Mailbox Monday and In My Mailbox: From Kate Style to Pompeii and Winning Him Without Words, This Mailbox Has Something For Everyone!

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at The Printed Page, is on a blog tour!

This month, Mailbox Monday is being hosted over at The Bluestocking Guide, so stop by and join the fun!

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren!

It is so much fun to see what everyone is getting in the mail.

Thanks for taking the time to visit ~ I just love hearing from you! Please let me know if you have read any of these books - I'd love to hear how you liked them!! :)

We  were very busy over Memorial Day Weekend, so I missed last week's Mailbox post completely by accident!  So this week I've got two weeks of books...


Don't Kill The Birthday Girl: Tales From an Allergic Life ARC by Sandra Beasley ~ Fiction / Post-Apocalyptic ~ Available Now ~ Received courtesy of the publisher for review via Shelf Awareness

A beautifully written and darkly funny journey through the world of the allergic.

Like twelve million other Americans, Sandra Beasley suffers from food allergies. Her allergies—severe and lifelong—include dairy, egg, soy, beef, shrimp, pine nuts, cucumbers, cantaloupe, honeydew, mango, macadamias, pistachios, cashews, swordfish, and mustard. Add to that mold, dust, grass and tree pollen, cigarette smoke, dogs, rabbits, horses, and wool, and it’s no wonder Sandra felt she had to live her life as “Allergy Girl.” When butter is deadly and eggs can make your throat swell shut, cupcakes and other treats of childhood are out of the question—and so Sandra’s mother used to warn guests against a toxic, frosting-tinged kiss with “Don’t kill the birthday girl!”

It may seem that such a person is “not really designed to survive,” as one blunt nutritionist declared while visiting Sandra’s fourth-grade class. But Sandra has not only survived, she’s thrived—now an essayist, editor, and award-winning poet, she has learned to navigate a world in which danger can lurk in an unassuming corn chip. Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl is her story.

With candor, wit, and a journalist’s curiosity, Sandra draws on her own experiences while covering the scientific, cultural, and sociological terrain of allergies. She explains exactly what an allergy is, describes surviving a family reunion in heart-of-Texas beef country with her vegetarian sister, delves into how being allergic has affected her romantic relationships, exposes the dark side of Benadryl, explains how parents can work with schools to protect their allergic children, and details how people with allergies should advocate for themselves in a restaurant.

A compelling mix of memoir, cultural history, and science, Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl is mandatory reading for the millions of families navigating the world of allergies—and a not-to-be-missed literary treat for the rest of us.

Kate Style: Chic and Classic Look by Alisande Healy Orme ~ Non-Fiction / Fashion / Popular Culture ~ Available Now ~ Received courtesy of the publisher for review

Since her royal romance propelled her into the public spotlight, the world’s most famous girlfriend has blossomed from a fresh-faced student into a fashion queen. Kate Style: Chic and Classic Look is a beautifully illustrated guide to the making of a modern princess, telling Kate’s fashion story in full. From that famous strut down the catwalk in a little see-through number that caught a prince’s eye to the tricks she picked up as a buyer for Jigsaw, the glitzy outfits of her clubbing days, and the emergence of a chic and elegant look that has prompted comparisons with that other English rose, Princess Diana.

Whether she’s dressed for the country in a stylish and sporty tweed ensemble, attending a society function in a glamorous evening gown, or keeping it casual in jeans and her favourite knee-high slouch boots, Kate always looks picture-perfect, effortlessly blending high-street fashions with elegant designer pieces. This book picks apart the seams of the princess-to-be’s coveted look; detailing her favourite shops and designers, surveying the shoes, bags and, of course, hats that form an essential part of Kate’s wardrobe, and revealing the secrets behind her glossy locks and flawless make-up.

Including the sapphire blue engagement outfit that caused a sensation, the legacy of that ring, speculation about the dress and all the details on what promises to be a fairytale wedding, Kate Style: Chic and Classic Look is the essential guide to a royal style icon in the making.

The Little Women Letters: A Novel ARC by Gabrielle Donnelly ~ Fiction ~ Available June 7th ~ Received courtesy of the publisher for review via Shelf Awareness

Vibrant, fresh, and intelligent, The Little Women Letters explores the imagined lives of Jo March’s descendants—three sisters who are both thoroughly modern and thoroughly March. As uplifting and essential as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Gabrielle Donnelly’s novel will speak to anyone who’s ever fought with a sister, fallen in love with a fabulous pair of shoes, or wondered what on earth life had in store for her.

With her older sister, Emma, planning a wedding and her younger sister, Sophie, preparing to launch a career on the London stage, Lulu can’t help but feel like the failure of the Atwater family. Lulu loves her sisters dearly and wants nothing but the best for them, but she finds herself stuck in a rut, working dead-end jobs with no romantic prospects in sight. When her mother asks her to find a cache of old family recipes in the attic of her childhood home, Lulu stumbles across a collection of letters written by her great-great-grandmother Josephine March. In her letters, Jo writes in detail about every aspect of her life: her older sister, Meg’s, new home and family; her younger sister Amy’s many admirers; Beth’s illness and the family’s shared grief over losing her too soon; and the butterflies she feels when she meets a handsome young German. As Lulu delves deeper into the lives and secrets of the March sisters, she finds solace and guidance, but can the words of her great-great-grandmother help Lulu find a place for herself in a world so different from the one Jo knew?

