It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday November 17, 2014

This meme starts at Book Journey!

What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

This has been a nice week getting settled back at home. Playing some catch-up at work and relaxing with my DH at home. 

You might see that I have made a change in this post. I have combined IMWAYR (this weekly post) with Monday Mailbox since many of the people do both and so it might make it easier to comment just once. :-).

Surprisingly I had a good week of reading. Some was nearly done last week. I finished four books and am almost done another.  I posted three reviews, one with tour giveaway and one with guest post.  I did get all the usual memes posted this week. 

I didn't get to visit last week. My internet kept going off mid evening so I was going to bed early.
Thanks as always to all the nice people who visit me.

These were last week's posts:

• It's Monday! What are You Reading? November 10, 2014.

• Mailbox Monday November 3, 2014.

• Book Review and Tour Giveaway: Peace & Goodwill: a contemporary romance, a Christmas Novella (The Minstrel Series Book 4) by Lee Strauss; Contemporary Romance, Christmas Novella; my rating 4.25. Ends 11/18/14.

• Book Review: What a Lady Needs for Christmas (MacGregor Series) by Grace Burrowes; Historical Romance; my rating 4.5.

• Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway November 14, 2014.  Open Worldwide. Ends 11/20/14.

• Book Review: Louisiana Fever by D. J. Donaldson; Forensic Mystery; my rating 4.5. 

• Guest Post by D. J. Donaldson: A Forensic/Medical Author’s Take on Ebola and the CDC.

• Sharing Beyond Books #177 Comment Giveaway 11/15/14; Open Worldwide. Ends 11/22/14.

• Sunday Words of Encouragement November 15, 2014.
  

Finished Reading:
1. eBook/Kiindle

Peace & Goodwill: a contemporary romance, a Christmas Novella (The Minstrel Series Book 4)
by Lee Strauss
This was lovely. My review and a tour giveaway is linked above.
Click on book title for full description.

2. Audio Book/MP3

Falling Up: Hours
This is distinctly different. 
I will post a review this coming week. 

3. eBook/Kindle

Louisiana Fever
by D.J. Donaldson
I really liked this! My review and a special Guest Post are linked above.
Click on book title for full description.

4. Print

The Mystery of the Shemitah: The 3,000-Year-Old Mystery That Holds the Secret of America's Future, the World's Future, and Your Future!
by Jonathan Cahn
I really found this interesting.
Ladies Book Club was postponed until Saturday 11/22. I will post my review and giveaway then.
Click on book title for full description.

Currently reading:

1. Audio/MP3

WARP Book 1: The Reluctant Assassin (W.A.R.P.)
by Eoin Colfer
I am enjoying this rather dark time travel sci fi.
Received through SYNC 2014 Summer audios.
Publisher's Summary
Riley, a teen orphan boy living in Victorian London, has had the misfortune of being apprenticed to Albert Garrick, an illusionist who has fallen on difficult times and now uses his unique conjuring skills to gain access to victims' dwellings. On one such escapade, Garrick brings his reluctant apprentice along and urges him to commit his first killing. Riley is saved from having to commit the grisly act when the intended victim turns out to be a scientist from the future, part of the FBI's Witness Anonymous Relocation Program (WARP). Riley is unwittingly transported via wormhole to modern-day London, followed closely by Garrick.
In modern London, Riley is helped by Chevron Savano, a 19-year-old FBI agent sent to London as punishment after a disastrous undercover, anti-terrorist operation in Los Angeles. Together Riley and Chevie must evade Garrick, who has been fundamentally altered by his trip through the wormhole. Garrick is now not only evil, but he also possesses all of the scientist's knowledge. He is determined to track Riley down and use the timekey in Chevie's possession to make his way back to Victorian London where he can literally change the world.
©2013 Eoin Colfer (P)2013 Listening Library Audio

2. eBook/Kindle

The Red Book of Primrose House
by Marty Wingate
This has started out well. I'm enjoying the gardening while waiting for the mystery. Received through NetGalley.
Book Description
Publication Date: November 4, 2014
In Marty Wingate’s charming new Potting Shed Mystery, Texas transplant Pru Parke’s restoration of a historic landscape in England is uprooted by an ax murderer.

Pru Parke has her dream job: head gardener at an eighteenth-century manor house in Sussex. The landscape for Primrose House was laid out in 1806 by renowned designer Humphry Repton in one of his meticulously illustrated Red Books, and the new owners want Pru to restore the estate to its former glory—quickly, as they’re planning to showcase it in less than a year at a summer party.

But life gets in the way of the best laid plans: When not being happily distracted by the romantic attentions of the handsome Inspector Christopher Pearse, Pru is digging into the mystery of her own British roots. Still, she manages to make considerable progress on the vast grounds—until vandals wreak havoc on each of her projects. Then, to her horror, one of her workers is found murdered among the yews. The police have a suspect, but Pru is certain they’re wrong. Once again, Pru finds herself entangled in a thicket of evil intentions—and her, without a hatchet.

