Bea Reviews Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

Series: From Manhattan with Love #3
Publisher: HQN Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 29th, 2016
Challenges: Ho Ho Ho Read-A-Thon |
NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

It will take a Christmas miracle for two very different souls to find each other in this perfectly festive fairy tale of New York!

Hopeless romantic Eva Jordan loves everything about Christmas. She might be spending the holidays alone this year, but when she's given an opportunity to house-sit a spectacular penthouse on Fifth Avenue, she leaps at the chance. What better place to celebrate than in snow-kissed Manhattan? What she didn't expect was to find the penthouse still occupied by its gorgeous—and mysterious—owner.

Bestselling crime writer Lucas Blade is having the nightmare before Christmas. With a deadline and the anniversary of his wife's death looming, he's isolated himself in his penthouse with only his grief for company. He wants no interruptions, no decorations and he certainly doesn't appreciate being distracted by his beautiful, bubbly new housekeeper. But when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva snowbound in his apartment, Lucas starts to open up to the magic she brings…This Christmas, is Lucas finally ready to trust that happily-ever-afters do exist? 

2017 Nora Roberts/JD Robb Release Schedule

Woo Hoo! It's that time again when Ms. Roberts shares her release schedule for the next year. I love this look at what's coming up and planning my reading (and reviewing) around the release dates. As always the info is in graphic form and dates are subject to change.

Bea Reviews Ocean Animals from Head to Tail by Stacey Roderick, illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya

Series: Head to Tail series
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 6th, 2016
Challenges:  I Love Picture Books | NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge

Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

This nonfiction picture book uses a playful guessing game to introduce eight different ocean animals and some unique aspects of their bodies. First, readers are shown a close-up illustration of an unusual part of an animal's body and asked to guess its owner: ?What ocean animal has a head like this?? Then the following spread reveals the animal's name (e.g., ?A hammerhead shark!?), along with an illustration of the whole animal in its habitat. There's also a brief description of the animal's traits with a special emphasis on the featured body part. For example, readers learn that a blue whale's mouth contains baleen, which help it capture krill to eat, and that the tail of a seahorse curls so it can hold on to sea plants for stability. Young children will recognize that every animal has its own distinctive features and body parts that help it survive. Author Stacey Roderick has created a perfect beginning exploration of the physical traits of ocean animals that's both engaging and informative. Paper collage illustrations by Kwanchai Moriya in bright, eye-catching colors bring the animals to vivid and appealing life. The fun, interactive nature of the guessing game makes this book ideal for a read-aloud. It would be a terrific addition to an early life-science class on the characteristics of living things or on types of ocean animals. A bonus spread includes information on eight more ocean animals. 

Review & Excerpts: Children of Amarid and The Outlanders by David B. Coe

Publisher: Lore Seekers Press
Series: The LonTobyn Chronicles Book #1
Format Read: Paperback
Source: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 30, 2016
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* |Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

For a millenium, the Children of Amarid have served the people of Tobyn-Ser. Drawing upon the Mage-Craft, which flows from the psychic bond they forge with their avian familiars, the Mages of the Order have fulfilled their oaths by healing the injured and ill, repelling invasions by the land’s enemies, and caring for the people in times of crisis. They are governed by laws handed down by Amarid, the first of their kind, who committed the Mage-Craft to the people’s protection. Only once in a thousand years has a mage defied those laws. Theron, a contemporary of Amarid, sought to use his powers to gain wealth and glory. For that he was punished, though not before he brought down a terrible curse on his fellow mages and all who would come after them.

Recently, dark rumors have spread across Tobyn-Ser. Children of Amarid have been seen destroying crops, vandalizing homes, massacring men, women, and children. Have the mages forsaken their oaths? Has Theron returned from beyond death to take his vengeance? Or does Tobyn-Ser face a new threat, one it is ill-prepared and ill-equipped to face? With the land in turmoil and faith in the Mage-Craft badly shaken, it falls to Jaryd, a young mage with extraordinary potential, but little knowledge of the power he wields, to find and destroy Tobyn-Ser’s enemies before they destroy all he holds dear.

CHILDREN OF AMARID is the first volume of the LonTobyn Chronicle, David B. Coe’s Crawford Award-winning debut series. This is the Author’s Edit of the original book.

Bea Reviews Holiday With A Twist by Shannon Stacey

Publisher: Carina Press
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 21st, 2016
Challenges: NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge | Ho Ho Ho Read-A-Thon 
Buying Links: Amazon* | ARe* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

After a messy breakup, Leigh Holloway is ready to start her life over. Until her parents put the family home on the market and call her back for one final, memory-making Christmas. The last thing she wants to do is deprive her mom of the perfect holiday, so she'll lie her way through the visit and worry about her future in the New Year. Too bad the only bar in town is owned by a guy she seriously wronged in high school.

