Mailbox Monday (Birthday Edition)

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 was originally hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page and now located here, but is now a traveling meme and for the month of July your new host for MM will be Gwen @ A Sea of Books.

Hey all, welcome to another edition of Mailbox Monday!  Boy have I got some fabulous new additions to my bookshelves to tell you all about.  This past Friday was my birthday and then Saturday was my husband's birthday, so it was a prolonged weekend celebration :)  I received some gift cards and picked up some books that have been on my wishlist and also included are books that were sent to me for review.

Let's start with the review copies first...

The Wild Rose (The Tea Rose #3)
by Jennifer Donnelly

Release Date: August 2, 2011
Acquired via: Hyperion Publishing

SYNOPSIS

The Wild Rose is a part of the sweeping, multi-generational saga that began with The Tea Rose and continued with The Winter Rose

It is London, 1914. World War I looms on the horizon, women are fighting for the right to vote, and explorers are pushing the limits of endurance in the most forbidding corners of the earth. Into this volatile time, Jennifer Donnelly places her vivid and memorable characters:

--Willa Alden, a passionate mountain climber who lost her leg while summiting Kilimanjaro with Seamus Finnegan, and who will never forgive him for saving her life;

--Seamus Finnegan, a polar explorer who tries to forget Willa as he marries a beautiful young schoolteacher back home in England

--Max von Brandt, a handsome German sophisticate who courts high society women, but has a secret agenda in wartime London. 

Many other beloved characters from The Winter Rose continue their adventures in The Wild Rose as well. With myriad twists and turns, thrilling cliffhangers, and fabulous period detail and atmosphere, The Wild Rose provides a highly satisfying conclusion to an unforgettable trilogy.

by Juliet Grey

Release Date: August 9, 2011
Acquired via: Random House

SYNOPSIS

This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.

Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.

by Victoria Grossack and Alice Underwood

Publication Date: December 5, 2010
Acquired via: Victoria Grossack

SYNOPSIS

Young and beautiful, born to a powerful family, Jocasta is destined to become Queen of Thebes... trapped in a loveless marriage, she cannot save her firstborn child from her husband's wrath... left alone on the throne after her husband's death, she must contend with the dangerous Sphinx and contrive a plan to protect her city...charmed by a foreign prince, she does not know she is falling in love with her own son... A vibrant tale set in Bronze Age Greece, Jocasta has garnered rave reviews from university faculty, publications such as Historical Novels Reviews Online, and numerous readers. A Greek-language version of Jocasta was released by Kedros Publishers of Athens in 2006.

by Carolly Erickson

Release Date: August 2, 2011
Acquired via: St. Martin's Griffin

SYNOPSIS

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Wife of Henry VIII comes a novel about the bitter rivalry between Queen Elizabeth I and her fascinating cousin, Lettice Knollys, for the love of one extraordinary man. 

Powerful and dramatic, this is the story of the only woman to ever stand up to the Virgin Queen—her own cousin, Lettice Knollys. Far more attractive than the queen, Lettice soon won the attention of the handsome and ambitious Robert Dudley, a man so enamored of the queen and determined to share her throne that it was rumored he had murdered his own wife in order to become her royal consort. The enigmatic Elizabeth allowed Dudley into her heart, and relied on his devoted service, but shied away from the personal and political risks of marriage.

When Elizabeth discovered that he had married her cousin Lettice in secret, Lettice would pay a terrible price, fighting to keep her husband’s love and ultimately losing her beloved son to the queen’s headsman.

This is the unforgettable story of two women related by blood, yet destined to clash over one of Tudor England’s most charismatic men.
 
by Angus McDonald

Release Date: August 2, 2011
Acquired via: St. Martin's Griffin

SYNOPSIS

After the events of Outlaw, Robin of Locksley—and his sidekick and narrator, Alan Dale—finds himself in a very different England and a very changed world.
 
In 1190 A.D. Richard the Lionheart, the new King of England, has launched his epic crusade to seize Jerusalem from the Saracens. Marching with the vast royal army is Britain’s most famous, most feared, most ferocious warrior: the Outlaw of Nottingham, the Earl of Locksley—Robin Hood himself. With his band of loyal men at his side, Robin cuts a bloody swath on the brutal journey east. Daring and dangerous, he can outwit and outlast any foe—but the battlefields of the Holy Land are the ultimate proving ground. And within Robin’s camp lurks a traitor—a hidden enemy determined to assassinate England’s most dangerous rogue. 
 
Richly imagined and furiously paced, featuring a cast of unforgettable characters, Holy Warrior is adventure, history and legend at its finest.

And now for the birthday books...

by Barbara Erskine

Publication Date: July 1, 2011

SYNOPSIS

Past and present collide in richly mysterious Egypt, where recently divorced Anna Coburn is retracing a journey her great grandmother Louisa made in the 19th century. Cruising down the Nile from Luxor to the Valley of the Kings, Anna carries with her two mementos: an ancient Egyptian scent bottle, and the diary of that original Nile voyage, which has lain unread for a hundred years. As she follows Louisa's footsteps, Anna discovers both the chilling secret of the bottle and the terrifying specters that pursued her great grandmother.
 
by Winston Graham 

Publication Date: November 1, 2009

SYNOPSIS

A gorgeous new release of the heartwarming and hilarious first novel in the Poldark series, the subject of the landmark BBC series.
Ross Poldark is a heartwarming, gripping, and utterly entertaining saga that brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters and one of the greatest love stories of our age.
Ross Poldark returns to Cornwall from war, looking forward to a joyful homecoming with his family and his beloved Elizabeth. But instead he discovers that his father has died, his home is overrun by livestock and drunken servants, and Elizabeth, having believed Ross dead, is now engaged to his cousin. Ross must start over, building a completely new path for his life, one that takes him in exciting and unexpected directions…

Thus begins an intricately plotted story spanning loves, lives, and generations. The Poldark series is the masterwork of Winston Graham, who evoked the period and people like only he could, and created a world of rich and poor, loss and love, that readers will not soon forget.

