Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle - WINNER!

Congratulations

Osugrad

I've sent an email requesting their addresses. If I don't hear back from in 48 hrs, I'll choose another winner. Thank you to those that have entered :)

Down To The Wire by David Rosenfelt (ARC)

Down to the Wire by David Rosenfelt

A reporter for the Bergen News, Chris Turley could never measure up to his father, a combination of Bob Woodward and Ernie Pyle. He was one of the last great investigative reporters and a difficult man to impress. While stuck covering town hall meetings, Chris has always dreamt of his own Pulitzer, however unlikely it seems.

Then one day while he's waiting to meet a source, an explosion takes out half of an office building. Shocked into action, Chris saves five people and his firsthand account makes him a celebrity.

And that's not all. The source's next tip implicates a crooked mayor, and Chris has his second story. But then he finds out the deadly lengths to which his source has gone to "help" him, and now the man wants something in return - or more people will die. What seemed like a reporter's dream quickly becomes a nightmare.

El Patron by Michele Scott

What began as an innocent love affair for one young woman, Marta Peña, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1969, sets in motion a series of events that spans the next thirty years. This is the story of South American drug lords Antonio Espinoza and Javier Rodriguez, and their violent quest for power. In a sweeping family saga, we meet the women who love them and the children they vow to protect at any cost.

With a complex web of interconnected families, this gritty novel delves into the lives of a power hungry clan, following the rise of their business, the destructive path of their torrid and erotic love affairs, and the struggle to balance intense greed with devout family loyalty.

Strong women face tragedies that test their will and their commitment to the men they passionately desire. As young girls grow into women, their traumatic pasts will drive their actions and force them to make gut-wrenching decisions.

With murder, drug trafficking, dirty politics, illegal gambling, prostitution, obsessive love affairs, and family strife, El Patrón is a whirlwind in the vein of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.

This book was AMAZING!!!!!

Full of love, lust, honor, murder, deceit and redemption El Patron has it all!

Check back later to read the first chapter and get a taste of how good this book really is. Look for a chance to win a copy of this book, pre-order your copy today and a special Black Friday promotion!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. We need to get it done.
2. I thought of the nice words Jessica Conant-Park said about me and it made me smile.
3. If you want something done, do it yourself.
4. I am procrastinating doing my work because well...no reason :).
5. Massachusetts has a proposed 5% sales tax on elective cosmetic surgery; I think they're trying to make a buck wherever they can.
6. Being with family makes for a happy holiday.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching some TV and relaxing, tomorrow my plans include a waxing, pedicure, reading and napping and Sunday, I want to read and nap!

Dial Om For Murder by Diana Killian

Dial Om for Murder (Mantra for Murder Mysteries, No. 2) by Diana Killian

When one of A.J.'s celebrity yoga students gets permanently bent out of shape, and another is accused of the crime, A.J. has no choice but to position herself as a sleuth to find the real killer.

Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky (ARC)

Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky

When Susan Tate's seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily, announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and herself.

Then comes word of two more pregnancies among high school juniors who happen to be Lily's best friends-and the town turns to talk of a pact. As fingers start pointing, the most ardent criticism is directed at Susan. As principal of the high school, she has always been held up as a role model of hard work and core values. Now her detractors accuse her of being a lax mother, perhaps not worthy of the job of shepherding impressionable students. As Susan struggles with the implications of her daughter's pregnancy, her job, financial independence, and long-fought-for dreams are all at risk.

The emotional ties between mothers and daughters are stretched to breaking in this emotionally wrenching story of love and forgiveness. Once again, Barbara Delinsky has given us a powerful novel, one that asks a central question: What does it take to be a good mother?

