Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday (started at The Printed Page and now a traveling meme) is at Notorious Spinks Talk Books this month and is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
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I definitely haven't been doing this every week but I haven't needed to. I tried to have a lighter load for summer and spend as much time as possible outside. These are some of the goodies that came in the last two months. I hope you've had plenty of great reads at your house!

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
For review from Goodreads First Reads (arc)

Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things by Cynthia Voight
For review from NetGalley (ebook arc)

Deadtown by Nancy Holzner
From Paperback Swap

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Free with coupon from Kobo (ebook)

The Troop by Nick Cutter
For review from Goodreads First Readers (arc)

The Angel Stone by Juliet Dark
For review from LibraryThing (arc)

Sky Jumpers by Peggy Eddleman
For review from NetGalley (arc)

Rude Bitches Make Me Tired by Celia Rivenbark
For review and giveaway from St. Martin's

Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

 Today Jackson and Holly 
are in love

Tomorrow she will lie dying
in his arms

Yesterday Jackson must 
undo it all

The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.
Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.
But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler.  Recruit… or kill him.
Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.
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Review
This was an interesting take on an old theme. Time travel and romance. Jackson has a secret but it seems that more people know about it than he realized. His jumps to the past are harmless fun and a great source of data for his geek friend Adam who is helping him develop his new talent. But he becomes the hunted and his girlfriend is shot when the Enemies of Time try to recruit him. There is nonstop action and plenty of danger as Jackson desperately tries to change Holly's fate and possibly his own.

I enjoyed the book and the suspense kept me turning the pages. As secrets of the past are revealed more complexities are slowly unveiled. I enjoyed the storyline and this take on time travel. I liked most of the characters, especially the quirky ones. The teenagers were usually believable as teens and age appropriate. They were quite self absorbed in the beginning but the more obstacles they faced the more they changed and matured.

It may be because I'm older and not a teen but there were details that bothered me. I don't want to give anything away so I won't list many specifics. I found some of the actions to be odd and not so believable. These kids have had their lives threatened but security often leaves them alone. Do they really need to go for a walk when their enemy can literally pop up at any time? And later in the story the time travel became confusing because it branched out in so many directions. The loose threads do set up the storyline for the rest of the trilogy though. I am curious to see how they untangle and I look forward to the next book coming in 2013. Overall I found it to be a good start to the series and an easy read by the fireplace.

First in the Tempest trilogy
Bonus short story Tomorrow is Today
www.facebook.com/TempestSeries
www.juliecross.blogspot.com


Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for an ARC to review.


Publisher: St. Martin's Griffn
Release date: 1/17/12
Pages: 352
Price/format: $17.99/hardcover
Type: YA fantasy

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday (started at The Printed Page) is at I'm Booking It this month and is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

These are the books I've received in the last two weeks. It's hard to believe that any delivery man could reach our house with all this snow - 8 more inches yesterday - but they do a great job around here. A couple of feet of snow doesn't stop us! I hope new books found their way to your house as well.

The Last of The Demon Slayers by Angie Fox
Autographed from author, won at Bitten By Books

Lizzie Brown would like to have one normal date. Instead, she gets a towering inferno with a message: her long-lost dad is a fallen angel in danger of becoming a demon. Not good. Especially since she’s a demon slayer.

Her grandma advises her to stay out of it. Her sexy-as-sin shape-shifter boyfriend would much rather she devote her attention to more carnal pursuits. And her dog’s one demand is for more bacon. After all, he can’t train his pet dragon on an empty stomach.

But Lizzie knows there’s no other choice but to hop on her Harley and help her dad—even if the search for the truth brings a bad-boy slayer back into her life and leads her into the middle of a war to end all wars.

Emily And Einstein by Linda Francis Lee
For review from St. Martin's Press

He was a man who didn’t deserve a second chance. But he needed one…

Emily and her husband Sandy Portman seemed to live a gracious if busy life in an old-world, Upper West Side apartment in the famous Dakota building. But one night on the way to meet Emily, Sandy dies in a tragic accident. The funeral isn't even over before Emily learns she is on the verge of being evicted from their apartment. But worse than the possibility of losing her home, Emily is stunned when she discovers that her marriage was made up of lies.

