Daily Deals: A highly regarded urban fantasy, a couple of romances, and a mystery–of sorts
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
Named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews, The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe is an enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills. . . .
No one knows where the Tufa came from, or how they ended up in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Enigmatic and suspicious of outsiders, the Tufa live quiet lives in the hills and valleys of Cloud County. While their origins may be a mystery, there are hints of their true nature buried in the songs they have passed down for generations.
Bronwyn Hyatt, a pure-blood Tufa, has always insisting on doing things her own way, regardless of the consequences. Even though Tufa rarely leave Cloud County, she enlisted in the Army to escape the pressures of Tufa life–her family, her obligations as a First Daughter, and her dangerous ex-boyfriend. But after barely surviving a devastating ambush that killed most of her fellow soldiers, Private Hyatt returns to Cloud County wounded in body and in spirit. But danger lurks in the mountains and hollows of her childhood home. Cryptic omens warn of impending tragedy, and a restless “haint” lurks nearby, waiting to reveal Bronwyn’s darkest secrets. Worst of all, Bronwyn has lost touch with the music that was once a vital part of her identity.
Now Bronwyn finds the greatest battle to be right here at home, where her obligations struggle with her need for freedom, and if she makes the wrong choice, the consequences could be deadly for all the Tufa. . . .
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Searching for Perfect by Jennifer Probst. $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
The up-and-coming matchmaking agency Kinnections is the hottest thing to hit Verily, New York—just like Kennedy Ashe, social director for the service she owns with her two best girlfriends. A coach, consultant, and cheerleader rolled into one super-sizzling package, Kennedy creates dream dates, encourages singles to shine, and never refuses a challenge— not even Nathan Ellison Raymond Dunkle, known as Ned, rocket scientist, nerd extraordinaire, and Kennedy’s newest client.
Kennedy vows to work her magic and transform this hot mess in a lab coat with a disastrous relationship track record into the most wanted man on the Verily dating scene. If only she could turn the wand on herself . . . Though she radiates confidence and sex appeal, Kennedy harbors deep-seated insecurities from a tormented past and lifelong struggle with weight issues. When she realizes she and Ned are cut from the same cloth and might be perfect together, can Kennedy learn to let her heart lead the way? Or will her fears sentence her to the sidelines as Ned finds love—with someone else?
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The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy. $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In 1945, Elsie Schmidt is a naive teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she is for her first kiss. She and her family have been protected from the worst of the terror and desperation overtaking her country by a high-ranking Nazi who wishes to marry her. So when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door would put all she loves in danger.
Sixty years later, in El Paso, Texas, Reba Adams is trying to file a feel-good Christmas piece for the local magazine, and she sits down with the owner of Elsie’s German Bakery for what she expects will be an easy interview. But Reba finds herself returning to the bakery again and again, anxious to find the heart of the story—a story that resonates with her own turbulent past. For Elsie, Reba’s questions are a stinging reminder of that last bleak year of World War II. As the two women’s lives become intertwined, both are forced to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past and seek out the courage to forgive.
Elsie’s story in 1944 and 1945 reverberates six decades later, in El Paso, Texas. A young journalist there, Reba Adams, is engaged to an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, and–a bit like Elsie years earlier–she is not quite sure she can marry the fellow. While writing what she views as a Christmas fluff piece on holiday traditions for a local magazine, Reba goes to a German bakery in the area and meets…Elsie.
Consequently, the novel travels back and forth in time, moving between Elsie’s story and Reba’s, often using the correspondence between Elsie and Hazel (and between Reba and her own sister back east). Many of McCoy’s characters shoulder deep and profoundly painful secrets, including Reba’s father and Elsie’s mother.
McCoy is too intelligent a novelist to compare the U.S. Border Patrol with Hitler’s SS, but Reba’s fiancé nevertheless find the process of rounding up, detaining, and deporting illegal aliens an increasingly draconian and soul-killing operation. Moreover, McCoy understands that Reba’s small dramas in 2007 pale before the dangers that confront Elsie in 1944 and 1945. But she deftly explores how easy it is to allow first one’s integrity and then one’s humanity to slip away.
Likewise, the parallels that McCoy draws between the present and the past–and how it difficult it can be to do the right thing–make for a thoughtful reading experience indeed.
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Dirty Secret by Emma Hart. $ .99.
From the Jacket Copy:
Conner Burke never expected Sofie Callahan to come back.
Where she’s been for the last two and half years is a mystery, and so is the reason she left in the first place. Now, though, she’s back in their hometown of Shelton Bay, South Carolina, at the same time Conner’s band Dirty B. is home on a tour break.
Sofie Callahan has spent the months since her father’s death avoiding anything to do with her hometown. But with her brother in Afghanistan, she has no choice but to return and sort out her father’s house, even if it means facing the boy she fell in love with and revealing the reason she left.
Conner has questions, and when his broken heart and her guilty one collide, Sofie has to start answering them. Their present is rocky, their future unknown. Only one thing is certain: Sofie’s daughter will change everything.
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I really enjoy Bledsoe’s Eddie Lacrosse books, as does my husband, so we decided to try the Hum and the Shiver. It was…not for me. I forced myself to finish it; husband didn’t bother. I even tried to read the second one. It was an interesting premise but, for me, there was an underlying dislike for all the characters that colored the whole book.
@Heather Greye: Like your husband, I DNF’d the first one that I think I bought from an earlier Daily Deals post. The world-building is really interesting but there was something very off-putting about all of the characters and how they treated each other and interacted. It was also very…southern in a non-charming way if that makes sense.
@Lada:
“there was something very off-putting about all of the characters and how they treated each other and interacted”
Yes, so well put! That’s exactly how I felt.
Oh, no! I liked Bledsoe’s Eddie LaCrosse books. Maybe this one will have to come from the library.
Contrasting viewpoint for The Hum and the Shiver: I actually loved the hell out of it. :) In no small part because for the Tufa, music is a way of life and I _love_ that. Practically everyone plays an instrument and there’s a lot of music-making all over the book. I talk about that in depth over here, for the interested.