Rachael Herron tops today’s Buffet with Eliza’s Home, a sweet romance that’s so fun to read, lots of people finish it in one sitting.
Rachel received her MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College. She lives in Oakland, CA with her family. She learned to knit at the age of five, and generally only puts the needles down to eat, write, or sleep, and sometimes not even then.
Rachel’s memoir, A LIFE IN STITCHES, is available from Chronicle Books, and PACK UP THE MOON will be out from Penguin in March 2014.
When she’s not busy writing or knitting, Rachel is a 911 fire/medical dispatcher for a San Francisco Bay Area fire department.
As usual, each book 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.)
Eliza’s Home: A Cypress Hollow Novella
Romance
Author: Rachael Herron
Home isn’t always a place…
It’s 1945, the war is over, the GIs are returning , and Eliza is on the run. At least, she would be if her truck hadn’t broken down in the middle of nowhere and her money hadn’t, quite literally, flown out the window. So when Joshua Carpenter, a cowboy with the most brilliant blue eyes she has ever seen, stops to offer her help, Eliza can’t afford to say no… Joshua, it seems, is single-handedly building a home for himself on farmland just outside the town of Cypress Hollow. And as Eliza is about to discover, sometimes running away is the only way to come home…
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Jingle All the Way
Children’s Books > Holidays & Celebrations
Author: Tom Shay-Zapien, Matt Wiewel
Jingle All the Way is the tale of a loveable, obedient pup who wants nothing more than a place to call home for the holidays.
Little ones will love hearing this story as a narrator reads to them, page by page.
The Pirate’s Jewel
Historical Romance > Sea Adventures
Author: Cheryl Howe
Jewel Sanderson has relinquished hope that the treasure map her estranged father left with her for safekeeping holds any value. Being the daughter of a notorious pirate was just as useless for a girl raised in a tavern on the docks of Charles Town as the map she couldn’t read. She is ready to accept the suit of a man who thinks of her as nothing but cheap labor when a ghost from her past sails through the tavern door demanding she hand over the map. Her rescuer is her father’s former protégé and she’ll gladly give him the map as long as he takes her with him to find the treasure.
Nolan Kenton ran away to be a pirate in his youth, but soon found he was trapped and at the mercy of a cruel mentor. When he was old enough to escape, he returned to his pious father and tried to lead a moral life. Only the lure of joining in the coming revolution can persuade him to return to the sea and the past he left behind. But to finance his venture, he must face the thing he dreads the most: his old mentor’s daughter, the only woman who has ever captured his heart. Nolan fears that finding the treasure with Jewel will reveal secrets he wishes to stay buried and will result in his losing his heart, and Jewel, forever.
Death Is No Bargain (Emerson Ward Mystery)
Mystery > Hard-Boiled
Author: Michael W. Sherer
Freelance writer Emerson Ward is minding his own business one sweltering July day when Larry Forrester shows up at the door of his Chicago brownstone, accuses him of seducing his teenage daughter Ellen, and tries to kill him.
A week later, when Larry’s ex-wife tells Emerson that Ellen has gone missing and asks him to find her, Emerson also learns that his girlfriend Nell is pregnant. While Nell and Emerson confront the difficult decision of whether or not to keep their baby, Emerson discovers that Ellen may have been facing the same dilemma.
When a girl fitting Ellen’s description turns up dead 250 miles away, Emerson drops everything to find out what happened before he can face his own conflicted feelings. Suspecting the worst, Emerson adopts an alternate identity and leaves his Chicago life behind, unsure if he’ll live to return. The trail leads him on a twisted and deadly journey through the heated and sometimes violent debate over abortion and the sex scandals rocking the Catholic Church.
Together for Christmas: Spirit Travel Novel – Book #5
Romantic Comedy > Holidays
Author: Mimi Barbour
She’s happy existing inside him – her spirit joined with his. He hates it – another female to mess with his head and turn his life upside down. So what if it’s Christmas! If you like the idea of a girl with attitude taking over a workaholic’s body and making him do the special Christmas chores she’s had planned before the holidays, then you will love how he comes to adore the little witch and ends up doing anything he can to win her love.
Holiday Simple As Pie (Delicious Pie Recipes)
Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Pies
Author: Sara Winlet
One of the best parts of a holiday dinner is dessert. With these great pie recipes, you will be able to find that perfect pie to compliment your perfect Holiday dinner. In my Simple As Pie Cookbook, I include many old family favorite recipes, some of which have been enhanced with a few new twists. For example, I love cream pies, but I don’t like eating raw egg’s in meringue. So, I use my recipe for cream pie and make a topping that is out of this world. This Cookbook includes recipes for both great dessert pies and a bonus section with delicious savory pies, where you could replace the chicken with leftover turkey.
