Content FREE (and bargain) books for the Kindle - September 2011

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Also free for US Kindle:

The Shadowing: Hunted: Shadowing Series, Book 1 by Adam Slater

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I missed these the first time around. These are also free from Vook:

• The 1940s: A Brief History
• The 1950s: A Brief History (Enhanced Version) [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• The 1960s: A Brief History (Enhanced Version) [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• The 1970s: A Brief History
• The 1980s: A Brief History (Enhanced Version) [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• The 1990s: A Brief History (Enhanced Version) [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• The 2000s: A Brief History (Enhanced Version) [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]

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Pirate Stash, by Amazon Digital Svcs., a game for Kindle, is free for a limited time (availability is limited to US residents only).

Book Description
Pirate Stash is a logic puzzle game that challenges you to hide all of your treasure chests on a deserted island.

X marks the spot as you push one or more treasure chests to be buried in designated hiding places. Maneuver your loot through a maze of obstacles, but be careful not to make the wrong move. You can only move one chest at a time and the chests cannot be pulled. When the treasure chests are all in place, you have solved the puzzle.

Your score for a puzzle is the number of times each chest is pushed, with a lower number of pushes being better. Achieve up to three stars on a puzzle. Gain one star for solving the puzzle, two stars for matching par for the puzzle, and three stars for a perfect score. Over 100 puzzles of increasing difficulty allow anyone, from beginners to experts, to challenge their minds. Can you beat them all?

If you like puzzle games, you'll love Pirate Stash!

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Gotham : A History of New York City to 1898 by Mike Wallace & Edwin G. Burrow from Oxford University Press, USA ($1.49) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (Sept 20) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

To European explorers, it was Eden, a paradise of waist-high grasses, towering stands of walnut, maple, chestnut, and oak, and forests that teemed with bears, wolves, raccoons, beavers, otters, and foxes. Today, it is the site of Broadway and Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, and the home of millions of people, who have come from every corner of the nation and the globe. In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. Readers will relive the tumultuous early years of New Amsterdam under the Dutch West India Company, Peter Stuyvesant's despotic regime, Indian wars, slave resistance and revolt, the Revolutionary War and the defeat of Washington's army on Brooklyn Heights, the destructive seven years of British occupation, New York as the nation's first capital, the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, the Erie Canal and the coming of the railroads, the growth of the city as a port and financial center, the infamous draft riots of the Civil War, the great flood of immigrants, the rise of mass entertainment such as vaudeville and Coney Island, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the birth of the skyscraper. Here too is a cast of thousands--the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Clement Moore, who saved Greenwich Village from the city's street-grid plan; Herman Melville, who painted disillusioned portraits of city life; and Walt Whitman, who happily celebrated that same life. We meet the rebel Jacob Leisler and the reformer Joanna Bethune; Boss Tweed and his nemesis, cartoonist Thomas Nast; Emma Goldman and Nellie Bly; Jacob Riis and Horace Greeley; police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt; Colonel Waring and his "white angels" (who revolutionized the sanitation department); millionaires John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, August Belmont, and William Randolph Hearst; and hundreds more who left their mark on this great city. The events and people who crowd these pages guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America, and a book that will mesmerize everyone interested in the peaks and valleys of American life as found in the greatest city on earth. Gotham is a dazzling read, a fast-paced, brilliant narrative that carries the reader along as it threads hundreds of stories into one great blockbuster of a book.

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FYI, new app for the Kindle:

Jewels (A Game for Kindle) by Mobigloo ($1.99)

Product Description
Jewels is a matching game which will put your planning and pattern recognition skills to the test.

The rules of Jewels are simple: you swap adjacent jewels (horizontally or vertically) to create combinations of three or more jewels of the same type. Once matched, the jewels are removed and the remaining jewels above it slide down to take their place. The challenge comes when there are few potential matches to find, and you must pick your next move carefully or risk eliminating remaining matches when the jewels shift down. If that's not challenge enough, then consider playing the timed mode where you race against a relentlessly decreasing timer and each successful match adds just a bit of time back to the clock.

If you cannot find a match, use the Hint feature to show you the next move. The game keeps track of your ten best scores for both Easy and Timed modes, so you can see just how much the pressure of the timer affects your performance!

If planning and pattern matching appeal to you, then you will love Jewels for Kindle.

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Free from indies:

The Fashion Police (Amber Fox Mystery) by Sibel Hodge

Product Description
The Fashion Police was runner-up in the Chapter One Promotions Novel Competition 2010 and nominated Best Novel with Romantic Elements 2010 by The Romance Reviews. It is a screwball comedy-mystery, combining murder and mayhem with romance and chick-lit.

Amber Fox has been making too many mistakes lately and something's got to give...

