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?

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Stacking The Shelves; In The “Mailbox” Monday 02/11/2013 - 03/11/2013

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

From Neighbors… to Newlyweds?
by Brenda Harlen
Acquire: Book Swap
When Georgia Reed moved her twin boys and infant daughter out of the bustling city, she didn't expect to have a doctor on call. But her gorgeous neighbor—and part-owner of the cutest litter of puppies she's ever seen—wasn't your typical orthopedic surgeon. Matt Garrett was the most popular bachelor in town…and when he asked Georgia on a date, the single mom couldn't say no.All Matt ever wanted was a family—and the right woman. Ever since he moved next door, he had a sneaking suspicion that Georgia was that woman. The beautiful widow and her kids came as a package deal…which suited Matt just fine. Now if only he could make Georgia see that they could be more than good neighbors….

Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me A Family Man
By Brian McGrory
Acquire: Book Swap
Award-winning journalist Brian McGrory goes head to beak in a battle royale with another male for a top-spot in his home, vying for dominance with the family’s pet rooster. 
   Brian McGrory's life changed drastically after the death of his beloved dog, Harry: he fell in love with Pam, Harry's veterinarian. Though Brian’s only responsibility used to be his adored Harry, Pam came with accessories that could not have been more exotic to the city-loving bachelor: a home in suburbia, two young daughters, two dogs, two cats, two rabbits, and a portly, snow white, red-crowned-and-wattled step-rooster named Buddy. While Buddy loves the women of the house, he takes Brian's presence as an affront, doing everything he can to drive out his rival. Initially resistant to elements of his new life and to the loud, aggressive rooster (who stares menacingly, pecks threateningly, and is constantly poised to attack), Brian eventually sees that Buddy shares the kind of extraordinary relationship with Pam and her two girls that he wants for himself. The rooster is what Brian needs to be – strong and content, devoted to what he has rather than what might be missing. As he learns how to live by living with animals, Buddy, Brian’s nemesis, becomes Buddy, Brian’s inspiration, in this inherently human story of love, acceptance, and change.
   In the tradition of bestsellers like Marley and Me, Dewey, and The Tender Bar comes a heartwarming and wise tale of finding love in life’s second chapter - and how it means all the more when you have to fight for it.
Regent (The Balance of Power #1)
By Brian Rathbone
Regent, book one of The Balance of Power trilogy, is the much anticipated continuation of the World of Godsland fantasy series, which began with The Dawning of Power trilogy.
In the years since the end of The Herald War, the world has become complacent despite Catrin Volker's warnings. When the darkness of her visions comes to pass, no one is prepared, and the fate of humanity will rest in her hands.

The Dawning of Power (World of Godsland #1-3)
by Brian Rathbone
Echoes of the ancients' power are distant memories, tattered and faded by the passage of eons, but that is about to change. A new dawn has arrived. Latent abilities, harbored in mankind's deepest fibers, wait to be unleashed. Ancient evils awaken, and old fears ignite the fires of war. In times such as these, ordinary people have the power to save the world...or destroy it.

 Magic of Thieves (Legends of Dimmingwood #1)
By C. Greenwood
In a province where magic is forbidden and its possessors are murdered by the cruel Praetor, young Ilan, born with the powerful gift of her ancestors, has only one hope for survival. Concealment. In the shadow of Dimmingwood, she finds temporary protection with a band of forest brigands led by the infamous outlaw Rideon the Red Hand.
But as Ilan matures, learns the skills of survival, and struggles to master the inherent magic of her dying race, danger is always close behind. When old enemies reappear and new friendships lead to betrayal, will her discovery of an enchanted bow prove to be Ilan’s final salvation or her ultimate downfall?
* * * * *
When I was small, my mother taught me about the magickless—evil men who hunted our kind to destroy us. They came from across the water to steal the lands of our ancestors. Pretending to want peace, they enslaved us and sought to extinguish what they couldn’t possess, the one thing their harsh laws could never control. Our ancient powers. One day, my mother warned me, violence would shatter the safety of our home, and when that day came, we must fight. And we must win.