Release date: January 5, 2010

Book Giveaway ~ Money To Burn by James Grippando ~ ARC

Money to Burn: A Novel of Suspense by James Grippando

At twenty-eight, Michael Centella is a rising star at Wall Street investment bank Saxton Silvers. Everything is going according to plan until the love of his life, Ivy Layton, vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. Seven years later, on the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday,, Michael is still on track: successful career, beautiful new wife, piles of money. But when he logs in to his investment accounts, he makes a horrifying discovery. Someone has wiped him out. His only clue is a new e-mail message: "Just as planned. xo xo." Not onlyhas his fortune been liquidated, but his company is suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy and he's the leading suspect in its ruin. Broke and now facing divorce, Michael's got undercover FBI agents afoot, spyware on his computer, and mysterious e-mails from a "JBU." Embroiled in corporate espionage, he's desperate to clear his name. He doesn't want to believe it, but the signs point to his first wife, Ivy. Could she be back from the dead to destroy him?

Release date: February 23, 2010

Here's how to enter ~

• U.S. addresses only please
• Leave a comment here with your email address or PBS ID (I need to have a way to get in touch with you!)
• Follow my blog (on lower right sidebar) ~ get an extra entry
• Rate my blog (on left sidebar)~ get an extra entry
• Blog about it ~ get an extra entry
• Tweet about it ~ get an extra entry

Contest open through November 30th. The winner will be announced on December 1st.

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The Diva Paints the Town (A Domestic Diva Mystery) by Krista Davis

When Sophie's neighbor-a reclusive professor-dies, his final wish is for the Domestic Diva to throw a dinner party in his honor, and he's planned everything down to the letter. But what no one planned for is the corpse of a student that Sophie finds in his house.

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley
  
• ISBN-10: 0425233448/9780425233443
• Release Date: February 2, 2010
• Amazon Price: $7.99
  

Book Giveaway ~ I, Alex Cross -WINNERS

Congratulations

Jeaneintexas
Tanya904
bookjourney

I've sent them an email requesting their addresses. If I don't hear back from them in 48 hrs, I'll choose another winner. Thank you to those that have entered :)

I'm A Guest Blogger

Come check out my interview with Michele Scott over at
Adventures N Writing

Here's a teaser ~

Q: How did you become a book review blogger?

A: I belong to an amazing book swapping site ~ www.paperbackswap.com. Basically you post books that you no longer want. When another member requests your book, you mail it off to them. Once they receive your book you earn a credit, with which you can then order a book that you want. Nice and simple. My friends started calling me “the book pimp” because my book recommendations would cause their wish lists to grow. Several of them started “bugging” me about doing a book blog. I put it off, because I honestly felt like I had nothing worthwhile to say. Eventually I gave in and it’s taken off. I’ve met and become friends with several authors as well as made some great contacts with publishers.

Q: How do you decide what books to review?

A: I’m pretty open to reviewing anything. I usually read a lot of mysteries, thrillers, suspense and women’s fiction. But I’ve tried to push the boundaries of my reading comfort zone and have accepted reviews for books I would not normally read. Although I do think that the majority of authors, publishers, promotion book tour sites can get a sense of the books I read from my blog and base their request for review on that. And if it’s something I know I really will not be able to get into, I am upfront about it while at the same time offering to host a blog tour/guest post for the author instead of the review.

Make sure to check out Michele's blog to find out what else I have to say :) And to read about her fantastic books!!!

Teaser Tuesday

It’s that time of week again, everyone, and time for the Tuesday Teaser.
Again the reminder of what this is all about. We are asked to:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share two teaser sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title of the book that the “teaser” comes from, so people can find the book if they like the teaser.
5. And again remember – avoid spoilers.

Here's mine ~

Tyler wasn't talking to me; he was talking to the crime scene technician. He turned his back to me just so I didn't think he was. "It must have hurt plenty, sure, but two shots to the feet...that shouldn't have killed the guy".

This teaser comes from Dying for Dinner (A Cooking Class Mystery) by Miranda Bliss. What's YOUR teaser?

Guest Post - Lynda McDaniel

The Answers Lie Within
Lynda McDaniel

Do you ever envy someone else’s writing? Good! I know envy is one of the seven deadly sins, but it’s packed with useful information that can lead to great things when you understand why you’re envious.

Years ago, I used to envy two types of writers: journalists and copywriters. Eventually I was able to use that envy positively to better understand myself. As a result, I achieved success in both disciplines! I came to appreciate that my envy stemmed from a deep yearning, and it was sending me a message to get busy and do something about it.

In psychological terms, envy is a form of projection. Projection, according to the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, is an automatic process in which the contents of our own unconscious are perceived to be in others. Another way of putting that: It’s as though we have a slide show inside our brains that we don’t know exists. Every now and then, a worthy screen shows up (like my envy of great journalists) that turns the projector on. The screen lets us watch our inner slide show, and if we’re paying attention, we can learn a lot about ourselves from what we’re projecting. In my case, that was my love of writing.

Today, the term projection is more common, especially on talk shows and in coffee-shop conversations, though it’s usually used negatively. “She projected her shortcomings on me, and I couldn’t take it any longer.” “The President projected his need for approval onto the generals.” But projection also can be a positive mirror of our inner desires.

To get to know yours, watch for your slide shows and become conscious of what holds special vitality for you. Pay attention to people you admire—or envy—and figure out why. Study books and magazine articles you think are excellent—and deconstruct them to find out why.

Once projection rears its head, it tends to rev up its message until we finally take notice. And here’s where we can get in trouble. We know what we want, but we don’t necessarily have the tools to implement it—yet. That’s when we can be hard on ourselves. This happened to me when I was in charge of approving an important brochure for an exhibition I was promoting. I can still recall the feelings I had reviewing that brochure. It was sophisticated, clever, and engaging. I felt both excited and depressed—telling myself I never could have written it. Never mind that I had not yet devoted the hours to my writing skills that this copywriter had. Never mind that I hadn’t fully explored what I could do as a writer.

More often than not, the slides are about our “becoming,” i.e., something nascent inside of us that wants—and needs—to be developed. Because of the gap in desire and reality, the initial experience can be troubling. But these negative feelings can offer sage advice when we know what to do with them. When I projected my self-doubt onto the creative brochure copy, if I’d known then about projection, I could have understood how deeply important it was to me to write beautiful words. I eventually got the message, but at the time, I held myself back by telling myself I was a loser.

If only I’d said, “Hey! It’s time to study, practice, learn.” What arrogance to think I should be able to sit down and craft thoughtful copy. What nonsense to believe it just flows out and doesn’t require diligence and patience and copious editing.

That’s one reason I wrote Words at Work. You don’t have to make this mistake. Next time you have a strong reaction to a novel or essay (or whatever you enjoy reading and writing), be happy even when it makes you feel uncomfortable. What change ever happens when we’re completely at ease? Go inside and discover where that feeling is coming from. What do you really like or hate about the writing? What inside of you would like to be just like that or not at all like that? Either way you win.

Words at Work: Powerful business writing delivers increased sales, improved results, and even a promotion or two. A veteran writing coach shows you how. by Lynda McDaniel

Tips, techniques and tactics for better business writing. Professional writing coach McDaniel addresses the sad fact that business writing is becoming somewhat of a lost art, largely because of e-mail and other electronic communications. "When you write only short e-mail and text messages," she writes, "your ability to develop your thoughts shrivels, along with your ability to persuade, sell, teach, improve, guide, change, contribute, and create." The author provides a wealth of advice--including specific exercises--to prompt business writers to write well. Unlike most business-writing courses and books that are dry and dull, McDaniel's work is a breezy, well-written how-to guide, nicely held together with stories of her experiences. The author is unafraid to illustrate some of her lessons with personal challenges and failures, which may be the best teacher. The author covers all the basics: planning ahead, producing first drafts, the importance of the six key questions (who, what, where, when, why, how) and the essentials of editing. But she includes additional techniques that will be of great benefit to business writers, such as her "Brain Dump" process, and how to avoid "corporatespeak" and "WIIFM," or What's In It For Me. Thankfully, McDaniel presents all of the material in the book clearly, concisely, and with a healthy dose of encouragement based on the optimistic belief that "everyone can learn to write well" and that "bad writers just stopped too soon." There are some good suggestions even for seasoned writers, such as "Exciting to Write = Exciting to Read," a section of specific ways to add interest and vitality to writing. The examples she uses demonstrate that even business writing can be done with flair. While McDaniel makes a sales pitch for her services at the end of the book, it's a small price to pay for the wisdom she imparts. The book's readability is proof positive that the author's counsel is sound. A timely manual that business people at any level will find useful.