Suddenly Emily is forced on a journey to find out who her husband really was . . . all the while feeling that somehow he isn't really gone. Angry, hurt, and sometimes betrayed by loving memories of the man she lost, Emily finds comfort in a scruffy dog named Einstein. But is Einstein's seemingly odd determination that she save herself enough to make Emily confront her own past? Can he help her find a future—even after she meets a new man?

Play Dead by Harlan Coben
Won at Bookin' With Bingo

Theirs was a marriage made in tabloid heaven, but no sooner had supermodel Laura Ayars and Celtics star David Baskin said “I do” than tragedy struck. While honeymooning on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, David went out for a swim — and never returned.

Now widowed and grieving, Laura has a thousand questions and no answers. Her search for the truth will draw her into a web of lies and deception that stretches back thirty years — while on the court at the Boston Garden, a rookie phenom makes his spectacular debut....

Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
From Harper Collins

Condemned to death for black magic and shunned, Rachel Morgan has three days to somehow get to the annual witches convention in San Francisco and clear her name. If she fails, the only way she can escape death is to live in the demonic ever after . . . for ever after.

Banned from the flight lists, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack, headed for the West Coast for his own mysterious business. But Rachel isn’t the only passanger along for the ride. Can a witch, an elf, a living vampire, and a pixy in one car survive for over 2,300 miles? And that’s not counting the assassin on their tail.

A fearsome demon walks the sunlight, freed after centuries of torment to slay the innocent and devour souls. But his ultimate prey is Rachel Morgan. While the powerful witch with nerves of steel will do whatever it takes to stay alive, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.

The Bone Yard by Jefferson Bass
From Harper Collins

In this latest thriller from New York Times bestselling author Jefferson Bass, Dr. Bill Brockton discovers the dark side of the Sunshine state when he's called in to investigate human remains found on the grounds of a boys' reform school in Florida

The Bone Yard

The onset of summer brings predictably steamy weather to the Body Farm, Dr. Bill Brockton's human-decomposition research facility at the University of Tennessee. But Brockton's about to get more heat than he's bargained for when Angie St. Claire, a forensic analyst with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, asks him to help prove that her sister's death was not suicide, but murder.

Brockton's quick consulting trip takes a long, harrowing detour when bones begin turning up amid the pines and live oaks of the Florida panhandle. Two adolescent skulls–ravaged by time and animals, but bearing the telltale signs of lethal fractures–send Brockton, Angie, and Special Agent Stu Vickery on a search for the long-lost victims. The quest leads them to the ruins of the North Florida Boys' Reformatory, a notorious juvenile detention facility that met a fiery end more than forty years ago.

Guided by the discovery of a diary kept by one of the school's young "students," Brockton's team finds a cluster of shallow graves, all of them containing the bones of boys who suffered violent deaths. The graves confirm one of the diary's grim claims: that one wrong move could land a boy in the Bone Yard. But as the investigation expands, it encounters opposition from the local sheriff, who's less than delighted to find forensic experts from the state capital and the Body Farm digging up dirt in his county.

As Brockton and his team close in on the truth, they find skeletons in some surprisingly prominent closets . . . and they learn that the ghosts of the past pose perilous consequences in the present.

Dark Prince by Christine Feehan
From Harper Collins

Enter the enchanting world of the Carpathians, where dark adventure, mystery, and love await, and the desires of two daring hearts unite in one irresistible passion.

A telepathic hunter of serial killers, Raven Whitney helps catch some of the most depraved criminals. But her work keeps her from getting close to others, and has drained her body and spirit. In need of rest and rejuvenation, she embarks on a vacation far from home.

Mikhail Dubrinsky is the Prince of the Carpathians, the powerful leader of a wise and secret ancient race that thrives in the night. Engulfed by despair, fearful of never finding the mate who can save him from the encroaching darkness, his soul cries out in loneliness. Until the day a beautiful voice full of light and love responds, softly soothing his pain and yearning.

From the moment they meet, Raven and Dubrinsky are helpless to resist the desire that sparks between them. But just as fate unexpectedly brings these life mates together, malevolent forces threaten to destroy them and their fragile love. Yet even if they survive, how can these two lovers—Carpathian and human—build a future together? And how can Dubrinksy bring Raven into his dark world without extinguishing her beautiful goodness and light?