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Friday, March 29, 2013

Today's Deals 3/29

Today only, get The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin - The 60's on MP3 for $1.99.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is the international bestseller Birdman ($1.99), by Mo Hayder [Grove Press], with the companion audiobook $3.99.
Book Description
Birdman showcases Hayder at her spine-tingling best as beloved series character Jack Caffery tracks down a terrifying serial killer.

In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Inspector Jack Caffery is called on to investigate the murder of a young woman whose body has been discovered near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, south-east London. Brutalized, mutilated beyond recognition, the victim is soon joined by four others discovered in the same area—all female and all ritualistically murdered. And when the post-mortem examination reveals a gruesome signature connecting the victims, Caffery realizes exactly what he’s dealing with—a dangerous serial killer.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is A Stroke of Magic ($0.99), by Tracy Madison [Montlake Romance].
Book Description
You know how freaky it is, to expect one taste and get another? Imagine picking up a can of tepid ginger ale and taking a swig of delicious, icy cold peppermint tea. Alice Raymond did just that. And though the tea is exactly what she wants, she bought herself a soda.

No, Alice's life isn't exactly paint-by-numbers. After breaking things off with her lying, stealing, bum of an ex, she discovered she's pregnant. Motherhood was definitely on her "someday" wish list, but a baby means less time for her art and no time for recent hallucinations that include this switcharoo with the tea. She has to impress her new boss, the ridiculously long-lashed, smoky-eyed Ethan Gallagher, and she has to deal with her family, who have started rambling about gypsy curses. Only a soul-deep bond with the right man can save her and her child? As if being single wasn't pressure enough!

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Spinneret ($1.99), by Timothy Zahn [Open Road] - an automatic buy for me at this price, for this author.
Book Description
A newly colonized planet holds many secrets in its seemingly barren depths. But will it lead to humanity’s salvation, or its destruction?

Chasing a new frontier, humankind sends a manned starship into the universe and away from the overpopulated Earth in hopes of finding a new planet to colonize. But every Earthlike world they discover is already inhabited. As it turns out, the universe is a very crowded place. An alien council offers to lease the one remaining uninhabited world: Astra, a bleak and barren but serviceable planet. The new settlement, though, quickly experiences serious problems, from dying crops to the mysterious disappearance of anything and everything that is made of metal. And then Astra reveals a secret neither the aliens nor the human governments could ever have imagined.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three gripping crime novels for £0.99 each (>70% off).

The Crowded Grave: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation (Main/UK), by Martin Walker (US edition $12.99)
Bruno's day has not started well.

The Saint Denis Chief of Police is busy. A French–Spanish summit to be held in a local chateau is being threatened by Basque separatists, and animal rights campaigners are causing havoc at the foie gras farms. Up to his ears with ETA and PETA, he's not even had time for lunch. And it's about to get worse.

A local archaeological team, digging for evidence of prehistoric man, unearths a well-preserved skeleton. Yet it's a lot more recent than they'd hoped – boasting a Swatch on its wrist and a bullet-hole in its skull. With an influx of visitors making Saint Denis almost as crowded as the excavation's grave, the key appears to lie with one of these outsiders. Bruno must think fast, and keep his wits about him. Especially as the answer may lie a little closer to home.
Pilgrim Soul: Douglas Brodie #3 (Main/UK), by Gordon Ferris (US edition $5.99)
From the author of The Hanging Shed comes the third instalment in the Douglas Brodie series.

It's 1947 and the worst winter in memory: Glasgow is buried in snow, killers stalk the streets - and Douglas Brodie's past is engulfing him.

It starts small. The Jewish community in Glasgow asks Douglas Brodie, ex-policeman turned journalist, to solve a series of burglaries. The police don't care and Brodie needs the cash. Brodie solves the crime but the thief is found dead, butchered by the owner of the house he was robbing. When the householder in turn is murdered, the whole community is in uproar - and Brodie's simple case of theft disintegrates into chaos.

Into the mayhem strides Danny McRae - Brodie's old sparring partner from when they policed Glasgow's mean streets. Does Danny bring with him the seeds of redemption or retribution? As the murder tally mounts, Brodie discovers tainted gold and a blood-stained trail back to the concentration camps. Back to the horrors that haunt his dreams. Glasgow is overflowing with Jewish refugees. But have their persecutors pursued them? And who will be next to die?
Gone Again (Main/UK), by Doug Johnstone (US edition $9.09)
'It's just to say that no-one has come to pick Nathan up from school, and we were wondering if there was a problem of some kind?'