For starters, Amber accidentally shoots Chief Inspector Janice Skipper and gets thrown off the police force. The only one who knows the truth about the incident is Amber, but no one will believe her.

After accepting a job as an insurance investigator from her ex-fiancé, Brad Beckett, it turns out that Brad thinks they've still got unfinished business and the job description includes sexual favours that come with a price.

When fashion designer, Umberto Fandango, goes missing, Amber becomes embroiled in a complicated case. But Amber's arch-enemy, Chief Inspector Skipper, is also investigating his disappearance, and it's a race against time for Amber to solve the mystery before Skipper does and get her old job back. And just when Amber thinks things can't get any worse, she's being stalked by some crazy mobsters.

Who is Umberto Fandango? Is he dead? And can Amber stay one step ahead and stay alive?

The Golden Bell (Darklands) by Autumn Dawn

Product Description
The Golden Bell

You can bring them in from the wild, but you can’t always tame them….

Fallon is a man with a bloody past, and a rough and ready way with justice. Rain is a woman on the run, and now she’s under his command. She’s outsmarted men before, but is she woman enough to handle him?

Enemies and Playmates by DarcÃ*a Helle

Product Description
When the abused decide to fight back, the abuser's world might just shatter.

Lauren Covington's family maintains a grand facade that belies the life they live behind closed doors. Alex Covington, Lauren's father, keeps a tight rein on his family through dominance, abuse, and obsessive control. Consequently, Lauren doesn't believe she could ever trust a man, much less fall in love with one.

When Lauren meets Jesse Ryder, her carefully constructed protective wall shatters. She falls hopelessly and completely in love. It's only fitting that Jesse is a private detective who had once worked for her father, had defied him, and was now the subject of Alex Covington's wrath.

Amidst devastating loss, betrayal, and her father's destructive pursuit of Jesse, Lauren finds the trust and love she had always longed for.

Love Lust and Petty Crime by Hercules Bantas ( The Reluctant Geek)

Product Description
Emmet Storch was an unemployed sponger who thought he had no calling in life. All that changed when he landed a job in the call centre at the monolithic Star Insurance where, from the very first day, he was magnificent. It was as if the very essence of insurance ran through his veins and he and his telephone were as one. Irate policyholders found comfort in his soothing words; recalcitrant contractors became polite and respectful. It would have been perfect if not for his lecherous and treacherous hormones. A humorous look at love and lust in the iAge where consumerism runs rampant and integrity can go and get stuffed.

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One Night in Scotland (Hurst Amulet) by Karen Hawkins (Simon and Schuster) is $1.99 at the US Kindle store

Product Description
New York Times bestselling author Karen Hawkins begins a sparkling new series with this thrilling tale of a desperate beauty on an urgent quest, a dark earl scarred by his beastly past—and the ancient treasure that binds their fates.

A mysterious abductor . . . Someone is holding her brother prisoner in exchange for a gold-and-onyx box covered in mysterious runes, so Mary Hurst boldly sets out from the family vicarage to find the priceless artifact. But the man who possesses it, Angus Hay, the Earl of Erroll, is less than sympathetic to her plight.

A forbidding stranger . . . Himself a prisoner of his dark past, Angus refuses to yield the box—or allow Mary to leave! Suspicious of the alluring lass’s mission, he vows to wrest a confession from her, but unearths a fiery temper and a will as strong as his own.

An unbreakable curse . . . Passion flares between them, but now there is more at stake: an unknown enemy is hunting down the precious box, and will stop at nothing. Risking all for love, Angus must solve the mystery behind the runes . . . and trust the only woman who can awaken his forgotten heart.

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FYI, new Kindle app:

Jewel Quest Solitaire (A Solitaire Game for Kindle) by iWin ($3.99)

Product Description
The creative minds behind the popular Jewel Quest series return with a Solitaire card game filled with riches and adventure.

Play solitaire using jewel-themed card decks and mind-boggling layouts. The goal of the game is to remove all the cards from the board by finding cards that are either one value higher or lower than the one on the foundation pile. In this unique edition, you play young explorer Percy Pack as he works to unveil the story behind a mysterious lost jewel board that Professor Percy Pack had spent a lifetime searching for. To accomplish this, you must solve the 66 game layouts. Match card suits to earn more points, unearth buried cards, and discover wild cards with extraordinary powers.

An in-game tutorial makes it easy to get started playing right away, and you can get a hint if you get stuck in a particular game. Ten unique profiles means that different members of your family can play and without disturbing each others progress, or you can play several profiles at once to try and improve your high score along the way.

Embark on your card playing adventure in Jewel Quest Solitaire. Fortune and glory are in the cards!

