I have to say I really like the title for my blog. I came up with it and then just admired it for a few moments, kind of wishing it were actually true. That’s because my research process is nothing like a fine art. It’s one of those things that’s born out of necessity. Lately, my research process involves writing around the research and then going back when I absolutely can’t move the story forward without looking up some crucial information. And that was the definitely the case with The Rogue Pirate’s Bride.

Research wasn’t always thus. Once upon a time, before I had a husband and a toddler, I enjoyed research. I read whole non-fiction books on topics like Underwear in the Nineteenth Century, Regency Cant, Cooking Through the Ages. I enjoyed these books and savored them.

And thank God I read them when I did because I surely do not have time to read them now!

But as an author of historical romance, I have to carve out time for research. It’s part of the job description. And this is doubly the case when you’re writing a book about something you know nothing about. Something like sailing and ships in the nineteenth century. Something like rogue pirates.

Now you may say, Shana, why would you choose to write a pirate book when you have a small child and very little time to write and know nothing about pirates? That, dear reader, would fall under the topic of Logic, and this blog is about Research.

In all honesty, I’ve wanted to write a book with a pirate hero for years. And I went in to it thinking that I’d just research as I wrote (which is my strategy most of the time). Usually when I’m writing a scene and I come to a fact I need to look up or verify, I put XX in the text and keep writing. Later, when I have time (like at 2 in the morning), I search for all the XXes and look those facts up. I started The Rogue Pirate’s Bride this way. And pretty quickly it read like this:

Bastien hurried down the XX and walked along the XX to the XX. He nodded to the XX and stopped to inspect the XX. But his mind was on Raeven, locked in the XX. 

Not riveted by the story? Me neither. All of those lovely details are so important to set the scene and evoke the feel of the period and the setting. So I did what every great writer does.

I called my dad.

I’m lucky enough to have a father who knows a lot about sailing and ships. And I’m lucky that he agreed to sit down with me and listen to large sections of The Rogue Pirate’s Bride to help me with all those pesky details. Sure, I went to the library and checked out a stack of books on ships and sailing, but it’s not quite the same as having an expert just one text away.

So that’s it. That’s my research process. There’s nothing romantic or mysterious about it. Nothing fine-artish. It’s kind of like everything else in my life–fast, furious, and by the seat of my pants.

What about you? Have you ever gotten yourself in over your head and had to call on Dad (or someone else) to bail you out?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Shana Galen is the author of five Regency historicals, including the Rita-nominated Blackthorne’s Bride. Her books have been sold in Brazil, Russia, and the Netherlands and featured in the Rhapsody and Doubleday Book Clubs. A former English teacher in Houston’s inner city, Shana now writes full time. She is a happily married wife and mother of a daughter and a spoiled cat and lives in Houston, Texas, where she is working on her next regency romance series! For more information please visit www.shanagalen.com, like her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

THE ROGUE PIRATE’S BRIDE BY SHANA GALEN – IN STORES FEBRUARY 2012

 

Revenge should be sweet, but it may cost him everything…

Out to avenge the death of his mentor, Bastien discovers himself astonishingly out of his depth when confronted with a beautiful, daring young woman who is out for his blood…

Forgiveness is unthinkable, but may be her only hope…

British Admiral’s daughter Raeven Russell believes Bastien responsible for her fiancé’s death. But once the fiery beauty crosses swords with Bastien, she’s not so sure she really wants him to change his wicked ways…

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (February 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402265557
• ISBN-13: 978-1402265556

BUY THE BOOK… Amazon | Barnes & Noble

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Thanks to Sourcebooks, we’re giving away TWO copies of  The Rogue Pirate’s Bride. This giveaway is open to all with a US/Canadian mailing address (No P.O Boxes) will run through the month of February until 11:59pm Feb 29, 2012.

Inside you’ll find…

Ways to engage your loved one with conversation starters for couples; Fun and creative date and gift ideas for any budget; Heartwarming love stories and poems; Love busters and love boosters to add fun, zing, and zest; Trivia about the history of love and romance; Recipes to fan the heartflames.

Why wait for a special occasion to share the joy of being in love? Opening Everything Romance is like opening a door to romantic adventure—any day, any time!

