In My Mailbox May 2012

This month has been really busy for books I got 27 this month. I also bought a kindle this month so I will add the books I also got for it to

Books I bought this month:

1. Catching Fire - Susanne Collins
2. Mocking Jay - Susanne Collins
3. Fifty Shades of Grey - E. L. James
4. Fifty Shades Darker - E. L. James
5. Fifty Shades Freed - E. L. James
6. Lady Macbeth's Daughter - Lisa. M. Klein
7. Wintercraft: Legacy - Jenna Burtenshaw
8. Black Dawn - Rachel Caine
9. A Kiss of Darkness - Laurell. K. Hamilton
10. Seduced My Moonlight - Laurell. K. Hamilton
11. A Stroke of Midnight - Laurell. K. Hamilton
12. A Caress of Twilight - Laurell. K. Hamilton
13. Whisper - Alyson Noel
14. Fated - Alyson Noel
15. Evil Thirst and Forever Creatures - Christopher Pike
16. The Eternal Dawn - Christopher Pike
17. Abandoned - Meg Cabot
18. Slated - Teri Terry

Books I won via goodreads giveaways:

1. In the Image of Ravenna - Irene M. Redpath
2. Freya 800AD - Jean Mead
3. Lady of Devices - Shelley Adina (Kindle)

Books I got for Kindle:

1. The Anita Blake Series - Laurell. K. Hamilton
2. The Vampire Chronicle Series - Anne Rice
3. The Chronicles of Narnia Series - C. S. Lewis
4. My Sisters Keeper - Jodi Picoult
5. Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult
6. The Pact - Jodi Picoult
7. Fallen Star - Jessica Sorensen
8. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
10. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
11. The Girl Who Played With Fire

More Deaths Than One - Brian Islip

4/5 Stars

Thomas Thornton has settled down to expatriated family life in Saudi Arabia. Wrongfully caught up in shariah law on drug-dealing charges, he discovers injustice is a bitter - and potentially fatal- pill.

I must confess this is not the sort of book I would normally read but having said that it was a good read and great first novel. A book where you can really lose yourself in and become one of the characters! Really glad I did read the intro first as I felt like I got to know the lead character and how he started off on his life's amazing if not dangerous journey! Really looking forward to reading the second novel due out very soon. Highly recommendable.


Currently Reading: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Read in 2012: 7/20

The Whipping Club - Deborah henry

2/5 Stars

Inspired by her heritage and research of the Irish Industrial School system, Henry’s auspicious debut chronicles a couple’s attempt to save their son from horrific institutions.

Marian McKeever and Ben Ellis are not typical young lovers in 1957 Dublin, Ireland; she’s Catholic and teaches at Zion School, and he’s Jewish and a budding journalist. The two plan to wed, but their families object to an interfaith marriage. And when Marian becomes pregnant, she doesn’t tell Ben. Coerced by Father Brennan (a Catholic priest who is also her uncle), Marian goes to Castleboro Mother Baby Home, an institution ruled by Sister Paulinas and Sister Agnes where “sins are purged” via abuse; i.e., pregnant girls are forced to mow the lawn by pulling grass on their hands and knees. Marian is told that her son, Adrian, will be adopted by an American family. The riveting storyline provides many surprises as it fast-forwards to 1967 where Marian and Ben are married and have a 10-year-old daughter. Marian’s painful secret emerges when she learns that her son was dumped in an abusive orphanage not far from her middle-class home and Sister Agnes is his legal guardian. Thus begins a labyrinthine journey through red tape as the couple fight to regain their firstborn child. Ultimately, 12-year-old Adrian is placed in the Surtane Industrial School for Boys, which is rife with brutality and sexual abuse at the hands of “Christian Brother Ryder.” Though unchecked church power abounds, this is not a religious stereotype or an indictment of faith. Hateful characters like Brother Ryder are balanced with compassionate ones, such as a timid nurse from the Mother Baby Home. Father Brennan deepens into a three-dimensional character who struggles to do what is right. Henry weaves multilayered themes of prejudice, corruption and redemption with an authentic voice and swift, seamless dialogue. Her prose is engaging, and light poetic touches add immediacy. For example, when Marian returned to Mother Baby Home after 11 years, she “opened the car door and stepped onto the gravel, wanting to quiet its crunch, like skeletons underneath her shoes.” Echoing the painful lessons of the Jewish Holocaust, Henry’s tale reveals what happens when good people remain silent.

A powerful saga of love and survival.

This is a disturbing book. It grabbed my attention at the beginning, but the switching from past to present became a little hard to pay attention to. The end pulled me back in though, I was thinking about the book a while after I finished it.

Currently Reading: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Read in 2012: 7/20

Legacy - Jenna Burtenshaw

5/5 Stars

Kate Winters' ancestors created the mysterious book of Wintercraft to record their dark manipulations of the veil between life and death. Now Kate's memory is lost, the book is all she has to guide her.

Rumours abound of lost souls roaming Albion's graveyard city of Fume, wreaking chaos. The veil is weakening and Dalliah Grey, Kate's travelling companion, is determined that they must both be there when it falls.

But Dalliah is not to be trusted. Surrounded by deception, Kate must break away, defy the will of her ancestors and decide her own fate, alone.

Exiled warrior Silas Dane plans to find Kate and defend Albion from advancing enemy armies seeking to profit from the confusion.

These are dangerous days and Silas knows, for Albion to survive, sacrifices will have to be made.

Wow what can I say, Wintercraft: Legacy is the best of the three book in the series and it was definitely worth the wait.

Jenna ended Blackwatch with a massive cliffhanger. I couldn't wait to get a copy and was lucky enough to get it a few days before the release date because I pre-ordered it so I didn't have to wait for months like I did last time.

When I got my copy I had some questions I was hoping were going to get answered: What will happen to Kate now Dalliah Grey has her? What does she want with her? and What happens to Silas and Edgar? and In Legacy I got the answers to my questions.

We find out just what Dalliah has install for Kate and the city of Albion and it is not good news. Dalliah wants to bring down the veil that is keeping the spirits of the ancestors of the people of Albion from being seen by the living.

Dalliah needs Kate to release the spirits from three stone wheels to bring the veil down, in the process Silas is trying to stop them. Every time Kate releases a spirit from one of the wheels the spirits in Albion become more visible.

Dalliah also wants the Continental army (Blackwatch) to take over Albion but Silas helps the city to build an army to fight against them, he convinces the wardens - who not long ago want to kill Silas for being a traitor - to do as he says and not the High Council.

While the wardens prepare for the battle Silas discovers a traitor amongst the High Council and has him taken away. Silas and Edgar go into Feldeep Prison and get the prison wardens to go and help in the battle as well as releasing the prisoners so that they can go to the City Below to gather more troops, while they wait for the Night Train to return with backup.

I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone so I am not going to say any more about the book other than the ending surprised me I was expecting someone to die just not the person who did and even though I was desperate to know what happened to Kate, Edgar and Silas I refrained from taking a peek at the last few pages.

Jenna ended Legacy on a high and I am really happy with the ending even though I would have like to know what happened to everyone at the end in more detail maybe even a little chapter about what they were up to five or ten years after the events that unfolded :D

Currently Reading: Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Read in 2012: 7/20