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Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts

Monday, July 8, 2013

UK Kindle Daily Deal 7/8

The Shining (£1.49 UK), by Stephen King [Hodder], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99).
Book Description
Danny is only five years old, but he is a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of an old hotel, his visions grow out of control. Cut off by blizzards, the hotel seems to develop an evil force, and who are the mysterious guests in the supposedly empty hotel?

The Scarlet Contessa (£0.99 UK), by Jeanne Kalogridis [Harper], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for for Romance Fans in the UK (the US edition is $8.89).
Book Description
From Jeanne Kalogridis, critically acclaimed author of The Borgia Bride, Painting Mona Lisa and The Devil’s Queen, comes another irresistible historical novel about a countess whose passion and willfulness knew no bounds: Caterina Sforza.

Daughter of the Duke of Milan and wife of the conniving Count Girolamo Riario, Caterina Sforza was the bravest warrior Renaissance Italy ever knew. She ruled her own lands, fought her own battles, and openly took lovers whenever she pleased.

Her remarkable tale is told by her lady-in-waiting, Dea, a woman knowledgeable in reading the ‘triumph cards’ – the predecessor of modern-day Tarot. As Dea tries to unravel the truth about her husband’s murder, Caterina single-handedly holds off invaders who would steal her title and lands. However, Dea’s reading of the cards reveals that Caterina cannot withstand a third and final invader – none other than Cesare Borgia, son of the corrupt Pope Alexander VI, who has an old score to settle with Caterina. Trapped inside the Fortress at Ravaldino as Borgia’s cannons pound the walls, Dea reviews Caterina’s scandalous past and struggles to understand their joint destiny, while Caterina valiantly tries to fight off Borgia’s unconquerable army.

Friday, June 21, 2013

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/21

The Pumpkin Man (£0.99 UK), by John Everson [47North], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (the US edition is $3.99).
Book Description
After her father's gruesome murder, Jenn needed a place to get away from it all with some friends, to take her mind off her sorrow. The empty seaside cottage she inherited seemed perfect. Jenn didn't know that the cottage held arcane secrets, mysteries long hidden and best left alone. She didn't realize until it was too late that the old books and Ouija board she found there really do hold great power. And it was only after her friend's headless body was discovered that she knew the legend of the local bogeyman was no mere legend at all. An evil has been unleashed, a terrifying figure previously only spoken of in whispers. But now the whispers will become screams. Beware...The Pumpkin Man.

The Kindle Romance Deal of the day for those in the UK is three Western Romance novels from Mills & Boon for £0.99 each (~80% off).

Midnight Rider (Main/UK), by Diana Palmer (US edition $8.13)
Diana Palmer delivers a tale of two unlikely lovers in turn-of-the-century Texas who are about to find love where they least expect it...

Count Eduardo Cortes’s fortune—and future at his beloved ranch—is in question. Tragedy, money woes and family pressure are now driving him toward a marriage of convenience. That is, until he encounters Bernadette Barron, wandering frightened and disheveled after a society ball….

Beneath the grime, it’s clear Bernadette is beautiful and rich. But is she just another heartbreak waiting to happen or has Eduardo finally found the one woman who can save his ranch and heal his heart? The Spanish count can provide Bernadette with the title she needs—but can he return her feelings? Gazing into her husband’s penetrating eyes, Bernadette sees not only his calculating ways but also his quick arousal to passion.

Will their growing desire be enough to overcome the mounting challenges they face…and claim the love she will not be denied?
Big Sky Mountain (Main/UK), by Linda Lael Miller (US edition $4.74)
The "First Lady of the West," #1 New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller, brings you to Parable, Montana—where love awaits.

With his rugged good looks, vast wealth and family name, hell-raiser Hutch Carmody is still the golden boy of Parable, Montana. But he’s done some growing up—making peace with his illegitimate half-brother and inheriting half of Whisper Creek Ranch, which should have been all his. These days, Hutch knows there are some things money can’t buy: like the heart of loving, ladylike divorcee Kendra Shepherd.

Kendra’s quiet mansion reminds her of what she wants most—a devoted husband and the pitter-patter of little feet. She can’t get Hutch Carmody out of her mind, but a rough-and-tumble cowboy like Hutch, coming home for family dinner? Seems crazy! Then again, crazier dreams have become reality under the vast Montana sky.
Untameable (Main/UK), by Diana Palmer and Linda Lael Miller (no US edition)
Let Diana Palmer and Linda Lael Miller take you to the dusky plains of Texas – where the men are real men and love stories are built to last!

Former Navy Seal Jon Blackhawk wasn’t afraid of anything, even a psychotic killer. Until his assistant, Joceline, and her precious son came under threat. He’d lay his life on the line to keep them safe, but is he ready for the ultimate job of husband and father?

Tate McKettrick’s a powerful rancher and capable single dad, but he’s been immune to a woman’s love since his ex-wife walked out. Now high-school sweetheart Libby’s back in town and needs his help. She might also be the only girl who can find a way into the cowboy’s guarded heart… Have these alpha males met their match?

Friday, May 17, 2013

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/17

A Good and Useful Hurt (£0.99 UK), by Aric Davis [47North], is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99; companion audiobook $1.99).
Book Description
Mike is a tattoo artist running his own shop, and Deb is the piercing artist he hires to round out the motley crew at his studio of four. The last thing either expects is romance, but that’s exactly what happens when they follow their off-kilter careers and love lives into complete disaster.

When Mike follows a growing trend and tattoos the ashes of deceased loved ones into several customers’ tattoos, he has no idea that it will one day provide the solution—and solace—he will sorely need. And when the life of a serial killer tragically collides with the lives of those in the tattoo shop, Mike and Deb will stop at nothing in their quest for revenge, even if it means stepping outside the known boundaries of life and death.

Ink that is full of crematory ashes, a sociopathic killer, and pain in its most raw form combine for one of the most imaginative, haunting thrillers in recent memory. Full of wit and heart, A Good and Useful Hurt delivers the goods with the pain of a needle in skin.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Nook Daily Find 5/15

The Madman's Daughter ($10.67 $1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Megan Shepherd [HarperCollins], is the Nook Daily Find. The price is bouncing at bit at B&N right now, though, so you might want to check back a bit later this morning and see if the price drop is sticking (I'm seeing $11.99 most of the time I refresh the page). Update: Now price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Bargain Book Trio (K)

Just a quick trio of bargain books for the night - these are not likely to be reduced for long (I know the first will go back up on the 4th). I'm going to buy all three, as they look to be very good reads.

The double novella When the Blue Shift Comes ($0.99), by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro and Robert Silverberg (Phoenix Pick), is priced less than a short story from Silverberg usually goes for. He also publishes via Penguin and Valentine Pontifex: Book Three of the Majipoor Cycle can now be pre-ordered (at what is a decent price from this publisher, $9.99).
Book Description
A grand new adventure by a Grandmaster of science fiction.

Life has spread across the stars, and everyone enjoys a long life. However, only those who are Earth-born are truly immortal.

