Author Spotlight: Jessica Sorensen

Hatchette has several titles by New York Times bestselling author Jessica Sorensen on sale currently, encompassing two different series. At Amazon, the sale includes pre-orders on forthcoming releases in both series, which may or may not be matched at other stores, after the release dates. The novels already out in these series run over 300 pages in length and I would expect about the same on the newer ones, when they are delivered.

The Secret series:

The Secret of Ella and Micha ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo)

If you loved Beautiful Disaster then you're ready to discover . . .

THE SECRET OF ELLA AND MICHA

A rule-breaker with a fiery attitude, Ella always wore her heart on her sleeve. Then she left everything behind to go to college, where she transformed into someone who follows the rules, keeps everything together, and hides all her problems. Now it's summer break and she has nowhere else to go but home. But once there, Ella fears that everything she's worked so hard to bury might resurface-especially with Micha living right next door.

Smart, sexy, and confident, Micha can get under Ella's skin like no one else. He knows everything about her, including her darkest secrets. If he tries to tempt the old Ella to return, he will be impossible to resist. But what Ella doesn't realize is that when she left, she took a piece of Micha's heart with her. Now he's determined to win back the girl he lost, no matter what it takes.

The Forever of Ella and Micha ($2.99 pre-order Kindle, B&N, Kobo)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret of Ella and Micha comes a new story of hope, heartbreak, and the power of young love.

Ella is back at school, trying to focus on her future and forget the darkness of her past. Still, her ongoing family drama is making it harder and harder to get through the days. All she really wants is Micha, but no way will she let her problems get in the way of his dreams.

Micha is busy touring the country with his band, seemingly getting everything he's ever wanted. But deep down he knows something is missing. Being away from Ella is harder than he expected. And while he longs to have her with him, he won't ask her to leave college just to be at his side.

When Ella and Micha are together, anything seems possible . . . but lately those shared moments aren't so easy to find. When a new tragedy shakes their already fragile world, one of them will make a dramatic choice that could break them apart forever . . .

The Temptation of Lila and Ethan ($2.99 pre-order Kindle)

There's no official description yet for this one, but it will be #3 in the Secret series.

The Coincidence YA series:

The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo)

From the bestselling author of The Secret of Ella and Micha comes a mesmerizing novel of fate, friendship, and the healing power of love....

For Kayden, suffering in silence was the only way to survive. If he was lucky, he could keep his head down, do as he was told, and make it through the day. But one night it seemed like his luck-and his life-might finally end . . . until an angel named Callie appeared just in time to rescue him.

Callie has never believed in luck. Not since her twelfth birthday when everything was taken from her. After the worst was over, she locked up her feelings and vowed never to tell anyone what happened. Now, six years later, she continues to struggle with the painful secret that threatens to consume her.

When fate lands Kayden and Callie at the same college, Kayden is determined to get to know the beautiful girl who changed his destiny. Quiet and reserved, Callie still fears letting anyone else into her world. But Kayden is certain that Callie has come back into his life for a reason. And the more he tries to be a part of her life, the more he realizes that, this time, it's Callie who needs to be saved . . .

The Redemption of Callie & Kayden ($2.99 pre-order Kindle)

No official description yet on this one.

Today's Deals 3/23

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Prophet ($2.99), by Michael Koryta [Hachette].

Book Description
Adam Austin hasn't spoken to his brother in years. When they were teenagers, their sister was abducted and murdered, and their devastated family never recovered. Now Adam keeps to himself, scraping by as a bail bondsman, working so close to the town's criminal fringes that he sometimes seems a part of them.

Kent Austin is the beloved coach of the local high school football team, a religious man and hero in the community. After years of near misses, Kent's team has a shot at the state championship, a welcome point of pride in a town that has had its share of hardships.

Just before playoffs begin, the town and the team are thrown into shock when horrifically, impossibly, another teenage girl is found murdered. As details emerge that connect the crime to the Austin brothers, the two must confront their buried rage and grief-and unite to stop a killer.

Michael Koryta, widely hailed as one of the most exciting young thriller authors at work today, has written his greatest novel ever-an emotionally harrowing, unstoppably suspenseful novel that Donald Ray Pollock has called "one of the sharpest and superbly plotted crime novels I've read in my life."

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Wait for You ($0.99), by J. Lynn.

Book Description
Some things are worth waiting for...

Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago--an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe--please God--make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace. The one thing she didn't need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she's building for herself.

Some things are worth experiencing...

Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is freaking everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple that's just so... so lickable. Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring the simmering tension that sparks whenever they are around each other becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet...

But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls forcing her to face a past she wants silenced, she's has no other choice but to acknowledge that someone is refusing to allow her to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, will she resurface this time with one less scar? And can Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

And some things are worth fighting for...

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Timequake ($1.99), by Kurt Vonnegut [RosettaBooks].

Book Description
Timequake (1997) exists in two conjoined versions ("Timequake One"/"Timequake Two") and in meta-fictional mode is a novel about a novel, composed in short, arbitrary chapters and using its large cast of characters and disoriented chronology to mimic the "timequake" which is its subject. Some cosmic upheaval has hurled the entire population a decade back where, in full consciousness (but helplessly entrapped) everyone’s pitiable and embarrassing mistakes are helplessly enacted again.

By this stage of his life--he was 72 the year the novel was published--Vonnegut was still wearing his luminescent bells and Harlequin's cape, but these had become dusty and the cape no longer fitted. Vonnegut’s exasperation and sense of futility could no longer be concealed or shaped, and this novel is a laboratory of technique (deliberately) gone wrong, a study of breakdown.

Vonnegut had never shown much hope in his work for human destiny or occupation; the naive optimism of Eliot Rosewater in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater had in the damaged veteran Billy Pilgrim of Slaughterhouse-Five become a naive fantasy of escape to a sexual heaven. In the nihilism of Timequake, the only escape is re-enactment, but re-enactment has lost hope and force.

This is no Groundhog Day in which Vonnegut traps his various refugees (many escaped from his earlier works) but a hell of lost possibility. The temporal timequake of the title is the actual spiritual fracture of the 20th century, and in his 73rd year Vonnegut envisions no hope, not even the hollow diversions of Slapstick. Vonnegut’s imaginative journey, closely tracked by his work, is one of the most intriguing for any American writer of the twentieth century.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is two novels in the Hebrides series by Lillian Beckwith for £0.99 each (~80% off).

A Breath of Autumn (Main/UK; no US edition)

Kirsty MacDonald is a crofter on the idyllic Westisle in the Hebrides, an island she now owns. Her son, Wee Ruari, has started school on the mainland, travelling by boat across the Sound to Clachan, and being separated from her son during the week is a wrench for Kirsty. Twice widowed, she misses the boy’s father, who was tragically drowned, and also her husband’s brother, who became her second husband – and secretly loved her. Kirsty is not left entirely alone though.

As autumn arrives she is kept busy preparing for the winter and finds herself fully involved in the lives of her fellow islanders: fisherman Jamie, who is like her own son, his friend Euan and new arrival Enac. However, it is the appearance of a Canadian and his daughter that causes the biggest waves in the small community. Kirsty is opposed to change but soon comes to learn that not all change is to be resisted.

The Sea for Breakfast (Main/UK; no US edition)

Lillian Beckwith takes her experiences of moving to a croft of her own, and uses them as the basis of these comic adventures, once again set on the island of Bruach. Adapting to a totally different way of life provides many excuses for humour.

In one story, beachcombing yields a strange find; in another, a Christmas party results in a riotous night’s celebrations. The eccentric cast of characters guarantees there is never a dull moment on Bruach

20th Century Ghosts ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), an anthology by Joe Hill [HarperCollins], is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Be careful if searching on your Kindle that you don't get the 99 cent single story instead (it lacks the "s" at the end, but comes up much higher in a search).

Book Description
Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .

Francis was human once, but now he's an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .

John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .

Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of '77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .

The past isn't dead. It isn't even past. . . .

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Crossing ($1.99), by Andrew Xia Fukuda [AmazonEncore].

Book Description
A loner in his all-white high school, Chinese-born Xing (pronounced “Shing”) is a wallflower longing for acceptance. His isolation is intensified by his increasingly awkward and undeniable crush on his only friend, the beautiful and brilliant Naomi Lee.

Xing’s quiet adolescent existence is rattled when a series of disappearances rock his high school and fear ripples through the blue collar community in which he lives.

Amidst the chaos surrounding him, only Xing, alone on the sidelines of life, takes notice of some peculiar sightings around town. He begins to investigate with the hope that if he can help put an end to the disappearances, he will finally win the acceptance for which he has longed. However, as Xing draws closer to unveiling the identity of the abductor, he senses a noose of suspicion tightening around his own neck.

While Xing races to solve the mystery and clear his name, Crossing hurtles readers towards a chilling climax.

