Day: June 9, 2008

Book Watch: Into the Fire by Suzanne Brockmann.

Posted June 9, 2008 by Rowena in Promotions | 7 Comments

Suzanne Brockmann is another one of my favorite authors. One of my most favorite series is the Troubleshooter’s Series because I love me some TEAM 16. I love all of the heroes (some more than others though) and even though some of the heroines get on my hot damn nerves (Joan DaCosta anyone?) I think they’re still great at the end of the day.

I can’t wait for Into the Fire to come out because I’m on a mission to read more about Izzy Zanella and I’m seriously hoping that there will be more Izzy in this new book. So because of this, I’m totally anxious for this book.

Book Cover

Suspense doesn’t burn any brighter and desire doesn’t run any deeper than when Suzanne Brockmann takes the helm, opens the throttle, and takes readers along for a breathless ride as she breaks the thrill barrier–again and again. With Into the Fire, Brockmann lights the fuse on her most explosive story yet.

Vinh Murphy–ex-Marine and onetime operative for the elite security firm Troubleshooters Incorporated–has been MIA ever since his wife, Angelina, was caught in a crossfire and killed during what should have been a routine bodyguard assignment. Overcome with grief, Murphy blames the neo-Nazi group known as the Freedom Network for her death. Now, years later, Freedom Network leader Tim Ebersole has been murdered–and the FBI suspects Murphy may have pulled the trigger. To prevent further bloodshed, Murphy’s friends at Troubleshooters scramble to find him and convince him to surrender peacefully.

Murphy himself can’t be sure what he did or didn’t do during the years he spent mourning and lost in an alcohol-induced fog. He does know he occasionally sought solace from Hannah Whitfield, a former police officer and the very friend who’d introduced him to his beloved late wife.

But Hannah, still grappling with the deafness that resulted from an injury sustained while on duty, was fighting her own battles. For years Hannah had feelings for Murphy, and one painful night their suffering brought them together in a way neither expected–and both regretted.

Murphy is ready to rejoin the living. As always, he finds himself knocking on Hannah’s door, and as always, his longtime friend welcomes him back into her home. Yet even as Murphy slowly rebuilds his splintered life, he continues to fight his growing feelings for Hannah.

Then he learns of Ebersole’s murder and comes to believe that the Freedom Network has targeted him–and Hannah–to avenge their leader’s death to violence. Now Murphy must face the terrifying prospect of losing another woman he loves.

As the Troubleshooters desperately search for him, Murphy races toward a deadly confrontation with the Freedom Network and ultimate choice: surrender his life in hopes that Hannah will be spared, or risk everything to salvage whatever future they may have together.

Now, Suzanne Brockmann is doing something pretty awesome on her website. She’s doing a Into the Fire Virtual Signing. At this virtual signing, this is what is going to go down:

From Suz Brockmann’s site:

It’s simple. You order your signed book here, through my website, via PayPal (or you send me a form and a money order via snail-mail), and on July 22nd, I’ll go to the B&N in Framingham, pick up your book, sign it and send it to you.

And yeah, okay. It’s not quite as down-home as that. We get close to a thousand virtual signing orders, so the “pick up your book” thing tends to be done with a team of elf-like helpers and a minivan. But all of the books (boxes and boxes of ’em) come into my home, where I sign them all, give them a hug and get them ready to ship.

Because of the rules about lay-down dates (books can’t be sold in advance of a certain date, and in this case it’s July 22, 2008), I can’t send the books to you in advance of July 22nd. But on July 22nd, we get the team of helpers and the minivan back and invade our local post office, and mail out all of the books. ALL of them. Absolutely.

Those books, signed, packaged and hugged by moi, then wing their way to you, starting on July 22nd. (I’m hammering home the fact that the books are going to be SHIPPED on the book’s release date of July 22, 2008. Are you getting that? Good. And yet someone is still going to email me on July 9th asking where is their book. I love you, you know I do, but read the fine print, people. Don’t let it be you. ) And FYI, our standard form of domestic shipping is “media mail,” which takes from three to ten business days, with day zero being (say it with me now!) July 22, 2008.

But… we’ve got something new this year for those of you who want to order via PayPal. Shipping options! Whoo-hoo! (Read on for more about that!)

But first… Let me tell you about the INTO THE FIRE virtual signing BONUS!

With each virtual signing order for Into the Fire, we’ll include a BONUS — a FREE signed copy of a limited edition, 56-page Into the Fire Extras booklet, which includes:

* FOR READERS: Home Is Where the Heart Is,
an exclusive, never-before-published short story featuring Troubleshooters series characters
* FOR WRITERS: Tall, Dark & Believable: Creating the “Perfect” Romance Hero,
a first-time-in-print version of my popular writing workshop.

Please note: These Into the Fire Extras booklets will ONLY be available in hard copy here at my virtual signing, or at the RWA National Conference in San Francisco, or at my release date signing in Framingham on July 22nd. It will not be available in bookstores (store clerks will go “Huh?” if you ask for one), but you can download a free PDF version on-line. (I’ll post the URL here as soon as it goes live!)

Order through PayPal!

