Splash Into Summer Giveaway Hop

It's time for another giveaway hop and what better way to bring in the unofficial start to summer than with the Splash into Summer Giveaway Hop hopted by  I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Page Turners Blog.

I'm keeping this super simple.  You have a book you want?  I'm giving away a $10 Amazon GC this time.  I've been all about the Amazon GC lately because I can buy books for my Kindle like crazy.  So you can buy what you want.  Open internationally.  Thanks for stopping by!

What will I be doing to kick off the summer?  Hopefully going out in the boat and heading to gorgeous Cape Lookout (you can see it below) to hang out with friends and families we know, enjoy some beverages of choice :) and read on some good books and of course work on my tan!  Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend wherever you are!

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Announcement: 4th Annual U.S. Military Wives Contest - Open for Entries

4th Annual U.S. Military Wives Contest—Open for Entries!

For the past couple of years, as a special thank you to our service members and their families, I have held a contest just for Military Wives. It turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience. I had the privilege of meeting several incredible women and their beautiful families. It's so easy to forget that there are real people who are deeply affected by the conflicts overseas. Hearing the personal stories of these families helped me remember that our troops are husbands, fathers, brothers and sons who are immensely loved and sorely missed.

This contest will run from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend but start sending those entries in now!

Who is eligible? Wives of any U.S. military service member may enter. Retired or active-duty.

How do you enter? Send an email to info@novelromance.net with a picture of you and your family member in uniform. Tell us a bit about what branch he serves in, where you've been stationed, challenges and so forth. We want to hear your story! Please put "4th Annual Military Families Contest" in the subject line.

Once a week, beginning Memorial Day weekend, I will pick one entrant to be highlighted on my blog. These weekly entrants are semi-finalists. Labor Day weekend I will select three winners.

Second Prize: A $25 Amazon Gift Card, Signed copies of Unleashed and Untouched

First Prize: A $50 Amazon Gift Card, and signed copies of Unleashed and Untouched

Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon Gift card and signed copies of Unleashed and Untouched

For more information about the contest and Sara Humphreys, please visit http://sarahumphreys.com/ and follow Sara on Twitter, @AuthorSara.

Check out the Huffington Post Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-taney-humphreys/military-families-_b_1533949.html?ref=tw

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sara Humphreys has been attracted to the fantasies of science fiction, paranormal, and romance since her adolescence when she had a mad crush on Captain Kirk. An actress and public speaker, Sara lives in Bronxville, New York with her husband, who is very considerate of her double life, and four amazing boys. For more information about the contest and Sara Humphreys, please visit http://sarahumphreys.com/

 

***I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***

Waiting On Wednesday (25)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I follow Rachel Vincent's blog because I love her YA Soul Screamer's series, but I have heard enough about her adult titles (which is also a series, but can be read as stand alone) that I am dying to read them and I'm in luck, it's time for a new one today!  Of course I want to read the first in the series as well which is Blood Bound.

Shadow Bound by Rachel Vincent

Release Date:  May 22, 2012

If you live in the dark long enough, you begin to forget the light…

KORI DANIELS is a shadow-walker, able to travel instantly from one shadow to another. After weeks of confinement for betraying her boss, she’s ready to break free of the Tower syndicate for good. But Jake Tower has one final job for Kori, one chance to secure freedom for herself and her sister, Kenley, even if that means taking it from someone else…

The job? Recruit Ian Holt—or kill him.

Ian’s ability to manipulate the dark has drawn interest from every syndicate in the world, most notably an invitation from Jake Tower. Though he has no interest in organized crime, Ian accepts the invite, because he’s on a mission of his own.

Ian has come to kill Tower’s top Binder: Kori’s little sister.

Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they’ll have to choose between love and liberty….

Pre-order links (no affiliation for me):

Guest Blog: Sara Grant (Dark Parties) + Giveaway

Hi Crystal! Thanks for inviting me on My Reading Room and giving me the chance to talk about the books I’ve treasured over the years. I didn’t read a huge variety of books when I was young. I tended to read a book that I loved over and over.

For five year olds…I’d recommend The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and Good Night Little Bear by Patsy Scarry. The Giving Tree is about unconditional love. I loved Shel Silverstein – especially his collection of poems – Where the Sidewalk Ends. I’d recommend that too! Good Night Little Bear was my most loved picture book when I was growing up. I begged my parents to read that book over and over.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve added a book for 7 year olds…The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. When I started to read on my own, I checked this book  out of my local library multiple times. I can still see its faded cover, worn spine, and the black line drawings that graced the inside pages and also recall the adventures of the orphaned Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny.

I’d recommend The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett to eleven year old readers. I loved the feisty main character and the allure of a secret place for my childhood adventure. I recently purchased a beautiful 100^th anniversary copy, illustrated by Lauren Child. I can’t wait to read it again.

For 16-year-old readers who also long to be writers, you can’t go wrong with Jennifer Donnelly’s A Gathering Light. It’s a story within a story. The main character is a writer-in-waiting and a lover of words. It’s jam-packed with so many plots, themes and ideas.....

For 20-year-olds, To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. I only read it a few years ago and wish I hadn’t waited so long. It’s a book that lingers with you long after you’ve read the final page. 

And finally, I’d give teen girls a copy of Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens. It was published last year. The book is wild and imaginative and layered. It also celebrates the feminine in all its unique and beautiful forms. Young girls can find themselves as well as sisters and friends in the pages of that novel. I think I would have felt a little less alone if I’d read Beauty Queens when I was a teenager.

Happy reading!

About Sara and Dark Parties

Dark Parties

Sixteen-year-old Neva was born and raised in an isolated nation ruled by fear, lies, and xenophobia. Hundreds of years ago, her country constructed an electrified dome to protect itself from the outside world. What once might have protected, now imprisons. Her country is decaying and its citizens are dying.

Neva and her friends dream of freedom.

A forbidden party leads to complications. Suddenly Neva’s falling for her best friend's boyfriend, uncovering secrets that threaten to destroy her friends, her family and her country -- and discovering the horrifying truth about what happens to The Missing. . .

 

Bio

Sara Grant was born and raised in Washington, Indiana. She graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, with degrees in journalism and psychology, and later she earned a master’s degree in creative and life writing Goldsmiths College, University of London. 

Sara is senior commissioning editor for Working Partners, a London-based company creating series fiction for children. She has worked on ten different series and edited more than 75 books. 

Dark Parties is her first young adult novel.

Contact Details

Email: sara@sara-grant.com

Twitter

Web site

Giveaway

I've been allowed to hold a giveaway for this great book related necklace open to US only, and it will run for 7 days.  Enter using Rafflecopter, mandatory entry is a free entry, all others are optional.  Thanks!

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***I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***

Author Interview: Robin Bielman (Worth The Risk) + Giveaway

Today I welcome Robin Bielman, author of Worth The Risk to My Reading Room.  Sit back enjoy the interview and then make sure and enter the giveaway (it's international) below.  So welcome Robin!

Thanks so much for inviting me to My Reading Room, Crystal! I’m delighted to be here!

Describe the area you write in.

I write in my office at home. My desk is very messy (which is very unusual for me since I’m very neat everywhere else!), but it’s comfortable. I have a lovely view of the trees outside my window, and my dog, Harry, is always curled up under my chair. If I look to my left, I’ve got a bookcase filled with books, framed pictures of my family, and small mementos and cards friends have sent me. To my right is a very comfy chair I like to sit in to read.

What's your favorite season?

Summer is my favorite! I love to be out in the sunshine and love warm weather. The beach is my favorite place any time of year, but in the summer it’s the best.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

There are so many places I want to visit! At the top of my list is Paris and Italy. I’d also love to visit the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Alaska, Ireland, Africa (I’d love to go on a safari!) and the list goes on and on…

What inspired you to write Worth the Risk?

I love the outdoors and I love reading about adventures. One of my favorite magazines is Outside, and I was reading an article about the Best Jobs when one on heritage protection really intrigued me. I decided right then that I was going to write a story about a guy (Dean Malloy) with that job and who loved the environment more than anything else. Then I came up with the girl (Samantha Bennett) to cause him all sorts of trouble.

