Staff Picks for Electronic Book Readers!

A selection of recent recommended reads from the staff.

$2.99
ISBN-13: 9781465796295
Published: Smashwords Edition, 06/08/2013
Maryelizabeth AND Charlaine recommend this series!! In this prequel to the Twenty Palaces novels, Ray Lilly encounters magic, otherworldly predators, and the Twenty Palace Society for the first time. Can he protect his oldest friend from the supernatural vigilantes of the society? And is he right to try?

$8.99
ISBN-13: 1230000101765
Published: Foxxe Frey Books, 01/22/2013

Sometime in the near future, maybe just tomorrow, there may come a totally new form of life on this planet. An artificial intelligence, or AI.

What will it want?

How will it perceive us?

One thing's for sure - the world will never be the same again.

This is the story of the city of Angels.

Written by the New York Times bestselling author, Todd McCaffrey


$5.99
ISBN-13: 9781301746255
Published: Marsheila Rockwell, 03/25/2013

“…one of the few writers whose work I'll read immediately, upon publication, in hardcover if necessary.” -– Elaine Cunningham, New York Times best-selling author of Dark Journey What do a broom-wielding wizard’s apprentice, a goddess with postpartum depression, a sentient electric chair, a Navy Chop on planetside rotation, and a boy with Downs Syndrome who is more than what he seems – at least some of the time – have in common? They’re all characters waiting for you on the other side of Bridges of Longing and Other Strange Passageways, a collection of twelve stories and fourteen poems from multiple-award nominee Marsheila Rockwell. Once you venture across that mist-shrouded bridge and step through the swirling portal, you’ll discover: •1994 Dell Award Honoree, “Auf Widdershins,” •2006 Rhysling Award Nominee, “Fairy Tale Ending,” •2008 Rhysling Award Nominees, “Brothers in Arms” and “Those Who Wait,” •2010 Rhysling Award Nominee, “Of Amaranth and Honey,” •2013 Rhysling Nominee "Enter Persephone," •…and many more, including brand new horror stories “Catechism” and “The Thing at the Foot of the Bed,” as well as an ode to a god too clever for his own good, “I, Alone.” So, come, cross the bridge, enter those strange passageways, and explore the magical worlds you find there – worlds you’ll never want to leave.

 

“Every time I re-read “The Short Bus” I wish I’d written it. One of the best, most moving short stories I’ve ever read, in a collection of amazing stories and poems, from one of my favorite, must-read authors? That’s an automatic must-buy!” -– Gini Koch, author of the Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series


$5.99
ISBN-13: 1230000039788
Published: WMG Publishing Incorporated, 12/18/2012

Five of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s most popular cat stories. They run the gamut from the award-winning “The Secret Lives of Cats” to the whimsical “The Poop Thief.” Other stories in the collection include reader favorite “What Fluffy Knew,” the short mystery “Scrawny Pete,” and the Fey prequel “Destiny.”

International bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch has published dozens of novels, including seven books about the Fey. Published all over the world, the Fey novels have recently been rereleased in the United States as audio books by Audible.com. In addition to many awards in the science fiction and fantasy fields, she has been nominated for three Edgar Awards, two Shamus Awards, and an Anthony Award. She has won the Ellery Queen Reader’s Choice Award twice, once for “The Secret Lives of Cats.”

$2.99
ISBN-13: 9780985857769
Published: Smashwords Edition, 06/09/2013
The first novella in the Tales of Bladesend! In spite of Trelayne's victories in battle, the road home is longer than the young knight ever imagined, and it must begin with rejecting his peasant companion, Derik, and denying the memory of the half-orc companion who gave his life for them. Forced to admit that the battle has changed him, Trelayne tries to be the champion for the peasantry, only to make things worse—Derik imprisoned, his betrothed rejecting him, his war-wounds throbbing. Honor provokes him to claim a duel with the swordmaster in the hopes of earning Derik's freedom, but the veterans find that winning a battle is not the same as winning a war—and not all demons wear an ugly face.

$4.99
ISBN-13: 9781908688309
Published: Blasted Heath, 10/18/2012

"HARD BITE is outlandish in every way -- a crazed noir excursion into an unprecedented heart of darkness. From the opening line on, it challenges and confronts, attacks and confounds. Violent and sometimes funny, always entertaining."  T. Jefferson Parker, three-time Edgar Award winner, author of  THE JAGUAR and THE BORDER LORDS

The hit-and-run driver took everything—his wife, child and legs. Now a paraplegic, Dean Drayhart unleashes payback on suspected hit-and-runners in Los Angeles with helper-monkey Sid as his deadly assistant. Dean's gentle, doting nurse knows nothing about what he's up to and when Sid tears out the throat of a Mexican Mafia member, Marcie gets kidnapped in order to force Dean's surrender. Armed with nothing but his wits, Sid, and a sympathetic streetwalker named Cinda, Dean manipulates drug-cartel carnales and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department in a David-against-Goliath plot that twists and turns to a heart-pounding finale.


