Today's Deals 2/4

For those in the UK only, you can get £10 off the Kindle today, yielding a final price of £59.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is House of Evidence ($1.99), by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson, Andrew Cauthery (Translator), Björg Árnadóttir (Translator) .

Book Description
On a cold January morning in 1973, inside a stately old house in Reykjavik, blood pools around Jacob Kieler Junior from a fatal gunshot wound to his chest. Detective Jóhann Pálsson, an expert in the emerging field of forensics, is called to the scene and soon discovers something more unsettling than the murder itself: the deceased’s father, Jacob Kieler Senior, a railroad engineer, was shot to death in the same living room nearly thirty years earlier. The case was officially closed as a botched robbery.

Pálsson soon uncovers diaries that portray Kieler Senior as an ambitious man dedicated to bringing the railroad to Iceland no matter the cost. Sensing a deeper and darker mystery afoot, the detective and his colleagues piece together through the elder Kieler’s diaries a family history rich with deceit…

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Glory ($1.99), by NYTimes & USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham [Open Road].

Book Description
In Civil War–era Florida, a woman suspected of witchcraft reawakens a tired doctor’s heart

Julian McKenzie, a surgeon and makeshift colonel, is at the end of his rope. He’s trapped deep in the South with his Rebel platoon, and their supplies and morale are running low. But while fleeing from an attack, he finds salvation in a most unusual form: a run-down plantation. Inside, widow Rhiannon Tremaine, a Union sympathizer, practices what the locals describe as witchcraft. In reality, Rhiannon is a gifted healer and medic. Still, she does have a bit of magic in her.

In the fifth book of her Florida Civil War series, bestselling author Heather Graham evokes a treacherous world of divided loyalties. Rhiannon has the gift of second sight, and while she used to welcome her visions, now her dreams only give her pain.

In Julian, though, she may have found someone to change them . . . if the war doesn’t conspire to rip the two apart.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Heather Graham, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Murder in Vein ($1.99), the first novel in the Madison Rose Vampire Mystery series by Sue Ann Jaffarian.

Book Description
The sight of the blood covered fangs exploded from her deep memory like a ball
through a plate glass window. The man had bitten Bobby, torn into him like a barbequed rib on the Fourth of July.

Vampires. Vam-pires. Real live—er, dead (undead?)—bloodsucking vampires, living in the City of Angels. Madison Rose, a street-smart twenty-something waitress would never have believed it—until a vampire thwarts a vicious attack against her by appearing in the nick of time and finishing off her assailant in one tasty bite.

Madison has been saved by the vampires—or has she? She learns that women have been going missing; their lifeless bodies turning up drained of blood. Now the murderer is after her. As the violence escalates, Madison, LAPD Detective Notchey, and a cadre of alluring and dangerous vampires search for the true killer—while Madison keeps a wary eye on the skittish and thirsty vampires. Will she survive to see the light of day?

Forgotten Sacrifice: The Arctic Convoys of World War II ($1.71 / £1.09 UK), by Michael G Walling, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.69).

Book Description
The story begins in October 1939, when Germany and the Soviet Union began diplomatic maneuvering. The action accelerates with Winston Churchill’s decision in 1941 to provide supplies to Soviet forces battling the German invasion and for five long years, thousands of men and women fought ferociously in the coldest corner of hell on earth. Some fought for survival, some struggled to help others survive, and some sought to crush their enemies. The Arctic Convoys were war without mercy. If man-made death didn’t get you, the Arctic’s weapons of ice and cold would. These natural weapons killed regardless of whose side you were on or how just your cause. No one escaped unscathed. Author Mike Walling captures the convoy’s bitter essence and reveals a timeless tale of determination, heroism, sacrifice, and the strength of the human spirit.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Fairest of All ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the Whatever After series by Sarah Mlynowski. It's also the Nook Daily Find today, so it's the same price in both stores.

Book Description
A fresh, modern spin on a classic fairy tale--from bestselling author Sarah Mlynowski!

Mirror, mirror, on the basement wall . . .

Once upon a time my brother and I were normal kids. The next minute? The mirror in our basement slurped us up and magically transported us inside Snow White's fairy tale.

I know it sounds crazy, but it's true.

But hey -- we're heroes! We stopped Snow White from eating the poisoned apple. Hooray! Or not. If Snow White doesn't die, she won't get to meet her prince. And then she won't get her happy ending. Oops.

Now it's up to us to:
- Avoid getting poisoned
- Sneak into a castle
- Fix Snow White's story

And then, fingers crossed, find our way home.

Age Level: 8 and up

Save $20 on 7" Kindle Fire HD!

As part of a Super Bowl advertising campaign (did you see the Kindle Fire commercial at the end of the game?), you can save $30 on a Kindle Fire HD 8.9" (now $269 with promo) or $50 on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE Wireless (now $449 with promo), by entering promotional code FIRELOVE at checkout.

There are some restrictions, which work out to basically one per customer (account), only those sold by Amazon (no third party sellers or used), and only until the number they've set aside for the promotion sell out (there's no end date posted on this promo, but I don't expect it to last very long). This time around, the deals page shows both the base models and the memory upgraded models for each of the Kindle Fires that are on sale, with links to the four models eligible all shown, so that it's easier to make your choice. Be sure not to use one-click, though - you need to go thru the full checkout process, so that you can apply the promo code above (and double check your total) before ordering, in order to get the sale price. If you are buying as a gift, be sure to click the box on the summary page for that, as well, so that the device isn't auto-registered to your account.

