Sunday, June 12, 2016

Show the Books Showcase #14, June 12th

There are a ton of books out there! So here's a chance to organize some books and show them off in various ways!

So this week's theme is Alphabet in the Title's First Word!

Alone with You by Debbi Rawlins
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: February 18th, 2014
From Goodreads:
He'll be hers...one way or another!
After years of rebellion, Lexy Worthington just did the unthinkable—she asked her father for a job. Now she’s been roped into finding a rodeo star for a promotional calendar. Bareback bronc rider Will Tanner is perfect. He’s under contract, his career is in decline, plus he’s a Grade-A Hottie. And Lexy will drag him to Houston even if she has to hogtie him herself.

Tanner isn’t making it easy. He’ll do whatever it takes to distract Lexy from her mission—even if it means playing hot ‘n’ dirty. Now the road trip from hell has turned into a sizzling sexcapade. But this time, Tanner may have found the one ride he won’t be able to walk away from...

What's Interesting:

The Boy Meets Girl Massacre (Annotated) by Ainslie Hogarth
Publisher: Flux
Published: September 8th, 2015
From Goodreads:
Noelle takes a summer nightshift job at the infamous Boy Meets Girl Inn, even though she's well aware of the grisly murders that happened there decades ago. That's why she has a diary—to write down everything she experiences in case things go bump in the night. But the inexplicable freezing drafts, the migrating rotten-flesh smell, and the misplaced personal items don't really scare her. Noelle has bigger problems: her father's ailing health, her friend Alfred's inappropriate crush, and the sore spot on the back of her head that keeps getting worse.

When a party commemorating the anniversary of the original killings ends in a ghoulish bloodbath, Noelle's diary becomes the key piece of evidence for investigators. But the cryptic and often incoherent entries suggest there is more to the bizarre case than can be rationally explained... 

What's Interesting:

The Cutting Room Floor by Dawn Klehr
Publisher: Flux
Published: October 8th, 2015
From Goodreads:
Behind-the-scenes secrets could turn deadly for Desmond and Riley

Life in the Heights has never been easy for seventeen-year-old Riley Frost, but when she's publicly dumped and outed at the same time, she becomes an immediate social outcast at her high school. So Riley swears off romance and throws herself into solving the shocking murder of her favorite teacher, Ms. Dunn.

Riley turns to her best friend, budding filmmaker Desmond Brandt, for help. What she doesn't know is that Dez has been secretly directing her life, blackmailing her friends, and hoping his manipulations will make her love him. When his schemes go too far, Dez's web of lies threatens to destroy both of their lives.

What's Interesting:

Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: September 17th, 2013
From Goodreads:
A dark, romantic fantasy set against the backdrop of San Francisco devastated by the Great Quake...

It is the dawn of a new century in San Francisco and Delia Martin is a wealthy young woman whose life appears ideal. But a dark secret colors her life, for Delia’s most loyal companions are ghosts, as she has been gifted (or some would say cursed) with an ability to peer across to the other side.

Since the great quake rocked her city in 1906, Delia has been haunted by an avalanche of the dead clamoring for her help. Delia flees to the other side of the continent, hoping to gain some peace. After several years in New York, Delia believes she is free…until one determined specter appears and she realizes that she must return to the City by the Bay in order to put this tortured soul to rest.

It will not be easy, as the ghost is only one of the many victims of a serial killer who was never caught. A killer who after thirty years is killing again. 

And who is now aware of Delia’s existence.

What's Interesting:

The Empress Chronicles by Suzy Vitello
Publisher: Division Books
Published: September 4th, 2014
From Goodreads:
In this FIRST EMPRESS CHRONICLES book, one courageous girl seeks keys to the past to unlock the future…

When city girl Liz is banished to a rural goat farm on the outskirts of Portland, the 15-year-old feels her life spiraling out of control. She can’t connect to her father or his young girlfriend, and past trauma adds to her sense of upheaval. The only person who seems to keep her sane is a troubled boy who is fighting his own demons. But all of this changes in one historical instant.

One-hundred fifty years earlier, Elisabeth of Bavaria has troubles of her own. Her childhood is coming to a crashing end, and her destiny is written in the form of a soothsaying locket that has the ability to predict true love. But evil is afoot in the form of a wicked enchantress who connives to wield the power of the locket for her own destructive ends.

When Liz finds a time-worn diary, and within it a locket, she discovers the secrets and desires of the young Bavarian princess who will one day grow up to be the legendary Empress of Austria.

