DAILY DEALS: Histories, Thrillers, and Happy Endings
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House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
The wooded hills of Oxfordshire conceal the remains of the aptly named Ashdown House—a wasted pile of cinders and regret. Once home to the daughter of a king, Ashdown and its secrets will unite three women across four centuries in a tangle of intrigue, deceit and destiny…
In the winter of 1662, Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, is on her deathbed. She entrusts an ancient pearl, rumored to have magic power, to her faithful cavalier William Craven for safekeeping. In his grief, William orders the construction of Ashdown Estate in her memory and places the pearl at its center.
One hundred and fifty years later, notorious courtesan Lavinia Flyte hears the maids at Ashdown House whisper of a hidden treasure, and bears witness as her protector Lord Evershot—desperate to find it—burns the building to the ground.
Now, a battered mirror and the diary of a Regency courtesan are the only clues Holly Ansell has to finding her brother, who has gone missing researching the mystery of Elizabeth Stuart and her alleged affair with Lord Craven. As she retraces his footsteps, Holly’s quest will soon reveal the truth about Lavinia and compel her to confront the stunning revelation about the legacy of the Winter Queen.
Hurts to Love You by Alisha Rai $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
Heiress Evangeline Chandler knows how to keep a secret . . . like her life-long crush on the tattooed hottie who just happens to be her big brother’s friend. She’s a Chandler, after all, and Chandlers don’t hook up with the help. Then again, they also don’t disobey their fathers and quit their respectable jobs, so good-girl rules may no longer apply.
Gabriel Hunter hides the pain of his past behind a smile, but he can’t hide his sudden attraction to his friend’s sheltered little sister. Eve is far too sweet to accept anything less than forever and there’s no chance of a future between the son of a housekeeper and the town’s resident princess.
When a wedding party forces Eve and Gabe into tight quarters, keeping their hands off each other will be as hard as keeping their clothes on. The need that draws them together is stronger than the forces that should shove them apart . . . but their sparks may not survive the explosion when long-buried secrets are finally unearthed.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
The basis for the blockbuster motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island by New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane is a gripping and atmospheric psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it seems. The New York Times calls Shutter Island, “Startlingly original.” The Washington Post raves, “Brilliantly conceived and executed.” A masterwork of suspense and surprise from the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, Shutter Island carries the reader into a nightmare world of madness, mind control, and CIA Cold War paranoia and is unlike anything you’ve ever read before.
SS-GB by Len Deighton $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
In February 1941 British Command surrendered to the Nazis. Churchill has been executed, the King is in the Tower and the SS are in Whitehall…
For nine months Britain has been occupied – a blitzed, depressed and dingy country. However, it’s ‘business as usual’ at Scotland Yard run by the SS when Detective Inspector Archer is assigned to a routine murder case. Life must go on.
But when SS Standartenfuhrer Huth arrives from Berlin with orders from the great Himmler himself to supervise the investigation, the resourceful Archer finds himself caught up in a high level, all action, espionage battle.
This is a spy story quite different from any other. Only Deighton, with his flair for historical research and his narrative genius, could have written it.
Hmm. I’m on the fence on the Lehane. I’ve read, I think, four of his books, and loved two of them (the other two were good too). But I wonder if having seen the movie version of Shutter Island and knowing the twist would kind of ruin the book for me? Also, it seems like it might be depressing in book form.
I really liked the first two books in the Rai trilogy, Hate to Want You and Wrong to Need You. I haven’t read Hurts to Love You yet and I really should (it’s in the TBR pile). I’m not sure it should be read on its own—there is a lot of setup for it in the prior two books, and the series has an overarching soapy story about two families,, the Kanes and the Chandlers (possibly so named in homage to All My Children) that ties into the romances very strongly. Much as I liked Wrong to Need You, the second book, I wondered if readers who had not read book one would be a little lost. Each book has its own central couple who arrive at their happy ending within that book, though, so the books are standalone in that sense.
Not sure i could read the Deighton. It sounds good but might be triggering for me.
Now my set of Aliaha Rai’s Hidden Hearts is complete. I do love the opportunity to read a series straight through. Three makes a mini-glom. Thanks for the alert.
@Jennie: That’s a really good point. Sometimes I’m fine with reading thrillers where I’ve already learned the plot, sometimes not. I’m guessing I’d be OK with this because Lehane is good at other aspects of the storytelling and language.
@Janine: Oh gosh, I’d forgotten they were Kanes & Chandlers. It has to be a reference to AMC. The one book I read seemed quite cinematic in its depiction of the setting and characters, too, in terms of the descriptions.
@Mzcue: I was hoping that would be the case for some readers!
@Sunita: I’m confused. In the blue box you said you hadn’t read the series. But now you mention you read one of the books. Did you mean you read one but not the whole series? Or was it a different Rai that isn’t part of this series?
@Janine: I DNF’d the first installment, but because the voice in it didn’t work for me rather than thinking it was a bad book. So I’ve read a bit but not enough to say much about the characters and world. I did notice what I thought of as cinematic descriptions, though.
I’ve read earlier books by Rai and liked them quite a bit.