Mailbox Monday #14

 What a Monday! My post is a little later than usual because I spent all morning and early afternoon in the university library in Leiden, viewing medieval manuscripts! It was great but I'm utterly exhausted from the heat and the excitement. The term is so close to being over and I have been very actively building up a massive reading list. I'm thinking about making an actual, proper Summer Reading List that I then need to stick to, but I'm horrible at following self-imposed rules... How are you all approaching your summer reading?

 Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

She's Mine by A.A. Chaudhuri (Hera Books, 8/18/2021)

Her missing daughter was just the start of the nightmare

Twenty years ago, Christine Donovan took a call she should have ignored while shopping. In those few seconds while her back was turned, her toddler, Heidi, was kidnapped. She’s never been seen again.

Despite having two other children with husband Greg, Christine remains guilt-stricken that her neglect caused her child to be stolen, while haunted by a secret that consumes her.

Just as she takes measures to finally heal, a note is posted through her door, with the words she has always longed to hear: Heidi isn’t dead.

Christine might finally get the answers she craves - but what she doesn’t know is that finding her daughter will uncover dark secrets close to home.

In seeking the truth, Christine might destroy everything that she loves … so how far is she willing to go to find Heidi?

With a truly jaw-dropping end twist, She’s Mine is a dark, scandalous, and gripping read from a major new talent in psychological thriller writing. For fans of Harriet Tyce, C.L. Taylor and Apple Tree Yard.

Nothing like a mother ready to do whatever to bring their child home! I'm wondering at these dark secrets she will discover. I will basically suspect the neighbours and husband from the get go!

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (Tordotcom, 10/26/2021)

Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.

It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.

But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze....

But everything is perfect. Isn't it?

I adore, utterly adore Valente's Deathless, it was one of my favourite books for years. I haven't read a lot of other work by Valente yet so I'm very excited to dig into this one. it sounds soo spooky and the cover is simply stunning!

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2/1/2022)

New Mexico, 2017: Sylvia Wren is one of the most important American artists of the past century. Known as a recluse, she avoids all public appearances. There’s a reason: she’s living under an assumed identity, having outrun a tragic past. But when a hungry journalist starts chasing her story, she’s confronted with whom she once was: Iris Chapel.

Connecticut, 1950: Iris Chapel is the second youngest of six sisters, all heiresses to a firearms fortune. They’ve grown up cloistered in a palatial Victorian house, mostly neglected by their distant father and troubled mother, who believes that their house is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons. The girls long to escape, and for most of them, the only way out is marriage. But not long after the first Chapel sister walks down the aisle, she dies of mysterious causes, a tragedy that repeats with the second, leaving the rest to navigate the wreckage, to heart-wrenching consequences.

Ultimately, Iris flees the devastation of her family, and so begins the story of Sylvia Wren. But can she outrun the family curse forever?

While I haven't actually read Walker's Dietland yet, I'm very excited for The Cherry Robbers. I mean, a family curse, tragic hauntings, secret identities and secretive artists?! What more could I ask for this summer? It's not out till next year, but it will definitely be a summer read regardless.

So those are the books I've added to my reading list this week? What's in your Mailbox?