Any moment is the perfect time for you as a couple to celebrate the beauty and wonder of love, especially when you’re equipped with a treasure trove of creative ways to do so. With a rich array of romantic gems, Everything Romance abounds with all you need to show your adoration, revel in your relationship, and create a legacy of romance to last a lifetime. – FROM THE WEBSITE

• Format: Hardcover
• Other Formats: eBook
• ISBN: 9780307729316

A Marriage Blessing

Most gracious God, we give You thanks for Your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life.

We thank You, also, for consecrating the union of man and woman in His name. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of Your blessing upon this man and this woman. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. Finally, in Your mercy, bring them to that table where Your saints feast forever in Your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.
(from The Book of Common Prayer)

PERFECT PAIR PIZZA-PITA SNACKS

2 whole-wheat pita breads
4 teaspoons basil pesto
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped
Fresh Parmesan cheese (optional)

Toast pita breads until they are crispy and firm. Spread half of the pesto on each pita. Next, spread half of the cottage
cheese on each pita. Top with chopped tomato and fresh basil. If desired, sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan cheese. Slice each pita into two or four wedges and enjoy!

Romance Trivia
A team of medical experts in Virginia contends that you’re more likely to catch the common cold virus by shaking hands than by kissing.

{Click here to download the first chapter of Everything Romance now.}

ABOUT THE AUTHORS…David Bordon and Tom Winters are partners in Bordon-Winters, LLC, a book concept and packaging company that produces successful books and gift products. Among their previous titles are the popular “101 Things You Should Do” series. This volume joins another one of their beautiful gift books, Everything Christmas.

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…A truly enjoyable book to go through with or even without your significant other. You’ll read interesting feeds, poems, scripture of love from the BIBLE, get recipes to try out for various occasions of celebration, and tips of course of ways to bring back more romance into your relationship. I recommend this all couples looking to reconnect or even to bring in more ideas to love each other. Keeper for my shelves!

I received a copy as part of the F.I.R.S.T Wildcard Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

This time around I asked Linda what made her choose to write paranormal out of all the genres out there today. Here’s her response…

Thank you The Book Faery Reviews for having me here!

I’ve been asked why I chose to write paranormal and I’d have to say that it was more that paranormal chose me.

My favorite books growing up were fairy tales and my comic books were Casper the Ghost and Wendy the Little Witch. Yes, it dates me. Hm, I wonder what they’d be worth now if I’d kept them.

We have a house ghost named Frank, so yes, paranormal is all around me. I think he’s a secret cook since utensils tend to disappear at odd times then reappear in the same spot later on. We missed a potato masher for a year until it showed up without warning.

I tend to put a magickal spin on my life. Can be scary at times, but it’s also fun. I don’t have dogs. I have hellhounds. Our parrot has some wild tendencies and even our tortoise has her own methods.

I loved reading the gothic romances back in the 70s and 80s. Some even had ghosts in the attic. But paranormal romances weren’t out there. Then ideas for several paranormals came to mind and I worked them up. When I mentioned them to my then agent I heard “you’re killing me here! I can’t sell those!” I offered to send her the ideas along with wine. :}

But let’s talk timing. My agent sent them on to my editor and the day they landed on her desk was the day she came up with a calendar of books. She said my romance set in Salem, MA was perfect for Halloween and Under His Spell was out there. Not a true paranormal but I loved the elements. Along with that was A Man for Maggie, a murder suspense involving a psychic, No Room at the Inn, which was my Christmas version of Brigadoon, Twist of Fate, what I called another type of Quantum Leap, and Bells Rings and Angel’s Wings, my spin on It’s A Wonderful Life. But readers weren’t totally ready for paranormal romances. The best thing about these books are that they’re back out there as ebooks.

Even if the books weren’t selling back then the idea of paranormal was still there in the back of my mind. There was an idea lingering that would whisper you really need to listen to me.

So I did. Witches who’d been around since the 1300s formed in living color and I knew I had to write the stories.

I talked to pagan friends, researched historical facts to add as background information, and the magickal world I already lived in had become even richer to my senses.

I have snarky bunny slippers that roam the house and harass the dogs. A gargoyle that I sometimes find in my lingerie drawers. A witch who thinks my coffee is hers. Another witch who reminds me romance is a good thing. A hexster who whispers in my ear when I feel the need to get even with someone. One who lets me know I may be short but to stand up for myself as in ‘hey, I’m supposed to be waited on next” and a healer who’s sorry her power won’t cure my cold. One who loves it when I go shopping and so on.