It is in the pages of the diary that these two heroines will meet, and it is through their interwoven story that Liz will discover she has the power to rewrite history—including her own...

What's Interesting:

The Forgotten Ones by Laura Howard
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Published: April 28th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Allison O'Malley's plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.

What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison's mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn't trust her father, so why would she believe his stories about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha de Danaan? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother's sanity. 

What's Interesting:

Grave Consequences by Lisa T. Bergren
Publisher: David C. Cook
Published: March 1st, 2013
From Goodreads:
For Cora Kensington, the journey of a lifetime has taken unexpected turns. And her future—her very life—depends on the decisions she’ll make at each crossroad. As the Grand Tour with her newfound family winds through France, Austria, and Italy, an unseen enemy trails close behind. And a forbidden love continues to put everyone’s plans at risk.

Cora must escape the bonds of the past and discover the faith to make the right choices...because each one has grave consequences.

What's Interesting:

How We Lived by Erin Butler
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Published: April 28th, 2014
From Goodreads:
Nineteen-year-old Kelsey Larkin’s parents uninvited her to her brother’s funeral. She just wanted to wear jeans and a T-shirt—the clothes Kyle would’ve wanted her in—not wrap herself up in death. So she watched the funeral from afar, like an outsider. Which is just how she feels.

Chase came, though, just like she knew he would. Until a few months ago, the three of them had been best friends, and then Chase made a mistake that shattered both families. But when Kelsey looks at him, she doesn’t see her brother’s killer. She sees the boy next door who’s always taken care of her. She sees home. 

When Chase tells her his feelings run deeper than friendship, she can’t help but get lost in him. In Chase, she finally has the closure she’s been unable to find anywhere else. But the boy she’s falling in love with is still hiding secrets about the night Kyle died. Secrets that could destroy everything they have…again.

What's Interesting:

Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand
Publisher: Anccendo Press
Published: March 12th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Everyone is exactly like me. There is no one like me.

Ven wrestles with these contradicting truths every day. A clone of wealthy eighteen-year-old Raven Rogen, Ven knows everything about the girl she was created to serve: the clothes she wears, the boys she loves, the friends she loves to hate. Yet she’s never met the Authentic Raven face-to-face. 

Imitations like Ven only get to leave the lab when they’re needed—to replace a dead Authentic, donate an organ, or complete a specific mission. And Raven has never needed Ven . . . until now.

When there is an attack on Raven’s life, Ven is thrust into the real world, posing as Raven to draw out the people who tried to harm her. But as Ven dives deeper into Raven’s world, she begins to question everything she was ever told. She exists for Raven, but is she prepared to sacrifice herself for a girl she’s never met? d

What's Interesting:

Jack Templar Monster Hunter by Jeff Gunhus
Publisher: Seven Guns Press
Published: October 17th, 2012
From Goodreads:
Orphan Jack Templar has no memory of his parents and only the smallest details from his Aunt Sophie about how they died. The day before Jack's fourteenth birthday, things start to change for him. At first it's great: A sudden new strength helps him defend his nose-picking friend "T-Rex" from the school bully, and even his crush, Cindy Adams, takes notice. But then a mysterious girl named Eva arrives and tells him two facts that will change his life forever. First, that he's the descendent of a long line of monster hunters and he's destined to be in the family business. Second, that there's a truce between man and monster that children are off-limits...until their fourteenth birthday! Jack has only one day before hundreds of monsters will descend on his little town of Sunnyvale and try to kill him. 

As if that weren't enough, things get even more complicated when Jack discovers that the Lord of the Creach (as the monsters are collectively known) holds a personal grudge against him and will do anything to see that Jack has a slow and painful death. To stay alive and save his friends, Jack will have to battle werewolves, vampires, harpies, trolls, zombies and more. But perhaps the most dangerous thing he must face is the truth about his past. Why do the other hunters call him the last Templar? Why do they whisper that he may be the "One?" Why do the monsters want him dead so badly? Even as these questions plague him, he quickly discovers survival is his new full-time job and that in the world of monster hunters, nothing is really what it seems.

