Mailbox Monday June 10, 2013

Welcome to Mailbox Monday.
For JUNE: the Mailbox Monday Tour host is Bellezza @ Dolce Bellezza.
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) but is now hosted at Mailbox Monday and through various blog hosts.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. 

I received two Audio review titles this past week and also received two NetGalley titles I had selected a while back.
I also picked up two free audios through Sync YA summer program and one from Downpour membership.
Are your mailbox and TBR piles blooming?

Review Titles:

AUDIOS received through AudioBook Jukebox :

The Wolf Path
Author: Judith Van Gieson
Narrator: Meredith Mitchell
Publisher/Date: AudioGO, 04/01/13
An attorney/sleuth Neil Hamel defends a wolf enthusiast.

Hearts of Shadow

Author: Kira Brady
Narrator: Xe Sands
Publisher/Date: Blackstone Audio, 05/07/13
An Apocalyptic paranormal with dragon shifters.

NETGALLEY:
These two were NetGalley Pickups; one was requested quite sometime ago:

Quest for the Scorpion's Jewel
Amarias Adventures: Book 1 by Amy Green
The Amarias Adventures™ begin when 15-year-old Jesse befriends a band of young warriors and risks his life to find a cure for their poisoned leader, Parvel. Though Jesse has a crippled leg, he is asked to join the remaining warriors--part of an elite fighting force known as the Youth Guard--on their mission for the king.

West Palm I
The Undertaker's Apprentice by Joss Cordero

A Novella series: The first installment introduces the tense, fast-paced thriller which revolves around the hunt for a psychopath who thinks his mission is to help his chosen victims cross over to the other side—by murdering them.
{I couldn't resist a title from my old stomping grounds!}

Won

$15.00 GC from Cym Lowell Wednesday Review Party

 

Thank you Cym!

Purchased

None this week.

Free

Audios:
Available to download free from SYNC YA June 6 – June 12, 2013



The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place,
Book 1: The Mysterious Howling
By Maryrose Wood
Read by Katherine Kellgren
Published by HarperAudio

 
Jane Eyre
By Charlotte Brontë
Read by Wanda McCaddon
Published by Tantor Audio

FREE Monthly Download as subscriber to
Downpour.com

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

Read by Carolyn Seymour

Length 11.5 hrs • UNABRIDGED

℗ 2011 by Blackstone Audio,Inc.

I didn't get to download any free Kindle Titles linked through Free Par-tay, Inspired Reads, Pixel of Ink and Kindle Review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? June 10, 2013

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 a another comfortable work week and reading was very good.  I finished four books and posted four reviews, two with ARC Giveaways. I also posted the weekly Mailbox Monday meme, Friday Pick Giveaway, Saturday Snapshot, Sharing Beyond Books Comment Giveaway and Sunday Words.

I did get to visit  a bit late this past week. I still hope to visit more this week.
Thanks as always to all the nice people who visit me.

These were last week's posts:

• It's Monday What are You Reading? June 3, 2013.

• Mailbox Monday June 3, 2013.

• Book Review and Giveaway: Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts, Contemporary Romance; my rating 4.5. Ends 6/14.

• Audio Book Review: The Empty Mirror by James Lincoln Collier , Ghost Story, YA; my rating 3.75. 

• Book Review and ARC Giveaway: The Sweet Spot by Laura Drake, Historical Romance; my rating 4.25. Ends 6/14.
  

• Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway June 7, 2013. Open Worldwide. Ends 6/7.

• Saturday Snapshot (6/8/13) Garden Bounty and Mystery
  

• Audible Book Review: Hexed by Kevin Hearne, Urban Fantasy; my rating 4.25. 

• Sharing Beyond Books #103 Comment Giveaway 6/8/13. Open Worldwide. Ends 6/14.

• Sunday Words of Encouragement June 9, 2013.
  

Finished Reading:

1. eBook/Kindle

Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy 

by Abigail Sharpe

This is a fun read and I will post the review with ARC Giveaway this week!

Click on title for full Book Description.

2. Audible
 

A Royal Pain: A Royal Spyness Mystery 
Author: Rhys Bowen
I enjoyed this Historical Mystery. 
I will post a review this week.
Click on title for full Book Description.

3. Print

It Had to Be You
by Jill Shalvis
This was lovely fun.
I will post a review this week with Giveaway.
Click on title for full Book Description.

