Author Spotlight: Jessica Sorensen

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

The Secret series:

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

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

THE SECRET OF ELLA AND MICHA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Coincidence YA series:

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

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

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

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

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

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

No official description yet on this one.

Today's Deals 3/23

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Description
Some things are worth waiting for...

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

Some things are worth experiencing...

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

Some things should never be kept quiet...

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

And some things are worth fighting for...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bargain Books - Robin Hobb

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

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

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

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

Dragon Keeper (companion audiobook $3.49)

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

Dragon Haven (companion audiobook $6.49)

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

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

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

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

City of Dragons

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

Blood of Dragons

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

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

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

Songs of Love Lost and Found

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

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

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

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

Book Description

PROTECTING HIS OWN

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

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

Bargain Book Roundup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Kingdom of Rarities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reading Level: Ages 12 and up

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

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

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

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

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

Nearly Free Audiobook - The Da Vinci Code

Another deal as part of the anniversary celebration (and anticipation of the next volume in the series), has the Audible edition of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code available for $0.99. You'll need to have picked up the free Kindle edition first (if you haven't, there are links on the Audible page) to get the price, which also then lets you use WhisperSync between the two editions. For those wanting EPUB, there are more formats free now, all linked in my original post.

Book Description
An ingenious code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci.

A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe.

An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last.

While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci—and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever.

Free App - Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots

Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, by Halfbrick Studios Pty Ltd, is this week's Free Friday App from Barnes & Noble, price matched at Amazon (but not Google).

App Description
En Garde!

Fruit meets fairytales in Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots.

The suave, fruit-slashing swashbuckler, Puss in Boots, faces a challenge that would make Sensei proud. Prepare for a journey of familiar fruit-slicing action as Puss encounters a wealth of new and exciting challenges in his search for the Magic Beans.
Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots
Get classic fruit-slicing action in Desperado Mode
Puss in Fruits

Slice through a series of increasingly exciting challenges in the all-new Bandito Mode, and become the greatest Fruit Ninja warrior of all time. Each stage thrusts you into never-before-seen fruit frenzy adventure. Face massive fruit from the Giant's castle, precision and timing challenges, and all-out fruit onslaughts with new obstacles. Plus, for the first time ever, throw down against the much-requested tomato!
Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots
Face all-out fruit onslaughts and live to tell the tale

Real Banditos must put their best blade forward, because scoring is based on the number of fruits sliced, ninja reflexes, and slicing efficiency. A true produce warrior can upload their massive high scores to global leaderboards, and rank among the best players online.
If Kitty-Looks Could Kill

Bring your blade to Desperado Mode--an enhanced and re-mastered version of the Classic Fruit Ninja game. But this time, you will face even more fruit, unique waves, and Puss in Boots' elusive Magic Beans from the DreamWorks Animation feature film.

Finally, bask in the fruit-stained glory of Puss in Boots' own exclusive Ninja Stash, featuring a whole range of unique customizable content, including new backgrounds and blades.

Stay juicy, amigos!

Get the free App from Barnes & Noble.

Today's Deals 3/22

Today's Gold Box at Amazon is "House: The Complete Series" for 58% Off.

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is The Croods Movie Storybook.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is also movie themed: Admission ($1.99), by Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, Jean Hanff Korelitz [Hachette]. This is also the Nook Daily Find today. Read it before seeing the movie (starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd).

Book Description
"Admissions. Admission. Aren't there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides...It's what we let in, but it's also what we let out."

For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation's brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.

Admission is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman's life to its core.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Haunting Violet ($1.99), by Alyxandra Harvey [Walker Childrens].

Book Description
Violet Willoughby doesn't believe in ghosts. But they believe in her. After spending years participating in her mother's elaborate ruse as a fraudulent medium, Violet is about as skeptical as they come in all matters supernatural. Now that she is being visited by a very persistent ghost, one who suffered a violent death, Violet can no longer ignore her unique ability. She must figure out what this ghost is trying to communicate, and quickly because the killer is still on the loose.Afraid of ruining her chance to escape her mother's scheming through an advantageous marriage, Violet must keep her ability secret. The only person who can help her is Colin, a friend she's known since childhood, and whom she has grown to love. He understands the true Violet, but helping her on this path means they might never be together. Can Violet find a way to help this ghost without ruining her own chance at a future free of lies?

