In My Mailbox #2

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.
It's our opportunity to get a peek into what books everyone is receiving for review, borrowing from libraries, buying in bookshops and download onto eReaders.

Okay, let's see this week's haul. All of these books are for reviews:


1.  Unfinished Business by Soliman, W.
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: 17 October 2011
ISBN: 9781426892448
Category: Mystery & Detective fiction

The blurb:

Charlie Hunter retired from the force at 40 to relax, work on his boat and go fishing with his son on weekends, not become an amateur sleuth. But he can't say no to Kara Webb when she seeks his help in tracking down her sister, missing for 15 years.
The disappearance of teenaged Jasmine Webb was one of the first cases Charlie worked on after being made a detective. He's never forgotten it or his suspicions, even after the girl's parents told police they'd heard from her and the file on Jasmine was closed.
When Charlie's son is threatened, finding Jasmine becomes even more important-it's no longer just about closure, it's about protecting his family. Which makes the constant dead ends all the more frustrating. Until Charlie realizes that the question they should be asking isn't where Jasmine is, but who has Jasmine become...

2. Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 11 October 2011
Number of Pages: 352
ISBN: 9780062080066
Category: Adult fiction

The blurb:

One phone call can change everything...

When Sylvie Bates-McAllister, a recently-widowed mother of two, receives a late-night phone call from the prestigious school founded by her grandfather, her family is thrown into chaos. Her adopted son Scott may have been involved in a hazing scandal --and it may or may not have led to the death of one of the boys he coaches on the school team. Sylvie must decide between maintaining her outwardly perfect life --the family estate outside Philadelphia inherited from her grandfather, the school, the reputation --and the son who she feels wants nothing to do with her.

For Charles, Sylvie's biological son, the call dredges up a ghost from the past --his high school girlfriend who has been off the map for years. Joanna, his wife, is forced to confront all the things that she didn't anticipate would come along with a perfect life she imagined ever since she was a young girl, creating her scrapbook of the Bates-McAllisters. Scott, haunted by years of first impressions and assumptions, is drawn into a new understanding of a world he has never felt a part of.

For all the Bates-McAllisters, the phone call awakens questions lain dormant for years, revealing a tangled web of secrets that ties the family together: the mystery of the school hazing, Sylvie's deceased husband's locked filing cabinet, the event that tore Charles and Scott apart the night of their high school graduation, and the intended recipient of a certain bracelet. The quest to push past a legacy of resentment and judgments to unravel the truth takes the family on individual journeys across state lines, into hospitals, through the Pennsylvania woods, and face-to-face with the question: what if the life you always planned for, and dreamed of, isn't what you want at all?

 3.  How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 1 March 2012
Number of Pages: 320
ISBN: 9780062069283
Category: Adult fiction

The blurb:

Funny, free-spirited, first-generation-American Annie Quintana and wealthy, ambitious, beautiful Julia St. Clair could not be more different. Yet, as the daughter of the St. Clair family live-in housekeeper, Annie grew up side-by-side with Julia in the St. Clair’s San Francisco mansion and she and Julia were as close to being sisters as two unrelated only children could possibly be. But when they hit their teen years, their differences began to pull them apart and ultimately lead to a betrayal that destroyed their friendship.

Eleven years later, the unlikely duo find themselves joining forces to open a cupcake shop … only to become the target of a dangerous mystery man set on sabotaging the bakery for unknown reasons. As Annie and Julia build their business and try to soothe old wounds despite life-altering setbacks, they uncover details about the sudden death of Annie’s mother a decade earlier, find love where they least expect it, and discover the importance of family, in all its complex forms.
 
In the vein of beloved women’s fiction writers like Jennifer Weiner and Emily Giffin, newcomer Meg Donohue includes all the right ingredients to whip up an entertaining story about accepting your friends, flaws and all. Because as we all know, cupcakes are much sweeter when you can share them with someone you love.

4. Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 1 February 2012
Number of Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780061859397
Category: Adult fiction, Mystery & Detective

The blurb:

In October 1936, Hungary’s prime minister dies before his dream of building a fascist state can be realized. But on the streets of Budapest, it’s business as usual for crime reporter Zsigmond Gordon as he follows a tip to a crime scene where a beautiful woman lies dead with only a Jewish prayer book in her purse.
Disturbed by the bizarre circumstances of her death, Gordon is determined to investigate how such a beautiful, religious woman could end up dead in one of Budapest’s seedier neighborhoods. He’ll follow the leads through the city’s dark underbelly replete with pornographers, crime syndicates, and Communist cells to the highest echelons of power—the corrupt politicians and desperate businessmen trying to gain their favor.
Gordon soon uncovers the identity of the victim: the disinherited scion of one of Hungary’s leading executives. Her father might be well-connected—with economic and political ties to leaders in Germany—so long as he keeps secret the fact that he was once Jewish.
With masterful suspense and political intrigue reminiscent of the work of Alan Furst and Henning Mankell, Budapest Noir is a richly atmospheric tale of murder and betrayal.

5. Jokers Club by Gregory Bastianelli
Publisher: JournalStone
Publication Date: 4 November 2011
Number of Pages: 202
ISBN: 978‐1‐936564‐30‐9
Category: Horror/Dark Fantasy/Thriller/Mystery

The blurb:

Diagnosed with a brain tumor, Geoffrey returns to his hometown for a reunion of the Jokers Club (his childhood gang) with the hopes of unearthing the imagination he held in his youth. Upon arriving, he discovers the creative juices that drove his writing many years ago surround him. When one of the gang is found dead it rattles not only his group of friends, but everyone begins to look at each other as possible suspects. Will the pounding growth in Geoffrey’s head be held at bay long enough for him to discover who is targeting his friends, or will the pages in his unfinished novel rewrite history?

and I already told you about the last one - this is also an advance reader copy, to be reviewed during a book tour this November.

6. Farsighted by Emlyn Chand

Publisher: Blue Crown Press
Publication Date: 24 October 2011
ISBN: 9780615524689
Category: Paranormal YA

The blurb:

Alex Kosmitoras’s life has never been easy. The only other student who will talk to him is the school bully, his parents are dead-broke and insanely overprotective, and to complicate matters even more, he's blind. Just when he thinks he'll never have a shot at a normal life, a new girl from India moves into town. Simmi is smart, nice, and actually wants to be friends with Alex. Plus she smells like an Almond Joy bar. Yes, sophomore year might not be so bad after all.

Unfortunately, Alex is in store for another new arrival—an unexpected and often embarrassing ability to “see” the future. Try as he may, Alex is unable to ignore his visions, especially when they begin to suggest that Simmi is in danger. With the help of the mysterious psychic next door and new friends who come bearing gifts of their own, Alex must embark on a journey to change his future.

Special thanks to:Carina Press
HarperCollins Publishers
JournalStone
and the lovely Emlyn Chand

What's in your mailbox this week? Feel free to leave a comment below. :)