Some things, of course, remain unchanged: the stories and jokes that form a family’s history, the laughter over tea in the afternoon, the desire to do the right thing in spite of obstacles. And above all, of course, the fierce, undying, and often infuriating bond of sisterhood that links the Atwater women every bit as firmly as it did the March sisters all those years ago. Both a loving tribute to Little Women and a wonderful contemporary family story, The Little Women Letters is a heartwarming, funny, and wise novel for today.

Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger: New & Selected Stories by Lee Smith ~ Fiction ~ Available Now ~ Received courtesy of the publisher for review

Lee Smith is a "teller of tales for tale tellers to admire and envy . . . [and] a reader’s dream" (Houston Chronicle). A celebrated and bestselling writer with a dozen novels under her name, including Fair and Tender Ladies, Oral History, and The Last Girls, she is just as widely recognized for her exceptional short stories. Here, in Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, Smith collects seven brand-new stories along with seven of her favorites from three earlier collections. The result? A book of dazzling richness. As the New York Times Book Review put it, "In al- most every one of [her stories] there is a moment of vision, or love, or unclothed wonder that transforms something plain into something transcendent."

Pompeii: City on Fire ARC by T. L. Higley ~ Fiction / Historical / Christian ~ Available Now ~ Received courtesy of the publisher for review and tour with CFBA June 15-17

Pompeii, a city that's many things to many people. For Cato, it's the perfect escape from a failed political career in Rome. A place to start again, become a winemaker. But when a corrupt politician wrongfully jails Cato's sister, he must oust the man from power to save her.

For Ariella, Pompeii is a means to an end. As a young Jew, she escaped the fall of Jerusalem only to endure slavery to a cruel Roman general. She ends up in Pompeii, disguised as a young man and sold into a gladiator troupe. Her anger fuels her to fight well, hoping to win the arena crowds and reveal her gender at the perfect time. Perhaps then she will win true freedom.

But evil creeps through the streets of Pompeii. Political corruption, religious persecution, and family peril threaten to destroy Ariella and Cato, who are thrown together in the battle to survive. As Vesuvius churns with deadly intent, the two must bridge their differences to save the lives of those they love, before the fiery ash buries Pompeii, leaving the city lost to the world.

Something For Nothing: A Novel by David Anthony ~ Fiction ~ Available June 7th ~ Received courtesy of the publisher for review

Martin Anderson has a racehorse, a deep-sea fishing boat, a vacation home in Tahoe, and a Caddy in the garage. But his life is in freefall. It's the 1970s, and with the arrival of the oil crisis and gas rationing, his small aircraft business is tanking, as is his extravagant suburban lifestyle. Martin keeps many secrets from his wife, from his mounting debt to his penchant for sneaking into neighborhood homes and making off with small keepsakes. So when he's given the opportunity to clear his debt by using one of his planes to make a few drug runs between California and Mexico, Martin accepts the offer . . . only to find his troubles have just begun.

Smart, suspenseful, and funny, David Anthony's debut is a perfect snapshot of America's misguided pursuit of happiness—then, and now.

Winning Him Without Words: 10 Keys to Thriving in Your Spiritually Mismatched Marriage by Lynn Donovan & Dineen Miller ~ Non-Fiction / Religion / Christian Life / Love & Marriage ~ Available Now ~ Received courtesy of the publisher for review and tour with CFBA June 20-22

Week after week, they sit in church . . . alone. They are the spiritually mismatched, those who are committed to a spouse who does not share their faith. Feeling abandoned by their spouse and forgotten by their church, they live out their faith in survival mode, guarding the spiritual flame yet never feeling free to share it. But God wants them to thrive—not just survive.

Winning Him Without Words presents 10 Christ centered keys to thriving in a spiritual mismatch. Readers are encouraged to commit to Christian community, to release their spouse to God’s capable hands, to find peace in their relationships with Christ and with their spouse, to continue their pursuit of a growing faith and to love their spouse with fresh enthusiasm. God wants every marriage to exude peace and love, and Winning Him Without Words empowers readers to create that environment in their homes and thrive as God works.

Zoe and the Tormented Tycoon (Balfour Brides) by Kate Hewitt ~ Fiction / Romance ~ Available July 12 ~ Received courtesy of the author for review along with an upcoming interview! Thanks Kate and Author Sound Relations!!

Everyone's talking about Zoe Balfour—the illegitimate heiress! She flies to New York to discover more about her biological family and goes a little wild, shocking even herself by spending one night with a gorgeous stranger….

The gradual loss of his sight has caused Manhattan mogul Max Monroe to close himself off from the world—a wife and child are most certainly not on his agenda! How will Zoe, once just a spoiled socialite and now unexpectedly pregnant, unlock the dark heart of a man who may never see his own child?

*Disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate. I get a very small amount for any purchases made when you click through a link from Wendi's Book Corner, which I then save up to buy more books. :)