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil ($1.99), by Barbara Monajem [Montlake Romance]. You may have it in your library, as it was free a couple of years ago.

Book Description
Dark secrets abound in the town of Bayou Gavotte, Louisiana, from blackmail to fetish clubs to murder, and when blood-and-love starved vampire Ophelia Beliveau calls the police to scare away whoever is desecrating her garden, Detective Gideon O’Toole unearths more than he ever dreamed.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Scourge ($1.99), by Roberto Calas [47North]; originally released as a Kindle Serial.

Book Description
God has forsaken this land.

A mysterious plague descends upon 14th century England, ravaging the country and trapping the souls of the afflicted in eternal madness. The feudal hierarchy--and even the church itself-- slowly crumbles as the dead rise to feed and the living seek whatever shelter they can. The bishops of England call for calm and obedience, but one man isn’t listening.

Sir Edward of Bodiam has been separated from the woman he loves and nothing on heaven or earth can stop him from seeking her out.

Edward and two of his knights travel through the swiftly changing landscape of England, a countryside now overrun by the minions of hell. The knights encounter madness, violence, and sorrow, but Edward fights his way ever deeper into the thickening darkness of unholy terror.

Roberto Calas brings you along on a dark, historical tale full of love, death, and black humor. Follow Edward as he journeys to save his wife, his kingdom, and his very soul.

The Salt Maiden (£0.99 UK), by Colleen Thompson [Montlake Romance], is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $2.99).

Book Description
Deep beneath the desert lies a woman's body, mummified by salt, abandoned by those who ought to seek her. With her rests a secret that someone will kill to keep buried.

Devil's Claw
It's a barren wasteland, the dead center of nowhere, and the last place Dana Vanover wants to be. But it's also the last known address of her missing sister. Determined to locate Angie, Dana won't be deterred by suspicious rednecks, snakebite, or even the grim prognosis of Sheriff Jay Eversole: no woman could survive more than a week alone in the burning heat of Rimrock County . But the endless sands aren't the only thing hotter than the chili served up in the Broken Spur café. Despite small-town dirty politics, a deadly car chase and a dangerous paternity search, Dana and Jay can't keep their hands off each other. In the least populated area of the country they've managed to find love. Now all they have to do is stay alive long enough to uncover...The Salt Maiden

Diesel Daily Deal - Redwood Bend (E)

Redwood Bend ($6.99 $3.50 Kindle), a novel by Robyn Carr [Harlequin Mira], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $1.10. (5 copies left).

For those preferring to stay with Kindle editions, there are currently 9 titles in the Virgin River series that are on sale for under $4 (one under $3) and two more under $5, which are all good discounts from the $7-$8 list price (the last few titles in the series are marked down to $5.99-$6.15).

Book Description

Katie Malone and her twin boys' trip along the beautiful mountain roads to Virgin River is stopped short by a tire as flat as her failed romance. To make matters worse, the rain has set in, the boys are hungry and Katie is having trouble putting on a spare. As she stands at the side of the road pondering her next move, she hears a distinct rumble. The sight of the sexy, leather-clad bikers who pull up beside her puts her imagination into overdrive.

Dylan Childress and his buddies are on the motorcycle trip of a lifetime. But the sight of a woman in distress stops them in their tracks. And while the guys are checking out her car, she and Dylan are checking out one another.

In one brief moment, the world tilts on its axis and any previous plans Katie and Dylan might have had for their futures are left at the side of the road.

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

Today's Deals 3/21

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is S. J. Watson's debut thriller Before I Go To Sleep ($2.99), one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month, June 2011 [HarperCollins].

Book Description
"As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I’m still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me. . . ."

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love—all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story.

Welcome to Christine's life.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Etiquette for the End of the World ($1.99), by Jeanne Martinet.

