In My Mailbox #8

In My Mailbox (IMM) is a weekly feature organised by The Story Siren. IMM is a post where you can show which books entered your house and it also gives you a chance to say thank you to the people that kindly sent them. To find out more about how you can join in, click here.

Yesterday my lovely, wonderful, fabulous parents took me to Hay on Wye for a book-buying adventure. Mama Bear and Papa Bear Cornish, y'all are AWESOME!

The following bunch of books cost me a whole tenner! What a bargain!

All synopses are taken from Goodreads.

Scar Culture, by Toni Davidson

Two profoundly abused patients deemed untreatable by orthodox professionals fall into the hands of a manipulative psychologist almost as damaged as they are. Bored by the "hack work" of standard therapy, he wants to make his name through radical intervention. He sets up elaborate hallucinogenic and regression experiments designed to take his patients back to the scene of the crimes against them in an attempt to rebuild them from the ground up. But in playing therapeutic god, ripping away at their psychic scars, he's courting disaster.

A brilliant debut novel that is destined to challenge the way we think about psychotherapy, Scar Culture is breathtaking, at times shocking, provocative, humane, sharp-witted and always riveting, marking the arrival of an extraordinary new voice.

The Missing, by Shiloh Walker 

Her psychic gift drove away the man she loved— and years later has drawn him back to her…

As a teenager, Taige Branch hated her psychic gift. No one could understand—except for Cullen Morgan, the boy who stole her heart. He did his best to accept her, until his mother was brutally murdered—and he couldn’t forgive Taige for not preventing it.Now a widowed father, Cullen Morgan has never forgotten Taige. But what brings her back into his life is another tragedy. His beloved little girl has been kidnapped, and Taige is his only hope of finding her. Working together against the clock, Cullen and Taige can’t help but wonder whether—if they find his daughter in time—it isn’t too late for the overpowering love that still burns between them.

Song For Eloise, by Leigh Sauerwein

This colorful tale of love and loss is set in France at the end of the 12th century. It is the time of the troubadours and of the Sixth Crusade. Young Eloise is given in marriage to a loyal vassal and has gone to live in his castle. Her uncle, John, just back from the fifth crusade, seeks penance in an abbey where he illuminates manuscripts and longs to fresco the altars. Thomas, the troubadour, and his companion, Babel, the juggler, make their way from village to village, from tavern to castle, singing and entertaining. While peasants work the fields, knights hunt and fight and joust, monks pray the hours of the day, and the seasons turn, Lady Eloise and Thomas, devoted friends separated as children, reunite across an inseparable divide. Song for Eloise conveys all the pageantry of medieval life, evoking the mystery and wonder of that long ago time, imbuing it with the passion of timeless romance.

Branded, by M.E. Allen

"Get a girlfriend in two months . . . do us a favor!" When our young hero takes up the crazy challenge laid down by his best mate Rich to find a girlfriend by the end of the summer, nothing seems simpler. He's a street-wise, smart kinda guy—and boy meets girl; boy wins bet, right? So why does he feel like everything he does ends in disaster? After a series of catastrophic failures at attracting the opposite sex and with time running out, our hero finally realizes that finding a girlfriend really isn't that hard, if you know where to look.

Floodland, by Marcus Sedgwick

Global warming has caused the sea to rise until cities are turning into islands and civilization is crumbling. Ten-year-old Zoe discovers a small rowboat and keeps it a secret until she sets out alone on the great sea to find her parents. She lands on tiny Eels Island, where she must survive in a nightmarish world run by wild children, and stand up to its boy-leader, Dooby. Zoe and a boy called Munchkin escape from Eels Island and cross the sea to the mainland, where they find not only Zoe’s parents but a new family and a new world.

The Dead Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan

Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She's content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast--home is all she's ever known and all she needs for happiness. 

But life after the Return is never safe.

Gabry's mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but like the dead in their world, secrets don't stay buried. And now, Gabry's world is crumbling. 

In one reckless moment, half of Gabry's generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. 
Now Gabry knows only one thing: if she has any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother's past.

Reaver's Ransom, by Emily Diamand

Lilly Melkun is out fishing with her sea-cat when the bloodthirsty Reavers come raiding and steal the Prime Minister's daughter. Her village blamed, Lilly decides to find the girl. Off she sails in secret with a ransom - an extraordinary talking jewel. But nothing can prepare her for what happens next...

Quite a haul, eh? Hope your mailboxes made you equally happy.

Lx