Month: June 2012

Q&A with Maria Hammarblad: Space travel might not be such a picnic

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Author Q&A> blog tours

Today’s guest at Reading Reality is Maria Hammarblad, the author of the science fiction romance Kidnapped (of course there’s a review!) Maria took her heroine on a journey into outer space, but instead of it being a joyride on a fancy ship, it turned out to be more of a nightmare. Still a fancy ship, but with a scarred, tortured captor. Here’s what Maria had to say about the scarier final frontier. And rescuing dogs.

First, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Maria Hammarblad when she’s not writing?

Thank you for having me on the blog! I’m Swedish originally, came to the US late 2008, and today I live in the Tampa Bay area in Florida with my husband Mike and three rescue dogs. I work part time at Pet Doors USA; I take care of the company’s websites and make advertising material. I also go to school, aiming for a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management. It’s a bit tight to get the schedule together, but my husband pitches in with everything, and my employer is very accommodating when I need to change my schedule. Besides writing, I like to watch science fiction shows on TV, and I play the bass.

Kidnapped is science fiction romance. What drew you to SFR in particular?

You know, it just happened. I’ve always been fascinated with space and the thought of going to space. I see something, or hear something, my mind starts asking, “What if…” and all of a sudden I want to write.  When it comes to the romance part, I like love stories. Relations between people are interesting.

A lot of science fiction readers probably have the daydream of getting to travel aboard a spaceship. But you’ve made it seem more like a nightmare than a dream come true. What made you decide to take the story in this direction?

I too have always wanted to travel on a spaceship, like in Star Trek, but I always imagined it like something planned. Like, I would set out on a grand adventure, but get to pack up my things, know when I would come back home, be able to communicate with people still on Earth, and so on. Patricia is ripped away, without anything that even reminds her of home, and I think it would be pretty traumatic.

Travis’s ship is a scary and lonely place, and I’m sure Patricia would have been happier if she had been abducted by the rebels, but they wouldn’t have taken her in the first place.

Would you like to introduce us to your characters, Travis and Patricia?

Absolutely! Patricia is our heroine. She has her quirks, like talking to her car, but is overall pretty normal. She goes to work, likes to spend time with her friends, shops for clothes… She could be anyone.

Travis, on the other hand, was taken by this scary police state – the Alliance – as a very young boy, and has been brainwashed and trained all his life to be a perfect and obedient tool.  He has no likes or dislikes of his own. He does what he is told, and knows disobedience will be accompanied by punishment. Patricia turns his world upside down. She talks, laughs, cries, has nightmares, and he doesn’t know what to do with her. Poor guy, hahaha!

As the author, I know you might be prejudiced, but what’s your favorite scene from Kidnapped?

Difficult question! There is one scene where the happy couple has just reunited on a space station. Patricia is dressed as a hooker and can barely walk in her high heeled shoes, and Travis pretends to drag her away against her will. He ends up carrying her over his shoulder. She’s all happy and thinks this is a great adventure, and he is struggling to maintain his image of evil Alliance soldier without having to kill anyone. It’s quite comical in my head, I don’t think the humor in it quite made it to the pages, but it’s funny in my mind. ☺

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

My mom, definitely. We had the house filled with books, and she taught me to read and write when I was very young. Being able to read gave me an advantage in school too; I was able to slack for years because she already taught me most of the things the other kids were struggling with.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I don’t know… I always wanted to make books. Going back to my mom, I made her staple papers together to resemble books before I could write. I drew suns in them and said they were “The Sun Book.” There are so many stories bouncing around in my head all the time, I would be unhappy if I didn’t let them out.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you plan everything or just let the story flow?

I usually have an outline before I start writing, but once I get going, the story takes over. I get moments of, “Aaah, that’s what happens,” at very inconvenient times, like in the checkout lane at the grocery store, or when I’m driving. I become a little obsessive when I work on a story, I just want to write, write, and write.

Do your characters ever want to take over the story?

They definitely take over. I think of them as my imaginary friends who live in my head. Sometimes they don’t like each other even when they’re supposed to. Pesky invisible people, hehe!

What’s your favorite book, or who is your favorite writer, and why?

Ooh, there are so many. To name a few, Parallel by Christy Elkins is a wonderful book. She has an amazing imagination. State of Disgrace by Linda Ann Rentschler made me laugh out loud when I read it, as did Vengar the Barbarian by Chris J. Randolph.
A colleague recently told me to read The Hunger Games. I didn’t think I would like it, but I plowed through all three books in a weekend. I guess there’s a reason why they’re so popular. ☺

What projects do you have planned for the future? Will the Alliance ever come looking for Travis?

