I have a fun and funky giveaway today, so get ready!
Lynsay Sands' Argeneau series has a new book, Under a Vampire Moon ( A | BN | K | S ), and Avon has offered some very fun prizes for you.
Because Under a Vampire Moon is partly about travel to exotic locales (in this case, St. Lucia), the prize is travel and beach themed, and I think the grand prize is really spiffy.
The grand prize is a Baggallini rolling tote bag in steel blue with green trim, stuffed with all of Lynsay Sands' Argeneau books, including:
- A QUICK BITE
- LOVE BITES
- SINGLE WHITE VAMPIRE
- TALL, DARK, AND HUNGRY
- A BITE TO REMEMBER
- BITE ME IF YOU CAN
- THE ACCIDENTAL VAMPIRE
- VAMPIRES ARE FOREVER
- VAMPIRE INTERRUPTED
- THE ROGUE HUNTER
- THE IMMORTAL HUNTER
- THE RENEGADE HUNTER
- BORN TO BITE
- HUNGRY FOR YOU
- THE RELUCTANT VAMPIRE
- UNDER A VAMPIRE MOON
There are also five runner-up prizes: a copy of Under a Vampire Moon and a Lynsay Sands beach ball.
Since I am all about the beach, here's the really tough and difficult question you have to answer: which beach do you think is best for reading? What's the best beach you've ever visited? Share – and we'll all have summer-beach envy together.
The contest will be open from today (24 April) through noon eastern on 1 May. I'll select the winners at random from the comments.
Standard disclaimers apply: I'm not being compensated for this giveaway, not even with spiffy luggage. Void where prohibited. Must be over 18 and wearing a hula skirt (but not a coconut bra – those things look itchy) to win. This giveaway is open to international residents (yay!). Clothing that is itchy is hereby outlawed in my immediate jurisdiction. Action figures and margaritas sold separately.
So, tell me: what beach do you think is the best for reading and relaxing? If you could visit a beach anywhere in the world with a book and no time limit, which would it be?
North shore of Bali. Lots of nice beaches there.
i love all beaches, but my personal favorite is in st. thomas… i don’t even know the name, but the snorkeling was great and the books were great too 🙂
Once a week I visit Bellows Beach to catch up on my reading. It is located on Oahu’s East Coast, away from tourists, with facilities open only to military families. The surf rolls onto the white sand beach with views of Rabbit Island.
If I am lucky, I may spot Marines training in a distance on the closed section of the beach. What could be better than a live hero?!?!
There is a little tide pool down the cliff off the Nobska Lighthouse in Cape Cod. It is a rocky beach, but there are big boulders in the water and the tide pool is chalk full of interesting starfish and birds. Climbing down the cliff with a book and basking in the sun on a rock like a seal is fantastic. One of the best beach reading experiences ever. Although, a trip to Evie Beach up in the Orkney Islands of Scotland would be wonderful; wrapped up in a warm sweater with a steamy historical romance.
My dad was Navy and we were stationed in Italy when I was a kid. Being a kid I don’t remember the name of the beach specifically, but I do know it was along the Amalfi Coast. Kinda crowded in August, but it was beautiful.
New Smyrna Beach in September is good to read at.
My someday I wanna go beach:I would love to go to Hawaii.
I don’t read on the beach. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll read just about anywhere else but not the beach. Why? The beach is for people watching. I’m absolutely fascinated by how people interpret the idea of “appropriate beachwear” and “appropriate beach behavior.” However, if I had to pick a beach to read on it would on Skidaway Island near Savannah, GA. It’s a state park/wildlife area with live oaks and spanish moss…perfect for a creepy mystery.
Hrm…hard decision. Waikiki burned my feet, except when I was jogging on it at the buttcrack of dawn due to jet lag. Montego Bay had rum drinks. LOTS of rum drinks. Hard to read when seeing double. Corpus Christi…yeah. I think maybe that one. The sun travels from east to west so it doesn’t get into your eyes as you read. The only problem there is the occasional jellyfish infestation. Just don’t walk barefoot and read at the same time.
While lake beaches are best for reading and relaxing – snakes and frogs in water I can’t see through, like I’m going in, if I had unlimited time at any beach, it would totally be 7 mile beach in Grand Cayman.
I really deserve to do some traveling in style! Choose me!
I have to go with the first beach I ever visited: a small curve of sand in San Sebastian, Spain. It was the first time I dipped my toes in the ocean, and it fizzed like soda.
I’m voting for Ormond Beach in Florida—because I’m going there next week to read on the beach with some girlfriends! Let the countdown begin!
The perfect beach to read a book, mmm… For me, it would have to be a secluded and quiet location, with the sun shining down on me and my flavour of the month (meaning my book) and a slight sea breeze to cool us off. If I could get to any beach, it would have to be Whitehaven Island (the Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia). It looks gorgeous.
i think i would like to be on a deserted island beach where no one could disturb me so it would be me my book and the beach heaven
Great Point on Nantucket is a win for me. Deflate the tires on a Jeep, load a shore lunch and drive out over shifting sand. Make sure you shift into four wheel drive unless you LIKE digging out your tires.
Watch the seals, munch on some lobster rolls, burn your nose (I always forget the tube of super sunscreen). Read.
Pick up every scrap of trash, whether it is yours or not, and remember to re-inflate your tires when you are back off the beach. There is a little pull-out with a tire pump just for those who take on the adventure.
I’m partial to Cape Henlopen in Delaware. It has a wild feeling to it with big waves and sand dunes. Sometimes you can see dolphins swimming far off shore. It’s a state park, so there’s no boardwalk, just some showers and a food stand. It’s a really relaxed place to put up an umbrella and break open a good book!
