books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: June Kindle Offers

We are in the sixth month of the year, so this month I have leant into the holiday books end of the kindle offers. I was going to say that for me holiday books are romantic fiction and light crime, but that’s a lot of what I read when I’m not on holiday too. But for the purpose of buying in advance, that’s what I’m after. I’ll do you a post in a few weeks of what I’m looking to buy at the airport this year, because those are slightly different things! Anyway, to the offers.

Last year’s Emily Henry Funny Story is 99p, as is this year’s Mhairi McPharlane Cover Story, which I haven’t read yet but which sounds a lot of fun (people who can’t stand each other forced to pretend they’re in a fake relationship to save an undercover investigation). Christina Laurens’ The Paradise Problem is also 99p – I loved this when I read it earlier this year. There’s also Victoria Hislop’s The Island, which I read years ago and enjoyed, and Sarah Adams’s When In Rome about a burnt out popstar in a small town, which was once of the first of the crop of Taylor Swift-inflected romances I read. And the new Rachel Lynn Solomon What Happens in Amsterdam is 99p too (I bought it while writing this!)

If you’re a bit higher brow than me for your sun lounger books, then Tracy Chevalier’s The Glass Maker is 99p – I have this waiting to be read on the Kindle but just haven’t got to it yet because I’m still in that world of wanting to know going in that I’m going to get a resolution, preferably happy at the end of books. If you want some Romantasy, then Stephanie Garber’s Once Upon a Broken Heart is 99p – this is the first in a completed trilogy so you can read straight through to the end if you like it or there is Rebecca Ross’s Divine Rivals, which is the first of two – and it should be noted that I haven’t read any of these!

Moving on to the regular author check in: we’re still in a world of the Georgette Heyer murder mysteries being the ones on offer – this time it’s Footsteps in the Dark, the Discworld offer this month is Equal Rites and Borrower of the Night, the first in Elizabeth Peters’s Vicky Bliss series is 99p too.

And that’s your lot this month – enjoy!

books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: October Kindle Offers

Oh it’s such a good month for offers. Honestly, I would say this post was expensive to write, except for the fact that everything was on offer so it was more quantity rather than cost… Anyway – to the books.

Lets start with the Halloween related special offers. Recent release Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca is 99p (which was one of my purchases!), as is Ali Hazelwood’s The Bride. There’s an Agatha Christie short short story collection called Autumn Chills as well as the Poirot mystery Hallowe’en Party and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

I re-read Nora Ephron‘s Heartburn the other week, and her memoir of sorts I Feel Bad About My Neck is on offer this month – I read it years ago and enjoyed it. Also on offer that I read years ago is Anthony Quinn’s Curtain Call – which apparently is the basis for the new Ian McKellan movie The Critic – which I would never have guessed from the trailer!

Also in adaptations but this time in things I haven’t read is Firebrand by Elizabeth Freemantle, which was previously called Queen’s Gambit and was presumably retitled because of the Chess book and movie and is actually about Catherine Parr. Also in books I haven’t read there’s The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson is also 99p – I’ve got her Love in the Time of Serial Killers on the Kindle and I really need to read that and see if I like it before I buy anything else of hers. In things I haven’t read and probably aren’t my thing, but that I know are really popular, there’s R F Kuang’s Babel for 99p, the latest Nora Roberts romantic suspense Mind Games, Alix E Harrow’s Starling House, Coleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him and Maybe Not, Sarah Adams’s The Match

On the murder mystery front, the latest Hawthorne and Horowitz Close to Death is 99p, as is the third Marlow Murder Club Mystery The Queen of Poisons, the first Canon Clement Murder Before Evensong, the first Cesare Aldo City of Vengence, third Shardlake book Sovereign (which I only read a few weeks ago), The Three Dahlias AND Seven Lively Suspects by Katy Watson, and the third Her Majesty the Queen Investigates Murder Most Royal is also 99p.

There’s also a pretty good selection of translated fiction on offer this month like Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Dallergut Dream Department Store and Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, some of which I’ve read, others that I haven’t. And there’s Katherine Heiny‘s Games and Rituals on offer too and Brit Bennett‘s The Mothers, as well as Tales of the City which is the first in Armistad Maupin‘s series that I have written about more than once. The discounted Terry Pratchetts this month are Wee Free Men at 99p and Witches Abroad for £1.99 and the Georgette Heyers are Devil’s Cub, Infamous Army, Beauvallet and Pistols for Two which are all £1.99 so will probably come around cheaper at some point if you’re not in a rush. With the Heyers and the Peter Wimseys (although there aren’t any Wimseys on a good deal this month), there are more and more going out of copyright and so very cheap editions continue to pop up, but I have no idea how good a quality product they are – my history with them is that they can be not great at all.

On the non fiction front, I’ve read other books by Mary S Lovell but not her Bess of Hardwick which is 99p. I have however read 99p deals Burnout by Emily Nagoski, Antonia Fraser’s Marie Antoinette (although it was a long time ago!), Jessica Mitford’s Hons and Rebels and Femina by Janina Ramirez which is £1.99.

In things I bought, there’s D is for Death by Harriet F Townson, which is the crime pen name of Harriet Evans, the Jen De Luca that I already mentioned (and started) and got samples of The Golden Spoon and a few others.

