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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Bargain Roundup

Just a reminder that you only have until 12/26 to pick out your $1 book from the AmazonLocal Deal. There is a new AmazonLocal deal for those that shop at Starbucks: a $10 gift card for $10, that also gets you a 20% discount on all purchases thru the end of the year (even after you've used up the gift card balance).

Here are a few late, Christmas Eve bargains I ran across. Over at Kobo, they've started their Boxing Week specials and they don't really care that those in the US don't normally celebrate the event - we get to take advantage of some prices up to 80% off thru December 31, along with those of other countries (those in Canada have the same sale pages as those in the US). There are a number of books in the $2-$3 range that you may want to investigate, such as The Art of Racing in the Rain or Outlaw Platoon. Those in the UK, AU, NZ have a 50% off sale on Bestsellers and then AU and NZ get a one Boxing Week sale, with a second for the UK and AU. You can also try using coupon code BOXINGDAY50, which should work for 50% off one non-Agency book.

11/22/63 ($3.99), by Stephen King; if you don't already have, you should grab it at this price, which works out to under a 1/2 cent per page (it's 866 pages in print, not to mention over 2-1/2 lbs. in weight).
Book Description
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Stephen King’s heart-stoppingly dramatic new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination—a thousand page tour de force.

Following his massively successful novel Under the Dome, King sweeps readers back in time to another moment—a real life moment—when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has the power to change the course of history.

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life – a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

A tribute to a simpler era and a devastating exercise in escalating suspense, 11/22/63 is Stephen King at his epic best.

The G-Free Diet ($2.99 Kindle, Kobo), by Elisabeth Hasselbeck
Book Description
For years, Elisabeth Hasselbeck couldn't figure out what was making her sick. She asked doctors and consulted nutritionists, but no one seemed to have any answers. It wasn't until spending time in the Australian Outback, living off the land on the grueling Survivor TV show, that, ironically, her symptoms vanished. Returning home, she pinpointed the food that made her sick -- gluten, the binding element in wheat. By simply eliminating it from her diet, she was able to enjoy a completely normal, healthy life. But that wasn't all. Hasselbeck discovered the myriad benefits that anyone can enjoy from a gluten-free diet: from weight loss and increased energy to even the alleviation of the conditions of autism.

In this all-inclusive book, Hasselbeck shares her hard-earned wisdom on living life without gluten and loving it. She gives you everything you need to know to start living a gluten-free life, from defining gluten - where to find it, how to read food labels - to targeting gluten-free products, creating G-Free shopping lists, sharing recipes, and managing G-Free living with family and friends.

Download the free companion app Eating Out G-Free (iPhone).

Two To Mango ($1.99) is the sequel to Jill Marie Landis' Mai Tai One On, which is free this week.
Book Description
Forget the grass skirts. Some of the Island's top hula dancers are pushing up daisies.Everyone at Em Johnson’s famous North Shore Kauai hang-out, The Tiki Goddess Bar, knows that the bar’s irrepressible Hula Maidens take their hula dancing seriously. So when famed hula instructors from a rival dance troop start dropping like over-ripe passion fruit, Em and the Hula Maidens go undercover at the Kukui Nut Festival Hula Competition to uncover the killer. Em is once again up to her okole in danger and mystery, not to mention the seductive challenge of working with hunky detective Roland Sharpe, who moonlights as one of the island’s sexiest fire dancers. The hula is lively, the luau is smoking, the mai tais are delicious, and a killer is looking to get away with murder in paradise. Praise for Book One of The Tiki Goddess Mysteries "Fun, charming and full of atmosphere, Mai Tai One On is a delightful beginning to what promises to be a terrific mystery series."Susan Mallery, New York Times Bestselling AuthorJILL MARIE LANDIS has written over twenty-five novels, which have earned awards and slots on such national bestseller lists as the USA TODAY Top 50 and the New York Times Best Sellers Plus. She is a seven-time finalist for Romance Writers of America's RITA Award in both Single Title and Contemporary Romance as well as a Golden Heart and RITA Award winner. She's written historical and contemporary romance as well as inspirational historical romance, and she is now penning The Tiki Goddess Mystery Series, which began with MAI TAI ONE ON.

Royal Pain ($4.99 Kindle, B&N), by Megan Mulry
Book Description
A life of royalty seems so attractive...until you're invited to live it...

Smart, ambitious, and career driven, Bronte Talbot started following British royalty in the gossip mags only to annoy her intellectual father. But her fascination has turned into a not-so-secret guilty pleasure. When she starts dating a charming British doctoral student, she teases him unmercifully about the latest scandals of his royal countrymen, only to find out—to her horror!!—that she's been having a fling with the nineteenth Duke of Northrop, and now he wants to make her...a duchess?

