Holly Robinson is an award-winning journalist whose work appears regularly in national venues such as Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Huffington Post, Ladies’ Home Journal, More, Open Salon, and Parents. She also works as a ghost writer on celebrity memoirs, education texts, and health books.
Holly tops today’s Buffet with Sleeping Tigers, a funny, heartbreaking, and suspenseful novel she published independently. The book was a finalist for “Best Indie Book of 2012” by Kindle Book Review and “2011 Book of the Year Fiction Finalist” by ForeWord Reviews.
Holly’s first book, The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter: A Memoir, was named a Target Breakout Book. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Clark University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She lives north of Boston with her husband and their five children.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours, except for the Bargain books in the yellow section below. Warning: Kindle book promotions can end without notice, so before downloading click the link “See Kindle price at Amazon” to verify that the book is still free. (Prices and availability may differ outside USA.)
Sleeping Tigers
Women’s Fiction > Romance
Author: Holly Robinson
Jordan O’Malley has everything she ever wanted: a job she loves, a beautiful home, and a dependable boyfriend. When her life unravels after a breast cancer scare, Jordan decides to join her wildest childhood friend in San Francisco and track down her drifter brother, Cam, who harbors secrets of his own.
When Cam suddenly flees the country, Jordan follows, determined to bring him home. Her journey takes her to the farthest reaches of majestic Nepal, where she encounters tests–and truths–about love and family that she never could have imagined. Funny, heartbreaking, and suspenseful, Sleeping Tigers reminds us all that sometimes it’s better to follow your heart instead of a plan.
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Romantic Comedy
Author: Christie Craig
Macy Tucker was five years old when her beloved grandfather dropped dead in his spaghetti. At twelve, her father left his family in the dust. At twenty-five, her husband gave his secretary a pre-Christmas bonus in bed, and Macy gave him the boot. To put things lightly, men have been undependable.
That’s why dating’s off the menu. Macy is focused on putting herself through law school — which means being the delivery girl for Papa’s Pizza. But cheesier than her job is her pie-eyed brother, who just recently escaped from prison to protect his new girlfriend. And hotter than Texas toast is the investigating detective. Proud, sexy…inflexible, he’s a man who would kiss her just to shut her up. But Jake Baldwin’s a protector as much as a dish. And when he gets his man — or his woman — Macy knows it’s for life.
Mrs. Mike
Classics > Romance
Author: Ben and Nancy Freedman
A classic tale that has enchanted millions of readers worldwide, “Mrs. Mike” brings the fierce, stunning landscape of the Great North to life—and masterfully evokes the tender, touching moments that bring a man and a woman together forever.
Recently arrived in Calgary, Alberta, after a long, hard journey from Boston, 16-year-old Katherine Mary O’Fallon never imagined that she could lose her heart so easily—or so completely. Standing over six feet tall, with “eyes so blue you could swim in them,” Mike Flannigan is a well-respected sergeant in the Canadian Mounted Police—and a man of great courage, kindness, and humor. Together, he and his beloved Kathy manage to live a good, honest life in this harsh, unforgiving land—and find strength in a love as beautiful and compelling as the wilderness around them…
The Fortune Quilt
Romantic Comedy
Author: Lani Diane Rich
“Accept the book with the amber spine. Return the frog. Take the cab.”
What the hell kind of advice is that?
When Tucson Today segment producer Carly McKay visits the quirky artist’s community of Bilby, Arizona, to do a story on a psychic quiltmaker, she receives an odd reading… and her life falls apart in eerie harmony with what the quilt foretold. Her best friend professes his undying love; her show gets canceled; and the mother who disappeared seventeen years ago appears on their doorstep, getting instant forgiveness from the entire family… except Carly.
Carly rushes off to Bilby to return the cursed quilt, and then surprises herself; she stays. She rents a cabin, gets a job, and meets an artist who shows her new ways to look at life, and love. Can she run away and start a new life, or should she go back and stitch her old one back together?
And why is it so hard to get a straight answer from a psychic, anyway?
A Cowboy For Christmas
Romance > Holidays
Author: Katherine Garbera
Annie Prudhomme never expected to be back in Marietta, MT and her family is fond of reminding her that she left them and the town behind in search of better things. A humiliating divorce that cost her everything she’d gained has driven her back home and her family isn’t about to welcome her back into the fold. She’s in town to rebuild the old home that she inherited and to move on once again.
Carson Scott never forgot Annie or the way she left. Now that she’s back in town he’s realizing that the old flame still burns hot but he can’t risk his heart the way he did last time now that he has his son to think about it. Being trapped together during a December snowstorm gives them a chance to rekindle their romance but is Annie back for good or is she just looking for a cowboy for Christmas?
Black Butterfly
Genre Fiction > Urban
Author: Nika Michelle
Meet Seantay, Seandra and Renell Beauvois. These three heiresses were raised in the lap of luxury, courtesy of their real estate tycoon father Sean and ex model mother Tameah. Worth over half a billion dollars these sisters are as different as night, day and in between.
Get sucked into the whirlwind of drama that surrounds the Beauvois sisters and go through a metamorphosis. Black Butterfly is a sexy, juicy, page turner that will keep you wanting more until after the last page.
Mystral Murder
Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Lee Hanson
For body language expert Julie O’Hara, writing a book called “Clues” had seemed like a logical next-step in her career, but she had never thought past the writing part. Catapulted into the spotlight by the book’s success, Julie finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of publicity, the latest being a seminar aboard Holiday Cruise Lines gigantic ship, Mystral.