Happy Humpday everyone.

books on offer, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: January Kindle Offers

A new year and a new batch of Kindle offers for your delectation today. And it’s quite a good one so if you weren’t as lucky as me and Santa didn’t bring you what you told people you wanted, you might be able to pick some fresh reading material up in the offers.

One of my all time favourites is back on sale for 99p – Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. I’d love to get something new from her in 2023, but as it’s only three years since The Starless Sea came out and it was nearly triple that between The Night Circus and that, I’m trying not to get my hopes up! And Bridget Jones’s Diary is also 99p – it’s been years since I read it (rather than watched the film!) but it was such a huge part of my reading back in the day – even if I haven’t read either of the two most recent sequels! Another book that I read ages ago and loved is on offer too – Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility. I didn’t love his follow up A Gentleman in Moscow, but I have the latest one, The Lincoln Highway, on the Kindle TBR and I must try and get to it soon.

This month’s 99p Georgette Heyer is The Quiet Gentleman – which is from the more mysterious end of her romance books and features Actual Peril at times. On the contemporary romance front, if you read and enjoyed the O’Neil Brothers books after I wrote about them before Christmas, Holiday in the Hamptons from Sarah Morgan’s From Manhattan with Love series is 99p. I bought myself the new Mary Balogh while writing this – Remember Love is the first in a new series for her and I’ve had a good history with her historical romances – right back to my Essex days. There’s also one of the recent Lisa Kleypas’s – Devil’s Daughter – which is the next generation sequel to her fan-favourite Devil in Winter.

If you’ve been reading Philippa Gregory’s Tudor novels after I wrote about them last summer, The Taming of the Queen (about Katherine Parr) is the one on offer at the moment. It’s not a great month on the crime/mystery offer front though. Or at least not if you read the sort of mysteries that I do – all the books on offer are the sort with dark and brooding covers with ominous shadows on them or bare branches, which is an indicator that they’re too psychological or gruesome for my tastes! A Spoonful of Murder is on offer though, which is one of the crop of if you like Richard Osman… that are now appearing and which I’ve got on the physical to-read pile but haven’t got around to yet!

Happy Wednesday!

historical, non-fiction, Recommendsday, romance

Recommendsday: Kindle May Madness Sale

Happy Wednesday everyone – you’re halfway to the weekend.  My week this week involves a lot of preparations for the local elections here tomorrow – I’m working on the results output at work on Friday.  I’ve already recommended political books recently and I haven’t added a lot to that list recently, so I won’t repeat myself today.  Instead I thought I’d mention Amazon’s May Madness Kindle sale – I’ve picked up a few bargains there this week (shhh, don’t tell Him Indoors), although sadly they’re not all being price matched over at Kobo.  Lots of the books are 99p – which is my sort of ebook pricing!


Among my purchases was Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime which I’ve heard lots of good things about.  I’m not the biggest fan of his version of the Daily Show (I still miss Jon Stewart) but I’m fascinated by his childhood in apartheid era South Africa and I like his sense of humour when he’s doing his stand up stuff.

I also grabbed the trio of Jill Shalvis’s Lucky Harbor books (numbers 7 through 9 if you’re interested) because I’ve really enjoyed the books of hers that I’ve read but they’re hardly ever at a price I can justify – so 99p for three is a really good deal.  And to top it all off – this is being price matched on Kobo!  While I’m on the subject of romance, I also bought Christina Lauren’s Wicked Sexy Liar because I keep hearing this series mentioned on the Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast and this is the first time I’ve seen one of them at a price I’m prepared to pay!  This one is 99p on Kobo as well. If you’re into your old school romances (I can’t cope with the rapey-ness but I know others love them) there’s a Julie Garwood in the sale too – Honor’s Splendour (Kobo).

Also on offer is Cesca Major’s second novel The Last Night.  I know Cesca through my Novelicious reviewing – and I have a copy of this in one of the to-read boxes waiting to be read (I know, the boxes are still with me, the building work still isn’t finished) but I’ve heard nothing but good things about this – it’s a Heat pick this week.

Also in the sale is The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin – I reviewed it when it first came out and really enjoyed it.  It tells the story of a love triangle (of sorts) between dashing Captain Bay Middleton, Empress Sisi of Austria and Bay’s fiancée Charlotte.  I’ve read a few books about Sisi since (and visited a few of her palaces in Vienna – which is well worth it), but I think this is still my favourite.  If you need further encouragement, Goodwin also created the recent TV series about Queen Victoria (you know, the one with Rufus Sewell) and wrote My Last Duchess, which I adored.  This is also being price matched over on Kobo.

Not 99p, but still very reasonable at £1.99 is Hallie Rubenhold’s The Covent Garden Ladies – which is the book which inspired the TV series Harlots.  I’m interested in watching the TV show – but I like to have read the book first if I can (which is why I’m reading Cold Comfort Farm at the moment!) so this seemed like an ideal moment to pick up the book – especially as the TV series is on ITV Encore at the moment which I don’t currently get so I’m going to have to wait for the DVD which gives me a fighting chance of actually getting to the book before I get my hand on the show!

Right.  I’m going to stop now – because the more I write for this post, the more I spend, and I think we all know how my books bought total is going to look at the end of the week!  Anyway, I hope there’s something on the list for you and if you spot any more you think I might like, leave me a note in the comments – after all we all know my willpower is poor!

Happy reading!