In My Mailbox 149

This meme was started by Kristi of The Story Siren who was inspired by Alea from Pop Culture Junkie. Check out their blogs for more information. All summaries are from the book jackets unless otherwise stated.

This is for the past few weeks as I had a blog tour last Sunday. I got some books that I’m seriously excited for.

 For review:

By Any Other Name – Laura Jarratt

I picked up the book and thumbed through the pages.

Names in alphabetical order, names with meanings, names I knew, names I’d never heard of.

How to pick? Nothing that would stand out, nothing that would link me to the past – those were the instructions.

The past. As if everything that had gone before this moment was buried already.

New girl, new school, new home, new life – everything about Holly is new. That’s the point of witness protection; nobody knows the truth. But one wrong move will put her whole family in danger...

Yay! I loved Skin Deep so I can’t wait to read this. Thanks Electric Monkey!

Death – KJ Wignall

Book three of the Mercian trilogy

I am pestilence and plague, war and turmoil. I am what you fear when the night is dark, I am the shiver you feel in your spine when you least expect it. I am the dreams from which you awake full of dread. I am the dreams from which one day you fear you will never wake at all. I am death, and you will know me soon enough.

The sorcerer Wyndham is set to destroy Will before he can achieve his destiny, but the bigger challenge facing the vampire Earl of Mercia is finding a way through the laze of prophecies laid down for him, to a future that is good.

As the barriers to the underworld fall around him, only one thing is clear – the choices will not be easy for Will, or for Eloise...

I actually haven’t read the first two books, so if you want this, let me know. Thanks Electric Monkey!

The Madman’s Daughter – Megan Shepherd

To uncover the truth means risking it all...

London, 1894. Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumours about her father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns her father is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she s determined to find out if the accusations were true.

Yet what she finds on the island is twisted beyond all imagining, and out of her father’s control. As the island rapidly descends into chaos, she must escape the horrors of her father’s creations, but not before she discovers the true extent of her father’s genius – and madness – in her own blood.

I loved The Island of Doctor Moreau so I’m really intrigued to see how this is.

The lovely boy with the gorgeous Northern accent who lives in my old house dropped over some packages that arrived there. I thought these had gone missing!

Shards & Ashes – ed. Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong

Gripping original stories of dystopian worlds from nine bestselling authors, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong.

The world is gone, destroyed by human, ecological or supernatural causes. Survivors dodge chemical warfare and cruel gods; they travel the reaches of space and inhabit underground caverns. Their enemies are disease, corrupt corporations and one another; their resources are few, and their courage is tested.

Powerful, original dystopian tales from nine bestselling authors offer bleak insight, prophetic visions and precious glimmers of light among the shards and ashes of a ruined world.

Stories from: Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, Kami Garcia, Nancy Holder, Melissa Marr, Beth Revis, Veronica Roth, Carrie Ryan and Margaret Stohl.

I love nearly all of these authors so I can’t wait to get stuck in! Thanks HarperCollins!

Etiquette & Espionage – Gail Carriger

It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time.

Welcome to finishing school.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial t her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners, and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrols Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies for Quality.

But Sophronia soon realises the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine’s young ladies learn to finish...everything. certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion and espionage – in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year’s education...

I adore the sound of this. Thanks Atom!

Infinite Sky – CJ Flood

When Iris’s mum leaves home, her brother, Sam, goes off the rails and her dad is left trying to hold it all together. So when a family of travellers sets up camp illegally in front of their farm, it’s the catalyst for a stand-off that can only end in disaster. But to Iris it’s an adventure. She secretly strikes up a friendship with the gypsy boy, Trick, and discovers that home can be something as simple as a carved-out circle in a field full of corn...

I’m very excited to read this, though I know it’s going to break my heart! Thanks S&S!

I also received Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Atom), Neferet’s Curse by PC and Kristin Cast (Atom), The Queen in Dead by Kate Locke (Orbit) and a finished copy of The Hit by Melvin Burgess (Chicken House).

Bought:

The Casual Vacancy – JK Rowling

A big novel about a small town...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the Parish Council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph I an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is JK Rowling’s first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

This is now SIGNED by the one and only JKR. I KNOW.

Won:

Illuminate – Aimee Agresti

The captivating, romantic, and suspenseful saga of a teen’s discovery of her extraordinary destiny.

Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything changes when she is awarded a prestigious internship at a posh Chicago hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing young Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called the Outfit.

As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?

I won a quiz in a class taken by the awesome CJ Skuse and this was the only book in the prize stack that I didn’t have/wanted! Thanks CJ!

The Vincent Brothers – Abbi Glines

Smouldering Sawyer Vincent is in a bad way after his break-up with Ashton Gray. Losing the girl he dreamed of marrying is bad enough, but to lose her to his brother Beau is plain humiliating.

But Sawyer won’t be alone for long – not if Ashton’s cousin Lana has her way. Lana’s grown up to be a femme fatale and she wants Sawyer, real bad.

But deep down, will Lana ever feel good enough to compete with Ashton in Sawyer’s eyes? She’s red hot, but inside, Lana’s still the shy geeky girl she used to be.

Lana’s gonna need all her sexy powers of persuasion to make this gorgeous Vincent boy her man...

I have a strange relationship with these books... Thanks Lynsey!

I also won a copy of Underworld by Meg Cabot. I haven’t read the first one yet so I’m not going to put the summary up! Thanks Emma!

Sophie