3. Print

We Are The Destroyers (We Are***Are We Book 1) 
by D. K. Lindler
I have just started this but am looking forward to it.
I received this for review from the Cadence Group.
Book Description
Publication Date: September 15, 2014
Captain Bel’lar can’t accept that he’s lived all this before.
Overconsumption is destroying his home planet, and synthetic foods are turning his people into degenerated mutants under the control of the Brotherhood of Syn. As one of the few remaining but persecuted Organs—those who still live the organic lifestyle—Bel’lar and his small crew must escape from their dying world to the semi-mythical blue-white planet. They are to discover if it is really what the prophecies say it is: a place for humanity to make a new beginning.
But the visions of his beautiful companion Ry Sing, a mystic and seer shake Bel’lar. She tells him that eons ago, Bel’lar was also faced with the burden of saving his people from their own greed. Only then he was the Great One, the sacred head of their religion. He had seen no other way to liberate them from their collision course with environmental destruction and spiritual degradation than to purify the planet in a great cataclysm… But could the horrible vision be true? Could he really have done such a thing? And what about the scriptures that predict that a man with a mark like his would be fated to purify a corrupted planet once again and free the souls?
As Bel’lar, Ry Sing and the rest of the elite team embark on their mission to save mankind, the truth of the vision begins to reveal itself, and Bel’lar’s destiny is set before him. But will he be able to avoid it this time? Or is he fated to live the vision once again?

4. Audio/MP3

Divided We Fall
Written by: Trent Reedy
Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
I spotted this in my SYNC audios so picked it for a Sci Fi listen.
Received through SYNC 2014 Summer audios.
Publisher's Summary
From the author of Words in the Dust: an actionpacked YA novel set in a frighteningly plausible near future, about what happens when the States are no longer United.
Danny Wright never thought he'd be the man to bring down the United States of America. In fact, he enrolled in the National Guard because he wanted to serve his country the way his father did. When the Guard is called up on the governor's orders to police a protest in Boise, it seems like a routine crowdcontrol mission... but then Danny's gun misfires, spooking the other soldiers and the already fractious crowd. By the time the smoke clears, 12 people are dead. The president wants the soldiers arrested. The governor swears to protect them. And as tensions build on both sides, the conflict slowly escalates toward the unthinkable: a second American civil war.
With political questions that are popular in American culture yet rare in YA fiction, and a plot that's both excitingly provocative and frighteningly plausible, Divided We Fall will be Trent Reedy's very timely YA debut.
©2014 Trent Reedy (P)2014 Scholastic Inc.

I am caught up on my daily Bible reading.
I have disciplined myself each morning to read my Bible passage before I pick up print, Kindle or mp3. I am really enjoying the reading.

November I am participating in Sci Fi Month. The first week was full of tour books but I have started some Sci Fis now.  I have three titles that are ready for review posting this coming week. 

Novenber Scheduled -
11/22 Ladies Book Club - Mystery of the Shemitah w/ Print GW (ready for review)
11/26 Sugar's Twice as Sweet: Sugar, Georgia: Book 1, by Marina Adair  w/ ebook GW

Welcome to Mailbox Monday.

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs.  This Meme started with Marcia at A Girl and Her Books (fka The Printed Page) and after a tour of hosts has returned to its permanent home at Mailbox Monday.
Thanks to the ladies sharing hosting duties: Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit and Vicki of I'd Rather Be at the Beach.
Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

This covers two weeks as I didn't post last week.
I received/selected four review titles.
I purchased four $.99 kindle titles this week as well as getting many free kindle titles.

(Although I have gotten to a couple, I still have many author requests to consider and reply to.)

Are your mailbox and TBR piles blooming?

Review Titles

I selected this title through NetGalley as it sounds beautiful and is perfect for helping to remember the true meaning of the holiday season.

Every Valley: Advent with the Scriptures of Handel's Messiah
Westminster John Knox Press
This gift-worthy book will delight and inspire classical music fans and those for whom Messiah is a beloved Christmas tradition with essays exploring the theological, historical, and pastoral implications of the Scriptures that make up Handel's Messiah.

I received the crime mystery Louisiana Fever 

for review with guest post by the author 

both of which are linked above under

What Are Your Reading.

Both of these were received from Hachette/Grand Central Forever Yours Romance line:

Sugar's Twice as Sweet: Sugar, Georgia: Book 1

by Marina Adair 

 Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Small town romance with a bad boy 

who wants to prove he is ready to settle down.

This is for tour and my review on November 26.

Home for the Holidays

A Cavanaugh Island Novella

by Rochelle Alers

Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

This Christmas novella is set in charming, Sanctuary Cove featuring popular characters from Rochelle Alers' bestselling small-town, Cavanaugh Island contemporary romance series.

Love is always in season.

This is part of tour with my review end of November or first of December.

Won

None

Purchased

I purchased four $.99 Kindle titles this week - three Christmas and one I liked the blurb and want to try:

A Legendary Christmas Boxed Set
Jan Scarbrough, Maddie James, Magdalena Scott, Janet Eaves

Starlight, Star Bright (Christmas Holiday Extravaganza)

JoAnn Durgin

Lady at Arms
Tamara Leigh, S. Hunt Schmanski

Love on Main Street: A Snow Creek Christmas

Juliet Blackwell, Rachael Herron, LGC Smith, Cecilia Gray,

Ruby Laska, Adrienne Bell, Lisa Hughey

Free

Over the past two weeks I downloaded another 98 free Kindle titles. Titles found linked through Bookbub, Bookfun, Ereader News Today, Free Par-tay, Inspired Reads, Pixel of Ink or Kindle ebooks.