Still no sign of the Kindle Deals of the Day page being updated, but that doesn't mean the deals are not there to be found, with a little digging. All of today's books are 99 cents or less, some from big name authors (or recommended by them), some from indie authors. Not all are Kindle books, a few are at
Kobobooks.com
or
Barnes and Noble and some at Smashwords. At
Kobobooks.com, current coupon codes are
Jan4us1 ($1 off selected books),
35%offbook (35% off one book) and
FBREADING (35% off unlimited use); generally these can be used on any non-Agency priced books.
Self-Improvement 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (
$0.99), by John Maxwell, is today's Student Deal of the Day.
Book Description
The best leaders know that success is about more than winning--it's about improving and developing. Self-Improvement 101 shares best-selling author John C. Maxwell's tips, tactics, and inspiration that compel leaders to reach ever higher levels.
Drawing from the wisdom in his books Your Road Map for Success, Talent Is Never Enough, Developing the Leaders Around You, Failing Forward, The 360 Degree Leader, Winning with People, and Leadership Gold, John C. Maxwell provides in Self-Improvement 101 the essentials all leaders need to keep striving for excellence no matter where they are or what they are doing. After all, great leaders who are growth oriented rather than goal oriented never "arrive," they just keep building upon what they are learning.
Jeffrey Archer Presents: New Wife (
$0.99 Kindle,
B&N,
Kobo
), by Mark Trainer, is a single short story; the sample starts out pretty well.
Book Description
In celebration of Jeffrey Archer’s latest short story collection, And Thereby Hangs a Tale, St. Martin’s Press sponsored the “Jeffrey Archer Presents” Short Story Competition. #1 New York Times bestselling author and master of the short story Jeffrey Archer is known for the precise wit and timely revelations in his tales, and now with this short story competition he has had the opportunity to recognize those same outstanding gifts in winner Mark Trainer’s New Wife.
What if you woke up with a lifetime of memories but were unable to recognize the wife you shared so many of them with? That’s exactly what happens to Danny when his wife Eve comes down the steps one morning. Her hair, her mouth, her hands—everything—it’s all wrong. He’s certain it’s just not her. But then why is Danny the only one who doesn’t recognize this “new wife?”
Confused and more afraid than he’s willing to admit even to himself, Danny’s responsibilities as a husband to a woman he doesn’t know and father to a son with hidden problems force Danny to face a future that is only slightly less knowable than his past.
An intimate look at a man trying to hold his family together while he seems to be coming apart, Mark Trainer’s New Wife is a remarkable story brimming with insight and affection.
Night Shift (
$0.99 B&N; $7.99
Kindle), by Lilith Saintcrow, is the Barnes and Noble spotlight book this month. Despite being an Agency priced book, only B&N has this special price (isn't that supposed to be one of the points of the Agency pricing, that the publisher sets the price and it's the same at ALL of it's agents?).
Book Description
Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night. Not everyone tries.
But Jill Kismet is not just anyone. She's a Hunter, trained by the best - and in over her head.
Welcome to the night shift...
A Turn of Curses (
$0.99 Kindle; $0.00
B&N), by Melanie Nilles
Book Description
Nineteen year old Selina has a life many would love–praised, served, and spoiled. The only problem is she didn't choose that life, because it comes with a heavy price. She will soon die, like all Healers, when the mark of Y'dom completes its pattern around her neck, and hers is nearly complete. Her gift of healing powers are sought after by all, including the ruling prince of a neighboring kingdom to heal his ailing father. Seeing this as her last chance for adventure, she makes the journey to Vastorn.
En route she encounters Faldon, the fallen leader of the feyquin, and his band of rogues. Cursed by a demon and swearing vengeance on the human who shares his curse, Faldon does all he can to stop Selina from completing her journey. But he also knows how to save Selina, if she survives the night mares.
65 Below (
$0.99 B&N; $2.99
Kindle,
Smashwords), by Basil Sands, is on my definitely recommended list, after reading the review copy sent to me by the author. He is running a contest and for every 1,000 copies of his book sold in the first quarter of the year, he will give away a Kindle Wi-Fi. Details are in the description on the Amazon page and you can get up to 11 entries in the drawings (you do have to email a copy of your receipt from one of the three stores).