But what happens when the immortals of Earth are suddenly faced with their ultimate destruction?

Hanosz Prime, a near-immortal (though not truly so, not being of true Earth stock) travels to humanity’s ancient home to discover the ultimate answer to humanity’s end.

A new Silverberg story in the tradition of the old classics, with an accompanying novella by up-and-coming writer Alvaro Zinos-Amaro.

Hide Me Among the Graves ($0.99), by Tim Powers (HarperCollins), almost looks like a pricing error (the paperback doesn't come out until next year).
Book Description
London, winter of 1862, Adelaide McKee, a former prostitute, arrives on the doorstep of veterinarian John Crawford, a man she met once seven years earlier. Their brief meeting produced a child who, until now, had been presumed dead. McKee has learned that the girl lives—but that her life and soul are in mortal peril from a vampiric ghost. But this is no ordinary spirit; the bloodthirsty wraith is none other than John Polidori, the onetime physician to the mad, bad, and dangerous Romantic poet Lord Byron. Both McKee and Crawford have mysterious histories with creatures like Polidori, and their child is a prize the malevolent spirit covets dearly.

Polidori is also the late uncle and supernatural muse to the poet Christina Rossetti and her brother, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. When she was just fourteen years old, Christina unwittingly brought Polidori's curse upon her family. But the curse bestowed unexpected blessings as well, inspiring Christina's poetry and Gabriel's paintings. But when Polidori resurrects Dante's dead wife—turning her into a horrifying vampire—and threatens other family members, Christina and Dante agree that they must destroy their monstrous uncle and break the spell, even if it means the end of their creative powers.

Determined to save their daughter, McKee and Crawford join forces with the Rossettis, and soon these wildly mismatched allies are plunged into a supernatural London underworld whose existence goes beyond their wildest imaginings. Ultimately, each of these disparate individuals—the sensitive poet, the tortured painter, the straitlaced animal doctor, the reformed prostitute, and even their Artful Dodger–like young daughter—must choose between the banality and constraints of human life and the unholy immortality that Polidori offers.

Sweeping from the mansions of London's high society to its grimy slums, the elegant salons of the West End to the pre-Roman catacombs beneath St. Paul's Cathedral, Hide Me Among the Graves blends the historical and the supernatural in a dazzling, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride—a modern horror story with a Victorian twist.

The Cloud Roads ($1.99), by Nebula-nominee Martha Wells (Night Shade Books), has a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly. The next in the series, The Serpent Sea, can now be pre-ordered for January delivery, with a third book already on the publishing schedule.
Book Description
Moon has spent his life hiding what he is - a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power... that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival... and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself... and his newfound kin.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Free Audiobook + Charity Donation - Click-Clack the Rattlebag

Click-Clack the Rattlebag, a free short story written and performed by Neil Gaiman, is free on Audible and for every copy downloaded through Halloween, Audible will donate $1 (up to $100,000) to the education charity DonorsChoose.org.
Book Description
A few words from Neil: "Why tell ghost stories? Why read them or listen to them? Why take such pleasure in tales that have no purpose but, comfortably, to scare?

"I don't know. Not really. It goes way back. We have ghost stories from ancient Egypt, after all, ghost stories in the Bible, classical ghost stories from Rome (along with werewolves, cases of demonic possession, and of course, over and over, witches). We have been telling each other tales of otherness, of life beyond the grave, for a long time; stories that prickle the flesh and make the shadows deeper and, most important, remind us that we live, and that there is something special, something unique and remarkable, about the state of being alive. Happy Halloween!"

"'What kind of story would you like me to tell you?' 'Well,' he said, thoughtfully, 'I don't think it should be too scary, because then when I go up to bed, I will just be thinking about monsters the whole time. But if it isn't just a little bit scary, then I won't be interested. And you make up scary stories, don't you?'"

So begins this subtle, witty, deceptive little tale from master storyteller Neil Gaiman. Lock the doors, turn off the lights, and enjoy!
Get the free audiobook from Audible. If you are in the UK, use this link and donations will go to the education charity BookTrust.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Free Audiobook - The Phantom of the Opera

The MP3 download audiobook edition of The Phantom of the Opera (free+ Kindle, $19.59 Audible), by Gaston Leroux, narrated by Alexander Adams, is free over at Tantor Media for your Halloween listening pleasure, complete with a PDF edition of the book to read as you listen. It isn't quite the same as Whispersync for Voice, but it's a lot cheaper, since it appears that the combo cost at Amazon is $8+, depending on the ebook edition you choose (they are often linked to different audiobook performances; none appear to be linked to this one, sadly).
Book Description
Under the Paris Opera House lives a disfigured musical genius who uses music to win the love of a beautiful opera singer.

The actors, singers, and patrons of the Paris Opera House say that a ghost haunts the labyrinthine chambers beneath its stage. Those who laugh off such superstitions always do so nervously, in the bright light of day. Nearly everyone connected with the opera house in any way has felt the phantom's vague, troubling presence. But beautiful, talented young singer Christine Daae will soon experience a terror far more acute than any vague feeling of unease. For she is about to learn the secret of why the man who has made the tunnels beneath Paris his private domain must forever hide his face behind a mask.

Part horror story, part historical romance, and part detective thriller, the timeless tale of a masked, disfigured musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House is familiar to millions of readers, as well as to movie and theater-goers. At the heart of the story's long-standing popularity lies its questioning of a universal theme: the relationship between outward appearance and the beauty or darkness of the human soul.
Get the free audiobook/ebook combo from Tantor. While you are there, you may also want to check out their $6.99 Horror Sale; I see a lot of Zombie Apocalypse at the front of the sale, but there are some Urban Fantasy titles too (such as Kim Harrison's Hollows series).

Friday, September 14, 2012

James Herbert Sale for Kindle UK

Another flash sale on James Herbert's books (Main/UK) in the Kindle store, only for UK customers (one of which is also marked down for UK customers at Kobo). Besides the bargains below, many are priced at $4.79 Main / £2.99 UK.

Ash ($0.32 Main / £0.20 UK)
David Ash – detective of the paranormal – is sent to the mysterious Comraich Castle, secluded deep in the Scottish countryside, to investigate a strange, high-profile case: a man has been found crucified – in a room that was locked. The reports suggest that the cliff-top castle is being haunted . . .

Who – or what – is the reclusive hooded figure that Ash has seen from the window walking across the courtyard in the dead of night?
What are the strange, animal-like sounds that come from the surrounding woods?
And why are the castle’s inhabitants so reluctant to talk about what they have seen?

. . . what Ash eventually discovers is truly shocking.

