Free ebook for Kindle: Oleander House

Here's a new free download (as of tonight) for the Kindle, but make sure you read the content warning before buying:

Oleander House: Bay City Paranormal Investigation Book 1, by Ally Blue

Warning: this title contains explicit male/male sex, intense violence, and graphic language

When Sam Raintree goes to work for Bay City Paranormal Investigations, he expects his quiet life to change--he doesn't expect to put his life and sanity on the line, or to fall for a man he can never have.

Book One in the Bay City Paranormal Investigation series.

Sam Raintree has never been normal. All his life, he's experienced things he can't explain. Things that have colored his view of the world and of himself. So taking a job as a paranormal investigator seems like a perfect fit. His new co-workers, he figures, don't have to know he's gay.

When Sam arrives at Oleander House, the site of his first assignment with Bay City Paranormal Investigations, nothing is what he expected. The repetitive yet exciting work, the unusual and violent history of the house, the intensely erotic and terrifying dreams which plague his sleep. But the most unexpected thing is Dr. Bo Broussard, the group's leader.

From the moment they meet, Sam is strongly attracted to his intelligent, alluring boss. It doesn't take Sam long to figure out that although Bo has led a heterosexual life, he is very much in the closet, and wants Sam as badly as Sam wants him.

As the investigation of Oleander House progresses and paranormal events in the house escalate, Sam and Bo circle warily around their mutual attraction, until a single night of bloodshed and revelation changes their lives forever.

Warning: this title contains explicit male/male sex, intense violence, and graphic language

Kindle Bargains: David Morrell

Scavenger, by David Morrell $3.91

This is a sequel to the award-winning Creepers, $6.39, in his Frank Balenger series.

Several of his other novels are also bargain priced (sorry, no Rambo yet):

Burnt Sienna $3.99
Assumed Identity $3.99
Double Image $3.99

His most recent, The Spy Who Came For Christmas, isn't a "bargain" at $9.99, but is in the theme of the season.

Kindle backlog clearing

The backlog on new Amazon Kindles is slowly clearing. New orders placed today have "only" an 8 to 10 week wait, down from the 11 to 13 week estimate of last week. In truth, though, some people have gotten an early Christmas present from Amazon: Kindles estimated for delivery in February have already started arriving.

Prices from third parties also reflect the shorter wait times. There is one used Kindle for $380 on Amazon (opened, no box) and "new" Kindles are starting at $459, rather than the $750 of a few weeks ago.

Perhaps the best bet at this point is to reserve you place in line by ordering a new Kindle, then create a "gift certificate" to place under the tree (cut and paste the Kindle' pic into a greeting card format and add your own text, then print and fold). You could even print out a real Amazon gift certificate for the recipient to use for shopping the Kindle Store while waiting for it to arrive.

Holiday Reads on the Kindle

During the holiday season, there are always a number of Christmas themed books that debut and this year is no different. They genres run the gamut from the traditional religious to the inspirational to the humorous to family oriented/childres to the romantic, both contemporary and historical, to urban fantasy (Vampires at Christmas? Really?), but all have a holiday theme. Here are a sampling of the most popular this year that are available for the Kindle (with paperback or hardcover prices, if in that format as well, for those without a Kindle), none over $9.99 and some that are currently at bargain prices. Even if you haven't opened your Kindle from under the tree, if it is registered in your account, you can go ahead and start ordering books - they'll magically appear almost as soon as you turn it on (just plug in the charger and turn on both buttons on back - it can charge while you read).

The First Christmas, by Marcus J., Borg; $9.99 (Hardcover $15.61)

A Treasury of Christmas Miracles: True Stories of Gods Presence Today, by Karen Kingsbury; $7.99 (Hardcover $10.97)

The Purpose of Christmas, by Rick Warren; $9.59 (Hardcover $12.23)

Miraculous Journeys through London, by V. T. Valonius $4.79. This collection of 20 short stories have one thing in common: they describe "extraordinary things that might happen to ordinary people." Although the sample is, of course, free, you can buy an abbreviated version of this book as well: London: Miraculous Journeys (6 short stories) for 24 cents.

The Christmas Sweater, by Glenn Beck $9.99 (Hardcover $10.99)

The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits, by Les Standiford; $9.99 (Hardcover $13.57)

The Paper Bag Christmas, by Kevin Alan Milne; $7.42 (Hardcover $10.19)

An Irish Country Christmas, by Patrick Taylor; $9.99 (Hardcover $16.47)

Immoveable Feast, by John Baxter; $8.76 (Paperback $11.16)

A Cedar Cove Christmas, by Debbie Macomber; $9.99 (Hardcover $11.53)

Dashing Through the Snow by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark; $9.99 (Hardcover $15.64)

A Dog Named Christmas, by Greg Kincaid; $9.99 (Hardcover $10.17)

Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (P.S. So Does May.), by Barbara Park; $9.37 (Hardcover $9.37)

A Wallflower Christmas, by Lisa Kleypas; $9.99 (Hardcover $11.53)

A Stone Creek Christmas, by Linda Lael Miller; $3.60 (Paperback $4.99)

A McKettrick Christmas, by Linda Lael Miller; $6.94 (Hardcover $11.53)

It Happened One Night, by Mary Balogh, et al; $6.39 (Paperback $7.99)

Silver Bells, by JoAnn Ross, Fern Michaels; $4.54 (Paperback $7.99)

Snowy Night with a Stranger, by Jane Feather, et al; $4.54 (Paperback $7.99). A trilogy from Regency Romance authors.

A Historical Christmas Present, by Lisa Kleypas, Lynsay Sands, Leigh Greenwood; $3.19, a reissued anthology.

Christmas Train, by David Baldacci, $3.99 (Paperback $5.99)

All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire, by Kerrelyn Sparks; $4.54 (Paperback
$6.99)

The Stupidest Angel, by Christopher Moore; $9.56 (Hardcover $10.87)

And for those not in the mood for a Christmas story and who want a little more action and perhaps practicality(!!) in their reading, be sure to check out The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, by Max Brooks, $9.99 (Paperback $11.16). After all, you never know when a you might need a zombie survival kit, containing at least "two emergency flares, a signaling mirror, daily rations, a personal mess kit and two pairs of socks." With Brook's experience as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live, this one is bound to keep you laughing, which can be a good thing, this time of year.

Win a Sony PRS-505 in Sangria Red from BooksOnBoard!

As you may have guessed, I like ebooks a lot - they don't take up room on the shelves, I can carry my entire library with me (although I really only take the unread ones), letting me skip to another book as the mood strikes, a backup of my library fits on a single disk and can be stored offsite for recovery in the case of disaster (try that with a thousand or so paper books).

I currently use the Amazon Kindle for reading, but have used other devices in the past, including Palm readers and phones, my HTC phone and an iPod Touch. For those who don't yet have a reader or want to pick up another, and don't mind that it isn't compatible with the Amazon Kindle store, the Sony Reader is another alternative and Books onBoard is giving one away, in Sangria Red! Even though this reader isn't compatible with my Kindle Library, I have more than enough book in PDF, EPUB and eReader formats that this would be a welcome addition here.

I like Books on Board, even though their books are not Kindle compatible, as they can be read on the computer or the iPhone/iPod touch. They have a no-nonsense pricing structure, no club to join and when they have a book with reward dollars offered, you can use your existing reward dollars to buy it. They even have a free book now and then that lets you build you Reward Dollars balance without even giving them any money at all.

Be sure and enter the contest!