Gunpowder Alchemy
RECOMMENDED: Gunpowder Alchemy by Jeannie Lin is 99c! This is a steampunk romance set in China, which Carrie loved and graded an A-:
I had a great time with this book, I loved the setting and the characters, and I can’t wait for the sequel.
In 1842, the gunpowder might of China’s Qing Dynasty fell to Britain’s steam engines. Furious, the Emperor ordered the death of his engineers—and killed China’s best chance of fighting back…
Since her father’s execution eight years ago, Jin Soling kept her family from falling into poverty. But her meager savings are running out, leaving her with no choice but to sell the last of her father’s possessions—her last memento of him.
Only, while attempting to find a buyer, Soling is caught and brought before the Crown Prince. Unlike his father, the Emperor, the Prince knows that the only chance of expelling the English invaders is to once again unite China’s cleverest minds to create fantastic weapons. He also realizes that Soling is the one person who could convince her father’s former allies—many who have turned rebel—to once again work for the Empire. He promises to restore her family name if she’ll help him in his cause.
But after the betrayal of her family all those years ago, Soling is unsure if she can trust anyone in the Forbidden City—even if her heart is longing to believe in the engineer with a hidden past who was once meant to be her husband…
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
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!Butterface
Butterface by Avery Flynn is 99c! This contemporary romance is billed as a romantic comedy with some fake relationship elements. Be warned that the heroine is incredibly self-conscious about her looks, and there seems to be a lot of internal critical comments, if you’re sensitive to those things.
It’s true. I’m not what most people would call “pretty” and, well, high school was rough. Fast forward ten years and life is good…
Until a bunch of jerks think it’s hilarious to put the “butterface” (AKA me) on a wedding Kiss Cam with the hottest guy ever—and that old humiliation hits hard.
I recognize him immediately. The hottest cop in Waterbury and totally out of my league.
But then he kisses me.
And we totally forget the room, the crowd, everything.
Then he tells everyone we’ve been dating for months.
Soon everything starts to feel too real, from adorable fights over “necessary” tools to fix my broken porch to surviving a free-for-all dinner with his six siblings to picking up where our last kiss left off.
But there’s something he’s not telling me about why he’s really hanging around, and I’m pretty sure it has to do with my mob-connected brothers.
Because this is not a make-over story, and Cinderella is only a fairy tale…
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
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!House of Shadows
House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick is $2.99! This is a historical mystery and both Elyse and Sarah have enjoyed Cornick’s writing on the site. Some readers were quite interested in the premise, but found it faltered on execution. It has a 3.8-star rating on Goodreads.
The wooded hills of Oxfordshire conceal the remains of the aptly named Ashdown House–a wasted pile of cinders and regret. Once home to the daughter of a king, its secrets will unite three women across four centuries in a tangle of romance, deceit and destiny…
1662–A queen
Bound by sex and birth to live for everyone but herself–and to love always in secret–Elizabeth Stuart entrusts a pair of arcane artifacts to her faithful cavalier to keep safe for her rightful heir. But fate will not be generous to the Winter Queen, throwing the question of succession into turmoil, the aftermath of which will resonate through the generations.
1801–A courtesan
Lavinia Flyte wanted so much more from life than to be a courtesan at the mercy of the cruel Lord Evershot. He has brought her to Ashdown, the home of his ancestors, for reasons he guards greedily. But the maids’ whispers of hidden treasures–a pearl with the power to foretell the future–consume her with a curiosity she confides only to her diary, unaware of the misfortune that threatens.
And the mystery that binds them
Alarmed to hear her brother has gone missing at Ashdown Park, Holly Ansell is inexplicably drawn to the clues contained in the journal of a Regency courtesan who was living at the historic home when it burned to the ground two hundred years ago. Lured by the tragedy at Ashdown, Holly’s search leads her not only to the truth about Lavinia, but deeper into her own connection with the Winter Queen.
For fans of Kate Morton and Barbara Erskine comes an unforgettable novel about the power one lie can have over history.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
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 Other Lady Vanishes
The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick is $1.99! This is the second book in the Burning Cove series. This is a historical mystery set in 1930s California and has a romance. It can be read on its own. Have you read this one or any other books in the series?
The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Knew Too Much sweeps readers back to 1930s California–where the most dazzling of illusions can’t hide the darkest secrets…
After escaping from a private sanitarium, Adelaide Blake arrives in Burning Cove, California, desperate to start over.
