Award-winning author Rosemarie Naramore lives and writes in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She is married to a deputy sheriff and it’s no coincidence that law-enforcement officers are often featured prominently in her books. Rosemarie’s latest book, the mystery Deputy Down, was released Nov. 20.
Rosemarie tops today’s Buffet with The Happiest Season, an enjoyable inspirational holiday read.
Rosemarie’s first romance novel, Just in Time, was published by Avalon Books in 2008. She went on to write three other lighthearted romances for Avalon–Armed and Disarming, The Detour, and Lacey’s Homecoming, as well as a mystery entitled The Listing Agent. When Amazon acquired Avalon in 2012, her second mystery/police procedural, Deputy Down, was picked up by Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint. Meanwhile, her romance novels have been released by Amazon under their Montlake imprint.
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.)
The Happiest Season
Christian Fiction > Romance
Author: Rosemarie Naramore
Christmas time may be the happiest season of all, but Maggie Dulane and her small son Rickey equate it with loss. Maggie’s husband was killed during the holidays two years before, leaving her to raise her little boy on her own.
Losing his father during the Christmas season has caused five-year-old Rickey to lose faith in Santa Claus—but the bright little boy has managed to retain his faith in God. He prays to Him each night to send him a daddy.
When the small family begins receiving unexpected visitors at Christmas time that cause all sorts of unwanted complications, Police Officer John comes to the rescue. The handsome officer is truly a godsend.
Has God answered Rickey’s prayers? He thinks so. But can he convince his uncertain mother that God has a plan for all of them?
The Christmas Sisters (The Christmas Sisters for All Seasons)
Murder on the Candlelight Tour (Magnolia Mystery series)
Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Ellen Elizabeth Hunter
BOOK #2 IN THE MAGNOLIA MYSTERY SERIES. It’s a dream come true for historic preservationist Ashley Wilkes: her restored Victorian house is on the Olde Wilmington by Candlelight tour. But her dream quickly turns nightmarish when a docent is murdered in the library, and her friend, history professor Binkie Higgins, is the likely suspect. As the bodies drop faster than dead needles off a dry Christmas tree, Ashley’s as busy as Santa’s elves: proving Binkie’s innocence, rescuing sister Melanie and a historic property from a ruthless developer. And, la-di-da, solving the Atlantic Coast Line’s 40 year old payroll robbery.
A Touch of Magic
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: M. Ruth Myers
A dazzling sleight-of-hand artist is recruited by the State Department to pit her skills – and wits – against a master terrorist. He’s about to receive a piece of stolen film used to make US passports, film that could open the door to terrorists around the world.
Although Channing Stuart is the fourth generation in a family of acclaimed magicians, she’s the first of them not to turn pro. Eye-to-eye with a killer, will she have the nerve and nimbleness to pull off a switch that finally proves her worthy of her bloodline?
Special agent Bill Ellery is irritated to find himself suddenly teamed with this amateur whose passion to succeed is as great as his own, and whose penchant for the unpredictable unsettles him as much as the woman herself.
In an upscale resort where every enticement hides a trap, they play cat and mouse with enemies known and unknown as a time bomb ticks. Hundreds of lives depend on the deftness of one woman’s fingers and … A TOUCH OF MAGIC.
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A Cast of Stones (Staff and the Sword Book #1)
Fantasy > Epic Medieval Saga
Author: Patrick W. Carr
In the backwater village of Callowford, Errol Stone’s search for a drink is interrupted by a church messenger who arrives with urgent missives for the hermit priest in the hills. Desperate for coin, Errol volunteers to deliver them but soon finds himself hunted by deadly assassins. Forced to flee with the priest and a small band of travelers, Errol soon learns he’s joined a quest that could change the fate of his kingdom.
Protected for millennia by the heirs of the first king, the kingdom’s dynasty is near an end and a new king must be selected. As tension and danger mount, Errol must leave behind his drunkenness and grief, learn to fight, and come to know his God in order to survive a journey to discover his destiny.
Saint Nicholas, the Christmas Story
Christian Fiction > Historical
Author: Matthew Eldridge
From his early days as a monk working with orphans, to his final days as Bishop, this historical fiction fantasy novel details the life of the true Saint Nicholas, as never told before.
In an effort to help the poor in Asia Minor, Nicholas makes a risky trip to Byzantium (soon to be Constantinople), but finds himself evading the evil Emperor, Diocletian, who tracks him down across the Middle East. Escaping to the mountains east of Byzantium and north of Myra, Nicholas finds a winter wonderland where a community of dwarfs live to escape cruel treatment from Rome. The little people are gifted craftsmen and entrepreneurs. The Bishop also falls in love with a beautiful woman, challenging him with the choice of leaving a life of celibacy for an intimacy of a more earthly kind.