Book Description
After twenty years hunting terrorists under orders to "render harmless", USMC Master Sergeant Marcus Orlando Johnson, Mojo to his friends, settles into a quiet rural retirement on his childhood home in the Alaskan backwoods. But the idyllic retirement is shattered when Marcus comes across soldiers of America's staunchest enemy who are about to unleash a nightmarish biological weapon on the world from the most unexpected of places. With the help of his ex-fiancee, State Trooper Lonnie Wyatt, and his old special operations buddy Harley Wasner they race to stop a potentially devastating terrorist attack with worldwide implications but even nature is against them as the temperatures plummet to 65 below.
The Half Life (
$0.99 Kindle,
B&N), a short story by Jennifer Weiner
Book Description
"My life is over," Piper DeWitt thinks to herself, awaiting departure in the overcrowded International Terminal of the Philadelphia airport for an overseas business trip, to romantic Paris no less. She watched as her husband, Tosh, put his own suitcase into the trunk of a taxi the day before. He’d been telling her for months that he wasn’t happy, and though she still wants to believe it is just a phase, after a call to her mother from the Admiral’s Club, she can no longer deny that he’s left her, left their home, left their four-year-old daughter in her mother’s sole care.
Piper met Tosh when she was only twenty-two, just the way self help books said she would – when she wasn’t looking. Now at forty, she wonders how, through all those years, they’d gotten to this place in their marriage. When her flight is canceled due to volcanic ash spreading from Iceland across Europe, and when a handsome stranger offers her an invitation to share a cab, she realizes she can take a departure from her own life. And after a day of living like a tourist in her own city, she hopes she can still find her way home…
All Is Bright (
$0.99 Kindle,
B&N), a short story by Sarah Pekkanen
Book Description
Thirty-year-old Elise Andrews couldn’t bring herself to marry Griffin, her childhood friend turned sweetheart, so she let him walk away. Eight months after their breakup, she arrives in her hometown of Chicago on Christmas Eve and hears a voice from the past calling her name in the grocery store. It’s Griffin’s mother, Janice, who invites Elise over for a neighborhood gathering of eggnog and carols.
Walking into Janice’s house sends Elise tumbling headlong into memories of her relationship with Griffin—and with Janice, who exudes the kind of warmth Elise ached for after her own mom passed away when she was six. But Griffin has moved on, and suddenly Elise doubts her decision to give him up and lose her chance at being folded into his wonderful family. Confused and reeling, she goes in search of an answer to a universal question: How do we say good-bye to people we’ve loved without losing everything they’ve meant to us?
Heartwarming and witty, All Is Bright is a charming story about coming home for the holidays—and finding gifts in the most unexpected of places.
Scourge (A Grim Doyle Adventure), is a pre-teen novel from David H. Burton, author of the (not children's) novel
The Second Coming (Words of the Prophecy). Both are currently marked down to 99 cents.
Book Description
Two dads, five siblings, and goggles! Grim Doyle has always known his life was not exactly "normal", and things get even more curious when he discovers a set of stones that sweep him and his family to the fantasy, steampunk world of Verne - a place they had escaped from years ago. Now that they've returned, Grim and his siblings hide from the evil Lord Victor and his minions. And while learning about Jinns, Mystics, and the power of absinth they try to discover who is trying to kill them with the deadly Scourge.
Ghost Country (
$2.99 Kindle), by Dana Michelle Burnett, is free
on Smashwords, using coupon code
LY53K.
Book Description
Carrying echoes of Amy Tan and Rebecca Wells, Ghost Country takes the reader into the lives of three Cherokee women and the lives of their modern day daughters. Told in a series of vignettes that alternate from the era of the Civil Rights Movement, Woodstock, and the Vietnam War, to the present day. Each story carries the reader through a world where a birthday wish can make people disappear; where a child, after being told that she is nothing, can find her way back to the forgotten Cherokee traditions; and where a woman can give her daughter a treasured bit of advice thanks to a dead rock star.
