Wednesday, December 31, 2014

US eBook Deals

Happy New Years Eve! Here's some more US deals since there were so many more UK ones yesterday.

Click the cover to view and buy the book in the Kindle store. While I only post links to the Kindle store, often times you can find the same titles on sale at other stores.

Disclaimer: Ebook prices are subject to change anytime. I can only promise they are under a certain price at the time I post them.

US Kindle Deals, fiction under $5, non-fiction under $6:

           

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

eBook Deals!

Lots more UK deals than US, sorry.

Click the cover to view and buy the book in the Kindle store. While I only post links to the Kindle store, often times you can find the same titles on sale at other stores.

Disclaimer: Ebook prices are subject to change anytime. I can only promise they are under a certain price at the time I post them.

US Kindle Deals, fiction under $5, non-fiction under $6:

                 


UK Kindle Deals, fiction under £3, non-fiction under £4:

                             

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Historical Fiction Upcoming Releases

Hope everyone had a great holiday, I meant to post some ebook deals but just wound up too busy! No new, good ebook deals today so I'm posting some upcoming releases instead. Hopefully soon there will be some more deals, although perhaps in the wake of Christmas, people will be grateful for a break in all the tempting deals!


The Dog Master by W. Bruce Cameron
Release Date: August 4, 2015

Thirty-thousand years ago, humanity stood at a turning point. The last glaciation of Europe was about to commence, forcing modern humans out of the trees and onto the steppes, where they would be both predator and prey.
 
Wolves, too, whose fortunes rise and fall with the health of the herds, could sense something different in the wind. When Silex, the young leader of the Wolfen tribe, brings tribute to a clever she-wolf, everything changes. The alpha wolf learns that in times of famine she can turn to man for food, a lesson that her descendants do not forget.

Years later in another tribe, the Kindred, a boy is born with a crippled foot. His name, Malcrus (shortened to Mal) translates roughly to "he who brings a curse with his leg and must be put to death." The wily political maneuvers of the boy's mother keep him alive, though eventually he is shunned, unable to join the hunt, and finally banished at a time when a savage tribe of manhunters, the Valley Cohort, have ramped up their campaign of terror.   

Struggling to survive in the wilderness, Mal saves a wolf cub, a descendant of Silex’s she-wolf, naming her "Dog." While Mal desperately misses the girl he has been forbidden to love, he and Dog become inseparable, living together, playing together, and learning to hunt together. But will his bond with Dog be enough to survive in this cold, unforgiving world?


The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester
UK Release Date: 15 Jan 2015
US Release Date: TBA

1912 and London is in turmoil…

The suffragette movement is reaching fever pitch but for broke Fleet Street tomboy Frankie George, just getting by in the cut-throat world of newspapers is hard enough. Sent to interview trapeze artist Ebony Diamond, Frankie finds herself fascinated by the tightly laced acrobat and follows her across London to a Mayfair corset shop that hides more than one dark secret.

Then Ebony Diamond mysteriously disappears in the middle of a performance, and Frankie is drawn into a world of tricks, society columnists, corset fetishists, suffragettes and circus freaks. How did Ebony vanish, who was she afraid of, and what goes on behind the doors of the mysterious Hourglass Factory?
From the newsrooms of Fleet Street to the drawing rooms of high society, the missing Ebony Diamond leads Frankie to the trail of a murderous villain with a plot more deadly than anyone could have imagined…


The Devil's Assassin (Jack Lark Book 3) by Paul Fraser Collard
UK Release Date: 29 Jan 2015
US Release Date: TBA

Bombay, 1857. Jack Lark is living precariously as an officer when his heroic but fraudulent past is discovered by the Devil - Major Ballard, the army's intelligence officer. Ballard is gathering a web of information to defend the British Empire, and he needs a man like Jack on his side. Not far away, in Persia, the Shah is moving against British territory and, with the Russians whispering in his ear, seeks to conquer the crucial city of Herat. The Empire's strength is under threat and the army must fight back.

As the British march to war, Jack learns that secrets crucial to the campaign's success are leaking into their enemies' hands. Ballard has brought him to the battlefield to end a spy's deceit. But who is the traitor?


Helen of Sparta by Amalia Carosella
Release Date: April 1, 2015

Long before she ran away with Paris to Troy, Helen of Sparta was haunted by nightmares of a burning city under siege. These dreams foretold impending war—a war that only Helen has the power to avert. To do so, she must defy her family and betray her betrothed by fleeing the palace in the dead of night. In need of protection, she finds shelter and comfort in the arms of Theseus, son of Poseidon. With Theseus at her side, she believes she can escape her destiny. But at every turn, new dangers—violence, betrayal, extortion, threat of war—thwart Helen’s plans and bar her path. Still, she refuses to bend to the will of the gods.

A new take on an ancient myth, Helen of Sparta is the story of one woman determined to decide her own fate.


The Last Roman: Honour by Jack Ludlow
Release Date: January 22, 2015

Justinian desperately wants the lost provinces returned to his rule but must first dispatch his brave general, Belisaurius to fight the Persians in the East. Justinian grows concerned that Belisaurius will grow successful and courageous in his feats, thus becoming a threat to his power and person. He subsequently dispatches him on a near-impossible mission to North Africa to take back from the Vandals what was once Ancient Carthage.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Upcoming Historical Fiction Releases

The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye
Release Date: May 12, 2015

No one in 1840s New York likes fires, but Copper Star Timothy Wilde least of all. So when an arsonist with an agenda begins threatening Alderman Robert Symmes, a corrupt and powerful leader high in the Tammany Hall ranks, Wilde isn’t thrilled to be involved. His reservations escalate further when his brother Valentine announces that he’ll be running against Symmes in the upcoming election, making both himself and Timothy a host of powerful enemies.

Meanwhile, the love of Wilde’s life, Mercy Underhill, unexpectedly shows up on his doorstep and takes under her wing a starving orphan with a tenuous grasp on reality. It soon becomes clear that this wisp of a girl may be the key to stopping those who have been setting fire to buildings across the city—if only they can understand her cryptic descriptions and find out what she knows. Boisterous and suspenseful, The Fatal Flame is filled with beloved Gotham personalities as well as several new stars, culminating in a fiery and shocking conclusion.


Watch the Lady by Elizabeth Fremantle
Release Date: June 9, 2015

Penelope Devereux arrives at Queen Elizabeth’s court where she and her brother, the Earl of Essex, are drawn into the aging Queen’s favor. Young and naïve, Penelope, though promised elsewhere, falls in love with Philip Sidney who pours his heartbreak into the now classic sonnet series Astrophil and Stella. But Penelope is soon married off to a man who loathes her. Never fainthearted, she chooses her moment and strikes a deal with her husband: after she gives birth to two sons, she will be free to live as she chooses, with whom she chooses. But she is to discover that the course of true love is never smooth.

Meanwhile Robert Cecil, ever loyal to Elizabeth, has his eye on Penelope and her brother. Although it seems the Earl of Essex can do no wrong in the eyes of the Queen, as his influence grows, so his enemies gather. Penelope must draw on all her political savvy to save her brother from his own ballooning ambition and Cecil’s trap, while daring to plan for an event it is treason even to think about.


Evergreen Falls by Kimberley Freeman
Release Date: August 4, 2015

It’s 1926 and Violet Armstrong is a waitress at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel, where Australia’s glitterati are spending a winter vacation. Among the guests who remain are Sam and Flora Honeychurch-Blacks, a wealthy brother and sister ensconced in the hotel for an extended stay. Violet and Sam have an attraction that is as passionate as it is forbidden as the hotel closes down for the winter season. When a snowstorm moves in, trapping them all, no one could have imagined what would unfold. The group must let their secrets be buried by the snow, but all snow melts, exposing the truth beneath…

Eighty-eight years later, Lauren Beck takes a job at a café in the Blue Mountains, built as the first stage of the Evergreen Spa Hotel’s return to grandeur. There she meets Tomas, the Danish architect overseeing the project. As their budding relationship grows, Lauren discovers a series of passionate love letters dating back to 1926 that allude to a whirlwind affair—and a tragic secret. Lauren begins to unravel this long-forgotten mystery, but will discovering the truth finally make her brave enough to take a risk that could change her entire life?


Enchantress of Paris: A Novel of the Sun King's Court by Marci Jefferson
Release Date: August 4, 2015

The alignment of the stars at Marie Mancini’s birth warned that although she would be gifted at divination, she was destined to disgrace her family. Nonetheless, Cardinal Mazarin brings his niece to the opulent French court, where the forbidden occult arts thrive in secret. In France, Marie discovers that her powerful uncle rules, using Marie’s sister Olympia to hold the Sun King, Louis XIV, in thrall.

