Stacking the Shelves 75

 

  Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews, every Weekend. This is to share books I have acquired from various sources. Physical books & ebooks both are welcome. If its something being sent to me by mail, I will not mention it until I actually receive it.


 So I am caught up through January finally.  Although library books are current.  I was fairly good through Febraury and so far in March on books so I should be up to date soon.  Sorry this is taking so long but between not wanting to overwhelm anyone with the number of books (I love to find out you actually looked into what I got versus just see a huge long list that is too much to take in any of it)  plus it takes time to list and catalog my books so this is giving me a good pace.

Outside the book and blog community- nothing really new.  I need to make a dentist appointment for next week or the week after but that is not a fun thing. And my dog has fleas so we got our work cut out getting them out of the house and yard.   Work has been keeping me quite busy but I besides time to read I have also been on an old-school video game kick and have been putting a little time on my NES lately. 

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For Review

  "A witch's curse from beyond the grave! Witch Island used to be feared. Even the bravest would not dare go there. Legend said a witch had been burned alive at the stake, and upon her death she cursed the town. Terrified residents performed rituals to keep her spirit trapped on the island where she was buried. Now, over a hundred years later, a group of high school seniors have decided to forgo the local graduation parties and have a small gathering of their own-on Witch Island. They don't fear the legends. They scoff at them. But the group will soon learn these particular legends are nothing to scoff at. And Witch Island will prove far worse than they could have ever imagined."

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  "What would you do if your heart was torn between saving yourself or your first love? For Nessa that question is a reality. If she is not surrendered to Central in a week, then Garrett will be executed and war will ensue.

Countless lives rest on the shoulders of eighteen year old Nessa. Is she strong enough to surrender herself to the government that’s holding Garrett hostage? Can she sacrifice the life she’s built to save him? Life comes down to a series of decisions, the question is; could this be her last."

 

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  "Quin Kincaid has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’.

Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin's new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her."

 

 

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  "When Heather Toulson returns to her parents cottage in the English countryside, she uncovers long-hidden secrets about her family history and stumbles onto the truth about a sixty-year-old murder. Libby, a free spirit who can't be tamed by her parents, finds solace with her neighbor Oliver, the son of Lord Croft of Ladenbrooke Manor. Libby finds herself pregnant and alone when her father kicks her out and Oliver mysteriously drowns in a nearby river. Though theories spread across the English countryside, no one is ever held responsible for Oliver's death.Sixty years later, Heather Toulson, returning to her family's cottage in the shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor, is filled with mixed emotions. She's mourning her father's passing but can't let go of the anger and resentment over their strained relationship. Adding to her confusion, Heather has an uneasy reunion with her first love, all while sorting through her family's belongings left behind in the cottage. As Heather digs, she finds a mysterious journal that belonged to a woman she never knew and it contains clues that lead to the truth about a mysterious drowning decades ago. What she uncovers will change everything she thought she knew about her family's history. Award-winning author Melanie Dobson seamlessly weaves the past and present together, fluidly unraveling the decades-old mystery and reveals how the characters are connected in shocking ways. Set in a charming world of thatched cottages, lush gardens, and lovely summer evenings, this romantic and historical mystery brings to light the secrets and heartaches that have divided a family for generations."

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  "Destiny is pre-determined. It is strictly monitored. It is unchangeable.
Or is it?

Madden’s life is a whirlwind of privilege and perks. Born into the elite Purple ring, she is fated to be a Minister of the Seven. Although her position comes with the burden of great responsibility, she’s nothing if not confident in her future. After all, Destiny Specialists have determined how she will fulfill her life's purpose, and they are never wrong.

Her classmate Dax, an Ash, is clinging to the opposite end of the spectrum. While everyone around her knows what destiny awaits them, Dax’s fate is…missing. Isolated and ignored, she refuses to let her lack of status define her.

After a stunning twist of fate, Dax and Madden’s paths intertwine in ways neither could have possibly imagined. The two are forced to question their own past, present and future as they realize who they are is not necessarily who they were meant to be.

Ash is an unforgettable journey into an alternate future which will leave readers wondering just how much we can control our own fate. Destiny is calling. Will you fight for yours?"

