New Releases 2012 (July 31)

The Unspoken (Krewe of Hunters) [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Description


1898: Bound for Chicago, the freighter Jerry McGuen goes down in Lake Michigan, taking with it every man aboard. But what other fate could befall a vessel carrying the ill-gotten sarcophagus of an Egyptian sorcerer?

Now: A veteran diver and "ghost ship" expert is exploring the legendary wreck for a documentary. He dies inexplicably inside the freighter's main saloon. Then another diver is killed and panicked rumors rise like bubbles from the lake: ancient demons have awakened below!

The expedition's beleaguered financier calls paranormal investigator Katya Sokolov to Chicago to save the film — and perhaps some innocent lives. Along with media forensics guru Will Chan, Kat plumbs the depths of an evil that may date back to the time of the Pharaohs. But some secrets are best drowned in the seas of the past .…

Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778313611
ISBN-13: 978-0778313618

Haven (A Bishop/SCU Novel) [Hardcover]

Product Description 

New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper returns with a breathtaking new thriller of a young woman’s homecoming — to a town of menacing whispers, bad dreams, and dangerous secrets…

Another nightmare, in the woods this time. Different: She was running. Trying to escape.

But the same ending. Always the same ending. Another dead girl…

Emma Rayburn was born and raised in Baron Hollow, North Carolina, and it was a quiet life. Then came the accident … and the nightmares — each filled with unshakable visions of darkness, blind panic, and desperate women chased toward inevitable death. With no reports of local women missing or found dead, Emma has written it off to troubled imaginings — night after dreaded night. Until her sister arrives.

Jessie Rayburn, psychic investigator for a firm called Haven, has been estranged from Emma for years. Unresolved issues from Jessie’s past have not only kept them apart but have been clouding Jessie’s unique abilities. A return to her hometown to face a dark and violent incident from years gone by is her chance to regain them. But reconciliation with the past comes with a price. Few people in Baron Hollow are welcoming Jessie back. No one dares to breathe a word. And in this conspiracy of silence, Emma’s nightmares are becoming more vivid than ever.

Even with the help of Noah Bishop, head of the FBI Special Crimes Unit and co-founder of Haven, Jessie and Emma soon find themselves outnumbered by the secrets buried in Baron Hollow — and outrunning an evil that has been festering for years, one that’s targeting Jessie and Emma one last time.

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425258742
ISBN-13: 978-0425258743

New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers returns with a gripping story of romantic suspense, where FBI agents Sharpe and Donovan must decide whether working alone or standing together is the only way to outwit an enemy set to tear them apart.

When your safety depends on living a lie…

After escaping certain death, deep-cover agent Colin Donovan is back home on the Maine coast with his new love, FBI art crimes expert Emma Sharpe. Then Tatiana Pavlova, a London-based jewelry designer, arrives in Heron's Cove, asking for Emma's help—a prized collection from a lost era of Russian opulence, decadence and rare beauty has resurfaced, and Tatiana warns Emma it's about to be stolen again. And Colin realizes his nightmare isn't over. It's just begun.

And everyone you love is a target…

Emma guards her past closely, and Colin is determined to unlock her secrets. As they investigate the mysterious collection and the equally mysterious Tatiana, they confront their greatest challenge. Now they must count on their expertise—and each other—to outwit an enemy who wants to destroy them and everyone they love most.

Who can you afford to trust?

Product Details
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778313751
ISBN-13: 978-0778313755

Nowhere To Run [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Description

When Liv Dugan ducks out of work for lunch, it's just an ordinary day. When she returns, she stumbles onto a massacre. All her colleagues at Zuma Software have been shot. Only luck has left Liv unscathed, and that might be running out. Liv suspects the shootings are tied to her past - and to the package she recently received from her long-dead adoptive mother. Sensing she's being followed, Liv jumps into a stranger's car and orders him to drive. Her "hostage" complies, listening carefully as her story unwinds. Skeptical at first, he ultimately begins to believe all Liv's fears are justified. Together, Liv and her unlikely confidant try to uncover the truth about her adoptive family, her birth parents, and her troubled childhood. Because somewhere in Liv's past is a secret worth killing for, and a nightmare she can never outrun.

Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Zebra (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 142012501X
ISBN-13: 978-1420125016

Don't Say A Word [Mass Market Paperback

Product Description

Cross Your Heart . . .

One by one, they will die. He has waited patiently, planning their final moments. Their tortured screams, their pleas for mercy -- all will be in vain...

And Hope . . .

Homicide detective Julia Cass has witnessed plenty of crime scenes. But the murder of a Chattanooga judge is shocking in its brutality. Teamed with FBI agent Will Brannock, Julia delves into an investigation that soon unearths more bodies -- all mutilated in the same way, all left with a gruesome souvenir of a killer's ruthless rage. . .

To Die. . .

The only way to stop the slaughter is to predict the next victim. But when you're dealing with vengeance at its most ruthless, one wrong move can make you a target . . . and the next word you utter could be your last . . .
Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Zebra (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1420110373
ISBN-13: 978-1420110371

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 30)

What Are You Reading is a weekly Monday Meme that is hosted by Sheila from One Persons Journey: http://bookjourney.wordpress.com

Post the books you read last week, book currently being read and books you plan on finishing this week.

Last week I read:

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-146 

1.  The Unholy - Heather Graham
2.  Close Your Eyes - Iris Johansen

I’m currently reading:

1. The Unholy - Heather Graham

Books I’m planning on reading this week:

1. Close Your Eyes - Iris Johansen

Here's the link:

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-149 

Library Haul 2012 (July 29 - Aug 4)

Here's the list of books I picked up from the library this week:

Hardcover:

1.  Stolen Prey - John Sandford

What did you pick up from the library this week?

In the Mail Saturday 2012 (July 28)

In the Mail Saturday is hosted every Saturday at Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews.

I received these in the mail this week.

Rev It Up: Black Knights Inc. [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Description


Jake "The Snake" Sommers has spent most of his black-ops military career fulfilling a promise he made more than a decade ago. Now he's finally free to pursue the woman he sacrificed...but hates the very ground he walks on. Michelle Carter has never forgiven Jake for being so cliché as to "love her and leave her." But when unknown enemies threaten everything she loves, she must do the unimaginable: place her life — and that of her son's — into Jake's seductive hands. Keeping her and her son safe is his final mission. Keeping her heart to herself just might prove futile ...

Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (October 2, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1402267185
ISBN-13: 978-1402267185

Theft by Chocolate [Paperback]

Product Description

Mystery, Mayans and Mayhem: looking for chocolate, love and an international art thief in all the wrong places. Chocolate addict Kalena Boyko wasn’t prepared for this. Heading to work at Canada’s largest museum as an administrator, she hoped for quiet and uninterrupted access to her secret chocolate stash. Instead she’s assigned to manage the high-profile Treasures of the Maya exhibition with her loathed former boss Richard Pritchard. With no warning, her life is turned inside out and propelled into warp speed as she stumbles across an insider plot that could jeopardize the exhibit and the reputation of the museum. After hearing about a recent botched theft at the museum and an unsolved jewel heist in the past from security guard and amateur sleuth Marco Zeffirelli, Kalena becomes suspicious of Richard and is convinced he’s planning to sabotage the Treasures of the Maya exhibition. Her suspicions, and the appearance of the mysterious but charming Geoffrey Ogden from the London office, don’t help her concentration. The Treasures of the Maya seem cursed as problem after problem arises, including the disappearance of a key artefact - the world’s oldest piece of chocolate ...

Product Details
Paperback: 346 pages
Publisher: Attica Books (June 21, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1908002395
ISBN-13: 978-1908002396

A Perfect Storm (Hqn) [Mass Market Paperback]

I've finished "A Perfect Storm" the 4th book in her Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series by Lori Foster.

Product Description

He never saw her coming …

Spencer Lark already knows too many secrets about Arizona Storm, including the nightmare she survived and her resulting trust issues. But in order to expose a smuggling ring — and continue avenging his own tragic past — the bounty hunter reluctantly agrees to make Arizona a decoy. Yet nothing has equipped him for her hypnotic blend of fragility and bravery, or for the protective instincts she stirs in him.

