For one week only, Beauty and the Bounty Hunter by Lori Austin (also known as Lori Handeland) is $2.99. This is a historical western (if the ruffles and the gun didn't tip you off there).
Cathleen Chase is no killer—but as Cat O'Banyon, she is a ruthless bounty hunter who always gets her man. Catching one lowlife after another, she continues her search for the only man she really cares to locate. The one whose voice she will never forget; the man who murdered her husband. She'll stop at nothing to find him.
Con artist Alexi Romanov taught Cat every trick she knows. He is a master of deceit, disguise, and desire. He's difficult to trust, and even more difficult to resist, but he has news she can't ignore.
The man she's after has placed a bounty on her head. To get him before he gets her, she'll have to team up with Alexi again…and just like before, the two of them together are nothing but trouble.
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo | iBooks
A Town Called Valentine by Emma Cane, also known as Gayle Callen, is $1.99. This is a contemporary small town romance (if the town name hadn't tipped you off).
Welcome to Valentine Valley—where broken hearts come home to mend, and true love may lie just across the range . . . Emily Murphy never thought she’d return to her mom’s rustic hometown in the Colorado Mountains. But after her marriage in San Francisco falls apart, leaving her penniless and heartsick, she returns to her old family home to find a new direction for her life.
On her first night back, though, a steamy encounter with handsome rancher Nate Thalberg is not the fresh start she had in mind . . . Nate has good reason not to trust the determined beauty who just waltzed into town—he’s no stranger to betrayal. Besides, she’s only there to sell her family’s old property and move back out.
But as Nate and Emily begin working side-by-side to restore her time-worn building and old family secrets change Emily’s perception of herself, both are about to learn how difficult it is to hide from love in a place known far and wide for romance, family ties, and happily-ever-afters: a town called Valentine.
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo | iBooks
Bluegrass State of Mind by Kathleen Brooks is free right now. This book has a pile of good reviews, but the ones on Goodreads that caught my attention say that the the idea and the concept are excellent, but that the execution is sub-par. Those who loved the book loved the tension and the romantic suspense plot.
McKenna Mason, a New York City attorney with a love of all things Prada, is on the run from a group of powerful, dangerous men. McKenna turns to a teenage crush, Will Ashton, for help in starting a new life in beautiful horse country. She finds that Will is now a handsome, successful race horse farm owner.
As the old flame is ignited, complications are aplenty in the form of a nasty ex-wife, an ex-boyfriend intent on killing her, and a feisty race horse who refuses to race without a kiss.
Can Will and McKenna cross the finish line together, and more importantly, alive?
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo | iBooks
Taking Shots by Toni Aleo is a contemporary sports romance set in the world of the NHL. The Assassins is the team – not an elite group of NHL players who also solve crimes with long-range sniper rifles. This book is currently .99c.
(And if you were confused about the cover and remembered it differently, you're not alone. I was confused, too. Mad found that the original Loveswept cover for Taking Shots was alarmingly close to the cover for Jaci Burton's Taking a Shot – which, yeah, it sure was. Now the photo for the Loveswept Taking Shots is being used on the cover for Trying to Score. Not that helps my confusion any, since I remember images and not the titles.)
Elli Fisher has never thought she was good enough, let it be her job, her weight, her love life, nothing. That is until she meets Shea Adler. After doing a promotional shoot for the NHL team, the Assassins, she meets the hunky hockey player who shoots a puck, shattering her world. Shea Adler was tired of the life he was living outside of the rink. The girls, the money blowing, the drinking, everything had to stop and it all did when he met Eleanor Fisher. He had never met anyone like her. She was feisty, witty, shy, and simply gorgeous. When he laid eyes on her, it was as if he was taking the hardest hit of his life into the boards, and he had to have her. Elli is a little skeptical of Shea, but he knows that they were meant to be together, and he needed her in his life. Can Elli throw her insecurities out the window and love Shea with everything inside of her, or will she let a past relationship, and her family ruin any chance of her being happy.
The cover for another of Aleo’s books in that series also has a cover that is remarkably similar to another of Jaci Burton’s covers. Take a look: http://www.amazon.com/Empty-Net-Assassins-Series-ebook/dp/B00BSW7PRA/ref=pd_sim_b_2 and http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Play-PLAY-BY-PLAY-NOVEL-ebook/dp/B00466ILPA/ref=wp_bs_1_play_by_play_kindle_edition
I think the better question here is why ISN’T there a series about hockey players who are also assassins? Because I would read that.