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Together for Christmas (affiliate link)

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Author: Macarthur, Autumn
FREE
Contemporary Christian Christmas Romance

Visit London for a series of Christmas dates, experience New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh, fall in love after a marriage of convenience in a beach town, and discover home and healing in small-town Oregon, all within the pages of these complete and standalone romances. If you love Hallmark movies, Love Inspired Books, and deeply emotional stories of overcoming heartache to find happily-ever-afters, chances are the Together for Christmas collection will encourage, uplift, and inspire you!

Book 1: Believe in Me (Love in Store series)
When Nick Gallagher, the Hollywood actor playing the store’s celebrity Santa challenges accountant Cara to a series of dates as a Christmas dare, can the Christmas-hating accountant overcome her painful past and rediscover love, joy and faith? A heartwarming reminder of the importance of believing in God’s promises. Novel-length.

GUARD HER WITH YOUR LIFE (affiliate link)

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Author: ELLIS, JOY
FREE
Crime Thriller

Detective Sam Helsdown waits anxiously at the airport. He’s excited and more than a little nervous to be picking up his daughter. It’s the first time he’s seen ten-year-old Zoe in two years.

Flight BA631 from Athens lands and soon people begin trickling through Arrivals. A blonde-haired girl races towards him and throws herself into his arms crying, ‘Daddy!’.

Sam hugs her tightly. But then he looks down at her properly — and an icy horror grips him.

The next day, the phone rings. The voice is urgent. ‘Help will come. Until then, guard her with your life.’ It’s Julia, his ex.

Ruthless criminals are closing in and Sam will do whatever it takes to keep this girl safe.

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Author: Frost, Agatha
FREE
Cozy Mystery Short Stories

Controlling Christmas
Janet jumped at the chance to direct the local annual nativity play, but not everyone is happy for her. When something precious of Janet’s is stolen during one of the rehearsals at the church, she dives into hunting down the culprit, but will she like what she discovers?

Christmas Crystal Heist
For the fifth year in a row, yoga instructor Em escapes Northash to spend the holidays at a peaceful yoga retreat in the middle of nowhere. That peace is broken when something valuable is stolen from one of her fellow colourful guests. Can Em get to the bottom of the mystery before the usually zen group turns on each other?

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Author: Scott, Thomas
FREE
Mystery Thriller
Detective Virgil Jones, leader of the Major Crimes Unit tackles the hard cases, and this time a team of serial snipers are on the loose…their civilian victims chosen at random. Or are they? With no witnesses and very little evidence, the Major Crimes Unit is ordered to find and stop the killers by any means necessary. Except when Virgil’s long-lost adopted brother, a convicted felon named Murton Wheeler comes back to town, in trouble and on the run, Virgil knows it’s more than just coincidence. He can’t prove it…in fact, he’s not even sure he wants to. As the bodies continue to mount, Virgil finds himself running out of options, knowing he has to choose where his true loyalties lie…with the people he’s sworn to protect, or to the brother that left him behind when he needed him the most.
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Author: Bradford, Emily
FREE
Sweet Romantic Comedy

After letting my heart run wild in the wrong direction last year, I moved home to help revive my family’s struggling train business.

Everything would’ve been fine if Harrison hadn’t rolled into town with his shiny stallion of a steam train and started using my train depot. Now, ticket sales for my Santa Express ride are plummeting.

Sure, he’s handsome and charming and his smile-crinkled eyes rev my heart into high gear, but I’m determined to outsmart him and his sneaky marketing tactics.

Because falling for Harrison would squash my train company’s dwindling chance of survival.

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Author: Lawley, Cate
FREE
Fantasy Romance
Every girl wants a fairy godmother!
But not the kind with a misfiring wand.
Hillary’s been hit by a wonky bit of magic that was supposed to introduce her to her soul mate. That doesn’t happen. Instead she meets… Brad.
Brad’s been waiting for someone to see him—literally, to see him. That’s no small trick since he’s been invisible to everyone but his friend Walter for three long and lonely years. It’s just his luck that the one woman who does is a knockout with a heart bigger than Texas and completely, utterly unattainable. She’s a heartache in heels, but that doesn’t stop Brad from falling in love.
Will Hillary and Brad find love together, or will Brad’s incorporeal state keep them from their love ever after?
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Author: Garrelts, Colby, Garrelts, Megan
Regularly $17.99, Today $2.99
Gastronomy History

Two James Beard Award honorees celebrate the history of the American kitchen table with fifty heirloom recipes.

Kansas City chef and James Beard Award winner Colby Garrelts and his wife, Megan, a James Beard semifinalist for Best Pastry Chef, present a library of American culinary classics redefined by easy, chef-inspired techniques, quality ingredients, and a love for regional flavors from their Midwestern roots. Made in America features fifty handcrafted recipes sorted by the cooking methods commonly used in American kitchens from breakfast to the bakeshop. Many begin with a childhood memory from Colby or Megan that describes the roots and the journey of the recipe.