Right now, I’m working on edits for my novel Undercover that will be released in September, and I have a couple of releases scheduled for next year that require some attention. The Alliance might very well come looking for Travis – it doesn’t seem in character for them to let him off the hook this easily – but thus far any sequel ideas are very loose. I have been toying with the idea of making a prequel to Kidnapped, a short book that would give some background to the rebels and the history between Travis and Veronica. We’ll see what happens…

On your website, you talk a little bit about your work with rescue animals. Would you like to share some information about your fur-babies, or any other outside projects you have going on?

When I moved to America, I was shocked to hear how many cats and dogs are put down in shelters every year. It’s a huge cultural difference. I haven’t had much spare time lately, but when I can, I volunteer for Ewenity Farms Border Collie Rescue in Bradenton. Everyone can do something; just sharing shelter animals on Facebook or Twitter helps give them exposure, and is often the difference between life and death.
I have three dogs myself. Two are Border Collie mixes from Ewenity, and one is an American Eskimo from the Bishop shelter in Bradenton. We foster from time to time too. I wish I could take them all, but three of ours and one foster is the absolute upper limit of what I can take good care of.

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee!  Lots of it, with milk. I always say “Caffeine is good for you.” It might not be, but that’s beside the point, hahaha!

Maria, I understand completely. I’m instantly human if you add caffeine. Without, I’m a sad, sad creature. 

Thank you so much for answering all my questions, and for the insights into your work with rescue dogs. The dog picture above is from the Ewenity Farms site, and it conveys the message about rescuing animals so beautifully. (Our cats Erasmus and LaZorra were rescues, Sophie and Mellie are their daughters). 

Kidnapped

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Did you ever think that it might be fun if Scotty “beamed you up”?

I certainly did.

But that’s not quite the way it works out for Patricia Risden in Kidnapped by Maria Hammarblad. Oh, Tricia gets “beamed up” all right. And imprisoned. Because the world of the Alliance is a lot colder and bleaker than the Federation.

And Alliance Commander Travis isn’t like anyone on the Enterprise. Unless you’re thinking of the Mirror universe Enterprise. The one where the universe went very, very wrong.

But Travis isn’t quite that evil, although the Alliance that he serves is. Travis has just, well, misplaced his humanity. Tricia helps him find it again. All because he made a mistake. Two mistakes.

Travis’ first mistake was picking Tricia up in the first place. Travis was chasing a known revolutionary. Said revolutionary made a temporary stop on Earth. Very temporary, but just long enough to appear in front of Tricia’s car and cause her to have an accident.

Travis thought the revolutionary (his name is William) and Tricia knew each other. Travis whisked Tricia away when he couldn’t get to William.

Once Tricia was aboard his ship, he realized that Tricia was exactly what she appeared to be, a harmless Earth woman with no technological expertise whatsoever, and no knowledge of the Alliance or the Revolution against it.

But it was too late. Travis had already notified his Commander that he was bringing in a prisoner. Since she is harmless, he decides to give her the run of the ship.

That’s his second mistake. Tricia is harmless in any technical sense. But she is also bright, curious and dependent on him. Yes, she has more than a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. She sees him as a man, and not the murdering monster the rest of the Alliance sees.

Because Commander Travis is a murdering monster. He is an assassin and a butcher for the Alliance. He’s been programmed to be since he was a child. The last time he disobeyed, the Supreme Commander cut off his arm and replaced it with a mechanical one.

Tricia knows none of this. All she sees is her only possible way home. Her only companion. She falls in love with him.

Travis is a man under all his programming. Harmless Tricia finds the chink in his Alliance conditioning. And Travis re-programs all of his unswerving loyalty from serving the Alliance–to saving, and loving, the woman he kidnapped from Earth.

If they can both manage to survive everything the entire Alliance, and the Revolution, throw at them.

Escape Rating B-: The story gets off to a slow start. Travis is not a sympathetic character in the beginning, and Tricia definitely has more than a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. She goes from being scared of her kidnapper to falling in love with him.

It’s what happens after that that makes the story interesting. Travis has been so conditioned to serve the Alliance that he shouldn’t respond to Tricia at all. Instead, he falls too. But he can’t quite get rid of the Alliance conditioning, so he finds a way around it. His solution was pretty neat.

