Author Lisa Wingate tops today’s Buffet with The Sea Glass Sisters, a prequel novella to her current bestselling novel The Prayer Box, which was released four weeks ago. The action begins on Hatteras Island — when a crisis sends Elizabeth to her aunt’s seashell shop, she discovers that sometimes sisterhood and the sea can help us weather even the most unimaginable storms…

lisawLisa is an award-winning journalist, magazine columnist, popular inspirational speaker and a national bestselling author of 16 books.  Her first mainstream novel, Tending Roses, is in its fifteenth printing from Penguin Putnam.  Tending Roses is a staple on the shelves of national bookstore chains as well as in many independent bookstores.

Lisa is one of a select group of authors to find success in both the Christian and mainstream markets, writing for both Bethany House, a Christian publisher, and NAL Penguin Putnam, in mainstream fiction.  Her bestselling books have become a hallmark of inspirational southern fiction.

As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours. Warning: Kindle book promotions can end without notice, so before downloading click the link “See Kindle price at Amazon” to verify that the book is still free. (Prices and availability may differ outside USA.)

The Sea Glass Sisters: Prelude to The Prayer Box

Contemporary Fiction > Women’s Fiction
Author: Lisa Wingate
The Sea Glass Sisters: Prelude to The Prayer Box

Elizabeth Gallagher has been balancing on the ragged edge for a while now. Then a rough case on the boards of her 911 operator’s job collides with a family conflict at home, and Elizabeth finds herself finally coming apart at the seams. A four-state road trip—trapped in a car with her mother—is the last thing she needs. Their destination may be beautiful Hatteras Island, but the reason for going is anything by pleasant.

After one disastrous hurricane, and with a second one working its way up the coast, it’s time to convince Aunt Sandy to abandon her little seaside store on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and return to the family fold in Michigan. But when the storm sweeps through, the three women will discover that sisterhood and the sea can change hearts, lives, and futures . . . often in the most unpredictable of ways.


The Rancher

Romance > Westerns
Author: Kelli Ann Morgan
The Rancher (Redbourne Series #1 - Cole's Story)

The deal was to share the ranch, not her heart…

ABBY MCCALLISTER can ride and shoot better than any man she’s ever met, but when the threat of losing her ranch forces her to find a husband, she is unprepared for the mysterious stranger who takes her hand and evokes in her a sudden desire to be a lady fit for his arm.

He’d sworn to protect her. He couldn’t do that if she married someone else…

COLE REDBOURNE, immersed in guilt over the accident that claimed his best friend, discovers there was nothing accidental about it. When he sets out for Silver Falls, Colorado, to fulfill his friend’s dying wish and to flush out his killer, the last thing he expected was to find hope again disguised as his impromptu bride.

Speculation

Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
Author: Edmund Jorgensen
Speculation

Andrew Wrangles has a decision to make. His best friend Sothum, a philosophical and financial genius, has just died and left him a choice in his will: ten million dollars or a sealed envelope.

Andrew’s wife Cheryl doesn’t see this as much of a choice. She wants Andrew to take the ten million, and what little patience she has for his speculating about what might be worth more than the money is wearing thin very quickly.

But as Andrew digs deeper into the secret life of the mind that Sothum lived, he finds a new mystery behind every clue. Does the envelope contain the fate of a vanished mutual friend? A breakthrough that could secure Andrew a place in the history of philosophy? Or is Sothum just playing a final private joke at his friend’s expense?

In order to make his decision, Andrew must ultimately confront some questions he has long avoided: about the true nature of his long friendship with Sothum; about the choices he has made (or refused to make) in his own life; and–perhaps–about the limits of the human mind itself.

The Fried Twinkie Manifesto

Humor > Essays
Author: Ryan Moehring
The Fried Twinkie Manifesto: and other tales of disaster and damnation

Whether solving biblical foreskin mysteries, having his head split open by a crowbar-wielding man named Thor or getting busted for pickpocketing in a remote Mexican desert, Ryan Moehring reveals in his debut collection of stories and essays, The Fried Twinkie Manifesto, that his irreverent wit and capacity for uncovering nuggets of insight from the rubble of the mundane make him one of humor’s most promising newcomers.

While maintaining a voice unmistakably his own, Moehring evokes the wild imagination of Tom Robbins, the soul of Sedaris, and the wisdom of Vonnegut. Though readers will more often than not find themselves laughing out loud, Moehring’s eye for the profound and his unyielding honesty ensure that they are just as likely to cry—or cringe.

Illegal

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Hard-Boiled
Author: Paul Levine
ILLEGAL

Haunted by a personal tragedy and wanted by the cops, lawyer Jimmy (Royal) Payne wants to skip town. That’s when he crosses paths with 12-year-old Tino Perez, newly arrived from Mexico, looking for his mother Marisol, who went missing after crossing the border with a vicious coyote.

