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

Sunday, April 4, 2010

In My Mailbox/Mailbox Monday (April 4 and 5)

Mailbox Monday is hosted at The Printed Page . Please visit Kristi and Marcia  and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week!


Numbers
by Rachel Ward

Since the day her mother died, Jem has known about the numbers.

Numbers that pop into her head when she looks into someone's eyes. They're dates, the numbers. Dates predicting with brute accuracy each person's death.

Burdened by such grim knowledge, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. Maybe they can find happiness together, if only in the brief time that remains before his expiration date.

But on a trip to London, Jem foresees a chilling chain of events:
The city's a target.
The clock's running out.
The countdown is on to a blowup!


Maid of Murder
(An India Hayes Mystery)
by Amanda Flower
(review request from the author)

India Hayes is a lot of things. . .starving artist who pays the rent as a college librarian, daughter of liberal activists, sister of an emotional mathematician, tenant of a landlady who has kissed the Blarney Stone one too many times, and a bridesmaid six times over. But she's about to step into the most challenging role of her life: amateur sleuth.

Childhood friend and now knockout beauty, Olivia Blocken is back in town to wed her bodybuilder fiance with India a reluctant attendant. . . not just because the bridesmaid's dress is a hideous mess, but because she's betraying her brother. Mark still carries a torch for the bride who once broke his heart and sent his life into a tailspin.

When Olivia turns up dead in the Martin College fountain and the evidence points to Mark, India must unmask the real culprit while juggling a furious and grieving Mother of the Bride, an annoyingly beautiful Maid of Honor, a set of hippie-generation parents, the police detective who once dated her sister and is showing a marked liking for her, and a provost itching to fire someone, anyone -- maybe even a smart-mouthed librarian.

India's investigation leads her on a journey through childhood memories that she'd much rather have left in the schoolyard, but to avoid becoming the next victim, it is a path she must follow.

Maid of Murder is a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud mystery set in an amusing world of academia. Readers will fall in love with India Hayes' fierce loyalty and wit.




Keeper
by Kathi Appelt
(reviewing for Simon & Schuster Kid's Division)

Blue moon, magic moon. . . good for wishing.

To ten-year-old Keeper, this moon is her chance to fix all that has gone wrong. . . and so much has gone wrong.

But she knows who can make things right again: Meggie Marie, her mermaid mother who swam away when Keeper was just three. A blue moon calls the mermaids to gather at the sandbar, and that's exactly where Keeper is headed -- in a small boat, in the middle of the night, with ony her dog, BD (Best Dog), and a seagull named Captain. When the riptide pulls at the boat, tugging her away from the shore and deep into the rough waters of the Gulf of Mexico, panic sets in and the fairy tales that lured her out there go tumbling into the waves. Maybe the blue moon isn't magic and maybe the sandbar won't sparkle with mermaids, and maybe -- oh, no. . ."Maybe" is just too difficult to bear.


The Marrowbone Marble Company
by M. Glenn  Taylor
(received for review from ECCO via Shelf Awareness)

Moving from the hills of West Virginia to the islands of the Pacific and back, a sweeping novel of love and war, power and oppression, faith and deception, from the author of The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critic's Circle Award.

1941. Orphan Loyal Ledford works the swing shift tending the furnace at the Mann Glass factory in Huntington, West Virginia. He courts Rachel, the boss's daughter, a company nurse with spike straight posture and coal black hair. But when Pearl Harbor is attacked, Ledford, like so many young men of his time, sets his life on a new course. . .

Upon his return from service in the war, Ledford starts a family with Rachel, but he chafes under the authority at Mann Glass. he is a lost man, disconnected from the present and haunted by his violent past, until he meets his cousins, the Bonecutter brothers. Their land, the mysterious, elemental Marrowbone Cut, calls to Ledford, and it is there, with help from an unlikely bunch, that the Marrowbone Marble Company is slowly forged. Over the next two decades, the factory town becomes a vanguard of the civil rights movement and the war on poverty, a home for those intent on change. Such a home inevitably invites trouble, and Ledford must fight for his family.

Returning to the West Virginia territory of his critically acclaimed Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, M. Glenn Taylor recounts the transformative journey of a man and his community. Told in clean and powerful prose in the tradition of Cormac McCarthy and John Irving, The Marrowbone Marble Company takes a harrowing look at the issues of race and class throughout the tumultuous 1950s and '60s. It is a story of struggle and loss, righteousness and redemption, and it can only be found in the hills of Marrowbone, in the deft storytelling of M. Glenn Taylor.



Alexandra, Gone
by Anna McPartlin
(reviewing for Simon & Schuster Gallery Books)

Letting go for good. . .

Once, Jane Moore and Alexandra Walsh were inseparable, sharing secrets and stolen candy, plotting their futures together. But when Jane became pregnant at seventeen, they drifted slowly apart. Jane has spent the years since raising her son, now seventeen himself, on her own, running a gallery, managing her sister's art career, and looking after their volatile mother -- all the while trying not to resent the limited choices life has give her.

Then a quirk of fate and a faulty elevator bring Jane into contact with Tom, Alexandra's husband, who has some shocking news. Alexandra disappeared from a south Dublin suburb months ago, and Tom has been searching fruitlessly for her. Jane offers to help, as do the elevator's other passengers -- Jane's brilliant but self-absorbed sister, Elle, and Leslie Sheehan, a reclusive web designer who's ready to step back into the world again. And as Jane quickly realizes, Tom isn't the only one among them who's looking for something. . .or traveling toward unexpected revelations about love, life, and what it means to let go, in every sense.

In this insightful and irresistible novel, by turns profound, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, acclaimed Irish writer Anna McPartlin tells a story of friendship and love, of the families we are born into and the ones we create for ourselves, and of the hope and strength that remain when we find the courage to leave the past behind at last.



Necessary Heartbreak
by Michael J. Sullivan
(reviewing for Simon & Schuster Gallery Books)

An extraordinary journey back in time shows a struggling single dad that the faith he's lost is still alive -- and stronger than ever. . .

Michael Stewart has weathered his share of hardships: a troubled childhood, the loss of his mother, even the degradation of living on the city streets. Now he's raising his teenaged daughter, Elizabeth, on his own and doing the best he can at work and at home. But he's turned his back on his faith -- that is, until the morning Michael and Elizabeth volunteer for a food pantry at their local church.  While storing boxes in the basement, they step through a mysterious door. . . and find themselves in first-century Jerusalem during the tumultuous last week of Jesus Christ's life. It is a dangerous and violent place, where doing what your heart tells you is right can get you imprisoned -- or worse -- and they are thankful to take refuge with a kind widow. But when they come face-to-face with Judas Iscariot and the condemned Christ himself, Michael realizes that before they can escape Jerusalem, he must experience history's most necessary and shattering heartbreak -- and that pain and loss must happen if Michael is to be set free: to live, love, and reclaim the blessings he has in the present day.


Three Wishes
by Carey Goldberg, Beth Jones, and Pamela Ferdinand
(reviewing for Hachette Books)

The true story of best friends who find that the moment they stop waiting for fairy-tale endings, their "happily ever afters" begin.

Carey, Beth, and Pam, all successful journalists, have good luck in friends, but terrible luck in relationships. Which makes it more difficult to get what they truly desire: children. And time is running out.

After years of chasing headlines from Manhattan to Moscow, Carey returns home and is the first to abandon the traditional path to motherhood. She decides to go it alone, finds the perfect anonymous donor, and buys eight vials of his sperm. Maybe it's newfound confidence from taking control of her destiny. Maybe it's sheer coincidence. But on the day the vials arrive, she meets a man online. They fall in love. And she gets pregnant the old-fashioned way.

Carey passes the vials, like a talisman to Beth, who has recovered from a wrenching divorce, a predatory lawyer, and poor choices made by unscrupulous financiers. But before she can use the vials, Beth meets a man on an ice-climbing trip. She too falls in love.  And gets pregnant. So she gives the vials to Pam, an eternal romantic. Pam will never stop searching for the love of her life, but she's ready to be a single mother. Then the magic strikes again. Her wish is fulfilled at an observatory under the stars.

Is it lucky sperm? Kismet? Or shared hope, determination, and resilience that pave the way to these happy endings?  Despite soured relationships and crushing losses, three women become three families, reveling in the shared joys of love, friendship, and never giving up.


 



Code Blue
(Prescription for Trouble Series)
by Richard L. Mabry, MD
(For a First Wild Card Tour)

Who wants Dr. Cathy Sewell dead?

For Dr. Cathy Sewell, Code Blue means more than just the cardiac emergencies she faces -- it's the state of her life when the return to her hometown doesn't bring the peace she so desperately needs.

The town doctors resent the fact that she's not only a newcomer but also a woman, and the devastating results from one of her prescriptions may mean the end of her practice.

As two men compete for affection, an enemy wants her out of town -- or possibly even dead.

What great books did you get this week?

Saturday, April 3, 2010

First Two Books in the Beldon Grove Series by Ann Shorey (Book Reviews)


Title: The Edge of Light (Book One in the Beldon Grove Series)
Author: Ann Shorey
Publisher: Revell/Baker

About the book: It is the summer of 1838 in St. Lawrenceville, Missouri, and Molly McGarvie's life is about to change forever. When her beloved Samuel succumbs to cholera, Molly is heartbroken but resolves to take care of herself and her children.

When Samuel's unscrupulous brother takes over the family business and leaves Molly to fend for herself, she knows she must head out on her own. It is a dangerous journey, and along the way she must face the loss of another family member. Somehow she must find a way to make a living, restore her family, and fend off some overeager suitors.

My thoughts: We meet Molly and her family just as her husband is returning home ill - he dies within the week and leaves Molly, pregnant, and with 3 other children.  Molly, knowing she has to keep things together for her children, expects to take over her husband's brickyard - but her brother-in-law shows her papers that says his brother willed it all to him if he died.  Molly can't believe it, but in 1838 there wasn't much a woman could do to fight it.  She sends word to her brother Matthew, a pastor in Illinois, that she needs a place to stay.  Along with Dr. Karl Spengler, they travel to move Molly and her family back to Illinois.  Molly is forced to leave Betsy, a friend since childhood, but also her slave, behind - again because of her brother-in-law.  She vows that she will save enough money to "buy" her back and bring her to Illinois.

Tragedy strikes along the way, and Molly loses a child even as another is born.  Her daughter Lily is born just after they cross the river into Illinois.  Molly blames Karl for her loss, and can hardly bring herself to look him in the eye.  Once in Beldon Grove Molly strives to find a place of her own and raise enough money to buy Betsy.  She needs Betsy so she can go look for her lost child.  She believes him to be alive, even though everyone else is sure he is dead.

Even though everything seems to be against her, I felt that Molly never gave up hope.  She kept striving to take care of her family, and kept the thought that her child was still alive - even though she had to keep this to herself as everyone pretty much thought she was crazy. She eventually learns a hard lesson where Karl is concerned and learns about the value of forgiveness.

I love reading about this era in our country.  I don't want to say that life was simpler, as people definitely had a lot more work - from baking bread to the way they did the laundry to plowing the fields - but the values were different.  God and family were truly valued.  You had what you needed and not a lot of excess.  Material things didn't cloud peoples values or lives.  I think this book shows how hard frontier life was, yet the riches could be very great.







Title: The Promise of Morning (Book 2 in the Beldon Grove series)
Author: Ann Shorey
Publisher: Revell/Baker

About the book: Life in Beldon Grove on the Illinois frontier in the 1840's isn't easy. For Ellie Craig, the graves of her three infant children make it unbearably lonely, despite the love of her husband Matthew. When she uncovers a family secret that suggests she may not be as alone as she thought, Ellie is determined to find the truth.

