Saturday, May 23: While the May #WhispersyncDeal roundup lists some ongoing deals (some of which expire tomorrow, some at the end of the month, and some which will just keep going as long as publishers keep offering these crazy upgrade prices) today brought a pile of one-day-only titles via the Gold Box Deal of the Day, including horror, YA fantasy, literary fiction, a 19th century ghost story, and more, starting with a pair of scifi titles from the “regular” daily deal list and moving right into those “Gold Box” deals:

Once Dead (The Rho Agenda Inception Book 1) and Dead Wrong (The Rho Agenda Inception Book 2) by Richard Phillips (Author), MacLeod Andrews (Narrator) for $1.99+$1.99 each — “Jack Gregory, the CIA’s top assassin, went rogue after a mission gone wrong. When a confrontation leaves him bleeding out on death’s doorstep, he is faced with an offer from a dark figure named Anchanchu. If Jack is willing to act as a human host for Anchanchu, the entity will revive him and give him another shot at life. Jack takes the deal…but he must now face the consequences of having the same dark creature in his head as some of history’s greatest villains. Struggling with desires and memories that are not his own, Jack is not the man he once was. One year later, he is known internationally as The Ripper, assassin for hire, and is faced with having to wrest control of his dark compulsions while preventing a nuclear attack on the United States. From the bestselling author of the Rho Agenda trilogy comes a globe-spanning thriller with a twist unlike anything you’ve ever seen….”

Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator) for $3.99+$3.99 — Before the award winning author of The Last Policeman published his trilogy of pre-apocalyptic detective work, and after he’d built a following with his expansions of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Android Karenina for Quirk Books, he published this strange little horror novel: “FOR RENT: Top two floors of beautifully renovated brownstone, 1300 sq. ft., 2BR 2BA, eat-in kitchen, one block to parks and playgrounds. No broker’s fee. Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment. Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. And the elderly handyman drops some cryptic remarks about the basement. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up. Big mistake. Susan soon discovers that her new home is crawling with bedbugs… or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad – until a more sinister explanation presents itself: she may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from Hell.”

Inamorata by Megan Chance (Author), David deVries (Narrator) for $1.99+$1.99 — “American artist Joseph Hannigan and his alluring sister, Sophie, have arrived in enchanting nineteenth-century Venice with a single-minded goal. The twins, who have fled scandal in New York, are determined to break into Venice’s expatriate set and find a wealthy patron to support Joseph’s work. But the enigmatic Hannigans are not the only ones with a secret agenda. Joseph’s talent soon attracts the attention of the magnificent Odilé Leon, a celebrated courtesan and muse who has inspired many artists to greatness. But her inspiration comes with a devastatingly steep price. As Joseph falls under the courtesan’s spell, Sophie joins forces with Nicholas Dane, the one man who knows Odilé’s dark secret, and her sworn enemy. When the seductive muse offers Joseph the path to eternal fame, the twins must decide who to believe – and just how much they are willing to sacrifice for fame.” [Note: for those who prefer physical editions, the MP3-CDa edition is under $4.]

Teen: The Mermaid’s Sister by Carrie Anne Noble (Author), Kate Rudd (Narrator) for $1.99+$1.99 — “In a cottage high atop Llanfair Mountain, sixteen-year-old Clara lives with her sister, Maren, and guardian Auntie. By day, they gather herbs for Auntie’s healing potions. By night, Auntie spins tales of faraway lands and wicked fairies. Clara’s favorite story tells of three orphan infants-Clara, who was brought to Auntie by a stork; Maren, who arrived in a seashell; and their best friend, O’Neill, who was found beneath an apple tree. One day, Clara discovers shimmering scales just beneath her sister’s skin. She realizes that Maren is becoming a mermaid-and knows that no mermaid can survive on land. Desperate to save her, Clara and O’Neill place the mermaid-girl in their gypsy wagon and set out for the sea. But no road is straight, and the trio encounters trouble around every bend. Ensnared by an evil troupe of traveling performers, Clara and O’Neill must find a way to save themselves and the ever-weakening mermaid. And always, in the back of her mind, Clara wonders, if my sister is a mermaid, then what am I?”

Fiction: Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen (Author), David LeDoux (Narrator), John Randolph Jones (Narrator) for $1.99+$3.95 — “An atmospheric tale of life and love in a Depression-era traveling circus. Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It’s the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. Jacob introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus’ animal trainer); and to Rosie, a seemingly untrainable elephant.”

Fiction: The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan (Author, Narrator), Nancy Wu (Narrator), Joyce Bean (Narrator) for $1.99+$4.49 — From the author of The Joy Luck Club, “Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city’s most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a “virgin courtesan.” Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West – until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is. Back in 1897 San Francisco, Violet’s mother, Lucia, chooses a disastrous course as a sixteen-year-old, when her infatuation with a Chinese painter compels her to leave her home for Shanghai. Shocked by her lover’s adherence to Chinese traditions, she is unable to change him, despite her unending American ingenuity. Fueled by betrayals, both women refuse to submit to fate and societal expectations, persisting in their quests to recover what was taken from them: respect; a secure future; and, most poignantly, love from their parents, lovers, and children.”