Jake Smith tops today’s Buffet with his debut novel Wish, a touching story of faith, fear, adversity and victory — and baseball.
As one reviewer said: “Wish pulled at my heartstrings like few books ever have. It’s a poignant reminder that life, like any great game, is less about the final score and more about how we play. Baseball fan or not, you’ll find something to love.”
Jake has also written several outdoor and dog-training books and published more than 150 articles in national outdoor magazines. A former assistant high school baseball coach and All-State high school shortstop, Jake now spends his time on the field helping coach his kids’ youth baseball teams. He holds both B.S. and M.S. degrees in wildlife sciences and management and lives in Traverse City, Michigan, with his wife, Vickie, their three children, and their Labrador retriever.
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.)
Wish
James McConnell’s one wish is that his nine-year-old son will finally be healthy enough to play a game of catch. Then he and his wife, Emily, receive news they’ve dreaded: Aaron’s cancer has relapsed.
As the family steels themselves for a draining treatment regimen in yet another hospital, Aaron receives the gift of a lifetime—a personal visit from one of his favorite professional baseball players—and the chance to make a bold request, his wish: to see his dad play in one major league game.
A former college standout, James fears he doesn’t have the talent it takes, even for one game, and that he’ll miss what could be Aaron’s precious last weeks. Yet how can he refuse his dying son’s wish?
Poignant and triumphant, Wish is the story of a father’s love, a family’s perseverance, and the miracles that can happen when you believe in the impossible.
Pieces of Time
Love of coming age that takes you through a swift but promising ride filled with true love and romance. Linda, the protagonist is a perfect reflection of her mother at 27. From the South Fair, she moves to a small town of Gladstone with her family. Her spirits at awe and roar of imagination with high hopes for meeting the love of her life, Linda’s heart is torn into million pieces.
A prose version of a woman who is head over heels with the unexpected man, a loner on the inside. But, the family tie binds him stronger than ever. Yet, her mind is full of flashes from her memories of high-school handsome.
Magic essence, Time is the key to her heart destined to find the love of her life. On the whole, Book I is a saga of endless drama of misunderstandings and reconciliation of emotions at an edge.
Love’s Reckoning (The Ballantyne Legacy Book #1)
On a bitter December day in 1785, Silas Ballantyne arrives at the door of master blacksmith Liege Lee in York, Pennsylvania. Just months from becoming a master blacksmith himself, Silas is determined to finish his apprenticeship and move west. But Liege soon discovers that Silas is a prodigious worker and craftsman and endeavors to keep him in York. Silas becomes interested in both of Liege’s daughters, the gentle and faith-filled Eden and the clever and high-spirited Elspeth. When he chooses one, will the other’s jealousy destroy their love?
In this sweeping family saga set in western Pennsylvania, one man’s choices in love and work, in friends and enemies, set the stage for generations to come. Love’s Reckoning is the first entry in The Ballantyne Legacy, a rich, multi-layered historical quartet from talented writer Laura Frantz, beginning in the late 1700s and following the Ballantyne family through the end of the Civil War.
The Unquiet Bones (The Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon)
Hugh of Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight, has been educated as a clerk, usually a prelude to taking holy orders. However, he feels no real calling-despite his lively faith-and he turns to the profession of surgeon, training in Paris and then hanging his sign in Oxford. Soon after, a local lord asks Hugh de Singleton to track the killer of a young woman whose bones have been found in the castle cesspool. Through his medical knowledge, Singleton identifies her as the impetuous missing daughter of a local blacksmith.
The young man she loved-whom she had provoked very publicly-is quickly arrested and sentenced at Oxford. But this is just the beginning of the tale. The story of Singleton’s adventure unfolds with realistic medical procedures, droll medieval wit, romantic distractions, and a consistent underlying sense of Christian compassion.
The Right Thing
When a gunshot wound puts him on medical leave, 44 yr old investigator Morgan Reed decides to recuperate in Sedona. Morgan is surprised to find that his 72 yr old father has become a local Lothario and is being scammed for money by one of the females in his life. Investigating Althea Carmichael, the most likely of his suspects, gets even more complicated when Morgan discovers how badly he wants his father’s friend to be innocent.
Ingrid
Scot is a small and charming village accented by thatch roofs, robust gardens, a town square, and cobblestone streets. A lush and wild woods surrounds the village. The people of Scot are humble, caring, and hard working. The men wear their hair long and work with their hands and the women of the village busy themselves with the daily (and frequently tasty) duties of the home.
