Hi readers, I hope you have all had a great first month of reading in 2014! Over the last few weeks I have had to try and get myself into some sort of routine, especially with my two year old daughter beginning to have tantrums and not wanting a daytime sleep!  Although it is difficult to tear myself away when she wants to play. She’s adorable! Anyway, with lots of catching up to do and some new novels of excitement and interest to add I have decided to post my current ‘to-read’ list. You may notice that some reads are from my last list (which I am hoping to review very, very soon) whilst others are freshly added! They all sound like great reads and for that reason I have added the covers and blurb below, with the title linked to Amazon. And, as always, there is a mixed bag here for many of you to find something that suits! – Caroline 🙂

The Lakeside Legacy (A South Carolina Romantic Suspense) – Jean Jennett (romantic suspense)

What Krista Lucas finds when she arrives in picturesque Camden, South Carolina, is beyond all expectations. Her biological father, a man she never knew, has left her a large house in town and beautiful lakeside wooded acreage. How he came to own the property is a mystery Krista needs to solve for her own peace of mind.

Jake Thornton maintains that his family owns the house and land, and he can prove it with a document his own father left.

… Or can he?

Jake isn’t the only one with an interest in the property. His three brothers are ready and eager to develop the land, and nothing is going to stop
them.

Including Krista Lucas.

With Krista’s life in danger, whose side will Jake take? His family … or Krista? Will the truth be discovered in time?

Early readers have said that The Lakeside Legacy has it all: suspense, danger, mystery, romance … and love.

The Lakeside Legacy is the first book in the South Carolina Romantic Suspense series.

WARNING: This book contains graphic sexual descriptions.

The Silk Romance – Helena Fairfax (contemporary romance) (You can find Tina’s review here)

Jean-Luc Olivier is a devastatingly handsome racing-driver with the world before him. Sophie Challoner is a penniless student, whose face is unknown beyond her own rundown estate in London. The night they spend together in Paris seems to Sophie like a fairytale—a Cinderella story without the happy ending. She knows she has no part in Jean-Luc’s future. She made her dying mother a promise to take care of her father and brother in London. One night of happiness is all Sophie allows herself. She runs away from Jean-Luc and returns to England to keep her promise.

Safely back home with her father and brother, and immersed in her college work, Sophie tries her best to forget their encounter, but she reckons without Jean-Luc. He is determined to find out why she left him, and intrigued to discover the real Sophie. He engineers a student placement Sophie can’t refuse, and so, unwillingly, she finds herself back in France, working for Jean-Luc in the silk mill he now owns.

Thrown together for a few short weeks in Lyon, the romantic city of silk, their mutual love begins to grow. But it seems the fates are conspiring against Sophie’s happiness. Jean-Luc has secrets of his own. Then, when disaster strikes at home in London, Sophie is faced with a choice—stay in this glamorous world with the man she loves or return to her family to keep the sacred promise she made her mother.

Stray – Mark Matthews (psychological, drama)

Therapist Tomas Cleaves is many years sober from his addiction but is now losing his mind. There are voices in his head and the occasional seizure, and then his wife has a miscarriage on the same day his client dies of a heroin overdose. Tom becomes certain that the addicts he treats must have infected the womb of his wife.

Lost and bitter after the miscarriage, Tom is in desperate need of a client who can give him some hope.

James White is one such client — a newly orphaned alcoholic dead bent on drinking again until he gets discharged and finds himself rescuing lost strays at the next door animal shelter. Can James find a reason to live by rescuing the throw-away pets of the city? 

A gritty novel with an edge yet surprisingly gentle and sweet, Stray will take you through the dog fighting dens and crack houses of Detroit where Stray souls can find connections in the most unusual of places.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – Helen Fielding (contemporary romance, chick-lit, humour)

What do you do when your girlfriend’s sixtieth birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend’s thirtieth?

Is it better to die of Botox or die of loneliness because you’re so wrinkly?

Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating?

Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice?

Is it normal to be too vain to put on your reading glasses when checking your toy boy for head lice?

Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant?

Is it normal to get fewer followers the more you tweet?

Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood?

If you put lip plumper on your hands do you get plump hands?

Is sleeping with someone after two dates and six weeks of texting the same as getting married after two meetings and six months of letter writing in Jane Austen’s day?

Pondering these and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of loss, single motherhood, tweeting, texting, technology, and rediscovering her sexuality in—Warning! Bad, outdated phrase approaching!—middle age.

When It Happens to You – Molly Ringwald (contemporary, chick-lit)

When it happens to you, you will be surprised. That thing they say about how you knew all the time, but just weren’t facing it? That might be the case, but nevertheless, there you will be.

