Important Note: This post is dated Wednesday, April 4, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Wesley Bates thinks his life pretty much sucks. He’s landed at the bottom of his school’s popularity ladder, and bully Randy Stanford seems to be waiting around every corner.

The troubled teen thinks he’s found a way to escape his real-world problems when he stumbles upon strange doorways in Astoria’s local library that seem to lead into the extraordinary worlds from all his favorite books. Oz, Neverland, Wonderland — they’re all a reality with Wesley’s new discovery. Wesley teams with best friend Taylor Williams to embark on a great adventure, both ready to leave the drama of middle school behind.

But the two kids quickly find themselves embroiled in a centuries-old battle for the library and the magic hiding within. Now, fighting alongside the eccentric old man who’s vowed to protect the building’s power, the pair must help ward off an attack by a shadowy group with a strange tie to Wesley’s nemesis, forcing Wesley to face the fears he’s been dodging… and one of the most terrifying bullies of all time!

Exclusive to Amazon’s Kindle, The Librarian is a thrilling new series that provides kids an opportunity to experience the world’s most beloved fantasy novels in a brand new way – through the eyes of children just like them. And the fun doesn’t stop there! Librarian author Eric Hobbs has teamed with The Sylvan Learning Center and BookAdventure.com to launch The Librarian Book Club. Toward the back of the book, each copy of The Librarian contains an exclusive invitation to join. Open to students in grades K-8, the club will bring kids together from around the globe to compete in a monthly reading contest where they’ll have a chance to win exciting prizes: gift cards, autographed books, new toys, video games, DVDs, iPods…even a brand new Kindle Fire! All kids have to do is answer questions about the books they’re currently reading! That’s it! It’s that easy! Pick up the book an join the book club today!

The Invitation and Other Short Stories is a captivating collection of dramatic short stories that will leave you wanting more. Perfect short reads to squeeze into your busy day or lunch break. From smuggling butter onto a plane, to a dead woman walking, and a parent’s worst nightmare, this collection of eight stories will send you on an emotional roller coaster ride. Kleenex optional.

The pristine city of Elysium floats on the water world of Shora, inhabited by ‘immortals’ who have succeeded in unlocking the secrets of life.

Outsider Blackbear Windclan wants to share the secret of immortality with his own people, but can he, and the City of Elysium, survive the corruption and decadence that immortality has bred into the ageless society.

And what of the consciousness of self-aware nano-sentient servitors and their quest for vengence?

Baird College’s Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of the last home-bound students heading off for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. Or perhaps it’s only gathering itself for the coming weekend.

As a massive storm dumps rain on the isolated campus, four other lonely students reveal themselves: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and finally Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.

The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of a sixth presence disturbing the ominous silence that pervades the building. Are they the victims of a simple college prank taken way too far, or is the unusual energy evidence of something genuine—and intent on using the five students for its own terrifying ends? It’s only Thursday afternoon, and they have three long days and dark nights before the rest of the world returns to find out what’s become of them. But for now it’s just the darkness keeping company with five students nobody wants and no one will miss.

Important Note: This post is dated Tuesday, April 3, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

IF THE VIRGIN MARY GRILLED CHEESE SOLD FOR $28,000, WHAT’S THE REAL THING WORTH?

What if people saw the Virgin in a teen-age girl rather than a sandwich? Author Anneke Campbell works that premise here, wondering how we’d react 2012 years after the first virgin birth. The result’s deliciously reminiscent of a box of lemon bars—a little bit sweet, a little bit tart, and you can’t stop eating. (Or reading as the case may be.) She’s created a generous helping of wistful magic mixed with equal parts knowing satire–sort of Alice Hoffman meets Nora Ephron.

Here’s the set-up: A pregnant teen-ager turn up in a Midwest town, for some reason not talking.

She may be named Mary. And upon examination, it turns out she’s most certainly a virgin.

What, asks Campbell, would happen next? Well, the paparazzi would arrive. Book and movie contracts might be offered. The author covers that ground in short order, but she’s really after something much more subtle—the effect of wanting to believe, wishing a thing to be so, coupled with the need to co-opt it. To that end, she creates Bellingham, Indiana, a delightful town like the one we all live in—with living, breathing citizens you’ll want for your own neighbors—even as you see right through them and their efforts to get close to the miracle girl, each for reasons of his own.

AS FUNNY AND WELL-OBSERVED AS ANY BOOK BY NORA EPHRON, WITH AS MUCH HUMAN WARMTH AS THE MILL RIVER RECLUSE. It’s kind of similar, really—small town with loveable characters, a major character named Mary—but Darcy Chan wasn’t trying for wit. Ms. Campbell is. Sly wit.

