One man's junk. . .

Is another man's treasure! Check out these great finds from the Thrift Store today!

On Mystic Lake

by Kristin Hannah

Annie Colwater's husband has just confessed that he's in love with a younger woman. Devastated, Annie retreats to the small town where she grews up.  There, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower who is unable to cope with his silent, emotionally scarred young daughter. Together, the three of them begin to heal. But just when Annie believes she's been given a second chance at happiness, her world is turned upside down again, and she is forced to make a choice that no woman in love should ever have to make. . .

On Mystic Lake is the story of one woman, but it speaks to all of us -- to anyone who has ever had to find the courage to choose between what is. . .and what could be.

Born of Ice (The League series - book 3)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

In the Ichidian Universe, the League and its ruthless assassins continue to keep rule. But at what cost? Welcome back to the future. . .and a whole new world.

He is an outlaw who offers no quarter.

Devyn Kell spent his life in service to the League until he learned of the double dealing and backstabbing that was costing innocent people their lives. Refusing to play those politics, he became a Runner -- someone who makes sure planets get the weapons, medicine, and supplies they need to survive. May the gods have mercy on any who get in his way, because he definitely won't.

She is on the run from her past that could end her life.

Alix Garran is a woman on the run from a past she can't escape. Signing on to work for Devyn as a Systems Engineer, she finds a cause she can fight for -- and a man she can respect. But as Alix's past catches up to her, and Devyn's old enemies turn lethal, they have to fight together. . .or fall alone.

Born of Fire (The League series - Book 2)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

In a universe where assassins make the law, everyone lives in fear -- except for Syn.  Born of an illicit scandal that once rocked a dynasty, he always knew how to survive on the bloodthirsty streets. But that was then, and the future is now. . .

He takes no prisoners.

Syn was raised as a tech-thief until his livelihood uncovered a truth that could end his life. He tried to destroy the evidence and has been on the run ever since. Now trained as an assassin, he allows no one to threaten him.  Ever. He is the darkness that swallows his enemies whole.

She offers no escape.

Shahara Dagan is the best bounty hunter in the universe. When Syn comes back on the radar, she's the only one who can bring him to justice. There's only one problem: Syn is a close family friend who's helped out the Dagans countless times. But if she saves him, both of their lives will be on the line. Is Syn's protection worth the risk? The only hope Shahara has is to find the evidence he buried long ago. Now it's kill or be killed -- and they, the predators, have just become the hunted. . .

Born of Night (The League series - Book 1)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

In the Ichidian Universe, the League rules all. Expertly trained and highly valued, the League Assassins are the backbone of the government. But not even the League is immune to corruption. . .

He was born and trained to kill.

Command Assassin Nykyrian Quiakides once turned his back on the League -- and has been hunted by them ever since. Though many have tried, none can kill him or stop him from completing his current mission: to protect Kiara Zamir, a woman whose father's political alliance has made her a target.

She must accept his protection -- or die.

As her world becomes even deadlier, Kiara must entrust her life to the same kind of beast who once killed her mother and left her for dead. Old enemies and new endanger them both and the only way they can survive is to overcome their suspicions and learn to trust in the very ones who threaten them the most: each other.

Lucia, Lucia

by Adriana Trigiani

It is 1950 in glittering, vibrant New York City. Lucia Sartori is the beautiful twenty-five-year-old daughter of a prosperous Italian grocer in Greenwich Village. The postwar boom is rife with opportunities for talented girls with ambition, and Lucia becomes an apprentice to an up-and-coming designer at chic B. Altman department store on Fifth Avenue. Engaged to her childhood sweetheart, the steadfast Dante DeMartino, Lucia is torn when she meets a handsome stranger who promises a life of uptown luxury that career girls like her only read about in the society pages. Forced to choose between duty to her family and her own dreams, Lucia finds herself in the midst of a sizzling scandal in which secrets are revealed, her beloved career is jeopardized, and the Sartoris' honor is tested.

