Sunday, August 1, 2021

Reading Corner - August 2021

 


Here at my reading corner your find my monthly TBR which books I'll read and as well as the ones I hope to get to .

My August TBR 

Note Books with the titles that is highlighted is for blog tours that are coming up in September .

Title : The Woman At The Gates 
Author: Chrystyan Lucyk-Berger
Genre: :Historical Fiction WW 2
NetGalley ARC 
For as long back as Antonia could remember, there had been sliding panels and secret doors to be discovered in her Carpathian village, and the music of their defiance had sustained her."

1944, Germany: Gazing through the barbed wire fence, up at the pale blue sky, Antonia dreams of her home in Ukraine: cherry orchards, golden fields, and the man she loves, whom she may never see again…

The Nazi soldier thrust the barrel of his gun between Antonia’s shoulder blades and she stumbled, still clutching the hand of her youngest nephew. Her sister lifted her other little boy into the back of the truck. Under the threatening gaze of the Germans, Antonia looked back at the village one last time before the flap dropped and locked them all in total darkness.

Before Antonia and her sister's family were surrounded by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp, she was a fighter rather than a victim. Her resistance group - made up of the young men and women she’d grown up with - risked everything to free their country from those who had turned it into a bloody battleground. By her side was the brilliant Dr. Viktor Gruber - the man she was to have married and help start an independent government with. His love and his intellect shone like a light even when dark and violent conflicts engulfed them.

Antonia does not know whether Viktor or the others have been caught or executed. Inside the camp, rumors are that the war is coming to an end. But she cannot wait to be saved. Her precious nephews will die without proper food. Her sister is ill. And her brother-in-law is somewhere out of reach. The Nazis need every able slave to push back the Red Tide, but Antonia also knows she and the others could be killed for any reason, at any moment.

Outside the gates lies salvation and promises she must fulfill - for her country and the people she has loved. But Antonia's first priority is to find a way to get her family to safety, even if means putting her own life at risk. The Nazis may have taken nearly everything from her - her country, her dreams, her passions - but they will never take away her fierce courage…

Inspired by the author's research into her family's journeys from Ukraine to the United States, The Woman at the Gates is a heartbreaking, inspiring and unforgettable story of the faith, courage and determination shown by those who survived the darkest days of the war. Fans of Mandy Robotham, Kate Quinn and Pam Jenoff will be gripped from the very first page until the final, heart-stopping conclusion, and if you enjoyed Mark Sullivan's The Last Green Valley or Beneath a Scarlet Sky, you will not want to miss this action-packed epic!

 Title: Stone Heart Deep
Author: Paul Bassett Davies
Genre: thriller
ARC 
When burned-out investigative journalist Adam Budd’s estranged mother dies, he inherits her estate. This includes Stone Heart House, a huge, ramshackle mansion on a remote Scottish island. He visits the island to sort out her tangled affairs, and at first it seems like a charming haven of tranquillity. But after he witnesses a strange accident, he begins to develop suspicions about the inhabitants.

Why does everyone seem so eerily calm, even under stress? What is stopping Harriet, the lawyer helping him with his affairs, from leaving the island when she so clearly wants to? Is he making a big mistake by falling for her? And why have so many children gone missing

 Title: I'll Be Watching You 
Author: Leslie A. Kelly 
Series: (Hollywood Heat #1)
Genre: Romance 
Baclisted NetGallet /Physical BookShe can trust him with her heart, but can she trust him with her life?

Growing up as a foster kid, Jessica Jensen found her escape in movies-especially those starring teen heartthrob Reece Winchester. When she meets him as an adult, he's just as charming, fascinating, and devastatingly handsome as she'd imagined. Before she knows it, Jessica is falling hard. But her real-life Cinderella story is about to take a deadly turn...

Jessica has completely upended everything about Reece's carefully ordered life. There's a reason he's never allowed anyone to get so close to him before. But now that she has, there's a target on her back. Because someone knows that the Winchesters have been hiding some dark family secrets. Someone who is out there waiting to strike. Waiting...and always watching.