Suggested menus for festive occasions like Mother’s Day, Fourth of July, Back to School night, and Christmas are also included. Sidebars throughout showcase handcrafted cocktails such as the Bloody Mary, The State Fair, and the Pimm’s Cup that pair well with the recipes within. Love and pride are woven together to create a collection that defines the comforts of home.

Saveur: Italian Comfort Food (affiliate link)

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Author: The Editors of Saveur
Regularly $17.99, Today $2.99
Italian Cooking

From peak-season tomatoes to pastas and pizzas, recipes from the heart of Italy guaranteed to please the body and the soul.

From the editors of America’s favorite culinary magazine, comes the new iconic Italian cookbook. Saveur: Italian Comfort Food features 100 recipes from the magazine’s archives and editors. Each fantastic recipe is paired with gorgeous full-color photography, sidebars, and more to celebrate this favorite cuisine. Dishes from up and down the boot include Tomato Bruschetta with Olives & Basil, Mozzarella with Grilled Lemon Leaves, Bread & Tomato Soup, Farro Gnocchi with Pork Ragù, Veal & Spinach Lasagna, Spaghetti with Spicy Crab Sauce, Potato & Rosemary Pizza Rustica, Classic Meatballs, Porchetta, Pine Nut Cookies, Bourbon Panna Cotta, and more.

Boomsday (affiliate link)

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Author: Buckley, Christopher
Regularly $17.99, Today $2.99
Humorous Fiction
Outraged over the mounting Social Security debt, Cassandra Devine, a charismatic 29-year-old blogger and member of Generation Whatever, incites massive cultural warfare when she politely suggests that Baby Boomers be given government incentives to kill themselves by age 75. Her modest proposal catches fire with millions of citizens, chief among them “an ambitious senator seeking the presidency.” With the help of Washington’s greatest spin doctor, the blogger and the politician try to ride the issue of euthanasia for Boomers (called “transitioning”) all the way to the White House, over the objections of the Religious Right, and of course, the Baby Boomers, who are deeply offended by demonstrations on the golf courses of their retirement resorts.
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Author: Gary, Amy
Regularly $17.99, Today $2.99
Biographies & Memoirs of Authors

Millions of people around the world know Margaret Wise Brown through her classic works of children’s literature. But few know that she was equally remarkable for her business savvy, her thirst for adventure, and her vital role in a children’s book publishing revolution.

Margaret used her whimsey and imagination to create stories that allowed girls to see themselves as equal to boys. And she spent days researching subjects, picking daisies, and observing nature, all in an effort to precisely capture a child’s sense of wonder as they discovered the world.

Living extravagantly off her royalties, Margaret embraced life with passion and engaged in tempestuous love affairs with both men and women. Among her great loves was the gender-bending poet and ex-wife of John Barrymore who went by the pen name Michael Strange. She later became engaged to a younger man who was the son of a Rockefeller and a Carnegie.

The Wrong Child (affiliate link)

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Author: Arlidge, M. J., Crouch, Julia
Regularly $17.99, Today $0.99
Crime Thrillers

A mother with a dark secret…
A daughter dying to tell.

When 3-month-old Max is abducted, his parents are plunged into their worst nightmare. Devastated mum Sarah only took her eyes off him for a second, but that doesn’t stop her guilt. Even husband Jake can’t hide his anger that their little boy went missing on her watch.

By contrast there are smiles and celebration at a caravan park in Lincolnshire, as baby Blaze is introduced to the Star family. Jenna and Gary are delighted with the new addition to their family. He is their fourth child and a real object of delight to their eldest – fifteen-year-old Willow – who once again will raise the child.

But trouble is brewing for the Star family. Willow is concerned by the desperate online appeals from Sarah and Jake, baby Max has neonatal diabetes and without regular treatment will die. As baby “Blaze” becomes seriously ill, Willow makes a shocking discovery. What is the truth about her family? And how far will they go to hide their deadly secret?

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Author: Onorato, Irene
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Contemporary Christian Romance

Even an elite soldier can admit he’s lost.

Gruff and tough, Edward Giordano’s success as an elite Special Forces soldier doesn’t carry over to his personal life. Emotionally scarred from a painful childhood, he’s built a wall around his heart that he lets very few penetrate.

Audra Lorenzo, a first-year school teacher, is on a road trip with her niece during the holidays. A storm that was supposed to pass, instead crosses her path. Lost, with her GPS cutting in and out, her car skids off a road, down an embankment, and into an icy river. Everything goes black.

Regaining consciousness in a remote cabin, Audra finds she and her niece were saved by Edward, a soldier who’d put his life in danger to rescue them. Harsh and unfriendly at first, the lieutenant’s demeanor frightens her. As days go by, small kindnesses shine through chinks in his armor and her heart is drawn to his. But does he feel the same? Can this scarred and guarded man find it in him to share the same love for her?

… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2