Books Kids Will Sit Still For - 2nd Edition

by Judy Freeman

More than a read-aloud handbook, Books Kids Will Sit Still For is the definitive guide to picture books, fiction, poetry, folklore, and nonfiction books recommended for children from preschool age through sixth grade.

In this fully-revised and expanded second edition of Books Kids Will Sit Still For, author Judy Freeman, elementary school librarian, Rutgers University instructor, and popular lecturer on children's literature, reveals her personal treasure trove of tried-and-true, teacher-and child-tested titles for reading aloud, along with practical chapters covering both the how to's and why's of book-sharing techniques.

Teachers as well as school and public librarians will welcome this one-stop source for selecting good books for children and making read-aloud an indispensable part of their daily programs.

Plum Lucky (Stephanie Plum Novel)

by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum has a way of attracting danger, lunatics, oddballs, bad luck . . . and mystery men. And no one is more mysterious than the unmentionable Diesel. He's back and hot on the trail of a little man in green pants who's lost a giant bag of money. Problem is, the money isn't exactly lost. Stephanie's Grandma Mazur has found it, and like any good Jersey senior citizen, she's hightailed it in a Winnebago to Atlantic City and hit the slots. With Lula and Connie in tow, Stephanie attempts to bring Grandma home, but the luck of the Irish is rubbing off on everyone: Lula's found a job modeling plus-size lingerie. Connie's found a guy. Diesel's found Stephanie. And Stephanie has found herself in over her head with a caper involving thrice-stolen money, a racehorse, a car chase, and a bad case of hives.

Plum Lucky is an all-you-can-eat buffet of thrills, chills, shrimp cocktail, plus-size underwear, and scorching hot men. It's a between-the-numbers treat no Evanovich fan will want to miss!

Twelve Sharp (Stephanie Plum Novel)

by Janet Evanovich

First a Stranger Appears.

While chasing down the usual cast of miscreants and weirdos, Stephanie discovers that a crazed woman is stalking her.

Then the Stranger Reveals Her Secrets

The woman dresses in black, carries a 9mm Glock, and has a bad attitude and a mysterious connection to dark and dangerous Carlos Manoso. . .street name, Ranger.

Next, Somebody Dies

The action turns deadly serious, and Stephanie goes from hunting skips to hunting a murderer.

Soon the Chase is On

Ranger needs Stephanie for more reasons than he can say. And now the two are working together to find a killer, rescue a missing child, and stop a lunatic from raising the body count. When Stephanie Plum and Ranger get too close for comfort, vice cop Joe Morelli (her on-again, off-again boyfriend) steps in.

Will the ticking clock stop at the stroke of twelve, or will a stranger in the wind find a way to stop Stephanie Plum . . . forever? Filled with Janet Evanovich's trademark action, nonstop adventure, and sharp humor, Twelve Sharp shows why her novels have been called "hot stuff" (The New York Times), and Evanovich herself "the master" (San Francisco Examiner).

Tome Travelers: Thrift Store Finds

The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known. . . .

In a remote mountain village where ghosts and tradition rule, LuLing grows up in the care of her mute Precious Auntie as the family endures a curse laid upon a relative known as the bonesetter. When headstrong LuLing rejects the marriage proposal of the coffinmaker, a shocking series of events are set in motion–all of which lead back to Ruth and LuLing in modern San Francisco. The truth that Ruth learns from her mother’s past will forever change her perception of family, love, and forgiveness. (Random House)

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
(Book 1 in the Mercedes Thompson series)

Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they'll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I'm not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too.

Mercy Thompson's sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf.

She's tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire.

But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself. . .and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble. (back cover)

Other books in the series are: Blood Bound, Iron Kissed, Bone Crossed and Silver Borne due out in 2010!