If you like smart, funny female writers like Nora Ephron, Eudora Welty, Maureen Dowd, Alice Hoffman, or indeed Darcy Chan, grab this goody!

Last Dance In Redondo Beach is the second in the Andy Sussman – Murray Glick mystery trilogy. Sportscaster Andy, now a network reporter, is assigned to anchor the Celebrity Network Superteams. When the masked wrestler Dr. Double X mysteriously drowns in a rowboat race, Andy intrepidly digs up more facts than he’d wished for. He soon calls in his girlfriend/lawyer, Susie Ettinger and his pal Murray Glick, who has taken a break from his shopping mall office to run Mystery Cruises.
The world of pro wrestling provides a raunchy and hilarious backdrop for the story, including Shakespearean actor Lennie Weintraub, aka The Renaissance Man, and Dr. XX’s manager, Wireless.
The late Donald Westlake wrote of Last Dance, “What a lot of raffish, rowdy, reprehensible people Michael Katz has assembled on Redondo Beach. I loved hanging out with them, and I was sorry when the party was over.”

Wesley Bates thinks his life pretty much sucks. He’s landed at the bottom of his school’s popularity ladder, and bully Randy Stanford seems to be waiting around every corner.

The troubled teen thinks he’s found a way to escape his real-world problems when he stumbles upon strange doorways in Astoria’s local library that seem to lead into the extraordinary worlds from all his favorite books. Oz, Neverland, Wonderland — they’re all a reality with Wesley’s new discovery. Wesley teams with best friend Taylor Williams to embark on a great adventure, both ready to leave the drama of middle school behind.

But the two kids quickly find themselves embroiled in a centuries-old battle for the library and the magic hiding within. Now, fighting alongside the eccentric old man who’s vowed to protect the building’s power, the pair must help ward off an attack by a shadowy group with a strange tie to Wesley’s nemesis, forcing Wesley to face the fears he’s been dodging… and one of the most terrifying bullies of all time!

Exclusive to Amazon’s Kindle, The Librarian is a thrilling new series that provides kids an opportunity to experience the world’s most beloved fantasy novels in a brand new way – through the eyes of children just like them. And the fun doesn’t stop there! Librarian author Eric Hobbs has teamed with The Sylvan Learning Center and BookAdventure.com to launch The Librarian Book Club. Toward the back of the book, each copy of The Librarian contains an exclusive invitation to join. Open to students in grades K-8, the club will bring kids together from around the globe to compete in a monthly reading contest where they’ll have a chance to win exciting prizes: gift cards, autographed books, new toys, video games, DVDs, iPods…even a brand new Kindle Fire! All kids have to do is answer questions about the books they’re currently reading! That’s it! It’s that easy! Pick up the book an join the book club today!

The Darkening Dream is the chilling new dark fantasy novel by Andy Gavin, creator of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter.

Even as the modern world pushes the supernatural aside in favor of science and steel, the old ways remain. God, demon, monster, and sorcerer alike plot to regain what was theirs.
1913, Salem, Massachusetts – Sarah Engelmann’s life is full of friends, books, and avoiding the pressure to choose a husband, until an ominous vision and the haunting call of an otherworldly trumpet shake her. When she stumbles across a gruesome corpse, she fears that her vision was more of a premonition. And when she sees the murdered boy moving through the crowd at an amusement park, Sarah is thrust into a dark battle she does not understand.
With the help of Alex, a Greek immigrant who knows a startling amount about the undead, Sarah sets out to uncover the truth. Their quest takes them to the factory mills of Salem, on a midnight boat ride to spy on an eerie coastal lair, and back, unexpectedly, to their own homes. What can Alex’s elderly, vampire-hunting grandfather and Sarah’s own rabbi father tell them? And what do Sarah’s continuing visions reveal?
No less than Gabriel’s Trumpet, the tool that will announce the End of Days, is at stake, and the forces that have banded to recover it include a 900 year-old vampire, a trio of disgruntled Egyptian gods, and a demon-loving Puritan minister. At the center of this swirling cast is Sarah, who must fight a millennia-old battle against unspeakable forces, knowing the ultimate prize might be herself.

The Invitation and Other Short Stories is a captivating collection of dramatic short stories that will leave you wanting more. Perfect short reads to squeeze into your busy day or lunch break. From smuggling butter onto a plane, to a dead woman walking, and a parent’s worst nightmare, this collection of eight stories will send you on an emotional roller coaster ride. Kleenex optional.

