Fans of the traditional Regency romances of Georgette Heyer, Jo Beverley, and Carla Kelly will enjoy today’s top pick from New York Times bestselling author Candice Hern.
Candice is quite familiar with the Regency period thanks to years of collecting antiques and fashion prints of the period. She travels to England regularly, always in search of more historical and local color to bring her stories and characters to life. Her books have won praise for the “intelligence and elegant romantic sensibility” (according to Romantic Times) as well as “delicious wit and luscious sensuality” (says Booklist).
Although a fifth-generation Texan by birth (St. Joseph’s Hospital, Houston), Candice spent most of her childhood in Southern California and most of her adult life in San Francisco. She now lives in Minneapolis where she has learned to appreciate four distinct seasons, though not so much the capricious and often severe Midwestern weather.
Candice tops today’s Buffet with A Proper Companion, Book 1 of her Regency Rakes Trilogy
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours. 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.)
A Proper Companion
Romance > Regency
Author: Candice Hern
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Robert, Lord Bradleigh, is a rakish earl with a recently arranged betrothal to a lovely young girl he barely knows. Emily Townsend is an impoverished spinster employed as a companion to his grandmother, the formidable dowager countess. Robert agrees to help his grandmother find a husband for the beautiful Emily, but how is he to bear the thought of her in another man’s arms?
This sparkling tale will take you from the Pump Room at Bath to the ballrooms of London as the unexpected and undeniable attraction between Robert and Emily blossoms into something more … something that could put one of them in danger.
Betrayed
Christian Fiction > Suspense
Author: Jeanette Windle
Fires smolder endlessly below the dangerous surface of Guatemala City’s municipal dump. Deadlier fires seethe beneath the tenuous calm of a nation recovering from brutal civil war. Anthropologist Vicki Andrews is researching Guatemala’s “garbage people” when she stumbles across a human body. Curiosity turns to horror as she uncovers no stranger, but an American environmentalist—Vicki’s only sister, Holly.
With authorities dismissing the death as another street crime, Vicki begins tracing Holly’s last steps, a pilgrimage leading from slum squalor to the breathtaking and endangered cloud forests of the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere. But every unraveled thread raises more questions. What betrayal connects Holly’s murder, the recent massacre of a Mayan village, and the long-ago deaths of Vicki’s own parents?
Phone Kitten
Mystery > Cozy > Humor
Author: Marika Christian
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Shy, funny, loveable Emily’s a pretty unlikely candidate for a phone sex operator. She’d die if she had to talk dirty face-to-face—especially to her hot cop boyfriend. She sure didn’t set out to do phone sex—she wanted to be a writer. But when her BFF framed her for plagiarism, she got in a tiny financial hole and saw this ad for a “phone actresses”…
Hey, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. No pantyhose or pantsuits, no regular hours, you’re your own boss, and lots of people to talk to. Guys, that is. But here’s the odd thing—lots of them want to talk about more than Emily’s imagined attributes; they start to think of her as the best friend they’ll never have to meet. Next thing you know, one of her customers gets killed. What’s a phone kitten to do? Solve the murder herself, of course!
The Warrior’s Maiden
Historical Romance
Author: Denise Domning
A baron and his daughters are dead, slaughtered on the king’s road, when the sheriff should have kept the peace. Can his ungainly daughter solve the mystery of their deaths before the baron’s grieving widow and his bastard son wreak vengeance on her father, the man they hold responsible?
Eternal Eden
Teen & Young Adult > Romance > Paranormal & Fantasy
Author: Nicole Williams
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College sophomore Bryn Dawson is a self-proclaimed poster child for normal. However, the day William Hayward enters her life, normalcy is the last thing Bryn will be able to count on if she wants to be with him. Too mysterious and appealing to be good for a girl, Bryn feels drawn to him in a way that seems out of her control—as if fate is orchestrating it.
Despite every red flag and warning siren going off in her head telling her not to, Bryn falls hard for William, knowing he’s categorically different from anyone she’s ever met. She never imagined how right she was. When William takes her deeper into the rabbit hole of his world, Bryn must decide just how much she is willing to sacrifice to be with him, knowing no matter what, fate always finds a way to have the last laugh.
The Takers
Children’s eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Scary Stories
Author: R.W. Ridley
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When 13-year-old Osmond “Oz” Griffith wakes from an illness on the floor of his closet, he discovers the world overrun by man-eating monsters, the Takers, and it’s largely his fault. In an effort to make things right, he gathers a band of survivors (a baby, an aged mechanic and a talking gorilla, among others), and sets off down his version of the yellow brick road, leading to the Atlanta Zoo.
