Cleaning Up My TBR With a Giveaway (US Only) - Down the TBR Hole #28

This meme was started by Lost in a Story.  Here is how it works:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Because I have so many to do, I'm going to try to do this weekly, and do 10 at a time.


1.   Of Poseidon by Anna Banks:

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...

Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.
 
My thoughts:
It sounds like a similar one to other books that came out about mermaids.  But I don't know that I'll ever get to it, and if I do want to, I can get it easily at the library.

Verdict:  Toss



2.  Winning Mr. Wrong by Marie Higgins:

Whoever said the quest for love wasn't comical never met Charlene Randall. Charley is looking for a man who wants to start a family, a man who will take her to the temple. Problem is, she has never dated a man for longer than three months. When she reads an internet article called "Ten Ways to Win Your Man," she decides to try it on her new coworker, Maxwell Harrington. Max was her crush in high school, but the superstar sports anchorman doesn't even remember her. Enter ladies' man Damien Giovianni, Charley's handsome neighbor, who agrees to help her win Max over. What follows is a hilarious tale of mishaps and misunderstandings where Charley learns that what she really needs may be right in front of her.

My thoughts:  
Not sure this is my type of read anymore.  Probably won't ever get around to it or anything.

Verdict:Toss




3.  Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire:

Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law, and Dorothy is back. Amid chaos and war, Elphaba’s green granddaughter born at the end of "Son of a Witch", comes of age. Rain will take up her broom, and bring the series to a close.

My thoughts:  
I read the first two books in the series, and don't know that I'll go on. Since this is the fourth in the series, I need to read book 3 before I decide for sure if I even want to read this one.

Verdict:  Toss



4.  Rapture by Phillip W. Simpson:

The Rapture has occurred, just as the Bible predicted. The faithful have risen up to Heaven. Those left behind are in a living hell.

Earth burns, hell-like in its oppressive heat. Every volcano in the world has erupted, and tsunamis and earthquakes continue to devastate the planet. Clouds continually rain ash onto the scorched landscape, sparking fires all around. Plants and animals are dying. Food is scarce. The night sky is devoid of stars, and the moon - when it can be seen - is the colour of blood.

The remnants of humanity fight for survival. Most have fled the cities and now hide in caves deep in the mountains. By night, demons stalk the Earth, capturing the remaining humans and killing them - if they're lucky. The less fortunate are converted to worship of the Devil, and ushered into endless hell.

Eighteen year old Sam is unable to rise up because he is half demon. Hikari, a Japanese sword master and demon expert and his beautiful daughter, Aimi, have been all the family Sam has ever known. Now they're gone, and Sam must set out on the mission Hikari charged him with long ago: to help all the humans left behind. Armed only with his beloved Japanese swords and his wits, Sam wanders the post-apocalyptic world alone, separated forever from everyone he loves. Cursed by his demonic heritage, he must now embark on a quest that will take him across the US to the City of Angels.

There he will confront his destiny. There he must fight to save a friend ... and the souls of the living.
 
My thoughts:
Don't even remember this one.  Will have to pass.

Verdict: Toss

5.   Living Violet by Jaime Reed:

He's persuasive, charming, and way too mysterious. And for Samara Marshall, her co-worker is everything she wants most--and everything she most fears. . .

Samara Marshall is determined to make the summer before her senior year the best ever. Her plan: enjoy downtime with friends and work to save up cash for her dream car. Summer romance is not on her to-do list, but uncovering the truth about her flirtatious co-worker, Caleb Baker, is. From the peculiar glow to his eyes to the unfortunate events that befall the girls who pine after him, Samara is the only one to sense danger behind his smile.

But Caleb's secrets are drawing Samara into a world where the laws of attraction are a means of survival. And as a sinister power closes in on those she loves, Samara must take a risk that will change her life forever. . .or consume it.
  
My thoughts:
Still don't know if this is one I'll ever get to, don't know if it is that good of a book anyway.

