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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Free and Bargain Book Roundup

Today's Google Play 25 cent Movie is Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt. Doesn't look like it's even available on Amazon. Be sure to note at Google, though, that you only have one day to play a rental (vs usually 30 at Amazon). The 25 cent Android App is Flick Golf Extreme, which also doesn't appear to be available at Amazon. I know I have some golf games from both Google and Amazon, but neither gives you any method to search your library when on the website (which means I have to turn on two other devices to do a search, even assuming it's possible in the Android Market/Google Play on my phone).

It appears that Google is running some different specials in different countries and Amazon is matching some and not the others. I can't see it, but apparently there is a good deal on The Drop by Michael Connelly for Australian customers, but one I can see is that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is only £0.20 for UK customers and it's been matched (for UK customers only) on both the UK and Main Amazon sites.
Book Description
Harriet Vanger, sixteen years old. Missing, presumed dead, she vanished into thin air. The case is closed, but is the killer still at large?

Tortured by the loss of his niece, Henrik Vanger asks disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist to investigate. But the family's dark secrets are buried deep, and in the shadows lies someone who will do anything to stop them being exposed.

Watching everyone is an unpredictable and dangerous security specialist. Lisbeth Salander – outcast... enigma... avenger...

Fight Club ($0.25 Kindle; Google), by Chuck Palahniuk, is another of the Amazon matches to Google Play, this time for those in the US and Canada (grab it quick, no telling how long it will last at this price).
Book Description
Chuck Palahniuk's outrageous and startling debut novel that exploded American literature and spawned a movement. Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with white-collar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it's only the beginning of his plans for violent revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.

Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter IV is today's Google Play MP3 album for 25 cents, price matched at Amazon. This is pure rap and definitely explicit (I would not even attempt the sample at work, for most of us). However, if there is even one song on it that you want, it's worth grabbing the album (it costs less than a single song).


What a Westmoreland Wants ($0.81), by Brenda Jackson, is a quick introduction to this popular romance series. If you want to collect them all, though, your best bet is one of the five book bundles at $9.32: The Westmorelands books 1-5, The Westmorelands books 6-10 and The Westmorelands books 11-15
Book Description
Mr. September: Callum Austell, sexy Australian ranch owner

His Deepest Desire: The elusive Gemma Westmoreland

The Seduction Plan: Get her on his turf—ASAP!

He'd been biding his time, and now the perfect opportunity had arrived to pursue the ultimate object of his affections. Offering Gemma a job to decorate his new home meant she had to come to him. And on his territory, the Aussie knew he could easily woo her into his bed. But this Westmoreland woman was no pushover. If Callum was going to get what he wanted—as always—the millionaire just might have to utter three little words first.

Spontaneous ($0.86), by Brenda Jackson, is a bit spicier, published under Harlequin's Blaze imprint.
Book Description
Kimani Cannon knows she's in trouble the second she lays eyes on 6'4" of luscious male. The best kind of trouble, too...mm-mmm! Duan Jeffries turns out to be the perfect man--charming, considerate...and the best lover she's ever had. Too bad Mr. Delicious is just a one-night stand....

Until Kim needs a date to her mother's (fifth) wedding! Duan's willing to act the part of her fiancé... as long as it means full benefits. More amazing sex? No problem!

Then Kim finds out that Duan's got his own private agenda. Suddenly, she doesn't know what to believe. Her head and heart are telling her to be careful. But the sensual thrumming in her blood is turning out to be much more persuasive....

Mosquito ($2.99 Kindle; Google), by Roma Tearne
Book Description
On the lush coast of Sri Lanka, a talented and beautiful young woman, Nulani, returns day after day to the verandah of a beach house to paint. Her subject is Theo, a writer attempting to heal from a tragic loss and struggling to complete a faltering novel. Just as love blossoms between them, the country is shaken by civil war. Through the years that follow, Nulani and Theo must depend upon their memories and the art that once brought them together to find the strength to face their much changed lives.

In a rare and unforgettable work, Roma Tearne captures both the fragility and the endurance of love. The story unfolds in a beguiling landscape as Tearne presents us with the turmoil of the Sri Lankan civil war, told unusually from a woman's point of view.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children ($3.99 Kindle; Google), by Ransom Riggs
Book Description
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Six of Rachel Gibson's novels are available to pre-order for $3.99 each; these are reprint editions from HarperCollins.
It Must Be Love
Undercover cop Joe Shanahan's bad luck hit bottom the morning he stared up into the face of sexy suspect Gabrielle Breedlove. She'd blown his cover—brought him down with a can of hairspray—and now his new assignment was to pose as her boyfriend. But spending as much time as possible with the utterly irresistible New Age beauty caused unexpected complications. To make matters worse, his matchmaking sisters are picking out china patterns.

Joe's brooding good looks and T-shirt-straining muscles might be easy on the eyes, but how could Gabrielle be attracted to a straight-laced detective who's determined to find evidence to arrest her? Still, he invades her dreams and when they share a transcendent lovemaking experience, Gabrielle knows it must be love.

Undercover cop Joe Shanahan's bad luck hit bottom the morning he stared up into the face of sexy suspect Gabrielle Breedlove. She'd blown his cover—brought him down with a can of hairspray—and now his new assignment was to pose as her boyfriend. But spending as much time as possible with the utterly irresistible New Age beauty caused unexpected complications. To make matters worse, his matchmaking sisters are picking out china patterns.

Joe's brooding good looks and T-shirt-straining muscles might be easy on the eyes, but how could Gabrielle be attracted to a straight-laced detective who's determined to find evidence to arrest her? Still, he invades her dreams and when they share a transcendent lovemaking experience, Gabrielle knows it must be love.


Daisy's Back in Town
Daisy Lee Monroe thought she'd brushed the dust of Lovett, Texas, off her high-heeled shoes years ago, but she's come back home only to find that little has changed. Her sister is still crazy, and her mom still has pink plastic flamingos in her front yard. And Jackson Lamott Parrish, the bad boy she'd left behind, is still so sexy it hurts. She'd like nothing better than to avoid this particular man, but she can't. Daisy has something to say to Jackson, and she's not going anywhere until he listens.

Jackson learned his lesson about Daisy the hard way, and now the only word he's interested in hearing from Daisy's red lips is good-bye. But she's popping up everywhere, and he doesn't believe in coincidence. It seems the only way to keep her quiet is with his mouth, but kissing Daisy had once been his downfall. Is he strong enough to resist her now? Strong enough to watch her walk out of his life again? Is he strong enough to make her stay?


