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Gift card ebook roundup post

The book-buying gods have smiled upon me, for lo, I received not only a B&N gift card for my birthday, I also got a VISA gift card from work for hitting my five-year mark with them. I took the latter over to a B&N to get myself a gift card loaded up with that card’s balance (after nabbing a copy of the soundtrack for Desolation of Smaug). Which means, of course, a tasty, tasty book roundup post!

Nabbed therefore from B&N:

  • The Splendour Falls, by Susanna Kearsley. For general “I buy everything by Susanna Kearsley” reasons, and this is one of her older books I haven’t managed to read yet. I have a paperback copy, but I buy her in both formats, and this is the first this ebook’s finally been made available to US markets.
  • What Remains of Heaven and Where Shadows Dance, by C.S. Harris. Books 5 and 6 of her Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series.
  • To Darkness and to Death, All Mortal Flesh, and I Shall Not Want, by Julia Spencer-Fleming. Books 4, 5, and 6 of her Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series.
  • Magic Bleeds, by Ilona Andrews. Book 4 of the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series.

7 for the year so far.

January 26, 2014 by
Books

Solstice book acquisition roundup

Immortal Lies

Immortal Lies

And now, for a quick post-Solstice roundup of stuff I’ve recently acquired for my electronic reading amusement!

Scarfed off of Project Gutenberg (yay! Project Gutenberg! Because free books are awesome!) because of this article about women doing horror writing in the 19th century, and I wanted to check out some of the titles they mentioned:

A Night on the Borders of the Black Forest, by Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards. Grabbed this one in no small part because of this woman being the model for the character of Amelia Peabody, who, as you know, is EXTREMELY relevant to my interests.

The Uninhabited House, by Mrs. J.H. Riddell.

A Phantom Lover, by Vernon Lee.

And, grabbed off of Kobo (to whom I must give props for FINALLY implementing an actual shopping cart, because WOW it annoys me to have to buy a bunch of ebooks one at a time!):

Immortal Lies, by S.L. Gray. A.k.a. my Willowholt tribesmate userinfoshadowhwk, whose official site now lives right over here! This is her first urban fantasy and I look forward to reading it.

On a Red Station, Drifting, by Aliette de Bodard. SF. Grabbed this one due to Tor.com speaking well of it, and also because I want to expand my horizons a bit. The thought of some SF written with non-Western sensibilities appeals.

181 for the year.

December 22, 2013 by
Books

Post-Thanksgiving book roundup post

This is super-quick, but here you go, a couple of books I’ve picked up lately, both in electronic form.

From B&N: Fiddlehead, by Cherie Priest. The latest and last of her Clockwork Century books. Looking forward to reading this QUITE a bit.

And from Smashwords: The Governess Affair, by Courtney Milan. Historical romance. A novella that’s the prequel to her Brothers Sinister series. This is actually available for free, and it’s self-pubbed by Milan, so I opted to pull it directly down from Smashwords.

176 for the year.

November 29, 2013 by
Books

Partly all about the Kickstarters book roundup post

And now, another episode of the What Books Has Anna Been Getting Her Hands On Show!

Grabbed from B&N for the Nook:

  • Parasite, by Mira Grant. Because anything written by Mira/Seanan is Love. First half of a new duology, and I have high hopes of seeing her prowess at all things parasitological on display here.
  • Some of the Best of Tor.com, 2013 Edition. Pretty much what it says on the tin. A collection of various short stories published on Tor.com this year, and bonus, it’s FREE as of this writing. Confirmed as present on bn.com, NOT present on Kobo as of tonight, though I’m pretty darned sure you should be able to get it for the Kindle too.

The next book I grabbed was from one of my NOT usual ebook sources: i.e., ebooks.com. I’ve had an account there for ages, and in fact, it was one of the first places I opened an account on when ebooks started becoming a thing. I went to this site for this book on the grounds that I’d TRIED to buy it from Kobo before, except that for some reason, when I bought it from them, I got an entirely different book. I reported this to their support people at the time, and as of just the other day, they still hadn’t addressed the problem.

So, yeah, right then, went looking for it elsewhere. Ebooks.com had it, so here you go:

  • Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God, by Guy Adams. First of what appears to now be an ongoing series from Titan Books featuring new Sherlock Holmes adventures, with a touch of steampunk and/or supernatural going on.

