Library Haul | Thanksgiving Holiday 2017

I don’t know about you, but when it’s time to check books out from the library, it’s kind of like a Lay’s potato chip thing—I can never “eat” just one. And since I never know for sure exactly what I’m going to feel like reading at any given moment, I always check out multiple options at a time.

These days, this entails hours spent on the part of my local libraries’ websites where all of the digital items are cataloged, as I’m going to be checking out ebooks and/or audiobooks. Not only is it easier to carry around library books/audiobooks when they’re digital, but since they return themselves automatically when the due-date arrives, I never have to worry about overdue books anymore! And since moving to a new city, I now have access to two public library systems—which means I can check out up to 25 titles at a time.

“I have a proposition for you.” Kacey should have run the minute those words left Seattle millionaire Jake Titus’s mouth. It’s been years since Kacey’s seen her childhood friend Jake, but the minute Jake mentions his ill grandmother, Kacey is ready to do anything for the sweet old woman. And if that means pretending they’re engaged for her sake-so be it.

But Kacey wasn’t counting on Jake’s older brother Travis still being there. She calls him “Satan” for a reason: she’s never forgotten the way he teased and taunted her. Yet when they meet again, Travis’s gorgeous smile is a direct hit to her heart . . . and Kacey’s more confused than ever. As the days pass, only one thing starts to become alarmingly clear—she never should have accepted Jake’s deal.

Princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor, Nalia has led a privileged life at court. But everything changes when she learns, just after her 16th birthday, that she is a false princess, a stand-in for the real Nalia, who has been hidden away for her protection. Cast out with little more than the clothes on her back, the girl now called Sinda must leave behind the city, her best friend, Kiernan, and the only life she’s ever known.

Sent to live with her only surviving relative, Sinda proves inept at even the simplest tasks. Then she discovers that long-suppressed, dangerous magic runs through her veins, and she realizes that she will never learn to be just a simple village girl. Sinda returns to the city to seek answers. Instead, she rediscovers the boy who refused to forsake her, and uncovers a secret that could change the course of Thorvaldor’s history forever.

An intricately plotted and completely satisfying adventure, The False Princess is both an engaging tale in the tradition of great fantasy novels and a story never told before that will enchant—and surprise—its listeners.

The British Midlands. It’s called the “Black Country” for a reason. Bad things happen there.

When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal-mining village—and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird’s nest—the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard’s new Murder Squad. Fresh off the grisly 1889 murders of The Yard, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith respond, but they have no idea what they’re about to get into. The villagers have intense, intertwined histories. Everybody bears a secret. Superstitions abound. And the village itself is slowly sinking into the mines beneath it.

Not even the arrival of forensics pioneer Dr. Bernard Kingsley seems to help. In fact, the more the three of them investigate, the more they realize they may never be allowed to leave.

After spending the summer away from each other, Titus and Iolanthe (still disguised as Archer Fairfax) are eager to return to Eton College to resume their training to fight the Bane. Although no longer bound to Titus by a blood oath, Iolanthe is more committed than ever to fulfilling her destiny—especially with the agents of Atlantis quickly closing in.

Soon after arriving at school, though, Titus makes a shocking discovery, one that makes him question everything he previously believed about their mission. Faced with this devastating realization, Iolanthe is forced to come to terms with her new role, while Titus must choose between following his mother’s prophecies—and forging a divergent path to an unknowable future.

In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one… except the “thing” inside her.

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch…

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she’s special, says she’s one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin’s investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff’s little company of strays apart, and it isn’t long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she’s on even if it seems no one believes her.

Those who survive the wrath of Red Robert would never guess the pirate’s secret—Red Robert is a woman, masquerading as a man. Yet though the swift steel of her sword has spread her reputation to the farthest corners of the map, there is only one treasure she seeks—the blood of her lifelong nemesis . . . Blair Colm.

Shipwrecked on a desert isle with the handsome Logan Hagarty, she soon rediscovers her femininity in the irresistible captain’s arms. But their paradise skies darken with the appearance of their common enemy. Now the two must summon all their strength and cunning to best the evil Colm, and protect the fierce love that has grown between them.

Trussed up in tweed and a suitably righteous manner, Jake Reed hoped he’d pass as a schoolmaster long enough to elude the gunman on his trail. But with Cecilia Summertree, the prettiest—and the nosiest—schoolmarm in the West dodging his every move, he was having a hard time keeping his mind on the classroom….