The Alliance Supreme Commander was just a bit too cartoon-villainess for my taste. The whole manipulative vampy-spacesuit sex-goddess thing just didn’t work for me. But the family-vibe of the Revolutionary ship did. Reminded me a bit of Firefly, which is never a bad thing.

Lord John and The Scottish Prisoner

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> audio reviews> audiobooks> book reviews

June is Audiobook Month according to the Audio Publishers Association. So it’s absolutely right and proper that one of my reviews this month be the audiobook version of the latest entry in one my favorite series.

I listened to The Scottish Prisoner over the last week or so, and I was sorry to see it end. While this is the third in her Lord John series, it could be counted as the tenth, or tenth-ish, in one of my favorite reads, the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. (For more on my long-running love of this series, read my Lovestruck post)

But where the main line of the Outlander series can either be classified as historical fiction, time-travel romance or some lovely stew mixing the two, the related Lord John series is something else again.

Lord John Grey is a character in the Outlander series. He’s a member of the English aristocracy. He is an officer in his brother’s regiment. He’s a younger son, for which he’s quite grateful, because it means that he will not be expected to provide the family with an heir to the title.  Lord John is homosexual at a time when that was a crime. His family, or at least his brother the Duke of Pardloe, is certainly aware, but the understanding is tacit and not spoken. They are gentlemen.

Lord John Grey meets Jamie Fraser, the hero of the Outlander series, when he is in charge of Ardsmuir Prison, after the Jacobite Rising of 1745. As Laird of Lallybroch, Jamie is the highest ranking prisoner. They are, after a fashion, equals. They are not friends, but perhaps frenemies.

Until John betrays that almost-friendship by not merely letting his secret slip but by revealing that he desires Jamie–who is beyond appalled. And Jamie never trusts him again. Not even after John saves his life. With Jamie’s wife, Claire, gone back to her own time and lost to him, Jamie’s not sure he wants to be alive.

John Grey’s life centers around his military service. A younger son, with no family of his own, his career is as a army officer. He serves in his brother’s regiment. And that’s where he keeps getting himself into trouble. Because John solves, not mysteries quite, but problems. Usually military problems wrapped up in politics.

In the case of The Scottish Prisoner, the problem is that a friend, one of John’s exes, was a military attache in Quebec. He found evidence of military peculation, meaning that a high-ranking officer was cheating the Crown, and shortchanging his men, by selling off equipment and supplies. The officer in question was making oodles of money, but that practice is highly illegal. Treasonous, in fact.

John’s friend assembled the evidence, painstakingly, painfully, and died in Quebec. Entrusting John to see that justice was done to the bastard. Said bastard, naturally, being not just high-ranking in the military sense but also well-connected.

And holed up on his Irish estates. Ireland was practically a foreign country in the 1750s. Somehow, the military embezzlement was mixed up in something else, too. Rumors of an Irish Jacobite Rebellion.

That’s where Jamie came in. He was a prisoner, very loosely speaking, working as a groom on an estate in the Lake District. John needed someone familiar with the Jacobites to go with him to Ireland. His brother the Duke decided that Jamie was the perfect person, in spite of the fact that Jamie and John weren’t speaking.

If Jamie kills the aforementioned bastard, the Greys will have complete deniability. Jamie is, after all, a convicted traitor.

But he goes anyway. Because he’s afraid there might be a rebellion brewing. And he wants to prevent it. Jamie knows it will fail.

By the end, Jamie Fraser and John Grey discover that starting with the truth builds a better beginning for respect than a comfortable lie. But everything else they started out with was dead wrong. They began in an attempt to do the right thing. It turned out that they hadn’t a bloody clue about what that might be.

Escape Rating A+: I did not want to see this one end. Not at all. I wanted to find out how it all worked out, but I didn’t want it to be over.

Because I listened to this instead of reading, there are two “tracks” to this review, story and interpretation.

The Outlander story has a twenty-year gap, where Claire is in the 20th century, and she thought Jamie died at Culloden. We know where the gap has to end at, the trick for Gabaldon is to fill in the blank. This works. Jamie’s pain at Claire’s absence is like an aching wound, she is there in spirit, and we see the effect she still has on his life. But he’s still alive. And we see Jamie and John work their way back from loathing on the one hand and unrequited desire on the other towards the mutual respect they finally achieved by the time Claire reappears in Voyager. It was a very rough road.