Do you enjoy writing in third person point-of-view from both the hero and heroine?

I love writing from both my hero and heroine’s point of view. I thought it might be hard at first to write from Dean’s POV, but I’m surrounded by guys – my hubby, two sons, a brother, friends – so I actually enjoyed getting into Dean’s head just as much as I enjoyed getting into Samantha’s.

Dish, who was your favorite character?

I’ve got a huge crush on Dean. He’s protective, loyal, stubborn, and likes to play by his own rules. He’s fearless and adventurous and when he realizes he’s still in love with Samantha, well, I just want to swoon.

What do you have up next for us impatient readers?

I recently finished a second novella that features McCall, a character I introduced in Worth the Risk. I’ve paired him with the perfect girl to mess up his life – the widow of his best friend – and had a wonderful time writing it. I also write YA, so I hope one day you’ll see that genre from me, too!

Thanks again for having me, Crystal!

About Worth the Risk…

Their love was ancient history...until their paths crossed again.

Samantha Bennett put Dean Malloy out of her mind five years ago, when he broke her heart after a summer fling. But now he's back in her life, and ready to steal a heritage protection contract that could make or break her career--if he doesn't steal her heart first. Samantha's vowed to hate him, but it's more than anger heating the competition between them.

With sparks flying across the conference table and sizzling in every touch, Dean proposes a weekend liaison. Anything to have Sam again; anything to get her out of his system. But the unresolved feelings between them complicate both their personal and professional lives, and one wild weekend could turn into a disaster that would destroy the one job that means more to Samantha than anything. For a shot at love...is it worth the risk?

You can read the first two chapters of Worth the Risk here

Buy the Book:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

  

About Robin…

Robin Bielman lives in Southern California, a bike ride away from the ocean if she’s feeling really adventurous. She loves books and baking and running on the treadmill while watching her favorite TV shows. When she’s not reading or writing her next story, she’s spending time with her high school sweetheart husband and two sons, most likely watching, playing, or discussing baseball. She drives too fast, drinks too much caffeine, and if every day were Cupcake Day, she’d be a happy camper! She loves to connect with readers. You can find her online here:

Website: http://www.robinbielman.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RobinBielmanWriter

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/#!/RobinBielman

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/robinbielman

Giveaway:

Entangled Publishing is giving away one copy of Worth the Risk in ebook format, open internationally.  Just fill out the Rafflecopter below, the main entry is a free entry, all others are optional.  Ends 5/29.

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***I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***

Book Review: Stay Close by Harlan Coben

Stay Close by Harlan Coben
read from May 10-12, 2012


My rating: 5 of 5 stars






My Review:

I became a Harlan Coben fan several years ago when I picked up Just One Look at a yard sale and the proceeded to read it in one evening while my husband was gone and my parents had my at that time only child for the night. I was hooked and since then I have made it a point to read his non-series books each year and I have started reading the Myron Bolitar series as well this year. I love Harlan Coben's suspense mixed with everyday life, he just seems to suck me right into the lives of the main characters and not let me go until I am on the last page and I know how things turn out.

Stay Close lived up to my expectations for a Harlan Coben novel. It involves Megan a soccer mom who once had another life as a stripper, a life that she would like to keep secret, but that life seems to be calling to her and calling to her at an inopportune time as a man as murdered in a fashion to a murder that happened close to her seventeen years ago. Again here Mr. Coben takes an ordinary life, a mom, someone I can relate to except for the ex-stripper part, but how many of us are just a few inches away from that life. The interesting part, Megan/Cassie enjoyed that life but one day stepped out of it due to the murder of a man she was involved in. That's where the suspense comes in. Add in an ex-love from seventeen years ago, a cop that is still on the case and a bartender/strip-club staple that you can't help but love and you round out the great characters in the book. Then throw in some really bad guys, like Barbie and Ken. Wow, where did he come up with these two, they are twisted, you will just have to read it. And others.