Featuring one of Herbert’s best-loved characters, first encountered in The Ghosts of Sleath and Haunted, Ash is a ghost story like no other, that will chill you to the marrow . . .
Domain ($1.52 Main / £0.95 UK)
The long-dreaded nuclear conflict. The city torn apart, shattered, its people destroyed or mutilated beyond hope. For just a few, survival is possible only beneath the wrecked streets - if there is time to avoid the slow-descending poisonous ashes. But below, the rats, demonic offspring of their irradiated forebears, are waiting. They know that Man is weakened, become frail. Has become their prey.... Remember with fear
The Rats ($1.58 Main / £0.99 UK)
It was only when the bones of the first devoured victims were discovered that the true nature and power of these swarming black creatures with their razor sharp teeth and the taste for human blood began to be realised by a panic-stricken city. For millions of years man and rats had been natural enemies. But now for the first time – suddenly, shockingly, horribly – the balance of power had shifted…
Creed ($1.52 Main / £0.95 UK)
Sometimes horror is in the mind. And sometimes it's real. Telling the difference isn't always easy. It wasn't for Joe Creed. He'd just photographed the unreal. Now he had to pay the price. Because he always thought that demons were just a joke.

But the joke was on him.

And it wasn't very funny. It was deadly . . .
Lair ($1.10 Main / £0.69 UK; £1.00 Kobo)
REMEMBER WITH FEAR . . . The mutant white rat had grown and mated, creating offspring in its own image. They dominated the others, the dark-furred ones, who foraged for food and brought it back to The Lair. Now the dark rats were restless, tormented by a craving they could not satisfy. But the white slug-like thing that ruled them knew. Its two heads weaved to and fro and a stickiness drooled from its mouth as it remembered the taste of human flesh . .
Shrine ($1.58 Main / £0.99 UK)
A little girl called Alice. A deaf-mute. A vision. A lady in shimmering white who says she is the immaculate conception. And Alice can suddenly hear and speak, and she can perform miracles. Soon the site of the visitation, beneath an ancient oak tree, has become a shrine, a holy place for thousands of pilgrims. But Alice is no longer the guileless child overwhelmed by her new saintliness. She has become the agent of something corrupt, a vile force that is centuries old. Innocence and evil have become one. Remember with fear...

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Free Audiobook - The Lair of the White Worm

The audiobook edition of The Lair of the White Worm (various Kindle editions), by Bram Stoker, narrated by Oliver Wyman, is free in the Audible store.
Book Description
In a tale of ancient evil, Bram Stoker creates a world of lurking horrors and bizarre denizens: a demented mesmerist, hellbent on mentally crushing the girl he loves; a gigantic kite raised to rid the land of an unnatural infestation of birds, and which receives strange commands along its string; and all the while, the great white worm slithers below, seeking its next victim....

Bram Stoker, creator of Dracula, is one of the most enduring and masterful influences on the literature of terror.
Get the free audiobook from Audible (some geographic restrictions may apply)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Free Books from Severed Press (K)

Small publisher Severed Press specializes in horror (especially zombies, it seems) and has a number of their titles free at Amazon today.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Free Book - What Will Come After (K)

Update: 4/4/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store.

What Will Come After, by Scott Edelman, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
During the three decades Scott Edelman has dedicated himself to the short story, his fiction has been called "darkly hopeful," "deep, disturbing, and emotionally draining," and "unnerving work that peers into the darkest corner of the human soul and makes one fear what lurks at the bottom of that abyss -- but also makes it impossible to look away." In these nine tales, you'll also discover that long before the current craze of mashing up mindless shamblers with the literary classics, Edelman was remixing zombies with "Romeo and Juliet," "Our Town," and other famous fictional worlds.

In the Stoker Award finalist "A Plague on Both Your Houses," you'll visit a post-apocalyptic Manhattan that reads like a fever dream created by George Romero collaborating with William Shakespeare, in which the living son of the mayor of New York City falls in love with the daughter of the zombie king. In "Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man," another Stoker nominee, you'll lock yourself in a library as a writer struggles to keep his sanity by making sense of the zombie uprising the only way he knows how. And in "What Will Come After," original to this volume, you'll learn what happens to Scott Edelman himself when he faces his own inevitable end.

Gathering his complete zombie fiction to date, Almost the Last Stories proves that the undead can be more than just rampaging braineaters -- though you'll find plenty of gory gorging in these pages as well -- but also a lens through which we can see that the living and the living dead are not so very different after all.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Free Book - Orcs: Inferno (K)

Orcs: Inferno, the third title in the Orcs: Bad Blood series by Stan Nicholls, is free to pre-order in the Kindle store. This is the latest book in this series and is most likely a pricing error - grab it quick before the publisher gets it corrected.
Book Description
Using the mysterious artifacts known as instrumentalities, the Wolverines embarked on a world-hopping mission to liberate fellow orcs and to take revenge on their old antagonist Jennesta. But it isn't working out too well for the warband. Saddled with novices and a pair of humans of doubtful loyalty, and pursued by a powerful group bent on retrieving the instrumentalities, life is proving far from simple.

And destiny has more complications in store. The instrumentalities can no longer be relied upon and have left the band trapped in a world where enemies mass on every side. While tensions in the band threaten to rip it apart, Thirzarr, mate of Wolverines captain Stryke, has been seized by Jennesta and faces a living death.

With the fate of worlds at stake, daunting obstacles, and fresh adversaries blocking their path, the Wolverines are about to be drawn into the greatest battle of their lives.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Free Book - Zombies Don't Cry (K/N/I)

Update: 1/17/12 Now free from iTunes.

Zombies Don't Cry: A Living Dead Love Story, by Rusty Fischer, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
In the sleepy small town of Barracuda Bay, Maddy Swift leads the life of a fairly typical teenager, but while attending a party one night, Maddy is struck by lightning and awakens to realize she has been reanimated and turned into a zombie. While becoming acquainted with her new "lifestyle," Maddy stumbles upon two unexpected undead chaperones, fellow students Dane and Chloe, who begin to teach her the ways of zombie life, including defending the populace from Zerkers—the bad zombies. Together, on prom night, the three teens must ultimately defend Barracuda Bay High from an all-out zombie Armageddon.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from iTunes.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Dozens of Free Books from Konrath/Kilborn and Crouch (K)

It may be a glitch or it may be a promotion, but if you act fast, you'll find plenty of free reading from these horror/thriller authors:

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Free Book (Kindle/nook) - God's Eye

Update: 12/19/11 Now free from Barnes & Noble.

God's Eye (US/UK), by A.J. Scudiere, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
Katharine Geryon is living the life her family name has dictated, and why not? After all, it has given her a good job in the family company and a fine life with all the things she should want. But all that changes as increasingly disturbing events begin to occur: soot stains on the carpet, glimpses of strange black animals, and cryptic messages written on her bathroom mirror. Baffled and afraid, Katharine begins to doubt her own sanity.

At the same time, two charismatic men enter her life: Allistair, her new assistant at work, and Zachary, a well-heeled neighbor who just moved into her building. Katharine soon finds each of them inextricably entangled in her affairs. As her life becomes stranger and her dreams more terrifying, she realizes neither man is what he seems and that she's caught in something far beyond her own comprehension. For the first time, she must reach beyond her own boundaries. There Katharine forges her first true friendship with Margot, a librarian who helps her discover what these men really are, why she's drawn to them, and what they want with her.