Dying For Dinner by Miranda Bliss

Dying for Dinner (A Cooking Class Mystery) by Miranda Bliss

When Annie leaves the safety of her old bank job to become the full-time manager of her boyfriend’s restaurant, what’s meant to be the first day of the rest of her life might be the last day of someone else’s.

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.
We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week.

Here's what I got ~

Gumbo Justice by Holli Castillo (For Review) ~ New Orleans prosecutor Ryan Murphy likes her Tequila cold and her cops hot. Battling demons from her past and checking her self-destructive streak take a back seat to her ambition, and she's not above skating the line just a little to get what she wants. If she snags a detective in the process, well, that's just a little lagniappe for her trouble. Life should be good. Enter a demented psycho, with a plan to ruin Ryan's life before he ultimately kills her. Set against the backdrop of pre-Katrina New Orleans, Gumbo Justice is the first in a series that follows the tumultuous life of prosecutor Ryan Murphy.

Money to Burn: A Novel of Suspense by James Grippando (ARC) ~ At twenty-eight, Michael Centella is a rising star at Wall Street investment bank Saxton Silvers. Everything is going according to plan until the love of his life, Ivy Layton, vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. Seven years later, on the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday,, Michael is still on track: successful career, beautiful new wife, piles of money. But when he logs in to his investment accounts, he makes a horrifying discovery. Someone has wiped him out. His only clue is a new e-mail message: "Just as planned. xo xo." Not onlyhas his fortune been liquidated, but his company is suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy and he's the leading suspect in its ruin. Broke and now facing divorce, Michael's got undercover FBI agents afoot, spyware on his computer, and mysterious e-mails from a "JBU." Embroiled in corporate espionage, he's desperate to clear his name. He doesn't want to believe it, but the signs point to his first wife, Ivy. Could she be back from the dead to destroy him?

The Cart Before The Corpse (The Merry Abbot Carriage-Driving Mystery) by Carolyn McSparren (For Review) ~ Hitch your imagination to an intriguing new mystery series set in the world of competitive carriage driving--an elegant yet cut-throat realm in which gorgeously costumed drivers and their magnificently harnessed horses vie for championships in the challenging obstacle course of the show ring. Jane Austen, meet Mad Max. Fans of the long-running Mossy Creek Hometown Series will gallop to bookstores for this spin-off equine mystery series by veteran Mossy Creek author Carolyn McSparren, a nationally known novelist and expert carriage driver, who owns and shows carriage-driving horses in her home state of Tennessee. Open your barn doors and fasten your (buggy's) seatbelts for THE CART BEFORE THE CORPSE. Famous southern carriage-horse trainer Hiram Lackland, a handsome widower, dies mysteriously after retiring to a farm outside Mossy Creek. His estranged daughter, Merry Abbot, also a horse trainer, arrives to settle his estate. But Merry quickly plunges into bit-chomping dilemmas when her father's friend and landlord, mystery-novel maven Peggy Caldwell, insists he was murdered. Before Merry can so much as snap a buggy rein, a handsome and annoying GBI investigator, Geoff Madison, is on her case. Then there's the troublesome donkey: Don Qui. Short for Don Quixote. And the fact that Hiram was teaching all of Mossy Creek's lonely women how to--ahem--drive his carriage. Can Merry rein in the truth? What kind of horse play was her rakish dad involved in, and why would someone want to giddy-yup him into an early grave?Stay tuned for the answers in this first episode of, "As the Carriage Wheel Turns."

