Mailbox Monday/In My Mailbox 2/20-2/21

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

The Five Love Languages of Teenagers
by Gary Chapman
(a Net Galley request)

Socially, mentally, and spiritually teenagers face a variety of pressures and stresses each day. Despite these peer pressures; it is still parents who can influence teens the most. Are you equipped to love your teenager effectively? Dr. Gary Chapman is here to help, with a special edition of the #1 New York Times bestselling book The Five Love Languages.

Get equipped to be a better parent as The Five Love Languages of Teenagers explores the world in which teenagers live; explains the developmental changes; and give tools to help you identify and appropriately communicate in your teens love language. Get practical tips on loving your teen effectively and explore key issues in your teen’s life including anger and independence. Finally learn how to set boundaries that are enforced with discipline and consequences, and discover useful ways for the difficult task of loving when your teen fails.

With more than 250,000 copies sold, learn the secrets to loving your teenager effectively through real life stories from the counseling office of Dr. Gary Chapman. Get ready to discover how the principles of the five love languages can really work in the lives of your teens and family. Do you know your teenagers love language? (Amazon)

Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires
by Molly Roe, Mary Garrity Slaby, John Garrett Slaby
(an Ebook offer from Tribute books)

Coming of age amidst the seething unrest of the Civil War era, feisty fourteen-year-old Katie McCafferty infiltrates the Molly Maguires, a secret Irish organization, to rescue a lifelong friend. Under the guise of Dominick, a draft resister, Katie volunteers for a dangerous mission in hopes of preventing bloodshed. Katie risks job, family, and ultimately her very life to intervene. A series of tragedies challenge Katie's strength and ingenuity, and she faces a crisis of conscience. Can she balance her sense of justice with the law? Call Me Kate is suitable for readers from eleven to adult. The story is dramatic and adventuresome, yet expressive of daily life in the patches of the hard coal region during the Civil War era. This novel will appeal to readers of the Dear America series, as well as more mature readers who will enjoy the story's rich context and drama.(Amazon)

The Executor
by Jesse Kellerman
(Shelf Awareness/Putnam)

Perpetual graduate student Joseph Geist is at his wit's end. Recently kicked out of their shared apartment by his girlfriend, he's left with little more than a half bust of Nietzsche's head and the realization that he's homeless and unemployed. He's hit a dead end on his dissertation; his funding has been cut off. He doesn't even have a phone. Desperate for some source of income, he searches the local newspaper and finds a curious ad:

CONVERSATIONALIST SOUGHT.
SERIOUS APPLICANTS ONLY.
PLEASE CALL 617-XXX-XXXX
BETWEEN SEVEN A.M. AND TWO P.M.
NO SOLICITORS.

And so Joseph meets Alma Spielman: a woman who, with her old-world ways and razor-sharp mind, is his intellectual soul mate. How is he to know that what seems to be the best decision of his life is the one that seals his fate? (Amazon)

The Last Day
by James Landis
(won at Winning Readings - thanks Jane!)

Warren Harlan Pease, the young narrator of this spellbinding novel, returns to his native New Hampshire from the Iraq War and spends an entire day with Jesus visiting and contemplating his own life with fresh eyes, and a willing heart. He examines his relationships to those he loves -- his girlfriend, his best friend, his father, his dead mother, his daughter -- and grapples with the pain he has been carrying since the death of his mother when he was still a boy.

While in Iraq, armed with his sniper's rifle and his deeply held faith, Specialist Pease traveled across ideological borders and earned an appreciation for his enemy's culture and for what connects us all as human beings. He also learned how to kill and taught others to do the same. "War doesn't test your faith in Jesus," Warren came to realize. "It tests your faith in yourself." The Last Day answers some questions and asks many more. It's a powerful meditation on religion and war, love and loss.

This work of compassion and healing grace will resonate with skeptics and believers, be shared and discussed between friends and among families. It is a book for our time, and forever. (inside cover)


Still the One
by Robin Wells
(Hachette/Romance Junkies)

After Katie Charmaine's husband is killed in Iraq, all she has left is a closet full of his clothes, a few pictures and fond memories. She not only lost her love, but her last chance to have the children she's always wanted. Until Zack Ferguson shows up in town. . . with the daughter Katie gave up for adoption nearly seventeen years ago.

