FREE/BARGAIN - Romance + Discussion - 2016

[library addict]

As requested, here is an outline of the purpose of this thread:

We point out free and bargain romances to each other, and recommend certain books that are/were free (or the opposite!).

Because Kindle freebies are easiest to find, the majority of the books listed are from Amazon, but freebies and bargains from other retailers and in other formats are more than welcome! In case no retailer is specifically mentioned in a post, it is safe to assume it's for Amazon US.

Be aware that many freebies are only free for a day (or sometimes not even that long), so grab them fast!


In addition to the freebies, sales, and coupons we do a weekly purchased/read roundup (voluntary only, but it’s fun to use Calibre’s virtual library feature to take a screengrab in cover view ) We also discuss reading apps and devices, books, and life in general a bit in this thread. Sometimes we go off on seemingly unrelated tangents, but we always find our way back…


Be sure to check the last page of 2015's thread for any deals you may have missed

[birdbrainbb]

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's a 35% off coupon from Dreamspinner Press (found via their Twitter), good through the end of the 1st: Secret16

They've also put up their three $0.99 books for the weekend, two paranormals and a contemporary by Shira Anthony, all of which have 4 stars on Goodreads. With the coupon, it's basically like buy two get one free!

[library addict]

I read/reread 227 books in 2015. That's down from 323 books in 2014, which was a personal best.

Here were my reading goals for 2015 and how I did meeting them:

Originally Posted by library addict

I will be participating in several of the AAR reading challenges again this year.

I did 9 challenges (7 for books and 2 for novellas) for a total of 105 books and 30 novellas.

Originally Posted by library addict

I’ve also decided I will reread the entire Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh again. I plan to start that March 1st giving me 13 weeks before Shards of Hope releases to reread all 13 books, 6 novellas, and 24 (maybe more by then) short stories/deleted scenes.

I did this and plan to reread the entire series again in 2016.

Originally Posted by library addict

My other plan is go through my existing TBR and pick out 10 “must read” books/series for 2015. This doesn’t include any of the new releases for the year I am eagerly awaiting. I’m going to make it a mix of new-to-me authors and books which have languished in my TBR for a year or more. I should be able to count them all in the various reading challenges so that will help me get them read. And I figure 10 is a totally reachable goal since I usually read at least that many books in a month.

I did not read the 4 book multi-author series. I started book one a few times, but just couldn’t get into it. So the series is still in my TBR.

As for the other books, I read 7 of them. So 7 out of 12 isn’t too bad I guess. Though discounting the unread series, I read 7 out of 8. And that’s a better way for me to look at it, right?

Originally Posted by library addict

I also want to make a sizeable dent in my new-to-me series where I’ve purchased multiple books but not yet read any. Some of these will be part of my 10 Must Read list, but I really want to make an effort to get these various series at least started.

This goal I was a total fail at. While I did read the first book in several new-to-me series, I also added a bunch more. I’m very bad at curbing the need to read in order part of me, so when a book catches my eye and I discover it’s part of a series, I tend to buy them all. So bad! I’m not making this a goal for 2016. Maybe I will try again in 2017

Originally Posted by library addict

I added a seventh challenge as with it and a little moving around of some of the books I had slotted in the other challenges I was able to add 15 books by an author who has been an autobuy for me since 2000, but I have fallen very, very far behind on her books. This will get me almost all caught up.

Success! The author in question was Karen Templeton and other than Fortune’s Cinderella (which I plan to read as part of one of the AAR challenges this year) I am caught up. She’s been an autobuy for me since I discovered her in 2000. Even after getting my Sony, I continued to buy all of her books in print. But starting in 2005 her books somehow never quite made it to the top of my TBR pile. I read a few in 2010, a few more in 2011 and then 2013. But I had everything from April 2008 on of hers to read at the beginning of 2015. I managed to catch up on all 15 of her books I had planned to, including the new releases in 2015. I wasn’t able to fit Fortune’s Cinderella into the various AAR challenges I had planned and though I could have squeezed it in at the end of the year, I decided just to save it for 2016.