Important Note: This post is dated Monday, April 2, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Ella Reynolds knew from the first moment she walked into the old house someone or something was watching her. Waiting. Her husband’s violent murder sent her spiraling into a world of grief and isolation, but Ella isn’t alone. Who or what is responsible for her husband’s death is still with her. Darkness has engulfed the past year of Ella’s life. Everyday reality slips a little more between her fingers as she struggles to break free from her memories. She must look deeper into her past as well as the present to discover truth of her husband’s homicide. A string of uncanny events takes place and practical explanations run thin as Ella follows the terrifying road to closure. As the past and present come to a head, Ella must decipher who or what the murderer is before it takes her as well.

Or check out the Audible.com version of Little Girl Gone (A Logan Harper Thriller)
in its Audible Audio Edition, Unabridged!

Logan Harper isn’t looking for redemption. He just wants to live in peace and forget his troubled past. But one morning his quiet life is upended when he interrupts the attempted murder of his father’s best friend Tooney.The next thing he knows, Logan is on his way to Los Angeles, searching for Tooney’s missing granddaughter and uncovering a sinister plot connected not only to Tooney’s past, but also to the boardrooms of corporate America.

As the odds stack up against him, Logan must fall back on old skills from the life he’d rather forget. He’s made a promise, and the only way to fulfill it is to bring the girl home alive.

Baird College’s Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of the last home-bound students heading off for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. Or perhaps it’s only gathering itself for the coming weekend.

As a massive storm dumps rain on the isolated campus, four other lonely students reveal themselves: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and finally Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.

The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of a sixth presence disturbing the ominous silence that pervades the building. Are they the victims of a simple college prank taken way too far, or is the unusual energy evidence of something genuine—and intent on using the five students for its own terrifying ends? It’s only Thursday afternoon, and they have three long days and dark nights before the rest of the world returns to find out what’s become of them. But for now it’s just the darkness keeping company with five students nobody wants and no one will miss.

When her fiance calls off their engagement, veterinarian assistant Lisa Prentice joins the circus in hopes of escaping the everyday grind. But life under the big top isn’t quite what she expected. None of the veterinarian’s former assistants managed to please their short-tempered boss, and Lisa fears that her days are numbered, too. Michael Figaro, a dashing young trapeze artist, is also caution about whether Lisa can stay, and because of that, he tries to keep his distance. Still, Lisa finds herself overwhelmingly attracted to him. Although Michael is the aerialist, it is Lisa who is flying on an emotional high wire. What happened to her safety net? Will their love survive?

“Have you been following the Presidential campaign closely? You have? So which antidepressant are you taking?” With these words, the author begins a series of satires of the candidates and issues that make some voters hope the Mayan prediction comes true. Besides fake first-person testimonials from Messrs. Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and Obama, as well as parodies of Perry, Palin and Trump, there is an account of a debate where the candidates are attached to polygraphs, a visit to a libertarian theme park, a seminar for adulterous politicians, and fantasies of Abe Lincoln and Richard Nixon in the partisan hell that is 2012 politics. Cranky Cuss, author of the e-book “Europe On $500 a Day (And Other Reasons to Stay Home),” believes laughter is the best medicine and “Send in the Clown Car” requires no prescription. But please turn off the cable news first.

Important Note: This post is dated Sunday, April 1, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Amazon Bestselling author, Kathy Dunnehoff’s award-winning contemporary romance.

Overview of Plan On It
It’s a logical plan to Professor Hattie McLean. Date 6 men in 6 months and one will be the clear choice to father her child. But biology involves the heart as well… even if she didn’t plan on it!

Narrowly escaping with his life after infiltrating a powerful Irish mob family in Chicago, undercover detective Rourke O’Reilly finds himself in a different kind of danger when he returns to his birthplace in Ireland to return a gold coin he’d been bullied into stealing when he was just ten years old. Curses, spells and murder mar the mysterious and mystical land of Talamh an Óir, but a beautiful, russet-haired woman awaits him, ready to help Rourke reclaim everything he’s lost over the years… If she doesn’t kill him with an Irish death curse first.

Stranded in orbit, with no way home before the air runs out…

At hypersonic speed, Polaris AeroSpace has become the premium choice for rapid travel around the world. When a veteran crew’s flight is marooned after a series of baffling malfunctions, they must try to stay alive knowing that help may never arrive.

While they struggle with dwindling life support and increasingly desperate passengers, their colleagues scramble to mount an audacious rescue. Racing against time, they will face shocking betrayals in a fight to save their friends.

As they unravel a web of industrial espionage, the truth will reveal itself to be worse than imagined. And one man will discover that escape may demand a terrible sacrifice.