Dead Pan by Gayle Trent (For Review) ~ Cake decorator Daphne Martin once again finds herself and her cakes at the center of a murder mystery. Half the town gets sick following a cake event, but for poor Fred Duncan, a bout with potential food poisoning quickly turns fatal. Now it's up to Daphne to sort through the likely suspects and figure out who frosted Fred.

Primitive by Mark Nykanen and Deborah Smith (For Review) ~ A neo-primitive cult, possessing secret government documents filled with terrifying information about global warming, kidnaps a famous fashion model and holds her hostage, forcing her to act as their spokesperson. As time runs out, her estranged daughter allies with a dangerous activist group to rescue her, while battling dark agendas from the government and Big Oil.

True Blue by David Baldacci (For Review) ~ Mason "Mace" Perry was a firebrand cop on the D.C. police force until she was kidnapped and framed for a crime. She lost everything-her badge, her career, her freedom-and spent two years in prison. Now she's back on the outside and focused on one mission: to be a cop once more. Her only shot to be a true blue again is to solve a major case on her own, and prove she has the right to wear the uniform. But even with her police chief sister on her side, she has to work in the shadows: A vindictive U.S. attorney is looking for any reason to send Mace back behind bars. Then Roy Kingman enters her life. Roy is a young lawyer who aided the poor until he took a high-paying job at a law firm in Washington. Mace and Roy meet after he discovers the dead body of a female partner at the firm. As they investigate the death, they start uncovering surprising secrets from both the private and public world of the nation's capital. Soon, what began as a fairly routine homicide takes a terrifying and unexpected turn-into something complex, diabolical, and possibly lethal.

Redneck Cinderella by LuAnn McLane

Redneck Cinderella by LuAnn McLane

Raised by her widowed father, Jolie Russell could keep up with any man—that is, until wealthy and sexy land developer Cody Dean struts into her life.

Cody buys the Russell farm with an impossible-to-refuse multimillion-dollar offer, then relocates Jolie and her dad to the Copper Creek Estates. But the country club atmosphere isn’t ready for Jolie’s kind of country. As her two worlds collide, Jolie wonders how she can ever hope to capture Cody’s heart without giving up her grits.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. The last band I saw live was Edwin McCain.
2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving is spending the day with my nieces. (if you don't celebrate thanksgiving, insert your favorite holiday)
3. My Chanukah shopping is something I haven't even thought about yet.
4. Thoughts of you fill my head.
5. I wish I could wear my heart on my sleeve.
6. Bagpipes annoy me.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a quick trip to the market and relaxing, tomorrow my plans include catching up on TV and reading and Sunday, I want to do the same thing I'm planning for Saturday!

Blog Tour - Susan Berliner

Ten Things You May Not Know About DUST—and Me

by Susan Berliner, author of DUST

www.susanberliner.com

Here are a few little-known tidbits about DUST, my new supernatural thriller—and about me—that I hope you'll find interesting:

1. The novel is based on a real weather phenomenon called a "dust devil." These miniature cyclones are powerful enough to toss dust and dirt into the air and they occur all over the United States, especially on hot, dry spring days. In 2003, I read a little news story about a dust devil that collapsed an auto body shop and killed the owner. Since the event happened in Maine, I thought Stephen King would write a book about weird dust. But he didn't, so, a few years later, I did. To see a real dust devil in action, check this YouTube video that's mentioned in the beginning of DUST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOITKe-H6HE

2. Dust devils also occur on Mars. These Martian whirlwinds are huge, but otherwise very similar to the ones on Earth. Last August, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit camera used three colored filters to create a special-effects image of a purple, teal, and yellow swirling Mars dust devil—quite similar to my colorful evil dust. Here's a link to the ScienceDaily article and photo: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090804123242.htm

3. My first draft of DUST was only 79 pages, more like a pamphlet than a book. I fleshed out the scenes involving the dust's victims and turned them into chapters, added more community involvement, and created several new characters. The novel's still short, but now it's a book, not a leaflet.