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FYI, currently just free for those in the UK

The Manicurist by Phyllis Schieber ( Bell Bridge Books) (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
Tessa and Walter have, by all appearances, the perfect marriage. And they seem to be ideal parents for their somewhat rebellious teenage daughter, Regina. Without warning, however, their comfortable lives are thrown into turmoil when a disturbing customer comes into the salon where Tessa works as a manicurist. Suddenly, Tessa's world is turned upside down as revelations come to light about the mother she thought had abandoned her in childhood and the second sight that she so guardedly seeks to keep from others. Phyllis Schieber's first novel, Strictly Personal, for young adults, was published by Fawcett-Juniper. Willing Spirits was published by William Morrow. The Sinner's Guide to Confession was published by Berkley Putnam in 2008. Her short story, The Stocking Store, appears in Bell Bridge Books' 2011 anthology, The Firefly Dance.Married and a mother, Phyllis Schieber lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. www.phyllisschieber.com

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FYI, currently just free for those in the UK

Delivered with Love by Sherry Kyle (Abingdon Press Fiction ) (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
An old love letter found in the glove compartment of a young woman’s inherited ’72 Volkswagen propels her to leave her life in Los Angeles and go to the small town of Capitola, California. There her dream of finding the writer of the letter leads her on an unexpected journey that changes her life forever.

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FYI, currently just free for those in the UK

Hurry Less, Worry Less: 10 Strategies For Living The Life You Long For by Judy Pace Christie (Abingdon Press) (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
Live a More Meaningful and Joyful Life Hectic. Rushed. Noisy. Exhausted. We live in a world where we know these words all too well. Is it even possible to live at a slower pace? Judy Christie assures us that, with God’s help, it is possible to learn to live with less hurry and worry, to recover the joy of living. Hurry Less, Worry Less offers practical ideas and strategies to help you begin your own path toward change. Crucial steps include: Determining what your ideal life would look like Creating a new road map for your life Letting go of your worries and trusting in God Cutting down on the “noise” in your life and listening for guidance Discovering God’s will for your life Making a commitment to persist in your journey

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FYI, currently just free for those in the UK

The Glory of Green (The Green Series) by Judy Christie (Abingdon Press Fiction) (Amazon Main, Amazon UK)

Product Description
With wedding plans well underway, Lois Barker plots to gracefully get rid of her groom’s catfish collection—stuffed, ceramic, woven. Her husband-to-be, Chris, on the other hand, has decided to get rid of something else: his homestead, which he gives to a needy Mexican family at church.Life is full of possibilities, and the community of Green is tickled pink that their newspaper owner is settling down with one of their own.However, the beloved small-town journalist is about to be blown away—by tragedy and by the grace that enfolds her in her third year in Green, Louisiana.

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Free from indies:

Out of Here by Patty Jansen

Product Description
This collection contains fantasy and Science Fiction short stories that have all been published previously in venues like the Edge of Propinquity, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Byzarium, M-Brane SF, Realms, and many others.

Timpani the Ostrich Rancher (Flat Earth) by David Barron (H2NH)

Product Description

The thrilling tale of love, war, and the search for freedom in another Africa. Led by a gentlemen aviator and financed by his lover, the respectable citizens of the Kingdom of Kenya decide to take a preemptive approach to threats against the London Confederation by liberating Reichland Africa . Meanwhile, a lowly rose-quartz man fights his own, more personal, battle.

Our Quirky Guide to Seattle by Various Contributors

Product Description
We’re not travel experts. Rather, we’re a group of friends and coworkers, a bit ambitious and a bit peculiar, who enjoy our time with each other and enjoy partaking in what Seattle has to offer. We work hard, and it leaves us little time to play. We try to maximize our limited leisure time by pursuing our passions, going to places we love, and having fun. This is not a complete book of Seattle activities. Instead, it is a collection of our favorite activities. You will find a full range of arts, dining, outdoor, and travel suggestions. Perhaps one of our favorites will become one of yours. The forty-two of us were able to come together, collaborate, and create a book. This was possible only through the flexibility of self-publishing. We feel fortunate to live in Seattle. It is a place that is always raining, just finished raining, or is about to rain. It makes us appreciate our time outdoors and the beautiful scenery even more. We hope our words will help you explore, taste, smell, feel, and hear all things Seattle.

Kissing Kelli (A Texas Legacy Romantic Comedy #1) by Kathy Carmichael (MacGowan Press)

Product Description
Rodeo champion and wealthy rancher, Bobby Gray Nelson, is used to women setting out to lasso him. But when he meets feisty Kelli Palmer, she refuses him on every count. He's always up for a challenge and is determined to woo this beautiful veterinarian who he thinks could be his soul mate.

Kelli Palmer doesn't believe love is in the chute for her. She's devoted herself to the animals she cares for and the family she adores. So when her sister claims dibs on the handsome cowboy, Kelli reins in her attraction and tells him to skedaddle.

