Free and bargain romances in August 2013

[Keslynn]

Originally Posted by copyrite

LOL... love that phrase! I'm clearly an evangelical amazonian, with a side of evangelical calibreian.

I'm definitely an ereader polytheist but, like you, also an evangelical calibrean!

[Britomart]

Free from Amazon:

The Touch of Sage US DE by Marcia Lynn McClure.

Following the death of her parents, Sage Willows had lovingly nurtured her younger sisters through childhood. She loved her sisters. She’d seen each one married, and was glad to see them settled and happy. Furthermore, she held no resentment at never having found a good man of her own to settle down with. Yet, regret is different than resentment—and far more haunting.
Still, Sage found as much joy as was allowed a lonely young woman—in being proprietress of Willows’ Boardinghouse, and in the companionship of the four beloved widow-women boarding there. Until, that is, the devilishly handsome Rebel Lee Mitchell appeared. It seemed Reb Mitchel instantly and forever vanquished Sage’s feigned contentment.
Dark, mysterious and secretly wounded, Reb Mitchell utterly captured Sage’s lonely heart. Nevertheless, to Sage Williows, the powerfully attractive cowboy—admired and coveted by every female in his path—seemed entirely unobtainable. How could a weathered, boardinghouse-proprietress resigned to spinsterhood, ever hope to hold the attention of such a man? And knowing she couldn’t—would Sage Willows simply sink deeper into the bleak loneliness she’d secreted for so long?

[ScalyFreak]

Semi-free series at ARe right now:

Bonded by Blood

1. Midnight Conquest - Temporarily free, normally $5.99
2. Midnight Captive - $3.99, normally $4.99
3. Midnight Hunt - Temporarily free, normally $4.99. This one is only free until end of today!

Historica paranomal erotic romance with vampires and werewolves in the days of witch-hunts in Northern Europe. Surprisingly enjoyable.

Multi-format, no visible DRM that I could see. (ARe offers "secure ePub, for example, these are only "ePub".)

[Blue2u]

Well, we were just talking about serials the other day, and I ended up buying these today. I like H.M. Ward [read a few, but not all, because most of what she's doing now are serials which I usually avoid]. Anyways, this is my general exception, I like the author, and 4 of the 5 are on sale for $.99. Seems like they're all 100ish pages, and involve a singer, and you know my weakness for music related novels.
Anyways, $.99 each, H.M. Ward - books 1-4 of "The Secret Life of Trystan Scott". and from what I've read the series starts out as YA but morphs to NA.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by copyrite

Dear Author has a good post today about Managing Your TBR Pile with Calibre, if anyone's interested. Sounds like a good idea, I just use TBR tags, some with specific tags for certain favorite tropes.

I keep my TBR list in Word, but DA is how I originally found out about Calibre years ago. I'm so thankful I installed it before I got my Sony and really started buying digitial books (I think I only had maybe 75 books when I first installed it).

I don't really do much with the custom column feature. I have one in my secondary library to list the "date archived" and that's it. But that's the beauty of Calibre. It's so customizable to each user.

[library addict]

I was super well behaved this week. I only bought one book:

• Always on My Mind by Jill Shalvis (pre-order B&N)

[apesmom]

I thought I had only 1 book this week but I forgot about my pre-orders. Still good - 3 total and all from my Tier 1 wish list.

Ashley, Kristen - Rock Chick Revolution - $2.49

--Pre-Orders--
Frost, Jeaniene - Up From the Grave - $3.49
Shalvis, Jill - Always on My Mind - $2.99

For me this is pretty dang impressive. No Kobo contest codes, Avon sales or crazy Entangled sales to temp me this week. A few more weeks like this and my TBR pile might just start to get a liiiiiitle bit smaller.

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by Tattncat

Awesome site, wish I'd known about it sooner. Is it just for Kindle owners? I purchase Kindle books but after a few steps I read them on my NT or Sony 700, but in reality I can Onlyread Kindle books on my PC.

Anyway, I quite like the DA site, thanks.

If you're into podcasts you should check out the DBSA Podcast which the gal from Dear Author participates in rather frequently. All things romance, they have occasional author interviews (one of the first I came across was with Sarah Mayberry which sold me on the podcast), reviews of books and then some. And while you're at it, check out the Smart B!tches, Trashy Books site.

If I could send either of those 'girls' my Amazon bill for all the books they've 'made me purchase'....

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by library addict

I was super well behaved this week. I only bought one book:

• Always on My Mind by Jill Shalvis (pre-order B&N)

I bought the entire Eternal Guardians series. And I never pay for eBooks!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by copyrite

If you're into podcasts you should check out the DBSA Podcast which the gal from Dear Author participates in rather frequently. All things romance, they have occasional author interviews (one of the first I came across was with Sarah Mayberry which sold me on the podcast), reviews of books and then some. And while you're at it, check out the Smart B!tches, Trashy Books site.

If I could send either of those 'girls' my Amazon bill for all the books they've 'made me purchase'....

I follow both blogs as they really do have some good posts and reviews. I love the Daily News post at DA most. The podcasts are great! I am slowly catching up on them. Still on 2012 right after RWA.