Before long, the cynical lawyer and the savvy kid are bonding and tracing Marisol’s path, battling predators on both sides of the border. Most dangerous of all is Simeon Rutledge, a wealthy rancher, and the biggest employer of farm workers in California. Just why is Rutledge willing to kill Payne to keep Marisol under wraps?

It’s a story of human trafficking and sex slavery, a mother’s love for her son, and the redemption of a man intent on escaping his past. From the shadows of migrant stash houses to the fertile fields of the San Joaquin Valley, ‘Illegal’ delivers a searing mix of live-wire prose, shattering violence, and rich characterization.

Fatal February

Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Barbara Levenson
Fatal February (Mary Magruder Katz)

For half-Jewish, half-Southern Baptist Miami criminal defense attorney Mary Macgruder Katz, life starts to spin completely out of control when a minor fender bender turns out to be an unlikely shot from Cupid’s bow.

Carlos Martin, the other car’s driver, isn’t just a distracted driver; he’s distracting. Carlos is charming, handsome, and mysterious. Hardly before she knows what hit her, Mary breaks off her engagement, jumps into a sizzling romance with Carlos, gets fired from her former fiancé’s highbrow law firm, starts her own practice, and lands her first client, Lillian Yarmouth.

But Lillian isn’t just any client; she’s the prime suspect in what’s become the Miami society murder of the year.

While investigating Lillian’s alleged crime of passion, Mary finds that this case, like all matters of the heart, is anything but black and white. And Mary has clearly stumbled onto something that has someone seeing red.

Raising Hell: Christianity’s Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire

Christianity > Theology
Author: Julie Ferwerda, Stephen Ferwerda
Raising Hell: Christianity's Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire

Have you ever wondered…do earthly parents love their children more than God loves us? Does God ask you to forgive your enemies—as many times as necessary— when He is not willing to do the same? Is being punished forever for sins committed in a short lifetime really a demonstration of justice? Does everybody get the same fair chance to believe in Jesus before they die? Most of all, if hell is mankind’s worst possible fate, and if God is truly loving, then…

– Why does He fail to mention hell in Genesis as the price for sin?
– Why doesn’t the Old Testament ever speak of hell?
– Why does Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, never once mention hell?
– Why was hell not part of early Church established doctrine?

Dare to question. What have you got to lose?

Uneasy Lies the Crown

Genre Fiction > Biographical > Men’s Adventure
Author: N. Gemini Sasson
Uneasy Lies the Crown, A Novel of Owain Glyndwr

The story of Owain Glyndwr, the last Welsh Prince of Wales. In the year 1399, Welsh nobleman Owain Glyndwr is living out a peaceful gentleman’s life in the Dee Valley of Wales with his wife Margaret and their eleven children. But when Henry of Bolingbroke usurps the throne of England from his cousin Richard II, that tranquility is forever shattered. What starts as a feud with a neighboring English lord over a strip of land evolves into something greater–a fight for the very independence of Wales.

After a harrowing encounter on the misty slopes of Cadair Idris, the English knight Harry Hotspur offers Owain a pact he cannot resist.

Peace, however, comes with a heavy price. As tragedies mount and temptations loom, Owain questions whether he can fulfill the prophecies and lead his people to freedom without destroying those around him.

For centuries, the bards have sung of King Arthur’s return, but is this reluctant warrior prince the answer to those prophecies?

Conspiracy of Silence

Romantic Suspense
Author: Martha Powers
Conspiracy of Silence

On a sunny day in July, Clare Prentice arrives in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Although she is on assignment to interview the town’s notoriously reclusive novelist Nate Hanssen, Clare is really in search of a different story–her story. Just months before, Clare was a bride-to-be, living in Chicago, and looking to the future…until the day she learned her entire life had been a lie.

Not only was Clare adopted, but there is no record that she or her adoptive mother ever existed. The only clue is a class ring from Grand Rapids Senior High School. Unable to get on with her future until she reconciles her past, Clare breaks off her engagement. Unraveling the mystery is like trying to sculpt fog–until the first piece of the puzzle unexpectedly drops into place: Clare’s birth mother, Lily Gundersen, was murdered in Grand Rapids.

Color My Horse

Romance > Mystery

Author: Bev Pettersen
COLOR MY HORSE (Romantic Mystery)

A disillusioned heiress is catapulted from the glamorous world of Alpine skiing into the cutthroat trenches of Thoroughbred racing.

The hunky trainer’s job now includes babysitting a manipulative owner’s rebellious granddaughter. She’s the last thing this horse-loving loner needs…but she turns into the only thing he really wants.

Sparks fly. Romance blooms. Danger threatens them all.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2

[maxbutton id=”87″]