Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week. (the past two weeks)

Here's what I got ~




Relatively Famous by Jessica Park ~ Meet Dani McKinley: A typical teen whose world is rocked when she finds out that her father is a famous Hollywood Action star. Now meet Mark Ocean: A self-serving actor with a floundering career who sees that a daughter is just what he needs to reinvent himself as a family man and get back on track. When the two decide to spend the summer together, they must not only wrangle their own love lives, but try to figure out who they really are to themselves and to each other. Now armed with credit cards, club memberships, and a new wardrobe, Dani learns that what Mark has in wealth, he sorely lacks in parenting skills. Trying to show Mark that parenting is about more than loading her up with Prada bags and taking her to movie premieres is challenging enough, but she's also got her hands full with her new friends. Oh, and the boys... Dani meets Jason, a gorgeous young personal trainer who is easy on the eyes and wildly flirtatious. But is this smug hottie the one for her? Or will she ignore her friends eye-rolling and go for the goofy but sweet surfer? While juggling her own complicated love life, Dani tries to set her father up with someone less likely to appear on a VH1 reality show, and someone more... well, normal. And age-appropriate. And dressed in anything but a thong bikini. But whether Mark is able to heal old wounds and move forward with anything more than a meaningless fling remains to be seen. Can Dani fit in with this new, fast-moving California crowd without losing herself? With the world at her fingertips and hot boys now after her, staying grounded gets tough. And can Mark drop his egocentric approach to life and learn to appreciate how truly wonderful his daughter is? As driven as he is to get that A-list acting role, he's willing to do whatever it takes to get there, even if it means using his daughter. Or is he...? Mark and Dani's relationship hits a few highs, but the question becomes whether the lows are too much.


Unspeakable by Laura Griffin ~ ELAINA MCCORD WANTS TO FIND A KILLER. BUT HE’S ALREADY FOUND HER.Elaina McCord’s dream of being an FBI profiler is threatened by her very first case—investigating a string of murders near a Texas beach resort. The victims, all young women, were drugged and brutally murdered, their bodies abandoned in desolate marshland. Elaina’s hunch—met with disbelief by local police—is that these are only the latest offerings from a serial killer who has been perfecting his art for years, growing bolder and more cunning with each strike.True-crime writer Troy Stockton has a reputation as an irresistible playboy who gets his story at any cost. He’s the last person Elaina should trust, let alone be attracted to. But right now Troy, along with the elite team of forensics experts known as the Tracers, is her only ally in a case that’s turning dangerously personal. A killer is reaching out to Elaina, taunting her, letting her know how ruthless he is and how close he’s getting. Now it’s not just her career that’s in jeopardy—it’s her life. . . .




Shoulder Bags and Shootings (Haley Randolph Mysteries) by Dorothy Howell ~ A clever, fast-moving plot propels Howell's third mystery to feature L.A. fashionista Haley Randolph (after 2009's Purses and Poison). Haley really hated Tiffany Markham, her archrival in the purse party business, but she didn't shoot Tiffany and stuff her body in the trunk of a Mercedes belonging to Ada Cameron, the grandmother of Haley's boyfriend and department store owner, Ty Cameron. Discovering who did is a challenge, ditto snaring this season's totally hot Sinful handbag. Can Haley do both and stay out of jail? While Haley's hyperventilating first-person voice can be too much at times (I perked up in my seat, beyond excited, way past thrilled, bordering on crazed), the action is smoother than the butter-soft leather of a Prada bag, and the gritty details of working retail are spot-on. Airhead Haley displays appealing grace under fire as she also deals with her stalking nemesis and former boss, lawyer Kirk Keegan.

Mama Gets Hitched (A Mace Bauer Mystery) by Deborah Sharp ~ According to Mama, a Gone with the Wind-themed wedding—complete with Scarlett O' Hara bridesmaid gowns and a ring-bearing Pomeranian—is fine and dandy for her fifth trip down the aisle. But what's a bridezilla to do when her caterer is murdered? Thanks to the nonstop gossip train in their small Florida town, Mama's gator-wrestling daughter Mace is getting the dirt on who did it.Unfortunately, the suspect list is longer than the gift registry. Right at the top are the groom's East Coast Yankee cousins—who may have Mafia ties. With her on-again, off-again beau, Detective Carlos Martinez, Mace must track down the killer before Mama's Special Day turns especially deadly.

Silent Scream: An Anna Travis Mystery (Anna Travis Mysteries) by Lynda La Plante (For Review/Giveaway) ~ Film star Amanda Delany has the world at her feet. Never one for the quiet life, she has had a string of affairs with the hottest actors around. Then, coming home late from a night shoot, Amanda puts the key in her front door for the very last time. The next morning, Amanda's body is found, stabbed many times, only her beautiful face left unharmed.DI Anna Travis is ordered to the team assigned to the Delany murder, headed by Anna's former lover, the demanding DCI James Langton. Anna is shocked by the truth behind Amanda's public image: her addictions to drugs and starvation diets; her cold, unemotional parents; her elusive film agent; and the former lovers so quick to distance themselves. But Anna has challenges of her own to overcome too. Promotion to Chief Inspector is within her grasp, but when the time comes for her to stand before the board, she faces a shocking accusation of personal misconduct.With insider authenticity derived from La Plante's years in the film world and a heroine worthy of her predecessor, Prime Suspect's Jane Tennison, Silent Scream is La Plante's best yet.

