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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Today's Deals 2/28

Thru February 28, members at Audible can take advantage of the Buy One Get One Free Sale, doubling the values of your credits. It's the last day and there are twice as many books, with 100+ added to the sale.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Guilt by Degress ($1.99), the second in Marcia Clark's Rachel Knight series [Mulholland/Hachette].
Book Description
Someone has been watching D.A. Rachel Knight--someone who's Rachel's equal in brains, but with more malicious intentions. It began when a near-impossible case fell into Rachel's lap, the suspectless homicide of a homeless man. In the face of courthouse backbiting and a gauzy web of clues, Rachel is determined to deliver justice. She's got back-up: tough-as-nails Detective Bailey Keller. As Rachel and Bailey stir things up, they're shocked to uncover a connection with the vicious murder of an LAPD cop a year earlier. Something tells Rachel someone knows the truth, someone who'd kill to keep it secret.

Harrowing, smart, and riotously entertaining, GUILT BY DEGREES is a thrilling ride through the world of LA courts with the unforgettable Rachel Knight.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Falling in Love...Again: TruLove Collection ($1.99), by Anonymous and BroadLit.
Book Description
Whether you're heartbroken or have sworn off love forever; it's perfectly timed or when you least expect it, this collection of fourteen inspirational stories will convince you that there's always a chance you'll...fall in love again. It's hard to imagine that out of the depths of despair can eventually come a new opportunity for love, but in these tales you'll meet a jilted bride, a single mom, a 9/11 widow, and a bitter city girl who all get a second chance at loving happily ever after.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is all three novels in Richard Phillips's The Rho Agenda series for $0.99 each. These are relatively new editions from Amazon's 47North publishing imprint, but were originally self-published (I know I have at least one in an older edition).

The Second Ship (companion audiobook $1.99)
In 1948, an alien starship fell from the New Mexico sky—and immediately vanished behind the walls of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Since that day the US military has endeavored to reverse engineer the ship’s alien technology through top-secret research known only as the Rho Project. Now, sixty years after the crash, the government is prepared tell all.

Or so it claims…

For there is a second ship, hidden for decades just out of the military’s reach. And when a trio of students discovers it buried deep inside a remote canyon, they are changed forever. With a single touch, the technology the government has spent billions trying to unlock is uploaded into the minds of three teenagers—teenagers who now know the frightening truth about the Rho Project. Together they are thrust into a violent world of secrets and corruption, becoming reluctant soldiers in a war destined to alter what it means to be human.
Immune (companion audiobook $1.99)
In the final pages of the spellbinding novel The Second Ship, NSA director Jonathan Riles failed to halt the Rho Project’s infiltration of the US government. Now the Project’s alien nano-serum is loosed upon the world, disguised as a miracle cure and leaving too many people—good people—dead. And anyone still alive to challenge the Project won’t be for long: an assassin known only as El Chupacabra is systematically eliminating any and all opposition.

At the top of the hit list is NSA fixer Jack Gregory, along with Heather McFarland and Mark and Jennifer Smythe, the three teenagers who first exposed the Rho Project’s evil agenda. In just a few short months, the trio has seen life as they know it stripped away, trapping them in a confusing new reality where human DNA is modified at an alarming rate. Struggling to understand what they are becoming and on the run for their lives, the teens and their remaining allies must stop the Rho Project before it alters the very fabric of humanity.
Wormhole (companion audiobook $1.99)
When the Rho Project’s lead scientist, Dr. Donald Stephenson, is imprisoned for his crimes against humanity, the world dares to hope the threat posed by the Rho Project’s alien technologies is finally over.

The world is wrong.

In Switzerland, scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider have discovered a new threat, a scientific anomaly capable of destroying the earth—and only Rho Project technology can stop it. In exchange for a full pardon, Dr. Stephenson agrees to create a wormhole that will send the anomaly into deep space. But his promise masks the alien agenda that brought the Rho Ship to earth.

Now a trio of altered humans, Heather McFarland and Mark and Jennifer Smythe, must infiltrate Stephenson’s wormhole project and stop it, no matter the cost. The ultimate battle has begun and, this time, mankind cannot afford to lose. The final installment to Richard Phillips’s Rho Agenda trilogy brings the epic tale to an explosive conclusion that will echo long past the final page.