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Stacking The Shelves; In The “Mailbox” Monday 26/10/2013 - 27/10/2013

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

Dear Mr. Darcy: A Retelling of Pride and Prejudice
By Amanda Grange
In this imaginative retelling of Pride and Prejudice, Amanda Grange now tells the classic story through the eyes of its compelling romantic hero, Fitzwilliam Darcy—in a series of revealing letters that casts a sparkling new reflection on the manners and morals of the landed gentry in 19th-century England…

Here, for the first time, are the letters written by the exceedingly proud and stubborn Mr. Darcy, covering the life-changing events that defined him—from the death of his father, to his control of his Derbyshire estate of Pemberley to his conflicted courtship with the lively, intelligent, and delightfully willful Elizabeth Bennet. Try as he may, he cannot deny his attraction to this woman with fine eyes, a playful spirit, a mind of her own… and an embarrassing family that is frankly, and utterly, beneath him. But it is Elizabeth who controls both their destinies, and whose surprises will change Darcy’s life yet again.

Hook & Jill (Hook and Jill Saga #1)
by Andrea Jones
In this startling new vision of a cultural classic, Wendy intends to live happily ever after with Peter Pan. But Time, like this tale,behaves in a most unsettling way. As Wendy mothers the Lost Boys in Neverland, they thrive on adventure. She struggles to keep her boys safe from the Island's many hazards, but she finds a more subtle threat encroaching from an unexpected quarter. . . . The children are growing up, and only Peter knows the punishment

Other Oceans (Hook and Jill Saga #2)
by Andrea Jones
"Identify the weapon, and use it first." Such is the code of Captain James Hook, in this lyrical sequel to Hook & Jill. And this time, the turmoil begins not with 'The Boy' — but with a girl.
Ten days out of Neverbay, Hook and Jill capture a ship's surgeon, pressing him to join the Roger. But Doctor Hanover is a gentleman, with a daughter to defend. When Red-Handed Jill shows him favor, his heart is taken prisoner, too. Hanover contrives to deliver Jill from the pirate king, and redeem her to society…as his wife.
But Captain Hook is impossible to escape. Other rivals contend for Jill's red hand, and Hook fights for supremacy with his skill and brilliance. When the doctor's daughter draws Hook's eye, she emulates Jill, using feminine weapons to charm him.
With no word of farewell, Hook vanishes, and Jill is a queen without a king. To hold Hook's power, she must come to terms with each of the dangerous men in her domain. When a challenger seizes command of the Roger — and over Jill — Hook and Jill's dominion will be overthrown unless, as Hook has taught Jill to do, she can identify the weapon…and wield it wickedly.
Other Oceans is an unabashed study in loyalty, vibrant with the dynamics of power. From the pen of a masterful crafter, Book Two of the Hook & Jill Saga delivers all the exhilaration that a clash of wills, hearts, and fortune can arouse.
Infraction (The Burn #2)
by Annie Oldham
Violent nomads. The coming winter. Jack's unspoken feelings. Leaving the relative peace of the settlement is more difficult than Terra ever imagined. But what she should fear most is the government that professes to protect its citizens. Imprisoned in a labor camp, Terra learns just how much the corrupt regime wants absolute control. Never has she felt more powerless to act. But there's always the call of the ocean, and her captors just might underestimate how powerful that call can be.
Kiss of the Betrayer (Bringer and the Bane #2)
By Boone Brux
For fifteen years Luc Le Daun has blamed himself for the death of the woman he loved. His secret guilt has led him into a life of danger, risking all and committing to none.
Killing Luc Le Daun has been all Jade Kendell has thought about for years. But when her plan goes awry and she’s brought into the Bringers’ fold, her own dark secret threatens to be revealed. Desire for a better life wars with a promise made long before she understood the ramifications.
In a deadly mission, Jade and Luc embark on a journey into the Shadow World. As they attempt the impossible, ignoring the attraction growing between them becomes harder to deny. The slightest misstep could mean the loss of their souls and give the Demon King exactly what he needs to open the Abyss of Souls and annihilate the Bringers.

