feelings for him, but can't explain them, either - and both she and Galen must learn more about where she comes from and what her powers are before they can trust one another and their feelings. Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

BBC Radio Shakespeare: The Tempest ($14.95 Audible), by William Shakespeare, narrated by Philip Madoc, Nina Wadia and a full cast, is the second selection for this week. As with most classics, there are many editions to choose from on Kindle; you can spend anything from 99 cents and to $10 and get an edition that will work for reading along while listening.

Book Description
BBC Radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923, when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard.

Raging storms and rich beautiful music combine to magical effect in this production of Shakespeare's allegorical last play, where mystical forces work to restore harmony and order to an estranged community.

Revitalised, original, and comprehensive, this is Shakespeare for the new millennium.

Click HERE to get the free downloads (you'll need to enter your name and an email address. You'll end up clicking about three pages (for each book), before the audiobook actually downloads. Don't stop so long as you still see a button that talks about your Sync download (or until you see the Overdrive software open up; there is a link at Sync, if you don't already have Overdrive installed).

Once in Overdrive, you'll need to tell it where to save the files (just click OK to use the default location, since Overdrive will keep track of them for you), then again to actually start the download (by default, all parts of the book are downloaded; I would suggest not changing this in the last dialog box, just click on OK to get the download started). Make sure your audiobook is fully downloaded before the end of the week, as once the promo period is over, you won't be able to get them free.

You can't get any titles that have been missed, but once they are loaded into Overdrive (which you will need to install, if you are not already using it for library books), they are yours to keep (there is no expiration date).

Kindle Daily Deals 5/30

Today is the last day to take advantage of this AmazonLocal deal:

• 40% Off Qualifying Kindle Accessories

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Song of Achilles ($1.99), by Madeline Miller [Ecco/HarperCollins], one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month, March 2012.

Book Description
“Mary Renault lives again!” declares Emma Donoghue, author of Room, referring to The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War. A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Her Restless Heart ($2.99), by Barbara Cameron [Abingdon Press]. Check your libraries on this one, as it was free more than once last year.

Book Description
Mary Katherine is caught between the traditions of her faith and the pull of a different life. When Daniel, an Amish man living in Florida, arrives and shares her restlessness, Mary Katherine feels drawn to him and curious about the life he leads away from Lancaster County. But her longtime friend Jacob has been in love with her for years. He’s discouraged that she’s never viewed him as anything but a friend and despairs that he is about to lose Mary Katherine to this outsider. Will the conflicted Mary Katherine be lost to the Englisch world, or to Daniel, who might take her away to Florida? Or will she embrace her Amish faith and recognize Jacob as the man she should marry and build a life with?

"You'll laugh and cry right alongside the characters in this story that tests a young woman's faith in Gods's plan for her life." - Loree Lough, best-selling author of more than 80 award-winning books, including From Ashes to Honor, #1 in the First Responders series.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Earth Strike ($0.99), the first novel in the Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas [HarperCollins], with the the companion audiobook for $3.49. The only thing stopping me from grabbing this (or anything of his at this price) is that it's already in my library (although I may get it anyway, to get access to the audiobook pricing); if you've already read the earlier novels in the series, be sure to grab Deep Space ($5.69), which was released at the end of last month.

Book Description
The first book in the epic saga of humankind's war of transcendence

There is a milestone in the evolution of every sentient race, a Tech Singularity Event, when the species achieves transcendence through its technological advances. Now the creatures known as humans are near this momentous turning point.

But an armed threat is approaching from deepest space, determined to prevent humankind from crossing over that boundary—by total annihilation if necessary.

To the Sh'daar, the driving technologies of transcendent change are anathema and must be obliterated from the universe—along with those who would employ them. As their great warships destroy everything in their path en route to the Sol system, the human Confederation government falls into dangerous disarray. There is but one hope, and it rests with a rogue Navy Admiral, commander of the kilometer-long star carrier America, as he leads his courageous fighters deep into enemy space towards humankind's greatest conflict—and quite possibly its last.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Dyno-Mite Dog Show ($0.99), by Louise Bonnett-Rampersaud and George O'Connor (Illustrator), is the first in a series of reasonably priced children's readers [Simon and Schuster].