4. eBook Kindle

Somewhere in Time (The Crosse Harbor Time Travel Trilogy) 
by Barbara Bretton
This is a nice time travel romance. 
My Review with a Giveaway will post on June 11 as part of tour. 
Book Description
Publication Date: June 24, 2012
The CROSSE HARBOR TIME TRAVEL TRILOGY

Book 1 - SOMEWHERE IN TIME
Book 2 - TOMORROW & ALWAYS
Book 3 - DESTINY'S CHILD

Reviewers Choice Award - Best Historical Time Travel
--Romantic Times

Historian Emilie Crosse dreamed of a love that would last forever
Who knew she'd have to sail across two centuries to find it?

When her ex-husband Zane Grey Rutledge showed up at her door with a Revolutionary War uniform that was part of his grandmother's estate, neither one suspected that their lives were about to change in ways they couldn't possibly imagine.

Swept back in time to 1776 where a nation is struggling to be born, Emilie finds herself torn between two men: Zane, her ex who still holds the key to her heart, and Andrew McVie, the Patriot hero of her long-ago dreams . . . .

Line Edits/Releases:
We released three titles into Print: [These links are at Amazon but the links will go live on the eTreasures website on Monday and I will substitute the links.]
Mr. Chocolate and the Magic Js by J. D. Pooker and Lynne Bendoly

Seven Shades of Luminosity by Beth Bowland 

Shelly the Hermit Crab by Stacey Leigh Malloy

Currently reading:

1. eBook/Kindle

Anonymous Sources
By Mary Louise Kelly
I am two thirds through this  very good thriller!
I selected this through NetGalley.
Book Description
Release date: June 18, 2013
An intriguing thriller from a former NPR correspondent about a young reporter who must match wits with spies, assassins and a terrorist sleeper cell targeting the very heart of American power.
“If, on an early summer’s night, you wanted to kill a man, how would you do it? Would you lay a trap, sharpen a dagger, uncork a poison?
Personally, I’ve always leaned toward the dramatic.
But looking back, I wonder now if the events of last summer didn’t begin with a quieter sort of murder.”

So ponders Alexandra James, a beautiful, driven, yet troubled New England Chronicle reporter. She is assigned to cover the death of Thom Carlyle, son of one of the most powerful men in Washington. Just back from a year abroad, Thom falls from the top of a Harvard bell tower on a warm summer night. Did he jump, or was he pushed? For Alex James, who can get in anywhere, sleep with anyone, out-drink and out-shop her demons, it is the story of a lifetime. As she chases leads from Harvard Yard to the courtyards of Cambridge, England, to a clandestine rendezvous in London, to the inside of a nuclear terrorist network...the intrigue seems to suit her.

But nothing is what it seems. When she arrives back in Washington, DC, for a key interview that promises to tie together the leads she has puzzled out, Alex the hunter becomes Alex the hunted. An assassin is dispatched...Her laptop disappears...Her phone is tapped...And she begins to grasp that Thom Carlyle may have been killed to hide a terrifying conspiracy within the White House itself. Former NPR Intelligence correspondent Mary Louise Kelly has turned her own real-life reporting adventures into fiction with this stylish spy thriller.

2. Audio

The Wolf Path
Author: Judith Van Gieson
Narrator: Meredith Mitchell
I haven't hit the mystery yet but I am enjoying the lead character and the information on wolves.
I received this MP3 download from AudioGo through AudioBook Jukebox.
Publisher/Date: AudioGO, 04/01/13
Book Description
It's a 104 degree day in Albuquerque when attorney/sleuth Neil Hamel gets a call asking her to go to southern New Mexico to help a wolf advocate who calls himself Juan Sololobo. Juan, who attracts trouble wherever he goes, is visiting the town of Soledad to give an educational program featuring his timber wolf, Sirius. After someone lets Sirius out of his pen, a federal official is murdered and Juan becomes the prime suspect. As Neil defends him she finds herself immersed in a deadly conflict between ranchers and environmentalists over wolf reintroduction. The Wolf Path is Judith Van Gieson's fourth Neil Hamel mystery. Since it was first published to critical acclaim in 1992, Mexican gray wolves have been reintroduced to the Southwest, and there are now several packs free-ranging in Arizona and New Mexico. Wolf advocate Bobbie Holaday, the founder of Preserve Arizona's Wolves (PAWS), updates this edition with an introduction summarizing the progress that has been made. Van Gieson has published eight mysteries featuring Neil Hamel and five with University of New Mexico librarian Claire Reynier.

3. Print

The Magic of I Do
by Tammy Falkner
I am about 100 pages into this and not quite engaged.
Reviewing for Sourcebooks.
Book Description
Release date: June 4, 2013

Desperately Seeking Excitement...