Gardens of Water (£0.99 UK), by Alan Drew, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $11.99).
Book Description
Turkey, 1999. A devastating earthquake brings Istanbul crumbling to the ground, ripping apart the fragile stability of Sinan's world. His family home becomes a makeshift tent in a camp run by Western missionaries whom he stubbornly distrusts, and he soon finds himself struggling to protect his family's honour and values. As he becomes a helpless witness to his daughter's dangerous infatuation with a young American, Sinan takes a series of drastic decisions with unforeseeable consequences. Cultures clash, political and religious tensions mount, and Sinan's actions spiral into a powerful and heartbreaking conclusion.

In the Time of the Butterflies ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Julia Alvarez [Algonquin Books], is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—“The Butterflies.”

In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters—Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé—speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human cost of political oppression.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is New York Times best-selling Wintergirls ($2.99), by Laurie Halse Anderson [Penguin], with the companion audiobook for $4.95.
Book Description
“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Free Books Posts are Ended

In order to comply with Amazon's new policy, I won't be mentioning any free books on my blogs (at least, until their policy changes). Amazon has changed the associates policy to penalize any site whose readers buy "too many" free books in a month by forfeiting their entire income for that month.

I tried to set up the ability to post on another account, that simply would not be paid, but Amazon has said that doing so would result in my accounts being closed entirely. Although some readers have suggested that the links be posted without an affiliate tag, all this does is pushes any credit for that book to the last affiliate site you have been to. This also applies even if you go to Amazon on your own and enter the book in a search there. That Associate might be me or it may be some other hardworking associate whose site you were at earlier in the day.

Amazon Associates Support has also said that if you post links without tags, even on another site, if they can link you in any way, then they'll shut down your account. So, there will no longer be any links to free books at Amazon on any of my sites.

Tomorrow I'll be removing all older free book posts and moving them to an archive site. The Free Books page and links on the menus have already been removed.

If you are going to buy free books at Amazon, please consider clearing your browser cookies before doing so, after arriving at Amazon, in order to avoid costing this site or any other affiliate site their income at Amazon (to clear your cookies, press Ctrl-Shift-Delete, then choose Cookies from the page that is displayed).

Don't Upgrade your Kindle for iPad App

Got a notice on this via NetGalley -- if you upgrade your Kindle App on iOS (iPad or iPhone, etc), the current version has a bug that will delete all of your existing books on the device AND all your bookmarks and notes. The good news is, if this happens to you, you can redownload your books and your notes and bookmarks that have been backed up should be downloaded with them. For those who don't have the app already installed, you can download the current version without issue, but Amazon has issued a warning not to upgrade for existing users. A new version is on the way (and hopefully will fix the problem). More info can be read over on CNET.

Today's Deals 2/27

Thru February 28, members at Audible can take advantage of the Buy One Get One Free Sale, doubling the values of your credits. There will be a different selection every day, so be sure to stop buy and see what is new.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Dead Asleep ($0.99), by Jamie Freveletti [HarperCollins], an author that is new to me. At 99 cents, though, it looks like it may be worth taking a chance on. Be careful clicking on her other titles - there is a novella split into 3 "books" at 99 cents apiece. I have no problem with charging $2.99 for a novella of around 120 pages, but why clutter up our libraries with three entries?
Book Description
A former Chicago trial lawyer-turned-critically acclaimed thriller writer, Jaime Freveletti hit the ground running with her debut novel, Running from the Devil—winning a Thriller and a Barry Award and nominations for the Macavity and Crimespree Awards as well. With her fourth novel, Dead Asleep, Freveletti proves she hasn't let up for an instant, plunging her brilliant, tough-as-nails series protagonist, biochemist Emma Caldridge, into a Caribbean island nightmare of voodoo superstition, terrorist plots, and deadly plague. Dead Asleep is intelligent, action-packed suspense fiction—rich in invention and frightening scientific plausibility—that will enthrall fans of Lee Child and Daniel Silva, and Kathy Reichs and Tess Gerritsen readers equally.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Whole Lotta Trouble ($1.99), by Stephanie Bond. Romance fans will need no introduction (just to go check their libraries - I picked this up on a KDP free promotion last summer).
Book Description
Sometimes the best laid plans go sideways . . .

Three female mystery book editors in Manhattan have personal and professional problems galore--which intersect with one bad-boy agent. When they set out to humiliate their problematic playboy, their plans go horribly awry. The women suddenly realize that when it comes to friendship, flirtation and felony, they're in a WHOLE LOTTA TROUBLE!