In spite of her frivolous passion for all things royal, Bronte isn't at all sure she wants the reality. Is becoming royalty every American woman's secret dream, or is it a nightmare of disapproving dowagers, paparazzi, stiff-upper-lip tea parties, and over-the-top hats?

SEALed with a Kiss ($0.99), by Mary Margret Daughtridge
Book Description
He can handle just about anything, except this...

Jax Graham is a member of an elite military team, but when it comes to taking care of his four-year-old son after his ex-wife dies, he's completely clueless.

One person can help him, if he'll let her...

Family therapist Pickett Sessoms knows just how to help a rough, tough Navy SEAL deal with a scared and lonely little boy, but not if he insists on going it alone.

When Jax and his young son Tyler get trapped by a hurricane, Pickett takes them in against her better judgment. Jax figures Pickett's high maintenance, just like all the women he knows, and she figures he's not commitment material. But when an outing turns deadly, Pickett discovers what it means to be a SEAL, and Jax discovers that even a hero needs help sometimes...

The Book of Tomorrow: A Novel ($1.99), by Cecelia Ahern, author of the New York Times bestseller P.S. I Love You ($4.61).
Book Description
Born into the lap of luxury and comfortable in the here and now, spoiled, tempestuous Tamara Goodwin has never had to look to the future—until the abrupt death of her father leaves her and her mother a mountain of debt and forces them to move in with Tamara's peculiar aunt and uncle in a tiny countryside village.

Tamara is lonely and bored, with a traveling library as her only diversion. There she finds a large leather-bound book with a gold clasp and padlock, but no author name or title. Intrigued, she pries open the lock, and what she finds inside takes her breath away.

Tamara sees entries written in her own handwriting, and dated for the following day. When the next day unfolds exactly as recorded, Tamara realizes she may have found a solution to her problems. But in her quest to find answers, Tamara soon learns that some pages are better left unturned and that, try as she may, she mustn't interfere with fate.

The Gift ($2.99) is a second bargain by Cecelia Ahern.
Book Description
Extremely successful executive, Lou Suffern is always overstretched, immune to the holiday spirit that delights everyone around him. The classic workaholic who never has a moment to spare, he is always multitasking while shortchanging his devoted wife and their adorable children. And ever since he started competing for a big promotion, he has barely seen his family at all.

One frigid morning in an uncharacteristic burst of generosity, he buys a cup of coffee for Gabe, a homeless man huddled outside his office building. Inspired by his own unexpected act of kindness, Lou decides to prolong his charitable streak and contrives to get Gabe a job in his company's mailroom. But when Gabe begins to meddle in Lou's life, the helping hand appears to be a serious mistake. Gabe seems to know more about Lou than Lou does about himself, and, perhaps more disturbingly, Gabe always seems to be in two places at once.

With Lou's personal and professional fates at important crossroads and Christmas looming, Gabe resorts to some unorthodox methods to show his stubborn patron what truly matters and how precious the gift of time is. But can he help him fix what's broken before it's too late?

The Christmas Pearl ($2.99), by Dorothea Benton Frank
Book Description
Still spry at ninety-three, Theodora has lived long enough to see her family grow into an insufferable bunch of truculent knuckleheads. Having finally gathered the whole bickering brood together for the holidays at her South Carolina home, the grand matriarch pines wistfully for those extravagant, homey Christmases of her childhood. How she misses the tables groaning with home-cooked goodies, the over-the-top decorations, those long, lovely fireside chats with Pearl, her grandmother's beloved housekeeper and closest confidante. These days, where is the love and the joy . . . and the peace?

But this is, after all, a magical time. Someone very special has heard Theodora's plea—and is about to arrive at her door with pockets full of Gullah magic and enough common sense to transform this Christmas into the miracle it's truly meant to be.

Any Given Christmas: A Sugar Shack Novel ($0.99), by Candis Terry
Book Description
Dean Silverthorne’s mother may be dead, but she still has matchmaking to do.

When an injury dashes NFL Quarterback Dean Silverthorne's Super Bowl dreams, he heads back to Deer Lick, Montana with a chip on his wounded shoulder, more determined than ever to get back in the game. He loves his kooky family, but this trip home is going to be a very brief Christmas visit.

His game plan doesn't include an instant attraction to Emma Hart, a feisty kindergarten teacher who seems to be the only person in Deer Lick not interested in the hometown hero. Or his dearly departed mom popping up with mistletoe in hand and meddling on the mind. Now Dean can't help but wonder if there’s more to love than life between the goal posts.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Today's Deals 12/24

At Amazon MP3, Christmas has come early and (today only) there are 20 albums for $1.99 or less including Taylor Swift's Red and Blake Shelton's Red River Blue! The list also includes Abba Gold, the deluxe Bob Marley Legend and Motown #1's for $0.99 each.

