Top Ten Tuesday: Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week's topic is Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection. Some of these I got on sale, others from Kindle Unlimited, and a few were Christmas presents.

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Roast Date (The Barks & Beans Cafe Mystery Series #7) by Heather Day Gilbert

About the Book

Welcome to the Barks & Beans Cafe, a quaint place where folks pet shelter dogs while enjoying a cup of java...and where murder sometimes pays a visit.

After much cajoling, Macy gives in to her neighbor, Vera, and agrees to come to her book club's Christmas party so she can share about the cafe. While public speaking isn't Macy's thing, she wants to brighten Vera's lonely holiday season...and she can sell a little house blend on the side.

When a lively book discussion spirals into a public roast of the mayor—who happens to be sitting in their midst—things get uncomfortable. Soon afterward, the mayor shows up dead in Vera's bathroom, and no amount of gingerbread cookies or eggnog can restore Vera to the club's good graces. 'Tis the season for Macy to find the murderer, or else Vera might be taking a long winter's nap in a jail cell.

Join siblings Macy and Bo Hatfield as they sniff out crimes in their hometown...with plenty of dogs along for the ride! The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series features a small town, an amateur sleuth, and no swearing or graphic scenes.

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How Her Ex Stole Christmas by Christy Barritt

About the Book

The countdown to disaster is on, and time is running out . . .

Event planner Kaylee St. James didn’t expect to see her ex-fiancé again after he broke her heart. Especially not now . . . two days before their canceled wedding. But when Ethan Sloan waltzes into her premier Christmas party—uninvited—with danger close on his heels, she realizes there’s much more to Ethan than she ever knew.

Ethan, a CIA operative, must keep dangerous information out of the wrong hands or people will die. He found the perfect hiding place, but he’ll need Kaylee’s help to retrieve the classified intel. Unfortunately, his jilted bride-to-be isn’t in the mood to talk, much less cooperate.

When Kaylee is swept into the middle of the ensuing chaos, she soon learns that danger is closer than she could ever imagine. Will her Christmas be totally ruined—if she even survives? Or is it possible that Ethan might not only save Christmas . . . but also save Kaylee?

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Veil of Confusion (Kessler Effect #2) by Vannetta Chapman

About the Book

Who can be trusted in a world gone mad?

When Harper Moore and Cade Dawson realize they are expecting a child, they both understand that it’s time to leave the northern barrio located in what used to be El Paso, Texas. But where will their unborn child be safe, and how are they supposed to get there?

Three months after all of the lower orbital satellites crashed to Earth, society has crumbled. Law and order no longer exist. Harper and Cade have spent the first three months after the collapse helping the refugees in the barrio, but now it’s time to put their own family first.

An escape will mean walking across the Chihuahuan Desert, putting their lives in the hands of a stranger, and through it all, finding a way to cling to their humanity. Because if they aren’t able to do that, they will be no better than the savages who chase them through the pitch black, Texas night.

What place is safe, when the entire world is covered by a Veil of Confusion?

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Driving Force (An Elite Guardians Novel) by Lynette Eason & Kate Angelo

About the Book

He’s the last client she wants to protect…

Elite Guardians bodyguard/former sniper CHRISTINA SHERMAN has protected uncooperative clients before—but this time, well her client is bossy, headstrong and occasionally eats off the floor. Yes, he’s a highly trained military working dog, but certainly her skills could be put to better use, right?

Not according to former Special Forces Air Commando GREY PARKER. He needs her help to protect his dog while he undergoes an experimental surgery that could restore his ability to walk. He just needs someone to keep his canine partner safe. Most of all, Grey wants back on his feet so he can track down a deranged scientist known as The Scavenger who unleashed a nerve agent that left Grey sidelined in a wheelchair.

When an attempt is made on Grey’s life, and dead bodies begin piling up—with evidence the same toxin is responsible—suddenly Christina is tasked with keeping both dog and soldier alive…and with them, the secrets that could stop a terrorist attack.

But this time, even Christina might be in over her head.

Dive into the exciting ignition to the Elite Guardians Collection.

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The Deadly Shallows (Coastal Guardians #3) by Dani Pettrey

About the Book

A DEADLY ATTACK.
A STOLEN WEAPON CAPABLE OF IMMENSE DESTRUCTION.
A PAINFUL SECRET THAT THREATENS TO TEAR TWO HEARTS APART.

CGIS Agent Noah Rowley is rocked to the core when several of his valued team members come under fire on his Coast Guard base. He and his remaining team race to the scene and end the attack, but not before innocent lives are lost. Furious and grief-stricken, he vows to do whatever is needed to bring the mastermind behind the attack to justice.

Stunned by the ambush, Coast Guard flight medic Brooke Kesler evacuates in a helicopter carrying the only surviving gunman. The gravely wounded man whispers mysterious information to Brooke that immediately paints a target on her back.

As Brooke and Noah race to uncover answers, emotions between them ignite. Noah struggles to protect Brooke at all costs and to conceal the secret that prevents him from becoming what he longs to be--the right man for her.

