Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..

Do you own this classic? We enjoyed it. 

 

Sir Phillip Crane never wanted to be a baronet. He was the younger son who was perfectly happy at University, where he took a first in botany. He’d have gladly spent his life experimenting in his greenhouse, but when his brother was killed at Waterloo, Phillip inherited the title, the estate, and his brother’s fiancée, Marina.

A melancholy sort of woman who became even more so after the birth of twins Amanda and Oliver, Marina and Phillip drifted apart, since despite all his efforts she would not, could not be happy. Finally she tried to drown herself. Phillip rescued her, but she caught a chill and died. A short time later, Phillip received a sympathy letter from Marina’s distant cousin, Miss Eloise Bridgerton. He replied, she replied, and an exchange of letters resulted in him asking her to be his wife.

Eloise Bridgerton is 28 and has turned down six proposals of marriage. She is intrigued by the letters, and the man who wrote them. So why not take him up on his offer? Her brothers and sisters are marrying and it doesn’t look like she is having any more offers. Sure, it would be nice to have a love match, but a marriage based on respect and compatibility is nice enough, isn’t it?

When Eloise shows up Phillip is surprised, since she arrived without notice and before he was able to ask his aunt to come to act as chaperone, but he’s not going to toss a lady out in the rain, especially not such an attractive lady. Eloise settles in nicely. She is even able to manage the twins (who are little hellions). Eloise sees how lonely Phillip is, and since she is from a large family, she understands that the children are not so bad – all they want is some attention. Phillip seems as though he only wants her as a mother to the children, and she did so want a love match. But when her brothers track her down, the choice about whether or not to marry Phillip is taken out of her hands.

 

It’s at Amazon for 3.99 here.


This stand alone by crime great Karin Slaughter is one of my favorites by her. The dynamic between sisters Leah and Callie is so well done–I’ve thought about this book many times since I read it.

 

AN ORDINARY LIFE…

Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She’s an up-and-coming defense attorney at a prestigious law firm in Atlanta, would do anything for her sixteen-year-old daughter Maddy, and is managing to successfully coparent through a pandemic after an amicable separation from her husband Walter.

HIDES A DEVASTATING PAST…

But Leigh’s ordinary life masks a childhood no one should have to endure … a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and ultimately destroyed by a brutal act of violence.

BUT NOW THE PAST IS CATCHING UP…

On a Sunday night at her daughter’s school play, she gets a call from one of the firm’s partners who wants Leigh to come on board to defend a wealthy man accused of multiple counts of rape. Though wary of the case, it becomes apparent she doesn’t have much choice if she wants to keep her job. They’re scheduled to go to trial in one week. When she meets the accused face-to-face, she realizes that it’s no coincidence that he’s specifically asked for her to represent him. She knows him. And he knows her. More to the point, he may know what happened over twenty years ago, and why Leigh has spent two decades avoiding her past.

AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

Suddenly she has a lot more to lose than this case. The only person who can help is her younger, estranged sister Callie—the last person Leigh would ever want to drag into this after all they’ve been through. But with the life-shattering truth in danger of being revealed, she has no choice…

 

It’s at Amazon for 2.99 here.


This is one of Erdrich’s best which is saying something. It’s a DIK for us.

 

The Sentence is a damn good, beautifully engrossing book, and I enjoyed every minute I spent with it.

Tookie has spent years in a Minnesota prison, and reading the book sent to her by her former teacher has gotten her through a nervous breakdown and years of unjust incarceration. She’d been set up by former friends (she transported a body stuffed with narcotics), and once this comes to light, her sentence is commuted. Now free and a voracious reader, she takes up a job at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis (the bookstore Erdich herself owns in real life; the author even makes an in-universe cameo appearance), which specializes in books by Indigenous Americans and is staffed with passionate readers who know their stuff.  She soon realizes the place is being haunted, though none of her co-workers seem to notice, which makes her worry about the state of her sanity. Tookie also tries to settle back into her marriage with Pollux, a formal tribal policeman – who also happened to have arrested her –  and looking out for her alcoholic stepdaughter, Hetta.

Well-meaning Flora died on All Soul’s Eve.  When she was alive, she was Birchbark Books’ most annoying customer, a ‘wannabe’ who kept making that classic white girl-who-wants-to-be-native claim that she has indigenous blood.  Now she’s annoying Tookie in a completely different way – by playing pranks like leaving behind a book with a sentence in it that is unfinishable, causing startling effects in those who try to read it.

As Tookie tries to grapple with life on the outside – which, in this book set from All Soul’s Eve 2019 to All Soul’s Eve 2020, means grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Blue Lives Matter protests which wracked Minneapolis – as well as personal matters such Hetta’s addiction, Tookie’s pregnancy and new baby, and her husband’s feelings about his past law enforcement career.  All the while, Tookie must figure out how to convince Flora to move on to the next world.  But the ghost won’t do so unless Tookie researches Flora’s ancestry and proves she really does have indigenous ancestry.

 

It’s at Amazon for 2.99 here.


 

This early JAL is a DIK for us!

 

The Runaway Duke is set in England at the end of the Regency period and features a tortured hero and the spunky heroine with whom he falls in love. “But I’ve read that story and seen these characters a hundred times this year!” the romance reader wails. “Can’t we have something new?” Well, don’t dismiss this one. The setting and characters may be very familiar, but Julie Anne Long tells the story in such a fresh and lively way, you’ll swear this is the first time you’ve read a book like this.

Roarke Edward Connor Riordan Blackburn, the heir to the Duke of Dunbrooke, is working on Sir Henry Tremaine’s estate. Everyone thinks he’s Connor Riordan, an Irish groom. Several years ago, Roarke ran away from his brutal father and enlisted in the infantry. On the field at Waterloo, he was badly wounded and when asked his name, he mumbled the name of his best friend, Roddy. Roarke Blackburn was assumed killed in battle, and when Roarke recovered, he took two of his names and became Connor Riordan. He has been happy working as a groom and has become very fond of Sir Henry’s lively daughter, Rebecca.

Rebecca is accidentally compromised by Lord Edleston when she attempts to spy on her sister. Connor can’t stand the idea of the bright and intelligent Rebecca engaged to a wastrel like Edleston, so he helps her escape to his aunt’s home in Scotland. But a pair of villains has formed an uneasy alliance and is on their trail. Edleston has fallen in love with Rebecca and wants her back. He is aided by Cordelia, dowager Duchess of Dunbrook, a former mistress of Connor’s who married his brother. Since Connor was assumed dead, the brother inherited the title and the fortune – and when he died childless, she inherited it all. She will stop at nothing to keep her status.

 

It’s at Amazon for 1.99 here.


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

As an Amazon Affiliate, we earn a very small percentage of whatever you buy using our links. And remember, we get a percentage of EVERYTHING in your cart when you’ve begun your shopping with our links. That tiny sliver of money is what enables us to stay on line, so please, visit our links and click through to Amazon. Thanks!


Also, if you like this newsletter, please share it

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments