Inkmesh: The Ebook search engine and FREE Ebook by Ilona

The best website I've seen all week is http://inkmesh.com/
Crisp, clear search engine, dedicated to books - could this get any better?
Well, perhaps if you added features like these filters: Free, Below $1,  Below $5.
This is the easiest place I've found to find free ebooks.

Other filter choices: Amazon, B&N, and other retailers.
Even better, you can search by book type: Kindle, Sony, Kobo and more.  Screenshot below!

What you see at Inkmesh.com

Did you notice the "Free Baen Books" option up there? If you haven't heard of Baen before - here is why you should get free ebooks from Baen.com
I've already found one free book; with my recent Ilona Andrews mania, what else would have been my first search?
If you want to skip all these steps and download The Questing Beast by Ilona Andrews, here it is!
http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/questing-beast-ilona-andrews-ebook/?pc=0&qs=ilona+andrews

Ebook Prices - Variations across countries

I recently noticed something appalling - yet strangely, not shocking. Amazon differentially prizes items across different countries (not news, I knew they did this).

But an ebook I was trying to pre-order *ahem* Ilona Andrews *I've been raving about this series, Magic Slays FTW* was $2 more expensive when I tried to buy it vs. my husband purchasing it. We both have accounts registered in different countries, which probably accounts for this price change. But it burns anyway!

Related situation in France: Les Echos in France says that the French Parliament has unanimously voted to price all ebooks sold in France (whether imported or otherwise) at a fixed, standard price. Since France has already placed a fixed price on all paper books, this is a simple extension of their existing law.

Why are ebook laws so complicated? Shouldn't this be easier than selling a paper book?

If I'm buying a book on my laptop, paying taxes toward a given country, and the publisher in that country, at what point is the price difference too much?

Teaser Tuesday #36 - Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

It is HERE! If you see the last couple of posts I've been writing, they revolve around the latest book by Ilona Andrews:  Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, Book 5). This is from Chapter 3, Location 570 (yes, the numbers are always more than page numbers) on my Kindle.

Andrea paused, her hands on a bloody rag.

"What do you mean, fainted?"

"Took a dive. Kissed the pavement. Swooned like a Southern belle after her first kiss. Had a dreadful case of the vapors."

I am SO excited to read this - and highly recommend you pick up this series if you haven't read it yet. Skip the first two books and start from the Third,and keep going! My reviews of Magic Burns and Magic Bites(Book1) is here.

You can click here for an Excerpt of Magic Slays from Ilona's website.

P.S. I had some trouble getting my head out of this book and putting the quote out here, instead of continuing to read! 

***

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted at Should Be Reading.

When does amazon deliver?

Today is the 31st of May, and I was expecting Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews to turn up in my Kindle this morning. Having charged, wifi-d and readied the Kindle, needless to say it didn't come. Maybe that is 'cause my Kindle is registered in the US?
So I waited.
It is now 30 min past 12 AM EST, shouldn't the book turn up soon?
*fervently hopes*
I can only imagine that the Amazon folks are making this hard on purpose.
When I buy from www.baen.com they are awesome and email all the requested formats to my mail id as many times as I want.
Interestingly, this is my first Amazon pre-order. I usually just buy from my Kindle once the book is released, and the book downloads that very minute. It is all very exciting to see, I assure you *grins*.
Dear Gods of Amazon, Send me the book already.
Thanks much,
Dee

Ilona Andrews and Magic Slays

The book I've been blabbering about here is finally releasing TOMORROW!
*Squeeee*
Incredibly excited - my amazon account tells me it is "pre-ordered and will be delivered to your Kindle on May 31st, 2011".
I did an excellent job of forgetting about it all of last week (something I thought would be the only way to stay sane this month), but I can't help being an excitable fangirl today!


Anyone else waiting for a book?

Blogger Hop #20 - Apr29-31

It's time for another Book Blogger Hop, courtesy of Crazy for Books! (My first in almost 2 months)

 

"Summer is coming - What 2011 release are you looking forward to?"

Wow, this feels rather unfamiliar - I haven't had the time to do justice with the Hop in over a month!

The release that I'm looking forward to is Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews, Book 5 in the Kate Daniels series. I'm a fan of hers, as regular e-Volving Books visitors know: 

My review of Magic Burns and Magic Bites (the first two books in the series)

You can click here for an Excerpt of Magic Slays from Ilona's website.

Do you like book jackets? You might want to stay and look through Penguin's latest idea that re-furbishes some childhood classics

The most awesome thing I've seen this month:

A Road Dahl look at eReaders and Matilda

If you decide to follow me, let me know  so I can follow back!

P.S> I know bloggers will name GRRM's #5, Anita Blake's #20 (I've stopped reading this series), and just so you know, I got to Pre-read and review Hard Bitten by Chloe Neill early. Hmmm what else am I missing?!

