jolJolina Petersheim tops today’s Buffet with her debut novel, the The Outcast, an Amish story that Library Journal named one of the “Best Books of 2013.” Her sophomore novel, The Midwife, is due June 1.

Jolina and her husband share the same unique Amish and Mennonite heritage that originated in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but they now live in the mountains of Tennessee with their young daughter. Jolina’s childhood was filled with stories of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors hiding TVs from bishops and concealing permed hair beneath kapps.

As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours (except for the “Bargain Books” at the bottom of this page). 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 Outcast

Christian Fiction
Author: Jolina Petersheim
The Outcast

Raised in an Old Order Mennonite community, Rachel Stoltzfus is a strong-willed single woman, content living apart from mainstream society until whispers stir the moment her belly swells with new life. Refusing to repent and name the partner in her sin, Rachel feels the wrath of the religious sect as she is shunned by those she loves most. She is eventually coerced into leaving by her brother-in-law, the bishop.

But secrets run deep in this cloistered community, and the bishop is hiding some of his own, threatening his conscience and his very soul. When the life of Rachel’s baby is at stake, however, choices must be made that will bring the darkness to light, forever changing the lives of those who call Copper Creek home.


How to Crochet: Beginner’s Guide

Needlecrafts & Textile Crafts > Crocheting
Author: Sue Clark
How to Crochet: Beginner's Guide

Have you always wanted to learn how to crochet? Do you have a friend or family member who wants to learn? Did you learn to crochet when you were younger but have forgotten? Have you recently learned to crochet and are looking for some great beginners projects?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this book is for you. “Learn to Crochet” is a beginner’s guide that goes right back to basics. It teaches you all you need to know to get started with this rewarding hobby and start making your own beautiful creations.

• Yarns, yarn fibers and yarn weights
• Hooks and accessories
• All the basic stitches
• Increasing, decreasing and working in the round
• How to read patterns
• US and UK crochet terms
• Troubleshooting
• 5 great projects: crochet earrings, necklace, scarf, granny square and pen holder.

Mystic Memories

Romance > Time Travel
Author: Gillian Doyle, Susan Leslie Liepitz
Mystic Memories

When a fourth-grade classroom of school children spend the night aboard a refurbished nineteenth century merchant brig in Dana Point, California, one of them disappears in the night. After a three-month fruitless investigation, the distraught parents are led to private investigator, Cara Edwards, who relies on her sixth sense as much her common sense to solve a case. But when her psychic connection to the lost boy draws her back to 1833 California, she must find a way to bring them both back to the future. Captain Blake Masters has sailed the oceans of the world for nearly twenty years, never once looking back on his dark childhood memories. When Cara enters his life and opens the door to his forgotten past, can he trust her psychic insight to lead him on an uncharted course toward a destiny of love and compassion?

A Savage Wilde: The Trail

Historical Fiction
Author: Rebecca Kimbel
A Savage Wilde: The Trail

Land: that’s all nineteen-year-old Sophie Wilde wants. Her own farm, her own stables, land to till and harvest. When her father mentions the plots being given away in Oregon, Sophie volunteers to settle the homestead; even if it means a thousand miles of being saddled with her prim twin sister, Margaux. The journey brings Sophie face to face with others that share her dream– a notorious outlaw, an immigrant family, a circus performer, and a freed slave– and sets the beauty and violence of the western territories against her own coming of age.

Good Girl (Blended)

Romance > Contemporary
Author: Erica Chilson
Good Girl (Blended)

There aren’t many options for a girl who falls in the middle. I wasn’t an athlete or a geek. I wasn’t an artist or a musician. I didn’t shake my pom-poms along with my ass. I was just a good girl, who got good grades, and kept her mouth shut. I didn’t date my high school sweetheart and promptly get married the second I was handed my diploma. I’m not shiny enough to attract notice, nor dark enough to be a problem.