About the reading. I am beyond pleased that Recorded Books used two narrators. The story has two very distinct points of view, John’s and Jamie’s. They resisted the temptation to have one actor voice both parts and had Jeff Woodman voice Lord John Grey and Rick Holmes portray Jamie Fraser. Based on the descriptions of these men in the series, they are such completely different physical types that they shouldn’t sound anything alike. Having two different actors voice them ensured that they didn’t in the reading.

The Scottish Prisoner will have to tide me over until Written In My Own Heart’s Blood, the next installment in the Outlander series. The projected release date is early 2013.

Interview with Author S. J. McMillan: Dancing Terribly but Writing Well

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Author Q&A> blog tours

After reading (review here) S.J. McMillan’s new urban fantasy City of the Gods: the Descendant, I was very glad to have the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her book.  I’m also incredibly happy to find out it’s definitely a series, because The Descendant ends hanging off a cliff! Let’s see just what Ms. McMillan had to say.

First, tell us a little bit about who S. J. McMillan is when she’s not writing.

First and foremost I’m a wife and mother. I’ve been happily married to my wonderful husband for 13 years. We have three awesome kids. I have a full time job as an administrative assistant to a financial advisor. I stay pretty busy when I’m not writing, just taking care of my family and spending time with them. When I have a bit of me time to enjoy, which is rarely, I waste time on Facebook or Twitter, read, and watch singing and dancing competitions. My favorite is So You Think You Can Dance. Those dancers are wickedly talented!

City of the Gods: The Descendant, is an urban fantasy. What drew you to urban fantasy in particular?

I wanted a story and characters that people could relate to. I want readers focused on the situations the characters find themselves in and not preoccupied with rules, laws, or scenery. This being an urban fantasy all the same rules and laws apply in the story as they do in real life. If a crime is committed in the story, the police are still going to come out and investigate and do their best to catch the bad guy. The fantasy part is more about the certain abilities the characters have.

Where did the inspiration for City of the Gods come from?

As I was researching for a place for the ancient civilization to come from, I stumbled upon the city of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Little is known about how the city was created, which civilization created it, and what caused the downfall of such a large civilization. This intrigued me. I searched the internet like crazy for as much information as I could possibly find. It seemed like the perfect place to base the history of the book in. Teotihuacan means ‘birthplace of the gods’.

The cover of the book is gorgeous! It really blends the historic opening with the modern. What’s your favorite scene from the book, and why?

My favorite scene would have to be in the last chapter. It introduces an important character to the series in an epic way. I can’t say too much more than that without spoiling it for the reader.

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

My mom, grandma, and great grandma. I was entertaining them once when I was 11 or 12 years old, with a little song and dance. While they loved my performance they thought I should also broaden my interests to reading as well. Before that time I really didn’t read unless it was for school. My mom took me to the local library and found a love for the popular YA horror novels like the Fear Street series. I’ve been reading ever since. I’ve also broadened my reading genres as well.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I had an English teacher my senior year that I absolutely loved. At the time I was just writing poetry. She asked if she put some of the poetry in a school publication. I was surprised by her request. I didn’t start trying to write a book until a few years after that, but still to this day continue to write poetry whenever inspiration hits me.

Do you plan everything or just let the story flow?

I do a little of both. I start with an outline for every chapter, but usually end up having to revise the outline because I add or change things up as I write. I always have to go back to the outline to make sure I’m staying on track with how I want the story to flow. I also have piles of post-it notes everywhere with ideas that I want to include in the story and don’t have time to add it to the outline. Then I have to pray I don’t lose the notes with my disorganization.

Do your characters ever want to take over the story?

There are times when a character tries to go off on a tangent, but I try to bring them back to where I want the story to go. Sometimes their interference is a good thing. They give me ideas or extend a scene and make it better than I could have hoped for. There are a few scenes that I loved where the characters took over, but I had to edit them out because they didn’t move the story forward. I like to think of those like scenes from a movie that were cut. Maybe one day I will share those edits with the reader.

What’s your favorite book, or who is your favorite writer, and why?

For me to pick one favorite book or author would be impossible. I have read several books multiple times. Most of my favorite books were ones I read in high school. My favorite author include Michele Bardsley, Christine Feehan, Lynsay Sands, and Katie McAlister. These authors create strong characters, interesting plots, and add a bit of humor to their books. These are the authors I buy books from no matter what.

What projects do you have planned for the future? The series continues?

