Review: Ensnared by Innocence by Larissa Lyons
January 31, 2008
Bev(QB)’s review of Ensnared by Innocence by Larissa Lyons
Paranormal historical eNovella published 23 Jan 08 by Ellora’s Cave
Regency, Shapeshifter, Spicy (EC rating= S-ensuous). Was there any doubt that I would succumb to the lure of this EC blurb?
But, I’m glad I did.
Read more
Lords of Avalon: Sword of Darkness by Kinley MacGregor - Comics Excerpt **6 Feb 08**
January 31, 2008
There’s an excerpt of the new comic book Lords of Avalon: Sword of Darkness up on Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Myspace page. So go have a peek - it looks just terrific. It comes out next week.
Review: Mine to Possess (Psy-Changelings, Book 4) by Nalini Singh
January 31, 2008
Sandy M’s review of Mine to Possess (Psy-Changelings, Book 4) by Nalini Singh
Paranormal Romance published 5 Feb 08 by Berkley Sensation
Between Nalini Singh’s leopards and J.R. Ward’s vampires, I don’t think my dreams will ever be tame again. I love alpha-to-the-core men and these characters from these two authors fit the bill perfectly. These stories are why I sit for hours on end and devour books. Read more
Tags: 2008, Berkley Sensation, Grade A, January 2008, Mine to Possess, Nalini Singh, Paranormal, Psy-Changelings, Review, Sandy MThe Price of Desire by Jo Goodman **SEPT 2008**
January 31, 2008
The cover should be up soon, if not I have the coverflat, which is where the below information comes from and I will have it scanned. I am seriously computer challenged right now but that is so not a state that can last for long. I admit I hate the title but really like the cover. Keep reading for some contest information… Read more
Review: Heart of Fire (Heart Trilogy, Book 2) by Kat Martin
January 30, 2008
Sandy M’s review of Heart of Fire (Heart Trilogy, Book2) by Kat Martin
Historical Romance published 1 Jan 08 by Mira
This book started out a little slow. To me, there was just too much time spent on Corrie obsessing over her sister’s death before she finally decides to take action. However, once that action starts, the story picks up and I was quite taken with the characters and the ensuing mystery. Corrie is a kind-hearted but outspoken young woman, both of which get her into trouble during her masquerade as a simple country mouse, but she pulls her ruse off quite well for a while and digs up tidbits of information here and there to lead her closer to solving her mystery. Read more
Tags: 2008, Grade B, Heart of Fire, Heart Trilogy, Historical, January 2008, Kat Martin, Mira, Review, Sandy MROB Reviews
January 30, 2008
I have been reading a ton of ‘not my normal kind of reads’ lately. I thought about not reviewing them but something made me read them. So where I may have loved some, been eh about some and was very WTF about others they still seem to be worth talking about.
One I invested the time in them, two you might like them and three some of them I liked. So in my ever ongoing quest to drive Gwen and Bev crazy I decided these reviews needed a title! Cuz… uh… I had a reason but it was so long ago I forget. But we decided on ROB Reviews: why you ask?
ROB = Reading Outside (your) Box
go with it
But then I decided eh screw it, why name it? Cuz a review is a review is a review. Right? Thinking about this, which yes I did for a while as normal, it dawned on me that I really have no ‘normal kind of read’. So where all of these aren’t romance, well we never said we JUST reviewed romance, did we? hmmm well if I did I lied. Sorry… tis a woman’s prerogative to change her mind… right?
What do you think? Do you have a ‘normal’ kind of read? I EXPECT and WANT and get really really really PISSY if the label of the book lies to me. But other than that… if it is historical fiction, I don’t expect a HEA. But I do like them, sadly people tend to die though. Bastards.
Do you stick to ‘just’ romance? I tend to go in cycles for a while I read only smut, I know shocking, and when I say smut I mean that in the nicest way. Jackie Collins type books, le sigh I still own Rockstar, haven’t read it in forever but I still have it. For a while it was Anne Rice, back when she didn’t suck and did horror. Man I loved me some Witching Hour. One year was crime type novels, loved Faye Kellerman, Dennis Lehan and Jonathon Kellerman.
