Free Audiobooks - Anna Dressed in Blood & The Woman in White

There are two new free audiobook from Sync today. First, I've linked in the info from the ebook or audiobook version of each title (Amazon has the best reviews), followed by the link to get your copies free, with directions to ensure you get the complete download.

The first free audiobook is Anna Dressed in Blood ($2.99 Kindle), by Kendare Blake, narrated by August Ross. This is a 2011 Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year title and one of NPR's Top 5 Young Adult Novels of 2011. As you can see, it's also on sale at Amazon, in preparation for the upcoming release of Girl of Nightmares, the next book in the same series, so if you think you'd prefer to read rather than listen (or do both), be sure to grab it now.

Book Description
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

The unabridged edition of The Woman in White ($26.95 Audible), by Wilkie Collins, narrated by Ian Holm, is the second selection for this week. There are several Kindle editions, ranging from free to a few dollars, for those that like to read along with the audio.

Book Description
One night on the road to London, a young drawing master, Walter Hartright, meets a mysterious woman dressed all in white and answers her pleas for help. But who is she and why is she being followed by two men? And what is her connection with his pupil Laura Fairlie, the woman he secretly loves? Wilkie Collins’ masterpiece of terrible secrets, concealed identities, abductions, fraud, cruel aristocrats and sinister foreigners is a mesmerising read.

This gripping tale of murder, intrigue, madness and mistaken identity has never been out of print since its publication.

Click HERE to get the free downloads (you'll need to enter your name and an email address. You'll end up clicking about three pages (for each book), before the audiobook actually downloads. Don't stop so long as you still see a button that talks about your Sync download (or until you see the Overdrive software open up; there is a link at Sync, if you don't already have Overdrive installed).

Once in Overdrive, you'll need to tell it where to save the files (just click OK to use the default location, since Overdrive will keep track of them for you), then again to actually start the download (by default, all parts of the book are downloaded; I would suggest not changing this in the last dialog box, just click on OK to get the download started). Make sure your audiobook is fully downloaded before the end of the week, as once the promo period is over, you won't be able to get them free.

You can't get any titles that have been missed, but once they are loaded into Overdrive (which you will need to install, if you are not already using it for library books), they are yours to keep (there is no expiration date). Two new titles each Thursday!

$3 Instant Amazon MP3 Credit

This offer is displayed on my Kindle with Special Offers (which is just an Kindle with Ads, lately), but is not limited to those with a KSO or any Kindle device. Instead, you can either order this one direct from your KSO or just go online to AmazonLocal and grab it there:

Free Voucher for $3 to Spend at Amazon MP3

You will need one-click turned on for your Amazon account AND you must have a credit card registered for one-click (even though you won't be charged). You can turn this off and remove the card (do this by choosing to supply a new payment type, then just clicking on your address without entering any other info), once you've signed up. Sign-up for this offer expires at midnight (PT) or when supplies are exhausted (check other cities if yours is out).

You'll receive the promo code on your KSO home page and can retrieve it from the Vouchers link at AmazonLocal (you should also get an email telling you when it is ready) and will need to load the credit onto your account (which you can redeem HERE), just like a gift card, before going shopping. Once you have entered the promotional code(s), you have until midnight, July 11, 2012 to complete your purchases. I'd recommend that you apply the credit right away, since it works on any MP3 purchase - then you can shop on the web OR from your Kindle Fire and it will be used automatically.

If you were holding off on any of yesterday's bargain albums, now's the time to grab one (the credit will buy an entire Soundtrack!).

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Life From Scratch ($1.99), by Melissa Ford. It looks like I picked this one up early last year, when it was briefly free on Kindle.

Book Description
Divorced, heartbroken and living in a lonely New York apartment with a tiny kitchen, Rachel Goldman realizes she doesn't even know how to cook the simplest meal for herself. Can learning to fry an egg help her understand where her life went wrong? She dives into the culinary basics. Then she launches a blog to vent her misery about love, life and her goal of an unburnt casserole.

To her amazement, the blog's a hit. She becomes a minor celebrity. Next, a sexy Spaniard enters her life. Will her souffles stop falling? Will she finally forget about the husband she still loves? And how can she explain to her readers that she still hasn't learned how to cook up a happy life from scratch?

Paper Towns ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by John Green, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Who is the real Margo? Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. She has disappeared. Q soon learns that there are clues in her disappearance . . . and they are for him. Trailing Margo's disconnected path across the USA, the closer Q gets, the less sure he is of who he is looking for.

