Stacking The Shelves; In The “Mailbox” Monday 09/11/2013 - 10/11/2013

In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren
Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
Friday Finds hosted by Should Be Reading.

The Lucy Variations
By Sara Zarr
{Bookswap}
Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. The right people knew her name, her performances were booked months in advance, and her future seemed certain.
That was all before she turned fourteen.
Now, at sixteen, it's over. A death, and a betrayal, led her to walk away. That leaves her talented ten-year-old brother, Gus, to shoulder the full weight of the Beck-Moreau family expectations. Then Gus gets a new piano teacher who is young, kind, and interested in helping Lucy rekindle her love of piano -- on her own terms. But when you're used to performing for sold-out audiences and world-famous critics, can you ever learn to play just for yourself?
National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr takes readers inside the exclusive world of privileged San Francisco families, top junior music competitions, and intense mentorships. The Lucy Variations is a story of one girl's struggle to reclaim her love of music and herself. It's about finding joy again, even when things don't go according to plan. Because life isn't a performance, and everyone deserves the chance to make a few mistakes along the way.

Lichgates (The Grimoire Saga #1)
By S. M. Boyce
{Bookswap}
Kara, a college student still reeling from her mother’s recent death, has no idea the hidden world of Ourea even exists until a freak storm traps her in a sunken library. With no way out, she opens an ancient book of magic called the Grimoire and unwittingly becomes its master, which means Kara now wields the cursed book’s untamed power. Discovered by Ourea's royalty, she becomes an unwilling pawn in a generations-old conflict—a war intensified by her arrival. In this world of chilling creatures and betrayal, Kara shouldn’t trust anyone… but she’s being hunted and can’t survive on her own. She drops her guard when Braeden, a native soldier with a dark secret, vows to keep her safe. And though she doesn’t know it, her growing attraction to him may just be her undoing.
For twelve years, Braeden Drakonin has lived a lie. The Grimoire is his one chance at redemption, and it lands in his lap when Kara Magari comes into his life. Though he begins to care for this human girl, there is something he wants more. He wants the Grimoire.

Dracula: A Modern Telling
By Victor Methose
{BookSwap}
THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS LIVES...
Here are the confessions of the world's most famous vampire. Once a prince of untold power and ruthlessness, now a rock star living in Los Angeles, Dracula walks among us. Seeking answers to his magical and horrifying existence, Dracula flies through the centuries in search of a love that was taken from him.
When Jonathan Harker, a journalist with Rolling Stone, travels to Dracula's secluded mansion for an interview, he finds a home filled with secrets and a man that is not what he appears.
Stalked by three lovely creatures, Jonathan must find a way to escape and return to the woman he loves...before it's too late.
AN OLD TALE FOR MODERN AUDIENCES...
Retold for this century, Victor Methos captures the beauty and eroticism of the original Bram Stoker classic and reveals Dracula's origins. It is a mesmerizing story of love, passion, and evil.
Fuse of Armageddon
By Sigmund Brouwer, Hank Hanegraaff
{BookSwap}
Nothing more could go wrong for maverick hostage negotiator Mulvaney Quinn. First stabbed in the hand during a failed terrorist burst, then arrested for a hate crime he didn't commit. Now Quinn must come face to face with his past in order to stop the worst terrorist threat of all time-a plot to bring about the ultimate religious uprising by destroying one of the most sacred relics in history.
But the "Fuse of Armageddon" has already been lit. With the clock ticking down toward a global catastrophe, Quinn must team up with the most unlikely ally of all-the woman who arrested him-to bring down an even more unlikely coalition of enemies. Facing an unholy trinity of a Jewish fanatic, a Muslim terrorist, and a "Christian" freedom fighter, only Quinn can stop them from achieving their goal. But will he be in time? Or is it already too late? Because when Armageddon is unleashed, the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance.

Waiting for You (Waiting for You #1)
By Shey Stahl
{Bookswap}
Bailey Gray is tired of her perfectly planned life. Everything about her life has been organized and lived out to the expectations set of her parents. She is the class valedictorian, has perfect grades, the perfect friends, a perfect boyfriend, basically perfect life...or so everyone thought. That's when she realizes the path planned isn't always the path chosen.
On graduation day she makes a decision. One that changes everything she thought she knew about her intended future.
On a whim, she runs away with the town rebel, Dylan Wade, in search of the unknown.
Dylan Wade isn't looking to run away from anything.
He knows what he wants as he's been waiting on it for years.
On a journey to find the unknown, they discover a friendship they once knew along the open highway and have not a care in the world. Between the yellow and white lines of the heated summer asphalt, a spark draws them together as Dylan's past and Bailey future try to ripe them apart.
Could it be that Dylan and his GTO are exactly what her perfectly planned life needs?