Simply Irresistible (Chinooks Hockey Team #1)
Georgeanne Howard leaves her fiancÉ at the altar when she realizes she can't marry a man old enough to be her grandfather, no matter how rich he is. Hockey superstar John Kowalsky unknowingly helps her escape, and only when it's too late does he realize that he's absconded with his boss's bride. This bad boy isn't looking to be anybody's savior but his own. Still, a long night stretches ahead of them—a night too sultry to resist temptation.

Seven years later, Georgeanne and John meet again. She is on her way to becoming Seattle's domestic darling and he is past his hellraising days. Shocked to learn that he has a daughter, John's determined to be part of her life. Georgeanne has loved John since the moment she jumped into his car, but will he risk the wrath of his boss, and one final chance at glory, to prove that this time his love will be everlasting?


See Jane Score (Chinooks Hockey Team #2)
Girl living single lifestyle in the big city of Seattle is leading a double life as a reporter for the raucous Seattle Chinooks hockey team and at night she's a writer creating swcandalous adventures of "Honey Pie"..a magazine series that has all the men talking.

The Trouble With Valentine's Day (Chinooks Hockey Team #3)
When everything about her life in Las Vegas just seems to be going wrong, Kate Hamilton leaves her job as a PI and points her car toward Gospel, Idaho. Gospel is the kind of town where a girl can take it easy and just be herself, or so she hopes. But when she gets there, people get the impression that she's a bit of a ball–buster. And she is, at first.

But Gospel has a way of softening people up. One of those ways is Rob Sutter. He's a spectacular–looking former hockey player with a wild past of his own, who now lives a quiet (albeit slightly macho) life running his sporting goods store and fly–fishing. Kate and Rob are so wrong for each other that there must be something right. If only they can start seeing each other for who they really are...


Truly Madly Yours
Where there's a will. . .

When pretty hairdresser Delaney Shaw returned home to Truly, Idaho, for the reading of her stepfather's will, she planned on paying her respects and getting out of town. But it seems the will has some unexpected stipulations-like the one that says if Delaney wants her inheritance she needs to stay put and have nothing to so with sexy Nick Allegrezza. . .for an entire year!

There's no way

Ten years ago, Nick had swept Delaney off her feet and onto his Harley, and that's when she really let her down her Hair! Back then, he was a love-'em-and-leave-'em man, and Delaney learned the hard way that she was just a fling. But Nick is as irresistible as ever. And when the ladies at Tuesday night Bingo see Nick and Delaney making after-hours whoopee through the window of a local beauty parlor, Delaney knows it's time to decide if Nick I truly, madly the man of her heart.

Heat Rises ($3.99 Kindle; Google), by Richard Castle, the third in the TV tie-in Nikki Heat series and Heat Wave ($5), the first title are both on sale. Frozen Heat is coming out this fall, but so far only a hardcover pre-order link is live. If you can't wait until then for a fix from the series, you might blind-order the three novellas being released: A Brewing Storm ($2.99 $1.97), Untitled Derrick Storm 3 ($2.99) and Untitled Derrick Storm 3 ($2.99), which are being staggered in release over the next few months.
Heat Rises
Fast-paced and full of intrigue, Heat Rises pairs the tough and sexy NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat with hotshot reporter Jameson Rook in New York Times bestselling author Richard Castle's most thrilling mystery yet.
The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club opens Nikki Heat’s most thrilling and dangerous case so far, pitting her against New York’s most vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad out to gun her down. And that is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a dark conspiracy reaching all the way to the highest level of the NYPD.

But when she gets too close to the truth, Nikki finds herself disgraced, stripped of her badge, and out on her own as a target for killers, with nobody she can trust. Except maybe the one man in her life who’s not a cop: reporter Jameson Rook.
In the midst of New York’s coldest winter in a hundred years, there’s one thing Nikki is determined to prove: Heat Rises. This ebook includes an alternate cover created by one of Richard Castle's biggest fans!


Heat Wave
A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.

Mystery sensation Richard Castle, blockbuster author of the wildly best-selling Derrick Storm novels, introduces his newest character, NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest. Pulitzer Prize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome. His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems. As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them. The one called heat.

If you can't get enough of comedian Jacob Weisberg's Bushisms, you have hit the jackpot, as there are three volumes at $3.99, although the inaugural volume, George W. Bushisms, is full price.
More George W. Bushisms
"Most of you probably didn't know that I have a new book out. Some guy put together a collection of my wit and wisdom -- or, as he calls it, my accidental wit and wisdom. [Laughter] But I'm kind of proud that my words are already in book form."

-- President George W. Bush,

discussing and reading from George W. Bushisms

By now, most of you probably do know about George W. Bushisms, the bestselling collection of misstatements made on the campaign trail by our president. Now, in More George W. Bushisms, Jacob Weisberg reveals that the malapropisms didn't stop on Inauguration Day:

"I've coined new words like misunderstanding and Hispanically."

"I haven't had a chance to talk, but I'm confident we'll get a bill that I can live with if we don't."

"Our nation must come together to unite."

"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead."


Still More George W. Bushisms
There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.

With signature remarks like these, it's hardly surprising that George W. Bush's malapropisms have become renowned around the world. Editions of Bushisms have become bestsellers in Germany, France, and Italy, and they remain as popular in the United States as ever. Jacob Weisberg, faithful scribe, here presents the best of the latest crop:

"There's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids upon the death of their loved one. Others hug but having committed the troops, I've got an additional responsibility to hug and that's me and I know what it's like."

"I'm the master of low expectations."

"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."


The Ultimate George W. Bushisms
"This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all."

As the end of the Bush era approaches, the legacy is clear: George W. Bush is a wartime president. His enemy, battered but not defeated after repeated surges: the English language. The ultimate edition of George W. Bushisms captures this legacy -- from the Gulf Coast to Iraq and back -- with all-new pearls of wisdom and the twenty-five greatest hits of the entire presidency.

"You know, when I campaigned here in 2000, I said, I want to be a war president. No president wants to be a war president, but I am one."

"I think -- tide turning -- see, as I remember -- I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of -- it's easy to see a tide turn -- did I say those words?"

Boomerang: Travels In The New Third World ($3.99 Kindle; Google), by Michael Lewis
Book Description
As Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge.

Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish.

Michael Lewis's investigation of bubbles beyond our shores is so brilliantly, sadly hilarious that it leads the American reader to a comfortable complacency: oh, those foolish foreigners. But when he turns a merciless eye on California and Washington, DC, we see that the narrative is a trap baited with humor, and we understand the reckoning that awaits the greatest and greediest of debtor nations.