The Fine Print:

Limit one discount per customer, while supplies last. U.S. customers only. Discount valid on all versions of Kindle Fire HD 8.9" sold and shipped by Amazon. It does not apply to the same products sold by other sellers. Amazon reserves the right to cancel the promotion at any time. Promo codes may not be combined with other offers. If you return items purchased using a promo code, we will subtract the value of the discount from your return credit. Offer not valid with 1-Click ordering. Void where prohibited.

Today's Deals 2/3

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Lemonade War ($1.99), by Jacqueline Davies. The second in the series, The Lemonade Crime, is also on sale, at $4.99.

Book Description
For a full hour, he poured lemonade. The world is a thirsty place, he thought as he nearly emptied his fourth pitcher of the day. And I am the Lemonade King.

Fourth grader Evan Treski is people-smart. He’s good at talking with people, even grownups. His younger sister, Jessie, on the other hand, is math-smart, but not especially good with people. So when the siblings’ lemonade-stand war begins, there really is no telling who will win—or even if their fight will ever end. Brimming with savvy marketing tips for making money at any business, definitions of business terms, charts, diagrams, and even math problems, this fresh, funny, emotionally charged novel subtly explores how arguments can escalate beyond anyone’s intent. This book features a teaser chapter from book two of the Lemonade War series, The Lemonade Crime.

Grade 3-5

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction ($1.99), by David Sheff.

Book Description
What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery. Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets. David Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs: the denial, the 3 A.M. phone calls (is it Nic? the police? the hospital?), the rehabs. His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself, and the obsessive worry and stress took a tremendous toll. But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on Nic.

Beautiful Boy is a fiercely candid memoir that brings immediacy to the emotional rollercoaster of loving a child who seems beyond help.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is When Wishes Collide ($1.99), by NYTimes Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy.

Book Description
In a moment of desperation, two strangers make a wish, only to discover that sometimes a wish can take you down an unexpected path ... straight toward a life-changing love. WHEN WISHES COLLIDE, Book #3 in the WISH Series, is an emotionally compelling and suspenseful contemporary romance by #1 NY Times Bestselling Author Barbara Freethy.

Adrianna Cavello's life changed in an instant when a break-in at her restaurant took the life of her boyfriend and left her too traumatized to return to work. Months later, with everything she's ever wanted on the line, Adrianna makes a wish by tossing a coin into a fountain known for making miracles.

Wyatt Randall is also in need of a miracle. Two years earlier, his ex-wife kidnapped their daughter, and Wyatt is desperate to find his little girl. A new lead raises his hopes, but quickly fizzles out. When his coin clashes with another, he sees what little hope he has flying away.

Adrianna and Wyatt soon learn that they have more in common than two coins that collided. In fighting for the lives they lost, they must learn how to trust again. Only then will they discover that meeting each other and falling in love might not be what they wished for, but exactly what they need.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Once Bitten ($1.99), by Kalayna Price. Recommended, but check your libraries - this is a newer edition that the one I bought in 2009. That edition was in Topaz format, while the edition on sale today is the almost always better looking Mobi format.

Book Description
Kita Nekai, on the run and the smallest of her shifter clan—a calico cat among lions and tigers—is being hunted. She was expected to accept her role as her father’s successor whether or not her cat was up to the task of leading the clan. She disagreed. Now she’s less than a step ahead of the hunters, bone-tired, cold, and living hand-to-mouth in the city of Haven. And that’s the high point of her day. She’s also drugged, "accidently" turned into a vampire, and sentenced to death for recklessly creating a rogue shifter who tortures its human prey. She’s got seventy-two hours to find the rogue, evade a city full of hunters, prove she’s not responsible for the rogue, and keep the vampire council from killing her. All while sorting out an apprentice mage, a married ex-boyfriend shifter-hunter, and the vampire who made her.

Eleven ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Mark Watson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.73).

Book Description
Xavier Ireland is a radio DJ who by night listens to the hopes, fears and regrets of sleepless Londoners and by day keeps himself very much to himself - until he is brought into the light by a one-of-a-kind cleaning lady and forced to confront his own biggest regret. This is a tale of love, loss, Scrabble and six degrees of separation, asking big questions about life and death, strangers and friends, heartache and comfort, and whether the choices we don't make affect us just as powerfully as those we do.

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Just don't expect to finish this one before the big game starts, as it weighs in at nearly 800 pages, in print.

Book Description
It began, in 1979, as a mad idea of starting a cable channel to televise local sporting events throughout the state of Connecticut. Today, ESPN is arguably the most successful network in modern television history, spanning eight channels in the Unites States and around the world. But the inside story of its rise has never been fully told-until now.

Drawing upon over 500 interviews with the greatest names in ESPN's history and an All-Star collection of some of the world's finest athletes, bestselling authors James Miller and Tom Shales take us behind the cameras. Now, in their own words, the men and women who made ESPN great reveal the secrets behind its success-as well as the many scandals, rivalries, off-screen battles and triumphs that have accompanied that ascent. From the unknown producers and business visionaries to the most famous faces on television, it's all here.