Previously published as Watching You


Title : Beauty and the Spy
Author: Julie Anne Long
Series: 
(Holt Sisters Trilogy #1)
Genre: Historical romance 
Physical 
SHOCKING!

London's belle of the ball, Susannah Makepeace, is the last person who should suddenly be stuck in the sleepy village of Barnstable. In town, she would never have seen a man swimming naked in a pond. And she certainly would have resisted the urge to draw every single bit of him in astonishing detail!

SIZZLING!

Very few people know that Viscount Kit Whitelaw is the best spy in His Majesty's secret service. But his high-flying life has finally banished him from London. Not to worry --- if Susannah's erotic sketches are any indication of her nature, she'll be a delicious stand-in for the thrill of espionage.

SCANDALOUS!

When odd accidents follow in Susannah's wake, Kit's spy senses start tingling. For what better mystery is there for England's greatest spy than the secrets of the delectable puzzle that is Susannah?

 Title: Hungry Like The  Wolf 
Author: Paige Tyler
Series: 
SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance ( shifter )
Kindle book
The Dallas SWAT team is hiding one helluva secret . . . they're a pack of wolf shifters.

The team of elite sharpshooters is ultra-secretive—and also the darlings of Dallas. This doesn't sit well with investigative journalist Mackenzie Stone. They must be hiding something . . . and she's determined to find out what.

Keeping Mac at a distance proves impossible for SWAT team commander Gage Dixon. She's smart, sexy, and makes him feel alive for the first time in years. But she's getting dangerously close to the truth—and perilously close to his heart.

 Title: A Deeper Darkness
Author: J.T. Ellison
Series: 
Dr. Samantha Owens #1)
Genre: Romantic Suspense
On my Glose app
As a medical examiner, Samantha Owens knows her job is to make a certain sense of death with crisp methodology and precision instruments.

But the day the Tennessee floods took her husband and children, the light vanished from Sam's life. She has been pulled into a suffocating grief no amount of workaholic ardor can penetrate;until she receives a peculiar call from Washington, D.C.

On the other end of the line is an old boyfriend's mother, asking Sam to do a second autopsy on her son. Eddie Donovan is officially the victim of a vicious carjacking, but under Sam's sharp eye the forensics tell a darker story. The ex-Ranger was murdered, though not for his car.

Forced to confront the burning memories and feelings about yet another loved one killed brutally, Sam loses herself in the mystery contained within Donovan's old notes. It leads her to the untouchable Xander, a soldier off-grid since his return from Afghanistan, and then to a series of brutal crimes stretching from that harsh mountainous war zone to this nation's capital. The tale told between the lines makes it clear that nobody's hands are clean, and that making sense of murder sometimes means putting yourself in the crosshairs of death

Title: Luminous
Author: Mara Rutherford
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy -Witches
NetGalley 
From the author of Crown of Coral and Pearl comes an immersive new fantasy about a witch who must learn to harness her power--or risk losing her loved ones forever.

Liora has spent her life in hiding, knowing discovery could mean falling prey to the king's warlock, Darius, who uses mages' magic to grow his own power. But when her worst nightmare comes to pass, Darius doesn't take her. Instead, he demands that her younger sister return to the capital with him. To make matters worse, Evran, Liora's childhood friend and the only one who knows her secret, goes missing following Darius's visit, leaving her without anyone to turn to.

To find Evran and to save her sister, Liora must embrace the power she has always feared. But the greatest danger she'll face is yet to come, for Darius has plans in motion that will cause the world to fall into chaos--and Liora and Evran may be the only ones who can stop him.

Title: The Greek's Bedroom Bargain 
Author: Joanne Walsh
Series: The Greek Island Millionaires #1)Romance
NetGalley Backlist
Infuriating, arrogant, demanding. And disturbingly sexy. Those were the first thoughts Frankie had about Greek millionaire and volunteer firefighter Nik Kontarinis, but she was not going to fall prey to his seduction plans. She was on the island of Kathos to lick her wounds and figure out her next steps, not to become another notch on Nik’s bedpost.