PERIGEE opens the next chapter in air and space travel, where ordinary people must sometimes accomplish extraordinary things.

New Territory of Montana 1863. Sarah Bryson’s silent world is destroyed when her so-called fiancé has her kidnapped to prevent his discovery as a gun-runner. After surviving a massacre, she is rescued by Blackfeet warrior, Two Shadows. But in order to reach the safety of his village, they must confront wild animals, ruthless mountain men, treacherous mountain storms, and Crow Indians bent on revenge.

Sarah seeks her true identity as a woman. Two Shadows’ struggles with loyalties divided between his love for a white woman and his devotion to his tribe. Whispering Sun captures a time when the Blackfeet are forced to see their way of life disappear. It’s a story where it’s possible for a white woman to decide she belongs with a loving people and a Blackfeet warrior. It’s a story that shows how a half-breed can choose an alliance and find his place in a colliding world.

Three mothers. Three sons. One day that connects them. Kaira Rouda tackles the big issues of life and death with candor and hope in this tribute to motherhood. A tragic event reawakens each woman to her own special gifts, and her love for family and friends is reborn. Three mothers. Three sons. Six lives that will be changed forever.

A BEAUTY IN BUCKSKINS
When her father decided to send her to a finishing school back East, Angela Chamberlain refused to be confined to stuffy drawing rooms. Instead, the daring spitfire who could shoot like a man and ride like the wind longed for a life of adventure and romance—and she knew exactly who could give it to her. Devil Blackmoor was a hired gun with a dangerous reputation. But Angela was willing to go to the ends of the earth to capture the handsome devil’s heart.
A DEVIL IN DISGUISE
He’d come to America looking for excitement, but Devil Blackmoor got more than he bargained for when he encountered a beautiful rebel who answered his kisses with a wild innocence that touched his very soul. Yet standing between them were more obstacles than either ever dreamed. For Devil had strapped on a gun for the wrong man. And that made Angela his enemy. Now he’ll have to choose between his duty and the woman he loves more than life.

Will Lily and Jacob, best friends forever, find love or will they discover friendship is not enough for a relationship to take the final step into marriage.

The House on Berkley Street by K. J. Dahlen

When Serenity is asked to find the truth in a forty-year old tragedy, someone in the town of White Oak, Texas doesn’t want the truth told. Can they stop her before she finds out what they have kept hidden for so long?

The Placebo Effect by Solstice Stevens

First, there was the poison. Then, there was a four story jump and the basketball hoop. Jessamyn Hamhill’s life has been one validation atttempt after another . . . until now.

Important Note: This post is dated Saturday, March 31, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Freezing rain and sleet shroud the city of Nepenthe in a chilly mystery . . . Reports of mutilated bodies washing up on the beaches terrorize the community . . . A cold-blooded, ruthless vampire couple is on the loose, killing and feeding for sport and sexual pleasure . . .

Haunting visions torment Joshua, a young man who believes his purpose is to find out who or what is behind these gruesome murders. His life will be forever changed by the Permanent Winter he encounters.

This novel contains depictions of graphic violence and sexual situations. Recommended for readers 17 and up.

WRITING YOUR WAY is all about finding your own best writing method, not a writing teacher’s idea of what’s right for you. It’s for the pre-published novelist who’s way past finding her inner writer and just wants some nuts-and-bolts advice that’ll help her through the plot knots and POV power struggles. Highlights include:

The definitive answer to the most popular question posed by pre-published
authors: How do I find an agent?
How to make that all-important first chapter sparkle. (The only one anybody reads if it doesn’t sparkle.)
Plotting without tears.
Laughs and giggles. The subject matter’s serious, but the touch is light.

Fianna leaves home to escape having to marry a man she doesn’t love. She travels to another city, far away, hoping to escape detection. There she meets Gaderian, but she doesn’t realize he is a vampire.

Forced to support herself, she works as a fortune teller in a tavern, and there she meets Gaderian again. She is caught between three different men who want her, each for his own reason.

The demon, Stilo, wants her as his sex slave. Angus, the man she refused to marry, won’t give up in his search for her. And in a realm where vampires and demons battle for supremacy, she is trapped in a dangerous game, where someone is bound to lose his life.

A black wave of terror has passed over the thriving kingdom of Larista. Mysterious invaders have swept over the land, laying waste to everything in their path and leaving ghost towns in their wake. No one knows where they came from and no one knows their purpose.

Tasting nothing but defeat after defeat after, the light of hope is fading in the kingdom; but the guerilla forces resisting the invasion have received new information. The news has provided a small glimmer that could possibly spark into something more. Captain Maximus Rex leads a daring rescue mission deep in the Laristan forests to save the lone surviving member of the royal family.

