Free Audiobooks - Sweet Talk & Chivalry

I've tracked down two free audiobooks you can get from Audible.com and a contest where you can enter to win third. First, the free books:

Chivalry, by Neil Gaiman, a live reading recorded for volume 18 of Selected Shorts: Lots of Laughs! (full audiobook $18.48 Audio CD; $19.60/$7.49 Audible), a collection of short stories. This is an unabridged version, but of only Gaiman's story and only 27 minutes long. Make sure you log into your Audible.com account
first, then click HERE to get the free download.

Publisher's Summary
A delicious tale of an elderly British matron who buys the Holy Grail at a rummage sale.

Selected Shorts is an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors. The readings are recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. The Selected Shorts radio series is a co-production of Symphony Space and WNYC, New York Public Radio, and is heard on public radio stations nationwide.

The second is a full book, Sweet Talk ($5.04 Kindle) by Susan Mallery. This one comes to you courtesy of Lion Brand Yarns, giving you something to listen to while you knit.

Book Description
Don't ask Claire Keyes. The twenty-eight-year-old piano prodigy has never had a regular boyfriend, much less a real romance. Her music career has left little room for friends or family—which is just part of the reason she hasn't seen the family bakery or her two sisters in years.

But now Nicole is sick, and Jesse is AWOL. Despite the fact that Claire can't boil water, she's determined to play caretaker. Connecting with her sisters tops her to-do list…along with falling in love, or at least in lust, for the first time.

Ruggedly sexy Wyatt just might fit the bill. Although he keeps saying that he and Claire come from entirely different worlds, he lights up hotter than a bakery oven whenever Claire is near. If this keeps up, she just might sweet—talk him into her bed…and her life.

Click HERE for your free download.

Finally, a contest where you can get the audiobook (CD format) of Right on the Money: Financial Advice for Tough Times. ($9.99 Kindle; $17.24 Audio CD) by Pat Robertson.

Book Description
You know that Pat Robertson is a world-famous televangelist, but did you know that he's also an expert in financial matters? In his weekly broadcast segment, "Money Monday", Dr. Robertson answers viewers' questions about all things financial. His deep knowledge of finance, based on sound economic - and Biblical - principles, has made him a "go to" resource for hundreds of thousands of CBN viewers.
Now he has written a book that is accessible to everyone and provides answers people desperately need in today's tough times.
Among the topics he addresses are how to:
* Create a healthy financial plan
* Devise spending strategies tohelp you live within your budget
* Identify areas where your money can grow
* Build a nestegg
* Maximize your tax savings
* Cut costs
* Diminish your debt
* Invest wisely
* Make prudent financial decisions
* Plan for the future
* Enjoy peace of mind and God's financial protection

RIGHT ON THE MONEY also includes a financial glossary, worksheets and a special section of the most frequently asked questions & answers about keeping what you have and growing your personal net worth.

For your chance at a free copy of the audiobook, leave a comment on J. Kaye's Book Blog.

Book Review: Dead Man's Rain

Dead Man's Rain, by Frank Tuttle, is currently a free Kindle download, courtesy of the publisher Samhain. Unlike many of the books they've offered as free downloads, this one isn't erotica, instead relying on a plot to keep you turning the pages. Dead Man's Rain is a short novel and I easily finished reading it in a couple of hours.

The author's warning and the description reminded me of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series and it was hard not to make a comparison of the two when reading. The short nature of the novel, however, meant that there was not time for the same character development that Butcher's series is known for. Instead, this is the story of a single case investigated by a Finder named Merkhat. There are trolls and ogres, mentioned (quite literally) in passing and I still don't know what a Finder might be and he receives quite a bit of unasked for (and unwanted at the time) help from another character who hexes him (for his own good, of course). Still, the plot kept me interested enough to keep reading thru quickly (a hazard of the Kindle - if the book gets boring, I have hundreds more to choose from at any moment).

A second book in the series, The Mister Trophy ($2.00), is also available on the Kindle, while the third hasn't migrated over yet (but is available in the Samhain bookstore, just not for the Kindle).

The Mister Trophy

A troll's missing head could cause Markhat to lose his own.

All the finder Markhat wanted was a beer at Eddie's. Instead he gets a case that will bring him face to fang with crazed, blood-craving halfdead, a trio of vengeful Troll warriors, and Mama Hog's backstreet magic. Plus, the possible resurgence of the Troll War.

All right in his own none-too-quiet neighborhood.

