Anti-Valentines Day?

I am not a huge Valentines Day fan. I've been by myself for far too long for it to be anything other than depressing, but even when I was with the ex it wasn't a big deal. Then again, this is the same man who forgot my 30th birthday and never understood why I was supremely pissed off! Yet another reason why he is ex!

So when you learn that there is an Anti-Valentine's Day Contest, and that there is a chance to win 3 new release books, it is a no-brainer that I am going to want to join in the fun!

For all the details on how to join in, click here!

Kelley Armstrong giveaway

I have previously named Kelley Armstrong as one of my favourite authors! I really enjoy her books, and now there is a chance for us to win one of two copies of her books (one signed and one unsigned). In order to win you just need to leave a comment about your favourite Armstrong book over at Amberkatze's Book Blog!

Gaiman Giveaway

I am a very new Neil Gaiman reader, having only read Stardust and now having American Gods on my TBR pile, but a great way to get to know more Neil Gaiman books would be to win some!

Luckily Fashionista Piranha is having a Gaiman giveaway. Here are the prizes so far:

THE PRIZES

- an ARC copy of Gaiman's newest book, The Graveyard Book, due to be released September 30th, 2008.
- Coraline, one of Gaiman's newest graphic novels
- Gaiman's Bath Surprise: one Stardust bath bomb and one Comforter bubble bath, which Gaiman has written about in his blog
- $25 to the charity of your choice!


Did you notice that I said so far? The reason for that is that the more people who enter the more prizes there will be!

Book Giveaway!

Those lovely ladies at Book Binge are giving away two of the most anticipated books of this year. You can choose whether you would like to win either Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer or Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

I am nowhere near being up to Acheron's book yet, but I am very much looking forward to reading it!

Look what I got today

Remember when I won the caption contest at Rosina Lippi's website. The prize was $150 Amazon voucher. I took ages to put my order in, but today I got the first part. The second part is on its way as well, but today I received:




Hot by Julia Harper - I've loved reading her historicals under the name of Elizabeth Hoyt, so I'll give this one a go even though it is a contemporary romance and I don't really read a lot of them.











The Courtesan by Diane Haeger - I've had this on my TBR list for ages.










Fire Study by Maria V Snyder - I really enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy, and I have been waiting for the third one to be released here, but then I just got too impatient, so I ordered it instead.











Grimspace by Ann Aguirre - There was lots of hype about this book when I was contemplating which books to buy.











Glass Houses by Rachel Caine - I've read all the Weather Warden books that have been published, so time to read the other series that this author writes.

Enter the Duke of Shadows Sweepstakes

Just recently there have been quite a few historical romances that have had good buzz around the place. For a historicals fan like me that is such good news given that we were being told that the day of the historical was well and truly over. Here's some buzz about another one from Ann Aguirre, author of the non-historical Grimspace that has also been getting a lot of good reviews around the place. By clicking on the link above you can also read an interview with the author!






I've already added this to my TBR list. You should too!

Book Giveaways Galore

There seems to be loads of book giveaways going on around blogland at the moment - some because of book pimping, others because of BAFAB week, and still other just because! Quite a few of them require some blogging but there's so many that I am not sure where to even start, but we'll just start and see where we end up shall we!

First off, we will start at Maw Books. Natasha had the idea to try and collect a variety of reviews for the books she has either read, or wants to read shortly, and to collate them all in one place, and hence Book Bloggers Book Reviews was born! At the moment Natasha is running a giveaway for anyone who posts about BBBR, and there are quite a few books to choose from!

Nymeth is hosting a giveaway of your choice of one of five books to celebrate both BAFAB week, and her first anniversary of blogging. Click here for the details.

Tanabata is giving away one of three books by Japanese authors.

Dewey is giving away two books as well, with the promise of more to come in April.

Jenclair is giving away a Sharon Shinn book. Shinn is one of those authors that I know that I should have read...but just haven't yet!

Jaime at Bell Literary Reflections is giving away your choice of three books. I'm putting my name down for the Goodman.

Eva from A Striped Armchair is making people work to win her book giveaway with a Name that Book quiz.

