Game of the Day - Trine

Amazon's Game Download of the Day is a $9.99 download of Trine. You can also pick up the DVD-ROM version of Trine for only $3.99 (but no free shipping); it has good reviews, except for one that had a problem with the DRM scheme (only on the DVD-ROM, not on the download version) of a copy he purchased from Best Buy. This one doesn't have a free trial version, unfortunately, so you can't try the download first before deciding which version, if any, to purchase.

Game Description (from the DVD version)

• Combines traditional 2D platformer gameplay with stunning full 3D graphics
• Control all three heroes taking advantage of their individual strengths, weapons, and skills as they travel across a brand new fantasy world in this immersive platformer
• Avoid deadly traps while using each character's special abilities to navigate challenging puzzles that all have multiple solutions
• Search for powerful items and weapons that will make your heroes stronger Increase your characters skills and attributes as you gain experience
• 4 difficulty levels from easy to very hard for the expert player. Up to 3 player co-op campaign on the same screen

In a kingdom facing chaos and forbidden magic, three heroes are bound (whether they like it or not) by a powerful artifact called “the Trine”. This unlikely trio are the only ones that can put an end to the reign of the dark sorcerer that rules the kingdom. Pontius the brave, Amadeus the magnificent and Zoya the silent will have come to together and use their different skills in order to face danger and restore peace.

Two Buck Mysteries

Two more of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries are marked down to $1.99 this month, making six total in this series that have been or are available at bargain prices. You can still pick up last month's titles from Amazon and Kobo (although Kobo hasn't discounted this month's titles, yet):

• Crocodile on the Sandbank ($1.99 Kindle; Kobo), the first in the Amelia Peabody series.
• The Hippopotamus Pool ($1.99 Kindle; Kobo), the eighth in the Amelia Peabody series.

The Last Camel Died at Noon ($1.99 Kindle, B&N and Sony), the sixth in the Amelia Peabody series.

Book Description
This time Amelia Peabody, her dashing husband Emerson, and their son, Ramses, set off for a promising archaeological site in the Sudan, only to be unwillingly drawn into the search for an African explorer and his young bride who went missing twelve years back. They survive the rigours of the desert, the death of their camels, and the perfidy of their guides, only to find themselves taken prisoner in a lost city and civilisation. Amelia and Emerson must bravely continue making archaeological finds while doing their best to rescue the innocent...and themselves.

The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog ($1.99 Kindle, B&N and Sony), the seventh in the Amelia Peabody series.

Book Description
In her previous outing, The Last Camel Died at Noon, Amelia Peabody and her dashing husband, Emerson, discovered a fabulous lost oasis in the Nubian desert. Now, in the seventh mystery in the series, the Emerson-Peabodys are traveling up the Nile once again to encounter their most deadly adversary, the Master Criminal, who is back at his sinister best. Amelia Peabody was unabashedly proud of her newest translation, a fragment of the ancient fairytale "The Doomed Prince". Later, she would wonder why no sense of foreboding struck her as she retold the story of the king's favorite son who had been warned that he would die from the snake, the crocodile, or the dog. Little did she realize, as she and her beloved husband sailed blissfully toward the pyramids of ancient Egypt, that those very beasts (and a cat as well) would be part of a deadly plot. The expedition began so happily....Leaving their delightful, but catastrophically precocious, son, Ramses, back in England, Amelia hoped this romantic trip might rejuvenate her thirteen-year-old marriage and bring back the thrills that she feared were fading. She and her dear Emerson were returning to the remote desert site where they had first fallen in love, Amarna, the holy city of Akhenaton and his beautiful queen, Nefertiti. But their return would threaten not only their marriage, but their very lives with perils as chilling as a mummy'scurse. An old enemy was determined to learn Amelia and Emerson's most closely guarded secret: the location of a legendary long-lost oasis and a race of people bedecked in gold. So cunning was his scheme that Amelia might overlook - until it was too late...

Free Book (EPUB/PDF) - The Last Days of a Rake

The Last Days of a Rake, by Donna Lea Simpson, is free to pre-order at BooksOnBoard and releases on June 14. This appears to be a fairly short selection from the new publisher Carina Press and is a companion piece to Love & Scandal ($4.79 Kindle), which will be released on June 21. So far, I don't see this one available as a pre-order at Amazon or B&N, though, so grab it while it's free at BoB.

Book Description
In Love & Scandal, Collette Jardiniere is outraged when notorious roué Charles Jameson appears to take credit for The Last Days of a Rake, a novel she wrote under the pseudonym Colin Jenkins to satisfy Victorian convention.

