New Additions To The TBR Pile In December

Ending the year with some good acquisitions...


The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . . .

Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College, has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.

To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city–from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power–on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected . . . and who waits for his next lethal opportunity.




Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum has a way of attracting danger, lunatics, oddballs, bad luck... and mystery men. And no one is more mysterious than the unmentionable Diesel. He's back and hot on the trail of a little man in green pants who's lost a giant bag of money. Problem is the money isn't exactly lost. Stephanie's Grandma Mazur has found it, and like any good Jersey senior citizen she's high-tailed it in a Winnebago to Atlantic City and hit the slots. With Lula and Connie in tow, Stephanie attempts to bring Grandma home. But the luck of the Irish is rubbing off on everyone. Lula's found a job modeling plus size lingerie. Connie's found a guy. Diesel's found Stephanie. And Stephanie has found herself in over her head with a caper involving thrice stolen money, a racehorse, a car chase and a bad case of hives.


One Silent Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

In the world of the Dark-Hunters, all hell's breaking loose...

Stryker has sent word and is gathering his forces.

While the world carries on unawares, Stryker, who leads an army of demons and vampires, is plotting an all out onslaught against his enemies-which, unfortunately for us, includes the entire human race.

To avenge his sister, Stryker prepares to annihilate the Dark-Hunters. But things go awry when his oldest enemy returns. Enter his ex-wife. Zephyra. Just when he thought nothing could stop him, he's now embroiled in a centuries old war with a shrew who gives new meaning to pain.



O Is For Outlaw by Sue Grafton

The call comes on a Monday morning from a guy who scavenges defaulted storage units at auction. The weekend before, he'd bought a stack of cardboard boxes. In one, there was a collection of childhood memorabilia with Kinsey's name all over it. For thirty bucks, he was offering Kinsey the lot.

Though she's never been one for personal possessions, curiosity is a powerful force. She agrees to meet the guy, then hands over a twenty (she may be curious, but she's also cheap and she loves a bargain).

What she finds among the items is an old undelivered letter to her that will force her to reexamine her beliefs about the breakup of her first marriage . . . about the honor of her first husband . . . and about an old unsolved murder.

It will put her life in the gravest peril.




Murder With Reservations by Elaine Viets

Living life on the lam and working wherever she can find a paycheck, Helen Hawthorne has a knack for keeping a low profile. But when her coworker dies, and her two-timing ex-husband tracks her down in South Florida, it's going to get a lot harder to fly under the radar...

Working at Sybil's Full Moon Hotel in Fort Lauderdale keeps Helen both financially and physically fit. But cleaning up after hotel guests is not like cleaning a house --- it's like cleaning fifteen houses in a single day. Not to mention dreaded room 323, the hotel's most notorious. The guests in 323 are always drunk, loud, and rude --- and worst of all, they never tip. When a maid goes missing the day after a disastrous mess in 323, the rest of the cleaning staff chalk it up to job burnout and imagine that Rhonda has finally ditched the housekeeping gig to run off with the dreamy rich boyfriend she's always talking about.

But then Rhonda turns up dead in a Dumpster, and no one feels safe and snug in South Florida, especially not Helen. Another dead body means another chance for the cops to find her. And to make matters worse, her ex-husband is hot on her trail, checking in to the very hotel where she works. Sadly, the cops don't seem to care much about a murdered maid, but they have noticed there's something shady about the victim's coworker and her not quite truthful story. If Helen doesn't manage to dodge their questions and shake off her ex, it could be checkout time for her.




Lip Lock by Susanna Carr

Come closer...

MISTRESS OF THE MOVES

Molly Connors can talk her way out of almost every situation. That is, unless she's around her boss, Kyle Ashton, a gorgeous computer tycoon with smoldering eyes and a long, lean body that doesn't quit. Every move he makes promises sophisticated sex. What woman wouldn't get tongue-tied?

But she can't risk getting too close to Kyle. No one can know that her fabulous clothes aren't hers, or that she's holding on by her manicured fingertips. But once she gets that big promotion, she'll make good on every one of her white lies. Uh-oh. Did Kyle really just say those three little words? You are ...fired? He did. If she doesn't have a job any more --- or an apartment --- she'll do whatever it takes to survive, even if it means camping out in one of Kyle's rarely used homes. He'll never know. Right?

MASTER OF THE GAME

Now that the sexy con artist has been pink-slipped out of his company and his life, Kyle can relax. Not. Molly doesn't play by the rules. And the very important clients he just brought to his weekend house think that she's his fiancee! If that's her game, he fully intends to win. Even if he has to kiss her senseless ... and love her all night long.



Flirting In Cars by Alisa Kwitney

An accomplished journalist, Zoe Goren can't drive and she doesn't cook. But that's never been a problem in Manhattan, where the streets are filled with taxis and takeout restaurants, and a busy single mother can find everything she needs right at her fingertips. In fact, Zoe can't imagine living or working anyplace else. But when Zoe's daughter is diagnosed with dyslexia, she decides to make the ultimate sacrifice, moving two hours from Manhattan in order to enroll Maya in an excellent school for children with learning differences. Stranded in a rural paradise, Zoe must grapple with isolation, coyote howls, and the lack of good delivery services. But when she decides to overcome her fear of driving and take lessons, she meets Mack, an unnervingly attractive townie, back from the war in Iraq and trying to adjust to civilian life. With a budding new romance and a reporting gig for the local paper, Zoe just might survive in the wilderness of small-town America after all.



Accidental It Girl by Libby Street

What comes around...

Photographer Sadie Price is known for her thick skin and infallible instincts. A lofty education has made her skilled in her craft, and a fear of poverty -- and love for Jimmy Choo -- has made her one of the East Coast's most savvy paparazzi. She keeps her exhilarating but sometimes hectic life manageable by staying on the right side of the razor-thin line between celebrity photographers and the stalkerazzi. But all that changes when Sadie locks horns with one of Hollywood's hottest bachelors.

...goes around.

Something about Ethan Wyatt's charisma and startling good looks throws Sadie off her game. Something about Sadie's dogged determination -- and a very compromising picture she snaps -- throws Ethan off his. Hatching a scheme befitting the silver screen that made him famous, Ethan sets out to give Sadie a taste of her own medicine. And when her life almost instantly becomes as frenzied as those of the "It Girls" she follows, Sadie starts to see her career, her love life, and Ethan Wyatt in ways she never had before....