Bargain Romance

Today's post brings you romance from both new and known authors. As always, prices can change without notice at Amazon, so be sure to check the details before clicking on Buy.

To Taste Temptation ($1.99), by Elizabeth Hoyt

Book Description
The ton loves nothing more than a good scandal, and they're giddy with the appearance of wealthy Samuel Hartley. Not only is he self-made, American, and in the habit of wearing moccasins, but he is also notorious for fleeing a battle in which several English gentlemen lost their lives. What the ton doesn't know, though, is that Samuel is in London because of this massacre. He believes his regiment was given up to the enemy and won't rest until he finds the traitor.

Lady Emeline Gordon is captivated with Samuel. Not only does he defy convention with his unusual dress, his sensual smile, and his forthright manner, but he survived the battle that killed her beloved brother. Samuel suspects that the person responsible for her brother's death is Jasper Renshaw, Viscount Vale, a family friend since childhood--and Emeline's fiancé. Despite Emeline's belief in Vale's innocence and her refusal to break off her betrothal, she and Samuel begin a passionate affair. But can their relationship survive the fallout from Samuel's investigation?

Faking It ($0.99), by Elisa Lorello

Book Description
What happens when a writing professor and a male escort become friends? Thirty-four-year old professor Andi Cutrone has broken up with her fiancé in Massachusetts, moved back to her native New York, and wants to be a better lover. So after meeting Devin, a handsome, charming escort, she proposes an unusual arrangement: lessons about writing in exchange for lessons about sex. When Devin accepts Andi’s proposal, he draws up a contract in which the two are forbidden to see each other socially. There’s just one problem: Andi also wants Devin. Faking It is a witty, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching story about relationships, writing, and getting real.

Posh ($1.96), by Lucy Jackson

Book Description
It’s a world of over-the-top entitlement and tribal customs, a world of surface interactions and deep needs—a world of private schools and privilege. Griffin is a preparatory school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with the best students—and the richest parent body—the city has to offer. The emotionally charged lives of the teenagers and adults that collide and intersect at Griffin include those of:

• Kathryn “Lazy” Hoffman is the headmistress at the Griffin School, in the midst of an affair she almost can’t remember why she started. Lazy ministers to children, but her cross to bear is the parents—especially those who wonder why their little darlings aren’t going to Harvard
• Michael Avery, smart driven, and clearly on the fast track to Cambridge, but so troubled that he becomes a burden to his girlfriend
• Julianne Coopersmith, a sweetly compassionate child of divorce who happily wears designer hand-me-downs from her best friend, and adores Michael even in the face of his neediness and meltdowns
• Susan Avery, who is detached from her brilliant but tortured son, and finds it’s easier to love her Chinese Crested Hairless than her own child
• Dee Coopersmith, whose life driving a cab couldn’t be a bigger contrast to the rest of the parent body at Griffin, but whose sense of self and fierce protection of her daughter have unexpected consequences

Fast-paced, gently satirical, yet deeply felt, POSH is a surprisingly poignant and knowing novel distinguished by its spare and elegant prose.

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers ($2.99), by Sarah-Kate Lynch

Book Description
Set on a small Irish dairy farm, this tender and funny debut novel follows two lost souls as they try to carve out new lives amid a colorful cast of characters reminiscent of those in the hit film Waking Ned Divine. Abby has been estranged from the family farm since her rebellious mother ran off with her when she was a small child. Kit is a burned out New York stockbroker who's down on his luck. But that's all about to change, now that he and Abby have converged on the farm just in time to help Corrie and Fee, two old cheesemakers in a time of need. Full of delightful and quirky characters--from dairy cows who only give their best product to pregnant, vegetarian teens to an odd collection of whiskey-soaked men and broken-hearted women who find refuge under Corrie and Fee's roof.

BLESSED ARE THE CHEESEMAKERS is an irresistible tale about taking life's spilled milk and turning it into the best cheese in the world.

Wrapped ($0.99), by Meryl McQueen

Book Description
Set against a canvas of frenzied corporate New York City, a family farm in rural Ohio, a glass-and-chrome skyscraper in the medieval city of Milan, and a villa on the Ligurian coast, this a fast-paced story of ambition, displacement, loyalty, and love.

Twenty-two-year-old Andrea Carole is smart. Smart enough to ooze through a double math/economics degree at Cornell. Smart enough to duck serious relationships. Not smart enough to duck a dangerous romance with a handsome stranger thirty years her senior.

Across the Atlantic, Massimo Bassanini is in trouble. At fifty-three, used to wrangling his way in love, family, and corporate war, he’s a successful entrepreneur with a problem: he needs a new financial adviser, someone as driven and brilliant as he is. One phone call to New York, and the stage is set for a collision of cultures, generations, and desire.

