Nook Daily Find 5/17

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Beth Hoffman [Penguin], is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Steel Magnolias meets The Help in this Southern debut novel sparkling with humor, heart, and feminine wisdom

Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille-the tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town-a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. But when Camille is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt, Tootie Caldwell.

In her vintage Packard convertible, Tootie whisks CeeCee away to Savannah's perfumed world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity, a world that seems to be run entirely by women. From the exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper, who bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses garden slugs as her secret weapons, to Tootie's all- knowing housekeeper, Oletta Jones, to Violene Hobbs, who entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir, the women of Gaston Street keep CeeCee entertained and enthralled for an entire summer.

Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply touching, Beth Hoffman's sparkling debut is, as Kristin Hannah says, "packed full of Southern charm, strong women, wacky humor, and good old-fashioned heart." It is a novel that explores the indomitable strengths of female friendship and gives us the story of a young girl who loses one mother and finds many others.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/17

A Good and Useful Hurt (£0.99 UK), by Aric Davis [47North], is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99; companion audiobook $1.99).

Book Description
Mike is a tattoo artist running his own shop, and Deb is the piercing artist he hires to round out the motley crew at his studio of four. The last thing either expects is romance, but that’s exactly what happens when they follow their off-kilter careers and love lives into complete disaster.

When Mike follows a growing trend and tattoos the ashes of deceased loved ones into several customers’ tattoos, he has no idea that it will one day provide the solution—and solace—he will sorely need. And when the life of a serial killer tragically collides with the lives of those in the tattoo shop, Mike and Deb will stop at nothing in their quest for revenge, even if it means stepping outside the known boundaries of life and death.

Ink that is full of crematory ashes, a sociopathic killer, and pain in its most raw form combine for one of the most imaginative, haunting thrillers in recent memory. Full of wit and heart, A Good and Useful Hurt delivers the goods with the pain of a needle in skin.

Daily Deal - Worlds Apart (DF)

Worlds Apart ($6.50 $5.00 Kindle), an Erotic Romance novella by Barbara Elsborg [Samhain Publishing], is today's Deal of the Day at at Diesel E-Books (it was the deal yesterday at EBook Eros, but sold out, as has today's deal there), where it's discounted to $1.30 (1 copies left).

Book Description
Love has never been so close—or seemed so far away.

I love you. Niall is in hiding, but not from the police. He’s trapped between the world he longs for and a place he can’t leave behind. Cursed to hold his tongue, unable to claim what he wants until it’s given, he’s allowed one year to capture his heart's desire. But speaking those three simple words, the most important words in his life, might very well kill him.

I can’t love you. As a private investigator, Taylor walks daily through the ashes of love burned out. He’s witnessed the aftermath of love—destroyed marriages and wrecked lives that leave behind nothing but bitter memories of betrayal. He’s convinced that love will never plant a seed in his heart—until Niall sparks a completely unexpected reaction in both mind and body.

I want to love you. Roo has spent her entire life bouncing from relationship to relationship, offering her heart only to get it trampled on. When she finds herself out in the cold again, she discovers love can come from the most surprising of places. Her choices are simple. Do the right thing. Do the wrong thing. Do nothing. The wrong choice could be simply devastating…

Warning: Beware faeries with killer tattoos and girls dressed as chickens — broken hearts can follow… Or lots of love. And lots of sex—three-way, two-way, every which way. But no chicken sex. Thank god.

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

Kindle Daily Deals 5/16

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Blokish, an Android implementation of the popular board game Blokus, turn-based strategy game.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is The Vanishing Game ($2.99), by Kate Kae Myers [Bloomsbury USA Childrens].

Book Description
Jocelyn's twin brother Jack was everything she had growingup in a world of foster homes - and now he's dead, and she has nothing. Then she gets a cryptic letter from "JasonDecember" - the code name her brother used to use when he made up elaboratepuzzles to fill the unhappy hours at Seale House, a terrifying foster home from their childhood. Only one other personknows about Jason December: Noah, Jocelyn's childhood crush, and their onlyreal friend among the troubled children at Seale House.But when Jocelyn sneaks off to return to Seale House and thecity where she last saw Noah, she gets more than she bargained for. Turns out Seale House's dark powers weren'tjust the figment of a childish information. And someone is following Jocelyn. Is Jack still alive? And if heis, what kind of trouble is he in - and how can Jocelyn and Noah help him?

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Shaun Morey's Atticus Fish series for $1.99) apiece [AmazonEncore/Thomas & Mercer].

Wahoo Rhapsody (companion audiobook $1.99)

Take one sea-loving captain, a drug-smuggling first mate, and a novice deckhand with a secret, and you have the motley crew of the Wahoo Rhapsody, a ramshackle fishing charter plying the Pacific’s waters off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. Captain Winston Weber makes an honest, if lean, living running fishing charters between Mexico and California, with no inkling of the fact that his first mate, Weevil Ott, is smuggling marijuana inside the yellowfin tuna stacked in the boat’s hold. But when Weevil decides to skim a small fortune for himself, goons under orders from the mysterious drug lord known only as “La Cucaracha” descend upon the Wahoo Rhapsody. What ensues is a madcap romp that will catapult readers from Cabo San Lucas to Tucson and San Diego, as Winston, Weevil, and an expat American lawyer by the name of Atticus Fish try to outrun La Cucaracha’s bloody reach. Fans of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard will relish this rollicking satirical adventure from award-winning writer Shaun Morey.

