The Printed Page

Yesterday Jennifer at The Literate Housewife Review started a new book meme called Tuesday’s Temptation. Here’s how Jennifer describes Tuesday’s Temptation: Despite how wonderful my current reads might be, I really enjoy being able to look over my shelves and drool over the as-of-yet unread goodies. I don’t know about you, but I could spend a half hour or more just touching the spines and, because I have to double park my books for lack of space, pull out the first row so I can rediscover what’s behind them. Me I can’t stare at full book shelves as I don’t have any. And Jennifer lives across the country from me so I can’t stare at her shelves either. I have a beautiful bookcase bought last year to house my review books and at the first of this year decided I needed a break so my review books are down to less than 6 in total. I also don’t keep books preferring to read on my Kindle or pass along any I do get to my local library or friends.  But temptation called my name today on a donation stop at my local library. The new titles fiction display played its siren call to me. Shameless by Karen Robards and Haunt Me Still by Jennifer Lee Carrell. If Haunt Me Still Looks familiar its because I featured it as part of my April wish list posts. And yes it followed me home.

In Regency England, a beautiful young woman finds her life thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a handsome scoundrel. Lady Elizabeth, the youngest and most headstrong of the three Banning sisters, has been engaged three times, and has most scandalously broken off all three engagements. Her fear of becoming any man’s property has kept her from marriage and earned her a reputation in the ton as a heartbreaking flirt.

Neil Severin is a wicked rogue, black of heart and black of reputation. A man of no morals, devoid of compassion, he is a government sanctioned assassin. And his newest target is a man Beth holds dear. When the flame-haired beauty thwarts his plan, Neil exacts his own brand of spicy revenge.

Beth despises him. Neil doesn’t care. But circumstances most unexpectedly throw them together, and with Beth’s life in danger, Neil finds himself in the unexpected role of hero, racing to save her before it’s too late.

What he never expects is the twist fate hands him: instead of his saving her, Beth winds up saving him. When the ruthless organization he works for turns its agents loose on him, only Beth stands between him and a death he thought he didn’t fear.

In a fight for their lives, Neil and Beth travel the British countryside, fleeing the ruthless killers out for Neil’s blood, the men after Beth, and their growing attraction to each other. Can Neil forgive himself for his past and accept Beth’s love? Can Beth overcome her fear and trust Neil? Will she have to choose between him and her family? And most important, can they both survive long enough to begin a new life together?

The third in the Banning Sisters trilogy that began with the New York Times bestsellers Scandalous and Irresistible, Shameless marks a dazzling return to historical fiction for Karen Robards.

As Kate Stanley begins directing rehearsals for Macbeth at the foot of Scotland’s Dunsinnan Hill, it doesn’t take long for the legendary curse on Shakespeare’s evil-ridden play to stir. Strange references emerge to the boy actor who first played Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s day and died in the role. A trench atop the hill is found filled with blood shortly after some of the actors go missing. And a mysterious tarot card leads Kate into the woods where she finds a local woman dead in circumstances that suggest not just ritual murder, but ancient pagan sacrifice.

With Kate marked as both suspect and future victim, she and Ben Pearl race to discover an early version of Macbeth, said to contain actual rituals of witchcraft and forbidden knowledge. However much Kate would like to dismiss such rituals as superstition, someone else appears willing to kill for them—and for the cursed manuscript said to be Shakespeare’s darkest secret.

Years ago I read Douglas Clegg’s Mischief. At that time I promised myself that someday I’d read another one of his novels. That time has finally come and now its gone. A short time it was, about 62 pages worth of Neverland . For as far as I got I felt like I was reading a YA horror story and I’m not much into YA fiction. It wasn’t holding my interest nor did I think it was ever going to.

One summer on Gull Island off the coast of Georgia, Sumter Monroe indoctrinates his cousin Beau Jackson into the marvels of Neverland, Sumter’s name for a tumble-down shack on their mutual maternal grandmother’s property that’s a shrine to a god he names Lucy. In Neverland, reality and illusion blur eerily, and the spirit of fun takes a malevolent turn as Sumter begin offering sacrifices of an increasingly disturbing nature to placate Lucy and sustain his special relationship with her.

Here’s what others are saying:

• Flames Rising
• Fantasy Book Critic
• Linus’s Blanket

What I’ve known for a while now is official … I’m certifiably crazy. Last week I started a new venture with Jennifer from The Literate Housewife Review for book bloggers called Book Blogging Blues. A gathering place for those us with major ARC and other assorted reading and book blogging issues. And this year I’d promised myself to cut way back on review books which I’ve been handling quite well thank you very much. Then a wonderful author M.J. Rose offered me a copy of her newest release The Hypnotist after spotting my mention of it in my May wish list post. As I have Kindle (which I love!) I requested a pdf file so that she could pass along the offered print edition to another book blogger. Lo and behold she had someone who works on her publicity team direct me to this absolutely wonderful gem of a site, NetGalley.

