My Book Haul/ In My Mailbox

The Story Siren hosts a weekly meme where bloggers can share what goodies they've purchased/received this week. If you get a chance head over to The Story Siren and check out what everyone is up to!

So I had a sneaky week off this week - 5 whole working days where I was able to lie in, read and figure out how to spend my birthday vouchers. (Admittedly I have to pay for this time off with a strenuously busy time for the next couple of weeks!) But for now - have a look at these goodies I've picked up!

Hot Mama (Bigtime Superheroes 2) - Jennifer Estep

Kindle Book

Fiona Fine is the hottest fashion designer in Bigtime; literally. That's because she moonlights as Fiera, a superhero with superstrength and volatile, fire-based powers. As Fiera, she's also a member of the Fearless Five, the city's most powerful and popular superhero team. However, Fiona's been through a lot lately, including the death of her fiance, who was murdered by an ubervillain. But Fiona is ready to move on with her life, so it seems like good karma when she meets sexy businessman Johnny Bulluci at a friend's wedding. But Fiona has little time to think of love thanks to Siren and Intelligal; the city's newest ubervillains who crash the wedding and then go on a citywide crime spree. Fiona doesn't know exactly what the ubervillains are up to, but if she doesn't figure it out, she's the one who just might go up in flames this time ...

Jinx (Bigtime Superheroes 3) - Jennifer Estep

Kindle Books

Thanks to her unwanted superpower, fashion designer Bella Bulluci may be the luckiest woman in Bigtime, N.Y. But luck can be good or bad, and it seems like just as many embarrassing things happens to Bella as do positive ones. Like when a charity event that Bella plans get crashed by Hangman, a deadly ubervillain who's after a prize sapphire that's on display. Hangman almost succeeds in stealing the jewel for his evil ubervillain boss, Prism, but Bella's luck helps her escape with the sapphire; along with some help from the suave and charming Debonair. Debonair's not an ubervillain, but he's not really a superhero either. Still, Bella can't help but fall for him, despite her personal vow to have as little to do with heroes and villains as possible. But with Hangman and Prism still after the sapphire, Bella's going to need every bit of her luck power just to survive ...

I've just finished Karma Girl, the first book in this series and I had such a good time I knew I wanted to read the rest of the series! So these were the first two books I used my amazon vouchers for. :-)

Ashes - Ilsa J. Bick
Publisher: Quercus

Alex has run away and is hiking through the wilderness with her dead parents' ashes, about to say goodbye to the life she no longer wants to live. But then the world suddenly changes. An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky zapping every electronic device and killing the vast majority of adults. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who has changed... Everyone still alive has turned - some for the better (those who acquired a superhuman sense) while others for the worse (those who acquired a taste for human flesh). Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the zombies that are on the hunt, Alex meets up with Tom - an Army veteran who escaped one war only to find something worse at home - and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse. This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to find food, shelter, while fighting off the 'Changed' and those desperate to stay alive.

I spotted this in Asda while doing my food shop during the week and while I hadn't heard anything about, I just thought the idea sounded so good and as it was only £4, I couldn't resist! :-)

Also through this week is one of my favourite wins ever - the Mary Hooper backlist from Bloomsbury and lovely Sarah at Feeling Fictional - eight yummy looking books by an author I've been wanting to try for ages. :-)

Mary Hooper Books:

At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum

Petals In The Ashes

The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose

At The House of The Magician

By Royal Command

The Betrayal

Fallen Grace

Velvet

Dark Fever - Karen Marie Moning

Publisher: UK - Gollancz

MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens. When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands….

I've heard so much buzz around this series - especially about Barrons! So I was super-excited when I won this on the Gollancz UK facebook page - hopefully I can get into the world of Mac soon!

The only trouble with so many lovely books is deciding which one to read first! :-)

What have you picked up this week? :)