And this is why paranormal chose me.

What about you? What does paranormal do for you? 

- Linda

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Linda Wisdom has published more than 70 novels with 13 million copies sold worldwide including traditional, paranormal, humor, action/adventure romance, and romantic suspense. Her bestselling books have been nominated for RT Book Reviews awards and the Romance Writers of America Rita Award. She lives with her husband in Murrieta, California. For more information, please visit www.LindaWisdom.com.

A DEMON DOES IT BETTER BY LINDA WISDOM – IN STORES JANUARY 2012

A madhouse is not place for a curious witch…

After more than a century, Doctor Lili Carter, witch healer extraordinaire, has returned to San Francisco and taken a job at Crying Souls Hospital and Asylum, where something peculiar and wicked is happening. Patients are disappearing, and Lili wants to know why.

And double dangerous for a demon…

Lili finds herself undeniably attracted to perhaps the most mysterious patient of all—a demented but seriously sexy demon named Jared. What’s behind the gorgeous chameleon demon’s late-night escapades?

Before long, Lili and Jared are investigating each other—and creating a whole new kind of magic.

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (January 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402236727
• ISBN-13: 978-1402236723

BUY THE BOOK… Amazon | Barnes & Noble

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Thanks to Sourcebooks, we’re giving away TWO copies of  A DEMON DOES IT BETTER. This giveaway is open to all with a US/Canadian mailing address (No P.O Boxes) will run through the month of February until 11:59pm Feb 29, 2012.

REVENGE SHOULD BE SWEET, BUT IT MAY COST HIM EVERYTHING

Out to avenge the death of his mentor, Bastien discovers himself astonishingly out of his depth when confronted with a beautiful, daring young woman who is out for his blood…

FORGIVENESS IS UNTHINKABLE BUT IT MAY BE HER ONLY HOPE…

British Admiral’s daughter Raeven Russell believes Bastien responsible for her fiancé’s death. But once the fiery beauty crosses swords with Bastien, she’s not so sure she really wants him to change his wicked ways…

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (February 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402265557
• ISBN-13: 978-1402265556

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Shana Galen is the author of numerous adventurous, romantic Regency historicals, including the Rita-nominated Blackthorne’s Bride. Her books have been sold in Brazil, Russia, and the Netherlands and featured in the Rhapsody and Doubleday Book Clubs. She taught English at the middle and high school level off and on for eleven years. Most of those years were spent working in Houston’s inner city.

Now she writes full time. She’s happily married to an incredibly supportive man she likes to call Ultimate Sportsfan, and she has a beautiful daughter and a very spoiled cat.

Find Shana on her Website, Facebook or Twitter.

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Shana Galen does it again and this time it’s filled with even more adrenalin adventure and passion. The Rogue Pirate’s Bride is the third book in the Sons of the Revolution trilogy. Each book was great alone and definitely got better with each story of the brothers. I will say though that I was a tad surprised there was little interaction with the brothers, the mother, and the women. But then again, any setting other than on a boat in battle or in love would not have made much sense for this particular brother. I absolutely LOVED the heroine. She was no sissy, pampered girl for sure! She was strong, independent, determined, sexy, and not afraid to get into action. The hero? Well, I’d do whatever for this man too! Excellent story and excellent trilogy!

WITHOUT HER PASSIONS, SHE HAS NO MAGIC…

It’s unfortunate for Natalie that Nigel Aquarian is so compelling. With his inner demons, his unbridled heat, and his “I will conquer you” looks, he calls to her in exactly the way that nearly killed her.

BUT LOSING CONTROL MEANS LOSING HER LIFE…

That he’s an immortal warrior and that her powers rise from intense passions would seem to make them a match made in heaven, but unless they embrace their greatest fears, they’ll play out their final match in hell.

