Book Haul April Week 4 #BookReview #BookMail

Welcome to my last book haul of April 2017. It has been another amazing week for book post and I have mostly Hodder & Stoughton to thank for that. And Titan Books as well of course. I will share each book, why I am excited to read each book and a synopsis of the book. As usual, if you have read these books or are planning too then please get in touch to talk about them. (Disclaimer: I do not own any of the artwork or any book synopsis, they are from the publishers)

Book Haul Week 4

Persephone by Julian Stockwin

Published By: Hodder & Stoughton

I read the previous book in the Thomas Kydd series, Inferno, and I loved it. Julian Stockwin is all about depth and detail. He is a true master when it comes to the sea.

Synopsis:  November 1807. Captain Sir Thomas Kydd must sail to Lisbon to aid the Portuguese Royal Family’s evacuation in the face of Napoleon’s ruthless advance through Iberia. In the chaos of the threatened city an old passion is reawakened when he meets Persephone Lockwood, a beautiful and determined admiral’s daughter from his past.

But the Royal Family’s destination is Brazil, Perspehone’s England, and it seems Kydd’s chance has gone again. Only later he discovers Persephone has another suitor – and that, if he wants to win her hand, he must enter the highest echelons of London society.

Mixing with aristocracy and royalty brings other responsibilities. The Prince of Wales asks him to take temporary command of the Royal Yacht. Sailing to Yarmouth, Kydd realises they are being stalked by French privateers. The terrible threat of a prince of the blood being captured sees Kydd call on daring seamanship of the highest order.

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Published By: Hodder & Stoughton

I have seen this around for a while now and I felt I needed to give it a go. I do try and read deeper more meaningful fiction between all the thrillers, horrors and mysteries. I anticipate many tears though…

Synopsis: The best books make you see differently. This is one of them.

When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father.

What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.

Small Great Things is about prejudice and power; it is about that which divides and unites us.

It is about opening your eyes.

The Book of Lost Things (Illustrated Edition) by John Connolly

Published By: Hodder & Stoughton

I am really intrigued by this! I do like to read some book with illustrations that give the reader more insight into the meaning or message of the book. I have never read the original so I going into this with fresh eyes.

Synopsis: This illustrated edition includes two new short stories – Cinderella, A Version and The Rat King, the latter introducing the Crooked Man who is central to the world of The Book of Lost Things – and an afterword from the author.

‘Once upon a time, there was a boy who lost his mother . . .’ As twelve-year-old David takes refuge from his grief in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds the real world and the fantasy world begin to blend. That is when bad things start to happen. That is when the Crooked Man comes. And David is violently propelled into a land populated by heroes, wolves and monsters in his quest to find the legendary Book of Lost Things.

The Ruse & The Dagger by Renee Ahdieh

Published By: Hodder & Stoughton

I really enjoy rich, immersive and complex plot lines and The Ruse & The Dagger fitted the bill perfectly.

Synopsis:  I am surrounded on all sides by a desert. A guest, in a prison of sand and sun. My family is here. And I do not know whom I can trust.

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse-one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid’s empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan.

While her father, Jahandar, continues to play with magical forces he doesn’t yet understand, Shahrzad tries to uncover powers that may lie dormant within her. With the help of a tattered old carpet and a tempestuous but sage young man, Shahrzad will attempt to break the curse and reunite with her one true love.

Crimson & Bane by Marina Fiorato

Published By: Hodder & Stoughton

I received this from Bookbridgr, which is a brilliant website, and I am really intrigued. I have read quite a few books from the era so hopefully I will be able to get straight into it.

Synopsis:  London, 1853. Annie Stride has nothing left to live for – she is a penniless prostitute, newly evicted from her home and pregnant. On the night she plans to cast herself from Waterloo Bridge into the icy waters of the Thames, her life is saved by Francis Maybrick Gill, a talented pre-Raphaelite painter – and her world is changed forever.