As Mark Douglas photographs a pod of whales stranded in the waters off Edinburgh's Portobello Beach, he is called by his son's school: his wife, Lauren, hasn't turned up to collect their son. Calm at first, Mark collects Nathan and takes him home but as the hours slowly crawl by he increasingly starts to worry.

With brilliantly controlled reveals, we learn some of the painful secrets of the couple's shared past, not least that it isn't the first time Lauren has disappeared. And as Mark struggles to care for his son and shield him from the truth of what's going on, the police seem dangerously short of leads. That is, until a shocking discovery...

Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys ($2.51 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Lucinda Scala Quinn, is the Nook Daily Find, better than price matched on Kindle (it was on my Bargain Book Roundup earlier this month).
Book Description
Recipes and strategies for bringing back the family meal

When first published in 2009, Lucinda Scala Quinn's Mad Hungry met with critical acclaim, but it wasn't just the media that fell hard for this book--it was mothers everywhere, who embraced her message to bring back the family meal and loved the ease, simplicity, and robust goodness of her recipes. The book went on to launch a TV series (Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn) and now, with over 65,000 copies sold, it is available in a paperback edition that will reach a yet wider audience.

In Mad Hungry, Scala Quinn shares winning strategies for how to sate the seemingly insatiable, trade food for talk, and get men to manage in the kitchen. She provides recipes for single-skillet meals, dinners that yield fabulous leftovers, and dishes that are a cinch to stretch fore extra guests. Her grab-and-run breakfasts will help kids start the day right, and her healthful drinks make it easier for guys to say no to soda. Along with her techniques that help make homemade meals second nature, nourishing both diner and cook, Scala Quinn offers empowering advice on how to feed one's family's spirits as well as fill their bellies.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble! ($1.99), by Patricia Hubbell and Megan Halsey (Illustrator) .
Book Description
Fast trucks, slow trucks, old trucks and new. For children who are fascinated by machines of transport, any sort of truck will do! Illustrated with mixed media collages, this simple rhyming story pays homage to every shape, size, and color of truck, while delighting in the jobs they perform and the ease with which they work.

Grades: Preschool-3
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.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Amazon Acquires GoodReads

You may have already heard the news, but be sure to check out the post on Goodreads itself that discusses the acquisition.

Let's hope that GoodReads isn't marginalized as Shelfari was (the only good thing I saw happen at Shelfari was that you could add all your Kindle books to your shelves, then export in a list that could easily be added to LibraryThing; having them in Shelfari was useless, since there's no search ability, at least, not the last time I bothered to log in there). It does look like they are making a link from your Kindle Library to GoodReads a priority (it might even import paper book purchases), but no word on when it will be implemented.

In the meantime, there are rumors circulating over on the Amazon forums that a new Manage Your Kindle page is coming (some people, on slower connections or machines, can't access their entire libaries, although I've not seen a problem, other than the extreme slowness to load the entire list so it can be searched).

New Release/Price Drop - With All My Soul

With All My Soul ($7.49 Kindle, B&N, $7.69 Kobo - coupon eligible), the seventh and concluding novel in the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent [Harlequin Teen], was released this week. If you had if pre-ordered, be sure to check that you don't have this higher priced edition that releases next week ordered. If you do, go to your Manage My Kindle page, click on Pending Deliveries and find the pre-order and cancel it, then grab this edition, instead.
Book Description
What does it mean when your school is voted the most dangerous in America?

It's time to kick some hellion butt…

After not really surviving her junior year (does "undead" count as survival?), Kaylee Cavanaugh has vowed to take back her school from the hellions causing all the trouble. She's going to find a way to turn the incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity against one another in order to protect her friends and finish this war, once and forever.