Today's free Android App is Doodle Jump Christmas Special (and you can get the Doodle Jump (Kindle Tablet Edition) for 99 cents). You may also want to check out the featured app today, Songza, which is free and has pretty good reviews.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is We the Animals ($1.99), by Justin Torres, one of Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011.
Book Description
An exquisite, blistering debut novel.

Three brothers tear their way through childhood— smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times.

Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful.

Written in magical language with unforgettable images, this is a stunning exploration of the viscerally charged landscape of growing up, how deeply we are formed by our earliest bonds, and how we are ultimately propelled at escape velocity toward our futures.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Somebody to Love ($1.99), by Kristan Higgins, with companion audiobook at $4.99.
Book Description
After her father loses the family fortune in an insider-trading scheme, single mom Parker Welles is faced with some hard decisions. First order of business: go to Gideon's Cove, Maine, to sell the only thing she now owns—a decrepit house in need of some serious flipping. When her father's wingman, James Cahill, asks to go with her, she's not thrilled…even if he is fairly gorgeous and knows his way around a toolbox.

Having to fend for herself financially for the first time in her life, Parker signs on as a florist's assistant and starts to find out who she really is. Maybe James isn't the glib lawyer she always thought he was. And maybe the house isn't the only thing that needs a little TLC….

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Death Has Come Up into Our Windows ($0.99), by Stant Litore, the second volume of The Zombie Bible that has been featured as a Daily Deal. The companion audiobook on this one is only $1.99.
Book Description
Stant Litore’s The Zombie Bible retells biblical tales and ancient history as episodes in humanity’s long struggle with hunger … and with the hungry dead.

God is weeping behind her veil in the Temple while the dead are eating her city alive, and her words are coming out through the mouth of her prophet Yirmiyahu. The king and the priesthood don’t like what he has to say, so they’ve thrown Yirmiyahu down a dry well, and once a day, his gaolers toss a zombie in after him. During the three days of this story, the prophet will have to fight to survive the hungry dead, dehydration, and some truly wrenching memories -- memories of atrocities witnessed, lives lost, and sacrifices that shatter the heart.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three titles for £0.99/$1.60 each.

The Sister (Main/UK), by Lynne Alexander (US edition $9.32)
William James, the psychologist… Henry James, the writer… Alice James, the sister? Alice James spends most of her short life in bed. Henry calls it her solution to the ‘practical problem of life’, and William is too busy and too far away to pay much attention. Her lifelong companion, Katharine Loring, is a constant support, but in the midst of coping with Alice’s pain and frustration, the two women are faced with the shock of discovering Henry has made use of them in his fiction. Alice’s witty voice rises vividly from the page as she casts an acerbic eye on the characters who populate her life and on the tensions between Katharine and Henry in this compelling fictional memoir.
Sea of Ink (Main/UK), by Richard Weihe, translated by Jamie Bulloch (US edition $7.99)
A beautiful novella in 50 short chapters and 10 pictures about the life of Bada Shanren, the most influential Chinese painter of all times. In 1626, Bada Shanren is born into the Chinese royal family. When the old Ming Dynasty crumbles, he becomes an artist, committed to capturing the essence of nature with a single brushstroke. Then the rulers of the new Qing Dynasty discover his identity and Bada must feign madness to escape.
The Mists of Simla (Main/UK), by Balraj Khanna (US edition $8.15)
The year is 1962, and young cricket-player Rahul Kapoor has just passed his final exam to enter college in Simla, in the beautiful foothills of the Himalayas. Built by the English as their summer playground, Simla still has its Grand Hotels, faded now, echoing with sounds of the foxtrot and haunted by memsahibs in ballgowns. Since Partition in 1947, Simla society has changed, and the students are building a new India. Rahul swiftly becomes a key player on the Simla College scene; as he sets off on his rites of passage, he finds the way strewn with beautiful women. What can a young man do, but to call on Lord Krishna, the Divine Lover, to help him when things get hot hot hot? Set in turbulent times, during the Chinese invasion of North India, The Mists of Simla is a captivating story, often achingly funny, full of narrow escapes and some tears, as one young man strides out onto the cricket field of adult life.

Elfbot ($5.99 $2.99 Kindle, B&N), a NOOK Kids Read to Me book by Maria Andrade, Joey Andrade and Rafael Navarro, is the Nook Daily Find. Update: Now price matched on Kindle

The Nook edition requires a Nook tablet (any model) or the NOOK Kids for iPad (no desktop access), while the Kindle edition works on the Kindle Fire/HD or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android).
Book Description (Nook edition)
Have you ever woken up on Christmas morning to find a special gift for you under the tree? It's a wonder Santa has time to make so many toys for so many kids. Luckily, he has plenty of help from the elves and Elfbots. Wait . . . .you've never heard of Elfbots? This is the story of Santa's greatest invention ever, robots that are designed to make the world's greatest toys. But what happens when the toymaker wants to be the toy?