Read A Fanatics Book Blog fantastic NetGalley post to learn more.

Talk about love at first site. OMGosh!! This very possibly could, today or some day, be ARC heaven. If you as a book blogger/reviewer don’t know about NetGalley you just might be missing the next big thing in ARCs. I know I shouldn’t be telling you this if you’re a member of Book Blogging Blues but I can’t help myself.  I couldn’t get to the sign up page fast enough.

I did practice restraint and only requested The Hypnotist and one additional book. But when I’ve worked my way through the 6 review books sitting on my shelf right now I’ll be back for more. If you’re headed to BEA some NetGalley folks will be there so stop and say Hi to them.

** Hint for Kindle owners: on the profile page when entering your Kindle’s email address use all lowercase even though Amazon shows the @Kindle.com with a uppercase K. I couldn’t get it to take my Kindle email addy today and had to contact Lindsay NetGalley’s super wonderful customer service person. **

Just about this time last year I was lamenting because most every blogger on the east coast was headed to BEA and I was more than just a wee bit jealous. So I went and blogged about how I’d be headed that way this year. Big mistake! All those sayings about making plans have come into play. There was the knee surgery in January and then our 14-year old house decided this year it wanted some curb appeal – a coat of new paint, a new patio and patio furniture, major backyard renovation. As you can see below my hubby has done a fabulous job with his honey-do list. Pretty soon the money sucking machine had kicked in with a vengeance. Oh well no BEA this year for me but just maybe next year. And if I don’t really make plans then you just might see me at BEA 2011.

Jennifer & Kathy – if you’re headed to BEA and see some really juicy historical fiction please remember me when you’re picking through the books. I’ll be more than happy to pay postage.

Loved it! An absolutely outstanding, wonderfully told fictional tale of Eleanor’s marriage to Henry II. I have yet to be disappointed in any book I’ve read authored by Alison Weir. Captive Queen will making my favorite books list come year’s end.

Here’s what others are saying: ARC – release date is July ‘10

Nearing her thirtieth birthday, Eleanor has spent the past dozen frustrating years as consort to the pious King Louis VII of France. For all its political advantages, the marriage has brought Eleanor only increasing unhappiness—and daughters instead of the hoped-for male heir. But when the young and dynamic Henry of Anjou arrives at the French court, Eleanor sees a way out of her discontent. For even as their eyes meet for the first time, the seductive Eleanor and the virile Henry know that theirs is a passion that could ignite the world.

Returning to her duchy of Aquitaine after the annulment of her marriage to Louis, Eleanor immediately sends for Henry, the future King of England, to come and marry her. The union of this royal couple will create a vast empire that stretches from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, and marks the beginning of the celebrated Plantagenet dynasty.

But Henry and Eleanor’s marriage, charged with physical heat, begins a fiery downward spiral marred by power struggles, betrayals, bitter rivalries, and a devil’s brood of young Plantagenets—including Richard the Lionheart and the future King John. Early on, Eleanor must endure Henry’s formidable mother, the Empress Matilda, as well as his infidelities, while in later years, Henry’s friendship with Thomas Becket will lead to a deadly rivalry. Eventually, as the couple’s rebellious sons grow impatient for power, the scene is set for a vicious and tragic conflict that will engulf both Eleanor and Henry.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

If you’re new to Mailbox Monday welcome! Thank you to everyone who stops by Mailbox Monday. Whether you comment or visit I appreciate your taking the time to drop in.

*** RIF: ARC – Adopt me Saving Max by Antoinette van Heugten (new-to-me author/publicist contact)

Lawyer Danielle Parkman is at her wits’ end. Her son Max, a whip-smart teen with high-functioning autism, has always been a handful. But lately he’s shutting down, using drugs and lashing out – violently.

Desperate, Danielle brings Max to a top-flight psychiatric facility for a full assessment. But rather than reassurance, Danielle receives an agonizing diagnosis describing a deeply damaged, dangerous boy – one she’s never met.

Then Danielle finds Max unconscious and bloodied at the feet of a patient who has been brutally stabbed to death. A fiercely protective mother instinct rears its head – and Danielle is arrested as an accessory to the heinous crime.

In a baffling netherworld of doubt and fear, barred from contacting her son, Danielle clings to the thought of Max’s innocence. But has she, too, lost touch with reality? Is her baby boy really a killer?