Verdict: Toss



6.  Desire by Kailin Gow:

A Dystopian world where everyone's future is planned out for them at age 18...whether it is what a person desires or not. Kama is about to turn 18 and she thinks her Life s Plan will turn out like her boyfriend's and friend's as they desired. But when she glimpse a young man who can communicate with her with his thoughts and knows her name...a young man with burning blue eyes and raven hair, who is dressed like no other in her world, she is left to question her Life's Plan and her destiny. Knowing the truth can destroy everyone...

My thoughts:
I feel like this is an author I need to read some day, but dont' know if I'll get to this.  The dystopian thing has to be really good these days to get me interested anyway.

Verdict:  Toss



7.  Bewitching by Alex Flinn:

Kendra Hilferty, the witch who curses Kyle Kingsbury in Beastly, tells about her immortal existence-how she discovered she was a witch and the various ways she has used her powers to help people throughout the centuries. (Unfortunately her attempts have often backfired.) As it turns out, Kendra has actually had a hand in "Hansel and Gretel," "The Princess and the Pea," and "The Little Mermaid"-but these are not the fairy tales you think you know! Kendra's reminiscences are wrapped around a real-time version of "Cinderella," except the "ugly" stepsister is the good guy. With dark twists, hilarious turns, and unexpected endings, Bewitching is a contemporary read for fairy-tale lovers, fantasy fans, and anyone looking for more Alex Flinn.

My thoughts:  
I think at some point I do want to read on in this series, but I don't think I need to keep this on my Goodreads TBR, because the author is a well enough known one that I'll be able to find the book easily.  I know it is even on my shelf at the library where I work.

Verdict: Toss


 8.  Getting Out of Jersey by Matthew Paul Esham:

It always starts small. A single action, followed by another, and another... By the time most people realize the scrabbling noise in the dark is coming from something with teeth, it's too late. In a small town in South Jersey, the darkness has taken root, spreading fast. Only a few people have survived. The ones who are left, are Getting Out of Jersey. "Best new horror!" - Susan Preston "Can't wait for the second book!" - Andy Green "Great ending!" - John Masterson

My thoughts:
Sounds maybe good, but I don't read a lot of zombie stuff anymore. 

Verdict: Toss





9.  Differentiation that Really Works:  Science by Cheryll Adams and Rebecca Pierce:

Differentiation That Really Works in Science provides time-saving tips and strategies from real teachers who teach science in grades 6-12. These teachers not only developed the materials and used them in their own classes, but they also provide useful feedback and comments about the activities. The strategies included in the book are tiered lessons, cubing, graphic organizers, exit cards, learning contracts, and choice boards. Every strategy includes directions and offers opportunities for differentiation.

My thoughts:
Just in case I ever end up teaching science again, I think I'd be interested in this one. And I will probably always believe in differentiated instruction as a good form of teaching. 

Verdict: Keep


10.  Ruin by N.M. Martinez:

Thirty years ago, there was a revolution.

Humans were granted powers through experiments performed upon them against their will. They broke free from the Labs and burned across the land, creating a dangerous new territory called the Wildlands.

Paula has grown up in the Neutral Territory, never knowing a time without the neighboring Wildlands as a threat. Her government does what it can to protect her people, but they still live in fear of the powerful Wildlanders invading their safe and protected territory.

Then one night Paula's mother is arrested, and Paula is banned from the Neutral Territory to the Wildlands. Now she must make a new life for herself in a territory of people she knows will not be welcoming.

My thoughts:
Another dystopian I probably added during my phase of reading all of these.  Not anything I'm probably interested in now.

Verdict: Toss


Final Thoughts:
Only keeping one this week out of ten, so that's good! I'm getting rid of so many as I move, but since I ran out of time, I just packed all my books and I will need to go through them once I get to unpacking.  Once again you can see that I may have dropped some, but you can also see how many I've added during the week as well because I'm also pointing out how many books are on my Want to Read list on Goodreads each week.  This week, after taking these 9 off, I have 3,190 books listed now, and last week I ended with 3,190. So I kept it even with how many I added. 

Have you read any of these?  Would you suggest I keep any I'm tossing?  And if you're inspired to do this on your blog, please feel free to join in and share a link in the comments, since it will also get you an extra entry into my giveaway at the bottom of this post.      
 

