Game of the Day - Mary Kay Andrews

Mary Kay Andrews: The Fixer Upper ($2.99), a game download for your PC, is Amazon's Video Game Deal of the Day.

Game Description
After her boss in a high-powered Washington public relations firm is caught in a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. Out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father's offer to help refurbish Birdsong, the old family place he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia. All it will take, he tells her, is a little paint and some TLC to turn the fading Victorian mansion into a real-estate cash cow.

But, oh, is Dempsey in for a surprise when she arrives in Guthrie. "Bird Droppings" would more aptly describe the moldering Pepto Bismol–pink dump with duct-taped windows and a driveway full of junk. There's also a murderously grumpy old lady, one of Dempsey's distant relations, who has claimed squatter's rights and isn't moving out. Ever!

Furthermore, everyone in Guthrie seems to know Dempsey's business, from a smooth-talking real-estate agent to a cute lawyer who owns the local newspaper. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the pesky FBI agents who show up on Dempsey's doorstep, hoping to pry information about her ex-boss from her.

All Dempsey can do is roll up her sleeves and get to work. And before long, what started as a job of necessity somehow becomes a labor of love and, ultimately, a journey that takes her to a place she never expected—back home again.

• Based on the New York Times bestseller from Mary Kay Andrews.
• Watch Birdsong transform throughout the game as you work to restore it.
• Help Dempsey restore Birdsong and clear her name!
• Over 30 levels of hidden object gameplay
• Over 15 mini games to help fix up the house.

Free Book - Honour of the Grave

Honour of the Grave, by Robin Laws, the first in his Angelika Fleischer trilogy, is this week's free book from The Black Library. Just as with previous week's selections, this is an out of print paperback that has just been introduced in ebook form (and isn't in the Kindle store). You can, however, read it on your Kindle by downloading the DRM-free Mobi version from the website below (click with your Kindle and it should load automatically).

Book Description
Follow our battlefield looting heroine and her painfully good-hearted deserter sidekick Franziskus as they find themselves entangled in the hunt for a young noble, subject to a pitiless family tradition.

As the Empire's mighty armies clash against the rampaging hordes of evil, they leave in their wake the detritus of war, including the dead and the dying. Resourceful Angelika Fleischer ekes a living by looting the bloody battlefields, searching for the trinkets and gold carried by soldiers of all sides. But an encounter with the mysterious Kopf brothers leaves Angelika desperate to discover the dark truth behind their quest to find their missing brother before the sweeping tide of battle overtakes them all.

Click HERE for the free book; you can choose between the EPUB and MOBI formats and both are DRM-Free! While you are there, be sure to pick up the previous weeks' books, as well, as they are still available.

Free Book (PDF) - Vampire Lover

Vampire Lover ($2.39 Kindle), by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, a paranormal romance novella from Harlequin, is free from Books on Board, in PDF format only. It is DRM-free, however, so you can read it as-is on most readers or email it to your Kindle for conversion.

Book Description
Kelsie Connor is looking for a big headline to jumpstart her career as a journalist--like proving the existence of vampires and werewolves. She's always felt that Others exist, though she's never met one herself. So on the night of the Blood Moon, Kelsie goes looking for a werewolf...but meets a vampire instead. A vampire who makes her blood run hot and makes her feel things she never imagined a body could feel.

Hayden Flann had been secretly watching Kelsie for some time, drawn to her by a powerful bloodlust and equally strong sexual attraction. But Hayden recognizes that he and Kelsie are connected by more than passion. Little does she know that Hayden is not just her lover--he's also her enemy, born to seduce her before he kills her....

Click HERE for the free book. When you click on Buy Now, be careful to then add the "Adobe Digital Editions" version to your cart, as it is the only free format. Then continue thru checkout and download the PDF.

Free Book - The Demon Girl

The Demon Girl, by Penelope Fletcher, is free in the UK store only (it is available to US and UK customers in the US store, but is $0.99 or £1.33, respectively). It's also free on Smashwords, for all countries and in multiple, DRM-free formats.

Book Description
Rae Wilder has problems. Plunged into a world of dark magic, fierce creatures and ritual sacrifice, she is charged with a guarding a magical amulet. Rae finds herself beaten up, repeatedly, and forced to make a choice: to live and die human, or embrace her birth-right and wield magics that could turn her into something wicked, a force of nature nothing can control.

Click HERE to get the book free from Smashwords.

Free Book (nook) - Crush

Crush ($6.39), by Alan Jacobson, is this week's free Friday book at Barnes and Noble. It isn't free at Amazon, but that might change if every reader uses the "tell us about a lower price?" button on the Amazon page. This is the second book in his Karen Vail series/trilogy and I now have the complete series, all as free downloads (although not all from the same bookstore).

Book Description
Fresh off the most challenging case of her career, The 7th Victim heroine and renowned FBI profiler Karen Vail returns in an explosive thriller set against the backdrop of California’s wine country. Hoping to find solace from the demons that haunt her, Vail makes her first trip to the Napa Valley. But shortly after arriving, a victim is found in the deepest reaches of an exclusive wine cave, the work of an extraordinarily unpredictable serial killer. From the outset, Vail is frustrated by her inability to profile the offender—until she realizes why: the Behavioral Analysis Unit has not previously encountered a killer like him. As Vail and the task force work around the clock to identify and locate him, they’re caught in a web knotted with secretive organizations, a decades-long feud between prominent wine families, and widespread corruption that leads Vail to wonder whom, if anyone, she can trust. Meanwhile, as the victim count rises, Vail can't shake the gnawing sense that something isn't right. With the killer’s actions threatening the Napa Valley’s multi-billion dollar industry, the stakes have never been greater, and the race to find the killer never more urgent. And through it all, a surprise lurks…one that Karen Vail never sees coming. Meticulously researched during years of work with the FBI profiling unit and extensive interviews with wine industry professionals, bestselling author Alan Jacobson delivers a high-velocity thriller featuring the kind of edge-of-your-seat ending that inspired Nelson DeMille to call him "a hell of a writer."

Click HERE for the free download. If you haven't used the B&N store since their (generally unliked, from comments on their forums) update, you now use the "Download Now" button to add a free book to your library, rather than a "Buy" button. In addition, they are notorious for glitches in ordering, so always check both the confirmation page and the email you receive, to make sure you are not charged for one of their free books. The worst they've gotten me for was a penny (but over 60 times in a row, when they first opened (which freaked out my credit card company), but last week they were charging numerous people full price on the freebie books.