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All Systems Red
RECOMMENDED: All Systems Red by Martha Wells is $1.99! I think everyone at SBTB HQ who has read these books has absolutely loved them, myself included. Sarah in particular has been re-reading them consistently. I recommend her squee-filled review of Network Effect.
“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
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The Villa
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins is $2.99! This is a Gothic thriller, which is all sorts of Elyse catnip. It was also mentioned in a previous Hide Your Wallet. Have you read any of Hawkins’ thrillers?
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.
As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.
Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.
Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.
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What Moves the Dead
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher is $2.99! This was mentioned in a previous Hide Your Wallet. Kingfisher is a bit of an auto-buy around you. Did any of you pick this one up?
From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
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The Chase
The Chase by Elle Kennedy is 99c! This is the first book in the new adult Briar U contemporary romance series. This technically a spin-off of the Off-Campus series and features secondary characters getting their own HEAs, but you don’t have to read the previous series for this.
A sexy standalone novel from New York Times and international bestselling author Elle Kennedy
Everyone says opposites attract. And they must be right, because there’s no logical reason why I’m so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don’t usually go for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who think I’m flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. It doesn’t help that he’s buddy-buddy with my brother.
And that his best friend has a crush on me.
And that I just moved in with them.
Oh, did I not mention we’re roommates?
I suppose it doesn’t matter. Fitzy has made it clear he’s not interested in me, even though the sparks between us are liable to burn our house down. I’m not the kind of girl who chases after a man, though, and I’m not about to start. I’ve got my hands full dealing with a new school, a sleazy professor, and an uncertain future. So if my sexy brooding roomie wises up and realizes what he’s missing?
He knows where to find me.
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I really enjoyed The Chase. Summer and Fitzy are great. Both Off Campus and Briar U are compulsively readable and I can’t even one hundred percent describe why. Elle Kennedy is coming out with another spin off series in this universe and I’m very excited.
Loved “What Moves the Dead”–or, who am I kidding, all T. Kingfisher books. Genuinely creepy, atmospheric, with likeable and interesting characters. Fun science-y stuff, too. Sequel coming out soon, too! Highly recommend.
Sorry, forgot to add, “What Moves the Dead” has a nonbinary main character and does interesting alt-history things with gender identity.
I found WHAT MOVES THE DEAD a very satisfactory read, but this may be in part because I read Poe’s HOUSE OF USHER over and over as a kid and got frustrated by the denouement every time. If you ever read Poe and wondered “Okay, but WHY?”, this is the book for you.
We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian is $5.99 today. Higher than the normal sale amount, but it looks like it’s normally a $11 ebook. Haven’t read it, but I’ve enjoyed everything CS has written that I’ve had a chance to read.
I love Murderbot! A droid who doesn’t want to be a stupid human, what’s not to love.
The first three books in Kit Rocha’s Beyond series are currently free on Amazon: Beyond Shame, Beyond Control, and Beyond Pain.
If your just now getting to the Murderbot series then I really envy you because they are fantastic. Thank Goodness I heard about them here on a romance website or I never would have read them and what a tragedy that would have been. I adore Murderbot. I have both the digital and audible as the narrator is fantastic with the sarcasm that is Murderbot.
@Katie Lynn: Cat Sebastian is my go-to author for when I just can’t with anything else. I know I’m guaranteed a low-stakes, no-plot-just-vibes, unstressful, romantic, enjoyable read. I don’t have “We Could Be So Good” in ebook, so I might have to go for it.
How scary is What Moves the Dead? I’m a big fan of Kingfisher, but not of nightmares. I found her Nettle and Bone a tolerable level of creepy. Is this similar?