Desperate to avoid her mother's dying wish that she spend her life in a convent, Marie burns her grimoire, trading Italian superstitions for polite sophistication. As her star rises, King Louis becomes enchanted by Marie’s charm. Sensing a chance to grab even greater power, Cardinal Mazarin pits the sisters against each other, showering Marie with diamonds and silks in exchange for bending King Louis to his will.

Disgusted by Mazarin’s ruthlessness, Marie rebels. She sacrifices everything, but exposing Mazarin’s darkest secret threatens to tear France apart. When even King Louis’ love fails to protect Marie, she must summon her powers of divination.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Review: Murder in the Queen's Wardrobe by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Advance review copy from NetGalley, my opinions are my own.
Release date: March 1, 2015

Rosamond Jaffrey reluctantly takes a position as lady-in-waiting to the queen's cousin, who is being courted by Ivan the Terrible, in order to gather intelligence on the matter and help keep her estranged husband safe while he's in Russia. This is a spin-off from the author's previous historical mystery series, the Lady Appleton Mysteries, and there are some mentions of events from that series but it's still readable on it's own.

It had a good premise and was reasonable well written but there was too much about this that felt contrived and the character development wasn't great. It wasn't explained why Rosamond's husband would drop this studies and go to Russia. He didn't appear to be working for the Muscovy Company (a trading company) despite spending a lot of time at their headquarters. He didn't seem to be doing anything else there except trying to help an Englishwoman caught up in Ivan the Terrible's vengeance, which wasn't the reason he went to Russia, he just happened upon her while there and she begged for his help. He couldn't have decided to vacation there, since the book makes a point of how few English people were there, as it could be a dangerous place for them. So why was he there in the first place? Because there wouldn't have been a plot otherwise, clearly.

Had it not been for this, spying and mystery of the plot would have been enjoyable but I just kept thinking back to the fact that the only reason Rosamond was involved was because her husband was in Russia and he had no good reason for being there. I just couldn't get passed this.

Rosamond wasn't very likable, she came across as self-centered, spiteful, resentful, petty, self-important, and bitter at most everyone and everything. I think this was either a poor attempt at making her seem strong and independent, or perhaps the reason for it had something to do with the original series but if so, the author should have made it more clear. The idea of giving up her finery for the plainer clothes of an upper servant repulses Rosamond and she initially turns down the opportunity to actually do something worthwhile. For someone who wants so desperately to prove she's not a "brainless female", she doesn't exactly jump at the chance to make use of her knowledge and skills. And not because of the danger, but because it would mean making small, petty sacrifices in her lifestyle for a temporary period of time. She has an opportunity to potentially make a difference to political matters, something that would be unthinkable for most women of the times, even if it is in the background by providing intelligence, but she'd rather sit at home alone and attend plays. And then she gets offended when someone calls her frivolous? While she does eventually agree to participate, she gripes about it every step of the way. And she only agrees because she's told it will help keep her husband safe, which might seem selfless but the truth is, she's motivated mostly by guilt, not love. She only married him so she could kick him out and live independently. She used him and his love for her to get what she wanted and then she tossed him aside. Her only redeeming quality is that she acknowledges this and feels remorseful about it.

I understand that she is supposed to highly value her independence because it was so rare for women of the time but instead she just comes across as a selfish, spoiled little brat. I wanted to give this book a chance because maybe the character would grow and mature. Towards the end (about 3/4 into it), she does start to show signs that she is considering the fact that the attributes she prides herself on may not be seen so favorably by others. But it's too little, too late to totally save the book.



HarperCollins eBook Sale!

Massive HarperCollins Sale in the US! I don't normally post ebook deals two days in a row but when they just keep rolling in like this, why not? In fact, there's too many for me to post each one (there's literally hundreds) so I'm just going to post some links that should list all Kindle books from HarperCollins and their relevant imprints under $4 for historical fiction and $5 for non-fiction. While I only post links to the Kindle store, often times you can find the same titles on sale at other stores.


Tuesday, December 16, 2014

eBook Deals

Click the cover to view and buy the book in the Kindle store. While I only post links to the Kindle store, often times you can find the same titles on sale at other stores.

Disclaimer: Ebook prices are subject to change anytime. I can only promise they are under a certain price at the time I post them.

US Kindle Deals, fiction under $5, non-fiction under $6:

                     


UK Kindle Deals, fiction under £3, non-fiction under £4:

                       
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