You know what I enjoy at the end of a day? Coming home to my family after a good day at work.

But I also love finding a package with a book waiting for me on the dining room table. In the last couple weeks, my mailbox has been steadily filled with books I am eager to read. Today I wanted to share a few of those books with you in no particular order. You’ll see that they span the spectrum of genres. I LOVE a good story, and these authors consistently deliver that regardless of genre or time period. Have you read any of these yet?

In Every Word Unsaid, Kimberly Duffy takes readers from South Dakota to India in the year 1897. Duffy lived in India for several years, and her deep love for the country shines through in the prose. You can learn more here. Augusta Travers has spent the last three years avoiding the stifling expectations of New York society and her family’s constant disappointment. As the nation’s most fearless–and reviled–columnist, Gussie travels the country with her Kodak camera and spins stories for women unable to leave hearth and home. But when her adventurous nature lands her in the middle of a scandal, an opportunity to leave America offers the perfect escape. Arriving in India, she expects only a nice visit with childhood friends, siblings Catherine and Gabriel, and escapades that will further her career. Instead, she finds herself facing a plague epidemic, confusion over Gabriel’s sudden appeal, and the realization that what she wants from life is changing. But slowing down means facing all the hurts of her past that she’s long been trying to outrun. And that may be an undertaking too great even for her.

Nancy Mehl’s Kaely Quinn books are intense forays into the dark side of humanity, and the Quantico Files follow in that vein. I can’t wait to read Dead Fall. “He has a deadly endgame in mind–and he’s already chosen each victim . . . including her.” After putting to rest the most personal case of her career, Alex Donovan is ready to move on and focus on her future at the FBI’s elite Behavioral Analysis Unit. When the BAU cofounder is discovered dead in his hotel room, the FBI is called in to work on the strangest case they’ve ever faced. How do you find a killer who murders his victims from a distance? When it becomes clear that the killer is targeting agents in Alex’s unit, they are ordered into lockdown, sheltered in the dorms at Quantico. Alex bunks with controversial agent Kaely Quinn, and as they work together, Alex discovers in Kaely the role model she’s never had–despite being warned away.

I loved Natalie Walters’ new book Lights Out so much that I endorsed it. I enjoyed her first series so well, yet this one knocks it out of the park. This is such an intense read jumping from Egypt to DC and all over the US. CIA analyst Brynn Taylor developed a new program to combat terrorism, and she invited members of foreign intelligence agencies to America to foster cooperation between countries. Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing. Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn’t at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It’s hard to trust a woman who’s already betrayed you. Every lead they follow draws them dangerously deeper into an international plot. Kidnapping, murder, explosions, poisoning–the terrorists will do anything to accomplish their goal of causing a digital blackout that will blind a strategic US military communications center and throw the world into chaos.

I have loved so many of Katherine Reay’s books and The London House had me at the title. Then at the cover. And it just looks so good. I love WWII and London, so The London House is at the top of my TBR pile.Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation. Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. But pleasantries are cut short. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover. Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” Popular and witty, they came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming world war. In this rich historical novel from award-winning author Katherine Reay, a young woman is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family’s story. But Caroline must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and proceed with caution if her family’s decades-old wounds are to heal without tearing them even further apart.

With 40 days left until Christmas, I’m finding myself in the mood for some Christmas books. These collections fit the bill. Of course I had to include Christmas in Mistletoe Square. I’m also excited to read all the novellas in It’s a Wonderful Christmas: Classics Reimagined and Under the Texas Mistletoe. All are authored by friends whose writing I adore.

Sprinkled throughout the collection, you’ll find a hope-filled Christmas devotion, Witemeyer holiday recipes, and fun facts about nineteenth-century Christmas celebrations! Have you read any of these? If not, which one looks like a book you need to read? Use the form below to be entered to receive one of the books from my leaning TBR pile. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here’s more about It’s a Wonderful Christmas: Classics Reimagined: It’s the most wonderful time of the year! To celebrate, five bestselling authors have joined together to create this enchanting set of holiday novellas. Nothing jump-starts Christmas nostalgia quite like the movies. With stirring images of snow-covered hills, crackling fireplaces, and happy families gathered around the decorated tree, these silver-screen tales capture all the magic and wonder of the season. Inspired by some of their favorite holiday films, each of these novelists has paid homage to the classic stories we all love, crafting an eclectic collection that delivers something for everyone. From small town romance to a Sugar Plum Fairy, this Christmas box set includes five stories sparked by National Lampoon’s Christmas  Vacation, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, The Nutcracker, and Remember the Night. Topped with a whole lot of cheer and sentimentality, It’s a Wonderful Christmas: Classics Reimagined will delight readers from the first page to the last. So grab a cup of hot cocoa, nestle under a cozy blanket, and enjoy these holiday stories in a whole new way! And more about Under the Texas Mistletoe: Three Charming and Festive Holiday Novellas Spiced with Humor, Frontier Action, and Sweet Romance In this 3-in-1 novella collection, bestselling author Karen Witemeyer presents the new story “A Texas Christmas Carol,” in which a town’s wealthy, Scrooge-like bachelor finds his world invaded by a woman set on earning his donation for helping the local poor, and by the penetrating questions of three mysterious visitors.

It also includes, for the first time in print, “An Archer Family Christmas.” When the Archer clan gathers for the Christmas holiday, an unexpected request for help leaves Cassandra Archer directly in the path of a dangerous outlaw. Desperate to protect the woman he loves, Jim Archer races to the rescue, only to find that Cassie’s life is not the only one in peril. It will take a Christmas miracle–and the entire Archer clan–to keep a second Archer Christmas from ending in disaster.

In previously published “Gift of the Heart,” a widow and her young daughter move to Hope Springs for a fresh start. But with no money to secure a home, Ruth must convince a wealthy resort owner to accept her heirloom brooch as collateral. Will the pin that brought love to three generations soften the heart of a wounded recluse and give Ruth a second chance at love as the holidays draw near?

Sprinkled throughout the collection, you’ll find a hope-filled Christmas devotion, Witemeyer holiday recipes, and fun facts about nineteenth-century Christmas celebrations! Have you read any of these? If not, which one looks like a book you need to read? Use the form below to be entered to receive one of the books from my leaning TBR pile. a Rafflecopter giveaway