But first, a word from ... Today's Sponsor
The literary world will be a much better place with Staley's voice in it.
Need to Breathe
Tara Staley is the author of NEED TO BREATHE, a digital book debuting September 2012 on Amazon's Kindle e-shelf...Tara Staley's writing background includes undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and Creative Writing, an RWA award for a past novel, and involvement with the North Carolina Writers Network. She is also a founding member of the online writers' community Backspace. Her fiction has been blurbed by nationally bestselling and award-winning authors such as Caroline Leavitt and Cornelia Read. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in such publications as UNCG Magazine, BizLife Magazine and the Winston-Salem Journal. She grew up, lives, and will most likely die in Kernersville, North Carolina (except for a one-year study abroad stint in Australia thanks to a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship). She and her husband have two sons.
by Tara Staley
4.7 stars - 23 reviews
Supports Us with Commissions Earned
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Here's the set-up:
It’s Groundhog Day, 1975, and Claire Harper survives a botched abortion.
All Millie Rose can do at first is stare into the blinding lights of
the NICU and hear doctors demanding answers about the burns on Claire’s
body. Nurses panic, they cry and shout “she’s bradying down!” because,
Lord help them, they’ve never seen anything like this.
Neither has Millie. Although she died in childbirth in 1922, she still has a purpose. Her afterlife is filled with missions lasting anywhere from ten minutes to ten years, and she views her newest assignment as a second chance at motherhood. But she's got to act fast because Claire's lungs are weak, her heart rate keeps tanking, and her pH levels are low. The hospital has never had a 26-weeker pull through.
Millie also tries to counsel Claire’s troubled parents, Mick and Manda, through the emotional fallout. They see marriage as the best “band-aid,” but Claire’s birth always haunts them, to the point Manda becomes a chain-smoking pill-popper who paints her house completely white. Mick becomes a reclusive binge-eater who sleeps in the barn. And Claire comes-of-age wondering about it all-- why she’s so sick, why she has scars on her skin, and what’s the secret her parents are keeping?
Finally, there’s a good reason why Millie nudges Claire to find romance years later with the geeky guy down the street. True, Charlie Vance may build his own batteries and dissect dead animals, but his love for Claire drives his decision to attend medical school so he can take care of her the rest of her life.
NEED TO BREATHE takes an unthinkable crisis and turns it into a gripping story filled with sensitivity, hope, beauty…even humor. From the opening chapter, readers will root for Claire’s chance at happiness, for the Harpers to heal, and for Millie’s reconciliation with her own lost motherhood.
Neither has Millie. Although she died in childbirth in 1922, she still has a purpose. Her afterlife is filled with missions lasting anywhere from ten minutes to ten years, and she views her newest assignment as a second chance at motherhood. But she's got to act fast because Claire's lungs are weak, her heart rate keeps tanking, and her pH levels are low. The hospital has never had a 26-weeker pull through.
Millie also tries to counsel Claire’s troubled parents, Mick and Manda, through the emotional fallout. They see marriage as the best “band-aid,” but Claire’s birth always haunts them, to the point Manda becomes a chain-smoking pill-popper who paints her house completely white. Mick becomes a reclusive binge-eater who sleeps in the barn. And Claire comes-of-age wondering about it all-- why she’s so sick, why she has scars on her skin, and what’s the secret her parents are keeping?
Finally, there’s a good reason why Millie nudges Claire to find romance years later with the geeky guy down the street. True, Charlie Vance may build his own batteries and dissect dead animals, but his love for Claire drives his decision to attend medical school so he can take care of her the rest of her life.
NEED TO BREATHE takes an unthinkable crisis and turns it into a gripping story filled with sensitivity, hope, beauty…even humor. From the opening chapter, readers will root for Claire’s chance at happiness, for the Harpers to heal, and for Millie’s reconciliation with her own lost motherhood.
One Reviewer Notes:
I truly think Staley’s descriptions are brilliant—the setting, the characters and the dialogue moves this novel very quickly. The language is so amazing. She could write about peas and I would read it. NEED TO BREATHE is anything but predictable. A pleasure to read!
Catherine DiCairano, award-winning author of An Original Melody and Behind The Trees
About the Author
Tara Staley is the author of NEED TO BREATHE, a digital book debuting September 2012 on Amazon's Kindle e-shelf...Tara Staley's writing background includes undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and Creative Writing, an RWA award for a past novel, and involvement with the North Carolina Writers Network. She is also a founding member of the online writers' community Backspace. Her fiction has been blurbed by nationally bestselling and award-winning authors such as Caroline Leavitt and Cornelia Read. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in such publications as UNCG Magazine, BizLife Magazine and the Winston-Salem Journal. She grew up, lives, and will most likely die in Kernersville, North Carolina (except for a one-year study abroad stint in Australia thanks to a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship). She and her husband have two sons.UK CUSTOMERS: Click on the title below to download
Need to Breathe
Need to Breathe
And Here Are Our Nine Free Kindle Titles – Just For Today!
