It's Mailbox Monday Time Again!

I can vouch for the fact that Mailbox Monday will most definitely increase the size of your ever growing TBR pile!

This week my mailbox was very good to me! I received four books from BookCloseouts.com. I got each book for $1.99 a piece, so I couldn’t pass up these great books. All of them I have found on other bloggers Mailbox Mondays or other blog posts – so thanks guys!

The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman

“A lush, ancient tale of treacherous secrets, forbidden love, and murder in an Ottoman palace.

Elizabeth Staveley sits in the Bodleian library, holding in her trembling hands a fragment of ancient paper. It is the key to a story that has been locked away for four centuries, the story of a British sea captain's daughter held captive in the sultans harem. Constantinople, 1599. There are rumors and strange stirrings in the sultan's palace. The chief black eunuch has been poisoned by a taste of a beautiful ship made of spun sugar. The sultan's mother faces threats to her power from her son's favorite concubine. And a secret rebellion is rising within the palace's most private quarters.

Meanwhile, the merchant Paul Pindar, secretary to the English ambassador,
brings a precious gift to the sultan. As he nears the palace, word comes to Pindar that the woman he once loved, Celia, may be alive, and hidden among the ranks of slaves in the sultan's harem. Can this really be the same Celia who disappeared in a shipwreck? And if it is, can the two be reunited? Spellbinding and steeped in mystery and sexual intrigue, The Aviary Gate transports readers to exotic sixteenth-century” (from the author’s website)

The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease

“It is England, in the fourteenth century, the old feudal order is starting to crack but the whim of a lord or the pleasure of a bishop can still seal nearly anyones fate. For Lady Kathryn of Blackingham Manor, a widow desperately trying to safeguard her holdings, it is a time made both sweeter and more dangerous by the arrival of Finn, a master illuminator who is lodged at Blackingham by the Church but is secretly working on a forbidden English translation of the Bible. As their hesitant friendship grows into a passionate alliance, wonderful new storyteller Brenda Rickman Vantrease brings us a glorious novel of love, treachery, art, and redemption on the eve of the Renaissance.” (from fantasticfiction.com)

The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis

“The Borgia Bride is set in Italy 1492: Pope Alexander VI is elected. And so begins the Borgia reign of terror. Alexander murders, bribes and betrays to establish his dynasty. Every day, the River Tiber is full of new bodies. Sancha de Aragon, daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples, arrives in Rome newlywed to Alexander’s youngest son, Jofre. Their marriage protects Naples against the ambitions of the French King Louis and gains Spanish support for the Borgias.

But Rome is very different to her beloved Naples. The debauchery of the Borgia inner circle is notorious. Sancha is no innocent however: she possesses an indomitable spirit which allows her to survive in the snakepit.

The Borgia Bride is a sumptuous historical novel of passion, betrayal, scheming and incest, set in the Vatican during the 15th century, one of the most exciting, violent and also sensual times of European history.” (from author's website)

Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick

“In this enthralling new novel, Barbara Quick recreates 18th century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. A story of longing and intrigue, half-told truths and toxic lies, Vivaldi’s Virgins unfolds through the eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the elite musicians cloistered in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi—known as the Red Priest of Venice—is maestro and composer.

Fourteen-year-old Anna Maria, abandoned at the Ospedale della Pietà as an infant, is determined to find out who she is and where she came from.” (from the author’s website)

Did your mailbox give you any gifts this week?

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