With the justice system bearing down on them both, Danielle steels herself to discover the truth – no matter how horrifying. It’s a path well on the wrong side of the law. But only finding the true killer will absolve her from having to choose between her son and her soul.

RIF: Donating to my local library Awakening by S.J. Bolton (new-to-me author/publicist contact)

Clara Benning, a veterinary surgeon in charge of a wildlife hospital in a small English village, is young and intelligent, but nearly a recluse. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she generally prefers the company of animals to people. But when a local man dies following a supposed snakebite, Clara’s expertise is needed. She’s chilled to learn that the victim’s postmortem shows a higher concentration of venom than could ever be found in a single snake—and that therefore the killer must be human. Assisted by a soft-spoken neighbor and an eccentric reptile expert, Clara unravels sinister links to an abandoned house, an ancient ritual, and a fifty-year-old tragedy that has left the survivors secretive. But for someone the truth must remain buried in the past—even if they have to kill to keep it there.

RIF: Donating to my local library Raiders from the North: Empire of the Moghul by Alex Rutherford (new-to-me author/publicist contact)

The epic story of the rise and fall of one of the most powerful and opulent dynasties in history.

It is 1494 when the ruler of Ferghana dies in an extraordinary accident. His only son, twelve-year-old Babur, faces a seemingly impossible challenge. Young Babur is determined to live up to the example of his great ancestor, Tamburlaine – Timur the Warrior – whose conquests transformed the face of the earth from Delhi to the Mediterranean, from wealthy Persia to the wildernesses along the Volga. But he is dangerously young to inherit a kingdom.

Before Babur can summon enough warlords to declare him the rightful king of Ferghana, plots against his crown, even his life, are hatching. And soon, as his obsession with Timur’s legacy and the fabled city of Samarkand grows, and Babur becomes a man, he will discover that even the bravest and most fearless leader can be betrayed. With the wisest of advisers and most courageous of warriors by his side, Babur can achieve a great destiny and found an empire in India, but every step of his journey will be fraught with danger, in a world of tribal rivalries, rampaging armies and ruthlessly ambitious enemies.

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What books came into your house last week? You have the choice of using inlinkz or Mr. Linky. With inlinkz you can include a book cover if you’d like along with the link to your Mailbox Monday post (clicking on the image takes you to the blog post.)

Don’t forget to fill out either inlinkz or Mister Linky or leave a comment with a list of books if you don’t blog. If you’re interested in Read It Forward you will need to leave a comment in addition to filling out a link feature.

• In the “Your name:” box, please enter either your name or your blog’s name.

• In the “Your URL:” box please enter the URL/link that will lead directly to the post you are submitting (also called the permalink). This is not the URL to the blog’s home page.

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Read It Forward details

The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott

Paris, 1815. Napoleon has just surrendered at Waterloo and is on his way to the island of St. Helena to begin his exile. Meanwhile, Daniel Connor, a young medical student from Edinburgh, has just arrived in Paris to study anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes-only to realize that his letters of introduction and a gift of precious coral specimens, on which his tenure with the legendary Dr. Cuvier depends, have been stolen by the beautiful woman with whom he shared a stagecoach.

In the fervor and tumult of post revolutionary Paris, nothing is quite as it seems. In trying to recover his lost valuables, Daniel discovers that his beautiful adversary is in fact a philosopher-thief who lives in a shadowy world of outlaws and émigrés. Daniel’s fall into this underworld is also a flight, for as he falls in love with the mysterious coral thief and she draws him into an audacious plot that will leave him with a future very different from the one he has envisioned for himself, Daniel discovers a radical theory of evolution and mutability that irrevocably changes his conception of the world in which he lives.

Married by Morning (Hathaways, book #4) by Lisa Kleypas

Leo Hathaway must marry and produce an heir within a year to save his family home. Catherine Marks is intriguing and infernally tempting but hides a secret that could utterly destroy her. Can two wary lovers find a way to banish the shadows and give in to their desires?

Beyond the Blossoming Fields by Jun’Ichi Watanabe

As a young girl, Ginko Ogino seems set for a conventional life, cushioned by the male-dominated society of nineteenth-century Japan. But when she contracts gonorrhoea from her husband – an illness then thought to be incurable – she is divorced and disowned by her own family. Unable to bear the humiliation of being treated by a male doctor, she resolves to become a doctor herself. As more and more obstacles are placed before her, will she give in to social pressure or continue to fight against her world and her times A huge bestseller in Japan, where it sold over three million copies, “Beyond the Blossoming Fields” is the real-life story of Japan’s first female physician and a timeless parable on the power of love and idealism.