Today's Deals 2/2

This week only, download and link the Stronghold Kingdoms PC video game (which is free) and you'll get a code to download Stronghold HD (usually $6) for free, as well.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Sara's Game ($1.99), by Ernie Lindsey.

Book Description
Two years ago, Sara's husband left for the gym one morning...and never came back. His car was found. He wasn't. Unbelievably, the police report said, "No foul play suspected." There were a few unreliable sightings over the following months, but little else.

Now, on the last day before summer break, her three children have gone missing from their schools, all at the same time.

And the note under her windshield wiper asks one foreboding question: Are you ready to play the game?

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Unbound ($0.99), by Nikkie Locke.

Book Description
Dean Whitley is no stranger to murder. In the small town of Hartsville, he isn’t just another one of the guys. He is a survivor of the killing spree that left his mother dead and his father heartbroken. Determined to avoid the same lonely fate, he refuses to pursue the one woman he knows he could fall for.

Payten Bailey isn’t looking for a happily ever after ending. Busy running her parents’ diner, she isn’t looking for a relationship at all in spite of her friends’ insistent prodding.

An unexpected, and perhaps unavoidable, kiss puts Dean and Payten on a collision course toward disaster. As things heat up between the two, something far deadlier than the temperature is rising. Dean’s worst fears come to life when Payten becomes the target for a killer. Plagued by nightmares of his mother’s murder, Dean is determined to protect Payten at any cost.

The small town police department struggles to find the man behind the attacks. The longer it takes to find answers, the more time a killer has to plan his final revenge.

Sensuality Level: sensual

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Daughter of Witches ($1.99), the second title in the Lyra series by Patricia C. Wrede.

Book Description
In the oppressive city of Drinn, a trio of magical strangers offers a servant girl the chance of a new life Drinn is not a safe place to be a witch. Ranira knows that better than most, for when she was just a child, the temple guards burned her parents at the stake for practicing magic. Now an indentured servant for a brutal innkeeper, she lives every day with the shame of her parents’ alleged crime.

There is no worse time to visit Drinn than during the Midwinter Festival, when the city gates are sealed so that no outsider can witness the temple’s secret rituals. And at Ranira’s inn, three guests have overstayed their welcome. Attempting to protect Ranira from her master’s cruelty, the three reveal their magical powers and attract the attention of the temple guards. Now, to save her new friends from certain death, Ranira must unleash the power that cost her parents their lives.

The Fast Diet: The secret of intermittent fasting - lose weight, stay healthy, live longer ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $10.99).

Book Description
IS IT POSSIBLE TO EAT WELL, MOST OF THE TIME, AND GET SLIMMER AND HEALTHIER AS YOU DO IT?

WITH THE FAST DIET IT IS!

This radical new approach to weight loss is the diet that everyone is talking about. It really is as simple as it sounds: you eat normally five days a week, then for just two days you cut your calories (500 for women, 600 for men).

Scientific trials of Intermittent Fasting have shown that it will not only help the pounds fly off but also lower your risk of a range of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Dr Michael Mosley, the medical journalist whose BBC Horizon programme alerted the world to the Intermittent Fasting phenomenon, presents the fascinating science behind the 5:2 diet. Mimi Spencer, award-winning food and fashion writer, explains the practicalities of how to go about it.

The Fast Diet also includes a calorie counter and a whole section of ‘Fast 500’ and ‘Fast 600’ menu plans which will enable you to incorporate this groundbreaking weight-loss system into your daily life.

Paranormalcy ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in the YA series by Kiersten White, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.

But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is three top-rated books featuring Nickelodeon's adorable Dora the Explorer and her ongoing educational adventures, marked down to $0.99 each.

Dora Helps Diego!

Baby Jaguar is missing. Read along with Dora as she looks for her friend!

Dora's Bedtime Adventures

Join Dora and Boots as they go on exciting adventures before they go to sleep! Preschoolers will love this bedtime book with a soft cover that includes two favorite stories: Good Night, Dora! & Dora's Bedtime Wishes

Count with Dora!

Young fans will love helping Dora count coconuts, bananas, and pineapples in English and Spanish.

Make sure you are doing backups...

Have you been making good backups of your ebooks? Or relying on the publisher or an ebookstore to keep up with your library for you? If the latter, you may want to reconsider your decisions, as a few incidents this year have brought home, the last one occurring just today.

Due to a new policy, ChristianBook.com will no longer allow you to download your ebooks from them, if you added them during a free promotional period (ie, if they were "free" when you "purchased" them). I just ran into the new policy by chance, when I tried to download what was marked as a DRM-Free EPUB that I purchased today -- and found my entire library was no read online only. They claim this change is due to the added costs of serving out free books, but their decision applies equally to books that are DRM-free, where the only cost is bandwidth and that cost won't change by using their app. From now on, you will be required to read any freebies obtained from them using one of their proprietary apps (and I don't know about you, but I have gotten to where I refuse to install another app just to read a free book, especially one that I can get elsewhere and very much especially if I have to be online to do the reading). I hope everyone had a backup of their libraries there, as this is a retroactive decision, applying to all the books you have purchased (I just downloaded a couple of them last weekend, which I didn't have as an EPUB elsewhere, but I'm sure I will have lost at least a couple of books due to their decision).