Twisted by Jeffrey Deaver
New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver delivers an electrifying collection of sixteen award-winning stories that will widen your eyes and stretch your imagination. Diverse and provocative, TWISTED showcases Deaver's amazing range and signature plot twists: a beautiful woman goes to extremes to rid herself of her stalker; a contemporary of William Shakespeare vows to avenge his family's ruin; and Deaver's most beloved character, brilliant criminalist Lincoln Rhyme is back to solve a chilling Christmastime disappearance. (back cover)



The Search by Iris Johansen

HE STRIKES WITHOUT WARNING
HE KILLS WITHOUT MERCY
HE'S ONLY JUST BEGUN

As part of an elite K-9 search and rescue team, Sarah Patrick and her golden retriever, Monty, have a gift for finding what no one else can. But their latest assignment is not like the others. This time Sarah is being forced to take part in a deadly mission. . .by a man who knows enough about her past to ensure her cooperation.

Billionaire John Logan's top-secret venture has been sabotaged, its facilities destroyed, and its handpicked staff massacred. The sole survivor is being held for ransom. Logan knows that the only way to save the man--and the secrets he holds--is to find him as soon as possible. Sarah is furious when she is strong-armed into joining Logan on his search. And once she takes the perilous assignment, not even Logan's promises that she and Monty will be safe may be enough to protect them. Because a killer is devising a sadistic vengeance. . . and he may soon find use for Sarah. (back cover)




Stealing Shadows by Kay Hooper
(Book 1 in the Stealing Shadows series)


What if you can enter a madman's cruel mind as he plans his vicious crimes? What if you can see the terrified face of his prey as he moves in for the kill - but you can't stop his frenzy once he strikes?

Psychic Cassie Neill helps the L.A. police catchkillers--until she makes a terrible mistake and an innocent child dies. Cassie flees to a small North Carolina Town, hoping that a quiet life will silence the voices that invade her unwilling mind. But Cassie's abilities know few boundaries. And she's become certain--as no one else can be--that a murderer is stalking Ryan's Bluff.

It's his fury that Cassie senses first, then his foul thoughts and perverse excitement. Yet she doesn'tknow who he is or where he will strike. The sheriff won't even listen to her--until the first body is found exactly where and how she predicted. Now a suspect herself, she races desperately to unmask the killer in the only way she knows: by entering his twisted mind. Her every step isloaded with fear and uncertainty. . .because if he sense her within him, he'll trap her there, so deep she'll never find her way out. (back cover)

Other books in this series are: Hiding in the Shadows, Out of the Shadows

Tome Travelers

I have been picking up books like crazy at library sales and thrift stores in the last week. I am glad that my husband doesn't read my blog so he doesn't know about these books!

These I picked up at our library's used book store:




Thriller edited by James Patterson

Featuring North America's foremost thriller authors, Thriller is the first collection of pure thriller stories ever published. Offering up heart-pumping tales of suspense in all its guises are thirty-two of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning names in the business. From the signature characters that made such authors as David Morrell and John Lescroart famous, to four of the hottest new voices in the genre, this blockbuster will tantalize and terrify.

Lock the doors, draw the shades, pull up the covers and be prepared for Thriller to keep you up all night. (Amazon.com)



Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson

A Woman Who Wants To Get Even - The first victim is pushed to her death. The second suffers a fatal overdose. The third takes a bullet to the heart. Three down, more to go. They're people who deserve to die. People who are in the way. And when she's finished, there will be no one left. Will Do Whatever It Takes For Revenge. Cissy Cahill's world is unraveling fast. One by one, members of her family are dying. Cissy's certain she's being watched. Or is she losing her mind? Lately she's heard footsteps when there's no one around, smelled a woman's perfume, and noticed small, personal items missing from her house. Cissy's right to be afraid--but not for the reason she thinks. The truth is much more terrifying - Including Murder. Hidden in the shadows of the Cahill family's twisted past is a shocking secret - a secret that will only be satisfied by blood. And Cissy must uncover the deadly truth before it's too late, because fear is coming home - with a vengeance. (Amazon.com)



Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman

It is early evening, summer time and hot. Two eleven year old girls, Alice and Ronnie, are on their way home from a swimming party when they happen to see a baby's stroller, with baby girl sleeping inside, left unattended on the top step of a house. Ronnie says to Alice: 'We have to take care of this baby.' But what exactly does she mean? Four days later the body of little Olivia Barnes is discovered in a hut in Baltimore's rambling Leakin Park by a young rookie detective, Nancy Porter. What can have happened in those four days to bring about this appalling crime? The girls are arrested and found guilty. Seven years later Ronnie and Alice, now eighteen, are released from their separate prisons, back into their old neighbourhood where the mother of baby Olivia still lives. Another child goes missing, and Nancy Porter and her partner get the case ...(Fantastic Fiction.com)




