Bitchin' Blog Posts
by SB Sarah | May 09, 2013 | Thursday at 10:50 am | 9 Comments
So many book deals to tell you about to day. Get ready and sit on your wallet. Or do what I do and put it on the desk ... and regret that decision later.
First: this book was recommended to me as part of my Buy Your Mother a Book recommendation round up, and when I went to link to it, I saw that it was .99c in some retailers, and free at Amazon. Then Loni left this comment:
The Phrynne Fischer Mysteries are AMAZING! I highly recommend them. I’m Australian and I can tell you they are really quite accurate about a lot of Australian bits and pieces, the history is good the writing is beautiful and they flow really well and the mysteries are well done too as are the clues. And while there’s no actual romance per se she does have romantic relationships which are well done and fit beautifully with the series and her character. The characters are great and a lot of fun. Some of the places in the book such as the Victoria…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 09, 2013 | Thursday at 9:48 am | 0 Comments
Suzanne Enoch has re-published some of her traditional Regencies. Angel's Devil is $2.99, and was originally published by Avon in 1995.
The lovely Angelique Graham knows her strengths - and patience is not one of them. So, instead of waiting nine months to wed her beloved Simon, as per her overprotective parents' edict, Angelique decides to use Simon's cousin, the dashing Lord Faring - rake of all rakes - just back from war, to throw her parents into a panic. After all, what parent in their right mind would want their daughter to be courted by the notorious Lord Faring?
Though Angelique has plotted and planned every move...it seems love has a different plan. When the game playing gets serious...will Angelique be able to resist the charms of Lord Faring?
And once she discovers the man underneath the legend, will she even want to?
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo | iBooks | All Romance eBooks
read more »
by CarrieS | May 09, 2013 | Thursday at 8:11 am | 11 Comments
As a fantasy novel in general, Touch of Power is great. As a romance, or even as a fantasy novel with romantic elements, it goes horribly wrong.
Touch of Power is the story of Avery. She is a Healer, a woman who is able to heal people by touching them. When she does this, her own body takes on the illness or wounds of the sick or injured person, but because Healers are able to recover at a much faster rate than other people, they are usually (but not always) able to survive the process.
When a plague struck the Fifteen Realms, killing millions of people, the Healers were unable to treat it without dying. They were blamed for the plague, hunted down, and killed. To the best of her knowledge, Avery is the last surviving Healer.
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 08, 2013 | Wednesday at 12:00 pm | 5 Comments
Here in the US, Mother's Day is Sunday 12 May! Did you get a gift?
If you're having an attack of the OH NOES, fear not - we're here to help. I put the call out this morning on social media for book recommendations for mom, after author Kate Eden tweeted that books make an excellent gift for mom (to "make up for being a pain in the ass"), heh.
This is an excellent idea - books make a terrific gift, especially when you know they'll be enjoyed. And clearly, these are not just meant for mothers, but for anyone who helped shape you into who you are today. We shoud be thankful - book gift thankful - for all those people, right?
First, the major gifts, should have you and a few other people have some cash to combine: ereaders! There are a few deals being offered by Amazon and BN:
The Kindle 6" Wifi: $69.00
…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 08, 2013 | Wednesday at 9:09 am | 4 Comments
Today's sale collection includes anthologies of many different types of erotica - including lesbian paranormal, erotica for couples, and more. They're marked down significantly, so I hope curiousity will tempt you to try something new! These are, alas, Amazon-only deals, so I'll be posting a few more early tomorrow that are valid everywhere. I'm sorry if these aren't available where you are!
Girls Who Bite - an anthology of lesbian vampire stories - is 93% off at .99c. If you're thinking, "Wait, lesbian vampires?" take note - the reviews for this anthology are mostly glowing, and there are some familiar author names, too. I love short stories when I'm traveling, and it's hard to argue with .99c.
