free books are awesome

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! 😉

Picked up in print at Norwescon:

• Beyond This Horizon, by Robert A. Heinlein. SF, of course. This was actually a freebie in the swag bag, but it’s a book acquisition, so it counts!
• Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed. Fantasy. Grabbed this one because I’ve been hearing good things about it for ages, and it turns out it’s one of these year’s Hugo nominees anyway, so hey!
• The Sail Weaver, by Muffy Morrigan. This is really kind of science fantasy, from the sound of it, rather than SF or F. This was being sold by the author in the dealer’s room at the con, and she sold me on it when she pitched it as “tall ships and dragons IN SPACE”.
• The Wicked Instead, by Vivien Weaver and and No Deadly Thing, by Tiger Gray. Urban fantasy. Again, being sold by the authors in the dealer’s room. Picked these up after I had a lovely conversation with both authors about their covers, and once I told them I was an author myself and mentioned Carina, they piped out with the name of my editor–Deb Nemeth! So after that awesome conversation, I pretty much HAD to buy both books.

Picked up electronically directly from the authors and/or publishers:

• 7th Son: Deceit and 7th Son: Destruction, by J.C. Hutchins. These are books 2 and 3 of his 7th Son trilogy, the first book of which had been traditionally published but didn’t sell well enough for his publisher to continue the trilogy. He’s self-pubbed the remaining two as ebooks. I quite enjoyed the first one so was very happy to scarf up the other two.
• The aforementioned The Wicked Instead and No Deadly Thing, also bought digitally because the trade paperback copies I bought are large and I’m reluctant to damage them by carrying them around on my commute. Also bought because woo, supporting Seattle-area SF/F authors!

Picked up from Kobo:

• Dawn, by Octavia Butler. Book 1 of her Xenogenesis trilogy. Picked up because I’d tried to start reading this before in print, but the omnibus edition I have is HUGE and not really friendly to being carried around on my commute. And they’ve finally been made available in ebook form!
• Poison, by Bridget Zinn. YA fantasy. Picked up pretty much because of reasons described here.

63 for the year.

Picked up in print:

• The Wild Ways, by Tanya Huff. Book 2 of her Gale Women series. Just finished Book 1 and enjoyed it immensely, so had to scarf this one up ASAP.

Meanwhile, picked up electronically:

• Touched by Magic and Wolverine’s Daughter, both by Doranna Durgin. I have paperback copies of both of these, but Durgin has made them available until the 15th for free out of her backlist, so I took the opportunity to scarf them down. Touched by Magic is one of my long-standing favorites of hers, and I definitely recommend it!

And these two were the last two ebooks I picked up to close out 2012:

• Mariana and The Shadowy Horses, by Susanna Kearsley. These were on sale for .99 each, so I snagged ’em even though I own copies of both in paperback.

That finishes off the 2012 count at 148, and starts off 2013 at 3.

Picked up from B&N for my Nook:

• Island of Bones, by Imogen Robertson. Mystery, #3 in her Crowther and Westerman series, which I am enjoying immensely! Bought this as soon as it hit the US market in ebook form.
• Beautiful Sacrifice, by Elizabeth Lowell. Romantic suspense, this time around playing on the whole Ohnoez Mayan Ending of the World in 2012 thing.
• Jane Carver of Waar, by Nathan Long. This was the freebie for this past Friday for the Nook, and I scarfed it since it’s a parody of the John Carter novels. Thought it might be entertaining to check it out.

114 for the year!