4. I wrote the entire chapter of DUST about victim Liza Tremayne on scraps of paper while waiting for a comedy show to begin. I used the show's program and other bits of paper that I scrounged. Now I make sure to always carry a notepad in my bag!

5. One of the experiments my main characters, Karen and Jerry, use to try to destroy the dust came from an unlikely source: an exterminator. If you think you know which experiment he unintentionally suggested, contact me on my website: www.susanberliner.com. I'll send an autographed copy of DUST to the first person who comes up with the correct answer.

6. Although I've lived most of my life in and around New York City, I was born in London, England. My family moved to the United States when I was a little girl.

7. It's always easier to write about jobs you already know. As a result, when I needed to create professions for the dust's victims, I placed a couple of characters in jobs I knew well—graphic artist for a magazine (I was the promotion manager for a large chain of shoppers), elementary school teacher (my first full-time job), and salesperson for a telephone directory (a position my daughter once held).

8. Like Adam Ackermann, the teenage character in DUST, I'm a huge "Star Trek" fan. I especially love the original series so I really enjoyed having my characters discuss one of my favorite episodes.

9. Like another DUST character, Marlene Scott, I love "Jeopardy." In fact, I was a contestant on the show years ago when it was filmed in New York City. (I didn't win any money though, just a set of now-outdated encyclopedias.)

10. I'm a two-time school spelling bee champion. Hopefully, you won't find any spelling mistakes in this post—or in DUST!

* * *

About the author

Susan Berliner has been a nonfiction writer for nearly her entire career. She had originally planned to be an elementary school teacher, but left after a year to become a newspaper reporter for Fairchild Publications. She covered men's retailing for Daily New Record, a men's wear/textile trade newspaper, which was the "brother" paper of Women's Wear Daily.

After Susan's children were born, she switched to freelance writing--mainly in education--publishing several book series dealing with editing skills, language arts, and standardized testing. She has also created teachers' guides, student activity sheets, and test passages. During this time, Susan was the project editor for a national science magazine for elementary school students and edited subject-related manuscripts for children in grades 7 and 8. In addition, she freelanced as a local reporter, covering board meetings for the North County News, a weekly newspaper in Yorktown Heights, New York.

When she returned to work full-time, Susan became the promotion manager of the Yorktown PennySaver, a job she held for 20 years. She created many original weekly contests--Phony Ad, Rhyme Time, and PennySaver Prophet.

Susan lives with her husband, Larry, in Yorktown Heights, where she is preparing her second book (Peachwood Lake) for publication and writing her third novel.

Dust by Susan Berliner

While unloading groceries in her Rock Haven condo, Karen McKay notices a strange swirl of red, green, and blue dust. The swirl follows her inside, lifts a porcelain ballerina from her wall unit, twirls it in the air, and throws it to the floor, shattering it into pieces. The following evening, Karen hears her neighbor's dog barking loudly. Upon investigation, she finds her neighbor, Marion, at the bottom of the stairs?dead. At the top of the stairs, a colorful whirlpool of dust circles ominously. Now the feisty librarian must consider the unthinkable: Could the dust be responsible for her neighbor's death and, if so, would it kill again? Karen turns to her ex-husband, Jerry, for help and together they bravely confront the mysterious dust. But will their daring actions cost them their lives?

White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner

White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner

When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier 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 Janvier 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 unbeknownst to anyone else.

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 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, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all–or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?

Check back in a few days for my review

Teaser Tuesday

It’s that time of week again, everyone, and time for the Tuesday Teaser.
Again the reminder of what this is all about. We are asked to:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share two teaser sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. Share the title of the book that the “teaser” comes from, so people can find the book if they like the teaser.
5. And again remember – avoid spoilers.

