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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Bargain Book Price Matches

It's the Google Play Store's first birthday and they have several sales (and a very few freebies) going on right now. Amazon has now price matched on some of the books and I've highlighted below the ones that I think you should definitely consider (although it was hard, really, to limit it to just these choices). Google is also giving away a free (self-pubbed) book, DRM-Free, for those that want to go thru the checkout process and download it: A QUEST OF HEROES (BOOK #1 IN THE SORCERER’S RING).

If you don't already have a copy of The Hunger Games Trilogy ($5.00 Kindle, Google), by Suzanne Collins, then grab it fast (and move it to the top of your TBR list).
Book Description
The stunning Hunger Games trilogy is complete!

The extraordinary, ground breaking New York Times bestsellers The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, along with the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay, are available for the first time ever in e-book. Stunning, gripping, and powerful. The trilogy is now complete!

Julie Kagawa's The Iron Legends ($5.00 Kindle, Google) combines three Iron Fey novellas, Winter's Passage, Summer's Crossing and Iron's Prophecy, into one set (half regular price). If, though, like me, you only need the last of these (Iron's Prophecy) to complete the set, you can pick it up on sale for 99 cents! Even better, the novels in this series appear to be mostly on sale for $5 or under, including the latest, The Lost Prince.
Book Description
Enter the world of the internationally bestselling Iron Fey series. Dangerous faeries. Heartbreaking romance. Thrilling action and limitless adventure. The world of the fey has never been so powerful. This collection includes three novellas set in the world of the Iron Fey plus the Guide to the Iron Fey with exclusive information about Julie Kagawa's unforgettable world of Faery.

Winter's Passage
Never make a promise to a faery. They always come to collect. Now Meghan Chase must fulfill her promise to Prince Ash of the Winter Court and embark upon a dangerous journey into the heart of enemy territory—while being pursued by a relentless new foe and guarding her own foolish heart.

Summer's Crossing
What can turn enemies into reluctant allies? A call from the Exile Queen, Leanansidhe, ties legendary prankster Puck to his archenemy, Prince Ash, on a journey that may end in betrayal and will set them both on an irreversible path.

Iron's Prophecy
Before she ever knew what she might become, Iron Queen Meghan Chase was warned by the oracle that her firstborn child would bring nothing but grief. And even as Meghan and Ash celebrate their long-awaited union, the prophecy stirs.…

The Runaway King ($5.00 Kindle, Google), the second novel in the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen, is a perfect buy for those that picked up The False Prince on the Daily Deal this week.
Book Description
A kingdom teetering on the brink of destruction. A king gone missing. Who will survive? Find out in the highly anticipated sequel to Jennifer A. Nielsen's blockbuster THE FALSE PRINCE!

Just weeks after Jaron has taken the throne, an assassination attempt forces him into a deadly situation. Rumors of a coming war are winding their way between the castle walls, and Jaron feels the pressure quietly mounting within Carthya. Soon, it becomes clear that deserting the kingdom may be his only hope of saving it. But the further Jaron is forced to run from his identity, the more he wonders if it is possible to go too far. Will he ever be able to return home again? Or will he have to sacrifice his own life in order to save his kingdom?
The stunning second installment of The Ascendance Trilogy takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of treason and murder, thrills and peril, as they journey with the Runaway King!

Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior ($5.00 Kindle, Google), by Rorke Denver; if you get the Kindle edition, then the companion audiobook is only $3.99.
Book Description
Rorke Denver trains the men who become Navy SEALs—the most creative problem solvers on the modern battlefield, ideal warriors for the kinds of wars America is fighting now. With his years of action-packed mission experience and a top training role, Lieutenant Commander Denver understands exactly how tomorrow’s soldiers are recruited, sculpted, motivated, and deployed.

Now, Denver takes you inside his personal story and the fascinating, demanding SEAL training program he now oversees. He recounts his experience evolving from a young SEAL hopeful pushing his way through Hell Week, into a warrior engaging in dangerous stealth missions across the globe, and finally into a lieutenant commander directing the indoctrination, requalification programs, and the “Hero or Zero” missions his SEALs undertake.

From his own SEAL training and missions overseas, Denver details how the SEALs’ creative operations became front and center in America’s War on Terror—and how they are altering warfare everywhere. In fourteen years as a SEAL officer, Rorke Denver tangled with drug lords in Latin America, stood up to violent mobs in Liberia, and battled terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. Leading 200 commando missions, he earned the Bronze Star with V for valor. He has also served as flag aide to the admiral in charge and spent the past four years as executive officer of the Navy Special Warfare Center’s Advanced Training Command in Coronado, California, directing all phases of the basic and advanced training that prepare men for war in SEAL teams. He recently starred in the film Act of Valor. He is married and has two daughters.


Ellis Henican is a columnist at Newsday and an on-air commentator at the Fox News Channel. He has written two recent New York Times bestsellers, Home Team with New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and In the Blink of an Eye with NASCAR legend Michael Waltrip.

"With all the SEALs’ recent successes, we have been getting a level of acclaim we’re not used to. But something important has been missing in this warm burst of publicity... Correcting that is my mission here.

"My own SEAL dream was launched by a book. My hope is that this one teaches lessons that go far beyond the battlefield, inspiring a fresh generation of warriors to carry on that dream."
—Lieutenant Commander Rorke Denver

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis ($5.00 Kindle, Google), by Timothy Egan
Book Description
How a lone man’s epic obsession led to one of America’s greatest cultural treasures: Prizewinning writer Timothy Egan tells the riveting, cinematic story behind the most famous photographs in Native American history — and the driven, brilliant man who made them.

Edward Curtis was charismatic, handsome, a passionate mountaineer, and a famous photographer, the Annie Leibovitz of his time. He moved in rarefied circles, a friend to presidents, vaudeville stars, leading thinkers. And he was thirty-two years old in 1900 when he gave it all up to pursue his Great Idea: to capture on film the continent’s original inhabitants before the old ways disappeared.

An Indiana Jones with a camera, Curtis spent the next three decades traveling from the Havasupai at the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the Acoma on a high mesa in New Mexico to the Salish in the rugged Northwest rain forest, documenting the stories and rituals of more than eighty tribes. It took tremendous perseverance — ten years alone to persuade the Hopi to allow him into their Snake Dance ceremony. And the undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. Eventually Curtis took more than 40,000 photographs, preserved 10,000 audio recordings, and is credited with making the first narrative documentary film. In the process, the charming rogue with the grade school education created the most definitive archive of the American Indian.

