DAILY DEALS: Series everywhere you look
In Bed With the Devil by Lorraine Heath $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
They call him the Devil Earl—a scoundrel and accused murderer who grew up on the violent London streets. A proper young lady risks more than her reputation when consorting with the roguishly handsome Lucian Langdon, but Lady Catherine Mabry believes she has no choice. To protect those she loves, she would do anything—even strike a bargain with the devil himself.
Lucian desires respectability and a wife above all else, but the woman of his choosing lacks the social graces to be accepted by the aristocracy. Catherine can help Lucian gain everything he wants. But what she asks for in exchange will put their very lives in jeopardy. When danger closes in, Catherine discovers a man of immense passion and he discovers a woman of immeasurable courage. As secrets from his dark past are revealed, Lucian begins to question everything he knows to be true, including the yearnings of his own heart.
Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
“A challenging and satisfying thriller . . . [with] many surprising twists.”—The New York Times
Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness—not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself.
So she is only mildly surprised to find an intruder waiting for her when she returns home one day. An ex-cop suspected of embezzling, John Felker wants Jane to do for him what she did for his buddy Harry Kemple: make him vanish. But as Jane opens a door out of the world for Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape. . . .
Praise for Vanishing Act:
“Thomas Perry keeps pulling fresh ideas and original characters out of thin air. The strong-willed heroine he introduces in Vanishing Act rates as one of his most singular creations.”—The New York Times Book Review
“One thriller that must be read. . . . Perry has created his most complex and compelling protagonist.”—San Francisco Examiner
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
The Culture – a human/machine symbiotic society – has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game…a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life – and very possibly his death.
Praise for Iain M. Banks:
“Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy — the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more” — NME
“An exquisitely riotous tour de force of the imagination which writes its own rules simply for the pleasure of breaking them.” — Time Out
Pucked Love by Helena Hunting $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
As an NHL player, relationships haven’t been my thing. Shrouded in secrecy and speculation, they never last very long. But then that’s what happens when you require an NDA before the first date.
Until Charlene. She’s like a firefly. She’s elusive, and if you catch her she’ll burn bright, but keeping her trapped dulls her fire and dims her beauty.
I caught her. And as much as I might want to keep her, I’ll never put the lid on her jar. Not at the risk of losing her. So I’ve let her set the rules in our relationship.
But as long hidden secrets expose us both, I discover exactly how fragile Charlene is, and how much I need her.
We’re all broken. We’re all messed up. Some more than others. Me more than most.
The FINAL standalone novel in The Pucked Series.
Yay! Daily Deals from Dear Author keep coming! I never imagined I’d develop a taste for hockey romances but they netted me. Today I’m jumping on Pucked Love and the Lorraine Heath, In Bed with the Devil, because I’ve been away too long from historicals. Thanks Sunita.
Seconding The Player of Games recommendation. Probably the best starting point for the series.
I’d never heard of THE PLAYER OF GAMES, so a huge thank you for that. And thanks for mentioning VANISHING ACT. Fingers crossed it (and the rest of the series) works as well as it did originally.
@Lostshadows: I think so too. It tells you a lot about the Culture but is still self-contained, and it’s not as long as some of the others. I have Matter up next, which I’ll read this summer I hope. I’m verry slowly working my way through the series, to stretch them out. Although I could just read them more quickly and then start again at the beginning.
@Darlynne: You’re most welcome! I’m surprised you haven’t run across the Culture series given how widely read you are, but it’s an excellent reminder to me that no one can read everything, so it’s OK to bring up books you think are super well-known.
@Mzcue: There are so many hockey romances. I knew there were a lot of m/m hockey romances, but there are at least as many m/f, if not more.
Sold on the Iain Banks! I’ve been wanting to try him anyhow. Do the other books in the series have the same main character, or others?
I’m on the fence about the Lorraine Heath. I’ve tried a couple that haven’t worked for me but I’ve heard so much praise.
@Mzcue: Your pun cracked me up! :)
@Janine: Some characters pop up in more than one novel, I believe, but not in any systematic way. They are all part of the same world but that’s pretty much it. It’s an unusual series that way because there’s no set order, and devotees argue about what the best order is, and what the best introduction to the series is.
Thanks for mentioning that the Culture books can be read in any order. I’ve picked up many of them on sale over the years, but never actually read one since I wanted to have the whole set before starting. It’s just a quirk. I don’t want to commit to a series if there’s a book missing in the middle. (It’s the same reason it took me so long to get into the Liaden books: where the heck to start and could I get my hands on all the books once I did?) Now I know I can dive in anywhere.
I thought “Player of games” was wonderful. Yes I read it on Sunita’s recommendation.