Got My Eye On (6)

I saw a post over at Mailbox Monday that was encouraging readers to share their best finds of the week via their Books That Caught Our Eye posts. I love, love, love that idea so this is my warped version of it.

Here are the books I've added to my wishlist over the last week or two with credit to my enablers :)

Laura @ FUONLYKNEW 

The Heartbeat Thief by AJ Krafton

Haunted by a crushing fear of death, a young Victorian woman discovers the secret of eternal youth—she must surrender her life to attain it, and steal heartbeats to keep it. 

In 1860 Surrey, a young woman has only one occupation: to marry. Senza Fyne is beautiful, intelligent, and lacks neither wealth nor connections. Finding a husband shouldn’t be difficult, not when she has her entire life before her. 
But it’s not life that preoccupies her thoughts. It’s death—and that shadowy spectre haunts her every step.

So does Mr. Knell. Heart-thumpingly attractive, obviously eligible—he’d be her perfect match if only he wasn’t so macabre. All his talk about death, all that teasing about knowing how to avoid it…

When her mother arranges a courtship with another man, Senza is desperate for escape from a dull prescripted destiny. Impulsively, she takes Knell up on his offer. He casts a spell that frees her from the cruelty of time and the threat of death—but at a steep price. In order to maintain eternal youth, she must feed on the heartbeats of others.

It’s a little bit Jane Austen, a little bit Edgar Allen Poe, and a whole lot of stealing heartbeats in order to stay young and beautiful forever. From the posh London season to the back alleys of Whitechapel, across the Channel, across the Pond, across the seas of Time…

How far will Senza Fyne go to avoid Death?

Tammy @ Books, Bones, Buffy

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

A generations-spanning family of psychics--both blessed and burdened by their abilities--must use their powers to save themselves from the CIA, the local mafia, and a skeptic hell-bent on discrediting them in this hilarious, tender, magical novel about the invisible forces that bind us. 

The Telemachus family is known for performing inexplicable feats on talk shows and late-night television. Teddy, a master conman, heads up a clan who possess gifts he only fakes: there's Maureen, who can astral project; Irene, the human lie detector; Frankie, gifted with telekinesis; and Buddy, the clairvoyant. But when, one night, the magic fails to materialize, the family withdraws to Chicago where they live in shame for years. Until: As they find themselves facing a troika of threats (CIA, mafia, unrelenting skeptic), Matty, grandson of the family patriarch, discovers a bit of the old Telemachus magic in himself. Now, they must put past obstacles behind them and unite like never before. But will it be enough to bring The Amazing Telemachus Family back to its amazing life? 

Afterparty by Daryl Gregory

It begins in Toronto, in the years after the smart drug revolution. Any high school student with a chemjet and internet connection can download recipes and print drugs, or invent them. A seventeen-year-old street girl finds God through a new brain-altering drug called Numinous, used as a sacrament by a new Church that preys on the underclass. But she is arrested and put into detention, and without the drug, commits suicide.

Lyda Rose, another patient in that detention facility, has a dark secret: she was one of the original scientists who developed the drug. With the help of an ex-government agent and an imaginary, drug-induced doctor, Lyda sets out to find the other three survivors of the five who made the Numinous in a quest to set things right.

A mind-bending and violent chase across Canada and the US, Daryl Gregory's Afterparty is a marvelous mix of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Philip K. Dick’s Ubik, and perhaps a bit of Peter Watts’s Starfish: a last chance to save civilization, or die trying.

Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviews

Witchless in Seattle Series by Dakota Cassidy

I hadn't heard about this series until seeing a review for the most recent release on Kimba's blog.It sounds like so much fun.

"Oh, good. Not a problem. I'll invoke the Gods of Pilates. I'm sure they'd be happy to help. Hang on just one sec while I dial them up. Oh, wait. I can't. Know why I can't? Because my hands are tied behind my back with zip ties, Win!"

A rib-tickling cozy mystery complete with an ex-witch, a dead British spy, a cotton ball bat and a cast of suspects that will keep you guessing right up to the end! Witch Slapped from USA Today bestselling author Dakota Cassidy is book one in her new cozy mystery series Witchless In Seattle. Join the hunt for a murderer with Stevie, Winterbottom, and Belfry in a race against time as the local police prepare an eight by ten cell for our intrepid ex-witch.

What's a girl to do when she's a broke, shunned ex-witch with a very tiny, very hungry bat familiar named Belfry to feed?

Hello. My name is Stevie Cartwright, and I've been witchless for thirty days.

If only there was a support group for down-on-their-luck ex-witches who've had their powers slapped right out of them (literally). Just as I was licking my wounds after returning to my hometown of Ebenezer Falls, WA, and navigating my suddenly non-magical existence with the help of my familiar, the only friend I have left in the world--things got sticky.

Enter an ex-spy and newly departed spirit named Winterbottom, who's infiltrated my life with his sexy British accent and a couple of requests...

Thanks to Belfry's successful attempt to use me as a human antenna to the afterlife, I can somehow hear Win. I should be ecstatic; helping departed souls used to be my witch specialty. It's like I got the teensiest piece of my old life back. Except Win's dropped me right at a dead woman's feet.

Madam Zoltar, the town's beloved fake medium, has been murdered, and Win wants me to catch the killer.

My old life won't be worth much if it gets me whacked before my new life has barely begun--and that seems to be exactly what the killer has planned!

Carol @ I'm A Voracious Reader

Ravaged by the Gingerbread Man by Fannie Tucker

Kara's bakery is struggling to make ends meet, and with the holiday season in full swing, she's working around the clock to make enough cookies. After a recipe mistake leads her to make way too much gingerbread dough, she decides to put it to use. 

When a magical holiday wish brings her life-sized gingerbread man to life, she discovers she's created the randiest, nastiest confection ever, and he's going to make her taste his creamy filling!

This ridiculous short story contains explicit sexual content, including a life-sized gingerbread man with an oversized length of stiff dough, hot and fresh from the oven. Warning: Improper use of a rolling pin.


Thanks, I think :)

Lexxie @ Unconventional Book Reviews

Cowboys Don't Come Out by Tara Lane

Rand McIntyre settles for good enough. He loves his small California ranch, raising horses, and teaching riding to the kids he adores—but having kids of his own and someone to love means coming out, and that would jeopardize everything he’s built. Then, despite his terror of flying, he goes on a holiday to Hana, Hawaii, with his parents and meets the dark and mysterious Kai Kealoha, a genuine Hawaiian cowboy. Rand takes to Kai’s kid brother and sister as much as he drools over Kai, but the guy sports more prickles than a horned toad and more secrets than the exotic land he comes from.

Kai’s earned his privacy and lives to protect his “kids.” He ought to stay away from the big, handsome cowboy for everyone’s sake—but since the guy’s just a haole on a short vacation, how much damage can he do? When all of Kai’s worst fears and Rand’s darkest nightmares come true at once, there’s not much chance for two cowboys who can’t—or won’t—come out.

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Thanks everyone! I am so excited to see what this week will bring.

What did you find on your blog perusals this week?