Kiss Her Goodbye by Wendy Corsi Staub

Woodsbridge, New York, is the sort of upscale community where the American Dream is alive and thriving - shiny cars, beautiful homes, and safe, tree-shaded streets. For Kathleen Carmody, Woodsbridge is an escape from memories of her own rough childhood and a place where her 13-year-old daughter Jen will have everything Kathleen didn't. But suddenly, the sleepy, affluent suburb is gripped by fear: One by one, teenage girls are disappearing from the "safe" streets. (Fantastic Fiction.com)



The House on Hope Street by Danielle Steel

A story of courage and loss, of the power of the family and the strength of the human soul. Life was good for Liz and Jack Sutherland. In eighteen years of marriage they had built a family, a successful law practice, and a warm happy home near San Francisco, in a house on Hope Street. But one Christmas morning, in the midst of joy and children's laughter, tragedy strikes - and Liz is left alone, facing painful questions in the face of unbearable loss. How can she go on without her husband, her partner, her best friend? The months pass, and Liz finds the strength to return to work and tend to her children. Then a devastating accident sends her oldest son to hospital - and brings a doctor called Bill Webster into her life. As the long days of summer blend into autumn, a new relationship offers new hope. With the anniversary of her husband's death approaching, Liz will face one more crisis before she can look back at a year of mourning and change - and ahead to the beginning of a new life, in the house on Hope Street.(Fantastic Fiction.com)

Have you found any good books at a used book store lately?

Tome Travelers - Garage Sale Day!

If you have been following me for any length of time, then you know that I love to go to garage sales - mainly for the books! I was able to pick up 5 books today.

Title: Bad Cat: Not-so-pretty kitties and cats gone bad
Author: Jim Edgar

It's the dark side that most cat owners never see. The side that wouldn't be caught dead purring. Here, captured in all their infamy, are hundreds of trouble-makers, delinquents, and dementos.

They're bad cats, with bad intentions, bad habits, and bad attitude. So the next time your sweet little ball of fur misses the litterbox, ask yourself -- was it really an accident?




Title: No Second Chance
Author: Harlan Coben

When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter. . .

Shot twice by an unseen assailant, Dr. Marc Seidman lies in a hospital bed. His wife has been killed. His six-month-old daughter has vanished. But when the ransom note arrives, it gives Mark one chance to bring her home alive. Then something goes wrong, and Marc spirals into a world of shock and surprise, of hope and yearning, where nothing is as it seems. . .




Title: Third Degree
Author: Greg Iles

Sometimes the gravest dangers -- and the darkest souls -- live right beside us. . .

In the span of twenty-four hours, everything Laurel Shields believes about her life and her marriage to a prominent doctor will be shattered -- if she survives a terrifying ordeal. The day begins with the jarring discovery that, soon after ending an affair, Laurel is pregnant. But when she returns home to find her husband ashen, unkempt, and on the brink of violence, a nightmare quickly unfolds. In the heart of an idyllic Mississippi town, behind the walls of her perfect house, Laurel finds herself locked in a volatile standoff with a husband she barely recognizes. Confronted with evidence of her betrayal, she must tread a deadly path between truth and deception while a ring of armed police prepares a dangerous rescue. But Laurel's greatest fear -- and her only hope -- lies with her former lover, a brave man whom fate has granted the power to save both Laurel and her children -- if she can protect his identity long enough.


Title: Right as Rain
Author: George P. Pelecanos

Derek Strange is black and successful. Terry Quinn is white and barely holding on. Now Strange has been hired to investigate a police shooting in which Quinn played a major role. For Strange, a savvy and careful man, the investigation goes against his style and instinct. For Terry Quinn, Strange's questions are a chance to absolve his conscience and shake out a little truth. But in a city that lives in the shadow of a nation's dream, neither man can foresee the dirty little war that will break out around them . . . or how deadly being right can be.