His most powerful backer was Theodore Roosevelt, and his patron was J. P. Morgan. Despite the friends in high places, he was always broke and often disparaged as an upstart in pursuit of an impossible dream. He completed his masterwork in 1930, when he published the last of the twenty volumes. A nation in the grips of the Depression ignored it. But today rare Curtis photogravures bring high prices at auction, and he is hailed as a visionary. In the end he fulfilled his promise: He made the Indians live forever.

Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 ($5.00 Kindle, Google), by Mike Wallace and Edwin G. Burrows, is a great discount for those who missed the sale on it a couple of years ago.
Book Description
To European explorers, it was Eden, a paradise of waist-high grasses, towering stands of walnut, maple, chestnut, and oak, and forests that teemed with bears, wolves, raccoons, beavers, otters, and foxes. Today, it is the site of Broadway and Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, and the home of millions of people, who have come from every corner of the nation and the globe.

In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. Readers will relive the tumultuous early years of New Amsterdam under the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant's despotic regime, Indian wars, slave resistance and revolt, the Revolutionary War and the defeat of Washington's army on Brooklyn Heights, the destructive seven years of British occupation, New York as the nation's first capital, the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, the Erie Canal and the coming of the railroads, the growth of the city as a port and financial center, the infamous draft riots of the Civil War, the great flood of immigrants, the rise of mass entertainment such as vaudeville and Coney Island, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the birth of the skyscraper. Here too is a cast of thousands--the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Clement Moore, who saved Greenwich Village from the city's street-grid plan; Herman Melville, who painted disillusioned portraits of city life; and Walt Whitman, who happily celebrated that same life. We meet the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Boss Tweed and his nemesis, cartoonist Thomas Nast; Emma Goldman and Nellie Bly; Jacob Riis and Horace Greeley; police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt; Colonel Waring and his "white angels" (who revolutionized the sanitation department); millionaires John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, and William Randolph Hearst; and hundreds more who left their mark on this great city.

The events and people who crowd these pages guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America, and a book that will mesmerize everyone interested in the peaks and valleys of American life as found in the greatest city on earth. Gotham is a dazzling read, a fast-paced, brilliant narrative that carries the reader along as it threads hundreds of stories into one great blockbuster of a book.

Comet's Tale: How the Dog I Rescued Saved My Life ($5.00 Kindle, Google), by Steven Wolf and Lynette Padwa
Book Description
Forced into early retirement by a spinal condition, Steven Wolf reluctantly left his family and moved to Arizona for its warm winter climate. A lifelong dog lover, the former hard-driving attorney is drawn to a local group that rescues retired racing greyhounds. When Comet, a once-abused cinnamon-striped racer, chooses to “adopt” Wolf, he has no idea that a life-altering relationship has begun—for both of them.

Racers, cruelly treated and exposed only to the track and cage, have no inkling of the most basic skills—walking on tile floors, climbing stairs, even playing with toys or children—so Wolf must show the mistrustful greyhound how to thrive in the real world. Gradually, a confident but mysterious spirit emerges from the stunning animal. And when Wolf’s health starts to worsen, the tables turn and Comet must now help Wolf with the most basic skills.

Wolf teaches her to be a service dog, and soon enough she’s hauling his wheelchair at top speed through airport terminals, towing his cart through the grocery store, helping him get out of bed, and attracting friends to Wolf’s isolated world. She plays a crucial role in restoring his health and even saving his marriage. Their unshakable faith in each other makes them winners once again.

Free Book - Comfort Foods from the Dinner Doctor (DF)

Comfort Foods from the Dinner Doctor, which looks to be a 60 page mini-book of recipes taken from The Dinner Doctor ($9.99 Kindle), is free direct from Workman Publishing this month, as a part of their Blue Plate Specials promotion. I don't see the mini-edition in the Kindle store (yet), but they generally price these in the $4-$5 range, when they are available. Since The Dinner Doctor weighs in at over 500 pages, it's a pretty good deal if you want more than the sampler provides.
Book Description
One dish. A few simple supermarket ingredients. That's all it takes for the Dinner Doctor® to work her magic!
Get the free ebook from Workman, using promo code h0m3c00k1n (no spaces and those are numbers in places of some letters). The download is a DRM-Free PDF.

The Dinner Doctor
A marriage of the fast and fantastic, The Dinner Doctor proves that it's possible to cook meals for your family that taste great—and require little time, preparation, or hassle.

This is cooking that's not only about coping, but about pleasure. The first and most important step is choosing ingredients wisely. For the Dinner Doctor, that means prepared foods, whether canned, frozen, jarred, dried, or fresh from the salad bar or deli counter. Then comes the doctoring.

Jarred roasted red peppers are puréed with canned chicken broth and sour cream, and garnished with fresh chives for a memorable chilled soup for a summer dinner party. Bagged coleslaw mix is dressed up with nuts, bottle ranch dressing and pre-crumbled cheese for a Blue Cheese, Walnut, and Apple Slaw. Jars of marinara turn into Linguine with Red Clam Sauce (just add a can of clams, dry white wine, and parsley) or a zingy Saturday Night Fever Pasta—with the help of black olive paste and capers.

Even deli potato salad, as tasty as it often is, can take on a variety of personalities—enhance it with crumbled cooked bacon, or prepared horseradish, or curry powder and chopped scallions and shredded carrots. And bland chicken tenders—those saviors of quick cooking—are reinvented as Chinese Chicken, Chicken Piccata, and Curried Chicken and Apple Stew.

Making excellent use of slow cookers, embracing myriad shortcuts, boosting flavor and freshness with hundreds of ideas and quick touches, The Dinner Doctor brings all the joy of serving from-scratch meals into harried lives.

Deal of the Day - Brass and Bone (DF)

Brass and Bone ($3.03 Kindle), by Cynthia Gael, is today's Deal of the Day at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $0.70.

Book Description
Being Simon Thorne, friend and collaborator to Lady Abigail Moran, isn't easy. Yes, being a daring thief does have its charms. But I still haven't convinced Abigail that she loves me, and thievery, for all the romantical writers say of it, is not the way to wealth. Especially if Abigail insists we continuously repair the airship with our illgotten gains.

So when an old friend summons us to his estate and offers us a daring job with a hefty paycheck, we're happy to accept. The mission: use our airship to transport secret cargo halfway across the globe. Oh, and we mustn't forget to take along the witch and her sinister keeper. A witch more beguiling than expected and her keeper—or is that companion?—with secrets darker than one could imagine.

Alas. Perhaps I have finally bitten off more than I can chew...
Get the book from Diesel (DRM-Free); be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out.