1,000 Places to See in the United States & Canada Before You Die ($3.99 Kindle; Google), by Patricia Schultz, is the updated edition, with 1,200 pages in print. This is the book you meant to read before heading out on your vacation or road trip, but didn't, then wanted to take with you to read on the plane, but it was too heavy -- now reduced to zero space and weight in your luggage, so there's never any reason to be without a copy, in case you need to make new plans anywhere in the US or Canada. It will take a bit of space on your eReader, though, at 15MB for the book (the sample is 800K). The world edition isn't on sale (and with more than 200 new entries, shouldn't it be re-titles as the 1,200 places to see? How are we supposed to see them all, if they keep adding to the list?), but for those who prefer to only visit sandy beaches (instead of Civil War battlefields), you might pick up Perfect Island Getaways from 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: The Caribbean, Bahamas & Bermuda ($3.82), which contains just 53 entries, which is still enough to fill every vacation you get for the next few decades.
Book Description
The 1,000 Places to See books are pleasurable, inspiring, wondrous, a best-selling phenomenon and, yes, practical: Announcing the updated edition of 1,000 Places to See in the USA & Canada Before You Die, The New York Times No. 1 bestseller. Because USA & Canada is not only a wish book but also a guide, this information, including phone numbers, Web addresses, and more, is now completely revised and updated.

Just in time for travel season, for long summer weekends, for whenever the mood strikes to pack up the car and set out to discover a new piece of America (and Canada!), 1,000 Places to See in the USA & Canada is a map to all the unique and wonderful places just around the corner: Sail the Maine Windjammers out of Camden. Explore the gold-mining trails in Alaska’s Denali wilderness. Collect exotic shells on the beaches of Captiva. Play tennis the way it was meant to be—on grass—at the lavish Victorian Newport Casino. Take a barbecue tour of Kansas City—Arthur Bryant’s to Gates to Snead’s. There’s the ice hotel in Quebec, the stalacpipe organ in Virginia, out-of-the-way Civil War battlefields, dude ranches and cowboy poetry readings, and what to do in Louisville after the Derby’s over.

More than 150 places are highlighted as family-friendly, and indices in the back organize the book by subject—wilderness, dining, beaches, world-class museums, sports, festivals, and more.

Note to Kindle Readers: The Kindle edition of this book has been formatted with convenient linking in the table of contents that allow the reader to navigate to each state or province in the United States and Canada. The indexes at the end of the book provide terms for use in the Kindle search feature. The general index is organized by region and lists locations alphabetically while the special index is organized by travel interest categories.

Today's backlist/small press/indie, totally free, books for everyone on Kindle. These are are not likely to be free for long, so double check prices before one-clicking (genres are my best guess), as most of them go back up after a day or two (sometimes less), at which point most of them become eligible for the Kindle Lending Library.
* free at Smashwords - may require coupon code RE100

6 Free Books from Charles River Editors (K)

Charles River Editors (Main/UK) has another batch of free books in the Kindle store.
  1. The Essential Guide to Marketing, by Quentin G. Love
  2. Everything You Need to Know About the Harry Potter Series
  3. American Legends: The Life of John F. Kennedy (Illustrated)
  4. Experience Mumbai (Illustrated)
  5. American Legends: The Life of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Illustrated)
  6. Everything You Need to Know About The Great Gatsby (Illustrated)

Win $1000 from AmazonMom

Amazon is giving away $1000 thru their AmazonMom Facebook page. See the official rules for details, but basically all you have to do is Like the page, then enter your info on the Sweepstakes tab.
Fine print:
Eligibility. If you are an individual legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia and are the older of 18 years of age or the legal age of majority in your state of residence at the time of entry, you are eligible to enter the Sweepstakes. Our employees, their immediate family members (spouses, domestic partners, parents, grandparents, siblings, children and grandchildren), and our affiliates, advisors or advertising/promotion agencies (and their immediate family members) are not eligible to enter the Sweepstakes.

Free Book - Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife (K/N/E)

Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife, by James L. Garlow and Keith Wall, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Bethany House.
Book Description
What happens when we die? What is heaven really like? How do spiritual beings--angels and demons--interact with us here and in the hereafter? Real-life, credible stories of near-death experiences and spiritual encounters gathered by the authors of Heaven and the Afterlife paint a clearer, fuller picture of exactly what readers can expect when it's their turn to "cross over." These gripping true stories--written from a solidly biblical perspective but accessible to seekers--provide fascinating glimpses into the spiritual world around us and the one that awaits us.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - Deeper Into the Word (K/N/E)

Deeper Into the Word, by Keri Wyatt Kent, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Bethany House.
Book Description
Translators have done their best to render the words of the Bible into English, but capturing the nuances of the ancient languages is an inexact science. Kent gives readers an opportunity to investigate the roots and biblical context of the words within the Word. Deeper into the Word is a fascinating devotional, but it can also be used as an accessible reference tool, as it explores 100 of the most important words of the New Testament. Kent unpacks each word's Greek origins, shows how it is used in the Bible, and offers insights into its significance in our lives.

About the Author
Keri Wyatt Kent is the author of seven previous books and is a regular contributor to Today's Christian Woman (now Kyria.com), Outreach magazine, and MomSense magazine. Keri speaks at churches and retreats around the country and is a frequent guest on several shows on the Moody Broadcasting Network, including Midday Connection. Keri lives with her husband and two children in suburban Chicago.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble (be careful, there are two editions and the one returned in a search is not free).
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Short Story - Large Garbage (K)

Large Garbage: A Radio Belly Single, by Buffy Cram, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of Douglas & McIntyre.
Book Description
In the surreal world of Buffy Cram’s stories, someone or something has slipped beneath the skins of her already beleaguered characters, rearranging the familiar into something strange and even sinister, making off with their emotional and even physical goods.

In Large Garbage: A Radio Belly Single, a smug suburbanite becomes obsessed with the "hybrids," the wandering mob of intellectual vagrants overrunning his complacent little cul de sac, snacking on pate and reciting poetry. Equally repelled by the hybrids' uncleanliness and intrigued by their freedom, Henry draws dangerously close to their secret nighttime life of sloshing claret and Proust quotes that overflow from finger-printed wine glasses and dirt-smudged lips. As the LA Times wrote: this "'new breed of homelessness'...cleverly envisions an alternative to the ever-widening circle of consumption that defines us now."

Today's Deals

Charming the Shrew ($0.99), by Laurin Wittig, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
Returning home to the Scottish Highlands after battling the English, Tayg Munro receives a hero’s welcome—and a shocking ultimatum. In order to take his place as heir to the chiefdom of Culrain, he must choose a wife within the month or have one chosen for him. Angered by his family's decree, Tayg delays the inevitable by volunteering for a mission for the king that takes him deep into the Highlands. Preoccupied by his marital obligation, the brooding warrior sets out with no hint of the fateful encounter that awaits him...

