Showing posts with label ebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebooks. Show all posts

Friday, April 27, 2012

YA Kindle Freebies...

Hello all!
I have been browsing and found some promising FREE ebooks for the Kindle and wanted to pass them along! Here you go! (Click on the title to link to amazon)


by Courtney Cole

What would you do if you held fate in your hands?
Macy Lockhart is a normal girl with an abnormal bird-shaped birthmark on her wrist. She doesn’t even think twice about the odd marking until strange things begin happening to her and an anonymous gift is left on her doorstep… a beautiful, blood-red pendant. A bloodstone.
It isn’t long before she is surrounded by craziness… ancient high priests, visions and memories that she can’t explain. And that’s just the beginning. She quickly comes to the realization that the bloodstone wasn’t just given to her… it was returned to her. It has been hers all along, for thousands of years…



by KC Neal

Corinne lives an average teenage life working at her dad’s cafe, hanging out with her best friend, and trying to forget a falling-out with her almost-boyfriend Mason. Then she discovers she and Mason are haunted by the same dreams of a dark force that consumes everything in its path. Pursued by shadowy figures and a dangerous woman with secrets from the past, Corinne must find out who her grandmother really was. In her quest to unravel her family’s history, she learns she is destined to protect this world–and the dark world of her dreams. She races to find the answers she seeks before her nightmares break free.



by Megg Jensen

An adoptee raised in a foreign land, sixteen-year-old Lianne was content with her life as handmaiden to the queen, until a spell cast on her at birth activated. Now she’s filled with uncontrollable rage and access to magic she thought had been bled from her people years ago. Even her years of secret training in elite hand-to-hand combat and meditation can’t calm the fires raging inside her.

Her heart is torn between two boys, the one she’s always loved and the one who always ignored her. But when the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart due to rumors surrounding the queen’s alleged affair, who will Lianne protect and who will she destroy?




by Jess Petosa

In 2022, the United States commissioned a group of scientists to experiment with genetic mutations. Their goal was to create a serum that would alter the human genetic code, making the subject stronger and faster. They succeeded but their victory was short lived. Not only had they created a super serum, but also an airborne virus. By 2025, seventy-five percent of the world’s population had perished. The survivors, well their lives would never be the same.

175 A.V.

Ally is an Ordinary; a human immune to the virus. She lives in a settlement outside the City with her mother and twin brother, but lately it doesn’t seem to be enough. She is wrestling between being with her family and volunteering to move to the City, where she can work for the Exceptionals.

Luke is an Exceptional; a superior human being. His ancestors were infected with the virus and lived through it, leaving their super human strength and special abilities to him. He has never given much thought to Ordinarys, despite pressure from his father to choose one from the ORC. But all of that changes when he meets Ally…



by Heather Hildebrand

I killed a girl last night. I did it with my bare hands and an old piece of pipe I found lying next to the dumpster. But that’s not the part that got me. The part that scared me, the part I can’t seem to wrap my head around and still has me reeling, was that when she charged me, her body shifted – and then she was a wolf. All snapping teeth and extended claws. But by the time I stood over her lifeless body, she was a girl again. That’s about the time I went into shock… And that was the moment he showed up.

Now, all I can do is accept the truths that are staring me in the face. One, Werewolves do exist. And two, I was born to kill them. 



by J. Sterling

When Katherine Johns starts dreaming about a boy she doesn’t know, her college roommate Taylor is determined to find him. Convinced he must exist, Taylor is relentless… until she finds out exactly WHO the mysterious stranger really is.

The realization sends the girls down a path of unimaginable heartbreak as they learn how to navigate their new reality.

Follow Katherine & Taylor’s journey through love, friendship and tragedy in this emotionally captivating debut Young Adult novel.  


by Caitlyn Duffy

At the age of 15, Taylor Beauforte has only met her father twice in person. After all, he is the lead singer of a world-famous rock band, constantly on the cover of music magazines and giving interviews on MTV. He pays for Taylor to attend the Treadwell Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts, and provides her mother with monthly checks to cover her basic needs, but has never made much of an effort to play an active part in Taylor’s life. Taylor's mom Dawn is the only family she has ever really known, and because of Dawn's hard-partying Hollywood lifestyle, studious Taylor is happiest on the other side of the country in Massachusetts with her nose buried in a book.

When Taylor 's mom unexpectedly dies the summer before Taylor starts her junior year, she receives a crash course in fame. She has no choice but to join her father and his new family on their summer concert tour before she has even had a chance to mourn the loss of her mother. Life as the daughter of a rock star seems like it would be enviable, but Taylor can't figure her dad out. He seems like a supportive authority figure (even if he's kind of a fashion tragedy) , but she is collecting a growing pile of evidence that he's a liar and a cheat. Her stepmother, Jill, can’t seem to decide if she wants to treat Taylor like a girlfriend or a nuisance. Having had no time to grieve and say goodbye to her childhood before being thrust into the limelight, Taylor is suddenly finding herself in situations she could have never imagined before this summer.
With no one else to turn to, Taylor falls head over heels in love with Jake, the teenage son of one of the band's touring groupies. Taylor has growing concerns about Jake's background and the suspicious relationship between his mom and her own father, but is desperate for something real in her life onto which she can build a future. When Jake offers Taylor an opportunity to join him on a whirlwind adventure and leave her problems with her father far behind, Taylor has to decide – should she carve out her own way in the world, or try to repair the relationship she has with her only living parent?