Of course plot twists abound. Every time I thought I knew exactly where the plot was going and how it would end up, Mr. Coben told me no way and threw in a new plot twist that made perfect sense when he did it. Nothing from out in left field here that made you scratch your head. Everything is well-crafted and fits together very well. And in the end you just go, "Wow." That's all I could do.

Mr.Coben managed to take me on another wild ride and now I am anxious for next years book. Thankfully I still have some of his back list to get through as well as a host of other authors to read, but Harlan Coben is still one on my major must-read authors from year-to-year. Stay Close had it all for me. Interesting characters, breakneck plot with great twists and an ending that was just amazing to me. I should have seen it coming but I didn't. Excellent book, that's all I can say.


About the Book:

Harlan Coben follows four consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers with a stand-alone thriller in the vein of his beloved breakout novels Caught and Hold Tight. 

Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she's got two kids, a perfect husband, a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at age forty he finds himself in a dead- end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Jack is a detective who can't let go of a cold case-a local husband and father disappeared seventeen years ago, and Jack spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man's family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up any moment to step into them.

Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past doesn't recede. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realization that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American Dream- the boredom of a nice suburban life, the excitement of temptation, the desperation and hunger that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades- they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper-thin as a heartbeat.
With his trademark combination of page-turning thrills and unrivaled insight into the dark shadows that creep into even the happiest communities, Harlan Coben delivers a thriller that cements his status as the master of domestic suspense.

***I received this book from my wonderful local library.  ***

Book Review: Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas

Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas
Friday Harbor #2
Read from May 12-14, 2012


My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars






My Review:

If you are looking for one of those romances that happens to two people who aren't looking for romance then this is just the book for you. I have to say I enjoyed every minute of Rainshadow Road. Both Lucy and Sam are troubled souls just looking for some form of peace, really just in the form of a solitary life. Lucy thinks she can do this with just her career, Sam thinks he can do it with his vineyard and a few women who come and go in his life with no commitment. Of course we know this means they will end up together. But the fun in reading this book is how it comes about.

Lucy is a great character and Ms. Kleypas does a wonderful job helping us understand why she is the way she is. The family dynamic is introduced and the reader sees how Lucy and her sister came to be the way they both are. I think this really helped to understand both women in the story. Of course you still love Lucy and Alice not so much. But the focus is on Lucy and Sam and the chemistry between them. Sam's family is also explained and I'm sure more background was brought out in the first book, Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor, which I have not read, nor do I think you need to read to enjoy this book. I will go back and read the first book (it's already on my Kindle) but I enjoyed Rainshadow Road on it's own. Sam is an amazing man, I like the hot, geeky guy. I love his t-shirts in the book and always looked forward to hearing about a new one. Just one of those little added details that made the book even better for me. Ms. Kleypas seems good at the little details. I also loved the addition of little Holly. What a sweet little girl who has tamed two big men.

With great chemistry, great romance and a plot that keeps the book moving, Rainshadow Road is one of those perfect romances to pick up and take to the beach. And I am looking forward to the third book in this series, Dream Lake, due out in August which is about the third brother, Alex.


About the Book:
Lucy Marinn is a glass artist living in mystical, beautiful, Friday Harbor, Washington, with a boyfriend, Kevin, who she believes is her soul mate. She has always had a magical side - a gift that finds its way into the breathtaking glasswork she creates - and she struggles to keep it contained. But when Lucy is blindsided by the most bitter kind of betrayal, she questions many of her choices. Her boyfriend leaves her and his new lover is none other than Lucy's own sister. Lucy's bitterness over this devastation is multiplied buy the fact that she has constantly made the wrong choices in her romantic life.

Meanwhile, facing the severe disapproval of Lucy's family, Kevin asks his friend Sam Nolan, a local vineyard owner on the San Juan Island, to "romance" Lucy so that she can more easily move on. But when Sam and Lucy begin to feel real sparks between them, Lucy must ask herself if she can easily risk her heart again.

As Lucy questions her beliefs about love, loyalty, and old patterns, mistakes, and new beginnings, she explores the possibility that some things in life - even after are being broken - can be re-made into something beautiful. And that is the only by discovering who you really are that you can find the one who truly deserves you.

***I checked this book out from my wonderful local library. ***