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Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann (Soho Crime) is $1.39

Book Description:

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling Ellie McEnroe series.

Iraq War vet Ellie McEnroe has a pretty good life in Beijing, representing the work of controversial dissident Chinese artist Zhang Jianli. Even though Zhang’s mysterious disappearance of over a year ago has her in the sights of the Chinese authorities. Even though her Born-Again mother has come for a visit and shows no signs of leaving. But when her mom takes up with “that nice Mr. Zhou next door,” Ellie decides that it’s time to get out of town—given her mother’s past bad choices of men, no good can come of this.

An old Army buddy, Dog Turner, gives her the perfect excuse. His unstable brother Jason has disappeared in picturesque Yangshuo, a famous tourist destination, and though Ellie knows it’s a long shot, she agrees to try to find him. At worst, she figures she’ll have a few days of fun in some gorgeous scenery.

But her plans for a relaxing vacation are immediately complicated when her mother and the new boyfriend tag along. And as soon as she starts asking questions about the missing Jason, Ellie realizes that she’s stumbled into a dangerous conspiracy that may or may not involve a sinister biotech company, eco-terrorists, an art-obsessed Chinese billionaire and lots of cats — one that will take her on a wild chase through some of China’s most beautiful—and most surreal—places.

The Transformation of Things: A Novel by Jillian Cantor (HarperCollins) is $3.99

Book Description:

What if the reality you thought you knew was nothing but a fantasy?

Jennifer Levenworth has a great big pounding headache. It could be because her husband, a judge, is indicted on bribery charges, leaving her unsure about everything in her marriage. Or it could be caused by the media, who are relentlessly covering the story. Or because the friends Jennifer thought she knew and trusted have turned their backs on her in her greatest hour of need.

And then the dreams begin. . . .

And while Jennifer sleeps, she swears she can see—and hear—her friends’ and family’s most private moments. Soon Jennifer realizes she is actually learning the truth about their lives, which is also leading her to question everything she thought she knew about herself. But when the dreams start to reveal a startling reality, can Jennifer find the strength to ultimately transform her life?

Transgression by James W. Nichol (HarperCollins) is $3.99

Book Description:

How can love survive a brutal time?

In 1946 in North America, a child makes a grisly find in a deserted field — a discovery that opens a shuttered window on a secret dating back to the beginning of the turbulent decade.

In 1941 in occupied France, Adele Georges’s fruitless attempts to learn the whereabouts of her father, captured by the Nazis, lead her to a lonely young German soldier far from home. A spark between them becomes a fire — and a dangerous love affair blooms across enemy lines, dooming Adele to a grim postwar existence as a despised outcast, one of the infamous “horizontal collaborators.” Ostracized, tortured, tormented, she chooses a desperate escape, accompanying a war-damaged yet optimistic Allied soldier across an ocean to a new land. But there is no refuge from the past, as Adele’s broken heart and shameful secret drive her deeper into despair…and toward a shocking outcome.

Part mystery and part love story — an unforgettable and beautifully written novel of secrets, passions, and consequences — Transgression is an exceptional work of power and strange beauty.

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers (Harper) is $3.99

Book Description:

The remarkable Tim Powers — who ingeniously married the John Le Carrè spy novel to the otherworldly in his critically acclaimed Declare — brings us pirate adventure with a dazzling difference.

On Stranger Tides features Blackbeard, ghosts, voodoo, zombies, the fable Fountain of Youth…and more swashbuckling action than you could shake a cutlass at, as reluctant buccaneer John Shandy braves all manner of peril, natural and supernatural, to rescue his ensorcelled love.

Nominated for the Locus and World Fantasy Awards, On Stranger Tides is the book that inspired the motion picture Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides — non-stop, breathtaking fiction from the genius imagination that conceived Last Call, Expiration Date, and Three Days to Never.

The Opposite of Me: A Novel by Sarah Pekkanen (Washington Square Press) is $4.99

Book Description:

Twenty-nine-year-old Lindsey Rose has, for as long as she can remember, lived in the shadow of her devastatingly beautiful fraternal twin sister, Alex. Determined to get noticed, Lindsey is finally on the cusp of being named creative vice president of an elite New York advertising agency, after years of eighty-plus hour weeks, migraines, and profound loneliness.

But during the course of one devastating night, Lindsey’s carefully constructed life implodes. Humiliated and desperate, she flees the glitter of Manhattan and retreats to the time warp of her parents’ Maryland home. As her sister plans her lavish wedding to her prince charming, Lindsey struggles to maintain her identity as the smart, responsible twin, while she furtively tries to put her career back together.

But things get more complicated when a long held family secret is unleashed that forces both sisters to reconsider who they are and who they are meant to be.