BBAW 4 Book Blog Discovery & Giveaway

Thursday September 17 Today we encourage you to blog about a book you read only because you discovered it on another book blog. Preferably, this will be a book you loved! You might also write a bit about the blog you discovered it on!

Not sure if this really counts... but through reading Author Michelle Moran's Historical Fiction Author Interviews Blog I have discovered several books that now reside on my TBR list. Yet the one author that she interviewed that I immediately located the book at my local library was Deanna Raybourn, shortly after Silent in the Grave was published. I read that book and enjoyed it. Easily I was very attached to the characters of Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane. Since then I have jumped when the next Lady Julia Novel was published and each one has been better than the last. Really the one of hers that I would say I absolutely loved was Lady Julia #3 Silent on the Moor. However, I highly suggest Silent in the Sanctuary as a good read as well.

Make sure you check out my other post today: Blogoversary Giveaway Autographed Extra #1 to enter for your chance to win an autographed copy of Silent on the Moor from Deanna Raybourn for yourself!!

My Reviews:
MIRA
Deanna Raybourn - Julia Grey Series
Silent in the Grave
Silent in the Sanctuary
Silent on the Moor

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn (a review)

(Just a general market review, that never made it to the blog before...)

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

Fresh from a six-month sojourn in Italy, Lady Julia returns home to Sussex to find her father's estate crowded with family and friends— but dark deeds are afoot at the deconsecrated abbey, and a murderer roams the ancient cloisters.

Much to her surprise, the one man she had hoped to forget—the enigmatic and compelling Nicholas Brisbane—is among her father's houseguests… and he is not alone. Not to be outdone, Julia shows him that two can play at flirtation and promptly introduces him to her devoted, younger, titled Italian count.

But the homecoming celebrations quickly take a ghastly turn when one of the guests is found brutally murdered in the chapel, and a member of Lady Julia's own family confesses to the crime. Certain of her cousin's innocence, Lady Julia resumes her unlikely and deliciously intriguing partnership with Nicholas Brisbane, setting out to unravel a tangle of deceit before the killer can strike again. When a sudden snowstorm blankets the abbey like a shroud, it falls to Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane to answer the shriek of murder most foul.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was definitely better than the last. To a point I did enjoy Silent in the Grave, but the solving point I felt ruined what could have been a perfectly great mystery. But that's enough about that. I really enjoyed this one. This was not just one mystery, but several wrapped up in one. There was some romance and extreme feelings between various persons and trying to see them was a task. I enjoyed this story, and it makes me anxious to read Silent on the Moor, because I believe it will be even better. The first book I would not recommend to certain audiences, but I believe that most people could read this one without much affect in a negative sense. It is much more tasteful and enjoyable. I felt as if I could see clues and piece them together, when with the first novel it was more of a jolt of information here and there. In my opinion, this author is getting better and better.

Click here, to go back and read my review of Silent in the Grave, #1 and here to read my review of Silent on the Moor, #3.

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Mira; 1st Thus. edition (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778324923
• ISBN-13: 978-0778324928
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.8 x 1.1 inches

Mailbox Monday - May 11th, 2009

As far as the mailbox goes, this was a fairly uneventful week. Yet, I think for now that is probably a good thing, since I have a huge pile TBR and it does not seem to be shrinking in the normal manner and speed it usually does...

This week I received one book for review, and a second book from Paperbackswap.

Book 3 of Delaware Dawning (HP #823)
historical romance
Order through Heartsong Presents (call 1-800-847-8270 for toll-free; NOT on the HP site)
Order through Amazon.com
Order through Barnes & Noble
November 2008
ISBN-13: 9781602601895

View the spotlight on CAN's (Christian Author's Network) You've Got Books Blog

-- Living during the American Revolution and the formation of a new nation, Margret Scott gets involved with a spy and a life of deception that could endanger herself, her family and the man she loves. --

"If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity." ~Job 31:5-6

Is deception fair in wartime?

Margret Scott finds she must deal with this question as she becomes attracted to the enigmatic Samuel Lowe. As the tensions grow between the colonists and the British soldiers and loyalists, Margret struggles to determine where Samuel's loyalties lie, despite his reassurances that they lie with the colonists.

Samuel's duties have him working for both sides of this war, and he is often torn between what is right and what is wrong. He promises Margret she can trust him, and Margret promises him she does.

But can promises born in deception be trusted? Can relationships built in uncertainty survive?

Read Chapter One

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This is the third in a series that I have read for review from Amber Miller (Stockton). I really enjoyed the first two. You can read my reviews of those here (PP) and here (QP).

Secondly, from PaperBackSwap, I received a hardback copy of Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn. I read this last year and really enjoyed it. I am very eager to have my own copy, since I read it from the library. It makes me very happy. Now, I just have to get my hands on the other two. I do have an ARC of the third one, Silent on the Moor. But I do not have a copy of book two, Silent in the Sanctuary. I would really like to find a copy of the original print in trade paper back, since that is my favorite cover. Yet, all the copies that come up on PBS seem to be Mass Market. *sigh* That is what I get for being picky.



These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.

Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring her husband's murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

I also have my reviews of these three books here (SITG), here (SITS), and here (SOTM).