Daily Deals: Classic historicals; movie star contemporary; and a mesmerizing female PI
My Steadfast Heart by Jo Goodman. $2.99.
From Jacket Copy:
Colin Thorne finds his way out of a London workhouse but at the cost of losing his two younger brothers. With an uncertain future ahead of him, Colin makes seafaring his life until the inexorable pull of revenge draws him back to London. The debt owed to him by the Earl of Weybourne will be paid.
Weybourne Park has been Mercedes Leydon’s home her entire life. Now serving as the estate’s manager and caretaker of her uncle’s two children, Mercedes knows the earl’s frequent absences are what make Weybourne Park a home.
But the earl’s gaming has taken its toll and she and her young cousins are faced with losing everything to a devil-of-a-stranger calling in a debt that can’t be paid.
Casting caution aside, Mercedes will make a new bargain with this devil. If it’s her soul he wants—or her body—she will give it to him and stake her own claim on his steadfast heart.
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Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran. $1.99.
From Jacket Copy:
Claire DeWitt believes she is the world’s greatest PI, even if few agree with her. A one-time teen detective in Brooklyn, she is a follower of the esoteric French detective Jacques Silette, whose mysterious handbook Détection inspired Claire’s unusual practices.
Claire also has deep roots in New Orleans, where she was mentored by Silette’s student the brilliant Constance Darling—until Darling was murdered. When a respected DA goes missing she returns to the hurricane-ravaged city to find out why.Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead is a knockout start to a bracingly original new series.
“What would you get if that punkish dragon girl Lisbeth Salander met up with Jim Sallis’s Lew Griffin walking the back streets of New Orleans? Or Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone transformed herself into a tattooed magnolia driving a 4×4? Clare DeWitt, that’s what you’d get . . . DeWitt’s mesmerizing character and memorable voice take your breath away.”
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Silverbridge by Joan Wolf. $2.99.
From Jacket Copy:
Starring in the role of a lifetime, Tracy Collins goes on location to film a movie set amid the elegance of Regency England. Here, on the lush, sprawling estate of Silverbridge, the American actress is caught between the clashing egos of cast and crew…and undeniably intrigued by Harry Oliver, the devastatingly attractive lord of the manor. Then Tracy begins to have startling visions from the past, more menacing than the dramatic scenes she enacts for the camera. Suddenly, terrifying acts of sabotage and attempted murder-all too real and very much in the present-threaten her and Harry. At stake is a legacy too precious to lose…and a love as fragile as a dream foretold long ago.
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A Gentle Rogue by Johanna Lindsey. $3.14/$3.49.
From Jacket Copy:
Heartsick and desperate to return home to America, Georgina Anderson boards the Maiden Anne disguised as a cabin boy, never dreaming she’ll be forced into intimate servitude at the whim of the ship’s irrepressible captain, James Mallory.
The black sheep of a proud and tempestuous family, the handsome ex-pirate once swore no woman alive could entice him into matrimony. But on the high seas his resolve will be weakened by an unrestrained passion and by the high-spirited beauty whose love of freedom and adventure rivals his own.
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Speaking of Joan Wolf, she’s released several of her old Rapture Romance titles as ebooks.
I loved reading The Compass Club series! It was so different from the romances I read in the late 90’s. The bad guys were so twisted!
I also don’t remember this one, but by the time I finish this comment it will be on my Kindle. Thanks.
My Steadfast Heart is one of her more Old Skool books, so be warned. I really like it, though. I think the interactions between the main characters are quite fascinating.
GENTLE ROGUE is probably my favorite Lindsay also.
Just bought the Goodman. :D
I loved “My Steadfast Heart” but be warned the hero’s two brothers have books too!
The other two books are also available as ebooks, though slightly more expensive. I didn’t like either as much as the first one.
the Sara Gran book is great. it’s like sinister magical realism bashed into Raymond Chandler or maybe James Ellroy and when they drove away again, they were unexpectedly contaminated with each other. I think it’d do well with people who like early Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn and previous) or possibly George Saunders.
Thanks for this, Jane – I have found more new authors thanks to DA than I can list.
@Anne V: Hmm, I love George Saunders but couldn’t get into Motherless Brooklyn, the only Lethem I’ve tried. Since the price of the Gran has already risen again, maybe I’ll see if the library has it.
@Janine: It’s too bad about the price being back up already, but not surprising – she’s got the next one coming out June 2013.
The Lethem I was most reminded of were Guns with Occasional Music and Amnesia Moon. I can’t put my finger on *why* I think someone who likes Saunders might like this, it may just be that the lead is disconnected and damaged in some very Saunders-esque ways – the voice is in no way that I can identify reminiscent of Saunders.