Venom: A Novel of Suspense  by Joan Brady (For Review/Giveaway) ~ A gripping tale of international corporate intrigue from the award-winning author of Bleedout . . .EASTERN EUROPE . . . Thirty years after Chernobyl, nuclear fallout is still claiming victims.ILLINOIS . . . Fresh out of prison, David Marion doesn’t expect a hit man at his door. But when one appears, their meeting is lethal—for the hit man. Who sent him? David has no idea. But warned that a powerful secret organization is after him, he is forced to disappear until he can strike back.ALABAMA . . . Devastated by the death of her lover, physicist Helen Freyl escapes to her bee farm to care for a colony carrying a unique strain of venom. But when an unexpected job offer from a giant drug corporation arrives, it proves to be a much more intriguing diversion.LONDON, ENGLAND . . . Helen’s new company is close to a cure for radiation poisoning, but the sudden death of a colleague is followed by another, and Helen begins to doubt the organization’s motives. When she realizes her own life is in danger, what can she do and who can she call on for help?Venom brings David Marion and Helen Freyl together as they fight for their lives against a backdrop of industrial espionage, corporate greed, and human tragedy in an exhilarating and fast-paced follow-up to the bestselling Bleedout.

The Jewel of St. Petersburg  by Kate Furnivall (For Review/Giveaway) ~ Russia, 1910. Valentina Ivanova is the darling of St. Petersburg's elite aristocracy-until her romance with a Danish engineer creates a terrible scandal and her parents push her into a loveless engagement with a Russian count. Meanwhile, Russia itself is bound for rebellion. With the Tsar and the Duma at each other's throats, and the Bolsheviks drawing their battle lines, the elegance and opulence of Tsarist rule are in their last days. And Valentina will be forced to make a choice that will change not only her own life, but the lives of those around her forever...


How to Crash a Killer Bash: A Party-Planning Mystery (Party Planning Mystery)  by Penny Warner (For Review) ~ Presley Parker is hosting a Murder Mystery party thrown by a notorious yet benevolent curator, Mary lee Miller. But when the role play becomes terrifyingly real, and Mary Lee is found dead, Presley kicks her sleuthing into high gear-only to find that someone wants the life of the party dead too...



The Quick and the Thread: An Embroidery Mystery  by Amanda Lee (For Review) ~
When Marcy Singer opens an embroidery specialty shop in quaint Tallulah Falls, Oregon, she throws a soiree and a Stitch-In. Soon, Marcy's sign- up sheet for embroidery classes fills up and everyone in town seems willing to raise a glass-or a needle-to support the newly-opened Seven Year Stitch. Then Marcy finds the shop's previous tenant dead in the store-room, a message scratched with a tapestry needle on the wall beside him. Now Marcy's shop has become a crime scene, and she's the prime suspect. She'll have to find the killer before someone puts a final stitch in her. 


Psych: A Fatal Frame of Mind by William Rabkin (For Review) ~ When the Santa Barbara art museum unveils its newest acquisition, the long-lost masterpiece by Dante Gabriel Rossetti isn't the only surprise behind the red curtain-so is the museum's curator. Dead. The case has everything Shawn likes: it's bizarre, it's baffling, and there's a snack bar at the crime scene. But the investigation gets a lot less fun as he and Gus begin to realize that the clues are leading them towards a centuries-old cabal desperate to hide a terrible secret-and more than willing to kill the two detectives who are trying to reveal it.




Sketch Me If You Can (A Portrait of Crime Mystery) by Sharon Pape (For Review) ~ She's a police sketch artist. He's a dead lawman. Together, they put a face on murder. When her uncle dies, police sketch artist Rory McCain get's a list of clients from his private detective business and a beautiful, old house with a ghostly inhabitant: Federal Marshal Ezekiel Drummond, aka Zeke. Having a ghost as a housemate is bad enough, but as Rory's drawn into one of her uncle's unsolved cases and faces a cold-blooded killer, she may need the marshal's supernatural help to stay alive.


Murder Past Due (Cat in the Stacks Mystery)  by Miranda James (For Review) ~ There's a cat in the stacks...and he makes the purr-fect partner for a librarian-turned-sleuth. Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows librarian Charlie Harris-and his Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. They also know his former classmate-turned-famous bestselling novelist, Godfrey Priest. But someone in Athena took Godfrey off the bestseller lists- permanently, and with extreme prejudice. Now, Charlie and Diesel must browse through the history section of the town's past to find a killer.


False Impressions (A Stamping Sisters Mystery)  by Terri Thayer (For Review) ~ Professional rubber stamper April Buchert is shocked to discover that the brother of one of the Stamping Sisters faked his own death, only to really die in a tragic car accident-that was not an accident at all. Now this heated family drama could cause one cold winter if the killer isn't found.



Blindspot  by Nancy Bush ~ The crime scene at an Oregon rest stop is brutal beyond belief - a young man's lifeless body cut to ribbons, and his pregnant girlfriend left alive but comatose. Psychologist Claire Norris is assigned to treat the survivor at a private mental hospital. But there are no clues to the identity of the catatonic 'Jane Doe'. A difficult job only becomes more complicated with the arrival of ex-homicide detective Langdon Stone, who questions Claire's every move. Reluctantly working together, Claire and Lang begin to unravel the chilling truth about a twisted case - one with ties to a killer who is right in their midst, eager to see a mission of evil through to its terrifying end.