Michaela Thompson tops today’s Buffet with Paper Phoenix, a wickedly delicious cozy mystery set in 1970s San Francisco. Amateur sleuth Maggie Longstreet, recently divorced by her handsome, influential husband, is languishing in her San Francisco home, measuring out her days in naps. She is stirred by feelings of revenge, however, when she reads that one of her ex-husband’s enemies, an investigative reporter, has died under suspicious circumstances.
If you’ve never heard of Michaela, there’s a good reason: all her books were originally published several years ago under the pen name Mickey Friedman. During the past year, seven of those books have been republished under her real name, and they’ve been selling quite well to today’s Kindle audience. Michaela lives in New York City, but spends significant time in the Florida Panhandle.
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.)
Paper Phoenix: A Mystery of San Francisco in the ’70s
First comes divorce, then comes murder…
…or at least sweet thoughts of murder. Maggie Longstreet has plenty of them after slimy, ambitious Richard trades her in for a more recent model. She’s so depressed she can barely get out of bed when Larry Hawkins, a seemingly not-at-all depressed acquaintance, commits suicide out of the blue. Suddenly Maggie goes on high alert, remembering something her evil ex said about Larry—something highly suspicious.
And from there, it’s just a short segué to a bracing new development:
“When some women get divorced they go back to school, I thought. Some do volunteer work at the hospital, or join communes and learn to birth calves. Some have affairs with inappropriate men. My new interest is burglary. Maggie Longstreet, former wife and mother, past president of the Museum Guild, now starting a career as a second-story woman.”
Fortunately, Maggie isn’t alone in her adventure—a very attractive, much younger man proves a lot more fun than Richard ever was. In fact, the real delight of this witty, sly mystery is seeing Maggie come alive again after a suffocating marriage. Set in the’70s, it has a bit of that Mad Men feel of women on the brink of something big. And completely unexpected.
Untimed: a Time Travel Adventure (Rules of the Regulator Book 1)
Untimed is an action-packed time travel novel by Andy Gavin, author of The Darkening Dream and creator of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter.
Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, his own mother can’t remember his name. So when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously. Still, this isn’t all bad. Who needs school when you can learn about history first hand, like from Ben Franklin himself. And there’s this girl… Yvaine… another time traveler. All good. Except for the rules: boys only travel into the past and girls only into the future.
Roughing It
The Wild West as Mark Twain lived it.
In 1861, Mark Twain joined his older brother Orion, the newly appointed secretary of the Nevada Territory, on a stagecoach journey from Missouri to Carson City, Nevada. Planning to be gone for three months, Twain spent the next “six or seven years” exploring the great American frontier, from the monumental vistas of the Rocky Mountains to the lush landscapes of Hawaii. Along the way, he made and lost a theoretical fortune, danced like a kangaroo in the finest hotels of San Francisco, and came to terms with freezing to death in a snow bank—only to discover, in the light of morning, that he was fifteen steps from a comfortable inn.
As a record of the “variegated vagabondizing” that characterized his early years—before he became a national treasure—Roughing It is an indispensable chapter in the biography of Mark Twain. It is also, a century and a half after it was first published, both a fascinating history of the American West and a laugh-out-loud good time.
The Sibylline Oracle (The Sibylline Trilogy Book 1)
Can love defy time?
When she’s rescued by handsome Alex Morgan, Valeria thinks she’s found her happy ending. But Alex knows the terrifying truth…time is running out! And unless they can discover the source of an ancient curse, fate will take her life…again. Greek Mythology and modern romance intertwine in this addictive trilogy.
The 30-Day Praise Challenge
When Becky Harling was diagnosed with cancer over ten years ago, she begged God for healing. A friend of hers had another idea. She challenged Becky to spend twenty minutes a day in praise. Becky thought, What if I’m not feeling thankful? But as she intentionally praised God, she began to experience new joy—and her relationship with God has never been the same.
Now, in The Thirty-Day Praise Challenge, Becky guides you in praising God for twenty minutes every day for one month. Arranged topically, the book includes music selections to enhance your praise journey and creative ideas for continuing the habit of praise.
As Becky writes, “If you take this challenge, your faith will grow more than you dreamed possible. You will experience more joy, less insecurity, more courage, less anxiety. Thirty days of praising God. Are you ready?”
Elevator Girl
If only she’d taken the stairs …
Lisa Johnston never thought that she’d have to see her high school nemesis again, and definitely not in an elevator on the way to work. She’s willing to pass it off as a minor coincidence until Jake is assigned to work with her foundation’s park project—Lisa’s park project. Nevertheless, she’s determined not to let Jake undermine how far she’s come in ten years. But his apparent attraction toward her is as bothersome as it is puzzling. Then she realizes … Jake has no clue who she is.