I know there are others, but I seem to have misplaced my links! I am sure I will locate them again later though!

yes Yes, YES!!

I won!!!



Thanks everyone who voted for me! I'll let you know what I decide to spend my money on!

Remember this?

***********STICKY POST***********



Some time ago I did a caption post for competition that Rosina Lippi is having over at her blog to celebrate her new book, The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square (in stores now).

Having just gone through the first round of voting, my entry is in the Final 4! I actually didn't expect to be in the final 4 at all because there were lots of good entries...but there I am!

The prize is a good one, (either $100 or $150 in Amazon vouchers, plus some other goodies) so I am going to be unashamedly begging and asking you to go and vote. Vote for which ever one you really like, but just in case you were wondering, this is mine:

As a tanning device, the book was pretty ineffective....but it was a darned good read!

Thanks heaps!

Book Giveaway: Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

I have been meaning to try reading Joshilyn Jackson's books for years, but never quite managed to get onto it! Maybe winning it will be the shove that I need. You too can win it by visiting Dee's Book Dish and participating in a couple of contests!

Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother make sure the very literal family skeleton stays buried or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. While Laurel's life seems neat and on track--a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna--everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 14-year old neighbor Molly Dufresne.

The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is inexplicable--an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia's help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family's guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

Pajama Girls caption contest

There are so many clever people out there who come up with those bitingly funny captions, so if you are one of those people, then you might be interested to know that Rosina Lippi is giving away $100 or more to the person who comes up with the best caption to this picture:



My caption is: As a tanning device, the book was pretty ineffective....but it was a darned good read!




Why is Rosina having this contest you ask?

Well, because her new book, The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square comes out on February 14. For more details about this contest, and to see more of the build up to release date, visit Rosina's weblog.






Note: This book is once again going to be released in Australia under the name Sara Donati!

Mine to Possess Hot Men Contest

Nalini Singh always has such great contests to celebrate the releases of her books, and this one is no exception. To get all the details of how to enter go and check out this post on her blog. Entries close on 2 Feb, so you have a little time to work out who you want to write about!

To celebrate the upcoming (February 5th!) release of Mine to Possess the 4th full-length entry in the Psy/Changeling world, which features one hot hero in the luscious Clay Bennett, I'm running a contest where you get to rave/gush/cheer about your favorite romance novel hero(es).

What's up for grabs?

The winner, chosen at random, will receive a US$50 Amazon voucher and a very special Mine to Possess Teaser prize pack. All the things in the prize pack have some relevance to the book (ok, so maybe one is kinda just for fun) so speculate away!

1. Fancy Tea
2. Dark Chocolate
3. Strawberry scented soap
4. Candles
5. A Stud...ded collar

No picture because we'll put it together after the contest ends so everything will be sparkly fresh.

So...favourite heroes. hmmmmm...I am going to cop out a little and not actually write about ONE hero, but rather a type of hero - I love me some scarred-from-the-events-of -the-past alpha heroes, who people don't necessarily seem to like, but who really are completely honourable, just wanting to be loved, but don't think that he deserves it kind of men. Mmmmm...can't get enough of them or their darkly tormented ways.

Want some examples? How about Sin from Born in Sin by Kinley MacGregor - even his name was given to him as an insult, kind of like Cyprian Sloan from Diane Gaston's A Reputable Rake, Or perhaps even Zsadist from Lover Awakened or Sebastian St Vincent from Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas.

Whilst maybe not as tormented as a couple of those, other examples of my favourite kinds of heroes - Jamie Fraser from Outlander and Alexander Barrington from The Bronze Horsemen. Both are men who do what needs to be done...even if sometimes that is not the action that mere normal men would be courageous enough to take...but they do it! A bit like Jack Devlin from Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas who pushes Amanda just enough to get what he wants, oh, and all right, I also have to mention Derek from Dreaming of You as part of the dreamy Kleypas heroes collection!

Or how about those cold and aloof heroes that seem to finally only unbend when they find the love of the right woman - men like Wulfric from the Slightly series by Mary Balogh, or Marcus, Duke of Westcliff who appears in several Kleypas books but finally gets his own HEA in It Happened One Autumn.