Leigh's best friend broke Croy Dawson's heart, and Croy knows it was Leigh's fault. They've never liked each other, but Croy isn't cruel: he'd never turn away a pretty woman in need of some family-Christmas fortification. He doesn't expect her to drink just enough candy-cane martinis to tell him her secrets—and he definitely doesn't expect to get caught up in her holiday madness.

Despite the surprising love and laughter, Croy and Leigh can't escape the truth: he can't walk away from his family obligations and she has a life and career to reboot. But anything is possible if your holiday comes with a twist.

Review & Giveaway: Cat Got Your Diamonds by Julie Chase

Series: Kitty Couture Mystery #1
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 8th, 2006
Challenges: NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | BAM! |  IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Grandeur and opulence are everything in the famed New Orleans Garden District where pets are family and no bling is too big. Opening Furry Godmother, pet boutique and organic treat bakery, is Lacy Marie Crocker’s dream come true--until the glitter gun used to make her Shih Tzu tutus becomes a murder weapon. And Lacy becomes public enemy #1.

Now Detective Jack Oliver is hounding Lacy, and her Furry Godmother investor wants out before his name is tarnished by association. To make matters worse, a string of jewel heists with suspicious ties to the murder case has New Orleans residents on edge. To save her dream, Lacy must take a stand, put her keen eyes to work, and unravel what really happened at her shop that night. But can Lacy sniff out the killer cat burglar in time to get her tail-raising designs on the catwalk?

Witty and whimsical, Cat Got Your Diamonds, the first in a new cozy series by Julie Chase, will be the cat's meow for fans of Rita Mae Brown and Miranda James.

Bea Reviews The Dollmaker by Mary Burton

Series: The Forgotten Files #2
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 15th 2016
Challenges: NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Dr. Tessa McGowan had never seen anything quite like it. But the mutilated bodies on her exam table tell a stunningly macabre tale: someone with a twisted mind is kidnapping women and altering their faces to resemble real, life-size dolls. As a forensic pathologist, it’s her job to aid the agent leading the case—even if that agent is her estranged husband.
Twelve years ago an unspeakable tragedy destroyed Dakota Sharp’s world. Haunted by the ghosts of his past, he’s devoted himself to capturing killers. His only regret is that it cost him Tessa. Now, as the Dollmaker case brings them together—and raises his suspicions that he’s crossed paths with this deranged psychopath before—they may just have their second chance. But it seems Dakota’s not the only one who wants to make Tessa his own…
She may be the Dollmaker’s next target, but Tessa has no intention of winding up as another toy on his shelf. Can she and Dakota stop this ghastly killer before his next deadly playdate?

Bea Reviews The Rogue Vows Series by Kendra Elliot & Melinda Leigh

Series: Rogue Vows #1
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: October 25th, 2016
Challenges: Finishing the Series Reading Challenge |
NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

In the first Rogue Vows novella, Zane and Stevie are about to get an unexpected wedding present…and it’s a deadly one.

It should be the happiest weekend of Officer Stevie Taylor’s life. She’s finally going to marry Police Chief Zane Duncan and live happily ever after in Solitude, Oregon. But all wedding plans grind to a halt when a dead body is found at a nearby campground. A vacationing A-list TV actor has been murdered…and all hell is about to break loose.

When it comes to a celebrity murder, everyone has a motive—and everyone wants a piece of the action. As news media and paparazzi swarm their sleepy town, Stevie and Zane must dig deep to untangle a web of lies, dirty little secrets, and betrayals—and uncover the killer. But the closer they get to the truth, the deadlier their investigation becomes. And if they don’t act quickly, ’Til death do us part may come sooner than they thought. 

Excerpt, Review & Giveaway: One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis

Series: Heartbreaker Bay #2.5 
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 8th, 2016
Challenges: Finishing the Series Reading Challenge |  NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Heartbreaker Bay with a fun and festive holiday novella!

It’s Christmas Eve and Rory Andrews is desperate to get home to the family she hasn’t seen in years. Problem is, her only ride to Lake Tahoe comes in the form of the annoyingly handsome Max Stranton, and his big, goofy, lovable dog Carl.

Hours stuck in a truck with the dead sexy Max sounds like a fate worse than death (not), but Rory’s out of options. She’s had a crush on Max since high school and she knows he’s attracted to her, too. But they have history… and Max is the only one who knows why it went south.

They’ve done a good job of ignoring their chemistry so far, but a long road trip in a massive blizzard might be just what they need to face their past… and one steamy, snowy night is all it takes to bring Max and Rory together at last.