It’s grin-and-bear-it time for Julie, until a woman she meets at the exclusive Captain’s Dinner takes a header overboard. Julie thinks back and realizes there was a lot of motive for murder spread around the Captain’s table…
The Gift
Romance > Holidays > Novellas
Author: C.J. Carmichael
A heartwarming Christmas novella set in Bandit Creek Montana
What would you do if a little girl in need showed up on your doorstep on Christmas Eve?
Amy Gold, Bandit Creek’s kindergarten teacher, is not the sort of person to flout the law. Especially since she’s dating the local deputy, Gray Cassidy. But an unexpected Christmas gift is about to change everything–not just Amy’s plans for a traditional Christmas, but her entire future, and Gray’s as well.
A Unified Theory of Happiness: An East-Meets-West Approach
Self-Help > Happiness
Author: Andrea Polard PsyD
The Western world teaches us that happiness comes from achievement-from setting goals and actively pursuing them. Eastern wisdom teaches us that surrender is the key, that we must let go in order to experience the great flow of being that is only available in the present moment. How do we take the best wisdom from both of these approaches, and honor what Dr. Andrea Polard calls “the two wings of happiness” that allow us to truly soar?
Discover Dr. Polard’s groundbreaking synthesis of Western thinking and Eastern philosophy with A Unified Theory of Happiness, a warm and personalized guide for the transformation of consciousness that allows personal well-being and fulfillment to flourish. While our lives are full of ups and downs, Dr. Polard teaches us that we don’t have to let these ups and downs control our experience of life.
Whisper My Secret
Biographies & Memoirs > Women > Adoption
Author: JB Rowley
How does a mother cope when she is forced to walk away from her three children and never see them again? That is what happened to JB’s mother, Myrtle. Eventually, rescued from her despair by tall, dark and handsome George Rowley who fell in love her, Myrtle started a new life and had seven more children. She buried the grief of losing her first children deep within and kept her pain secret.
JB and her siblings were unaware of the existence of Myrtle’s first three children until after she died. Desperate to know how such a thing could happen to a devoted and caring mother, JB went on a journey to find out. What she discovered was a heartbreaking story of loss.
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin
Politics & Government > Elections & Political Process
Author: John Heilemann, Mark Halperin
Regular Price $9.99, Today $2.99
Game Change is the New York Times bestselling story of the 2008 presidential election, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, two of the best political reporters in the country. In the spirit of Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes and Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President 1960, this classic campaign trail book tells the defining story of a new era in American politics, going deeper behind the scenes of the Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin campaigns than any other account of the historic 2008 election.
“It’s one of the best books on politics of any kind I’ve read. For entertainment value, I put it up there with Catch 22.” —The Financial Times
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire
Romance > Paranormal > Vampires
Author: Kerrelyn Sparks
Regular Price $7.99, Today $1.99
So what if he’s a bit older and usually regards a human female as dinner, not a dinner date? Yes, Roman Draganesti is a vampire, but a vampire who lost one of his fangs sinking his teeth into something he shouldn’t have. Now he has one night to find a dentist before his natural healing abilities close the wound, leaving him a lop–sided eater for all eternity.
Things aren’t going well for Shanna Whelan either…After witnessing a gruesome murder by the Russian mafia, she’s next on their hit list. And her career as a dentist appears to be on a downward spiral because she’s afraid of blood. When Roman rescues her from an assassination attempt, she wonders if she’s found the one man who can keep her alive. Though the attraction between them is immediate and hot, can Shanna conquer her fear of blood to fix Roman’s fang? And if she does, what will prevent Roman from using his fangs on her…
Once a Marine: An Iraq War Tank Commander’s Memoir
Biographies & Memoirs > Military
Author: Mike Steere, Nick Popaditch
Regular Price $16.99, Today $2.99
May 6, 1986: Nick Popaditch arrives at the Receiving Barracks, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California.
April 9, 2003: An AP photographer captures a striking image seen around the world of the Gunny Sergeant smoking a victory cigar in his tank, the haunting statue of Saddam Hussein hovering in the background. Popaditch is immortalized forever as “The Cigar Marine.”
April 6, 2004: The tanker fights heroically in the battle for Fallujah and suffers grievous head wounds that leave him legally blind and partially deaf. The USMC awards him with a Silver Star for his valor and combat innovation.
April 18, 2004: “Gunny Pop” comes home to face the toughest fight of his life-a battle to remain the man and Marine he was. This is the central drama of Nick’s inspiring memoir, Once a Marine: An Iraq War Tank Commander’s Inspirational Memoir of Combat, Courage, and Recovery.
Readers in and out of the military will stand up and cheer for this valiant Marine’s Marine, a man who embodies everything noble and proud in the Corps’ long tradition. Never has modern mechanized combat seemed so immediate and real, or the fight in Iraq seemed so human and worth believing in.
The Field Guide
Children’s Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths
Author: Holly Black
Regular Price $5.99, Today, $1.99
After finding a mysterious, handmade field guide in the attic of the ramshackle old mansion they’ve just moved into, Jared; his twin brother, Simon; and their older sister, Mallory, discover that there’s a magical and maybe dangerous world existing parallel to our own—the world of faerie.
The Grace children want to share their story, but the faeries will do everything possible to stop them…
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2