The Golem and the Jinni

RECOMMENDED: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is $2.99! This is a fantasy historical and reader favorite. Carrie S. reviewed this book in June 2013 and really liked it. She says doesn’t have romance as its primary plot, but it’s a beautiful read:

I loved this book, but not so much for the love story. I loved the mythologies, the settings, and the characters. The neighborhoods were incredibly detailed and vivid and interesting. The cultural and religious communities felt real and fascinating. I love books that let me see into another world, and this book gave me that feeling many times. The characters were all mesmerizing. I felt like I was in each setting, meeting these real people.

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.

Struggling to make their way in 1899 New York, the Golem and the Jinni try to fit in with their immigrant neighbors while masking their true selves. Meeting by chance, they become unlikely friends whose tenuous attachment challenges their opposing natures, until the night a terrifying incident drives them back into their separate worlds. But a powerful menace will soon bring the Golem and the Jinni together again, threatening their existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

Marvelous and compulsively readable, The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of folk mythology, historical fiction, and magical fable into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.

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Make It Right

Make It Right by Megan Erickson is 99c! This is a new adult romance and the second book in the Bowler University series. The first book, Make It Count was mentioned in an earlier podcast with John Jacobson. This second book can also be read as a standalone novel. Hooray for that! Readers seemed to be making a lot of good book noises about this, but there appears to be a love triangle and some readers have had just about enough of those. It has a 3.9-star rating on GR.

Max Payton lives by two rules:
Size and strength win any fight, and never show weakness.

When a rash of assaults sends Bowler University for a tail spin, Max volunteers to help teach a self-defense class. One of the other instructors is the beautiful pixie-faced girl he keeps butting heads with…and who challenges everything he thought he knew.

Lea Travers avoids guys like Max – cocky jocks who assume she’s fragile because of a disability caused by a childhood accident. She likes to be in control, and something about being with Max makes her feel anything but. But during the moments he lets his guard down, Lea sees a soul as broken inside as she is outside. Trusting him is a whole other problem…

When the assaults ramp up and hit close to home, Lea and Max must learn, before it’s too late, that true strength can come from vulnerability…and giving in to trust is sometimes the only way to make things right.

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Sharing Hailey

Sharing Hailey by Samantha Ann King is $1.99 at most vendors! As the name and cover suggest, this is a menage erotic romance. Though (and I’m so sorry for doing this to all of you) the cover gives me major Human Centipede type vibes. SORRY! The heroine does have an abusive backstory, so I’m issuing a trigger warning. Some readers weren’t fond of the way the heroine’s backstory was handled, though some found that the book had more plot than they were expecting, which was well-received. It is the first book in the Lovers and Friends series and has a 3.8-star rating on GR.

Hailey Anderson’s deep, dark secret? She’s been madly in lust with her overprotective brother’s two best friends for years. Gorgeous woodworking artist Mark Allen and sexy doctor Tony Adamo have no idea they star in her fantasies every night.

After a nasty breakup with her abusive boyfriend, Hailey’s looking for a little distance. Headed for a two-week Hawaiian vacation with her brother and his hot friends, Hailey can’t wait to feast her eyes on Mark’s and Tony’s rock-hard, ocean-slick bodies. Even if she can’t touch.

But instead of treating her like their little sister, Mark and Tony have a surprising proposition: a monogamous ménage à trois. The three of them—and no one else. Both men want Hailey and have agreed to share her. The red-hot reality is even better than the forbidden fantasy. Until Hailey’s ex threatens their newfound happiness…

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The Winter Lodge

The Winter Lodge by Susan Wiggs is $1.99 at Amazon and Barnes & Noble! This is a holiday contemporary romance and is the second book in the Lakeshore Chronicles series. And since it’s a holiday romance that takes place in a lodge, the hero & heroine are trapped inside by a blizzard. Naturally. Though some readers found it to be a sweet, albeit predictable romance, many enjoyed the small town setting. Have you read this one?

On the longest night of the year, Jenny Majesky loses everything in a devastating house fire. But among the ashes she finds an unusual treasure hidden amid her grandfather’s belongings, one that starts her on a search for the truth, and on a path toward a life that she never imagined. The Winter Lodge, a remote cabin owned by her half sister on the shores of Willow Lake, becomes a safe refuge for Jenny, where she and local police chief Rourke McKnight try to sort out the mysteries revealed by the fire.

But when a blizzard traps them together, Jenny, accustomed to the safe predictability of running the family bakery, suddenly doesn’t feel so secure. For even as Rourke shelters her from the storm outside, she knows her heart is at risk. Now, following her dreams might mean walking away from her one chance at love.

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