Q is for Questions and Q is for Quiz - Learn About Bea!

I saw this at View From My Books Blog. I've done similar memes on my personal Facebook page and thought it might be fun to do on here. I don't know who to credit for this meme so if any of you know, please tell me in the comments and I'll update the post to give credit.

Buy A Book, Give A Book - Pledge to Give Books

For the fifth year, Chronicle Books is running their Buy A Book, Give A Book campaign in conjunction with First Book. It's simple: Use the hashtag #GiveBooks on social media to share your pledge that you are giving a book; each use counts as a new book in the hands of a child so share as many times as you want. For every pledge, Chronicle Books will donate a book to First Book (up to 30,000 books).

And for the first time ever, every order you place on chroniclebooks.com will be matched with a donation to First Book. To get started, take 35% off (that's their best discount of the year) with the code GIVEBOOKS.

If you're reading my blog, you're a reader, you appreciate books. How about sharing your love of reading with a child? Millions of children lack access to age-appropriate reading material and educational resources. As a teacher and a reader, that saddens me. Books are important for learning, for dreaming, for traveling without ever leaving home, for giving hope and inspiration. This campaign is a simple way to help combat the lack of books. So please, go, buy a book, and donate a book. Want more info? Go here. And come back some time during the next few months and share what book you gave.

Bea Reviews Furr by Axel Howerton

Series: Wolf & Devil Series, Book #0
Publisher: Tyche Books Ltd
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: October 14th, 2016 
Buying Links: Amazon US* | Amazon CA | Book Depository* | Kobo | Chapters/Indigo | Tyche Books | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

From the South three sisters fair ran athwart the gloom.
Dressed of fur and fierce of tooth… the maidens of the moon.

Jimmy Finn is having a real bad day. He woke up drunk and on the wrong end of a nightstick. He lost his job, and had to see his shrink. Now the cops are after him, he’s falling apart, and his only friend is a volatile drug lord. How could it get any worse?

As smoke envelopes the city, he finds himself on the run, and out of time. He’s either losing his mind, or becoming a monster. Or maybe it’s both. Jimmy Finn has one last hope. A long-buried family secret, lost above a mysterious town in the mountains, full of bizarre shadows and a strange girl that haunts his memories.

“Populated by a collection of characters you definitely want to have a drink with, but then hide in your basement while you count your fingers and toes afterward, this tale does not disappoint.” – Robert Bose, nEvermore, AB Negative

“Axel Howerton pens a slick stylish werewolf tale that digs in its teeth and tears at your heart. Furr has a voice that speaks to the animal in us all.”
– Sarah L. Johnson, author of Suicide Stitch: Eleven Stories

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Bea Reviews Cometh the Hour by Jeffrey Archer

Series: The Clifton Chronicles #6
Publisher: St.Martin's Press
Source: the library
Release Date: February 16th, 2016
Challenges: Finishing the Series Reading Challenge | I Love Libraries
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Cometh the Hour opens with the reading of a suicide note, which has devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, Giles Barrington and Lady Virginia.

Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain. But is Karin truly in love with him, or is she a spy?

Lady Virginia is facing bankruptcy, and can see no way out of her financial problems, until she is introduced to the hapless Cyrus T. Grant III from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who's in England to see his horse run at Royal Ascot.

Sebastian Clifton is now the Chief Executive of Farthings Bank and a workaholic, whose personal life is thrown into disarray when he falls for Nadira, a beautiful Indian girl. But her parents have already chosen the man she is going to marry. Meanwhile, Sebastian's rivals Adrian Sloane and Desmond Mellor are still plotting to bring him and his chairman Hakim Bishara down, so they can take over Farthings.

Harry Clifton remains determined to get Anatoly Babakov released from a gulag in Siberia, following the international success of his acclaimed book, Uncle Joe. Harry's wife Emma convinces her new friend Margaret Thatcher to raise the subject with the Russian President when she visits Moscow. But then something unexpected happens that none of them could have anticipated.

Cometh the Hour is the penultimate book in the Clifton Chronicles and, like the five previous novels - all of which went to number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list - showcases Jeffrey Archer's extraordinary storytelling with his trademark twists.

Cat Thursday: Goodbye Goof, Rest In Peace

 Welcome to the weekly meme hosted by The True Book Addict that celebrates cats; their foibles and humorousness and the joy they bring. You can join in by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you made or came across, cat art or share with us pics of your own felines, then post your link up at The True Book Addict.

My sweet boy Goof died earlier this week. He'd been sick for several weeks, going up and down. Over the weekend he went downhill and died during the day on Monday.

