Free Book (nook) - Hunt at the Well of Eternity

Hunt at the Well of Eternity ($4.79 Kindle), by Gabriel Hunt, is this week's Free Friday pick at Barnes & Noble (although I'm a bit late squeezing it in here). This is, as usual, a DRM'd B&N Epub and works only with the nook or one of the nook Apps.

Book Description
A blood-stained Confederate flag and the beautiful woman carrying it put Gabriel Hunt on the trail of a secret hidden deep in the Central American jungle-a secret that might just be the legendary Fountain of Youth . . .

Click HERE for the free book from B&N.

Free Game - Word Monaco

This week's free game from Sandlot is another repeat, but since it is a word game and I have a lot of new readers, I'm going to repeat my previous post, including how I managed to get it running on my newest computer.

The free game this week at Sandlot Games is Word Monaco ($6.95 Amazon Game Downloads). This was also free back in mid-January, for those who have followed this blog for a while.

I have this installed on my XP notebook, but have been unable to get it to unlock on my Windows 7 computer. Update: I disabled my antivirus software in Windows 7 (since I've been running the same program with no issues on another computer and was using the same install file, there wasn't much risk in this), reinstalled and unlocked with no problem at all. Apparently this can be a problem with some of Sandlot's older games (it depends on the antivirus program, not necessarily the OS version).

Game Description

• A Unique Blend of Word Creation and Solitaire
• 50,000+ Entries In A Massive Word List
• 5 Decks From Easy To Champion
• 75 Progressively Challenging Levels

Welcome to Word Monaco! Relax under the warm sun of the Mediterranean and play a unique blend of word-creation and solitaire. Create words by moving letters from column to column and use power-ups for bonus points. When all of the letters are used, you'll move on to the next of 75 progressively difficult levels in 6 different locations! With a word list of over 50,000+ words and 5 decks of varying difficulty, there are endless possibilities.

Click HERE to sign up for the free download. For step by step purchase and installation instructions, see this post.

26 Free Books from Borders

Borders.com has finally managed to get their ebookstore up and running. So far, it wins my award for worst ebook design by a major company, but they do have up a page where you can download a number of free books. It appears that the list changes from time to time (it's changed just since yesterday, for me) and there is no particular order to the list.  You do need to create an account at Borders.com and be logged in before you try to "buy" the book and most of these are in DRM'd epub format, while a few are DRM'd PDF's (none are Kindle compatible). When you click on the button to get the book, if you are successful, you'll see a message to that effect and an offer to be taken to your ebook library. If unsuccessful for any reason, you see a message that there were technical difficulties. This may mean that the book is only available to download via the Border's Kobo app (which is free) or that you already have the book in your library or that gremlins interfered and you should just try again (which actually worked on a couple of these, for me). If you must use the Border's app, you have to search for these by name and you may or may not even be able to find the book there (did I mention that they have the worst design ever?). If you do, just check to make sure that the app shows that the book is free (if it is not, the price will be clearly displayed on the purchase button).  Books purchased in this way must be read in the Kobo app, but I have had most of them eventually appear as epubs in my library, which means that you can then download them for any epub compatible reader.

Here is the current list:

1. Colters’ Woman
2. A Safe Harbor
3. Crazed Hearts
4. Collision Course, by K. A. Mitchell
5. Distracting The Duchess, by Emily Bryan
6. Fade The Heat, by Colleen Thompson
7. Double Enchantment, by Kathryne Kennedy
8. Hara’s Legacy
9. Fiance At Her Fingertips, by Kathleen Bacus
10. Long Hard Ride
11. Rapture’s Tempest, by Bobbi Smith
12. Lord Of Devil Isle, by Connie Mason
13. Shadow Bound, by Erin Kellison
14. Marked, by Elisabeth Naughton
15. Sin’s Daughter, by Eve Silver
16. The River Nymph, by Shirl Henke
17. Sunrise In A Garden Of Love & Evil, by Barbara Monajem
18. Standoff, by Lauren Dane
19. The Magic Knot, by Helen Scott Taylor
20. The Ghost Exterminator
21. Trey
22. Weddings Can Be Murder, by Christie Craig
23. The Strangely Beautiful Tale Of Miss Percy Parker, by Leanna Renee Hieber
24. To Tempt A Knight, by Gerri Russell
25. The Wicked House Of Rohan, by Anne Stuart
26. Wolf Signs, by Vivian Arend

Click HERE to get the books from Borders.

Pre-Order The Land of Painted Caves for $10

This is a bit above my usual bargain limit, but you can now pre-order The Land of Painted Caves, by Jean M. Auel, for $9.99. This was nearly $15 when it was first made available to pre-order and the digital list price is $30.00; the Hardcover pre-order price is $16.20 and the Large Print edition is nearly $20 (at at over 1200 pages, I hesitate to think how heavy and awkward it would be to carry around and read). I know that a lot of my readers jumped on The Clan of the Cave Bear: with Bonus Content when it became availabe at $1.59 (and so did I), but no doubt hesitated to order the final volume in this series at the initial price. Remember, with a pre-order Kindle book, you'll get the lowest of the price at the time you order or when it is released, but there is no low-price guarantee to get the lowest price in between (although it does happen now and then, I've heard of the former occuring a lot more often). So, if you did have the higher price, be sure to click over and cancel it (on the Manage My Kindle page) and then re-order at this price.

Book Description

The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children® series, THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors.

Free Game - Bejeweled 2 (Today/Tonight Only)

I found this one pretty late, but if you see this post in the next few hours, you can pick up Bejeweled 2 ($11.82 PC), from PopCap Games, as a free download, tonight only, until 10:00 PM PST.

Game Description
Get set to play the PopCap game that set the standard in casual gaming! Match sparkling gems three at a time to make them burst in showers of color and points. Match four or more to create flashy power gems that boost your score and your mood with brilliant cascades and combos.

Soar to gem-matching heights in Classic mode, or speed through matches against the clock in Action. For even more dazzling fun, bump up your brainwaves with multi-faceted Puzzles, or enter the Zen state of Endless play. Every match is high-carat fun!

Click HERE for the free game. You'll need to use a real email address or print out or save your order code, as you'll need it to activate the game.