Mailbox Monday (June 25, 2012)

 Mailbox Monday will be hosted in June by Marie at Burton Book Review.
I received lots of ebooks this week and a few physical copies.  My bookshelves appreciated this!




Love is Murder
edited by Sandra Brown


Go on vacation with Allison Brennan's Lucy Kincaid, where she saves a man from drowning, only to discover he is in far greater danger on land. Meet Roxanne St. Claire's "bullet catcher"--bodyguard Donovan Rush--who may have met his match in the sexually charged "Diamond Drop." Debut author William Simon shows us what happens when the granddaughter of the president of the United States is kidnapped. And Lee Child's pitch-perfect "I Heard a Romantic Story" puts a whole new spin on Love Is Murder.

Bodyguards, vigilantes, stalkers, serial killers, women (and men ) in jeopardy, cops, thieves, P.I.s, killers--these all-new stories will keep you thrilled and chilled late into the night.

 

Gone Missing

by Linda Castillo

Rumspringa is the time when Amish teens are allowed to experience life without rules, but everything changes when a child goes missing
 
In the newest chilling thriller from New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo, Chief of police Kate Burkholder is called upon to assist when an Amish teenager disapears without a trace.
A missing child is a nightmare to all parents, and never more so than in the Amish community, where family ties are strong. So when a body turns up and another young girl goes missing, fear spreads through the community like a contagion. Kate and state agent, John Tomasetti, delve into the lives of the missing teens and discover links to cold cases that may go back years. But will Kate piece together all the parts of this sinsiter puzzle before it's too late? Or will she find herself locked in a fight to the death with a merciless killer.

 

Beach Season

by Lisa Jackson, Cathy Lamb, Holly Chamberlin, Rosalind Noonan

The Brass Ring (Lisa Jackson)

It's a beautiful June day, perfect for a wedding -- until Shawna learns that her fiance, Parker, has been involved in a car crash.  Though his injuries heal, his memories of her are gone.  Yet Shawna won't stop reaching to reclaim the love they once shared. . .

June's Lace (Cathy Lamb)

June MacKenzie is done -- with her high-pressure legal career, her cheating soon-to-be-ex, and the stress of city living.  In her studio on the Oregon coast, she creates beautiful lace wedding dresses, with no intention of ever wearing one again herself.  then songwriter Reece rents the house next door and sets out to change her mind. . .

Second Chance Sweethearts (Holly Chamberlin)

Thea Foss is putting a bad marriage behind her in the pretty vacation town of Ogunquit, Maine.  What's past is past. . . Until her first love wanders into the local diner, reminding Thea of the person she once was, and the life it's not too late to claim. . .

Carolina Summer (Rosalind Noonan)

Jane Doyle needs to get out of New York -- the farther the better.  She's headed toward Florida, but thanks to a storm along North Carolina's Outer Banks, she finds herself stranded in a beautiful, remote town that soon feels a lot like home.  And thanks to the local sheriff, she finds herself staying longer than she planned -- and feeling less lost at sea than ever. . .

From Fame to Shame

by Veronica Blade

Despite the danger of tabloid drama if their identity swap is discovered, Maddie has to save her sister's butt. When Jackie’s ex-boyfriend shows up with a rekindled spark for “Jackie,” his deep gray eyes and sweet kisses make Maddie's heart thumpety thump. But dating the guy who dumped her sister is a no-no. Too bad Dallas isn’t used to girls saying no. What will happen when he discovers Maddie’s deception?

 

Secret of the Wolf

By Cynthia Garner

Warriors of the Rift

Once a generation, the rift between the paranormal world and the human world opens, allowing supernatural entities to cross. Vampire, demon, or shapeshifter, they can save the world-or send it spiraling into chaos.

As a werewolf liaison to the Council of Preternaturals, Tori Joseph is used to straddling the world between humans and immortals. She plays by the rules and always delivers justice, no matter the cost. But after a string of increasingly brutal attacks results in humans turning into werewolves, Tori doesn't reveal her horrifying suspicion: Someone very close to her might be responsible.

Investigating the paranormal violence, no-nonsense detective Dante MacMillan believes Tori is hiding something. His search for the truth draws him into greater danger as he gets closer to the dark realm of the immortals-and to the sexy werewolf who stirs his primal lust. Now with evil closing in around them, Dante must convince Tori to trust him . . . before her deadly secret destroys them both.

 

Tangled Ties to a Manatee

by Kalen Cap

A pregnant manatee is rare at any zoo, and a first for the Grove City Zoo in Ohio. Ankh is a delight to zoo patrons, a concern to its staff, and the unintentional victim of two con men. She has no idea how many human relationships, problems, and dreams tangle around her. 

