Mailbox Monday/In My Mailbox 11-29-2009

Mailbox Monday is hosted at The Printed Page or In Your Mailbox at The Story Siren. Please stop by those posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week!




I won this during the readathon in October.

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies—of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss—that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today.

The novel is told in a kaleidoscope of seamlessly woven voices and centers around an incendiary romance that consumes everyone in its path: Myra Lamb, a wild young girl with mysterious, haint blue eyes who grows up on remote Bloodroot Mountain; her grandmother Byrdie Lamb, who protects Myra fiercely and passes down “the touch” that bewitches people and animals alike; the neighbor boy who longs for Myra yet is destined never to have her; the twin children Myra is forced to abandon but who never forget their mother’s deep love; and John Odom, the man who tries to tame Myra and meets with shocking, violent disaster. Against the backdrop of a beautiful but often unforgiving country, these lives come together—only to be torn apart—as a dark, riveting mystery unfolds.

With grace and unflinching verisimilitude, Amy Greene brings her native Appalachia—and the faith and fury of its people—to rich and vivid life. Here is a spellbinding tour de force that announces a dazzlingly fresh, natural-born storyteller in our midst. (Random House Website)

I received this book from the author for review.
The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey
It seems like mutual good luck for Abigail Taylor and Dara MacLeod when they meet at university and, despite their differences, become fast friends. Years later they remain inseparable: Abigail, the actress, allegedly immune to romance, and Dara, a therapist, throwing herself into relationships with frightening intensity. Now both believe they've found "true love." But luck seems to run out when Dara moves into Abigail's downstairs apartment. Suddenly both their friendship and their relationships are in peril, for tragedy is waiting to strike the house on Fortune Street. Told through four ingeniously interlocking narratives, Margot Livesey's the House on Fortune Street is a provocative tale of lives shaped equally by chance and choice. (back cover)



The next three books came through Paperback Swap from my wish list -
Betrayed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night finishing school. She finally feels like she belongs, even gets chosen as the Leader of the Dark Daughters. Best of all, she actually has a boyfriend. . .or two. Then the unthinkable happens: Human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the House of Night. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey's old life, she begins to realize that the very powers that make her so unique might also threaten those she loves. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night, and Zoey must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart, her soul, and jeopardize the very fabric of her world. Betrayed, the second book in the House of Night series, is dark and sexy, and as thrilling as it is utterly shocking. (back cover)




Dark Highland Fire by Kendra Leigh Castle
A werewolf from the Scottish Highlands who, up until now, has lived a charmed life. . . Desired by women, kissed by luck, Gabriel MacInnes has always been able to put pleasure ahead of duty. But with the MacInnes wolves now squarely in the sights of an ancient dragon, everything is about to change. . . A fiery demi-goddess fleeing for her life. . . Exiled from her realm, on the run from a dragon prince who will stop at nothing to have her as his own, the last thing Rowan an Morgaine wants is to accept the protection of Gabriel and his clan. . . By force or by guile, Rowan and Gabriel must uncover the secrets of their intertwining fate and stop their common enemy before he demands of them the ultimate sacrifice. . . (back cover)




Gone by Michael Grant

In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.

Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no Internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...(Harper Collins website)

The next three books I picked up at the BookEnds at my local library.

The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
Carnation Plantation, 1894: Carrie McGavock is an old woman who tends the graves of almost 1,500 soldiers buried here. As she walks among the dead, an elderly man appears -- the same soldier she met that fateful day long ago. Today, he asks if the cemetery has room for one more. Based on an extraordinary true story, this meticulously researched novel flashes back to 1864 and the afternoon of the Battle of Franklin, five of the bloodiest hours of the Civil War. Carrie's plantation has turned into a Confederate army hospital; the pile of amputated limbs rises as tall as the smoke house. But when a wounded soldier named Zachariah Cashwell arrives, he awakens feelings she had thought long dead -- and inspires a passion as powerful and unforgettable as the war that consumes a nation. (back cover)




HeartSick by Chelsea Cain

A Living Nightmare. Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful and brutal serial killer. In the end, she was the one who caught him. . .and tortured him. . .and then let him go. Why did Gretchen spare Archie's life and then turn herself in? This is the question that keeps him up all night -- and the reason why he has visited Gretchen in prison every week since. A Deadly Obsession. . . Meanwhile, another series of Portland murders has Archie working on a brand-new task force. . .and heading straight into the line of fire. The local news is covering the case 24/7, and it's not long before Archie enters a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the killer -- and his former captor. But this time, it's up to Archie to save himself. . . (back cover)



Deep South by Nevada Barr
Anna Pigeon finally gives in to her bureaucratic clock -- and signs on for a promotion. Next thing she knows, she's knee-deep in mud and Mississippi. Not exactly what she had in mind. Almost immediately, as the new district ranger on the Natchez Trace, Anna discovers the body of a young prom queen near a country cemetery, a sheet around her head, a noose around her neck. It's a bizarre twist on a best-forgotten past of frightening racial undertones. As fast as the ever-encroaching kudzu vines of the region, the roots of this story run deep -- and threaten to suffocate anyone in the way, including Anna. . . (back cover)

What books found a home with you this week?