Winning NaNo had its benefits….I won 10 free books on Kobo! Now, they were books Kobo picked out, but still….free is free.
Since I don’t own a Kobo reader, I had to go through a few gyrations to set up the Kobo app on my phone. Pretty cool to be able to read anywhere, anytime I have a few spare minutes. Far better than wasting time playing Sudoku.
I also got a steep discount on a few other books. So between my NaNo winnings and a few Kindle promotions, I found four free reads that were a great pleasure to read.
The Miniaturist
Top of the list is The Miniaturist, which is a novel set in seventeen-century Holland. The wealth of detail, down to small glimpses of daily life was enough to make me think the author is really a time traveller who lived in Amsterdam some three hundred years ago.
The story is even more intriguing. Eighteen-year old Nella Oortman marries a man twice her age, and travels to Amsterdam to take up residence in his home. She’s met with scorn by the servants, icy disdain by her new sister-in-law, and a puzzling neglect by her husband.
Nella struggles to understand the new world she’s living in, fighting to pierce the deceptions and lies that surround her. Complicating matters are the strange, unwanted gifts sent to her by a miniaturist who seems to have an almost clairvoyant sense of what’s happening in Nella’s life. This is a book that could be read and re-read many times with increasing pleasure.
Murder to Go
First in a series, Murder to Go is a fun mystery starring Maeve Kincaid, who inherits a food truck from her quirky aunt. She throws herself into learning how to run a food truck (and managing the temperamental Basque chef who came with the business), not having much of an idea of what she was getting into.
When a competitor is beheaded, she starts poking around, only to uncover much more than she bargained for. Family secrets come out and she finds herself in deadly peril.
This was an easy and fun read, tempting me to read some of the others in the series.
First World
I got this one free on Kindle, and at first didn’t think I’d want to read any more of the series. Then I got hooked. The blend of devastated, post-apocalyptic earth and fantasy gave the young adult paranormal genre a fresh twist, and the concept was so compelling I just had to find out what happened. That’s right, I read all seven of the books.