Everything is at stake as a horrifying truth emerges. . . .

The attack wasn't the end game. It was only the beginning.

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The Masked Fae (Royal Fae of Rose Briar Woods #1) by Shari L. Tapscott

About the Book

Never make a bargain with one of the Fae.

It’s a rule everyone knows…and yet it’s one Alice’s family seems to ignore. After her brother loses their entire family fortune in a wager he cannot afford, Alice ventures into the Rose Briar Woods to make a deal with the formidable Fae marquis who now owns her family’s estate—a portrait in exchange for her brother’s freedom.

But instead of Lord Ambrose, the young artist meets a mysterious masked man who saves her when her carriage is attacked by goblins. Even though he warns her to leave the woods, Alice finds herself working in the marquis’s manor.

Right away, Alice realizes Lord Ambrose is not what she expects. He’s kind when the Fae are supposed to be cold, and he’s generous even though he wants to be rid of her. And more, he’s hiding a painful past—one that seems to have something to do with Alice herself.

Soon, Alice is torn between the handsome marquis and the dashing masked bandit who continues to visit her in the evenings, but her heart tells her something is amiss.

Because it seems very likely the two men Alice is taken with just might be the same man…

The Masked Fae is a breathtaking fantasy romance with a touch of angst and plenty of chemistry. Each book in the series is a complete story, and although it’s best to read them in order, there are no cliffhangers.

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Of Fire and Ash (The Fireborn Epic #1) by Gillian Bronte Adams

About the Book

She rides a fireborn, a steed of fire and ash, trained for destruction.

Ceridwen tal Desmond dreams of ruling like her father over the nation of Soldonia, where warriors ride to battle on magical steeds—soaring on storm winds, vanishing in shadow, quaking the earth, and summoning the sea. After a tragic accident claims her twin brother, she is exiled and sworn to atonement by spending her life—or death—for her people.

But when invaders spill onto Soldonia’s shores and traitors seize upon the chaos to murder her father, Ceridwen claims the crown to keep the nation from splintering. Combatting overwhelming odds and looming civil war, she begins to wonder if the greatest threat to the kingdom may, in fact, be her.

With fire before her and ash in her wake, how can she hope to unite instead of destroy?

Flames rage and oceans rise in this explosive first installment of The Fireborn Epic as the exiled heir, a novice priest, and a reluctant rebel wage war against a hidden power that threatens to shake the world.

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Calor (The Nightingale Trilogy #1) by J.J. Fischer

About the Book

What if you could edit memories with a single touch?

The world-that-was is gone, lost to everything except living memory . . . but remembering comes at a terrible price. Sixty-two years after the apocalypse, a new society has emerged from the ashes of the old world where highly valued memories are traded and nostalgia is worth dying—and even killing—for.

Enslaved by a cruel master, Sephone Winter is forced to use her rare ability to manipulate memories to numb the darkest secrets of the ruling aristocracy.

Then Lord Adamo appears, speaking of a powerful relic capable of permanently erasing memories and recovering Sephone’s own lost childhood. But not everything about the young lord is as it seems, and soon Sephone must choose between helping Lord Adamo forget his past or journeying deep into the land of Lethe, where the truth about who she really is might finally be revealed . . . and a long desired future restored.

The Nightingale Trilogy is a fantasy transformation of Hans Christian Andersen's beloved 1843 tale The Nightingale, with echoes of the myths of Hades and Persephone.

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Opening Gambit (Tournament of Shadows #1) by Tilly Wallace

About the Book

This pawn is going to take control of the game…

Seraphina Winyard is an abomination—a female mage. The first magic wielder of her sex to reach adulthood in three hundred years, she is treated like a zoological exhibit and leads a restricted life. Determined to escape and control her own destiny, she seizes a chance for freedom. But when her guardian is murdered, suspicion falls on the young mage.

The brilliant young surgeon Hugh Miles is tasked to aid the investigation to find the murderer. But the more he unearths, the more unsure he is about the mage’s innocence, particularly when he witnesses her power and temper.

As shadowy forces seek to label Seraphina a danger and have her imprisoned, she must decide if she can place her trust and life in Hugh’s large hands. Can they work together to find the true murderer, or will the mage council replace her leash with a noose…?

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Between Friends (A City Between Compilation) by W.R. Gingell

About the Book

What happened to the tie frog? What is the best way of disposing of vampiric watermelon? Exactly how do you get rid of goblins in the spare room?

Friends and foes, Between and Behind—all the little pieces and curiosities that make up Pet’s new world—are here to be seen and delighted in, and put on the shelf beside books 1-10.

Featuring Cloudy with a Chance of Dropbears, All the Different Shades of Blue, and every other Short Thing formerly found on the WR(ite) Blog, along with previously unpublished novelettes and three new, never-before-seen short stories, this compilation completes the main City Between series.

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What books have you recently added to your collection?