Bookish Haul (#10)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.
Each post shows a list of books that were bought/borrowed/received for reviews for this week.
It's always fun to see what other people are talking about and what's coming out soon!
I've decided to call my weekly round-up My Book Haul due to the fact that many times these books don't come from my mailbox, but other areas. =)

This week's haul comes from "the box", a literary Halloween party grab bag, Amazon, RAK and ARCs. Thanks Dani from Refracted Light for my October RAK, Nevermore, NetGalley and Random House for The Gathering Storm, LibraryThing and Veronica Breville for A Banshee's Tale and Rhemalda Publishing for Tangled Tides.  




Tangled Tides

Yara Jones doesn't believe in sea monsters-until she becomes one.
When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.

Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people-until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process-or she might open the gateway to a love that's deeper than the oceans.

A Banshee's Tale

Catherine Dalry feels like a normal child, growing up in a normal small town, raised by normal, middle-income parents. That is, until she starts school. Children and adults alike look at her with trepidation and scorn. She learns quickly that her version of normal and theirs differ greatly.

Just as Catherine is preparing to turn sixteen, she is forced on a journey that will change her life in ways most only dream of. An ancient book teaches her of the connection between her freaky eyes and the secretive ranks she is now forced to join by matter of inheritance. She is a Guide, or in the old country, a Banshee. As far as the masses are concerned, Catherine’s destiny is to be the wailing spectral woman that wanders the land lamenting and signaling the impending death of a loved one. As her life is pulled in countless directions, she leans on her best friend and psychic, Will; her beloved aunt, teacher, and fellow Guide, Lucie; and her attractive and terminally arrogant Caomhnóir or protector, Zane.

The world of myth, mystery, and fairytale monsters engulfs Catherine and sets her on a course of self-discovery and life altering responsibility.

The Gathering Storm

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn. The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

Nevermore

A page-turning psychological mystery that is equal parts horror, humor, and romance, Nevermore is the story of Varen—a Poe fan and Goth—and Isobel—a cheerleader and unlikely heroine. When an English Lit. project pairs the two, Isobel finds herself swept into Varen’s world, one that he has created in his notebook and in his mind, one where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. Isobel slowly learns that dreams and words can be much more powerful than she’d ever imagined. As labels of “Goth” and “cheerleader” fade away, Isobel and Varen slip into a consuming romance, braced against the ever-clearer horror that the most chilling realities are those within our own minds. When Isobel has a single chance to rescue Varen from the shadows of his nightmares, will she be able to save him—and herself?

Spellbound

In the wake of Karen Holly's tragic death, many people believe that her boyfriend, Jason, is responsible, and when Jason takes a new girlfriend, newcomer Cindy, she and her friends must return to the scene of Karen's murder. Reissue.

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

The red words painted on the trailer caused quite a buzz around town and before an hour was up, half of Antler was standing in line with two dollars clutched in hand to see the fattest boy in the world.

Toby Wilson is having the toughest summer of his life. It's the summer his mother leaves for good; the summer his best friend's brother returns from Vietnam in a coffin. And the summer that Zachary Beaver, the fattest boy in the world, arrives in their sleepy Texas town. While it's a summer filled with heartache of every kind, it's also a summer of new friendships gained and old friendships renewed. And it's Zachary Beaver who turns the town of Antler upside down and leaves everyone, especially Toby, changed forever.

What Is He Thinking??

In WHAT IS HE THINKING??, Rebecca interviews a range of men from high-profile types to the guys next door, men that every woman can relate to. Although the interviews focus on single guys ages 20-35, Rebecca also includes words of wisdom from older mentors she respects who have been successfully married for years, such as her dad, life coach, and pastor.

The men share their thoughts on topics like how women can respect themselves and the men in their lives, modesty, purity, taking it slow, friendship, letting guys lead, and more. This book gives them the floor to say what they would really like women to know.

The men respond candidly to questions like:

What is the most attractive quality to you in a woman?
Is modesty truly attractive?
Is neediness a turn-off?
What do you find beautiful?
How can we be dependent on God for our identity, not on you?
How can we help you with boundaries physically?
Rebecca also discusses her own dating life, speaking openly about the single life, her struggle with loneliness, and her hope for the future. She challenges women to see the men in their lives as brothers in Christ and to trust God with their dating lives.

Half-Blood

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures.Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden.Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

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