Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday was originally hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page, but is now a traveling meme and for the month of June Mailbox Monday will be hosted by BlueStocking Guide! Go over and visit her to see what she got in her mailbox.

This week I received a book I won in a giveaway on Bookin' with Bingo. I entered because the title reminded me of the area where I grew up and I haven't read a Danielle Steele book in many years. So it seems that fate says it is time to get back to her.

44 Charles Street

Danielle Steele

A magical transformation takes place in Danielle Steel’s luminous new novel: strangers become roommates, roommates become friends, and friends become a family in a turn-of-the-century house. The plumbing was prone to leaks, the furniture rescued from garage sales. And every square inch was being devotedly restored to its original splendor—even as a relationship fell to pieces.

The other two books were purchases made from my book club. The descriptions for romances always get to me.

The School for Brides

Mary Jo Putney

Publishers Weekly

Smith's lively debut is chockablock with plot twists. Frowzy, pseudonymous Miss Eva Black runs a school and sanctuary for courtesans who wish to retire from carnal service. Part yenta and part Henry Higgins, Eva teaches the young women proper manners and matches them with eligible suitors.

It Happened One Season

Mary Balogh, Stephanie Laurens, and more

A young lady facing yet another season without a suitor never expects to find herself the object of his affections. A handsome hero returns from war, battle-scarred and world-weary. But family duty calls and he must find a bride. It Happened One Season has four amazing talents - Stephanie Laurens, Mary Balogh, Jacquie D'Alessandro, and Candice Hern - have come together to create one of the most unforgettable events of the year. The results are spectacular—each story is as unique as a lover's first kiss.

Finally, I received LibraryThing's May ER book from Random House.

Prophecy

S.J. Parris

Description: Bestselling author S. J. Parris returns with the next Giordano Bruno mystery, set inside Queen Elizabeth’s palace and steeped in period atmospherics and the strange workings of the occult.

It is the year of the Great Conjunction, when the two most powerful planets, Jupiter and Saturn, align—an astrological phenomenon that occurs once every thousand years and heralds the death of one age and the dawn of another. The streets of London are abuzz with predictions of horrific events to come, possibly even the death of Queen Elizabeth.

When several of the queen’s maids of honor are found dead, rumors of black magic abound. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the crimes. While Dee turns to a mysterious medium claiming knowledge of the murders, Bruno fears that some thing far more sinister is at work. But even as the climate of fear at the palace intensifies, the queen refuses to believe that the killer could be someone within her own court.

Bruno must play a dangerous game: can he allow the plot to progress far enough to give the queen the proof she needs without putting her, England, or his own life in danger?

What came in your mailbox this week?