Kindle First

[charlyee]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

No criticism, but there's a certain amount of irony that someone got the book "Walk in Silence" and just had to go out and tell everyone. Funny that...

Interesting observation, never thought it from that angle. :-)

[Manabi]

This month's Kindle First selections are out, they are:

Sisters One, Two, Three by Nancy Star [Genre: Contemporary Fiction]

After a tragic accident on Martha’s Vineyard, keeping secrets becomes a way of life for the Tangle family. With memories locked away, the sisters take divergent paths. Callie disappears, Mimi keeps so busy she has no time to think, and Ginger develops a lifelong aversion to risk that threatens the relationships she holds most dear.

When a whispered comment overheard by her rebellious teenage daughter forces Ginger to reveal a long-held family secret, the Tangles’ carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel. Upon the death of Glory, the family’s colorful matriarch, and the return of long-estranged Callie, Ginger resolves to return to Martha’s Vineyard and piece together what really happened on that calamitous day when a shadow fell over four sun-kissed siblings playing at the shore. Along with Ginger’s newfound understanding come the keys to reconciliation: with her mother, with her sisters, and with her daughter.

At turns heartbreaking, humorous, and hopeful, Sisters One, Two, Three explores not only the consequences of secrets—even secrets kept out of love—but also the courage it takes to speak the truth, to forgive, and to let go.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

When I was growing up, my parents’ most common refrain was, “Go outside.” Which really meant, “Leave us alone for heaven’s sake.” Their child-rearing philosophy could easily be called benign neglect. This sort of parenting wasn’t uncommon in the freewheeling “me” decade, otherwise known as the 1970s, and I immediately recognized it in Sisters One, Two, Three—it’s what pulled me right into the heart of the book.

When we first meet the Tangle family, we see four children left to their own devices. Their father is a sweet, well-meaning man, but it’s Glory, their unpredictable mother, who spins at the family’s center. She’s imperious, bossy, a bit dotty, and truly one of the most aggravating, yet forgivable, characters I’ve ever met. Glory is completely preoccupied with dreams of someday becoming a famous actress, and it’s this self-absorption that sets in motion a terrible tragedy.

The sisters spend the next four decades trying to make sense of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Meanwhile, Glory tries to make up for what happened without ever admitting any wrongdoing. Secrets, denial, and forgiveness intertwine, begging the questions: What happens if you hold on to your children too tightly? And what happens if you loosen that hold too soon?

- Jodi Warshaw, Editor

Hope's Peak (Harper and Lane) by Tom Healey [Genre: Thriller]

Beyond the shores of Hope’s Peak, North Carolina, evil waits as his next victim approaches. He’ll make her a princess like the others…

Detective Jane Harper can’t shake the image of the young woman discovered in a field—eyes closed, a crown of woven vines on her head. She expects macabre murders like this in her native San Francisco, not here. Jane and her partner, Stu, vow to catch the killer, but in this town, that’s easier said than done. The police department is in the grips of a wide-reaching scandal that could topple the entire force, and Jane and Stu face a series of dead ends. Until they meet Ida Lane.

Ida knows too well the evil that lurks in the cornfields. Tortured by her mother’s murder years before, Ida is paralyzed by the fear that she could be next. As the killer grows bolder, Jane must persuade Ida to use her remarkable gifts to help in the investigation. It’s a decision that brings them closer to the killer…maybe too close.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I was on vacation when I first read Hope’s Peak. Instead of leisurely enjoying a few chapters with my coffee each morning as I intended, I finished it in a few hours. Physically I was sitting by the pool, sipping something tropical, but mentally I was transported to the cornfields of rural North Carolina.

Hope’s Peak opens with the discovery of a murdered young woman in a field on the outskirts of a small town—eyes closed, a crown of woven vines on her head. I couldn’t get this image out of my head, nor could I stop thinking about the search for the killer. I proceeded to tell everyone I came in contact with—mostly strangers—all about the book. Sitting at a bar, eating dinner, and even waiting in line for a movie, I evangelized about Detective Jane Harper’s story.

Every time I open the pages of Hope’s Peak I instantly lose track of time and space. I am back there in North Carolina listening to the wind rustle the leaves of the corn as the sun rises on another heinous murder that Jane Harper will stop at nothing to solve.

Tony Healey has crafted a truly cinematic police procedural with a Thriller twist, a book that I had to share with the world.

- Jacque Ben-Zekry, Editor

The Missing by Caroline Eriksson (Author), Tiina Nunnally (Translator) [Genre: Psychological Suspense]

An ordinary outing takes Greta, Alex, and four-year-old Smilla across Sweden’s mythical Lake Malice to a tiny, isolated island. While father and daughter tramp into the trees, Greta stays behind in the boat, lulled into a reverie by the misty, moody lake…only later to discover that the two haven’t returned. Her frantic search proves futile. They’ve disappeared without a trace.