With the temporary prohibition on magic on the land of the Fae, Claire Thorne might as well go back to the Regency world. The haut ton has just as many annoying rules as her world, but at least they have parties and dances. Plus, the roguish Lord Phineas "Finn" Trimble is there...

When the feisty faerie tumbles into his room through a magical portal, Finn can't believe how completely unpredictable she is. Even before the two stumble into a dangerous intrigue that threatens both their worlds, Finn discovers that his hitherto carefree life is about to go up in smoke...

I'll pick up another one before the end of the week but I haven't decided which book yet. :-)

I continue to listen to The Listener's Bible NIV read by Max McLean. [Reading and listening on MP3.] I am studying with the Tyndall One Year Bible this year, hoping to read daily along with my DH.

Line Edits: Several more releases being prepared for the next few weeks. I am still doing more Smashword conversions in between print formatting.

I had three print books move from May to June. Plus I have five additional print books, two tour books and three NetGalley titles. Plus Audios. I'm not sure what happened to my relaxing plan for June. Guess that goes into July. Sigh.

June Scheduled:
6/11 Review with Interview and GW: Somewhere in Time (The Crosse Harbor Time Travel Trilogy) by Barbara Bretton
?date between 6/19 to 6/28 Review Jack Templar and the Monster Hunter Academy by Jeff Gunhus – Book Blast Tour

SOURCEBOOKS
     One Day on Apple Grove by C.H. Admirand
    The Magic of I Do by Tammy Falkner

Hachette - Forever
     Haven Creek (A Cavanaugh Island Novel) by Rochelle Alers
    Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Molly Cannon
    The Woman He Loved Before by Dorothy Koomson 
     A House Divided by Kimberly Lawson Roby

NetGalley:
     Anonymous Sources, by Mary Louise Kelly
     The Bane (The Eden Trilogy) (Volume 1) by Keary Taylor
     Silent Warrior by Lindsey Piper

AudioBook Jukebox
     Awaiting receipt of requested titles.

Author Books received at March EPICon
     Convict Dad by P. Ryan Hembree

From TBR Collection - TBD
Won Book - TBD
Free Kindle/Nook or Smashwords: TBD

Sunday Words of Encouragement June 9, 2013

[We had a lovely (Chinese Buffet!) lunch with our daughter, son-in-law, grandkids and another friend with her children so I am posting a bit later today.]

I'm choosing to share a short message today. Our Sunday School teacher noted that our weather had gotten very warm and humid this week. We were glad to have rain by the end of the week. GT then noted that the relief of rain made him think along a spiritual line... Sometimes, like a dry lawn, we become dry and parched as we rush about the business of our lives. Just as the lawn turns lush quickly from a small amount of rain, out lives can be retouched and revived quickly with a touch of the Holy Spirit. Especially when we know God, when we remember to "plug in" we get nourishment and perk up!

We then went into service where I, and others, were touched and nourished by our worship and the responsive touch of the Spirit! 

I discovered this song which works for me toady --

How Can I Keep From Singing?

A Verse for Today:
John 4:14 (NIV)
14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

I thank the Lord for spiritual and physical refreshing. I never have to remain weary or tired if I seek God's strength, lay my burdens at His feet and let Him refresh my soul.

Sharing Beyond Books #103 Comment Giveaway June 8, 2013

Hello again on Saturday night and Welcome to SBB, Sharing Beyond Books.

How is everyone doing this week?  My week was good; not completely easy but no major stresses.

Thank you to all who shared last week.

I found it interesting that fewer than half of the commenters had book damage from pets. 10 had no damage and another 4 had no pets to cause damage. :-) That left 11 with damage and that included MaryP's daughter who slobbered on a book. LOL. Bookishqueen and Diamond, and I imagine others too, have pets who sit or lie on the books. Our pets can really be jealous can't they?