The Bishop discovers his monastery burned by Roman soldiers upon his return, and is later turned in by the Cardinal himself. Imprisoned and sentenced to death, his only hope is the successor to Diocletian, the warrior Constantine.
Unplugged: Walking Away From a Job and Getting Everything You Want Out of Life
Self-Help > Success
Author: Scott Rewick
Sometimes You Have to Pull The Plug if You Really Want to Live Your Life. You’re About To Learn the Secrets to Creating the Life You’ve Been Dreaming of.
In this book, you’ll discover how to do work that will support your dreams, not get in the way.
Have you ever seen people with fancy suits, fancy cars and a lot of money who just work, work, work their whole lives at jobs they don’t even like anymore? I used to be one of those guys. Then I discovered how to Unplug, and everything changed.
In this book, you’ll learn how you too can Unplug from your job before it sucks all the life out of you — and create an incredible income that will support your lifestyle.
Unplugging is all about freedom. Are you free to do what you want, when you want, how you want, with whoever you want? If not, that’s okay. But if you’re looking for real freedom in life, the ability to choose exactly how you spend your time and how you live, this book is for you.
Seed Saving for the Organic Gardener
Gardening & Horticulture > Techniques > Organic
Author: Martin Anderson
Organic seed harvesting made simple.
For the aspiring organic gardener, there’s nothing more rewarding than growing organic crops from seeds you’ve harvested yourself. This book gives you the information you need to get started harvesting and planting your own seeds.
The following topics are covered:
– Why saving seeds is preferable to buying seeds.
– The key difference between hybrid and open-pollinated seeds.
– Why you need to avoid GMO seeds at all costs.
– How to control cross-pollination of your plants.
– Bagging, isolating and boxing your plants.
– Growing healthy seeds.
– How to harvest seeds from a number of popular plants including artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, flowers, corn, strawberries, cucumbers, melons and more.
Her Mad Hatter (Kingdom Series: Book 1)
Romance > Paranormal > Fantasy
Author: Marie Hall
Alice is all grown up. Running the Mad Hatter’s Cupcakery and Tea Shoppe is a delicious job, until fate–and a fairy godmother with a weakness for bad boys–throws her a curveball. Now, Alice is the newest resident of Wonderland, where the Mad Hatter fuels her fantasies and thrills her body with his dark touch.
The Mad Hatter may have a voice and a body made for sex, but he takes no lovers. Ever. But a determined fairy godmother has forced Alice into Wonderland–and his arms. Now, as desire and madness converge, the Hatter must decide if he will fight the fairy godmother’s mating–or fight for Alice.
All the Dancing Birds
Genre Fiction > Medical
Author: Auburn McCanta
Lillie Claire Glidden is unraveling. She knows she’s in trouble when she finds her wallet and keys deep in the refrigerator, smelling of lettuce and forgetfulness. And not even her favorite California red wine can dull the pain of the dreaded diagnosis: Alzheimer’s.
As language starts to fail her and words disappear, Lillie Claire is determined to find a way to pass on the lessons she learned as a child on a Southern porch. Surrounded by family and caregivers, she fights to hold on to the details of her life, and to recognize the woman in the mirror for as long as possible.
Told from Lillie Claire’s perspective, All the Dancing Birds offers beautiful and terrifying insight into the secret mind of those touched—and ultimately changed—by the mystery of Alzheimer’s disease.
Christmas Romance (Best Christmas Romances of 2013)
Romance > Collections & Anthologies
Author: Jennifer Conner, Danica Winters, Sharon Kleve, Casey Dawes
Regularly $2.99, Today $0.99
Four sweet Christmas stories from your favorite romance authors to warm your heart for the holidays.
Christmas Wishes-Danica Winters: For most, Christmas is a time for family, love, life, dreams, and wishes—but not for Lee Llewellyn, a mother who has recently lost her son to an accident and her husband to the resentment it caused. In a chance encounter, she is given the gift of company on Christmas, but is she ready to move forward and start living again?
Christmas at Central Bark-Jennifer Conner: When Tennyson’s boyfriend left her for her best friend from high-school, all Tennyson received in the break up was her dog. She’s sworn off men and now is rebuilding her life. The only thing Par does is work. He barely has time to do anything he wants for himself other than take his dog to the dog park. When Par and Tennyson find an abandoned dog at the park named Duke. Will they find room in their hearts to take him in?
And can this Christmas season weave some special magic for the two of them?
Halo’s Wish-Sharon Kleve: Halo Ann Carlyle wishes for a home, family, and a boat-load of pets. What she gets is a bruised hip, a lump on the head, a broken ankle, and her new yellow Honda Civic is demolished. Rich McFarland, a sexy veterinarian, keeps showing up in the most unexpected places, promising everything she’s ever wanted.Halo believes she only has time to pursue her career as a pet detective and must ignore her growing attraction to achieve her dreams.
Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut Series)
Science Fiction > Metaphysical & Visionary
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Regularly $8.99, Today $1.99
Cat’s Cradle (1963) is Vonnegut’s most ambitious novel, which put into the language terms like “wampeter”, “kerass” and “granfalloon” as well as a structured religion, Boskonism and was submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for a Master’s Degree in anthropology, and in its sprawling compass and almost uncontrolled (and uncontrollable) invention, may be Vonnegut’s best novel.
Written contemporaneously with the Cuban missile crisis and countenancing a version of a world in the grasp of magnified human stupidity, the novel is centered on Felix Hoenikker, a chemical scientist reminiscent of Robert Oppenheimer… except that Oppenheimer was destroyed by his conscience and Hoenikker, delighting in the disastrous chemicals he has invented, has no conscience at all. Hoenikker’s “Ice 9” has the potential to convert all liquid to inert ice and thus destroy human existence; he is exiled to a remote island where Boskonism has enlisted all of its inhabitants and where religion and technology collaborate, with the help of a large cast of characters, to destroy civilization.
Vonnegut’s compassion and despair are expressed here through his grotesque elaboration of character and situation and also through his created religion which like Flannery O’Connor’s “Church Without Christ” (in Wise Blood) acts to serve its adherents by removing them from individual responsibility. Vonnegut had always been taken seriously by science fiction readers and critics (a reception which indeed made him uncomfortable) but it was with Cat’s Cradle that he began to be found and appreciated by a more general audience. His own ambivalence toward science, science fiction, religion and religious comfort comes through in every scene of this novel.
Grub Line Rider
Genre Fiction > Historical > Westerns
Author: Louis L’Amour
Regularly $6.99, Today $1.99
The fury of the Wild West explodes in this thrilling collection of classic Louis L’Amour short stories. Most folks would call Kim Sartain an easygoing, peace-loving man. But the few who crossed the young drifter knew there was nothing he liked better than a good fight. When cattleman Jim Targ challenges Sartain’s right to ride across an unclaimed stretch of meadow, Sartain decides he’ll do better than ride through: He’ll put down stakes there and homestead the land. Soon there’s more at risk than land and pride when Targ hires a gunman to teach Sartain a permanent—and deadly—lesson.
India Fan (Casablanca Classics)
Historical Fiction > Romantic Suspense
Author: Victoria Holt
Regularly $6.99, Today $1.99
Blackmail. Arson. Murder. Obsession.
Beautiful as its peacock feathers may be, the priceless fan hidden deep within the Framling mansion has a legacy of death and destruction. And Drusilla Delany has no idea she’s been marked by its curse…
But the fan’s dark past might prove less of a danger than Fabian Framling himself. Dark, brooding, and dominating, will he be the one to save her from the fan’s cruel fate…or cause her demise?
Earth Abides
Science Fiction > Classics
Author: George R. Stewart
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
- $9.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
The cabin had always been a special retreat for Isherwood Williams, a haven from the demands of society. But one day while hiking, Ish was bitten by a rattlesnake, and the solitude he had so desired took on dire new significance. He was sick for days — although, somehow, he never doubted that he’d live through the ordeal. Often delirious, he did awake at one point to find two strangers peering in at him from the cabin door. Yet oddly, instead of offering help, the two ran off as if terrified.
Not long after that, the coughing began. Ish suffered chills followed by fever, and a measles-like rash that had nothing to do with snake bite broke out on his skin. He was one of the few people in the world to live through that peculiar malady, but he didn’t know it then.
Ish headed home when he finally felt himself again—and noticed the strangeness almost immediately. No cars passed him on the road; the gas station not far from his cabin had an air of abandonment; and he was shocked to see the body of a man lying by the roadside near a small town. Without a radio or phone, Ish had no idea of humanity’s abrupt demise. He had escaped death, yet could not escape the awesomeness of the catastrophe—and, with an eerie detachment, he found himself curious as to how long it would be before all traces of man’s civilization faded from the Earth.
At the same time, he couldn’t help wondering whether others had survived, and whether even a handful of human beings would
Thread Slivers (Golden Threads Trilogy)
Fantasy > Epic
Author: Leeland Artra
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Ticca is a newly-minted Dagger, a young honorable mercenary out to prove her worth in the big city. Her first job seems like a simple one, but it sets her on a path to a destiny bigger than she ever dreamed. The friends she makes along the way may have destinies of their own to fulfill: Lebuin a new Journeyman mage and a fastidious dandy, has just learned to his horror that his new rank involves actual journeying – and dirt! And Ticca is worried about Lebuin’s humble servant, Ditani, as she is sure he is more than he seems and might be a spy for Lebuin’s nemesis.
The three of them are swept into a series of deadly events. Fighting to stay ahead of their adversaries, they stumble into secrets that catapult them towards disaster that even the Gods are not prepared for.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2