They aren't the only ones making unannounced and unilateral changes to their libraries. Jasmine Jade used to be the store site for Ellora's Cave and when they moved everything back to their Ellora's Cave site, some libraries made it over and others did not (mine was one of the ones that did not). They are super nice and will help with redownloading any book you didn't back up, but you'll need to email them on each one (and probably provide your old order number). When Borders Bookstore closed, they transferred my library to Kobo - it was painless and took a couple of clicks; but when Fictionwise announced that they were closing, the process was apparently designed to work as badly as possible. You were supposed to sign up after receiving an email, then wait (some unspecified length of time) before you then responded again to a new email with a magical code in it. Then, all but a few books, listed titles would appear in your B&N account. The only problem - apparently they are doing everything by hand and many, including myself, are still waiting for a code to continue the process. Others managed to get thru that step, but still waited weeks for any of their books to appear. And that limited list of titles - it keeps growing every time I check it (and now they have a PDF linked that promises to list even more excluded titles). Contrast this to the process when Peanut Press and subsequent sites were purchased and rolled up to ereader.com -- my account and books moved along without me for several years, until I rediscovered the account, complete with every book I had purchased along the way (on my old palm devices/phone).

It's not only due to decisions of the site that you can lose access. In the last couple of weeks, DelphiClassics claims to have had their files deleted by their web hosting company. Since they apparently had their backups at the same location, they lost those as well (OK, who doesn't know that it's a bad idea to store all of your backups in the same location as your main copy?). If you didn't make a backup, you may be out of luck, unless an update to one of your purchases happens in the next year. In that case and if you kept track of your receipt, so you have the order number, you can follow these directions to request an update for that one particular title. Yes, your old purchase supposedly came with lifetime updates (and new ones don't), but that's as far as they are willing to go for past purchases.

Let these be a cautionary tale, if not a lesson, in why you should be downloading all of your ebooks up on purchase and keeping a copy (or two) somewhere safe. You should consider saving your emailed receipts, also (at the very least, keep them in a folder in your email client, but consider saving them to your hard drive, together in a folder, as well), in case you need to refer back to them in order to get your library restored. I've even had one or two (as far as I know, only about that many) books at Amazon that have completely switched content after the initial purchase and download (title changed and all) and had to use an old receipt to get them to investigate and fix my library (usually by having to repurchase the book, after they applied a promo code).

Free Audiobook - Beowulf

Get a free download of Beowulf ($9.95 Audible/Amazon), produced and directed by Yuri Rasovsky, read by Robertson Dean, from Downpour.com, Blackstone Audio's new consumer site.

Book Description
The earliest extant heroic epic in any European vernacular, Beowulf is considered the most important poem in Old English. The title character is a warrior of superhuman strength who accomplishes glorious deeds to honor his king. He also represents the ideal lord and vassal, generous to his own men while fulfilling all the forms of courtesy at court. The narrative itself falls into two parts: Beowulf first rescues the royal house of Denmark from two marauding monsters; then, after having ruled his people peacefully for fifty years, he is called upon to combat a dragon that is terrorizing the countryside.

Combining mythical elements with actual historical figures and events, the narrative ranges from fierce action sequences to detailed portrayals of court life and earnest considerations of social and moral dilemmas, all in a tone of sustained grandeur.

First transcribed circa AD 1000. Translated into English prose by Robert K. Gordon in 1922.

Get the free audiobook from Downpour. Add the Download edition to your cart, then enter coupon code LOLBEOWULF (make sure there are no extra spaces, if you cut and paste) and click on Apply. Make sure that the new total has been adjusted to $0.00, then click on Checkout. You'll be prompted to log into your account (or create a new one) and then taken to the final screen; click on Place Order and then on Continue to My Library in order to download the audiobook. The download is available in either MP3 (Kindle compatible) or M4B (iTunes) formats and is DRM-free.

Today's Deals 2/1

Today's Gold Box at Amazon is with "up to 35% on Rosetta Stone Language-Learning Software".

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805 ($1.99), by Richard Zacks.

Book Description
A real-life thriller from acclaimed historian and author of The Pirate Hunter, Richard Zacks-the true story of the unheralded American who brought the Barbary Pirates to their knees in an attempt to stop the legendary Barbary Pirates of North Africa from hijacking American ships, William Eaton set out in 1805 on a secret mission to over-throw the government of Tripoli. The operation was sanctioned by President Thomas Jefferson, but at the last moment he grew wary of 'intermeddling' in a foreign government, and Eaton set off without proper national support.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Night Visitor ($1.99), by Melanie Jackson, who also has a book in the current $1 Kindle Book deal from AmazonLocal.

Book Description
All Scots know of the brave piper who gave his life so long ago. Malcolm "the piper" calls to Tafaline so insistently, across the winds of night and time…and looking into her heart, Taffy knows there is naught to do but go to him.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is A Suspension of Mercy ($1.99), by Patricia Highsmith.

Book Description
A major new reissue of the work of a classic noir novelist.

Alicia Bartleby was right - she had died at least 20 times in her husband's imagination. But then Sydney was a thriller script-writer after all. When she takes an extended trip to Brighton without getting in touch with anyone, Sydney goes through the motions of being a wife-killer.