Molly Ringwald mines the complexities of modern relationships in this gripping and nuanced collection of interlinked stories. Writing with a deep compassion for human imperfection, Ringwald follows a Los Angeles family and their friends and neighbors while they negotiate the hazardous terrain of everyday life—revealing the deceptions, heartbreak, and vulnerability familiar to us all.

In “The Harvest Moon,” a stay-at-home mom grapples with age, infertility, and an increasingly distant husband. In “Ursa Minor,” a former children’s television star tries to rebuild his life after being hospitalized for “exhaustion.” An elderly woman mourns the loss of her husband and her estranged relationship with her daughter in “The Little One.” In “My Olivia,” a single mother finds untapped reserves of strength to protect her flamboyant six-year-old son who wishes only to wear dresses and be addressed as Olivia. And in the devastating title story, a betrayed wife chronicles her pain and alienation, leading to an eviscerating denouement.

As the lives of these characters converge and diverge in unexpected ways, Ringwald reveals a startling eye for the universality of loss, love, and the search for connection. An unflinching yet poignant examination of the intricacies of the human heart, When It Happens to You is an auspicious literary debut.

Baby, You’re as Sweet as 3.14159265 (101 Funny Love Advice Answers, 20 Sexy Stories, & Lots​ of Jokes)- Hog Wild (ADULT comedy)

WARNING: Content may not be suitable for people offended by naughty words, honest thoughts about love, and sexual thoughts of sextastic sex with sexy people.

(Edited synopsis due to rude words that may not be suitable for all) From the book…

A lot of girls like a guy who is a bad-ass. That’s why my conversations with women go like this:

GIRL: I like a man of danger.

ME: Come back to my place and we’ll open the .exe attachments in my email!

—

Dear Shirtless Guy in his Profile Picture, you REALLY want to impress girls? Get a job and pose in front of your cubicle.

—

They say you can get a girl to like you, if you can make her jealous. So I make sure the girl sees me with a pretty expensive handbag!

—

Girls like when you tell them about the adorable things that children do. For instance, like when my little nephew asked me, “When babies are in the tummy do they use mommy’s belly button as a window?”

Cute!

Thank God he didn’t ask what they use as a door!

Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook – Kelly I. Hitchcock (contemporary)

Twelve women, twelve tattoos, and a narrative thread that weaves them all together, Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook is a collection of stories that answers that lingering question in the back of your mind when you see an inked woman: what does your tattoo mean (or perhaps – what were you thinking)? From a parent’s suicide to the birth of an unlikely child, the stories behind why women tattoo themselves are literally worn on (and sometimes under) their sleeves, and retold on these pages.

Complete with artwork from the original tattoo artists and a foreword by Dr. Marta Vicente, one of academia’s foremost voices in Women’s Studies, this series of literary vignettes celebrates real, everyday women and their tattoos that, while they may seem insignificant at the time, are a symbol of the larger struggles and triumphs that make them who they are. These stories explore the idea of tattoos bringing together women from different worlds, and teaching them how these worlds might not be as far apart as they think.

Animus – Thomas Evans (crime)

A family is torn in half when a careless killer evades justice. Jason McDowell’s bad choice to drive to work drunk one morning leaves a father dead, a daughter in a coma and her twin sister and mother to try and pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Three years later, while Jason has gone on with his life, ignorant of the struggles of his victims, someone has decided it is time for him to face justice.

Bounty Hunter – S.J. Hollis (fantasy)

What do you do when your magic makes you a target? Run. Fight. Die.

14-year-old Kai Koson had nothing to do with the apocalypse, thank you very much. He was just a baby the day a coven of blood witches ripped a hole in the universe and the demons fell screaming from the sky. Earth and its magic perished. Witchkind was hunted and annihilated.

Now, because he was born a witch, Kai must spend his life running and fighting for survival. Even his own uncle seems determined to abandon him.

With nothing left to lose, Kai runs away and joins a team of galactic bounty hunters. But instead of providing an escape, it sets Kai on a path that will destroy everything he believes about himself and the apocalypse, transforming him into the most wanted teenager in the galaxy.

Written with humour, imagination and darkness, Bounty Hunter and its protagonist Kai Koson stand confidently beside Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl, Alex Rider, Young Bond, Mortal Engines and Harry Potter.

21 Hours – Dustin Stevens (Thriller)

Felix “O” O’Connor is an ex-con from central Ohio that has spent the seven years since being released from prison working on a ranch in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. Rarely does he venture out into the world and never does it come looking for him. Both of those things change when his twin sister Alexa “Lex” Borden calls from Columbus, Ohio to ask for his help.