Bargain Books - Robin Hobb

Last December, I told you about a great price on Dragon Haven ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the second novel in Robin Hobb's Rain Wilds Chronicles. At the time, there wasn't a good price on the first of the series, Dragon Keeper ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), for those that missed the earlier, free Bonus Edition, and the third in the series, City of Dragons ($3.79 Kindle, $3.99 B&N, Kobo), was still over $11. As you can now see, though, you can pick up the first three titles in the series at bargain price, filling in any missing titles (I made myself wait until now to pick up City of Dragons, after reading the first two straight thru).

Of course, you know why they are on sale, right?

You guessed it, the fourth title, Blood of Dragons (Kindle, B&N, Kobo), is nearing release. The current price is nearly $13 ($15 non-Kindle), but may drop after the actual release date; it's a bargain, even so, compared to the $28 list price and the actual retail price of the hardcover (>$16). I've scooped up the third in the series, but I'm going to just put this one on my wishlist for a bit and see if it will drop below $10.

The last bargain book for this post is Songs of Love Lost and Found ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), a short story anthology to which Hobb has contributed, alongside Jo Beverley, Jacqueline Carey and Tanith Lee.

Dragon Keeper (companion audiobook $3.49)

With Dragon Keeper, Robin Hobb, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling “master fantasist” (Baltimore Sun), begins a breathtaking new series about the resurgence of dragons in a world that both needs and fears them—the world Hobb’s readers most recently visited in her immensely popular “Tawny Man” trilogy. Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles, Dragon Keeper is yet another magnificent adventure from the author of The Soldier Son and Farseer Trilogies, confirming the Contra Costa Times of California’s assessment of Hobb as “one of the most important writers in 21st century fantasy.”

Dragon Haven (companion audiobook $6.49)

Centuries had passed since dragons last roamed the war-torn world of the Rain Wild River. But as peace once again settled upon the land, a lost generation of sea serpents—ancient, half-starved, and weary—returned to cocoon, certain that they would be reborn as the beautiful and powerful dragons of legend. But their arduous journey exacted a heavy toll, and the proud serpents emerged as sickly, half-formed beasts, unable to fly or hunt . . . or thrive. For years now they have been trapped on a swampy riverbank between forest and river, hungry and barely alive, reliant on humans to provide for them.

With their survival at stake, fifteen dragons—among them the wise golden Mercor, the haughty and dazzling silver-blue queen Sintara, and the delicate copper beauty Relpda—have set off on a dangerous trek into the unknown, up the Rain Wild River, in hopes of rediscovering the ancient Elderling city of Kelsingra, the lost haven for dragons and Elderlings alike. The dragons are accompanied by a disparate group of human keepers, rejects from Rain Wild society. They, too, yearn to find Kelsingra and create a home of their own, one in which they may make their own rules and decide their own fate. But is Kelsingra real or merely a fragment of a glorified past buried deep in the dragons' shared memories? No map exists to guide them, and the noble creatures find their ancient recollections of little use in a land changed by generations of flooding and seismic chaos.

As the dragons, the humans—including the strong and defiant Rain Wild girl Thymara; the wealthy dragon scholar and Trader's wife, Alise; and her companion, the urbane Sedric—and their magical supply barge, captained by the gruff Leftrin, forge their way ever deeper into uncharted wilderness, human and beast alike discover they are changing in mysterious and dangerous ways. While the bonds between them solidify, starvation, flashfloods, and predators will imperil them all. But dragons and humans soon learn that the most savage threats come from within their own company . . . and not all of them may survive.

Returning to the territory of her beloved Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, New York Times bestselling author Robin Hobb creates a lush and ultimately triumphant tale set in an imaginative world of magic and wonder as compelling and emotionally resonant as our own.

City of Dragons

New York Times bestselling author Robin Hobb returns to world of the Rain Wilds—called “one of the most gripping settings in modern fantasy” (Booklist)—in City of Dragons. Continuing the enthralling journey she began in her acclaimed Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven, Hobb rejoins a small group of weak, half-formed and unwanted dragons and their displaced human companions as they search for a legendary sanctuary. Now, as the misfit band approaches its final destination, dragons and keepers alike face a challenge so insurmountable that it threatens to render their long, difficult odyssey utterly meaningless. Touching, powerful, and dazzlingly inventive, Hobb’s City of Dragons is not to be missed—further proof that this author belongs alongside Raymond E. Feist, Terry Brooks, and Lois McMaster Bujold in the pantheon of fantasy fiction’s true greats.

