FREE/BARGAIN - Romance + Discussion - 2014

[apesmom]

Originally Posted by library addict

Right. You can get the 50% back for many of their titles. But they no longer have the crown symbol so cannot be used for the 10-for-1. This is pretty new as I used my last 10-for-1 on a MIRA title not that long ago.

Wow, I just looked up a few books. The crown symbol isn't showing up on very many of my non-HC/HQN candidates either. That seriously puts a dent in the value of that program.

[apesmom]

Kristen Ashley deals . . .

Books 1 & 2 of The Three series are on sale for $0.99. Yay, these are the last 2 I needed to complete my KA collection.

1 - Until the Sun Falls from the Sky - Kindle | Kobo (couponable) | Google
2 - With Everything I Am - Kindle | Kobo (couponable) | Google

For those of you like to beautify your Calibre library, she recently released new covers for her 'Burg series.

I also ran across the complete 5-book box set for the 'Burg series on Kobo for $4.99 which of course is a great deal with just about any coupon.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by library addict

Right. You can get the 50% back for many of their titles. But they no longer have the crown symbol so cannot be used for the 10-for-1. This is pretty new as I used my last 10-for-1 on a MIRA title not that long ago.

Wont be long and they wont be couponable at Kobo either.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Wont be long and they wont be couponable at Kobo either.

Well, I won't be buying that many titles then. I will miss them. I wish HC had left Harlequin alone.

It used to be my library would always buy titles requested. But now that the Harelquin and imprint titles are subject to the 26 checkout rule, my librarian said they have to get the titles approved by committee. So they won't be buying as many.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by library addict

Well, I won't be buying that many titles then. I will miss them. I wish HC had left Harlequin alone.

It used to be my library would always buy titles requested. But now that the Harelquin and imprint titles are subject to the 26 checkout rule, my librarian said they have to get the titles approved by committee. So they won't be buying as many.

I see that happening at my old libraries too who pretty much buy all Harlequins over everything else. Luckily Scribd has a ton of their titles not the new ones though and not all old ones either but quite a bit.

I got Seasons for Miracles ebook all ready on my little Tablet to be read just waiting for it to charge. I also plan to watch the movies later this month. We just sub to Feeln for the month which is Hallmark's version of NetFlix.

[library addict]

If you get the chance to see Angels and Ornaments do so. It was my favorite of the new Hallmark Christmas movies so far this year. I still have a few of the new November ones yet to watch on my DVR.

I have several autobuy authors who still write for Harlequin, like Merline Lovelace and Julie Miller. I also like a number of the series Marie Ferrarella writes, but I don't get all of her stuff.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by library addict

HarperCollins books currently are not eligible for the 10-for-1 codes. Sadly, due to the buyout now Harlequin, MIRA, HQN, Carina Press, etc are not eligible either

That's really too bad. Having all the formerly independent imprints get slowly gobbled up by the Big 6 just seems to keep disimproving the publishing field. Not to mention what it does for the end-reader (especially for those Gentle Readers with small budgets who needs must rely on the local library, who may no longer view it as cost-effective to get their books, and who can blame them? 26 checkouts, bah!).

Originally Posted by Blossom

Wont be long and they wont be couponable at Kobo either.

Sometimes non-couponable former Agency publishers keep couponable imprints*, so maybe Harlequin will still be one of them, especially as they like to sell stuff directly off their website with discount sales.

Anyway, I think I'm done with my shopping for today‡. I skipped the Samhain sale and ThinkGeek as well (I did kind of want those plushy Space Shuttle slippers, but let's face it: I usually walk around barefoot and don't really like wearing things on my feet indoors; and last Boxing Week they had 25% off and free international shipping over $$ amount, so I'm hoping for that again) in favour of Open Road Media's excellent couponable sale, which let me grab a bunch of wants from my old Fictionwise wishlist for dirt-cheap prices, since ORM acquired eReads (and is actually one of the few times one imprint grabbing another worked out, IMHO).