Blogger Spotlight #4 - Karen @ The Slowest Bookworm

WELCOME TO BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT!
Featuring Karen - The Slowest Bookworm


My eReader:  Ooh yes.  I have a Kindle (pic attached)
I'm reading now:
The Riddlers Gift by Greg Hamerton
A Typical Day
My day usually starts with me having an argument with my alarm clock at somewhere between 6 and 6.30am.  Sadly, the alarm clock always wins and I drag myself out of bed and get ready for work.  I work for the local council in an admin post and start at 7.30am.  I enjoy my work and have great colleagues, but I’m always glad when home time comes around at 4pm as it means I get to spend some time with my 4 year old son who has just started school and is learning to read :-)  After we’ve eaten our evening meal and the young one is bathed and tucked up in bed, usually get a bit of housework done and my lunch ready for the day after, then I get to settle down on the sofa with my cat and a good book/my Kindle and RELAX until hot chocolate and bedtime.  

Did I consider other readers?
Yes and No.  I shop quite a bit on Amazon.co.uk and every time I opened the home page there it was, The Kindle, shouting at me to buy it.  I did do just a tiny bit of research (for about 10 minutes), but I’d got my heart so set on a Kindle that it won hands down.

The thing I like most about it?
I love all the features on my Kindle, but the top thing, which is why I wanted one in the first place, is the ability to increase/decrease the size of the font.  As I’ve got older my eyesight has gone from near perfect to well, not so perfect and I’m not impressed!  The Kindle helps me forget I’m not a teenager anymore!  I also love that I can make the line spacing bigger.  I find I'm not reading the same line over and over again now - I know, I'm getting OLD!

The Catchy Name Contest!

This book blog is just over two months old now, and I need YOU to help me name it.
I used a place-holder sort of name when I created it, and since I am not the most creative person, I can't come up with anything better now. The best way to do this, is to turn it over to you - my genius reader.
In India, this Naming Ceremony for babies is a very important day-long event, with about 50 people attending and celebrated with prayers, food, friends and family. Thats pretty much the number of reads I'm seeing, so it looks like this is the right time to have my first contest.

Just to give you some starting ideas, I came up with some sample names while in that dreamy state of waking up this morning -

• Kindle Reader,
• Bookworks,
• Beyond Words.

I know you can do MUCH BETTER!

The Winner gets any book of their choice under $10 from The Book Depository.

If you live in a place where they don't ship (like India), prize is the ebook Silent Blade, by Ilona Andrews. This is the first book I purchased for my Kindle :) 

Ilona Andrews - Magic Bites & Magic Burns

Grade: B+

I really really like ilona Andrews!

Every single one of her books is captivating and such fun to read. When I saw the Flashback challenges, one of her books had to be a re-read. 

Magic Bites is the first book in the Kate Daniels series, written by husband and wife writing team, Andrew and Ilona Gordan, under the name Ilona Andrews.

Couple of lines from the book:

"All my life I was taught to stay out of the way of the powerful. Don't draw attention to yourself. Don't show off.

Guard your blood, because it will betray you. If you bleed, wipe it clean and burn the rag. Burn the bandages. If someone manages to obtain some of your blood, kill him and destroy the sample. At first it was a matter of survival. Later it became a matter of vengeance"

Magic Bites draws you into the typical Urban Fantasy setting - a city with paranormal creatures, where magic and reality live together. There are a couple of rather heavy-handed descriptions of the backstory, the history of how magic/shapechangers came to be, or the shapechanger political structure, for example. This might have been avoided, and the longer discourses could have been split up across a few books. Despite the lackluster first book, and its confusing plot, the rest of the series is stellar.

On to the Good Stuff:  The vampires here are Smeagol-esque, have talons, and crawl upside-down a lot. Creepy! Whats new is that they have no independent mind of their own, and are puppets controlled from a distance. New idea.

The supernatural creatures are varied, and so far, the authors do not seem to have run out of ideas for unusual characters. They all age and die over their elongated lifespans, and some mention of kids and family make the shapechangers, mermen, whatever,  different and believable.

Grade: A-

It is really worth getting through this first book in order to read the second, third, fourth. The series is just a fantastic example of Urban Fantasy.

"Normally, waves of paranormal energy ebb and flow across Atlanta like a tide. But once every seven years, a flare comes, a time when magic runs rampant. Now Kate’s going to have to deal with problems on a much bigger scale: a divine one."

The second book, Magic Burns, follows our fiesty heroine Kate, now works for the magical law enforcement agency. Her role gets her deeper into shapeshifter politics, and we see more character development. We also understand Kate herself better now, her fears and her lineage. Kate has to solve crimes that are an attempt to inviting Morrigan, and other deities to earth. She also has to deael with a troublesome, snarky adolescent!
The humor is quirky, sarcastic, and fills the book with some great one-liners. This just gets better as the series goes along.

Incidently, the one and only Kindle Amazon ebook I have purchased is by Ilona Andrews. The book only cost $2, so I was a staunch supporter of Amazon, in Amazon vs. evil Ebook publishers. Why anyone should have to pay $15 for a Macmillan ebook is beyond me. If you missed this piece of news - here it is 

If you like Patricia Briggs, Kelley Armstrong, Kim Harrison, then Ilona Andrews is for you!