Catriona MacLeod is known throughout the Highlands as the Shrew of Assynt, thanks to her razor-sharp tongue and her unwillingness to yield to her five brothers. When she's told that her eldest brother has promised her hand in marriage to a man she has good reason to hate, she flees into the Scottish wilderness, determined to seek the king’s intervention in her plight. When she reluctantly joins forces with a handsome traveler, she cannot anticipate the treacherous plot that will soon embroil them—nor the passion that will ignite between them.

Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Matthew Hollis, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
Edward Thomas was perhaps the most beguiling and influential of First World War poets. Now All Roads Lead to France is an account of his final five years, centred on his extraordinary friendship with Robert Frost and Thomas's fatal decision to fight in the war.

The book also evokes an astonishingly creative moment in English literature, when London was a battleground for new, ambitious kinds of writing. A generation that included W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Robert Frost and Rupert Brooke were 'making it new' - vehemently and pugnaciously.

These larger-than-life characters surround a central figure, tormented by his work and his marriage. But as his friendship with Frost blossomed, Thomas wrote poem after poem, and his emotional affliction began to lift. In 1914 the two friends formed the ideas that would produce some of the most remarkable verse of the twentieth century. But the War put an ocean between them: Frost returned to the safety of New England while Thomas stayed to fight for the Old.

It is these roads taken - and those not taken - that are at the heart of this remarkable book, which culminates in Thomas's tragic death on Easter Monday 1917.

Elmore Leonard Raylan Givens 3-Book Collection ($4.99 Kindle, B&N, Google), by Elmore Leonard, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle and from Google (EPUB). This is one I'm definitely grabbing - it was a decent deal at the $12.99 price for the bundle, but since the publisher sets the price on these and they are $9.99 apiece individually, I doubt I'll find them cheaper. I'm a big fan of the show, so I'm hoping the books are similar enough to be interesting (and I know his writing is up-to-par, so that shouldn't be an issue).
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard’s U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is the mesmerizing hero of numerous books and the hit FX series Justified. Now the first three Raylan books—Pronto, Riding the Rap, and Fire in the Hole—are together in one ebook, along with an excerpt from Raylan, the brand new novel in the series.

Pronto
The feds want Miami bookmaker Harry Arno to squeal on his wiseguy boss. So they're putting word out on the street that Arno's skimming profits from "Jimmy Cap" Capotorto—which he is, but everybody does it. He was planning to retire to Italy someday anyway, so Harry figures now's a good time to get lost. U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens knows Harry's tricky—the bookie ditched him once in an airport while in the marshal's custody—but not careful. So Raylan's determined to find the fugitive's Italian hideaway before a cold-blooded Sicilian "Zip" does and whacks Arno for fun. After all, it's a "pride thing"...and it might even put Raylan in good stead with Harry's sexy ex-stripper girlfriend Joyce.

Riding the Rap
Now that his mom's gravy train has derailed, gambling, debt-ridden Palm Beach playboy Warren "Chip" Ganz has decided to take somebody rich hostage—with the help of a Bahamian ex-con, a psycho gardener/enforcer, and the beautiful, if underfed, psychic Reverend Dawn. The trouble is they choose bookmaker Harry Arno as their victim, and Harry can scam with the best. The BIG trouble is ace manhunter U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is sleeping with Harry's ex-exotic dancer ex-girlfriend, and Joyce wants Harry found. And since nearly everyone has guns, locating and springing the captive bookie most probably can't happen without some measure of lethal difficulty.

Fire in the Hole
In this superb short fiction collection, Elmore Leonard, “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever” (New York Times Book Review), once again illustrates how the line between the law and the lawbreakers is not as firm as we might think. In the title story, the basis for the hit FX series Justified, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens meets up with an old friend, but they’re now on different sides of the law. Federal marshal Karen Sisco, from Out of Sight, returns in “Karen Makes Out,” once again inadvertently mixing pleasure with business. In “When the Women Come Out to Dance,” Mrs. Mahmood gets more than she bargains for when she conspires with her maid to end her unhappy marriage.

Splat the Cat ($11.31 Hardcover, no Kindle edition; $4.99 B&N), by Rob Scotton, is the Nook Daily Find for Families (only works on NOOK Color & NOOK Tablet).
Book Description
A brand-new character from Rob Scotton, bestselling author of Russell the Sheep.

This NOOK Kids Read and Play book features narration, animation and interactivity. Kids can choose to hear the story read aloud and play activities on select pages of the book. Animations replay with a simple tap. Plus, kids can tap to enlarge text and pinch & stretch to zoom in on pictures.

Google Play - 25 Cent Intro Specials

Google is merging their Books, Music, Movies and Appstore into a single Google Play website (and renaming the Android Marketplace app). Your old content will transition to the new site, for those who already have apps and books, so nothing should be lost. To promote the new site, Google is running a 25 cent special in each section and it looks like Amazon is matching them (at least, it is right now). These are the current specials I see active:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel ($0.25 Kindle; Google), by Jonathan Safran Foer
Book Description
Jonathan Safran Foer follows his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, with an unexpectedly hilarious and affecting story about New York City in the period following September 11.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close recasts recent history through the eyes of Oskar Schell, an unusually intelligent nine-year-old on an urgent quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center. This unlikely adventure takes Oskar through every city borough and into contact with survivors of all sorts, and it's his irrepressible voice—one that few writers could conceive as imaginatively as Foer does—that transforms the tragedy of circumstance into an exhilarating tribute to love.

Where's My Water? ($0.25 Amazon; Google), by Disney
Book Description
Now test your skills with "Cranky's Story"!

Cranky is the toughest alligator around and he has worked up an appetite from sabotaging Swampy's water supply. He eats anything, especially all the rotting and disgusting junk found in the dumps and sewers. Cranky will not eat vegetables however, and now his food is covered with vegetable-like algae. Use the dirty purple water to clean off Cranky's plate so he can eat!

• Enjoy five of these new puzzles for free

• Purchase the Cranky's Story in-app item to unlock more than 50 super-challenging puzzles, including Cranky's Challenge, and enjoy a completely new way to play--Cranky's Challenge is a game within a game: four unique puzzle packs with 16 special levels for the most-skilled puzzle solvers

• Swampy's stories will continue to be updated for free

Please note: The ability to write to external storage is not enabled in this version. Swampy will get his ducks in a row and enable this permission in the next update. In the mean time please send any questions to Disney's Customer Care service accessible via the Where's My Water Facebook page.

Have you "Tri-Ducked" the game yet and completed all the bonus levels?