And lastly, here, have an assortment of various titles I’ve acquired because of supporting people’s Kickstarters:

  • Ravensblood, by Shawna Reppert. Shawna is a fellow Carina author and this is a self-pub release, an urban fantasy set in the Pacific Northwest. For obvious reasons, I’m rather partial to those! She’s deployed it for sale on the Kindle. If you’d like to see her deploy it to other platforms, consider visiting her at her place. And buy her Carina title, The Stolen Luck, while you’re at it.
  • Twenty Palaces, by Harry Connolly. Got this because he handed it out for free to his Kickstarter backers, for his project to deploy a fantasy trilogy. People keep telling me I need to read this man, and this is his prequel to his Twenty Palaces urban fantasy series that starts with Child of Fire.
  • Bone Shop, Broken Mirrors, Grim Tides, and The Complete Stories of Tim Pratt, all by T.A./Tim Pratt. I was one of Tim’s Kickstarter backers for a new Marla Mason novel, and since people have kept telling me I should read him too, well. More urban fantasy, and Tim didn’t skimp on handing out free copies of several of his works to backers. Thanks, Tim!

174 for the year.

November 6, 2013 by
Books

Super fast, super short book roundup

Just two in this post, both picked up from Barnes and Noble in ebook form:

Divergent, by Veronica Roth. YA dystopian SF. Got this one since it was on my queue and as of this writing, B&N’s selling the ebook version for $3.99.

Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton. I saw this on sale for a VERY brief window for $1.99, so thought what the hey, I’ll grab it. I used to have a paperback copy, and wouldn’t mind having this around on the occasions when I might want to read about chompy dinosaurs.

165 for the year.

October 26, 2013 by
Books

Post-VCON and post-deadline-crunch ebook roundup post

Bought from B&N:

  • The Reluctant Amazon, by Sandy James. This is book one of an urban fantasy series by a fellow Carina author, and I’d been meaning to get it for some time. Normally I’d have grabbed this right off the Carina site, but it was FREE last week by way of celebrating Sandy’s latest release in the series. I like free! So I scarfed it. (Also note: she is up to book four in the series, so DO go check her out. The latest one is up on Carina’s site right over here. Note the PoC heroine!)
  • How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea, by Mira Grant. A novella set in the Newsflesh universe, which I’d ALSO been meaning to grab for some time!
  • A Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware. Historical fiction, probably romance, but that’s a little fuzzy in the description. I saw this in a roundup on the Bitchery about books on sale, and thought it sounded interesting, and I think we’ve established by now that “sounds interesting” equals “SOLD” when it comes to me and buying books. The Goodreads page for the book is here. (Be warned: the book is no longer on sale and the ebook price is steep, so if you find that this one sounds interesting, you might want to go the library route or wait until the ebook price comes down.)

Bought from Kobo:

  • What Happens in Scotland and Summer is For Lovers, by Jennifer McQuiston. Historical romances. Got both of these because the latter was well-reviewed on the Bitchery over here. And since What Happens in Scotland was available for only .99 (still is, as of this writing), I thought I’d give ’em a go.

Bought from Smashwords, basically because I saw both of these in the dealers’ room at VCON and thought they sounded interesting–but because my shelves are overflowing right now with physical books I opted to get the ebooks instead (and also woo! Supporting Canadian SF/F!):

  • Tranquility’s Blaze, by Krista D. Ball. Fantasy. Goodreads page for it here.
  • Blightcross, by C.A. Lang. Fantasy/steampunk/dieselpunk. Goodreads page here.

163 for the year. And this count will be going up again REAL SOON as Cherie Priest is about to drop another one and this is HIGHLY RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS.

Also, srs bznz Pro Tip: if you’re interested in romance AT ALL, and you’re not already, go read Smart Bitches. Hell, if you’re as ravenous an ebook devourer as me, the “Books on Sale” posts SB Sarah does alone are a valuable public service to the community of readers! 😉

October 8, 2013 by
Books

Super-fast book roundup post

Because I got no brain, pretty much, and because I want to get this draft file out of my queue.

Picked up from Kobo:

Razor’s Edge, by Martha Wells. First of a Star Wars trilogy set between A New Hope and Empire, grabbed on that grounds and also because of Leia looking badassed on the cover. Giving me new Rebellion-era adventures IS a pretty damned good way to get me to pay attention to Star Wars again, I gotta say!

(Also, I noted with glee that Book 2 has a Han-centric cover. Yum.)

And, picked up from B&N:

The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, which I still haven’t read. I actually have a copy of this in paperback as well, but I grabbed the ebook because it was available for only .99. (Still is as of me checking this evening, so if you don’t have this book already, check fast! You may be able to snag it for cheap!)

156 for the year.

September 28, 2013 by