Super ebook deals for March

I haven't done one of these posts for a while and a ton of awesome deals just went up in the past few days. So, I couldn't resist sharing.

First, if you have not yet heard They Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson is for sale at $2.99 in kindle format. This book is so huge that you may prefer to buy it in electronic format rather than carry the huge tomb around. Our family got the hardback, and it takes up about four inches of space on our shelves.









In other news, I recently discovered that covenant is hosting some kind of march madness sale where there are a ton of awesome e-book deals going on including several former whitney award winning books like Couting Stars by Michele Paige Holmes(2007), Traitor by Sandra Grey (2008), Fool Me Twice by Stephanie Black (2008). Other sales include classics like Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites by Chris Heimerdinger,  and Emerarlds and Espionage by Lynn Gardner.
I'm totally going to snag some of these. Books prices range from $.99 to $2.99

Baked Alaska by Josi Kilpack

Baked Alaska by Josi Kilpack

 This is Kilpack’s ninth installment in her culinary mystery series. The main character Sadie Hoffmiller, has a wicked streak of curiosity that continuously leads her to stick her nose into murder investigations. Baked Alaska is no exception with layers of mystery and multiple murder plots. Sadie’s investigative instincts are first alerted when her son Shawn confronts a woman she doesn’t recognize at the beginning of their Alaskan Cruise.

This woman turns out to be Shawn’s birth mother, which sends Sadie reeling with hurt and confusion. Shawn neglected to tell Sadie that he had found his birth mother and had even lied to Sadie to spend time with her. Then Sadie finds the woman passed out on a deck chair and all the clues start pointing to a poisoning. As more details about Shawn’s rocky relationship with his birth mother come out he becomes the prime suspected in an attempted murder. Sadie has to use her super sleuthing skills to keep her son out of prison and find the source of the real poisoner.

I’ve only read the first book in Kilpack’s series, Lemon Tart. I was a tad worried that I would have forgotten all the characters, but I slipped back into Sadie’s world quite easily. There was obviously some character back stories I wasn’t up to date on, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the plot line of this novel. The whole birth mother plot line is really interesting and goes places that I didn’t expect. So that made it a very interesting read, as all the connections between the characters are very twisty and very human. I empathized with Sadie as she tried to negotiate between the hurt her family caused her and her worry over the trouble they were into to. Overall, This was an engaging, fascinating, and compelling read. I’m really happy that Shadow Mountain gave me the chance to read and review it.

Josi's website

Baked Alaska is on a book tour hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer and so has a giveaway attached.

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Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin

Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin

"In a richly imagined, beautiful new novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voice

In The Aeneid, Vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.

Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.

Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers." (summary from amazon)

Sho

I so loved this book! It is probably because I am a Latin nerd more than anything, but I have to say I thought this book was brilliant. It was totally not what I expected and surprised me completely.  I thought I was going to read a traditional retelling of classical literature from a girl power perspective with a little fantasy thrown in on the side. It is a little bit of that, but so incredibly different from that too. 

 I don’t know what my response to the book would have been if I hadn’t been so familiar with the Aenied in the first place. I feel the novel was so powerful for me because I understood how it reinterpreted, interacted with, and added to the Aenied. Yet, LeGuin makes the narrative more interesting and intricate by making Virgil, the author, an important character in the novel. It is so fascinating to see how artfully she explores the reasons why Virgil overlooks Lavinia as a character, at how creation of story works, about why Virgil felt his creation so imperfect at the end of his life, although we still consider it a masterpiece of literature.

  I love the discussion between Aeneas, Lavinia, and Ascanius about the meaning of virtue in the classical sense—as manliness. How Aeneas believes that a man should not only be able to prove his virtue through warfare and how Ascanius cannot see how to prove his virtue without it. The author turns Aeneas into both a fierce warrior and a humane and thoughtful leader, such a delicate balance that makes him into a complex, approachable, and sympathetic character.

So many words and I have not even approached Lavinia herself yet, who is such a pious, practical, and decisive character.  Traits, that make her feel to me like a real Roman woman.  I love how her role in society is portrayed also.  Lavinia had a place in her Father’s house, a role to play for her people, and the freedom to enjoy friendships and go traveling to sacred shrines to worship.  So many historical retellings are so obviously feminist that they feel inauthentic.  I often feel frustrated by the portrayal of Roman women in particular because they had quite a bit of freedom and quite a lot of influence, yet often people snub that.