Jerry is a young developmentally disabled man who happily follows Ankh's pregnancy on the zoo's webcam. He has a shy crush on Janelle, a pretty college student who volunteers for his group home’s outings to the zoo. 

Jerry's Aunt Vera also loves nature and runs an environmental retreat center. But all is not well, with Vera or the center. The center needs money and is under investigation as a cult. 

Amid their college studies, Janelle and her friend Cecily try to help. Instead, Janelle re-awakens an old obsession in Vera when an innocent tarot reading hints at how the center might be saved. 

Two bumbling con men are attempting to sabotage the region’s electrical grid as part of a lucrative scheme. But Jerry accidentally gets in their way and becomes their captive. 

When the con men surprisingly succeed in bringing the grid down, it spells danger for Ankh, her unborn pup, and the many people tied to them both. With investigations of their own, Cecily and Janelle try to untangle it all to find Jerry, save a manatee’s life, and rescue Vera from herself. 

Tangled Ties to a Manatee is a humorous crime thriller with environmental themes. The novel is revealed through multiple points of view and centers around college-aged characters.

Forgive Me, Alex

by Lane Diamond

Tony Hooper stands in shadow across the street, one amongst many in the crowd of curiosity-hounds gathered to watch a monster's release. Seventeen years after Mitchell Norton, "the devil," terrorized Algonquin, Illinois on a spree of kidnapping, torture and murder, the authorities release the butcher from psychiatric prison.

Tony longs to charge across the street to destroy Norton—no remorse—as if stepping on a cockroach. Only sheer force of will prevents his doing so.

"The devil" walks the world again. What shall Tony do about it? Aye, what indeed.

After all, this is what Tony does. It's who he is. "The devil" himself long ago made Tony into this hunter of monsters. What a sweet twist of fate this is, that he may still, finally, administer justice.

Will FBI Special Agent Linda Monroe stop him? She owes him her life, so how can she possibly put an end to his?

Tony Hooper and Mitchell Norton battle for supremacy, with law enforcement always a step away, in this story of justice and vengeance, evil and redemption, fear and courage, love and loss.

The Secret Life of Copernicus H. Stringfellow

by Lorin Barber

Copernicus H. Stringfellow, a.k.a. Nick, is not your run-of-the-mill genius. His mind is so powerful it can stop a speeding automobile or stem internal bleeding. As Nick goes about quietly doing good, he discovers that his powers are greatly enhanced by the nutrients present in Twinkies. Follow Nick on his amazing adventures in this humorous and exciting action-packed book for all ages.

 

Dangerous Past

by A.F. Ebbers

Airline Captain Frank Braden is being stalked by unknown assailants who must arrange his death to look like a suicide or an accident before a specific deadline.

 

You, Fascinating You

by Germaine Shames

In the final weeks of 1938, in the shadow of Kristallnacht and imminent war, a heartsick Italian maestro wrote a love song called “Tu Solamente Tu.” 

Its lyrics lamented his forced separation from his wife, the Hungarian ballerina Margit Wolf, in the wake of Mussolini’s edict banishing foreign Jews from Italy. The song, first recorded by Vittorio de Sica in 1939, catapulted to the top of the Hit Parade and earned its composer the moniker “the Italian Cole Porter.” The German version, “Du Immer Wieder Du,” would be performed by Zarah Leander, the foremost film star of the German Reich, and its English counterpart, “You, Fascinating You,” by the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. 
Twenty-two years would pass before the maestro and his ballerina again met face-to-face.

You, Fascinating You begins as a backstage romance and ends as an epic triumph of the human spirit.

The Secret of Ravelston

by Sergio Silveira

Jane Freemont is British young lady with a very big problem.  She is modern girl...but she lives in early 19th Century.  Jane has a critical, inquiring mind that is always ready to state her honest opinions--no matter whom she may inconvenience.  This causes the young gentlemen to run away for her--for men surely can welcome women's criticism so much more than they do.  But that's our loss.

Jane's older brother, and only living relative, has sent her to live far away in the north, where he believes her critical and inquiring mind will no longer create problems for him.  But as Jane arrives in beautiful Ravelston, she becomes determined to discover the fate of another, yet much less privileged, young woman who has mysteriously vanished. In Ravelston no one seems to care about what happened to Mary Hale, who was seen as unimportant because she was poor. But Jane will risk everything, even her future, to find out the truth. 

And Jane will discover that powerful love, when not accepted in oneself, is one of the cruelest things there is.

 

The novel is also very funny. There is much satire of the affluent, aristocratic class, who live an idle life in unimaginable luxury, all at the cruel expense of countless persons who they do not see as real, and who live in poverty.  That's the autobiographical part of the novel, having grown up in an "old," land-owning family in which having "proper manners" was considered as being more important than having true kindness.  Therefore, much of my life is in the novel.

What books came home to you this week?