El Dorado Blues (companion audiobook $1.99)

In the badlands of southern Baja, retired expatriate billionaire Atticus Fish finds himself sabotaging illegal commercial longliners from his one-man submarine, and schooling boneheaded tourists in civility. But when archaeologist Duncan Rigby gets kidnapped while on the trail of the legendary Jesuit Treasure, intrepid PI Toozie McGill enlists Atticus to fire up his seaplane and fly off in pursuit. Finding the archaeologist is one thing; recovering the stolen jewels is something else altogether. Now that word of the Treasure is out, will Atticus and his sideckick, mescal bootlegger Skegs, stand a chance against the deadly wave of treasure hunters who wash up on Baja’s shores?

A delightfully offbeat mystery adventure brimming with colorful characters and local atmosphere, El Dorado Blues will charm readers in the best-selling tradition of Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, and Jimmy Buffett.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Makeda ($1.99), by Randall Robinson [Open Lens].

Book Description
The debut title from Akashic's new Open Lens imprint by the nationally best-selling author Randall Robinson has been selected as a "Recommended Read" by Essence magazine's Book Club.

Makeda Gee Florida Harris March is a proud and graceful matriarch, the anchor and emotional bellwether who holds together a hard-working African American family living in 1950s Richmond, Virginia. Embattled by the social ills of the day and the deferred dreams of Makeda's son David and his wife, the hopes of the March family are pinned on their elder son Gordon and the seedlings of change that will grow into the Civil Rights Movement. Lost in the shadows is Gordon's younger brother Gray, also bright and perceptive, but who doesn't quite measure up in his own eyes, or in the eyes of his father.

While struggling to survive the emotional vacuum of his household, Gray escapes into the safe and magical world of his grandmother Makeda's tiny parlor. Makeda, a woman blind since birth but who has always dreamed in color, begins to confide in Gray the things she "sees" and remembers from her dream state, and an increasingly detailed story emerges that is layered with historical accuracy beyond the scope of Makeda's limited education. Gradually, Gray begins to make a connection between his grandmother's dreams and the epic life of an African queen described in the Bible . . .

Part coming-of-age story, part spiritual journey, and part love story, Makeda is a universal tale of family, heritage, and the ties that bind.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Whip Smart: Lola Montez Conquers the Spaniardst ($0.99), by Kit Brennan [Astor + Blue Editions].

Book Description
A wild and sexy romp through history based on the real-life adventures of the audacious, Lola Montez.It is 1842, London, and the gorgeous, ever-capricious twenty-two year old Eliza Gilbert, (aka Lola Montez) is in deep trouble and seeks escape from a divorce trial. Desperate to be free, Lola accepts an alluring offer of a paid trip to Spain, if she will only fulfill a few tasks for Juan de Grimaldi—a Spanish theatre impresario who is also a government agent and spy for the exiled Spanish queen, Maria Cristina.Lola soon finds herself in Madrid, undercover as a performer in a musical play. But when she falls dangerously in love with the target, General Diego de Léon—the “perfect Spanish soldier, lover and horseman”—Lola becomes a double agent and the two hatch a plot of their own. Disaster strikes when the plot is exposed, Diego is captured, and Lola is forced to flee on horseback to France, with a dangerous group of Loyalists in hot pursuit. Will Lola’s reckless daring, feminine whiles, and signature whip be enough to save her life and preserve her cause? She will have to be more whip smart than ever.Written with zest and a passionate, fiery fervor by debut author Kit Brennan, Whip Smart irresistibly whisks readers into a vivid journey through 19th Century, France, England and Spain, riding sidesaddle with Eliza Gilbert, the hot-headed Irish girl, as she transforms into Dona Maria Dolores de Porris y Montez—aka Lola Montez, the sensation of Europe!

Nook Daily Find 5/16

The Startup Playbook ($12.09 Kindle, $12.31 $3.99 B&N), by David Kidder and Reid Hoffman [Chronicle Books], is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, more than 565,000 new businesses were created in 2010 in the United States alone—each one of them hoping to strike gold. The Startup Playbook will help them succeed. Going insider to insider with unprecedented access, New York Times bestselling author and Clickable CEO, David Kidder, shares the hard-hitting experiences of some of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs and CEOs, revealing their most closely held advice. Face-to-face interviews with 40 founders give readers key insights into what it took to build PayPal, LinkedIn, AOL, TED, Flickr, and many others into household names. Special sections include topics ranging from how to select the right idea to pursue to finding funding and overcoming inevitable obstacles. In an economy demanding change, The Startup Playbook is the go-to for entrepreneurs big and small.