Free Music Sampler - SXSW 2013

Those who follow music know that SXSW is a huge music festival. So large, that NPR's sampler for the event runs to 6-1/2 hours of music! You can listen to the sampler online, or, through April 4, you can download the entire thing in MP3 format. I looked thru the list of included artists and have to admit that I didn't know most of them (although I did recently buy Lone Bellow's album.

Get the free download from NPR. It's a big file (>800 MB), so may take some time to download. Once you get it, unzip it into your MP3 directory on your computer. There are download links below, if you just want one or two songs, but you'll save time and perhaps find a new favorite artist by grabbing the zip file, instead.

Enjoy!

Today's Deals 3/6

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is NeoCal Advanced Calculator (list price $10).

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Extra-Ordinary Princess ($1.99), by Carolyn Q Ebbitt.
Book Description
Princess Amelia is the least likely person to become queen of the land of Gossling, from her position as the fourth daughter to her non-princessy ways. But when a plague sweeps the land, kills her parents, and leaves her evil uncle in power, it is Amelia who must find the courage to save her kingdom-and her sisters. Readers will be thoroughly enchanted by the coming-of-age of an unlikely princess.

Grades 5–8

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is More Twisted: Volume 2 ($1.99), an anthology by Jeffery Deaver.
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver has famously thrilled and chilled fans with tales of masterful villains and the brilliant minds who bring them to justice. Now the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series (The Cold Moon and The Bone Collector, among others) has compiled a second volume of his award-winning, spine-tingling short stories of suspense.

While best known for his twenty-four novels, Jeffery Deaver is also a short story master -- he is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story, and he won the Short Story Dagger from the Crime Writers Association for a piece that appeared in his first short story collection, Twisted. The New York Times said of that book: "A mystery hit for those who like their intrigue short and sweet . . . [The stories] feature tight, bare-bones plotting and the sneaky tricks that Mr. Deaver's title promises." The sneaky tricks are here in spades, and Deaver even gives his fans a new Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs story.

Deaver is back with sixteen stories in the tradition of O. Henry and Edgar Allan Poe. His subjects range from a Westchester commuter to a brilliant Victorian England caper. With these intricately plotted, bone-chilling stories, Jeffery Deaver is at the top of his crime-writing game.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Nightshade ($1.99), the first title in the series by Andrea Cremer [Penguin].
Book Description
Calla is the alpha female of a shape-shifting wolf pack. She is destined to marry Ren Laroche, the pack's alpha male. Together, they would rule their pack together, guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But then, Calla saves a beautiful human boy, who captures her heart. Calla begins to question everything - her fate, her existence, and her world and the orders the Keepers have asked her to follow. She will have to make a choice. But will she follow her heart if it means losing everything, including her own life?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Skyship Academy: The Pearl Wars ($1.99), the first title in the series by Nick James [Flux]. I bought this last August, but haven't read it yet; I'm sending it to my Paperwhite, though, to try after I finish Beautiful Creatures (I'm about 80% thru).
Book Description
A devastated Earth's last hope is found in Pearls: small, mysterious orbs that fall from space and are capable of supplying enough energy to power entire cities. Battling to control the Pearls are the Skyship dwellers—political dissidents who live in massive ships in the Earth's stratosphere—and the corrupt Surface government.

Jesse Fisher, a Skyship slacker, and Cassius Stevenson, a young Surface operative, cross paths when they both venture into forbidden territory in pursuit of Pearls. Their chance encounter triggers an unexpected reaction, endowing each boy with remarkable—and dangerous—abilities that their respective governments would stop at nothing to possess.

Enemies thrust together with a common goal, Jesse and Cassius make their way to the ruins of Seattle to uncover the truth about their new powers, the past they didn't know they shared, and a shocking secret about the Pearls.

The Dead Tracks (£0.99 UK), the second in the David Raker series by Tim Weaver, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
A serial killer more terrifying than you could ever imagine . . .

Seventeen-year-old Megan Carver was an unlikely runaway. A straight-A student from a happy home, she studied hard and rarely got into trouble. Six months on, she's never been found.

Missing persons investigator David Raker knows what it's like to grieve. He knows the shadowy world of the lost too. So, when he's hired by Megan's parents to find out what happened, he recognizes their pain - but knows that the darkest secrets can be buried deep.

And Megan's secrets could cost him his life.

Because as Raker investigates her disappearance, he realizes everything is a lie. People close to her are dead. Others are too terrified to talk. And soon the conspiracy of silence leads Raker towards a forest on the edge of the city. A place with a horrifying history - which was once the hunting ground for a brutal, twisted serial killer.

A place known as the Dead Tracks. . .

Hot on the heels of Chasing the Dead, The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver revisits David Raker and his complex missing persons cases. Fans of Mo Hayder's Gone and Michael Marshall Smith's The Straw Men should look this way.

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games ($11.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Lopez Lomong [Thomas Nelson], is the Nook Daily Find. If the price drops at Amazon, you may also want to consider the companion audiobook at $3.99.
Book Description
Running for My Life is not a story about Africa or track and field athletics. It is about outrunning the devil and achieving the impossible faith, diligence, and the desire to give back. It is the American dream come true and a stark reminder that saving one can help to save thousands more.

Lopez Lomong chronicles his inspiring ascent from a barefoot lost boy of the Sudanese Civil War to a Nike sponsored athlete on the US Olympic Team. Though most of us fall somewhere between the catastrophic lows and dizzying highs of Lomong's incredible life, every reader will find in his story the human spark to pursue dreams that might seem unthinkable, even from circumstances that might appear hopeless.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Free Audiobook - Robinson Crusoe

Get a free audiobook download of Robinson Crusoe ($20.97 Audible), by Daniel Defoe, narrated by John Lee, from Downpour (Blackstone Audio's retail site). There are a couple of low-cost editions, for that that like to read along, including a $1.99 edition from Bantam Classics.
Book Description
Shipwrecked and cast ashore onto an uninhabited island, Robinson Crusoe ingeniously carves out a solitary, primitive existence for 24 years. Eventually, he meets a young native whom he saves from death at the hands of cannibals. He calls him Man Friday and makes him his companion and servant.

Crusoe and Friday share in a variety of adventures, including a fierce battle with cannibals that culminates in the heroes recapturing a mutinous ship and returning to England.

Based partly on the real-life experiences of Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, Defoe's novel of human endurance in an exotic, faraway land exerts a timeless appeal and has taken its rightful place among the great works of Western civilization.
Get the free audiobook from Downpour. Use Promo code crusoeemail during checkout (and make sure you see a $0.00 total before continuing).

Today's Deals 3/5

Amazon has a new sales page, with 20 Kindle Books for $2 each.