What's Interesting:

Kiss of the She-Devil by M. William Phelps
Publisher: Pinnacle
Published: March 5th, 2013
From Goodreads:
When librarian Martha Gail Fulton was gunned down in a Michigan parking lot on a quiet evening, there were two obvious suspects—Gail’s husband George, a former military officer . . . and George’s mistress, the flashy businesswoman Donna Kay Trapani. Police were baffled to find that both had ironclad alibis. Yet evidence showed the shooter, a male, had an accomplice—a mystery woman. Now, M. William Phelps recounts the compelling real-life drama of a twisted love triangle that ended in bloody murder, and the riveting investigation that brought to light a master manipulator’s trail of deadly deceit.

What's Interesting:

Lingering Echoes by Erica Kiefer
Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing
Published: November 16th, 2013
From Goodreads:
“You can’t change the past… no matter how much you want to.”
If only Allie Collins could go back to that tragic day one year ago, perhaps she could escape the guilt that haunts her. In reality, there was no altering her cousin’s death or the role she played. Then she meets Damien Michaels, a dark-haired stranger on a dirt bike, who seems to watch Allie and know more about her than he should. Veiling his own secrets, including a mysterious scar and unexplained tattoo, Allie knows she shouldn’t trust him—especially as she digs up a past Damien desperately wants to forget. She also doesn’t believe in summer romances, yet she finds her attraction to him growing beyond his striking grey eyes. 

Unfortunately, Allie discovers too late that he is hiding a dark past which is far from over, endangering her life and those she loves.

What's Interesting:

My Sweetest Escape by Chelsea M. Cameron
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Published: January 28th, 2014
From Goodreads:
The past will always find you.

Jos Archer was the girl with the perfect life; until the night it all came crashing down around her. Now, nine months later, she still hasn't begun to pick up the pieces. Even transferring to a new college and living under the watchful eye of her older sister, Renee, isn't enough to help her feel normal again.

And then she meets Dusty Sharp. For reasons Jos can't begin to fathom, the newly reformed campus bad boy seems determined to draw her out of her shell. And if she's not careful, his knowing green eyes and wicked smile will make her feel things she's no longer sure she deserves.

But even as Dusty coaxes Jos to open up about the past, he's hiding secrets of his own. Secrets about the night her old life fell apart. When the truth is finally revealed, will it bring them closer together;or tear them apart for good? 

What's Interesting:

The Ninety Days of Genevieve by Lucinda Carrington
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Published: November 26th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Genevieve didn't have a 90-day sex contract in mind when she began business negotiations with James Sinclair, and she soon finds herself the star of a series of kinky and erotic fantasies. Thrown into a world of sexual challenge, she must learn how to balance her career with the world of fetishism.

What's Interesting:

Over the Rainbow by Brian Rowe
Publisher: Brian Rowe
Published: August 6th, 2013
From Goodreads:
The Wizard of Oz meets Jurassic Park!

Zippy Green never meant to fall in love with a girl, but when she does, her ultra-conservative father tries to send her to anti-gay camp. At the Kansas City airport, however, she hides inside a giant suitcase and sneaks onto an airplane headed not to the camp, but to Seattle, where her online love Mira lives. Halfway through the flight, the plane barrels out of control and crashes into the ground, knocking her unconscious. 

When Zippy awakens, she finds that most of the passengers have vanished. She doesn’t know what’s happened, but she’s determined to find out. She begins a quest on foot toward Seattle, and along the way, she meets a teenager with a concussion, a homeless man with a heart condition, a child without a shred of bravery, and a terrier named Judy. Together the group discovers that more than two-thirds of the world's population have mysteriously disappeared. But that's only the beginning...

All Zippy wants is to find her Mira, but before she can she has to contend with two outside forces. The first is her homophobic father, who does everything in his power to keep her from the girl she loves. And the second is extinct creatures of all shapes and sizes, including living, breathing dinosaurs, which have replaced the missing population.

What's Interesting:

Providence by Lisa Colozza Cocca
Publisher: Merit Press
Published: March 18th, 2014
From Goodreads:
The eldest of ten children on a dirt-poor farm, Becky trudges through life as a full-time babysitter, trying to avoid her father's periodic violent rages. When the family's barn burns down, her father lays the blame on Becky, and her own mother tells her to run for it. Run she does, hopping into an empty freight car. There, in a duffel bag, Becky finds an abandoned baby girl, only hours old. 