"As someone who appreciates the value of a well-motivated, clever robot (or two), I know you will find the wonderful Elfbots as enchanting as I did. Christmas just got a whole lot merrier." - Mark Hamill.

Listen to Jim Cummings (voices of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck) as he narrates the story of our little metal friend's adventure. This contemporary holiday story stars Mark Hamill (Star Wars) as Santa, Jane Lynch (Glee) as the Head Elf, introducing Haden Ryan-Embry as Lucy. Kenny G's horn provides the "voice" of elfBOT as well as an original music score.

Celebrate this tantalizing tale of wonder and Christmas wishes with a story by Joey and Maria Andrade. Enjoy Rafael Navarro's darling drawings of Elfbot and company. This is a story for the family to enjoy year after year.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Bronze Bow ($1.99), by Elizabeth George Speare (be careful if searching on your Kindle, as there are two editions on this one).
Book Description
In this Newbery Medal-winning novel, Daniel bar Jamin is fired by only one passion: to avenge his father's death by crucifixion by driving the Roman legions from his land of Israel. He joins an outlaw band and leads a dangerous life of spying, plotting, and impatiently waiting to seek revenge. Headstrong Daniel is devoid of tenderness and forgiveness, heading down a destructive path toward disaster until he hears the lessons taught by Jesus of Nazareth. With a brand new cover, young readers won't be able to pass up this timeless tale.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Today's Deals 12/23

Amazon's Android Appstore spotlight today is on Jamie's 20 Minute Meals for $3.99.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Too Good To Be True ($1.99), a memoir by Benjamin Anastas.
Book Description
When he was three, in the early 1970s, Benjamin Anastas found himself in his mother’s fringe-therapy group in Massachusetts, a sign around his neck: Too Good to Be True. The phrase haunted him through his life, even as he found the literary acclaim he sought after his 1999 novel, An Underachiever’s Diary, had made the smart set take notice. Too Good to Be True is his deeply moving memoir of fathers and sons, crushing debt and infidelity—and the first, cautious steps taken toward piecing a life back together.“It took a long time for me to admit I had failed,” Anastas begins. Broke, his promising literary career evaporated, he’s hounded by debt collectors as he tries to repair a life ripped apart by the spectacular implosion of his marriage, which ended when his pregnant wife left him for another man. Had it all been too good to be true? Anastas’s fierce love for his young son forces him to confront his own childhood, fraught with mental illness, divorce, and the fumes of hippiedom. His father’s disdain for money might have been in line with the ’70s zeitgeist—but what does it mean when you’re dumping change into a Coinstar, trying to scrounge enough to buy your son a meal? Charged with rage and despair, humor and hope, this unforgettable book is about losing one’s way and finding it again, and the redemptive power of art.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Love 'Em or Leave 'Em ($0.99), by Angie Stanton.
Book Description
Ashley Reynolds, who hates even having her picture taken, lands herself smack in the middle of a reality television dating show. She finds herself surrounded by glamour girls and pageant queens all vying for a date with the smokin hot bachelor. Ashley's plan, to fly under the radar and get sent home early, falters when she soon discovers a knack for drawing unwanted attention her way. Bad boy quarterback Luke Townsend thought choosing between 25 stunning women would be a dream come true. How wrong he was! Luke's patience is tried by the wiles of the charmers and the persistence of the camera crews. It doesn't take long for him to realize, however, that the one girl trying the hardest to get off the show is the one who most intrigues him.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Theft of Swords ($1.99), an omnibus of the first two novels in the Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan. Originally self-published, Orbit is now re-publishing the series of 6 novels in three omnibus editions and has already announced two novels in the planned Riyria Chronicles series to follow. I picked up the first two audiobooks in the newly packaged series in Audible BOGO sale (which I think is the one repeating right now, for those with credits) and had planned to read along with the self-pubbed editions I had, but for two bucks, I'll grab this one.

You may also want to pick up two short stories he still has free in the Kindle store and the first of which is in the upcoming series: The Viscount and the Witch and Greener Grass.
Book Description
They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

There's no ancient evil to defeat or orphan destined for greatness, just unlikely heroes and classic adventure. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are running for their lives when they're framed for the death of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it's too late.

Theft of Swords omnibus contains: The Crown Conspiracy & Avempartha)

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three titles for £0.99/$1.60 each.

