B&N Free Friday Books

5/24/13 Today’s book is Head to Head by Linda Ladd.

When homicide detective Claire Morgan moved from Los Angeles to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, she hopes to settle into a more peaceful, simpler life. But fate has other plans in store, as she soon finds out when a soap opera star turns up dead. The star’s trip to a posh “wellness resort” ended with her being taped to a chair at a fully set table and submerged at the bottom of the lake.

Wow, I think if I was writing this book it would be very short.

"When homicide detective Claire Morgan moved from Los Angeles to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, she moved back immediately. The End."
 
"When homicide detective Claire Morgan moved from Los Angeles to Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, she moved back immediately. The End."

You'd think that's the case. However the locals where I like to vacation in the Ozarks attribute the 1,000% increase in land values recently to folks from California moving there. Apparently they got fed up with mud slides, brush fires, earthquakes and inflated property values. They sell their house in CA, build an equivalent house on a couple acres and pocket the $1,000,000.00 difference. As a result land has gone from $20 - $40 an acre to hundreds of dollars an acre.
 
5/31/13 Today’s book is The Lost Code by Kevin Emerson.

Kevin Emerson’s The Lost Code, first in the Alanteans series, tells the story of a near-future earth ravaged by global climate change. Owen Parker is about to learn that it isn’t the first time the planet has been near destruction. Owen’s ancestors were part of an ancient race whose advanced technology once almost destroyed the world.

With the help of a mysterious, enchanting girl named Lily, Owen will have to understand his history and his genetic code to prevent global annihilation. He will also have to leave the bio-dome that keeps him safe and brave the post-apocalyptic wasteland beyond.
 
6/7/13 Today’s book is A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer.

Palmer’s fearless heroine, Quinn, enters the treacherous Vamp City to track down a missing friend. Along the way, the handsome vampire Arturo Mazza sets his sights on the beautiful and brave woman from the outside world. Quinn is drawn to the mysterious Arturo, but fears the dangers that lurk in Vamp City.

Arturo knows that his city is dying, and the fate of his fellow vampires is at great risk. While his heart yearns for Quinn, he also sees her as a potential savior of his dying breed, and he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her into the fold.
 
6/14/13 Today’s book is The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy.

In The Last Boy, Leavy profiles one of the most beloved, and troubled, American sports stars of all time. Mantle was blessed with incredible talent and skill, but cursed with a hardscrabble childhood and a propensity for alcoholism. His affable demeanor and partying lifestyle made him the envy of a generation of baseball fans, but in the end, injuries and alcohol took their toll.

Leavy highlights the highs and lows of Mantle’s storied career, drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends, family, teammates, and Number 7 himself. This is a thoughtful and fair-minded biography that befits the mighty slugger.
 
6/21/13 Today’s book is The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion.

When a Parisian auto magnate is found dead—post meal—in one of the city’s finest restaurant’s freezers, policewoman Capucine LeTellier is put on the case. Since LeTellier’s husband is a well-known food critic, she has access to the industry gossip that might just help her solve this ‘cold’ case.
 
6/28/13 Today’s book is The Berenstain Bears and the G-Rex Bones by Stan Berenstain.

Something strange is afoot at the museum, and the cubs are out to solve the mystery! With the help of Professor Actual Factual, the Bears must find the culprit who planted fake fossils at the museum and recover the missing bones! But with Dr. Zoltan Bearish hot on their trail, the cubs may be in for more of an adventure than they bargained for.
 
7/5/13 Today’s book is The Crime of Julian Wells by Thomas H. Cook.

When true crime writer Wells commits suicide, his best friend, the literary critic Philip Anders, embarks on a fact-finding mission that sheds new light on Wells’ tortured life.
Wells' writing cataloged the worst of humankind—the most notorious murderers in history. But as Anders re-reads his friend’s books, he starts to see a disturbing pattern emerge. Could it be that Wells shared some of the same loathsome impulses? And could his inner demons have led him to take his life?
 
7/12/13 Today’s book is Flesh and Bone by Jefferson Bass.

Anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton founded Tennessee's world-famous Body Farm—a small piece of land where corpses are left to decay in order to gain important forensic information. Now, in the wake of a shocking crime in nearby Chattanooga, he's called upon by Jess Carter—the rising star of the state's medical examiners—to help her unravel a murderous puzzle. But after re-creating the death scene at the Body Farm, Brockton discovers his career, reputation, and life are in dire jeopardy when a second, unexplained corpse appears in the grisly setting.
Accused of a horrific crime—transformed overnight from a respected professor to a hated and feared pariah—Bill Brockton will need every ounce of his formidable forensic skills to escape the ingeniously woven net that's tightening around him . . . and to prove the seemingly impossible: his own innocence.
 
7/19/13 Today’s book is Slide by Jill Hathaway.

All of Vee Bell’s friends and family think she has narcolepsy, but what they don’t know is that when they think she’s asleep, she’s actually sliding into someone else’s identity. Like any teenager, she doesn’t want her odd secret to get out, lest she become a social outcast.

But when Vee slides into the mind of her sister’s friend Sophie right as she’s being murdered, Vee’s formerly harmless gift becomes a burden. The town thinks that Sophie’s death was a suicide, but Vee can’t reveal the truth without also exposing her strange paranormal powers. And who would believe her anyway? Instead, she sets out to find a more terrestrial way to solve the crime before the murderer strikes again.
 
7/26/13 Today’s book is The Kingmaking by Helen Hollick.

A riveting account of the life of the legendary King Arthur.

In this first book of the Pendragon’s Banner series, Hollick delves deep into the life of Pendragon—the gallant leader who would one day unite all of Britain. While the true history of King Arthur is full of legends and myths, this book presents him as a man of flesh and bone—the heroic ruler who inspired armies and captured Gwenhyfar's heart. A once-in-a-millennia figure, King Arthur’s tale is wonderfully realized in Hollick’s impressive narrative.
 
8/2/13 Today’s book is His Captive by Diana Cosby.

Sir Alexander MacGruder's goal is to avenge his father's murder, not to become entangled with the enemy. But once he kidnaps her, his desire to keep Lady Nichola Westcott with him, in his home—in his bed—unwittingly makes her a target for those who have no qualms about shedding English blood. For her part, Nichola hardly expects the dangerously seductive Scot who kidnaps her to be a man of honor. With a wastrel brother and a treacherous former fiancé, she knows better than to trust the word of any man.
 
8/9/13 Today’s book is White Wind Blew by James Markert.

Markert sets his tale at Louisville’s Waverly Hills sanatorium during a 1920s tuberculosis outbreak. Few epidemics were so deadly, and Dr. Wolfgang Pike is beleaguered to the point of exhaustion. His wife’s death leaves him in even more despair, as he struggles to save the few lives he can amidst constant suffering.

But fortunes change when a former concert pianist checks in to Waverly Hill, and Dr. Pike—an amateur composer—is taken with the new patient’s musicality. Soon Pike is forming a hospital orchestra, bringing a sense of hope and enjoyment to the ward. While music can’t cure TB, it does awaken a new resolve in Dr. Pike and his patients, and brings a welcome relief from the struggles they’re facing.
 
8/16/13 Today’s book is Sins of the Father by Angela Benson.

Abraham Martin is a successful media mogul with a dangerous secret: a second family that no one knows about. When he decides to come clean, revealing the truth to his wife and son, a chain of events that he never could have imagined unfolds.

Abraham’s rebellious son Isaac now sees a threat to his position as heir to his father’s fortune, and his wife is determined not to let Abraham ruin her reputation by bringing his illegitimate children into the family fold.

Abraham’s second family is torn as well—his daughter Deborah sees a chance at new opportunities afforded by her father’s wealth and prominence, while his son Michael is bent on avenging the years of struggle caused by their father’s abandonment.
 
8/23/13 Today’s book is Never Say Die, by Will Hobbs.

Fifteen year-old Inuit hunter Nick encounters a fearsome half polar/half grizzly bear while out on an Arctic caribou hunt. Dubbed the grolar bear, this new species has the scientific world excited, but Nick knows that this beast could be a major threat to him and his village.

Soon Nick’s half-brother Ryan, whom he’s never met, invites him along on a National Geographic photo shoot to capture a huge herd of migrating caribou. Nick’s reluctant at first, but soon agrees to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But danger lies ahead, and Nick and Ryan are soon battling the elements of the Arctic, fighting for their survival, all while the grolar bear looks for his next prey.
 
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