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Investigation ($1.99), by Stanislaw Lem [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]. We've seen several of his titles in Daily Deals recently and I see that one of them, Return From The Stars, is currently marked down to $2.99, only a dollar over the Daily Deal price, for those that missed it.
Book Description
A young officer at Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate a puzzling and eerie case of missing-and apparently resurrected-bodies. To unravel the mystery, Lt. Gregory consults scientific, philosophical, and theological experts, who supply him with a host of theories and clues.

Stone Maidens (£0.99 UK), by Lloyd Devereux Richards, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK. A Daily Deal in the US earlier this month, the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible and the companion audiobook is $1.99.
Book Description
As the chief forensic anthropologist for the FBI’s Chicago field office, Christine Prusik has worked her fair share of bizarre cases. Yet this one trumps them all: a serial killer is strangling young women and dumping their bodies in the steep, forested ravines of southern Indiana. With each victim, the killer leaves a calling card: a stone figurine carved like the spirit stones found among the primitive tribes of Papua New Guinea—the same tribes from whom Prusik narrowly escaped a decade earlier while doing field research. The similarity is eerie and, frankly, terrifying; Prusik still carries the scars from the tribesmen’s attack. But is the connection real? Or have the dark details of Prusik’s nightmares finally wormed their way into her waking life? Displaying the expertise of a veteran writer, debut novelist Lloyd Devereux Richards skillfully builds layers of psychological suspense and terror into a compulsively readable whodunit.

Hemingway's Girl ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Erika Robuck [Penguin], is the Nook Daily Find. This is an Agency pricing publisher (the lone holdout, I think) and should have already been price matched on Kindle, so wait for it to drop.
Book Description
“She remembered when Hemingway had planted a banyan tree at his house and told her its parasitic roots were like human desire. At the time she’d thought it romantic. She hadn’t understood his warning.”

In Depression-era Key West, Mariella Bennet, the daughter of an American fisherman and a Cuban woman, knows hunger. Her struggle to support her family following her father’s death leads her to a bar and bordello, where she bets on a risky boxing match...and attracts the interest of two men: world-famous writer, Ernest Hemingway, and Gavin Murray, one of the WWI veterans who are laboring to build the Overseas Highway.

When Mariella is hired as a maid by Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline, she enters a rarified world of lavish, celebrity-filled dinner parties and elaborate off-island excursions. As she becomes caught up in the tensions and excesses of the Hemingway household, the attentions of the larger-than-life writer become a dangerous temptation...even as straightforward Gavin Murray draws her back to what matters most. Will she cross an invisible line with the volatile Hemingway, or find a way to claim her own dreams? As a massive hurricane bears down on Key West, Mariella faces some harsh truths...and the possibility of losing everything she loves.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Touch ($0.99), the first novel in Jus Accardo's Denazen YA series [Entangled Teen]. Probably not suited for younger teens, as I've glanced thru a review copy and it starts out with a drunken high schooler party, with skateboarding off of a barn roof (at least they land in hay and don't have too many injuries), followed by more drinking. From there, though, the story veers off of a manual on how to upset your parents (although is a tiny bit of a cautionary tale on walking home, alone, thru the woods, afterward). In any case, it seems well written enough that I've sent it to my Kindle to see if it still hooks me when I finish my current re-read of The Scent of Shadows (which, by-the-way, is still on sale for 99 cents, as are the other 5 titles in the series!).
Book Description
When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home.

Except there’s something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her. It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this boy—and her father’s “law firm”—than she realized.

Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting “special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons—his entire life. And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent her life keeping safe.

A secret Kale will kill to protect.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Bargain Book Roundup

Amazon has priced matched B&N (finally) on Otherkin, by Nina Berry, for those who wanted to get it on Kindle or to get the discounted companion audiobook.

If you have any of the $1 MP3 promo amounts on your account (from buying an Android App), the can't be combined on a single MP3 purchase (at least, my two didn't), so if you are getting one of the $1.99 MP3 albums on sale today, the other 99 cents will come out of your gift card balance or default payment type. If you want to confirm the payment details before buying (which you can't do with one-click), send the album to yourself as a gift; the confirmation page before your send it has all the payment types that will be used.

Skies of Fire ($0.99), the first novel in the urban fantasy/steampunk Ether Chronicles series by RITA® Award-nominated romance author Zoe Archer [Avon Impulse/HarperCollins]; the publisher is also discounting the second book in the series, Skies of Steel ($2.99), so you might want to pick it up now, too.