The answer places Katharine in the middle of a fierce battle that forces her to decide between the two men fighting for her soul.

In the end, only one can be saved, but all three will be judged.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Bargain Book Roundup

For the nightowls, here are a few coupon codes:
  • Harlequin Halloween deal - Save 31% on all ebooks, with coupon code HALLOW3111. Should also works on regularly priced print books. Also, Use Code SAVE5DOLLARS for $5 off $15 (Expires 03/31/12. one coupon per order, so choose the best one for the order).
  • Samhain - 30% off your entire order with coupon code SPHW11
  • Kobo is late shipping the Vox, so get 25% off any one book on this list using coupon code vox25oct28. (exp Nov 4)
  • Books on Board is giving everyone 8% rewards + 26% discount on all non-Agency books. No coupon code and the prices you'll see this week reflect the discount. (exp Nov 4)
For those in the UK, Amazon has set up a Rainy Day Reads page, off the Kindle Bargains page. Looks like several good deals for you guys.
Happy Halloween!

Copia is giving away a specially annotated edition of Dracula, by Bram Stoker. You can side-load it into Adobe ADE (use the Settings and Purchase History menu), but if you want the annotations, you'll need to stick to the Copia app.
Book Description
More than 100 years after it was written, Bram Stoker's Dracula remains as powerful and potent as ever. This classic Gothic horror story has crossed into popular culture, inspiring an entire underworld, as it were, of vampire related movies, stories and costumes. The sweeping, cross-cutting plot, told in a series of diary entries and letters, finds two sets of lovers inadvertently caught up in a blood thirsty scheme by Transylvania's erudite, mysterious Count Dracula.

This Copia Editions volume features over 150 exclusive annotations by Dr. Anne DeLong and Dr. Curtis Herr, co-editors of The Journal of Dracula Studies. These notes, which appear in the margins of the eBook, can only be accessed using the free Copia eReader App

God's Eye ($2.51), by A.J. Scudiere
Book Description
A demon . . .
Every soul he claims is another chance to advance. Until he can walk among us, look like us, make us believe in him. The only thing holding him back is . . .

An angel. . .
The rules of the realm bind him from fighting on the demon’s terms. But this is his chance to steal something away from the demon, to steal the thing the demon wants most . . .

A woman who must choose . . .

A woman who has been chosen. Katharine is suddenly a pawn in a game where the rules and the stakes are beyond her comprehension. She must take a side even though she can’t tell angel from demon.

And in the end, they will all be judged.

It's a bit early for The Gift of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude ($3.46), by Margaret Visser, but it's likely to have gone back up price by it's holiday season.
Book Description
Known as an ‘anthropologist of everyday life,’ Margaret Visser has, in five award-winning books, uncovered and illuminated the intriguing and unexpected meanings of everyday objects and habits. Now she turns her keen eye to another custom so frequently encountered that it often escapes notice: saying ‘Thank you.’ What do we really mean by these two simple words?

This fascinating inquiry into all aspects of gratitude ranges from the unusual determination with which parents teach their children to thank, to the difference between speaking the words and feeling them, to the ways different cultures handle the complex matters of giving, receiving, and returning favors and presents. Visser illuminates the fundamental opposition in our own culture between gift-giving and commodity exchange, and the similarities between gratitude and its opposite, vengefulness. The Gift of Thanks considers cultural history, including the modern battle of social scientists to pin down the notion of thankfulness and account for it, and the newly awakened scientific interest in the biological and evolutionary roots of emotions.

With her engaging combination of curiosity and erudition, Visser once again reveals the extraordinary in the everyday.

Quick-Fix Vegetarian: Healthy Home-Cooked Meals in 30 Minutes or Less ($2.99), by Robin Robertson
Book Description
Featuring 150 delicious recipes, Quick-Fix Vegetarian provides both novice and longtime cooks with practical and robust vegetarian dishes that can be prepared in less time than it takes to have a pizza delivered. Written by best-selling vegetarian chef Robin Robertson, Quick-Fix Vegetarian is the answer for busy families who are looking for healthy food, fast.

Quick-Fix Vegetarian by Robin Robertson recently was named Best New Cookbook by PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The international organization's Proggy Award (short for progress) recognizes animal-friendly achievement in 21st century culture and commerce. No longer considered a hippie fad, the vegan lifestyle is becoming going mainstream. In her latest book vegetarian expert Robin Robertson creates recipes such as Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Quesadillas, Chipotle-Kissed Black Bean Soup, Mediterranean Orzo Salad, Beat-the-Clock Lasagna, Five-Minute Slow-Cooker Chili, and No-Bake Oatmeal Almond Cookies for this growing consumer base. In addition, Quick-Fix Vegetarian shows how to use many of the new commercial vegetarian products and includes recipe variations and tips for speedy, stress-free entertaining without sacrificing flavor or mainstream appeal.

The Line of Beauty ($2.51), by Alan Hollinghurst, won the 2004 Man Booker Prize for fiction.
Book Description
In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.

As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends. Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this U.K. bestseller is a major work by one of our finest writers.

Murder in the Latin Quarter ($2.70), by Cara Black, is the ninth in her Aimee Leduc series.
Book Description
A Haitian woman arrives at the office of Leduc Detective and announces that she is Aimée’s sister, her father’s illegitimate daughter. Aimée is thrilled. A virtual orphan since her mother’s disappearance and her father’s death, she has always wanted a sister. Her partner, René, is wary of this stranger, but Aimée embraces her and soon finds herself involved in murky Haitian politics leading to murder. The setting is the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank of the Seine, in the old university district of Paris.

If you are a Deborah Smith fan, then you need to run over and grab Silver Fox and Red-Hot Dove and the rest of her backlist books available for $2.99 pre-order from Bantam (Random House).
Silver Fox and Red-Hot Dove
When Elena Petrovic, a member of a visiting Soviet delegation and possessor of a secret healing power, runs away, T.S. Audubon is determined to find her before the American and Soviet agents do.

Jed's Sweet Revenge
When Wyoming cowboy Jed Powers came to claim Sancia Island, he was prepared to evict a squatter -- but instead found himself bewitched by a woman.

Hot Touch
Rugged vet Paul Belue was part Clark Gable, part Cajun Gypsy, and all male, but when Caroline Fitzsimmons arrived to train his pet wolf for a movie, he vowed to drive her from his bayou mansion!

Honey and Smoke
Tackling an intruder in the old moonshiner's cave, ex-Marine Max Templeton is astonished to find the beautiful and wiry Betty Quint, and he vows to win her over, even as she swears she will wait for a more marriage- and family-minded man.