Once freed, Prince Alexander Novelle, along with his friends and comrades, face a perilous journey deep behind enemy lines. Their destination is Castle Varanasi. The once proud Laristan capital, gateway to heaven and salvation, lines in ruins under Dolus occupation.

Mysterious assassins, underworld savages and renegade Dolus survivors stand between them and the answers they seek. What they find there will shatter their perceptions and lead to unknown perils none of them are ready to face.

Important Note: This post is dated Saturday, March 31, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

una couldn’t stand it anymore, so she escaped Grandfather’s house and sought refuge in the backyard. And that’s where she discovered the mysterious hedge-fence gate…

Step with Luna into Spirithaven, a place between places where vibrant emotions become colorful traveling companions, memories are carefully sculpted–and fears grow into daring realities. There, a dreadful gnome strives to fashion Luna’s unhappiest moods into a prison, but several extraordinary (or at least extraordinarily peculiar) new friends reveal that such places can often be reshaped with perspective.  Sometimes the gloomy, lonely place is truly…

…the shadow in the garden.

Amazon Bestselling author, Kathy Dunnehoff’s award-winning contemporary romance.

Overview of Plan On It
It’s a logical plan to Professor Hattie McLean. Date 6 men in 6 months and one will be the clear choice to father her child. But biology involves the heart as well… even if she didn’t plan on it!

A man who digs cursed earth, uncovers great sorrow.

When the women of Widow’s Ridge begin to go missing, a deputy sheriff, a psychiatrist and a community college professor become mired in chilling myth and mystery. When the missing women reappear, the horror of the Helling comes home to roost.

Important Note: This post is dated Friday, March 30, 2012, and the titles mentioned here may remain free only until midnight PST tonight.

Team captain, Steve Davis, is used to being in control, on the ice and in the bedroom. Most women are happy to let him call the shots, but Brooklyn Sykes isn’t most women.
As a criminal defense attorney, Brooklyn has worked hard to overcome the perception that she’s just another well-endowed blonde. She’s tough and tenacious, commanding respect in the courtroom and in her personal life.What will happen when Steve challenges her to surrender to him for one night? Erotic romance novella, intended for adult audiences.

Word count: 30, 738

A fierce competitor, Brooklyn has never been one to back down from a challenge, but who will come out on top in this power struggle?

Originally published in Canada in 2003 (but never distributed in the U.S.), this moving story features Sarah Richardson, whose family moves from the Montana countryside to Vancouver Island just as she’s about to enter sixth grade. Sarah soon finds that island life suits her perfectly–thanks, especially, to her new best friend, Goldie, whose Native American heritage Sarah finds fascinating, especially the wisdom passed to the girls from Goldie’s grandmother, Nana. Sarah is also intrigued to learn that her marine-biologist father shares a passion with her new Indian friends: killer whales, which the natives revere and her father studies. Life isn’t all native spirituality, however, as Sarah must confront a family tragedy that will change her life forever. Though overly melodramatic in places, Tardif’s story has that perennially crowd-pleasing combination of sweet and sad that so often propels popular commercial fiction, especially coming-of-age stories. Tardif, already a big hit in Canada, may soon be a name to reckon with south of the border.

Short Story – Vadoma Taits has the “sight” and has seen her own death. On what she thinks is her last day on earth, her cousin stabs a man during the annual autumn fair. In her remaining hours, Vadoma sets out to save him from the gallows. When the village’s Marquis rebuffs her pleas for mercy, she turns to desperate measures.

Luna couldn’t stand it anymore, so she escaped Grandfather’s house and sought refuge in the backyard. And that’s where she discovered the mysterious hedge-fence gate…

Step with Luna into Spirithaven, a place between places where vibrant emotions become colorful traveling companions, memories are carefully sculpted–and fears grow into daring realities. There, a dreadful gnome strives to fashion Luna’s unhappiest moods into a prison, but several extraordinary (or at least extraordinarily peculiar) new friends reveal that such places can often be reshaped with perspective.  Sometimes the gloomy, lonely place is truly…
…the shadow in the garden.

It’s an idyllic day on Oahu until Bess Blinke interrupts a bizarre robbery that ends in homicide. In the following days, she discovers terrible secrets tied to the crime, and her world unravels. When the killer realizes the depth of what she knows and comes after her, she runs, hides, and plots to reveal the truth and expose the brutal force behind several murders.

Lauded for its authentic grasp of the ‘local’ Hawaiian culture, Blinke It Away takes the reader into the everyday bustle of ordinary life in Hawaii and shows the reality far from the staging presented to tourists.