Don't forget to check the Read an eBook Week 2013 sites that updates with daily books.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is West with the Night ($1.99), the classic memoir by Beryl Markham [Open Road], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.
Book Description
Beryl Markham’s classic, engrossing memoir—a triumph of the pioneer spirit and an adventure-charged chronicle of a life lived to the fullest

Beryl Markham’s life was a true epic, complete with shattered societal expectations, torrid love affairs, and desperate crash landings. A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. She learned to be a bush pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. In 1936, she accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic. Her successes and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the “soul of Africa”—are all chronicled here with wrenching honesty and agile wit. Hailed by National Geographic as one of the greatest adventure books of all time, West with the Night is the sweeping account of a fearless and dedicated woman.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Outlaw in Paradise ($1.99), by Patricia Gaffney [Open Road].
Book Description
A legendary gunfighter brings big trouble to a frontier town, and ignites the passion of a local saloon owner

When Jesse Gault saunters into Paradise, Oregon, with a gun on each hip, the town is instantly abuzz. What could a legendary gunslinger want in Paradise? And what will the townsfolk have to do to keep his trouble from becoming their own? Cady McGill, proprietor of the Rogue Tavern, thinks she may know what Gault has come for, and she doesn’t like it one bit.

Cady’s ongoing battle with Merle Wylie, who has been buying up or burning down properties all over town, is coming to a head, as Wylie tries to get his hands on her tavern and her dried-up gold mine. Hiring a gunfighter like Gault would be just Wylie’s speed. But Cady senses something else behind Gault’s mysterious façade, and as the two grow closer she learns that his closely guarded secrets could spell life or death for the town—and for Cady herself.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Vampire Games ($1.99), the sixth title in the Vampire for Hire series by J.R. Rain, with companion audiobook $1.99.
Book Description
Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire.

Now in VAMPIRE GAMES, Samantha Moon is hired to look into the suspicious death of a popular fighter—and quickly discovers there’s far more to the story than meets the eye. As she uncovers clues into the boxer’s past, she will come face-to-face with something unexpected...and something only whispered about. Additionally, Samantha must confront the growing supernatural powers of those closest to her—and a betrayal that will rock her world.

Poison Princess (£0.99 UK), Kresley Cole's young adult debut and the starting title of The Arcana Chronicles, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99).
Book Description
A spellbinding new dystopian series filled with riveting action, the dark mysticism of Tarot cards, and breathtaking romance.

She could save the world--or destroy it.
Sixteen year old Evangeline "Evie" Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future--and they're still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.

But she can't do either alone.
With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can't totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?

Who can Evie trust?
As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it's not always clear who is on which side...

The False Prince ($5.38 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first novel in Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen, is the Nook Daily Find. No price match yet on Kindle, but if you pick it up there, the companion audiobook is $3.49.
Book Description
THE FALSE PRINCE is the thrilling first book in a brand-new trilogy filled with danger and deceit and hidden identities that will have readers rushing breathlessly to the end.

In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well.

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

An extraordinary adventure filled with danger and action, lies and deadly truths that will have readers clinging to the edge of their seats.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. ($1.99), by Kate Messner.
Book Description
Gianna Z has less than one week to collect, identify, and creatively display 25 leaves for her science project-or else she won't be able to compete in the upcoming cross-country sectionals race. As the deadline for her leaf project draws near, life keeps getting in the way. Some things are within Gee's control, like her own procrastination, but others aren't, like Biana Rinaldi's attempts at sabotage and Nonna's declining health. If it weren't for her best friend Zig, Gee wouldn't have a chance at finishing. His knowledge of trees and leaves in their rural Vermont town comes in very handy- as does his loyalty to Gee. But when Nonna disappears one afternoon, things like leaves and cross-country meets suddenly seem less important.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Bargain Books: Cookbooks and Non-Fiction

The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever: With More Than 500 Recipes! ($3.99 Kindle), by Beatrice Ojakangas and Susie Cushner (Photographer). Just the sample for this coobook is worth reading thru - there are a couple of chapters of recipes you can use, even if you decide to skip getting the entire thing (although at under four bucks, it's a steal).
Book Description
A good cook once said, a casserole is a blend of inspiration and what s on hand. Beatrice Ojakangas must have inspiration by the gallon, along with a very big kitchen, to come up with 500 comforting and creative casseroles ideal for any occasion. The enduring beauty of casseroles is that they come together quickly and they taste great the perfect dish doesn t get much better than that. The variety and versatility of these recipes will tempt you to make a casserole for every meal. Begin with a breakfast of Eggs Florentine, followed by Sweet & Sour Chicken for lunch, Pork Chops with Apple Stuffing for dinner, and Mocha Fudge Pudding for dessert. For the big family reunion, try Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs. Having an intimate dinner for two? Individual casseroles of Chicken Breast with Morel Mushrooms will make it both special and simple. Plenty of hearty dishes for vegetarians include the Latin-inspired Cornbread-Topped Black Bean Casserole and the Autumn Vegetable Stew (loaded with eggplant, zucchini, and carrots, and potatoes). Even appetizers can come in casserole form. Yummy and totally portable treats like Jarlsburg Cheese Spread and Parmesan and Sun-Dried Tomato Quiche are just right to bring to the party. 500 Casseroles serves up comforting dishes and innovative feasts for every meal of the day, every event whether big or small, and every style from down home supper to elegant dinner.

Plenty ($2.99 Kindle, $3.99 B&N, $3.49 Kobo - coupon eligible), by Yotam Ottolenghi and Jonathan Lovekin (Photographer), is more of a vegetable cookbook than vegetarian or think of it if as Vegetarian Cooking for the non-vegan, occasional meat eater. If you are strictly vegetarian, you'll need to adjust here and there to eliminate things like Parmesan Cheese. For those looking to add a few more vegetarian meals or wanting inspiration on what to do with that eggplant in the frig, it looks to be a perfect fit.
Book Description
Yotam Ottolenghi is one of the most exciting new talents in the cooking world, with four fabulous, eponymous London restaurants and a weekly newspaper column that's read by foodies all over the world. Plenty is a must-have collection of 120 vegetarian recipes featuring exciting flavors and fresh combinations that will delight readers and eaters looking for a sparkling new take on vegetables. Yotam's food inspiration comes from his Mediterranean background and his unapologetic love of ingredients. Not a vegetarian himself, his approach to vegetable dishes is wholly original and innovative, based on freshness and seasonality, and drawn from the diverse food cultures represented in London. A vibrant photo accompanies every recipe in this visually stunning book. Essential for meat-eaters and vegetarians alike!

Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure ($3.99 Kindle), by Jamie Koufman and Jordan Stern
Book Description
Dropping Acid: The Reflux Diet Cookbook & Cure is the first book to offer a nontraditional diet to help cure reflux, as well as the best and worst foods for a reflux sufferer. Using her extensive research, Dr. Koufman defines this shockingly common disease and explains why a change in diet can alleviate some of the most common symptoms. Her recipes use tasty fats as flavorings, not just as main ingredients and include a variety of dishes that prove living with reflux doesn't mean living without delicious food.

EntreLeadership ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Dave Ramsey
Book Description
From New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated talk radio host Dave Ramsey comes the secret to how he grew a multimillion dollar company from a card table in his living room.

If you’re at all responsible for your company’s success, you can’t just be a hard-charging entrepreneur or a motivating, encouraging leader. You have to be both!

Dave Ramsey, America’s trusted voice on money and business, reveals the keys that grew his company from a one-man show to a multimillion-dollar business—with no debt, low turnover, and a company culture that earns it the “Best Place to Work” award year after year.

This book presents Dave’s playbook for creating work that matters; building an incredible group of passionate, empowered team members; and winning the race with steady momentum that will roll over any obstacle.

Regardless of your business goals, you’ll discover that anyone can lead any venture to unbelievable growth and prosperity through Dave’s common sense, counterculture, EntreLeadership principles!

This Will Make You Smarter: 150 New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by John Brockman has been published in several print editions and looks to be interesting (despite the minimal description HarperCollins gives us for the Kindle edition).
Book Description
Edge.org presents brilliant, accessible, cutting-edge ideas to improve our decision-making skills and improve our cognitive toolkits, with contributions by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Richard Dawkins, Brian Eno, Steven Pinker, and more. Featuring a foreword by New York Times columnist David Brooks and edited by John Brockman, This Will Make You Smarter presents some of the best wisdom from today’s leading thinkers—to make better thinkers out of the leaders of tomorrow.

Thomas Jefferson ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Christopher Hitchens
Book Description
In this unique biography of Thomas Jefferson, leading journalist and social critic Christopher Hitchens offers a startlingly new and provocative interpretation of our Founding Father. Situating Jefferson within the context of America's evolution and tracing his legacy over the past two hundred years, Hitchens brings the character of Jefferson to life as a man of his time and also as a symbolic figure beyond it.

Conflicted by power, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and acted as Minister to France yet yearned for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature. Predicting that slavery would shape the future of America's development, this professed proponent of emancipation elided the issue in the Declaration and continued to own human property. An eloquent writer, he was an awkward public speaker; a reluctant candidate, he left an indelible presidential legacy.

Jefferson's statesmanship enabled him to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase with France, doubling the size of the nation, and he authorized the Lewis and Clark expedition, opening up the American frontier for exploration and settlement. Hitchens also analyzes Jefferson's handling of the Barbary War, a lesser-known chapter of his political career, when his attempt to end the kidnapping and bribery of Americans by the Barbary states, and the subsequent war with Tripoli, led to the building of the U.S. navy and the fortification of America's reputation regarding national defense.

In the background of this sophisticated analysis is a large historical drama: the fledgling nation's struggle for independence, formed in the crucible of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, and, in its shadow, the deformation of that struggle in the excesses of the French Revolution. This artful portrait of a formative figure and a turbulent era poses a challenge to anyone interested in American history -- or in the ambiguities of human nature.

The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Douglas Brinkley
Book Description
From New York Times bestselling historian Douglas Brinkley comes a sweeping historical narrative and eye-opening look at the pioneering environmental policies of President Theodore Roosevelt, avid bird-watcher, naturalist, and the founding father of America’s conservation movement—now approaching its 100th anniversary.

Historian Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I. Tracing the role that nature played in Roosevelt's storied career, Brinkley brilliantly analyzes the influence that the works of John James Audubon and Charles Darwin had on the young man who would become our twenty-sixth president. He also profiles Roosevelt's incredible circle of naturalist friends, including the Catskills poet John Burroughs, Boone and Crockett Club cofounder George Bird Grinnell, and Sierra Club founder John Muir, among many others. He brings to life hilarious anecdotes of wild-pig hunting in Texas and badger saving in Kansas. Even the story of the teddy bear gets its definitive treatment. Destined to become a classic, this extraordinary and timeless biography offers a penetrating and colorful look at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements, a legacy now more important than ever. As we face the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader's stout resolution to protect our environment is an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms for us all.

Today's Deals 3/4

Today's Gold Box at Amazon is a Dyson DC40 Vacuum Cleaner with Accessories Bundle at a substantial discount. If you've been shopping for one, these usually sell out when they have a big sale on them. It looks like you get an accessory bundle and a $100 discount from the same model stand-alone.

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Spensa Pro, a finance program that usually sells for $9. No idea if it is worth that much, but for free, I'll take a look.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Fugue State ($1.99), by Steffan Piper, with the companion audiobook also $1.99.
Book Description
Nineteen-year-old Sebastien Ranes spends his days knocking around Eagle River, Alaska, and his nights working as a janitor. His girlfriend’s father hates him and his own parents’ opinion of him isn’t much better.

Broke and down on his luck, Sebastien robs a grocery store, making off with nearly $4,000. His image is all over the television within hours, but before Sebastien can be arrested, a drunk driver smashes into his Jeep in the middle of town. Things couldn’t get much worse until a Marine recruiter who witnesses the accident gives Sebastien a ride home…and a way out.

Embarking on an unexpected journey, the Marine Corps shows Sebastien another world—of abuse and authority, of war and compassion, of lust and consequences—and by the time he returns home, he’ll be forever changed.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Rock Chick Rescue ($1.99), by Kristen Ashley.
Book Description
Jet McAlister has a secret. Eddie Chavez has the hots for Jet (not to mention Eddie’s just plain hot). Jet has too many problems to realize that Eddie’s interested. Eddie loses patience when Jet ends her waitressing shift at a strip club with a knife at her throat. Since Eddie’s a cop, he figures he can help. Since Jet’s used to solving everyone’s problems she doesn’t want Eddie’s help.

Throw in a Dolly Parton look-alike, a gruff but lovable strip club owner, Jet’s ne’er do well father, his ne’er do well friend, Bear, Bear’s long-suffering, chain-smoking wife Lavonne and the crew from Rock Chick and you’ve got Rock Chick Rescue.

Rock Chick Rescue takes you on a wild ride with Jet, Eddie and the gang as they wrestle bad guys in a bagel shop, hit Denver’s backstreet poker tables (with big hair), and help the strippers at Smithie’s take down a would-be murderer.