For your convenience, we now proudly accept PayPal for your Into the Fire Virtual Signing order.

PayPal is a secure payment site and can process all major credit cards.

NEW THIS YEAR: We’re offering shipping options with PayPal orders only! Choose between:

* standard domestic (for U.S. orders — Media mail — 3 to 10 business days)
* priority domestic (for U.S. orders — priority mail — 2 – 3 business days)
* express domestic (for U.S. orders — overnight — next business day)
* international (For all non-U.S. orders — you’ll be required to select your country from a list!)

Note: At the time of check out, U.S. readers will have the option to upgrade your shipping method to either priority mail (2 -3 days delivery) or overnight mail!

(If PayPal frightens you, and you’d prefer to order your signed copy of Into the Fire by sending us a postal money order, it’s okay. Just click here)

If you’d like to order through PayPal, read on!

The PayPal Virtual Signing is a two-step process!

Please read these instructions carefully before proceeding!

Step 1: Tell us who the book is for (yourself or someone else), then buy the book using PayPal, by clicking the “buy now” button below! This will take you to the PayPal page where you can complete your payment transaction. (Note: At the time of check out you’ll have the option to upgrade your shipping method to either priority mail (2 -3 days delivery) or overnight mail!) Once that’s done, you’ll get a page that tells you you’ve successfully completed your payment, but whoa Nellie, YOU’RE NOT DONE YET!!! You must complete Step Two!

Step 2: IMPORTANT STEP! After buying the book from PayPal, you must press the big yellow RETURN TO MERCHANT button on the PayPal form, and fill out OUR data info form, which tells us where you want us to ship the book, and how you’d like it signed (personalized or Suz’s signature only). Fill out the form and press the Submit Form button and voila! You’ll be sent to our “order confirmed” page, at which point you’re all set!

Please note: If you don’t complete step two, we won’t know to whom the book should be personalized, and so we shall be forced (weeping woefully!) to send a signed (but non-personalized) book and booklet to the billing address you’ve given us on the PayPal form.

So, STEP ONE — buy the book through PayPal,

STEP TWO — fill out Suz’s data info form by hitting that yellow RETURN TO MERCHANT button after PayPal lies and tells you you’re done.

Got it? Good.

I’m getting mine today, are you?

This book is available from Ballatine Publishing.


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Guest Review: Black Silk by Sharon Page

Posted June 9, 2008 by Holly in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: Black Silk by Sharon PageReviewer: Holly
Black Silk by Sharon Page
Series: Rodesson's Daughters #2

Publication Date: April 1st 2008
Genres: Fiction, Erotica
Pages: 352
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Dangerous Seduction
Maryanne Hamilton had expected to be shocked, but the wanton orgy she finds in Mrs. Master's salon makes her wonder if she has walked into hell. Desperate to escape, she comes upon the master of sin himself--Lord Swansborough. Fascinated by his nakedness, she longs to touch every inch of his long, hard body. And when he bids her come near, she quickly surrenders to his wicked promises of carnal pleasure and sensual ecstasy. . .
Praise for Sharon Page and her novels. . .
"Strong, character-driven romance. . .touching and emotional. . .extremely sensual and erotic." --Romantic Times
"How do you have an orgasm without sex? Read Sin by Sharon Page. . .delicious, delightful, decadent, and dazzling."--Just Erotic Romance Reviews (Gold Star Award)
"Sinfully delicious. Sharon Page is a pure pleasure to read."--Sunny, New York Times bestselling author of Over the Moon (anthology) and Mona Lisa Awakening
"Blends history, emotion and hot, hot, hot sex. . .blazing erotica within an amazing love story." --Kathryn Smith, USA TODAY bestselling author of Night of the Huntress
"Scorching love scenes to make you sweat and an intriguing plot to hold it all together." --New York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell

I have a guest review up at TGTBTU for Black Silk by Sharon Page.

Book Cover
 

This novel was a pleasant surprise for me. It’s a historical, which I didn’t know until I started reading it. I fell right into it, despite the fact that I generally avoid historical erotica novels. The plot was surprisingly deep for the way it started out (I thought it was just going to be a quick, light erotica) and the characters were well drawn and deeper than it seemed at first glance. From the first page I was hooked and couldn’t walk away.

Read the rest here

This book is available from Kensington Aphrodisia. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

four-stars


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Review: Give Him the Slip by Geralyn Dawson

Posted June 9, 2008 by Casee in Reviews | 0 Comments

Give Him the Slip

Maddie Kincaid thought she finally found the simple life when she moved to Brazos Bend and started her own business. She never dreamed that helping a gentle old man would force her to run for her life, right into the arms of the infamous Luke “Sin” Callahan. He has just settled into a fishing vacation, and the last thing he needs on his line is a long-legged redhead stowaway with secrets in her heart and killers on her trail.

Lucky for her, he’s deadlier than the guys who are chasing her. Unfortunately for him, she’s gorgeous, smart and determined to make it on her own. When the secrets start spilling and the nights heat up, Luke realizes he faces a new sort of danger-losing the woman he loves. Can he win the battle for her heart? Or will she give him the slip?

