In My Mailbox - 1/9/10

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Well, there was no trip to Strand due to the weather (boo!) but I did get some new books this week anyway.

Anxious Hearts by Tucker Shaw

“Evangeline,” he repeated, calling at a whisper. “Evangeline.” He was not calling that she may hear, he was calling that somehow her soul might know that he was devoted entirely to her, only to her. “Evangeline, I will find you.”
Eva and Gabe explore the golden forest of their seaside Maine town, unknowingly tracing the footsteps of two teens, Evangeline and Gabriel, who once lived in the idyllic wooded village of Acadia more than one hundred years ago. On the day that Evangeline and Gabriel were be wed, their village was attacked and the two were separated. And now in the present, Gabe has mysteriously disappeared from Eva.
A dreamlike, loose retelling of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous love poem “Evangeline,” Anxious Hearts tells an epic tale of unrequited love and the hope that true love can be reunited.


The Bride Blunder by Kelly Eileen Hake

When Gavin Miller hires on to set up a gristmill for the prospering town of Buttonwood, Nebraska, he’s looking to build more than a business. For the first time, Gavin is in a position to request the hand of the woman he’s never forgotten, Miss Marguerite Chandler.
When Marguerite’s cousin steps down from the stage, Gavin realizes the terrible blunder he’s made. While he never forgot Marguerite was the French word for Daisy, he’d failed to recall that the two cousins shared their grandmother’s name, and Marge was the nickname of the wrong Miss Marguerite Chandler!
Marge rejects his offer of marriage when she discovers the truth and goes about setting up a school in town. She’s found a place in Buttonwood, but just when Gavin’s beginning to think maybe Marge holds a place in his life, a distraught Daisy descends upon the town with a broken heart—and a broken engagement.


A Bouquet for Iris by Diane Ashley and Aaron McCarver

Bored with life in Nashville and feeling unfulfilled, Iris yearns to do something meaningful. When the opportunity comes to travel to the Chattanooga area and become a nanny for two Cherokee orphans, Iris steps into her future. Attorney Adam Stuart knows better than to trust women or the government to do him right. But when the lovely Iris joins forces with him to protect the legal rights of the Indians he loves, he finds his heart in peril once again.


The Glassblower by Laurie Alice Eakes

Now that Colin Grassick, a master glass-blower from Scotland, has arrived to help at the Jordan glassworks, Meg Jordan's dreams of teaching the poor, local children are coming true. Finally, someone will have time to make windows for the rural New Jersey schoolhouse, to keep out the cold - and vandals. To Joseph Pyle, the wealthy, arrogant man to whom Meg will soon be betrothed, the destruction of Meg's new windows is inconsequential - as his wife, she will be forbidden from teaching. Why would Meg's father insist she marry a man like Joseph and stay away from the endearing Colin?


Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens by Kate Emerson

Pretty, flirtatious, and ambitious. Nan Bassett hopes that an appointment at the court of King Henry VIII will bring her a grand marriage. But soon after she becomes a maid of honor to Queen Jane, the queen dies in childbirth. As the court plunges into mourning, Nan sets her sights on the greatest match in the land...for the king has noticed her. After all, it wouldn't be the first time King Henry has chosen to wed a maid of honor. And in newly Protestant England, where plots to restore the old religion abound, Nan may be the only one who can reassure a suspicious king of her family's loyalty. But the favor of a king can be dangerous and chancy, not just for Nan, but for her family as well...and passionate Nan is guarding a secret, one that could put her future — and her life — in grave jeopardy should anyone discover the truth.