A villa restoration project presents the perfect opportunity for Frankie to reboot her business and her life. There is only one problem–she needs a business partner. When Nik offers her an opportunity too good to pass up, Frankie is tempted to accept. Except that Nik has set his terms and there are definitely strings attached.

Will Frankie give in to temptation and play?

Title:BlackListed 
Author: Jay Crownover
series: Loveless, Texas #3)
NetGalley Backlist
NOte: one of my all time favorite series
Dr. Presley Baskin has always lived a quiet, calm life. Unfortunately, nothing about her life in Loveless, Texas—especially not the wild, rowdy, and impossibly close-knit Lawton family who've claimed her—is quiet or calm. Which is how loner Presley finds herself roped into patching up local bad boy Shot Caldwell against her better judgment. Presley wants nothing to do with the dangerous, brooding leader of the local outlaw motorcycle club. But when someone starts stalking her, Shot is the only person she trusts to help. Plus he owes her one...

Palmer 'Shot' Caldwell has always known his life isn't made for relationships. At least until shy, secretive, Presley reluctantly pulled a bullet out of him. He's oddly protective of the pretty doctor, so when she comes to him for help, hard-hearted Shot suddenly realizes there's nothing he wouldn't do to keep her safe.

Title:West End Earl 
Author: Bethany Bennett
Series :(Misfits of Mayfair #2)
NetGalley / Physical
Genre: Historical Romance
While most young ladies attend balls and hunt for husbands, Ophelia Hardwick has spent the last ten years masquerading as a man. As the land steward for the Earl of Carlyle, she’s found safety from the uncle determined to kill her and freedoms a lady could only dream of. Ophelia’s situation would be perfect—if only she wasn’t hopelessly attracted to her employer.

Calvin, Earl of Carlyle, is determined to see his sister married this season. And he’ll do it with the help of his trusted right-hand man. But when he finds out his man is a woman, and that her life is in danger, his priorities change. Their attraction is passionate, all-consuming, and if they aren’t careful, it could turn downright deadly—for both of them.

Title: Enola Homes And The Black Barouhe 
Author: Nancy Springer 
Series: Enola Holmes #7)
Genre: Historical mystery 
NetGalley 
Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of her more famous brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft. But she has all the wits, skills, and sleuthing inclinations of them both. At fifteen, she's an independent young woman--after all, her name spelled backwards reads 'alone'--and living on her own in London. When a young professional woman, Miss Letitia Glover, shows up on Sherlock's doorstep, desperate to learn more about the fate of her twin sister, it is Enola who steps up. It seems her sister, the former Felicity Glover, married the Earl of Dunhench and per a curt note from the Earl, has died. But Letitia Glover is convinced this isn't the truth, that she'd know--she'd feel--if her twin had died.

The Earl's note is suspiciously vague and the death certificate is even more dubious, signed it seems by a John H. Watson, M.D. (who denies any knowledge of such). The only way forward is for Enola to go undercover--or so Enola decides at the vehement objection of her brother. And she soon finds out that this is not the first of the Earl's wives to die suddenly and vaguely--and that the secret to the fate of the missing Felicity is tied to a mysterious black barouche that arrived at the Earl's home in the middle of the night. To uncover the secrets held tightly within the Earl's hall, Enola is going to require help--from Sherlock, from the twin sister of the missing woman, and from an old friend, the young Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether!

Title: The Crying House 
Author: B.R.Spangler
Series: Detective Casey White Book 4)
NetGalley 
Genre: Thriller
Strands of blonde hair escape from beneath the sheet and catch the dawn light creeping through the window. Silence falls as the fabric is drawn back to reveal the body of a young girl, her hands folded on her chest, her long lashes resting on her cold, pale cheeks.

When Detective Casey White finds the body of a teenager perfectly preserved in salt in an abandoned beach vacation home, her heart shatters. Tina Somners has been missing since she set off to meet her friends for spring break. Her parents will be inconsolable at this tragic end to their search.

Determined to find justice for this sweet girl who was looking forward to a summer full of laughter, Casey delves into old case files and gets her first lead: years ago, a man murdered his wife, totally covering her body in salt. But he’s been locked up in prison all this time.

