Books to Brighten your Mood: Upcoming Releases of the Week (March 11th

A Fine Romance (Aisle Bound Trilogy #2) by Christi Barth
Publication Date: March 11th 2013
Publisher: Carina Press
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website

They say you form your first impression of someone within thirty seconds of meeting them. Or, in Mira Parrish's case, within thirty minutes of not meeting them, when said person is supposed to pick you up from the airport and never shows. This is not a perfect start to her new life. Her
friend Ivy is depending on her to run a new romance store, and Mira can't afford to let her down.

Sam Lyons should probably apologize. But every time he sees Mira--which is often, since his family owns the bakery next to her shop--he can't resist antagonizing her. There's something about the sexy, straight-laced woman that drives him crazy. He can't get involved, though. He has too much baggage to be any good in a serious relationship.

Despite his teasing attitude, Mira finds Sam too sweet to resist. (His hot body may be a factor.) But if there's going to be anything permanent between them, they'll need to let go of their pasts and look to the future...

Along Came Trouble (Camelot #2) by Ruthie Knox
Publication Date: March 11th 2013
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website

Ruthie Knox’s Camelot series continues in this sizzling eBook original novel, featuring two headstrong souls who bump heads—and bodies—as temptation and lust bring nothing but delicious trouble.

An accomplished lawyer and driven single mother, Ellen Callahan isn’t looking for any help. She’s doing just fine on her own. So Ellen’s more than a little peeved when her brother, an international pop star, hires a security guard to protect her from a prying press that will stop at nothing to dig up dirt on him. But when the tanned and toned Caleb Clark shows up at her door, Ellen might just have to plead the fifth.

Back home after a deployment in Iraq and looking for work as a civilian, Caleb signs on as Ellen’s bodyguard. After combat in the hot desert sun, this job should be a breeze. But guarding the willful beauty is harder than he imagined—and Caleb can’t resist the temptation to mix business with pleasure. With their desires growing more undeniable by the day, Ellen and Caleb give in to an evening of steamy passion. But will they ever be able to share more than just a one-night stand?

Deep Betrayal (Lies Beneath #2) by Anne Greenwood Brown
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

It's been thirty days, two hours, and seventeen minutes since Calder left Lily standing on the shores of Lake Superior. Not that she's counting. And when Calder does return, it's not quite the reunion Lily hoped for. Especially after she lets her father in on a huge secret: he, like Calder, is a merman. Obsessed with his new identity, Lily's dad monopolizes Calder's time as the two of them spend every day in the water, leaving Lily behind.

Then dead bodies start washing ashore. Calder blames his mermaid sisters, but Lily fears her father has embraced the merman's natural need to kill. As the body count grows, everyone is pointing fingers. Lily doesn't know what to believe—only that whoever's responsible is sure to strike again. . .

Every Never After (Never #2) by Lesley Livingston
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Razorbill Canada
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website

It's happening again!

Despite their vow to each other at the end of Once Every Never, best friends Clare and Allie once more find themselves in trouble—and travelling in time. Indulging in a low-key vacation at Glastonbury Tor, taking part in an archaeological dig while soaking up the sights of summertime England, the girls have promised each other: no time travel shenanigans; no involvement with dangerous Druids or villainous museum thieves; and definitely no weirdness about the fact that Clare is now seriously dating Milo, Allie's super-genius hottie cousin!

But when Allie makes an unexpected discovery at the dig site—a skull—the grisly artifact sends her spiralling back in time to a Roman encampment besieged by rampaging Celts. Caught between the Legions and the war band, Allie is rescued from certain death by Marcus, a young Roman soldier with a secret. As she struggles to survive in the past, Clare and Milo race desperately against time in the present to bring Allie home...before she loses her head OR her heart.

Lost in You (Petal, Georgia #2) by Lauren Dane
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website

"He s faced down every demon except one fast-talking Southern girl. "

"Petal, Georgia, Book 2"

It hasn t been easy for Joe Harris to live down his not-so-honorable past, but the military made him a better man. He s determined to make up for past mistakes, starting with coming home to care for his ailing father.

