Jade City

Jade City by Fonda Lee is $2.99! This is part of today’s Kindle Daily Deals and it’s being price-matched. Be warned that this is a very violent adult fantasy novel. Readers loved the worldbuilding and threads of mythology weaved into the story. To be honest, the book sounds intense and awesome. It has a 4-star rating on Goodreads.
JADE CITY is a gripping Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kungfu.
The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It’s the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities.
The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion–but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection.
When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.
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Third Son’s a Charm by Shana Galen is $1.99! This historical romance is the first book in The Survivors seres and has a bodyguard hero. Some readers warn that it took a while to warm up to the heroine, but others really enjoyed the hero and heroine as a couple. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads.
Ewan Mostyn thinks a job as a duke’s daughter’s bodyguard will be easy―but Lady Lorraine has a few tricks up her sleeve that spark an undeniable passion…
Fiercely loyal to his friends and comrades, Ewan Mostyn is the toughest in a group of younger sons of nobility who met as soldiers and are now trying desperately to settle back into peaceful Society. Ewan trusts his brawn more than his brains, but when he’s offered a job watching the Duke of Ridlington’s stubbornly independent daughter, he finds both are challenged.
Lady Lorraine wants none of her father’s high-handed ways, and she’ll do everything in her power to avoid her distressingly attractive bodyguard―until she lands herself in real trouble. Lorraine begins to see Ewan’s protectiveness in a new light, and she can only hope that her stoic guardian will do for her what he’s always done―fight for what he wants.
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Man Hands by Sarina Bowen and Tanya Eby is 99c at Amazon! We mentioned this book in December 2017’s Hide Your Wallet. I was delighted that the heroine runs a food blog called Brynn’s Dips and Balls. Readers definitely say this book is on the funny side, though some found it a little too over the top.
He puts the “screw” in screwball comedy…
BRYNN
At thirty-four, I’m reeling from a divorce. I don’t want to party or try to move on. I just want to stay home and post a new recipe on my blog: Brynn’s Dips and Balls.But my friends aren’t having it. Get out there again, they say. It will be fun, they say. I’m still taking a hard pass.
Free designer cocktails, they say. And that’s a game-changer.
Too bad my ex shows up with his new arm candy. That’s when I lose my mind. But when my besties dare me to leap on the first single man I see, they don’t expect me to actually go through with it.
TOM
All I need right now is some peace and quiet while my home renovation TV show is on hiatus. But when a curvy woman in a red wrap dress charges me like she’s a gymnast about to mount my high bar, all I can do is brace myself and catch her. What follows is the hottest experience of my adult life.I want a repeat, but my flying Cinderella disappears immediately afterward. She doesn’t leave a glass slipper, either—just a pair of panties with chocolate bunnies printed on them.
But I will find her.
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Phoenix Blood by Jenny Schwartz is 99c at Amazon! This is the first book in the Old School series. A few reviewers compared this book to Ilona Andrews, as it has a blend of magic, action, and romance. However, it does seem to be on the shorter side. I think I’ll be buying this one.
In a grim biker bar with wizard mercenaries on her tail and a “found” amulet around her neck, Sadie Howard needs a miracle. What she gets is the man who broke her heart nine years ago.
Marcus Aurelius is a changed man, in more ways than one. The preppy, confident medical school student is now a hard-bitten, magic-wielding assassin. He’s also a man on a mission. He has debts to pay and old wrongs to right before he dies—sometime this week.
As the secrets of Marcus’s heart are revealed, Sadie learns that nothing is as it seems and that the man who broke her heart also saved her life and paid in agony for her freedom.
With wizards trying to kill her, phoenix blood burning in Marcus’s veins, and a villain who’ll stop at nothing to acquire the amulet Sadie has promised to a friend, their roadtrip is a one-way ticket to extraordinary adventures. The question is, who will survive?
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King of Code by C.D. Reiss, which has been mentioned a few times here on SBTB, is free for Amazon Kindle.
If Marcus Aurelius is not some sort of immortal Roman Emperor, I’m going to be exceedingly disappointed.
I read the first couple of chapters of Man Hands before I stopped (I’m not calling this a DNF as I do plan to return to it). The humor is crude, reminded me of Helena Hunting’s Pucked books, with lots of jokes a 13 year old boy would find hilarious (sometimes I also find these hilarious). I’m normally a big fan of Bowen’s, and I’ve never read Eby. So if you didn’t like the Pucked books I wouldn’t recommend this series.
Strong recommend on Jade City! If you like family sagas or political scheming or super-interesting magic systems or compelling, flawed characters you’ll enjoy it.
Genie – fair warning – you’ll be disappointed. Sorry! My Marcus isn’t a Roman emperor (LOL I typed Romance Emperor and had to correct). Naming him was my nod to how much I like the original Marcus’s “Meditations”.
Amanda, thank you so much for mentioning “Phoenix Blood”.
I noticed a pre-order omnibus edition of the first three books in Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner’s Fly Me to the Moon series at Amazon. 1960s American space program romance, 99 cents, delivers on July 31st.
Here’s the B review of the second title in the omnibus: http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/earth-bound-emma-barry-genevieve-turner/
I love Sarina Bowen but can’t get into her Man Hands series. Its very different from her other books (even the books she’s cowritten). I just couldn’t get into the characters.
I too have yet to finish Man Hands after starting it a couple of months ago, and I’m a big fan of her Ivy Years books. I’ll give it another try someday.