Cecilia knew exactly what she’d always wanted. The freedom to do what she pleased, when she pleased. Though in all her reckoning she’d never considered meeting someone like Jake Reed. A man determined to teach her that there were a few important things missing in her life, and one of them was him!

Captain Grey had been fighting malarial fever in Savannah when he met Theodora Winnings. He proposed by letter—but it’s taken ten years to receive her reply. The answer was “yes!”—but is she still free to become his Christmas bride?

From riches to rags, Grace has had to swallow her pride and get a job as a baker. But everything changes when she’s the beneficiary of a surprise inheritance.Her benefactor’s deal comes with a catch: give up her life of toil and live in luxury only if she marries his illegitimate son, a prisoner of war. It’s an offer she can’t afford to refuse. But her husband-to-be is dying, and he begs her to take one of his men instead—to marry purely out of mercy….

A marriage of convenience with a complete stranger . . . Could this arrangement ever work?

England, 1663

The sexual games at the restoration Court of King Charles have turned Marcus, Viscount Marlbrooke, into a cynic. While he doesn’t believe that love lies within matrimony, he does need to secure his claim to Winteringham Priory.

Marriage to the spirited Puritan Katherine Harley is the key and, given his unexpected response to her, perhaps their marriage needn’t be as bleak as he fears. Because, beneath he solemn exterior, her senses a bride of surprising passion…

The illegitimate daughter of the Russian czar, Leonida arrives at the estate of Stefan, the Duke of Huntley, with secrets…and a mission. Searching for covert documents sequestered in Stefan’s massive library, she is the perfect guest—and the perfect spy.

Fascinated by her flawless beauty and her intriguing air of mystery, Stefan draws intimately closer…and Leonida, bound by duty to her family and country, finds herself utterly captivated. Yet as danger and desire meet in a tangled web of espionage and deceit, the two will face a choice that can be made only by love itself.

Miss Christiana Daventry will do whatever it takes to keep from being thrown out on the streets–even accept the insufferably attractive Lord Braybrook’s proposition!Julian Trentham, Viscount Braybrook, urgently needs to hire a governess and companion, and Christy is conveniently available. Headstrong, with charmingly mismatched eyes and soft tawny hair, Christy is unlike any woman he has ever encountered. But there is something so deliciously endearing about her that Julian quickly forgets how scandalous it would be to give in to the mounting attraction for his penniless governess.

HER WARRIOR SLAVE

Bound in chains, enslaved barbarian Sir William Bradfer stands proud in the Constantinople slave market. As a warrior, he’s trained in the art of survival. Lady-in-waiting Anna of Heraklea is betrothed to be married—against her will. Catching sight of the magnificent William, she finds a rebellious half plan forming in her mind. Anna can offer this captured knight freedom in return for his hand in marriage!

After the disaster of his first marriage, Haydon Bowen has no intention of marrying again. Unfortunately, his brother has some intentions of his own, and plans to see to it that Haydon finds happiness once more. So he answers a “groom wanted” advertisement–in Haydon’s name–and sends Haydon to meet his new bride at the stagecoach stop!

For beautiful, cultured Rainelle Devonwood, any dangers she may face in the Idaho Territories are preferable to staying with her abusive brother. So even when Rainee learns she’s a mistakenly ordered bride, she won’t let Haydon drive her away. She’s up to the challenge of life on the difficult, demanding frontier…and the greater challenge of opening Haydon’s heart again.

Ioan is handsome… until he opens his mouth. How can someone so masculine and striking be so irritating? Yet part of her knows that if his sarcastic and teasing temper changed, she will lose her heart.

Elle is untouchable. His quick-witted barbs keep her at arm’s length. She can never know the truth. But like a moth drawn to the flame he can’t resist her. Indeed he already burned.

When the Jacobites attack Carnasserie castle, the Black Watch come to assist. Surviving Scotland isn’t for the faint of heart…

This Wild West adventure just might be the life she was meant to live.

The future is clearly mapped out for New York socialite Eugenia “Gennie” Cooper, but she secretly longs to slip into the boots of her favorite dime-novel heroine and experience just one adventure before settling down. When the opportunity arises, Gennie jumps at the chance to experience the Wild West, but her plans go awry when she is drawn into the lives of silver baron Daniel Beck and his daughter and finds herself caring for them more than is prudent–especially as she’s supposed to go back to New York and marry another man.

As Gennie adapts to the rough-and-tumble world of 1880s Colorado, she must decide whether her future lies with the enigmatic Daniel Beck or back home with the life planned for her since birth. The question is whether Daniel’s past—and disgruntled miners bent on revenge—will take that choice away from her.