Skies of Fire
Captain Christopher Redmond has just one weakness: the alluring spy who loved and left him years before . . . when he was still just a man. Now he's superhuman—a Man O' War, made as part of the British Navy's weapons program—and his responsibility is to protect the skies of Europe. If only he could forget Louisa Shaw.

Louisa, a British Naval Intelligence agent, has never left a job undone. But when her assignment is compromised, the one man who can help her complete her mission is also the only man ever to tempt her body and heart. As burning skies loom and passion ignites, Louisa and Christopher must slip behind enemy lines if they are to deliver a devastating strike against their foe . . . and still get out alive.
Skies of Steel
In the world of The Ether Chronicles, the Mechanical War rages on, and appearances are almost always deceiving . . .

The prim professor
Daphne Carlisle may be a scholar, but she's far more comfort-able out in the field than lost in a stack of books. Still, when her parents are kidnapped by a notorious warlord, she knows she'll need more than quick thinking if she is to reach them in time. Daphne's only hope for getting across enemy territory is an airship powered and navigated by Mikhail Denisov, a rogue Man O' War who is as seductive as he is untrustworthy.

The jaded mercenary
Mikhail will do anything for the right price, and he's certain he has this mission—and Daphne—figured out: a simple job and a beautiful but sheltered Englishwoman. But as they traverse the skies above the Mediterranean and Arabia, Mikhail learns the fight ahead is anything but simple, and his lovely passenger is not entirely what she seems. The only thing Mikhail is certain of is their shared desire—both unexpected and dangerous.

Night of Fire ($0.99), the first novel in the Ether Chronicles series by Nico Rosso [Avon Impulse/HarperCollins]; the publisher is also discounting the second book in the series, Night of Steel ($1.99), so you might want to pick it up now, too. I know what you are thinking ... isn't that the series in the post above? Well, almost. Aren't the titles awfully close to the same? It turns out that Nico is Zoe's husband and both are writing for the same publisher. They each have out two books in the same series, but the two series don't interweave, from what I can tell. His series is a bit more western in flavor, too, from the synopsis, and the second in his series is quite a bit shorter (Zoe went for longer in her second title).

Night of Fire
Night of fire, night of passion

US Army Upland Ranger Tom Knox always knew going home wouldn’t be easy. Three years ago, he skipped town, leaving behind the only woman who ever mattered; now that he’s seen the front lines of war, he’s ready to do what he must to win her back.

Rosa Campos is long past wasting tears on Tom Knox, and now that she’s sheriff of Thornville, she has more than enough to do. Especially when a five-story rock-eating mining machine barrels toward the town she’s sworn to protect.

Tom’s the last person Rosa expects to see riding to her aid on his ether-borne mechanical horse. She may not be ready to forgive, but Rosa can’t deny that having him at her side brings back blissful memories . . . even as it reignites a flame more dangerous than the enemy threatening to destroy them both.

Tom’s the last person Rosa expects to see riding to her aid on his ether-borne mechanical horse. She may not be ready to forgive, but Rosa can’t deny that having him at her side brings back blissful memories . . . even as it reignites a flame more dangerous than the enemy threatening to destroy them both.
Night of Steel
Return to The Ether Chronicles, where the skies above the American West are about to get wilder than ever…

Bounty hunter Anna Blue always finds her fugitive. But her latest mission is filled with mystery: a high price for an eccentric inventor. And her biggest rival, Jack Hawkins—a startlingly handsome, entirely unsettling man whose abilities match her own—is hunting the same bounty. Neither will back down.

When a rogue Man O' War flies his airship into the California skies, guns blazing, Anna and Jack are forced to team up or die. But it isn't the danger that has them ready to flare like gunpowder. They've circled each other for years as competitors only. Fighters and outsiders, they never thought they'd find a kindred soul. As hot passion and raw need draw them together, can they survive this mission long enough to track the most elusive fugitives…their hearts?

I bought my copy of Anathem ($1.99), by Neal Stephenson [HarperCollins], quite some time ago, but those who missed it last summer now get a second chance (and at half the price it was last time). If you like getting a bargain, per page price, you'll love this at over 1,000 pages (and will be more glad you aren't lugging it around, as I did the first time I read it, long ago).