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  "The Galactic Civil War rages on after the destruction of the Death Star and Luke Skywalker struggles to learn more about the Force without the aid of Obi-Wan Kenobi – or indeed without any aid at all. But the few memories he has of Obi-Wan’s instruction point the way to a stronger control of the Force, and he is encouraged to pursue it by a new friend in the Alliance. When Luke, R2-D2 and his new ally are tasked with liberating a valuable asset from the Empire and delivering her to a safe planet where she can aid the Alliance, their journey across the galaxy is fraught with peril – and opportunities for Luke to discover the mysteries of the Force"

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  "Naomi Novik, author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose."

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They’re the only humans. But they’re not alone.

Adam Hayes pilots a small team to a remote Antarctic research station. Their mission: to investigate the loss of communications. Once there, the group of five find the station deserted, the radio smashed, and several strange piles of empty clothing. Forced to stay the night by a blinding snowstorm, they set out to solve the mystery of the missing crew. Eventually they will learn the horrifying truth—the station is not empty after all, and something unimaginable, dug up from the deep ice, roams the complex. Now they must fight for their lives against a cunning, thinking monster—and those who would unleash this terror on the rest of the world.

 

 

 

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Ebook nabs

*these were mostly freebies*  

"Seventeen-year-old Raine Cooper has enough on her plate dealing with her father’s disappearance, her mother’s erratic behavior and the possibility of her boyfriend relocating. The last thing she needs is Torin St. James—a mysterious new neighbor with a wicked smile and uncanny way of reading her.

Raine is drawn to Torin’s dark sexiness against her better judgment, until he saves her life with weird marks and she realizes he is different. But by healing her, Torin changes something inside Raine. Now she can’t stop thinking about him. Half the time, she’s not sure whether to fall into his arms or run.

Scared, she sets out to find out what Torin is. But the closer she gets to the truth the more she uncovers something sinister about Torin. What Torin is goes back to an ancient mythology and Raine is somehow part of it. Not only are she and her friends in danger, she must choose a side, but the wrong choice will cost Raine her life."

 

 

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"Voyage of the Dead is the first book of the Sovereign Spirit Saga detailing the adventures of several groups of survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse. Most of them are aboard a ship that is well equipped to survive the end of civilization, while others struggle to survive in a world suddenly overrun by undead cannibals. This is a science fiction adventure set within a horror genre, full of blood, guts, violence and the human emotions that fuel our survival instincts."

 

 

 

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"“I didn't see Rebecca die the second time.”

The United States military hides a secret: the completely real existence of one-bite-and-you're-dead zombies. An elite Special Forces unit has known they exist for over a hundred years, and has been quietly and expertly keeping the monsters at bay… until now.

The sole survivor of the massacre at Fall Creek joins this elite unit to combat the single greatest threat our world has ever known. Even as victories over the walkers mount, true evil still lurks in the hearts of men, and at the last, only a brave few may survive.

A character-driven story similar to The Walking Dead on AMC, The Dying of the Light: End was a Top 5 Finalist in Kindle Book Review's “Best Indie Books of 2012” competition."

 

 

 

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"Following the death of her dominating mother, Anne Fontaine decides to leave the bayou to reconnect with her estranged half-sister, Adrienne Deschanel. Her hope is to forge a relationship with Adrienne that was not possible when her mother was alive. Secretly, she also hopes to find out if her extraordinary supernatural talents are shared by anyone else.


When Nicolas Deschanel gets wind of Anne's presence, he suspects that she is one of many con artists after his sister's money. Not knowing that her story is true, he engages in a game of cat-and-mouse with her, deciding to have a little fun.


Eventually, circumstances find both of them back at the Deschanel family seat, Ophélie, where secrets and stories come to life."  

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  "9 AM EST: A senator shoots himself on national television.

10:32 AM EST: An entire floor of government agents leap to their death from their office building.

12:57 PM EST: All the police officers inside a station murder each other.

And the day has just begun.

Lieutenant Asher Benson left Iraq with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and a Purple Heart. His doctors warned that the symptoms would be life altering. They had no idea. As his body healed, the thoughts of those around him began to echo through Ash’s mind, stretching the boundaries of his sanity.

Five years later, Ash is drowning the voices with copious amounts of booze and self-loathing.

When unidentified intelligence agents abduct him in broad daylight, Ash is thrust into a world of espionage and assassinations. A unique terrorist is operating on U.S. soil, and the government needs Ash, and the malady that has plagued him for half a decade, to find the killer."

