My Book Haul / Showcase Sundays

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

Right now I am so far behind with my book review - I have 8 I need to write! I really should be scribbling them down all weekend rather than going out to play, but I figure I blog for fun not for additional work so I will write the reviews when I feel like it. Still I might try and get a few reviews ready for this week...

So what has my reading been like this week...? Not too bad as reading has always made me feel better. At the start of the week I finished a book I started on holiday - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness...how can I hate the main characters but love all the secondary ones...? I then moved onto Poison by Sarah Pinborough which was a wonderful fairy tale reinvention, before devouring Forbidden Fruit by Ann Aguirre (love seeing Shannon and Jesse's relationship first hand). Finally I also enjoyed The Long Earth by Terry Prachett and Stephen Baxter - some huge ideas.

I had a couple of wonderful packages arrive in the post this week which had me happy as anything.

Won

I was lucky enough to win April's British Book Challenge prize over at Feeling Fictional and I won this wonderful pack from Random House - eight books that I can't wait to start reading! Thanks so much Sarah!

Hot Blooded (Jessica McClain #2)

Publisher: Orbit

Jessica McClain has just discovered she's the biggest threat the supernatural world has seen in over eight-hundred years, but there's only one thing on her mind - finding her mate. Rourke's been kidnapped by a wicked goddess and his only chance of survival lies in her hands.

Finding Rourke and defeating the goddess proves to be difficult enough, but when the Underworld comes calling and Jessica discovers she's accused of crimes she hasn't committed, the entire game changes. The price they are demanding for her freedom is too steep. There is no way she can ever pay it back

I read Hot Blooded earlier this year and LOVED it so I was so excited to get a signed copy from the wonderful Amanda Carlson

Review

I also went on a little Netgalley request spree this week...

Forbidden Fruit (Corine Solomon #3.5) - Ann Aguirre

I see dead people. Okay, that’s a lie. I hear dead people—on an antique radio…
So far, that talent hasn’t brought Shannon Cheney fame or fortune. Since the world remains unaware that magick is real, being Gifted largely sucks. Her boss is an asshole, she makes minimum wage, and she’s got a serious case of forbidden lust for a sexy cop named Jesse Saldana. He’s part Mexican heat, all Texas charm, and enough of a dirty cowboy to curl her toes. Too bad he’s set on resisting her wiles.
To make matters worse, there’s this weird amnesia thing happening. She might think she’s going crazy, except Jesse’s got it too, and memory loss isn’t contagious like the flu. When Shannon pokes around, trying to put the missing pieces together, demonic retaliation is swift and potentially deadly. Jesse’s too much of a white knight to let her face danger alone, and she’s hoping he can’t resist the white-hot chemistry blazing between them.

I've already read this and I loved meeting Shannon away from Corine!

The Wrong Girl - C.J. Archer

It's customary for Gothic romance novels to include a mysterious girl locked in the attic. Hannah Smith just wishes she wasn't that girl. As a narcoleptic and the companion to an earl's daughter with a strange affliction of her own, Hannah knows she's lucky to have a roof over her head and food in her belly when so many orphans starve on the streets. Yet freedom is something Hannah longs for. She did not, however, want her freedom to arrive in the form of kidnapping. Taken by handsome Jack Langley to a place known as Freak House, she finds herself under the same roof as a mad scientist, his niece, a mute servant and Jack, a fire starter with a mysterious past. They assure Hannah she is not a prisoner and that they want to help her. The problem is, they think she's the earl's daughter. What will they do when they discover they took the wrong girl?

Lawless and The Devil In Euston Square - William Sutton

Publisher: Angry Robot

London 1859-62. A time of great exhibitions, foreign conquests and underground trains. But the era of Victorian marvels is also the time of the Great Stink. With cholera and depravity never far from the headlines, it’s not only the sewers that smell bad. Novice detective, Campbell Lawless, stumbles onto the trail of Berwick Skelton, an elusive revolutionary, seemingly determined to bring London to its knees through a series of devilish acts of terrorism.
But cast into a lethal, intoxicating world of music hall hoofers, industrial sabotage and royal scandal, will Lawless survive long enough to capture this underworld nemesis, before he unleashes his final vengeance on a society he wants wiped from the face of the Earth?

Angry Robot does some really fantastic books and this tickled my historical mystery bone.

A Study In Silk - Emma Jane Holloway

Publisher: Del Ray

Evelina Cooper, the niece of the great Sherlock Holmes, is poised to enjoy her first Season in London Society. But there’s a murderer to deal with—not to mention missing automatons, a sorcerer, and a talking mouse.
 In a Victorian era ruled by a council of ruthless steam barons, mechanical power is the real monarch and sorcery the demon enemy of the Empire. Nevertheless, the most coveted weapon is magic that can run machines—something Evelina has secretly mastered. But rather than making her fortune, her special talents could mean death or an eternity as a guest of Her Majesty’s secret laboratories. What’s a polite young lady to do but mind her manners and pray she’s never found out?  
But then there’s that murder. As Sherlock Holmes’s niece, Evelina should be able to find the answers, but she has a lot to learn. And the first decision she has to make is whether to trust the handsome, clever rake who makes her breath come faster, or the dashing trick rider who would dare anything for her if she would only just ask.

This just looks like a lot of fun!

So it was a bit of a bumper week even if I didn't actually buy any books! What goodies did you pick up this week? :-)