About the Author
With the acclaim for The Talented Mr. Ripley, more film projects in production, and two biographies forthcoming, expatriate legend Patricia Highsmith would be shocked to see that she has finally arrived in her homeland. Throughout her career, Highsmith brought a keen literary eye and a genius for plumbing the psychopathic mind to more than thirty works of fiction, unparalleled in their placid deviousness and sardonic humor. With deadpan accuracy, she delighted in creating true sociopaths in the guise of the everyday man or woman. Now, one of her finest works is again in print: A Suspension of Mercy, a masterpiece of noir fantasy. With this novel, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

Tiny Sunbirds Far Away ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Christie Watson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $3.49).

Book Description
Winner of the 2011 Costa First Novel Award

When their mother catches their father with another woman, twelve year-old Blessing and her fourteen-year-old brother, Ezikiel, are forced to leave their comfortable home in Lagos for a village in the Niger Delta, to live with their mother’s family. Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the children’s school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems to be falling increasingly under the influence of the local group of violent teenage boys calling themselves Freedom Fighters. Her grandfather, a kind if misguided man, is trying on Islam as his new religion of choice, and is even considering the possibility of bringing in a second wife.

But Blessing’s grandmother, wise and practical, soon becomes a beloved mentor, teaching Blessing the ways of the midwife in rural Nigeria. Blessing is exposed to the horrors of genital mutilation and the devastation wrought on the environment by British and American oil companies. As Warri comes to feel like home, Blessing becomes increasingly aware of the threats to its safety, both from its unshakable but dangerous traditions and the relentless carelessness of the modern world. Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is the witty and beautifully written story of one family’s attempt to survive a new life they could never have imagined, struggling to find a deeper sense of identity along the way.

Dying to Read ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in The Cate Kinkaid Files by Lorena McCourtney, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Cate Kinkaid is just dipping her toe into the world of private investigating until one of the many résumés she has floating around lands her a real job. All she has to do is determine that a particular woman lives at a particular address. Simple, right? When the big and brooding house happens to contain a dead body, this routine PI job turns out to be anything but simple. Is Cate in over her head?

Readers will be hooked from the very first chapter of this fast-paced and witty romantic mystery from bestselling and award-winning author Lorena McCourtney.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is The Many Lives of Lilith Lane ($1.98), by E.V. Anderson, which was originally released as a Kindle Serial

Book Description
Seventeen-year-old Lilith Lane has a hunk of a boyfriend, a wicked tongue, and a talent for solving the mysteries that pop up in her small home town of Mirabalis. But when her little sister goes missing in the middle of the night, both Lilith’s detective skills and her recall of sophomore year physics are put to the ultimate test.

To save her sister, Lilith must race against the clock with the help of Dr. Hammer, a mad scientist who pushes Lilith off the edge – literally – of his reality-bending skyscraper. Lilith’s world is turned upside down by her sister’s disappearance, and a skyscraper that is also a portal to a parallel universe suddenly doesn’t seem that surreal. With Dr. Hammer’s help, Lilith must put her girl detective skills to the test and try to save her sister.

A dashing snail expert, a scheming beauty queen, and the heir to a great advertising fortune are just a few of the unforgettable characters who round out the cast in this rollicking tale of love, loyalty, and multiple Earths.

Today's Deals 1/31

Today is the last day of Amazon's over 2,000 MP3 Albums for $5 sale.

It's also the last day for the current batch of $3.99 or less Kindle Books Sale and the last day of the month for Prime members to borrow a Prime Eligible book.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Poison Flower: A Jane Whitefield Novel ($1.99), by Thomas Perry. A Mysterious Press (Grove Atlantic) edition, it's well worth picking up for mystery fans that don't have it in their libraries.

Book Description
Poison Flower, the seventh novel in Thomas Perry’s celebrated Jane Whitefield series, opens as Jane spirits James Shelby, a man unjustly convicted of his wife’s murder, out of the heavily guarded criminal court building in downtown Los Angeles. But the price of Shelby’s freedom is high. Within minutes, men posing as police officers kidnap Jane and, when she tries to escape, shoot her.

Jane’s captors are employees of the man who really killed Shelby’s wife. He believes he won’t be safe until Shelby is dead, and his men will do anything to force Jane to reveal Shelby’s hiding place. But Jane endures their torment, and is willing to die rather than betray Shelby. Jane manages to escape but she is alone, wounded, thousands of miles from home with no money and no identification, hunted by the police as well as her captors. She must rejoin Shelby, reach his sister before the hunters do, and get them both to safety.