But then she meets Wrath and understands that she's closer to the edge than she's ever been. And when one more person close to her is taken, Kaylee realizes she can't save everyone she loves without risking everything she has.…

SOUL SCREAMERS
The last thing you hear before you die

Bargain Book Roundup

15 Seconds ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Andrew Gross [HarperCollins], is definitely one to pick up for suspense/thriller fans. Although Kobo doesn't have this title on sale, they are the only ones that still have Reckless With a Bonus Excerpt and it's only $0.99.
Book Description
A writer “in the company of Child and Coben” (Connecticut Post), New York Times bestseller Andrew Gross is the acclaimed author of The Blue Zone, Eyes Wide Open, and other exceptional suspense thrillers. Now, with 15 Seconds, he delivers an electrifying, lightning-paced story of a desperate man on the run, trying to save his family from the faceless enemy that’s determined to destroy them all. A gripping tale of a life turned upside-down in 15 Seconds, Gross’s stunner is a must for fans of James Patterson, David Baldacci, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Nelson DeMille, Tess Gerritsen, or anyone who likes action and suspense done to perfection.

Bitter Seeds ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Ian Tregillis [Tor Books (Macmillan)], with the companion audiobook for $3.99 for those who buy at Amazon.
Book Description
It’s 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

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

The Abbi Glines Sea Breeze Collection: Breathe; Because of Low; While It Lasts; Just for Now ($7.49 Kindle), a YA Romance series omnibus by Abbi Glines, can currently be pre-ordered for less than the cost of one novel alone (except for Breathe, currently sale priced at $4.99, but in what looks like a self-published edition, so it may disappear soon; I already see the S&S pre-order for ~$9). The delivery date shown is way out in the future, but Simon and Schuster claims the collection will come out in trade paperback in October 2013 (with a $40 price tag). Now, there is a chance this listing won't ever ship, but if it does, you get a fantastic deal (and don't have to schlep around a 1200+ page paperback).
Book Description
Breathe
In the shore town of Sea Breeze, Sadie discovers that fame is nothing in the face of passion. A steamy read from bestselling author Abbi Glines.

Sadie White’s summer job is at the beach, but she won’t be working as a lifeguard. Since her mom is pregnant and refuses to work, Sadie will be taking over as a domestic servant for a wealthy family on a nearby island.

When the family arrives at their summer getaway, Sadie is surprised to learn that the owner of the house is Jax Stone, one of the hottest teen rockers in the world. If Sadie were normal—if she hadn’t spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house—maybe she’d be excited about working for a rock star. But she’s not.

Even though Sadie isn’t impressed by Jax’s fame, he is drawn to her. Everything about Sadie fascinates Jax, but he fights his attraction: Relationships never work in his world, and as badly as he wants Sadie, he believes she deserves more. Yet as the summer stretches on, Jax’s passion leaves him breathless—and Sadie feels like the only source of oxygen.

Can their love overcome the disparity in their lifestyles? One breath at a time, they’re going to find out…

Because of Low
It’s steamy in the Gulf town of Sea Breeze. Physical attraction is the only way to beat the heat in this start to a series from bestselling, previously self-published author Abbi Glines.

Playboy Cage owns the apartment, and he hosts a revolving door of people, in and out, at all times. Most of them are long-legged hot girls who are never there more than a night or two. When Cage’s new roommate, Marcus, enters the picture, he’s just looking to nurse a broken heart. But there’s one particular semi-frequent regular who catches his eye.

Willow—“Low”—is the one Cage wants to marry. But the two of them are night and day, and Marcus can’t see how Low puts up with all of Cage’s womanizing. What she really needs is a real man....like good-looking and sensible Marcus. But that’s going to get real complicated and real messy—real fast.

While It Lasts
Cage brings his playboy prowess to the countryside as the Sea Breeze hookups continue, from self-published phenomenon Abbi Glines.

Low broke Cage’s heart by getting with Marcus in Because of Low. Cage went into a tailspin that ended in a DUI. In order to salvage his baseball scholarship—the one thing he truly valued besides Low—Cage must take a summer job. At a farm. Away from Sea Breeze. With lots of cows, but no hot girls. Maybe that’s what Cage needs to get back on track.

But wait—there’s that hostile daughter of the farm boss. She’s pretty and occasionally sweet, and there seems to be a lot of sadness and mystery behind her anger. Cage is dying to strip her down—physically and mentally—in the back of the barn. But is he prepared for what will happen afterward?

Just for Now
An insatiable attraction heats to the boiling point in this steamy book set in the shore town of Sea Breeze from the author of the white-hot The Vincent Boys.

