Mailbox Monday – 3/15

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.

I got five new books this week.  Two are advanced reading copies for review.  “Heartless” by Anne Elisabeth Stengl is a book that I got through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  “Mercury” by Hope Larson I got through the Amazon Vine program.

The remaining three books I got through paperbackswap.com.  “The Story of O” is a piece of erotic fiction that I have heard referenced so many times that I thought I should read it.  “The Better Part of Darkness” by Kelly Gay and “Three Days to Dead” by Kelly Meding both sounded like interesting reads.

You can find more info on these book below.  Hope you all have a great week and Happy Reading 🙂

Heartless by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
 
First Sentence: “Two children, a brother and a sister, played down by the Old Bridge nearly every day, weather permitting.
From Amazon.com: ” Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love–and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir.
Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald’s offer–and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil.”

Mercury by Hope Larson

First Sentence: “Our story takes place here, in the tiny Maritime province of Nova Scotia”
From Amazon.com: “In 1859 French Hill, Nova Scotia, Josey Fraser has just met handsome Asa Curry — a man with a mysterious and traveled past. While quickly winning young Josey’s heart, Asa reveals a secret ability to locate gold on the Frasers’ farm. But there is darkness in the woods…and in Asa.
In the same town one hundred fifty years later, Tara Fraser is dealing with the aftermath of her house burning down; a house that has been in her family — and Josey’s — for generations, when Tara discovers a pendant that turns out to be much more than a simple heirloom. As Josey’s story plunges into tragedy, Tara’s emerges with the promise of gold.
A compelling combination of history and romance, marked with Larson’s signature touch of magical realism, Mercury is a remarkable depiction of two girls tied by blood and separated by time”

Three Days to Dead by Kelly Meding

First Sentence: “I don’t recall the first time I died, but I do remember the second time I was born.”
From Amazon.com: “They’ll never see her coming. . . .
When Evangeline Stone wakes up naked and bruised on a cold slab at the morgue—in a stranger’s body, with no memory of who she is and how she got there—her troubles are only just beginning. Before that night she and the two other members of her Triad were the city’s star bounty hunters, mercilessly cleansing the city of the murderous creatures living in the shadows, from vampires to shape-shifters to trolls. Then something terrible happened that not only cost all three of them their lives but also convinced the city’s other Hunters that Evy was a traitor—and she can’t even remember what it was.
Now she’s a fugitive, piecing together her memory, trying to deal some serious justice—and discovering that she has only three days to solve her own murder before the reincarnation spell wears off. Because in three days Evy will die again—but this time there’s no second chance. . . .”

The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay 
 
First Sentence: “You told a two-thousand-year-old oracle to prove it.”
From Amazon.com: “Charlie Madigan is a divorced mother of one, and a kick-ass cop trained to take down the toughest human and off-world criminals. She’s recently returned from the dead after a brutal attack, an unexplained revival that has left her plagued by ruthless nightmares and random outbursts of strength that make doing her job for Atlanta P.D.’s Integration Task Force even harder. Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim — but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined?”

Story of O by Pauline Reage
   
First Sentence: “Her lover takes O for a walk in a section of the city where they never go – the Montsouris Park, the Manseau Park.”
From Amazon.com: “The classic erotic novel, THE STORY OF O relates the love of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer for Rene. As part of that intense love, she demands debasement and severe sexual and pychological tests. It is a unique work not to be missed.”