I don’t have a tragic sob story. My daddy didn’t leave us destitute, and I’m not a victim of a bad neighborhood. I am a middle-America, middle of the road, middle class girl with both parents fussing over their youngest daughter, who has no aspirations or goals. I’ve had every opportunity to succeed- supportive parents, stability, and a strong upbringing. I’m wayward and everyone looks at me like I’m an alien.

Magic of Thieves (Legends of Dimmingwood, Book 1)

Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
Author: C. Greenwood
Magic of Thieves: Legends of Dimmingwood, Book I

In a province where magic is forbidden and its possessors are murdered by the cruel Praetor, young Ilan, born with the powerful gift of her ancestors, has only one hope for survival. Concealment. In the shadow of Dimmingwood, she finds temporary protection with a band of forest brigands led by the infamous outlaw Rideon the Red Hand.

But as Ilan matures, learns the skills of survival, and struggles to master the inherent magic of her dying race, danger is always close behind. When old enemies reappear and new friendships lead to betrayal, will her discovery of an enchanted bow prove to be Ilan’s final salvation or her ultimate downfall?

Nashville – Ready to Reach

Romance > New Adult & College
Author: Inglath Cooper
Nashville - Ready to Reach (Part One - New Adult Romance)

Ever thought a dream might pass you by?

Nineteen-year old CeCe Mackenzie is determined to make her dreams come true. She heads for Nashville with not much more to her name than a guitar, a Walker Hound named Hank Junior and an old car she’d inherited from her grandma called Gertrude. But when Gertrude ends up on the side of I-40 in flames, Nashville has never seemed farther away. Help arrives in the form of two Georgia football players headed for the Nashville dream as well. When Holden Ashford and Thomas Franklin stop to offer CeCe and Hank Junior a ride, fate may just give a nod to serendipity and meant to be. Because while CeCe is chasing after her dream, she might find love as well.

Minimalist Living: Decluttering for Joy, Health, and Creativity

Self-Help > Motivational
Author: Genevieve Parker Hill
Minimalist Living: Decluttering for Joy, Health, and Creativity

From About.com Reader’s Choice Award-winning author Genevieve Parker Hill comes a fresh new minimalism guide for everyone. If your garage, attic, closets, and surfaces are filled with clutter, all that extra stuff can get in the way of a full experience of life as it was meant to be lived. Minimalist Living covers not only techniques for decluttering, but how to fill your newfound space with meaningful activities that add joy to your life and support your goals.

This guide to simplifying for health, joy, and creativity teaches:

• Why you should define your own sense of minimalism
• How to create your “Minimalist Mission Statement”
• How to use the techniques of “blazing” and “gazing” to declutter
• Why decluttering now can lead to a happier, healthier, and more creative life
• How to deal with sentimental items without losing their meaning
• The amazing connection between minimalism and living your soul’s deepest purpose

Your Guardian Angel (The Guardian Angel Series)

Romance > Vampires
Author: Skyla Madi
Your Guardian Angel (The Guardian Angel Series)

For Ruby Moore life is far more complicated than that of your average teen, for she is in no way average. Ruby is a vampire and her life as a vampire is far from traditional…

It has been one year since her normal life was brutally taken from her. Still adjusting to the shock of the change from mortal to immortal, her world is rocked again and she is taken under the wings of a guardian angel back to Sage Sanctum, a school beyond reach from the vampires that are determined to destroy her.

There, she is freed from her vampire chains and her normal needs and urges return. However, a new urge arises… Lust. A forbidden lust toward her savior, her guardian angel.

Attempting to control these desires is difficult, very difficult and when things couldn’t possibly get any worse, her situation becomes life or death as someone, somewhere in the school is aiding those who want her dead.

TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?

Reconstructing Amelia: A Novel

Women’s Fiction > Family Life
Author: Kimberly McCreight
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
Reconstructing Amelia: A Novel

In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate’s in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate.

An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.

Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.

