Sunday 6 May 2012

My Book Haul/Showcase Sunday

After recent events, I've decided to join Books, Biscuits and Tea's Showcase Sunday to share my lovely book hauls each week. Have a look back at Vicki's link up to see what everyone is up too!

It's been an eventful week as I attended my first blogger event in London for the release for SJ Bolton's new book, Dead Scared. Meeting in a basement wine bar, lit only by candles in a caged area where the humidity meant drops of water fell from the low ceiling occasionally, it was an incredibly atmospheric setting. Very suitable for a crime novel were people are literally scared to death. It was great to meet some other book bloggers for the first time (and I'm so terrible I didn't take note of anyone's name so I apolgise to those that were there) and Sharon aka SJ Bolton was lovely. Lynsey from Transworld did a great job putting the evening together! As well as a finished copy of Dead Scared, I got a goodie bag with plenty of yummy good - have a look!
It was such an interesting evening - even if the first thing Sharon asked each of us was what's your worse fear! (Mine is strangulation - don't know why but the idea of it freaks me out so much I can't wear high-neck tops or chokers!). It was so interesting to meet so many other bloggers and compare experiences! I will definitely make the effort to attend more of these - if I get invited again! :-)

Dead Scared - S.J. Bolton
Publisher: DoubleDay
When a rash of suicides tears through Cambridge University, DI Mark Joesbury recruits DC Lacey Flint to go undercover as a student to investigate the suspicious deaths. Given the circumstances, no one is convinced that the victims acted alone. They believe that someone is preying on lonely and insecure students and either encouraging them to take their own lives or actually luring them to their deaths. So long as Lacey can play the role of a vulnerable young woman, she may be able to stop these deaths, but is it just a role? With a past as fragile as hers is she drawing out the killers or is she getting drawn into a deadly game where she is a perfect victim?

Midnight (Dark Age 2) - Ellen Connor
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Three years of wandering the post-apocalyptic wasteland has stripped Dr. Chris Welsh of humanity and hope. He’s a dangerous man now, full of dark energy and yen for violence. A harrowing loss drove him from his home, and he hasn’t stopped moving since. Grim and sardonic, he never found anything worth sticking around for – until now.
Rosa Cortez runs Valle de Bravo, a haven of civilization amid the chaos of the Change. Soldiers take their orders directly from her–the iron hand within a velvet glove. The last thing she needs is a feral loner upsetting the town’s tentative balance. However, for the good of her people, she lets the sexy doctor stay. He evokes a delicious new longing, but she won’t submit to any man.
Tension rises as bloodthirsty raiders strike again and again, bent on possessing Valle and its resources. Together Chris and Rosa battle hellhounds and dust pirates while also fighting desperate attraction. To save them, love must overcome the pain of the past–and build a future in this brutal Dark Age...

This is another giveaway win from Stephanie at Once Upon A Chapter as part of Ruby's Birthday Hop a few weeks ago.I choose this in the hope that having the second book would make me read the first book Nightfall quicker!

It's Not Summer Without You - Jenny Han
Publisher: RazorBill
Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started--at Cousins Beach.

We'll Always Have Summer - Jenny Han
Publisher: RazorBill
One girl.
Two brothers.
The biggest decision of her life . . .
Just when she thought she had all the answers . . .
Isabel has only ever loved two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher.
One broke her heart; the other made her happier than she ever thought she'd be. But each brother is keeping a secret, and this summer Isabel must choose between the Fisher boys, once and for all. Which brother will it be?

RazorBill sent these two through for me to review after I enjoyed The Summer I Turned Pretty. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of trilogy ends.

Fins are Forever - Tera Lynn Childs
Publisher: Templar
On Lily Sanderson’s eighteenth birthday she’ll become just a girl—still a mer girl, true, but signing the renunciation paperwork will ink Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia out of existence. That leaves plain old Lily living on land, dating the boy she loves, and trying to master this being human thing once and for all.
Now that Lily and Quince are together, mer-bond or not, she’s almost content to give up her place in the royal succession of Thalassinia. But just when she thinks she has everything figured out, Lily’s father sends a certain whirlpool-stirring cousin to stay with her on land. What did Doe do to get herself exiled from Thalassinia and stuck in terraped form, when everyone knows how much she hates humans? And why why why is she batting her eyelashes at Lily’s former crush, Brody?
The seafoam on the surf comes when a merboy from Lily’s past shows up. Tellin asks Lily for something that clouds her view of the horizon. There’s a future with Quince on land, her loyalty to the kingdom in the sea, and Lily tossing on the waves in the middle. Will she find a way to reconcile her love, her duty, and her dreams?

I won this from Templar Publishing which is fantastic as it's the sequel to a book I enjoyed last year!