In retrospect, doing silly things like eating and napping to get over the sleep I lost to that damn Dreamspinner Twitter giveaway was not an optimal use of my time, since I ended up doing crazed checkout clicking for a couple of hours right up until the Kobo server switchover at 9. But I did manage to grab most of the stuff I truly wanted, check out a few promising "maybes" which seemed like steals to try out cheap, and overall I'm happy today and hope they a) do this again next year and b) do their regular deep-discount sales on the stuff I kind of wanted and missed†. Preferably while Kobo is handing out the good coupons again.

I hope everyone else was able to get a good chunk of stuff they wanted for good prices, as well, if they happened to do any shopping today.

* E.g. Random Penguin's Vintage Digital is still couponable, for now.

† In retrospect, I should have gotten that dinosaur trace fossil book I'd been thinking of, but $4.99 seemed a bit pricey compared to the $2.99 they were asking for most of their non-fiction, but it turns out that it's pretty recently published and $20+ regularly. Oh well, maybe next year.

‡ ETA: turns out I was wrong about that. Picked up two Damon Knight non-fiction books from ReAnimus' sale, since their 30% off coupon is still working, the books aren't at Kobo, and I feel like reading vintage sci-fi fandom kerfuffles and critical analysis.

Actually I wanted to get something from Kate Wilhelm, who also happens to be his widow and once upon a time wrote what I consider to be the very best time-travel love story ever as well as a really good how-to-tell-stories book, but I'm not sure I want to sort out which of her mysteries looks interesting enough to get, and I think I may already own a chunk of the mini-collected shorts in some paperbacks, and I guess the money from his estate goes to her anyway.

[Britomart]

Originally Posted by Blossom

The Brands Who Came for Christmas by Maggie Shayne is now free on Kindle!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00OU1V2NY/

It's free at Smashwords, too (DRM-free).

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Britomart

It's free at Smashwords, too (DRM-free).

Yep it went free there last month but I was waiting for Kindle version to go free.

[library addict]

Today's Harlequin Deal from their 25 Days Christmas Countdown:

Save 40% on selected Christmas titles. At Checkout, enter coupon code DAY240CB to save from THIS LIST




I'm holding out for the annual 50% off day which I am hoping they will do again this year.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author @ Kobo & iTunes (both available to Canadians) & Amazon (not available to Canadians):

Restless Hearts by Mona Ingram, 1st in her Gold Rush Romances series of f/m historical romances set in 1800s San Francisco (curiously, this one is subtitled A San Francisco Gold Rush Romance, kind of implying that other volumes might have been non-San Francisco gold rushes, as happened in the Yukon and elsewhere; well, maybe further down the line). This is newly written, but Ingram is an Avalon Books alumna whose backlist works are now carried by Amazon's exclusive Montlake Romance imprint which bought them out.

Boston, 1849. Denied her dream of attending medical school, Sarah Howard is desperate to leave Boston far behind. Determined to prove that she can make it on her own, she poses as a married woman and boards a schooner bound for San Francisco.

Stuck working in his family’s merchant bank, Jamie Thompson eagerly accepts the challenge of setting up a branch in San Francisco. He’s been restless for some time now, and barely escaped the clutches of the woman determined to marry him.

The attraction between Sarah and Jamie is instant and powerful, yet each has something to prove, if only to themselves. Will their single-minded determination derail a blossoming romance?

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Coyote by Della Van Hise (ISFDB), a contemporary f/m romantic suspense with strong mystical/paranormal urban fantasy elements. This is newly-written, but Hise has been published by Pocket Books (and in fact the Star Trek tie-in novel she wrote for them is quite notorious for being the one that they recalled and destroyed, then revised for republication, for apparently being too slashy, both f/f and m/m-wise, for their tastes).

A Novel of Love, Honor & Personal Sacrifice...

When River Willows is accused of a murder she didn't commit, her life takes a turn toward the sanctuary of a world existing at right-angles to our own. Combining the mysticism of martial arts and the romantic conflict of a young woman torn between two powerful men, COYOTE takes the reader on an epic journey of dangerous secrets, military cover-ups, and the infinite heart of the peaceful warrior.

