Stacking the Shelves (8 April) #BookHaul

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stacking-the-shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews, which is all about sharing the books that you’ve acquired in the past week!

 

Here are the 3 eBooks I bought this week:

the housekeeper suellen dainty

The Housekeeper by Suellen Dainty

I read a brilliant review for this book on Cleopatra Loves Books blog this week and it sold the book to me. I’d previously thought that this wasn’t a book for me but Cleo wrote about it in such a way that it made me feel like I simply had to read the book as soon as I could. I bought a copy a couple of days later and I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Synopsis:

When Anne Morgan’s successful boyfriend—who also happens to be her boss—leaves her for another woman, Anne finds herself in desperate need of a new job and a quiet place to recover. Meanwhile, her celebrity idol, Emma Helmsley (England’s answer to Martha Stewart), is in need of a housekeeper, an opportunity which seems too good to be true.

Through her books, website, and blog, Emma Helmsley advises her devoted followers on how to live a balanced life in a hectic world. Her husband, Rob, is a high profile academic, and her children, Jake and Lily, are well-adjusted teenagers. On the surface, they are the perfect family. But Anne soon finds herself intimately ensconced in the Helmsley’s dirty laundry, both literally and figuratively. Underneath the dust, grime, and whimsical clutter, everyone has a secret to hide and Anne’s own disturbing past threatens to unhinge everything.

Underground Airlines by ben winters

Underground Airlines by Ben Winters

I’ve had this book on my wish list since I first heard about it last year so when I spotted it in the Kindle sale this week for just £1.99 I snapped it up. I think this is a book that I’ll need to be in the right mood for so hopefully I will be soon.

Synopsis:

A gifted young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service. He’s got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called “the Hard Four.” On the trail of a runaway known as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn’t right–with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself.

A mystery to himself, Victor suppresses his memories of his childhood on a plantation, and works to infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground Airlines. Tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he’s hot on the trail. But his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won’t reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw’s case, as well as by a heartbreaking young woman and her child who may be Victor’s salvation. Victor himself may be the biggest obstacle of all–though his true self remains buried, it threatens to surface.

Victor believes himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the core of the country’s arrangement with the Hard Four, secrets the government will preserve at any cost.

Hear Me by Julia North

Hear Me by Julia North

I spotted a tweet this week offering the ebook of this for free so I immediately signed up for a copy. The synopsis really makes me want to read this as soon as I can.

Synopsis:

After yet another shameful one-night stand Lissa has to accept that her sisters are right – she is an alcoholic and it’s time for rehab. She hates the idea of therapy, doesn’t want to examine her past, but just as she begins to see reasons for her drinking, life takes a brutal turn.

Who are her fellow patients? Why is one of them so damned perfect?

Hear Me is a powerful story about life and death, addiction and sobriety, racism and the fight for justice – but above all it is a story about love.

 

I also received 1 ARC:

 

 

Block 46 by Johana Gustawsson

Block 46 by Johana Gustawsson

I was sent a copy of this to review as I’m taking part in the blog tour for this in May. The synopsis sounds so good and I’m really looking forward to reading this.

Synopsis:

In Falkenberg, Sweden, the mutilated body of talented young jewelry designer Linnea Blix is found in a snow-swept marina. In Hampstead Heath, London, the body of a young boy is discovered with similar wounds to Linnea’s. Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1944. In the midst of the hell of the Holocaust, Erich Hebner will do anything to see himself as a human again. Are the two murders the work of a serial killer, and how are they connected to shocking events at Buchenwald? Emily Roy, a profiler on loan to Scotland Yard from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, joins up with Linnea’s friend, French true-crime writer Alexis Castells, to investigate the puzzling case. They travel between Sweden and London, and then deep into the past, as a startling and terrifying connection comes to light.

And I won a giveaway:

IMG_8684

The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase

I received this book at the weekend and there was no note with it so I had no idea where it came from but I finally found out that it was a Goodreads giveaway win. I was thrilled when I opened the package as I’ve been seeing this book on social media and have been so keen to read it.