Puncture ($3.99 Amazon; $0.25 Google), Starring Chris Evans, Vinessa Shaw, Michael Biehn and Marshall Bell
Book Description
An attorney fighting a corrupt system is battling his own demons as he tries to do right by others in this drama based on a true story. Vicky (Vinessa Shaw) is a nurse at a hospital in Houston whose life takes an unexpected turn when she accidentally jabs herself with a used syringe. The needle had been used on a patient who was HIV-positive, and Vicky contracts AIDS. Jeffrey Danfort (Marshall Bell) is a close friend of Vicky's who designs medical equipment, and he's inspired to invent a syringe with a safety point that would prevent such mistakes. However, as Jeffrey tries to sell his new invention to pharmaceutical manufacturers, he discovers how much they're governed by corruption and insider dealings. Jeffrey decides to take on the dishonest firms with a lawsuit, and he secures the services of Weiss & Danziger, a small law office eager for any kind of business. But while Paul Danziger (Mark Kassen) needs the work to support his wife and children, Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) is more concerned with supporting his cocaine habit, which is spiraling out of control. Even though Mike sees the case as a chance to prove himself, his hunger for drugs is a constant obstacle. Puncture received its world premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

Now That's What I Call Music! 41 ($0.25 Amazon; Google), by various (EMD).
Book Description
The 41st volume of Now That's What I Call Music! delivers a variety of pop radio hits and, after nearly 30 years of compilations, continues to showcase the music of the times. The hit-makers are all here, from LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes and Coldplay, to Adele, Katy Perry, Jessie J and Lady Gaga, while T-Pain, Pitbull, and rapper J. Cole add a hip-hop edge. Throughout the 20 songs featured, the formula and momentum never waver. This edition also includes "Now What's Next," four bonus tracks from up-and-comers Sammy Adams, Hunter Hayes, Susan Justice and The Wanted. – Laura Checkoway, Google Music

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Bargain Book Roundup

Reckless With a Bonus Excerpt ($0.99 Kindle, B&N), by Andrew Gross, is available to pre-order. You can get a sample from the full price edition.
Book Description
Ty Hauck is shattered by the news. A close friend from his past, along with her husband and daughter, has been brutally murdered in her home by vicious intruders. Now he will risk everything he loves to avenge her death....

A wealthy banker, seeing his world about to crumble around him, knows his family is in unfathomable danger....

A U.S. government agent watches the sudden bank transfers of millions in cash and suspects that this is the first step in a plot to unleash a wave of global panic....

Ty Hauck hunts the murderer of a friend—and steps into the crosshairs of a sinister conspiracy—in this most electrifying novel yet from New York Times bestselling thriller master Andrew Gross.

Private security investigator Ty Hauck, with Naomi Blum, a tenacious agent from the U.S. Department of Treasury, unravels the evidence that joins these seemingly unrelated events—revealing a reckless scheme that stretches from New York to London to central Europe and gives new meaning to the phrase "too big to fail." What began with a tragedy that opened a door to Hauck's past—a door that he thought was long closed—ends with a frantic race to avert a disaster that could shake the very security of our country—and even the world.

Simon and Schuster has the first five novels from Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James series for $3.99 each:
A Share in Death #1
A week's holiday in a luxurious Yorkshire time-share is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But the discovery of a body floating in the whirlpool bath ends Kincaid's vacation before it's begun. One of his new acquaintances at Followdale House is dead; another is a killer. Despite a distinct lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised dramatically when a second murder occurs, and Kincaid and James find themselves in a determined hunt for a fiendish felon who enjoys homicide a bit too much.

All Shall Be Well #2
Perhaps it is a blessing when Jasmine Dent dies in her sleep. At long last an end has come to the suffering of a body horribly ravaged by disease. It may well have been suicide; she had certainly expressed her willingness to speed the inevitable. But small inconsistencies lead her neighbor, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard, to a startling conclusion: Jasmine Dent was murdered. But if not for mercy, why would someone destroy a life already so fragile and doomed? As Kincaid and his capable and appealing assistant Sergeant Gemma James sift through the dead woman's strange history, a troubling puzzle begins to take shape -- a bizarre amalgam of good and evil, of charity and crime . . . and of the blinding passions that can drive the human animal to perform cruel and inhuman acts.

Leave the Grave Green #3
When Connor Swann, the dissolute son-in-law of renowned and influential Sir Gerald and Dame Caroline Asherton, is found floating in a Thames River lock, the circumstances eerily recall a strangely similar tragedy. Twenty years ago, the Ashertons' young son, Matthew, a musical prodigy, drowned in a swollen stream while in the company of his sister Julia -- Connor Swann's wife.

Police Superintendant Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James quickly discover that Connor's death was no accident, and that nothing in the Asherton family is as it seems. Connor, though estranged from Julia for more than a year, still lives in her London apartment, where his exploits with women and gambling suggest plenty of motives. The Ashertons are far more attached to Connor than to their own daughter, and these are only the first of the secrets that haunt the suspects. New lies cover older lies, as Kincaid finds himself dangerously drawn to Julia Swann, and Gemma must confront her own troubling feelings for Kincaid.


Mourn Not Your Dead #4
An important and powerful policeman has been murdered, bludgeoned to death in his own kitchen. Few in suburban Surrey mourn the violent passing of Division Commander Alastair Gilbert, whose arrogance and cruelty were legendary in his village and in wider police circles -- which only makes the job of Scotland Yard investigators Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James more difficult. And as every discovery reveals another instance of misplaced trust, festering secrets, and murderous rage, they must put aside their own personal feelings for the victim -- and for each other -- in the name of justice and the law.

Dreaming of the Bones #5
It is the call Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid never expected -- and one he certainly doesn't want. Victoria, his ex-wife, who walked out without an explanation more than a decade ago, asks him to look into the suicide of local poet, Lydia Brooke -- a case that's been officially closed for five years. The troubled young writer's death, Victoria claims, might well have been murder.

No one is more surprised than Kincaid himself when he agrees to investigate -- not even his partner and lover, Sergeant Gemma James. But it's a second death that raises the stakes and plunges Kincaid and James into a labyrinth of dark lies and lethal secrets that stretches all the way back through the twentieth century -- a death that most assuredly is murder, one that has altered Duncan Kincaid's world forever.

Through a Glass Darkly ($2.51), by Karleen Koen
Book Description
Karleen Koen's sweeping saga contains unforgettable characters consumed with passion: the extraordinarily beautiful fifteen-year-old noblewoman, Barbara Alderley; the man she adores, the wickedly handsome Roger MontGeoffry; her grandmother, the duchess, who rules the family with cunning and wit; and her mother, the ineffably cruel, self-centered and licentious Diana. Like no other work, Through a Glass Darkly is infused with intrigue, sweetened by romance and awash in the black ink of betrayal.

Simon and Schuster has a half-dozen of Mary Higgins Clark's novels on sale for $3.99 each.
Where Are The Children?
Neeve Kearny may be the only person in New York worried about the disappearance of Ethel Lambston.

