My Ever-Growing TBR Pile 7/20/2013

Got some good-looking books to share with you this week.

Was free: A Princess at the Court of Russia by Eva Martens. Caught my interest because it's about Catherine the Great. I've read about three novels about her now, so I curious to see what this one does differently.


The Russian court in the mid-eighteenth century is ruled by the beautiful and capricious Empress Elizabeth, who seeks a bride for her designated heir, the sadistic and immature Grand Duke Peter. Bored with life in the Prussian provinces, Princess Johanna is delighted when she is invited to bring her fourteen-year old daughter to the Russian court to be betrothed to the future Emperor. But there are powerful court factions determined to prevent a Prussian princess from taking the Russian throne. The Russian court is not for the faint-hearted but Sophie survives two decades of dangerous court intrigue, not only to to take the throne of one of the greatest empires of the eighteenth century but to become Catherine the Great, one of its greatest rulers.

I scooped this one up also: Liberty Hill by Sonja Heisinger. Promises to be a historical adventure/romance.

It’s the 1800’s and thousands are fleeing the potato blight in Ireland. But in New York City, two young Irish immigrants are fleeing something else. For Evelyn Brennan, an impending marriage she doesn’t want. For Lucius Flynn, the burden of a life in business and trade under his tyrannical father.

Brash and adventurous, Lucius decides the only way to be free of his doomed future as a bored tradesman is to risk everything on the burgeoning and dangerous gold fields of California. However, that “everything” that he plans on risking is in fact the dowry of his headstrong bride, Evelyn. The truth that they were once childhood friends is something Evelyn sorely tries to forget as her new husband drags her along the quickest but deadliest path to the California gold rush: the Panama Route.

Also a freebie I couldn't resist: Intrigue by Jaimey Grant. I can't pass up a lady bandit/outlaw/robber. I was also hooked by the cover.

A troubled lady...
Malvina is in over her head. Blackmail, highway robbery, murder, and treason are just some of the crimes she’s become embroiled in. With each passing day, her chances of escape—and survival—lessen.

A bored gentleman...
Gideon stumbles upon a holdup where all is not as it seems. Kidnapping one of the robbers’ accomplices hands him the very lady he was sent to investigate. Is she as caught up in her husband’s treasonous activities as his superiors suspect, or is simple highway robbery more her cup of tea?

A dangerous alliance...
Gideon is determined to help Malvina even if doing so leads to some unpleasant truths. Malvina acknowledges her need for Gideon’s help, but accepting might require her to make the ultimate sacrifice: her son.

Freebie, Body of Shadows by Jack Shadows. Seems to follow a dude detective, but the story line of this one grabbed me.

In this riveting thriller from acclaimed author Jack Shadows, a beautiful young attorney suffering from memory loss desperately tries to piece her past together only to find that the deeper she digs the more likely it is that she is the very killer that homicide detective Dent Drift is closing in on.

I won this on an English historical fiction blog, along with another title of this series (it's not on Goodreads so I'm only posting the data of  one. I get my covers and blurbs from Goodreads.) The Midwife's Secret by Linda Root. It interested me because it's a four-book series surrounding the drama of Mary Queen of Scots. Promises secrets, court intrigue, and mystery.

One afternoon in December 1570, the celebrated knight Kirkcaldy of Grange rides up Castle Hill Street with a little girl named Daisy strapped in a basket riding pillion behind him. He springs from his horse and raises her high above his head for all to see. When his wife and daughter ask whose child she is, he declares that she is his, and when Lady Grange asks him why he is saying such a thing, he emphatically declares, “She is because I say she is.”

For Kirkcaldy, that settles the question. But two years later when the castle is about to fall, the knight sends his adult daughter Janet to deliver Daisy to France into the care of a most unlikely set of guardians. Daisy arrives at the castle of the House of Guise in Joinville speaking only one French sentence, “Je m'appelle Daisy.” The Dowager Duchess of Guise shakes her head from side to side: ‘Mais non! Votre nom est Marguerite, mon cher!" It appears that even the child's name has been taken from her by the Guises.

For delivering her purported sister to their care, Janet Kirkcaldy, Lady Ferniehirst, is rewarded with a overdose of slow acting pennyroyal that kills her on her inbound journey, the first in a parade of victims of warring factions, one wishing to keep the child’s identity a secret, and the other, wishing her dead.


Was free, a memoir of deafness. I can't pass this up for obvious reasons. 4 Ears, 4 Eyes: Misadventures in Deafness by Cynthia Dixon. 

This book contains short stories of a woman's experiences with hearing loss. Hearing loss is nothing to laugh about, but humor can transform negative events into positive ones. These stories should not just entertain, but enlighten, and inform. They were written for anyone interested in deafness. Some of the stories are embarrassing, and some vent frustration at normal hearing people totally clueless about hearing loss and the behavior of a hard of hearing person.

Read Corban Addison's A Long Walk to the Sun this week and enjoyed it even though it follows a male lawyer. So I'm eager to get my hands on his 2013 release The Garden of Burning Sand. It follows a female this time!!! On my wishlist.

Zoe Fleming is an American attorney working with an NGO devoted to combating child sexual assault in Lusaka, Zambia. When an adolescent girl is raped in the dark of night and delivered by strangers to the hospital, Zoe’s organization is called in to help.

Working alongside Zambian police officer Joseph Kabuta, Zoe learns that the girl’s assailant was not a street kid or a pedophile but the son of a powerful industrialist with deep ties to the Zambian government. As the prosecution against him grinds forward, hampered by systemic corruption and bureaucratic inertia, Zoe and Joseph’s search for the truth takes them from Lusaka’s roughest neighborhoods to the wild waters of Victoria Falls, to the AIDS-ridden streets of Johannesburg and the splendour of Cape Town.

As the rape trial builds to a climax and sends shockwaves through Zambian society, Zoe must radically reshape her assumptions about love, loyalty, family—and, especially, the meaning of justice.

And oh, yea, I can't resist a woman superhero! Was stoked to see this on NG and even more stoked to get my hands on it. It screams STRONG IS SEXY. To the Fifth Power by Shirin Dubbin.

Three years ago, Zola Noite's nemesis killed her sidekick and forced her to watch. The guilt drove her to hang up her cape. Zola knows one thing for certain. She will never be a superhero again.

Psychologist Dr. Arturo Forte specializes in super-powered mental health. He’s the only reason Zola can once again call herself sane—although, truth be told, the heat between them is slowly driving her mad.

When three mega-villains escape the prison Forte oversees, all Zola's best laid plans go up in flames. Forte asks her for help, and she can't turn down the man she's come to love. As battles ensue and clues add up, the one thing Zola trusts is called into question: Forte's true agenda and which side he’s on.


Girl Racer. That is all. Skid by Doug Solter. Came across it by accident on Amazon and immediately nabbed it. 

Racing is a game that kisses death on the lips... 

Samantha drove the car that killed her dad. Now racked with guilt, the 17-year-old girl racer from Oklahoma promises to fulfill the racing dreams they shared. Even if it kills her. Samantha sneaks into a private testing session and impresses the eccentric owner of Formula 1 racing team who takes a chance on the outspoken, yet crazy-talented girl.
Samantha pushes herself, pushes her car, pushes her luck at 200 miles per hour. She battles a seven-time world champion and Ferrari racing god who was once a crush-worthy hero to a girl, but now a dream-crushing rival to a young woman.