Prices may change at any moment, so always check the price before you buy! This post is dated Wednesday, April 3, 2013, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.
Please note: References to prices on this website refer to prices on the main Amazon.com website for US customers. Prices will vary for readers located outside the US, and even for US customers, prices may change at any time. Always check the price on Amazon before making a purchase.
* * *
A Soul To Steal (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book One)
by Rob Blackwell
4.4 stars – 170 Reviews
Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
A serial killer on the loose, two reporters in his sights, and a legendary ghost haunting the town…
* * *
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR is part dark and humorous memoir, part relentless cultural critique. How can a people who have so much still feel dissatisfied? How does an educated but jaded society reconcile what they know with what they see happening around them? These and other big questions are examined and updated for today. If you have ever felt that more should be happening – in your life, in this culture we give ourselves to – then this book is for you.
* * *
MINE FOR TONIGHT: Book One – The Billionaire’s Obsession
by J.S. Scott
4.1 stars – 30 Reviews
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
Down on her luck, nursing student and full-time waitress Kara Foster gets a massive blow to her already desperate financial situation that will surely find her living on the streets. Needing nothing less than a miracle to save her, Kara gets rescue from an unknown, unlikely and overwhelming source. Billionaire Simon Hudson makes her an offer that is impossible to refuse, but terrifying to accept from a man that she’s never met. Will the handsome, alpha billionaire really be a solution to her problems, or will he end up being a major complication and a danger to her emotional sanity?
* * *
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
Alma Harper has been trying to forget what happened in Widowsfield 16 years ago. She has a good life as a music teacher now, and might rekindle her relationship with her one true love. However, the number 314 haunts her, and threatens to bring her back to the day that her brother disappeared. When a reporter shows up, just days before March 14th, Alma realizes that her past is coming back to haunt her. What happened on March 14th, at 3:14, 16 years ago? No one but The Skeleton Man can remember.
* * *
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
What happens when the one you desire is minutes away from marrying someone else? She’s torn… Hannah Steeles is moments away from marrying a man she does not love. The chapel is filled with 100 guests and she’s ready to walk down the aisle but her heart is with hot Blake Romano, the man who makes her pulse race and dominates her fantasy. The man who is giving her away in place of her father. It’s too late to turn back now.
* * *
My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy)
by Tellulah Darling
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
Sixteen-year-old Sophie Bloom wishes she’d been taught the following: a) Bad boy’s presence (TrOuBlE) + teen girl’s brain (DraMa) = TrAuMa (Highly unstable and very volatile.) b) The Genus Greekulum Godissimus is notable for three traits: 1) awesome abilities, 2) grudges, and 3) hook-ups, break-ups, and in-fighting that puts cable to shame. Prior to the Halloween dance, Sophie figures her worst problems involve adolescent theatrics, bitchy yoga girls, and being on probation at her boarding school for mouthy behaviour. Then she meets bad boy Kai and gets the kiss that rocks her world.
* * *
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
Set in 1971 Seattle, Pike Place tells the story of a young family whose teenage daughter goes missing. Told through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl, Pike Place takes the reader back to a simpler place and time in America.
* * *
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
AWAKENING is a story of eleven rising-star managers who gather together in a secluded luxury lodge for a mysterious five-day leadership training course. Asked to pick a leader from amongst themselves, they soon realize that nothing is what it seems at this place, where managers are compared to ancient conquerors and one corporate taboo after another gets broken.
* * *
Please Tell Me I’m On Mute
by Romi Brenner
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
Here’s the set-up:
Working mothers of the world, your voice has arrived. Trying to preserve her last few precious shreds of sanity while working and raising children, Romi Brenner has come to terms with the fact that sometimes you have to turn a blind eye to the fashion whims of a four year old, that you can never underestimate the power of a phone with a working mute button, and that pedicures just aren’t for everyone. Join Brenner and find out why she won’t let her husband go couch shopping on his own, why she is looking into buying stock in salt water taffy and how she lost her mind to motherhood, but why she doesn’t mind at all.
* * *
Check out our Free Book Search Tool for a boatload of free books
or check here for the best deals today on Kindle!
