It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday January 5, 2015

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.

I had another good week with a couple of days off. I am excited for good things in 2015. How about you? 
This coming week is supposed to be cold so we are laying in the firewood and getting ready to hunker down. I hope everyone else stays snug and warm.

Reading was good. I really enjoyed my first two reads of 2015.  I finished five books and posted three reviews. I also posted my usual memes along with several challenge posts. 

I enjoyed visiting on Monday and Wednesday. I hope to keep it up.
Thanks as always to all the nice people who visit me.

These were last week's posts:

• It's Monday! What are You Reading? Plus Mailbox Monday December 29, 2014.

• Book Review: The Advent Bride by Mary Connealy; Historical Romance; my rating 4.5.

• Winners For December Giveaways!

• Audible Book Review: Dreamer's Pool: Blackthorn & Grim, Book 1 by Juliet Marillier; Fantasy; my rating 5.0.

• The Official 2015 TBR Pile Challenge

• The TBR Double Dog Dare

• First Book of the Year 2015

• MBS 2014 Reading List

• 2015 Audiobook Challenge

• Full House Reading Challenge 2015

• 2015 Netgalley Reading Challenge

• 2015 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge

• MBS Best of 2014 Reading List

• Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway January 2, 2015. Open Worldwide. Ends 1/8/14.

• Book Review: A Most Inconvenient Marriage (Ozark Mountain Romance Book #1) by Regina Jennings Historical Romance, Christian my rating 4.25.

• Sharing Beyond Books #184 Comment Giveaway 1/3/15. Open Worldwide. Ends 1/10/14.

• Sunday Words of Encouragement January 4, 2015.
  

Finished Reading:

1. eBook/Kindle LAST READ OF 2014.

A Most Inconvenient Marriage
(Ozark Mountain Romance Book #1)
by Regina Jennings
This was a fun read and the last for 2014. 
The review is linked above.
Click on book title for full description.

2. eBook/Kindle FIRST READ OF 2015

Shopping for Time: How to Do It All and NOT Be Overwhelmed
Carolyn Mahaney (Author), Nicole Mahaney Whitacre (Author), Kristin Chesemore (Author), Janelle Bradshaw
I really enjoyed this as my first read for 2015.
I will post a review this week.
Click on book title for full description.

3. eBook/Kindle

Only Enchanting, A Survivors' Club Novel
by Mary Balogh
This is another enjoyable romance by a fav author.
I will post a review this week.
Click on book title for full description.

4. Audible/MP4

25 Perfect Days
Written by: Mark Tullius
Narrated by: Dave Thompson
This is definitely a Dystopian world you don't want to live in.
I will post the review this week.
Click on book title for full description.

5. Audible/MP4

FREE: The Jester (A Riyria Chronicles Tale)
Written by: Michael J. Sullivan
Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
This is a very quick story from my own TBR. 
I listened before downloading my next Audio review book.
Publisher's Summary
WHO WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A thief, a candlemaker, an ex-mercenary, and a pig farmer walk into a trap…and what happens to them is no joke. When Riyria is hired to retrieve a jester’s treasure, Royce and Hadrian must match wits with a dwarf who proves to be anything but a fool. Difficult choices will need to be made, and in the end those who laugh last do so because they are the only ones to survive.
This is a standalone short story of 7,200 words. No prior knowledge of The Riyria Revelations or The Riyria Chronicles is required to enjoy it to its fullest, making this a perfect introduction for new readers or a chance for Riyria veterans to spend a little more time with old friends. The Jester is a story of adventure, bonds of friendship, and a recognition that the choices we make dictates the future we find.
©2014 Michael J. Sullivan (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Currently reading:
1. eBook/Kindle

Amish White Christmas Pie
by Wanda E. Brunstetter
I am at 40% and this is reading quickly. 
This is our Ladies' Book Club book for discussion 1/10/15.
Book Description
Publication Date: September 1, 2012
Step into Amish country for this bittersweet holiday romance. Here you’ll meet Will Henderson, a young man tortured by his past, and Karen Yoder, a young woman looking for answers. Add a desperate father searching for his son, and you have all the ingredients for a first-class romance that will inspire and enthrall.

