DAILY DEALS: Urban fantasy and royal dilemmas
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning $ 0.99
From the Jacket Copy:
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Karen Marie Moning’s Bloodfever.
MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks . . . until something extraordinary happens.
When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death—a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone—Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae. . . .
As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane—an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book—because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands. . . .
Look for all of Karen Marie Moning’s sensational Fever novels:
DARKFEVER | BLOODFEVER | FAEFEVER | DREAMFEVER | SHADOWFEVER | ICED | BURNED | FEVERBORN | FEVERSONG
Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
Carolyn Jourdan, an attorney on Capitol Hill, thought she had it made. But when her mother has a heart attack, she returns home—to the Tennessee mountains, where her father is a country doctor and her mother works as his receptionist. Jourdan offers to fill in for her mother until she gets better. But days turn into weeks as she trades her suits for scrubs and finds herself following hazmat regulations for cleaning up bodily fluids; maintaining composure when confronted with a splinter the size of a steak knife; and tending to the loquacious Miss Hiawatha, whose daily doctor visits are never billed. Most important, though, she comes to understand what her caring and patient father means to her close-knit community.
With great humor and great tenderness, Heart in the Right Place shows that some of our biggest heroes are the ones living right beside us.
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary: A Maggie Hope Mystery by Susan Elia MacNeal $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
For fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Laurie R. King, and Anne Perry, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary captures the drama of an era of unprecedented challenge—and the greatness that rose to meet it.
London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.
Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family’s hidden secrets, she’ll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin’s murderous plan and Churchill himself.
In this daring debut, Susan Elia MacNeal blends meticulous research on the era, psychological insight into Winston Churchill, and the creation of a riveting main character, Maggie Hope, into a spectacularly crafted novel.
Royally Screwed by Emma Chase $ 0.99
From the Jacket Copy:
Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook, Crowned Prince of Wessco, aka “His Royal Hotness,” is wickedly charming, devastatingly handsome, and unabashedly arrogant?hard not to be when people are constantly bowing down to you.
Then, one snowy night in Manhattan, the prince meets a dark haired beauty who doesn’t bow down. Instead, she throws a pie in his face.
Nicholas wants to find out if she tastes as good as her pie, and this heir apparent is used to getting what he wants.
Dating a prince isn’t what waitress Olivia Hammond ever imagined it would be.
There’s a disapproving queen, a wildly inappropriate spare heir, relentless paparazzi, and brutal public scrutiny. While they’ve traded in horse drawn carriages for Rolls Royces and haven’t chopped anyone’s head off lately?the royals are far from accepting of this commoner.
But to Olivia?Nicholas is worth it.
Nicholas grew up with the whole world watching, and now Marriage Watch is in full force. In the end, Nicholas has to decide who he is and, more importantly, who he wants to be: a King… or the man who gets to love Olivia forever.
Dammit Jane! I am buying all four of these — you are bad for my budget.
I also have never read the Moning series; figure I should give the first book a try, since so many readers love it. I had decided not to buy Mr Churchill’s Secretary because it sounded too “Mary Sue,” but if people are hating on it for lesbians and abortions, then of course I have to buy it.
The other two just sound like fun, and my reading is all about the fun these days. Thanks!
I read DARKFEVER and never continued the series because I hated Mac so much, as in fiery sun much. I’ve been told that she matures and turns out not to be as stupid as she seemed and, in fairness, I glommed all of Moning’s Highlander series where intelligent women behaved stupidly.
@SonomaLass: Really? That’s why the reviews weren’t stellar? *click*
@Darlynne: Sorry, should have directed that comment at Jane.
I can’t get past the silly name of the kingdom? principality? in Royally Screwed. It sounds like a supermarket or an insurance company or something.
That cover for Mr. Churchill’s Secretary is gorgeous.
@oceanjasper: LOL! I thought of Tesco, too.
@SonomaLass: I hated Mr Churchill’s Secretary for a lot more than the hatred of LGBTQ characters. There was a LOT to hate about it. https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/f-reviews/review-mr-churchills-secretary-by-susan-elia-macneal/
I was so annoyed by the comments on Mr. Churchill’s Secretary that I actually posted a couple of replies which I never do. The idea that such things did not exist or are simply equated with ‘liberal’ behavior was simply too much for me – I mean really….
I collected several books in the Moning series but never read them. I was waiting to make sure it ended satisfactorily and forgot about it. I do that a lot.
@SonomaLass: @Darlynne: Fair warning, Mac is fairly annoying in the first book. She’s “Pink Mac” and definitely not kickass heroine material. However, she learned fast and “black Mac” appears in books 2. I waited until the 5th book was nearly out before diving in and read them all in a glom. I really enjoyed the series but some patience is required in book 1. In hindsight I think the change from “pink” to “black” couldn’t have been shown any other way and it is a significant change so I don’t look back on her as quite so annoying now.
There are more books coming out so I don’t know what the plans are for the series but the first 5 books, ending in Shadowfever definitely end happily for Mac.
@ Darlynne @Kaetrin
The first book was definitely the hardest to sit through while Moning built up Dublin and Mac. I will say that by book 3 they were very difficult to put down and the year long wait until the latest was a pain in the butt. My patience felt EPIC. Book 5 has a happily for right now ending that gets expounded on in the next books about Dani’s path. I will say that I felt very betrayed by Moning in how she wrote her last two books…I thought it was a slap in the face to fans that have stuck by her for almost 20 years.
If I recall correctly, Moning said she would no longer be doing multi-book story arcs after the outcry for Mac and Dani’s books…when you read her latest Feversong, it makes sense why.