[library addict]

So, after all that rambling here are my reading goals for 2016:

I’m cutting back to only 4 planned challenges at AAR. I will probably add a fifth just for novellas. But the challenges are for 16 books each (we match the year), so I want to have an easy-to-reach goal. Included within the various planned challenges my goals are:

• Read one older series which is complete (no new books to be released)
• Read a series by a new-to-me author
• Start a new-to-me “in progress” series (more books yet to be released)
• Catch up and remain current on Marie Farrarella’s Cavanaugh Justice series — I’m currently 2 books behind
• Catch up and remain current on Julie Miller’s The Precinct series — I’m currently 1 book behind
• Catch up completely on at least two auto-buy authors I’ve fallen behind reading
• Pick 10 “Must Read” books for the year NOT included in above series/author goals. (Existing TBR only, no 2016 releases) — I went through and chose a combination of backlist titles by favorite and new-to-me authors. While some are part of a series, most are stand-alones. The books were picked somewhat to fill the year-published or a few hard-to-match categories in the various AAR challenges. A few I chose because at the time I purchased them I was super excited to read them and then they got lost in my TBR mountain, so I’m hoping to recapture the I-want-to-read-this feeling.

Around a third of the books I have scheduled to read for the various AAR challenges are 2016 releases by my favorite authors. While that’s not all of the books I will no doubt buy in 2016, they are the ones I absolutely know I will be eager to read as soon as they are released or close to it.

I like doing the challenges because they make it easy to mix-and-match favorite authors, new releases, backlist titles, and new-to-me authors. And for 99.9% of the categories I already own more than one book which will fit, so it’s super easy to switch out one title for another if I need to. They really do help cut down on the TBR even though I often add to it more quickly than I take away.

Not included in the challenges which are only new-to-me books, I plan to reread Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling again series this year. I am really looking forward to it.