Nalini really is a bit cheeky asking this question, it could take me hours to finish writing this post, and I do really need to do some other things like wash the top that I am wearing to a wedding tomorrow, and the dishes....oh wait, what am I saying...this is much more interesting!

In closing, I leave a picture of my favourite mini-series hero of the moment....for no good reason at all except that I can! Oh, and I guess he counts as a bit cool and aloof in the beginning!





Of course, for dark and tormented you could always go with this picture...although I am not sure he really counts as a hero!





**Guy banner made be Heathdancer from The Armitage Army**

Book giveaways

If you head over to Zeek's blog you might be in with a chance to win a copy of any of the following three books:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
Son of the Morning by Linda Howard

I have read the first two, so I am putting my name in the drawer for Son of the Morning. You can check out the details of how to win here.


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Another place you can win books is over at Deeanddeedish.blogspot.com, where you could win up to 6 books, all of which were among the girls' favourite reads for this year!

You can get the details for this contest by clicking here

Yay!

I won a $10 Amazon voucher over at Jennifer Estep's blog! I am determined to use it on a book that I wouldn't normally be able to easily get hold of here, so I guess I am going to be spending a bit of time on Amazon trying to figure out what to get! Or perhaps, I should spend it on Jennifer's new book! I do have the first one in her series here, but I haven't read it yet.

We have a winner .... and a few other bits and pieces!

First things first...the winner of the Paullina Simons giveaway is.....




ZEEK


Congratulations Zeek! Email your address details to me (details on my profile!) and I will get the book on it's way to you! Thanks to everyone who entered my first ever giveaway!


Speaking of giveaways, Kelly from Loaded Questions is giving away an ARC of Lauren Willig's next book, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose over at her blog! Willig's Pink Carnation series is a really fun spy caper/historical romance. I have read all the previous books in the series, and really enjoyed them. If you haven't read any of Lauren's books, you can read my reviews of them by clicking here.

There are two ways to enter the giveaway. First, you can subscribe to Loaded Questions, or you can send Kelly an email. You can read all the details here!

Following on from the Remembrance Day post I had up here, I also posted a review of Barbed Wire and Roses by Peter Yeldham over at Historical Tapestry. I meant to say something here but I forgot! Whoops!

My final bit of news today is that it is my 2nd anniversary of starting this blog! Who knew it would last this long!

Hot Mama!

No....not me!

In honour of the release of her new book, Jennifer Estep is having a 12 Days of Bigtime contest - 12 days of prizes, which include Amazon gift vouchers, autographed books etc! You can find the details at Jennifer's blog.



She can melt steel – and men’s hearts …

By day, Fiona Fine is a successful couture designer, catering to the high society players of Bigtime, New York. By night, she’s Fiera, a superstrong superhero who can create and manipulate fire with her bare hands. Fiera, along with the other members of the heroic Fearless Five, make life miserable for the ubervillains who want to take over the city.

But Fiona’s personal life isn’t so fine. She still misses her fiancé, who was killed by ubervillains a year ago. But men admire Fiona’s smoking assets, and she decides to get back in the dating game – especially after she meets Johnny Bulluci. But this notorious playboy has plenty of secrets to go along with his sexy smile. And, with two new ubervillains in town who are intent on raising hell, Fiona’s love life might just crash and burn …

Hot Mama Details

n Release date: Nov. 6, 2007

n Pages: 356

n Price: $14

n Format: Trade paperback

n Publisher: Berkley Books

n ISBN-10: 0425217345

n ISBN-13: 978-0425217344

Colleen Gleason contest

Kailana from The Written World is running a fun competition featuring Colleen Gleason.

The details are below.


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Running Dates: October 25th-November 15th, 2007

The Name of the Game is Fan Fiction, Art, or Photography

The Details: The object is to write fan fiction, draw a picture, or take a photograph relating to Colleen's two in print novels and her forth-coming one.