Father Mine: Zsadist and Bella's Story ($3.19), by JR Ward, is a short fiction/novella piece in her Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Book Description
Readers met and fell in love with Zsadist and Bella in J. R. Ward's third New York Times bestselling novel in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Awakened. As a former blood slave, Zsadist bore the scars from a past filled with suffering and degradation until Bella came along and helped heal his emotional wounds. Now, though, with the birth of their child, the demons of his past have been resurrected, called forth by the innocent eyes of his beloved daughter, Nalla. Unless Bella and Nalla can bring him back with their love, he may be lost to them forever.

Declaring Spinsterhood ($1.24), by Jamie Lynn Braziel

Book Description
What can you do when your family harps on you to get married (already!), when your delicious and alluring ex-boyfriend—cheater to the core—believes that you’ve fallen for another guy and sets out to woo and conquer (again), and when you suddenly realize that you have fallen in love with your best friend, the guy whose shoulder has always been available...but is presently being enjoyed by another woman? In Jamie Lynn Braziel’s riotous first novel, Declaring Spinsterhood, she explores the world of 30-something single women, the pressures they face to tie the knot, and what happens when that knot begins to feel more like a noose. In the world of Emma Bailey, nothing is sacred. Including, and most especially, marriage.

One-Click Buy: November 2009 Silhouette Desire and One-Click Buy: November 2009 Harlequin Blaze, from Harlequin, are each $9.99 and each contains 6 books - that's $1.66 per book.

Silhouette Desire
Bundle includes: Westmoreland's Way by Brenda Jackson, In the Arms of the Rancher by Joan Hohl, The Maverick's Virgin Mistress by Jennifer Lewis, Wedding at King's Convenience by Maureen Child, Christmas with the Prince by Michelle Celmer, His High-Stakes Holiday Seduction by Emilie Rose.

Harlequin Blaze
The temperature outside may be dropping...but we're heating things up with six sexy books from November 2009 Harlequin Blaze! Bundle includes: More Blazing Bedtime Stories by Julie Leto and Leslie Kelly, Power Play by Nancy Warren, Hot Spell by Michelle Rowen, Hold on to the Nights by Karen Foley, SEALed and Delivered by Jill Monroe, and Zero Control by Lori Wilde.

There are so many more that won't fit, I'll just link a few more for this week:

First, Jacquelyn Frank's entire catalog is on sale for $4.47 each, eight books total (there are two listings for Damien, so be careful not to buy both.

His Immortal Embrace (anthology) by Hannah Howell, Sara Blayne, Lynsay Sands & Kate Huntington ($3.83)
Dawn Encounter by Jennifer Blake ($4.32)
Challenge To Honor by Jennifer Blake ($5.04)
Seduced by A Stranger by Eve Silver ($4.47)
What A Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden ($3.19)
Betrayed Birthright by Sheri WhiteFeather ($3.24)
Condition of Marriage by Emilie Rose ($3.24)
Birthright by Judith Arnold ($3.24)
To Do List by Lauren Dane ($2.80)

Poetic Monthly Magazine Volume # 45 is now out and can be downloaded for free (PDF) HERE. If you like it, the first 44 issues are all available as free PDF's in their store (use the VIEW option next to each issue).

Over at Night Owl Romance, you can download several free reads, all of which are in PDF format and seem to be varying heat levels of romance/erotica.

Interview on Kindle Chronicles

If you've wondered where the name for the blog originated or who is this person that keeps finding bargain books, you might want to listen to my interview today at Kindle Chronicles (hosted by Len Edgerly, I've been a listener since he started). We talked a bit about some non-Amazon sources of books and fiction magazines for the Kindle and a bit about the upcoming Nook.

Two Buck Books

Several good deals for $1.99 today (which may last only a while or might last all month - I've seen a large number of under $2 Kindle books go up to the $9.99 to $15 range in the last two days).

Simple Wishes, by Lisa Dale

Book Description
GOING HOME IS THE LONGEST JOURNEY OF ALL...

Adele Matin couldn't wait to put her lonely childhood and hometown behind her. Amid the bright lights and hustle and bustle of New York, she built a life for herself--until one terrible mistake brought it crashing down. Now Adele is running again, this time to a cottage she inherited from her mother in rural Pennsylvania. And she's about to realize that a small town has more to offer than she ever dreamed.

An artist and woodworker, Jay Westvelt knows a thing or two about living in the country. Adele is intrigued by her mysterious and sexy green-eyed neighbor, a man who took care of her house and soon cares deeply for her. But even as Adele's heart begins to soften toward him, secrets from her mother's past threaten to send her fleeing back to the city. Can Jay convince her to stay with him?

Only if she can learn an important truth: that happiness begins with SIMPLE WISHES.

Put a Lid on It is this month's bargain from Donald Westlake. You can also get God Save the Mark for $3.59, an earlier work that won the MWA's Edgar Award in 1967 and the 1977 Kahawa for $4.79

Book Description
Meehan, a career thief staring at life without parole, is awaiting sentencing at the Manhattan Correctional Center when he is called to a meeting by someone masquerading as his lawyer. The man, it turns out, represents the presidential re-election campaign committee -- now finding itself in need of a little professional help. So they "outsource" Meehan in return for a walk from all pending criminal charges. All he has to do is steal a compromising video tape before the other side springs an "October Surprise" on the president. A shrewd burglar, Meehan bites, and shows just how easy Watergate would have been had they left it to the professionals.