I also will read books above and beyond what I use for the AAR challenges. I’m very much a mood reader so it may be that nothing I’ve loosely “scheduled” to read appeals to me at the moment. But I should be able to find something in my TBR for any given mood. That’s when I turn on the cover view in Calibre and go “shopping” in my various libraries And knowing myself I will also undoubtedly do some rereading. I used to pick one author and one series a year to do this for, but except for the Psy/Changeling reread I’m not going to plan any rereads for this year. I will just pick something when the mood strikes.

~~~

What are your reading goals for the year? Any specific series or authors you want to try?

[Blossom]

I want to just enjoy reading again after such a huge break and discover authors who are more my style. I don't have a TBR list anymore.

First up is finish Tricky Twenty-Two and The Brandy Alexander's series. I might try to pick up Suzanne Brockmann's series I stopped maybe some In Death's and Robyn Carr too. I want to read romance with more plot than sex so most newer romances are out. I thought about starting that suspense series by Anne Stuart we will have to see. I guess I want to read smarter romances with good solid writing. I also think I might try the Carla Neggers books I bought.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I also think I might try the Carla Neggers books I bought.

Just FYI, Neggers has a unique writing style. Her books read like puzzle pieces that don't seem to fit together, then toward the halfway point you start to get the big picture. So don't be put off if the book seems rather disjointed at the beginning or you can't always tell how the characters relate together.

She can be info-dumpy at spots (especially when books are later entries in a series). Not every book/series is to my taste, but I really love her Sharpe & Donovan series and also enjoy her Swift River Valley series as well as many of her earlier works I've read.

My TBR is now totally virtual since I have all of my unread print books sitting in a box waiting for me to take them in to the Friends of the Library donation center. I did keep 3 unread Linda Raye (aka Linda Turner) Jove Second Chance at Love books, but that's the extent of my print TBR pile now. It hurt to get rid of so many unread books, but I need the space. And it feels freeing after the fact.

[Blossom]

Boy I wish I lived closer to you! I'd take those books off your hands!

I like puzzle type books so Neggers sounds right up my alley. Anymore like her I may like?

[booklover6]

I read/listened to 302 books/short stories in 2015.

My goal this year is again, 300, and again, to complete series. According to my records, I advanced 38 series in 2015 (either complete or to-date). I hope to increase that number. I've made a list (google spread sheet) to help me track which in-progress series I am most interested in.

Blossom, I have a stack of new Dorchester paper backs that I want to get rid of (remember when they had that sale?) I would be happy to mail them to you if you want them. (I'll pay the shipping)

[worktolive]

Happy New Years All!

Freebies for the New Year - I posted these on the old thread but am reposting them here since they'll be lost otherwise and many people have been on vacation for the holidays:

You Make Me by Erin McCarthy

Spoiler:

The guy she wants…

Growing up on the coast of Maine with a revolving door of foster siblings, Caitlyn Michaud spent one intense and passionate year falling in love with her foster brother, Heath. Then he left without a word.

Isn’t the guy she needs…

Determined to move on, in college Caitlyn has risen above her small town impoverished roots and has joined a sorority, reinvented her appearance, and landed the right boyfriend in frat president Ethan.

But the perfect world she tried so hard to attain is ripped apart when Heath appears one night out of nowhere. Out of the military, Heath is as brooding and intense as ever, and he is determined not only to win her back, but to exact revenge on everyone who kept him from her…

And when one love allows her to breathe, but the other feels as essential to her life as air, how does she choose between them?

On Any Given Sundae by Marilyn Brant

Spoiler:

Nothing tops the sweetness of an unexpected love...

When Elizabeth's uncle Siegfried and Rob's uncle Pauly rush off to Europe for a month, they temporarily relinquish the reins of their ice cream shop to their respective niece and nephew -- two people who may have grown up practically next door to each other but who have next to nothing in common.

Elizabeth "Please Don't Call Me Lizzy" Daniels is a small-town Wisconsin girl at heart. Shy and inexperienced at love, the frizzy-haired dessert cookbook writer still resides in her quaint hometown of Wilmington Bay, stutters painfully when nervous and is only comfortable with her laptop and her tiny circle of cooking pals. She must come out of hiding over the summer to help her uncle, but she's convinced her childhood crush, Rob, barely knows she exists.

Roberto "You'd Better Call Me Rob, or Else" Gabinarri is the town's golden boy and former football star who left home after high school, made a splash in the big city and never looked back. He has to return to Wilmington Bay to uphold a promise to his uncle, but he's counting the minutes until he can escape to the relative anonymity of his fast-paced, commitment-free city life and the sports-themed restaurant he owns in Chicago. Despite his chattiness and charm, Rob was always intimidated by quiet, brainy girls like "Frizzy Lizzy," and he isn't pleased to be back in the place where people like her still see him as that popular but dumb jock -- an image he worked for almost a decade to shed.

The unlikely pair tries to make the best of being stuck together, but Elizabeth has a pressing publication deadline, and Rob has an Italian mother bent on lining up potential hometown brides for him. Rob comes up with an idea -- something that might help them both -- but it involves just a bit of family deception. With time running out to finish her cookbook and her friends already stretched to the max trying to assist them, Elizabeth reluctantly agrees.

