It’s the first of the month so there are a bazillion Steals and Deals. I’ve picked out what I think are a few of the best.

I’m not sure Sarah Morgan has ever topped her O’Neil Brothers series. My favorite is Suddenly Last Summer, but they’re all quite good.

This is from the review of Suddenly Last Summer:

Suddenly Last Summer is, at its heart, the story of two people who have struggled with love and heartache, both romantically and with their families. Élise and Sean are both sensitive and afraid to be hurt again by anyone they care for. I love a story where you so desperately want the couple to fall in love, yet can fully understand their reluctance to let that happen. The push and pull of their relationship was steamy, sweet, and even wrung a few tears from me.

I think that, with both Sleigh Bells in the Snow and Suddenly Last Summer, Morgan manages to avoid falling into cheesy, small town romances territory by infusing her writing with real emotions and realistic characters. Instead of the quirky, elderly lady that is in everyone’s business, you have Sean’s mother and grandmother who are much like your own family. They cook, they love their families, and they may even meddle, but only as much as a real mother does. The O’Neil family could be a real family that you could meet anywhere. There’s definitely love between them but it’s also not always easy. They’re not caricatures of people with overblown traits. If Morgan continues to write believable characters like this that deal with real-life issues and manage to find love, I will be happy to read anything else she writes.

You can get all three of them for 1.99 here.

When I first started reading romance again, back in 2008, one of the first historical romances I encountered was Kresley Cole’s The Captain of All Pleasures. (You can read our Pandora’s Box review here.) I, who hadn’t read romance since the early 80s, felt right at home in its pages. Its hero is old skool, it’s full of adventure and sexual tension, and, by the end, there is a wedding and a baby. If this sounds like your jam, it’s on sale today. Here’s the Amazon blurb:

Raised as a free spirit aboard her American sea captain father’s majestic clipper ship, willful Nicole Lassiter has never encountered an obstacle she couldn’t overcome—until she meets Captain Derek Sutherland. His sizzling kisses leave her longing, but after they share a night of passion, his subsequent disdain makes her blood boil. Nicole vows to take her revenge by helping her father beat Sutherland in a high-stakes competition: the Great Circle Race from England to Australia.

Nicole’s scheme is thrown overboard after her father is wrongly imprisoned, yet she remains undaunted, taking to the high seas with her father’s ship. But a storm wrecks her plans, and she finds herself a virtual prisoner aboard Sutherland’s vessel. And while her mind tells her she should escape, her body urges her to surrender…

You can buy it at Amazon here.

Tessa Dare hasn’t published a book in eons but, in January, she will! We didn’t love When a Scot Ties a Knot, but readers did–it’s a 4.4 star read on Amazon. In her review, Caz wrote:

The story revolves around Miss Madeleine Eloise Gracechurch, who, at sixteen, is so desperate to avoid having a London Season that she invents a sweetheart and tells her family that he is away in the army but that they have an understanding that one day they will marry. Maddie’s desperation is born not of an innate reluctance to marry or desire to Do Something With Her Life – although she does want to do that – but because she has a terror of large crowds, and thus the usual round of balls and parties just isn’t an option for her….

In order to keep up the deception, she writes a series of letters to her fictional captain over the next decade, while she also develops her talent as an illustrator. When she is informed of the bequest left her by her godfather of a remote Scottish castle, she realises that she has allowed the deception to continue for too long and, regretfully, allots Logan a glorious death in battle.

So naturally, she is stunned when Captain Logan MacKenzie arrives at Lannair Castle one day, hale, hearty, handsome – and very much alive.

And quietly furious. He’s led his raggle-taggle band of men back from war and now wants to settle back in the Highlands. But times have changed; lands have been cleared, entire villages have been wiped out, and the life the men knew before is no longer possible. However, Logan isn’t about to let them down, and, having learned of the bequest of a Highland castle to his “fiancée”, decides that this is the ideal solution. He will marry the lady and the castle and its lands will thus belong to him. He threatens to reveal all to Maddie’s father unless she goes along with the plan; so that very night, they go through a traditional handfasting. But that isn’t a marriage until it’s consummated, and once Maddie has time to think, she decides that perhaps she would rather not be married after all. She has spent a number of years working as an illustrator for books written by eminent naturalists, and is on the verge of being asked to work on a very prestigious project – which would be hampered should she be married with all the duties of a wife and –eventually – mother. (*sigh* It’s sad to realise that there are still employers out there today who operate within the same mindset).

What the story boils down to is Logan’s determination to consummate his marriage without forming any emotional ties, and Maddie’s insistence that it’s not just sex for her and that she wants more time to get to know Logan before going to bed with him. It’s as well-written as one would expect from such an experienced and well-respected author, and there is plenty of her trademark humour humour along the way. I know exactly what I’m going to get when I pick up a book by Ms Dare; something light-hearted and funny, where I’m going to have to turn off my “historical accuracy-o-meter” and sit back and enjoy the ride. I like well-written fluff as much as the next person, but while I certainly didn’t dislike When a Scot Ties the Knot, there are so many inconsistencies within the story that I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

If you think you’d like this–Dare can be a very good time–it’s on sale today for 1.99 here.

Molly Harper has written some bangers and Better Homes and Hauntings is one of them. In our rave review, we wrote:

Who doesn’t love a good book about creepy houses, beautiful men, Greek mythology, and a witty heroine? I know it was hard for me to resist from page one. The book totally grabbed me purely from a character standpoint. All the creepy-crawly stuff afterward was a major bonus.

Off the coast of Rhode Island is a private island owned by the infamous Whitney family, and on this island lives a giant mansion called the Crane’s Nest. Abandoned for three generations, the youngest Whitney, Deacon, creator of the social media site EyeDee, is determined to fix it up to its former glory. Every revamp has failed as workers got spooked by the paranormal activity and history regarding the house. Deacon employs his best friend Jake, an organizational guru Cindy, and a landscaper named Nina to fix up the house and to live on the island for a summer. What begins as a summer of good work and company soon turns into a scary ghost story and murder mystery for all who are on the island.

Nina Lindon owns Demeter Designs; she’s a classy and wonderfully geeky landscaper who signs on to the Crane’s Nest operation in hopes of escaping her own demons and launching her business. From their meeting Deacon and Nina have a strong connection forged by obscure geeky references and a passion for Greek mythology. Everyone on the island becomes closer friends (and lovers) as the house begins to reveal its sordid past to those working on it and all of them begin to try to solve the mysterious murder of Catherine Whitney, the house’s original mistress.

I love love loved this book so much. The writing was easy and it flowed without lacking substance. The characters were distinctive and fun. The dialogue was quirky and witty. All the perfect combination for me. The characters had great chemistry and each brought something unique to the back story.

It’s on sale for 1.99 here.

You can see all our current deals at our Amazon storefront here.

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