Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Save the Contemporary: Winner!

You tweeted, you emailed, you tweeted some more, and some of you won copies of the book - and you helped us spread the word.

Really, that’s what this campaign is about: helping us promote a contemporary romance we thought was truly, truly awesome. Thank you for helping us out with that goal.

And now, we have a winner! One person who tweeted, emailed, or helped us promote the Save the Contemporary webpage will win her choice of a nook Touch, a Kobo Touch, or a Kindle with Special Offers (I call it the “Friends with benefits Kindle”) - and that winner is: Brenda Leon!!

Congratulations, Brenda, and thank you for helping us spread the word about excellent contemporary romance!

Save the Contemporary: Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey

It’s been awhile, but our multi-blog campaign to Save the Contemporary is back. If you’re not familiar with it, don’t worry - it has been a very long time since we’ve run one. If a contemporary romance makes both Jane and myself squee like squeeing has never been squeed before, it’s time to pimp the ever lovin’ holy moses out of a book. This time it’s Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey. We ask for help spreading the word about a contemporary romance that rocked our worlds, and we award prizes during a week of pimping mayhem.

Jane said over at the Save the Contemporary website (conveniently enabled for contest-entry-worthy pimpage) that To say that our tastes don’t exactly align is an understatement so it is a rare and wondrous thing when we both like a book and we both loved Shannon Stacey’s Yours to Keep. It’s funny, heartwarming, sexy and moving. A straight up contemp that focuses just on the characters. And there’s a how to element in it… read more »

Passion’s Bold Fire by Rosalyn Alsobrook, a Guest Review by RedHeadedGirl

>RedHeadedGirl is back, this time with a review of a romance from so far back, and so far gone in the WTF department, she calls it “Love’s Passion’s Flaming Bag of Poo.” It was an epic adventure. In pain.

Most of the time, reviews are written after you have finished the book.  I admit for Season of the SunI started it before I even got the book delivered, but I’d read it so many times before, I could do that, and the hook wasn’t really that relevant to the specific book anyway.

This is not one of those reviews.

It’s really tempting to do this review just as transcripts of IMs and emails I sent while slogging through this bag of poo.  But that wouldn’t really cover all the shitasticness of this book.

The day after I started reading this book, I sent Sarah this email:

“Oh my god, Sarah.  Oh my god.  I may have a bone fide “F” grade, old school 1992 romance.  It certainly falls into “I read this shit so you don’t have to.”  I think I’ve sprained my eyes from rolling them so… read more »

Save the Contemporary Winners!

Hot diggity - the winners for the Save the Contemporary contest celebrating Julie James’ Something About You are up on the Save the Contemporary site.

I loved how many people tried the book based on our recommendation and loved it - that makes me so happy. If you have recommendations for a StC candidate book - and we prefer to highlight brand spanky new books so we’re looking for books that are coming soon - visit our Make a Recommendation page.

Save the Contemporary!

It’s time once again to highlight contemporary romance, which I love, and promote a book I really enjoyed - as did Jayne at Dear Author, and Rowena at Book Binge, Sabrina at Fresh Fiction, Stacy at Stacy’s Place, and Lea at ClosetWriter.

Head on over to Save The Contemporary.com to get the details - books, an iPod Touch, and a fine bottle of red wine are up for grabs if you help us spread the word about Julie James’ Something About You and contemporary romance.

Good luck!

Harlequin Coupon Good Until 31 August 2009! Woo!

Thanks to Harlequin, we have extended coupon shopping opportunity!

Now until 31 August 2009 use Coupon Code BLOGSPECIAL for an additional 15% off. It’s not just for Save the Contemporary - it’s all month long.

Thanks Harlequin! It’s shopping time!

Save the Contemporary - the Winners!

Time to announce the Save the Contemporary winners!

Our blog/email winner, who will receive a LUSH Bath bomb, a Harlequin bag, and a set of both books, is Mari, who emailed about the books - thanks Mari!

And our Twitter winner is: Joanne Levy!

And our Grand Prize Winner is…

*drumroll please*

Winning a Harlequin vintage art tote bag, both of the Save the Contemporary books, and the big honking awesome box of True Romance from LUSH: Jen Amber Autumn. Yay! (Jen! Email sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom with your mailing address!)

And for the next hour or two, you can still shop for ebooks at eHarlequin.com, for a total of 25% off the digital list price. The coupon code is BLOGSPECIAL, and you can use it at checkout for purchases storewide at eHarlequin.com. The coupon will expire in a few hours so shop wisely! And, like, now!

Thank you to Harlequin for sponsoring such great prizes and offering a coupon for everyone to win a discount on their favorite books. Huge piles of thanks to Jane… read more »

Reminder: Save the Contemporary Ends Tonight!

Only a few more hours until our Save the Contemporary campaign ends for this month.

First up, with this promotion, thanks to Harlequin EVERYONE wins a hoppin’ big discount!

For the duration of the Save the Contemporary campaign this week only, Harlequin’s digital team is offering an additional 15% off the eBooks at eHarlequin.com, for a total of 25% off the digital list price. The coupon code is BLOGSPECIAL, and you can use it at checkout for purchases storewide at eHarlequin.com.

For more prizes, you can enter to win our daily giveaway, and the grand prize, too.

Visit SavetheContemporary.com and tweet or email the link to someone, and you’re entered to win. Or, you can email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with a link to your blog entry about Save the Contemporary. The more times you forward the details of this giveaway, the greater chance you have of winning. If you Tweet, please use hashtag #stc so we can find yours.

Tonight at 9pm EST we’ll announce our two daily winners, one from the #stc stream… read more »

Winner Winner, Sex on a Plane!