Casey is racing to interview him when another perfectly preserved body is found just down the beach from the first crime scene. A cryptic, unfinished note is clutched in the girl’s hand. Are the bodies being kept this way so the killer can pass on a message?

Certain that there’s more significance to the salt than just preservation, Casey tracks down a man Tina’s friends say they saw watching them on the beach—and unlocks a terrible secret. But then a final threatening message arrives, addressed to Casey herself. Can she bring this twisted monster to justice before more young lives are destroyed forever?

Title : Every Last Breath
Author: Juno Rushdan
Sereis: Final Hour #1
backlisted NetGalley
Genre:: Romantic Suspense
48 hours
2 covert operatives
1 chance to get it right

Maddox Kinkade is an expert at managing the impossible. Tasked with neutralizing a lethal bioweapon, she turns to the one person capable of helping her stop the threat of pandemic in time: the love of her life, back from the dead and mad as hell at her supposed betrayal. Recruiting Cole to save millions of lives may be harder than resisting the attraction still burning between them, but Maddox will do whatever it takes...even if it destroys her.

When Maddox crashes back into Cole Matthews' life, he wants to fight back. He wants to hate her. But the crisis is too strong to ignore, and soon the two former lovers find themselves working side-by-side in a breakneck race to stop a world-class killer with a secret that could end everything

Title: The Soldier And The Spy
Author: Annabelle Greene
Series:Society of Beasts #2)
NetGalley 
Genre: Historical Fiction M/M romance 
A beholden man finds himself falling for the war hero he’s destined to double-cross.

Three hundred pounds for one night of protection. It’s a job offer, but it’s also a ruse. Captain Benjamin Frakes, war hero and de facto head of the Society of Beasts—a club for gentlemen who prefer gentlemen—is tempted to turn it down. But August Weatherby, the sexy, brazen stranger making the offer, has captivated him completely.

August is hardly the flush flirt he claims to be, however. An indebted man, desperate to save his infirm sister, August makes an ideal pawn for a lord eager to bring down the Society of Beasts once and for all. But August’s charge to find evidence against Frakes is at odds with his own virgin desire to entice the captain into showing him the true meaning of pleasure.

As August’s infiltration pushes him deeper into the beguiling world of delights behind the Society’s closed doors, he and Frakes discover new ways to push the boundaries of their own cravings. But with mounting pressure to complete his devious mission, August finds himself torn between the man his heart yearns for and the sister whose life depends on his betrayal.

Title:A Cold Dark Place
Author: Toni Andreson
Series: Cold Justice #1)
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Kindle book
She’s an FBI agent hunting her sister’s killer.
He’s an assassin who’ll die to keep her safe.
His secret will destroy them both.

Former CIA assassin Alex Parker works for a clandestine government organization hell-bent on taking out serial killers and pedophiles before they enter the justice system. Alex doesn't enjoy killing, but he's damn good at it.

FBI Special Agent Mallory Rooney has spent years hunting the lowlife who abducted her identical twin sister eighteen years ago. Now, during an on-going serial killer investigation, Mallory begins to suspect there's a vigilante operating outside the law.

When Mallory starts asking questions, Alex is ordered to watch her. As soon as they meet, the two begin to fall in love. But the lies and betrayals that define Alex's life threaten to destroy them both—especially when the man who stole her sister all those years ago makes Mallory his next target.

 Title: Dancing With the Dead
Author: S.A.Dunphy
Series: Boyle & Keneally #1)
Genre: Thriller
NetGalley
In a small town on Ireland’s west coast, a young woman named Penelope O’Dwyer leaves a restaurant. It should take five minutes to walk back to where she’s staying. In those five minutes she disappears without a trace.

It’s a few days before the tape arrives. The kidnapper’s face is masked, his voice distorted, but no one doubts for a second he will follow through on his threat: a ritual murder at the end of October – and after that, many more murders to come. Penelope has two weeks to live. And the police don’t have a single lead.

