Mailbox Monday – 3/29

 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, again, got a lot of books this week.  I got two through paperbackswap.com.  The first was The Problem Child by Michael Buckley, the second was Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder.

I got a couple of books through the Amazon Vine program.  White Cat, which is the first book in Holly Black’s new Curse Workers series, is one I am super excited to read.  I also got Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien, which is a dystopia that I have heard great things about.


I had preordered the last Fablehaven book “Keys to the Demon Prison”.  I am very eager to read the concluding book to this series.  I have all the other books as keepers, so I decided to splurge and get this one new.

Then I got one book from the libary and that is Carrie Vaughn’s debut young adult book, Voice of Dragons.

Lots of wonderful books.  Hope that you all have a great week!  Happy Reading 🙂


The Problem Child (The Sisters Grimm, Book 3) by Michael Buckley
 
First Sentence: “Sabrina opened her eyes and saw a monster hunched over her.”
From Amazon.com: “A mystery story with a monstrous twist
In book three of the series, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm tackle their most important mystery: Who kidnapped their parents more than a year ago? Sabrina enters the hideout of the Scarlet Hand, the sinister group of Everafters who are keeping her parents prisoner. She has a chance to rescue her mom and dad but is foiled by the most famous fairy-tale character in the world. With the help of her little sister (who might be tougher than Sabrina realizes) and a long-lost relative, Sabrina finds a powerful weapon for fighting her enemies, and discovers that magic has a high price.”

White Cat (The Curse Workers, Book 1) by Holly Black
 
First Sentence: “I wake up barefoot, standing on cold slate tiles.”
From Amazon.com: “Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.
Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.
Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories.”

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O’Brien
 
First Sentence: “In the dim hovel, the mother clenched her body into one final, straining push, and the baby slitered out into Gaia’s ready hands.”
From Amazon.com: “IN THE ENCLAVE, YOUR SCARS SET YOU APART, and the newly born will change the future.

Keys to the Demon Prison (Fablehaven, Book 5) by Brandon Mull
 
First Sentence: “Seth knew he should not be here.”
From Amazon.com: “Since ancient times, the great demon prison Zzyzx has protected the world from the most dangerous servants of darkness, including Gorgrog, the Demon King. After centuries of plotting, the Sphinx is on the verge of recovering the five artifacts necessary to open the legendary prison. Facing the potential of a world-ending calamity, all friends of light must unite in a final effort to thwart the Sphinx s designs and find a safe home for the five artifacts. To this end, Kendra, Seth, and the Knights of the Dawn will venture far beyond the walls of Fablehaven to strange and exotic magical preserves across the globe, where the end of every quest becomes the beginning of another. In this explosive series finale, allegiances will be confirmed and secrets revealed as the forces of light and darkness collide in a desperate struggle to control the keys to the demon prison.”

Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder
 
First Sentence: “My name is Jessie, and I’m the reason why your life is about to change forever.”
From Amazon.com: “In the heart of Ohio, Jessie Shimmer is caught up in hot, magic-drenched passion with her roguish lover, Cooper Marron, who is teaching her how to tap her supernatural powers. When they try to break a drought by calling down a rainstorm, a hellish portal opens and Cooper is ripped from this world, leaving Jessie fighting for her life against a vicious demon that’s been unleashed.

In the aftermath, Jessie, who knows so little about her own true nature, is branded an outlaw. She must survive by her wits and with the help of her familiar, a ferret named Palimpsest. Stalked by malevolent enemies, Jessie is determined to find out what happened to Cooper. But when she moves heaven and earth to find her man, she’ll be shocked by what she discovers—and by what she must ultimately do to save them all.“

Voice of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn
 
First Sentence: “Her parents were going to kill her for this.”
From Amazon.com: “On one side of the border lies the modern world: the internet, homecoming dances, cell phones. On the other side dwell the ancient monsters who spark humanity’s deepest fears: dragons.
Seventeen-year-old Kay Wyatt knows she’s breaking the law by rock climbing near the border, but she’d rather have an adventure than follow the rules. When the dragon Artegal unexpectedly saves her life, the rules are abruptly shattered, and a secret friendship grows between them.
But suspicion and terror are the legacy of human and dragon inter­actions, and the fragile truce that has maintained peace between the species is unraveling. As tensions mount and battles begin, Kay and Artegal are caught in the middle. Can their friendship change the course of a war?”