It was a shocking experience that jump-started Brenda Novak’s career as a bestselling author–she caught her day-care provider drugging her children with cough syrup to get them to sleep all day. That was when Brenda decided she needed to quit her job as a loan officer and help make a living from home.
“When I first got the idea to become a novelist, it took me five years to teach myself the craft and finish my first book,” Brenda says. But she sold that book, and the rest is history. Her novels have made the New York Times, USA Today and Borders/Waldenbooks bestseller lists and won many awards, including three Rita nominations, the Book Buyer’s Best, the Book Seller’s Best and the National Reader’s Choice Award.
Brenda and her husband, Ted, live in Sacramento and are proud parents of five children–three girls and two boys. When she’s not spending time with her family or writing, Brenda is usually working on her annual fund-raiser for diabetes research–an online auction held on her Web site (www.brendanovak.com) every May. Brenda has raised over $1.6 million to date.
Brenda tops today’s Buffet with Coulda Been a Cowboy, the first installment in her “Dundee-Idaho” series, which first appeared as a Harlequin paperback in 2007.
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.
Coulda Been a Cowboy
Romance > Contemporary
Author: Brenda Novak
Grandpa Garnier used to say, Love is like a bucking bronco. It takes guts and determination to hang on, but it’s worth the ride.
If only Grandpa was around now to help Tyson Garnier out of this mess. The famous pro football player is suddenly saddled with a very public scandal—and an illegitimate child. Tyson needs a good nanny now if he’s going to salvage his career. And plain, no-nonsense Dakota Brown is the ideal candidate.
Dakota doesn’t care for football—or for a man who doesn’t seem to want his own son. But she needs this job, and that precious little baby needs her.
Dakota isn’t Tyson’s kind of woman. But the more he sees of her—and the more he sees of his son—the harder he wants to hang on.
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I Met Him in the Ladies’ Room (BOGO!)
Genre Fiction > Coming of Age
Author: Michelle Stimpson
Kerri Dalee didn’t grow up in a religious family. In fact, the last time Kerri went to church, she only attended for the cool door prizes and food served at Vacation Bible School. But when her wealthy roommate, Stephanie, gets engaged, Kerri’s finds that her only hope for financial survival is an editing job at a Dallas area mega-church. While waiting for her interview, Kerri makes a quick, desperate decision to meet Christ – in the ladies’ room, of all places – so she can fulfill every aspect of the stated criteria for employment. But can she fake her faith long enough to make it through the 90-day probationary period? How will her family respond? And, more importantly, will Kerri get more than she bargained for at this new job?
Chasing God: One Man’s Miraculous Journey in the Heart of the City
Biographies & Memoirs
Author: Roger Huang
Chasing God is Roger Huang’s gritty, heartfelt story of obedience to God’s call to follow Him into the heart of the city. That mission can inspire you!
Leaving behind his abusive home in Taiwan, Roger discovered both the American Dream and his French bride, Maite. A dramatic event took place before his very eyes and prompted Roger to rethink his future and his calling. As a couple, Roger and Maite chose not to ignore the plight of the poor and homeless in San Francisco’s most impoverished district, the Tenderloin. Since founding City Impact, Roger has led many in discovering the power of prayer, fasting, and serving hands-on in a community starved for hope. Chasing God is a testimony to God’s miraculous provision and will challenge you to consider how to serve and care for your own city and community.
Pursuit And Persuasion (Ben Reese mystery series)
Christian Fiction > Mystery & Suspense
Author: sally wright
If you feared that you were going to be killed and had a good idea who it might be, would you leave a cryptic note asking a friend to investigate even the most natural-appearing death if it happened–and not name your suspect? That’s the premise of this pleasant third entry in Sally Wright’s Ben Reese series (Publish and Perish, Pride and Predator) and unlikely as it may be, she makes do with it more than adequately.Georgina Fletcher is a Scottish academic, a sensible woman troubled in the weeks before her seemingly natural death by knowledge of some unpleasantness in her family’s history and a strong desire to make amends for the misdeeds of her forbears. When a former student of American archivist Ben Reese inherits Georgina’s estate, she asks him to help her solve the professor’s mystery so that she can carry out Georgina’s wishes. Ben’s investigation turns up several likely suspects in Georgina’s demise, and the secret of how she was killed. Along the way, the reader is treated to descriptions and explanations of matters as far-ranging as falconry, stone-sculpting, microbiology, and rare book collecting.