Preston is one bad boy. And Amanda has harbored a crush on him for forever. When she finally makes her move on him, it does not end well. But still, she can’t resist him. Especially now that he seems to be pursuing her, too.

No one wants wants them to be be together. Not Amanda’s brother Marcus, who is on the verge of his marriage to Low, and definitely not any of Preston’s buddies. They know way too much about Preston’s dark side. Even Preston realizes he’s not good enough for someone like her.

But Amanda believes there is more to Preston than his bad boy persona, and she is determined to unearth what he’s hiding behind his seductive blue eyes—secrets that could explain his actions. Secrets Amanda might not be able to forgive.

Yet the dangerous attraction persists...and neither Preston nor Amanda is going to deny it.

To Die For ($0.99 Kindle, Kobo) can be currently pre-ordered (deliver 3/31) and contains eight full-length novels from indie-authors (it's worth getting for one or two of the authors alone, but definitely a good deal for all eight).
Book Description
Unlucky – Jana DeLeon
Mallory Devereaux is known throughout the town of Royal Flush, Louisiana as a walking disaster and her luck just got worse. FBI agent Jake Randoll needs to take down a money launderer, but he’s not prepared for the mojo that Mallory can serve up in a single touch.

Zane’s Redemption – Tina Folsom
The last thing vampire bodyguard and Holocaust survivor Zane wants to do is to guard Portia, a young hybrid with a serious dilemma: in a few weeks, her virgin body will be set in its final vampire form, unless she finds a lover. Desire unites them just as Zane's past threatens to pull them apart ...

The Shop of Shades and Secrets – Colleen Gleason
When Fiona Murphy inherits a small antiques shop from an old man she met only once, she’s filled with surprise, confusion and delight. Then strange things begin to happen, and she's certain the shop is haunted. But the stiff and proper Gideon Nath doesn't believe her when she says she's seen a ghost....until they find a skeleton in the closet.

Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes – Denise Grover Swank
When Rose Gardner decides she’s done frittering away her days at the DMV, she turns Heryetta, Arkansas upside down as she navigates life, love, and the occasional murder every now and then.

Catch Me If You Can – Liliana Hart
Ex-FBI sniper Shane Quincy is just trying to survive since his wife’s death when the daughter of America’s most infamous mob boss move into the apartment across the hall. Rachel Valentine is on the run from the only “family” she’s ever known. When Shane Quincy saves her life, she has no choice but to tell him who she’s running from, even though she knows it’ll make him the mob’s next target.

Stormy Montana Sky – Debra Holland
Schoolteacher Harriet Stanton believes she is in love with another man, until a mysterious stranger rescues her. Newspaper reporter, ‘Ant’ Gordon, is chasing the man who murdered his sister and kidnapped his nephew, and the two join forces. But with the murderer on their trail, will they live long enough to acknowledge their hidden love?

Finding Kate Huntley – Theresa Ragan
During a vacation in the Caribbean, fifteen-year old Kate Huntley's father, a prominent U.S. scientist, is murdered before her eyes. For the next ten years Kate grows up alone in Haiti, one of the most dangerous and poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Every day is a struggle for survival. And yet she lives for only one reason...revenge.

Wounded – Jasinda Wilder
As an Iraqi prostitute, the one impossibility in Rania's life is love, until she meets USMC Lance Corporal Hunter Lee. When circumstance force them together, Rania and Hunter both learn that sometimes the impossible is also inevitable.

Three Free Books from Whiskey Creek

Whiskey Creek Press is giving away three books to celebrate their 10th Anniversary:
  • WARRIOR AND THE SPARROW by Crystal Inman
  • CHEYENNE TRILOGY Book 1: MURPHY'S RAINBOW by Carolyn Lampman
  • LOST LEGION [A ROBERT SABLE MYSTERY] by Sean Thomas
Click on the cover image for each book, then pick PDF or HTML (no images) and click on "Add This to My Cart" (far right side of page). You can get both formats on each and once your cart is full, go thru checkout and download. You can email the PDF straight to your Kindle or use Calibre to convert. Hint: if you add the PDF first to Calibre, it will pick up the cover image (I usually fix the title/author name and download the metadata at this point, too); then add the HTML file and convert it to Mobi, for the best formatting, to email to your Kindle.