Hold on Tight
Rucker McClure had drowned beer and chased women everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but he couldn’t resist heading straight for Mount Pleasant, Alabama, when the town’s mayor, ex-Miss Georgia Dinah Sheridan, sent him a baby possum in retaliation for a column that savaged their annual Possum Days celebration! Not a bit subtle where seduction was concerned, Rucker did his best to rough up Dinah’s smooth edges, mesmerizing her with burning caresses and a voice that drawled steamy promises. “Keep your heart open and lips puckered,” he warned her when he left town, but when he returned and began unraveling her mystery, Dinah knew her fate was sealed. If Rucker discovered the scandal that had once cost her everything, she’d lose him–and the life she loved. But if she wouldn’t trust him with her secrets, how could he prove he cherished her?

Sara's Surprise
Dr. Sara Scarborough is tormented by memories when Kyle Surprise, a man from her painful past, shows up at her Kentucky mountain refuge.

Stranger in Camelot
Cautious Agnes Hamilton, owner of a horse breeding farm, tries in vain to resist the advances of the wickedly handsome John Bartholomew, a mystery man who rides into her life and tries to sweep her off her feet.

Caught by Surprise
Brig McKay was a hell-raiser, a rebel without a cause -- and he was Deputy Sheriff Millie Surprise's duty for the next sixty days!

California Royale
Shea Somerton was elegant and glamorous, just like Estate Mendocino, the resort she managed -- but behind her classy facade there was a hint of recklessness in her violet eyes.

Heart of the Dragon
While searching all over Bangkok for her half-sister, Rebecca Brown captures the attention of Kash Santelli, a man who suspects her of being a spy.

Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius ($3.03), by Collin Dickey, is one of two Kindle editions (the other is $7.99). This one is likely in Topaz format.
Book Description
Beginning dramatically with the opening of Haydn s grave two days after his death in October 1820, Cranioklepty takes us on an extraordinary history of a peculiar kind of obsession. The desire to own the skulls of the famous, for study, for sale, for public (and private) display, seems to be instinctual and irresistible in some people. The rise of Phrenology at the beginning of the 19th century only fed that fascination with the belief that genius leaves its mark on the very shape of the head. The after-death stories of Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig Beethoven, Swedenborg, Sir Thomas Browne and many others have never before been told in such detail and vividness. Fully illustrated with some surprising images, this is a fascinating and authoritative history of ideas carried along on the guilty pleasures of an anthology of real-after-life gothic tales.

Inside Joss' Dollhouse: From Alpha to Rossum ($0.89), by Jane Espenson
Book Description
Though Joss Whedon’s television show Dollhouse ended in January 2010 after its second season, its small but devoted cult following is still reeling from not only from its mind-blowing plot twists but also its challenging, dystopic look at the ethics of new technology.

INSIDE JOSS' DOLLHOUSE is a fitting tribute to this complex, engaging show. The anthology’s 18 sometimes funny, always insightful pieces cover Dollhouse from anticipated start to explosive finish. Drawn from an international contest judged by fan favorite Whedon screenwriter Jane Espenson, its essays get right to heart of what Dollhouse viewers loved most about the show.

Espenson also acts as the book’s editor, offering context and extra insight on its topics and the show—a role she played in previous anthologies Finding Serenity and Serenity Found, also on Joss Whedon creations.

From programmer Topher’s amorality to the accuracy of the show’s neurobiology, INSIDE JOSS' DOLLHOUSE brings Dollhouse back to life with a depth sure to satisfy its many still-mourning fans.

HOME: A MEMOIR OF MY EARLY YEARS ($2.51), by Julie Andrews
Book Description
Since her first appearance on screen in Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has played a series of memorable roles that have endeared her to generations. But she has never told the story of her life before fame. Until now.

In Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie takes her readers on a warm, moving, and often humorous journey from a difficult upbringing in war-torn Britain to the brink of international stardom in America. Her memoir begins in 1935, when Julie was born to an aspiring vaudevillian mother and a teacher father, and takes readers to 1962, when Walt Disney himself saw her on Broadway and cast her as the world's most famous nanny.

Along the way, she weathered the London Blitz of World War II; her parents' painful divorce; her mother's turbulent second marriage to Canadian tenor Ted Andrews, and a childhood spent on radio, in music halls, and giving concert performances all over England. Julie's professional career began at the age of twelve, and in 1948 she became the youngest solo performer ever to participate in a Royal Command Performance before the Queen. When only eighteen, she left home for the United States to make her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, and thus began her meteoric rise to stardom.

Home is filled with numerous anecdotes, including stories of performing in My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison on Broadway and in the West End, and in Camelot with Richard Burton on Broadway; her first marriage to famed set and costume designer Tony Walton, culminating with the birth of their daughter, Emma; and the call from Hollywood and what lay beyond.

Julie Andrews' career has flourished over seven decades. From her legendary Broadway performances, to her roles in such iconic films as The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hawaii, 10, and The Princess Diaries, to her award-winning television appearances, multiple album releases, concert tours, international humanitarian work, best-selling children's books, and championship of literacy, Julie's influence spans generations. Today, she lives with her husband of thirty-eight years, the acclaimed writer/director Blake Edwards; they have five children and seven grandchildren.

Featuring over fifty personal photos, many never before seen, this is the personal memoir Julie Andrews' audiences have been waiting for.

Forever Liesl: A Memoir of The Sound of Music ($4.99), by Charmian Carr
Book Description
The magic of The Sound of Music lives on in the minds and hearts of everyone it has touched. Now, Charmian Carr, who in 1965 captivated moviegoers as Liesl "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" von Trapp, tells what it was like to be a part of the film that has become a cultural phenomenon. It's all here: from how she got the role (and why she almost didn't) to romances on the set and wild nights in Salzburg; from the near-disaster during the gazebo dance to her relationships--then and now--with her six celluloid siblings. Charmian offers stories from fans and friends and a treasury of photographs. And she reveals why she left acting, what she learned when she met the real von Trapp children; and how The Sound of Music has helped her get through stormy times in her own life.Forever Liesl celebrates the spirit of the movie and what it stands for: family love, romance, inspiration, nostalgia, and the joy and power of music.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Today's Deal Update

A quick reminder, there now only a bit over a day left on the current "100 Kindle books for $3.99 or less" list at Amazon. I suspect there will be a new list on Tuesday, but there is no guarantee; what I do know is that the books on the current list will mostly return to full price at the end of the month.

Amazon has matched B&N's price on Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders , by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, which is today's the Nook Daily Find. Grab it while it's $2.99 on Kindle or at B&N.
Book Description
Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime.

Both Helter Skelter and Vincent Bugliosi's subsequent Till Death Us Do Part won Edgar Allan Poe Awards for best true-crime book of the year. Bugliosi is also the author of Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder (Norton, 1996) and other books. Curt Gentry, an Edgar winner, is the author of J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (available in Norton paperback) and Frame-Up: The Incredible Case of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings.

Free Halloween Audiobooks

Two free Halloween audiobook downloads for you at Tantor Audio; both include an ebook edition with the download. I recommend you go ahead and log in at Tantor before adding them to your cart, as I had a bit of an issue with the 'temporary cart' transferring over after I logged in. Once you have both in your cart, confirm that your order total is $0.00 before clicking to place the order (only the audio downloads are free, not the CD or Audible versions). They are doing things a bit differently with the free download at Tantor this time around - you place a regular order and it ends up on your bookshelf. That way, you can grab it now and download it later if you have any issues (or want to listen to it again next year).