Through the town of Rannit's narrow alleys and mean streets, Markhat tries to stay one step ahead of disaster. And ignore Mama Hog's dire warnings that this time, the head that rolls could be his own.

Warning: This book contains well-dressed vampires, extremely polite Trolls, and occasional bursts of humor. Avoid reading it when landing aircraft, welding in the nude, or taunting grumpy jackals while wearing pork chop earmuffs.

Free Read Friday

What better way to start out the weekend than with a free read or two. First up, Brandon Sanderson has released the final version of WarBreaker, now available in Hardcover($17.80; not available on Kindle) as a free PDF download (HERE). Looks like a perfect test for the new Kindle DX later today.

Book Description

After bursting onto the fantasy scene with his acclaimed debut novel, Elantris, and following up with his blockbuster Mistborn trilogy, Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is today’s leading master of what Tolkien called “secondary creation,” the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own.

Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.

Next up is Soul View, yet another free book from Jeff Inlo, who has also previously made his Delver Magic series available for free. Click HERE for Soul View and Jeff's other books.

Book Description

Dr. Jim Sagacity is a Marriage and Family Therapist that has the special ability to see deep inside other people. He can see their souls. He volunteers at a Philadelphia hospital in order to be as close to death as possible, for during most fatalities, he watches the spirit of the recently deceased depart this world in a display of pure joyous wonder. Throughout his life, he celebrates his ability in secret, focusing on the sheer elation of these transitions, until one day he is shown that not all souls are willing or able to take that all important step to the next realm. Weaker souls, small and dim to Jim’s eyes, face a darker fate.

With a new understanding of what death might mean, Dr. Sagacity joins a group of other specially gifted people in hopes of assisting those spirits he believes lack the strength to move on to a new existence. Pooling their incredible and supernatural talents, they pinpoint those individuals that are facing death in the very near future. Jim Sagacity experiences the complexities of working with others focused beyond the constraints of this physical realm, but within a society attentive to the normal realities of death, despair and even murder. He finds that not everyone shares his views, that the truth can often be distorted, and that the world he lives in can be a very difficult and dangerous place.

Free EBook - The Anomaly

When Asher Dan introduced the Kindle edition of his book, The Anomaly ($4.79; Paperback $9.99), last year, he offered a free book a day to get some readers and reviewers (there are 15 reviews on the Amazon page). It's too late to get in on that deal, but he has a PDF version of the book available as a free download on his web site.

Book Description

Truly...the light of discovery was burning brightly at Fermilab, but some things are better left in darkness. Some doors should never be opened; better they be bolted shut-forever! That giant particle accelerator not only unlocked the secrets of matter and energy, it punched a hole through the very fabric of space and time. What emerged from that hole was not of this world, maybe-not even of this universe.

The trouble with having a skeleton key is that you can never be sure of what's standing behind the door it unlocks. And as that door creeps open, you may just find that no matter how hard you push, something on the other side pushes back-just a little bit harder. And there's nothing you can do to close it again.

1st Corinthians 1:19 "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."

Get a free PDF copy of the book HERE, where you'll also find sample chapters and can listen to the audio Prologue.

Free Ebook from Harlequin - The Rebel Doctor's Bride

Harlequin has added a seventeenth free book to their celebration page, The Rebel Doctor's Bride (Harlequin Medical)($4.99 Paperback; not on Kindle) by Sarah Morgan.

Book Description

Sexy but dangerous! That's how the residents of Glenmore Island remember Conner MacNeil--and now he's back. He may be a top-notch surgeon now, but the twinkle in his eyes promises he's still as rebellious as ever. It will take every ounce of his charm to win over his patients...and his practice nurse, Flora Harris.

Flora was convinced she was the only girl at school who hadn't been kissed by Conner MacNeil. Now roguish Conner has returned, and awakens a longing within her that she just can't ignore.

Conner never imagined that Glenmore could feel like home--but is the rebel being tamed by idyllic island life? With Flora by his side it seems anything is possible!

Download your free copy HERE (scroll down to the very bottom of the page). Once again, the Mobi version has DRM (it wont' even open in Mobireader, which says the book is corrupted), so it won't open in Calibre or my Kindle), so grab the MSReader/LIT version for a quick conversion via Calibre and you can be reading it in less than a minute.

Harlequin has apparently added the mobipocket option back on all the free titles -- but every one I tried had DRM, so is for the desktop mobireader software only, it seems.