If you pre-ordered The Mongoliad, the third title in The Foreworld Saga, of which Stephenson is one of the co-authors, then you should see it your library today. For those in the UK, check your invoice, as there was apparently a price drop today (to £1.99), but after the initial release at midnight (UK time); you can return it in your MYK page and then buy it again at the lower price, if you were overcharged.
Book Description
Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable -- yet strangely inverted -- world.

Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside -- the Extramuros -- for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.

Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates -- at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros -- a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose -- as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world -- as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

Hellhole ($2.99), the first (massive) novel in the HellHole Trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson [Macmillan], is another one you'll be glad you aren't lugging around in hardcover. Both are past Nebula Award nominees and Herbert was nominated for a Hugo for his biography of his father (Frank Herbert).
Book Description
Only the most desperate colonists dare to make a new home on Hellhole. Reeling from a recent asteroid impact, tortured with horrific storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and churning volcanic eruptions, the planet is a dumping ground for undesirables, misfits, and charlatans…but also a haven for dreamers and independent pioneers.

Against all odds, an exiled general named Adolphus has turned Hellhole into a place of real opportunity for the desperate colonists who call the planet their home. While the colonists are hard at work developing the planet, General Adolphus secretly builds alliances with the leaders of the other Deep Zone worlds, forming a clandestine coalition against the tyrannical, fossilized government responsible for their exile.

What no one knows is this: the planet Hellhole, though damaged and volatile, hides an amazing secret. Deep beneath its surface lies the remnants of an obliterated alien civilization and the buried memories of its unrecorded past that, when unearthed, could tear the galaxy apart.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

The Devil's Star ($1.99), by Jo Nesbo, translated by Don Bartlett [HarperCollins], is the fifth title in his bestselling Harry Hole series. My mother liked the series so well that we already have them all (well, except The Bat, the first in the series, which will finally be released for the US this summer and The Redeemer, #5 in the series, which I'm now seeing as a pre-order for May, but only in Hardcover so far) This is a good price for those who are catching up. The second and third in the series are also currently discounted under $5.
Book Description
Oslo is sweltering in the summer heat when a young woman is murdered in her flat. One finger has been cut off and a tiny red diamond in the shape of a pentagram—a five-pointed star—is found under her eyelid. Detective Harry Hole is assigned the case with Tom Waaler, a colleague he neither likes nor trusts. He believes Tom is behind a gang of arms smugglers—and the murder of his partner. But Harry, an off-the-rails alcoholic, is barely holding on to his job and has little choice but to play nice.

Five days later, another woman is reported missing. When her severed finger is found adorned with a star-shaped red diamond ring, Harry fears a serial killer is on the loose. Determined to find the killer and expose the crooked Tom Waaler, Harry discovers the two investigations melding in unexpected ways. But pursuing the truth comes at a price, and soon Harry finds himself on the run and forced to make difficult decisions about a future he may not live to see.

One of the brightest stars of Scandinavian crime writing, Jo Nesbø has been compared to Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, and Henning Mankell. His novels are bestsellers throughout Europe, acclaimed by critics and revered by aficionados of thrillers and mysteries. Brilliantly plotted and paced, The Devil's Star shows Nesbø at his absolute best, combining powerful emotional resonance with truly stunning suspense.

Coyote Blue ($2.99), by Christopher Moore, is a standalone novel that you should have on your TBR list, if you are looking for a light-hearted read (just don't read it someplace where laughing out loud might be embarrassing). I'm pretty sure this is less than I paid, back when Fictionwise was an option (long ago). Another discounted choice from the same author is Lamb ($1.99), although it might be a bit too irreverent for some.

Coyote Blue
From master of subversive humor Christopher Moore comes a quirky, irreverent novel of love, myth, metaphysics, outlaw biking, angst, and outrageous redemption.

As a boy, he was Samson Hunts Alone -- until a deadly misunderstanding with the law forced him to flee the Crow reservation at age fifteen. Today he is Samuel Hunter, a successful Santa Barbara insurance salesman with a Mercedes, a condo, and a hollow, invented life. Then one day, destiny offers him the dangerous gift of love -- in the exquisite form of Calliope Kincaid -- and a curse in the unheralded appearance of an ancient god by the name of Coyote. Coyote, the trickster, has arrived to reawaken the mystical storyteller within Sam...and to seriously screw up his existence in the process.
Lamb
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years -- except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more -- except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala -- and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.