Here's mine ~

"Josef was unconscious from the beating when they marched us to the transport to Treblinka," Eliasz said. "My father and I held him between us. And actually it was a very good thing he needed to be dragged, becuase I was able to hide by blindness that way. I just walked wherever my father walked and dragged my half of Josef." Eliasz turned to his old friend. "Have I ever thanked you for having beaten me senseless, Josef?"

My teaser comes from White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner. What's YOUR teaser?

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week.

Here's what I got ~

Life After 187 by Wade J. Halverson (For Review) ~ Sentenced to life in prison when he executes the men who murdered his wife, Kane Silver is singled out by the warden for his fighting ability. Along with inmates Valentino Lopez and Si’Ling Lee, Kane is drafted into service and forced to fight for money in high-stakes tournaments. But when the three friends escape during a New Year’s Eve match in Lake Tahoe—saving the warden’s life in the process—their situation becomes more complicated. Their status undetermined, they vanish underground and sign on to help a young woman whose parents are being held by an Argentinean drug kingpin. Follow Kane and his friends as they compete and grow closer while rediscovering what it means to be free. From Lake Tahoe and the western United States to Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, and Thailand, Life After 187 takes readers on an exhilarating ride filled with big money, intense action, justice, and the pursuit of honor.

Abandoned: A Thriller by Cody McFadyen ~ He doesn’t kill for thrills, for sex, or even for power. It’s far more twisted than that….Cody McFadyen, acclaimed author of The Darker Side, The Face of Death, and Shadow Man, delivers this shocking new thriller that brings to light a psychopath unlike any we’ve ever seen—a killer who thrives in absolute darkness and doesn’t derive pleasure from the kill. And only one woman has the ability to see him coming…even if it’s already too late to stop her own murder. For FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett, the wedding of one of their own was cause for celebration. Until a woman staggered down the aisle, incoherent, emaciated, head shaved, and wearing only a white nightgown. No one knows who she is or where she’s come from—or why she’s chosen to appear in a church filled with law enforcement agents. Then a fingerprint check determines that the woman has been missing for nearly eight years—that once she was someone’s wife, someone’s mother…and a cop. Imprisoning her in a dark cell, depriving her of any contact with the outside world, her enigmatic captor was a man she didn’t know and who seldom spoke, who punished her only when she failed to follow his most basic instructions designed to keep her alive. Cold, businesslike, seemingly indifferent to his victims, he’s a predator with an M.O. as terrifyingly inscrutable as any Smoky has ever encountered. As she fits together the pieces of what remains of his victim’s fractured life, a chilling picture emerges of a killer every bit as calculating, masterful, and professional as Smoky and the team she leads—a professional psychopath who doesn’t take murder personally and never makes a mistake. There’s a reason he let one of his victims go free. And by the time Smoky pierces the darkness of his twisted mind, it may cost her more than she can bear to lose to escape. For a trap snapped closed the moment she took this case too much to heart.

A Note From An Old Acquaintance by Bill Walker (For review/blog tour) ~ Brian Weller is a haunted man. It's been two years since the tragic accident that left his three-year-old son dead and his wife in an irreversible coma. A popular author of mega- selling thrillers, Brian's life has reached a crossroads: his new book is stalled, his wife's prognosis is dire, and he teeters on the brink of despair. Everything changes the morning an e- mail arrives from Boston artist Joanna Richman. Her heartfelt note brings back all the poignant memories: the night their eyes met, the fiery passion of their short- lived affair, and the agonizing moment he was forced to leave Joanna forever. Now, fifteen years later, the guilt and anger threaten to overwhelm him. Vowing to make things right, Brian arranges a book- signing tour that will take him back to Boston. He is eager to see Joanna again, but remains unsure where their reunion will lead. One thing is certain: the forces that tore their love asunder will stop at nothing to keep them apart. Filled with tender romance and taut suspense, A Note from an Old Acquaintance is an unforgettable story about fate, honor, and the power of true love.