Along the way, he learns that his destiny was written by Steve, a boy from his past. Afflicted with Down Syndrome, Steve created new worlds, replete with battles between good and evil, in the comic books that served as his sole refuge from the teasing of Oz and his friends. Steve’s untimely suicide leaves only the comic books as clues to vanquishing the Takers.
Cursed
Romance > Fantasy
Author: Casey Odell
The night Claire Tanith’s small village is attacked, her mother sends her alone into the cursed forest, the one she’d been forbidden to enter all her life with these mysterious words: ‘They will protect you.’
On the run from her attackers, she soon finds the forest is not as abandoned as she’d once thought.
Beautiful and elegant, the elves seem to be everything the legends said they would be. But legends sometimes forget the true history of things and Claire’s eyes are soon opened to a world she never knew. One that has been kept from her for most of her life. All Claire wants to do is return home and start looking for her mother, the only family she ever had. But the elves have different plans. The mysterious mark that appeared on her arm isn’t a curse, at least not to them anyway, and before she knows it, she is whisked away on a mission she never agreed to, unless they help her in return.
Now she is stuck on an adventure with the perverted elf, Aeron, and one with an attitude, Farron. But there is more to this adventure than she’d ever hoped for.
Dangerous Talents
Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Norse & Viking
Author: Frankie Robertson
Celia Montrose has been trained to deal with any emergency–except being thrust into another world. Nothing has prepared her for meeting the Viking descendants of the lost Vinland colony, or coping with kidnapping, murder, and magic.
Lord Dahleven is on the verge of war when he rescues a strange and beautiful woman in the drylands. Though he fears Celia may be Fey-marked, Dahleven can’t resist the powerful attraction he feels for her. But is Celia in league with the enemy, or will she provide the key to saving his people?
Alone and off-balance, Celia finds herself falling for Lord Dahleven. But dangerous forces are at work, and one of them is offering Celia a way home–for a price.
The Biomass Revolution
Science Fiction > Post-Apocalyptic
Author: Nicholas Smith
What would you do if you lived in a world where your every move was scrutinized by your own personal artificial intelligence–a world where everything is regulated, from power usage to relationships–a world where everything you thought you knew turned out to be a lie?
Welcome to Tisaia – The last hub of modern civilization in a world left scorched by the nuclear fires of the Biomass Wars. Surrounded by a fortress of steel walls and protected by a fierce and loyal Council of Royal Knights, Tisaia seems relatively safe to the average State worker and citizen. A plentiful supply of Biomass powers the cities and food is abundant, but security has come at a terrible cost. The State will do anything to protect its resources, even if it means suppressing the rights of its citizens and deporting immigrants into the Wasteland — a virtual death sentence.
So You’ve Got A Cataract?
Disorders & Diseases > Eye Problems
Author: David D. Richardson
It’s a curious thing. People with cataracts often have very poor vision, making it difficult for them to read. And yet, their physicians typically ask them to sift through stacks of educational pamphlets and paperwork on cataracts. The documents are often single-spaced with small print and thin margins – in short, a nightmare for someone with cataracts. What’s more, the information is oozing with hard-to-understand medical jargon and procedural terminology. Needless to say, it’s a frustrating experience.
I really want my cataract patients to have an entirely different experience. That’s why I went to work on “So, You’ve Got a Cataract?” This is a book about cataracts for people with cataracts. My goal is to provide the information you need to learn about your eye’s condition and to make good, safe decisions about treatment.
The book covers, in a language that anyone can understand, basic information about how the eye works and what is useful to know about a cataract. If you are considering modern cataract surgery, you’ll find most of what you need to know within the pages of this book. It will also help you prepare for surgery. You’ll learn what happens during the actual procedure and what to expect afterwards.
The larger page size and Kindle eBook format were specifically chosen for this project as they allow for enlarging the text size making it easier for those with poor vision to read.
Wearing the Cape
Fantasy > Superhero
Author: Marion G. Harmon
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Who wants to be a superhero?
Hope did, but she grew out of it. Which made her superhuman breakthrough in the Ashland Bombing, just before starting her freshman year at the University of Chicago, more than a little ironic. And now she has some decisions to make. Given the code-name “Astra” and invited to join the Sentinels, Chicago’s premier super-team, will she take up the cape and mask and become a career superhero? Or will she get a handle on her new powers (super-strength has some serious drawbacks) and then get on with her life-plan?
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2