Mailbox Monday


Another Monday, Another Mailbox!! This is a feature where we all share with each other the yummy books that showed up at our doors! WARNING: Mailbox Mondays can lead to extreme envy and GINORMOUS wishlists!!

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

So, how was your week?  Any goodies come your way?  All of mine here arrived on Monday and I got the proverbial eye-roll from the hubby when I walked through the door with my face hidden behind 4 packages!  You know I was lovin' it though!


by Kathleen Grissom

Acquired by Simon & Schuster

SYNOPSIS:  When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family.

Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin.

Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.

The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.


by Vanitha Sankaran

Release Date:  April 13, 2010 | Acquired by Vanitha Sankaran/Avon Publishing

SYNOPSIS:  The daughter of a papermaker in a small French village in the year 1320—mute from birth and forced to shun normal society—young Auda finds solace and escape in the wonder of the written word. Believed to be cursed by those who embrace ignorance and superstition, Auda's very survival is a testament to the strength of her spirit. But this is an age of Inquisition and intolerance, when difference and defiance are punishable "sins" and new ideas are considered damnable heresy. When darkness descends upon her world, Auda—newly grown to womanhood—is forced to flee, setting off on a remarkable quest to discover love and a new sense of self . . . and to reclaim her heritage and the small glory of her father's art.


by Chloe Schama

Release Date:  March 16, 2010 | Acquired by Allie @ InkWell Management

SYNOPSIS: A riveting recreation of one of Victorian England’s biggest scandals, the first book by a rising talent.

On a steamer passage from France to England in 1852, nineteen-year-old Theresa Longworth met William Charles Yelverton, a soldier destined to become the Viscount Avonmore. A flirtation began that soon blossomed into a clandestine, epistolary affair, ranging from the shores of England to the battlefields of the Crimean War. Five years after their first meeting they married secretly in Edinburgh, and then, at Theresa’s urging, they married again that summer in Dublin—or did they?

Separated by circumstance soon after they were wed, the two would never again live together as man and wife. When Yelverton left Theresa to marry another woman, Theresa found herself having to prove that their marriage had ever existed. Multiple trials ensued, in Ireland, England, and Scotland, and for months their scandal captivated each nation. Newspapers broadcast each detail of the proceedings, songwriters dedicated ballads to Theresa, and novelists such as Wilkie Collins borrowed the courtroom melodrama for their plots. Over the course of the very public ordeal, Theresa lost any chance of a private married life.

In this brilliant debut, ChloĆ« Schama portrays a woman at the forefront of changes that the twentieth century would bring to women’s lives everywhere. Theresa’s story is both a courtroom drama full of steamy intrigue and the chronicle of how one woman made a life for herself as an unmarried author and public speaker in a society that had little space for either. Thrust into the spotlight, Theresa reincarnated herself as “Teresina Peregrina,” traversing the globe and writing about her journeys: she visited the Mormons in the American West, crossed paths with John Muir in Yosemite, and ventured into the far reaches of Asia and Africa, where she spent the last years of her life. Events beyond her control forced Theresa to become a woman of the world, when she would have settled for a world defined by her husband.

In Wild Romance, ChloĆ« Schama unearths the inspiring tale of a woman who held onto her ideals of independence, of self-reliance, and—despite everything—of love, and who never gave up.


by S.J. Parris

Release Date:  February 23, 2010 | Acquired by Doubleday

SYNOPSIS:  Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.

Giordano Bruno was a monk, poet, scientist, and magician on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. This alone could have got him burned at the stake, but he was also a student of occult philosophies and magic.

In S. J. Parris's gripping novel, Bruno's pursuit of this rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen.

His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy.

Like The Dante Club and The Alienist, this clever, sophisticated, exceptionally enjoyable novel is written with the unstoppable narrative propulsion and stylistic flair of the very best historical thrillers.


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15 comments:

  1. Isn't that a great feeling to find so much fun in the mailbox?! I have a few of these on their way to me...they all sound so good. Enjoy :)

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  2. wow, you got some great looking books this week, Amy! I think the first two look especially appealing. Happy reading!

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  3. I'm so jealous..These look so fantastic!! Enjoy them all. I know I would. :)

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  4. The Kitchen House sounds very interesting - can't wait to see your review. I also got Wild Romance - very excited to read it.

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  5. I got Watermark, too, starting it tonight, even though it's early for the tour! Heresy looks good, have to add it to my list, where Kitchen House is already listed.

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  6. I can't wait to read your review on The Kitchen House ;) I want to start Watermark right now... been so looking forward to it!!

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  7. What a great batch of books. I can see I'd enjoy all of them. I especially like the sound of WILD ROMANCE.

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  8. Ah, the husband eye roll. I relate.
    I've yet to find Heresy in my box but look forward to your review, as it is one on my mental to look for list. Enjoy your books!

    My mailbox is here.

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  9. You had a great week. Not only do they all sound interesting but I love covers of all of them.

    I am currently reading Heresy and it is quite enjoyable.

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  10. Wow! Wild Romance sounds right up my alley! I'm drooling over that one.

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  11. Watermark looks pretty and sounds good :)
    That one I will keep a lookout for

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  12. I just received a copy of The Kitchen House and Watermark and I am looking forward to both of them! They look like great reads, and I will be really interested in hearing what you think of them both!

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  13. great mailbox! I like all the covers, especially Watermark. Happy reading!

    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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  14. You have to exchange your mailbox with mine! I want all of those books!!!!!

    I totally LOVE Watermark book cover@! I will feature it on my blog!

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  15. The Kitchen House caught my eye. Enjoy your new books!

    --Anna
    Diary of an Eccentric

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