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"Known. The Clef family was a happy non-conventional unit.

Known. Chandra's past family life was something that left her and her daughter on their own to find a new home.

Known. Once her daughter is taken, Chandra takes control and decisions into her own hands.

Who took Cressida Clef? Unknown.

When Cressida is kidnapped from her school, her parents go mad with grief and desperation to find their daughter. Luckily—as some believe, for the Clef's—one mother's celebrity status allows her tight-knit connections to the media. But as Chandra tries to fight off her wife's social explosion, her no nonsense attitude quickly turns to rage and fear when she realizes that the kidnapper is closer to her than she first expected.

Watching as everything starts to unravel before her eyes, Chandra risks the physical, mental, and social standing that she has to find her only daughter, her lifeline to the world. The lengths that one woman goes to protect her daughter test the bounds of a mother’s love and strength of mind."

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"Our fast paced lifestyles have taken a toll on our mental and physical wellness, as well as our beauty. We have higher levels of stress, and more physical problems. Our homes are filled with more chemicals than ever before, in the name of cleaning. Our cosmetics also contain harmful chemicals. Essential oils can be the answer to bringing balance back into our lives, and getting the harmful chemicals and stress out."

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 "A bestselling romantic suspense thriller that will keep you captivated until the end.

There are real monsters out there. The worst part is that they're human.

"Name?"
"Nathan Miller."
"What happened?"
"I was shot."
"By whom?"
"A homicidal lunatic with a gun and bad aim."
"Her name?"
"Caitlin Lockyer."
"What happened to her?"
"Looks like someone tried to kill her."

Nathan found Caitlin on a beach covered in blood. Saving her life was just the start. Now he's the prime suspect and he has to find out who's really responsible. Both of their lives depend on it.

Who hurt her?
Why was he shot?
What did he promise?
Why doesn't his story add up?
Who was the dead man on the beach?
What will she remember when she wakes up?"

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"Alexandra Yorke is one of a few trusted clairvoyants working with police on murder cases, but she has a secret. She isn't a clairvoyant, she's a witch unlike any other she has ever met. For years she has struggled to control her gifts, but years living inside one serial killer's head after another has taken its toll, and Alex has reached the end of the road.

Barely able to control her gifts any longer, Alex retreats from the world to live at her grandparents farm where she grew up. Seclusion is her answer, but the world will not leave her alone.

A few months of peace is all she has before a friend calls her in need of help and Alex can't say no. A body has been found, and evidence points to a connection with witches. Who is it that everyone just knows is a witch? Why, that strange woman who just moved back from the big city of course.

What a coincidence!"

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  "Anni doesn't know about Elementals, Funk, Zephyrs, excited talking Bat-Rat creatures, and, least of all, Dragons. All that changes when her best friend, Lexi, is kidnapped and forces beyond Anni’s control trap her on a hidden, floating island in the Elemental world.


In a race against time, Anni sets out to save her friend. Along the way she finds allies among the Elementals, but she is also presented with a choice, one that might help save Lexi. If Anni agrees to an ancient, open-ended contract, will her sacrifice cost her more than she’s bargained for? Or will it land her in the middle of an age-old war between the humans, the Elementals, and the dreaded Fectus?"

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  "Category six wizard, Josephine O’Connor, is called in to help with a series of murders involving dark magic. Unfortunately, the killer covers his tracks very well and destroys virtually all trace of psychometric energy which makes the crime scene unreadable – even for a talent such as Josephine.

By all rights, Josephine shouldn’t be forced to contend with this case. After all, she’s a retired eighty-four-year-old and she can hardly be blamed for having a beautiful body akin to a woman in her mid-twenties. It’s just one of the perks of being a rare category six. Josephine’s problems pile up to insurmountable odds as the killer grows stronger, Detective Riley pesters her for a quick resolution to this challenging case, and her obnoxious neighbor starts harassing her just because she looks too young to live in a retirement community."

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  "For Evy Rivera, thunderstorms have always caused her physical pain, but she's never known why. When a record-setting storm arrives on the same night her father finds ancient ancestral documents, Evy is set aglow with mysterious tiny lightnings she can command.

Even worse, she alerts some people in the universe who've been looking for her family for a very long time.