In this unrelenting, breathtaking cross-country battle, Jane survives by relying on the traditions of her Seneca ancestors. When at last Jane turns to fight, her enemies face a cunning and ferocious warrior who has one weapon that they don’t.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Unlocked: A Love Story ($1.99), by Karen Kingsbury [Zondervan], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
Before You Take a Stand ... You Got to Take a Chance. Holden Harris is an eighteen-year-old locked in a prison of autism. Despite his quiet ways and quirky behaviors, Holden is very happy and socially normal---on the inside, in a private world all his own. In reality, he is bullied at school by kids who only see that he is very different. Ella Reynolds is part of the 'in' crowd. A cheerleader and star of the high school drama production, her life seems perfect. When she catches Holden listening to her rehearse for the school play, she is drawn to him ... the way he is drawn to the music. Then, Ella makes a dramatic discovery---she and Holden were best friends as children. Frustrated by the way Holden is bullied, and horrified at the indifference of her peers, Ella decides to take a stand against the most privileged and popular kids at school. Including her boyfriend, Jake. Ella believes miracles can happen in the unlikeliest places, and that just maybe an entire community might celebrate from the sidelines. But will Holden's praying mother and the efforts of Ella and a cast of theater kids be enough to unlock the prison that contains Holden? This time, friendship, faith, and the power of a song must be strong enough to open the doors to the miracle Holden needs.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Girl of Fire and Thorns ($1.99), the first novel in Rae Carson's Fire and Thorns YA Fantasy series.

Book Description
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one. But she is also the younger of two princesses. The one who has never done anything remarkable, and can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king--a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs her to be the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies, seething with dark magic, are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior, and he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn't die young. Most of the chosen do.>

Deceived Wisdom: Why What You Thought Was Right Is Wrong ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by David Bradley, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Did your mother remind you to take off your coat when inside or you won’t ‘feel the benefit’ when you leave? Have you ever been informed that what you need to cool down is a nice cup of tea? And are you bored of being told that you have to let that red wine breathe first to improve its taste? If so then Deceived Wisdom is the book for you. Organised into easy-to-read standalone sections, it looks at the facts we all think we know and examines why we don’t know them at all. David Bradley’s clear and witty writing examines the science behind the statements to reveal the truth behind many popular myths.

Dixie Divas ($9.39 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Virginia Brown, is the Nook Daily Find. No price match (yet) on Kindle, but check your library on this one, as a different edition was free in Oct '10. I'm not sure what the difference in the two editions is, but both are Mobi format.

Book Description
The Divas are a martini-drinking crowd of aging belles in a historic Mississippi town filled with money and mansions. When the ex-husband of Diva Bitsy is found murdered, and Bitsy is accused, the Divas set out to solve the crime. Book one of acclaimed author Virginia Brown's cozy mystery series.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Bus Stops ($0.99), by Taro Gomi.

Book Description
Brilliantly rendered drawings show the everyday events that make cities come alive. A simple text details the bus's path and riders, while a subtext challenges children to find a variety of objects and people. Gomi's pictures are beautifully composed, and will appeal to children for their simplicity and to adults for their strong graphics.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Deals 1/30

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions ($2.99), by Dan Ariely.

Book Description
In this revised and expanded edition of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Predictably Irrational, Duke University's behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores the hidden forces that shape our decisions, including some of the causes responsible for the current economic crisis. Bringing a much-needed dose of sophisticated psychological study to the realm of public policy, Ariely offers his own insights into the irrationalities of everyday life, the decisions that led us to the financial meltdown of 2008, and the general ways we get ourselves into trouble.

Blending common experiences and clever experiments with groundbreaking analysis, Ariely demonstrates how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities. As he explains, our reliance on standard economic theory to design personal, national, and global policies may, in fact, be dangerous. The mistakes that we make as individuals and institutions are not random, and they can aggregate in the market—with devastating results. In light of our current economic crisis, the consequences of these systematic and predictable mistakes have never been clearer.

Packed with new studies and thought-provoking responses to readers' questions and comments, this revised and expanded edition of Predictably Irrational will change the way we interact with the world—from the small decisions we make in our own lives to the individual and collective choices that shape our economy.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Bull Rider's Brother ($0.99), by Lynn Cahoon.

Book Description
On a girl's night out, Lizzie Hudson finds herself comparing her life as a single mom with her best friend's successful career when James Sullivan, the cowboy who got away, walks his Justin Ropers back into her life.

Seeing him shakes Lizzie's world but James is in for an even more eventful weekend: he learns he has a son. James has enough on his plate trying to manage his brother's bull riding career. Can he learn to redefine family and become part of Lizzie's life before she gives up on him and marries another?

Sensuality Level: Behind closed doors

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Waking the Moon ($1.99), by Elizabeth Hand [Open Road].

Book Description
The reign of men has ended in this gripping thriller from Elizabeth Hand, and the fate of the world is on the line

Sweeney Cassidy is the typical college freshman at the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine in Washington, DC. She drinks. She parties. And she certainly doesn’t suspect that underneath its picturesque Gothic façade, the University is a haven for the Benandanti, a cult devoted to suppressing the powerful and destructive Moon Goddess. But everything is about to change as Sweeney learns that her two new best friends are the Goddess’s Chosen Ones.

Rich and engrossing, Waking the Moon is a seductive post-feminist thriller that delves into an ancient feud, where the real and magical collide, and one woman is forced to make a decision that will change the world.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Elizabeth Hand including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Days Of Grace ($0.99 / £1.56 UK), by Catherine Hall, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $18.99).

Book Description
My memories of Grace never added up to how she really was. She was always impossible to pin down, dancing just out of my reach, exactly as she did when she was alive.