Time to announce tonight’s Save the Contemporary winners!

Our blog/email winner, who will receive a LUSH Bath bomb, a Harlequin bag, and a set of both books, is Moth, who emailed a whole bunch of folks about the books today.

And our Twitter winner is: Janoda!

Remember - there are more winners every day! At 9pm EST, two winners a day will be chosen from those who Twitter about the Save the Contemporary campaign (#stc) and from those who blog about or email the contest entry. To email, simply forward the details to a friend using the “Email This Page” link at Save the Contemporary.com , or email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with a link to your blog entry. The more times you forward the details of this giveaway, the greater chance you have of winning.  For the Tweet campaign, use the “Share This”  and twitter the contest link, along with whatever you want to say about contemporary category romances—but don’t forget the #stc tag!

Winner Winner, Magnate Cooks You Dinner!

Well, I don’t know if the magnate will personally cook you dinner. Maybe he has a full staff to do that kind of thing. But! It’s time for winners!

10 commenters from the Save the Contemporary entry win a set of both books, and with no further ado, here are the randomly generated results:

Heather K. Bethany A Lori Lauren at 7:47 AM Christine M. MeganS Kate Donna S Marlee Lauren at 03:49 PM

Our blog/email winner, who will receive a LUSH Bath bomb, a Harlequin bag, and a set of both books, is Melonie Johnson, who blogged about the books today.

And our Twitter winner is: Hockey Vampiress!

Remember - there are more winners every day! At 9pm EST, two winners a day will be chosen from those who Twitter about the Save the Contemporary campaign (#stc) and from those who blog about or email the contest entry. To email, simply forward the details to a friend using the “Email This Page” link at Save the Contemporary.com , or email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with a link… read more »

Save the Contemporary: Hot Under Pressure and The Magnate’s Make Believe Mistress

It’s time for another Save the Contemporary campaign, with Dear Author, Smart Bitches, and prizes from Harlequin!

This time, we’re featuring two books - yes, two.

Some of the great contemporary stories are found in category romance, so we’ve picked two books that we both really loved:

Our contest takes its inspiration from Kathleen O’Reilly, who was explaining to Sarah what made category romance so great:

...a category novel will exactly fit the time it takes for me to run a hot tub of water until the water turns too cold to stand, which is the exact amount of peace I have until my family figures out where I’m hiding.

To encourage total indulgence, relaxation, and contemporary romance reading, Jane and Sarah have put together a multi-part contest with daily prizes this week only, plus a grand prize at the end.

First: at 9pm EST, 8pm CST, today (4 August) Jane and Sarah will select 10 winners from the comments to this entry on each of their sites. Those lucky winners will receive… read more »

Save the Contemporary: Book Winners!

We love the contemporary like Damn and Whoa (tm SmartBitch Sarah) so we’ve created a special little online place for them at http://savethecontemporary.com and we’ve run a kind of monthly campaign highlighting a different book. 

This month’s book was Lisa Kleypas’ Smooth Talking Stranger which Jane described as a Snoopy book (Happiness is a warm puppy) and I described as the book as having suds that stay with you.  Which, in real person terms means we both loved the book and wanted an effective way of telling others we loved it to.

From now until April 6, 2009, Borders is offering30% off all pre-orders, so if you’re thinking of buying it, you’ve got 30% more (or less) incentive to do so.

If you are a reader, author, or ameoba, you can use the SavetheContemporary.com site to recommend your favorite contemporary reads too. Take a look. In the meantime, the following folks won a copy of Smooth Talking Stranger . Please send your snailmail to jane at dearauthor.com.

Save the Contemporary: Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas

We’re starting a new pile of awesome, and I have to say, Jane is the WordPress mastermind. We’ve created a new site just for the Save the Contemporary campaign. We’ll be announcing future contests both here and at Dear Author and steering interested folks who like free books and awesome prizes over to the new site.

This month? Smooth Talking Stranger, by Lisa Kleypas. Jane and I both really enjoyed this book. I finished reading it and literally had to go lie down and sniffle. My eyes were stinging, my smile was wobbly, and I had Good Book Sniffles.

As usual, we want to spread the word about this book, and about contemporary romance. Head on over to the Save the Contemporary site, and forward the announcement of the Lisa Kleypas book using the “Email this Page” link at the top, or spread the word via Twitter using the hashtag #stc - making sure to alert either jane (@jane_l) or me (@smartbitches). Or, you can write about the campaign, link to the site, and email us a link at sbjcontests@gmail.com. 

Save the Contemporary: Smooth Talking Stranger

Look! Jane and I try to chew gum and walk at the same time.  Not as easy as the Commander in Chief implies.  We’ve got the DABWAHA going full steam (don’t forget to vote) and in a week we’ll be launching the next selection in our Save the Contemporary campaign.  Lisa Kleypas’ third contemporary, Smooth Talking Stranger, is slated to be released on March 31, 2009. Yes, it is a hardcover and the economic times are tough but if you can borrow a copy, we think that the charming romance between advice columnist Elle Varner, her sister’s infant, and one very hot Jack Travis will be worth the effort.

Or you can try to win one of the twenty copies that St. Martin’s is offering as a giveaway.  Or if you want a copy of your own (and we think you will) you can use the 30% off coupon for the online Borders store. If you live near a Borders, you can have the book delivered to the store for no shipping expense.  Don’t miss Borders new media feature for romances:  TRUE ROMANCE.  Borders has also put online its popular “shopping list” of books divided by topic with release… read more »

Don’t Forget: Save the Contemporary, Save the World

Don’t forget - spread the word, win a Flip Video.

Want the details? They’re all here. Graphics for sharing and caring are below the fold. Deadline is midnight CST Sunday, 25 January.