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (January 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402241976
• ISBN-13: 978-1402241970

BUY THE BOOK… Amazon | Barnes & Noble

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Stephanie Rowe is the author of more than twenty books for adults and teens, and she is a four-time nominee for the RITA Award. Her books have been sold in Germany, Australia, and France, have been on the B&N bestseller list, and have received starred reviews from Booklist. A former attorney, Stephanie lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS..I do believe that Stephanie Rowe is now officially a kept paranormal romance author for my shelves! Third book in her Soulfire series and I’m still enjoying them and looking forward to the next. Not only is there passion but LOTS of fighting action where good fights evil even if at some points it is themselves. LOVED it! If you like a good paranormal romance read that will make you laugh, fill you with awe, and of course have you pretending to be in on the “kick-ass” scenes, then you’ll enjoy Rowe’s book Hold Me If You Can in addition to her books Kiss At Your Own Risk and Touch If You Dare in the series.  All books are great even as stand alone stories even though you’ll understand more if you read the previous books since there are references back to them. I’m VERY much looking forward to Christian’s story; assuming it’s next in the series.

I received a copy from Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.

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Mailbox Monday is where other bloggers write about the books they received the previous week. The Mailbox Monday is now going on a blog tour with the host for the month of January being  at At Home With Books. Visit the blog to see what books made it’s way and check out the others who are participating like me in the Monday Mailbox Meme.

 Keiko the Koala by Jill Ann Storti –  Everyone shares one thing in common. We are all different from each other and it is our diversity, which makes each person unique. “Keiko the Koala” is so much more than a book. It’s a powerful tool for parents to teach their children how to build strong relationships and self esteem. Young children will cherish Keiko in their formative years because he is comforting and entertaining. This exciting story is immediately rewarding to children, as they hear about the adventure of a koala bear, who finds himself lost in the forest. As he meets other animals, he quickly learns that he is different from other bears. You feel the anticipation as Keiko searches for a way out of the forest. While on his journey, he meets a young boy named Cody and they become friends. Cody is sad because he is different from other kids. Keiko teaches him that being different is what makes us special.

Six Ways To Keep The “Good” In Your Boy by Dannah Gresh - When bestselling author Dannah Gresh was body-slammed by her 12-year-old son, she was hit with reality: raising a boy is a whole new ballgame!

A boy’s relationship with his mom during the formative age between 8 and 12 is vital to his future well-being. So how can moms teach sons to be honest, confident, and respectful when the world and situations encourage them to make bad decisions and grow up too fast?

Dannah’s practical experience and research, along with advice from her husband, Bob Gresh, provide a mom with six proactive ways to help her son:

• honor his body in a healthy way
• get outside to play unplugged
• live out his faith

All summaries come from Barnes & Noble book overviews.

2,000 years later, Father Chris Mognahan is a member of the Hetairia Melchizedek, a secret society within the Catholic Church that studies Biblical omens. The society asks Chris to investigate an unusually grotesque crime – a murder on a college campus where the killer’s hand literally burned off the victim’s face. While the killing seems isolated at first, the society ties the murder to the final Biblical prophecy and a terrifying omen that the order of the prophecies is about to be disrupted. The final battle is coming too soon – long before humanity is prepared to win it.

Suddenly, Chris finds himself fighting against time and hell to keep the prophecies in order and stop an early Armageddon. He is joined by a band of unlikely allies, and together they find themselves in Rome above the Vatican Necropolis – the city of the dead – where the future is revealed to them in ancient texts.

They are not alone, however; an evil as old as time itself hunts them. As they travel across continents on their mission, the demonic force follows relentlessly, waiting in every shadowed corner, and every dark place.

As Armageddon descends, Father Chris finds that his only hope lies in a young woman within the group who has a secret gift – and their belief that God Himself may have sent her to keep the final angelic trumpet from sounding out the early end of the Earth.

• Paperback: 478 pages
• Publisher: 23 House (September 23, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982477767
• ISBN-13: 978-0982477762

BUY THE BOOK… Amazon | Barnes & Noble

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Carrie Salo is a dark storyteller and emerging author of supernatural thrillers. Classically trained at an Ivy League university, she studied the works of master storytellers seven stories underground in the muffled heart of one of the world ‘s largest libraries.

Carrie seeks to wield unrelenting suspense in her own exploration of all things (especially true things) that keep us awake at night.   She has written under the guidance of two bestselling and national prize-winning authors.   Her extensive travels have taken her to many haunted places, including the private catacombs of the Vatican.   The Sounding is Carrie’s debut novel.

Carrie enjoys the smell of old books, New York riesling, late night jogging and thunderstorms, though not in that order.   Storytelling is Carrie’s secret life.   While she looks into all the dark corners by night, by day she is an advertising copywriter and account manager.