Losing is not an option for this gorgeous cowboy. He comes up with a 5-step plan to place his brand on Kelli's heart.

The problem is, he can't even make it to the first step. Never fear, though. He's got a Plan B.

Can Kelli stand her ground -- even after his toe-curling kiss?

Judge of the Damned (Vampire Storm, Book 1) by Nick S. Thomas (Swordworks)

Product Description
He was a priest by day and a guardian by night. His mission was to hunt the undead who broke the pact between Church and Vampire Lords.

During a pursuit he destroys a killer vampire, a vampire wanted after embarking on a rampage of human slaughter. The Dark Lords retaliate, they want vengeance for one of their own and embark on a bloody human massacre that leaves him fighting for his life.

Nursed back to health, he discovers that the people he loves have been ruthlessly killed. Feared by both friend and enemy alike, he starts a ruthless quest to bring the murderers to justice. His justice. In those places where these is no law, he becomes the law. He is The Judge of the Damned.

Harmonics: Rise of the Magician (Harmonics Series Season One) by Chris Snelgrove and Collin Earl (SilverStone Books )

Product Description
They built what could not be constructed. A weapon lightyears ahead of its time. A weapon so superior it defied the known laws of physics. Seven years ago, they were on the verge of unleashing its power. Then…they lost it. Now they are on a desperate hunt to reclaim what they stole. Following the trail of unexplainable deaths, they frantically search for what may become their ultimate demise. But what if the project doesn’t want to be reclaimed? Join their hunt wading through political power-plays, corporate corruption, domestic terrorism, and the greatest enigma of their time- the infamous assassin known only as: The Magician.

Trouble Down South and Other Stories by Katrina Parker Williams (Step Art Designs)

Product Description

Enslavement, murder, abuse, illness: there’s real trouble for the characters in Trouble Down South and Other Stories. The short stories take the reader on a journey to the past through a collection of interestingly crafted pieces of flawed humanness, social injustice, and redemption, and even humor.

The short story collection of historical fiction chronicles events spanning more than 150 years and addresses a wide range of experiences from African-American perspectives. The stories are set in the South amid a changing landscape in which the characters are forced to wrestle with the social issues surrounding Native Americans, slavery, racism, Prohibition, World War I, the Korean War, Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, health, religion, mental illness, and education.

No Turning Back (Descendants of Ancients) by Sharon T. Rose (Step Art Designs)

Product Description

Untold ages ago, two races were at war. The battles raged unchecked, driving them across the universe. Eventually, they reached equilibrium; neither side could gain over the other. When they came across a poor, stone-aged planet that would eventually be called Alluvia, one side chose to alter the terms of the war.
The human inhabitants of Alluvia little dreamed of events beyond their skies until the day some of their own were taken by those whom they would call "Sukkers," turning the once-ordinary men, women, and children into Drones, pawns used in the great war. The ravages caused by Drones seemed to decide the outcome of the war until the other side also took some of the humans. The small group chosen by those known only as the Ancients were not made mindless. Genetically altered with the DNA of the Ancients, they became "super-humans", endowed with incredible abilities and able to hold back the Drone armies of the Sukkers.
The Ancients disappeared long ago, and the Sukkers still claim hosts at will. Alluvia has grown since that long-ago time, with countries, cultures, religions, and wars of its own. Their own technology rises, looking to rival and supplant that left by the Ancients to their Descendants. And The War still rages.
No one remembers why the Ancients fought; no one really cares. Alluvia did not start it, but it is left to them, to the Descendants of the Ancients, to finish it somehow.

Short stories:

Going Harvey in the Big House by Douglas Smith

By Her Hand, She Draws You Down by Douglas Smit

Under the Scotch Broom by Allison M. Dickson

Extramarital by Colin Marks

Vampire Morgue by Maggie Jagger

The Zen Wheel of Life Mantra: A Song of Luminous Wisdom and Love by Tai Sheridan

The Ageless Wisdom Teaching by Benjamin Creme

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True Detective (Nate Heller) by Max Allan Collins from AmazonEncore ($0.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (Sept 21) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

In the mob-choked Chicago of 1932, private detective Nathan Heller may be willing to risk his life to earn a Depression dollar, but he never sacrifices his slicing wit. That’s why mystery fans and critics alike rank the historical thriller True Detective at the top of their lists--and why the book swept up a Shamus Award for best novel from the Private Eye Writers of America.

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Now for US Kindle:

The Manicurist by Phyllis Schieber ( Bell Bridge Books)

Delivered with Love by Sherry Kyle (Abingdon Press Fiction )

Hurry Less, Worry Less: 10 Strategies For Living The Life You Long For by Judy Pace Christie (Abingdon Press)

The Glory of Green (The Green Series) by Judy Christie (Abingdon Press Fiction)