Than I fell into a ::manyyearsnotgonnathinkaboutit:: fanfic habit and didn’t read too many books at all. Then I fell in love with Historical Romance. A fanfic writer who I adore and beta’ed many a fic for (hey mishy!) rec’ed and rec’ed and rec’ed and rec’ed… until I gave the hell in a book she loved.
After reading Shadowheart by Laura Kinsale… well the rest is history. Or I guess my story. So I am thinking we don’t really need a label to say YO this might not be romance or what we NORMALLY read right now. What do you think? Do you want to know? Would a tag help you know if it might be something you want to read?
Do you ever step outside of the romance box? If so what do you like? What other places do you visit?
Tags: reviews on reviews, ROB Review, SybilMalapropists and Punsters Unite!
January 29, 2008
As is evidenced by our politicians, the malapropism and the pun are true art forms, as well as timing gold. You say it and it takes a beat for the listener to do one of three things: (1) chuckle; (2) groan; or (3) give you a dirty look.
A pun almost never gets no reaction at all, unless the punnee just doesn’t ‘get’ the punster. Regardless, I giggle at malapromisms and I love a good pun. I frequently make friends and family chuckle and groan. I ignore the dirty looks.
What about you? Have a favorite pun? Here are some of mine:
- I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
- Police were called to a day care where a 3-yr-old was resisting a rest.
- Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.
- The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.
- The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
- When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.
- The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
A thief who stole a calendar got 12 months.- Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
- A backward poet writes inverse.
- Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I’ll show you A-flat miner.
- The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
- A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France, which resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
- You are stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.
- A calendar’s days are numbered.
- Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
- Acupuncture: a jab well done.
The River Nymph by Shirl Henke (collaboration w/Jim Henke)
January 29, 2008
This needs to be read for the author note(s) alone…
No really. It will be a shame if the book doesn’t live up to my very high expectations now.
Read more
RWA needs to help end the Writers Strike…
January 29, 2008
WOOT! My comment wouldn’t save right so being, you know, like the blog owner and, oh yeah, lazy, I just made a new post. Go team me! Aren’t you glad I am posting again? I know… I missed you guys too.
The heart of my issue is INTERNET MEDIA does matter. RWA really needs to contact the writers on Strike and let them know there is no promotion, money or worth in the internet because they are costing a ton of people a shitload of money saying the ‘net matters.
Yes, there are special badge for press and a room for press that you can’t get into without the badge.
But that is neither here nor there. What I am trying to say, and I guess doing it badly, isn’t that bloggers should be treated differently, or get freebies, but that if a blog is there to report on the conference - not as a fangirl/boy, not as a wannabe writer - then they should not be discounted for a press pass JUST because they are internet media.
There are ways to gauge print publications: subscriptions, syndication, etc. There are ways to do the same thing for websites. So saying there is no way to turn down ‘teh kitten blog luvs romance’ with two readers and accept Dear Author or All About Romance, doesn’t make sense to me. I understand it could be a lack of knowledge on RWA’s part in the ways of ‘how’ to qualify websites and web traffic.
But it has been a year… so the answer being keep press passes only for ‘print’ press and throw out internet media… to me reeks of agenda. It is stated in such a way that keeps Barbara Vey and Michelle, both who state repeatedly they only focus on the positive. Michelle even has posts about women can only be supportive of other women if we only tell them the nice stuff. And PW and Lifetime.com both get a large amount of traffic - that does NOT automatically mean Vey’s blog does or Michelle’s page does. That doesn’t mean their visitors = what the main page of PW or Lifetime.com is…
Vey gets a shitload of comments from authors who gravitate to happy shiney things. Michelle can get a nice amount of comments - she also repeatedly posts in her comments to engage with the author-heavy commenter’s. Are the press passes meant to promote the romance genre to romance authors? Because, uh, you guys are already there and sort of on board.
The point “I” would think is to promote it to readers. Readers who will be buying the books. Readers who may love Nora Roberts but never heard of Chrsitine Merrill. So being here, in this thread and after the OMFG is that REALLY NORA ROBERTS (which happens alot, it is rather funnah) many of those people will click on Merrill’s name (which should link to her site and girlfriend if it doesn’t make sure in the future you do that!). Word spreads and new fans are made.