After years of tending to her siblings, sixteen-year-old Becky knows just what a baby needs. This baby needs a mother. With no mother around, Becky decides, at least temporarily, this baby needs her. When Becky hops off the train in a small Georgia town, it's with baby "Georgia" in her arms. When she meets Rosie, an eccentric thrift-shop owner, who comes to value and love Becky as no one ever has, Becky rashly claims the baby as her own. Not everyone in town is as welcoming as Rosie, though. Many suspect Becky and her baby are not what they seem. Among the doubters is a beautiful, reclusive woman with her own terrible loss and a long history with Rosie. 

As Becky's life becomes entangled with the lives of the people in town, including a handsome boy who suspects Becky is hiding something from her past, she finds her secrets more difficult to keep. Becky should grab the baby and run, but her newfound home and job with Rosie have given Becky the family she's never known. Despite her guilt over leaving her mother alone, she is happy for the first time. But it's a happiness not meant to last. When the truth comes out, Becky has the biggest decision of her life to make. Should she run away again? Should she stay--and fight? Or lie? What does the future hold for Becky and Georgia? With a greatness of heart and a stubborn insistence on hope found in few novels of any genre, "Providence" proves that home is where you find it, love is an active verb, and family is more than just a word.

What's Interesting:

Queen of Someday by Sherry D. Ficklin
Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing
Published: October 7th, 2014
From Goodreads:
ONE GIRL WILL BRING AN EMPIRE TO ITS KNEES...

Before she can become the greatest empress in history, fifteen-year-old Sophie will have to survive her social-climbing mother’s quest to put her on the throne of Russia—at any cost.

Imperial Court holds dangers like nothing Sophie has ever faced before. In the heart of St. Petersburg, surviving means navigating the political, romantic, and religious demands of the bitter Empress Elizabeth and her handsome, but sadistic nephew, Peter. Determined to save her impoverished family—and herself—Sophie vows to do whatever is necessary to thrive in her new surroundings. But an attempt on her life and an unexpected attraction threatens to derail her plans.

Alone in a new and dangerous world, learning who to trust and who to charm may mean the difference between becoming queen and being sent home in shame to marry her lecherous uncle. With traitors and murderers lurking around every corner, her very life hangs in the balance. Betrothed to one man but falling in love with another, Sophie will need to decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice in order to become the empress she is destined to be.

In a battle for the soul of a nation, will love or destiny reign supreme?

What's Interesting:

Riot by Sarah Mussi
Publisher: Hodder Children's
Published: May 1st, 2014
From Goodreads:
It is 2018. England has been struggling under a recession that has shown no sign of abating. Years of cuts has devastated Britain: banks are going under, businesses closing, prices soaring, unemployment rising, prisons overflowing. The authorities cannot cope. And the population has maxed out.

The police are snowed under. Something has to give. Drastic measures need taking.

The solution: forced sterilisation of all school leavers without secure further education plans or guaranteed employment.

The country is aghast. Families are distraught, teenagers are in revolt, but the politicians are unshakeable: The population explosion must be curbed. No more free housing for single parents, no more child benefit, no more free school meals, no more children in need. Less means more.

But it is all so blatantly unfair - the Teen Haves will procreate, the Teen Havenots won't.

It's time for the young to take to the streets. It's time for them to RIOT:

OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE, OUR BODIES, OUR FUTURE. 

What's Interesting:

Souls of the Damned by E.S. Moore
Publisher: Kensington
Published: June 1st, 2014
From Goodreads:
Innocence is relative, and evil is damned hard to kill. . .Kat Redding would love to take a break from the gruesome, dangerous work of hunting down rogue vampires and werewolves, battling for innocent lives. But there's no peace for Lady Death. Until Kat's young charge, Sienna, appears on her doorstep, escaped from the shadow-paradise of Delai. Sienna is weak, confused, desperate--human in the utmost. If Kat is going to have any hope of breaking the hold of Delai, she'll have to infiltrate the walls around the false sanctuary. And the only way she can do that is to trade in her battle-hardened, bloodthirsty vampire's body--for Sienna's human form.

With no weapons but her wits, Kat has to trust a demon, defeat an angel, and wrestle with her own rebel soul--because with all the fear and death she's conquered, no one has ever offered her another day under a warm yellow sun. . . 

What's Interesting:

Truth or Dare by Ella Monroe
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: April 23rd, 2013
From Goodreads:
Jackie, Lettie, and Laura Beth barely survived the holidays . . . literally. Jackie's on lockdown while the hunt is on for her stalker, who somehow got into the White House and left her an ominous note. Laura Beth and Sol are finally back together after a scandal almost tore them apart, and Lettie, who's forced to live with Whitney and her gossip-mongering mom, has let down her guard enough to fall in love with Daniel. For the Capital Girls life is always complicated, especially when they're under 24-hour media scrutiny. But that won't stop the three friends from making their senior year the most amazing ever—even as the mystery deepens over Taylor Cane's death and First Son Andrew Price's role in it. 