First Daughter: Jack McClure Trilogy #1 (Main/UK), by Eric van Lustbader (US edition $9.99)
When an accident takes the life of his daughter, Emma, ATF agent Jack McClure blames himself, numbing the pain by submerging himself in work. Then he receives a call from his old friend Edward Carson.

Carson is just weeks from taking the reins as President of the United States when his daughter, Alli, is kidnapped. Because Emma McClure was Alli's best friend, Carson turns to Jack, the one man he can trust to go to any lengths to find his daughter and bring her home safely.
Dead Line (Main/UK), by Stella Rimington (US edition $8.99)
MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is summoned to a meeting with her boss Charles Wetherby, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch. His counterpart over at MI6 has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source. A Middle East peace conference is planned to take place at Gleneagles in Scotland and several heads of state will attend. The Syrians have learned that two individuals are mounting an operation to disrupt the peace conference in a way designed to be spectacular, laying the blame at Syria's door. The source claims that Syrian Intelligence will act against the pair, presumably by killing them. No one knows who they are or what they are planning to do. Are they working together? Who is controlling them? Or is the whole story a carefully laid trail of misinformation? It is Liz's job to find out. But, as she discovers, the threat is far greater than she or anyone else could have imagined. The future of the whole of the Middle East is at stake...
Lost Causes: A Dr Steven Dunbar Thriller (Main/UK), by Ken McClure (US edition $3.79)
The ninth Dr Stephen Dunbar thriller. Ex-Special Forces medic Dr Steven Dunbar has left his job with the Sci-Med Inspectorate and now works for a pharmaceutical company. Against his will, he is persuaded to return to Sci-Med when a number of people die in suspicious circumstances, including a former health minister. And then the UK comes under bio-terrorist attack. A disease not seen in the country for a hundred years is let loose on major cities and a group of young Islamic fundamentalists are arrested. But something is not quite right. Steven begins to suspect that there is a dark and ruthless conspiracy at the heart of the outbreak that is much closer to home.

Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Dede Wilson, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Be careful if searching on you Kindle for this one, as the search brings up a $10 edition, instead.
Book Description
More than 75 favorite Christmas cookies from around the world will keep you making memories through many happy holiday seasons. This special field guide format gives you quick reference to the details of each cookie “species,” including its Habitat (country of origin), Field Notes (helpful information), Lifespan (how long it will keep), and Related Species (recipe variations). You will also see at a glance which cookies are especially fun to make with kids and which are quick to prepare, which freeze well and ship well, and much more. And there are even creative tips on hosting a Christmas cookie decorating party or a cookie swap!

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is The Abduction ($2.99), the second novel in John Grisham's Theodore Boone YA series.
Book Description
When we last saw Theo Boone, he ensured that justice was served by uncovering evidence that kept a guilty man off of the streets. Hot off this high-profile murder trial, thirteen-year-old Theo is still dispensing legal advice to friends and teachers. But just when it seems as if his life has calmed down and gone back to the status quo, a new legal mystery comes to town, and this time it's personal.

Late Night Bargains (K)

Several bargains for you night owls. Links are to Amazon, but since I see several of the Big-6 publishers in the mix, you'll probably find matching prices at Barnes & Noble or Kobo.

Lori Wilde's The Welcome Home Garden Club was a Daily Deal yesterday, but you can also get The First Love Cookie Club (the third title in the same Twilight Texas series) and The Cowboy Takes a Bride, the first novel in her Jubilee, Texas series, for only 99 cents apiece (HarperCollins). The latter series has a new novel, A Cowboy for Christmas, which just released this year (and it's only $4.37)

The First Love Cookie Club
"On Christmas Eve, if you sleep with kismet cookies under your pillow and dream of your one true love, he will be your destiny."

The townsfolk of Twilight, Texas, believe the legend, but not Sarah Collier—not since she was a pudgy teenager, running down the church aisle on Christmas Day in a jingle bell sweater and reindeer antlers, trying to stop Travis Walker from marrying someone else. She may be grown-up, slimmed-down, bestselling children's book author "Sadie Cool" now, but Sarah will never forget that day. And she'll never fall foolishly in love again!

But when a letter from a sick fan brings Sarah back to Twilight, she's shocked to discover that Travis is the little girl's father—unattached and hotter than ever. His smile still makes her melt, but Sarah knows that ship has sailed. Travis, however, might have different ideas.
The Cowboy Takes a Bride
Ex-champion bull rider-turned-cutting-horse cowboy Joe Daniels isn't quite sure how he ended up sleeping in a horse trough wearing nothing but his Stetson and cowboy boots. But now he's wide-awake, and a citified woman is glaring down at him. His goal? Get rid of her ASAP. The obstacle? Fighting the attraction he feels toward the blond-haired filly with the big, vulnerable eyes.