Sign-up & Tracking Post for Ho-Ho-Ho Read-a-thon 2016

Once again, I'm joining in this read-a-thon. It's one of the few I do It's a lot of fun, challenging but not insanely so, and doesn't make you jump through endless hoops. The idea is to read as many winter or holiday themed books as you can in the week from November 9th through November 15th.

Bea Reviews Spawning Ground by Kevin Cockle

Publisher: Tyche Books Ltd
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 27th, 2016 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Tyche Books
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Genetically enhanced workers are the future of companies competing in the global marketplace. People need to be more intelligent, more capable . . . more.

Genetic perfection has a price: a brutal Darwinian contest of strength and cunning to determine which bloodlines will continue, and dominate.

When Sarah Wheeler’s Spawning Contest is rigged, her breeding and training will be put to the ultimate test—by an adversary who knows her every flaw and weakness, by a father whose dynastic ambitions know no bounds, and by a world that is ruthlessly selecting against human agency itself. 

Bea Reviews Triple Crown by Felix Francis

Series: Jefferson Hinkley #3
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: October 11th, 2016
Challenges: Finishing the Series Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Jeff Hinkley, investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, has been seconded to the US Federal Anti-Corruption in Sports Agency (FACSA) where he has been asked to find a mole in their organization—an informant who is passing on confidential information to those under suspicion in American racing. At the Kentucky Derby, Jeff joins the FACSA team in a raid on a horse trainer’s barn at Churchill Downs, but the bust is a disaster, and someone ends up dead. Then, on the morning of the Derby itself, three of the most favored horses in the field fall sick.

These suspicious events can be no coincidence. In search of answers, Jeff goes undercover as a groom on the backstretch at Belmont Park racetrack in New York. But he discovers far more than he was bargaining for: corrupt individuals who will stop at nothing—including murder—to capture the most elusive prize in world sport, the Triple Crown.

Bea Reviews Do NOT Bring Your Dragon to the Library by Julie Gassman & Andy Elkerton

Publisher: Capstone
Source: egalley - publisher in exchange for an honest review; hard cover - local library
Release Date: August 1st, 2016
Challenges: I Love Libraries | I Love Picture Books
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Smashwords*  | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Have you ever thought about bringing your dragon to the library? Don't do it! You might have the best intentions, but that dragon will cause nothing but trouble. Using rhyming text and a diverse cast of characters, this charming picture book will provide some important and some not so important library etiquette in a very entertaining way."

Excerpt, Giveaway & Review: Christmas at Eden Manor by Noelle Adams

Publisher: Noelle Adams
Source: pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: October 5th, 2016 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Kobo | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Brie Graves might be jobless, living with her brother, and recovering from a painful break-up, but she's determined to enjoy the holidays. Until the end of the year, she's going to do anything she wants to do, no matter how crazy it might be. Soon, she discovers exactly what she wants--to spend a week with a fascinating, sophisticated stranger. It doesn't matter that she only knows his first name or that he's more than twenty years older than her. After this one week, she'll never see him again.

Cyrus Damon has spent his life making money and holding himself to impossibly high standards. Pressured into taking a vacation in Savannah, he's alone and at loose ends, so he lets himself do something he never would have considered otherwise. He gives in to his attraction to a beautiful, free-spirited, and much-too-young woman. But, after the week is over, he'll once more be the man he's always been, left with nothing but the memory of a woman who made him happier than he's ever been.

He has no idea that when he visits his nephew in a charming bed and breakfast called Eden Manor, he'll find the woman he thought he'd left for good.

Christmas at Eden Manor is a short holiday romance with an old-fashioned hero in his fifties and a lot of swoony romance. It concludes a sequence of three series (Heirs of Damon, Beaufort Brides, and Eden Manor), but it can easily be read as a standalone.

Bea Reviews Stalking Ground by Margaret Mizushima

Series: Timber Creek K-9 Mystery #2
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Source: pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 13th, 2016
Challenges: NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

When Deputy Ken Brody's sweetheart goes missing in the mountains outside Timber Creek, Mattie Cobb and Robo are called to search. But it's mid-October and a dark snow storm is brewing over the high country--and they're already too late. By the time they find her body, the storm has broken and the snow is coming down hard.

While Brody hikes down to bring back the forensics team and veterinarian Cole Walker gathers supplies to protect them from the storm, Mattie and Robo find themselves alone, guarding the gravesite overnight in the dead of the early winter. And that's only the first long, dark night in a series of them, because as their investigation develops, Mattie, Robo, Brody, and Cole find themselves in the middle of the killer's stalking ground--with no way out unless they can catch a predator more deadly than any natural threat.

An effortlessly engrossing read filled with tension, excitement, and heart, Stalking Ground, the second in Margaret Mizushima's lauded debut series, will send a chill down every reader's spine.