I've included a Kindle link for a free edition, as well, for those that prefer to have the ebook in your library there (but these are most likely scanned editions and may contain formatting or OCR errors).

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus ($20.99 $10.49 Audible; free download at Tantor; free on Kindle), by Mary Shelley, narrated by Simon Vance
Book Description
Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering "the cause of generation and life" and "bestowing animation upon lifeless matter," Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts. However, upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? And how far can we go in tampering with Nature?

Dracula ($25.19 $12.59 Audible; free download at Tantor; free on Kindle), by Bram Stoker, narrated by John Lee
Book Description
First published in 1897, Dracula by Bram Stoker has become the standard against which all other vampire stories are compared and the inspiration for countless film and stage adaptations. Indeed, the name "Dracula" has been synonymous with the undead for at least a century, and the original novel still has the power to chill.

Come then to Castle Dracula, hidden in the forbidding peaks of the Carpathian Mountains, where an undying creature of evil casts his sights on unsuspecting England. Voyage on the doomed ship Demeter as it carries a monster out of ancient superstition in search of new life and new blood. Tremble as first one woman, then another succumbs to the unholy thirst of the nosferatu, and as a small band of men and women, horrified by the supernatural forces arrayed against them, risk their lives and their very souls to oppose the evil known only as...Dracula.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Free Reads from Tor and Baen

Baen has added two new entries to their Free Library, both by Tom Kratman. Even if neither of these selections grabs you, you may want to see if there is something else you've missed there (perhaps Selections from Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories, edited by John Joseph Adams, to go with the yesterday's Kindle Deal?). If you've never checked out the new entries to their Free Library, then you are in for a treat (and a groaning Kindle when you are done!).
A Desert Called Peace
HE RAISED AN ARMY AGAINST THOSE WHO TOOK EVERYTHING FROM HIM

They should have picked their enemies more carefully.

Five centuries from now, on a remarkably Earthlike planet that is mankind's sole colony in space, religious fanatics called the "Salafi Ikhwan" have murdered the uncle of former colonel Patrick Hennessey. That was their first mistake, because uncle was rich and Hennessey was rather a good colonel. But they also murdered Hennessey's wife, Linda, and their three small children, and that was their worst mistake for she was the only restraint Hennessey had ever accepted.

From the pile of rubble and the pillar of fire that mark the last resting place of Linda Hennessey and her children arises a new warrior—Carrera, scourge of the Salafis. He will forge an army of ruthless fanatics from the decrepit remains of failed state's military. He will wage war across half a world. He will find those who killed his family. He will destroy them, and those who support them, utterly, completely, without restraint or remorse.

Only when he is finished will there be peace: the peace of an empty wind as it blows across a desert strewn with the bones of Carrera's enemies.


Caliphate
"Slavery is a part of Islam . . . Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam." —Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, author of the religious textbook At-Tawhid ("Monotheism") and senior Saudi cleric.

Demography is destiny. In the 22nd century European deathbed demographics have turned the continent over to the more fertile Moslems. Atheism in Europe has been exterminated. Homosexuals are hanged, stoned or crucified. Such Christians as remain are relegated to dhimmitude, a form of second class citizenship. They are denied arms, denied civil rights, denied a voice, and specially taxed via the Koranic yizya. Their sons are taken as conscripted soldiers while their daughters are subject to the depredations of the continent's new masters.

In that world, Petra, a German girl sold into prostitution as a slave at the age of nine to pay her family's yizya, dreams of escape. Unlike most girls of the day, Petra can read. And in her only real possession, her grandmother's diary, a diary detailing the fall of European civilization, Petra has learned of a magic place across the sea: America.

But it will take more than magic to free Petra and Europe from their bonds; it will take guns, superior technology, and a reborn spirit of freedom.

Tor has several stories for Halloween free to read on their website, an event they are calling Monster Mash 2011 (they'll probably be on Kindle, eventually, at 99 cents each, or so).
These are the stories and links:
  • Trading Hearts at the Half Kaffe Café, by Charles de Lint
    Reprinted from horror romance anthology Single White Vampire Seeks Same edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Brittiany A. Koren.
  • Monster Cops, by Chip Zdarsky
    “Monster Cops” follows the adventures of a law-abiding Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolf-Man as they bust perps, dead or alive. In “The End of Your Arms,” Frankenstein suffers an existential crisis.
  • Wishbones, by Cherie Priest
    Reprinted from Prime Books' horror anthology Creatures. A horrific composite creature with a long-lived past spooks some locals....
  • The Dead, by Michael Swanwick
    Reprinted from SciFi anthology Starlight. “The Dead” presents a future world where zombies take center stage not as a threat, but as a commodity....
  • Apologue, by James Morrow
    Written in response to 9/11, “Apologue,” reacts to the events through the perspective of three classic movie monsters. The results are perhaps not what one would expect from such earth-shaking creatures.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Free and Bargain Book Roundup, Part I

Today's Bargain Books are all Simon & Schuster imprints. Several are part of a $3.99 sale they are holding, thru Nov. 14, but others are sale prices I turned up outside the official sale. All the ones with descriptions are US prices (prices vary wildly outside the US), but at the end I've compile a list of some big bargains for those outside the US (where the US pays considerably more). For each title in the latter list, I've included the region where the price is valid (availability may still vary by country in that region, but I have no way to check that). There are also several that I've already highlighted recently, which I'm listing here only by title:
Also, since not every one is into Star Trek, I'm only listing The Original Start Trek series selections by title, as well. You know who you are, which ones you already have and that these are good prices, so grab then while it lasts.
Since these are all Agency titles, the price ($3.99) should be the same (for those in the US), at Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Sony.

Wicked Game, by Jeri Smith-Ready (recommended author). You can still get her novella The Wild's Call free on Kindle.
Book Description
LATE NIGHT RADIO YOU CAN SINK YOUR TEETH INTO

Recovering con artist Ciara Griffin is trying to live the straight life, even if it means finding a (shudder!) real job. She takes an internship at a local radio station, whose late-night time-warp format features 1940s blues, '60s psychedelia, '80s goth, and more, all with an uncannily authentic flair. Ciara soon discovers just how the DJs maintain their cred: they're vampires, stuck forever in the eras in which they were turned.

Ciara's first instinct, as always, is to cut and run. But communications giant Skywave wants to buy WVMP and turn it into just another hit-playing clone. Without the station -- and the link it provides to their original Life Times -- the vampires would "fade," becoming little more than mindless ghosts of the past. Suddenly a routine corporate takeover is a matter of life and undeath.

To boost ratings and save the lives of her strange new friends, Ciara rebrands the station as "WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock 'n' Roll." In the ultimate con, she hides the DJs' vampire nature in plain sight, disguising the bloody truth as a marketing gimmick. WVMP becomes the hottest thing around -- next to Ciara's complicated affair with grunge vamp Shane McAllister. But the "gimmick" enrages a posse of ancient and powerful vampires who aren't so eager to be brought into the light. Soon the stakes are higher -- and the perils graver -- than any con game Ciara's ever played....