Book Description
Bad guys beware! Eugene McGillicudy just happens to be the most awesome superhero of all time…Captain Awesome. MI-TEE!

Now readers between the ages of five and seven can read chapter books tailor-made for a younger level of reading comprehension. Heavily illustrated with large type, Little Simon's young chapter books let young readers feel like they are reading a “grown-up” format with subject, text, and illustrations geared specifically for their own age groups!

Eight-year-old Eugene McGillicudy is an imaginative boy who loves comic books and superheroes. Eugene also has his very own supersecret superhero alter ego named Captain Awesome. MI-TEE!

When the McGillicudy family relocates to a new town called Sunnyview, Eugene starts a new school, finds a best friend, and even finds time to defend his toys from his two-year-old little sister, Molly! Luckily for Sunnyview, Captain Awesome is there to protect the town (and the universe) from a hilarious cast of comical “bad guys.”

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Captain Awesome chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

Age Level: 5 and up

Kindle Daily Deals 5/29

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Next Word.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Under the Lake ($1.99), a stand-alone thriller by Stuart Woods [Simon and Schuster], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
A mesmerizing psychological thriller about the dark underside of a Southern town and its inhabitants.

In the beautiful mountains of North Georgia lies a lake built by an obsessed man at a terrible price. This placid body of water has brought prosperity to an isolated community, and with it, two strangers who intermingle with the insular local folk, strangers probing into crimes against nature from generations past that cannot remain submerged beneath the waters' surface.

Under the Lake marks the eagerly awaited return to the South of his Edgar Award-winning novel Chiefs. John Howell, once a top investigative journalist, comes to this backcountry town on the run from a once promising personal and professional life that has somehow gone sour. What he finds is a mystery so deep, so complex, so bizarre, that he cannot concentrate on the book he has come here to write.

The story begins with his entanglement in a subtle, but relentless battle waged by the autocratic town father and the local sheriff against an outcast family, ravaged by its origins. Howell is further drawn in by his involvement with two women - an ambitious young reporter on the prowl for corruption, and a shy backwoods beauty, forsaken by the world because of her family's ill kept secret. Then, without warning, visits from an otherworldly young girl haunt Howell as his rustic cabin becomes a spectral theater offering strange and frightening images of a hideous event of long ago.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Anew ($0.99), the first novel in the YA Archers of Avalon series by Chelsea Fine [self-pub/"Firefall Publishing"]. Each of the books in this series has a hundred or more 5-star reviews (and nearly no negative reviews), plus continuing with the series is reasonably priced: Awry ($2.99) and Avow ($3.99).

Book Description
Three curses. Two brothers. One love triangle.

Sometimes love is meant to be. But sometimes...love is the death of you.

Fans of The Vampire Diaries and Once Upon A Time will fall head over heels for the desperate characters and endless mysteries in Anew!

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Seven Kinds of Hell ($1.99), the first novel in the brand-new Fangborn series by Dana Cameron [47North], with the companion audiobook also $1.99. This is the type of novel I'd pick up when browsing at the bookstore just on the strength of the cover and probably buy to take home after reading the blurb on the back or only a page or two from the front; I read more of the sample than that and it has joined my TBR pile.

Book Description
Archaeologist Zoe Miller has been running from a haunting secret her whole life. But when her cousin is abducted by a vicious Russian kidnapper, Zoe is left with only one option: to reveal herself.

Unknown to even her closest friends, Zoe is not entirely human. She’s a werewolf and a daughter of the “Fangborn,” a secretive race of werewolves, vampires, and oracles embroiled in an ancient war against evil.

To rescue her cousin, Zoe will be forced to renew family ties and pit her own supernatural abilities against the dark and nefarious foe. The hunt brings Zoe to the edge of her limits, and with the fate of humanity and the Fangborn in the balance, life will be decided by an artifact of world-ending power.