Through this, Jet’s got to learn that even when life made you give up your dreams, you can still end up with the (hot) guy. Eddie’s got to rescue Jet from a bad man (so he can do better things with her) and teach her that some dreams can come true.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Angelfall ($0.99), the first novel in the Penryn & the End of Days series by Susan Ee. This title also has a companion audiobook for $1.99.
Book Description
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with Raffe, an injured enemy angel. Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco, where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax (£0.99 UK), by Liz Jensen, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.99).
Book Description
Nine-year-old Louis Drax is a problem child: bright, precocious, deceitful, and dangerously, disturbingly, accident prone. When he falls off a cliff into a ravine, the accident seems almost predestined.

Louis miraculously survives - but the family has been shattered. Louis' father has vanished, his mother is paralysed by shock, and Louis lies in a deep coma from which he may never emerge.

In a clinic in Provence, Dr Pascal Dannachet tries to coax Louis back to consciousness. But the boy defies medical logic, startling Dannachet out of his safe preconceptions, and drawing him inexorably into the dark heart of Louis' buried world. Only Louis holds the key to the mystery surrounding his fall - and he can't communicate. Or can he?

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II ($9.35 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Mitchell Zuckoff, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Award-winning former Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoffunleashes the exhilarating, untold story of an extraordinary World War IIrescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S.military personnel into a land that time forgot. Fans of Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers, Marcus Luttrell’s Lone Survivor, and David Grann’s The Lost Cityof Z will be captivated by Zuckoff’s masterfullyrecounted, all-true story of danger, daring, determination, and discovery injungle-clad New Guinea during the final days of WWII.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Soccerland ($1.99), by Beth Choat, with the companion audiobook for $4.99.
Book Description
"One day I’m going to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team." That’s what Flora Dupre promised her mom, before her mom died of cancer. Flora and her mom had created a place called Soccerland, an escape world where they went and just talked soccer. And now Flora’s dream of playing for the U.S.A. might be coming true. Flora’s received the invitation of a lifetime: the chance to try out for the Under-15 U.S. Girls’ Soccer Team, an opportunity that could put Flora on the road to making her dream a reality and reaching the real "Soccerland." But when Flora arrives at the International Sports Academy, the level of talent there is like nothing she’s ever seen before. Flora struggles to hold her own, grappling with new positions on the pitch, injuries, a frustrating coach, and contempt from other players. But Flora is a big, strong Dupre girl—and she’s not going to go down easy.

The author of Soccerland has donated this book to the Worldreader program

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Today's Deals 3/3

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Fifth Knight ($1.99), a historical novel by E. M. Powell, which was initially released in episodes as a Kindle Serial.
Book Description
To escape a lifetime of poverty, mercenary Sir Benedict Palmer agrees to one final, lucrative job: help King Henry II’s knights seize the traitor Archbishop Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. But what begins as a clandestine arrest ends in cold-blooded murder. And when Fitzurse, the knights’ ringleader, kidnaps Theodosia, a beautiful young nun who witnessed the crime, Palmer can sit silently by no longer. For not only is Theodosia’s virtue at stake, so too is the secret she unknowingly carries—a secret he knows Fitzurse will torture out of her. Now Palmer and Theodosia are on the run, strangers from different worlds forced to rely only on each other as they race to uncover the hidden motive behind Becket’s grisly murder—and the shocking truth that could destroy a kingdom.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Shadow's Edge ($0.99), the first novel in the Night Prowler series by J.T. Geissinger.
Book Description
Deep within the primeval forests of southern England, a race of beautiful, savage shape-shifters lives hidden from the everyday world. Bound together by ancient bloodlines and a ruthless code of secrecy that punishes traitors with death, the Ikati send their leader Leander on a mission to capture one raised outside the tribe before she can expose their secret. When Leander tracks the unsuspecting outsider to Southern California, the hardened warrior is prepared for a fight—but not for the effect the sensual young beauty has on his heart.

Jenna spent her childhood in hiding, on the run from someone—or something—her parents refused to discuss. She trusts no one, not since her father’s mysterious disappearance, not since her mother’s sudden death, and definitely not since she began exhibiting strange, superhuman abilities. When handsome, enigmatic Leander appears, promising answers to the mysteries that shroud her past, she knows she shouldn’t trust him either. But their connection is undeniable, and as powerful as the enemy hell-bent on destroying every one of their kind…

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Child of the Sword: Book 1 of The Gods Within ($0.99), by J. L. Doty.
Book Description
Rat is no ordinary thief. A feral, filthy and malnourished child; he haunts the streets of the medieval city Anistigh and survives on what he can steal. When he tries to steal a purse and bungles it, a mob wants to cut off his hand as punishment, so to save himself he slips into a convenient shadow to hide. Rat thinks it's just another warm and comfortable shadow cast by the sun, but a clan wizard sees him create the shadow with his magic, an instinctive act of which Rat is unaware. Rat's magic is subtle, but potentially quite powerful, so he is adopted into the greatest of the Lesser Clans, adopted into a family, and given the name Morgin.

Morgin quickly grows into manhood and the clan teaches him wizardry and sorcery and swordsmanship. Having survived the streets of Anistigh, Morgin is inclined to avoid conflict, would be content to remain on the sidelines in the ever present clan rivalries. But as a clansman he inherits the enemies of the clan, and his shadowmagic proves to be a potent weapon. And when he comes into possession of a powerful talismanic sword, he's thrust into the forefront of the clan rivalries. As the ancestral conflict between the Greater and Lesser Clans once again leads to war, not even the clans realize that their petty little war is spawned by the primeval battle between the righteous gods of the Celestial Plane and the fallen gods of the Nether Plane. And Morgin learns that it is upon the Mortal Plane, with mortal lives, and mortal pain and suffering and death; it is upon the Mortal Plane that the gods meet and fight their wars.

Tonight We Die As Men (£0.99 UK), by Ian Gardner and Roger Day, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $6.99).
Book Description
The exploits of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment have long been overshadowed by those of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion. Yet the actions of the 3rd Battalion during the D-Day landings were every bit as incredible. This is the astounding story of how, after suffering many immediate casualties on landing, the surviving paratroopers fought on towards their objective against horrendous odds. Using fascinating first-hand accounts of the soldiers and the French civilians who witnessed the Normandy campaign, and illustrated with black and white photographs and maps throughout, the authors offer a unique and comprehensive account of the experiences of the 3rd Battalion from training through to D-Day and beyond.

This incredible story continues in Deliver Us From Darkness, the dramatic history of the unit during Operation Market Garden and the desperate attempts to hold Hell's Highway open.

