Mailbox Monday (12/14)

The Mailbox Monday meme is run by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (Read by: Author & Various) (Audiobook) — I won this in a giveaway held by J_Kaye (@ J. Kaye's Book Blog).

David Foster Wallace made an art of taking readers into places no other writer even gets near. In this exuberantly acclaimed collection he combines hilarity and an escalating disquiet in stories that astonish, entertain, and expand our ideas of the pleasures that fiction can afford.

So — What books came into your house last week?

Mailbox Monday (12/7)

This is my second time participating in the Mailbox Monday meme, hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

This week felt like old times when I could afford to be active in paperbackswap and recieved several books every week. This time I recieved 5 books!

Nice Girls Don't Date Dead Men by Molly Harper, 2nd Jane Jameson book (Yes, I've read and blogged this already.  But now I have my own copy.)

Forever a Bridesmaid, Never an Undead Bride

Once a devoted children's librarian, Jane Jameson now works at a rundown occult bookstore. Once a regular gal, she's now a vampire. And instead of a bride, she's an eternal bridesmaid — which leads her to question where exactly her relationship with her irresistibly sexy sire, Gabriel, is headed. Mercurial, enigmatic, apparently commitment-phobic vampires are nothing if not hard to read. While Jane is trying to master undead dating, she is also donning the ugliest bridesmaid's dress in history at her best friend Zeb's Titanic-themed wedding. Between a freaked-out groom-to-be, his hostile werewolf in-laws, and Zeb's mother, hell-bent on seeing Jane walk the aisle with Zeb, Jane's got the feeling she's just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs.

Meanwhile, Half Moon Hollow's own Black Widow, Jane's Grandma Ruthie, has met her match in her latest fiancé. He smells like bad cheese and has a suspicious history of dead spouses. But Jane's biting her tongue. After all, would a nice girl really think she has a future with a vampire?

Where There's a Witch by Madelyn Alt, 5th Bewitching Mystery

Taking a break from her job at Enchantments, Stony Mill's finest mystical antique shop, Maggie O'Neill visits a carnival where she senses some bad spirits. And though she's Indiana's newest witch, she's learning fast that bad spirits spell big trouble.

A carnival has rolled into Stony Mill, and Maggie joins in the revelry but comes across a construction worker agruging intensely with a young woman. Later that day, the woman is found dead, and fingers point to the worker: Ty Bennett.

Ty was part of the construction crew that unexpectantly unearthed a buried cellar — along with something supernatural — during the demolition of a local church. Now it's up to Maggie to uncover the dark spiritual energy leaking into their town before it spoils everyone's fun — and to catch a murderer while she's at it.

Dial Om for Murder by Diana Killian, 2nd Mantra for Murder Mystery

As the owner of Sacred Balance yoga studio, A.J. Alexander has learned to embrace her newfound happiness — until some local diva drama shocks her chakra...

A.J. has two A-list students in her yoga studio, but these divas are enough to drain her sanity. Leading actress Nicole Manning and reality-show star Barbie Siragusa are not only divas, but vicious rivals. A.J. tries her best to keep the peace, but when she finds Nicole in a permanent corpse pose, all fingers point to Barbie.

Nudged into investigating by her mother — and despite the objections of her new detective boyfriend — A.J. is determined to find the true culprit. It's going to take some really deep digging — and deep breathing — to wade through all this celebrity dirt. But A.J's not about to let the camera crews, the paparazzi, or a cold-blooded murderer disrupt her hard-earned inner peace.

Real Vampires Don't Diet by Gerry Bartlett, 4th Glory St. Clair book

EVEN AFTER FOUR HUNDRED YEARS, DON'T BE SURPRISED IF YOUR BOYFRIEND STILL MANAGES TO DISAPPOINT YOU...

Gloriana St. Clair, curvy, stylish, undead, is spending New Year’s Eve alone. And all because her boyfriend, Jeremy Blade, is traipsing off to parts unknown to rescue his supposed daughter from the clutches of “dangerous radicals.”

Just as Glory settles down to subject her telpathic dog, Valdez, to an evening of chick flicks, she gets a call from the bodyguard of finished inimitable and newly turned vamp Israel “Ray” Caine. Like most guests at a New Year’s party, Ray is well on his way to being drunk off his butt, despite the fact that alcohol and turned vampires don’t exactly mix.

Glory speeds over to the party to save Ray from himself, and finds the rock star more depressed than drunk. To take his mind off his vamp issues, she asks him for a late- night boat ride. What kind of trouble could they possibly run into out in the middle of a lake late at night?

Stakes & Stilettos by Michelle Rowen, 4th Immortality Bites book

Staked, cursed, and still single...

Newly vamped Sarah Dearly wants her normal life back, but fate is fighting against her. She tries to get a regular job and gets staked in the interview, only to be rescued by a masked vampire who calls himself the Red Devil. Then a wallflower-turned-witch curses her, making her a bloodthirsty, sun-allergic nightwalker — the worst vampire there is. As if all that weren't enough, she can't get married because her 600-year-old boyfriend, Thierry, is in a centuries-long marriage of convenience he can't escape.

...it's enough to make a girl start biting.

As Sarah's nightwalker tendencies make her more dangerous, even to those she loves, she'll have to counteract that curse, unmask the increasingly intriguing Red Devil, and get a commitment from her man. But if that's what it takes to secure her happiness, Sarah is ready...even if it means embracing her inner vamp to do it.

So — What books came into your house last week?

Mailbox Monday (11/30)

This is my second time participating in the Mailbox Monday meme, hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Through a virtual box on paperbackswap, I recieved:

Bloodline by Fiona Mountain, 2nd Genealogical Mystery

Still struggling to find the elusive roots of her own heritage, genealogist Natasha Blake has a passion for history, locating the links between the living and the dead, and uncovering their secrets....

Life in the past lane speeds up for Natasha when one of her clients, Charles Seagrove, is murdered. A wealthy old eccentric, Seagrove was obsessed with the bloodline of his granddaughter's fiance, John Hellier. Although Natasha didn't find any smoking guns, something in her report must have been ancestrally incorrect. Seagrove declared he'd rather be dead than related to the Helliers — a wish that was granted.

Feeling that her work led to Seagrove's death, Natasha shakes some family trees for answers, but only uncovers seemingly unrelated events. German and British soldiers fraternizing in No Man's Land on Christmas Eve, 1914. Two free-spirited local girls who disappeared after a scandal during World War II. And a bizarre anonymous letter that may explain why Charles Seagrove's blue blood was shed in such a cold-blooded way...

So — What books came into your house last week?

Mailbox Monday (11/16) - My First!!!

This is my first time participating in the Mailbox Monday meme, hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

This week, in the mail, I recieved:

Covet by J.R. Ward (Jessica Bird) - I won this in a giveaway held by Fiction Vixen.

Redemption isn't a word Jim Heron knows much about — his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel and is charged with saving the souls of seven people from the seven deadly sins. And failure is not an option.

Vin diPietro has surrendered himself to his business — until fate intervenes in the form of a tough-talking. Harley-riding, self-professed savior, and a woman who makes him question his destiny. With an ancient evil ready to claim him, Vin has to work with a fallen angel not only to win his beloved over...but to redeem his very soul.

So — What books came into your house last week?