Bargain Book Trio

Philip K. Dick's books have been on sale before, but for those who missed it, quite a few are on sale again for $1.99. You've probably heard of some by the movies made from them, such as A Scanner Darkly, but there are quite a few that are worth picking up at this price, for any SF fan.

Ain't Misbehaving ($2.61 Kindle), by Molly Cannon [Hachette], has been dropping a few pennies a day in the Kindle store (along with the paperback edition), but is likely to rise back to the $6 range when Amazon's surplus of paper copies is exhausted.

Book Description
Sometimes even good girls need to be a little bad . . .

Marla Jean Bandy might be down, but she's not out. Even though her no-good ex-husband left her for another woman-a Bookmobile-driving librarian twenty years her senior-Marla Jean won't settle for another lonely night. She's not ready for Mr. Right, but why not have a little fun with Mr. Right Now? The only wrench in her plan is her childhood crush, Jake-and the memory of the one toe-curling kiss they shared on a hot summer night years ago . . .

One look at Marla Jean is enough to make any red-blooded man sit up and take notice-especially the kind of man nice girls should avoid. Jake knows he should let her make her own mistakes, but he owes it to her brother to look after her. Trouble is, the harder he tries to do the right thing, the harder it is to resist Marla Jean. She needs a man to make her believe love will last, and for once in his life, Jake wonders if that could be him.

The Reserve ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Pulitzer Prize winning author Russell Banks [HarperCollins]

Book Description
Part love story, part murder mystery, set on the cusp of the Second World War, Russell Banks's sharp-witted and deeply engaging new novel raises dangerous questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness—and explores what happens when two powerful personalities, trapped at opposite ends of a social divide, begin to break the rules.

Twenty-nine-year-old Vanessa Cole is a wild, stunningly beautiful heiress, the adopted only child of a highly regarded New York brain surgeon and his socialite wife. Twice married, Vanessa has been scandalously linked to any number of rich and famous men. But on the night of July 4, 1936, at her parents' country home in a remote Adirondack Mountain enclave known as The Reserve, two events coincide to permanently alter the course of Vanessa's callow life: her father dies suddenly of a heart attack, and a mysteriously seductive local artist, Jordan Groves, blithely lands his Waco biplane in the pristine waters of the forbidden Upper Lake. . . .

Jordan's reputation has preceded him; he is internationally known as much for his exploits and conquests as for his paintings themselves, and, here in the midst of the Great Depression, his leftist loyalties seem suspiciously undercut by his wealth and elite clientele. But for all his worldly swagger, Jordan is as staggered by Vanessa's beauty and charm as she is by his defiant independence. He falls easy prey to her electrifying personality, but it is not long before he discovers that the heiress carries a dark, deeply scarring family secret. Emotionally unstable from the start, and further unhinged by her father's unexpected death, Vanessa begins to spin wildly out of control, manipulating and destroying the lives of all who cross her path.

Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondack wilderness to the skies above war-torn Spain and Fascist Germany, The Reserve is a clever, incisive, and passionately romantic novel of suspense that adds a new dimension to this acclaimed author's extraordinary repertoire.

Lord Gray's List ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Maggie Robinson [Kensington Books]

Book Description
From duchesses to chamber maids, everybody's reading it. Each Tuesday, The London List appears, filled with gossip and scandal, offering job postings and matches for the lovelorn--and most enticing of all, telling the tales and selling the wares a more modest publication wouldn't touch. . .

The creation of Evangeline Ramsey, The London List saved her and her ailing father from destitution. But the paper has given Evie more than financial relief. As its publisher, she lives as a man, dressed in masculine garb, free to pursue and report whatever she likes--especially the latest disgraces besmirching Lord Benton Gray. It's only fair that she hang his dirty laundry, given that it was his youthful ardor that put her off marriage for good. . .

Lord Gray--Ben--isn't about to stand by while all of London laughs at his peccadilloes week after week. But once he discovers that the publisher is none other than pretty Evie Ramsey with her curls lopped short, his worries turn to desires--and not a one of them fit to print. . .

20 Kindle Books for $2 (AL)

This offer is set up via AmazonLocal and anyone (in the US) can participate.

Free Voucher to Purchase Select eBooks from the Amazon Kindle Store for $2 Each

Click to "purchase" the voucher, sign in (to Amazon) and click thru a few more pages and you'll find the voucher code you need under "Your Vouchers" (link in top/right corner of the page). Sign-up for this offer expires March 23, 2013 or when the number of vouchers set aside by Amazon have been exhausted (which is often sometime the first day).

To use the Voucher, just click back to Amazonlocal and then on View Code next to the offer title. Click to copy the code, the on the link in step #2, to apply the code to your account (make sure you see the green "Success" message after entering the code). It works like a gift card and once applied to your account, you can shop from your Kindle or desktop, picking any of the 20 qualifying titles. You should also be able to gift any of the books to someone else (I have in the past; the full price shows all the way thru, but on the invoice summary, you will see the $2 promotional price), but the total number of books you can get at this price is 20. The voucher will expire if not used toward qualifying Kindle book purchases from Amazon.com by 11:59 p.m. PST March 27, 2013.

Of the books listed for this deal, I've only read Manel Loureiro's Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End, which I thought was quite good (Apocalyptic Fiction) - I have him on my watch list, to see if a sequel is available someday.

Deal Details:

If Nuts is a virtue, then Penny Marshall's mother was a saint. This multi-talented Hollywood insider has penned her autobiography My Mother Was Nuts, and for $2, this laugh-out-loud tell-all can be yours from the Amazon Kindle Store, as can 19 other specially selected Kindle eBooks.

• Free voucher to purchase up to 20 select eBooks from the Amazon Kindle Store for $2 each
• Get inspired by Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End by Manel Loureiro, a superb tale of horror and survival in the worst possible scenario
• Cheer for the heroine Lela, the smart and believable dialogue, and the clever plot twists of Sanctum by Sarah Fine
• Enjoy other page-turners such as Too Good to be True by Benjamin Anastas, and Unraveling Anne by Laurel Saville

App Reviews - Solitaire and 3 Hidden Objects

Abhi over at 7 Dragons Inc., whom I have known for a while and run into on some of the forums, asked if I would review a few of the newly released games that his company has been optimizing for the Kindle Fire and Fire HD platforms. Since I also have the older Nook Tablets, he agreed to also send over the Nook versions for comparison (I didn't fire up the Kindle Fire to compare non-HD versions, but I have no doubt they games will look similar to the way they do on the Nook Tablet). The B&N editions of these games support all of their tablet devices, from the original Nook Color up to the HD+, while the Amazon editions support all Kindle Fire models, from the original Fire up to both HD editions (I don't have a 2nd Edition Fire to check, but since it it nearly identical to the original Fire, which I do have, I would assume that it is supported, as well). The apps in neither store are supported on generic generic Android tablets or phones

Right now, they are also having a sale on these games, which are marked down to an even $1.00 (down from $4), for a limited time. For those with a Nook, you should be able to play the games in test mode for 1/2 hour (although I haven't tried this feature for these particular games) and you can also send an app as a gift to another account. Neither feature is available for those shopping in the Amazon Appstore, so they've come out with a special free version of the first app that allows you 15 minutes of play per day. Copies of all games reviewed below were provided to me by 7 Dragons.

Solitaire, Mahjong Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, 4 Rivers, FreeCell Solitaire, Memory Solitaire HD ($1.00 Amazon, B&N; Free Test Version Amazon)

This was definitely my favorite of the two apps. I played thru at least one game of each of the six include "mini-apps", any one of which I've seen for sale for dollar or more as stand-alone apps. You can jump into the menu options in the middle of a game and immediately change the background, face format and deck backs (for card games) and the changes take effect when you return to the game. You can get hints on any screen, if you can't figure out what to do next (or just want to verify there are no playable positions) and undo worked flawless when I tested it to move back thru several plays. When you finally give in (the solitaire games won't tell you that you've lost, so you have to quit), you have a choice of replaying the same game or starting over with a new hand.

For card games, the Solitaire game is the one you've played forever, both with cards or on your computer. Spider Solitaire adds the same game that many of us became addicted to on later Windows version and FreeCell rounds out the games that many an office worker has wasted some downtime playing. In addition to that, Memory Solitaire is a basic flip-2-and-match game, with many grid sizes available, along with other play options. The difficulty of play ranges from easy, on a small grid, to mind-twistingly difficult on a 13x4 grid (not enough challenge - play the infinite mode on the Insane level).

There are two tile games included, Mahjongg and 4 Rivers, which I had not played before. It works lot like Mahjongg, but you can match two tiles in the interior of the board, but you also must be able to "connect" matching tiles with a straight line that has no more than two right angle turns. Sounds simple, but can take a little extra strategy to make sure that you don't end up with blocked tiles.

This app made it to my Favorites list, right beside Cubistry, which I try to play once a day. No doubt the Memory Solitaire is the "best" for you (and is a lot cheaper than joining Luminosity, although it only works on one type of memory), but the Solitaire standards are the ones that I ended up playing over and over. FreeCell and Spider require you to use a bit more strategy to win, but that also means you aren't entirely at the mercy of the shuffle/deal, as you are in regular Solitaire. Overall, I'd give this one a 5 out of 5 stars - it's definitely worth a buck and will be staying on my Fire to play over and over.

App Details
Solitaire gives you - Autosave, Draw 3, Draw 1, Hints, Undo, 6 Card Front Designs, 12 Card Back Designs, 10 backgrounds, Best Score, Trophies.

Mahjong Solitaire gives you - 19 Tile layouts from Easy to Very Challenging, Every Game is Unique, Autosave, Realistic Tiles with shadows, Hints, Undo, 3 Tileset Designs, 3 Tile Colors, 7 backgrounds, Best Score, Best Time, Trophies.

Spider Solitaire gives you - Three Difficulty Levels (1 Suit, 2 Suits, 4 Suits), Autosave, Hints, Undo, 2 Spider themed Card Designs, 5 additional Card Designs, 12 Card Back Designs, 6 Spider themed backgrounds, 4 more backgrounds, Best Score, Best Time, Trophies.

FreeCell Solitaire gives you - Autosave, Hints, Undo, 6 Card Designs, 10 backgrounds.

Shared Features - Background Music, Game Sounds (can be turned off), easy and intuitive Touch & Drag gameplay.

3 Hidden Objects Adventures HD ($1.00 Kindle, B&N)

I told Abhi that Hidden Object games are not my favorite, but he sent this one over anyway. I won't say this one made me a fan, but it was quite playable in story mode. I played thru several scenes in one adventure (of three) on both the Nook Tablet and my Kindle Fire HD 8.9". I could actually see the objects easier (for the most part) on the Nook, but it was easier to move the image around after zooming in on the Kindle Fire. By default, the game starts in 15 item mode, so if you want to drop back to 5 object mode (which will give you more re-playability and faster moving between story line segments), be sure to do that before you get to the first object scene. You can change it after you start, but the switch won't take effect until the next scene. In 5-object mode, you also get one hint per scene, so use it wisely. Each scene is played against both a timer and has a minimum of 4 of 5 objects found in order to progress to the next story segment.

You'll note below that the app also needs quite a bit of space to download (those HD graphics are worth it), so plan on waiting up to 1/2 hour (we have slow DSL) after first opening the game to download the necessary files. After that first download, though, the game started up quite quickly and remembered where I was when I returned to continue. I ended up using the Zoom feature quite a bit and moved the image around on the Kindle Fire in order to track down some of the more sneakily placed items. Overall, I'd give this one a 4 out of 5 stars, simply because I thought some of the items were just too difficult to see. I didn't run into any glitches, hangups or slowdowns while playing (other than the Nook kept thinking I was randomly clicking, when I was trying to move the zoomed image, which I blame on the hardware, not the game) and you should definitely get quite a bit of playtime for the money (I played quite a while and was still on the first adventure).

3 Hidden Objects Adventures gives you three beautiful Hidden Objects Adventures in one great app.

3 Adventures, 158 scenes, 2,392 hidden objects. You will have a fun, challenging, and satisfying Hidden Objects experience.

Please Note: App needs 600 MB of free space on your NOOK (TM) to download the graphics.

Please Note: These Adventures only have Hidden Objects scenes (no mini games). These are not 'Very Easy' Hidden Objects Adventures with all items out in plain view. You might need to use Hints and the Zoom feature. For young kids you should turn on 'Extra Hints' and turn off the Timer.

Today's Deals 3/17

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is The Curse, an interesting looking puzzle and memory game.

If you are looking for some music to feed your Cloud Player, be sure to check out Classics for a Rainy Day and 100 Must-Have Love Song Classics, two albums currently marked down to 99 cents each (and timing out at approx 2 and 7 hours, respectively). If you want something with a bit more of a beat, then check out Rock'n'roll & Jukebox Hits - 60 Originals from the 50s; at $2.99, you get over 2 hours of music (and save over $50 compared to buying the songs individually).

For the Kindle Daily Deal, the four books of Oliver Pötzsch's nail-biting historical mystery series are just $0.99 each, including the upcoming release, "The Poisoned Pilgrim." Translations for the entire series are by Lee Chadeayne. You can pick up the entire series less than I paid for the second in the series.

The Hangman's Daughter (companion audiobook $1.99)

Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play. So begins The Hangman's Daughter--the chillingly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller from German television screenwriter Oliver Pötzsch, a descendant of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan.

Magdalena, the clever and headstrong daughter of Bavarian hangman Jakob Kuisl, lives with her father outside the village walls and is destined to be married off to another hangman’s son—except that the town physician’s son is hopelessly in love with her. And her father’s wisdom and empathy are as unusual as his despised profession. It is 1659, the Thirty Years’ War has finally ended, and there hasn’t been a witchcraft mania in decades. But now, a drowning and gruesomely injured boy, tattooed with the mark of a witch, is pulled from a river and the villagers suspect the local midwife, Martha Stechlin.

Jakob Kuisl is charged with extracting a confession from her and torturing her until he gets one. Convinced she is innocent, he, Magdalena, and her would-be suitor to race against the clock to find the true killer. Approaching Walpurgisnacht, when witches are believed to dance in the forest and mate with the devil, another tattooed orphan is found dead and the town becomes frenzied. More than one person has spotted what looks like the devil—a man with a hand made only of bones. The hangman, his daughter, and the doctor’s son face a terrifying and very real enemy.

Taking us back in history to a place where autopsies were blasphemous, coffee was an exotic drink, dried toads were the recommended remedy for the plague, and the devil was as real as anything, The Hangman’s Daughter brings to cinematic life the sights, sounds, and smells of seventeenth-century Bavaria, telling the engrossing story of a compassionate hangman who will live on in readers’ imaginations long after they’ve put down the novel.

The Dark Monk (companion audiobook $1.99)

1660: Winter has settled thick over a sleepy village in the Bavarian Alps, ensuring every farmer and servant is indoors on the night a parish priest discovers he's been poisoned. As numbness creeps up his body, he summons the last of his strength to scratch a cryptic sign in the frost.

Following a trail of riddles, hangman Jakob Kuisl, his headstrong daughter, Magdalena, and the town physician’s son team up with the priest’s aristocratic sister to investigate. What they uncover will lead them back to the Crusades, unlocking a troubled history of internal church politics and sending them on a chase for a treasure of the Knights Templar.

But they’re not the only ones after the legendary fortune. A team of dangerous and mysterious monks is always close behind, tracking their every move, speaking Latin in the shadows, giving off a strange, intoxicating scent. And to throw the hangman off their trail, they have ensured he is tasked with capturing a band of thieves roving the countryside attacking solitary travellers and spreading panic.

Delivering on the promise of the international bestseller The Hangman’s Daughter, Oliver Pötzsch takes us on a whirlwind tour through the occult hiding places of Bavaria’s ancient monasteries. Once again based on prodigious historical research into Pötzsch’s family tree, The Dark Monk brings to life an unforgettable, compassionate hangman and his tenacious daughter, painting a robust tableau of a seventeenth-century Bavaria and quickening our pulses with a gripping, mesmerizing mystery.

The Beggar King (companion audiobook $1.99)

The year is 1662. Alpine village hangman Jakob Kuisl receives a letter from his sister calling him to the imperial city of Regensburg, where a gruesome sight awaits him: her throat has been slit. Arrested and framed for the murder, Kuisl faces first-hand the torture he's administered himself for years.

Jakob's daughter, Magdalena, and a young medicus named Simon hasten to his aid. With the help of an underground network of beggars, a beer-brewing monk, and an Italian playboy, they discover that behind the false accusation is a plan that will endanger the entire German Empire.

Chock-full of historical detail, The Beggar King brings to vibrant life another tale of an unlikely hangman and his tough-as-nails daughter, confirming Pötzsch's mettle as a writer to watch.

The Poisoned Pilgrim

1666: Two monks at the monastery of Andechs experiment with cutting-edge technology, including a method of deflecting the lightning that has previously set the monastery ablaze. When one of the monks disappears and his lab is destroyed, foul play is suspected. Who better to investigate than the famed hangman Jakob Kuisl? But as the hangman and his family attempt to solve the mystery of the missing monk, they must deal with both the mysterious denizens of the monastery and villagers who view the monks' inventions as witchcraft that must be destroyed at all costs. The Poisoned Pilgrim is the thrilling fourth entry in the bestselling Hangman's Daughter series, which has been described as "swift and sure," "darkly atmospheric," and "a fascinating web of intrigue" by fans such as Scott Turow, Katherine Neville, and Gregory Maguire.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Return to Willow Lake ($1.99), the ninth novel in the Lakeshore Chronicles by Susan Wiggs [Harlequin MIRA], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
Sonnet Romano has the ideal career, the ideal boyfriend, and has just been offered a prestigious fellowship. But when she learns her mother is unexpectedly expecting in a high-risk pregnancy, she puts everything on hold and heads home to Avalon. Once her mom is out of danger, Sonnet intends to pick up her life where she left off.

But when her mother receives a devastating diagnosis, Sonnet must decide what really matters in life, even if that means staying in Avalon and taking a job that forces her to work alongside her biggest, and maybe her sweetest, mistake—award-winning filmmaker Zach Alger.

And in a summer of laughter and tears, of old dreams and new possibilities, Sonnet may find the home of her heart.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Lucas ($1.99), the sixth and latest in the Vampires in America series by D. B. Reynolds.

Book Description
THE BADLANDS of SOUTH DAKOTA . . . haunting landscapes, legendary outlaws, and . . . vampires?

LUCAS DONLON, Vampire Lord, is one of the most powerful vampires in North America and beyond. Charming and irreverent to his friends and lovers, he enjoys everything about his life as a vampire. But when a neighboring lord makes the mistake of declaring war, he quickly discovers that Lucas is every bit as lethal as he is charming.

KATHRYN HUNTER doesn’t care about powerful vampires or their wars. Her baby brother is missing and she will do anything to find him, even if it means going against both her FBI bosses and the local vampire lord. But Lucas Donlon has other plans for the lovely FBI agent who’s landed on his doorstep. Waging war against their enemies and each other, Lucas and Kathryn will risk everything to keep the most deadly vampire war in hundreds of years from engulfing every vampire, and human, in North America.

The Last Mughal (£1.09 UK), by William Dalrymple, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $13.99).

Book Description
In this evocative study of the fall of the Mughal Empire and the beginning of the Raj, award-winning historian William Dalrymple uses previously undiscovered sources to investigate a pivotal moment in history.

The last Mughal emperor, Zafar, came to the throne when the political power of the Mughals was already in steep decline. Nonetheless, Zafar—a mystic, poet, and calligrapher of great accomplishment—created a court of unparalleled brilliance, and gave rise to perhaps the greatest literary renaissance in modern Indian history. All the while, the British were progressively taking over the Emperor's power. When, in May 1857, Zafar was declared the leader of an uprising against the British, he was powerless to resist though he strongly suspected that the action was doomed. Four months later, the British took Delhi, the capital, with catastrophic results. With an unsurpassed understanding of British and Indian history, Dalrymple crafts a provocative, revelatory account of one the bloodiest upheavals in history.

St. Patrick's Day Murder ($4.59 $1.99 Kindle, B&N), the fourteenth novel in the Lucy Stone mystery series by Leslie Meier, is the Nook Daily Find. This will most likely be price matched on Kindle later today. Update: Now price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Not many people in Tinker's Cove, Maine, knew Old Dan Malone. The grizzled barkeep's social circle was limited to the rough-hewn lobstermen and other assorted toughs that frequented his bar. But when his body is found bobbing in the town's icy harbor, Lucy Stone makes getting to know more about Old Dan a priority.

Local musician Dave Reilly insists Old Dan conned a winning lottery ticket worth five grand from him. Handyman Brian Donohue claims that Old Dan stiffed him for repair work he'd done at the bar. The confusion surrounding the death is only compounded by the arrival of actor Dylan Malone, Old Dan's brother and a prominent, if fading, attraction of the Dublin stage. Dylan has come to direct the production of "Finian's Rainbow," the featured event at Our Lady of Hope's annual St. Patrick's Day extravaganza.

Was Old Dan killed by someone he'd cheated or someone he'd loved? While Lucy can't be sure, one thing is abundantly clear--the stage is set for a murder mystery with a killer ending!

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Dragon's Oath ($2.99), a novella by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast [Macmillan], with the companion audiobook for $5.99. Frankly, I'm not even sure that this isn't the regular price, as that's about right for a novella, in my opinion, even if it's at least on the longer side (but still under 200 pages). I checked B&N and Kobo and the price is the same in both stores.

Book Description
In early 19th century England, long before he’s a professor at the Tulsa House of Night, Bryan Lankford is a troublesome yet talented human teen who thinks he can get away with anything… until his father, a wealthy nobleman, has finally had enough, and banishes him to America. When Bryan is Marked on the docks and given the choice between the London House of Night and the dragon-prowed ship to America, he chooses the Dragon – and a brand new fate.

Becoming a Fledgling may be exciting, but it opens a door to a dangerous world.... In 1830’s St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, Dragon Lankford becomes a Sword Master, and soon realizes there are both frightening challenges and beautiful perks. Like Anastasia, the captivating young Professor of Spells and Rituals at the Tower Grove House of Night, who really should have nothing to do with a fledgling…

But when a dark power threatens, Dragon is caught in its focus. Though his uncanny fighting skills make him a powerful fledgling, is he strong enough to ward off evil, while protecting Anastasia as well? Will his choices save her—or destroy them all?

Bargain Book Roundup

If you haven't already bought The Way of Kings ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the first title in Brandon Sanderson Stormlight Archive fantasy series, then definitely grab it now. Tor Books has it discounted, while we wait for the second title in the series (Words of Radiance), along with a contest to win a copy of the paper edition on their blog.

Book Description
Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths,

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.

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

Blues Highway Blues: A Crossroads Thriller ($2.00 Kindle), by Eyre Price [Thomas & Mercer]. This book also has an accompanying soundtrack, that you can pick up at Amazon, Six Feet of Peace: Songs from and Inspired by Blues Highway Blues, and a companion audiobook for $1.99.

Book Description
Winner of the Best Book of the Year awarded by Blues411

Music mogul Daniel Erickson’s life has come to a perilous crossroads. Literally. He has a ruthless pair of killers on his tail and is chasing a million dollars that he owes a Russian mobster.

Standing along the same Mississippi highway where legend claims that bluesman Robert Johnson traded his immortal soul for matchless command of the guitar, Daniel finds himself on a path that parallels the evolution of American music from the Mississippi Delta to New Orleans and on to Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore, New York, and Seattle.

At every stop, Daniel’s tour gets more dangerous with the hit men closing in, an FBI agent obsessed with his capture, and a rogue motorcycle gang hunting him down. Blues Highway Blues, Eyre Price’s debut novel, is a compelling and unique combination: part edge-of-your-seat road trip across America and part examination of the music that comprises its soundtrack.

Slash and Burn ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the third thriller in the Joe Hunter series by Matt Hilton [HarperCollins], is joined on sale by the second in the series, Judgment and Wrath ($3.79 Kindle).

Book Description
Fans of Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Robert Crais, John Sandford, and Michael Connelly have a new hero to root for: author Matt Hilton’s former military Special Forces operative-turned-problem solver, Joe Hunter. Slash and Burn is the third electrifying thriller in the Hunter series, as the emotional stakes are raised to the limit when he and his new lady love set out to find her missing sister and run head-first into a maniacal Texas millionaire sadist with shady allegiances, a serious bloodlust, and his own private army. Like Dead Men’s Dust and Judgment and Wrath, Hilton’s previous Joe Hunter page-turners, Slash and Burn provides action to the nth degree, and powerfully supports the contention of California’s Contra Costa Times that, “Hunter is one of the most exciting new tough guys to come along in years.”

Dalton's Undoing ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo) and Light the Stars ($1.99 Kindle, B&N) are the first and third titles in RaeAnne Thayne's Cowboys of Cold Creek series [Harlequin Special Releases].

Dalton's Undoing

He was known as a major player who'd left a swath of broken hearts across the Teton Valley. Yet when single mother Jenny Boyer saw the tenderness in Seth Dalton's eyes when he looked at her children — not to mention her — it was impossible for her to believe it was all a game.

She was new to this small town, a school principal who needed to be respected. The last man she should be getting involved with was the Hunk of Cold Creek! But every time Seth came near, Jenny could feel herself falling...like all of the women who'd come before her. So why did she hope that her story would have a different ending — as in, happily ever after?

