Jul 11 2012
Daily Deals: UF, SEALs, and Children
Web of Lies (Elemental Assassin Series #2) by Jennifer Estep. $ 3.99
From the Jacket Copy:
Curiosity is definitely going to get me dead one of these days. Probably real soon.
I’m Gin Blanco.
You might know me as the Spider, the most feared assassin in the South. I’m retired now, but trouble still has a way of finding me. Like the other day when two punks tried to rob my popular barbecue joint, the Pork Pit. Then there was the barrage of gunfire on the restaurant. Only, for once, those kill shots weren’t aimed at me. They were meant for Violet Fox. Ever since I agreed to help Violet and her grandfather protect their property from an evil coalmining tycoon, I’m beginning to wonder if I’m really retired. So is Detective Donovan Caine. The only honest cop in Ashland is having a real hard time reconciling his attraction to me with his Boy Scout mentality. And I can barely keep my hands off his sexy body. What can I say? I’m a Stone elemental with a little Ice magic thrown in, but my heart isn’t made of solid rock. Luckily, Gin Blanco always gets her man . . . dead or alive.
Further: Beyond the Threshold by Chris Roberson. $ 2.99 * This is a 47North title and digitally only available at Amazon.com
From the Jacket Copy:
Humankind is spread across three thousand light years in a myriad of worlds and habitats known as the Human Entelechy. Linked by a network of wormholes with Earth at its center, it is the world Captain RJ Stone awakens to after a twelve-thousand-year cryogenic suspension.
Stone soon finds himself commanding the maiden voyage of the first spacecraft to break the light speed barrier: the FTL Further. In search of extraterrestrial intelligence, the landing party explores a distant pulsar only to be taken prisoner by the bloodthirsty Iron Mass, a religious sect exiled from the Entelechy millennia before. Now Stone and his crew must escape while they try to solve the riddle of the planet’s network of stone towers that may be proof of the intelligence they’ve come to find.
The first in critically acclaimed author Chris Roberson’s scintillating new series, Further: Beyond the Threshold is a fascinating ride to the farthest reaches of the imagination.
SEALed with a Kiss by Mary Margaret Daughtridge. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
“Daughtridge delivers a well-written romance that is simultaneously tender and sensuous.”-Booklist
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…
A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. $0.99.
From Jacket Copy:
Dear Reader,
The book you are holding in your hands is a short-lived edition of a book that will likely make your life shorter as well. The tale of three Baudelaire children, who find themselves thrown into an unhappy situation containing a treacherous villain with an evil scheme and bad manners, becomes more and more dreadful on each page, and everyone so foolhardy as to read it will find themselves weeping and moaning by the end of the book.
This book is offered at an introductory price, but it introduces the reader to such unpleasantries as a disastrous fire, itchy clothing, a baby trapped in a cage, a plot to steal an enormous fortune, and dusty curtains.
I made a solemn promise to write down these wretched tales, but you have no such promise, and if I were you I would put down a book this terrible, no matter how reasonably priced.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House Series #1) by Mary Pope Osborne. $1.99.
From Jacket Copy:
Jack and Annie’s very first fantasy adventure in the bestselling middle-grade series—the Magic Tree House!
Where did the tree house come from?
Before Jack and Annie can find out, the mysterious tree house whisks them to the prehistoric past. Now they have to figure out how to get home. Can they do it before dark . . . or will they become a dinosaur’s dinner?
Visit the Magic Tree House website!
MagicTreeHouse.com
Send to Kindle
Jul 11, 2012 @ 14:03:27
I highly recommend the Magic Treehouse Series for younger kids (say, 4-8 or so). Wonderful books, and each chapter ends on a little hook that always had my boys begging for “Just one more!”.
Jul 11, 2012 @ 14:21:27
I like the Unfortunate Events books. :) I think they’re clever. The narrative style appeals to me, and I like the way they incorporate big words and their definitions. I learned ‘lacrymose’ from one of them.
Jul 11, 2012 @ 14:23:29
BTW, the Unfortunate Events audio books are really great. Tim Curry narrates most of them, I think.
Jul 11, 2012 @ 16:20:19
I love the Series of Unfortunate Events! I love how it gives kids credit for being able to handle some fictional pain, that it shows kids being resourceful. Plus all the sarcasm and allusions, and so on for the grown up reader. Just a fantastic series.
Jul 11, 2012 @ 18:03:11
When Ellen at AAR reviewed Sealed with a Kiss in 2008, she gave it an F. Interesting range of grades
Jul 11, 2012 @ 19:06:07
I read all of the SEALed books a couple of years ago and they were good, but not exceptional, reads. What I remember most about them, tho, was the atrocious Kindle formatting. All had extensive errors, and a couple of them were annoyingly bad. If this is the kind of thing that bothers a reader, I’d suggest they check out the reviews to see if the problem has been resolved. Errors like that can make even a cheap/free book unenjoyable.
Jul 11, 2012 @ 19:19:22
I read Dinosaurs Before Dark to my pre-K class of 4- and 5-year-olds this year when we were doing a dinosaur theme. They absolutely loved it, so much so that we continued reading the other books in the series until the end of the school year. The books are perfectly pegged to young readers’ interests and attention spans and the kids really relate to Jack and Annie. My own kids loved these books, too, when they were in the target age range. I highly recommend them.
Jul 11, 2012 @ 20:45:06
I picked up Sealed with a Kiss because the heroine has Celiac Disease (gluten intolerance) and so do I – I never, ever thought I’d read a romance with Celiac. I liked it, and not just because of the whole, hey-she-has-Celiac-and-so-do-I thing. I enjoyed the author’s world view – it’s so nice to read about progressive Southern women (not something I usually encounter in romance). I can’t say that I loved it – some of the plot was silly and some of the writing awkward – but I’m glad I read it and I still think about the characters, which says a lot for me.