Enter the sinfully delicious universe of New York Times bestselling author Shirley Jump’s “Sweet and Savory Romances” with her romantic comedy The Bride Wore Chocolate at the top of today’s Buffet.
Shirley Jump spends her days writing romance and women’s fiction to feed her shoe addiction and avoid cleaning the toilets. She cleverly finds writing time by feeding her kids junk food, allowing them to dress in the clothes they find on the floor, and encouraging the dogs to double as vacuum cleaners.
Shirley sold her first book to Silhouette Romance in 2001. That novel, The Virgin’s Proposal, won the Booksellers’ Best Award for “Best Traditional Romance of 2003.” Two of her subsequent books were finalists in the Golden Quill Awards and two others were finalists in the Madcap Awards for best romantic comedy.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours (except for the “Kindle Daily Deals” on page 3). 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.)
The Bride Wore Chocolate (Sweet and Savory Romances, Book One)
Romantic Comedy
Author: Shirley Jump
Life couldn’t be more perfect for Candace Woodrow. Her gourmet gift basket company is thriving, and she’s set to marry steady, dependable Barry. There’s just one wrench in the fairytale. Two weeks before her wedding she wakes up in the wrong man’s bed. Candace thinks she’ll be able to run out the door and forget all about Michael Vogler, but the Boston millionaire has other plans for the jittery bride.
As the wedding approaches, Candace’s life is further complicated by a thrill-seeking grandma and a meddlesome mother whose marriage track record rivals Elizabeth Taylor’s. She attempts to drown her sorrows in chocolate, but with a sexy bachelor appearing on her doorstep at every turn – she finds herself wondering if there’s enough of the sweet stuff in the world to stop her heart from racing every time he comes near.
space
Shapeshifters Anonymous
Fantasy > Paranormal & Urban
Author: J.A. Konrath, Jack Kilborn
It isn’t easy being a werewolf. Especially when you’re a newbie at shapeshifting.
Lucky, there’s a group called Shapeshifters Anonymous that will help you work through the difficult times, like eating your friends, and shedding.
When recently turned werewolf Robert Weston Smith discovers his new found abilities in a humorous (but alarming) way, he seeks out the support group to help him figure things out. There he meets various characters who transform into assorted, odd things, including a sexy werecheetah named Irena.
But little did Weston know he’d been followed to this private gathering, by someone who wants to do the therianthropes a great deal of harm…
Claw Back (Louis Kincaid)
Mystery > Police Procedurals
Author: P.J. Parrish
Her name is Grace. She’s eight years old. And she’s missing in the Florida Everglades. Can Louis Kincaid find her in time to save her — and himself?
Louis is desperate to wear a badge again and redeem himself in the eyes of his lover Joe Frye. He’s cleaning up his credit and getting in shape. But there’s one big obstacle in his way—his old nemesis Sheriff Lance Mobley. He’s willing to give Louis a shot but only if he proves himself on one of the weirdest cases Louis has ever worked. If he can find a missing endangered Florida panther in the steamy Everglades maybe he can claw his way back to his dream and his identity as a man.
Just Evil (The Evil Secrets Trilogy, Book 1)
Romance > Mystery & Suspense
Author: Vickie McKeehan
Despite growing up together in their trendy Beverly Hills neighborhood, three best friends hide dark childhoods. The lives of Kit, Baylee and Quinn have been anything but perfect. Little do they know a stranger is about to unravel long, buried secrets, bringing the past back to life with a vengeance.
Kit Griffin has finally overcome a painful childhood at the hands of her mother, former actress Alana Stevens. No longer living in the grasp of the cold, tyrannical woman, Kit’s life is finally on track. That is, until Alana is found brutally murdered on Mother’s Day, pulling Kit back to the dark horrors of her past. To make matters worse, the police consider Kit the prime suspect.
Jake Boston is an old family friend and the man Kit has loved since she was a teen. He’s fighting his own demons as a suspect in his wife’s murder two years earlier. Despite his past, he’s determined to win Kit over once and for all. But before that can happen they need to convince the police there’s a killer working his way down a list with cold-hearted vengeance in mind.
The Reckless Engineer (The Reckless Engineer, Book 1)
Mystery > British Detectives
Author: Jac Wright
The aftershocks of an affair reverberate out to those in the lives of the lovers, who will NOT take it lying down.
Jack Connor lives an idyllic life by the Portsmouth seaside married to Caitlin McAllen, a stunning billionaire heiress, and working at his two jobs as the Head of Radar Engineering of Marine Electronics and as the Director of Engineering of McAllen BlackGold, his powerful father-in-law Douglas McAllen’s extreme engineering company in Oil & Gas. He loves his two sons from his first marriage and is amicably divorced from his beautiful first wife Marianne Connor. Their delicately balanced lives are shattered when sexy Michelle Williams, with whom Jack is having a secret affair and who is pregnant with his child, is found dead and Jack is arrested on suspicion for the murder.