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ 99 cents for today only (Dec 2nd) according to the newsletter from Open Road Media (couponable @ Kobo, should be the same price at all the usual Canada & US stores, may or may not be matched in other regions, etc.):

Such Devoted Sisters by Eileen Goudge, her contemporary/women's fiction novel with strong romantic elements, revolving around two generations of sisterly rivalry (two of them Hollywood actresses, then one a dedicated globe-trotting career chocolatière, and the other a homemaker and aspiring illustrator), and some brotherly rivalry as well, but with a bit of an emphasis on exploring the various women's love lives, in between the requisite journeys of self-discovery, IIRC.

I've actually read this one a really long time ago because once upon a time, my parents had a subscription to Reader's Digest Magazine, and Reader's Digest used to offer these "condensed" omnibus editions collecting novels that used to be popular, and this was one of them. And later I found the full-length original novel and read it out of curiosity as to what got "condensed". A whole lot of swearing and sex scenes and descriptions of chocolate-making and business-running (the latter are actually the most interesting parts of the books, IMHO, but then I'm a no-romo), it turned out.

So I can tell you definitively that there are romance-y bits, and there are HEAs earned by the heroines by the end. However, there's some boyfriend-stealing and rivalry-over-the-same-man jealousy and infidelity issues and hints of sexual assault involved (one of the sets of sisters is trying to escape a particular situation), if those are turn-offs for you. And it is not a dedicated romance in any way, having primary focus on the two sets of sisters' relationships with each other, though I really liked one of the love interests for the chocolatière sister, who was very caring and supportive of her but took no nonsense and called her out on stuff when she needed it (but then I have this fetish for hot competent redheads of any gender anyway {which incidentally my favourite out of all the sisters also qualified for}; I blame Heinlein and Lloyd Alexander and MZB's Darkover for that).

Anyway, I liked this one enough that I'll give a tentative thumbs-up recommendation if it sounds like it might be your kind of thing, since it's currently dirt cheap on sale. And there's a nifty blog feature from ORM with the author talking about the chocolate-y bits (which I freely admit were the parts I really liked): How I Wrote My Way Out of a Dress Size

NB: Kobo's listing files this under Romantic Suspense. IIRC, that is entirely inaccurate.

A generations-spanning saga shows what it means to be a sister

If it weren’t for her sister, Dolly might have been the most famous actress of Hollywood’s golden age. But Eve’s beauty and drive have pushed Dolly onto the B-list, where the seeds of jealousy take root. An unscrupulous agent gives her a chance at a comeback, and she takes it at Eve’s expense. She gives her sister’s name to Senator Joe McCarthy, ending Eve’s career and sparking a family tragedy that resonates through the decades.

Years later, Eve’s daughters are pitted against each other, each competing for the affections of the same man. One is a chocolatier, the other an aspiring illustrator. In seeking to regain the sisterly love that eluded their mother and aunt, they discover the awful truth about the past, which haunts their family still.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Eileen Goudge including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

A Christmas Wish: A Regency Novella by Mary Chase Comstock, a festive f/m historical romance originally out from Zebra in 1994 under the title "A Christmas Conspiracy", according to the blurb.

An abandoned marriage, pair of miserable twin girls, a cranky dog..all the ingredients of a perfect Christmas nightmare.

Lady Fanny's brilliant life in London is an empty charade. Her estranged husband, Sir Giles, lives a life of stolid acceptance. Their hoydenish twin daughters, Octavia and Eugenia, wish merely to avoid a repressive governess. Will their plan to bring their estranged parents together be a success? And will they all get the gift they really need most--Love?.

[Fbone]

Fatal Affair by Marie Force is FREE today at your fav retailer. Romantic suspense.

https://play.google.com/store/books/...d=6ssVcI-d92UC

http://smile.amazon.com/Fatal-Affair...s=fatal+affair

[Blue2u]

Whoever was watching the Jay Crownover books, looks like they're on sale again for varying prices, Nash being the lowest at $.50

ETA, not sure if it's geo-restricted but double check the prices before you buy, looks like they might have went back up again.