Title: By the Light of the Moon
Author: Dean Koontz

Dylan O'Conner is a gifted young artist just trying to do the right thing in life. He's on his way to an arts festival in Santa Fe when he stops to get a room for himself and his twenty-year-old autistic brother, Shep. But in a nightmarish instant, Dylan is attacked by a mysterious "doctor," injected with a strange substance, and told that he is now a carrier of something that will either kill him. . .or transform his life in the most remarkable way. Then he is told that he must flee -- before the doctor's enemies hunt him down for the secret circulating through his body.

No one can help him, the doctor says, not even the police.

Stunned, disbelieving, Dylan is turned loose to run for his life. . . and straight into an adventure that will turn the next twenty-four hours into an odyssey of terror, mystery -- and wondrous discovery.

It is a journey that begins when Dylan and Shep's path intersects with that of Jillian Jackson. Before that evening Jilly was a beautiful comedian whose biggest worry was whether she would ever find a decent man. Now she too is a carrier. And even as Dylan tries to convince her that they'll be safer sticking together, cold-eyed men in a threatening pack of black Suburbans approach, only seconds before Jilly's classic Coupe DeVille explodes into thin air.

Now the three are on the run together, but with no idea whom they're running from -- or why. Meanwhile Shep has begun exhibiting increasingly disturbing behaviour. And whatever it is that's coursing through their bodies seems to have plunged them into one waking nightmare after another. Seized by sinister premonitions, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to crime scenes -- just minutes before the crimes take place.

What this unfathomable power is, how they can use it to stop the evil erupting all around them, and why they have been chosen are only parts of a puzzle that reaches back into the tragic past and the dark secrets they all share: secrets of madness, pain, and untimely death. Perhaps the answer lies in the eerie, enigmatic messages that Shep, with precious time running out, begins to repeat, about a man who does his work "by the light of the moon."

(all book descriptions were taken from back covers or book jackets)

Purchased Pages and a Giveaway!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet Brad Thor at an author visit to our local library. The following is a repost of that visit:

Then, on Saturday, I got to meet Brad Thor, also a New York Times bestselling author - this time of thrillers, or I would call them political thrillers. Even though he was up for the Thriller of the Year award last night at Thriller Fest in NYC - he opted to come to our little ole library to continue his tour for his latest book - The Apostle. (The award went to Jeffrey Deaver for The Bodies Left Behind).

He was a great speaker and we got to hear about what pushed/enabled him to write his first novel, The Lions of Lucerne. His wife had asked him one evening (as they were drinking wine in Italy no less) that if he were on his deathbed, would there be any one thing that he would regret. He said he would regret never writing and publishing a novel. She told him then, that when they returned home, he needed to take 2 hours of time - everyday - and get busy, and she would do whatever it took to enable him to do that. (Behind every good man is a good woman you know!) And that is how The Lions of Lucerne was born. Since then he has written seven more novels.

He also entertained us with stories about his research for his last novel, The Apostle. He actually spent time with a Black Ops group in Afghanistan to learn how they would go about "recovering" someone who might be kidnapped. After he left Afghanistan, NYTimes reporter David Rohde was kidnapped by the Taliban, and the Black OPS group that he traveled with were the ones sent in to try to find him. (Mr Rohde has since escaped the Taliban last month after 7 months in captivity and is apparently in good health.) Mr. Thor said that was probably his scariest research he has ever done for a book. He also has a fun website full of pictures and information about his books - www.bradthor.com. I forgot my camera for this one - but the photographer for the library was nice enough to take our picture and will be emailing it later this week - so I will share it at that time.

I picked up a copy of his last book - The Last Patriot - and had it signed to giveaway to one of my readers.

I want to take the opportunity now to giveaway this book that I purchased and to share with you some of his other books that I either purchased that afternoon, or picked up through paperback swap since then.

The giveaway is for 2008 release - The Last Patriot - and it is autographed.