Thrown back into ancient Spain and tasked with killing a Spanish legend, she must train alongside Constantine, a sexy yet obstinate Roman warrior. He teaches her how to wield her lightning as a weapon, through more errors than trials. With a relationship as explosive as their late-night training sessions, Evy and Constantine battle their push-pull relationship while trying to ignore the two-thousand-year difference in their birthdates.

Ilif Rotiart, her quasi-mentor, is appalled at Evy's skill. He would prefer to train her father and keep Evy on the sidelines—where women belong. Evy has a feeling Ilif is keeping something from them, but she must play nice until she uncovers the truth. And if he's lying, it will be the worst day of his four-hundred-year life.

Penya Sepadas claims she's Evy's rightful trainer, and she has the prophecy to prove it. Penya doesn't share Ilif's misogynistic attitude, but she does have her own agenda...and her own secrets.

Evy must sort through the lies and find the truth behind her family's time-traveling past before the wrong history obliterates the future. She’s spent her whole life fighting for her place. Now, as the first female lightning rider, she'll dedicate her existence to fighting to save the world.

But will Evy learn to manage her lightning and find the truth before it's too late?"

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  "--An SG Horror Release
--Latest Novel by bestselling horror and suspense author, Iain Rob Wright
--Includes 2 bonus short stories by UK author, Matt Shaw

SOMETIMES THE PAST IS DEADLY
Blake Price is the most celebrated mystery writer since Agatha Christie, but violent tragedy has yanked him from his life and sent him retreating to a secluded cottage in the countryside, dragging his family with him.

Trying to connect with his spirited ten-year old son and despondent wife is difficult, but Blake tries to hold the strands of his life together as best he can. But that becomes impossible when an old picture frame finds its way into his life. A picture frame that curses anybody unlucky enough to have their picture placed inside of it. Unfortunately, Blake’s wife thinks the frame is just perfect for a family photo...

THE PICTURE FRAME
SOME MEMORIES SHOULD STAY BURIED…"

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"When Kara Magari uncovers a secret door in the middle of the forest, she discovers (and trips through) a portal to a hidden world full of terrifying things: Ourea. She just wants to go home, but the natives have other plans for her. She clashes with immortal shapeshifters, is carried off by a dragon, nearly dies on several occasions, and somehow becomes the master of an ancient book of magic called the Grimoire. Every time she thinks she's safe, her new "friends" show their true colors.

Kara needs an ally, or she might not survive Ourea's monsters. She drops her guard when Braeden, a native soldier with a dark secret, vows to keep her safe. And though she doesn't know it, her growing attraction to him may just be her undoing.

For twelve years, Braeden Drakonin has lived a lie. The Grimoire is his one chance at redemption, and it lands in his lap when Kara Magari comes into his life. Though he begins to care for this stranded girl, there's something he wants more. He wants the Grimoire.

Welcome to Ourea, where only the cunning survive."

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"Imperial Wizard Saul Karza has a problem.

He has to kill an invulnerable dragon and he's left his army at home.

There's only one thing that will turn his fatal failure into survivable success - The Last Dragon Slayer.

~

Saul Karza, wizard of the Empire, has been given a quest by the Empress herself: To find and slay a mythical 'noble dragon'; said to be near invulnerable. Instead of leading a large band of soldiers, archers and spell-casters, he sets out with two immigrant dock-workers and a homeless dwarf. What Saul needs is the legendary 'Last Dragon Slayer' on his side, because on this deadly quest it's not only Saul's favour with the Empress that's at stake - but also his life."

 

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Library

   

"Coraline's often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears. Coraline is surprised to find a flat decorated exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her "other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear, however, that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarish game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts this harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.

Gaiman has delivered a wonderfully chilling novel, subtle yet intense on many levels. The line between pleasant and horrible is often blurred until what's what becomes suddenly clear, and like Coraline, we resist leaving this strange world until we're hooked. Unnerving drawings also cast a dark shadow over the book's eerie atmosphere, which is only heightened by simple, hair-raising text. Coraline is otherworldly storytelling at its best."

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"After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . .  "

So did any of these catch your eye?  Have you read any of them and if so what did you think of them?  What did you get recently?

 

Also, lots of giveaways running so be sure to check them out for your chance to win!

• Blogiversary Giveaway Blowout! kindle/nook prize and more! INT, ends April 6
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• In Honor and Memory of Terry Pratchett- $10 in his books, INT, ends Mar 27
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• Lucky is Reading-2 prizes- INT ends Mar21