Ethel, a bestselling author famous for her juicy exposÉs, is one of the best customers at Neeve’s exclusive Madison Avenue boutique. But Ethel’s ex-husband, her parasitical nephew, and the fashion moguls skewered in her latest article all have reason to be glad she’s no longer around.

When Ethel Lambston is found with her throat cut, Neeve’s memories of her mother’s long-unsolved murder loom up once again. Now, as an innocent witness in the Lambston investigation, Neeve is drawn into a new nightmare . . . a sinister labyrinth of greed and ambition that will lead her into mortal danger.


All Around The Town
When Laurie Kenyon, a twenty-one-year-old student, is accused of murdering her English professor, she has no memory of the crime. Her fingerprints, however, are everywhere. When she asks her sister, attorney Sarah, to mount her defense, Sarah in turn brings in psychiatrist Justin Donnelly. Kidnapped at the age of four and victimized for two years, Laurie has developed astounding coping skills. Only when the unbearable memories of those lost years are released can the truth of the crime come out -- and only then can the final sadistic plan of her abductor, whose obsession is stronger than ever, be revealed.

A Cry In The Night
When Jenny MacPartland meets the man of her dreams while working in a New York art gallery, she's ecstatic. Painter Erich Krueger -- whose exquisite landscapes are making him a huge success -- is handsome, sensitive...and utterly in love with her. They marry quickly and Jenny plans a loving home on Erich's vast Minnesota farm. But lonely days and eerie nights strain her nerves to the breaking point and test her sanity. Caught in a whirlpool of shattering events, Jenny soon unearths a past more terrifying than she dares imagine...tragic secrets that threaten her marriage, her children, her life.

Weep No More, My Lady (Alvirah and Willy #1)
Elizabeth Lange has arrived at Cypress Point Spa in Pebble Beach, California, weary of heart and soul. Still grieving for her beloved sister, a famous actress who plunged to her death from her Manhattan penthouse, Elizabeth is determined to unearth the truth about how Leila died. Dashing multimillionaire Ted Winters stands accused of her murder, but Elizabeth has doubts.

Along the windswept cliffs of the Monterey coast, in luxurious bungalows, between gourmet meals and beachfront walks, uneasiness stalks Elizabeth while she begins opening doors to the past. As glimpses of the dark truth about Leila's life and death -- and about Elizabeth herself -- start to crash against her mind, an ominous wave from an unexpected source threatens to engulf her entirely.


Where Are You Now?
From America's Queen of Suspense comes a gripping tale of a young woman trying to unravel the mystery of a family tragedy -- a quest with terrifying repercussions.

It has been ten years since twenty-one-year-old Charles MacKenzie Jr. ("Mack") went missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already accepted at Duke University Law School, he walked out of his apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his college roommates and has never been seen again. However, he does make one ritual phone call to his mother every year: on Mother's Day. Each time, he assures her he is fine, refuses to answer her frantic questions, then hangs up. Even the death of his father, a corporate lawyer, in the tragedy of 9/11 does not bring him home or break the pattern of his calls.

Mack's sister, Carolyn, is now twenty-six, a law school graduate, and has just finished her clerkship for a civil court judge in Manhattan. She has endured two family tragedies, yet she realizes that she will never be able to have closure and get on with her life until she finds her brother. She resolves to discover what happened to Mack and why he has found it necessary to hide from them. So this year when Mack makes his annual Mother's Day call, Carolyn interrupts to announce her intention to track him down, no matter what it takes. The next morning after Mass, her uncle, Monsignor Devon MacKenzie, receives a scrawled message left in the collection basket: "Uncle Devon, tell Carolyn she must not look for me."

Mack's cryptic warning does nothing to deter his sister from taking up the search, despite the angry reaction of her mother, Olivia, and the polite disapproval of Elliott Wallace, Carolyn's honorary uncle, who is clearly in love with Olivia.

Carolyn's pursuit of the truth about Mack's disappearance swiftly plunges her into a world of unexpected danger and unanswered questions. What is the secret that Gus and Lil Kramer, the superintendents of the building in which Mack was living, have to hide? What do Mack's old roommates, the charismatic club owner Nick DeMarco and the cold and wealthy real estate tycoon Bruce Galbraith, know about Mack's disappearance? Is Nick connected to the disappearance of Leesey Andrews, who had last been seen in his trendy club? Can the police possibly believe that Mack is not only alive, but a serial killer, a shadowy predator of young women? Was Mack also guilty of the brutal murder of his drama teacher and the theft of his taped sessions with her?

Carolyn's passionate search for the truth about her brother -- and for her brother himself -- leads her into a deadly confrontation with someone close to her whose secret he cannot allow her to reveal.


Just Take My Heart
IN WORLDWIDE BESTSELLING SUSPENSE WRITER MARY HIGGINS CLARK’S SPELLBINDING NEW THRILLER, A BROADWAY STAR’S MURDER IGNITES A SHOCKING SERIES OF DEADLY EVENTS. . . .

After famous actress Natalie Raines is found in her home, dying from a gunshot wound, police immediately suspect her theatrical agent and jealous soon-to-be-ex-husband, Gregg Aldrich. But no charges are brought against him until two years later, when a career criminal suddenly claims Aldrich had tried to hire him to kill her.

The case is a plum assignment for attractive thirty-two-year-old assistant prosecutor Emily Wallace. She spends long hours preparing for the trial, and unaware of a seemingly well-meaning neighbor’s violent past, gives him a key to her home to care for her dog.

The high-profile trial makes headlines, threatening to reveal personal matters about Emily, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant— especially when she experiences eerie sentiments that defy all reason and continue even after the jury decides Gregg Aldrich’s fate.

But little does she know, now her own life is at risk. . . .

Rose Garden ($2.24), by Susanna Kearsley
Book Description
Eva Ward returns to the only place she truly belongs, the old house on the Cornish coast, seeking happiness in memories of childhood summers. There she finds mysterious voices and hidden pathways that sweep her not only into the past, but also into the arms of a man who is not of her time.

But Eva must confront her own ghosts, as well as those of long ago. As she begins to question her place in the present, she comes to realize that she too must decide where she really belongs.

From Susanna Kearsley, author of the New York Times bestseller The Winter Sea and a voice acclaimed by fans of Gabaldon, du Maurier, and Niffenegger alike, The Rose Garden is a haunting exploration of love, family, the true meaning of home, and the ties that bind us together.

Simon and Schuster has a trio of titles from Jonathan Kellerman,, the first three in the Alex Delaware series, for $3.99 each.
When the Bough Breaks
In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.

It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past.

This connection is only the beginning, a single link in a forty-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.