About the book: June 632 A.D.: The prophet Mohammed shares a final and startling revelation. Within days, he is assassinated. September 1789: Thomas Jefferson uncovers a conspiracy that could change the face of Islam. Present day: Men still kill to keep the secret hidden. When a car bomb explodes outside a Parisian cafe, counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is thrust back into the life he has tried desperately to leave behind. In a race to uncover an ancient secret with the power to stop militant Islam, Harvath will risk everything to reclaim Mohammed's final revelation and defeat one of the deadliest evils the world has ever known. (from the back cover)

Easy to enter giveaway - just leave me a comment as to why you would like to win this book with your email address. Giveaway will end Aug 14. Only open to U.S. (sorry guys - this is out of pocket for me)

Other books that I have purchased this month by Brad Thor:

Title: The Lions of Lucerne

I got this book from Paperback Swap.

About the book: On the snow-covered slopes of Utah, the unthinkable has happened: The President of the United States has been kidnapped and his Secret Service detail massacred. Only one agent has survived - ex-Navy SEAL Scot Harvath. He doesn't buy the official line that Middle Eastern terrorists are responsible, and begins his own campaign to find the truth - and exact revenge. But his search makes him a marked man by the sinister cabal behind the attack.

Framed for murder by the conspirators, Harvath goes on the run, taking the fight to the towering mountains of Switzerland. There, he finds an unlikely ally: the beautiful Claudia Mueller of the Swiss Federal Attorney's Office. Together they must brave the subzero temperatures and sheer heights of treacherous Mount Pilatus - and their only chance for survival is to enter the den of the most lethal team of professional killers the world has ever known. . .(from the back cover)

Title: Path of the Assassin

I bought this at the author visit and had it autographed to me!
About the book: After rescuing the President from the kidnappers, Navy SEAL-turned-Secret Service agent Scot Harvath's bloody and twisting mission of revenge leads to one man: Hashim Nidal. Having assembled an internationalleague of Islamic terrorist networks in an ingenious plot to topple both Israel and America, Nidal must be immobilized. But Harvath and his CIA-led team have no idea what the man looks like and must recruit a woman who survived a brutal hijacking, the only person who can positively identify their quarry. From the burning deserts of North Africa to the winding streets of Rome, Scot Harvath's hunt for a ruthless madman has the world's survival at stake. (from the back cover)





Title: The Apostle

This is his latest book - I also purchased this one at the visit and had it autographed, too.

About the book: Every politician has a secret. And when the daughter of a politically connected family is kidnapped abroad, America's new president will agree to anything - even a deadly and ill-advised rescue plan - in order to keep his secret hidden.

A new administration and a new approach to dealing with America's enemies have left covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath without a job. But when American doctor Julia Gallo is kidnapped in Afghanistan, the terms of her ransom leave the president with only one course of action.

In a dangerous assignment that the United States government will deny any knowledge of, Scot Harvath must secretly infiltrate Kabul's notorious Policharki Prison and free the man the kidnappers demand as ransom --al-Qaoda mastermind Mustafa Khan.

But when Harvath arrives, he quickly learns that there is more to the kidnapping than anyone dares to admit. And as the subterfuge is laid bare, Harvath must examine his own career of hunting down and killing terrorists, and ask himself if he has what it takes to help one of the world's worst go free.

Brimming with the kind of ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity Brad Thor's internationally bestselling novels are known for, The Apostle doubles down on the blockbuster uccess of The Last Patriot and reaffirms Thor's status as the master of the political thriller. (from the book jacket)

His other books include State of the Union, Blowback, Takedown and The First Commandment.

Friday Finds 7-10-2009 and a Tome Traveler

Here are my finds this week! (I am late posting because I got to go to an author talk today at our library - look for a post on it soon along with a signed giveaway and bag!)

The Twilight Before Christmas by Christine Feehan

I had seen a book earlier this week - Fever by Christine Feehan and so when I saw this book at our library's used book store, I had to buy it. I discovered it was the second book in the Drake Sisters series - see below for entire list. It sounds like it will read well alone though. Has anybody read this series?