The Cat, the professor and the poison (Cats in Trouble, book #2) by Leann Sweeney

Between her kitty quilt-making business and her three beloved cats, Jill has her hands full. That doesn’t stop her from wanting to solve the mystery of the milk cow that’s gone missing from her friend’s farm. But imagine her surprise when a stolen cow leads to the discovery of fifty stray cats and one dead body-a victim of cold-blooded murder…

The King James Conspiracy by Phillip Depoy

‘The turning of the wheel by the tilling of the wheat.’

With these cryptic words, a conspiracy is set into motion that threatens the new translation of the Bible ordered by King James I, and the lives of the scholars working on it.

In 1605, in Cambridge England, one of the groups of scholars brought together to create a definitive English translation of the Bible finds one of its members savagely murdered by unknown hands. Deacon Marbury, the man in charge of this group, seeks outside help to find the murderer, to protect the innocents and their work. But the people who offer to help are not who they claim to be and the man they send to Marbury – Brother Timon – has a secret past, much blood on his hands, and is an agent for those forces that wish to halt the translation itself. But as the hidden killer continues his gruesome work, the body count among the scholars continues to rise. Brother Timon is torn between his loyalties and believes, an even greater crisis looms as ancient and alarming secrets are revealed – secrets dating back to the earliest days of Christianity that threaten the most basic of its closely held beliefs.

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose

In Vienna a clandestine robbery inside a locked library leads to a brutal murder. A 1,500-year-old sculpture holds the Metropolitan Museum of Art hostage. A young woman’s fatal accident gives two lovers a chance to meet again, against all odds. A centuries-old massacre in Persia has modern-day repercussions in Iran. In New York City a Matisse masterpiece surfaces after twenty years, mutilated and vandalized. A modern-day reincarnationist is hell-bent on finding tools to aid in past life regressions no matter what the cost – in dollars or lives. Everything rests on the shoulders of Lucian Glass, special agent with the FBI’s Art Crime Team, who himself is suffering from the aftermath of a brutal attack, impossible nightmares and his own crisis of faith. If reincarnation is real, how can he live with who he was in his past life? If it’s not, then how can he live with who he has become in the present?

My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

In this stunning first novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, headstrong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak- Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of William Stipp and James Blevens-two surgeons who fall unwittingly in love with Mary’s courage, will, and stubbornness in the face of suffering-and resisting her mother’s pleas to return home to help with the birth of her twin sister’s baby, Mary pursues her medical career in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of the capital.

The Confessions of Katherine Howard by Suzannah Dunn

Eighteen-year-old Catherine Howard thought she could have it all: a King and a lover! Lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s new German wife, it wasn’t long before a teenage Catherine caught the King’s eye. Pretty, lively and young, he swiftly made her his queen. Catherine found herself showered with riches and at the centre of a lavish court life. Dizzy with the power she suddenly possessed, she failed to realise the political realities of her life. Just over a year into her marriage, during a special service at which Henry was giving thanks to God for his wonderful wife, Archbishop Cranmer passed the King a letter, listing allegations against Catherine before she became queen. Henry asked the archbishop to investigate; he was never to see his young wife again. Told twenty years on from the perspective of Catherine’s close friend, Cat Tilney, the novel tells the life of this damaged, dangerous and short-lived queen. Suzannah Dunn presents us with a feisty, determined Catherine, who refused to allow men to walk over her — even if they did happen to be the King of England.

I won’t say I absolutely loved it (though very good) because I thought parts of the story were a bit over the top but its loaded with suspense and some really down right nasty characters. Its one of the those thriller books that draws you right in and keeps you turning pages because you just have to know what’s going to happen. Who will survive, who won’t and just how the heck are they going to get out this insane situation. I became a fan last year after reading Abandon and I continue to be a fan after reading Snowbound.

Here’s what others are saying: ARC – release date is June ’10

For Will Innis and his daughter, Devlin, the loss was catastrophic. Will’s wife, Devlin’s mother, vanished one night during an electrical storm on a lonely desert highway and, suspected of her death, Will took his daughter and fled. Then one night, a hardedged FBI agent appears on their doorstep and says, “I know you’re innocent, because Rachael wasn’t the first…or the last.”

The idea behind Book Blogging Blues was inspired by a friend and fellow book blogger who was starting to spiral into a very deep and dark funk because reading, and blogging, was becoming a job instead of a pleasure.

Having suffered through the same funk myself over the past year I could empathize and sympathize with her. From the responses she got to an email she sent out asking for help she realized that many of us are feeling the effects of living in a virtual book world. We’ve decided to try and fill a niche for our treasured friends so we started Book Blogging Blues.

Come join us!

Visit Book Blogging Blues