The idea is to rewrite a scene that you did not like, add a scene that you wish had been there, or write a scene that you wish will be included in The Bleeding Dusk. And, those are just three ideas, as long as you keep the three novels in mind, you can come up with your own ideas. If you are not up to writing, you can also do something photography or drawing related. The only thing I will be strict about is effort. I am not expecting perfection, and I won't give you word limits or anything like that, but I just want the work to clearly show that you have taken a bit of time for the activity. Any questions, just ask in the comments.

The Prize: A $25 dollar gift certificate to Amazon and a signed copy of The Bleeding Dusk. It will not be an Advanced Reading Copy, it will be an early copy in about January. Keep that in mind.

I hope that people join in! I plan to post all the submissions on my blog, not just the winner. Please don't post your entry in the comments, email it to me at twisted_kingdom_blog AT hotmail DOT com. The most important thing is to have fun and be creative!

Another contest

This time from Dee and Dee Dish...About Books



The details are as follows:

Want the book? Blog for it! Copy/paste the cover .jpg and the highlighted Cover Copy onto your own blog, and link back here, or post me a comment. I'll list your blogs over on our sidebar. Next Wednesday, the night before I head out to Ohio, I'll have the oldest girl child pick a winner. You'll get my (slightly read) copy of AATHM. To make up for it being slightly read, I'll ask Jenny and Bob to sign it, just for YOU, when I see them on Thursday. NOW BLOG THIS BOOK ALREADY!

I am looking forward to reading this book! And to have a signed copy would be even better!

Book Binge Back to School Contest

The girls at Book Binge have come up with another fab contest!


It's that time again, Dear Readers. Back to school shopping and schedules. Homework and lunch money. Required reading and Algebra. Piece and quiet at home in the morning and crazy afternoons and after school sports and...

Another Book Binge Contest.

Yes, that's right, we here at Book Binge want to celebrate Back To School with another giveaway. But you have to work for it...and it comes with homework.

The Assignment:

Tell us what your favorite read in school was. What book was required reading that you just loved? Something you completely devoured. Or, if you can't think of one, what was the WORST read you had in school?

The Prize:

Leave your answer in the comments or on your own blog with a link and in honor of this being a Back To School contest, we're giving one lucky winner:

The entire Susan Elizabeth Phillips Stars/Bonner Brothers Football Series (Who didn't love a jock in HS? Even if he was an ass, he was still good to look at, right?)

or

Perfect and Paradise by Judith McNaught (A teacher, in keeping with our theme, and an old High School Flame)

Or

if you're not interested in any of those...2 books of your choice.

The Homework:

We're asking that you do a guest review for Book Binge for at least one of the books (or all of them, if you prefer).

Deadline:

The contest ends Friday, August 31st and the winner will be announced Saturday, September 1st.

Due Date:

Homework review is due no later than two weeks after you receive your package of books (We'll be flexible about this, however, because we know real life intrudes on reading time now and again).

Kick the school year off right. Enter today!



And now for my answer!

I read just about anything I could get my hands on at school, but I do remember getting through every single Jean Plaidy book that my school had in the library in my reading for pleasure! My love for historical fiction started early!

Another book that I vividly remember include The Hobbit, but that was because it was the one time I actually liked the title page that I made for a project! I really don't have an artistic bone in my body, and art was the only subject I ever came close to failing because I hated it! The title page probably wasn't all that good, but at the time I liked it a lot!

My memory is really crap. Other books I do remember reading are Macbeth, a book by Graham Greene, Poor Man's Orange by Ruth Park (a good read set in Australia), The Summer of My German Soldier which I reread and reviewed a couple of years ago. There were loads of others, but I am struggling to remember them!

Which Psy-Changeling Hero is for you?

It's nearly time for Caressed by Ice, the third book in the Psy Changeling series by Nalini Singh, and to celebrate Nalini has made up this quiz, and even better, just by having a go you can win a $50 book voucher! Click here for the full details!

Which Psy-Changeling Hero Is For You?

Your Psy/Changeling Hero: Lucas Tough, dangerous and highly intelligent, the alpha of the DarkRiver leopard pack is a man who will demand everything from his mate. But he will give the same in return. And he will never let go.Find out more about Lucas and the series at www.nalinisingh.com Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code