Earlier that afternoon, she and her husband were both beaten unconscious and their two year old daughter abducted from their front yard. Nobody saw a thing, the police are stumped, and it is a well known statistic that if a child isn’t found in the first 48 hours, they rarely are.

O immediately drives back to Ohio and finds himself with just 21 hours to find his beloved niece before potentially losing her forever. Plunging himself into a world he’d long ago left behind, he crosses paths with criminal masterminds, human traffickers, gun runners, drug smugglers, blood-thirsty spectators and suspicious detectives all in the name of bringing her home.

The Re-Awakening (Second Coming, #2) – Carter Vance (Thriller) (You can find my review of Book 1, ‘The Return’, here)

The saga continues. He has returned, but not yet awakened to fulfill His destiny.

With The Re-Awakening, the second book of the Second Coming Series, author Carter Vance continues the thrilling story of the modern day return of Christ.

Like the first book, it is full of action and suspense that takes place in a chaotic world reeling towards the prophesied Apocalypse.

The first book, The Return, re-counted the circumstances of His birth. The Re-Awakening chronicles the events of His growth and the re-acquiring of His Christ Consciousness.

The first son in the bloodline of Jesus Christ, Lazarus J. Christos, must immerse Himself in the modern day world and prepare to fulfill His mission that has been prophesied for two thousand years.

With the aide of the order of the Knights Templars, long existing in the shadows, and the even less known organization of The Founders, young Lazarus, on a path of personal discovery, encounters His doubts and faces His fears of His ability to fulfill His mission.

Meanwhile, His enemies mount their plan for His eradication and their goal of world domination. They believe there is a way for them to prevail beyond the prophecies. These Dark Forces embark upon a worldwide hunt for legendary artifacts of power that might tip the balance of power to their advantage for the forthcoming ultimate battle of good versus evil for the soul of humanity.

Cry Heaven Cry Hell… The Return of Miss Mary Weather – Deno Sandz (horror)

+++ From the original novel in 2001: “Miss Mary Weather: A Southern Nightmare,” a sequel arises. In a rural black community in the Deep South, there is a myth of a woman who is the most terrifying female creature ever unleashed in this world. Will’s battles with the evil woman continue from childhood to adulthood. The protagonist, Will defeats her: however his eldest son begins dreaming of the evil woman’s return. +++Now, after many years of forgetfulness and the tragic death of Will Sr. and his wife, Miss Mary Weather has truly returned bringing perdition and no absolution with her to collect more souls and to finally destroy the bloodline of the one man who defeated her….making the world as we know it, “Cry Heaven, Cry Hell.” +++

Heart of Eternity – N Jay (romance)

When you are invited to dance with the muse of love, when you are driven to the edge by the pain of the past, when you hold the remedy for what ails you in your arms you will find yourself in the heart of eternity. Set in the Blue Mountain’s town of Blackheath in New South Wales, Australia, the novel Heart of Eternity introduces two very different characters, Jay and Naida, who encounter each other at a challenging time in each of their lives. Their individual expressions of the feelings they provoke in each other give rise to a turmoil that could ultimately claim their lives. When two people understand so deeply the pain each other has faced will it force them into the abyss of darkness or will their combined need for healing allow love to enter both their hearts?

The Medea Complex – Rachel Florence Roberts (historical fiction, mystery thriller, psychological horror)

****BASED ON A TRUE STORY***

1885. Anne Stanbury – Committed to a lunatic asylum, having been deemed insane and therefore unfit to stand trial for the crime of which she is indicted. But is all as it seems?

Edgar Stanbury – the grieving husband and father who is torn between helping his confined wife recover her sanity, and seeking revenge on the woman who ruined his life.

Dr George Savage – the well respected psychiatrist, and chief medical officer of Bethlem Royal Hospital. Ultimately, he holds Anne’s future wholly in his hands.

The Medea Complex tells the story of a misunderstood woman suffering from insanity in an era when mental illnesses’ were all too often misdiagnosed and mistreated. A deep and riveting psychological thriller set within an historical context, packed full of twists and turns, The Medea Complex explores the nature of the human psyche: what possesses us, drives us, and how love, passion, and hope for the future can drive us to insanity.

As mentioned before, I also wish to read The Keeping (Law of the Lycans, Book 2) (sequel to The Mating) by Nicky Charles, Dead Push (Keira Hudson Series 2, Book 7) by Tim O’Rourke, plus many, many more.

Well, that’s my reading plan for the following weeks to come. If any of you have read any of these it would be great to hear your thoughts. I wish you all a great weekend!

Caroline Barker 🙂