Arizona wants to reclaim her life, which means acting as bait to lure the enemy into a trap. Sure it's dangerous, especially with a partner as distractingly appealing as Spencer. But as their plan — and their chemistry — shifts into high gear, Arizona may discover there's an even greater risk in surrendering her heart to a hero ….

About the Author

Lori Foster is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author with books from a variety of publishers, including Berkley/Jove, Kensington, St. Martin’s, Harlequin and Silhouette. Lori has been a recipient of the prestigious RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for Series Romantic Fantasy, and for Contemporary Romance. She’s had top-selling books for Amazon, Waldenbooks and the BGI Group. For more about Lori, visit her Web site at www.lorifoster.com. 

Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: HQN Books; Original edition (March 27, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 037377656X
ISBN-13: 978-0373776566

 

My Review:

 

Spencer Lark and Arizona Storm meet a month ago on a sting operation where he took her opportunity to seek revenge on the women who took her innocence away.  Arizona was kidnapped and sold to human traffickers and then tossed out a moving truck over the bridge.  She was lucky Jackson, Dare and Trace were following them and was able to rescue her.  Jackson gave her a new identity and only the core people knew who she was.  She wanted to find out about the organization that had taken her and bring them down.  She learned how to surveillance from them.

After the sting is over she follows Spencer to his home and watches him while he sleeps on her birthday.  When he awakens they have an argument and she asks him to help her to bring down a human trafficking ring.  He agrees in allowing herself to be the lure while he works with her friends to make sure she is keep safe.

I really liked how Spencer was caring and understanding about Arizona's fears about intimacy and relationships.  He didn't want to hurt her and he felt the age difference between them was too great (he's 32 and she just turned 21).  She's very naive and inexperienced with having relationships.  Due to her tragic past she's very wary and not comfortable around men but Spencer makes her feel cherished and safe.  She could be immature and juvenile at times.

4/5

Luba Lesychn Theft by Chocolate Blog Tour with Giveaway and Guest Post

I am so excited to Luba Lesychn here to talk about Mystery, Mayhem, and Mayans in Museums in a Guest Post here at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews.

Luba Lesychn is currently touring to promote her new release Theft by Chocolate a sassy museum mystery book.

For more information about the book, please visit the following sites:

Luba's Site and Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon
Attica Books (Publisher)

Thank you Attica Books and Luba Lesychn for letting me join your blog tour with a Giveaway, Guest Post.

Please take it away, Luba!

Mystery, Mayhem, and Mayans in Museums

The original concept for Theft By Chocolate, a sassy museum mystery about a woman of a certain age looking for chocolate, love, and an international art thief in all the wrong places, sprung from the lead character, Kalena Boyko, a hopeless chocolate addict. Setting her story in a museum came naturally to me as I had been employed in Canada’s largest museum for more than twenty years, and I wanted to share my privileged access to this awe-inspiring place with readers. As for the plot, it did not develop so easily at first.

The work began as a story of a woman going about her day-to-day duties as a museum administrator and routinely getting into trouble, à la Lucille Ball style, as she searched for her next chocolate fix. But seventy-five pages in and even I could see the tale was lacking a clear direction. However, while working in the museum’s consulting department and conducting some research on travelling exhibits, I chanced upon information on a touring show organized by Chicago’s Field Museum called “Chocolate.” As it happened, one of the exhibit’s signature artifacts was the world’s oldest piece of chocolate. This item of Maya origin seemed to have captured the public’s imagination and it was drawing tremendously huge crowds to institutions like the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Bingo!

A pathway had opened up for my novel, but I knew from my experience at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, that although the oldest piece of chocolate could attract large numbers in cities like New York, natural science exhibits were not traditionally the most lucrative “money shows” in cities like Toronto. What were sure-fire hits, not only in Canadian urban centers, but in international ones, were special exhibits featuring ancient cultures such as those of the Egyptians, the Inca, the Chinese – and the Maya. And seeing as the Maya invented chocolate, the various pieces of my plot finally began intersecting in a most satisfying way.

The complexity of the Maya culture is very intriguing to most of us, whether you are a child or adult. The fact that the Maya knew the Earth revolved around the sun long before western astronomers, that they had developed a sophisticated calendar based on an advanced understanding of the movement of stars and planets, that the construction of their monumental architecture still humbles modern architects, and that these people sacrificed human beings to their gods, keeps drawing millions of visitors, over and over again, to exhibits about the Maya and their universe.

