Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Mailbox Monday (April 16, 2012)


 Mailbox Monday will be hosted in April by Cindy at Cindy's Love of  Books.  In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren.  I got some more nice wins this week and a couple of review books.  Come on in and take a look!


First the review books:




The Good Father
by Diane Chamberlain


A beloved daughter. A devastating choice. And now there's no going back.Four years ago, nineteen-year-old Travis Brown made a choice: to raise his newborn daughter on his own. While most of his friends were out partying and meeting girls, Travis was at home, changing diapers and worrying about keeping food on the table. But he's never regretted his decision. Bella is the light of his life. The reason behind every move he makes. And so far, she is fed. Cared for. Safe.But when Travis loses his construction job and his home, the security he's worked so hard to create for Bella begins to crumble….Then a miracle. A job in Raleigh has the power to turn their fortunes around. It has to. But when Travis arrives in Raleigh, there is no job, only an offer to participate in a onetime criminal act that promises quick money and no repercussions.With nowhere else to turn, Travis must make another choice for his daughter's sake.Even if it means he might lose her.




The Midwife of Venice


by Roberta Rich


Hannah Levi is renowned throughout Venice for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers -- a gift aided by the secret "birthing spoons" she designed.  But when a count implores her to attend to his wife, who has been laboring for days to give birth to their firstborn son, Hannah is torn.  A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the payment he offers is enough to ransom her beloved husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea.  Can Hannah refuse her duty to a suffering woman?  Hannah's choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the baby and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life.  Not since The Red Tent or People of the Book has a novel transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women centuries ago or so richly into a story of intrigue that transcends the boundaries of history.






A Chance in the World
An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past and How He
 Found a Place Called Home


by Steve Pemberton




From the day he is five-years-old and dropped off at his foster home of the next eleven years, Stephen is mentally and physically tortured. No one in the system can help him. No one can tell him if he has a family. No one can tell him why, with obvious African-American features, he has the last name of Klakowicz.
Along the way, a single faint light comes only from a neighbor’s small acts of kindness and caring—and a box of books. From one of those books he learns that he has to fight in any way he can—for victory is in the battle. His victory is to excel in school.
Against all odds, the author succeeded. He attended college, graduated, became a successful corporate executive, and married a wonderful woman with whom he established a loving family of his own. Through it, he dug voraciously through records and files and found his history, his birth family—and the ultimate disappointment as some family members embrace him, but others reject him.
Readers won’t be the same after reading this powerful story. They will share in the hurts and despair but also in the triumph against daunting obstacles. They will share this story with their family, with their friends, with their neighbors.

These are the books I won:
I won this from Celtic Lady's Reviews
Catriona


by Jeanette Baker


Kate Sutherland always felt out of place in brash and modern Southern California. But when she comes to her ancestral home in the Shetland Islands to seek a mystical guide who may shed light on her true heritage, Kate is plagued with visions of a life from five centuries past.... A fiery young woman of royal English blood, Catriona Wells is determined to save her family from the deadly political clashes of 15th-century Britain. But Cat's cunning is no match for Scottish border lord Patrick MacKendrick. When this powerful warrior betroths her against her will, Cat must decide whether she dares to love him -- and to trust him with lives that are more precious to her than her own.

Meanwhile Kate, whose dreams rapidly take on a reality of their own, is caught between a present-day attraction to a charming Scottish historian -- and risking everything in Catriona's dangerous world of passion and bloodshed.





I won the following two young adult books from The Unread Reader.



Forgive My Fins


by Tera Lynn Childs


Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life.

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.







The Way We Fall


by Megan Crewe


It starts with an itch you just can’t shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you’re dead.


When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest. 

Because how will she go on if there isn’t?





What books came home to you this week?

19 comments:

Farah said...

I've been wanting for a long time for Forgive My Fins. Great haul! =D

Drop by my IMM?
http://tumblinginbooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/in-my-mailbox-17.html

Mystica said...

I like your mailbox! such a lot of good reads. Particularly like the Midwife of Venice and the Chamberlain book.

B Reading said...

Nice books. Enjoy!
http://booketta.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/imm-and-mm_15.html

bermudaonion said...

Is A Chance in the World a memoir? It sounds heartbreaking.

Alison Can Read said...

Great set! Forgive My Fins was really enjoyable. Hope you love it.
My IMM

ellepaulette said...

Awesome selection of books this week!

Thanks for sharing,
Dani
My IMM for this week - http://paulettespapers.com/?p=1934

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I've preordered The Good Father...and I'm really wanting to read A Chance in the World.

Enjoy!

Here's MY MONDAY MEMES POST

Molly said...

Awesome books! Enjoy!
My IMM Post

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Kristi,

A great mix of books this week, although I am particularly interested in the Roberta Rich and the Diane Chamberlain.

I have a shared Kindle account with my mother-in-law and she has downloaded just about every Diane Chamberlain book. They are all still sat in my archives, as I just don't have the time to read them yet, however as we enjoy some of the same books in the general contemporary fiction genre, I am sure that I shall enjoy them.

Thanks for sharing and have a great week.

Yvonne

cindysloveofbooks said...

I picked up Forgive my fins a while ago and really need to read it. Enjoy your books

Kaye said...

You had a great week, Kristi! Enjoy your new books, especially the wins!!

Moniquereads said...

All of those sound good. I'm looking forward to the reviews.

Jennifer | Mrs Q Book Addict said...

I haven't read any of these but I have heard of a few. I hope you enjoy them all!

Muzette said...

Great books this week! I'm looking forward to reading "Midwife of Venice".

CMash said...

Nice mailbox!! Hope you enjoy "The Good Father" as much as I did.

Lauren said...

A Chance in the World has a terrific cover...and I can't lie, Forgive my Fins looks like 18 other books, but I kind of want to read it..... ENJOY!

Anonymous said...

A nice mix of reads, enjoy!

Beth(bookaholicmom) said...

I have the new Chamberlain book on my wish list! I really enjoy her books! I hope you enjoy all your new reads!

Holly said...

Nice mailbox! Midwife of Venice looks good. I'm going through a bit of a historical Italy phase right now so I might have to check this one out soon. Happy reading!

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