Nora was a girl of twelve when the war broke out and she was forced to join the train-loads of evacuees leaving London’s East End for rural Kent. Her surrogate family, the Rivers, are unlike anyone she has met before and she soon comes to love her new life with them, and in particular with twelve-year-old Grace. Over the next few years, as the dogfights rage ever more fiercely over head and it becomes clear that the Rivers marriage contains deep and irreparable cracks, Nora and Grace grow as close as sisters – though, to Nora’s confusion, even this is not quite as close as she would like …What happened next is a secret that will gnaw away at Nora for the rest of her life – a secret that she can only begin to tell when she is certain that she is approaching the end.

Beyond All Measure ($8.79 Kindle, $2.40 B&N), by Dorothy Love, is the Nook Daily Find [Thomas Nelson].

Book Description
Ada has loved deeply and lost dearly. But protecting her heart could mean missing the love of a lifetime.

Ada Wentworth may be young, but she's seen enough of life to know she can only rely on herself. Everyone including God it seems, has let her down. Having lost her family, her fiance, and her fortune, Ada journeys from Boston to Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, to take a position as a lady's companion. Though initially charmed by the pretty little Southern town tucked into the foothills of the great Smokies, Ada plans to stay only until she can earn enough to establish a millinery shop.

Her employer, Wyatt Caldwell, the local lumber mill owner, is easily the kindest, most attractive man Ada has met in Hickory Ridge. He believes Providence has brought her to town and into his life. But how, after so many betrayals, can she ever trust again? Besides, Wyatt has a dream of his own. A dream that will one day take him far from Hickory Ridge.

As the South struggles to heal in the aftermath of the Civil War, one woman must let go of her painful past in order to embrace God's plans for her. Can she trust Him, and Wyatt, with her future and her heart?

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is In a Heartbeat ($1.99), by Loretta Ellsworth.

Book Description
When a small mistake costs sixteen-year-old Eagan her life during a figure-skating competition, she leaves many things unreconciled, including her troubled relationship with her mother. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Eagan reflects back on her memories, and what she could have done differently, through her still-beating heart.

When fourteen-year-old Amelia learns she will be getting a heart transplant, her fear and guilt battle with her joy at this new chance at life. And afterwards when she starts to feel different-dreaming about figure skating, craving grape candy-her need to learn about her donor leads her to discover and explore Eagan's life, meeting her grieving loved ones and trying to bring the closure they all need to move on.

Told in alternating viewpoints, In a Heartbeat tells the emotional and compelling story of two girls sharing one heart.

Today's Deals 1/29

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! ($1.99), by Bob Barner.

Book Description
Pretty ladybugs, fluttering butterflies, creepy daddy longlegs, and roly-poly bugs are some of the familiar creatures featured in this whimsically illustrated insect album. Complete with an actual size chart and bug-o-meter listing fun facts about each bug,-áBugs! Bugs! Bugs!-áwill inform and entertain curious little bug lovers everywhere.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Gaudy Night: The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries ($1.99), by Dorothy L. Sayers [Open Road].

Book Description
Back at Oxford for her reunion, Harriet Vane, Lord Peter’s beloved, finds herself in mortal danger

Since she graduated from Oxford’s Shrewsbury College, Harriet Vane has found fame by writing novels about ingenious murders. She also won infamy when she was accused of committing a murder herself. It took a timely intervention from the debonair Lord Peter Wimsey to save her from the gallows, and since then she has devoted her spare time to resisting his attempts to marry her. Putting aside her lingering shame from the trial, Harriet returns to Oxford for her college reunion with her head held high—only to find that her life is in danger once again.

The first poison-pen letter calls her a “dirty murderess,” and the ones that follow are no kinder. As the threats become more frightening, she calls on Lord Peter for help. Among the dons of Oxford lurks a killer, but it will take more than a superior education to match Lord Peter and the daring Harriet.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy L. Sayers including rare images from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Heart of Lies ($1.99), the second novel in the Irish Angel series by Jill Marie Landis.

Book Description
Raised in a tribe of street urchins, Maddie Grande was taught to be a thief and beggar on the streets of New Orleans. But Maddie doesn't know her real name or where she came from.Raised by Dexter Grande, Maddie and her twin 'brothers' have recently left New Orleans and moved to the bayou. The twins are rarely there, but Maddie has come to love the swamp. She has learned to fish and trap and sell pelts at the local mercantile.Maddie longs to change her life but knows that her brothers will never give up their lawless ways. When they kidnap the daughter of a wealthy carpetbagger, the twins force Maddie to hide the precocious eight-year-old while they return to New Orleans to wait for notice of a reward. Pinkerton agent Tom Abbott is assigned to the kidnapping case in which Maddie has become an accomplice. In a journey that takes them to Baton Rouge, a mutual attraction becomes evident, but Tom and Maddie cannot trust each other. Will Maddie ever discover who she is? Will her real family ever find her? Will Maddie and Tom listen to their hearts? Or will they choose honor over love?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Pure ($1.99), the first novel of the Pure Trilogy by Julianna Baggott.

Book Description
We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Depth of Despair ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Bill Kitson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $14.39).

Book Description
When two skeletons are discovered from Lamentation Tarn, talented detective Mike Nash and his team have little evidence with which to work, until a surprising discovery prompts them to contact law enforcement agencies in Eastern Europe. A joint taskforce is formed to uncover a criminal network involved in prostitution, drugs and human trafficking, but Nash's preoccupation with internal politics, as well as with an attractive Russian detective, proves to be a distraction. Finally, a young victim escapes the gang's clutches, providing Nash with much needed evidence. A search of the neighbouring tarn yields further corpses and reveals an even more heinous crime. Two more bloody encounters must occur before the criminals are brought to bitter justice.