Greta struggles to understand their eerie vanishing. She desperately needs to call Alex, to be reassured that Smilla is safe, or contact the police. But now her cell phone is missing too. Back at her cottage, she finds it hidden away under the bedsheets. Had she done that? Or had someone else been in the cottage? But who, and why? As Greta struggles to put the pieces together, she fears that her past has come back to torment her, or she’s finally lost her grip on reality…

In this dark psychological thrill ride—with more twists than a labyrinth and more breathless moments than a roller coaster—Greta must confront what she’s always kept hidden if she has any hope of untangling the truth.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

What begins as a peaceful family boating trip across a lake grows decidedly murkier and less placid, and soon there’s no going back, or putting the book down.

Greta, the novel’s protagonist, keeps us off balance as she struggles to remember and make sense of the events in her life that have culminated in this late-summer visit to an isolated cabin by a lake—and to find the strength she’ll need to leave.

Caroline Eriksson’s The Missing should come with a whiplash warning. The novel is a roller-coaster suspense narrative, ratcheting the tension ever higher and then catapulting us down the other side of the story until we can no longer tell what’s coming at us and the world is turned upside down.

Everything that drives people—power, revenge, protection, love—comes together with fatal consequences that resonate through families as they are passed along from parent to child.

As soon as I’d finished The Missing, I started broadcasting my enthusiasm about the book and author to anyone who would listen. I hope you’ll strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

- Elizabeth DeNoma, Editor

Fate of Perfection (Finding Paradise Book 1) by K. F. Breene [Genre: Science Fiction]

In a corporate-controlled future where the ruling conglomerates genetically engineer their employees, Millicent Foster is the best of the best.

Physically perfect and exceptionally intelligent, Millicent is granted the uncommon privilege of breeding. But her daughter inherits more than superior genetics…little Marie has a rare ability that the world has never seen, and her conglomerate, Moxidone, will stop at nothing to have sole possession of the child.

Teamed with Ryker, the formidable master of security, Millicent must risk everything in a life-and-death struggle to tear her daughter away from the ruling force who wants to own them all. The odds are stacked against them, but Moxidone will learn that the pursuit of perfection comes at a perilous cost—and that love can’t be bought at any price.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Want to see what happens when you screw with the family of the fiercest woman on earth? You’re about to find out.

In a future world, Millicent Foster is genetically modified and raised from birth by her employer to be the best weapons tech developer on the planet. Her job at the Moxidone conglomerate and her luxurious penthouse in the sky are all she knows or cares about. Until her daughter, Marie, is born—and until they try to take Marie from her.

As our heroine races over the scorched earth in a commandeered vehicle, with outlaws on her tail, a wisecracking partner at her side, and the toddler they’re defending in the back, I felt a pang in my chest and knew this book was special. The novel may be set hundreds of years from now, but the theme is timeless. It’s about a mother’s love, and about the unique ways in which families are formed. Sure, this family may be more like the Incredibles and less like the Joneses, but in between the explosions, the high-speed chases, and the next stage of human evolution is a group of people who would do anything in their power to protect one another. And that’s a perfect place to start a story.

- Adrienne Lombardo, Editor

Into the Thickening Fog by Andrei Gelasimov (Author), Marian Schwartz (Translator) [Genre: Literary Fiction]

A French theater agrees to stage the latest work by Filippov—the most prestigious and lucrative opportunity of his infamous career—but first he must sever ties with his longtime collaborator and childhood friend. So the internationally acclaimed Russian director makes a reluctant trip back to his hometown to deliver the news. His journey to the Far North, where the temperature remains dangerous all winter, unexpectedly blurs the distinctions between reality and art for this virtuoso, who prides himself on his ability to create shocking scenes and outrageous situations. And after the city’s power grid goes off-line, the brutal cold just might get the better of him.

The colder it gets, the more wickedly funny Filippov’s boozy exploits, which unravel into an unexpected chain of events—including run-ins with old lovers, meeting a woman who might be his daughter, encounters with the devil, and the unlikely affection of a dog that, like Filippov, is in desperate need of warmth.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Sometimes a novel describes reality so well it creates a physical sensation. Into the Thickening Fog could make even readers in the tropics pull up a blanket—while I was reading it in my hammock this summer I reached for a sweatshirt, knowing it couldn’t ward off the cold on this literary journey to the gateway to Siberia.