Book Description
RULE #1: DON’T PANIC—IT ONLY ATTRACTS SHARKS

It’s not the end of the world. That’s what depressed, 39-year-old Tess Eliot has to remind herself after losing her newspaper column (“Tess Knows Best”) and being dumped by her boyfriend for a younger woman (a feng shui expert? Really?) But when the out-of-work Tess gets hired by a wacky cult (W.O.O.S.H.) to write an etiquette guide as part of the preparation for what the cult believes is imminent global catastrophe, she begins to ask herself: “Wait--could the world actually be coming to an end?”
At first, Tess fakes her way through chapters like “Boundaries in the Bunker” and “Cannibalism: Yes or No?” Then she uncovers what appears to be a bona fide (if somewhat bizarre) secret plot for world destruction, and she embarks on a life-changing odyssey of her own—involving travel to far-off places, all-too-close encounters with touchy-feely survivalists and conspiracy theorists, and one handsome guy who seems way too perfect.

Filled with wit and insight (including Tess Eliot’s “Twelve Rules to Live and Die By”), Etiquette for the End of the World is fast-paced, laugh-out-loud fun, with surprisingly relevant life lessons along the way.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Apprentice Swordceror ($1.99), by Chris Hollaway.

Book Description
Apprentice Swordceror, the first volume of the Blademage Saga, is a debut novel that tells the story of a young man trapped between the separate and incompatible worlds of Wizards and Warriors. The main character, Kevon, is easily identified with, possessing the raw talent we all wish we had, and the naiveté we hope we lack. His journey through betrayal, love, loss, and personal growth is accentuated by the friends and allies that he comes to surround himself with. The story will appeal to classic fantasy fans, while the different angles on magic and standard fantastical races will satisfy those who need something different than the usual fare.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar (£1.29 UK), by Suzanne Joinson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.36).

Book Description
It is 1923 and Evangeline English, keen lady cyclist, arrives with her sister Lizzie at the ancient Silk Route city of Kashgar to help establish a Christian mission. Lizzie is in thrall to their forceful and unyielding leader Millicent, but Eva's motivations for leaving her bourgeois life back at home are less clear-cut. As they attempt to navigate their new home and are met with resistance and calamity, Eva commences work on her book, A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar... In present-day London another story is beginning. Frieda, a young woman adrift in her own life, opens her front door one night to find a man sleeping on the landing. In the morning he is gone, leaving on the wall an exquisite drawing of a long-tailed bird and a line of Arabic script. Tayeb, who has fled to England from Yemen, has arrived on Frieda's doorstep just as she learns that she is the next-of-kin to a dead woman she has never heard of: a woman whose abandoned flat contains many surprises - among them an ill-tempered owl. The two wanderers begin an unlikely friendship as their worlds collide, and they embark on a journey that is as great, and as unexpected, as Eva's. A stunning debut peopled by unforgettable characters, A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar is an extraordinary story of inheritance and the search for belonging in a fractured and globalised world.

Making the Connection: Strategies to Build Effective Personal Relationships ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), a collection of titles by Jonathan Herring, Sandy Allgeier, Richard Templar and Samuel Barondes, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This title was free in both stores earlier this year, so you most likely already have a copy.

Book Description
4 remarkable eBooks help you persuade, influence, convince, and inspire everyone around you.

These 4 extraordinary eBooks offer you an unprecedented toolset for persuading, influencing, inspiring, and motivating everyone around you. In How to Argue: Powerfully, Persuasively, Positively, Oxford's Jonathan Herring teaches you how to calmly and confidently persuade in any environment -- free of fear, confusion, and intimidation. You'll earn practical skills that make some people so articulate and compelling… how to handle difficult people and heated situations… how to make your point more powerfully than ever before. Next, in The Personal Credibility Factor: How to Get It, Keep It, and Get It Back (If You've Lost It), renowned personal coachSandy Allgeier shows how to systematically build your personal credibility -- the #1 attribute in earning trust and success. Allgeier's hands-on assessment tool will help you bring more authenticity and transparency to your interactions, and her practical guidance on listening will help you earn others' trust even if you ultimately choose to disagree. Allgeier concludes with seven specific steps you can take every day to increase personal credibility, and rebuild credibility you've already lost. Then, in How to Get What You Want...Without Having to Ask, best-selling author Richard Templar offers up 100 clever, simple, pain-free ways to get people to happily say "yes" to you. You'll discover bite-size techniques for getting what you want without saying a word… and when you do still have to ask, you'll find the techniques and words that'll get the job done. Finally, in Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality, renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist Samuel Barondes shares practical tools for understanding what individuals are really like -- and how they got that way. He offers a complete system for assessing each person's traits, character, and sense of identity, integrating those elements into a unified picture, and using it to be more effective in every area of your life. Learn how to supplement your intuition to choose more satisfying relationships, recognize telltale signs of dysfunction and danger, and savor the complexity and uniqueness of everyone you meet!

