Showers of ARCs

At the end of February, I finally got to 80% feedback ratio on NetGalley. To celebrate, I decided to request a few more books. Yes, that is exactly how you are supposed to celebrate. By reducing your ratio once again. Anyway, I have received a 7 ARCs which I am so excited to read. So here goes:

An Impossible Dilemma by Netta Newband

Local vets Victoria and Jonathan Lyons seem to have everything—a perfect marriage, a beautiful five-year-old daughter, Emily, and a successful business. Until they discover Emily has a rare and fatal illness.

Early trials show that a temporary fix would be to transplant a hormone from a living donor. However in the trials; the donors had died within twenty four hours. They have no choice but to accept their daughter is going to die.

When Jonathan is suddenly killed in a farming accident, Victoria turns to her sick father-in-law, Frank, for help. A series of events present Victoria and Frank with a situation that, although illegal, could help save Emily.

 

The Escape by C. L Taylor

“Look after your daughter’s things. And your daughter…”

When a stranger asks Jo Blackmore for a lift she says yes, then swiftly wishes she hadn’t.

The stranger knows Jo’s name, she knows her husband Max and she’s got a glove belonging to Jo’s two year old daughter Elise.

What begins with a subtle threat swiftly turns into a nightmare as the police, social services and even Jo’s own husband turn against her.

No one believes that Elise is in danger. But Jo knows there’s only one way to keep her child safe – RUN.

 

Beneath Copper Falls by Colleen Coble

Dana Newell has just moved to Rock Harbor to take a job as a sheriff’s dispatcher and is settling in next door to Bree and Kade Matthews. The abusive relationship she left behind seems a distant memory in this perfect place.

Her first day on the job, Dana receives a call from her friend Allyson who screams “He’s going to kill me too” before the phone goes dead. Dana immediately dispatches a deputy, but it’s too late. Allyson’s death is ruled an accident, but Dana just doesn’t believe it. She knows Allyson—an investigative reporter—was researching a new story. Did someone want to keep her quiet?

Dana continues to look into the accident with the help of Bree and also Allyson’s cousin Boone. Romance quickly blooms between Dana and Boone but the game is much more complex than either of them imagined. When Dana’s ex-fiance locates her, she’s caught in the middle. It’s a game of cat and mouse as she and Boone fight to catch one killer while evading another.

 

Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews

Sixteen year-old Echo Stone awakens in a cold sweat in a dark room, having no idea where she is or how she got there. But she soon finds out she is in Middle House, an orphanage filled with mysteriously troubled kids.

There is just one problem: she is not an orphan. Her parents are very much alive.

She explains this to everyone, but no one will listen. After befriending a sympathetic (and handsome) boy, Echo is able to escape Middle House and rush home, only to discover it sealed off by crime scene tape and covered in the evidence of a terrible and violent crime. As Echo grapples with this world-shattering information, she spots her parents driving by and rushes to flag them down. Standing in the middle of street, waving her arms to get their attention, her parents car drives right through her.

She was right. Her parents are alive but she Is not.She is a ghost, just like all the other denizens of Middle House. Desperate to somehow get her life back and reconnect with her still-alive boyfriend, Echo embarks on a quest to solve her own murder.

 

The Breakdown by B. Paris

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside―the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby. The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…

 

The Lost Children (Detective Lucy Harwin #1) by Helen Phifer

Lizzy pulled the covers over her head. Then she realised what was being dragged behind the person with the torch. She rammed her fist into her mouth to stop herself from screaming…

For decades, The Moore Asylum was home to the forgotten children of Brooklyn Bay. But ever since a scandal forced its closure, the abandoned building has cast an imposing shadow. Until now – when an elderly man is found dead, his body strapped to an ancient gurney…

Detective Lucy Harwin, still reeling from a previous case that ended in the devastating murder of a mother and her child, finds herself on the trail of a killer ruthlessly fixated on avenging the asylum’s wrongs.

What disturbing secrets lie within the asylum’s walls? Together with her partner Detective Mattie Jackson, Lucy begins to unearth its terrible history, and the horrors endured by the vulnerable children.

As the attacks escalate and a woman is murdered on her own doorstep, Lucy is forced into a terrifying game of cat and mouse with a twisted individual. But can Lucy stop a murderer with nothing left to lose?

 

And then this happened…

A few weeks ago, my friend Annie (The Misstery), who is totally awesome, told me about a book on NetGalley that she thought I would like. I remember reading the book description and I am not even kidding right now, I almost cried. The book is set in KENYA! Do you know how rare it is to find ARCs set in my country? In addition, it is historical fiction. The time period is in the 50-60s during our struggle for independence. The secret society, MauMau is a group that I respect. I believe that they gave us the freedom that we have today. So, I almost wept because of how awesome the book seemed and also because I wasn’t sure that I would get it.

Then I looked at the publisher’s name and my heart totally sank. I have never been approved by them. I still requested the book knowing that the rejection would hurt. I didn’t want to wait for months for the book. Anyway, in the end I got approved. I can’t even explain it. Maybe the ARCs gods intervened or perhaps the publisher just decided to be good to me. Perhaps this is my repayment for that nice thing I once did for someone in 92; anyway, I am so happy. The book will be out in July but I know that I won’t be able to wait that long.

 

 

Leopard at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh

After six years in England, Rachel has returned to Kenya and the farm where she spent her childhood, but the beloved home she’d longed for is much changed. Her father’s new companion—a strange, intolerant woman—has taken over the household. The political climate in the country grows more unsettled by the day and is approaching the boiling point. And looming over them all is the threat of the Mau Mau, a secret society intent on uniting the native Kenyans and overthrowing the whites.

As Rachel struggles to find her place in her home and her country, she initiates a covert relationship, one that will demand from her a gross act of betrayal. One man knows her secret, and he has made it clear how she can buy his silence. But she knows something of her own, something she has never told anyone. And her knowledge brings her power.

 

Have you read any of these ARCs? Are you tempted to add any of them to your TBR?

Have a wonderful weekend!