Detective Seamus Keneally insists they need help. Especially when imprisoned murderer Frederick Morgan offers vital information connecting this case to a series of historic murders. But he will only speak to one person: criminal behaviourist Jessie Boyle. Jessie is still grieving after a brutal tragedy that cut her career in London short – but right now, she’s the only chance Penelope has.

Morgan claims this is the work of a serial killer who’s been working in the shadows for longer than the police have ever realised. Now Jessie must use all her instincts and insight to get inside the mind of a criminal more ruthless than any she’s faced in her career – before the evil that has secretly stalked Ireland for decades is unleashed again.

Title: Falling Though Darkness
Auhtor: Kira Berger
Genre: Romantic Suspense 
Kindle book
One bad decision changed my life irrevocably.
One night shattered it completely.

Moving to another country was supposed to be a fresh start, an escape from my past. A way to heal and move on with my life.
I was looking for happiness. What I wasn’t supposed to find was him. Dark, handsome, and irresistible.

Not strong enough to resist, he broke through the walls around my heart. Every single one.

For a fleeting moment, I was happy. Until I'm reminded that the clutches of my past will never let me go. The evil shrouding it in darkness has finally found me.
It threatens everything I love. I need to fight it—for him and them. For us. Even if that means letting go of the light

Title: The Keeper of Night
Author: Kylie Lee Barker
Ownvoices / YA fantasy
NetGalley
A girl of two worlds, accepted by none… A half Reaper, half Shinigami soul collector seeks her destiny in this haunting and compulsively readable dark fantasy duology set in 1890s Japan.

Death is her destiny.

Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can.

When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death…only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy. Determined to earn respect, Ren accepts an impossible task—find and eliminate three dangerous Yokai demons—and learns how far she’ll go to claim her place at Death’s side.

Title: A Duke IN The Night
Author: Kelly Bowen
Series: The Devils of Dover #1)
Physical -backlisted 
Duke. Scoundrel. Titan of business. August Faulkner is a man of many talents, not the least of which is enticing women into his bedchamber. He's known-and reviled-for buying and selling companies, accumulating scads of money, and breaking hearts. It's a reputation he wears like a badge of honor, and one he intends to keep.

Clara Hayward, the headmistress of the Haverhall School for Young Ladies, on the other hand, is above reproach. Yet when she's reunited with August all she can think of is the way she felt in his arms as they danced a scandalous waltz ten long years ago. Even though her head knows that he is only back in her life to take over her family's business, her heart can't help but open to the very duke who could destroy it for good. 

Title: The Storm Bringer
Author: Isabel Cooper
Series:(Stormbringer #1)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
NetGalley backlist 2020
Raised from childhood to be weapons against the darkness, Sentinels spend their lives fighting the storm-born monsters that prey upon humanity. They alone can stare down the Traitor God. Their hands will shape the world, and their swords will seal its fate.

Amris has been trapped in dreamless sleep since the final battle raged centuries ago. Now he is awake...and so, it seems, is the Traitor God. Determined to save the world from being swallowed by the oncoming storm, Amris and fierce Sentinel Darya must learn to trust each other as they fight their way through a ruined city swarming with monsters in a last desperate bid to get word back to their allies before it's too late...

Title: Enchanting Death 
Author: Laura J. Adams
Series:The Agency Series, #1)
kindle backlist 2015
Werewolf Philippe Girard hates rookie agents!

So babysitting Max Striga as she makes an arrest - especially when he's supposed to be on holiday - is the last thing he wants to do.

When the criminal turns into a corpse, Philippe finds himself dragged into an increasingly complex case involving demons, enchantments, old enemies, and an idealistic young witch partner who simultaneously infuriates him and brings out his protective instincts.

As the body count continues to rise a connection is uncovered which may have explosive results for both the supernatural world and the humans beyond it. Entering a race against time, that leads them from London to Geneva, the reluctant partners try to solve the case before it's too late - and before it gets them killed

No comments:

Post a Comment

Reading Corner Journal 2024 ( April)

Welcome to my reading Corner Journal,  this is the place where I'll be keep track of what books I've read each month.   April  Books...