Why We Eat Our Own
Christian Living > Relationships
Author: Michael Cheshire
All too often, Christians who are sinners themselves become judge, jury, and jailer over others. In his newest release, Why We Eat Our Own, author and pastor Michael Cheshire boldly explores some unsavory questions. Why does the world often do a better job of forgiving their fallen than the Church? When did the Church become cannibalistic? Is the decline in Christianity due to the world or have we just become horrible to each other and the world noted it?
TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?
Finding Emma
Women’s Fiction > Contemporary Women
Author: Steena Holmes
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
A mother’s near-obsessive devotion to her missing daughter threatens to destroy more than one family.
Megan is the harried but happy stay-at-home mother of three little girls living in a small town. Her life implodes when her youngest daughter, Emma, disappears on her third birthday.
Two years later, Megan is preparing to commemorate Emma’s birthday and the anniversary of her kidnapping, compelled to keep her name alive in the minds of her community and her family. Her commitment to Emma, however, borderlines on obsession as she follows the families of little girls who look like the daughter she lost.
Her obsession with finding Emma has distanced Megan from both friends and family. Her two older daughters are resentful of her relentless and fruitless search for their sister, and her husband pleads with her to accept that Emma is gone so that the family can move on with their lives.
Elizabeth Street
Historical Fiction > Italian
Author: Laurie Fabiano
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
Based on true events, Elizabeth Street is a multigenerational saga that opens in an Italian village in the 1900’s, and crosses the ocean to New York’s Lower East Side. At the heart of the novel is Giovanna, whose family is targeted by the notorious Black Hand -the precursor to the Mafia. Elizabeth Street brings to light a period in history when Italian immigrant neighborhoods lived in fear of Black Hand extortion and violence-a reality that defies the romanticized depiction of the Mafia.
Here, the author reveals the merciless terror of the Black Hand-and the impact their crimes had on her family. Giovanna is based on Fabiano’s great-grandmother, and the book’s heroes and villains – such as Lieutenant Petrosino, the crusading cop and “Lupo the Wolf,” a cold-blooded criminal – are drawn from real life in this thrilling tale. While set in a dynamic historical context, Elizabeth Street is, above all, the dramatic story of the heroine, Giovanna, and how she triumphed over tragedy.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Nature Writing
Author: Annie Dillard
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia’s Blue Ridge valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of “mystery, death, beauty, violence.”
In this classic of literary nonfiction, Annie Dillard takes us through a year of on-foot explorations through her own landscape, bringing anecdotes, curiosities, and insights about all she observes and experiences. In the summer, she stalks muskrats in the creek and thinks about wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot, unties a snakeskin, witnesses a flood, and plays “King of the Meadow” with a field of grasshoppers.
Throughout her wanderings, Annie Dillard’s keen observations, poetic sensibilities, introspective reflections, and reverence for her surroundings show us the world outside as we have never seen it before.
The Curse Keepers (Curse Keepers series)
Fantasy > Paranormal & Urban
Author: Denise Grover Swank
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
The wall between our world and that of vengeful spirits has protected humanity for more than 400 years. It’s about to come crashing down.
Ellie Lancaster has lived her whole life by the site of the mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke, the North Carolina settlement that vanished without a trace around 1590. Only the descendants of the two men who banished the spirits of an enemy tribe from the material realm know what really happened to the colony. Ellie is one of those descendants—a Curse Keeper. Her father took pains to teach her what he knew of the curse and the responsibilities of its guardians. He taught her that if the two Curse Keepers ever meet, the curse will be lifted, the gate will open, and the raging Native American spirits will be unleashed to seek their revenge.
Despite her father’s seriousness, Ellie has always taken the legend for a harmless fairy tale. Until she meets the darkly handsome, but downright infuriating, Collin Dailey and realizes everything she was told is true. For when they meet, it’s like the air is sucked from the room.
Gluten-Free Baking Classics
Author: Annalise G. Roberts
Regularly $17.95, Today $2.99
This revised edition of Annalise Roberts’ popular cookbook is a welcome choice for those allergic to gluten who want to enjoy delicious fresh-baked foods. Roberts presents easy-to-use recipes and techniques for baking everyday basics like bread and cookies as well as classic treats like brownies and biscuits. Sample delights include Multi-Grain Artisan Bread, Hazelnut Cake, and Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Doughnuts. These recipes use precise mixes of non-wheat-based, gluten-free flours that only the baker need know are allergy safe.
Gluten-Free Baking Classics is designed for all skills levels, from beginner to seasoned, and the book is especially useful for novices since it contains detailed instructions on how to get started, as well as timeless baking techniques and guidelines to assure success. Also included are tips on how to incorporate gluten-free baking into a busy weekly schedule, and the book explains why baking wholesome and delicious breads, muffins, cakes, and other items is so important for emotional and physical well-being.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2