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Friday Finds; Stacking The Shelves; In The “Mailbox” Monday

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

No Way Back (Mia’s Way #1)
By Chloe Adams

Sometimes bad things happen to beautiful people.
The wealthy daughter of a high-ranking politician, seventeen year old Mia Abbott-Renou has everything: designer clothes, wealth, spring breaks in Monte Carlo. She lives blissfully unaware of her family’s secrets, until the night she is raped by the son of her father’s greatest political ally.
Her father forbids her from going to the police and threatens to throw her out if she does. It’s a critical election year, one that his party might lose, if the public sours on his doting father image when they realize his daughter is an underage lush and party girl. He can’t risk splintering the party in a nasty court battle that’s certain to draw way too much press, even if that means sacrificing his daughter.
Mia’s world is shattered twice, once by the men who hurt her, and once by the betrayal of her family. She does what her father says. But the rapists strike again and beat their next victim near death.
With the help of her best friend and a couple of unlikely allies, Mia must decide: does she risk losing everything to do what’s right? Or does she turn her back on the truth and preserve the family name?
What’s privileged girl to do, when her perfect little world isn't so perfect anymore?

Me Since You
By Laura Wiess
Expected Publication Sept 2013

“Laura Wiess’s masterful prose kept me turning the pages. This is the first book in a very long time that made me say, ‘Wish I’d written this’” (Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank, onSuch a Pretty Girl).
Sixteen-year-old Rowan is still reeling from her father’s suicide four months ago, after he failed to stop a man from leaping off an overpass to his death. The only witness is Eli, a teenaged boy wrapped deep in mourning for his own father, killed in action in Afghanistan. When Rowan and Eli meet, they recognize kindred spirits, and begin to navigate grief and its aftermath together.
Rowan can’t understand how her father could choose to leave her, and acts out, pushing away friends and taking risks with her safety. Rowan’s mother, wracked with her own guilt and sorrow over failing to save her husband, stops going to work and collects stray cats for comfort. Grief, fractured and unpredictable, rules their lives now. Rowan is lost—and sinking. But Eli represents a lifeline for Rowan, and as they struggle to make sense of what’s gone and what is left behind, they begin to fall in love. Me Since You is Laura Wiess at her finest—a beautiful, gripping and painfully honest examination of adolescence.

Wide Awake
By Shelly Crane

A girl.
A coma.
A life she can't remember.
When Emma Walker wakes up in the hospital with no knowledge of how she got there, she learns that she's been in a coma for six months. Strangers show up and claim to be her parents, but she can't remember them. She can't remember anyone. Not her friends, not even her boyfriend. Even though she can't remember, everyone wants her to just pick up where she left off, but what she learns about the 'old her' makes her start to wish she'd never woken up. Her boyfriend breaks up with the new girl he's dating to be with her, her parents want her to start planning for college, her friends want their leader back, and her physical therapist with the hazel eyes keeps his distance to save his position at the hospital.
Will she ever feel like she recognizes the girl in the mirror?

Forsaken – An American Sasquatch Tale
By Christine Conder

Sasquatch with heart.
A Sasquatch mother, still devastated by the disappearance of her daughter a year ago, is shocked when she gets word her girl may be alive.
Not just alive, but human.
Liberty Brewster has started to accept she may never know what happened to her daughter, Sage. There are other things to worry about now. Her widowed, human advocate is dying. When he passes, she and her mate will be forced to relocate.
When another member of their colony claims to have seen Sage, however, all of that changes.
Willing to break every Sasquatch rule in the quest to find her daughter, Liberty sets out to discover the truth, uncovering a secret about her ancestors that threatens to unravel everything she knows about her legacy in the process.

Treasure Tides (The Coins #1)
By Deniece Greene

Becki Stephens is living the dream in a beach house along the coast of South Carolina. A diving expedition leads to the discovery of more than sharks' teeth when she discovers a crate on the ocean floor.
Royce St. John is a Special Operations Team Leader for the Secret Council of Elders. "The Council" consists of both mortal and immortal members. Their primary function; to make sure humans continue to believe Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and other mythical beings were just that, a myth.
Royce’s mission - to recover a set of missing coins. The coins originally belonged to Merlin, who "spelled" each of them centuries ago. Stolen by rogue warlock, they have fallen into circulation among the general population. Royce had successfully recovered the first coin in the set, when things went terribly wrong.
Damn Witches! They boxed him up like last year's Christmas decorations and dumped the spelled crate into Charleston Harbor. When Royce regains consciousness, he is trapped in a box, pissed, and two years behind schedule! He fumes as he waits, not so patiently, for the moon to trigger the crate's unlocking sequence. He only hopes his body is fully restored by then, and that all of his parts are located in their proper places!
Becki’s world is about to change in ways she never dreamed possible. Her crate holds secrets she may not be able to handle, and a man who steals her heart the first moment she sees him.... walking naked through her living room!