A relatively bloodless cozy with pacing as slow as a country stroll, Pursuit and Persuasion presents the petty rivalries of academia nicely. Ben Reese, whose background as a World War II scout provides enough of a provenance to put him in the detecting business, is an interesting protagonist who warrants a fuller portrayal. –Jane Adams
Clovenhoof
Humor & Satire > Fantasy
Author: Heide Goody, Iain Grant
Charged with gross incompetence, Satan is fired from his job as Prince of Hell and exiled to that most terrible of places: English suburbia. Forced to live as a human under the name of Jeremy Clovenhoof, the dark lord not only has to contend with the fact that no one recognises him or gives him the credit he deserves but also has to put up with the bookish wargamer next door and the voracious man-eater upstairs.
Heaven, Hell and the city of Birmingham collide in a story that features murder, heavy metal, cannibalism, armed robbers, devious old ladies, Satanists who live with their mums, gentlemen of limited stature, dead vicars, petty archangels, flamethrowers, sex dolls, a blood-soaked school assembly and way too much alcohol.
Clovenhoof is outrageous and irreverent (and laugh out loud funny!) but it is also filled with huge warmth and humanity. Written by first-time collaborators Heide Goody and Iain Grant, Clovenhoof will have you rooting for the bad guy like never before.
The Color of a Memory (Color of Heaven, Book 5)
Romance > Contemporary
Author: Julianne MacLean
Find out why readers everywhere are clamoring for the next instalment of this thrilling, inspiring series.
ER nurse Audrey Fitzgerald believed she was married to the perfect man – a heroic firefighter who saved lives, even beyond his own death. But a year after losing him she meets a mysterious woman who has some unexplained connection to her husband….
Soon Audrey discovers that in the weeks leading up to her husband’s death, he was keeping secrets, and she wonders if she ever really knew him at all. Compelled to dig into his past and explore memories that define the essence of their relationship, Audrey embarks upon a journey of discovery that will lead her down a new path to the future – a future she never dared to imagine.
At Risk (A Decorah Security Series Novel)
Romance > Paranormal
Author: Rebecca York
After a series of muggings outside her New Orleans restaurant, Eugenia Beaumont hires Decorah Security to find out who’s trying to sabotage her business. Frank Decorah sends Rafe Gascon, a man with psychic powers. He and Eugenia were almost lovers as teenagers, and each thinks the other broke off the relationship. The moment they connect again, old feelings leap to life. Then a murder at a voodoo ceremony in her restaurant makes them both suspects. Can they avoid a voodoo curse, find the real killer and admit the feelings they still have for each other?
Confessions of a Predatory Lender
Women’s Fiction > Romance
Author: Irma Fritz
Meet Christy. She’s all about Palouse. She was born in the town of Palouse, in the Palouse region of Washington State. Her family name is Palus, and her father is a descendant of the Palouse tribe. Watered down to a few drops. Still, it’s something she is proud of. If someone had told her that she will become a predatory lender, betray her best friend, fall in love with a thief, and help her bosses bust up the bank she works for, she would have laughed out loud.
This is the summer of 2006, and everyone knows you can make a killing in mortgage lending. Christy and her BFF Megan moved to the big city of Seattle to do just that. While Megan is already dreaming of hot cars and designer clothes, “good girl” Christy’s ambitions are more modest. At first! So how is it her fault that she lands in the world ofsubprime lending; you know, the stuff that lost families their homes and wrecked our economy?
When Christy is accepted into loan officer training, she realizes quickly that she doesn’t have the job unless she can pass. But before the class ends, Big Lou turns everything upside down.
TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?
Thicker Than Water (A Leo Waterman Mystery)
Mystery > Police Procedurals
Author: G.M. Ford
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Hard living collects its fair share of casualties, but somehow Leo Waterman avoided becoming one of them. Destined for a trust fund that was taking too damn long to kick in, he spent years eking out a living in Seattle as a private investigator. Along the way he managed to survive countless run-ins with murderers, drug dealers, and jealous wives. But when Rebecca, the love of his life, dumped him to marry someone else…that was a different story. Still, he took it like a man, eventually collecting his family money and slipping into semi-retirement—until the day an unwelcome visitor brings him the worst possible news.
Rebecca has vanished and no one, not even her manipulative, overprotective mother, can find a trace of her. Together with his band of informers and sidekicks (in truth a rather motley crew of homeless drunks and reprobates), Leo wades back into the game, determined to save Rebecca once and for all. But her trail is a twisted one, thick with deception and depravity that winds from the rain-swept streets of Seattle to the murky depths of the great North Woods. The stink of it all seems to emanate from none other than Rebecca’s new husband, Brett Ward, whose tangle of lies will cast Leo into the path of a ruthless gang that will stop at nothing—not even murder—to protect what’s theirs.
Chump Change (A Leo Waterman Mystery)
Mystery > Hard-Boiled
Author: G.M. Ford
Regularly $4.99, Today $1.99
Sometimes it’s the things you don’t do that come back to haunt you, just as surely as some questions are best left unanswered.
When “Leo” is the last word a stranger speaks, the Seattle private eye launches himself into a search for answers. Not only does the dead man have a connection to Leo’s past, but he was also worth millions—and some very dangerous people know it. Before long, Leo is caught between warring factions in a high-stakes game of mayhem and murder, and his search for answers becomes a quest for justice. Turns out, finding the truth is far more painful than Leo ever imagined, and the price for uncovering it just might be his life.
A Plain Scandal (An Appleseed Creek Mystery)
Christian Fiction > Mystery & Suspense
Author: Amanda Flower
Regularly $9.99, Today $0.99
The people of Appleseed Creek in the heart of Ohio’s Amish Country are under attack. Soon after the dust has settled on a buggy accident that turned out to be murder, an unknown assailant begins cutting off the long hair of Amish women and the beards of Amish men.
New to the area, computer specialist Chloe Humphrey may not share their customs, but she is certainly alarmed over these crimes against the Amish and worries how such events will impact her growing number of friends who are more connected to that way of life.
In this small community, when Chloe discovers the body of an Amish businessman who was stabbed in the back and whose beard was cut off, she knows that finding the murderer and restoring peace to Appleseed Creek is as much her responsibility as anyone else’s.
Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? (Brown Bear and Friends)
Children’s Books > Classics
Author: Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle
Regularly $7.99, Today $1.99
Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? is the final collaboration from this bestselling author-illustrator team. Young readers will enjoy Baby Bear’s quest to find Mama, and they’ll revel in identifying each of the native North American animals that appear along the way. The central focus on the special bond between mother and child makes a fitting finale to a beloved series.
These groundbreaking picture books have been teaching children to read for over forty years, and their consistently strong sales prove their staying power and continued applicability for today’s kids.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
Inspirational > Biography
Author: Donald Miller
Regularly $9.99, Today $2.99
After writing a successful memoir, Donald Miller’s life stalled. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself unwilling to get out of bed, avoiding responsibility, even questioning the meaning of life. But when two movie producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, he found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years chronicles Miller’s rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story, to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. Through heart-wrenching honesty and hilarious self-inspection, Donald Miller takes readers through the life that emerges when it turns from boring reality into meaningful narrative.
Miller goes from sleeping all day to riding his bike across America, from living in romantic daydreams to fearful encounters with love, from wasting his money to founding a nonprofit with a passionate cause. Guided by a host of outlandish but very real characters, Miller shows us how to get a second chance at life the first time around. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is a rare celebration of the beauty of life.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2