Surrender the Dark, by L. A. Banks (recommended author)
Book Description
National bestselling author L.A. Banks’s electrifying new paranormal series is set in a sizzling world where Dark and Light are trapped in an eternal struggle for the fate of mankind.

Celeste Jackson has fought all her life against a fog of hallucination and substance abuse, but it’s not until she meets her protector, Azrael, an angel who has left the safety of the Light, that she learns of the evil forces that have been trying to ruin her, and why. A fierce battle for control of the mortal realm is brewing, and only Celeste—with the help of the Remnant, her half-human, half-angel brethren—can stand in the way. Together, Celeste and Azrael must gather an army of sensitives to defeat the dark powers that have ruled humanity for centuries, but time is running out. If Azrael surrenders to his growing desire for Celeste, he risks being trapped among humanity forever. But the longer he stays, the harder she is to resist. To save the world, Celeste must draw on her own dark experiences with addiction to help Azrael overcome the one temptation that could possibly make him an eternal prisoner—his obsession with her.

Master of None, by Sonya Bateman. As a bonus, you can download The Getaway, a novella connected to the series, for free.
Book Description
ONE UNLUCKY THIEF. ONE UNLIKELY GENIE. ONE VERY ODD COUPLE.

Gavyn Donatti is the world’s unluckiest thief. Just ask all the partners he’s lost over the years. And when he misplaces an irreplaceable item he was hired to steal for his ruthless employer, Trevor—well, his latest bungle just might be his last. But then his luck finally turns: right when Trevor’s thugs have him cornered, a djinn, otherwise known as a genie, appears to save him.

Unfortunately, this genie—who goes by the very non-magical name of “Ian”—is more Hellboy than dream girl. An overgrown and extremely surly man who seems to hate Donatti on the spot, he may call Donatti master, but he isn’t interested in granting three wishes. He informs Donatti that he is bound to help the thief fulfill his life’s purpose, and then he will be free. The problem is that neither Donatti nor Ian has any idea what exactly that purpose is.

At first Donatti’s too concerned with his own survival to look a gift genie in the mouth, but when his ex-girlfriend Jazz and her young son get drawn into the crossfire, the stakes skyrocket. And when Ian reveals that he has an agenda of his own—with both Donatti and the murderous Trevor at the center of it—Donatti will have to become the man he never knew he could be, or the entire world could pay the price. . . .

Raziel, the first in The Fallen series by Kristina Douglas
Book Description
Kristina Douglas’s sexy new series introduces a realm of fallen angels and ruthless demons, where an eternal rebellion is brewing . . . and one unsuspecting woman can change the fate of the Fallen forever.

She was just an ordinary mortal . . .


“You’re dead” is so not what Allie Watson wants to hear. Unfortunately, it explains a lot. Like the dark, angelically handsome man who ferried her to this strange, hidden land. The last thing she remembers is stepping off a curb in front of a crosstown bus. Now she’s surrounded by gorgeous fallen angels with an unsettling taste for blood—and they really don’t want her around. Not exactly how she pictured heaven.

. . . until death catapulted her into a seductive world she never imagined.


Raziel is unsure why he rescued Allie from hellfire against Uriel’s orders, but she stirs in him a longing he hasn't felt in centuries. Now the Fallen are bracing for the divine wrath brought by his disobedience, and they blame Allie for the ferocious Nephilim clawing at the kingdom’s shrouded gates. Facing impossible odds at every turn, the two must work together to survive. Raziel will do anything to defend his spirited lover against the forces of darkness—because Allie may be the Fallen’s only salvation.

Dark Descendant, by Jenna Black (recommended author). It's a different series, but her short story Remedial Magic is still free.
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist books comes the gripping first novel in a new series about a private eye who discovers, to her surprise, that she’s an immortal huntress.

Nikki Glass can track down any man. But when her latest client turns out to be a true descendant of Hades, Nikki now discovers she can’t die. . . . Crazy as it sounds, Nikki’s manhunting skills are literally god-given. She’s a living, breathing descendant of Artemis who has stepped right into a trap set by the children of the gods. Nikki’s new “friends” include a descendant of Eros, who uses sex as a weapon; a descendant of Loki, whose tricks are no laughing matter; and a half-mad descendant of Kali who thinks she’s a spy. But most powerful of all are the Olympians, a rival clan of immortals seeking to destroy all Descendants who refuse to bow down to them. In the eternal battle of good god/bad god, Nikki would make a divine weapon. But if they think she’ll surrender without a fight, the gods must be crazy. . . .

A Rush of Wings, by Adrian Phoenix, is the first title in her Maker's Song series. (recommended author)
Book Description
HIS NAME IS DANTE.

Dark. Talented. Beautiful. Star of the rock band Inferno. Rumored owner of the hot New Orleans nightspot Club Hell. Born of the Blood, then broken by an evil beyond imagination.

HIS PAST IS A MYSTERY.


F.B.I. Special Agent Heather Wallace has been tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as the Cross Country Killer, and the trail has led her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and Dante. But the dangerously attractive musician not only resists her investigation, he claims to be "nightkind": in other words, a vampire. Digging into his past for answers reveals little. A juvenile record a mile long. No social security number. No known birth date. In and out of foster homes for most of his life before being taken in by a man named Lucien DeNoir, who appears to guard mysteries of his own.

HIS FUTURE IS CHAOS.

What Heather does know about Dante is that something links him to the killer -- and she's pretty sure that link makes him the CCK's next target. Heather must unravel the truth about this sensual, complicated, vulnerable young man -- who, she begins to believe, may indeed be a vampire -- in order to finally bring a killer to justice. But Dante's past holds a shocking, dangerous secret, and once it is revealed not even Heather will be able to protect him from his destiny....

Unclean Spirits, by M.L.N. Hanover (aka Daniel Abraham), is the first title in his Black Sun's Daughter series.
Book Description
In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can't always play by the rules.

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn't quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it's all hers -- and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.

Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric's heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means -- magical or mundane -- so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.

Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions -- Aubrey, Eric's devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities -- Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she'll have to learn the new rules fast -- or break them completely....

The Better Part of Darkness, by Kelly Gay, is the first in her Charlie Madigan series and won several awards.
Book Description
Atlanta: it's the promised city for the off-worlders, foreigners from the alternate dimensions of heaven-like Elysia and hell-like Charbydon. Some bring good works and miracles. And some bring unimaginable evil....

Charlie Madigan is a divorced mother of one, and a kick-ass cop trained to take down the toughest human and off-world criminals. She's recently returned from the dead after a brutal attack, an unexplained revival that has left her plagued by ruthless nightmares and random outbursts of strength that make doing her job for Atlanta P.D.'s Integration Task Force even harder. Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim -- but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined?

