Each month I write about the books I’ve noticed and think might be good. Sometimes they’re from favorite authors and other times I get excited by some new author I might try. I don’t always buy all the books–since I already have way too many books to read and sometimes these new books have high prices 😦
This month I have quite a few books which look good, but only a couple I actually plan to buy right away. I’ll wait for more reviews or for the prices to come down for most of the others. Because I post this I can go back and check on these books at a later time!
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November 5
This is a new series and I like both the cover and the sound of it!
by Delphine Dryden
Series: Steam and Seduction #1
Published by Berkley Sensation
Genre: Steampunk Romance
320 pages
Synopsis: After losing her husband to a rogue French agent, Charlotte Moncrieffe wants to make her mark in international espionage. And what could be better for recovering secret long-lost documents from the Palais Garnier than her stealth dirigible, Gossamer Wing? Her spymaster father has one condition: He won’t send her to Paris without an ironclad cover.
Dexter Hardison prefers inventing to politics, but his title as Makesmith Baron and his formidable skills make him an ideal husband-imposter for Charlotte. And the unorthodox undercover arrangement would help him in his own field of discovery.
But from Charlotte and Dexter’s marriage of convenience comes a distraction—a passion that complicates an increasingly dangerous mission. For Charlotte, however, the thought of losing Dexter also opens her heart to a thrilling new future of love and adventure.
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I read the first book in this series and liked it a lot. However, for some reason I didn’t read the others! I wonder if it’s necessary to read the others before I read this one?
by Thea Harrison
Series: Elder Races #6
Published by Berkley
Genre: Fantasy Romance
304 pages
Synopsis: As a harpy, Sentinel Aryal is accustomed to dealing with hate, but Sentinel Quentin Caeravorn manages to inspire in her a burning ire unlike anything she’s ever known. Aryal believes the new Sentinel to be a criminal, and vows to take him out as soon as the opportunity arises. But the harpy’s incessant wrath has pushed Quentin to the limit, and forces him to make a deadly vow of his own.
To put an end to the conflict, Dragos, Lord of the Wyr, sends them on a reconnaissance mission to the Elven land of Numenlaur. Forced to work together, Aryal and Quentin’s mutual antagonism escalates. Each fight draws forth more passion—culminating in an explosively sexual confrontation. But when their quest reveals real danger, Aryal and Quentin must resolve their differences in ways beyond the physical, before the entire Wyr is threatened.
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The Liaden Universe and authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are among my very favorites. Their books are ones I read over and over. I love the adventure and the characters. And they usually include cats in the books!
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Series: Liaden Universe #4
Published by Baen
Genre: Space Opera
368 pages
Synopsis: The Liaden Universe ® Saga Continues! Star-spanning galactic trader Jethri Gobelyn adventures are the focus in book 17 by master storytellers Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
In a universe full of interstellar intrigue and burgeoning commerce novice Terran trader Jethri Gobelyn, adopted by a Liaden clan after an ill-directed bow of honor insulted the scion of a major Liaden house, is alive and whole to tell the tale. Convinced that the adoption has saved his life and made his future he settles into a comfortable and even elite routine, a Trader’s Ring his goal.
Even as Jethri’s initiation into the mysteries and joys of Liaden Festival bring him to manhood he’s forced to face Necessity and the facts of life: his adoption has also invigorated a net of unfinished Balance far more complex and potentially deadly than a simple Terran blood feud. He must embrace his Terran birthright as well as his Liaden connections while leaving behind the safety of the great Liaden trade ship Elthoria to defend his honor and that of shipmates past and present. Forced to sit Second Board as a back-up pilot on a Liaden Scout ship, Jethri’s convinced he’s already at wit’s end—when several familiar faces threaten all that he knows of himself, and all that he wishes to do.
Celebrating 25 Years of the Liaden Universe®
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I thought this sounded like a good book, but I see the reviews are mixed so I’ll probably wait for a few more reviews.
Bellman and Black: A Ghost Story
by Diane Setterfield
Series: unknown
Published by Afria/Emily Bestler Books
Genre: Fantasy Ghost story
336 pages
Synopsis: Bellman & Black is a heart-thumpingly perfect ghost story, beautifully and irresistibly written, its ratcheting tension exquisitely calibrated line by line. Its hero is William Bellman, who, as a boy of 11, killed a shiny black rook with a catapult, and who grew up to be someone, his neighbours think, who “could go to the good or the bad.” And indeed, although William Bellman’s life at first seems blessed—he has a happy marriage to a beautiful woman, becomes father to a brood of bright, strong children, and thrives in business—one by one, people around him die. And at each funeral, he is startled to see a strange man in black, smiling at him. At first, the dead are distant relatives, but eventually his own children die, and then his wife, leaving behind only one child, his favourite, Dora. Unhinged by grief, William gets drunk and stumbles to his wife’s fresh grave—and who should be there waiting, but the smiling stranger in black. The stranger has a proposition for William—a mysterious business called “Bellman & Black” . . .
