NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite and our most popular pieces of writing this year. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy this saunter through the archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading.
A note that both Sarah and I will be traveling during the holidays, so we’re recapping the best sales of the year. To pick these books, we check how many we’ve sold via the site and if a discount is still valid. While the book may not be listed at the same discount, we will still include books that are listed at $3.99 or less!
If a sale is no longer valid by the time the posts go live, we apologize for the inconvenience and we hope you’ll keep an eye out for those books in future sale posts.
Beginner’s Guide: Love and Other Chemical Reactions
RECOMMENDED: Beginner’s Guide: Love and Other Chemical Reactions by Six de los Reyes is $2.99 at Amazon! Sarah enjoyed this nerdy romance and gave it a B:
Seriously, if you love science and experiments and science nerdery, you’ll probably really like this book. Much of the story is about Kaya’s journey from accepting herself to appreciating herself, and her growth from keeping a massive distance between her thoughts and her emotions to learning how to relate them to one another, and to take the risks involved in engaging with other people.
Falling in love is a chemical reaction.
Just ask Kaya Rubio, twenty-five year-old Molecular Genetics graduate student and research assistant. Fed up with her spinster aunts’ relentless reminders and unsolicited advice regarding her Single Since Birth status, she designs a scientific, evidence-based methodology to find her a suitable partner in time for her cousin’s wedding. As any good scientist knows, any valid experimental design requires a negative control. Enter the most unsuitable candidate for a potential boyfriend: the messy, easygoing, café owner Nero Sison. Her null hypothesis? Going out with Nero would establish her baseline data without catalyzing the chemical reaction she seeks.
But when Kaya’s recorded results refuse to make sense, she is forced to come to the conclusion that there are some things in life that are simply, by nature, irrational and illogical. And that sometimes, chemistry doesn’t always happen inside a lab.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Uprooted
RECOMMENDED: Uprooted by Naomi Novik is $2.99! A lot of people have recommended this book and Novik’s writing, but some readers did mention on Goodreads that the book is a bit slow at times. It’s been on my TBR list for ages, so maybe I’ll finally break down and get a copy to read.
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
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This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Pretty Face
Pretty Face by Lucy Parker is $3.99! Sarah read this one and though she didn’t squee over it as much as she did with Act Like It by Lucy Parker, the book still earned a B:
The theme of this book, of choosing difficult happiness and fulfillment over worrying what people will say about your choices, is a terrific, nuanced one for a romance. Richard summarizing the meaning of that theme while talking about stage performance was one of the best parts of the book for me.
Highly acclaimed, award-winning author of Act Like It Lucy Parker returns readers to the London stage with laugh-out-loud wit and plenty of drama
The play’s the fling
It’s not actress Lily Lamprey’s fault that she’s all curves and has the kind of voice that can fog up a camera lens. She wants to prove where her real talents lie—and that’s not on a casting couch, thank you. When she hears esteemed director Luc Savage is renovating a legendary West End theater for a lofty new production, she knows it could be her chance—if only Luc wasn’t so dictatorial, so bad-tempered and so incredibly sexy.
Luc Savage has respect, integrity and experience. He also has it bad for Lily. He’d be willing to dismiss it as a midlife crisis, but this exasperating, irresistible woman is actually a very talented actress. Unfortunately, their romance is not only raising questions about Lily’s suddenly rising career, it’s threatening Luc’s professional reputation. The course of true love never did run smooth. But if they’re not careful, it could bring down the curtain on both their careers…
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This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Emperor’s Arrow
The Emperor’s Arrow by Lauren D.M. Smith is $3.99! This is a fantasy romance, so if you’re on that genre kick, pick this one up! It was winner of Harlequin’s 2015 So You Think You Can Write contest and features a warrior/archer heroine. Readers really loved the heroine, while others wanted a stronger romance.
Grand Prize Winner of Harlequin’s 2015 So You Think You Can Write contest
Debut author Lauren D.M. Smith delivers an epic fantasy romance in this soaring tale of a kickass warrior and the emperor she’s honor-bound to defend.
The bride candidates have been summoned. Their numbers are many, yet only one is an Amazzi warrior. Only one would give her life to protect him.