Yes, the series does continue. I’m currently working on the second book for the City of the Gods Trilogy. After that I will start on the final book. I also have plans to write another urban fantasy book and a ghost story. Who knows where I will go from there…

On your website, you said your guilty pleasures included singing loudly and dancing terribly. So what’s your favorite type of music to dance terribly to? And just how terrible?

Do I actually have to answer the how terribly part? I get embarrassed if my husband or kids walk into the room while I’m shaking my groove thang. They think it is hilarious! I’m just glad we don’t own a video camera, or my dancing would be on display for all to see on youtube.  As for the music, give me anything with a good beat. Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Jessie J, Rihanna, and Katy Perry are a few I’ve been known to boogie to. The singing loudly music tends to be done more with artists like Adele, Evanscence, Paramore, and Flyleaf. The list could go on and on.

Coffee or Tea?

I hate the way coffee tastes, even if I add loads of sugar, so I gotta go with tea on this one. I like sweet tea or green tea.

It’s always good to talk with another tea drinker! Thank you so much for talking about City of the Gods with us. I’ll be looking forward to book 2. And you’re right, the character you introduce at the end is a shocker. Book 2 can’t come soon enough. Write fast!

City of the Gods: The Descendant

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Maybe the Mayan calendar is right, and the world really is coming to an end. They just had the date a bit off. And things aren’t quite hopeless, or there wouldn’t be a story in it.

One other tiny detail, the ancient civilization involved wasn’t the Mayans, it was the Aztecs. But there’s still the whole “end of the world” deal. Except that in this case, there is one person, a Redeemer, who can prevent it. If she’s not stopped.

And the forces of evil definitely pull out all the stops trying to keep the Redeemer from fulfilling her mission. Even before she finds out she has one.

Katalina is that Redeemer. But she doesn’t know. Of course she doesn’t, because the story of The Descendant is Katalina’s journey.

The story begins with Kat at a crossroads. This is not an uncommon beginning for a hero’s (or heroine’s) journey. Not only has Kat just been fired, she came home to find her fiancé moving out of their apartment, with the help of his new girlfriend. Heated words were exchanged.

But when Kat meets her best friends at their neighborhood hangout, everything changes. First, it turns out that her BFFs are not quite what they seem. Sabine and Vivian are Kat’s bodyguards, although Kat doesn’t know that yet. Second, the club has gone upscale in the last week, and the new owner turns out to be hot for Kat.

And third, Kat goes out into the alley to get some fresh air after running into her recent ex — and her split personality evil side kills two drunks who try to rape her. Yes, you read that right. Kat has multiple personality disorder, and her dark side, a nasty piece-of-work named Lina, takes over whenever Kat can’t handle things. Drunken rapists definitely qualified.

Kat created Lina when she watched her parents die in an auto accident. Lina has nothing to do with being the Redeemer. At least not yet.

But the evil dude who watches the drunks attack her does. He’s the sworn enemy of Vivian and Sabine. His name is Damien. Once upon a time, he used to be Vivian’s fiance. Back in Teotihaucan.

Damien has been chasing the Redeemer forever, waiting for her to be born. Vivian and Sabine have been watching forever, waiting for the Redeemer to be born. Tristan, the new owner of the club, is Vivian’s brother. He has been hunting for the Redeemer for his entire life, waiting for her to be born. They’ve all been waiting since 700 A.D. Just for Kat.

Kat doesn’t want any of this. She wanted the life she had. But like the Rolling Stones said, we can’t always get what we want. Kat and Tristan are going to have to try very, very hard to get what they need.

Escape Rating B: This could have been a standard paranormal romance, but the author took some twists that definitely made it more interesting.

Choosing the Aztecs as the forebears for this history was a brave choice. The author doesn’t gloss over their historic practices of animal and human sacrifice, nor Kat’s revulsion toward them. Her job is to save the world in the present, not correct the past.

Kat’s psychological response to witnessing her parents’ death was to create a secondary personality, Lina, to handle the hard stuff in her life. Lina is a bad-ass. Re-integrating Lina into Kat becomes a necessary part of Kat’s journey to becoming the Redeemer. Still, that initial scene where Lina emerges was a WOW! The reader isn’t sure whether Lina is the Redeemer, whether she’s evil, or whether she needs to be exorcised.

Although Kat is very attracted to Tristan, she loses her faith in him, and all her friends, when she discovers how much they have concealed from her over the years. No matter how justified that concealment, Kat should lose faith. Talk a about a whopping big set of lies.