Meanwhile, Matthew Craig faces controversy in the church he pastors when a man arrives in town claiming to be both a minister and the son of the town's founder.  Will Matthew find the courage to reclaim his church? Or will he return to itinerant preaching, leaving Ellie even more alone than before?

My thoughts:  This book picks up about 7 years after the first one ends.  This time, the focus is on Matthew - Molly's brother - and his wife Ellie.  They have lost 3 children in succession and Matthew feels he has lost a little of Ellie with each child.  Add to that the arrival of a man claiming to be the son of the founder of Beldon Grove.  He feels as if he is "entitled" to the town - that it is his inheritance.  He also claims to be a preacher, which steps on the Matthew's toes as he has worked a long time to establish the only church in Beldon Grove.

As he and his wife drift further apart, Ellie makes a startling discovery about his family that causes her trust in what she knows to weaken.  Matthew, no longer being able to lean on Ellie, feels he must leave his church due to certain townspeople not believing he should be a preacher.  This causes him to doubt his calling and he sets out to resign.  Instead he returns to being an itinerant preacher and widens the gap with Ellie, as this leaves her alone even more.

I am enjoying this series immensely and am looking forward to To Number the Stars, which sounds like it is going to focus on one of Molly's daughters.

~The Edge of Light was borrowed from my local library, but I want to thank Baker Publishing for the complimentary copy of The Promise of Morning.~

The Edge of Light
Publisher/Publication Date: Baker Publishing, Jan 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8007-3330-8
318 pages

The Promise of Morning
Publisher/Publication Date: Baker Publishing, Mar 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8007-333-9
322 pages

Friday, April 2, 2010

A Touch of Scandal by Jennifer Haymore (Book Review)


A Touch of Scandal
by Jennifer Haymore

The last thing Garrett, Duke of Calton, expects to find while tracking his sworn enemy is the delectable, mysterious Kate. This beautiful servant girl rouses a longing the battle-scarred ex-soldier had never hoped to feel again. But when she turns out to be the sister of the man he seeks, he's convinced he's been betrayed.

Kate knows her duty to her family, yet how can she ignore Garrett's powerful pull on her heart? Or the heady temptation of his stolen -- and sizzling -- kisses? Scandal has followed the duke since the war. Now the greatest shock of all is on its way -- the one that can separate Garrett and Kate forever.

My thoughts: In A Hint of Wicked, William Fisk imprisoned Garrett for 7 years after making him lose his memory, and in so doing he lost his wife and family.  In A Touch of Scandal, Garrett is seeking revenge on Fisk.  While looking for him, he meets Kate - only to learn that Kate is William's sister. 

Kate is torn between the man she is falling in love with and with loyalty towards her family.  I am not sure why she feels so loyal to her family though, as they treat her so poorly.  She is actually employed by William and his wife Lady Rebecca, who isn't even aware that she is William's sister! 

I really like the relationship between Kate and Garrett - you know, the kind of relationship where the underdogs might finally come out on top.  I was hoping for them and hurting with them the entire way. 

~I was provided this book for review by Hachette Books.~

A Touch of Scandal
Publisher/Publication Date: Grand Central Publishing, Apr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-54027-8
400 pages

An Absence so Great by Jane Kirkpatrick (Book Review)


An Absence So Great
by Jane Kirkpatrick

Did photography replace an absence in her life or expose the truth of her heart's emptiness?

While growing in confidence as a photographer, eighteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele's personal life is at a crossroads. Hoping she's put an unfortunate romantic longing behind her as "water under the bridge," she exiles herself to Milwaukee to operate photographic studios for those owners who have fallen ill with mercury poisoning.

Jessie gains footing in her dream to one day operate her own studio and soon finds herself in other Midwest towns, pursuing her profession. But even a job she loves can't keep painful memories from seeping into her heart when the shadows of a forbidden love threaten to darken the portrait of her life.