Working at an herbal tea shop puts her on the radar of those who frequent the seaside resort town: Hollywood movers and shakers always in need of hangover cures and tonics. One such customer is Jake Truett, a recently widowed businessman in town for a therapeutic rest. But unbeknownst to Adelaide, his exhaustion is just a cover.
In Burning Cove, no one is who they seem. Behind facades of glamour and power hide drug dealers, gangsters, and grifters. Into this make-believe world comes psychic to the stars Madame Zolanda. Adelaide and Jake know better than to fall for her kind of con. But when the medium becomes a victim of her own dire prediction and is killed, they’ll be drawn into a murky world of duplicity and misdirection.
Neither Adelaide or Jake can predict that in the shadowy underground they’ll find connections to the woman Adelaide used to be–and uncover the specter of a killer who’s been real all along…
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
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!
Don't want to miss an ebook sale? Sign up for our newsletter, and you'll get the week's available deals each Friday.
Sourdough: Or, Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market by Robin Sloan is $2.99. A brutally overworked programmer is given a sourdough pet (relevant to my interests as a sourdough mom…) and enters the seedy underworld of the farmers’ market. I didn’t know I needed this book until I saw it, but it’s at the top of the TBR as soon as I’m done with marketing coursework.
I always appreciate your additional sale recommendations on these posts, @Ren Benton.
I thought Sourdough sounded interesting so I checked it out, only to find I’d already bought it in March–a bad sign about my out-of-control TBR pile. But I guess it’s better to have too many books than too few.
Burning Cove is not my favourite Amanda Quick (and I’ve read pretty much all of them), but it’s okay.
I skipped the sale for The Other Lady Vanishes because the narrative of sexual assault felt voyeuristic and prurient to me. Also, this may be the volume in Burning Cove where the heroine and a recurring female side character congratulate themselves over beverage* for being tough dames and not like other women. I just have no patience for that. I mean, if they were out in the woods and had just buried a body, that would be different.
*beverage – I think it was cocktails, but given that the heroine runs a teashop, it might have been tea, which would just make it that much more ironic.
Adding my endorsement to Carrie’s review: I really loved that Jeannie Lin book.
Romance’s Rival: Familiar Marriage in Victorian Fiction by Talia Schaffer (non-fiction) is $7.81 @amazon. It got an “A” guest review here in 2017.
I mention this (high price, I know!) because when I originally put it on my wish list, it was over $50 for the kindle edition. The kindle edition still lists at over $30 when not on sale. (At lease I think this is a new sale – I only just noticed the price reduction!).
FYI – it has the same cover as Band Sinister by K.J. Charles
(Which is an awesome, m/m, Heyer-esque romance. One of my faves!)
I read “Butterface”, “Tomboy” and “Muffin Top” yesterday. I liked them, but I had a hard time with how critical the heroines were about their appearances while the heroes are perfect to the point that everyone questions why the men are with the women. The women harp on their perceived flaws while the men seem blind to them.
@Ren Benton – thanks for the heads up about Sourdough! I started it from the library but had to return it before I finished (this says more about my alarming library TBR stack than about the quality of the book). Robin Sloan’s weekly newsletter is quirky and fun and always a delight.
I’m interested in Gunpowder Alchemy but the review says it has a cliffhanger. I loathe cliffhangers and have a deep distrust of any writer that ends a book with one. If the book is good, I’ll probably get the next one; cliffhangers just seem lazy and manipulative. The only exception is serial stuff released a chapter at a time. If I pick up a novel that is supposedly complete, I want it to have an actual ending. I see both books are out, but…not sure I trust it to be satisfying.
“The women harp on their perceived flaws while the men seem blind to them.”
Tbf, I know a lot of marriages like that. “I just wish I could lose these twenty pounds I put on with the kids,” she wails, while he says happily, “Don’t know what you’re talking about, you look great.”
When I saw the description for Sourdough: Or, Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market, I had to check to see if the author was a former co-worker. We went through “adopt a starter” at my former office. My Kindle is groaning from carrying around my TBR file. Thanks, Ren!
I learned last year during the controversial Chinese-fashion inspired Prom Dress/ cultural appropriation Twitter war– that the beautiful red dress the heroine is wearing on the cover of GUNPOWDER ALCHEMY would not have been appropriate for the book’s time period of 1842, as that dress style came into fashion around 1920. Though I could be wrong!
Anyways, I’m sure the heroine also would not have had steam ships and other steampunk gadgets either.