On the other hand, I didn’t get Damien’s initial motivation for turning to “the Dark Side”. He definitely was evil, but why it happened in the first place, all those years ago, wasn’t quite clear to me. He turned “bad” because the truly evil dude wasn’t punished enough? He betrayed his friends and his entire belief system for that?

I’ll need a better explanation, or a bigger evil, in book 2. But I definitely want a book 2!

Cover Reveal: All the Broken Pieces by Cindi Madsen

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Cover Reveal

What if your life wasn’t your own?

What if your life wasn’t your own? That’s the amazingly cool premise for the story behind the book All the Broken Pieces by Cindi Madsen, today’s Cover Reveal from Entangled Publishing.

If that cover isn’t enough of a tease, here’s the blurb to whet your appetite:

Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.

Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?

All the Broken Pieces will be published in December. That’s a long time to wait!

In the meantime, if you want to follow Cindi Madsen, she can be found at cindimadsen.com and on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Ebook Review Central, Carina Press, May 2012

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

May 2012 may be the one of the quietest months Carina Press has had since I first started reporting with their September titles. Well, unless you count the Christmas anthologies as single titles.

On the other hand, you can definitely see the “Fifty Shades” effect on the coverage in this list.

What do I mean by that? Every publisher, including Carina, is marketing books as being “similar to”, or “just like”, or “what to read next”, for women who loved E. L. James Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. And who can blame them? The story touched a nerve, or should I say, a nerve bundle, and has captured readers’ hearts, minds and dollars. Not to mention the top spots on every bestseller list.

The top featured title for Carina Press in this week’s Ebook Review Central is Let Me In by Callie Croix. Like Fifty Shades, it is an erotic love story that features a BDSM relationship between a dominant male and a submissive female who probably should have known better, especially since she’s a Marine. Also, like Fifty Shades, Let Me In received a ton of reviews, but not all of them were positive. Many readers absolutely adored the story. Some folks thought it was “meh”. But people couldn’t stop talking about it. If you enjoy military romance with a touch of kink, you might want to give this short erotic tale a try. For a taste of the reviews, look to Talk Supe for the big thumbs up and Dear Author for the so/so take.

Feature number two is the third and final book in Ava March’s Brook St. Trilogy, Rogues (personal pet-peeve, the thief is a rogue and not a rouge. Rouge is what you put on your face. Jumping down off soapbox now.) Because Rogues is the final book in this historical male/male romance series, a lot of readers were waiting for it. And the mileage varied. Some folks thought this friends-into-lovers story was the best of the series, some thought it was a little too simple and didn’t have enough angst to make it better than Thief or Fortune Hunter. While readers have different opinions on which book in the series is the best, all agreed that the series on the whole was excellent.

The final featured title this week is Ruined by Rumor by Alyssa Everett. This is a historical romance, and it sounds like a fairly typical plot. The heroine is supposed to marry the man she’s been engaged to for five years. He’s just back from the war. Of course he’s a rake. And he begs off for no good reason. The hero steps in and comforts the heroine, and there’s a witness. They marry to stave off scandal, and their marriage of convenience turns into a real marriage–because the hero has loved the heroine all along. This is apparently one of those romances where the way the characters are written make the story. The reviewers fell in love with the characters as much as those characters fell in love with each other.

This week’s feature certainly shows different shades of romance, even if not quite fifty, all in one week.

Come back for the next Ebook Review Central featuring Dreamspinner Press!

 

What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? AKA The Sunday Post 6-17-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> blog tours> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

The biggest thing on my mostly virtual nightstand this week is plane tickets. And they are virtual, since no one gets actual plane tickets anymore.

On Friday, I’ll be flying to the original home of Mickey Mouse. No, I don’t mean Orlando. If I were going to Orlando, I’d drive.

I’m going to Anaheim, California, home of Disneyland. But I’m not going to visit Mickey. Or, at least, not on purpose.

The American Library Association Annual Conference is in Anaheim again this year. (We were just there in 2008). What does ALA mean to me? A lot of meetings. And a LOT of opportunities to meet authors and pick up free Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) and books. I expect I’ll see pretty much the same ARCs that the BEA attendees did. I have my fingers crossed.

But while I’m at ALA, this blog will still go on. There’s even going to be a blog hop next weekend. But before that…

The Lovestruck Giveaway Hop is still going strong. Don’t just look at my hop post, but be sure to check out all the hoppers! There are over 125 blogs participating, so hop and take a chance on some great book giveaways.

