Connie Flynn tops today’s Buffet with her dark fantasy The Fire Opal, in which a Cajun woman returns home for her mother’s funeral to a bayou she fled from years ago. The novel takes you into the world of Cajuns living in the Louisiana swamps, where “good” and “evil” battle, with love being the key to the war.
Connie is one of those rare authors who also designs and produces her own book covers, and she does a fine job. She worked as a graphic artist before becoming an author. Connie enjoys producing her own covers because she believes the expansive process of visual design is a nice counterpoint to the linear nature of both the writing process and the compiling process.
Connie’s latest book to be released on Kindle is Shadow on the Moon, Book 1 in her “Werewolf Series.” She’s also busy re-releasing her Kindle books as paperbacks and recording audiobook editions of her work.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours, except for the Bargain books in the yellow section below. 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 Fire Opal (A dark fantasy novel)
Romantic Suspense > Paranormal
Author: Connie Flynn
They call her Guardian of the Fire Opal.
The sudden death of her mother prompts a beautiful young woman to return to the Cajun birthplace she’d abandoned as a teenager, and hoped never to see again. Back in the bayou, she renews her relationship with her former lover while trying to come to grips with her mysterious Creole heritage. But when la fantome noir–the dark spirit that haunts the bayou–appears in the swamps, she is called to battle, and must find the powerful Fire Opal–which is her only hope for survival. Together, she and her former lover must embark into uncharted swamp waters to recover the magical talisman…and perhaps rekindle their lost love.
space
Gnome On The Range
Romantic Comedy
Author: Jennifer Zane
Once you get the zing, you can’t go back.
Jane West has everything a woman could want. A job in a small Montana town’s only adult store, two busy young boys and one dead husband. Everything except a little excitement–a little zing. But that changes one summer morning at a garage sale when her kids buy some garden gnomes.
Now someone wants those gnomes and will let nothing get in their way. Including Jane. This new excitement for Jane spells trouble for a relationship with new neighbor–and hot fireman–Ty Strickland. Can Jane and Ty handle a relationship meddling mother-in-law, crazy kids, and stay alive while trying to solve the mystery of the garden gnomes?
Pretending to Love: Bluff Your Way to Relationship Bliss
Love, Sex & Marriage > Humor > Parodies
Author: Ashton Cartwright
A ridiculously tongue-in-cheek guide to navigating the perils and pitfalls of a modern relationship, Pretending to Love will teach you how to attract the right sort of partner, trick them into liking you, manipulate their feelings to suit your own needs, and then dump them in an appropriate fashion when you get bored and/or hungry.
You will also learn important relationship information such as:
· How to Get Your Own Way
· Improving Your Partner Through the Power of Nagging
· A “Brief” Introduction to Lingerie
· Why Honesty is the Worst Policy
It’s dating advice from someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s funny marriage advice combined with utter nonsense. It’s relationship advice for men who don’t deserve any better. It’s also relationship advice for women who have low standards.
TRAGIC: Rook and Ronin, #1
Romance > New Adult & College
Author: J. A. Huss
Rook Walsh is TRAGIC
Because life so far – just sucks. Some girls get parents. Rook got the foster care system. Some girls get Prince Charming. Rook got an abusive frog. Some girls get lucky…
Rook got a second chance. And she took it. Because when fate throws you a bone – you grab it with both hands and run.
Antoine Chaput knows the minute he spies Rook in his photography studio that she’s got The Look. The dark and desperate look he must have to land the exclusive TRAGIC media contract.
Rook is paired up with top model, Ronin, and he’s everything her abusive ex-boyfriend wasn’t. Patient, gentle, happy, attentive, and sexy! He knows exactly what to do to make Rook blush for Antoine’s camera.
Rook’s luck changes in an instant and suddenly she’s the darling of the modeling world. It’s a dream job to go with a dream guy and all she has to do is look pretty and follow directions. But there’s always a price to pay – and Rook is about to get the bill.
Kindle Fire HD Tips, Tricks and Traps
Computers & Technology > Hardware
Author: Edward Jones
So, you’ve got a Kindle Fire as a gift, or perhaps you bit the purchase bullet on your own because you wanted this impressive tablet. Do you want to get the most out of your new Kindle Fire HD? Here is the book that will teach you 100% of what you need to know.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn tips (ways to effectively use your Kindle Fire), tricks (ways to improve the operation of your Kindle Fire), and traps (things to avoid to prevent problems while using your Kindle Fire).
The Edge of Courage (Red Team)
Romantic Suspense
Author: Elaine Levine
Rocco Silas has come home to Wyoming after long years as a Red Team operative in Afghanistan. It isn’t easy returning to civilian life, especially burdened as he is with a staggering case of PTSD or hunted as he is by an enemy determined to seek an eye-for-eye–neither of which can he battle until he confronts the truth of what happened one fateful day in the high mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush.