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is My Fair Godmother ($1.99), by Janette Rallison [Walker Children], with the companion audiobook for $3.49.

Book Description
Finding your one true love can be a Grimm experience!

After her boyfriend dumps her for her older sister, sophomore Savannah Delano wishes she could find a true prince to take her to the prom. Enter Chrissy (Chrysanthemum) Everstar: Savannah’s gum-chewing, cell phone–carrying, high heel-wearing Fair Godmother. Showing why she’s only Fair—because she’s not a very good fairy student—Chrissy mistakenly sends Savannah back in time to the Middle Ages, first as Cinderella, then as Snow White. Finally she sends Tristan, a boy in Savannah’s class, back instead to turn him into her prom-worthy prince. When Savannah returns to the Middle Ages to save Tristan, they must team up to defeat a troll, a dragon, and the mysterious and undeniably sexy Black Knight. Laughs abound in this clever fairy tale twist from a master of romantic comedy.

Age Range: 10 and up

Bargain Books - The Edge of Never & The Edge of Always

The Edge of Never ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Sony), by J.A Redmerski [Forever (Hachette)], is currently being deeply discounted and the sequel, The Edge of Always ($3.99), is a discounted pre-order on Kindle.

The Edge of Never

This new ... edition includes exclusive bonus material - an all-new full chapter from Andrew's point of view during a crucial scene!

Sometimes life takes you off course . . .

Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett thought she knew exactly where her life was going. But after a wild night at the hottest club in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, she shocks everyone-including herself-when she decides to leave the only life she's ever known and set out on her own. Grabbing her purse and her cell phone, Camryn boards a Greyhound bus ready to find herself. Instead, she finds Andrew Parrish.

Sexy and exciting, Andrew lives life like there is no tomorrow. He persuades Camryn to do things she never thought she would and shows her how to give in to her deepest, most forbidden desires. Soon he becomes the center of her daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But there is more to Andrew than Camryn realizes. Will his secret push them inseparably together-or destroy them forever?

The Edge of Always

Five months ago, Camryn and Andrew, both dealing with personal hardships, met on a Greyhound bus. They fell in love and proved that when two people are meant to be together, fate will find a way to make it happen.

Now, in the highly anticipated sequel to The Edge of Never, Camryn and Andrew are pursuing their love for music and living life to the fullest as they always swore to do. But when tragedy befalls them, their relationship is put to the ultimate test. As Camryn tries to numb her pain, Andrew makes a bold decision: To get their life back on track, they'll set out on another cross-country road trip. Together they find excitement, passion, adventure-and challenges they never could have anticipated.

Today's Deals 3/20

Today's Gold Box at Amazon: Save Up to 59% off Criterion Collection Favorites on Blu-ray. The first Lightning Deal of the Day is a nice looking emergency AM/FM/NOAA Weather radio and flashlight, that can be kept in the car or at your bedside for emergencies and cranked for power if the battery has discharged.

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar, an educational game for kids two and up.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Too Many Fairies: A Celtic Tale ($1.99), by master storyteller Margaret Read MacDonald, illustrated by Susan Mitchell [Amazon Children's Publishing]. This book features Kindle Text Pop-Up for reading text over vivid, full-color images when using Kindle Fire/HD or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android); unlike some other Text Popup books, this one won't work on any of the eInk Kindles.