The Forever Year ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Lou Aronica, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Jesse Sienna doesn't believe that love can last. His parents’ marriage was caring but passionless, and his own romantic history tells him that love can burn bright, but that it cannot burn for long. So when his elderly father, Mickey, moves in with him and seems unable to understand Jesse's no-strings-attached relationship with Marina, his current girlfriend, Jesse barely pays attention. It's just another example of how different they are – and more evidence that he and his father will never connect on any meaningful level.

But the truth is, Mickey Sienna knows more about love than most people learn in a lifetime. More than half a century ago, he discovered the endless rewards of investing your heart and soul in someone...and he knows the devastating costs of letting the perfect someone slip by.

When Mickey sees Jesse taking an extraordinary woman for granted, he decides it's time to tell Jesse his story – a story he's never shared with any of his children before. It is a story that will change both of them profoundly.

At once a stirring family drama and a touching romance, The Forever Year is filled with richly drawn characters and powerful situations. You will respond personally to the people you meet in this novel, and you will find yourself deeply enmeshed in their stories. And you might find yourself looking at love in a new way.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED UNDER THE NAME RONALD ANTHONY

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Die for Me ($1.99), the first novel in Amy Plum's Revenants series. If I was browsing at the bookstore, this is one I'd definitely pick up to sample a few chapters, on the basis of the cover alone. From the reviews, it's worth reading just for the descriptions of Paris. There are a very few haters in the reviews (some of which have spoilers, so be warned), but most of them were just upset it was yet another Twilight genre YA paranormal romance (it can't really be "entirely new" and stay in the genre, after all), which is a lot like hating on a Harlequin Romance because you've already read one or two of them and the general plotlines are the same (being entirely "new" isn't really required, after all, for a good read).
Book Description
My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.

Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

That's right, it's cat in the floppy hat's birthday (or, his creator, technically) and Oceanhouse Media has three dozen Dr. Seuss apps on sale 30-75% OFF this week only (ends March 7)! In addition to getting The Cat in the Hat (Kindle,iTunes) for 99 cents (down from $4), if you are getting the apps on iTunes (and they have a few exclusives), be sure to also get the Dr. Seuss Bookshelf for free (iPad only).

I know it's early to be thinking about Christmas, but now's your chance to get How The Grinch Stole Christmas! or your childhood favorites (Green Eggs and Ham anyone?) at near half-price (or even less). Those on a nook Tablet will need to search the store from there, but you should be able to test drive the apps for free (according to emails I've received from B&N, anyway), which is something Amazon doesn't have and on iTunes is only available with "lite" version of apps (which then clog up your account and devices).

If you have an iPad or iPhone, do be sure to pick up the free download of Dr. Seuss Camera - The Cat in the Hat Edition from iTunes.
Take pictures with Cat in the Hat characters or choose to become the Cat in the Hat, the playful Things or even Sally or her brother. Personalize cards with comical and colorful stamps, borders and classic Seussian text. Cat in the Hat Cards can be e-mailed to friends & family or saved to the Photo Library.

SF/Fantasy Bargain Book Trio

The first two appear to be a pricing errors on the publisher's side, as does Ben Bova'a Farside, which I mentioned in an earlier post, so grab them or gift them to the SF fans in your life fast, before they go back up.

The Hermetic Millennia ($1.99 Kindle) is John C. Wright's newly released book from Tor (>$17 Hardcover).
Book Description
Continuing from Count to a Trillion, Menelaus Illation Montrose—Texas gunslinger, idealist, and posthuman genius—has gone into cryo-suspension following the discovery that, in 8,000 years, a powerful alien intelligence will reach Earth to assess humanity’s value as slaves. Montrose intends to be alive to meet that threat, but he is awakened repeatedly throughout the centuries to confront the woes of an ever-changing and violent world, witnessing millennia of change compressed into a few years of subjective time. The result is a breathtaking vision of future history like nothing before imagined: sweeping, tumultuous, and evermore alien, as Montrose’s immortal enemies and former shipmates from the starship Hermetic harness the forces of evolution and social engineering to continuously reshape the Earth in their image, seeking to create a version of man the approaching slavers will find worthy.

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

Impulse ($1.99 Kindle) is Steven Gould's newly released book from Tor (~$15 Hardcover). The companion audiobook is only $4.49.
Book Description
Cent has a secret. She lives in isolation, with her parents, hiding from the people who took her father captive and tortured him to gain control over his ability to teleport, and from the government agencies who want to use his talent. Cent has seen the world, but only from the safety of her parents’ arms. She’s teleported more than anyone on Earth, except for her mother and father, but she’s never been able to do it herself. Her life has never been in danger.

Until the day when she went snowboarding without permission and triggered an avalanche. When the snow and ice thundered down on her, she suddenly found herself in her own bedroom. That was the first time.

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

Although you can't tell by the title, The Mongoliad: Book One ($0.99 Kindle), Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Mark Teppo and Erik Bear, is an updated, special "collector's edition" of the first novel in The Foreworld Saga, with the companion audiobook at $1.99. The original edition I bought last year seems to be missing form the store (and not linked to the audiobook, in any case) and since the formerly free short story included sells for the same 99 cents, this is a pretty good deal for fantasy fans that don't have these in in their libraries.
Book Description
With bonus material! This Kindle edition features extra content only found in the Collector’s Edition of The Mongoliad: Book One, including an illustrated character glossary, a Foreworld map, and Sinner, a prequel to the Mongoliad series.

The first novel to be released in The Foreworld Saga, The Mongoliad: Book One, is an epic-within-an-epic, taking place in 13th century. In it, a small band of warriors and mystics raise their swords to save Europe from a bloodthirsty Mongol invasion. Inspired by their leader (an elder of an order of warrior monks), they embark on a perilous journey and uncover the history of hidden knowledge and conflict among powerful secret societies that had been shaping world events for millennia.

But the saga reaches the modern world via a circuitous route. In the late 19th century, Sir Richard F. Burton, an expert on exotic languages and historical swordsmanship, is approached by a mysterious group of English martial arts aficionados about translating a collection of long-lost manuscripts. Burton dies before his work is finished, and his efforts were thought lost until recently rediscovered by a team of amateur archaeologists in the ruins of a mansion in Trieste, Italy. From this collection of arcana, the incredible tale of The Mongoliad was recreated.

Full of high adventure, unforgettable characters, and unflinching battle scenes, The Mongoliad ignites a dangerous quest where willpower and blades are tested and the scope of world-building is redefined.