A Mutiny in Time ($9.39 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first novel in the Infinity Ring series by James Dashner, is the Nook Daily Find; I've reported the lower price to Amazon, in hopes of a price match on Kindle.

Book Description
Scholastic's next multi-platform mega-event begins here!

History is broken, and three kids must travel back in time to set it right!

When best friends Dak Smyth and Sera Froste stumble upon the secret of time travel -- a hand-held device known as the Infinity Ring -- they're swept up in a centuries-long secret war for the fate of mankind. Recruited by the Hystorians, a secret society that dates back to Aristotle, the kids learn that history has gone disastrously off course.

Now it's up to Dak, Sera, and teenage Hystorian-in-training Riq to travel back in time to fix the Great Breaks . . . and to save Dak's missing parents while they're at it. First stop: Spain, 1492, where a sailor named Christopher Columbus is about to be thrown overboard in a deadly mutiny!

Grade Level: 3 and up

Today's Deals 1/28

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Little Squeegy Bug ($1.99), by Bill Martin and Patrick Corrigan (Illustrator).

Book Description
Once upon a time there was a little squeegy bug. No one knew where he came from. He wasn’t an ant. He wasn’t a cricket. And he certainly wasn’t a flea. What was he? Follow along with lovable bug that tries to discover his true identity.

Grade Level: Pre-K and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Island ($1.99), by Richard Laymon.

Book Description
When eight people go on a cruise in the Bahamas, they plan to swim, sunbathe and relax. Getting shipwrecked is definitely not in the script. But after the yacht blows up they're stranded on a deserted island, and there's a maniac on the loose.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Reluctant Debutante ($0.99), the first novel in the Cotillion Ball series by Becky Lower.

Book Description
In 1855 New York, Ginger Fitzpatrick has absolutely no interest in taking part in the newest rage in America—the Cotillion Ball. Instead, Ginger would rather be rallying for women’s rights—at least until she meets her brother’s best friend from St. Louis, a dark mysterious man named Joseph Lafontaine, who ignites her passion and makes her question if love and marriage is such a ridiculous notion after all.

What she and the rest of New York’s high society don’t realize is that Joseph is half Ojibwa Indian, and therefore, totally unsuitable for marriage to a fine, cultured young lady.

In this Edith Wharton-meets-Julia Quinn tale, a young woman rebels against high society and opts for a life in which she creates her own set of rules.

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Knife of Never Letting Go ($1.99), the first title in the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness.

Book Description
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Edward Bunker, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Edward Bunker's life is beyond the imaginings of most fiction writers. He was born in Hollywood, California, the son of a stagehand and Busby Berkeley chorus girl, whose early divorce propelled him into a series of boarding homes and military schools. From the age of five he repeatedly ran away, roaming the city streets at night. A proud character, combined with an IQ of 152, resulted in a series of altercations with the authorities. He became the youngest ever inmate of San Quentin at the age of seventeen, and there he learned survival skills and faced down the toughest prisoners in the system.

He was befriended by Mrs Louise Wallis, a former star of the silent screen and wife of movie mogul, Hal Wallis, who produced films starring Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. She introduced Bunker to her circle of friends, including Jack Dempsey, Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley and William Randolph Hearst, whose guest he was at San Simeon. A parole violation resulted in a spell crossing America as a fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list. His eventual capture led to Folsom prison. Encouraged by the example of Dostoevsky, Cervantes and Caryl Chessman, and by the kindness of Mrs Wallis, he determined to write his way out of prison.

Bunker's first published novel, No Beast So Fierce, viewed by many including Quentin Tarantino as the finest crime novel ever written, changed his fortunes. It was filmed as Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman. He has written three other novels, The Animal Factory, Little Boy Blue and Dog Eat Dog, (all published by No Exit) admired by writers as diverse as William Styron and James Ellroy. He received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Runaway Train, and has appeared in a score of films, most notably his legendary role as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs. This blistering narrative is a memoir like no other.

Taking Flight!: Master the DISC Styles to Transform Your Career, Your Relationships...Your Life ($12.09 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Use DISC to discover profound hidden patterns of human behavioral style, gain deeper self-awareness, maximize your personal strengths, and influence others more powerfully than ever before! Taking Flight illuminates the proven DISC four-style model of human behavior, and shows how to use it to become a far more effective leader, salesperson, or teacher; revitalize your career; build deeper personal relationships; fully leverage your natural gifts, and empower everyone around you. Drawing on their immense experience coaching executives and training world-class organizations, Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert introduce DISC through a fable that's quick, fun, and easy-to-understand. You'll discover why you "click" with some people and "clank" with others, and what really drives your decisions and actions. You'll learn exactly how to identify others' behavioral styles and choose the best ways to interact with them. You'll walk through creating a personal action plan for improvement -- and then systematically making the most of your strengths, working around your weaknesses, and supercharging your personal performance! If you're already familiar with DISC, this book will help you use it more effectively than ever before. If you're new to DISC, it will change your life -- just as it has for thousands before you!