RECOMMENDED: Unraveled by Courtney Milan is .99c right now. This novel, better known in my head as “Smite's Story,” was a Sizzling Book Club Pick in January 2012, and RedHeadedGirl reviewed it and gave it an A:
What I loved about Miranda is her willingness to not dance around and be all like “oh, should I tell him about the threats and blackmail and try and keep my sordid past a secret?” No, she tells him, straight out. She won’t argue with him about stupid shit, because he “wins arguments by profession.” Also, she’s a scathing theater critic. He takes her to a play, and it’s TERRIBLE and she’s making snarky comments, and he apologizes for making a mess of an evening, and she says, “I was enjoying myself. It was that kind of awful.”
Given that Miranda has red hair and says things like this, I am taking that as a personal shout-out. PLEASE DO NOT DISABUSE ME OF THIS NOTION. It’s finals. Don’t be mean.
Smite Turner is renowned for his single-minded devotion to his duty as a magistrate. But behind his relentless focus lies not only a determination to do what is right, but the haunting secrets of his past—secrets that he is determined to hide, even if it means keeping everyone else at arm’s length. Until the day an irresistible woman shows up as a witness in his courtroom…
Miranda Darling isn’t in trouble…yet. But she’s close enough that when Turner threatens her with imprisonment if she puts one foot wrong, she knows she should run in the other direction. And yet no matter how forbidding the man seems on the outside, she can’t bring herself to leave. Instead, when he tries to push her away, she pushes right back—straight through his famous self-control, and into the heart of the passion that he has long hidden away
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NK Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is $1.99! This is a fantasy novel with a bit of romance and a strong, fierce heroine who is MUCH loved by readers. This book was nominated for the Hugo, the Nebula, and won the Locus for Best First Novel. It's also the first novel in The Inheritance Trilogy and has a 3.7-star rating on GR. Anyone read this book? I've heard good things!
Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had.
As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.
With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate – and gods and mortals – are bound inseparably together.
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How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days by Laura Lee Guhrke is $1.99! This historical romance is the second book in An American Heiress in London series. Big thanks to Heather S for finding this deal and the next one! Featuring a marriage of convenience, our heroine only agrees to marry the hero because he'll be living his life out on another continent, until a near death experience brings him back home. Readers do give a trigger warning for rape and abuse, which divided many reviews. It has a 3.7-star rating on GR.
They had a deal…
From the moment she met the devil-may-care Duke of Margrave, Edie knew he could change her life. And when he agreed to her outrageous proposal of a marriage of convenience, she was transformed from ruined American heiress to English duchess. Five years later, she's delighted with their arrangement, especially since her husband is living on another continent.
But deals are made to be broken…
By marrying an heiress, Stuart was able to pay his family's enormous debts, and Edie's terms that he leave England forever seemed a small price to pay. But when a brush with death impels him home, he decides it's time for a real marriage with his luscious American bride, and he proposes a bold new bargain: ten days to win her willing kiss. But is ten days enough to win her heart?
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Love the One You're With by Lauren Layne is 99c! The second book in the Sex, Love & Stiletto contemporary romance series, Love the One You're With is set in the world of magazines. Both our hero and heroine work as columnists; one at a men's mag and the other at a women's mag. Naturally, they hate what the other does. It has an impressive 4.1-star rating on GR with many reviewers saying that Lauren Layne is now on their auto-buy list.
As a leading columnist for Stiletto, Grace Brighton has built a career warning women about rotten, cheating liars. She just never suspected her fiancé would be one of them. After Grace takes a heart-mending hiatus, her first assignment is to go on a couple of dates with a counterpart from the men's magazine Oxford and report her impressions. Grace 1.0 may have been instantly smitten with the gorgeous correspondent, but Grace 2.0 has sworn off relationships for six months, and she's not falling for his outstanding bod and trophy-winning kisses… or is she?
Jake Malone wants to get back to the fly-by-night, who-knows-what's-next guy he used to be, and he knows exactly how to do it. Oxford is adding a travel section, and Jake—with no wife and no kids and a willingness to live anywhere, eat anything, do everything—is perfect for the job… except that his playboy reputation makes his new editor nervous. To get the gig, he must agree to a fluffy joint article with Stiletto.
But after just one date with snooty, sumptuous, sensational Grace Brighton, Jake starts taking this assignment a whole lot more seriously…
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I’ve read 100K Kingdoms and it’s sequels. Strong female protagonist of color, unsafe aid of her sexuality or her own power, A+. They’re quite good, but much, much better on the second read. Mark of Mark Reads read them a year ago and his commentaries are golden if you want to read along with.