I think the worst damage was to LindaK who almost lost a thumb breaking up a dog fight. But several people have had major wall, floor and couch damage. And there were some funny items: Ricki's puppy dragged glitter through the house; Di's dog tried to make off with the roast and Meghan's dog attacked the mail. Pets are wonderful creatures!

~~~~

The Winner from SBB #102 comments is: #15 Llehn who can make a GC choice if international or book choice from the ARC/Review titles, Christmas titles or Love titles - all linked near the end of the post.  Please let me know your choice by completing the WINNER FORM.

WEEK #103 Questions

Q1. Miki asks: When you love an author or a series do you want to own all the version of the books (ex: Us version, Uk one or french, spanish etc, hardback and paperback etc) to have all the different covers or do you buy only one??

A: I have ocassionally thought I would like to buy a book in print after enjoying the audio. But I didn't get them. So- no, I don't buy multiple versions. But I do like to collect a series.   

Image found at Books Worth Remembering blog..

Q2. My non-bookish Question this week: What is the most unusual pet you or your family has ever owned??

A: We had a farm we called "Almost a Ranch." We had horses, pigs, chickens and the billy goat. But the most unusual I think was our two African Geese, Floppsie and Moppsie. They were beautiful but scary as watch 'dogs.' If a stranger came through the gate and the geese were in the front yard they would charge with their wings open -- and those wings are strong!

OH! We also had a peacock that would court our chickens! He was beautiful too with his strange cry. He would rustle when he danced for the hens, but he had wicked spurs. Wish I had our own pictures to share. 

Image found at mybroadband.com.

Image found at Team BHP.com.

Thanks to those who are sending in Questions. DON'T BE SHY! Surely everyone has a Q or two you'd like to ask. Input suggestions in this Suggested Question Form. At the end of each month I draw from the suggestions I used during the month and that person will get a book choice or GC. I thank everyone for submitting questions. Thanks for sending in questions! We can always use fresh questions. I do have a group of questions from the same submitters so if you have a question don't be afraid to ask!

Your turn to share:

Q1.  Miki asks: When you love an author or a series do you want to own all the version of the books (ex: Us version, Uk one or french, spanish etc, hardback and paperback etc) to have all the different covers or do you buy only one??

Q2. My non-bookish Question this week: What is the most unusual pet you or your family has ever owned??

SBB Comment Winners can choose a selection from the Valentine and "Love" books , the Christmas Giveaway Books, or the Updated ARC/Review List .[I'll be posting new, updated pictures for the ARC/Review list this week.]

SBB Rules:
a) Must be a follower.
b) Share a comment on any (or all) of the two/three questions above.
Open internationally and an international winner may get a smaller book or a $5.00 GC if I decide the mailing is too much.

I will pick a Comment winner from all comments made by Friday, June 14, 2013 at 10 PM central.

Audible Book Review: Hexed, The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 2, by Kevin Hearne

I really enjoy the interesting blend of action and humor in this series.
Hexed: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 2 [Unabridged]
by Kevin Hearne (Author), Luke Daniels (Narrator)


    Series: Iron Druid Chronicles, Book 2
    LENGTH  8 hrs and 52 mins
    RELEASE DATE  06-07-11
    PUBLISHER  Brilliance Audio
Genre: Urban Fantasy
My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Publisher's Summary
Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.
With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex.
Listen to more Iron Druid Chronicles.
©2011 Kevin Hearne (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Review:
Atticus is a two thousand + year old Druid living in modern day Tempe, Arizona. He draws his magic primarily from the earth in a beneficial sharing of care, healing and power. Atticus’ closest companion is his Irish wolfhound, Oberon, with whom he mind-speaks. Oberon’s mind is mostly dog-like with treats, runs and females taking priority. Atticus’ other friends include his attorneys who are a pack of wererwolves and a vampire, Leif Helgarson. He has an interesting relationship with Morrigan, the goddess of death, with whom he has a deal: she has agreed to never take his life in exchange for him sharing the secrets of his protective iron amulet.

Atticus has become quite sought after with the spreading news of his killing one of the Celtic gods. (Book One, Hounded.) Leif wants him to kill Thor, the thunder god, and numerous other parties want him to kill their enemies too. Atticus isn’t interested but, in the meantime, he has to fight off the demons, and fallen angels, that have been bound with the mission to kill him.

Atticus is in the process of negotiating a treaty with the local witches. When he suffers a magical attack, he discovers that the witches suffered too, with the death of one of their own. Now they seek his help to eliminate a clan of Bacchants who are encroaching the territory and threatening not only the safety of the local coven, but the precarious balance of paranormal groups in the Tempe community. The Bacchants are being tracked by Russian witch hunters, in the guise of a priest and a rabbi, who view most paranormal beings as evil.

This series deals with a complex balancing of powers among the Greek Gods and the paranormal groups. There is wonderful action and great humor with Atticus’ “customary curtain of wit.”  I love the fun language contrasts and word games: formality with the formal Vampire and earthy fun with the doggy Oberon. Atticus is a great character--part hapless, part fearless, part magical, mostly male and surprisingly not arrogantly obnoxious. There is some gratuitous sex alluded to with the details kept pretty much behind doors.
I recommend this series for action and fun entertainment.

Audio Notes: Luke Daniels does a super job narrating this series. He really nails the characters through voices and expression. The narration enhances the danger and fun of an already good story.

This selection is from my own Audible Library.