Someone Else's Love Story is Joshilyn Jackson's newest novel, and it's $1.99 for a limited time. It was yesterday's price match from BN, and the price as already switched back at BN – so the Amazon discount will likely change back today sometime. Grab it if you're curious, as Jackson is a tremendously talented writer. (But be warned: judging from some of the reviews, I want to add a trigger warning for assault that doesn't seem to be hinted at in the cover copy.)
At twenty-one, Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Natty, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced Catholic mother and Jewish father. She’s got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up in a gas station mini-mart and falling in love with a great wall of a man named William Ashe, who willingly steps between the armed robber and her son.
Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It’s been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his universe. But William doesn’t define destiny the way other people do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in science and numbers, destiny to him is about choice.
Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, in a funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness,; about a virgin birth, a sacrifice, and a resurrection; about falling in love, and learning that things aren’t always what they seem—or what we hope they will be. It’s a novel about discovering what we want and ultimately finding what we need.
Beauty and the Billionaire – and the other Billionaire Bachelor Club novels – are $2.99 each. I'm not sure if that's the regular price, but given that Elyse really liked this one because it satisfied many of her favorite “beauty and the beast” references, you may want to try it for $3, especially if her taste lines up with yours. This is a contemporary romance featuring.. billionaires. NO REALLY. It is!
Real-estate tycoon Hunter Buchanan has a dark past that’s left him scarred and living as a recluse on his family’s palatial estate. Hunter is ready to give up on love—until he spots an enigmatic red-haired beauty and comes up with an elaborate scheme to meet her.
Gretchen Petty is in need of a paycheck—and a change. So when a job opportunity in an upstate New York mansion pops up she accepts. And while she can overlook the oddities of her new job, she can’t ignore her new boss’s delectable body—or his barely leashed temper.
Hunter’s afraid his plan might be unraveling before it’s truly begun, but Gretchen is about to show him that life can be full of surprises…
The men may have all the money and power, but the women will bring them to their knees. Look out for the next breathtaking Billionaire Boys Club novel from InterMix.
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo
Boomerang Bride by Fiona Lowe is .99c right now. This is a contemporary romance featuring a fish-out-of-water Australian heroine who journeys to Wisconsin to surprise her fiance, only to find he's a con man who stole all her money, and she's now stranded. This story won the RITA for Best Contemporary in 2012.
Matilda Geoffrey had risked it all for love.
She'd left Australia to be with Barry—the man who had swept her off her virtual feet. Now, wearing a wedding dress, she's alone on Main Street in small-town Wisconsin, and things aren't working out exactly as planned….
In town for his annual family visit, Marc Olsen had never seen a bride quite like Matilda—staring into a storefront window, holding a tottering wedding cake and looking desperately in need of a groom. He doesn't have many warm feelings for his hometown, but meeting Matilda just as she discovers she's been scammed by her online “fiancé” stirs something in him.
Matilda is not the kind of woman Marc imagined himself with, and Marc is anything but the romantic hero that Matilda has always dreamed of. But as unlikely circumstances throw them together, can they let go of their misconceptions and risk their hearts for love?
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo
The Summer He Came Home by Juliana Stone is $1.99 right now at Amazon. This is a contemporary small town romance and the first of the Bad Boys of Crystal Lake series – which gives you a hint to the theme of this one. A long-gone bad boy returns home to deal with family stuff, and finds all sorts of possibilities with a woman who has made Crystal Lake her home. That right there is a big heaping spoonful of my catnip – and this book has superlative reviews, including a 4+ star average. Have you read it?
Sometimes the best place to find love is right back where you started…
Falling asleep in a different bed every night has made it easy for Cain Black to forget his past. It’s been ten years since he packed his guitar and left Crystal Lake to chase his dreams. Now tragedy has forced him home again. And though Cain relishes the freedom of the road, one stolen moment with Maggie O’Rourke makes him wonder if he’s missing out on something bigger than fame.
For Maggie—single mother and newly settled in Crystal Lake—love is a luxury she just can’t afford. Sure, she appreciates the tall, dark and handsome looks of prodigal son Cain Black. But how long can she expect the notorious hellion to stay?
The last thing either of them wants is something complicated. But sometimes love has its own plans.
I picked up Boomerang Bride one of the previous times it was on sale. I must have suppressed the actual storyline, because I have a deep-rooted antipathy for the book, but I don’t quite remember why. I think it may have been the hero—his behavior toward his family was so completely the opposite of what I consider heroic (or even likable) that I could never get over my initial dislike of him.
Now I remember why I hated the hero so much. I should never have started poking at those memories. The heroine makes some TSTL choices, but the hero is just dreadful. He publicly humiliates her, he steals the keys to her rental car so she can’t leave, and he uses his friends in local law enforcement to control her. His behavior is stalkerish and illegal. Maybe some people find that sort of thing charming; I most certainly do not. I’m baffled by the positive reviews on Amazon. It’s like everyone else read a different book than I did. Even the negative reviews don’t mention how utterly dickish the hero is.
So I guess this comment is my PSA: the hero of Boomerang Bride is an utter dick. The more you know.
DPR: Thank you for the heads up! It’s weird when the reviews are so different to your own opinion, isn’t it? That happens to me, too.
Also, generally, my apologies for the title that ended with a comma. There were supposed to be more words there. Sorry about that.
@Dread Pirate Rachel
Thanks for the heads up! Those types of characters don’t work at all for me so I appreciate the warning. I always love these deal posts (thanks Sarah!), and part of what makes them so valuable is comments section.
I remember almost nothing about Boomerang Bride, but I do remember liking it a lot and somehow not being troubled by the dickheadedness of the hero (which I totally don’t remember). Which is kind of surprising since I ordinarily would have been troubled by such behaviour. Anyway, I did think it was quite well-written and I like this author’s voice in other books, so it might be worth a try at a bargain price…
And I bought the Juliana Stone one on some other occasion when it was on sale. It is still sitting in my TBR pile.
I really, really liked ‘someone else’s love story’, which I just got out of my library. I was engrossed in it enough that I kept ignoring my children during the snow days to the detriment of my poor house and furnishings.
I read Boomerang Bride and I liked it. I thought the author did a good job of explaining the hero’s attitude toward his behavior and the heroine was very expressive in her dislike of his highhanded behavior. And he was trying to help.
What I could have live without was the epilogue. Saccharine, saccharine, and did I mention saccharine?
just had to go back and check my kindle entries…I got the summer he came home and it was so boring and off putting that I kept forgetting I was reading it!
I’m down for the Bad Boys of Crystal Lake as long as none of them are named Jason. 0.o
I agree with DPR. I didn’t even get halfway in before I dumped Boometang Bride. I had high hopes for it, too.
And I’m bummed I missed the sale on Someone Else’s Love Story. Hopefully it will go on sale again, soon.
Yay! It’s still on sale for Nook!
I’m pretty sure I hated Boomerang Bride, but I could never in a million years have said why. Dread Pirate Rachel totally nailed it: TSTL heroine, and über-creepy hero. IIRC, the writing wasn’t bad, and the characters were believable, which just made their decisions all the more horrifying.
Yeah, I didn’t finish Boomerang Bride either. And the first two comments by Dread Pirate Rachel encapsulate the thought process I have every time I see it mentioned… looks neat… oh wait, didn’t I hate that book… yes I did and it’s all coming back to me now *hasty click away*
Good to know about Boomerrang Bride—I’d actually clicked on the link to buy it. When will I learn? If it wins a RITA or a Golden Heart I’m probably not going to like it.
The Summer He Came Home is over $6.00 on Amazon! When did the price change? Darn.