When out-of-work wedding planner Mariah Callahan learns that her estranged father has left her a rundown ranch in Jubilee, she has no choice but to accept it. Her goal? Redeem her career by planning local weddings. The obstacle? One emotionally wounded, hard-living cowboy who stirs her guilt, her heartstrings, and her long-burned cowgirl roots . . .

The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink ($3.99), by edited by Andrew F. Smith, has such a long list of contributors that it goes on for several pages. Published by Oxford University Press, USA, this 700+ page tome goes for $65 in hardcover (and hey, there's one left, if you act fast!). As mentioned in the description below, this is a companion book to the two volume set, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, which can be had for only $450 (and no, I didn't forget to add a decimal point), although there isn't yet a Kindle edition (at 2560 pages, I definitely would not want to carry it around to read). I've just glanced at a little of the sample, but I'm definitely getting a copy.
Book Description
Offering a panoramic view of the history and culture of food and drink in America with fascinating entries on everything from the smell of asparagus to the history of White Castle, and the origin of Bloody Marys to jambalaya, the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink provides a concise, authoritative, and exuberant look at this modern American obsession. Ideal for the food scholar and food enthusiast alike, it is equally appetizing for anyone fascinated by Americana, capturing our culture and history through what we love most--food!

Building on the highly praised and deliciously browseable two-volume compendium the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, this new work serves up everything you could ever want to know about American consumables and their impact on popular culture and the culinary world. Within its pages for example, we learn that Lifesavers candy owes its success to the canny marketing idea of placing the original flavor, mint, next to cash registers at bars. Patrons who bought them to mask the smell of alcohol on their breath before heading home soon found they were just as tasty sober and the company began producing other flavors.

Edited by Andrew Smith, a writer and lecturer on culinary history, the Companion serves up more than just trivia however, including hundreds of entries on fast food, celebrity chefs, fish, sandwiches, regional and ethnic cuisine, food science, and historical food traditions. It also dispels a few commonly held myths. Veganism, isn't simply the practice of a few "hippies," but is in fact wide-spread among elite athletic circles. Many of the top competitors in the Ironman and Ultramarathon events go even further, avoiding all animal products by following a strictly vegan diet. Anyone hungering to know what our nation has been cooking and eating for the last three centuries should own the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink.
  • DT Nearly 1,000 articles on American food and drink, from the curious to the commonplace
  • DT Beautifully illustrated with hundreds of historical photographs and color images
  • DT Includes informative lists of food websites, museums, organizations, and festivals

To Have and to Kill: A Wedding Cake Mystery ($0.99), the first novel in the Piper Donovan series by New York Times bestselling author Mary Jane Clark
Book Description
Piper Donovan never imagined that decorating wedding cakes could be so dangerous! A struggling actress with no immediate prospects and a recently broken engagement, Piper moves back in with her parents to take stock of her life. She steps tentatively into the family bakery business and finds herself agreeing to create a wedding cake for the acclaimed star of a daytime television drama. But soon someone close to the bride-to-be is horribly murdered and it seems that that someone is ruthlessly determined to stop the wedding.

With the help of her former neighbor, Jack, a handsome FBI agent with a soft spot for the gorgeous cake-maker, Piper moves closer to the truth. And as she narrows in on a suspect, she realizes that it's hotter in the kitchen than she may be able to handle. . . .

Eyes Wide Open ($1.99), a stand-alone novel by Andrew Gross, was also published under the title Killing Hour.
Book Description
A horrible family tragedy that may not be what it seems...

A past encounter with an infamous killer turns deadly today...

An ordinary man must risk his own family to find the truth.

Jay Erlich's nephew has been found at the bottom of a cliff at Morrow Bay. It's all just a tragic suicide, until secrets from the past begin to rear up again. Did a notorious killer, jailed for many decades, have his hand in this?

Years ago, Jay Erlich's older brother, Charlie, a wayward child of the sixties, set out for California, where he fell under the sway of a charismatic but deeply disturbed cultlike figure. Tragedy ensued and lives were destroyed, but as the decades passed, Charlie married and raised a family and lived a quiet, secluded life under the radar. Yet the demons that nearly destroyed him never completely disappeared.

When Jay heads out west to help his grieving brother, he is pulled back into Charlie's past—and begins to suspect that his nephew's suicide may not have been that at all. With eyes wide open, Jay puts his own life at risk to uncover the truth, a quest that goes beyond the edge of madness and a family haunted by a secret past ... and into the depths of evil.

Drawing on two real-life experiences from his own past, Gross has crafted a richly personal, yet utterly terrifying tale of two brothers, one successful, one wayward, trying to bridge the gap of what tore them apart.