$2.99
ISBN-13: 1230000106979
Published: Martha Wells, 02/14/2013

First published in hardcover by Avon Eos in 1998, and was a nominee for the 1998 Nebula Award.

Nicholas Valiarde is a passionate, embittered nobleman with an enigmatic past. Consumed by thoughts of vengeance, he is consoled only by thoughts of the beautiful, dangerous Madeline. He is also the greatest thief in all of Ile-Rien. Under cover of darkness on the streets of the gaslit city, he assumes the guise of a master criminal, stealing jewels from wealthy nobles to finance his quest for vengeance: the murder of Count Montesq. Montesq orchestrated the wrongful execution of Nicholas's beloved godfather Edouard on false charges of necromancy, the art of divination through communion with spirits of the dead, a practice long outlawed in the kingdom of Ile-Rien.

But now Nicholas's murderous mission is being interrupted by a series of eerie, unexplainable, fatal events. Someone with tremendous magical powers is opposing him, and traces of a necromantic power that hasn't been used for centuries appear. And when a spiritualist unwittingly leads Nicholas to a decrepit old house, the truly monstrous nature of his peril finally emerges.


$7.99
ISBN-13: 9781466819610
Published: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 12/24/2012
Debut paranormal novel with lots to recommend it!

$1.99
ISBN-13: 9781101618073
Published: Viking Adult, 10/16/2012
Fairy tales from Philip Pullman? Yes, please!

$1.99
ISBN-13: 9780316233682
Published: Little, Brown and Company, 10/23/2012
Published for the first time under his own name, a dark and haunting story from Michael Connelly.  Like his father before him, Brian Holloway is a safe man. That is, his specialty is opening safes. Every job is a little mystery, and he has yet to encounter a lock he can’t break or a box he can’t crack. But the day Holloway gets called in to open a rare, antique safe in a famous author’s library, his skills open a door that should have remained closed.

This story was previously published in print anonymously in The Secret Society of Demolition Writers in 2005.

$1.99
ISBN-13: 9780316233675
Published: Little, Brown and Company, 09/04/2012
In "Cahoots," a backroom poker game turns deadly when a cheater is exposed. In "Mulholland Dive," a man who deciphers the hidden codes of accident scenes investigates a fatality off L.A.'s most fabled roadway. In "Two-Bagger," an obsessed cop tails an ex-con he believes is about to carry out a contract killing. 

$3.99
ISBN-13: 9781451687699
Published: Pocket Star, 03/27/2012
From the author of Breathers, Fated, and Lucky Bastard comes a collection of ten dark and humorous tales about extraterrestrial sex toys, a family of luck poachers, a group of professional guinea pigs, the immortal personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins, and a zombie gigolo. Just to name a few. “A Zombie’s Lament”—A newly reanimated corpse attends Undead Anonymous meetings with other zombies and comes to terms with the reality of his new existence. “Softland”—A family of luck poachers living in central California attempts to turn around its fortunes from a deal gone bad. “My Ego Is Bigger than Yours”—A new designer drug reinvents role-playing games by allowing its users to temporarily become dead celebrities and fictional characters. “Dream Girls”—A futuristic tale of sexual obsession, extraterrestrial intelligence, the death of Marilyn Monroe, and the assassination of JFK. “Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel”—A writer suffering from writer’s block becomes addicted to the words he purchases from a drug dealer. “Captivity” —A lonely and horrifying look at what it might be like if you were a bottle of shampoo. “The Sodom and Gomorrah Shore”—The Seven Deadly Sins star in the original reality television show, set back during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. “Homer’s Reprise”—A modern day story of Odysseus that blends Greek mythology with Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. “Dr. Lullaby”—A panhandler and professional guinea pig discovers that the pharmaceutical drugs he’s been testing have given him unusual side effects. “Zombie Gigolo”—A day in the life of a living corpse who provides a unique service for lonely and desperate female zombies.

$2.99
ISBN-13: 9781465886026
Published: Smashwords Edition, 06/08/2013
Creepy short works from Jeff's brain!

$5.99
ISBN-13: 1230000000410
Published: Broad Reach Publishing, 07/15/2012
The internet bestseller in its original electronic form!

$7.99
ISBN-13: 9781937197148
Published: Mythic Island Press LLC, 03/10/2013

There Needs To Be A War Going On Somewhere:

Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive—because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him—but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger...as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear.

Hazard Notice: contains military grade profanity.