Mailbox Monday!



Welcome to another edition of Mailbox Monday!  This is a feature where we all share what yummy books were added our Mt. TBR's this past week.  I'm on a roll and had another super week - 3 delicious ARCs showed up and I hit the motherload at a library sale!!  What about you?

Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick


From a talented new author comes a poignant and haunting novel of creation and desire, passion and madness, art and love.


A young prostitute seeking temporary refuge from the brothel, Rachel awakens in a beautiful garden in Arles to discover she is being sketched by a red-haired man in a yellow straw hat. This is no ordinary artist but the eccentric painter Vincent van Gogh—and their meeting marks the beginning of a remarkable relationship. He arrives at their first assignation at No. 1, Rue du Bout d'Arles, with a bouquet of wildflowers and a request to paint her—and before long, a deep, intense attachment grows between Rachel and the gifted, tormented soul.


But the sanctuary Rachel seeks from her own troubled past cannot be found here, for demons war within Vincent's heart and mind. And one shocking act will expose the harsh, inescapable truth about the artist she has grown to love more than life.


Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.


Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?


In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death. 



Island of the Swans by Ciji Ware

In this resplendent love story a dazzling era comes vividly to life as one woman's passionate struggle to follow her heart takes her from the opulent cotillions of Edinburgh to the London court of half-mad King George III . . . from a famed salon teeming with politicians and poets to a picturesque castle on the secluded, lush Island of the Swans. . . .

Best friends in childhood, Jane Maxwell and Thomas Fraser wreaked havoc on the cobbled streets of Edinburgh with their juvenile pranks. But years later, when Jane blossoms into a beautiful woman, her feelings for Thomas push beyond the borders of friendship, and he becomes the only man she wants. When Thomas is reportedly killed in the American colonies, the handsome, charismatic Alexander, Duke of Gordon, appeals to a devastated Jane. Believing Thomas is gone forever, Jane hesitantly responds to the Duke, whose passion ignites her blood, even as she rebels at his fierce desire to claim her.

But Thomas Fraser is not dead, and when he returns to find his beloved Jane betrothed to another, he refuses to accept the heartbreaking turn of events. Soon Jane's marriage is swept into a turbulent dance of tender wooing and clashing wills--as Alex seeks truly to make her his, and his alone.


AND NOW FOR THE LIBRARY LOOT:





Caesers Women by Colleen McCullough
Legacy by Susan Kay
Dragonwyck by Anya Seton
Bloody Mary by Carolly Erickson
Legacy by Susan Kay (YEP, you read that right - I found 2 copies!!!!  I squealed so loud I scared the crap out of some poor lady)
The Fall of the House of Borgia by E.R. Chamberlin
Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.





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11 comments:

  1. Good week for you :)
    Happy reading

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  2. Island of the Swans sounds really good! :) Nice pile of books you've got there.

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  3. I've seen so much talk about Wolf Hall! Now that I know what it is about, I'm going to have to look into it.

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  4. Great pile!!
    Now as far as that Library Loot goes, does that mean you plan on reading all those books in three weeks? Plan on sleeping?
    More power to you, and I look forward to ALL those reviews =)
    Particularly Bloody Mary. I have the bio on her by Prescott, but it looks so.. big... I just worry about getting bored halfway through. But I definitely want to read a bio on her, since I can't seem to think of her in a favorable light.

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  5. Ooh, nice haul you finally got Legacy.

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  6. All of these look great! I am really anxious to hear what you think of Wolf Hall and will be checking back to see your review. Enjoy your new reads!

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  7. Wow - a great haul. I love library sales - sometimes you can find the best stuff. The Van Gogh book sounds very intriguing - I always was interested in his works.

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  8. I enjoyed Legacy...was so glad to snag a copy off Paperbackswap.

    Bloody Mary looks interesting!

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  9. Ok, now I've got three more books to add to my wish list. :) The books you got in the mail all look great!

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  10. You always get the best books Amy. Enjoy!

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  11. Holy cow. Happy reading, miss thing!

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