Love in a Nutshell ($2.99), by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly, also has a companion audiobook for $3.99.
Book Description
Number one bestselling author Janet Evanovich teams up with award-winning author Dorien Kelly to deliver a sparkling novel of romantic suspense, small-town antics, secretive sabotage, and lots and lots of beer

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she’s been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents’ summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene’s Harbor, Michigan. Kate’s plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.
Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane’s business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss.

Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate’s family home, and keep a killer from closing in…all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun.

December Dread ($1.99), the eighth novel in the Lefty-nominated Murder-By-Month Mysteries by Jess Lourey
Book Description
Four shining stars for the Murder-By-Month Mystery series

‘Tis the season for grinning sales-elves on TV and maddeningly jolly muzak. But for Mira James and other Battle Lake-area women, the holidays are marred by something far worse—a serial killer leaving candy canes as his calling card. His target? Thirty-something brunettes who look just like Mira. When a woman from her high school graduating class becomes the latest victim, Mira plows through a case of online dating turned deadly.

Some Kind of Wonderful ($0.99), by NYT Bestselling and RITA Award-winning author Barbara Freethy, is a self-pubbed backlist romance, originally published by Avon Books.
Book Description
"ABANDONED BABY FOUND"

It's the kind of story investigative reporter Matt Winters writes about -- not the kind he wants to be living. When he discovers a newborn baby girl on his doorstep, he panics ... then he desperately turns to his temptingly pretty neighbor Caitlyn Devereaux for help. After all, women are supposed to know everything about babies!

Caitlyn's natural sensuality intrigues Matt ... and her aching vulnerability as she holds the precious bundle piques his curiosity. The wedding gowns she creates are famous for fulfilling every bride's fantasies, yet she firmly says that marriage -- and motherhood -- are not for her. But her kisses suddenly have Matt dreaming of something wonderful -- and soon he's determined to get this reluctant woman to change her mind.

Astor + Blue, a relatively new, digital first publisher, has several of their titles on sale for $0.99 apiece. I've highlighted four of them below, but you might want to look at the entire list.
  • Deadly Errors, by Allen Wyler
    A comatose man is given a fatal dose of insulin in the emergency room, even though he isn't diabetic. An ulcer patient dies of shock after receiving a transfusion of the wrong blood type. A recovering heart patient receives a double dose of medication and suffers a fatal heart attack.Brain surgeon Dr. Tyler Matthews suspects that something is seriously wrong with the hospital’s new “Med-InDx” computerized medical record system. But he doesn’t suspect that there’s something murderously wrong with it.As Matthews begins to peel back the layers of deception that cover the deadly errors, he crosses powerful corporate interests who aren’t about to let their multi-billion dollar medical record profits evaporate. Now a target, Matthews finds himself trapped in a maze of deadly conspiracy, with his career, his marriage, and his very life on the line.Once again, Wyler blends his unparalleled expertise as a world class surgeon with his uncanny knack for suspense to create a true “best-of-breed” medical thriller. Deadly Errors is a lightning-quick action procedural that is destined to win new fans to the medical thriller genre.
  • The Car Thief, by Theodore Weesner
    Described as “one of the best coming of age novels of the Twentieth Century,” Theodore Weesner’s modern American classic is now re-launched for a new generation of readers to discover. It’s 1959. Sixteen year-old Alex Housman has just stolen his fourteenth car and frankly doesn’t know why. His divorced, working class father grinds out the night shift at the local Chevy Plant in Detroit, looking forward to the flask in his glove compartment, and the open bottles of booze in his Flint, Michigan home. Abandoned and alone, father and son struggle to express a deep love for each other, even as Alex fills his day juggling cheap thrills and a crushing depression. He cruises and steals, running from—and then forcing run-ins with—the police, compelled by reasons he frustratingly can’t put into words. And then there’s Irene Shaeffer, the pretty girl in school whose admiration Alex needs like a drug in order to get by. Broke and fighting to survive, Alex and his father face the realities of estrangement, incarceration, and even violence as their lives unfold toward the climactic episode that a New York Times reviewer called “one of the most profoundly powerful in American fiction.” In this rich, beautifully crafted story, Weesner accomplishes a rare feat: He’s written a transcendent piece of literature in deceptively simple language, painting a powerful portrait of a father and a son, otherwise invisible among the mundane, everyday details of life in blue collar America. A true and enduring American classic.
  • Death's Witness, by Paul Batista
    When Tom Perini, a legendary Heisman Trophy winner turned criminal lawyer, is found brutally murdered in Central Park, his widow Julie Perini suspects a wider conspiracy. Not only was her husband part of the defense team for a Congressman on trial for bribery, her intuition also tells her that the FBI is not too eager to find the killer.Relying on her skills as a journalist, Julie begins her own investigation and soon discovers her late husband’s secret underworld associations; ties that now threaten her and her toddler’s lives. Fighting grief and a sense of betrayal, Julie is pulled into an inescapable labyrinth of organized crime dealings, political corruption, brutal power grabs and murder. Desperate, Julie turns to Vincent Sorrentino, Tom’s defense partner, for help, and the two discover a shocking and terrifying truth that threatens to paralyze them. But it may also hold the key—the only key—to saving the lives of Julie and her daughter. Renowned attorney Paul Batista seamlessly combines crack legal expertise with suspenseful storytelling to produce a pulse-pounding action story and a first rate courtroom procedural; a legal thriller so authentic, it reads like tomorrow’s headlines.
  • Timeless Desire, by Gwyn Cready
    Two years after losing her husband, overworked librarian Panna Kennedy battles to distract herself from crushing Grief, even as she battles to deal with yet another library budget cut. During a routine search within the library’s lower levels, Panna opens an obscure, pad-locked door and finds herself transported to the magnificent, book-filled quarters of a handsome, eighteenth-century Englishman. She soon recognizes the man as Colonel John Bridgewater, the historic English war hero whose larger-than-life statue loomed over her desk.