During my time at the Royal Ontario Museum, we hosted a significantly large exhibit on the Maya, and the revenue generated probably carried the institution for at least a year or two. Intermittently, the ROM brings out its own impressive New World collections and very recently hosted and co-created another massive blockbuster, “Maya: Secrets of Their Ancient World,” in collaboration with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Civilization, where the exhibit is on display until the end of October, 2012. The Penn Museum in Philadelphia is home to another Maya exhibit, “Maya.2012 Lords of Time,” until January, 2013. And if you want to catch the exhibit that started it all for me and inspired Theft By Chocolate, it’s not too late. It just finished a stay in Hamilton, Ontario (the city where I was raised), and is currently at the Turtle Bay Exploratorium in Redding, California.

But to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what it’s like to mount a special exhibit of the magnitude of “Maya: Secrets of Their Ancient World,” Theft By Chocolate will give you a taste of this extremely challenging process. And it may spark some giggles and trigger some chocolate cravings all in one read.

Theft By Chocolate

Chocolate addict Kalena Boyko wasn’t prepared for this. Heading to work at Canada’s largest museum as an administrator, she hopes for quiet and uninterrupted access to her secret chocolate stash. Instead she’s assigned to manage the high-profile Treasures of the Maya exhibition with her loathed former boss, Richard Pritchard.

With no warning, her life is capsized and propelled into warp speed as she stumbles across an insider plot that could jeopardize the exhibit and the reputation of the museum.

After hearing about a recent botched theft at the museum and an unsolved jewel heist in the past from security guard and amateur sleuth Marco Zeffirelli, Kalena becomes suspicious of Richard and is convinced he’s planning to sabotage the Treasures of the Maya exhibition.

Her suspicions, and the appearance of the mysterious but charming Geoffrey Ogden from the London office, don’t help her concentration. The Treasures of the Maya seems cursed as problem after problem arises, including the disappearance of the world’s oldest piece of chocolate, the signature object in the exhibit.

Theft By Chocolate is inspired by a real-life and never-solved heist at a Canadian museum in the 1980s.


Author Info

Soon after finishing her graduate studies in history, Luba Lesychyn (le-si-shin) landed on the doorstep of Canada’s largest museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, where she worked for more than twenty years as an educator and consultant. Theft By Chocolate is Luba’s debut novel, though she has been amusing people with her writing since the age of eight. Her love of chocolate precedes this age and she has been in and out of chocolate rehab for most of her adult life. She currently works in the educational sector and teaches yoga in her home town of Toronto. When not writing or looking for her next chocolate fix, Luba can be found in dance classes, trekking to remote waterfalls in the mountain rain forest in Puerto Rico, running through the streets of Paris or doing any other number of calorie-burning activities that help offset the calories consumed in her chocolate intake.

Giveaways:

Copy of Theft By Chocolate and $150 Certificate

There are two chances to win!

1) Copy of Theft By Chocolate as ebook or print copy (winner’s choice). Answer this question in the comments section (be sure to provide your email): What is your favorite museum and has there been an exhibit that will stay in your memory forever? In five days, a lucky winner from this blog will win a free copy of Theft By Chocolate!

2) $150 Gift Certificate Giveaway

Do you love chocolate as much as Kalena, the heroine in Theft By Chocolate? Here’s your chance to indulge in $150 US worth! The Giveaway Grand Prize is a gift certificate to a delectable chocolate online retailer. Winner chooses from one of three sites: http://www.chocosphere.com/, http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/ , or http://www.dlea.com.au/ . To be eligible for the Grand Prize, enter the Rafflecopter below. Remember to sign up for Luba’s email announcements (worth five entries). On occasion she’ll send out exclusive announcements for special events, blog posts, giveaways and free swag! On July 31st, the winner will be chosen at random and notified via email.

Rafflecopter link:

http://www.chocolativore.com/blog-tour--giveaway.html

Waiting on Wednesday (Part 2)

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is: 

New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers returns with a gripping story of romantic suspense, where FBI agents Sharpe and Donovan must decide whether working alone or standing together is the only way to outwit an enemy set to tear them apart.