a questionable life: A Novel by Luke Lively (For Review) ~ Hard-charging Philadelphia banker Jack Oliver has always made tough choices and sacrifices to achieve success, but when his mid-sized banking group is bought out by a mega-chain, Jack finds himself knocked from the top rung to the bottom of the ladder. When the stress of the merger lands him in the hospital, he realizes that his wife and kids hate him and his mistress is only interested in the number of zeros in his paycheck. When Jack is approached by Benny, the old-fashioned president of a small Virginia bank, he doubts he could ever work for such a small-town guy after his cut-throat career.Left without the success he once craved and the family he undervalued, Jack may discover how to reclaim what he had taken for granted and lead a new kind of 'questionable life.'

The Fashion Hound Murders: Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper (Josie, Marcus Mystery Shopper) by Elaine Viets ~ Josie Marcus has been hired to check out a big pet store's involvement with puppy mills. When an employee who clued her into the mills' existence shows up dead, Josie realizes that sinking her teeth into this case could mean getting bitten back...

Dial Om for Murder (Mantra for Murder Mysteries, No. 2) by Diana Killian ~ When one of A.J.'s celebrity yoga students gets permanently bent out of shape, and another is accused of the crime, A.J. has no choice but to position herself as a sleuth to find the real killer.

Murder for Christ's Mass (A Templar Night Mystery) by Maureen Ash (For Review) ~ The town of Lincoln is covered in snow-concealing the mortal remains of a clerk who worked in the local mint. The only clue is a pristine coin stamped with the visage of King Stephen. But Templar Bascot de Marins soon discovers that the motive goes beyond money-and beyond mere murder.

A Play of Treachery (Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries) by Margaret Frazer (For Review) ~ At the behest of his powerful patron, Joliffe journeys to France to act as a servant to the widowed duchess Jacquetta of Bedford-while actually training in spycraft. But when a member of the duchess's household is murdered, Joliffe learns just how dangerous secrets can be...

Howl Deadly (A Kendra Ballantine, Pet-Sitte) by Linda O. Johnston (For Review) ~ Kendra's weekend getaway with gorgeous millionaire Dante DeFrancisco turns chilling when a mother she-wold goes missing from Dante's pet sanctuary. Now Kendra must find her-along with a killer hiding right before her eyes.

Expose! (A Vicki Hill Mystery) by Hannah Dennison (For Review) ~ When the local celebrity, Scarlett Flemming, dies, Vicky learns of Scarlett's shaky finances-and marriage. While canvassing an entire town of suspects and juggling three eligible suitors, she must stay one step ahead of a killer once she realizes she's no longer writing an obituary, but an expose!

Eggs Benedict Arnold (Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries) by Laura Childs (For Review) ~ When Cackleberry Clubber Suzanne delivers a pie to funeral director Ozzie Driesden, she discovers him not working at the embalming table but lying on the embalming table. She barely has time to recognize his corpse before she's drugged with chloroform. With more suspects than breakfast specials, the Cackleberry Club scrambles to crack the case before one of their own ends up six feet under.

Murder Has a Sweet Tooth (A Cooking Class Mystery) by Miranda Bliss (For Review) ~ Annie Capshaw has found that the way to a man's heart is through his cooking class. But just as she and her best friend, Eve, are planning Annie's big day with Jim, her former cooking instructor turned boss, murder takes the cake. Make that the wedding cake...

Dead and Kicking (Ghost Dusters Mysteries, No. 3) by Wendy Roberts (For Review) ~ Sadie Novak cleans up crime scenes for a living and is also blessed-or cursed- with the gift of second sight. This time she's digging out the home of a compulsive hoarder. She discovers unexpected things, including an angry ghost who wants her to go away. And there are even more secrets beneath the surface that someone will kill to keep buried...