Usually, I make liberal use of the holds system at my library. Lately, it hasn’t been working to my advantage. This week, I had some extra time and several books to return, so I thought, why not just browse. With a list of authors and books I’d like in hand, I set off for the stacks. I limited myself to three books since I also did a quick peruse of the at home shelves and picked out a few forgotten books that are longing to be read.

Here’s what I came home with.

The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn. I came across this one a few weeks ago and was thrilled to see it on the shelf. I’ve not read any of Raybourn’s books and I’ve read a few reviews that said this wasn’t as good as her other books but since I haven’t read them, I’m not worried. Ignorance can sometimes be a good thing when it comes to a new author. This one is about a woman named Theodora who abandons her life and heads to Rumania where rumors of vampires still run rampant. There are castles and counts and brooding noblemen and I’m guessing from the cover pic, some romance and heavy breathing as well. Not sure how I feel about that yet but we’ll see.

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti. I’ve been wanting to read this one for so long but never got around to adding it to the hold pile. I thought I’d take a shot and see if it might be available and, poof, there is was. It’s supposed to be gothic and spooky and richly imagined — OK, so that’s what the cover says and, yes, I fell for it. Abandoned as a small child, twelve year old Ren is missing his left hand, has no idea how he lost it, and has no idea who his family is. When a man appears at the orphanage claiming to be his brother, he convinces the monks to let him go with the man in the hopes that he will solve the mystery that is his life.

The Rosetta Key by William Dietrich. I was hoping for Napoleon’s Pyramids but this was all they had of Dietrich’s books so off the shelf it came. Thieves, sea voyages, armies, mysterious medallions, Egyptian scrolls…not sure what more can be added here but it sounds like a good summer read on a hot day by a lake.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!