That is what DA and TGTBTU do for romance. I have always made it point to mix genre’s to help crossovers, and to present more than one side of an issue. And I admit I do it for readers not the authors. BUT if I CAN help - in whatever little way - to promote [again authors I enjoy reading because my blog, me me me] than I WANT to. Because you guys work really hard, for little pay and a serious lack of respect.
So RWA is telling me they have no respect for me. They want to keep out the meangrrls. And I am sorry but I would bet AAR, DA, SBTB have done a hell of a lot more to promote the Print Romance genre than Lifetime.com.
And if you wanted to get really technical, they state national affiliation. So where you may only find Dear Author or TGTBTU on Reuters and IBS, which means over 70+ newspapers (be it their websites) from New York to CA, 2 to 4 times a week… and where the only place that reprints just about every TGTBTU post is San Antonio Express News (only a ‘local’ print affiliation, even if it is the 7th largest city in the US, before San Diego and Dallas)… USA Today syndicates TGTBTU about once a week - maybe - but you will find Dear Author there just about every day.
That is national, no? So if the fear is lawsuit and those bloggers (again, a possible thing but I am cynical) not even responding to the question seems a touch… wrong.
Of course I have no idea if Jane even questioned it. I know I asked about it because, even though I am not going, it reeks of agenda and I hate being told ‘no.’ But once Jane’s Dear Author Post went up communication with RWA, an org I have always been on very good terms with, has stopped. Now I haven’t really pushed. There is that li’l thing called a phone…
Yes, it makes me pissy. Yes, authors volunteer at RWA, although really Nora you are a special kind of animal. There are a few of you, as in bestselling authors who do give of your time. TONS! That, to me, is what makes you NFR (that’s Nora F’g Roberts to the uninitiated), not how awesome your books are, not how much you sell, but the fact you give back to a genre that MANY authors, who don’t even reach your level of success, turn around and abandon. And not in a way as they change genres as much as to say repeatedly how much they hate the “shallowness” of romance.
And really out of the three plus hours we were setting up, there were quite a few volunteers. Not enough, but many (hell I called Kristie J and she came down to help) but honestly Nora… there wasn’t one ‘name’ there. Just about everyone I spoke to was a hopefully, one day, to be published author. And I think I remember one Harlequin author in the medical line.
BUT, again neither here nor there… my point, which was lost, was while I had fun and got to go to some nifty things, the reason I went to RWA last year was not to become a writer or to meet my favorite authors evah (I suck as a fan and don’t do well with the awe thing). I went because of things I wanted to do with the TGTBTU, things which promote the industry, the authors, the books and the publishers, and I wanted to see what other people - authors, readers, bloggers - thought of those things.
So if I were to go again - for those reasons - and there were press passes, I would expect to be considered. If I didn’t meet the guidelines, ok I don’t get one. BUT to say no, I am not even allowed to ask because I am internet media and don’t matter, isn’t true.
**I think I sound seriously pissed off and annoyed and really I am not. It is much more a passionate belief that internet media deserves some respect. And the fact I am not a professional writer so I don’t express myself as well as I should. ok fine and I am lazy and not gonna edit this shit. 
::heart you gwen:: [You better - g]
Review: Demon Night (The Guardians, Book 5) by Meljean Brook
January 29, 2008
Lawson’s review of Demon Night (The Guardians, Book 5) by Meljean Brook
Paranormal romance released February 5, 2008 by Berkley Sensation
The world that Meljean Brook has created is all encompassing, and Demon Night is no different. Both Demon Angel and Demon Moon were spectacular examples of a great story, with great characters in an imaginative world and how a series should be. The story of the Guardians fighting the demons and other creatures of Hell on the earth continues well with Ethan McCabe, also called Drifter, and Charlie Newcomb. Read more
Tags: 2008, Berkley Sensation, Demon Night, February 2008, Grade A, Lawson, Meljean Brook, Paranormal, Review, The Guardians series