Things are going as planned until his best friend s little sister comes barreling into his life. Funny, quick talking, smart, beautiful, she s a temptation he tries and fails to resist.

When Beth Murphy hears Joe is back in town, she makes sure she s the first on his welcoming committee. Though he tries to pretend he s gruff and unworthy of her, she sees the man who spoils his dog, who touches her like she s precious. Cherished. But there s one wall she can t break down the truth about what s happening at home.

On the night the nature of his father s illness becomes painfully, publicly apparent, Joe does the right thing push Beth as far away as possible. But if he thought she d go away quietly, he s about to learn she s made of sterner stuff.

Warning: Slow-talking, sexy mechanic with a drawl, looking to get a Murphy right out of her underpants. Quick-talking woman who knows what she wants and has a weak spot for the aforementioned slow-talking mechanic and his dancing dog. Bad words. Polly Chase behind the wheel again.

MILA 2.0 (MILA 2.0 #1) by Debra Driza
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

Mila 2.0 is the first book in an electrifying sci-fi thriller series about a teenage girl who discovers that she is an experiment in artificial intelligence.

Mila was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was a girl living with her mother in a small Minnesota town. She was supposed to forget her past —that she was built in a secret computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.

Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology. However, what Mila’s becoming is beyond anyone’s imagination, including her own, and it just might save her life.

Mila 2.0 is Debra Driza’s bold debut and the first book in a Bourne Identity-style trilogy that combines heart-pounding action with a riveting exploration of what it really means to be human. Fans of I Am Number Four will love Mila for who she is and what she longs to be—and a cliffhanger ending will leave them breathlessly awaiting the sequel.

Panic by Sharon M. Draper
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

This gripping and chillingly realistic novel from New York Times bestselling author Sharon Draper shows that all it takes is one bad decision for everything to change.

Diamond knows not to get into a car with a stranger.

But what if the stranger is well-dressed and handsome? On his way to meet his wife and daughter? And casting a movie that very night—a movie in need of a star dancer? What then?

Then Diamond might make the wrong decision.

It’s a nightmare come true: Diamond Landers has been kidnapped. She was at the mall with a friend, alone for only a few brief minutes—and now she’s being held captive, forced to endure horrors beyond what she ever could have dreamed, while her family and friends experience their own torments and wait desperately for any bit of news.

From New York Times bestselling author Sharon Draper, this is a riveting exploration of power: how quickly we can lose it—and how we can take it back.

Poison by Bridget Zinn
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she’s the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom’s future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend.

But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart . . . misses.

Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king’s army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she’s not alone. She’s armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can’t stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her?

Kyra is not your typical murderer, and she’s certainly no damsel-in-distress—she’s the lovable and quick-witted hero of this romantic novel that has all the right ingredients to make teen girls swoon.

Promises to Keep (Den of Shadows #9) by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

The compendium of creations (SingleEarth, the Bruja guilds, the Midnight empire) intertwine in an exciting, unsettling plot featuring happenings both accidental and deliberate that will forever change the alternate landscape inhabited by vampires, Tristes, shapeshifters et al. It all begins with a wrong turn and a crashed party, and from there it's an epic clash of elements and the promise of more chaos still to come. At the center of the storm is Jay, a young vampire hunter that no one would ever have predicted might be earth's best bet to thwart the rise of a vampire-controlled slave empire called Midnight. Teens will find themselves drawn to Jay, who struggles to prove his worth even while he has his own fears that those who have written him off may be right to do so.

Strands of Bronze and Gold (Strands of Bronze and Gold #1) by Jane Nickerson
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Useful Info: Goodreads, Author's Website, Book Depository

The Bluebeard fairy tale retold. . . .

When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi.

Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.

Glowing strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.

Also releasing this week:

Magick by Moonrise by Laura Navarre