Love the beach, love to read there. Going to go with Zuma Beach in Southern Cal because of fond high school memories of hanging out there with my best friend, with her reading something important and me reading something trashy, LOL!
I love Huntington Beach for reading since it is quiet during the morning. The best beach I ever visited was Waikiki, simply because I love Hawaii. I wouldn’t recommend this place for reading though, there are always mobs of people.
The best beach for reading is in Georgian Bay, up in Northern Ontario. Absolutely gorgeous pine forested/rocky islands. And if you take a boat out around the lake there are some wonderfully secluded small sandy/ flat rock beaches. So quiet and picturesque, my family rents a cottage up here every summer. Couldn’t be more relaxing
I’ve only been to a couple of beaches, but I would have to pick the one I went to in Nice. It was beautiful!
I think any beach is a good beach, but I’d have to say either Half Moon Bay because there’s this great sandwhich shop there,or Hawii.
My favorite beach to read is the one just block from my home, Clark Street Beach. I’m lucky that Chicago has a beautiful beachfront. It is where I go to steal a few hours for myself with my favorite book. As to dream beaches, I’d have to say the beaches of Hawaii or Jamaica.
I have a soft spot for the tiny little beach in Kilbrittain, Co. Cork (Ireland) though, I haven’t tried to read there yet.
However, the is a beach in Parati, Brazil, that is simply divine to lay back and read on. Someday I’ll get back there, but for now, Kilbrittain is the closer of the two.
I haven’t been to many beaches, but I think the best was in Jamaica. I would love to go to a beach on Hawaii to read.
I think my favorite beaches are all in Hawaii. I love the Big Island and while the beaches there are not very large, the island itself is so relaxing that I can spend hours just lying around (even better if I’m at one of the resorts on the Kohala Coast where they bring me fruity drinks upon request).
Any beach that doesn’t have a lot of rocks. But I’ve only read on Jones Beach in LI.
I do not read on the beach, I roam and treasure hunt. But I’d have to say the beach I lived a few miles away from on coastal Oregon, it was always empty, it almost always had new shells to explore, and the seals liked to follow you from the water and jump and play as I walked.
One of my fondest “reading on the beach” memories is at St. Lucia, where the new Sands’ book takes place. I went there on my honeymoon. My husband and I planned our wedding while we were half across the nation from each other and while I was in law school. Reading on that beach was the perfect form of relaxation that I needed.
My favorite beach so far has been in Sarasota, FL, USA sitting by the gulf and enjoying the crystal clear water. That being said being a Jersey girl, most of my beach reading is done and has been done at the Jersey Shore, and any beach I am on with a book, is a great beach for reading
I don’t much like beaches – the sand gets in uncomfortable places (not to mention in the book) and they tend to be too busy for reading. I have enjoyed a good book along the cobbled banks of lakes or mountain streams. I would love to visit a beach in New Zealand, though. Not because of the beach – because it would be New Zealand.
Hampton Beach NH! great sands and beautiful scenery for escaping into a book.!! Close to home also.
i think the beaches in halfmoon bay or in lake tahoe would be the best beaches to read on 🙂 plus not alot of people spend time o the beaches in certain parts of tahoe !
My favourite beach is Fraser island off Australia. The whole island is made of sand, so no matter where you go you have warm sand under your toes. The most beautiful moment I had there was sitting on a deck reading then looking out over my view and seeing whales playing in the surf on dusk. Magical.
My perfect beach for reading would be a quiet deserted cove in the wonderful country of New Zealand. With no one to disturb me and the splashing of the sea against the rock it would be an ideal place to sit and re-read Taming the Highland Bride.
I know a beach in Marina, CA, it’s quiet and so lovely. The waves break gently over the small dunes of sand as the sun smiles down on you. I loved to take a book out there and lay in the sand, letting the sun soak into me as I was taken on a new adventure.
I’m good with any beach, but the one I ALWAYS remember? St. Thomas from my cruise. Just wow. Perfectly beautiful and the sand is like baby powder. Seriously the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been on.
All beaches are great for reading, especially with a nice cold drink in the sun. But there is one place that I love and adore even in winter. It is the beach in West Cork Ireland called Owenahincha. My grandmother had a caravan down there and we spent every summer there. It was quite and my mother always encouraged me to sit outside the caravan or go down to the beach to read because I was always inside reading. It was the first time I sat on a beach to read. I spent many of my firsts there. My first kiss, my first beer, my first cigarette. Even now when I go down to Cork I always take the time and sometimes a blanket to go to that beach and read for even an hour. The place has become almost like a ghost town most prefering the nearby village and beach but this one holds a special place in my heart and I hope always will.
I love going to Cape Cod to read…its a beautiful beach!
I used to live on an island in Florida. I don’t like beaches…happy in the midwest reading in bed
Any beach is the best place to read. Actually i like to read anywhere i can.
The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island, FL. I know it’s not as fancy as another country, but not everyone can afford world travel. However, I loved this beach so much when I came to visit that I moved here. The water is that blue-green color that you see in the movies, the sand is white and clean and there are almost always soft waves to give you a great soundtrack while you’re reading. I spend much of my vacation on this beach with my Kindle and LOVED it. Being originally from Detroit, MI this place was/is awsome and SO condusive to reading out in the sunlight. It may just be that I am used to grey water, wet dirt (NOT sand), no waves and having to watch out for broken glass and needles along the shore, this place is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!! I have been to other beaches along the New England coastline as well as other beaches along the Gulf in FL, but nothing beats the Boardwalk Beach. (Named because of a LONG wooden boardwalk/pier that you can walk out on the water on. I’m not sure that last sentance made total sense. lol)