Blood of Dragons

The final volume in Robin Hobb's popular Rain Wilds fantasy series, Blood of Dragons completes the story of the dragons, their keepers, and their quest to find the lost city of Kelsingra—and the mythical silver wells that the dragons need to survive.

Can Tintaglia and the Elderlings unlock the secrets of the ancient city? Or are they doomed to extinction?

The world of Robin Hobb’s Rain Wilds series has been praised by Booklist as "one of the most gripping settings in modern fantasy," and Publishers Weekly called the Rain Wilds books "a meticulously realized fantasy tale" and "a welcome addition to contemporary dragon lore."

Songs of Love Lost and Found

Featuring five deliciously romantic stories set in historical and high fantasy worlds, this exclusive eBook set is the perfect gift for any romance reader.

Featuring stories by Jo Beverley, Cecelia Holland, Robin Hobb, Jacqueline Carey, and Tanith Lee, this collection of five wonderful romantic stories from five wickedly creative authors includes beautiful maids and clever minstrels, orphans destined for greatness and spies thirsting for revenge, and a pair of lovers who must struggle against the forces of magic and fate. Originally published in the anthology Songs of Love and Death (edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois), these compelling stories are specially packaged in one eBook set at a great price.

Diesel Daily Deal - A Father's Duty (E)

A Father's Duty ($4.99 $3.82 Kindle), a romantic suspense novel by Joanna Wayne [Harlequin Intrigue], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $0.80. (6 copies left).

Book Description

PROTECTING HIS OWN

The last thing this hard-boiled Confidential operative wanted was to become entangled with junior prosecutor Georgette Delacroix, but he'd reached a dead end in his frantic search for his kidnapped daughter. So the clairvoyant Cajun beauty was Tanner Harrison's only recourse. When Georgette's disturbing visions of his daughter intensified, Tanner stumbled upon the key to finally shutting down the slimy crime network his topsecret agency had been pursuing for months. As Crescent City's paralyzing heat wave unleashed Tanner and Georgette's smoldering attraction, they breathlessly raced against time to triumph over evil!

Get the book from Diesel; be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out.

Bargain Book Roundup

For those who buy EPUB books, there are several good coupon codes over at Kobo right now. Remember that all of their codes are case sensitive, should not include spaces and often are only good one time per customer (although you can generally gift a book to someone else if you don't use the code yourself). Selection also varies by country, so the list I see won't be the same in Europe, Canada or Down Under.

• Get 90% off selected books with promo code 90bk
• Get 90% off selected books with promo code 90BK
• Get 50% off selected books with promo code 50bk
• Get 50% off selected books with promo code 50BK
• Get 35% off with promo code Comeback3302_3
• Get 30% off with promo code Comeback3102_3 (expires March 30)
• Get 30% off with promo code VoucherCode30
• Get 25% off with promo code Comeback2503_4 (expires March 25)
• Get 20% off with promo code save20bday

For those in the UK only, two good deals on epic fantasy today: The Name Of The Wind: The Kingkiller Chonicle: Book 1, by Patrick Rothfuss, and The Blade Itself: The First Law: Book One, by Joe Abercrombie, both marked down to £1.99. The first I've listened to on Audible and it is absolutely fantastic (as is the next in the series). The only bad thing about it? I'm still waiting for the third in the series to be released and will grab it up the instant that it is (take a listen and you'll probably see why). I haven't read the second, but it should be good, if what I have read by Abercrombie is any guide.

The Magicians' Guild ($0.99 Kindle, B&N), the first book in Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician Trilogy [HarperCollins], with the companion audiobook $3.49.

Book Description
"We should expect this young woman to be more powerful than our average novice, possibly even more powerful than the average magician."

This year, like every other, the magicians of Imardin gather to purge the city of undesirables. Cloaked in the protection of their sorcery, they move with no fear of the vagrants and miscreants who despise them and their work—until one enraged girl, barely more than a child, hurls a stone at the hated invaders . . . and effortlessly penetrates their magical shield.

What the Magicians' Guild has long dreaded has finally come to pass. There is someone outside their ranks who possesses a raw power beyond imagining, an untrained mage who must be found and schooled before she destroys herself and her city with a force she cannot yet control.

My mom called this morning, wanting to see if I had a copy of Eric Dinerstein's The Kingdom of Rarities ($3.47 Kindle, B&N), as she had read that he was going to be in town for a talk and book signing this weekend (2 p.m. Sunday at the East Tennessee History Center in downtown Knoxville), as a part of the Discover Life in America conference which is is dedicated to a first-of-its-kind-project to discover every living species in the park. I don't have the paper edition of his book, but I do have a review ebook copy (which, I'll admit, I haven't done more than flip thru), so I may load it onto one of my ebook readers and take it down to be signed (I have quite a few SF author signatures on my Nook Tablet - keeping it after it dies will take a lot less room than the paper books from the authors included). The drawings included are in black & white or grayscale, so should look fine on eInk readers as well as tablets. I don't know if Amazon or B&N decided to discount the ebook edition for this nearly 300 page text, but it's definitely a good deal right now (his Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations won the American Association for the Advancement of Science's award for science writing, the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books and is nearly $14 at Amazon and $25 from Kobo).

Dr. Dinerstein started his career tracking leopards in Nepal and his publisher, Island Press, also has an interesting looking Kindle Singles length text in their Island Press E-ssentials series that you can pick up inexpensively: Discovering Big Cat Country: On the trail of tigers and snow leopards ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo)

The Kingdom of Rarities

When you look out your window, why are you so much more likely to see a robin or a sparrow than a Kirtland's warbler or a California condor? Why are some animals naturally rare and others so abundant? The quest to find and study seldom-seen jaguars and flamboyant Andean cocks-of-the-rock is as alluring to naturalists as it is vitally important to science. From the Himalayan slopes of Bhutan to the most isolated mountain ranges of New Guinea, The Kingdom of Rarities takes us to some of the least-traveled places on the planet to catch a glimpse of these unique animals and many others. As he shares stories of these species, Eric Dinerstein gives readers a deep appreciation of their ecological importance and the urgency of protecting all types of life — the uncommon and abundant alike.

An eye-opening tour of the rare and exotic, The Kingdom of Rarities offers us a new understanding of the natural world, one that places rarity at the center of conservation biology. Looking at real-time threats to biodiversity, from climate change to habitat fragmentation, and drawing on his long and distinguished scientific career, Dinerstein offers readers fresh insights into fascinating questions about the science of rarity and unforgettable experiences from the field.

Discovering Big Cat Country: On the trail of tigers and snow leopards

With their elusive and solitary nature, tigers and snow leopards are a challenge for even the most seasoned field biologists to track and study. Yet scientist and conservation leader Eric Dinerstein began his career in the heart of Nepal’s tiger country and the perilous Himalayan slopes of the snow leopard, where he discovered the joys—and frustrations—of studying wildlife in some of the most unpredictable and remote places on Earth. In Discovering Big Cat Country, Dinerstein tells the story of two formative journeys from his early days as a biologist: two and a half years as a young Peace Corps Volunteer in the jungles of Nepal and later, as a newly-minted Ph.D., an arduous trek to search for snow leopards in the Kashmir region of India. In these chapters, excerpted from Tigerland and other Unintended Destinations, Dinerstein paints an evocative picture of the homelands and habits of two fascinating predators, and recalls local partners and fellow conservationists who inspired him with their passion for wild places.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), a young adult novel by Chris Crutcher [HarperCollins]. Besides a glowing review from Publisher's Weekly, this was called "stunning" by School Library Journal and there are even teaching guides available, so that you can use it in a classroom.

Book Description
Sarah Byrnes and Eric have been friends for years. When they were children, his fat and her terrible scars made them both outcasts. Later, although swimming slimmed Eric, she stayed his closest friend.

Now Sarah Byrnes -- the smartest, toughest person Eric has ever known -- sits silent in a hospital. Eric must uncover the terrible secret she's hiding, before its dark currents pull them both under.

Reading Level: Ages 12 and up

The Bean Trees ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Barbara Kingsolver [HarperCollins]

Book Description
The Bean Trees is bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver’s first novel, now widely regarded as a modern classic. It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant. She succeeds, but inherits a 3-year-old native-American little girl named Turtle along the way, and together, from Oklahoma to Tucson, Arizona, half-Cherokee Taylor and her charge search for a new life in the West.

Written with humor and pathos, this highly praised novel focuses on love and friendship, abandonment and belonging as Taylor, out of money and seemingly out of options, settles in dusty Tucson and begins working at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires while trying to make a life for herself and Turtle.

The author of such bestsellers as The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, and Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver has been hailed for her striking imagery and clear dialogue, and this is the novel that kicked off her remarkable literary career.

This edition includes a P.S. section with additional insights from the author, background material, suggestions for further reading, and more.