Mar 12 2013
Daily Deals: Two freebies and two strong firsts in their respective series
A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane. $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
As richly complex and brutal as the terrain it depicts, here is the mesmerizing, darkly original novel that heralded the arrival of Dennis Lehane, the master of the new noir — and introduced Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, his smart and tough private investigators weaned on the blue-collar streets of Dorchester.
A cabal of powerful Boston politicians is willing to pay Kenzie and Gennaro big money for a seemingly small job: to find the missing cleaning woman who stole some secret documents. As Kenzie and Gennaro learn, however, this crime is no ordinary theft. It’s about justice. About right and wrong. But in Boston, finding the truth isn’t just a dirty business … it’s deadly.
AmazonBNSonyKoboBook DepositoryAREApple
Blood Red Road by Moira Young. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she’s a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.
Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.
Winner of the 2011 Costa Children’s Book Award
AmazonBNSonyKoboBook DepositoryAREApple
Price of Passion (Pregnant Mistresses) by Susan Napier . $ Free
From the Jacket Copy:
The millionaire’s baby
Kate had learned certain lessons as Drake Daniels’s lover:
Lesson number one: the price of loving Drake was not to love him.
Lesson number two: never give him what he expected.
Discovering she was pregnant certainly fulfilled lesson number two. Drake had made it clear commitment and children were not on his menu. Now Kate must break her news. But when she sees Drake, passion kicks in, begging to be indulged again…
just once!
AmazonBNSonyKoboBook DepositoryAREApple
Snowbound by Janice Kay Johnson. $ Free.
From the Jacket Copy:
When a blizzard strands Fiona MacPherson and her students in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, their only hope of survival is to seek shelter at Thunder Mountain Lodge. Their host is John Fallon, a handsome, enigmatic war veteran haunted by secrets and scars that may never heal.
John Fallon never imagined he’d be playing host to this captivating teacher and her eight teenage charges. But when his solitude is shattered by their arrival, his world shifts on its axis. He needs Fiona-but does she need him? There’s only one way to find out. The ex-soldier must find the courage to reach out to the remarkable woman who has transformed his life….
AmazonBNSonyKoboBook DepositoryAREApple
Send to Kindle
Mar 12, 2013 @ 14:06:40
Snowbound is a great book. And like Wendy said on her review, the emotions felt authentic and the characters real.
Mar 12, 2013 @ 14:15:41
Robin/Janet has summed up Susan Napier perfectly. Is she still writing? I miss her books! I’ve heard rumors that she is, but it’s been years since the last one now.
Mar 12, 2013 @ 14:41:19
I read Price of Passion around the same time I read Snowbound and for me the two don’t compare. Snowbound has real emotion and believable characters. I found PoP storyline ridiculous. I will admit, however, that PoP was probably the first HP I ever read, so the whole alpha-male, “discarded” mistress, overblown emotional-ness of it was a deer-in-the-headlights moment for me.
Mar 12, 2013 @ 15:28:04
I love BLOOD RED ROAD. It’s such an amazingly powerful YA. Saba is such an awesome heroine, and the $2.99 pricepoint is a great price to check it out. It does have a really distinctive voice, but that makes it stand out and gives it its own flair. Young goes the Cormac-esque route approach to dialog with no quotation marks, but BRR is so so so good.
Mar 12, 2013 @ 16:10:13
The Harlequins seem to be a Kindle-only deal; neither is coming up free at BN or ARE or even at the Harlequin ebook Store. I did find free pdf versions on Harlequin’s site:
http://www.eharlequin.com/images/60th/formats/06Price.pdf
http://www.eharlequin.com/images/60th/formats/10Snow.pdf
Mar 12, 2013 @ 16:48:21
@Elyssa Patrick: I completely agree. Initially, Saba herself was rather off-putting for me–perhaps it was the narrative voice, as Jane suggested–but I could see how she changed as a person, which makes me very eager to finally read the next book. She is an outstanding character, one to be savored and applauded.
Also, a huge high-five for Dennis Lehane’s early series. It’s been a while and I can’t swear they’ve stood the test of time, but they were a great start to an outstanding PI series. His skill as a writer has grown exponentially. A Drink Before the War is very good, the second–Darkness, Take My Hand–is brilliant (there’s that over-used word again, but it applies here).
Mar 12, 2013 @ 21:06:52
Thanks for the advice on checking out the sample for BLOOD RED ROAD. I think I would have liked the voice (it reminded me just a tad of THE COLOR PURPLE) but sure enough, the story is told in present tense! Grr! I can’t present tense, and lately it seems like YA = first person, present tense.
Mar 12, 2013 @ 23:39:21
@Darlynne: just commenting to say that I agree with you on Darkness Take My Hand. Excellent book. I think I may do a reread.
Mar 12, 2013 @ 23:57:52
hello.i cant seem to get the dennis lehane’s book at 1.99…..
is that a mistake or what?
thanks for your fabulous blog….
Mar 13, 2013 @ 10:01:48
I just really love the fact that there’s an entire series on “Pregnant Mistresses”. Harlequin, never change!
Mar 13, 2013 @ 14:16:44
@kamlin: Are you in the US? The $1.99 sale is from the US publisher. The publishers from other regions don’t appear to have the book on sale.
Mar 15, 2013 @ 14:17:32
Always a sucker for free books, I got the two Harlequins.
I loved SNOWBOUND. A truly convincing portrait of a returning vet. Powerful and emotional. What’s more, I can believe the teenagers too.
I’ve made it through two chapters of PRICE OF PASSION and I doubt I’m going to get any further. I can put up with the idiotic heroine and the rude, arrogant hero, but not with the prose. Does every noun have to come with two adjectives?