Book Description
There was once an old woman who hated chores. "Work! Work! Work! How I hate it! Hate it! Hate it!" One day some fairies show up. They . . . clankety-clankety-clankety — clean all the dishes. Swishety-swishety-swishety —sweep the house. Flumpety-flumpety-flumpety — shake out the bedclothes. Clickety-clickety-clickety — work on all the knitting. But then there is nothing left to do. So, they tear everything apart and start again! Clankety-clankety-clankety, swishety-swishety-swishety . . . . The fairies are driving the old woman crazy! How will she get them to leave? Lively watercolor illustrations add to this Celtic retelling by master storyteller Margaret Read MacDonald. An author’s note is also included.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Slipping into Darkness ($1.99), by Peter Blauner [Open Road].

Book Description
When a twenty-year-old murder case comes back to life, a detective must race against his failing sight to unravel the mystery

When Allison Wallis was beaten to death, Detective Francis X. Loughlin found the killer—Julian Vega, a teenager with a crush on the murdered girl. Using his natural sense of empathy, he cozied up to young Julian, convincing him to give a confession that would put him away until he was thirty-six.

Twenty years later, Julian is finally out of jail, attempting to remember how to live in a world without bars, and Detective Loughlin is still on the job, his sight fading, though his instincts are still sharp. But when Allison’s blood appears at a new crime scene, everything he thought he knew about that long-ago murder is called into question. Was it really Allison they buried? Was Julian actually the killer? And if he wasn’t, who else is in danger now?

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Peter Blauner including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is all four volumes of Marie Force's Treading Water series for $1.99 apiece.

Treading Water

Love is the last thing on Jack Harrington’s mind when he sets out to meet Andi Walsh’s flight. Recently back to work after spending more than a year tending to his comatose wife, Jack is focused on getting through each day and caring for his three daughters. However, the moment he sets eyes on Andrea Walsh, the interior designer who has come to decorate the hotel his company is building in Newport, Rhode Island, Jack begins to wonder if Andi might be his second chance. After a disastrous marriage, Andi, single mom to a hearing-impaired son, isn’t exactly looking for love, either, but that’s what she finds with Jack. The two embark on a long-distance relationship fraught with challenges as they balance the needs of their children and dueling careers while Jack continues to care for his wife, Clare. Just when Jack thinks his life is once again settled, he is confronted with a new challenge that tests him in ways he never could've imagined, leaving him to wonder if "happily ever after" is in the cards for him.

Marking Time

“Marking Time” continues the story begun in “Treading Water” as Clare Harrington begins a new life. She’s considered a miracle, but everything that’s happened since she recovered from a three-year coma has been something less than miraculous. Now left to grapple with the aftermath of a selfless decision, she is home from the hospital and trying to figure out what the next chapter in her miraculous recovery has in store for her. Meanwhile, her eighteen-year-old daughter Kate, a talented singer and songwriter, sets out to pursue her musical dreams in Nashville. Her parents have agreed to allow Kate to spend a year there, but they couldn't have anticipated Kate falling in love with a much older man. Her newly divorced parents are forced back together to confront their wayward daughter. Spanning from Newport, Rhode Island, to Nashville, Tennessee, to Stowe, Vermont, "Marking Time" is the story of new beginnings and new loves.

Starting Over

In a drunken stupor, Brandon O'Malley frightens his brother Aidan's girlfriend, enraging his brother and the rest of his family. Aidan offers Brandon the choice of rehab or jail, and Brandon reluctantly enters treatment. While in rehab, he confronts the lifetime of secrets and resentments that fueled his spiral into alcoholism, and these revelations have a major effect on his entire family. When he returns home expecting to resume his supervisory role in the family’s construction business, Brandon learns his father has retired and put his younger brothe, Colin,r in charge. Brandon is unhappy to be given the job of renovating an apartment building where he loses his heart to an adorable five-year-old tenant named “Mike.” After he falls hard for Michaela, Brandon becomes involved with her mother Daphne, who is running from a past that will later test his sobriety and his mettle as a man.

Coming Home

Ten years ago, their relationship was a scandal. Now it's forever.

Readers who loved Reid and Kate in Marking Time wanted their happy ending. Here it is...