Neither Rob nor Elizabeth are used to playing games of pretense, but can love, hot summer nights and, maybe, some chocolate sauce, caramel and whipped cream...turn their farce into reality?

Delicate Ink by Carrie Ann Ryan

Spoiler:

A Brand New Full Length Novel in the Bestselling Montgomery Ink Series

On the wrong side of thirty, Austin Montgomery is ready to settle down. Unfortunately, his inked sleeves and scruffy beard isn't the suave business appearance some women crave. Only finding a woman who can deal with his job, as a tattoo artist and owner of Montgomery Ink, his seven meddling siblings, and his own gruff attitude won't be easy.

Finding a man is the last thing on Sierra Elder's mind. A recent transplant to Denver, her focus is on opening her own boutique. Wanting to cover up scars that run deeper than her flesh, she finds in Austin a man that truly gets to her--in more ways than one.

Although wary, they embark on a slow, tempestuous burn of a relationship. When blasts from both their pasts intrude on their present, however, it will take more than a promise of what could be to keep them together.

Consumed by Skyla Madi

Spoiler:

Olivia James has never been one to walk on the wild side, at least not until she meets Seth Marc—a cocky, sexy fighter at her father’s gym.

He’s infuriating, nauseatingly addictive and she just can’t seem to shake him. He’s only been in town a short while and his name is already on everyone’s lips. He's the kind of guy moms’ warn their daughters about—the kind that leaves a trail of shattered hearts behind him and he has Olivia in his sights.

Olivia has never met anyone as confusing as Seth and his hot and cold attitude constantly sends her reeling. She’s never wanted anyone’s touch so badly in her life, but having recently come out of a long term relationship diving into another is something she'd prefer to avoid.

Determined for his touch, but not to let him under her skin, Olivia embarks on the most thrilling ride of her life.

[worktolive]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I want to just enjoy reading again after such a huge break and discover authors who are more my style. I don't have a TBR list anymore.

We don't tend to have that much overlap in our taste in books, but have you looked at the Brown & DeLuca series by Maggie Shayne? I've read a couple of her old Harlequin romances and enjoyed them and I read a novella in this series that is free (I think it's #1.5 in the series). It looks like it's a slow burn romance and the focus is more on the suspense. It's not light/humorous though.

Also, I'd recommend Marie Force's Fatal series starting with Fatal Affair. The setup is somewhat similar to the In Death series although it isn't futuristic and the MCs are only superficially like Eve and Roarke. (She is a police lieutenant in Washington DC and he is the chief of staff for a Senator who gets murdered in the first book). There are some pretty steamy scenes between them, but the focus is on the murder investigation and on character development, not on the sex. This series is published by Carina Press and the ebooks go on sale occasionally. Also the first 8 books (out of 9) are in print so they might be available at the library or UBS.

[Hemmi]

AllRomance is doing a 50% off rebate today only.

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by worktolive

Also, I'd recommend Marie Force's Fatal series starting with Fatal Affair. The setup is somewhat similar to the In Death series although it isn't futuristic and the MCs are only superficially like Eve and Roarke. (She is a police lieutenant in Washington DC and he is the chief of staff for a Senator who gets murdered in the first book). There are some pretty steamy scenes between them, but the focus is on the murder investigation and on character development, not on the sex. This series is published by Carina Press and the ebooks go on sale occasionally. Also the first 8 books (out of 9) are in print so they might be available at the library or UBS.

I second Marie Force's Fatal series. I enjoyed it.

[KyBunnies]

FREE - A Biltmore Christmas by Diane T. Ashley, Sylvia Barnes, Rhonda Bigson & Jeri Odell

• Print Length: 354 pages
• Publisher: Barbour Books (September 1, 2011)
• Publication Date: September 1, 2011

Spoiler:

Explore the luxuries of America’s largest home through the eyes of the fiction Bradford sisters. Having been orphaned, they each secure work and lodging at the Biltmore estate. Charity, a laundress; Peggy, an assistant cook, Selma, a chambermaid; and Melissa, a stable “boy” each experience adventures in employment and romance that culminate at Christmastime when the Vanderbilts’ hospitality is at its grandest level

[KyBunnies]

FREE - The Sport of Baronets by Theresa Romain

• Print Length: 120 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (November 3, 2015)
• Publication Date: November 3, 2015

Spoiler:

An original novella introducing Romance of the Turf, Theresa Romain's exciting new Regency romance series
The lives of Sir Bartlett Crosby and Hannah Chandler have been marked by fierce competition between their elite families...the perfect breeding ground for a mutual attraction neither can deny.
Bart hopes to conquer "the turf" through victory in a much-touted match. Should his heavily-favored colt win, the Crosby reputation and fortunes would be revived. Bart's plan seems poised for success until the lovely Hannah Chandler, daughter of a noted rival trainer, turns up claiming ownership of the colt. When Hannah insists on claiming her purchase, the prize colt disappears from Bart's stable. Theft or treachery? As Hannah and Bart rush to solve the mystery before race time, they uncover a scandalous truth about their families' pasts-a truth that has the potential to either destroy both their futures, or to guide them to a love they never imagined.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Hemmi

AllRomance is doing a 50% off rebate today only.

The rebates work by charging you full price for the book, and then giving you half the price back in store credit, in the form of "eBook bucks" - which you cna use on rebated books.

In other words, start by buying one or two rebated books on your wishlist up front, collect your eBook bucks, and then use them to pay for the remaining books you're interested in.

EDIT:
....which voids the rebate. Aww, they fixed the glitch.