These are no Twilight tales — the stories in Girls Who Bite are varied, unexpected, and soul-scorching. Best-selling romance writer Delilah Devlin and her contributors investigate vampire myths from around the world, and add fresh girl-on-girl blood to the pantheon of the paranormal. Take a walk on the wild side with some of the hottest erotic romance authors out…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 08, 2013 | Wednesday at 1:00 am | 14 Comments
It's time for the 2013 RITA® Reader Challenge! You ready?
For the past two years, we as a reading community review every single RITA®-nominated book. To coordinate, I set up a public spreadsheet of all the RITA® nominees, and we review every single one by the time the RITA® winners are announced in July. It's crazyfun, and I've had requests for the 2013 challenge - so I hope you're up for reading and reviewing a book! There are PLENTY to choose from.
Here's the deal:
Select a book on the spreadsheet you'd like to read and "claim" it on the Google Doc by writing your name/handle in a box to the right of each title. If someone else has claimed a book you want to read, feel free to grab it as well, up to three names per book. Not everyone has the time to read and write a review, despite their best intentions, so it's good to have backup! I will post multiple reviews of the books as they come in. If you're ready to read, we've created…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 07, 2013 | Tuesday at 11:14 am | 11 Comments
If you've been curious about New Adult books, there are a few by very popular authors on sale - including some authors whose books were so successful they were picked up by NY houses. New Adult is an evolving genre, but for a few dollars you can sample many, many titles, from self published to re-published to brand spanking new as of an hour ago. Here are a few.
The Vincent Brothers is book 2 in Abbi Glines' Vincent series, which starts with The Vincent Boys ( A | BN | K | S | ARe | iB ). The Vincent Brothers is 80% off at $1.99, while book one is $7.59. So you could get both, if you're curious, for about $9-10.
Getting a boy to fall head-over-heels in love with you isn’t easy. Especially when he’s been in love with your cousin for as long as you can remember. Lana has lived her life in her cousin’s shadow. Ashton always made perfect grades, had tons of friends, and looks model-perfect. And she’s always had Sawyer Vincent—the only…
read more »
by Elyse | May 07, 2013 | Tuesday at 10:32 am | 7 Comments
High Risk by Vivian Arend is a romance that defies sub-genre. It’s like I’m trying to categorize it and the book is standing up yelling, “I’mma do what I want!” I found it while looking for romantic suspense, but it’s not that. It’s sort of erotic-contemporary-action romance with bondage and amnesia (words that could only otherwise be used to describe Lindsay Lohan’s weekend plans).
The book is the first in the Lifeline series, focusing on a group of elite search and rescue workers based out of Banff, Canada. These are the people who go into very dangerous places to find stranded climbers.
When I started reading High Risk, I thought, wasn’t there a mountain SAR movie with Stallone? Then I Googled Cliffhanger and remembered why I’d blocked that movie from my mind.
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 07, 2013 | Tuesday at 4:44 am | 3 Comments
Time for another romance reader workout! You ready? I know many of you were overindulging at RT, so it's time to get back on the exercise wagon.
Like the last few workouts, can do all these exercises with a mat and your own body. No handweights are needed unless you want to use some. Grab your latest romance and prepare to work out like working has never been outed before.
Standard disclaimers still apply: dude, I'm still not a physician. I can recommend books to read but I can't discern your state of health or your physical limitations so by all means work hard but be kind to yourself. To put it another way, ask your doctor before beginning any exercise regimen.
Drink plenty of water and read plenty of books. Both are good for you. Especially the books. They make excellent weights, especially the hardcovers!
And now, Romance Novel Reader Workout, Part X, in graphic form suitable for pinning, sharing, printing, and pointing at!
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 06, 2013 | Monday at 2:34 pm | 19 Comments
While I was at RT, news broke that Tools of Change in Publishing is no more. Brian O'Leary, whom I met at ToC (and who, like many people in publishing, is my neighbor in Jersey), has a sharp post about the closing of ToC, and what it means for the people of the ToC community who gathered annually:
Even if you believe that traditional publishing “gets” digital (if there is any ambiguity: I don’t), what about things like self-publishing, or the primacy of web standards as a vehicle for creating, maintaining and disseminating content of all types? The most recent TOC in New York featured two widely praised, day-long workshops hosted by key players in the self-publishing and W3C communities. The hallway conversations alone were worth the price of admission. Who is going to lead that kind of dialogue now that O'Reilly has shuttered TOC?