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Sharon Shinn is one of my favorite authors and I always want to buy her books!
by Sharon Shinn
Series : Elemental Blessings #2
Published by Ace
Genre: Fantasy
400 pages
Synopsis: Josetta is a princess of one of the Five Families. But she is far from the throne, so she is free to spend her days working in the poorest sections of the city.
Rafe Adova, an outcast since he was born, lives the life of a career gambler in those slums. He has no ambition other than cheating at the card tables—until the night he decides to help a girl named Corene, who looks like she’s stumbled into the wrong bar. She, too, is a princess—sister to Josetta, who finds her with Rafe. He fascinates her.
Josetta has never encountered anyone like him—someone seemingly devoid of elemental blessings. He is drawn to her, though he thinks they are unlikely to ever meet again—but their connection grows strong when she nurses him back to health after he is assaulted by foreign mercenaries.
And when they learn the reason he’s being hunted, they know that the truth about his history could endanger not only their love but also their very lives…
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I used to read a lot of mysteries, but now only read them occasionally. This series, however, is my favorite, but since this new book costs $11.00 right now at Amazon I’ll wait and hope the price goes down.
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Series : Claire Fergusson/ Russ Van Alstyne Mystery #8
Published by Minotaur Books
Genre: Mystery
368 pages
Synopsis: On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire, that quickly becomes a double homicide and kidnapping. Which is the very last thing Russ needs…Currently he’s struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood. And his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon: a week in an unelectrified ice-fishing cabin. The vestry of St. Alban’s Church has called for the bishop to investigate Clare’s “unpriestly” pregnancy. She has one week to find out if she will be scolded, censured, or suspended from her duties. Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well. Her on-again-off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.
As the days and hours tick by, Russ and Clare fight personal and professional battles they’ve never encountered. In the course of this one tumultuous week the lives of the Millers-Kill residents readers have come to love and cherish change forever. Readers have waited years for Through The Evil Days and Julia Spencer-Fleming delivers with the exquisite skill and craftsmanship that have made her such a success.
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November 12
I read the first book–Mothership–in this series about a week ago and really liked it. I gave it a B+
by Martin Leicht & Isla Neal
Series: The Ever-Expanding Universe, #2
Published by Simon & Schuster
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
288 pages
Synopsis: In this witty, adventurous sequel to Mothership, which Publishers Weekly called “a whole lot of fun,” Elvie Nara is back on earth—but her life (including her new baby) is still pretty out there!
Pregnancy was pretty rough for sixteen-year-old Elvie Nara, what with the morning sickness, constant food cravings, and the alien race war she found herself in the middle of. But if she thought giving birth to an extraterrestrial’s baby would be the hard part, she was sorely mistaken.
After Elvie somehow has a baby girl, the always-male Almiri completely wig out. Suddenly Elvie’s supposed allies have shipped her—along with her father, her best friend, Ducky, and her maybe-boyfriend, boneheaded Almiri commando Cole Archer—off to a remote “retention facility” (aka alien jail) in Antarctica. Talk about cold. But things really get complicated when a new group of hybrid aliens arrive with information that sends Elvie’s world spinning. Before long, Elvie is trekking across the bottom of the Earth with a band of friends and frenemies to uncover the secrets of her own origin. Will Elvie ever be able to convince the Almiri that a conspiracy to conquer the planet is a greater threat than a sixteen-year-old girl and a newborn who won’t stop crying?
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The first two books in this series are two of my favorites books of the year so far.
by Kate Locke
Series: The Immortal Empire #3
Published by Orbit
Genre: Urban Fantasy
320 pages
Synopsis: Xandra Vardan thought life would be simpler when she accepted the goblin crown and became their queen, but life has only become more complicated. Everyone — vampires, werewolves and humans — wants the goblins on their side, because whoever has the goblins — wins.
Queen Victoria wants her head, Alpha wolf Vex wants her heart, and she still doesn’t know the identity of the person who wanted her blood. What she does know is that a project from one of the ‘secret’ aristocrat labs has gotten free and she’s the only one who can stop the perfect killing machine — a sixteen year-old girl. With human zealots intent on ridding the world of anyone with plagued blood and supernatural politics taking Britain to the verge of civil war, Xandra’s finding out that being queen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and if she doesn’t do something fast, hers will be the shortest reign in history.
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The books I plan to buy in November (either because the price is good or it’s a favorite author):
- Gossamer Wing (good price)
- Long Live the Queen (not too bad a price/favorite author)
The rest of the books are on my watch list–for either reviews or price drops!
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What books are you looking forward to this month? What books have I missed?
When I first read all these robot books as a teenager I just enjoyed the stories. Asimov wrote a number of other robot stories some of which are included in 
Notes from a Readerholic 