About the book: Bestselling novelist Kate Drake is one of seven sisters gifted with amazing powers of witchcraft. Returning home in time for her northern California town's annual Christmas pageant, Kate catches the spirit of the season and decides to open a bookstore in a charming but run-down historic mill. Decorated former U.S. Army Ranger Matt Granite, now a local contractor, doesn't mind working in the undeniably eerie house - not if it means getting closer to Kate. There's something about the quiet, sensual woman that powerfully attracts him.



When an earthquake cracks the mill's foundation and reveals a burial crypt, Kate senses that a centuries-old evil has been unleashed. . .and that it's coming after her. Though Matt vows to guard her from dusk till dawn, Kate knows she will have to summon all of her and her sisters' powers to battle the darkness threatening to destroy both Christmas and the gift of soul-searing passion her hometown hero wants her to keep forever. . .(from the back cover)

About the author: Christine Feehan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including Wild Rain and the Dark Series, as well as numerous novellas, including The Twilight Before Christmas and "After the Music" in A Very Gothic Christmas, both available from Pocket Books. She lives in Cobb, California.

Drake Sisters Series

1. Magic in the Wind
2. The Twilight Before Christmas
3. Oceans of Fire
4. Dangerous Tides
5. Safe Harbour
6. Turbulent Sea
7. Hidden Currents

What great books did you find this week?? Stop over at Should Be Reading and share yours!

Tome Travelers: Five books nabbed at library sale

I picked up five used books this morning from our library used book store for only $3.10! The two Gabaldon books are hardcover and in mint condition! Here are the books:

Title: The Fiery Cross (Outlander series, Book 5)
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Publisher/Publication Date: Dell, August 2005
ISBN: 9780440221661

About the book: In this fifth book of the "Outlander" series, time traveler Claire Randall, now firmly ensconced in the past with her daughter, Brianna, and Brianna's husband, Roger, finds herself and her dashing husband, Jamie, at a critical juncture. It is 1771, and the first stirrings of the American Revolution are being felt in the mountains of North Carolina where Jamie, despite being a Catholic, has been given an enormous tract of land by the governor and is ordered to raise a militia. Having learned about the Revolution from his 20th-century wife and daughter, Jamie uneasily complies with the governor's orders and is immensely relieved when the crisis passes and the militia is disbanded. Cynthia Johnson, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.


Title: A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander series, Book 6)
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Publisher/Publication Date: Bantam Books, April 2008
ISBN: 9780440225805

About the book: Eagerly anticipated by her legions of fans, this sixth novel in Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling Outlander saga is a masterpiece of historical fiction from one of the most popular authors of our time.

Since the initial publication of Outlander fifteen years ago, Diana Gabaldon’s New York Times–bestselling saga has won the hearts of readers the world over -- and sold more than twelve million books. Now, A Breath of Snow and Ashes continues the extraordinary story of 18th-century Scotsman Jamie Fraser and his 20th-century wife, Claire.

The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.

With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence -- with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future. (from Barnes and Noble website)


Title: Another Thing to Fall (Tess Monaghan Series #10)
Author: Laura Lippman
Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Collins, Feb 2009
ISBN: 9780061128882

About the book: When private investigator Tess Monaghan runs into a TV crew, she doesn't expect an assignment. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle. This is not Tess's world. And these are not her kind of people. But the fish-out-of-water P.I. is abruptly pulled back in by murder. Suddenly a wall of secrets is in danger of toppling, leaving a catastrophe that threatens the people Tess cares about . . . and the city she loves. (from Barnes and Noble website)




Title: Dying Breath
Author: Wendy Corsi Staub
Publisher/Publication Date: Kensington Publishing, May 2008
ISBN: 9781420101317

About the book: A SEASIDE RETREAT.

It's summer on the Jersey Shore. Children play on the beach. Husbands are off working in the city. And the surf echoes in the night. Here, in this perfect place, a serial killer has no worries in the world-except choosing the next victim.

HAS JUST BECOME.