Burn for Me (a Fighting Fire novella)
Jamie Lansing has had it bad for firefighter Smith Grayson for as long as they’ve been friends. Yes, he’s ridiculously charming and she might stare a little too long at his abs, but his dirty-talking, rough-around-the-edges ways aren’t for her. Plus, she knows that as a serial dater, Smith isn’t the type to settle down. But then a terrible, fantastic, mind-blowing mistake leaves her body craving more than one night.
Smith Grayson has only ever had eyes for one woman in town–his best friend Jamie. But convincing her a relationship between them will work is next to impossible with her refusing to see beyond his past. But when she asks for a week of no-strings-attached sex to get him out of her system, Smith knows this is his one chance to prove he’s not just the man she needs in her bed, but the man she needs in her life.
Low Carb Diet For Weight Loss Secrets
This book expounds on the low carb diet and introduces several weight loss secrets as well as strategies and tips on how to successfully implement the low carb diet in your life.
There is a high chance that you’ve already tried a ton of different diet plans and weight loss strategies that simply didn’t lead to the desired weight loss effect or you just lost the weight only to gain it all back. Chances are you’ve tried your best, but the techniques simply didn’t work. If this is the case, you don’t have to worry. This book will not only give you the information you need to know about the low carb diet and its amazing benefits, but also will provide you with a few easy strategies and tips on how to effortlessly get rid of the few excess pounds.
Across a Hundred Mountains: A Novel
Winner of the American Book Award, Across a Hundred Mountains is a stunning and poignant novel about a young girl who leaves her small town in Mexico to find her father, who left his family to find work in America—a story of migration, loss, and discovery.
After a tragedy separates her from her mother, Juana García leaves in search of her father, who left them two years earlier. Out of money and in need of someone to help her across the border, Juana meets Adelina Vasquez, a young woman who left her family in California to follow her lover to Mexico. Finding themselves—in a Tijuana jail—in desperate circumstances, they offer each other much needed material and spiritual support and ultimately become linked forever in the most unexpected of ways.
In Across a Hundred Mountains, Reyna Grande puts a human face on the controversial issue of immigration, helping readers to better understand those who risk life and limb every day in pursuit of a better life.
Lady Mercy Danforthe Flirts with Scandal (Sydney Dovedale)
Lady Mercy Danforthe always has a plan. It’s what makes her such a successful matchmaker, and why she’s obligated to spend a great deal of time generously organizing the lives of her friends and family. But there’s one man beyond her help. One man whose recklessness she can’t rein in; whose chaos she can’t contain. Her ex-husband, Rafe Hartley. Her one—and only!—mistake.
Rafe has never forgiven Mercy for running out on him. Their hastily annulled marriage may have one lasted three hours, but that doesn’t mean he needs her help finding a proper wife. Someone needs to teach little Miss Know-It-All a lesson about keeping her adorably freckled nose out of other people’s business. And it just so happens that Mercy “Silky Drawers” Danforthe still owes him a wedding night…
The Art of Arrow Cutting
Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind
Stop doing busywork. Start doing your best work. Are you over-extended, over-distracted, and overwhelmed? Do you work at a breakneck pace all day, only to find that you haven’t accomplished the most important things on your agenda when you leave the office?
The world has changed and the way we work has to change, too. With wisdom from 20 leading creative minds, Manage Your Day-to-Day will give you a toolkit for tackling the new challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace.
Elizabeth Street
Based on true events, Elizabeth Street is a multigenerational saga that opens in an Italian village in the 1900’s, and crosses the ocean to New York’s Lower East Side. At the heart of the novel is Giovanna, whose family is targeted by the notorious Black Hand -the precursor to the Mafia. Elizabeth Street brings to light a period in history when Italian immigrant neighborhoods lived in fear of Black Hand extortion and violence-a reality that defies the romanticized depiction of the Mafia.
Here, the author reveals the merciless terror of the Black Hand-and the impact their crimes had on her family. Giovanna is based on Fabiano’s great-grandmother, and the book’s heroes and villains – such as Lieutenant Petrosino, the crusading cop and “Lupo the Wolf,” a cold-blooded criminal – are drawn from real life in this thrilling tale. While set in a dynamic historical context, Elizabeth Street is, above all, the dramatic story of the heroine, Giovanna, and how she triumphed over tragedy.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2