Zoe’s mission takes her and her friends across the globe on a frenetic quest for no less than Pandora’s Box.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Dyno-Mite Dog Show ($1.99), by Louise Bonnett-Rampersaud [Two Lions].

Book Description
Knock. Knock. Listen up! Agnes and The Secret Knock Club are doing a community service project at The Brookside Retirement Village. But will the dog show (and canine wedding) be a success? Or a dog-gone disaster? Especially after Principal Not-Such-a-Joy’s dog goes missing

The author of The Dyno-Mite Dog Show has donated this book to the Worldreader program.

Age Level: 6 and up; Grade Level: 1 and up

Kindle Daily Deals 5/28

Amazon has finally matched today's Nook Daily Find: Graveminder ($10.96 $1.99), by Melissa Marr [HarperCollins]. Grab it before it goes back up!

Today's Gold Box at Amazon is 42% off "Injustice: Gods Among Us", a video game for all platforms and it's video games all day long in the Lightning Deals.

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Relax Melodies Premium: A White Noise Ambience For Sleep, Meditation & Yoga.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is TimeRiders: Day of the Predator ($2.99), by Alex Scarrow [Walker Childrens]. This is the second novel in the TimeRiders series, which has been nominated by Puffin as BEST ADVENTURE FANTASY in their recent BEST SEVENTY CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF ALL TIME press release; if you haven't started it, the first in the series is also on sale for $2.99. This is a pretty good series (and not in any of the libraries I belong to, nor on sale often); this particular volume has only one review below 4 stars (excluding the one-star review said it was "awesome", which usually indicates someone that didn't understand the stars system).

If you like this series, be sure to check out his self-published (and new) Ellie Quin series, which has two novels at $1.99 and the third at $2.99 right now.

Book Description
Liam O'Connor, Maddy Carter, and Sal Vikram all should have died. But instead, they have been given a second chance-to work for an agency that no one knows exists. The TimeRiders' mission: to prevent time travel from destroying history-and the future. . . . When Maddy mistakenly opens a time window where and when she shouldn't, Liam is marooned sixty-five million years in the past, in the hunting ground of a deadly, and until now undiscovered, species of prehistoric predator. Can Liam make contact with Maddy and Sal before he's hunted down by dinosaurs, and without changing history so much that the world is overtaken by a terrifying new reality? The second book in the thrilling TimeRiders series is just as fast-paced, intelligent, and mind-bending as the first.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is all four books in the Righteous series by Michael Wallace for $0.99 apiece [Thomas & Mercer]; all have companion audiobooks for $1.99 apiece, as well. I have the first three in the series and will be grabbing the fourth today.

The Righteous (companion audiobook $1.99)

Deep in the Utah desert, the small polygamous community of Blister Creek has a history of protecting its own. Even when a young woman is brutally murdered just blocks from her home, the residents of the conservative enclave close ranks. But just because they don’t want outside law enforcement in their business doesn’t mean the murder will go unpunished. More than a thousand miles away, Jacob Christianson, a medical student and son of a devout church elder, learns of his cousin Amanda’s murder. Though Jacob is skeptical of many of the community’s fundamentalist beliefs, his sharply analytical mind and family connection to the victim earns him the assignment of investigator into Amanda’s death. Jacob heads to Blister Creek, accompanied by his inquisitive younger sister, Eliza, to probe the bizarre circumstances of their cousin’s violent death. It doesn’t take long for the pair to realize that Amanda’s murder was no random act; rather, it is part of a covert plot to overthrow the church’s leaders. Chilling and engrossing, The Righteous has been hailed as a “first rate suspense thriller,” a tightly plotted novel about the dark secrets hiding behind the veil of religion.