Blood Test
Dr. Alexander Delaware, a child psychologist in Los Angeles, is called in to evaluate the case of a leukemia patient whose parents want to discontinue chemotherapy. When the boy disappears from the hospital and his parents are found dead, the only leads are the boy's sensual older sister and a holistic-meditative cult called The Touch. Delaware's search for the child takes him to a small town near the Mexican border where he finally unearths the dark secrets kept by the boy's family and the townspeople. He also uncovers drugs and group sex in the commune and survives a few harrowing attempts on his life. (Particularly well-drawn is a failed assassination at the tale's end, which has intriguing mythic echoes.) As in his praised first novel, WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS, Kellerman draws on his experience as a clinical psychologist to enrich and broaden his considerable storytelling talents. Imbued with a vivid sense of place and featuring a strong supporting cast, including Milo Sturgis, Delaware's burly gay detective friend, this second adventure points happily toward an Alex Delaware series.

Over the Edge
When the phone rings in the middle of the night, child psychologist Alex Delaware does not hesitate. Driving through the dream-lit San Fernando Valley, Alex rushes to Jamey Cadmus, the patient he had failed five years before?and who now calls with a bizarre cry for help. But by the time Alex reaches Canyon Oaks Psychiatric Hospital, Jamey is gone, surfacing a day later in the hands of the police, who believe Jamey is the infamous Lavender Slasher, a psychotic serial killer. Wooed by a high-powered attorney to build a defense, Alex will get a chance to do what he couldn?t five years ago. And when he peers into a family?s troubled history and Jamey?s brilliant, tormented mind, the psychologist puts himself at the heart of a high-profile case. Because Alex knows that in a realm of money, loss, and madness, something terrible pushed Jamie over the edge?or else someone is getting away with murder.

Shades of Milk and Honey ($2.99), by Mary Robinette Kowal
Book Description
The fantasy novel you’ve always wished Jane Austen had written

Shades of Milk and Honey is exactly what we could expect from Jane Austen if she had been a fantasy writer: Pride and Prejudice meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is an intimate portrait of a woman, Jane, and her quest for love in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality.

Jane and her sister Melody vie for the attentions of eligible men, and while Jane’s skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face. When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right—and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.

Read an eBook Week - Day 3

It's day three of Read an EBook Week.

Time limited offers for today:
  • central avenue publisher has two books up: What Scotland Taught Me by Molly Ringle; Sister Serenity and the War of 2059 by Scott Burkhead; Ramblings of a Love Sick Masochist by Dan Schwartz
  • Twilight Times Books has added Monkey Trap by Lee Denning
  • The Untreed Reads Store is giving away The Zagzagel Diaries: Forsaken by Bryl R. Tyne
  • Dorrance Publishing is giving away Satan’s Looming Identity Crisis! The Final War in the Age of Reason by I. A. Mallone
  • RoseDog Books offering New Lives for Old by Fenton and Evelyn Babcock
  • Red Lead Press is offering Murder at Hale’s Ferry by Lenora Whiteman
I suggest using Internet Explorer for those last three, as I had problems getting them with FireFox, for the third day in a row (the last confirmation won't run it's script and load the PDF file).

Promos all week:

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:

Quiver ($1.99), by Holly Luhning, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. It looked good enough that I bought it the last time it was at this price (but haven't gotten around to reading it...).
Book Description
A masterful debut thriller about the original female Dracula and an underground gothic cult reenacting her ritualized killings in present day London

In sixteenth-century Hungary, Countess Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed over six hundred servant girls in order to bathe in their blood. She believed this practice would keep her skin youthful and her beauty immortal.

Quiver tells the story of Danica, a forensic psychologist who works at a former insane asylum-turned-forensic hospital. One of Danica’s mental patients is Malcolm Foster, who is imprisoned for murdering a fourteen-year-old girl. Foster is a menacing but fascinating patient and Danica begins to suspect that Foster may have been the head of a gothic cabal idolizing Bathory. Her peers dismiss her discoveries, while disturbing incidents begin following her home from work.

Soon after her arrival in London, Danica receives a mysterious note from Maria, a seductive archivist with whom Danica has had an intriguing and complicated past. Maria claims she has Bathory’s diaries that chronicle her relentless torture of young women. As Maria increasingly insinuates herself into Danica’s life, soon Danica is in too deep to notice that Maria’s motivations are far from selfless; in fact, they may just cost Danica her life.

Mister Creecher ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Chris Priestley, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $2.51, which is also a decent bargain on this one). I also spotted another of his titles on an even bigger discount, The Teacher's Tales of Terror ($0.70 / £0.44 UK), although this one doesn't have a US edition that I can see.
Mister Creecher
Billy is a street urchin, pickpocket and petty thief. Mister Creecher is a monstrous giant of a man who terrifies all he meets. Their relationship begins as pure convenience. But a bond swiftly develops between these two misfits as their bloody journey takes them ever northwards on the trail of their target . . . Victor Frankenstein.

Friendship, trust and betrayal combine to form a dangerous liaison in this moving and frightening new book from Chris Priestley.


The Teacher's Tales of Terror
Chris Priestley has readers on the edge of their seats in this trio of terrifying stories as a teacher and his pupils share three spine-chilling tales. But, of course, with a very surprising ending that resounds like a slamming door on a quiet night!

Executive's Compass: Business and the Good Society ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by James O'Toole, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
American society has become increasingly polarized by single- and special-interest groups: the Greens, who demand environmental purity; admirers of Japan who want a national industrial policy; supply-side economists who want government to all but disappear. This collision of values has turned America into a battleground of either/or tradeoffs: the community vs. the individual, the environment vs. jobs, the rights of each ethnic group vs. the needs of the nation for unity. Whose values should prevail? Those of Libertarians? Communitarians? Egalitarians? Corporatists? The nation's leadership role in the post-communist world will be largely determined by how such conflicts in the political economy are resolved.

Increasingly, business executives find themselves drawn into these values wars, forced to make decisions in a hothouse climate in which there are countless and conflicting opinions about what is right and wrong. Business leaders find themselves caught in the values thicket when they attempt to formulate corporate policy on such issues as plant closings, executive compensation, corporate governance, and affirmative action. In The Executive's Compass, James O'Toole guides business leaders through this minefield of modern dilemmas. In the words of ARCO's CEO, Lod Cook, "O'Toole provides business leaders with a practical compass to help them navigate the turbulent waters of social change and political conflict."