The story left unfinished at the end of Marking Time picks up ten years later when Kate Harrington goes after the man she left behind when she set out to chase her dream of music superstardom. Now she has everything she ever wanted, except for the one thing she can't live without. What will Reid say when she shows up unannounced in St. Kitts, looking to reclaim their lost love? And what will Jack, Kate's father, say when he hears she's gone back to her first love, a man Jack once considered a friend? And what do you think will happen when Jill Harrington, Kate's sister, attorney and manager, faces off with Ashton Matthews, Reid's son, the same man who made life miserable for Kate many years ago? The sparks will fly when the Harrington, Matthews and O'Malley families gather in Nashville for a Christmas none of them will ever forget!

While Coming Home is a stand-alone story, you will enjoy it more if you read Treading Water, Marking Time first and Starting Over first.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Cursed ($1.99), by Jennifer Armentrout.

Book Description
Dying sucks--and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand. After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things--including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he's a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she's more than interested. There's just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden's adopted father, a man she's sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. However, she's willing to do anything to hold her sister's hand again. And hell, she'd also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn't?But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not've been an accident at all, she's not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. For real this time.

To Dream of the Dead (£0.99 UK), the eleventh novel in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins Mystery series, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.50). It looks like the eighth in the series, The Remains of an Altar, is also on sale, at £1.80, while several others are under £4.

Book Description
A rainy night in the cathedral city of Hereford. A grisly murder is linked by DI Francis Bliss with the campaign to preserve an ancient ritual site. And then Bliss is sidelined by his boss. What's going on?

In the village of Ledwardine, Merrily Watkins stands between an extreme fundamentalist Christian and an atheist writer known as 'The Devil's Spin Doctor'.

Tensions are rising ... and so is the river. Soon Ledwardine will be isolated by floods, cut off with a killer inside – a new kind of killer for a cold new age.

To Walk the Night ($5.38 $1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in the Kat Redding series by E.S. Moore, is the Nook Daily Find. Update: Now price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Even a vampire has to face her inner demons. . .

Kat Redding is the very thing she hunts: a vampire, thirsting for blood, capable of killing any creature unlucky enough to get in her path. The difference is, Kat kills her own kind in order to protect human Purebloods. She's good at what she does. Good enough to earn the nickname Lady Death--and the enmity of every bloodthirsty being around. But now a vampire Count is intent on merging his House with a werewolf cult to create a force of terrifying power.

Kat can't allow that to happen. Even if it means taking on a den of weres and a vampire more ruthless than any she's encountered before. She has the weapons, the skill, and a few allies. But that may not be enough to eliminate the Count before her own dark nature rises to the surface--and costs her whatever is left of her humanity. . .

Today's Deals 3/19

It's the AppStore's birthday and all week Amazon has a number of apps at 50% or better off. Included are favorites such as Scrabble (which only works on the Kindle Fire and Fire HD, but not generic tablets/phones or the HD 8.9"), Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars, The Game of Life, a Sesame Street App, Goodnight Moon (an interactive book), OfficeSuite Professional 7 and more.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Everyone Leaves ($1.99), by Wendy Guerra and Achy Obejas (Translator), with the companion audiobook for $1.99 [AmazonCrossing].

Book Description
Nieve Guerra finds herself caught between the tides of her parents’ rocky relationship and a country in the midst of a revolution. Recording her daily thoughts and accounts of living with her abusive father, an alcoholic theater actor, Nieve uses her diary to express herself. From being sent away from her mother, her mother’s free-spirited and loving boyfriend, and her childhood city of Cienfuegos to being forced to call herself a Cuban “revolutionary Pioneer,” Nieve records in honest detail a life in which she loses those she loves the most—and can do nothing about it.

Through her diary entries, Nieve reveals the intimate details of a turbulent family life while painting an authentic portrait of the social and political unrest in Cuba under the rule of Castro.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Privateer ($0.99), by Dawn Mactavish [Montlake].

Book Description
Lark at first hoped it was a simple nightmare: If she closed her eyes, she would be back in the mahogany bed of her spacious boudoir at Eddington Hall, and all would be well. Her father, the earl of Roxburgh, would not be dead by his own hand, and she would not be in Marshalsea debtor's prison.