Demelza: A Novel of Cornwall, 1788-1790 (Poldark #2)
by Winston Graham

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

SYNOPSIS

The second novel in the Poldark series, Demelza is a heartwarming, gripping, and utterly entertaining saga that brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters and one of the greatest love stories of our age.

Demelza Carne, the impoverished miner's daughter that Ross Poldark rescued from a fairground brawl, is now his wife. But the events of these turbulent years test their marriage and their love. Ross begins a bitter struggle for the right of the mining communities—and sows the seeds of an enduring rivalry with powerful George Warleggan. All the while, Demelza's efforts to adapt to the ways of the gentry—and her husband—place her in hilarious and embarrassing situations. But the birth of her first child bring a joy she never experienced before…

Jeremy Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1790-1791 (Poldark #3)
by Winston Graham

Publication Date: November 1, 2010

SYNOPSIS

Ross Poldark faces the darkest hour of his life in this third novel of the Poldark series. Reeling from the tragic death of a loved one, Captain Poldark vents his grief by inciting impoverished locals to salvage the contents of a ship run aground in a storm-an act for which British law proscribes death by hanging. Ross is brought to trial for his involvement, and despite their stormy marriage, Demelza tries to rally support for her husband, to save him and their family.

But there are enemies in plenty who would be happy to see Ross convicted, not the least of which is George Warleggan, the powerful banker whose personal rivalry with Ross grows ever more intense and threatens to destroy the Poldarks.

And into this setting, Jeremy Poldark, Ross and Demelza's first son, is born...

The Poldark series is the masterwork of Winston Graham's lifework, evoking the period and people like only he can and creating a work of rich and poor, loss and love, that you will not soon forget.

The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine
by Andrea Stuart

Publication Date: May 10, 2005

SYNOPSIS

One of the most remarkable women of the modern era, Josephine Bonaparte was born Rose de Tasher on her family's sugar plantation in Martinique. She embodied all the characteristics of a true Creole-sensuality, vivacity, and willfulness. Using diaries and letters, Andrea Stuart expertly re-creates Josephine's whirlwind of a life, which began with an isolated Caribbean childhood and led to a marriage that would usher her onto the world stage and crown her empress of France.

Josephine managed to be in the forefront of every important episode of her era's turbulent history: from the rise of the West Indian slave plantations that bankrolled Europe's rapid economic development, to the decaying of the ancien régime, to the French Revolution itself, from which she barely escaped the guillotine.

Rescued from near starvation, she grew to epitomize the wild decadence of post-revolutionary Paris. It was there that Josephine first caught the eye of Napoleon Bonaparte. A true partner to Napoleon, she was equal parts political adviser, hostess par excellence, confidante, and passionate lover. In this captivating biography, Stuart brings her so utterly to life that we finally understand why Napoleon's last word before dying was the name he had given her: Josephine.

Well, that's my mailbox...what did you get in yours?


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18 comments:

  1. Happy birthday!

    That Jocasta book looks interesting. So do the Poldark books, despite the anachronistic photographs on the covers.

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  2. I can't wait to read The Wild Rose! I loved the first too books, and can't wait to see how the story ends up! As soon as this comes out I plan on picking up a copy

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  3. I remember watching Poldark with my mother on PBS.

    I love your mailbox.

    I just reviewed Whispers in the Sand. It was quite enjoyable. And I adored Becoming Marie Antoinette

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  4. You've got a great selection of books this week! :) I love historical fiction but I really haven't been reading all that much of it lately!!

    Enjoy.

    http://thegreatthegoodandthebad.blogspot.com/

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  5. Wonderful looking books. I am going to start The Winter Rose soon and can't reat to read The Wild Rose.

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  6. Great mailbox and Happy Birthday!

    I hope you enjoy all your new books. I've got Holy Warrior and Becoming Marie Antoinette on pre-order - they both sound great. I read Whispers in the Sand several years ago and really liked it - but then again I like pretty much everything Barbara Erskine writes.

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  7. I really liked revisiting all the characters from The Winter Rose in The Wild Rose! Jennifer Donnelly certainly likes to put her characters through the emotional wringer.

    I have the Barbara Erskine too, but I am beginning to think she is not an author for me.

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  8. Wow, the awesomeness of all these books is beyond description! I won't say I'm jealous because you deserved them in celebration of your birthday. =O) Enjoy your books!

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  9. I am speechless at the fabulousness of your mailbox! enjoy them all.

    A very happy birthday to you.

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  10. Happy Birthday.

    Enjoy those books

    carol

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  11. The Poldark series sounds really good. I have added that to my Wish List. Thanks for the review and the heads-up.

    Connie Fischer
    conniecape@aol.com

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  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  13. Happy birthday, Amy! Yay for birthday books -- hope you enjoy them all!

    (Can you please delete my previous comment? I was signed in under the wrong username. Thanks!)

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  14. Happy Birthday! Enjoy your new books!!

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  15. Happy birthday! (Belatedly) So many delicious books -- the Jocasta one looks esp fabu, as does the Josephine one. YUM! Enjoy!

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  16. Looking forward to your thoughts on Becoming Marie Antoinette. I will be reading it soon for a blog tour.

    Hope you and your husband both had wonderful birthdays!

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  17. Wow, what a wonderful selection of books. Many, many hours of good reading here.

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