Zack Ferguson has never forgotten Katie, or the one magical night they spent together. Seeing her again brings up a tidal wave of emotions: regret over the way he left her, anger at the secret she kept, and desire he hasn't felt in years. But he's in town for Gracie. Their daughter is sixteen, angry at the world, and -- worst of all -- pregnant. She needs the love of her two parents now more than ever. Can these three forgive the hurts of the past and open their hearts to one another? (back cover)




Montana Destiny
by R. C. Ryan
(Hachette/Romance Junkies)

They're the McCords . . . three rugged, sexy cowboy cousins who'll inherit the family range -- if they seek the treasure hidden on it. But even more precious are the women who can tame their wild hearts . . .

Emergency medic Marilee Trainor likes her freedom and lives for trouble. Then she stumbles upon a clue to the legendary McCord gold and suddenly finds herself in a mysterious killer's sights -- and in the arms of irresistible playboy Wyatt McCord. This McCord cousin has been everywhere, yet the ranch is the only place he feels at home. Now Marilee's courage and independence make him want to protect her, win her heart, and finally settle down. But trust is the one thing Wyatt and Marilee can't easily give. And their survival and everything they cherish depends on whether they can surrender to each other -- to fight for their . . . Montana Destiny. (back cover)





To Surrender to a Rogue
by Cara Elliott
(Hachette/Romance Junkies)

An expert in antiquities, Lady Alessandra della Giamatti arrives in Bath to excavate newly discovered Roman ruins -- only to find herself caught in the web of a blackmailer threatening to expose her scandalous past. The one man who can help her is Lord James "Black Jack" Pierson, a fellow member of the expedition and a sinfully handsome rogue whose tempting presence ignites a different sort of danger.

Jack has clashed with Alessandra in the past, so when she suddenly surrenders her body he can't help being suspicious. Is she a scheming temptress? Or is she truly a lady in trouble? As desire and deceptions swirl around them, Alessandra and Jack must find a way to win each other's trust. For if they don't work together to uncover a shocking truth, their enemy -- and their own simmering passions -- may destroy them and everything they cherish. (back cover)





Knight of Passion
by Margaret Mallory
(Hachette/Romance Junkies)

Renowned beauty Lady Linnet is torn between two desires: revenge on those who destroyed her family or marriage to her childhood sweetheart Sir James Rayburn. One fateful night, she makes a misguided choice: She sacrifices Jamie's love for a chance at vengeance.

Jamie Rayburn returns to England in search of a virtuous wife -- only to find the lovely Linnet as bewitching as ever. Their reckless affair ignites anew, even hotter than before, although Jamie vows to never again trust her with his heart. Then just as Linnet begins to make amends, she's tempted by one last opportunity to settle old scores. But a final retribution could cost her Jamie's love -- this time forever. (back cover)

Desire Me
by Robyn DeHart
(Hachette/Romance Junkies)

The Men of Solomon's meet in secret, their very existence only a rumor among the best of Victorian society. They are treasure hunters, men of wealth and title, seekers of myths and legends. And no legend is as mystifying as the lost city of Atlantis. . .

Years ago, Maxwell Barrett found a map to Atlantis and dedicated his life to the search for the mystical lost continent. But when an alluring woman makes a wager for the priceless artifact, he may have discovered an even greater treasure.

A descendant of Atlantis, Sabine Tobias needs the map to decipher an ancient prophecy. What she doesn't need are the sparks flying between her and Max. He's too devilishly charming to be trusted: The fate of her people is at stake as well as her heart. Yet a ruthless killer also covets the map. Now Max and Sabine must race to decode the prophecy's riddle before this criminal fulfills his deadly mission. (back cover)

Seized
by Max Hardberger
(Barnes and Noble Sneak Peek for March)

Seized throws open the cargo hatch on the shadowy world of maritime shipping, where third-world governments place exorbitant liens against ships, pirates seize commercial vessels with impunity, crooks and con artists reign supreme on the docks and in the shipyards -- and hapless owners have to rely on sea captain Max Hardberger to recapture their ships and win justice on the high seas.

A ship captain, airplane pilot, lawyer, teacher, writer, adventurer, and raconteur, Max Hardberger recovers stolen freighters for a living. In Seized, he takes us on a real-life journey into the mysterious world of freighters and shipping, where fortunes are made and lost by the whims of the waves. Desperate owners hire Hardberger to "extract" -- or steal back -- ships that have been illegitimately seized by putting together a mission-impossible team to sail them into international waters under cover of darkness. It's a high-stakes assignment -- if Max or his crew is caught, the risk is imprisonment or death.