Evony of Aureline, warrior of her people, has no intention of becoming a hideous old man’s bride. Though her people have sworn their loyalty to the legendary emperor Galen, Evony knows little of courts and intrigue. It’s simply not her world.
Yet it’s on the palace training grounds where Evony’s archery skills gain her the respect of soldiers and legates alike. The emperor himself takes notice of the beautiful, ruthless warrior. In turn, the young, steely eyed Galen is nothing at all what Evony expected.
This man could very well conquer her heart. But does he feel the same?
As the rivalry among the remaining bride candidates intensifies and the plot for the throne unfolds, Evony must make a grave choice: fulfill her destiny and protect her people or follow her heart and pursue true love.
Either way, the honor of the Amazzi people and the future of the empire now rests with Evony of Aureline. For she is the Emperor’s Arrow.
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This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
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wow! First time all the books recomanded I have and I can fully recomend as wonderfull!
So, I guess I’m the only person on the planet who DNF’d Uprooted?
Uprooted I freaking loved this book. In fact, I want MORE.
I’m reading PRETTY FACE right now and it is delightful and some of it takes place during the holidays so it’s timely.
I very nearly DNF’d Uprooted, but was pretty glad I stuck it out.
!SPOILER!
I cautiously bet on the author not making the…er…Divine Feminine character be unredeemably Evil and the source of ~All Suffering~ and was finally rewarded. Or appeased. Whichever you like.
!SPOILER!
Acid Trip: Travels in the World of Vinegar: With Recipes from Leading Chefs, Insights from Top Producers, and Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Make Your Own, is currently $2.99 at Amazon.
The Year We Hid Away: A Hockey Romance (The Ivy Years Book 2) by Sarina Bowen is currently free at Amazon.
Also, Google Play customers in the US have a $5 credit offer available on eligible titles priced greater than $5 US. Ends on Jan 2nd. Check the banner on the Play home page for the information. This only worked for me when I opened Play on my desktop. Mobile site did not have it. (thank you to The Digital Reader site for the info on this one)
I knew I’d seen that cover before! I don’t know how to post a pic in my comment, but check out the cover on this review – they’ve changed it on Amazon now:
https://shannahatfield.com/2012/08/24/song-of-the-fairy-queen/
@DeanaCal I had no idea covers were reused. i wonder how authors feel about that?
I too am a big Uprooted fan. Yes, it subverts expectations…and there is a lot of sly humor.
Uprooted was one of the best books I read in 2015. Unfortunately, the audio version was less rewarding due to a poor choice of narrator. I highly recommend the paper/ebook version, however!
@Susan No, you’re not alone. I found Uprooted a generic faux medieval world with a Mary Sue at the center. And I did’t think the writing was very good (did you notice the use of adverbs?) I feel weird too.
I absolutely loved ACT LIKE IT, but somehow never got around to reading PRETTY FACE. Going to pick it up now! Lucy Parker is a new to me author, and I really love how mature/adult her characters are, as you mention in your reviews of her books. They are witty and snarky, but they are always good about communicating what’s going on inside their heads. Also, London is my favorite city in the world, so romances set there are totally my catnip.
Nobody’s ever excited to have recycled stock art, but at least Fantasy Archer Woman isn’t as ubiquitous as White Hoodie Guy, as most famously seen on Shelly Laurenston’s The Unleashing. I did a keyword search for books (in which the keyword was not “hoodie”), and he turned up 6 times in the first 40 results. I make a murder noise every time I see that image now.
I just ordered Song of the Fairy Queen (catnip, anyone?) and they’ve changed the cover. No more Fantasy Archer Woman-but I bought it anyway!
Heh, smoldering gray-shirted blond cover dude of Laurentson’s The Unyielding is also smoldering gray-shirted blond cover dude of Brigid Kemmerer’s Sacrifice. Pretty sure I’ve seen the image elsewhere, too.
I actually liked Pretty Face better than Act Like It but that may be because I read it first. But I felt like Act Like It wasn’t as compelling and the plot progression was a bit uneven.
Also loved Pretty Face even more than Act Like it. The audio version has become my newest comfort read.