Soulless, by Christopher Golden (aka Thomas Randall)
Book Description
Times Square, New York City: The first ever mass séance is broadcasting live on the Sunrise morning show. If it works, the spirits of the departed on the other side will have a brief window -- just a few minutes -- to send a final message to their grieving loved ones.

Clasping hands in an impenetrable grip, three mediums call to their spirit guides as the audience looks on in breathless anticipation. The mediums slump over, slackjawed -- catatonic. And in cemeteries surrounding Manhattan, fragments of old corpses dig themselves out of the ground....

The spirits have returned. The dead are walking. They will seek out those who loved them in life, those they left behind...but they are savage and they are hungry. They are no longer your mother or father, your brother or sister, your best friend or lover.

The horror spreads quickly, droves of the ravenous dead seeking out the living -- shredding flesh from bone, feeding. But a disparate group of unlikely heroes -- two headstrong college rivals, a troubled gang member, a teenage pop star and her bodyguard -- is making its way to the center of the nightmare, fighting to protect their loved ones, fighting for their lives, and fighting to end the madness.

The River Kings' Road, by Liane Merciel, is the first of two titles in the Ithelas series.
Book Description
A thrilling new voice in fantasy makes an unforgettable debut with this "intriguingly twisted tale of treachery and magic" (New York Times bestselling author L. E. Modesitt, Jr.). Liane Merciel’s The River Kings’ Road takes us to a world of bitter enmity between kingdoms, divided loyalties between comrades, and an insidious magic that destroys everything it touches. . . .

The wounded maidservant thrust the knotted blankets at him; instinctively, Brys stepped forward and caught the bundle before it fell. Then he glimpsed what lay inside and nearly dropped it himself.

There was a baby in the blankets. A baby with a tear-swollen face red and round as a midsummer plum. A baby he knew, even without seeing the lacquered medallion tucked into the swaddling—a medallion far too heavy, on a chain far too cold for an infant who had not yet seen a year.

A fragile period of peace between the eternally warring kingdoms of Oakharn and Langmyr is shattered when a surprise massacre fueled by bloodmagic ravages the Langmyrne border village of Willowfield, killing its inhabitants—including a visiting Oakharne lord and his family—and leaving behind a scene so grisly that even the carrion eaters avoid its desecrated earth. But the dead lord’s infant heir has survived the carnage—a discovery that entwines the destinies of Brys Tarnell, a mercenary who rescues the helpless and ailing babe, and who enlists a Langmyr peasant, a young mother herself, to nourish and nurture the child of her enemies as they travel a dark, perilous road . . . Odosse, the peasant woman whose only weapons are wit, courage, and her fierce maternal love—and who risks everything she holds dear to protect her new charge . . . Sir Kelland, a divinely blessed Knight of the Sun, called upon to unmask the architects behind the slaughter and avert war between ancestral enemies . . . Bitharn, Kelland’s companion on his journey, who conceals her lifelong love for the Knight behind her flawless archery skills—and whose feelings may ultimately be Kelland’s undoing . . . and Leferic, an Oakharne Lord’s bitter youngest son, whose dark ambitions fuel the most horrific acts of violence. As one infant’s life hangs in the balance, so too does the fate of thousands, while deep in the forest, a Maimed Witch practices an evil bloodmagic that could doom them all. . . .

Gears of War: Coalition's End, by Karen Traviss
Book Description
Understand what a world had to do to survive.

When the Locust Horde burst from the ground fifteen years ago to slaughter the human population of Sera, mankind began a desperate war against extinction. Now after a decade and a half of bloody fighting, and with billions dead, the survivors—the Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, along with a small band of civilians—have been forced to destroy their own cities and sacrifice their entire civilization to halt the Locust advance.

The last-ditch measures have succeeded, but at an enormous cost: the survivors have been reduced to a handful of refugees.

Escaping to a haven on the remote island of Vectes, they begin the heartbreaking task of rebuilding their devastated world. For a while, there’s hope . . . making peace with old enemies, and once again planning for the future.

But the short respite is shattered when Vectes comes under siege from an even deadlier force than the Locust—the Lambent, a hideous and constantly mutating life-form that destroys everything in its path. As the Lambent’s relentless assault spreads from the mainland to the island, the refugees finally understand what drove the Locust from their underground warrens and sparked the global war.

While Marcus Fenix and the Gears struggle to hold back the invasion, the Coalition faces a stark choice—fight this new enemy to the last human, or flee to the wastelands to take their chances and live like the human pariahs known as the Stranded . . . even as Coalition chairman Richard Prescott still guards one last, terrible secret about the Locust, the Lambent, and the future of mankind. . . .

Wicked, by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié, is an omnibus of the first two titles in the Wicked series, Witch and Curse. A second omnibus, Wicked 2 ($7.99), contains the third and fourth titles in the series, Legacy and Spellbound.
Book Description
Holly Cathers's world shatters when her parents are killed in a terrible accident. Wrenched from her home in San Francisco, she is sent to Seattle to live with her relatives, Aunt Marie-Claire and her twin cousins, Amanda and Nicole.

In her new home, Holly's sorrow and grief soon give way to bewilderment at the strange incidents going on around her. Such as how any wish she whispers to her cat seems to come true. Or the way a friend is injured after a freak attack from a vicious falcon. And there's the undeniable, magnetic attraction to a boy Holly barely knows.

Holly, Amanda, and Nicole are about to be launced into a dark legacy of witches, secrets, and alliances, where ancient magics yield dangerous results. The girls will assume their roles in an intergenerational feud beyond their wildest imaginations...and in doing so, will attempt to fulfill their shared destiny.

Such a Lovely Couple, by Linda Yellin
Book Description
A charming and bittersweet novel about falling in love, drifting apart, and realizing a terrible mistake.

Cigarette Girl, by Carol Wolper, is still in pre-release (Dec 27), but there are some reviews already at GoodReads.
Book Description
A furiously funny, clear-eyed novel about a non-bimbo's dating adventures in a town that celebrates bimbosity.

Elizabeth West is twenty-eight, which means she's just entered The Zone--that seven-year span in a woman's life when the pressure to find Mr. Right is at its most intense. For Elizabeth, however, the quest is not about Mr. Right so much as it is about Mr. Maybe. And on some nights, all she's looking for is a little distraction . . .

What complicates Elizabeth's quest are the particulars of her situation. She is a writer of testosterone-heavy screenplays--the blow-'em-up vehicles for eight-figure stars and their bad-boy directors--and therefore deals on a daily basis with men who traffic nearly exclusively in bimbos, which, like smog and palm trees, are a fixture of the L.A. landscape. Though her job requires her to sound like one of the boys (sample dialogue: "I don't deal with dickbrains"), she's very much a girl, from her cell-phone codependency to her chronic attraction to dangerous men. With her female friends succumbing to marriage or morphing into Spermtrappers (women who hunger to be impregnated--husband optional), Elizabeth finds herself questioning the long-term benefits of remaining an SCU (self-contained unit) and looking with new eyes at the mating options around her