Pretty When She Dies - Rhiannon Frater
Kindle Book
Amaliya wakes under the forest floor, disoriented, famished and confused. She digs out of the shallow grave and realizes she is hungry...
... in a new, horrific, unimaginable way...
Sating her great hunger, she discovers that she is now a vampire, the bloodthirsty creature of legend. She has no choice but to flee from her old life and travels across Texas. Her new hunger spurs her to leave a wake of death and blood behind her as she struggles with her new nature. All the while, her creator is watching. He is ancient, he is powerful, and what's worse is that he's a necromancer. He has the power to force the dead to do his bidding. Amaliya realizes she is but a pawn in a twisted game, and her only hope for survival is to seek out one of her own kind.
But if Amaliya finds another vampire, will it mean her salvation... or her death?

I picked this up free on Amazon as I've lots of good things about Rhiannon Frater's writing and hey, for that price it's not a bad investment! It's still free on Amazon (Both US & UK) until tonight so check it out!


What have you picked up this week? Anything good? :)

24 comments:

  1. A lovely book haul, Mel! Coongrats on your first blogger event, sounds like you had fun! ;) I've had Pretty When She Dies for some time already but to my shame haven't read it yet :) Enjoy all your books!

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  2. Just omg, amazing haul! :) I got most of these books on my wishlist, so I'm green with envy!

    Thanks for sharing!

    Monaliz @ Mind Reading?

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  3. Nice! you had a lot of books I didn't know about. Now I'm curious to learn more about your books. Happy reading! I hope you'll enjoy them all!

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  4. Great haul and YAY for first blogger event!!!!

    Dead Scared sounds great so I will have to add it to my wishlist of books I want to read.

    Take a look at what I got this week

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  5. I must read these Jenny Han ones soon! I have heard such good things about them.

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  6. As always I love ALL your books :D

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  7. Yay for the swag! And Jenny Han! Awesome haul! :D

    Drop by my Showcase Sunday?

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  8. I have never heard of a lot of these.
    Thanks for the introductions.
    WTF Are You Reading?: WTF's In My Mailbox #2
    New Follower Here via GFC

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  9. Definitely going to have to read Midnight one day

    Lauren @ Northern Plunder
    http://www.northernplunder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/06052012-bought-borrowed-and-bagged-1.html

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  10. Those Jenny Han books sounds fun!

    Talk Supe BB&B

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  11. UK covers are always much more different than ours, and more eye catching, I think. :)

    Been wanting that Summer series for a while now. Oh, and cool bag! Hope you enjoy.

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  12. Wow you got a lot this week. That's awesome that you got to go to an event as a blogger. Very cool :) Happy reading :)

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  13. The blogger event sounded really fun! And fab books this week. I really liked Fins Are Forever (though I preferred book one) and I've heard great things about Jenny Han's series! I've read the first book but not the other two. Happy reading! :)

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  14. Awesome haul. Happy READING ;)


    Jennifer @ Dream Reads

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  15. Wahhh ... goodie bag! That's the icing on the book haul cake for sure!

    http://the-book-garden.blogspot.com/2012/05/postman-files-thats-new-one.html

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  16. I got Pretty When She Dies this week, too! It sounds great. :D

    Happy reading!

    Here's Mine @ Pinkindle Reads & Reviews

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  17. Nice haul! Fins are Forever looks really good. Enjoy!

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  18. Good load of books, happy reading! Like the sound of Midnight!

    Jenny @ Eternally Books

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  19. Great books :D Enjoy! And good idea about the second Ellen Connor books, I hope it will make you read that first one then

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  20. I really need to grab It's Not Summer Without You I loved the first book =) I hope you enjoy everything you got this week. Here's my IMM!

    http://www.paigebradish1996.blogspot.com/2012/05/in-my-mailbox-33-weekly-wrap-up.html

    ~Paige @ Comfort Books

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  21. Nice haul! I still need to read Jenny Han's books.. and 'pretty when she dies' looks freaky :D I like it!

    Happy reading :)

    http://thedailyprophecy.blogspot.com/2012/05/showcase-sunday-1.html

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  22. Wow- a real mix of great books this week! I just love the Tera Lynn Childs books, so corny but really funny and sweet. :D
    That blogger event sounds really cool- I would really like to go to one one day.
    Hope you enjoy all your new books!

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  23. Congrats on you bag and book! :D Looks like a great read. Hope you enjoy it.

    And I need to get to reading Ellen Connors first book I have here. :) Great collection! :D Have a great week!

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  24. Oh wow, I love that tote bag and all the goodies you got! I wish I could have been there, I love books like this. I'm glad you guys had fun!! :) x

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