Game of the Day - Cake Mania 2 (98 cents)

Some of you may have picked up Cake Mania ($6.99) last week when Amazon had it as a free download. Today, Amazon has the next in the series, Cake Mania 2, as the Video Game of the Day. You get the full game download for 98 cents, provided you purchase by midnight tonight.

Game Description
You Choose Jill's Path And Future.
18 All-New Quirky Customers.
204 Sweet Levels.
50 Unique Kitchen Upgrades.
Jill is back in an all-new, out-of-this-world adventure! Explore six far-flung bakery locations, serving up deliciously original creations! What awaits Jill? Fame? Fortune? Love? In Cake Mania 2, you choose which path Jill pursues, with each decision leading to new baking challenges and dilemmas. With 204 levels of baking and frosting madness, 6 different possible endings and a branching, non-linear storyline, it's your decision to make in Cake Mania 2!

This game should also qualify as a purchase for the Buy One, Get One Free offer that Amazon is currently running.

Ayn Rand for free at Fictionwise

Amazon still doesn't have any Ayn Rand titles in the Kindle store other than the public domain Anthem, but other ebookstores are starting to carry her titles. Fictionwise now has 19 (two of which are versions of Anthem) titles by Ayn Rand and is running a 100% micropay rebate on the titles, thru October 4.

Unlike many of their other 100% rebates, this one lets you use your current micropay credit and still get the rebate, making the books 100% free, so long as you have enough credit for the most expensive book (about $17 if you are a member and have the 25% off coupon from their recent survey, or $26 otherwise). If you don't have any credit there, you can use PayPal or a credit card for the first book (get the most expensive one, Letters of Ayn Rand), then use the credit from that purchase to buy the others, one at a time until you have the entire set. You'll then have the same amount of credit that you started with (or $25.50 if you had to start an account from scratch), that you can use on other books later on.

The only caveat is that the books (other than one of the Anthem editions, which is in the DRM free Multiformat) won't work on your Kindle or Sony Reader. All of them can be had in Fictionwise's (and now Barnes & Noble's) DRM'd eReader format (so should work on the B&N reader to be released later this year, but also work on iphones/ipod touch). All but one also can be purchased in a DRM'd mobipocket format and that last one can be purchased in a Microsoft Reader format (also with DRM). All of the formats will work fine on your PC: the eReader format will be tied to a credit card number and exact name used for the purchase, so make sure you keep track of that; the Mobi versions are tied to specific machines, but you can update the list of machines anytime as your PC/notebook/netbook get upgraded; the Microsoft Reader (LIT) format only requires the software be installed and authorized on any machine (nothing to set up at Fictionwise or keep track of, however getting a new machine authorized can sometimes take several days, as there is only one server at Microsoft that can do the authorizations and it can be down for several days at a time, as I ran into the last time I installed it on my netbook).

Still, the entire Ayn Rand library for free isn't a bad deal, even if you have to read it on your PC or your phone. There doesn't seem to be any reason you can't buy all the available formats, either, if you want to cover your bases, in case you get a different reader later on.

Free Book at Smashwords - Boomerang

Boomerang ($1.00 Kindle), by Alan Hutcheson, can be purchased at no cost on Smashwords, thru October 1. Offer Updated and extended - use coupon code QQ46G DL66H and you can get the book free thru October November 15.

If you'd prefer to get it from Amazon, you'll want to wait a couple of days, so that you can get the corrected cover and updated formatting. Once the cover changes in the Kindle store to match the one at Smashwords, you should get the corrected version. With all the changes to copyright verification being done at Amazon, minor changes that don't change any text are taking an average of five working days to be processed and any text changes seem to trigger another copyright search, so it may be next week before Amazon catches up. Of course, the Smashwords version isn't limited to the Kindle, so can be read on most ereader devices out there.

Book Description
Ted Hogwood's beloved Sarah, a jazz guitar, is in the window of Topp Dollar Pawn. The only way he can get the money to rescue her is to accept an assignment from the AABC, a not nearly official branch of the United States intelligence community. He is partnered with Jerry Kwiatkowski, master of the Hammond B-3 organ and chronic flatulence sufferer, to steal a boomerang containing secrets that should have died with J. Edgar Hoover over thirty years ago. It would be a simple job if only they knew what they were doing. And if a crossbow wielding assassin, two unemployed Australian women, The Director of Central Intelligence and a clothing optional former onion festival queen were not also hot on the boomerang's trail.

For the free download, click HERE and use coupon code GY65W after adding the book to your cart. Offer Updated and extended - use coupon code QQ46G and you can get the book free thru October 15.

Crime Always Pays

Crime Always Pays, by Declan Burke, can now be had for $1.25. This is the sequel to The Big O ($5.15 Hardcover), which is not yet available on Kindle.

Book Description
“You never get away. You’re always getting away.”

Karen and Ray want out. Rossi wants his ear back. Doyle wants Ray. Melody wants a good story. Sleeps just wants to do some soft time. A trans-Europe road-trip screwball noir, CRIME ALWAYS PAYS features a cast of cops and robbers, losers and hopers, villains, saints and a homicidal Siberian wolf. You’ll never see the Greek islands in quite the same light again …

Double Exposure for Two Bucks

Double Exposure, by Michael Lister, has been marked down to $1.99. I suspect it is part of the monthly $1.99 unadvertised specials Amazon has been running, so the price may hold for another couple of days (then again, it may not). In any case, it's a stand-alone thriller with all five-star reviews (except from Publisher's Weekly and they seem to take the critical aspect of being a critic as a requirement for their reviews).

Book Description
Following his dad’s death, Remington James returns to the small North Florida town where he grew up to assume his father’s life—taking care of his dying mother and running the local gun and pawn shop.One fateful fall evening, as the sun sinks and the darkness expands, Remington ventures deep into the river swamp to try out some new equipment and check his camera traps. Encountering the kind of wildlife that made him want to be a photographer in the first place, Remington gets some of the best shots of his life, but he’s about to happen upon the most dangerous animal of all—a feral, patient, sociopath who wants Remington dead.