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In My Mailbox Monday, Stacking the Shelves (23 March 2013)

 
In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren.
Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Alex Cross, Run (Alex Cross #20); by James Patterson
Beauty From Pain (Beauty #1); by Georgia Cates
Hard to Resist (Hard to Resist #1); by Shanora Williams
Starlight; by Debbie Macomber
The Sound of Broken Glass (Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James #15); Deborah Crombie

A Terrible Love (A Terrible Love); by Marata Eros
Wicked Nights (Angels of the Dark #1); by Gena Showalter
Bad Blood (Kate Shugak 20); Dana Stabenow
Barefoot Season (Blackberry Island #1) ; by Susan Mallery
Calculated In Death (In Death #36); by J.D Robb

The Nightmare Affair (The Arkwell Academy #1); by Mindee Arnett
Poison; by Bridget Zinn
Jenny’s First Adventure (My Very Unfairy Tale Life 0.5), by Anna Staniszewski
My Very Unfairy Tale Life (My Very Unfairy Tale Life #1), by Anna Staniszewski

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In My Mailbox Monday, Stacking the Shelves (3 January 2013)

In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren 
Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.

Hungry for Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance

Romance ain't dead...it's undead. In this thrilling zombie anthology, horror fans will finally get their fill of zombie-on-zombie action, zombie-human love, and zombie smut. Because why should vampires have all the fun?

Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega #2); by Patricia Briggs

Anna Latham didn’t know how complicated life could be until she became a werewolf. And until she was mated to Charles Cornick, the son — and enforcer — of Bran, the leader of the North American werewolves, she didn’t know how dangerous it could be either...
Anna and Charles have just been enlisted to attend a summit to present Bran’s controversial proposition: that the wolves should finally reveal themselves to humans. But the most feared Alpha in Europe is dead set against the plan — and it seems like someone else might be too. When Anna is attacked by vampires using pack magic, the kind of power only werewolves should be able to draw on, Charles and Anna must combine their talents to hunt down whoever is behind it all — or risk losing everything...

Industrial magic (Women of the Otherworld #4); By Kelly Armstrong

Think your in-laws are scary? Try meeting Paige Winterbourne’s potential father-in-law: CEO of the Cortez Cabal, a multinational corporation…and the supernatural equivalent of the Mafia. Lucas Cortez has devoted his life to ruining the Cabals, though that doesn’t stop his father from expecting him to take over the family business someday. Benicio’s favorite ploy is to appeal to Lucas’s quixotic ideals by asking him to investigate Cabal cases of injustice.
After years of failure, Benicio finally has the perfect case: a teenage witch attacked and left for dead. Refusing will be difficult enough for Lucas…near impossible for his new witch girlfriend. Paige and Lucas soon discover that the young witch wasn’t the first Cabal teenager attacked.
When the infighting among the Cabals threatens to let the killer continue his spree, Paige and Lucas decide it’s up to them to stop him. The chase takes them on a cross-country hunt through the supernatural world, where allies can be found in the strangest places, including a celebrity necromancer, a wise-cracking Celtic deity, a pissed-off ghost, a half-mad clairvoyant, and a group of vampires who’d really rather be in an Anne Rice novel.

Lady Crymsyn (Vampire Files #9); by P. N. Elrod

"Altogether entrancing." (Publishers Weekly)

Vampire P.I. Jack Fleming is back-and he has a lady in red on his mind...
Jack uncovers the body of a good-time girl who went missing six years ago. And since her body was stashed in what is now Jack's club, vampire or not, he won't rest until her murderers are brought to justice...

 

Dredd Vs Death; By Rennie Gordon

Based on the Playstation 2/PC game from Vivendi In the vast, sprawling MegaCity One, a plague is spreading amongst the billions of inhabitants, turning innocent citizens into blood-crazed vampires. With the Justice Department struggling against spiraling crime rates, Judge Dredd teams up with Judge Anderson and ex-Judge De Marco to investigate the trail of carnage and death left by the enigmatic Death Cult. But, when their leader Necrus unleashes the Dark Judges--Death, Fear, Fire, and Mortis--Dredd is forced into the undead world and a battle for his soul

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