Mailbox Madness (July 18 - July 25)

In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren.  Mailbox Monday is currently hosted at The Printed Page, but will be going on tour after this month . Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week!

Solitary

by Travis Thrasher

(First Wild Card Tour)

When Chris Buckley moves to Solitary, North Carolina he faces the reality of his parents' divorce, a school full of nameless faces -- and Jocelyn Evans. Jocelyn is beautiful and mysterious enough to leave Chris speechless. But the more Jocelyn resists him, the more the two are drawn together.

Chris soon learns that Jocelyn has secrets as deep as the town itself, secrets more terrifying than the bullies he faces in the locker room or his mother's unexplained nightmares. He slowly begins to understand the horrific answers. The question is whether he can save Jocelyn in time.

This first book in the Solitary Tales series will take you from the cold halls of high school to the dark rooms of an abandoned cabin -- and remind you what it means to believe in what you cannot see.

She's Gone Country

by Jane Porter

(from Book Sparks)

Shey Darcy, a thirty-nine-year-old former top model for Vogue and Sports Illustrated, led a charmed life in New York City with a handsome photographer husband, until the day he announced he'd fallen in love with someone else. Left to pick up the pieces of her once happy world, Shey decides to move back home to Texas with her three teenage sons. Life on the family ranch, however, brings with it a whole new host of dramas, starting with differences of opinion with her staunch Southern Baptist mother, her rugged but overprotective brothers, and daily battles with her three sons, who are also struggling to find themselves. Add to the mix Shey's ex-crush, Dane Kelly, a national bull-riding champ, and she's got her hands full. It doesn't take long before Shey realizes that in order to reinvent herself, she must let go of an uncertain future and a broken past, to find happiness -- and maybe love -- in the present.

Faeries Gone Wild

by Mary Janice Davidson, Lois Greiman, Michele Hauf, Leandra Logan

(Win from St. Martin's)

"Tall, Dark and Not So Faery" (Davidson)

Scarlett is not your typical pint-sized faery. At six feet, four inches tall, she's an unlikely candidate for a match made in heaven. But when she ventures to Cannon Falls, Minnesota, on royal orders to survey its extraordinary residents, she stumbles upon the one man who just may measure up to size. . .

"Pixie Lust" (Greiman)

William Timber is a cutthroat developer who refuses to let a few trees come between him and his next million. But when Avalina -- a sparkling faery charged to protect all things green -- comes to town, William is forced to choose between life as he knows it and the unknown reaches of his heart.

"Dust Me, Baby, One More Time" (Hauf)

A librarian by day and a tooth faery by night, Sidney has absolutely no time to find Mr. Right. Until she fllies smack-dab into sexy, sun-bronzed Dart Sand, a man who makes her wings a-flutter. . . and whose allure could get her banished from the Mortal Realm.

"A Little Bit Faery" (Logan)

Tia is mysstified when she strikes out on the Luna faery singles scene, in spite of her hourglass curves and vivacious charm. Then she takes off for Manhattan and lands on the doorstep of a steamy firefighter who sets her soul on fire --  and shares a strong connection to her secret past.

The Berenstain Bears and a Job Well Done

by Jan and Mike Berenstain

(First Wild Card Tour)

Brother, Sister, and Honey Bear need to clean their playhouse. They'd rather play outside. In The Berenstain Bears and a Job Well Done the Bear children learn what the Bible says about the joy of work.

The Berenstain Bears and the Gift of Courage

by Jan and Mike Berenstain

(First Wild Card Tour)

Brother and Sister Bear wonder if they can be as brave as David when he fought Goliath. They find out when they face Too-Tall Grizzly and his gang. In The Berenstain Bears and the Gift of Courage, the cubs learn where real courage comes from.

Knit One, Kill Two

by Maggie Sefton

(purchased)

Despite the fact that her aunt was an expert knitter, Kelly Flynn never picked up a pair of knitting needles she liked -- until she strolled into House of Lambspun. Now, in the first in a brand-new series, she learns how to knit one, purl two, and untangle the mystery behind her aunt's murder. . .

Kelly Flynn would be the first to admit her life in Washington, D.C., is a little on the dull side. But coming back to Colorado for her beloved aunt's funeral wasn't the kind of excitement she was seeking. The police are convinced that her Aunt Helen's death was the result of a burglary gone bad, but for the accountant in Kelly, things just aren't adding up. After all, why would her sensible, sixty-eight-year-old borrow $20,000 just days before her death?  With the help of the knitting regulars at House of Lambspun, Kelly's about to get a few lessons in cranking out a sumptuously colored scarf -- and in luring a killer out of hiding . . .

Friday Mornings at Nine

by Marilyn Brant

(from the author)

Each Friday morning at the Indigo Moon Cafe, Jennifer, Bridget and Tamara meet to swap stories about marriage, kids, and work. But one day, spurred by recent e-mails from her college ex, Jennifer poses questions they've never faced before. What if they all married the wrong man? What if they're living the wrong life? And what would happen if, just once, they gave in to temptation...Soon each woman is second-guessing the choices she's made - and the ones she can unmake - as she becomes aware of new opportunities around every corner, from attentive colleagues and sexy neighbours to flirtatious past lovers. And as fantasies blur with real life, Jennifer, Bridget and Tamara begin to realize how little they know about each other, their marriages, and themselves, and how much there is to gain - and lose - when you step outside the rules...

Radiance

by Alyson Noel

(MacMillan Children's Publishing Group)

Riley Bloom has left her sister and crossed the bridge into the afterlife -- a place called Here, where time is always Now. She has picked up where she left off when she was alive, living with her parents and dog in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. When she's summoned before The Council, she learns that the afterlife isn't just an eternity of leisure. She's been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a possible cute, seemingly nerdy boy who's definitely hiding something. They return to earth together for Riley's first assignment, a Radiant Boy who's been haunting a castle in England for centures. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed.  But all of that was before he met Riley. . .

Do No Evil

by Kymberly Goltermann and Ashley L Goltermann

(received from the authors)

Three years ago, Phineas Nobul was at the top of her game as a defense attorney in Los Angeles. When the Lair, New York native returned home from the holidays, she was surprised to find herself willing to give it all up for love. Now brokenhearted, nearly penniless, and once again unemployed Phineas finds herself partnering up with her sister to take a second shot as success.

Phoebe, the eldest and more responsible Nobul daughter, envies her little sister's free spirit and loathes her unreliability. This is never more the case than when Phoebe finds herself dumped on her wedding day and her little sister nowhere to be found. When Phineas resurfaces and much wine has been consumed, she presents the heinous idea of Phoebe quitting her career in publishing to team up with her as private investigators. Phoebe rejects the idea at first but then sees this as a chance to start over.

Business is barely up and running when a corpse is left in the newly established Artemis Agency. A foreboding warning soon follows. The sisters don't know whether to be terrified or intrigued. As the bodies begin piling up, Phoebe and Phineas get caught up in a case of conspiracy and scandal that once haunted small-town Lair.

Add in an eccentric trigger-happy grandmother, a basset hound with an attitude, a hunky yet overprotective veterinarian, a mysterious cop known as Officer Yummy, and a very persistent killer and you've got one hell of a mystery!



What books came to live with you this week?