 They look more at what women couldn’t do instead of what they actually did. They can only see how woman should have had more and miss entirely what they did have, and so silence their voices and actions just as effectively as they claim their men did. So, we see them with a double blindness both in the shadow of their men and the shadow of our modern prejudice.  Yet, I felt like Leguin looked past all that and really saw. Really saw the choices and complexities and freedoms and limitations of Lavinia’s femininity and position, and those correlated with how I would imagine the life of a Roman woman.  It really was just so refreshing to read.

Simply put, I found this book to be beautiful. It made me laugh, it made me think, it made me cry, and it made me see not only the characters of Virgil’s epic, but the man himself, in a whole new light.

LeGuin's Website

A Baked Alaska book blast and Giveaway!

Baked Alaska by Josi S. Kilpack

An Alaskan cruise is the setting for amateur detective Sadie Hoffmillers latest adventure. Sadie plans to spend time relaxing with her two grown children, Breanna and Shawn, and her boyfriend, Pete, while enjoying the luxury and cuisine of an elegant cruise ship and helping to plan her daughters upcoming wedding. But even as the crew prepares to leave port, Sadie has suspicions about the voyage ahead and the relationship between her normally easygoing son and a mysterious female passenger he obviously knows but refuses to discuss. When the woman is discovered unconscious during the second night at sea, Sadies apprehension escalates. Over the last few years, Sadie has developed an extreme dislike for secrets and it would seem her son is keeping one from her. *Includes eight new mouthwatering recipes, tested and approved by the official bakers of Sadies Virtual Test Kitchen.




Praise for Baked Alaska
Josi Kilpack has done it again. You would think that all these events that occur in Sadie's life wouldn't be natural, but Josi Kilpack has a way of making you believe that it just "happens" and it is normal. I have grown to love Sadie's character, even if she is a busybody, you can't help but cheer for her as she attempts to solve a mystery or crime. One of my favorite series. :)
~Goodreads Reviewer Lacey McNeill

Purchase
Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Deseret Book

Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery Series

Author Josi S. Kilpack

Josi S. Kilpack grew up hating to read until she was thirteen and her mother handed her a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond. From that day forward, she read everything she could get her hands on and credits her writing “education” to the many novels she has “studied” since then. She began her first novel in 1998 and hasn’t stopped since. Her seventh novel, Sheep’s Clothing, won the 2007 Whitney Award for Mystery/Suspense, and Lemon Tart, her ninth novel, was a 2009 Whitney Award Finalist. Josi was the Best in State winner in literature for 2012 and currently has two books (Banana Split and Tres Leches Cupcakes) as finalists in the 2012 Whitney awards.

Josi currently lives in Willard, Utah, with her family.

Website * Twitter

Tour Schedule

Book Blast Giveaway
$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 3/17/13

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer http://iamareader.com and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.



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The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah S. Wilson

The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah S. Wilson
"Everyone knows how all those fairy tales go. The princess gets beautiful, nabs her prince, falls instantly in love, lives happily ever after and leaves her evil stepsisters in the dust.

But what happens when you’re the ugly stepsister and your obnoxiously perfect—read pretty, smart, and, worst of all, sickeningly nice—stepsister is dating the charming, tall, devastatingly handsome guy you’ve had a thing for since you were nine years old?

Quirky, artistic and snarky Mattie Lowe does not lead a charmed life. Her mother is constantly belittling her on Skype. Mercedes, the school mean girl, has made it her personal mission to torment Mattie. But worst of all? Her stepsister Ella is the most beautiful, popular girl in school and is dating Mattie’s secret longtime crush, Jake Kingston.

Tired of being left out and done with waiting for her own stupid fairy godmother to show up, Mattie decides to change her life. She’ll start by running for senior class president against wildly popular Jake.

Ella can keep her Prince Annoying. Mattie’s going to rule the school.

