Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

We sharewhat books that we found in our mailboxes last week.

Once in a Blue Moon by Eileen Goudge ~ Lindsay and Kerrie Ann are sisters who have known hardship from an early age. Without guidance from their neglectful mother, their only aid came from an unlikely source, a retired exotic dancer by the name of Miss Honi Love. When the girls’ mother was sent to prison, Miss Honi tried unsuccessfully to save them from being separated and sent into foster care. Thirty years later, Lindsay is still trying to reconnect with her sister. The owner of a bookstore in the sleepy California seaside town of Blue Moon Bay, she was lucky enough to have been adopted by a loving couple. Unbeknownst to her, Kerrie Ann has suffered a very different life. Bounced from one foster home to the next, she ran away as a teenager before becoming a drug-addicted single mother. Now, newly sober, Kerrie Ann is fighting to regain custody of the little girl who was taken from her. Neither sister’s expectations are met when they’re finally reunited. But as the two sisters engage in the fiercest battles of their lives, they are at last drawn together despite their differences, restoring belief in the unshakable bond of family.

Dipped, Stripped, and Dead (A Daring Finds Mystery) by Elise Hyatt ~ Divorced and strapped for cash, Candyce "Dyce" Dare starts up Daring Finds, a furniture refinishing business. But when she goes dumpster diving for discarded furniture-and uncovers a corpse-Dyce may find herself redecorating a jail cell.

I Scream, You Scream: A Mystery À La Mode (MYSTERY A LA MODE) by Wendy Lyn Watson ~ Recently divorced Tallulah Jones is mortified when she's stuck scooping sundaes for her two-timing ex-husband-and his bodacious new girlfriend, Brittanie-at his company luau. But when Brittanie drops dead, Tally is suddenly the prime suspect in her murder investigation. To catch the killer, Tally will have to dip deep into her small Texan town's darkest secrets and churn up stories some would prefer to keep in the past. But can she uncover the real culprit before a murder charge puts her dreams on ice for good?

Evidence: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman ~ In the half-built skeleton of a monstrously vulgar mansion in one of L.A.’s toniest neighborhoods, a watchman stumbles on the bodies of a young couple–murdered in flagrante and left in a gruesome postmortem embrace. Though he’s cracked some of the city’s worst slayings, veteran homicide cop Milo Sturgis is still shocked at the grisly sight: a twisted crime that only Milo’s killer instincts–and psychologist Alex Delaware’s keen insights–can hope to solve. While the female victim’s identity remains a question mark, her companion is ID’d as eco-friendly architect Desmond Backer, who disdains the sort of grandiose superstructure he’s found dead in. And the late Mr. Backer, it’s revealed was also notorious for his power to seduce women. The rare exception is his ex-boss, Helga Gemein, who’s as indifferent to Desmond’s death as she apparently was to his advances. Though Milo and Alex place her on their short list of suspects, the deeper they dig for clues the longer the list grows. An elusive prince who appears to harbor decidedly American appetites, an eccentric blueblood with an ax to grind, one of Desmond’s restless ex-lovers and her cuckolded husband–all are in the homicidal mix spiced with eco-terrorism, arson, blackmail, conspiracy, and a vendetta that runs deep. But when the investigation veers suddenly in a startling direction, it’s the investigators who may wind up on the wrong end of a cornered predator’s final fury.

He's No Prince Charming (Signet Eclipse) by LuAnn McLane ~ At sixteen, Dakota Dunn was America's Pop Princess. Now twenty-five, she's all grown up-and definitely washed up. She decides to head to her parents' lakefront retreat in Tennessee, fixing to write songs and transform her image from squeaky clean to kickin' country. Turns out her folks have handed things over to sexy, if cranky, cowboy Trace Coleman-a former bull riding champion benched by injuries. He's none too happy about Dakota's arrival-and makes no secret of it. But though Trace is rough around the edges, Dakota feels a pull of attraction she can't quite shake. For all his brooding, Trace has an animal magnetism that may just lead Dakota to dig in her heels and hold on tight...

Heir of the Dog: A Dog Walker Mystery by Judi McCoy ~ Professional dog walker Ellie Engleman is more than just a pal to her pooches- she can also read their minds. When Ellie and her terrier mix Rudy find the corpse of a troubled-but-harmless park-dweller in Central Park, the dog walker becomes a prime suspect for murder. When it turns out Rudy is the sole beneficiary of the victim's inheritance, Ellie, Rudy, and Detective Sam Ryder follow the trail of clues to a key to a safety deposit box that just might point to the motive and help them sniff out the real killer.

White Picket Fences: A Novel by Susan Meissner (For Review)~ When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Javier eagerly takes in her sixteen year old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands - in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm - and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband, Neil and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a "normal" life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble. Seventeen year old Chase Javier hasn't seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn't expect her arrival will affect him much - or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long ago house fire that plagues his dreams. Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with a hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won't make them go away. Will Tally's presence blow apart their carefully constructed world, revealing a hidden past that could destroy them all - or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?

A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents by Liza Palmer (ARC for review) ~ Grace Hawkes has not spoken to her previously tight-knit family since her mother's sudden death five years ago. Well, most of the family was tight-knit-- her father walked out on them when she was 13 and she and her two brothers and sister bonded together even closer with their mother as a result. She's been doing her best to live her new life apart from them, but when their estranged father has a stroke and summons them, Grace suddenly realizes she's done the same thing he had done...abandoned those who need her most. And need her they do, for inside the hospital walls, a strange war is unfolding between the pseudo-kindly woman who is their father's second wife and the rest of the original Hawkes clan. Upon reconnecting with her brother and sisters, Grace will find a part of herself she thought was lost forever. As they unravel the manipulative deception of the second Mrs. Hawkes, Grace will finally be able to stand up for her family-- and to remember what a family is, even after all these years.

Death Message: A Novel of Suspense by Mark Billingham (ARC for review) ~ Thorne looked at the picture, feeling the pulse quicken at the side of his neck. There were times when he couldn't see what was staring him in the face, but this, for better or worse, was his area of expertise. Thorne knew a dead man when he saw him.Delivering the "death message." That's what cops call those harrowing moments when they must tell someone that a loved one has been killed. Now Detective Investigator Tom Thorne is receiving messages of his own: photographs of murder victims sent to his cell phone.Who are the victims? Who is sending the photographs? And why is he sending them to Tom Thorne? The answer lies in the detective investigator's past, with a man he had once sent to prison for life. But even behind bars, the most dangerous psychopath Thorne has ever faced is still a master at manipulating others to do his dirty work for him. And Thorne must act fast because the photos keep on coming, and the killer's next target is someone the detective investigator knows very well. . . .