Mighty and Strong (companion audiobook $1.99)

For years Jacob Christianson struggled to reconcile his faith with his skepticism about the polygamous practices of his religious community. That doubt, combined with a sharp analytical mind, enabled him to solve the ritualistic murder of his cousin at the hands of bloodthirsty fundamentalists within their own church. Now, those experiences have captured the attention of the FBI, who come to Jacob with an unusual request: infiltrate a millennialist cult and extract the undercover agent who has fallen off the radar. Jacob reluctantly agrees, but it doesn’t take long to realize that his mission will be easier said than done. Impatient and unwilling to heed Jacob’s warnings, the FBI closes in, forcing a power play with the dangerous cultists—with Jacob and his family caught squarely in the middle. Tense and engaging, Mighty and Strong offers “an in-depth ride into a world few have entered,” a page-turning foray into the realm of religious extremists and the lengths to which they will go to defend their beliefs.

The Wicked (companion audiobook $1.99)

Growing up in a conservative polygamous community, Eliza Christianson was a young woman of faith who could never quite wrap her mind around the fundamentalist aspects of her religion. Thanks to her older brother Jacob, she managed to survive adolescence unmarried, even enrolling in classes at the University of Utah. Eliza always suspected God had more in store for her than just to be some man’s third or fourth wife; nonetheless, she is surprised when Allison Caliari seeks her out for help. Allison’s daughter Madeline has been recruited by a doomsday cult led by a cruel man known only as the Disciple, and she wants Eliza’s help to get the girl back. One of the few leads Allison can offer is a fateful one: Jacob and Eliza’s brother David, a “lost boy” shunned by the church. Eliza sets out to convince David to help her infiltrate the cult, and she ventures to an abandoned dumping ground in the Las Vegas desert to rescue Madeline. The third installment of Michael Wallace’s enthralling Righteous series, The Wicked tears off the veil of religious fanaticism as seen through the eyes of an extraordinary heroine.

The Blessed and the Damned (companion audiobook $1.99)

As the son of the prophet of Blister Creek, a polygamous enclave in Utah, Dr. Jacob Christianson has struggled for years to reconcile his faith with his skepticism about the fundamentalist practices of his community. Nevertheless, when his family and neighbors were threatened, Jacob stepped up time and again to lead the fight against those who would destroy them. Now Jacob and the residents of Blister Creek face a dangerous new challenge to their quiet existence. Taylor Kimball Jr. wants to take over as prophet of Blister Creek—and he wants Jacob’s sister Eliza by his side when he does it. With no room for personal reservations, Jacob forms a tenuous alliance with his father and the FBI. But Taylor Junior is as crafty as he is brutal, anticipating Jacob’s plan and drawing him out to leave Blister Creek vulnerable to attack. And this time Taylor has come prepared, with a horrific new weapon capable of annihilating Blister Creek. If he has any chance of winning this fight, Jacob will have to decide, once and for all, just how far he is willing to go to protect his community. The fourth in Michael Wallace’s riveting Righteous series, The Blessed and the Damned raises the stakes in Jacob’s world to dizzying new heights.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Last Cowboy ($1.99), the fourth novel in the Jackson Hole series by Lindsay McKenna [Harlequin Mira].

Book Description
City girl. It was written all over her like a sign warning him to keep off. Sure, Slade McPherson would train her horse…With his ranch one bad day away from foreclosure, he can't afford to turn away a paying customer. But no way is this cowboy getting involved with a woman like Jordana Lawton—no matter how pretty she looks in a saddle.

Yet everything can change in an instant. A terrifying run-in with an angry bull tilts Slade's world off its axis, leaving him wounded and unable to compete in a race that could change his future, for good. With Jordana by his side, he just might stand a chance. But what happens when this old-school cowboy finds himself falling for a modern city girl?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Expedition to Earth ($1.99), a short story collection by Arthur C. Clarke [RosettaBooks].

Book Description
This collection of Clarke’s work was originally published in 1953, when it was selected as one of the best science fiction books of the year by Boucher and McComas. It contains many short stories that would later become classics, including “The Sentinel”—the basis for the later classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

These stories present a brilliant showcase of Clarke’s many-layered approach to the moral dilemmas of scientific advancement—from the thrilling and brutal “Breaking Strain” to the more poetic and thoughtful “Second Dawn.” This collection represents a tour-de-force of science fiction storytelling sure to delight fans of Clarke’s work and the SF genre.

Kindle Daily Deals 5/27

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Ruzzle, a word game you can play with friends or strangers on the internet.

