Mar 3 2013
Daily Deals: From Jane Austen to a 70s Hooker
Austentatious by Alyssa Goodnight. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
In this quirky, sexy novel set against the lively, music-filled backdrop of Austin, Texas, a young woman learns that romance can wreak havoc with even the best laid plans. . .
It started innocently enough. While browsing in one of Austin’s funky little shops, Nicola James is intrigued by a blank vintage journal she finds hidden among a set of Jane Austen novels. Even though Nic is a straight-laced engineer, she’s still a sucker for anything Austen-esque. But her enthusiasm quickly turns to disbelief once she starts writing in the journal–because somehow, it’s writing her back. . .
Miss Nicola James will be sensible and indulge in a little romance. Those twelve tiny words hit Nic like a thunderbolt, as if her diary was channeling Austen herself! Itching for a bit of excitement, Nic decides to follow her “Fairy Jane’s” advice. The result: a red-hot romance with a sexy Scottish musician who charms his way into Nic’s heart in about five seconds flat.
Sean MacInnes is warm, funny, and happens to think Nic is the most desirable woman he’s ever met. But a guy like Sean doesn’t exactly fit into her Life Plan. With no one but Fairy Jane to guide her, Nic must choose between the life she thought she wanted–and the kind of happy ending she never saw coming. . .
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Temptation and Surrender by Stephanie Laurens . $ .99
From the Jacket Copy:
Handsome, wealthy, and well-born, Jonas Tallent has everything a gentleman needs to enjoy London society to the fullest – and he has. He’s played cards until dawn, flirted with eligible young ladies, and made love to some ineligible ones.
But now he’s restless, bored with the mindless frivolity and careless pleasure, so its with a sense of relief that he takes up the reins of his family’s estate in rural Devon. His most pressing need is to hire a new manager for the inn–the center of village life. Such a small task, yet he discovers few decent applicants are willing to live in a quiet country backwater.
Then genteel but impoverished Miss Emily Beauregard applies for the position. Jonas’s initial response is an emphatic “no!” Ladies, especially one as attractive as Emily, belong in the ballroom or the bedroom, not running an inn. But with no alternatives, he grudgingly allows Emily to try, and she rapidly proves herself worthy, resurrecting the inn with tact and skill.
But Em has a secret. Its not only the need to provide for herself and her orphaned siblings that has brought her to Devon. She’s surreptitiously searching for a family treasure hidden in the village, the only clues to its location a cryptic rhyme handed down through the generations. Emily is determined to solve the puzzle, find the treasure and reinstate her family to its rightful place in society.
Yet Em hasn’t bargained on Jonas. His experience is temptation, his attentions irresistible, and he’s determined to aid her in her quest. He eventually persuades her to trust him, and together they unravel the clues . But someone else is watching, waiting, and once the family legacy is unearthed, the villain strikes, threatening Em, her family, and the love she and Jonas have discovered in each others’ arms.
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The Accidental Princess by Michelle Willingham . $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
Overview
Lieutenant Michael Thorpe is a forbidden temptation for Lady Hannah Chesterfield. Etiquette demands Hannah ignore the shivers of desire his wicked gaze provokes, but he’s the only man to recognize her restless spirit, and her unawakened body is clamoring for his touch….
Thrown together by scandal, a defiant Hannah joins Michael on an adventure to uncover the secret of his birth—is this common soldier really a prince? If so, will the ordinary man who has taught Hannah the meaning of pleasure now make her his royal bride?
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The Happy Hooker: My Own Story by Xaviera Hollander. $ 2.99.
From the Jacket Copy:
How did you first learn about sex? If you grew up in the 1970s, it may have been from a gleefully lusty tour guide named Xaviera Hollander
In the late 1960s — that era of sexual chaos, when Playboy Clubs and love-ins were competing for national attention — a beautiful, intelligent young Dutch secretary named Xaviera de Vries moved to New York, grew swiftly tired of her desk job . . . and soon became the most visible and glamorous madam the city had ever seen. As Xaviera Hollander, she published a shockingly candid account of her life behind the brothel door. The Happy Hooker shot straight to the top of the bestseller lists, sold more than fifteen million copies, and made this enterprising young woman an international phenomenon.
Thirty years later, these delightfully explicit tales of the ’60s and ’70s swingers’ scene — including countless jaw-dropping stories of lesbianism, bondage, fetishism, and more — remain as titillating as ever, charged with the mix of shrewd observation and uninhibited appetite that made Hollander an irresistible storyteller. The Happy Hooker is a classic: the world’s greatest book on the world’s oldest profession.
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Mar 03, 2013 @ 13:01:13
Austentacious doesn’t seem to be on sale. Too bad. I would have bought it. However, the kindle edition of Alyssa Goodnight’s historical romance, Unladylike Pursuits, is on sale for 99 cents.
http://www.amazon.com/Unladylike-Pursuits-Alyssa-Goodnight/dp/0975919008/ref=la_B002BMFZOQ_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1362337245&sr=1-3
Mar 03, 2013 @ 14:31:39
Austentatious almost had me. Almost. But the straight-laced engineer who shouldn’t care for Austen has so much sexism and cliche wrapped up in the set up that my head wants to explode.
Mar 03, 2013 @ 15:29:26
The Happy Hooker, wow! I haven’t thought of this book in eons. I read it in 2nd or 3rd form at secondary school and yes, “trainwreckalicious” it is.
Austentacious looks interesting but I can’t find it for $2.99 anywhere.
Mar 03, 2013 @ 15:55:18
The whole ‘artists wouldn’t want to date engineers’ thing really bugs me for two reasons:
A lot of engineers end up dating artists. Now granted, most of those engineers happen to be guys, but that why shouldn’t the guy be the artist if the girl is an engineer?
A lot of engineers have an interest in the arts. Hell, a lot of engineers are artists too. They write, paint, craft and create as much as any other group of people. Being an engineer does not make you one dimensional.
Mar 03, 2013 @ 17:11:09
The Happy Hooker found its way out of hiding (I assume) and into one of our bookcases during a move when I was 12 (so, around 1981-82?), from which I appropriated it. It is NOT recommended as a sex-education manual for tweens, IMO. Two words: German Shepherd. Ugh.
Mar 03, 2013 @ 17:49:00
Austentatious was the daily deal yesterday at BN and I bought it, without knowing about the whole artists don’t want to date engineers conflict (which I don’t buy, since I’m an artist and I married a biochemist). Haven’t read it yet – the first page seemed good though.
I do enjoy the BN reviews – so many of them seem like they’re written by people who’ve never read online reviews before.
Mar 03, 2013 @ 20:45:18
FYI – Amazon is having their Big Deal again – over 500 titles discounted up to 88% off. The Romance section has titles by big authors like Julia Quinn, Bella Andre, Julie Ann Long, and Elizabeth Lowell. Here’s a link to the list of Romance titles:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=pe_128830_28380830_pe_b3_t/?rh=i%3Adigital-text%2Cn%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%212334093011%2Cn%3A%212334155011%2Cn%3A6180870011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A158566011&bbn=6180870011&ie=UTF8
Mar 04, 2013 @ 11:52:16
I’m an engineer and I don’t buy it either. Its frustrating that she sounds like she is portrayed so one dimensionally.
Mar 04, 2013 @ 15:01:06
Happy Hooker. Seventh grade. A friend’s attic. It made me question her parents’ lifestyle….And I had forgotten about the German shepherd. Thanks a lot, now I need brain bleach!