Can a rake be true to himself, yet remain free from sin?

Edgar Lankin has lived the life of rake, a man who cares for nothing but the pleasures of the flesh. But it is the seduction—and abandonment—of a gentle maiden that turns him from mere gadabout to immoral cad. Too late, Lankin realizes his self-centered ways have left him incapable of finding enjoyment in anything. Now on his deathbed, he relates the shocking tale of his wasted life to John Hamilton, a school chum who chose a different path.

In telling his story, can Lankin find redemption for the trail of ruined lives he leaves behind?

Available in PDF or EPUB formats. Bob claims you will need ADE to download and install (a message displays during checkout), but the publisher has said these are supposed to be DRM free.

Hide for Under a Dollar

Hide ($0.79), by Lisa Gardner, the second volume of her D.D. Warren series, is being deeply discounted in the major ebookstores. All but the B&N listings include the info on the bonus content (but I suspect it contains it, as well). Amazon, though, has beat the bunch of them, by lowering the 99 cent discount price down to 79 cents this evening. Update: Now matched by Kobo.

I do wish the publishers would offer the first book in these series as their specials (or, at least start there, then offer later books at later times). The first book in the series, Alone, is still selling for $6.29 to $7.59 in the same stores).

Book Description
This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following bonus content:
• Lisa Gardner on Detective D.D. Warren: Who was the inspiration for D.D. Warren? Find out in this exclusive essay.
• A Sneak Preview from Lisa Gardner’s Live to Tell, on sale July 13, 2010

You have good reason to be afraid. . . .

It was a case that haunts Bobby Dodge to this day—the case that nearly killed him and changed his life forever. Now, in an underground chamber on the grounds of an abandoned Massachusetts mental hospital, the gruesome discovery of six mummified corpses resurrects his worst nightmare: the return of a killer he thought dead and buried. There’s no place to run. . . . Bobby’s only lead is wrapped around a dead woman’s neck. Annabelle Granger has been in hiding for as long as she can remember. Her childhood was a blur of new cities and assumed identities. But what—or who—her family was running from, she never knew. Now a body is unearthed from a grave, wearing a necklace bearing Annabelle’s name, and the danger is too close to escape. This time, she’s not going to run. You know he will find you. . . .

The new threat could be the dead psychopath’s copycat, his protégé—or something far more terrifying. Dodge knows the only way to find him is to solve the mystery of Annabelle Granger, and to do that he must team up with his former lover, partner, and friend D. D. Warren from the Boston P.D. But the trail leads back to a woman from Bobby’s past who may be every bit as dangerous as the new killer—a beautiful survivor-turned-avenger with an eerie link to Annabelle. From its tense opening pages to its shocking climax, Hide is a thriller that delves into our deepest, darkest fears. Where there is no one to trust. Where there is no place left to hide.

Click HERE to get the book from B&N ($0.99)

Click HERE to get the book from Kobo ($0.99$0.79)

Click HERE to get the book from Sony ($0.99)

Free Book & Coffee (nook) - Home Safe

Home Safe ($9.99 Kindle), by Elizabeth Berg, is this week's free in-store ebook from Barnes and Noble. This is her next-to-most-recent novel, preceding The Last Time I Saw You ($9.99 Kindle), which came out this past April.

You'll need to stop by the store to get the coupon (and may or may not have to show an ereader device of some type with the B&N reader installed). While you are there, if your location has a cafe (some don't), show off your ereader app there, with a book showing, and you'll get a free small cup of coffee (which I am drinking as I type this post!).

Book Description
In this new novel, beloved bestselling author Elizabeth Berg weaves a beautifully written and richly resonant story of a mother and daughter in emotional transit. Helen Ames–recently widowed, coping with loss and grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her–is beginning to depend far too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, and is meddling in her life, offering unsolicited and unwelcome advice. Helen’s problems are compounded by her shocking discovery that her mild-mannered and loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. The Ameses had painstakingly saved for a happy retirement, but that money disappeared in several large withdrawals made by Helen’s husband before he died. In order to support herself and garner a measure of much needed independence, Helen takes an unusual job that ends up offering far more than she had anticipated. And then a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery that causes both mother and daughter to reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family.

Once you have your coupon, log into your account at bn.com (do this first, or you'll have to enter the code twice, at least on an iphone using the Safari browser), then to bn.com/redeem and enter the coupon code to add the book to your account.