2. Audio

The Eighth Day
Written by: Michael O'Neal
Narrated by: Robert Martinez
I like how this has started.
I received this audio through Audiobook Jukebox.
Publisher's Summary
Yesterday they were five ordinary friends. Today they are all that stand between us and extinction...
Havenbrook, Iowa. Typical small town America, nestled in the rolling plains of the Midwest. Life is simple here. But for high school senior Jay Anderson, it's about to get a whole lot more complicated. Accused of a crime he didn't commit, he is shocked to become an outcast throughout this small community, and becomes suspicious of the townspeople's suddenly strange behavior. Only his friends believe in his innocence, and set out to prove it...
...only to find out there is something far more sinister going on here. Who are the mysterious men who have suddenly appeared around town? What is the government hiding at the town's reservoir? Pursued by shadowy forces that would kill to keep the secrets they discover - and the secret Jay holds unknowingly within himself - he and his friends embark on an epic adventure. From the steps of Capitol Hill to the walls of the Kremlin; from the unfriendly skies over Eastern Europe to the treacherous waters of the Caribbean; danger lurks around every corner as these five teenagers seek to uncover what was created on...
©2011 Bluewater Press LLC (P)2014 Michael O'Neal

3. eBook/Kindle

Exodus 2022
by Kenneth G. Bennett
This is interesting even though I am only a couple of chapters in. 
(I switched to finish book club book first.)
I received this title through NetGalley
Book Description
Publication Date: May 20, 2014 
Joe Stanton is in agony. Out of his mind over the death of his young daughter.
Unable to contain his grief, Joe loses control in public, screaming his daughter’s name and causing a huge scene at a hotel on San Juan Island in Washington State.
Thing is, Joe Stanton doesn’t have a daughter. Never did. And when the authorities arrive they blame the 28-year-old’s outburst on drugs.
 What they don’t yet know is that others up and down the Pacific coast—from the Bering Sea to the Puget Sound—are suffering identical, always fatal mental breakdowns.
 With the help of his girlfriend—the woman he loves and dreams of marrying—Joe struggles to unravel the meaning of the hallucination destroying his mind. As the couple begins to perceive its significance—and Joe’s role in a looming global calamity—they must also outwit a billionaire weapons contractor bent on exploiting Joe’s newfound understanding of the cosmos, and outlast the time bomb ticking in Joe’s brain.

I will probably start another title before the week ends but I haven't decided which one yet. :-)

I am reading The One Year Bible again along with my husband and others from our church. I am also listening to the companion commentary online.
To go a step beyond the Bible reading I am also reading Jesus Daily 365 Interactive Devotions.

January Schedule:
January 10 - Amish White Christmas Pie
January 16 - 26 I'm Dreaming Giveaway Hop
I am focusing on reading NetGalley titles and TBR titles this month.

I have three reviews to complete from this week so I am still up to date.
I am carrying forward five NetGalley review titles I need/would like to read in January.  
I also have three ebooks from publicist to get to, two more audiobooks and one  author title.

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.

I received two review titles, one from AudioBook Jukebox and one from NetGalley.
I purchased three kindle titles before the end of the year. I have determined (well - I'm going to try) not to make any more ebook purchases until April after completion of the TBR Dare event.
I added more free kindle titles to my library.
(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 saw this title at NetGalley and grabbed it before 1/1/15.
I really like the Study series and am anxious to see how Yelena and Valek are faring.

Shadow Study 

by Maria V. Snyder

I also received an audiobook through Audiobook Jukebox that I had requested in December:

Time and Again: Book 1 in the History Mystery Series
Written by: Deborah Heal
Narrated by: Michelle Babb
"An old house + A new computer program = The travel opportunity of a lifetime...to another century."

Won

None

Purchased

I have the second (oops) third in this series in my Audible library. I picked up this one for $1.99 on Kindle in case I wanted to start the series.  All books had to be purchased before 1/1/15 to qualify for the TBR Dare event.

The Remaining
D.J. Molles
The first volume in D.J. Molles's bestselling series, now in a special edition with the bonus novella The Remaining: Faith.



I purchased these two kindle titles for $.99 each before the end or 2014. 

Christmas in Camelot (Medieval Christmas Romance Book 1)
Brenda Jernigan
"The Greatest Gifts . . . Are Always Unexpected ... "
This is the last Christmas title I purchased in 2014.
Camelot is hard to resist on a highly rated story. :-)

Celtic Cross
Tammy Doherty
"Sometimes you have to forget who you are to become who you're meant to be."
This is a historical Christian romance that looked good to me.

Free

Over the past week I added 54 free Kindle titles to my library. Titles found linked through Bookbub, Bookfun, Ereader News Today, Free Par-tay, Inspired Reads, Pixel of Ink or Kindle ebooks.