And no one, not even a cute and suddenly flirty Jake, is going to stop her." (Amazon summary)

I really enjoyed reading the Ugly Step-sister Strikes Back. Loosely framed around Cinderella fairy tale tropes, this novel  is told from the perspective of a jealous stepsister named Mattie Lowe. Mattie is aggrieved at her inability to compete with her workaholic, absolutely gorgeous, and successful step-sister Ella, especially when Ella starts dating the guy that Mattie has loved since fourth grade.  The novel has a wonderful voice and a plot line full of un-put-downable tension.  I felt that the first several chapters had a few moments of choppy narrative where the narrator slowed the prose down by being repetitive, but these choppy moments disappeared as the story got rolling. I loved how all the characters grew throughout the novel and the fact that Mattie had a back bone and self-respect. Mattie was fun to root for because she remained true to herself even when she was a little nerdy. 

Visit author's website

Since I review this book as part of a blog tour hosted by I Am a Reader Not a Writer there is a fun giveaway.


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The Wind and the Waves by Dean Hughes

The Wind and the Waves by Dean Hughes

"Will Lewis is stuck. the class system in England in the 1840s seems destined to keep him in his place as a poor tenant farmer who cannot improve his lot and will never be able to marry the woman he loves. But the "new religion" that is sweeping through congregations of the United Brethren, Will's church, may hold the key to the better life he longs for. As he listens to the preaching of Wilford Woodruff, he almost dares to hope for the Zion the young Apostle describes.
Will's struggles to believe and to face the rigors of immigrating to an unknown land are paralleled by the modern-day story of Jeff and Abby, a young married couple facing challenges of their own. When Jeff begins digging into his family history, he finds himself particularly drawn to "Grandpa Lewis," an ancestor whose life was more like his than he would have imagined.The skillful interweaving of these two stories brings Church history to life while demonstrating how much we can learn from those who went before us. Anyone who has ever faced the winds and the waves, in some form, will love this novel."

 

I know there are a ton of church history novels that are set in England and whose main plot center around conversion and traveling to Zion. Yet, this story was fleshed out so well, and gave an amount of detail about the life and opportunities of tenant farmers  that I found myself immerse in the historical narrative and the road blocks that it put solidly in the  main characters path. Indeed, I also loved how patiently Will had to wait for the Lord to answer his prayers. I loved how even when he did set out to Zion he wondered if he was making a mistake.  The characters felt so human as they dealt with their trials and struggled with their faith. 

The story lines about Jeff and Abby however did not impress me as much. Their situation was not ideal, but they never had to struggle hard for a backup plan. Their shelter was provided by parents or by an acquaintance who offered to let them live in their house when they were on a mission. So, while their situation was not what they planned and slightly uncomfortable, they did not experience the type of highs and lows that were in the parallel historical storyline.  This made their story feel weak in comparison to Will's experiences. Though, I loved the idea of them connecting to their family history to find strength and reassurance at a difficult time.

Overall, despite the fact that Jeff’s storyline wasn’t as strong as their historical counterparts I still really enjoyed this novel and was really touched by the themes and character experiences explored in the book. I think Hughes did an excellent job crafting this story and portraying both the heights of faith and struggles of mortality.

Not Your Average Fairy Tale by Chantele Sedwick

Not Your Average Fairy Tale by Cantele Sedgwick


"Ash Summerland has it all–good looks, popularity, and the best grades at The Academy of Magical Beings. Ready to complete his last assignment in order to graduate, Ash is confident he will get the apprenticeship he wants. When he opens the letter from the Council, he is shocked to discover he has been assigned to apprentice Lady Shenelle, Keeper of Happy Endings. A.K.A. the head fairy godmother. Ash is forced to grant three wishes to a troubled human girl named Kendall, and ultimately give her a "happy ever after". But Kendall turns out to be more than he bargained for. Still grieving over her father's death, Kendall doesn't want anything to do with him. And worst of all, she doesn't believe in happy endings." (summary from author's website)

I really enjoyed the voice of the main character in this one. Ash is a likable male protagonist and I love the humor that was involved in making him a fairy godmother. It is fun to watch him grow as a character as he comes to care about people instead of just completing his assignments. The ending was a little rushed in some parts, but introduces some very interesting conflicts for the sequel. I also really liked the world that the author created. It feels like fairy tale retellings are female centric these days so it was interesting to see how the author made a place in the clichés for a real teenage guy characters. Overall, I really did enjoy this light-hearted, humorous fantasy story, and thought it was really fun to read.

