B&N Free Friday Books

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4/18/14 Today’s book is SWEET WATER by Christina Baker Kline.

Both a Southern literary saga and a psychological thriller, this beautifully wrought novel recounts a daughter’s search for the truth about her mother’s death. “Evocative writing,” said The New York Times Book Review.

Cassie Simon, an artist living in New York City, is willed a house a sixty acres of land in Sweetwater, Tennessee, by her grandfather, Amory Clyde – a man she never knew, and the last man to see her mother alive. Impulsively, Cassie decides to move to the town where her mother Ellen, died tragically when Cassie was only three. As soon as she arrives in Sweetwater, Cassie begins to discover the artist within herself, and uncover a tangle of family secrets that have been kept for nearly twenty five years.

 

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4/25/14 Today’s book is NEVER TOO LATE by Amara Royce.

A seductive romance set against the romantic backdrop of a bookshop.

Honoria Duchamp is well aware that men often consider widows easy prey for the role of mistress. What else could explain the attentions of handsome Lord Devin, and his visits to her bookshop? The much younger Viscount has even shown interest in the printing press with which she creates pamphlets on London’s basest injustices. Yet his chief interest appears to be in her…

 

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5/2/14 Today’s book is THE NORMANS: FROM RAIDERS TO KINGS by Lars Brownworth.

A fascinating look at the Viking descendants.

There is much more to the Norman story than the Battle of Hastings. These descendants of the Vikings who settled in France, England, and Italy — but were not strictly French, English, or Italian — played a large role in creating the modern world. They were the success story of the Middle Ages; a footloose band of individual adventurers who transformed the face of medieval Europe. During the course of two centuries they launched a series of extraordinary conquests, carving out kingdoms from the North Sea to the North African coast.

 

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5/9/14 Today’s book is LADY LISSA’S LIAISON by Lindsay Randall.

Lady Lissa Lovington has a problem: too many suitors all hungering for the same thing—her newly-acquired inheritance. So Lissa plants a devious rumor: she’s had a liaison with the notorious, and notoriously handsome, Gabriel Gordon, the sixth Earl of Wylde.

Outcast by the ton, Gabriel has won too many duels and is believed to have had a hand in the death of his would-be-bride. The rumor works like a charm, until the mercurial Lord Wylde arrives to turn the tables and make Lissa’s pretend liaison a reality.

 

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5/16/14 Today’s book is SHADOWS IN THE SUN by Gayathri Ramprasad.

As a young girl in Bangalore, Gayathri was surrounded by the fragrance of jasmine and flickering oil lamps, her family protected by Hindu gods and goddesses. But as she grew older, demons came forth from the dark corners of her fairytale-like kingdom—with the scariest creatures lurking within her.

The daughter of a respected Brahmin family, Gayathri began to feel different. “I can hardly eat, sleep, or think straight. The only thing I can do is cry unending tears.” Her parents insisted it was all in her head. Because traditional Hindu culture has no concept of depression, no doctor could diagnose and no medicine could heal her mysterious illness.

 

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5/23/14 Today’s book is A BEAUTIFUL HEIST by Kim Foster.

A thrilling caper featuring a sly, sexy jewel thief at its center. Everyone has a talent. Some are just more legal than others. Cat Montgomery steals jewels for AB&T, the premier agency for thieves in Seattle. Career perks: good pay, great disguises, constant adrenaline rush. Drawbacks: the possibility of jail time… or worse. Now she’s taken on a lucrative side job — recovering a priceless Faberge egg for an alleged Romanov descendant.

 

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5/23/14 Today’s bonus book is WHERE THERE’S SMOKE by Jodi Picoult.

Even as a child, Serenity Jones knew she possessed unusual psychic gifts. Now, decades later, she’s an acclaimed medium and host of her own widely viewed TV show, where she delivers messages to the living from loved ones who have passed. Lately, though, her efforts to boost ratings and garner fame have compromised her clairvoyant instincts. When Serenity books a young war widow to appear as a guest, the episode quickly unravels, stirring up a troubling controversy. And as she tries to undo the damage — to both her reputation and her show — Serenity finds that pride comes at a high price.

 

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5/30/14 Today’s book is THE ENEMY by Charlie Higson.

