Mailbox Monday, May 13

In May, Mailbox Monday is hosted by Abi @ 4 the LOVE of BOOKS. Some wonderful arrivals this week! To learn more about any title, click the cover and it will open in a new tab/window.

What did you get this week? What do you think of these titles?

For Review







Swapped/Gifted/Purchased














All gifted to me by the amazing Amy of Passages to the Past! Thanks for letting me get these out of your house! ;)

Comments

  1. Book DilettanteMay 12, 2013 at 11:05 AM

    Lots of interesting historical novels, Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melissa @ Confessions of an Avid ReaderMay 12, 2013 at 5:27 PM

    So many great books in your mailbox this week, Audra. I have a number of them already sitting on my shelves, but have so far only read The Queen's Vow (excellent read) and His Last Duchess (pretty good).

    Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Peppermint Ph.D.May 12, 2013 at 7:12 PM

    What a haul!! I've got Call Me Zelda, Paris, The Painted Girls and Secret Life of Emily Dickinson already on my WishList. I'm on the tour for The Queen's Vow so really can't wait on that one!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. MysticaMay 13, 2013 at 12:11 AM

    Can I come and live right next door! your mailbox is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SerenaMay 13, 2013 at 5:25 AM

    We have a poetry book in common. And you'll love Painted Girls and Queen's Vow

    ReplyDelete
  6. Meg @ write meg!May 13, 2013 at 11:26 AM

    Well, I'm back on a Fitzgerald/Roaring Twenties kick after seeing "Gatsby" last night (which I LOVED). Call Me Zelda definitely has me intrigued!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jennifer @ The Relentless ReaderMay 13, 2013 at 12:30 PM

    Ooh, I loved The Painted Girls! I hope you do too :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousMay 13, 2013 at 12:48 PM

    I'll have to get The de Lacy inheritance, loved reading about them in other books. Love the idea of the Zelda book, I like that she doesn't get looked over because of her husband and is discussed in her own right.

    ReplyDelete
  9. BellezzaMay 13, 2013 at 2:56 PM

    I'm waiting for my copy of Call Me Zelda which I'm so eager to rip into! I love the Fitzgerald's story, both independently and as a marriage, and I'm also so eager to see the remake of The Great Gatsby. I saw Paris by Rutherford on my nook, and marked it on my wishlist. Won't that be a perfect read for Paris in July should Tamara and Bookbath host that again this summer?

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnnaMay 13, 2013 at 3:11 PM

    I'm curious about that Emily Dickinson book. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  11. ElizabethMay 13, 2013 at 3:52 PM

    Wow....VERY nice mailbox.

    ENJOY!!!

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Mailbox Monday

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mary (Bookfan)May 13, 2013 at 9:01 PM

    Ooh, I'm a bit envious of your new books. Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  13. ShoshanahMay 13, 2013 at 11:02 PM

    You picked up so many awesome books! I wouldn't even know where to start with them. But some of the ones I've been dying to read are A Royal Likeness, The Queen's Vow, and The Painted Girls

    ReplyDelete
  14. kay - Infinite ShelfMay 14, 2013 at 1:01 AM

    Wow, such an amazing selection this week! I got Paris recently and can't wait to read it. I heard great things about The Queen's Vow. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Pat @ Posting For NowMay 14, 2013 at 7:47 AM

    Enjoy your reads!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kris Waldherr's The Lost History of Dreams

Image
...he had the sense of viewing a man's life reduced to words. Black ink on white paper. Sentence after sentence. The grey minutia of daily routine flashed with occasional color...

This Gothic historical novel was a nearly perfect read: it held a snaky plot and thorny characters nestled in compelling narrative and deeply resonant themes. All love stories are ghost stories, we'll read more than once in this book, but this novel is more than a love story, more than a ghost story.

The Lost History of Dreams by Kris Waldherr
Touchstone, 2019
Review copy provided by publisher
Historical Fiction challenge

At the center of the novel is an imagining of the life of a Byron-like literary genius (and in those parts, I was reminded of Possession) touched with the unabashed, insistent naming of the woman behind such a figure. But surrounding that outward story is tortured emotions stretched taut to the point of madness (I was reminded of Sarah Waters and the way she writes about grief, ghosts…
Read more

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Image
Title:The Orchardist
Author: Amanda Coplin

Genre: Fiction (Historical / early 20th Century / Pacific Northwest / Oregon / Horticulture / Teenage Pregnancy)
Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Perennial (3/5/2013)
Source:TLC Book Tours

Rating: Liked, possibly loved. This one will grow on me, I suspect, as time goes on.
Did I finish?: Oh yes.
One-sentence summary: Set in early 20th century Oregon, a orchardist helps two pregnant girls on the run and the experience has explosive results for all.
Reading Challenges:Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: I'm of two minds: a little bit I like it for the colors, and the bucolic setting; but up close, the image is sort of rendered like one those paint programs that makes photos look like canvases. It's odd.

I'm reminded of...: Alice Hoffman, Doris Lessing

First line: His face was as pitted as the moon.

Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Ohemgee, borrow or buy, especially if you like narratives set in the American West.

Why did I get this book?: I re…
Read more

Alyssa Cole's A Prince on Paper

Image
Love was for brave fools and Johan was entirely too clever and too cowardly to succumb to it.

Take one international playboy and one wallflower determined to change the story people tell of her and you get this wickedly charming romance.

A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole
Avon, 2019
Digital ARC provided by publisher

This was my second Cole book, but the first contemporary romance of hers I've read. As with the first book of hers I read, An Extraordinary Union, I was immediately smitten.

This is technically the third book in her Reluctant Royals series so I was a tiiiiiiny bit lost at the start when the characters from the earlier books were crowding for reader reunion time. But enough backstory is provided that I wasn't lost when it came to Nya and Johan, and their super cute, super sexy romance won me over immediately.

I loved this modern take on the romancing royalty trope -- I haven't read any modern royal romances, actually so I didn't know what to expect -- and now C…
Read more

Caitlin Starling's The Luminous Dead

Image
Words flashed up on her cracked screen.

DON'T SPEAK

Gyre choked down the faint, nascent sound that threatened to leak from her throat.

The words on her screen disappeared, and were replaced with:

IT HEARD THE SINGING. IT DOESN'T LIKE HUMAN VOICES

I won this book via GoodReads' First Reads and I really had no idea what it was about; but I loved the title and the cover so dove right in. What I landed in was a creepy, claustrophobic thriller pitting/partnering two damaged people in a place determined to kill them.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
Harper Voyager, 2019
Review copy from publisher

Starling doesn't waste time plunging us (literally) into her world, an alien place where mining dominates but some kind of alien known as Tunnelers make it dangerous. Cavers identify lodes -- if they survive the Tunnelers -- and a good caver can make lucrative money surviving one or two expeditions. Surviving being the operative word.

Gyre is desperate to leave her home planet…
Read more