Maddie Kincaid has found something in Brazos Bend that she’s never had before. Home. So when her home and life is threatened, she goes looking for help and finds it in the most unexpected of places. Luke Callahan is exactly what she is not looking for in a man. Having thought that she would be getting help in the form of a woman, Maddie is even less prepared for Luke. Plus she finds it unlikely that a complete stranger would believe her strange story if he found out about the illegal mushrooms in her minivan. And that’s all before she finds out that he’s related to the man that sent her straight to him.

Luke Callhan knows exactly what Maddie is. A way for his father to get him to come back to Brazos Bend. Luke is determined to send Maddie right back to where she came from and that’s before he finds out exactly who she is. Then his conscious gets the best of him and he decides to help Maddie before she leaves. That means that he starts to know this strange woman that he just can’t get a handle on.

It doesn’t take Luke long to realize that Maddie is the person that will get him back to the town he left 20 years before and promised to never return to. Having been estranged from his father for years, Luke didn’t think he’d ever be back. That’s before Maddie made him feel things that he didn’t think he was capable of. Loving Maddie isn’t easy for Luke b/c she embraces everything that he’s rejected. Before Luke can even decide to take a chance on Maddie, he has to figure out who is trying to hurt her b/c he knows he’ll never forgive himself if anything happens to her.

This was my first book by this author and I look forward to picking up another one.

4 out of 5.

This book is available from Signet. You can buy it here.


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Review: Dream Chaser by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Posted June 9, 2008 by Rowena in Reviews | 6 Comments

Genres: Paranormal Romance


Hero: Xypher
Heroine: Simone Dubois
Grade: 4 out of 5

Hades doesn’t often give second chances…

Xypher has one month on Earth to redeem himself through one good deed or be condemned to eternal torture in Tarturus. But redemption means little to a demigod who only wants vengeance on the one who caused his downfall.

Until one day in a cemetery…

Simone Dubois is a medical examiner with a real knack for the job. Those who are wrongfully killed appear to her and help her find the evidence the police need to convict their killers. But when a man appears and tells her that she’s more than just a psychic, she’s convinced he’s insane.

Now the fate of the world hangs in her hands…

It was bad enough when just the dead relied on her. Now’s there’s the seductive Dream-Hunter Xypher who needs Simone’s help in opening a portal to the Atlantean hell realm to fight insatiable demons. The future of mankind is at stake—and so is her life. The only question now is: Who is the bigger threat: the demons out to kill her, or the man who has left her forever changed?

I’m addicted, what can I say?

I can’t stop reading these Dark Hunter books, it’s like they’ve got a hold on me and won’t let go…not like I’m trying really hard to quit this addiction. I just can’t seem to get enough.

This book is a Dream Hunter book and it’s Xypher’s book. We all remember the pissed off Xypher from Sin’s book, Devil May Cry. He’s the one that’s got a bone to pick with Satara and he’s out for vengeance. He was granted a free month’s pass on Earth to redeem himself and if in that time, he’s learned his lesson, he’ll be released from Tarturus and get to live happily ever after, whatever that means.

So Xypher, who knows he’s going back to Hell and will not go back without sending the woman who sent him there in the first place.

So he comes to Earth and he runs into the heroine, Simone while she’s fighting off the gallu and they get stuck together (literally) with these binding bracelets that binds them together. Should one die, the other will die as well. If they’re seperated, they’ll die so they have to be in constant contact with each other and because this is a romance, we all know that this is how they get close and fall for each other.

I never thought Xypher was this billy bad ass, I thought he was just pissed off. He was menacing and lethal but more than anything, he was just mad. I really enjoyed his character though, I don’t think Holly would though because he really does remind me of Zarek (as a lot of them do), where he hates the world but all he wants is someone to love him for him and not for what he can do for them.

All of these stories have the same storyline, the same good people fighting the bad demons to save the world, only in this story, the demons were the good guys. It’s so weird because in DMC, The Dimme were these fierce, killers who had no conscience and the gallu were basically the same as Dimme, just less menacing and then we get this book and the bad guys from the last book aren’t so bad in this book.

This is what confuses all of the readers but as lame as that is, I still enjoyed this book. Yes, I know this review is all over the place but as lame as I thought the storyline and the bad guys were, I still enjoyed the book. It was still a fast read, a book that I zipped right through. I thought Simone was a great heroine and I loved her for Xypher. I love their journey to true love and I just really liked them together as a couple.

I also enjoyed the secondary characters, Jesse, Gloria and it was good to see the other folks mentioned in this book. Oh and in my last DH review, I said how I missed the New Orleans cast and so I’m happy to report that we see Julian in this book and though it’s not Kyrian or Talon or Zarek, Val…I still enjoyed Julian in this book.

Should you read this book? Yes, I enjoyed it and thought only some of it was lame but it’s still a fun read. What I want to know is, what happened to Gloria then? Did we find out, did I totally breeze over that or is whoever killed her the bad guys in the next book? Curious minds want to know and if you know the answer, please drop me a line and let me know, would ya?

THANKS!

Now, I’m off to buy Upon the Midnight Clear, since I don’t have that book.
This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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