- Old Fashioned Cherry Pie
- Tennessee Blackberry Pie
- Mountain Blueberry Pie
- Berry Cranberry Pie
- Fresh Peach Pie
- Cherry Berry Peach Pie
- Baked Strawberry Pie
- Deep Dish Apple Pie
- Fabulous Cream Topping
- Meringue Topping
- Old Fashioned Chocolate Pie
- Coconut Cream Pie
- Luscious Lemon Cream Pie
- Amazing Banana Cream Pie
- Easy Key Lime Pie
And much more.
Killing Mum
Crime Fiction > Kidnapping
Author: Allan Guthrie
Receiving ten grand as down payment on a hit isn’t that much of a surprise to Carlos Morales. After all, arranging contract killings is his business. But he never expected that someone might want his mother dead!
What’s equally troubling is the fact that the anonymous package arrived addressed to ‘Charlie’. Only two people call him by that name: his wife and his mother. Has his wife just hired him to whack her mother-in-law? Or is his mother just looking for some help to put an end to her misery? Or maybe there’s another answer entirely.
One thing’s for sure: Carlos is about to find out.
The Shoulders of Giants (A Jake Abraham Mystery)
Mystery > Hard-Boiled
Author: Jim Cliff
A missing girl. A ruthless killer. A rookie P.I.
Jake Abraham is a child of the 80s, brought up by Jim Rockford, Thomas Magnum and three beautiful girls who worked for a man named Charlie. He’s loving his new job as a Private Investigator and already has his first client – a disgraced former police captain whose daughter has disappeared.
When the girl shows up dead, Jake is drawn into a dangerous world of organised crime, police corruption, infidelity and serial murder.
As The Last Petal Falls (Once Upon a Romance)
Historical Romance
Author: Jessica Woodard
Vivienne never planned to get lost, when she set out to find the truth about her mother. She also never planned to be chased by wolves, break her arm, or be held prisoner by an enigmatic, scowling, beast of a man.
Most of all, she never planned to fall in love. Funny how things change.
TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?
Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
Contemporary Fiction
Author: Mo Yan
Regularly $16.95, Today $1.99
Today’s most revered, feared, and controversial Chinese novelist offers a tour de force in which the real, the absurd, the comical, and the tragic are blended into a fascinating read. The hero—or antihero—of Mo Yan’s new novel is Ximen Nao, a landowner known for his benevolence to his peasants. His story is a deliriously unique journey and absolutely riveting tale that reveals the author’s love of a homeland beset by ills inevitable, political, and traditional.
Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove)
Historical Romance > Regency
Author: Tessa Dare
Regularly $5.99, Today $1.99
What’s a duke to do, when the girl who’s perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can’t live without?
Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season–or any season–but his diabolical mother abducts him to “Spinster Cove” and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.
Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn’t dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week’s employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother’s “duchess training”… and fail miserably.
But in London, Pauline isn’t a miserable failure. She’s a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure–a woman who ignites Griff’s desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won’t be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess–can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?
The Wretched of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood: Book 1)
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Jeff Wheeler
Regularly $2.99, Today $0.99
In the ancient and mystical land of Muirwood, Lia has known only a life of servitude. Labeled a “wretched,” an outcast unwanted and unworthy of respect, Lia is forbidden to realize her dream to read or write. All but doomed, her days are spent toiling away as a kitchen slave under the charge of the Aldermaston, the Abbey’s watchful overseer.
But when an injured squire named Colvin is abandoned at the kitchen’s doorstep, an opportunity arises. The nefarious Sheriff Almaguer soon starts a manhunt for Colvin, and Lia conspires to hide Colvin and change her fate. In the midst of a land torn by a treacherous war between a ruthless king and a rebel army, Lia finds herself on an ominous journey that will push her to wonder if her own hidden magic is enough to set things right. At once captivating, mysterious, and magic-infused, The Wretched of Muirwood takes the classic fantasy adventure and paints it with a story instantly epic, and yet, all its own.
History Buff’s Guide to the Civil War
History > United States > Civil War
Author: Thomas R. Flagel
Regularly $16.99, Today $2.99
The History Buff’s Guide to the Civil War clears the powder smoke surrounding the war that changed America forever. What were the best, the worst, the largest, and the most lethal aspects of the conflict? With over thirty annotated top ten lists and unexpected new findings, author Thomas R. Flagel will have you debating the most intriguing questions of the Civil War in no time. From the top ten causes of the war to the top ten bloodiest battles, this invaluable guide to the great war between the states will delight and inform you about one of the most crucial periods in American history.
The Scorpio Races
Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shiver and Linger comes a brand new, heartstopping novel.
Some race to win. Others race to survive.
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.
Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition – the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2