What's Interesting:

Unknown by by Melissa Pearl
Publisher: Createspace
Published: June 9th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Darkness is covering the land. As the city of Mezrah grows with power and greed, the rest of the world can only stand by and wait for their inevitable destruction. The only hope against this growing power is an ancient prophecy that people have stopped believing in.

Then a star begins to fall.

Princess Kyla of Taramon stopped believing in the power of light the day her father died. Trapped in a city she does not care for, under the watchful glare of her mother, the queen, she struggles to accept her fate.

Then a star begins to fall.

Jethro has loved Kyla for as long as he can remember. Learning that she was to marry his cousin drove a wedge between him and the feisty princess. Watching her from a distance is a torture he is unable to free himself from.

Then a star begins to fall, sparking an ember of hope and sending two seekers on a treacherous journey into the unknown.

What's Interesting:

Valentine Bell: The Golden Year by by Rowan Maness
Publisher: Division Books
Publisher: June 10th, 2014
From Goodreads:
In this enthralling debut, one young girl learns that getting the best revenge takes more than a little luck.

Valentine Bell spends her days aboard the luxury cruise ship “The Heart of Io,” traveling back and forth between earth and beautiful, mysterious Vala, a planet where the jungle holds a universe-altering secret. The young orphan is unaware of her powers, only knows that she has been born with a scar, and seeks greater adventures than what life has provided for her.

She finds it in the form of Orion Sides. Orion uses Valentine’s fascination to entangle her in his father’s gang of thugs and thieves, who run the ship’s underworld.

But Orion knows something Valentine doesn’t— that her scar gives her a special ability to bestow luck upon anyone who touches it. Aided by her de-facto dad, Tycho, and her best friend, Luke, Valentine realizes that Orion’s been using her luck to pull off a heist, and when a set of priceless jewels goes missing from the cabin of a powerful Ambassador, Valentine is sure she knows who’s taken them.

Out for revenge, Valentine embarks upon a dangerous journey that takes her into the Valan jungle, spurred on by a strange connection to the precious jewels. As she learns about her own tangled history, and forges a path to her future, Valentine discovers that she has a role to play in setting things right, talents beyond her imagination, and a thirst for justice that takes her down perilous paths.

Rowan Maness’s stunning first novel invites readers into a dizzying world unlike any they’ve ever seen, and introduces a character whose journey will enchant anyone who has ever questioned their place in this world or any other.

What's Interesting:

Wolf by Valerie Hobbs
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: October 15th, 2013
From Goodreads:
Jack has finally found a home and a purpose on a farm, where he keeps a flock of sheep safe from coyotes and helps train young pups to do the same. But when two sheep disappear in broad daylight, Jack doesn't know what happened to them. Was it his fault? Is he just getting too old for this job? Still, he's determined not to disappoint his boy, Luke, who thinks that Jack is the smartest and fastest dog around. Then Jack and Luke discover that the animal threatening their farm is far more dangerous than any coyote: it's a rabid wolf. Jack knows that he must gather the courage and strength to protect the ones he loves most—but can an old dog learn new tricks? 

What's Interesting:

25 Perfect Days by Mark Tullius
Publisher: Vincere Press
Published: March 15th, 2013
From Goodreads:
A totalitarian state doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s a slow, dangerous slide. 25 Perfect Days chronicles the path into a hellish future of food shortages, contaminated water, sweeping incarceration, an ultra-radical religion, and the extreme measures taken to reduce the population.

Higher taxes, strict gun control, an oppressive healthcare system. Complete media control, genetically modified food, experimentation on citizens. The push of depersonalizing technology, unending wars, government sanctioned assassinations. Is this collection of stories merely science fiction or soon to be fact? Are these policies designed for the greater good or disguised to benefit a chosen few at the expense of the masses? Is this brave new world the best we could do or part of a sinister grand plan?

Through these twenty-five interlinked stories, each written from a different character’s point of view, 25 Perfect Days captures the sacrifice, courage, and love needed to survive and eventually overcome this dystopian nightmare. 

What's Interesting:

And next week's theme is going to be A Single Letter!

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