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…The Sounding was both exciting and scary;  a heart beating kind of read that couldn’t be put down. So real feeling that it made me wonder if it could really happen.

I received a copy from Planned Television Arts in exchange for an honest review.

HE’S EXACTLY WHAT SHE’S ALWAYS WANTED,
AND SHE UNLEASHES HIM LIKE A FORCE OF NATURE…

Lucy was once the beloved Goddess of the Moon, and she could have any man she wanted. But these days, the goddesses of the Etruscan pantheon are all but forgotten. The only rituals she enjoys now are the local hockey games, where one ferociously handsome player still inflames her divine blood…

Brandon Stevenson is one hundred percent focused on the game, until he looks up and sees a celestial beauty sitting in the third row. A man could surely fall hard for a distraction like that…

BUY THE BOOK… Amazon | Barnes & Noble

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Stephanie Julian is the author of the Magical Seduction, Lucani Lovers, Darkly Enchanted and the Forgotten Goddess series, as well as The Fringe series. A former reporter for a daily newspaper, she enjoys making up stories much more than writing about real life. She’s happily married to a Springsteen fanatic and is the mother of two sons who love her even when they don’t have any clean clothes and dinner is a bowl of cereal.

Julian’s erotic romances have a paranormal bent reviewers have called “fascinating,” “truly fantastic,” “intoxicating,” “highly imaginative” and “hot enough to peel paint.”

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…What do you get when you get a bear suppressed man and a moon goddess to lock gazes? LOTS of raw, intense, animalistic sex that will have your heart racing literally from beginning to end. Not for the prim and proper for sure. Personally I felt this book to be more about the Hockey player and his discovery of what he really is than the battle Lucy is supposed to face. I would have also liked to have seen more action of evil versus bad rather than for the most part just sexual action. We end this book with only having been through a minor fight with a demon in the bedroom for a brief moment and then a semi-major fight in the end when to rescue her son. Not enough to really in my opinion. Do I still recommend this book? Sure, to someone who enjoys LOTS and LOTS of sex mixed with some paranormal shift shaping and a little fighting.

I received a Netgalley copy from Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.

Mr. Darcy. Heathcliff. Mr. Rochester. Any character as played by Jared Leto.

These are the tormented souls who populate our romance novels. Well, they populate the romance novels that populate my shelf, anyway. If we’re looking at the classics or historicals, we’re usually talking about an educated man who lives alone. He’s probably of noble stock, and, thinking he has something to prove, he tortures himself with work, sneers at societal norms and the delicate dance of courtly life, and pines for a woman he can’t have. Or the one he can have, but doesn’t think he deserves.

In the cases of Rochester, Darcy, and Heathcliff, these men could also use some serious social skills training, too. I mean, wow. One of my favorite lines in Jane Eyre is this one, spoken by Mr. Rochester,

“You—you strange—you almost unearthly thing!—I love as my own flesh. You—poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are—I entreat to accept me as a husband.”

Honestly, what kind of proposal is that? “You’re not pretty, and you’re broke and you’re short. Wanna get hitched?” That part about loving her as his own flesh would be totally romantic if he hadn’t just spent the entire book proving he loathes himself.

Yet I love that line. I can’t explain it. Something about Mr. Rochester just does it for me, and has since my sophomore year in high school. Also, Michael Fassbender playing Mr. Rochester was, quite simply, delicious. (He does tormented very well, but then, he’s half Irish, and we Irish—even mutt Irish like me—are a broody lot.)

In modern movies, the broody hero drinks too much coffee, sleeps too little, and desperately needs a shower and a shave. He listens to the likes of Evanescence, Tori Amos, or any artist that my husband would refer to as “depressed, whiny boy music.” Maybe he plays the guitar and composes his own music. Perhaps he’s a cop who has seen too much, a man who rides his motorcycle too fast in order to outrun his demons.

He is a lost soul, searching the cold, cruel world for his other half. His wounded heart just needs the love of a good woman to be whole.

And we eat it up.

But here’s my question: Would you actually want to date this kind of man?

The answer is…no.