Such was not to be. Ere the Marshalsea could do its worst, the earl of Grayshire intervened. Lark shivered, considering the mysterious stone-faced noble. He'd paid her bond while the rest of London turned an eye as blind as the one beneath his eye patch. But while his touch was electric and his gaze piercing, for what purpose had he bought her freedom? A plan including Cornwall, return to the world of the haute ton, and embroilment in a struggle against both England's own Admiralty and the French. But even more perilous, the ex-sea captain might plunder her heart. No, this was not a dream. As Lark would soon learn, her dreams had never ended so well.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Extinction ($1.99), the second novel in the Star Force series by B. V. Larson, with the companion audiobook also $1.99.

Book Description
Earth's Star Force Marines invade an alien world!

In the second book of the Star Force series, Kyle Riggs has another bad year. The Nano ships have a new mission--one that sentences their pilots to death. Meanwhile, the governments of Earth want to steal Star Force's Nano technology for their own. Worst of all, Earth has made a promise to the Macros, and the machines are coming to collect.

EXTINCTION is the story of Earth's entry into an interstellar war between living creatures and machines. To buy the peace, we've signed up with the machines.... EXTINCTION is an 111,000 word novel of science fiction by bestselling author B. V. Larson.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy (£1.09 UK), by Richard Rumelt, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99).

Book Description
Even though everyone is talking about it, there is no concept in business today more muddled than 'strategy'. Richard Rumelt, described by McKinsey Quarterly as 'a giant in the field of strategy' and 'strategy's strategist', tackles this problem head-on in a jargon-free explanation of how to develop and take action on strategy, in business, politics and beyond. Rumelt dispels popular misconceptions about strategy - such as confusing it with ambitions, visions or financial goals - by very practically showing that a good strategy focuses on the challenges a business faces, and providing an insightful new approach for overcoming them. His sharp analysis and his brilliant, bold style make his book stand out from its competitors (something that Rumelt himself says is crucial). Rumelt has always challenged dominant thinking, ever since, in 1972, he was the first person to uncover a statistical link between corporate strategy and profitability - and this is his long-awaited tour de force.

Kiss Me Deadly ($9.85 $1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Susan Kearney, is the Nook Daily Find. Update: Now price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Her luck may have just run out . . .

Dedicated family attorney Amanda "Mandy" Newman may have survived an attempted drowning and, along with co-workers, just won the biggest lottery in history, but before she can collect, the ticket is stolen. Now, her co-workers are being murdered one by one.

She needs help, and that puts her between a rock and a hard man—the brother of a co-worker.

DEA officer Zack Taylor was a one-night stand who'd turned into so much more. Now that his family and Mandy are in danger, he is back in the picture. The attraction between them still simmers; Zack can feel it. But can he resist his desire for her long enough to discover her secret?

With her life on the line, the attraction between them should be kept on ice. After all, under the circumstances, a kiss could be deadly.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is No Other Story ($1.99), a part of the Whole Nother Story series by Dr. Cuthbert Soup [Bloomsbury USA Childrens].

Book Description
The Cheeseman family is back from back in time. In other words, they're in the present time. Well, presently, at least. They're soon to journey back again -- only just a few years this time -- to save the life of their beloved mother. But when they get to the not-so-distant-past, they meet something utterly surprising. Something wilder than anything they've seen before -- including cowboy poets and good-natured pirates. They are about to meet... The alternate versions of themselves!

Diesel Daily Deal - His Compromised Countess (E)

His Compromised Countess ($5.99 $4.61 Kindle), a novel by Deborah Hale [Harlequin Historical], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $0.90. (8 copies left).

Book Description

When his beautiful, flirtatious wife scandalizes Almack's by being caught in the arms of his enemy, Bennett Maitland, Earl of Sterling, finally ends his unsuitable marriage. He banishes Caroline to his remote childhood home—only to end up trapped there with her!

Having lost the love of her cold husband, Caroline is outwardly defiant—yet her wounded heart aches for what they once shared. If she dares, she has one last chance to break through Bennett's icy reserve and rekindle the fiery passion that once consumed them!

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