    However, the life of the dashing Bridgewater is not at all what she imagined. He’s under house arrest for betraying England, and now looks upon her—a beautiful and unexpected half-dressed visitor—as a possible spy. Despite bad first impressions (on both sides), Bridgewater nonetheless warms to Panna, and pulls her into his escape—while both their hearts pull the other headlong into their soul-stirring secrets.

    Very quickly Panna is thrown into a whirlwind of high-stakes intrigue that sweeps her from Hadrian’s Wall to a forbidding stone castle in Scotland. And somewhere in the outland, Panna must decide if her loyalties lie with her dead husband, or with the man whose life now depends on her.

    Written in her signature style—described as delightfully original, fun and sexy—RITA Award-winning author Gwyn Cready produces yet another lightning-paced, delectable winner of a Time Travel Romance; a genre she has quickly come to master.

The Shadowdance Trilogy ($0.99), by David Dalglish, is self-published, but worth looking at for epic fantasy fans. Not sure you want to risk a buck? Try out his writing with The Weight of Blood and Night of Wolves, both currently free.
Book Description
The Shadowdance Trilogy chronicles the childhood, training, and rise to power of Haern, the Watcher of Veldaren.

A DANCE OF CLOAKS - Aaron has been groomed since birth to be heir of an underworld empire. Yet when sent to kill the daughter of a priest, Aaron instead risks his own life to protect her from the wrath of his guild. In doing so, he glimpses a world beyond poison, daggers, and the iron control of his father.

A DANCE OF BLADES - When the son of Alyssa Gemcroft, one of the three leaders of the powerful Trifect, is believed murdered, slaughter begins anew in the streets of Veldaren. Mercenaries flood the city with one goal in mind: find and kill Aaron, now known as Haern, the King's Watcher.

A DANCE OF DEATH - Haern travels south to confront a copycat killer, finding a city ruled by the corrupt, the greedy, and the dangerous. Rioters fill the streets, and the threat of war with the mysterious elves hangs over all. To stop it, Haern must confront the deadly Wraith, and the man he might become.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Free Audiobook - A Christmas Carol

A special audiobook edition of A Christmas Carol ($14.95 list; $2.99 WhisperSync), by Charles Dickens, featuring a Signature Performance by Tim Curry, is free over at Audible. For those that like to read along while listening, there are many editions in the Kindle store, ranging in price from free to a nice edition from Bantam Classics (Random House) for $2.99.
Book Description
This version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, masterfully narrated by Tim Curry, was available for a limited time last year, and now it's back. This one-of-a-kind performance puts a unique spin on a treasured classic, and served as the inspiration for the exciting new line of Audible Signature Classics, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Elijah Wood, and Heart of Darkness with Kenneth Branagh. Tim Curry performs this timeless holiday story in a deliciously dark tone, returning it to its Dickensian roots with a vivid imagining of Victorian London and just the right touch of outrageous fun.

A Christmas Carol has constantly been in print since its original publication in 1849, and has been adapted for stage, television, film, and opera. It has often been credited with returning the jovial and festive atmosphere to the holiday season in Britain and North America, following the somber period that emerged during the Industrial Revolution.

The story opens on a bleak and cold Christmas Eve as Ebenezer Scrooge is closing up his office for the day. As the story progresses and Christmas morning approaches, Scrooge encounters the unforgettable characters that make this story a classic: Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and, of course, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.
Get the free audiobook from Audible. Note that the edition found when searching isn't free, so use this link; this edition is also not Whispersync enabled; for that, you can buy the pay-edition (which I believe was free last year) for $2.99 after picking up on of the Kindle editions above.