[laurla]

35 books (counting the collections separate) for $45 = 1.30 average.
I can live with that, even though I have apparently fallen off the wagon

• The Bride Series Collection (8 Novels) - Shadonna Richards - 7.99
• Tougher Than The Rest (MacLarens of Fire Mountain) - Shirleen Davies - .99
  
  
• A Dangerous Love (Swanlea Spinsters) - Sabrina Jeffries - 1.99
• A Notorious Love (Swanlea Spinsters) - Sabrina Jeffries - 1.99
• After the Abduction (Swanlea Spinsters) - Sabrina Jeffries - 1.99
• Married to the Viscount (Swanlea Spinsters) - Sabrina Jeffries - 1.99
  
  
• Fully Engaged - Eve Gaddy - 1.99
• Beaumont Brides Collection (3 novels) - Liz Fielding - .99
• Military Heroes Romantic Suspense Collection (3 novels) - V.R. Marks - 3.99
• On A Night Like This (Callaways #1) -Barbara Freethy - .99
• Sacrifice of Passion: A Deadly Legends Novel - Melissa Bourbon Ramirez - .99
• Suddenly Beautiful - Boone Brux - .99
  
  
• Christmas Moon (Vampire for Hire #4.5) - J.R. Rain - .99
• Vampire Dawn (Vampire for Hire #5) - J.R. Rain - .99
• Vampire Games (Vampire for Hire #6) - J.R. Rain - .99
• Moon Island (Vampire for Hire #7) - J.R. Rain - .99
  
  
• Protecting Katie - H.D. Thomson - .99
• Knowing the Score (London Legends) - Kat Latham - 1.99
  
  
• All I Need Is You (An Over the Edge Novel) - Julia London - .99
• One More Night (An Over the Edge Novel) - Julia London - .99
• Fall into Me (An Over the Edge Novel) - Julia London - .99
  
  
• Six-Alarm Sexy, Volume One - Kristine Cayne - 2.59
• Nobody's Hero (Rescue Me #3) - Kallypso Masters - 3.24
• Honor Unraveled - Elaine Levine - 2.09

Pre-orders -- Every one an auto buy author

• Against the Mark (The Raines of Wind Canyon) - Kat Martin - 3.99
• Blue By You - Rachel Gibson - 2.13
• So Tough to Tame (Hqn) - Valerie Dahl - 3.99
• Getting Rowdy - Lori Foster - 3.99
• Always on My Mind (A Lucky Harbor Novel) - Jill Shalvis - 3.20
• The Perfect Match (Hqn) - Kristan Higgins - 3.99
• Born Wild: Black Knights Inc. - Julie Walker - 3.99

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by laurla

35 books (counting the collections separate) for $45 = 1.30 average.
I can live with that, even though I have apparently fallen off the wagon

Military Heroes Romantic Suspense Collection (3 novels) - V.R. Marks

Snip

I've had it on my wishlist waiting for the price to change. It's a guy writing it. It looks good though. I just can't pay that much for a new author though. Let me know what you think of if you read it anytime soon.

Nothing in the slush pile today! Boo!

[copyrite]

I find social media amazing. I'm in the middle of a book I'm really enjoying, and went to google to see if there's another in this series and when it might be out, and lo and behold I discover the author's twitter. She replied in under five minutes to my tweet (must have caught her at the right time), and we went back and forth with a few tweets. That's an author who, while clearly promoting future endeavors, is taking the time (even if it's an assistant I don't care) to be in touch with fans.

A couple weeks ago I tweeted another author who clearly was answering her own messages... it took her about three weeks to get back to me... but I don't care... she replied!

Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a current question of
"Can any of you guess the number one way authors grow their reading audience? (Other than writing a great book.)"

I'm thinking it's word of mouth, but she'll have to get back to me on that.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by laurla

35 books (counting the collections separate) for $45 = 1.30 average.
I can live with that, even though I have apparently fallen off the wagon

Nice haul!

I bought nothing this past week. Nada. Zilch. I wasn't even tempted to buy something, which is plain weird

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by copyrite

I find social media amazing. I'm in the middle of a book I'm really enjoying, and went to google to see if there's another in this series and when it might be out, and lo and behold I discover the author's twitter. She replied in under five minutes to my tweet (must have caught her at the right time), and we went back and forth with a few tweets. That's an author who, while clearly promoting future endeavors, is taking the time (even if it's an assistant I don't care) to be in touch with fans.

A couple weeks ago I tweeted another author who clearly was answering her own messages... it took her about three weeks to get back to me... but I don't care... she replied!

Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a current question of
"Can any of you guess the number one way authors grow their reading audience? (Other than writing a great book.)"

I'm thinking it's word of mouth, but she'll have to get back to me on that.

Oh I know! I talk to authors all the time on Facebook. One author sent me some of her paperbacks just because she liked my wall. When Julia Quinn was promoting donating blood and I mention that it had saved my little nephew's life while he was battling Leukemia till he got two bone marrow transplants. She replied about donating bone marrow and she was a donor then asked everyone else to donate too.

That's just one example but I have talked to many famous authors and they are just as lovely as their books. I only had a couple negative experiences with a few authors but almost all of them have been positive experiences.