But trouble is looming in Scot. Bitter hearts and a need for revenge are at the root of the trouble. While one seems to be the culprit, there is another who is hiding behind a disguise. There is only one who can make a difference and it’s the person you’d least expect.
Ingrid is the youngest member of the well-liked, Harrison family. The only daughter in a family of seven sons. Ingrid is sixteen years old, has unusually brilliant golden hair, mysterious brown eyes and is completely mute. Lost in a fog of self-pity over her silence, Ingrid is shy and withdrawn. Ingrid has only one friend – Adair Pole, a sixteen year old boy who longs for a relationship with his father. His father is the villagers’ worst enemy – a ruthless landlord who owns over half of the cottages in Scot.
Desired (True Alpha 1)
Shifters live in the shadows of Seattle, just under the skin of the alpha male, dot-com entrepreneurs who are building a new Silicon Valley in the Emerald City.
Mia is just a college girl trying to earn her business degree and dig out of the poverty she was born into–being a shifter is something she hides, hoping her secret won’t sabotage her dreams.
Lucas is a broken alpha, a wolf who lost his mate, his pack, and almost himself–he wasn’t looking to rescue a girl or start a pack war. But now he has to keep her safe or it won’t just be her life, but his whole family at risk… only his inner wolf can’t seem to keep its paws off
a girl who has secrets of her own.
TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?
Under the Skin
Described as a “fascinating psychological thriller” (The Baltimore Sun), this entrancing novel introduces Isserley, a female driver who picks up hitchhikers with big muscles. She, herself, is tiny–like a kid peering up over the steering wheel. Scarred and awkward, yet strangely erotic and threatening, she listens to her hitchhikers as they open up to her, revealing clues about who might miss them if they should disappear. At once humane and horrifying, Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory–our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion. A grotesque and comical allegory, a surreal representation of contemporary society run amok, Under the Skin has been internationally received as the arrival of an exciting talent, rich and assured.
The Last Good Man
Gorgeous, famous Savannah Stephens is back, and no one in her hometown, Sunbonnet, Wyoming, really knows why. Especially not Clay Keogh, the good-hearted rancher who has loved her from afar since they were kids. Savannah’s young daughter looks just like Savannah’s first love: local bad boy Kole Kills Crow, Clay’s half-brother. Has Savannah come home to start a new relationship with Kole?Whatever her secrets, it’s clear that she’s deeply troubled and needs a shoulder to lean on. Clay is there for her, and she soon realizes that he’s a very special man. But until she can bring herself to share the painful truth about her fall from stardom, the emotional distance between her and Clay may separate them forever.
The Tesla Gate
Thomas Pendleton loves his wife, Ann, and six-year-old son, Seth, more than anything, but his job often makes him an absent husband and father. One day, after Thomas leaves on a business trip, his wife and son are killed in a car accident. Thomas shuts himself off from the world and is at home grieving when a cosmic storm enters Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists are baffled by its composition and origins, but not nearly as much as they are by the storm’s side effect: Anyone who has died and chosen not to cross over is suddenly visible and can interact with the living.
Ann does not return, but Seth does, and Thomas sees it as a miraculous second chance to spend time with his son and keep the promises he had previously broken. They set out on a trip to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, but little do they know that they are traveling headlong into a social and political maelstrom that will test Thomas in ways he could never imagine. Along the way, they come face to face with armed kidnappers who want Seth for his supernatural abilities, meet up with a medium, the ghost of a slave boy, and encounter none other than Abraham Lincoln.
Killing Ruby Rose (The Ruby Rose Series Book 1)
In sunny Southern California, seventeen-year-old Ruby Rose is known for her killer looks and her killer SAT scores. But ever since her dad, an LAPD SWAT sergeant, died, she’s also got a few killer secrets.
To cope, Ruby has been trying to stay focused on school (the top spot in her class is on the line) and spending time with friends (her Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks are nothing if not loyal). But after six months of therapy and pathetic parenting by her mom, the District Attorney, Ruby decides to pick up where her dad left off and starts going after the bad guys herself.
When Ruby ends up killing a murderer to save his intended victim, she discovers that she’s gone from being the huntress to the hunted. There’s a sick mastermind at play, and he has Ruby in his sights. Ruby must discover who’s using her to implement twisted justice before she ends up swapping Valentino red for prison orange.
Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery Book 12)
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2