Bloody Lessons: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery

Historical Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: M. Louisa Locke
Regularly $4.99, Today $0.99
Bloody Lessons: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery

In Bloody Lessons, it’s the winter of 1880, and the teachers of San Francisco are under attack: their salaries slashed and their competency and morals questioned in a series of poison pen letters.

Annie Fuller, the reluctant clairvoyant, has been called in to investigate by Nate Dawson, her lawyer beau, and the case becomes personal when they discover that Laura, Nate’s sister, may be one of the teachers targeted for attack.

In this installment in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, readers will find the same blend of a cozy mystery and romantic suspense, played out against the historical backdrop of late 19th century San Francisco, that they found in Maids of Misfortune and Uneasy Spirits.

If you are new to this series, you will still enjoy spending time with the lively residents of Annie Fuller’s boarding house and visiting San Francisco when Golden Gate Park was filled with horse-drawn carriages, politics were controlled by saloon-keepers, and kisses were stolen under gaslight.

The Mind Parasites

Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Gary Lachman, Colin Wilson
Regularly $6.99, Today $1.99
The Mind Parasites

Wilson has blended H.P. Lovecraft’s dark vision with his own revolutionary philosophy and unique narrative powers to produce a stunning, high-tension story of vaulting imagination. A professor makes a horrifying discovery while excavating a sinister archaeological site. For over 200 years, mind parasites have been lurking in the deepest layers of human consciousness, feeding on human life force and steadily gaining a foothold on the planet. Now they threaten humanity’s extinction. They can be fought with one weapon only: the mind, pushed to–and beyond–its limits. Pushed so far that humans can read each other’s thoughts, that the moon can be shifted from its orbit by thought alone. Pushed so that man can at last join battle with the loathsome parasites on equal terms.

Sipping from the Nile: My Exodus from Egypt

Biographies & Memoirs
Author: Jean Naggar
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Sipping from the Nile: My Exodus from Egypt

Born into a prominent, sophisticated Jewish family who spend time in Europe and live in the Middle East, author Jean Naggar’s coming of age memoir tells the story of her protected youth in an exotic multicultural milieu. To Naggar her childhood seemed a magical time that would never come to an end. But in 1956, Egyptian President Nasser’s nationalizing of the Suez Canal set in motion events that would change her life forever.

An enchanted way of life suddenly ended by multinational hostilities, her close-knit extended family is soon scattered far and wide. Naggar’s own family moves to London where she finishes her schooling and is swept into adulthood and the challenge of new horizons in America. Speaking for a different wave of immigrants whose Sephardic origins highlight the American Jewish story through an unfamiliar lens, Naggar traces her personal journey through lost worlds and difficult transitions, exotic locales and strong family values. The story resonates for all in this poignant exploration of the innocence of childhood in a world breaking apart.

Round Robin – A Love Story of Epic Proportions

Romantic Comedy
Author: Joseph Flynn
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Round Robin - A Love Story of Epic Proportions

Round Robin Phinney… She’s 230 pounds of bad attitude. She dishes out sandwiches and insults to the customers at Screaming Mimi’s deli. She takes a dim view of people in general and men in particular. Her home is her sanctuary. She has an apartment upstairs. Downstairs, she’s created a private park, lushly landscaped, dotted with ponds, furnished with two Chicago Park District benches.

Manfred Welk is what Charles Atlas would have looked like if he’d been serious about lifting weights. A former Olympic powerlifter for East Germany, his ex-wife turned him in for spying. Brought to Chicago after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he needs a place to live.

When cold weather hits and Robin’s furnace goes out, the plants in her park start to die. Worse, she has no money for repairs — but she does have a small vacant apartment in her basement. Something she might swap for the services of a live-in handyman.

After interviewing a number of prospective fix-it people, Robin finds, to her great horror, the best choice is a giant German with CIA connections. That’s bad enough, but the guy turns out to have a kid, a blue-haired prepubescent brat named Bianca who’s been raised in a brothel. Robin, Manfred and Bianca all have their demons to cast out.

… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2

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