O'Toole explores the philosophical and historical underpinnings of contemporary business problems, tracing their origins to the ideas of such great thinkers as Aristotle, Adam Smith, J.S. Mill, and Jefferson. By going to the roots of modern issues, he is able to clarify the sources of political disagreement, and to suggest a practical course of action for corporate leaders who find themselves caught in the gridlock of democracy. He provides an innovative values compass--a tool he has honed for over forty years as a moderator of the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar--which has been successfully applied at FORTUNE 500 firms as an introduction to the values-based management for which the Aspen Institute is renowned. The compass helps executives to understand what is wrong (and right) with our democratic system, and what the role of business is in creating The Good Society.

For top executives, general managers, or anyone trying to make sense out of our rapidly changing world, The Executive's Compass helps managers deal more effectively with today's thorny issues.

Shark vs. Train ($9.99 Kindle, $4.99 B&N), by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. Note that the nook edition will only work on the NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet, while the Kindle edition works on all devices and apps, although it does say it is optimized for larger screens (I suspect an iPad or similar tablet would be ideal).
Book Description
Shark VS. Train! WHO WILL WIN?!

If you think Superman vs. Batman would be an exciting matchup, wait until you see Shark vs. Train. In this hilarious and wacky picture book, Shark and Train egg each other on for one competition after another, including burping, bowling, Ping Pong, piano playing, pie eating, and many more! Who do YOU think will win, Shark or Train?

Four Free Books for Aussies (K)

There are four new pre-orders for Australians in the Kindle store today, all published by HarperCollins. None of these are available for US customers.

Phoenix Rising, a Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novel by Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine, is the oddest of the lot. This was 99 cents for US customers last December, was delivered, then disappeared from the Kindle market. Now, it's back, but as a free pre-order and only for those in Australia (who could, I suppose, also buy the other version available for Aussies only, which costs $8.72, instead).
Book Description

Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade . . . and a librarian.

These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences—the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling—will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest . . . and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray.

For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun—he with his encyclopedic brain and she with her remarkable devices—must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot . . . or see England fall to the Phoenix!


The Voice is a novella by Anne Bishop. This one does have a US edition ($2.99), although they are not linked together. Also included is an excerpt from her upcoming Bridge of Dreams (AU/US)
Book Description
In a small village outside the city of Vision, the people know no sorrow or grief. But this seemingly idyllic community is hiding a terrible secret. As a young child, Nalah did not know why she was told to bring a cake to the mute girl known as the Voice whenever she was upset, only that doing so made her feel better. Now grown, Nalah understands the dark truth, and yearns to escape from the oppressive village that has been her life-long home. But it is only after visiting the city of Vision and discovering the Temple of Sorrow that Nalah understands what she must do to be free…


From author Jessica Adams, there are a pair of titles, The Holiday Goddess Handbag Guide to Rome and The Holiday Goddess Handbag Guide to London, from a planned 4-part series (one of which is available,The Holiday Goddess Handbag Guide to New York, just not free, and the last one is not yet listed).
Book Description
Like a trusted and impossibly cool girlfriend you rely on to inspire and surprise you, THE HOLIDAY GODDESS HANDBAG GUIDE reveals the secrets of what women REALLY want to know about four of the world's most fabulous cities: Paris, London, New York and Rome. Born in a handbag from scribbled tips shared between holiday goddesses whose work, love and life adventures scattered them all over the globe, it will take you where few women have been before. Release your inner goddess as you follow Audrey Hepburn's footsteps in Rome, delve into the secret diaries of shopaholics in New York, learn 'chiconomical secrets' in Paris, where to love the nightlife in London, and how to find to-die-for shoes, lustworthy cult local brands,the best vintage markets, heavenly spas or sanctuaries to escape the hustle and bustle, the most original art, the best live music, where to eat, love, and eat some more. Elegantly packaged in red linen, it's as irresistibly chic as a designer handbag and ten times more useful - the must-have accessory for goddesses who love to travel or just enjoy dreaming about it.

Free Book - Understanding Your Bible in 15 Minutes a Day (K/N/E)

Understanding Your Bible in 15 Minutes a Day (Main/UK), by Daryl Aaron, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Bethany House.
Book Description
A Clear and Friendly Guide to the Bible--That Fits Your Busy Life

The Bible can feel overwhelming at times. What parts should you read first? How can you understand it? What does it mean for your life? Meanwhile, most books about the Bible are time- consuming, leaving you without much time to read the Bible itself.

In Understanding Your Bible in 15 Minutes a Day, Bible professor and former pastor Daryl Aaron answers your most important questions about the bestselling book in history. Broken into topical readings, you can read systematically from the beginning, or pick and choose topics of interest. Each reading is brief, engaging, and easy to understand. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned reader of the Bible, in just minutes a day you'll soon have a better understanding of the Scriptures.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - The Killing Room (K/N)

The Killing Room (Main/UK), by John Manning, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and newly free from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
Once You Enter

Old houses have their secrets. The Young residence--a beautiful Maine mansion overlooking the Atlantic--is no exception. But the secrets here are different. They can kill. . .

The Only Way Out

Carolyn Cartwright, private detective and ex-FBI agent, has been hired by Howard Young to investigate a string of gruesome family deaths. The crimes are horrific, brutal, and senseless. And the time has come for the killing to begin again. . .

Is To Die

One by one, members of the Young family are chosen to die. Old and young, weak and strong, no one is safe from a killer with a limitless thirst for revenge. And the only way for Carolyn to uncover the shocking truth is to enter the room no one has ever left alive--and make herself the next target. . .
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - Bear, Otter, and the Kid (DF)

Bear, Otter, and the Kid ($5.38 Kindle), by TJ Klune, is free direct from the publisher, Dreamspinner Press. Apparently there is some controversy over whether the book has passages that may closely resemble the movie Shelter (a blogger was the source of the original allegations), so Dreamspinner is giving it away and working with the studio to see if they agree with a blogger that accused the author of plagiarism (you can read their statement on the whole mess, which is also linked on their home page). There doesn't seem to be much overlap in the two stories, from what I see in their statement, other than someone falling in love with a best friend's brother - a theme that is common in many gay and straight romances (and this particular novel is based on the author's life, with an entirely different focus from the movie).
Book Description
Three years ago, Bear McKenna’s mother took off for parts unknown with her new boyfriend, leaving Bear to raise his six-year-old brother Tyson, aka the Kid. Somehow they’ve muddled through, but since he’s totally devoted to the Kid, Bear isn’t actually doing much living—with a few exceptions, he’s retreated from the world, and he’s mostly okay with that. Until Otter comes home.

Otter is Bear’s best friend’s older brother, and as they’ve done for their whole lives, Bear and Otter crash and collide in ways neither expect. This time, though, there’s nowhere to run from the depth of emotion between them. Bear still believes his place is as the Kid’s guardian, but he can’t help thinking there could be something more for him in the world... something or someone.
Get the free ebook from Dreamspinner Press (exp March 7).