When your safety depends on living a lie…

After escaping certain death, deep-cover agent Colin Donovan is back home on the Maine coast with his new love, FBI art crimes expert Emma Sharpe. Then Tatiana Pavlova, a London-based jewelry designer, arrives in Heron's Cove, asking for Emma's help—a prized collection from a lost era of Russian opulence, decadence and rare beauty has resurfaced, and Tatiana warns Emma it's about to be stolen again. And Colin realizes his nightmare isn't over. It's just begun.

And everyone you love is a target…

Emma guards her past closely, and Colin is determined to unlock her secrets. As they investigate the mysterious collection and the equally mysterious Tatiana, they confront their greatest challenge. Now they must count on their expertise—and each other—to outwit an enemy who wants to destroy them and everyone they love most.

Who can you afford to trust?

Product Details
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778313751
ISBN-13: 978-0778313755

Nowhere To Run [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Description

When Liv Dugan ducks out of work for lunch, it's just an ordinary day. When she returns, she stumbles onto a massacre. All her colleagues at Zuma Software have been shot. Only luck has left Liv unscathed, and that might be running out. Liv suspects the shootings are tied to her past - and to the package she recently received from her long-dead adoptive mother. Sensing she's being followed, Liv jumps into a stranger's car and orders him to drive. Her "hostage" complies, listening carefully as her story unwinds. Skeptical at first, he ultimately begins to believe all Liv's fears are justified. Together, Liv and her unlikely confidant try to uncover the truth about her adoptive family, her birth parents, and her troubled childhood. Because somewhere in Liv's past is a secret worth killing for, and a nightmare she can never outrun.

Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Zebra (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 142012501X
ISBN-13: 978-1420125016

Waiting on Wednesday (Part 1)

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is: 
 

The Unspoken (Krewe of Hunters) [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Description


1898: Bound for Chicago, the freighter Jerry McGuen goes down in Lake Michigan, taking with it every man aboard. But what other fate could befall a vessel carrying the ill-gotten sarcophagus of an Egyptian sorcerer?

Now: A veteran diver and "ghost ship" expert is exploring the legendary wreck for a documentary. He dies inexplicably inside the freighter's main saloon. Then another diver is killed and panicked rumors rise like bubbles from the lake: ancient demons have awakened below!

The expedition's beleaguered financier calls paranormal investigator Katya Sokolov to Chicago to save the film — and perhaps some innocent lives. Along with media forensics guru Will Chan, Kat plumbs the depths of an evil that may date back to the time of the Pharaohs. But some secrets are best drowned in the seas of the past .…

Product Details
Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0778313611
ISBN-13: 978-0778313618

Haven (A Bishop/SCU Novel) [Hardcover]

Product Description 

New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper returns with a breathtaking new thriller of a young woman’s homecoming — to a town of menacing whispers, bad dreams, and dangerous secrets…

Another nightmare, in the woods this time. Different: She was running. Trying to escape.

But the same ending. Always the same ending. Another dead girl…

Emma Rayburn was born and raised in Baron Hollow, North Carolina, and it was a quiet life. Then came the accident … and the nightmares — each filled with unshakable visions of darkness, blind panic, and desperate women chased toward inevitable death. With no reports of local women missing or found dead, Emma has written it off to troubled imaginings — night after dreaded night. Until her sister arrives.

Jessie Rayburn, psychic investigator for a firm called Haven, has been estranged from Emma for years. Unresolved issues from Jessie’s past have not only kept them apart but have been clouding Jessie’s unique abilities. A return to her hometown to face a dark and violent incident from years gone by is her chance to regain them. But reconciliation with the past comes with a price. Few people in Baron Hollow are welcoming Jessie back. No one dares to breathe a word. And in this conspiracy of silence, Emma’s nightmares are becoming more vivid than ever.

Even with the help of Noah Bishop, head of the FBI Special Crimes Unit and co-founder of Haven, Jessie and Emma soon find themselves outnumbered by the secrets buried in Baron Hollow — and outrunning an evil that has been festering for years, one that’s targeting Jessie and Emma one last time.

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (July 31, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425258742
ISBN-13: 978-0425258743