A note on this edition: The Mongoliad began as a social media experiment, combining serial story-telling with a unique level of interaction between authors and audience during the creative process. Since its original iteration, The Mongoliad has been restructured, edited, and rewritten under the supervision of its authors to create a more cohesive reading experience and will be published as a trilogy of novels. This edition is the definitive edition and is the authors' preferred text.

Free Book - Will Solvit and the T-Rex Terror (N)

Will Solvit and the T-Rex Terror, by Zed Storm, is from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of publisher Parragon Books. Although a large download (46 MB), this is not a tablet specific book and should work on all Nook devices and apps.
Book Description
Will Solvit is a regular ten year old - or so he thought. With the help of his dad's crazy inventions, Will finds himself with a broken time machine, a hungry T-Rex, and a trail of secret letters to decode. Featuring amazing dinosaur fun facts, easy to read text, and a whole lot of mysteries to solve, Will Solvit makes a great companion for middle readers ages 6-11. Be sure to check out all 12 adventures in the Will Solvit series!
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Today's Deals 3/2

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Deck Z: The Titanic: Unsinkable. Undead ($1.99), by Chris Pauls and Matt Solomon.
Book Description
Imagine being trapped aboard the doomed Titanic on an icy Atlantic. . . with the walking dead. This fast-paced thriller reimagines the historical events of the fateful Titanic voyage through the lens of zombie mayhem. Captain Edward Smith and his inner circle desperately try to contain a weaponized zombie virus smuggled on board with the 2,200 passengers sailing to New York. Faced with an exploding population of lumbering, flesh-hungry undead, Smith's team is forced into bloody hand-to-hand combat down the narrow halls of the huge steamer. In its few short days at sea, the majestic Titanic turns into a Victorian bloodbath, steaming at top speed toward a cold, blue iceberg. A creepy, tense page-turner, Deck Z will thrill zombie fans and Titanic buffs alike.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Incidental Happenstance ($1.99), by Kim DeSalvo.
Book Description
Incidental: Occurring or likely to occur as an unpredictable or minor accompaniment*

Happenstance: A chance circumstance

Neither was looking for it. Neither was expecting it. But sometimes, life has other plans…

One year after the loss of her fiancé, Tia Hastings needed to find a way to start over. She had to figure out how to be single again, but she had no idea how to do it. Last Stop was a tiny pub with no significance—she chose it to be anonymous, to watch the interactions between the sexes so she could figure out how to start her life over…

Dylan Miller was a megastar. It was impossible for him to move amongst the general population without being recognized, but he longed to simply blend into a crowd. He donned a disguise and wandered into Last Stop, a dark little hole-in-the-wall where he was sure no one would know him…

When their worlds collide, Tia and Dylan discover something neither of them thought possible—love. But when a fallen star sees Dylan as her ticket back to the top and will stop at nothing to make him hers, Tia wonders if she’s out of her league; and out of time to rescue the love she thought she’d never find again…

Is it fate? Coincidence? Or both?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Z 2134 ($0.99), by Sean Platt and David W. Wright, was initially released in episodes as a Kindle Serial, but now all four episodes are available to download, totally approx. 300 pages.
Book Description
z 2134 is a thrilling new zombie serial in the spirit of 1984, The Walking Dead, and The Hunger Games, from the writers of the post-apocalyptic smash hit serial, Yesterday’s Gone.

It is the year 2134 in a dystopian America, following a series of zombie plagues which infected and decimated much of the world’s population starting 100 years ago.

Those left, formed six walled Cities throughout the continent, all under the rule of a totalitarian government which enforces strict control over its populace.
You must obey your government.
You must be a good citizen.
You must be a productive citizen.
You must not break the law.

Or The City Watch will find you and arrest you.

Jonah Lovecraft, a former Watcher, was arrested for the murder of his wife. And like most criminals, he has one chance at freedom — to participate in The Darwin Games, a televised survival show which pits two players from each city against one another in The Barrens, the uninhabited areas outside the City Walls.
He’ll also have to face another enemy — the zombies which still roam The Barrens.

As he fights for his freedom against impossible odds, his daughter, Anastasia, stumbles into people who have information about her father — information which will change her life forever.

But it will also put her in the crosshairs of her father’s enemies.

The Motel Life (£0.99 UK), by Willy Vlautin, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.89).
Book Description
'The night it happened I was drunk, almost passed out, and I swear to God a bird came flying through my motel room window . . .' Narrated by Frank Flannigan, The Motel Life tells the story of how he and his brother Jerry Lee take to the road in a bid to escape the hit-and-run accident which kick-starts the narrative. Written with huge compassion, and an eye for the small details of life, it has become one of the most talked about debuts of recent years. '

Austentatious ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Alyssa Goodnight, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
In this quirky, sexy novel set against the lively, music-filled backdrop of Austin, Texas, a young woman learns that romance can wreak havoc with even the best laid plans. . .

It started innocently enough. While browsing in one of Austin's funky little shops, Nicola James is intrigued by a blank vintage journal she finds hidden among a set of Jane Austen novels. Even though Nic is a straight-laced engineer, she's still a sucker for anything Austen-esque. But her enthusiasm quickly turns to disbelief once she starts writing in the journal--because somehow, it's writing her back. . .

Miss Nicola James will be sensible and indulge in a little romance. Those twelve tiny words hit Nic like a thunderbolt, as if her diary was channeling Austen herself! Itching for a bit of excitement, Nic decides to follow her "Fairy Jane's" advice. The result: a red-hot romance with a sexy Scottish musician who charms his way into Nic's heart in about five seconds flat.

Sean MacInnes is warm, funny, and happens to think Nic is the most desirable woman he's ever met. But a guy like Sean doesn't exactly fit into her Life Plan. With no one but Fairy Jane to guide her, Nic must choose between the life she thought she wanted--and the kind of happy ending she never saw coming. . ..

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Scarlet ($2.99), A. C. Gaughen's debut novel.
Book Description
Posing as one of Robin Hood's thieves to avoid the evil Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only Big John and Robin Hood know the truth-that the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. It's getting harder to hide as Gisbourne's camp seeks to find Scarlet and drive Robin Hood out of Nottinghamshire. But Scarlet's instinct for self-preservation is at war with a strong sense of responsibility to the people who took her in when she was on the run, and she finds it's not so easy to turn her back on her band and townspeople. As Gisbourne draws closer to Scarlet and puts innocent lives at risk, she must decide how much the people of Nottinghamshire mean to her, especially John Little, a flirtatious fellow outlaw, and Robin, whose quick smiles and temper have the rare power to unsettle Scarlet. Full of exciting action, secrets, and romance, this imaginative retelling of the classic tale will have readers following every move of Robin Hood and band of thieves.