Today is the last day to take advantage of The Kindle Big Deal.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Charmed ($0.99), by Inés Saint [Crimson Romance].

Book Description
Jamie Sullivan is a widowed mother of twin five-year old boys. A creative goldsmith with her own line of designer charms, she is determined to forge her own unique brand of success. Jamie guards a painful secret that leads her to be emphatic about not letting a man into her life: on the day of her late husband's funeral, she found out he was cheating on her.

Nick Grey is the gorgeous, charming, and daydream-inducing headmaster of the private elementary school Jamie's children will attend. After single-handedly bringing up his daughter while earning his doctorate and proving himself to the school's board of directors and the community, he feels burned out. Come the end of the semester, Nick is taking a year off to travel the world. When they meet, an instant attraction blazes through both. But Nick's not sure he's interested in starting over and raising kids again and Jamie's not sure she can trust her heart. Will they be able to nurture their attraction into something that can last forever?

Sensuality Level: Behind Closed Doors

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Five James Patterson Thrillers for $2.99 apiece [Hachette]. Unless you are quite the avid collector of his books, there is probably at least one in this group that you are missing (two for me).

Honeymoon by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

How does it feel to be desired by every man and envied by every woman? Wonderful. This is the life Nora Sinclair has dreamed about, the life she's worked hard for, the life she will never give up. Meet Nora Sinclair.

When FBI agent John O'Hara first sees her, she seems perfect. She has the looks. The career. The clothes. The wit. The sophistication. The tantalizing sex appeal. The whole extraordinary package - and men fall in line to court her. She doesn't just attract men, she enthralls them. If you dare.

So why is the FBI so interested in Nora Sinclair? Mysterious things keep happening to people around her, especially the men. And there is something dangerous about Nora when Agent O'Hara looks closer - something that lures him at the same time that it fills him with fear. Is there something dark hidden among the unexplained gaps in her past? And as he spends more and more time getting to know her, is he pursuing justice? Or his own fatal obsession?

With the irresistible attraction of the greatest Hitchcock thrillers, Honeymoon is a sizzling, twisting tale of a woman with a deadly appetite and the men who dare to fall for her

The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge

Jack Mullen is in law school in New York City when the shocking news comes that his brother Peter has drowned in the ocean off East Hampton. Jack knows his brother and knows this couldn't be an accident. Someone must have wanted his brother dead. But the powers that be say otherwise. As Jack tries to uncover details of his brothers last night, he confronts a barricade of lawyers, police, and paid protectors who separate the multi-billionaire summer residents from local workers like Peter. And he learns that his brother wasn't just parking cars at the summer parties of the rich. He was making serious money satisfying the sexual needs of the richest women and men in town. THE BEACH HOUSE reveals the secret lives of celebrities in a breathtaking drama of revenge - with a finale so shocking it could only have come from the mind of James Patterson.

Lifeguard by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

The danger isn't in the water.

Working as a lifeguard at a Florida resort, Ned Kelly meets a woman he is wild about, the woman of his dreams. It feels perfect in every way - except that she is used to caviar and Manolo Blahniks, and he is used to burgers and flip-flops. She is a guest at the luxurious hotel - he lives above a garage.

So when Ned's cousin offers to cut him in on a rich deal he's been commissioned to execute, Ned can't turn him down. The plan is simple, just a fast break-and-enter. The risk is high, and the reward is even greater--$5 million. But on the night of the heist, something goes devastatingly wrong. Who will save the lifeguard?

Ned walks away from his job, his town, and the woman he's fallen in love with. Runs away, actually, knowing that only velocity and secrecy can save his life. But who is pursuing him? The FBI? Whoever sabotaged the heist? Or is it all somehow tied into his new love - and his oldest enemies?

Beach Road by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge

Montauk lawyer Tom Dunleavy's client list is woefully small - occasional real estate closings barely keep him in paper clips. When he is hired to defend a local man accused in a triple murder that has the East Hampton world in an uproar, he knows that he has found the case of his lifetime.