Light the Stars

Wade Dalton was having a very bad day.

His five-year-old had accidentally set the kitchen on fire. His daughter was surly, as usual. The baby hadn't been fed yet. And his mother--aka "The Childminder"--had eloped...with a scam artist. Could it get any worse?

Turned out it could. Because the annoyingly beautiful daughter of said scam artist was now at the door, batting her doe eyes at him and proposing that she be his temporary nanny while awaiting the newlyweds' return. Could he trust her to be under his roof? Could he trust himself with her under his roof?

Brave New World ($2.99 Kindle), by Aldous Huxley, also has a deal on the companion audiobook for $4.95 (but is $8-$10 in other stores I checked). This is a "classic" that everyone should read (if only to be able to understand some of Apple's old SuperBowl ads).

Book Description
Huxley's bleak future prophesized in Brave New World was a capitalist civilization which had been reconstituted through scientific and psychological engineering, a world in which people are genetically designed to be passive and useful to the ruling class. Satirical and disturbing, Brave New World is set some 600 years ahead, in "this year of stability, A.F. 632"--the A.F. standing for After Ford, meaning the godlike Henry Ford. "Community, Identity, Stability," is the motto. Reproduction is controlled through genetic engineering, and people are bred into a rigid class system. As they mature, they are conditioned to be happy with the roles that society has created for them. The rest of their lives are devoted to the pursuit of pleasure through sex, recreational sports, the getting and having of material possessions, and taking a drug called Soma. Concepts such as family, freedom, love, and culture are considered grotesque.

Against this backdrop, a young man known as John the Savage is brought to London from the remote desert of New Mexico. What he sees in the new civilization a "brave new world" (quoting Shakespeare’s The Tempest). However, ultimately, John challenges the basic premise of this society in an act that threatens and fascinates its citizens.

Huxley uses his entire prowess to throw the idea of utopia into reverse, presenting us what is known as the "dystopian" novel. When Brave New World was written (1931), neither Hitler nor Stalin had risen to power. Huxley saw the enduring threat to society from the dark side of scientific and social progress, and mankind's increasing appetite for simple amusement. Brave New World is a work that indicts the idea of progress for progress sake and is backed up with force and reason.

Slow Way Home ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Michael Morris [HarperCollins].

Book Description
On the surface, Brandon Willard seems like your average eight-year-old boy. He loves his mama, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and G. I. Joe. But Brandon's life is anything but typical.

Wise beyond his years, Brandon understands he's the only one in this world he can count on. It's an outlook that serves him well the day his mama leaves him behind at the Raleigh bus station and sets off to Canada with "her destiny" -- the latest man that she hopes will bring her happiness. The day his mother leaves, Brandon takes the first step toward shaping his own destiny. Soon he sends himself spending pleasant days playing with his cousins on his grandparents' farm and trying to forget the past. In the safety of that place, Brandon finally is able to trust the love of an adult to help iron out the wiry places until his nerves are as steady as any other boy's.

But when Sophie Willard shows up a year later with a determined look in her eye and a new man in tow, Brandon's grandparents ignore a judge's ruling and flee the state with Brandon. Creating a new life and identity in a small Florida town, Brandon meets the people who will fill him with self-worth and self-respect. He slowly becomes involved with "God's Hospital," a church run by the gregarious Sister Delores, a woman who is committed to a life of service for all members of the community, black and white, regardless of some townsfolk's disapproval.

Resonance ($0.99 Kindle), by Chris Dolley, is currently self-published (via Book View Cafe, which does some editing services), but was at one time available from Baen Books.

Book Description
Graham Smith is a 33 year old office messenger. To the outside world he's an obsessive compulsive mute - weird but harmless. But to Graham Smith, it's the world that's weird. And far from harmless. He sees things other can't...or won't. He knows that roads can change course, people disappear, office blocks migrate across town - all at night when no one's looking.

Only by following a rigid routine can he lessen these effects. If he walks the same route to work every morning and catches the same train, and keeps himself to himself, then there's a good chance his house will still be where he left it when he returns home in the evening.

Then he meets Annalise Mercado.

Annalise Mercado hears voices. Sometimes she thinks they're spirit guides, sometimes she thinks she's crazy. But then they start telling her about Graham Smith, the danger he's in, and how only she can save him. So begins the story of two people whose lives appear fragmented across alternate realities. And how, together, they hold the key to the future of a billion planets...