Giveaway:
Once again this is a US only giveaway, unless you are International and see a book here you really want and would be willing to pay for the difference in the shipping through Paypal or some other way.  This week I'm upping the prize, you get to pick any two books from the pictures below, as long as they don't get traded away, or picked by last week's winner, and I will pick a surprise book from the piles to add to your choice.  Here are your choices:   

2018 ARCs:

2017 ARCs:

I'm continuing to add in my early 2019 ARCs now.  You can pick one of your two choices from the picture below, the other book you pick needs to come from the pictures above.

Once again I'm going to let you pick two, along with me throwing in a surprise third book!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below. 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cleaning Up My TBR With a Giveaway (US Only) - Down the TBR Hole #20

This meme was started by Lost in a Story.  Here is how it works:

• Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
• Order on ascending date added.
• Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
• Read the synopses of the books
• Decide: keep it or should it go?

Because I have so many to do, I'm going to try to do this weekly, and do 10 at a time.


1.   Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey:

This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.

Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother's political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.

My thoughts:
I was fascinated in learning more about Marie Antoinette for a while.  I'd say I'm past that point now, have learned what I want to.

Verdict:  Toss



2.  The Tudor Throne by Brandy Purdy:

In the wake of King Henry VIII's death, England's throne is left in a precarious state—as is the peculiar relationship between his two daughters. Mary, the elder, once treasured, had been declared a bastard in favor of her flame-haired half-sister, Elizabeth, born of the doomed Anne Boleyn. Yet the bond between the sisters was palpable from the start. Now reinstated, Mary eventually assumes her place as queen. But as Mary's religious zeal evolves into a reign of terror, young Elizabeth gains the people's favor. Gripped by a tormenting paranoia, Mary is soon convinced that her beloved Elizabeth is in fact her worst enemy. And the virginal Elizabeth, whose true love is her country, must defy her tyrannical sister to make way for a new era. . .

A brilliant portrait of the rule of "Bloody Mary" and her intricate relationship with Elizabeth I, the adored "Virgin Queen," here is a riveting tale of one family's sordid and extraordinary chapter in the pages of history.
My thoughts:  
Another time in history I was once obsessed with.  Not so much anymore.

Verdict:  Toss



3.  Airplane Novel by Paul A. Toth:

Paul A. Toth’s Airplane Novel is the Guernica of 9/11 novels, a literary mural that provides the one view of events never before depicted: inside-out.

Toth employs the South Tower as his narrator, a crucial conceit that allows the tower’s computer infrastructure, height and thousands of windows to provide the first truly-panoramic 9/11 novel. Rather than focusing on a single family or individual, Airplane Novel pursues the WTC’s past and future to the moment of their collision. Yet the narrator also follows characters representative of all that it has and will endure.

Adding yet another angle, the South Tower addresses its audience as readers of "airplane novels" in flight to various destinations. The distance between readers and the center of the catastrophe thus decreases until all must answer a key question: Are they reading a fictional account of a historical event...or participating in that event?

Comic and tragic, wailing and railing, fantastic and hyper-realistic, Airplane Novel portrays the South Tower to be “more human than human” and the perfect spectator of its own spectacle.

My thoughts:  
While this sounds really original, not sure it's one I'll ever actually want to pick up and read. 

Verdict:  Toss



4.  Hollow by Richard P. Denney:

Welcome to the house of Hollow.

In a dystopian future, sixteen year old Leah Munro has been sold to a rich woman in a crippling mansion. Soon Leah discovers that there is something mysterious going on around the home, and with the help of three other girls, she attempts to uncover what is truly happening… what lies beyond all of the plexiglass windows and the hideous screams in the middle of the night? Leah will soon find out.

This book is no longer going to be published.
 
My thoughts:
Well, from the last line of the Goodreads synopsis, it sounds like this isn't anything I'd even have the chance to read anyway.  So why bother keeping it?

Verdict:  Toss

5.   Fade by Kailin Gow: 

What if you found out you never existed?

My name is Celestra Caine. I am seventeen years old, which makes me a senior at Richmond High. I never thought this would happen to me, but it has... I'm one of those people you see every day, go to school with, remember seeing at the supermarket or the mall, and then one day you don't hear about them any longer. They're gone, and eventually, you forget them.