Cam Hastings has come to Long Beach Island with her teenage daughter and the hope that maybe she can save her failed marriage. Cam has never stopped loving her husband Mike nor has she been able to outrun her flaws and demons-a vanished mother, a lost sister, and the ugly visions she has of missing children.

A KILLER'S FAVORITE PLAYGROUND.

Now, Cam is about to step over the edge. For once, she will act on one of her visions-and then face the consequences. For a killer has just struck again. And for Cam, and the people she loves most, fear has come home for good. (from Barnes and Noble website)

Title: Outer Banks
Author: Anne Rivers Siddons
Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Collins, July 1992
ISBN: 9780061099731

About the book: Elegant Kate, walking a tightrope over an abyss of lies...sensitive, sensible, self-contained Cecie...Ginger, the heiress, sexy, vibrant, richer than sin...and poor, hopeless, brilliant Fig—they came together as sorority sisters on a Southern campus in the '60s. Four young women bound by rare, blinding, early friendship—they spend two idyllic spring breaks at Nag's Head, North Carolina, the isolated strip of barrier islands where grand old weatherbeaten houses perch defiantly on the edge of a storm-tossed sea. Now thirty years later, they are coming back. They are coming back to recapture the exquisite magic of those early years...to experience again the love, the enthusiasm, the passion, pain, and cruel-betrayal that shaped the four young girls into women and set them all adrift on the...Outer Banks.
(from the Barnes and Noble website)

Tome Traveler: Dead Until Dark

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Publisher: Penguin

I received this title through Paperbackswap. I am probably the only one left that hasn't read one of the Sookie Stackhouse books. I am so excited to get the chance to read this!

About the book: Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability." She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome - and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life. . .

But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of - big surprise - murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next. . .

About the author: A native of the Mississippi Delta, Charlaine Harris grew up in a family of avid readers (her father was a teacher; her mother a librarian). She attended Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, graduating in 1973 with a degree in English and Communication Arts. Although she penned poetry and plays in school, her first serious foray into fiction was with two standalone novels, Sweet and Deadly and A Secret Rage, published (effortlessly!) in the early 1980s.

After her early success, Harris released the first installment in a series of lighthearted mysteries starring spunky, small-town Georgia librarian, true crime enthusiast, and amateur sleuth Aurora Teagarden. When Aurora debuted in Real Murders (1990), Publishers Weekly welcomed "a heroine as capable and potentially complex as P. D. James's Cordelia Gray." The book went on to receive an Agatha Award nomination.

Anxious for another challenge, Harris began a second series in 1996. Darker and edgier than the Teagarden novels, these mysteries featured taciturn, 30-something housecleaner Lily Bard, a woman with a complicated past who has moved to the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, to find peace and solitude. The first novel, Shakespeare's Landlord, was well-received. BookList raved: "Harris has created an intriguing new character in this solidly plotted story." [Much to the disappointment of her fans, Harris concluded the Lilly Bard sequence in 2001 with Shakespeare's Counselor.]

Although Harris achieved moderate success with these two series (which she laughingly describes as "cozies with teeth"), she would hit the jackpot in 2001 with Dead Until Dark, a sly, spoofy paranormal mystery starring a telepathic Louisiana cocktail waitress named Sookie Stackhouse, who falls in love with a vampire named Bill. The novel, a delightful hybrid of mystery, science fiction, and romance, was an instant hit with critics. ("Harris' Sookie has the potential to attract more readers than Hamilton's Anita Blake," raved the dark fantasy magazine Cemetery Dance.) Readers, too, adored the Southern Vampire Series and have rewarded the author with bestseller after bestseller. (In 2008, the Sookie saga came to HBO in a top-rated television adaptation, True Blood, starring Anna Paquin.)

With 2006's Grave Sight, Harris added yet another fascinating character to her stable -- a young woman named Harper Connelly whose youthful encounter with a lightning bolt has left her with the ability to find corpses and determine how they died. In addition to juggling characters and plots for her popular series, Harris has also contributed short stories and novellas to several anthologies of paranormal fantasy fiction.

Dead Until Dark
Publisher/Publication Date: Penguin, 2001
ISBN-13:978-0-441-01699-0
304 pages