Francis takes Annie as his artist’s muse, elevating her from fallen woman to society’s darling. With her otherworldly beauty now the toast of London, her dark past is left far behind.

But Annie’s lavish new life is not all is seems – and there are some who won’t let her forget where she came from…

Two Lost Boys by L. F. Robertson

Published by: Titan Books

There is so much noise about this book online and I was very pleased when Titan offered me a review copy and a spot on the upcoming blog tour. I have a post on the 18th of May., check it out if you get a chance!

Synopsis:  Janet Moodie has spent years as a death row appeals attorney. Overworked and recently widowed, she’s had her fill of hopeless cases, and is determined that this will be her last. Her client is Marion ‘Andy’ Hardy, convicted along with his brother Emory of the rape and murder of two women. The brothers were tried separately, and Emory received a life sentence, while Andy got the death penalty, labeled the ringleader despite his low IQ and Emory’s dominant personality.

Convinced that Andy’s previous lawyers have missed mitigating evidence that would have spared him the death penalty, Janet investigates Andy’s past, revealing a sordid and damaging upbringing, a series of errors on the part of his previous council, and most worrying of all, the possibility that there is far more to the Hardy family than was first thought. Andy may be guilty, but of what?

Head of Zeus sent me their July – December 2017 catalogue. I am allowed to request titles for review and I want them all! But here a few titles I am particularly interested in. As usual, all the content belongs to Head Of Zeus, I just want to share a few exciting titles they have coming out later this year that I could possibly feature on this blog.

Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Current Release Date: 01.11.17

Synopsis: Rex is a Good Dog. He loves humans. He hates enemies. He’s utterly obedient to Master.

He’s also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he’s part of a Multi-form Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, Southeastern Mexico.

Rex is a genetically engineered bioform, a deadly weapon in a dirty war. He has the intelligence to carry out his orders and feedback implants to reward him when he does. All he wants to be is a Good Dog. And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he’s got to kill a lot of enemies. But who, exactly, are the enemies? What happens when Master is tried as a war criminal? What rights does the Geneva Convention grant weapons? Do Rex and his fellow bioforms even have a right to exist? And what happens when Rex slips his leash?

Great Books Of China by Frances Wood

Current Release Date: 07.09.17

Synopsis: Great Books of China offers concise introductions – each of them accompanied by generous quotation (in English) from the book in question – to sixty-six works in the canon of Chinese literature. The books chosen reflect the chronological and thematic breadth of Chinese literary tradition, ranging from such classics as The Book of Songs and the Confucian Analects, through popular dramas and novels (The Romance of the Western Chamber; The Water Margin), twentieth-century political and biographical works (Quotations from Chairman Mao, the autobiography of the last emperor) and modern novels that are little known in the West (Memories of South Peking, Six Chapters from a Cadre School Life).

Frances Wood presents a comprehensive, accessible and richly informative primer for the uninitiated; a box of delights that opens up an entire literary culture to the inquisitive reader.

The Room By The Lake by Emma Dibdin

Current Release Date: 01.07.17

Synopsis: When Caitlin moved from London to New York, she thought she had left her problems behind: her alcoholic father, her dead mother, the pressure to succeed. But now, down to her last dollar in a foreign city, she is desperately lonely.

Then she meets Jake. Handsome, smart, slightly damaged Jake. He lives off-grid, in a lakeside commune whose members practise regular exercise and frequent group therapy. Before long, Caitlin has settled into her idyllic new home.

It looks like she has found the fresh start she longed for. But, as the commune tightens its grip on her freedom and her sanity, Caitlin realizes too late that she might become lost forever…

Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu

Current Release Date: 21.11.17

Synopsis: When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of this mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station.

The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his lonely life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own: a beautiful army major with an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.

And there we have it! Thank you for stopping by to check out another brilliant book haul here at Always Trust In Books. My next haul will be May week 1 and I am certain there will some amazing additions to my TBR so please stop by to check that out too.