This week I’ll have two tours with interviews and reviews.

On Tuesday, June 19, my guest will be S. J. McMillan to talk about her paranormal romance City of the Gods, the Descendant. I’m in the middle of this book right now, and she’s used an unusual culture as her starting point. Her heroine is the descendant of the Ancient Aztecs. The battle  between good and evil is shaping up to be pretty epic.

Thursday we’re going into space with Maria Hammarblad. Her heroine is Kidnapped, but lives out that frequent fantasy of traveling those “strange new worlds and seeking out new civilizations”. Even though her kidnapper is a hunk, it turns out there’s no place like home.

Kidnapped is a great lead-in to Friday’s SFR Blog Hop. I’ll be participating, along with other members of the SFR (that’s science fiction romance) Brigade as we provide SFR related book giveaways on all our blogs.

About that traveling nightstand of mine. Especially when I’m on the road, I look at this post to figure out what I should be reading!

I have some books that caught my eye on NetGalley or Edelweiss that are due out next week. Let’s take a look at what they are:

Two sequels to books I reviewed last year. Suited by Jo Anderton is the follow-up to her marvelous science fiction debut, Debris.

And The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is the second mystery by Elizabeth Speller, after last year’s haunting The Return of Captain John Emmett.

I expect to pick up what my husband calls a “metric butt-load” of books from the conference. After all, I need to give LaZorra a new throne. I dismantled her old one.

Stacking the Shelves (7)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

I tried to keep it down this week. Well, except for that really tempting email from Sourcebooks about all the neat new books they had on NetGalley. And the Nico Rosso book, because that’s the sequel to Skies of Fire, by Zoe Archer (Mrs. Rosso), which I loved.

Why did I try to keep it down this week? Because next week is ALA. The American Library Association Annual Conference. A significant chunk of the publishers from BEA probably just shipped all the same Advance Reading Copies from BEA straight to Anaheim, California for ALA.

In other words, a biblioholic’s dream, except with programming.

I can hardly wait. But meanwhile…

From the Author/Publisher/Publicist:
Spider’s Lullaby by James R. Tuck
The Express Diaries by Nick Marsh (print ARC)

From Edelweiss:
Night of Fire (The Ether Chronicles #2) by Nico Rosso

From NetGalley:
The Unspoken (Krewe of Hunters) by Heather Graham
Hell on Wheels (Black Knights Inc. #1) by Julie Ann Walker
In Rides Trouble (Black Knights Inc. #2) by Julie Ann Walker
Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster
Hearts of Fire (Deadglass #0.5) by Kira Brady
Deep Autumn Heat by Elisabeth Barrett

For Book Lovers Inc.:
The Virgin Huntress (The Devil DeVere #2) by Victoria Vane
Ruins of Lace by Iris Anthony

From the Robot Army:
Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher

As always, all titles are ebooks unless otherwise stated. The Express Diaries print ARC was special. It came from England!

Be sure to take a look at Tynga’s Reviews to check out all the other Stacking the Shelves posts, because Tynga is the host of this meme.

But I’d love to know what’s stacking up on your shelves!

On My Wishlist-Waiting On Wednesday-Desperately Wanting Wednesday-On the Weekend (3)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Desperately Wanting Wednesday> On My Wishlist> Waiting on Wednesday

As usual, I’m writing this post on the weekend. And mostly, tonight, I’m wishing we’d figured out how to get the grill to work.

We’ve never grilled out before. Not us. Not very domestic. But it’s summer. And it always tastes good. We decided to buy a grill and cook some steaks. Three hours later…

We finished them off on the stovetop. We were STARVING.

But they still tasted awesome. We’ll do better next time.

Oh, you were wondering about my wishlist books…

I am wishing that Julie Kagawa’s The Lost Prince will be as good as The Iron Fey series was. Here’s the blurb that’s teasing us all:

Don’t look at Them. Never let Them know you can see Them.

That is Ethan Chase’s unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs—including his reputation—begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he’s dare to fall for.

Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister’s world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myths and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.

My name is Ethan Chase. And I may not live to see my eighteenth birthday.

Until The Lost Prince appears in October, we’ll have a teaser e-novella to tide us over.  Iron’s Prophecy comes out September 1.

I’d love to know what books you’re wishing for. What books would you just be lost without?