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Outlander
RECOMMENDED: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is $1.99! No one here ever talks about Outlander, it certainly doesn’t have one of the most popular heroes or couples in fiction, and it’s not a perennial bestseller. : )
The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
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Kiss Me, Catalina
Kiss Me, Catalina by Priscilla Oliveras is $1.99 at Amazon! This has elements of Kiss Me, Kate and Taming of the Shrew. Aarya also mentioned it in a previous Hide Your Wallet.
Dreams come true for an untamable rising star and a mariachi idol in a rousing romance about passion, fame, and family by USA Today bestselling author Priscilla Oliveras.
Ambitious San Antonio singer Catalina “Cat” Capuleta gets the chance of a lifetime when she joins superstar heartthrob and fellow mariachi Patricio Galán on his seven-week concert tour. Demanding and arrogant, Patricio challenges Cat on every level, as an artist and as a woman. But headstrong Cat is determined to be his match. No matter how seductive Patricio’s baritone voice, Cat’s eyes are only on the prize: success and making her familia proud.
No woman gets under Patricio’s skin like Cat. Her talent mesmerizes. Her passion is thrilling. And her drive, stemming from an old unhealed family wound, exposes a vulnerability he secretly recognizes in himself.
When the duo hits the road, the sparks don’t just fly—they detonate. Stage by stage, as each reckons with the past—and with each other’s quick-fire personalities—they bring crowds to their feet, and Cat’s long-held dreams come true. Will their road romance go up in flames? Or could making music together kindle the most rapturous love song of their lives?
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The Earl Takes All
The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath is $1.99! (I also originally typed The Earl Takes It All and I feel like that’s an entirely different kind of book.) This is book two in The Hellions of Havisham series. It received a C- grade from Redheadedgirl, mainly for the cringe and consent issues of the twin switcheroo plot.
One summer night, Edward Alcott gives in to temptation and kisses Lady Julia Kenney in a dark garden. However, the passion she stirs within him is best left in the shadows as she weds his twin, the Earl of Greyling. But when tragedy strikes, to honor the vow he makes to his dying brother, Edward must pretend to be Greyling until the countess delivers her babe.
After her husband returns from a two-month sojourn, Julia finds him changed. Bolder, more daring, and more wicked—even if he does limit their encounters to kisses. With each passing day, she falls more deeply in love.
For Edward the embers of desire sparked on that long-ago night are quickly rekindled. He yearns to be her husband in truth. But if she discovers his ruse, she will despise him—and English law prevents him from marrying his brother’s widow. Yet he must dare to risk everything and reveal his secrets if he is to truly take all.
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Dead Flip
Dead Flip by Sara Farizan is $2.99! This was mention on a previous Book Beat, as its comparisons to Jumanji and Stranger Things might be of interest to readers. Did any of you pick this one up previously?
Edge-of-your-seat YA horror perfect for fans of Stranger Things
Growing up, Cori, Maz, and Sam were inseparable best friends, sharing their love for Halloween, arcade games, and one another. Now it’s 1992, Sam has been missing for five years, and Cori and Maz aren’t speaking anymore. How could they be, when Cori is sure Sam is dead and Maz thinks he may have been kidnapped by a supernatural pinball machine?
These days, all Maz wants to do is party, buy CDs at Sam Goody, and run away from his past. Meanwhile, Cori is a homecoming queen, hiding her abiding love of horror movies and her queer self under the bubblegum veneer of a high school queen bee. But when Sam returns—still twelve years old while his best friends are now seventeen—Maz and Cori are thrown back together to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sam the night he went missing. Beneath the surface of that mystery lurk secrets the friends never told one another, then and now. And Sam’s is the darkest of all . . .
Award-winning author of If You Could Be Mine and Here to Stay Sara Farizan delivers edge-of-your-seat terror as well as her trademark referential humor, witty narration, and insightful characters.
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Anyone unfamiliar with Outlander should be aware that there’s a scene in which the MMC disciplines the FMC for disobeying a direct order. (He belts her on the ass? or something.) It’s justified in the context of 18th-cent warfare, but if you don’t have any tolerance for male-on-female violence, at least avoid that part. Tbh what bothered me the most about it is that (iirc), after that part ends, she throws herself at him and is all, “Oh, I do love you so!” and he and another of the guys are all, “lol women, amirite?” Proving that not everything that came out of the ‘90s was great.
Oh and he does regret it once he learns why she disobeyed him (bc time travel!), so that’s something :/
I, too, just want to party and buy CDs at Sam Goody. Alas…
Curious about Dead Flip, if anyone’s read it. I wish the blurb gave a little more insight as to the plot, and not just the main characters. The cover obviously has Stranger Things vibes but not sure if that’s just marketing (because 80s kid/teen horror) or what. Glanced at the Amazon reviews and there were lots of Stranger Things references but still not sure if that’s a time period thing only, or what.
@Liz
While the scene that you referenced in Outlander definitely triggered discomfort, I accepted it within the context of the time period and plot. Jamie did it because he felt he had to and not because it gave him pleasure or satisfaction. I grew up in the fifties and sixties, and John Wayne spanking Maureen O’Hara was considered high comedy. I myself had my share of spankings, but I did not see them in the context of abuse as my parents absolutely got no satisfaction from the process; rather they considered it part of their job as parents. Ironically, it’s a great way to fail. Autre temps, autre mœurs.
However, there is another scene in Outlander, involving rape that was way more shocking to me and is much more worthy of a content warning. In fact, it’s the reason I only read the first book of the series.
PLEASE buy Kiss Me Catalina, the series is great!
@PamG like I said, it was justified in the context. I wanted to give people a heads-up because most of the readers on here are female/femme, and many people can’t tolerate VAW for any reason—which is certainly valid and something we can all be respectful of
Mentioning this in honor of my father: one of Amazon’s daily kindle deals is The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan, my dad’s favorite author. Much better than the movie. CW for some outdated attitudes.
And honestly, the dreadfulness of the end of the first book of the Outlander series is outmatched by the Fergus situation in Paris in the second?third? Book. Gabaldon is a good writer but she is not averse to throwing in some truly horrible situations for her characters.
$.99
– Never Cross a Highlander by Lisa Rayne — love the cover 🙂
I second @Lisa F, Kiss Me Catalina is wonderful!