Mailbox Monday – 2/15

 Mailbox Monday can be found at: The Printed Page

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

This week I got four books.  “Veracity” is going towards the debut author reading challenge and I borrowed it from a friend.

“The Sword that Cut the Burning Grass” and “The Siege of Macindaw” are two series books that I am trying to get the books for before I start reading them; I got these both through paperbackswap.com.

The last book was “Circus of the Darned”, I read the first book in this series “Got Fangs?” and loved it!  So I actually bought this book.  It is out of print so I ended up buying it online used.

So that’s it for my mailbox this week.  I also got “The Robe of Skulls” from the library and am eager to read that!

Veracity by Laura Bynum

First Sentence: “The deeper I get into the prairie, the more I realize that what I’ve been told about the wastelands is false.”
From Amazon.com: “Harper Adams was six years old in 2012 when an act of viral terrorism wiped out one-half of the country’s population. Out of the ashes rose a new government, the Confederation of the Willing, dedicated to maintaining order at any cost. The populace is controlled via government-sanctioned sex and drugs, a brutal police force known as the Blue Coats, and a device called the slate, a mandatory implant that monitors every word a person speaks. To utter a Red-Listed, forbidden word is to risk physical punishment or even death.
But there are those who resist. Guided by the fabled “Book of Noah,” they are determined to shake the people from their apathy and ignorance, and are prepared to start a war in the name of freedom. The newest member of this resistance is Harper — a woman driven by memories of a daughter lost, a daughter whose very name was erased by the Red List. And she possesses a power that could make her the underground warriors’ ultimate weapon — or the instrument of their destruction.
In the tradition of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Laura Bynum has written an astonishing debut novel about a chilling, all-too-plausible future in which speech is a weapon and security comes at the highest price of all.”

The Sword that Cut the Burning Grass by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

First Sentence: “Yasuhito thought he could not sit still for another moment.”
From Amazon.com: “When fourteen-year-old samurai apprentice Seikei is sent on a mission by the shogun, he believes it to be a simple one: convince the fourteen-year-old emperor to resume his ceremonial duties. But then the emperor is kidnapped, and Seikei finds himself in the middle of an elaborate plot to overthrow the shogun. With the help of a mysterious warrior, he must rescue the emperor before the sacred sword—said to be unbeatable in battle—falls into the wrong hands. Seikei knows he must succeed, or bloodshed will stain the land.”

Circus of the Darned by Katie Maxwell

First Sentence: “Good morning, Fran.”
From Amazon.com: “I’ve given up all hope of having a normal life. As if things weren’t freaky enough traveling around Europe with a group of witches, mediums, and magicians who make up my home-away-from-home (aka the GothFaire), now I also have to cope with a mysterious man who wants to steal my horse, and a time-travel counselor who insists I’m Cleopatra reincarnated.
I just want to go on a date with Benedikt, but when your boyfriend’s a vampire, nothing is easy. Not only is Ben keeping secrets from me, but somehow, I raised an entire battlefield of warring Viking ghosts—all of whom refuse to be sent back.
And I thought all I had to worry about was what to wear on my date…”

The Siege of Macindaw (Ranger’s Apprentice, Book 6) by John Flanagan
 

First Sentence: “Gundar Hardstriker, captain and helmsman of the Skandian ship Wolfcloud, chewed disconsolately on a stringy piece of tough smoked beef.”
From Amazon.com: “After years as a Ranger’s apprentice, Will is now the protector of his first fief. Not long into his service, everything that can go wrong does: Keren, a renegade knight, has taken over Castle Macindaw, a strategic gateway to the North—poisoning the royal family in the process—and is holding Will’s friend Alyss captive. The situation grows direr when Will uncovers Keren’s secret alliance with the Scotti, who have plans to plunder Araluen. Time is of the essence, and Will must recruit a motley crew to rescue Alyss and reclaim Castle Macindaw—before the Scotti can make it their own.”

The Robe of Skulls by Vivian French
 

From Amazon.com: “High above the mountain village of Fracture, trouble is brewing. The sorceress Lady Lamorna wants a skull-studded gown of deep black velvet, but her treasure chest is empty of gold. That doesn’t stop her, however, from kidnapping, blackmailing, and using more than a little magic to get what she needs. Will her plans be foiled by the heroic Gracie Gillypot, two chatty bats, a gallant (if scruffy) prince, the wickedest stepsister ever, a troll with a grudge, and some very ancient crones?”