Max's tales take readers behind the scenes of the multibillion-dollar maritime industry, as he recounts his efforts to retrieve freighters and other vessels from New Orleans to the Caribbean; from East Germany to Vladivostok, Russia; and from Greece to Guatemala. He resorts to suing everything from disco dancing to prostitutes to distract the shipyard guards, from bribes to voodoo doctors to divert attention and buy the time he needs to sail a ship out of a foreign port without clearance. Seized is narrative adventure nonfiction at its best. (back cover)

Try Darkness
by James Scott Bell
( Won over at Sexy Women Read)

Former trial lawyer Ty Buchanan is recovering from his fiancee's death and a false accusation of murder on the peaceful grounds of St. Monica's, offering legal aid to the underprivileged instead of trying glamorous court cases.

Enter a mysterious woman with a six-year-old daughter whose case forces him to cross paths with ex-best friend and colleague Al Bradshaw.

When the woman is murdered, Buchanan is determined to find the killer and protect the little girl. Following a trail that unveils darkness in the best and worst parts of Los Angeles, he is compelled to discover skills he never needed as a civil attorney in order to keep himself and the girl alive (back cover)

The Poacher's Son
by Paul Doiron
(Barnes and Noble First Look for March)

Game Warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find a cryptic message on his answering machine from his father, Jack, who he hasn't heard from in two years. The next morning Mike gets a call from the police: a beloved local cop has been killed and his father is their prime suspect. Coming to terms with his haunted past and desperate for answers, Mike and a retired warden pilot journey deep into the Maine wilderness to clear his father's name and find out why Jack is on the run. But the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real killer before the killer finds him (inside cover)

She-Rain: A Story of Hope
by Michael Cogdill
(FSB Associates)

In the early 20th century, a pair of North Carolina mountain children sow the seed of a love that becomes their only solace in the hard yet beautiful world they know. They grow it from steep ground of poverty, ignorance, and violence. A landscape so brutal it can kill hope long before claiming life.

Bloodshed years later finally sends Frank Locke on the run, deep into wilderness, abandoning his extraordinary love, Mary Lizbeth. When a whitewater river washes this desperate soul into the hands of Sophia, he discovers a luminous woman steeped in mystery, trapped in a tragically brilliant life. Far ahead of her time. Secreted from the world. As she awakens Frank's mind, they rise to meet a love that binds three people for a lifetime.

This love triangle forms a beauty no one sees coming. From the wilds of Appalachia, crossing nearly a century, it runs deep into a lush American fortune, and lives in letters of adoration and hope of the least expected.

In a rhapsody of Southern voices, mingling hilarity and sorrow, She-Rain speaks of lives soaring beyond heartbreak, fundamentalism, and self-destruction. Through the most graceful longing, two women in love with one man ultimately prove the power of human hearts to answer high callings. They show us all how to heal -- and thrive -- to the very end. (back cover)

Never Blame the Umpire
by Gene Fehler
(First Wild Card Tour)

Kate is having the best summer a sports-loving eleven-year-old could possibly have. Baseball. Tennis. And to top it off, Kate has just started a three-week class where she's discovering a new love: poetry.

Then comes the news that tears Kate's world apart. In her close-knit family, Kate has always felt God's love and protection. But how can she trust God now? Do sports or poetry matter when tragedy strikes?

In Kate's darkest hour, her mother's faith shines its brightest, helping Kate to see that life is still beautiful and God is still good. Always, no matter what. (inside cover)

An Unfinished Score
by Elise Blackwell
(Unbridled Books)

As she prepares dinner for her husband and their extended family, Suzanne hears on the radio that a jetliner has crashed and her lover is dead. Alex Elling was a renowned orchestra conductor, Suzanne is a concert violist, long unsatisfied with her marriage to a composer whose music turns emotion into thought. Now, more alone than she's ever been, she must grieve secretly. But as complex as that effort is for her, it pales with the arrival of Alex's widow, who blackmails her into completing the score for Alex's unfinished viola concerto.

As Suzanne struggles to keep her double life a secret from her husband, from her best friend, and from the classical music world, she is consumed by memories of a rich love affair saturated with syncopating rhythms. Increasingly manipulated by her lover's widow and tormented by the concerto's many layers, Suzanne realizes she may lose everything she's spent her life working for.

A story of love, loss, sex, vengeance and betrayal, this psychologically compelling novel explores the relationships among women as friends and rivals and what it means to make a life of art. (back cover)

What books found a home with you this week?