Mandy Fielding’s dream of opening a therapeutic riding center on her family’s ranch is almost within her grasp–until she hires Rocco Silas, a dangerous ex-Spec Ops friend of her brother’s. His haunted eyes and passionate touch promise a love she never dared believe possible. Can they confront the truth of his past and build a future together or will the enemy stalking him destroy them both?
Blog at Home Mom: Balancing Blogging and Motherhood
Internet & Web Culture > Blogging & Blogs
Author: Christin Slade
A source of practical and encouraging tips to help Christian moms balance their life at home with their blogging ministry or business online. You will find ideas for organizing and prioritizing your blog and writing, as well as setting goals and keeping balance with your home and children.
Water The Bamboo: Unleashing The Potential Of Teams And Individuals
Business & Investing > Management & Leadership
Author: Greg Bell
A metaphor for individual and team success. When giant timber bamboo grows, it will rocket up an astonishing 90 feet in only 60 days, but not until at least three years of watering. In 21 steps, this timely book helps individuals and teams refocus on their core values and mission to achieve long-term success.
- Make your values come alive
- Set a compelling vision
- Generate the results you want
- Build a network of supporters
- Create unshakable motivation
- Apply the secrets of high achievers to create breakthrough results
- Develop persistence and laser-like focus to avoid flirts and distractions
- Avoid slipping into unhealthy self-destructive behaviors
Fever: A Novel
Historical Fiction
Author: Mary Beth Keane
Regular Price $9.99, Today $1.99
On the eve of the twentieth century, Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland at age fifteen to make her way in New York City. Brave, headstrong, and dreaming of being a cook, she fought to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic-service ladder. Canny and enterprising, she worked her way to the kitchen, and discovered in herself the true talent of a chef. Sought after by New York aristocracy, and with an independence rare for a woman of the time, she seemed to have achieved the life she’d aimed for when she arrived in Castle Garden. Then one determined “medical engineer” noticed that she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked, and identified her as an “asymptomatic carrier” of Typhoid Fever. With this seemingly preposterous theory, he made Mallon a hunted woman.
The Department of Health sent Mallon to North Brother Island, where she was kept in isolation from 1907 to 1910, then released under the condition that she never work as a cook again. Yet for Mary—proud of her former status and passionate about cooking—the alternatives were abhorrent. She defied the edict.
Country Roads (A Whisper Horse Novel)
Romance > Contemporary
Author: Nancy Herkness
Regular Price $9.99, Today $1.99
When sheltered artist Julia Castillo flees her hometown, she has just one goal: to prove to her overbearing family once and for all that she can make it on her own. After she moves to Sanctuary, West Virginia, her horse paintings take the art world by storm. Yet Julia finds her courage tested as never before—by her love for a handsome country lawyer, by her bond with a dangerous black stallion, and by the secret she is so desperate to keep…
Paul Taggart abandoned his high-powered legal career to return to Sanctuary, giving up his own dreams to care for his troubled brother. But the day he rescues Julia Castillo from the side of the highway, his staid, responsible life changes forever. Irresistibly drawn to the fiery but unsophisticated beauty, Paul will do anything to protect her—even sacrifice his own happiness to guarantee hers.
Exposed – A Thriller (Chandler Series)
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: J.A. Konrath
Regular Price $2.99, Today $0.99
She’s an elite spy, working for an agency so secret only three people know it exists. Trained by the best of the best, she has honed her body, her instincts, and her intellect to become the perfect weapon.
Before special operative Chandler was forced to FLEE, she executed the most difficult missions–and most dangerous people–for the government. So when she’s tasked with saving a VIP’s daughter from human traffickers, Chandler expects the operation to be by the numbers…until she uncovers a secret that will endanger the entire population of New York City, and possibly the world.
101 Nights (Dr. Hoffmann series)
International Mystery & Crime
Author: Christoph Spielberg
Regular Price $9.99, Today $1.99
It’s been 101 days since Dr. Felix Hoffmann’s girlfriend, Celine, left Berlin in a humanitarian convoy carrying aid to Kurdish northern Iraq. Now her coffin returns home. The story from Baghdad is that Celine orchestrated the very bomb attack that killed her, but a devastated Felix cannot believe that Celine would willingly participate in such an act. Certain clues—as well as questioning from German, Iraqi, and American agencies—further raise his suspicions.
Amid a web of lies and deceptions, Felix uncovers terrifying secrets that point to an international conspiracy. The closer he gets to the truth, the greater the danger becomes, and it could stop the doctor’s investigation—permanently.
This third novel in Christoph Spielberg’s acclaimed Dr. Hoffmann series takes readers into the dangerous—and dangerously absurd—world of intelligence services.
Assassination Vacation
Humor > Political
Author: Sarah Vowell
Regular Price $9.99, Today $1.99
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrumsof American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other — a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue — it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and — the author’s favorite — historical tourism.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2