In the wake of a devastating disease, everyone sixteen and older is either dead or a decomposing, brainless creature with a ravenous appetite for flesh. Teens have barricaded themselves in buildings throughout London and venture outside only when they need to scavenge for food. The group of kids living a Waitrose supermarket is beginning to run out of options. When a mysterious traveler arrives and offers them safe haven at Buckingham Palace, they begin a harrowing journey across London. But their fight is far from over — the threat from within the palace is as real as the one outside it.

 

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6/6/14 Today’s book is THE INTERCEPT by Dick Wolf.

In a debut novel ripped from tomorrow’s fears, Dick Wolf writes about a terrorist plot launched against the new One World Trade Center built on the ashes of Ground Zero. With that harrowing apocalypse hovering in his mind, NYPD detectives Jeremy Fisk and Krina Gersten must find a way to track down a single missing suspect in a very large city.

 

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6/6/14 Today’s bonus book is THE LOST ISLAND by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Special Preview (the first 11 chapters)

Gideon Crew — brilliant scientist, master thief — is living on borrowed time. When his mysterious employer, Eli Glinn, gives him an eyebrow-raising mission, he has no reason to refuse. Gideon’s task: steal a page from the priceless Book of Kells, now on display in New York City and protected by unbreakable security.

 

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6/13/14 Today’s book is NIGHT SWIM by Jessica Keener.

A debut novel that’s a coming-of-age story steeped in complex family dynamics.

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Kunitz lives in a posh, suburban world of 1970 Boston. From the outside, her parents’ lifestyle appears enviable – a world defined by cocktail parties, expensive cars, and live-in maids to care for their children – but inside their five-bedroom house, all is not well for the Kunitz family. Coming home from school, Sarah finds her well-dressed, pill-popping mother lying disheveled on their living room couch. At night, to escape their parents’ arguments, Sarah and her oldest brother, Peter, find solace in music, while her two younger brothers retreat to their rooms and imaginary lives. Any vestige of decorum and stability drains away when a family tragedy occurs one terrible winter day. Soon after, their father, a self-absorbed, bombastic professor begins an affair with a younger colleague. Sarah, aggrieved, dives into two summer romances that lead to unforeseen consequences.

 

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6/20/14 Today’s book is SLEEP TIGHT by Jeff Jacobson.

A scary summer thriller about a plague of bed bugs infected with a deadly virus.

They hide in mattresses. They wait till you’re asleep. They rise in the dead of night to feast on your blood. They can multiply by the hundreds in less than a week. They are one of the most loathsome, hellish species to ever grace God’s green earth. Thought to be eradicated decades ago, thanks to global travel they’re back. And with them comes a nightmare beyond imagining. Bed bugs infected with a plague virus so deadly, it makes Ebola look like a summer cold. One bite turns people into homicidal maniacs. Now they’re in Chicago. And migrating to all points North, South, East, and West. The rest of the world is already itching. The U.S. government and the CDC are helpless to stop it. Only one man knows what’s causing the epidemic. And the powers-that-be want him dead.

 

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6/27/14 Today’s book is DECEIVE NOT MY HEART by Shirlee Busbee.

Leonie Saint-Andre, the granddaughter of an old Creole gentleman, thinks Morgan Slade is a scoundrel. Morgan, the son of a wealthy Natchez plantation family, thinks Leonie is a clever liar. Leonie claims Morgan married her, and fathered her five-year-old son. All she wants is her dowry returned to pay her dead grandfather’s gambling debts and save their home. Morgan knows that he accepted neither dowry, nor Leonie’s hand in marriage. But the woman before him awakens emotions he never thought he’d feel again. But that doesn’t give reason for the imposter who signed his name to the marriage papers Leonie holds — or why her son bears such a striking resemblance to Morgan himself.

 

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6/27/14 Today’s bonus book is RANDOM VIOLENCE by Jassy Mackenzie.

In Johannesburg prosperous whites live in gated communities; when they exit their cars to open the gates, car-jackings are common. But seldom is the victim killed, much less shot twice, like Annette Botha. Piet Botha, the husband of the wealthy woman, is the primary suspect in his wife’s murder.

 

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7/4/14 Today’s book is DORA’S BIG BUDDY RACE.

A story about Dora and her new friends entering the big city race as a team to raise money to rebuild the playground. Join Dora and her friends as they work together to give back to their community and run into magical and unexpected surprises