A famous director returns to his hometown, a tiny city in Russia’s Far North, where he foolishly shows up without even a scarf. But Filippov can’t head straight to his friend’s apartment to share the bad news he’s traveled so far to deliver. The city’s centralized heating system has broken down, chaos ensues, and Filippov finds himself walking through the frigid weather. He struggles to see and even to stand up straight as he stumbles forward, detoured at every turn by obstacles both real and imagined. Luckily, he has a flask of Hennessy and a sense of humor.

At once hilarious and stark, this novel is a great entry point for reading one of Russia’s most celebrated contemporary novelists. Thanks to Andrei Gelasimov’s gift for cinematic scene-setting, you might feel like you’ve just returned from Siberia and are shaking a case of delirium tremens when you finish reading.

- Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor

The Original Dream by Nukila Amal (Author), Linda Owens (Translator) [Genre: Magical Realism]

For Maya, history is like a dream, and her dreams are like a history of her life and how it relates to others. Effortlessly defying and calling into question time and space, Maya inhabits fantastical realities filled with shamans, romantic longing, a daughter’s struggles, and a flying dragon.

Lyrically flowing between Maya’s multiple realities, The Original Dream is the story of a young independent Indonesian woman trying to break free from cultural and social conventions while also searching for her place among family and friends. With guidance from her parents, coworkers, and sister, along with a newborn filled with the wisdom of elders, Maya navigates her perceptions, looking for answers to unknown questions. Whether soaring through the nighttime sky, caring for her nephew, or tending to guests at the hotel where she works, she tries to delineate the difference between dreams and reality and if such a difference even matters.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

When I first read Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, I started seeing butterflies everywhere. Since finishing Nukila Amal’s The Original Dream, I can’t stop pulling words out of the sky in front of me.

What a beautiful metaphor for writing—visualizing the way authors take inspiration from their surroundings! Maya, a budding novelist, can’t discern the line between her dream life and reality in this lyrical, evocative novel. Exploring the Indonesian jungle in her satin pajamas, with a golden dragon as her guide, Maya is inspired to search deep within herself to understand her connections to her family, her heritage, and the myths that spark her creative work. And as she comes to a clearing in the dense forest, there are the words she’s been seeking, floating in the air above her, beckoning her to claim them as her own.

I left this novel bursting with ideas, as though they had materialized in the sky before me. Creativity is not only within us, it is all around us, in the history that formed our world and the future we’ll all create together. I feel blessed to share a world with a writer as original and imaginative as Nukila Amal.

- Gabriella Page-Fort, Editor

[Yolina]

*Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* for the 1st time there's a book I was going to buy showing up in the Kindle First selection I love Gelasimov so it's a no-brainer for me, and have obviously cancelled my pre-order for Into the Thickening Fog.

[NickyWithNook]

I like the sound of a few of them. I'll have to choose one and I might wait for reviews to come in. The rest will end up as Kindle Unlimited books I imagine.

[Catlady]

I'll go with The Missing.

[Wearever]

A nice selection this time !

I like the Missing too, and Sisters One Two Three. I'll need more time to decide. I also think some of these will end up on Prime Reading too.

[charlyee]

I got Sisters One Two Three, haven't started


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Manabi]

I went with Fate of Perfection myself.

Also, "Magical Realism" as a genre? Now I know Amazon's just making some of those up.

[Froide]

Originally Posted by Manabi

Also, "Magical Realism" as a genre? Now I know Amazon's just making some of those up.

FYI:

• Wikipedia: Magical Realism
• "What is Magical Realism, really?" by Bruce Holland Rogers
• These articles about the Netflix Original series Narcos, which opens with a title card from which the narrator reads: "Magical realism is defined as what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe. There is a reason magical realism was born in Colombia."

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Manabi

I went with Fate of Perfection myself.

Also, "Magical Realism" as a genre? Now I know Amazon's just making some of those up.

Not at all. That is a very valid name for a group of South American Literature ("Cien años de soledad", de Gabriel García Márquez, is one on the most known books). It is not my cup of tea but...

[Manabi]

Well, I learned something new today.

[Wearever]

I decided to go with Sisters One Two Three.

[JSWolf]

I learned today that the term "magical realism" is fake.

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this will probably be the last day to pick one of the monthly selections, if you haven't already.

Also, the rest of Andrei Gelasimov's AmazonCrossing titles seem to be discounted to just $1.99 as part of the Kindle Monthly specials in North America, if you're interested in picking up his backlist with them.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Not at all. That is a very valid name for a group of South American Literature ("Cien años de soledad", de Gabriel García Márquez, is one on the most known books). It is not my cup of tea but...

I have to disagree. Magical Realism is not a real book genre.