The Bad, The Good and Two Fly Fishing Women (
$2.99 Kindle), by Randy Kadish, is free
on Smashwords, using coupon code
DR53S.
Book Description
When Amanda’s mother deserts her to be with a new man, Amanda is hurt and betrayed. She loses faith in the world, especially when her grandmother, the greatest angler she knows, is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Amanda struggles to find answers, and then on the banks of the Junction River, a grieving, alcoholic friend and an unexpected, terrifying event surprisingly help her come to terms.
The Thorn (The Chronicles of Gan) (
$0.99 Kindle), by Daron Fraley, is free
on Smashwords.
Book Description
Three tribes are at war on the planet Gan, unaware that the sign of Christ’s birth on an unknown world - Earth - is about to appear in the heavens. During a bloody skirmish with Gideonite troops, Jonathan of Daniel spares Pekah, a young enemy soldier, gaining his trust forever. These two distant brothers from estranged tribes covenant with each other to end the war being waged by a self-proclaimed emperor, and soon discover the intentions of a far more dangerous foe named Rezon – a sinister general bent on ruling those he can bring into subjection and destroying all others. In the end, Pekah’s selfless bravery is the means by which all the tribes are united. But there are dissenters, and Rezon escapes a well-deserved fate. When the promised heavenly signs appear, will there be peace at last, or will the malefactors once again threaten the safety of them all?
Child of the Moon (
$2.99 Smashwords), by DN Charles, is free using coupon code
AK87Z.
Book Description
Balanced between relationships, a man calls out to the flesh for comfort, for a few nights of pleasure. Instead, his heart and soul are touched by a stranger. Child Of The Moon is year long journal in the minute, a gonzo work of sex, love and Rumi. It's an honest example of what happened to a man with a little money, and no strings attached, a man who seeks the dark side and finds enlightenment.
GRUBS (
$2.99 Kindle), by David McAfee, is free on
Smashwords.
Book Description
Eight scientists and one ex-marine accept an assignment to study the effects of deforestation in Aroostook County, Maine. It’s a routine job, and everything seems to be going according to plan. But when one of their number goes missing, leaving behind only a severed foot as evidence, former lieutenant Colby Phillips must lead an expedition to find him.
What they find instead is an entirely new species. A large breed of insect whose ravenous larvae display features and abilities never before seen in nature. The scientists’ amazement turns to fear when they find themselves at the bottom of the food chain. Can Colby lead the survivors to safety? Or is it already too late?
Of course, escape would be much easier if the dead would stay that way.
Ladies and Gentlemen...The Redeemers (
$0.99 Kindle,
B&N), by Michael Scott Miller
Book Description
Ladies and Gentlemen…The Redeemers tells the story of Bert Ingram, once a successful rep in the music industry, who has lost his way. Desperate for redemption, the perpetual dreamer decides to put together a band, recruiting musicians who have only one thing in common: the need to overcome a significant obstacle in their lives. The volatile mix of the musicians' personalities and backgrounds threatens to derail the band at every opportunity, but in time, the Redeemers begin to realize they have more to gain from one another than they ever could have imagined.
The Mastermind (
$0.99), by John Fitch V, is free on
Smashwords.
Book Description
A company wants to buy land in a small town for its newest superstore; unfortunately for the company, the property owners thwart their efforts. That is until it calls in an assassin that knows how to deal with such troublemakers.
He nearly completes his contract -- but when two teens realize what's going on, it makes them wonder who they can trust.
New Vegetarian ($1.99), by Yvonne Duivenvoorden and Robin Asbell, is today's Student Deal of the Day. I've been waiting for this one to rotate in and have already downloaded my copy. No vegetarians or vegans here, but it should have plenty of ideas for meatless meals now and then, as well as dairy substitutes (it has both vegan and ovo-lacto vegetarian choices). One dinner menu, for example, has black bean soup, cooked quinoa, carrots and spinach and finishes off with a chocolate bar with almonds (every meal should end this way).
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