Sure, the brush of his shadow beard against the hollows of your neck is…oh, hell’s bells, it’s intoxicating. Just hearing the roar of his motorcycle is enough to give you palpitations. He strums his guitar and he may as well be strumming his fingers against your skin. He’s not into sports of any kind, unless you count being winded from early onset emphysema as sport. Instead, the two of you will talk about Rilke or Keats or Shelley or Lord Byron. He’ll probably have something deep to say that will blow your mind.

We love a dark hero in romance novels. I certainly do. But, as it turns out, the hero of my own personal romance isn’t some dark and broody character. He watches The Simpsons and loves football. The music he listens to has far more to do with naked chicks than it does the meaning of our existence. He couldn’t play the guitar if his life depended on it. He laughs loudly and often.

At the end of the day, that’s what I want to come home to.

But gads, I do enjoy visiting the brooding hero every once in a while.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Meggan makes her home in the Wild West with her lawman husband, two children, and a menagerie of pets. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and the Sacramento Valley chapter. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing with her kids, hiking in the mountains, or reading a book.

Follow Meggan… Blog | Facebook

When her father loses her in a poker game, Lexie Markland is sent to work in the household of Nicholas Wetherby for one year to pay off the debt. Innocent, but not naïve, she is savvy enough to know she must maintain her distance from this man, who frustrates her with his relentless teasing but whose kisses bring her to her knees. Because although she may be just another conquest to him, it’s not just her heart in jeopardy should she succumb to Nicholas’ considerable charms.

Since his brother’s death almost a year before, nothing has held Nicholas’ attention for long—not women, not booze, not even an excellent hand at cards. Nothing, that is, until he meets the woman he won in a drunken night of poker. Intrigued by his prize and her chilly reserve, he makes it his mission to crack Lexie’s cool demeanor. But even as passion explodes between them, the question remains: will Nicholas be able to take the ultimate risk…and gamble on love?

• Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
• Publication date: 12/15/2011
• Format: eBook

BUY THE BOOK… Amazon Kindle | Barnes and Noble Nook

On My Shelves is a weekly post at The Book Faery Reviews which shares THREE books from our personal collection. These books could be favorites, books to be read as soon as possible for our own enjoyment, as well as books to be read soon for scheduled reviews.

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.  ~William Hazlitt

The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman - For more than one hundred years, creative souls have traveled to Upstate New York to work under the captivating spell of the Bosco estate. Cradled in silence, inspired by the rough beauty of overgrown gardens and crumbling statuary, these chosen few fashion masterworks–and have cemented Bosco’s reputation as a premier artists’ colony. This season, five talented artists-in-residence find themselves drawn to the history of Bosco, from the extensive network of fountains that were once its centerpiece but have long since run dry to the story of its enigmatic founder, Aurora Latham, and the series of tragic events that occurred more than a century ago.

Ellis Brooks, a first-time novelist, has come to Bosco to write a book based on Aurora and the infamous summer of 1893, when wealthy, powerful Milo Latham brought the notorious medium Corinth Blackwell to the estate to help his wife contact three of the couple’s children, lost the winter before in a diphtheria epidemic. But when a séance turned deadly, Corinth and her alleged accomplice, Tom Quinn, disappeared, taking with them the Lathams’ only surviving child.

The more time she spends at Bosco, the more Ellis becomes convinced that there is an even darker, more sinister end to the story. And she’s not alone: biographer Bethesda Graham uncovers stunning revelations about Milo and Corinth; landscape architect David Fox discovers a series of hidden tunnels underneath the gardens; poet Zalman Bronsky hears the long-dry fountain’s waters beckoning him; and novelist Nat Loomis feels something lingering just out of reach.

After a bizarre series of accidents befalls them, the group cannot deny the connections between the long ago and now, the living and the dead . . . as Ellis realizes that the tangled truth may ensnare them all in its cool embrace.

Love Finds You in Lonesome Prairie Montana by Goyer & Fleiss - Julia Cavanaugh has never left New York City. But in 1890, the young woman must head west to ensure that the orphans under her care are settled into good families. After her final stop in Montana, she plans to head straight back east. But upon arriving in the remote town of Lonesome Prairie, Julia learns to her horror that she is also supposed to be delivered—into the hands of an uncouth miner who carries a bill of purchase for his new “bride.” She turns to a respected circuit preacher to protect her from a forced marriage but with no return fare and few friends, Julia’s options are bleak. What is God’s plan for her in the middle of the vast Montana prairie?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith - “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.