Visit Chantele Sedgwick website
Visit Chantele Sedgwick's blog

Heart of the Ocean by Heather B. Moore

Heart of the Ocean by Heather B. Moore
Summary:
A dark secret . . . a grieving ghost  . . . a handsome stranger  . . .
What more could Eliza Robinson want?
Except for maybe her life.

In Heather B. Moore’s enthralling 1840’s historical romance, Heart of the Ocean, Eliza Robinson has turned down the very pretentious Mr. Thomas Beesley’s marriage proposal. As a business partner of Eliza’s father, Thomas quickly discredits the family and brings disgrace to the Robinson name.

While her father scrambles to restore his good name in New York City, Eliza flees to the remote Puritan town of Maybrook to stay with her Aunt Maeve. Although relieved to be away from all- things-male and unforgiving gossip columns, odd things start to happen to Eliza, and she is plagued by a ghostly voice. Her aunt’s explanation? That Eliza is being haunted by a woman who died of a broken heart twenty years ago.

After Aunt Maeve is tragically killed, Eliza's life is put in danger as she tries to uncover the mystery of her aunt's death. She encounters Jonathan Porter in Maybrook, whose presence in the town seems suspicious, yet she finds herself drawn to him. When she discovers that Jonathan’s dark secrets may be the link between the dead woman who haunts her and her aunt’s murderer, Eliza realizes that Jonathan is the one man she should never trust.

My Review:

The tension of this story begins right on page one when the main character Eliza hears a voice telling her to jump off a cliff. This creepy encounter is only enhanced by the setting of a small seaside puritan town complete with a creepy lighthouse and mentally unstable inhabitant. This historical novel takes place in the 1830’s though I often found myself a tad confused on what time period the story took place in, as any Puritan settlement puts you in bit of a time warp anyway, but the main character didn’t give much indication in her observations as to the time period. So, I felt a bit lost in the setting for a while until I got to more of the story. I found Moore’s ghost story to be more sad than frightening, as Eliza discovers the past of Helena Porter the mother of Jonathan Porter—Eliza’s love interest. Giving birth to a child out of wedlock in a Puritan community was enough of a trial and then she falls into an abusive relationship that ends really tragically. It made me very sad to read about her life and her experiences, and those parts of the books were hard to read. There is a love story wound throughout the books and Jonathan proves himself to be a wonderful hero that always arrives just in time to save Eliza, though I did wonder if she were rescued a bit too much for the liking of the modern reader. Still I enjoyed reading their story and hoped Eliza and Jonathan would find a way to be together in the end. I would sneak to the computer and read this book  behind my toddlers back so I could get to the end faster. Overall, I found this to be an engaging historical mystery filled with both romance and tragedy.

This review is part of the Blog Tour and so has a giveaway attached. Enter for a chance to win a $25 amazon gift card.
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Dead Running by Cami Checketts

Dead Running by Cami Checketts
Cassidy Christensen is running. Running from the mercenaries who killed her parents. Running from a scheming redhead intent on making her life miserable. Running from painful memories that sabotage her dreams of happiness. With two very tempting men competing for her attention, she hopes she’ll finally have someone to run to, but can she trust either of them? When secrets from her past threaten her family, Cassidy decides to stop running and fight for her future. (summary from author's website)

I like how Dead Running combined a romantic suspense plotline with Cassidy’s goal to run a marathon plot. I thought having both storylines gave a nice balance to the story and I found good reason to cheer for Cassidy as she tried to achieve her goals and elude her enemies. This one if full of interesting characters, handsome guys, and a twisty plot that surprised me several times. Over all a pretty good read. Though, I did want a bit more explanation behind Damon’s background. I felt like the plot twist for his character didn’t really fit what we knew of him in the beginning of the book. I still kind of confused on what his goals were concerning Cassidy in the beginning of the book.

Visit Cami's Website

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Dying to Run is the sequel to Dead Running and continues Cassidy's story with the men out to kill her family and her romance with Jesse.

Cassidy Christensen wants to run.
Captured by the traffickers who killed her mother, Cassidy's only hope is Dr. Tattoo, a man she loves but nobody trusts. When she finally gets a chance to run, someone else she cares about is taken. Running might be her only chance at survival, but Cassidy won’t allow another family member to be killed in her place.

This must-read sequel to Dead Running will have you laughing, biting your nails, and hoping for more.