...
You don’t have to convince me that maintaining a community is hard work. Sustaining a publishing community is even harder, because there is no one thing that people universally recognize as “publishing”. But once you’ve helped make a community, you have an obligation to nurture and sustain it. If you…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 06, 2013 | Monday at 9:03 am | 5 Comments
After attending the session with Julie Garwood and Jude Deveraux last week, my inner 13 year old is itching to re-read many of their books, so in addition to the paper copies I have (some in pieces), I wanted to see if there were any on digital discount. Hooray!
Rebellious Desire, which I haven't read before (SCANDAL!) is .99c! The reviews are not as universally glowing as with Garwood's other books, but I am surprised to find a backlist title on sale - this was published in 1986 - that I haven't read.
Of all the dukes in England, Jered Marcus Benton, the Duke of Bradford, was the wealthiest, most handsome--and most arrogant. And of all London's ladies, he wanted the tender obedience of only one--Caroline Richmond. She was a ravishing beauty from Boston, with a mysterious past and a fiery spirit.
Drawn to the powerful duke, undeterred by his presumptuous airs, Caroline was determined to win his lasting love. But Bradford would bend to no woman--until a deadly intrigue drew them enticingly close. Now, united against a…
read more »
by CarrieS | May 06, 2013 | Monday at 12:33 am | 34 Comments
I haven't been reviewing any Marvel movies because generally they aren't very romance-y. Certainly they can't wrap everything up into a nice HEA, because then there would be no franchise.
But Iron Man 3 intrigued me because it seemed to promise a lot of Tony Stark/Pepper Potts stuff, so I checked it out for you, dear readers (oh, please, like I totally wasn't going to see it anyway).
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 05, 2013 | Sunday at 5:28 am | 0 Comments
This week's top ten is brought to you by the many many awesome books we all bought, and by the number 12.
Run Wild (Escape with a Scoundrel) by Shelly Thacker | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks Wild Orchids by Karen Robards | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | iBooks Along Came Trouble by Ruthie Knox | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks Falling in Love Again by Cathy Maxwell | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks A Rose at Midnight by Anne Stuart | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | iBooks His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire) by Naomi Novik | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo | ARE | iBooks Because of You by Cathy Maxwell | Amazon | BN | Sony |…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 04, 2013 | Saturday at 3:08 am | 12 Comments
In 2009, Delilah Marvelle won the author interview I donated to the Brenda Novak auction, and in that interview, we talked about marketing, and about her School of Gallantry series that she wanted to finish. At that time, she said of RT that it was one of the most effective tools for branding herself as a first-time author, as it allowed her to contact readers directly.
Now, four years later, Marvelle has published more than ten historical romances. Recently she contacted me because she's self-publishing the rest of her series after trying to sell it - and after turning down a contract for a new series. She agreed to answer some of my nosy questions, so here we are.
Tell me about what you're self publishing?
Delilah Marvelle: I'm excited to say that I've self-published a historical romance, Lady of Pleasure, which continues the School of Gallantry series which New York had turned its back on, despite its popularity with readers. It's a cheeky series about…
read more »
by SB Sarah | May 03, 2013 | Friday at 4:02 pm | 25 Comments
Today at RT, I attended a candid Q&A with Julie Garwood and Jude Deveraux. On the outside, I looked like my normal self. I'd had coffee, I was dressed, my shoes matched, and I was fully charged and ready to tweet.
But y'all, these are two of the first authors I read who made my brain jump up and say, "A hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop" ("a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat").
So on the outside I was trying to be chill. On the inside, my inner 13 year old looked a lot like this:
I tweeted the hell out of this panel, and even managed to arrange my in breaths and out breaths enough to ask a question. I've used Storify to gather my tweets into three groups, and I'm publishing them here. Plus I have pictures of the signing and the people who…
read more »