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (Wold Newton) ($1.59 Kindle, B&N), by Philip Jose Farmer, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. I think I'd have to buy this one based on the story line, even if it weren't one of my favorite authors (now, to find it a place in the TBR list).

Book Description
In a delicious slice of sci-fi whimsy that sits cleverly alongside Verne's original tale, Phileas Fogg's epic global journey is not the product of a daft wager but, in fact, a covert mission to chase down the elusive Captain Nemo - who is none other than Professor Moriarty.

A secret alien war has raged on Earth for years and is about to culminate in this epic race.

A novel in the Wold Newton universe, in which characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, James Bond and Jack the Ripper are all mysteriously connected.

Birdie's Big-Girl Shoes ($11.67 Hardcover; no Kindle edition, $3.99 B&N), by Sujean Rim, is the Nook Daily Find for Families (requires NOOK Color or NOOK Tablet).

Book Description
Birdie carefully slipped her little toes into one shoe,
then slid into the other.

She looked at herself in the mirror...
and gasped.

Birdie can't wait to be just like her mom. She loves wearing jewelry, spritzing perfume bottles, and dressing up in front of the mirror. But more than anything, Birdie fantasizes about her mother's fancy high-heels. She can't wait to try them on and do all the things she likes to do wearing beautiful "big-girl shoes."

Little girls will love walking with Birdie as she spends a day in her mother's shoes, but in the end they may find that, like Birdie, they like their "barefoot shoes" best of all.

With playful watercolors and clever textured cut-paper designs, this precious picture book will speak to every little girl who longs to be a "big-girl".

Amazon Summer Music Deals

I was looking thru the MP3 music at Amazon, trying to decide how to spend my $1 credit and stumbled upon a few good deals. First, today's album deal is Bob Marley's Legend for only $2.99.

Also today only, The Most Spectacular Fireworks Music In The Universe, which features some great classical music, is only 99 cents! Amazon says there are supposed to be two 99 cent albums for today, but they only linked in this one. I looked at the Classical Bestsellers page, where this albums is currently #1, and found several other 99 cent albums, but can't really tell if any of them are the one-day special selection. Not really on sale, but in the Top Hot Releases category are 50 Patriotic Songs Music for the 4th of July ($8.49) and 40 Most Beautiful American Classics ($3.99), which are on theme, as well as Pleasure & Pain - Sexy Classical Music Inspired By Fifty Shades of Grey (which isn't, but is only 99 cents). St. Mark's Philharmonic Orchestra's 4th Of July Celebration and the All-American Patriotic Ensemble's 4th of July - The Essential American Patriotic Music Collection are close, though, at only $1.99 each.

Edit to add: Amazon fixed their links. The Most Relaxing Beethoven In The Universe is the second 99 cent album for today!

If you are planning a summer wedding, be sure to put The 99 Most Essential Wedding Classics on your play list.

This week's $2.99 MP3 Albums theme is Soundtracks and there are 25 albums included in the sale, including a couple guaranteed to set your feet to dancing.

The big promotion they are running though, is the Essential Summer Jams Playlist, featuring 20 of their favorite songs of summer for 25 cents apiece or only $5 for the entire playlist. There were a couple I had been considering already and only a couple that I already had (one from the Legend album above and another from The Very Best Of Otis Redding album, which on sale for $5). Personally, I think they could have included all the songs from David Lee Roth's Crazy From The Heat ($3.22) EP, but that could just be because of the recent heat wave (and the great cover image).

$1.29 MP3 Credit from @Pepsi using #PepsiMusicNow

Follow @PEPSI on Twitter.com and tweet to them using hashtag #PepsiMusicNow and you could get a DM back with an promo code good for a $1.29 MP3 credit at Amazon. They aren't sending the codes to everyone, but should be giving away quite a few today.

If you use Fandango for movie tickets, be sure to take advantage of their deal, too, and get $2 in MP3 credits to go with your tickets. It appears to be one credit per purchase, but it's unclear if you can get multiple credits with additional purchases throughout the month.

It appears that if you buy select Android apps (including at least today's free app), Amazon is automatically adding a $1 MP3 credit to your account. I just checked my account and a new credit was there that wasn't there a day or so ago, when I last checked (you can check it by clicking the redeem button from the link below). If you don't have an Android device, you can use Virtual Box (see this Help Page) to create a virtual Android device that can be used to allow purchase of Android Apps from Amazon.

Once you have your code, click HERE to redeem and you can then purchase online or from your Kindle Fire.