The crime turns the glittering playground for the super-rich into a blazing inferno. Dunleavy's client is a local hero, but Dunleavy knows the case rests atop a volcano of money, deception, and forbidden desires. His client is the perfect fall guy - unless he can find the key that unlocks the secret rooms of the gilt-shrouded set.

When Dunleavy is joined by his former flame, the savvy and well-connected attorney, Kate Costello, he believes he has a chance. But payback is a bitch - especially from the rich. The violent retaliations of billionaires threatened by his investigation exceed anything Dunleavy has ever seen. With the entire nation's eyes on him in a new Trial of the Century, Dunleavy orchestrates a series of revelations that lead to a stunning outcome - only to find afterward that the truth is wilder than anything he ever imagined.

Sail by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

Since the death of her husband, Anne Dunne and her three children have struggled in every way. In a last ditch effort to save the family, Anne plans an elaborate sailing vacation to bring everyone together once again. But only an hour out of port, everything is going wrong. The teenage daughter, Carrie, is planning to drown herself. The teenage son, Mark, is high on drugs and ten-year-old Ernie is nearly catatonic. This is the worst vacation ever.
Anne manages to pull things together bit by bit, but just as they begin feeling like a family again, something catastrophic happens. Survival may be the least of their concerns.

Written with the blistering pace and shocking twists that only James Patterson can master, SAIL takes "Lost" and "Survivor" to a new level of terror.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is If I had a Little Boat ($0.99), by Calee Lee [Xist Publishing - join their newsletter and get a free book!].

Book Description
If you had a little red boat, what would you do with it?

Where would it go?

Who would it meet?

Great for bedtime or beginning readers, this rhyming picture book features mesmerizing images and simple, rhythmic text.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Black Knight Chronicles ($1.99), by John G. Hartness [Bell Bridge Books]. This is an omnibus edition that contains all three novels in the series and for less that what I paid to get just one in the series (and considerably less than the individual titles are selling for now). John is one of the authors I ran into at the last LibertyCon (and signed my nook tablet); hopefully he'll be there this year, as well (everyone else is welcome, too, of course!).

Book Description
The Black Knight Chronicles: Lots of Vampires. No Sparkles. Serious Snark.

BOOK ONE: HARD DAY’S KNIGHT
Children are missing.
The police are stumped.
Halloween is coming, and an ancient evil is on the horizon.
The vampires are the good guys.

This is not your ordinary fall weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. Vampire private detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood have been hired to save a client from being cursed for all eternity, but end up in a bigger mess than they ever imagined.

Suddenly trapped in the middle of a serial kidnapping case, Jimmy and Greg uncover a plot to bring forth an ancient evil. Soon, they’ve enlisted the help of a police detective, a priest, a witch, a fallen angel and a strip club proprietor to save the world. This unlikely band of heroes battles zombies, witches, neuroses and sunburn while cracking jokes and looking for the perfect bag of O-negative.

BOOK TWO: BACK IN BLACK
Vampire detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood investigate a series of assaults plaguing the alleys of Charlotte, North Carolina. The string of hate crimes becomes personal when Jimmy’s just-maybe-main-squeeze Detective Sabrina Law’s cousin is attacked. Helping a lady out could get the boys killed when they end up in Faerie. Before long, they’re up to their butts in trolls, dark fae and a grand battle royale. The odds are against them, but to the boys, this is just another day on the night shift—if the night shift included a steel cage match of supernaturals.

BOOK THREE: KNIGHT MOVES
Et tu, Vampire? The boys discover they may be tied to a string of serial killings at the college and that they suddenly aren’t the only vampire game in town.

The vampire count in Charlotte is at least three. Or more. As far as the unhappy boys are concerned, anything more than two is a crowd not to be tolerated.

While tracking down the killer and the competition, they encounter coeds, booby traps (not related to the coeds) and a hirsute bounty hunter with a moon fetish and a bad attitude. To catch the killer, Jimmy will have to survive a dive headfirst into the great unwashed horde of Dorkdom (game night at the local comic shop).

What’s a red-blood-drinking vampire to do? His job. Again.