My thoughts:  This book was ok, but not really what I expected.  It is a partially fictionalized account of the author's grandmother.  It was interesting in it's portrayal of women in the early 1900's, especially those who wanted to pursue avenues outside of the traditional wife and family, and how they were perceived by society.  At the same time, it just didn't feel like a happy book.  I know, not all books have to be happy - but you must admit that generally it is more fun to read a book that makes you feel happy.

Being the second book in the series, it took me awhile to get caught up in the story line.  Evidently in the first book, A Flickering Light, Jessie was caught up in an inappropriate relationship with her employer, Fred Bauer.  He was 26 years older than her and married.  An Absence So Great picks up the story a few years later, after she has moved to the Milwaukee area.  She is looking to save enough money to open up her own studio and to forget about the indescretions in her past.  Even though she has the opportunity to work at several different studios, she seems unable to shake her relationship with Fred, who seems to not be able to stay away from her.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.



An Absence So Great
Publisher/Publication Date: WaterBrook Press, March 2010
ISBN: 978-1-57856-981-6
383 pages







Thursday, April 1, 2010

BIRTHDAY BASH GIVEAWAY - Part 2!

MyHotComments.com
(Ok - I couldn't find anything that said it's MY birthday - and I loved the dancing mouse!)




I never did make it back here yesterday to post a list of books or set up any rules!  So let's start with the books!

The Cost of Dreams
Nibble & Kuhn
Stray Affections (A Snowglobe Connections Novel)
Touched by a Vampire: Discovering the Hidden Messages in the Twilight Saga
Messages to Myself: Overcoming a Distorted Self-Image
Family Plots: Love, Death & Tax Evasion
Saint John of the Five Boroughs
Bo's Café: A Novel
Comes a Horseman
Never the Bride: A Novel
The Castaways (Platinum Fiction)
Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life
Lost Mission (Christian Mystery Series)
Daniel's Den
Painting the Invisible Man
Spiced: A Pastry Chef's True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen
Blue Jean Baby: One Girl's Trip Through The 1960s L.A. Music Scene (Paperback)
Ms. Taken Identity
White Picket Fences (Christian Fiction Series)
The Confidential Life of Eugenia Cooper: A Novel
Surviving High Society - Lots of Love Trumps Lots of Money
Sugar Time
Hot and Irresistible
Gold of Kings (Christian Mystery)
Jesse's Girl

I will be adding to this list, but this is all I have time for now.

Following books added April 4th
Ravens by George Dawes Green
Abbeville by Jack Fuller
A Better View of Paradise: A Novel by Randy Sue Coburn
Chosen by Desire (The Guardians of Destiny) by Kate Perry
Love You to Death by Shannon Butcher
THE PERUKE MAKER: The Salem Witch Hunt Curse by Ruby Dominguez
Ginger High by Melissa Burmester
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything: A Novel by Janelle Brown
Rion (Pendragon Legacy, Book 2) by Susan Kearney
Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pineiro
To Desire a Devil (The Legend of the Four Soldiers) by Elizabeth Hoyt
Thirsty: A Novel by Tracey Bateman
The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malott
Lucan (Pendragon Legacy) by Susan Kearney

I think we will have 5 winners - The first winner can pick 5 books, second winner 4 books, third winner 3 books, fourth winner 2 books, fifth winner 1 book.  If my followers grow - I will definitely add more winners!  And don't worry - I have another list of books a little longer than the one above to post!  Spread the word - I would love to increase the winners and get rid of clean off some more shelves!

And I am sorry - but this must be limited to US only.

To enter:  Must do this for all other comments to count - just tell me what your first choice book would be (don't worry, you don't have to keep it if I list a better one for you later!)  Please leave your email address also.

You can also do the following - but leave separate comments for each - Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect (2 entries - leave 2 comments).  If you already follow through Google friend - that works too.

Twitter - leave link - 1 entry - can do daily.

Individual blog post - 4 entries (leave 4 comments) - leave link

Blog post [not by itself] or on sidebar - 2 entries (2 comments) - leave link

Giveaway will end in 2 weeks - on Tax Day!   (April 15) 

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