The Naming of the Dead, by Ian Rankin

Book Description
The leaders of the free world descend on Scotland for an international conference, and every cop in the country is needed for front-line duty...except one. John Rebus's reputation precedes him, and his bosses don't want him anywhere near Presidents Bush and Putin, which explains why he's manning an abandoned police station when a call comes in. During a preconference dinner at Edinburgh Castle, a delegate has fallen to his death. Accident, suicide, or something altogether more sinister? And is it linked to a grisly find close to the site of the gathering? Are the world's most powerful men at risk from a killer? While the government and secret services attempt to hush the whole thing up, Rebus knows he has only seventy-two hours to find the answers.

The Blue Knight, by Joseph Wambaugh

Book Description
Ex-cop turned #1 New York Times bestselling writer Joseph Wambaugh forged a new kind of literature with his great early police procedurals. Gritty, luminous, and ultimately stunning, this novel is Wambaugh at his best--a tale of a street cop on the hardest beat of his life.

Twenty and two. Those are the numbers turning in the mind of William "Bumper" Morgan: twenty years on the job, two days before he "pulls the pin" and walks away from it forever. But on the gritty streets of L.A., people look at Bumper like some kind of knight in armor--they've plied him with come-ons, hot tips, and the hard respect a man can't earn anywhere else. Now, with a new job and a good woman waiting for him, a kinky thief terrorizing L.A.'s choice hotels, and a tragedy looming, Bumper Morgan is about to face the only thing that can scare him: the demons that he's been hiding behind his bright and shiny badge...


At $2.99, A Field of Darkness, by Cornelia Read, exceeds the $1.99 theme for today's post, but I wanted to include it today, in case the price changed before I was able to get to it. A debut novel, it has a good review from Publisher's Weekly, where even acclaimed authors often receive very critical reviews.

Book Description
Madeline Dare would be the first to tell you her money is so old there's none left. A former socialite from an aristocratic family in decline, Maddie is a tough-talking, would-be journalist exiled to the rust belt of upstate New York. Her prospects for changing her dreary lifestyle seem dim--until a set of dog tags found at a decades-old murder site is linked to her family. Shocked into action, Maddie embarks on a search that takes her from the derelict smokestacks of Syracuse to the posh mansions of Long Island's Gold Coast. But instead of the warm refuge of home, this prodigal daughter soon uncovers dark, sinister secrets that will violently challenge everything she believes in and holds dear.

Sudoku for a Penny

Interactive Sudoku for Kindle 2 and Kindle DX - Volume 1 ($0.01), from MobileReference. As you can guess from the title, this "book" doesn't work on the original Kindle, but will on the all the later generations. In addition, I've highlighted their note in the product description: you must have whispernet access and must turn it on as you start each new puzzle. I suspect this will work fine on the international Kindles, but may or may not work well on a US Kindle 2 that is outside the US (even though sporadic reports of these having working whispernet in other countries are starting to appear).

Book Description
Our best interactive Sudoku puzzles are now available for Kindle!

Whether you are a novice to Sudoku or an experienced player this collection will sharpen your mind.

Each Sudoku volume contains 20 different Sudoku puzzles: five puzzles for each difficulty level.

The objective a Sudoku game is to fill a 9X9 grid so that numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3X3 box.

With Mobi Sudoku you can:

* Check your progress at any time. The number of wrong entries will be reported.
* Remove errors. Use it if you feel you made too many mistakes and want to keep your correct entries but remove incorrect ones.
* See the solution
* Reset the puzzle if you want to start over.
* Add a clue if you feel that you are stuck. A single number will be added to a randomly chosen empty cell.

Note: Whispernet wireless needs to be turned on when a new game is loaded. Once a game is loaded, wireless can be turned off to conserve battery power.

Game of the Day - Puzzle Hero (99 cents)

Amazon's Video Game of the Day is a 99 cent download of Puzzle Hero. A combination of a match three and a role playing game, from what I can tell, it has only two reviews, but both are five stars.

Game Description

• Defeat More Than 50 Mystical 3D Monsters.
• Exhilarating Gameplay.
• Fantastic Selection Of Equipment.
• Collect Gold To Customize Your Hero.

Embark on a thrilling and amazing journey in this unique game! The Hero in you must save your kidnapped brother, Tristan, by freeing him from Zalock and his evil Army of Darkness! Outwit the puzzle and battle more than 50 mystical monsters that guard the road to the Kingdom of Fog. Increase your power by gathering gold and using it to shop for magical amulets, an amazing selection of weaponry, armor, and clothing accessories. Adventure and glory await you in Puzzle Hero!