  
My thoughts:
I really do need to read something by this author, but not sure I'm so interested in this one anymore.

Verdict: Toss



6.  Placebo by Paul Allih:

Emma is a teenage girl who has spent most of her life being shuffled from place to place. Between her mother’s drug addiction and her sister’s overbearing nature, Emma feels she is being forced to grow up sooner then she should. Using her love for brooding music and paranormal romance novels to escape; Emma hides from this stress that she faces every day.

Finally settling in a small coastal town, Emma meets Matt, a man who she believes to be the prince that she has always dreamed of. At first she finds herself drawn to his dark and strange desires, but the closer they become, the more Emma realizes that there is something horribly wrong with Matt. The person who she thought could save her from her life, might be the same man who could end it.

My thoughts:
Eh, not sure why I added this one, other than the really creepy cover.

Verdict:  Toss



7.  Wolfsbane by William W. Johnstone:

It had been years since wolfsbane grew on the bayou, yet everyone who lived in Ducros Parish, Louisiana, knew that someday it would appear again. With its pretty yellow flowers and lovely green leaves, wolfsbane was as beautiful as it was deadly. And when the townspeople saw the ancient root once again spring from the earth, they knew it wouldn’t be long before they heard the terrifying howls in the night . . .

There were those who called the tales of wolfsbane superstition, the stuff of childhood legend. But others knew that when the flower blossomed again, so would the spilling of human blood—and there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide . . .

My thoughts:  
This is an author that I really used to read all his horror novels that I would find for cheap at used bookstores.  They aren't published anymore, but I think this is one I'd still enjoy, so I'll  leave it on the list in the hopes of seraching for it some day.

Verdict:  Keep



 8.  The Devil's Laughter (The Devil #5) by William W. Johnstone:

Something funny’s going on in Louisiana’s backwoods . . .

Someone in LaGrange has stirred up something truly evil. From beyond, demonic messengers emerge out of the fires of Hell itself, to ignite an orgy of chaos, murder, and bloody destruction.

But the Devil was the only one laughing . . .

Town veterinarian Link Donovan (former CIA) and Sheriff Ray Ingalls have grave premonitions that the ungodly laughter they heard echoing through the woods meant this was only the beginning. Once they root out the rich folk whose meddling released the minions of Satan, they recruit a band of God-fearing locals like themselves ready to battle—and obliterate—whatever face of evil dares to cross their paths.

My thoughts:
Same reasoning as above since it is the same author, and I have read the first couple in this series.

Verdict:  Keep



9.  Between by Cyndi Tefft:

It just figures that the love of Lindsey Water's life isn't alive at all, but the grim reaper, complete with a dimpled smile and Scottish accent.

After transporting souls to heaven for the last 300 years, Aiden MacRae has all but given up on finding the one whose love will redeem him and allow him entry through the pearly gates.

Torn between her growing attraction to Aiden and heaven's siren song, Lindsey must learn the hard way whether love really can transcend all boundaries.

My thoughts:
I do love a Scottish accent. But this just seems too much like others I've read. 

Verdict:  Toss




10.  Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel:

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead - or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria - a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible - until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead - and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.  

My thoughts:
I'm not sure!  I've heard good things, but don't know when or if I'll get around to it?

Verdict:  Keep for now


Final Thoughts:
Tossing all but 3 this week!  Have you read any of these?  Would you suggest I keep any I'm tossing?  And if you're inspired to do this on your blog, please feel free to join in and share a link in the comments, since it's not really catching on, I'm not going to waste time with the link up this week.  It will also get you an extra entry into my giveaway at the bottom of this post.      
 

Giveaway:
Once again this is a US only giveaway, unless you are International and see a book here you really want and would be willing to pay for the difference in the shipping through Paypal or some other way.  This week I'm upping the prize, you get to pick any two books from the pictures below, as long as they don't get traded away, or picked by last week's winner, and I will pick a surprise book from the piles to add to your choice.  Here are your choices:   

2018 ARCs;

2017 ARCs:

2014-2016ARCs:

Once again I'm going to let you pick two, along with me throwing in a surprise third book!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway