Free 60-Day Trial of Kindle Unlimited, and the Books Available

On Facebook, a friend shared a Groupon for a Free 60-Day Kindle Unlimited Membership (US $19.98 Value). I know nothing about Kindle Unlimited. I’m hoping that “borrowing” books through is like the way my libraries work – download books, and they get automatically deleted after a certain number of days, or you return them earlier. I’m hoping it’s not the “read for free” thing that publishers sometimes do on their websites where you can only read web-based – no downloads.

You’ll need an Amazon account, and will need to make sure the settings have your location as the United States. You’ll also need a Groupon account, for which I used my Facebook, and make sure that you’re not signed up to any of their newsletters if you’re treating this Groupon as a one-off deal.

Group will ask you for “payment”, but I clicked the PayPal button, so I wasn’t charged – because the deal is free, after all. There’s also an option for credit card info.

Once you’ve got your Amazon organised, click here and input the code from your email, to activate the deal.

And now comes the part for why you’re here – borrowing books for free. I don’t know if there are expiry dates or what kind of borrowing system it is (see above about publishers vs. libraries). I’m on the wrong machine right now, but tomorrow on my laptop, I plan to investigate the following links. I systematically checked my reading wishlist, and here are the Kindle Unlimited-eligible books I’m interested in. Some are “pre-orders”, so I doubt you’ll be able to borrow them now. Be sure to check that the ones you’re interested in have Kindle Unlimited on the page, just in case I included a non-eligible title or if the authors/publishers decide to take them off the programme.

Vicki Hendricks: Miami Purity
Cyn Balog: Drowned
Chris Beckett: The Peacock Cloak
Jenna Black: Sealed with a Curse
Rachel Caine: Stillhouse Lake (pre-order)
Amy Rose Capetta: Entangled
Naomi Clark: The Ungrateful Dead; Wild; Gone to the Dogs; Ice Ice Baby; Stakeout
Liz Coley: The Captain’s Kid
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games; Catching Fire; Mockingjay
Megan Crewe: Earth & Sky; A Clouded Sky; A Sky Unbroken
Deborah Halverson: Writing New Adult Fiction
Jen Estes: Fifteen; Sixteen
Christina Farley: Gilded; Silvern; Brazen
Megan Hart: The Resurrected Compendium; Clearwater; The Lies We Tell (pre-order); The Secrets We Keep (pre-order)
Erica Hayes: Hunter’s Heart
Anthology: Tick Tock
Karen Ann Hopkins: Lamb to the Slaughter; Embers; Whispers from the Dead; Rachel’s Deception; Gaia; Secrets from the Grave; Tempest; Hidden in Plain Sight
Lydia Kang: A Beautiful Poison (pre-order)
PD Martin: Coming Home; When Justice Fails; Missing; The Wanderer; Grounded Spirits
Liz Maverick: The Transporter (pre-order)
Seanan McGuire: Indexing; Reflections
Will McIntosh: Futures Near & Far
Tracey O’Hara: Once Upon a Moonlit Night
Jackson Pearce: Turn Here
Cheryl Rainfield: Stained; Parallel Visions
Dia Reeves: Rhymes with Vampire
Leah Rhyne: In the Land of the Blind
Carrie Ryan: A Game of Firsts
Holly Schindler: Fifth Avenue Fidos; Play It Again; Forever Finley
Jeri Smith-Ready: Bridge
Lila Veen: Burning for You
Jessica Verday: Flesh Which Is Not Flesh
M.D. Waters: Gemini’s Edge
Skyler White: Offerings
Susanne Winnacker: Between the Shadow & the Soul

January Through June 2011 Reads – Star Ratings

Books I read in January through June this year. Separated into star ratings, then listed by order in which I read them. All up at GoodReads. Some reviews here on my WordPress. Does not include books that I didn’t finish, because I’ve deleted them from my catalogue, and likely my memory.

Let me know if you decide to read or not to read them, based on my ratings. Because yes, I am that egocentric 😉

5 STARS: Rage (Jackie Morse Kessler), American Vampire (Jennifer Armintrout), Project 17 (Laurie Faria Stolarz), The Gathering (Kelley Armstrong), The Repossession Mambo/Repo Men (Eric Garcia), Moongazer (Marianne Mancusi), Wither (Lauren DeStefano), Girl Hero (Carrie Jones)

4 STARS: Outside In (Maria V. Snyder), Stocking Full of Coal (Amanda Feral), The Walled Garden (Michele Lang), The Shadow Runners (Liz Maverick), The Vespertine (Saundra Mitchell), Linger (Maggie Stiefvater), Dark Life (Kat Falls), Demonized (Naomi Clark), The Reckoning (Kelley Armstrong), Midnight Alley (Rachel Caine), Feast of Fools (Rachel Caine), Lord of Misrule (Rachel Caine), Carpe Corpus (Rachel Caine), Fade Out (Rachel Caine), Coming Home (P. D. Martin), Kiss of Death (Rachel Caine), XVI (Julia Karr), Ghost Town (Rachel Caine), The Girl in the Steel Corset (Kady Cross), Matched (Ally Condie), Uninvited (Amanda Marrone), The Bradbury Report (Steven Polansky), Uninvited (Justine Musk), Exile (Rebecca Lim), Helper12 (Jack Blaine), Darkness Becomes Her (Kelly Keaton)

3 STARS: Jealousy (Lili St. Crow), Among the Betrayed (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Among the Barons (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Becoming (Kelley Armstrong), Shadow Days (Andrea Cremer), Day of Fire (Kathleen Nance), Dreaming Anastasia (Joy Preble), Things Bogans Like, Beyond Heaving Bosoms (Sarah Wendell & Candy Tan), Fugitives (Alexander Gordon Smith), The Power of Two (Patti O’Shea), Coming Undone (Lauren Dane), In the Arms of Stone Angels (Jordan Dane), The Iron Witch (Karen Mahoney), Damaged (Yolanda Sfetsos), Falling Freestyle (Vivian Arend), Jeweled (Anya Bast), Thyla (Kate Gordon), It Takes a Village Idiot and I Married One (Alex Borstein & Cherry Chevapravatdumrong), Burn Bright (Marianne de Pierres), A Touch Mortal (Leah Clifford), Night and Chaos (Naomi Clark), Savage Transformation (Lexxie Couper), The Official Illustrated Guide (Stephenie Meyer), Exit Strategy (Kelley Armstrong), Made to Be Broken (Kelley Armstrong), You Are So Undead to Me (Stacey Jay), Hereafter (Tara Hudson), Relentless (Lauren Dane), The Scarlet Empress (Susan Grant), Close Encounters (Katherine Allred), Perfect Cover (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), Killer Spirit (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), West End (Laura Van Wormer), Moon Sworn (Keri Arthur)

2 STARS: Defiance (Lili St. Crow)

[REVIEW] Coming Home – P. D. Martin

P. D. Martin
Coming Home (Sophie Anderson, Book 6 [novella]) [eBook only]
Murderati Ink (Date: 21st March 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK)

Thanks to her dual citizenship, Sophie Anderson has graduated from the Victoria Police in Australia to the FBI in the US. But a call from home brings her back to the motherland: a current serial killer case is linked to the death of Sophie’s own brother years ago.

This novella starts off slow, with info-dumps regarding investigation procedures, the differences in US and Australian laws, Sophie’s history, etc. But when Sophie and Victoria’s only forensic psychologist draft a profile, the pace steps up and the story becomes a real thriller. The emotional depth is raw, and the setting in my own state (I’m most familiar with Eltham in this tale) brings the danger disturbingly close to home for Victorian readers. Coming Home is well worth reading.

[REVIEW] Kiss of Death – P. D. Martin

P. D. Martin
Kiss of Death (Sophie Anderson, Book 5)
Harlequin Mira (US: 1st August 2010); Pan Macmillan (AU: 1st October 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

With two puncture wounds in her neck, an exsanguinated corpse was likely the victim of vampires…or people who think they are. FBI profiler Sophie Anderson works with the LAPD to investigate the case, and she’s a little too eager to unofficially go undercover, infiltrating the mysterious After Dark group. She’s been struggling to understand her own psi abilities, so maybe that’s why she wants to spend more time with the leader…

This is the fifth novel in the Sophie Anderson series. I’d already read the first two novels, skipped the third (features one of my most disliked tropes), and haven’t yet got my mitts on the fourth. The original Australian trade paperback edition mistakenly labelled Kiss of Death as a “thriller” on the front cover, but I’d put it under the catch-all genre of crime or, more specifically, procedurals. (The thriller element kicks in at least halfway into the novel.) The Aussie mass market paperback cover has wisely removed the “thriller” label, but I’m including this note in case you acquire the earlier version.

It’s never really concluded whether the vampires really are supernatural, or if they suffer from porphyria and/or Renfield’s syndrome. I’d love to read more about these medical/psychological conditions, so hopefully future authors of vampire fiction will continue to explore the science.

While the research and investigation are fascinating, I can’t connect with the characters. As a psychological expert, you’d expect Sophie to know better, to smell a rat, to not fall for a New Religious Movement leader. She shouldn’t be so easily charmed. As soon as we encounter him, Anton Ward’s a sleaze, and thus I don’t get the attraction. Quite possibly the idea that he could share more details of Sophie’s psi abilities could explain the appeal, but only partially. But generally speaking, in fiction alpha males tend to be douchebags, so I never understand their appeal. But I’m likely in the minority, so my opinion doesn’t count 😉

August 2010 Releases

Done with July 2010 Releases? Here are August 2010 Releases. To see further into the future, check Reading Wishlist.

P. D. Martin & Meme

Australian crime novelist P. D. Martin came to my local library today for a speaking session. I still feel like one of the few writers out there who’s never had a dream inspire any writing. Basically my dreams are faff, odd thoughts throughout the day that somehow come together in a weird combination…but nothing story-worthy. What makes P. D.’s back story of Body Count stand out, however, is that even between little breaks between the three dreams within four hours, each picked up where the previous one left off. But my subconscious is nowhere near that advanced 😉 Anyway, photographic evidence is at my Flickr – I’m not posting it here as I looked rather dopey. Dopier than usual 😉 I hadn’t had any sugar-free cola yet, and I needed my fix…

I was tempted to ask what US agent she previously had, and who the one who sold her books internationally is, but figured that was too nosy. (Yes, who knew I had manners after all? 😉 ) Because I do like to know which agents to avoid. I don’t always feel the need to know the reasons why, but just the names are enough to settle my thirst for wisdom. I can has restraint 😉

And since I was tagged by the fab Becky (who totally needs to stop letting her sisters read her books before she does 😉 )…

Three categories of books. 3 MUST Read Books, 3 Keep Your Eyes on These, and 3 Look For These Soon. Keeping with the theme, I am going to tag at least 3 bloggers. (But I ain’t doing that.) They should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. Then they should tag at least 3 more bloggers. Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009. Put an asterisk next to your addition.

3 Must Read Books:
Duma Key – Stephen King
Black Swan Green – David Mitchell
*The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson

3 Keep Your Eyes on These:
Stalking Susan – Julie Kramer
The Keepsake – Tess Gerritsen
*Countdown – Michelle Maddox

3 Look For These Soon:
When Will There Be Good News? – Kate Atkinson
The Fire – Katherine Neville
*Pride – Rachel Vincent