Synopsis:

Nineteen fifty-nine. The four Wilde sisters, Margot, Flora, Pam and Dot, are spending the summer in the Cotswolds, at Applecote Manor. Affectionately called the Wildlings, the sisters are exceptionally close, yet this year there’s a sense of nostalgia. Things are changing.

Except for Applecote itself, a house that seems frozen in time. The sisters haven’t been there in five years; not since their cousin Audrey mysteriously vanished.

But as they discover Applecote’s old secrets and new temptations, the bond between the sisters starts to splinter. Until the night when everything spirals out of control and the Wildlings form a bond far thicker than blood . . .

 

 

 

So, that’s all of my new books from the past week. Have you bought any new books recently? Tell me all in the comments below, or if you have a stacking the shelves post on your blog feel free to post the link below too.:)

My weekly wrap up post will be on my blog tomorrow so please look out for that.

41 thoughts on “Stacking the Shelves (8 April) #BookHaul”

  2. I bought The Housekeeper after reading Cleo’s review too. She’s a great ‘book enabler’! The Eve Chase is on my wishlist, looking forward to reading your review of this one.

    Reply

  8. Yay, we’re both taking part in Block 46’s blog tour! It makes me laugh to try a French author in the English version first, but I’ll make sure to read her books in French too. The Housekeeper sounds extremely good, Cleo’s review was a winner. Happy reading!

    Reply

          • Yep, takes a bit of pressure away! 😀 I so need to catch up, May is gonna be all about studying so I should get through…20 ARCs this month, never gonna happen xD xxx

          • Oh wow, that’s a lot of reading! The main thing is that you enjoy what you’re reading and don’t put too much pressure on yourself to get them all read. I’m still reading and reviewing books that I got last year… I hope to be caught up one of these days! xxx

  9. You certainly did get a lovely lot of books! I’ve had The Housekeeper on my radar for a bit now. So I’ll be especially interested in what you think of that one. I hope you’ll enjoy ’em all.

    Reply

  10. You certainly, once again, have netted an interesting haul of books, Hayley. Hoping you are fully able to enjoy reading them during the coming weeks:)

    Reply

  12. Ooh, The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde looks very tempting…the cover conjures up that era for me.

    I also read a lovely review of The Housekeeper, at Cleopatra’s, and downloaded it a couple of weeks ago. She definitely leads me to that “click to buy” feature. Hope to enjoy it.

    Thanks for sharing, and enjoy your books!

    Reply

    • I’m really looking forward to reading it. It has a great cover, doesn’t it? The Housekeeper does sound brilliant, I really want to start reading it now but need to finish a couple of review books first. Hope you enjoy it when you get to it. 🙂

      Reply

  17. Pingback: Weekly Wrap-Up (9 April) | RatherTooFondofBooks

  18. Great book haul. I bought three and was give one this week. Bought “The Truth Aouth the Harry Quebert Affair” by a new (to me at any rate) French writer called Joel Dicker (something of a whodunnit but I was fascinated by an interview with him I listened to – part journalistic investigation, part novel, based on (I think) a real disappearance, it (and he sounded) intriguing; A Whoel LIfe” by Robert Seethaler is a novella about solitude and landscape – I think I heard about that on Harriet Gilbert’s A Good Read podcast; “Travels with Herodotus” by Ryszard Kapuscinski, a travelmemoire wiht a difference. And the book given to me was by a Devon writer, J.G Harlond who I met this week as part of my A – Z of Devon of Devon Writers project (see Devon Book Club on Goodreads, Facebook and Twitter if you are interested). The book she gave me is “Local Resistance”, a mystery set in wartime Cornwall. Jane has a fascinating international career in education and has travelled widely. I very much enjoyed meeting her and am looking forward to reading her book.

    My NY Resolution to bring down the tbr list is failing – I’ve no discpiline!

    Reply

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