Over the course of the summer with the band, Taylor learns the depths of her own strength, the difficulty of overcoming loss, and that the definition of family means much more than shared bloodlines.




 
by Sarra Cannon

 In Peachville, even the cheerleaders have a dark side...

Harper Madison isn't like other girls. She has extraordinary powers, but her inability to control them has gotten her kicked from so many foster homes she's lost count. Shadowford Home for Girls is her last chance, and she hopes Peachville High will be the fresh start she needs.

But when evidence ties her to the gruesome murder of a Demons cheerleader, Harper discovers this small town has a big secret.

Beautiful Demons is a fast-paced YA novel with magic, mystery, and a touch of romance. This series will appeal to fans of Pretty Little Liars, Hex Hall, and The Vampire Diaries.






And of course.... a classic!


by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
 
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES collects the first twelve of these tales—including “A Scandal in Bohemia” (which introduces Irene Adler), “The Red-Headed League,” “The Five Orange Pips,” and “The Speckled Band”—some of the greatest stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon.

• Includes all 104 original illustrations by Sidney Paget done for the Strand Magazine
• A brief introduction
• Biography and selected bibliography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

After Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes in the novel A Study in Scarlet in 1887, he wrote a series of twenty-four short mysteries featuring the detective and his colleague, Dr. Watson, in the pages of the Strand Magazine from 1891 to 1893.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Ebooks vs. Print Books

I will never forget the year that I got my very first Kindle.

My husband and I were eating dinner with my faculty and staff from work and one of my coworkers said, "So Jennie, how do you feel about these new Kindle things?" That was the very first year of the Kindle ... hence "Kindle things." With my husband sitting right next to me I said, "I don't want one of those. I would definitely miss my books too much, so I don't think that I would ever get one."

I am sure that you see where this story is going. Guess what I got for Christmas? You guessed it... A brand new Kindle. Chris later told me that it had come the day of the dreaded conversation. Oh the irony, right?

I kid you not, it sat in its box for over a year. I couldn't bring myself to touch it. It felt like I was betraying my children. You should have seen the day I had to pack up books and put them in the attic to make room for toys. I cried. Chris laughed. Opening that box and pulling the dreaded Kindle out meant that I was cheating those books out of being flipped through, my nose going straight into them and smelling the fresh ink, and the joy of curling up on the couch with my blanket and book in front of the fire. I couldn't do it.

A little over a year after I got it I felt like it was taunting me so I opened the box. I moved slowly with it. Working my way up to using it more than once a week, I found that it was actually a little enjoyable to use. Again, the sense of cheating ripped through me so I quit reading on it for a few months. Finally, I had a great friend introduce me to the fact that I could get my romance novels (some were even FREE) and keep them on my Kindle. Well that was all it took. Everyone has something they read or do simply because they need a break... my thing is reading trashy romance novels.

Fast forward another year to today. You rarely see me with out my Kindle and a YA book. My purse is large and most people say, "oh it's because you are a mom of little kids," to which my husband says, "No; she has to carry around all of those books!" He just doesn't understand.

I believe that there are pros and cons to the ereadership that is becoming a phenomenon. I had quite a few students receive a Kindle for Christmas this year and they love them. I have helped them find sites for free books and showed them all kinds of tricks with them. No... I haven't shared my trashy romance novels with them. I do have a much wider range of reading material on my Kindle now that I have decided to embrace it! My uncle's school even has all of there textbooks on Kindle's. Each student has one! He told me a few months back that now the problem they are having is that the students have figured out how to get around the blocks and download books... GOD FORBID THEY READ!!! haha!!

Here are some of the pros and cons (in my opinion) of the ereaders and ebooks:

Pros
- Teenagers will read more because it is technology. If it is remotely techno they love it and this gets them involved in reading in a whole new way.

- The ability to instantly have a book you want and not have to wait to go to the bookstore because it is 1 am! (Not that I have ever done that before)

- Portability. You can take it anywhere! Get a cover and put it in your purse, book bag, briefcase or diaper bag. It can fit wherever you go. Some books are big and bulky and this eliminates that problem.

- Notes and highlights can be made. As you are reading you can make notes, highlight passages or bookmark something to come back to it. Yes, you can do that with print books but some print books (textbooks, books from the library, etc.) that you are reading don't have options like that.

Cons
- The loss of print. No more smelling books :(

- When you meet an author, you have nothing for them to sign. What are you going to say, "Hey, can you sign my Kindle?!" Yeah... NO!

- Not everything is available in ebook format right now. Granted, this "con" will eventually go away, but it is an issue right now.

- When is the last time you had to charge your book to read it? Get my point. Sometimes you forget to plug it in and you are right at a good part, laying in your bed, and then everything goes black. Oops!



Though there are pros and cons to this argument, I have to admit that I am leaning more towards the pro side. I will never stop purchasing print books no matter what though. One thing that does peak my interest is the concept of author royalties when it comes to ebooks.
HERE is an article about the pros and cons of ebooks and print books from the publishing standpoint. And THIS article says that authors earn more with ebooks. "Writers get between 40 and 70% for every eBook sold." I'll have to do more research!

I hope that I have brought some things to light for your when it comes to ebooks and ereaders. I am obviously a fan of the Kindle. Chris bought me a new one this year for Christmas and I love it even more!! I will continue to post free ebooks that I find on here when I find them. Just letting you in on my secret... here are the two sites who keep me posted on the freebies.

EReaderIQ

BooksOnTheKnob

Here is a great video that shows you all you need to know about the newest Kindle.


I would love to know what you think so let me know! Happy reading all!
 
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