Book Embargo

Light of the Moon is Luanne Rice’s newest novel. It takes place mostly in France, but our main female character is from Connecticut. I have never read anything by Luanne Rice before, and I enjoyed this experience. At our bookstore we have, what we call, “Calgon-Take-Me-Away” reading. This is definitely in that catergory. It is the story of a woman who goes to France, to visit the white horses of the Camargue.

The story begins with a vacationing woman being swept off her feet, literally. Beyond the entertainment value of this story, I believe that this book could help someone deal with grief in a way that books found in the grieving section never could. The death of Susannah’s mother, and the loss of Sari’s mother ties together in a way that could help people accept the grieving process. While some loss is dealt with though time like Susannah with her mother, other forms can be even more scarring. The manner in which Sari loses her mother, with the pain of the following accident, keeps her trapped in the grief of her five year old self, even though eight years have passed.

If you feel like reading a classic or a literary tome, this will not fit the bill. If you feel like being swept away by other people’s problems (in France no less), then check out Light of the Moon. It was a delightful story, but if you are anything like me, find the tissues BEFORE YOU START. It will make everything much easier. Look for this new novel at your local independent bookshop now!

Tags: books, camargue, connecticut, fiction, france, genre, grief, hardcover, horses, light of the moon, luanne rice, mother, rice, romance, white horses

An American High School tradition, the Prom Night… (do other countries have proms?) However, it is not always perfection. Sometimes (think Buffy in the original movie of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) our prom nights end in disaster. And, it is always fun to read about OTHERS misfortunes. Along that idea, Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe and Lauren Myracle have brought us, Prom Nights from Hell.

From the Harper Collins website for the book,

Prom Nights from Hell
by Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Lauren Myracle and Michele Jaffe

In this exciting collection, bestselling authors Meg Cabot (How to Be Popular), Kim Harrison (A Fistful of Charms), Michele Jaffe (Bad Kitty), Stephenie Meyer (Twilight), and Lauren Myracle (ttyl) take bad prom nights to a whole new level—a paranormally bad level. Wardrobe malfunctions and two left feet don’t hold a candle to discovering your date is the Grim Reaper—and he isn’t here to tell you how hot you look.

From angels fighting demons to a creepy take on getting what you wish for, these five stories will entertain better than any DJ in a bad tux. No corsage or limo rental necessary. Just good, scary fun.

That site also connects you to the individual author’s sites.

* http://www.kimharrison.net/
* http://www.laurenmyracle.com/
* http://www.megcabot.com
* http://www.michelejaffe.com
* http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

We all know that this blog LOVES Stephenie Meyer. Also Meg Cabot, with strong interest in Kim Harrison. I like others in the same blogging genre as Myracle though I have yet to read her stuff (think back to my blog post on Shana Norris’s new 2008 title Libby Fawcett, same idea). I need to do some research into Jaffe as I have not heard of her before. But she is hobnobbing with some good folk, and connections are everything in this business!

It has a book embargo for April 24th this year, (right at the beginning of PROM SEASON!!!) so check it out at your local independent bookshop!

blogging, book, books, cabot, embargo, fiction, genre, jaffe, lauren myracle, libby fawcett, meg cabot, meyer, michele jaffe, myracle, norris, paperback, shana norris, stephenie meyer, ya, young adult, stephenie meyer

Tags: blogging, Book, books, cabot, embargo, fiction, genre, jaffe, lauren myracle, libby fawcett, meg cabot, meyer, michele jaffe, myracle, norris, paperback, shana norris, stephenie meyer, ya, young adult

Ah the joy of soft-core vampire and were-wolf porn. Seriously eh?

Well, let us venture into Kissing Sin. This is the sequel to Full Moon Rising. These are much raunchier than most of my other romance novels. As with FMR, the premise is that were-wolves have to have sex during the full moon. They can shift any time of the month, but sex is a necessity. Our heroine is actually a dhampire. She is half vampire and half were-wolf. Unfortunately, this leaves her with serious fertility problems because vampires cannot procreate. Here is a quote from Keri Arthur’s website,

From Melbourne’s gleaming skyscrapers to its throbbing nightclubs, Riley Jenson’s world is raging with danger and desire. A drop-dead-gorgeous werewolf—with a touch of vamp coursing in her blood—Riley works for an organization created to police the supernatural races. But when she wakes up naked and bruised in a barren alley, she knows only that she must run for her life.

Within moments Riley collides with the sexiest man she’s ever seen: steely, seductive Kade, who is fighting a life-and-death battle of his own. With old lovers and enemies gathering around her, Riley knows she is being pursued by a new kind of criminal. Because in Riley’s blood is a secret that could create the ultimate warrior—if only she can survive her own dangerous desires….

These books are seriously a blood tingling good time. Interestingly, all of the men in Riley’s life are incredibly gorgeous. This book involves an alpha wolf, thousand year old vampire, horse-shifter, and the other just “occasionals.”

Its a good read, with honest character development, and there are some interesting points in this PW review.

From Publishers Weekly
Vampire-werewolf heroine Riley Jensen escapes an unknown enemy’s breeding pens to kick off the second installment of Arthur’s urban fantasy series (following Full Moon Rising). The action and sex come fast and furious as Riley works with her twin brother, her boss at Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, as well as most of her lovers (who include a vampire with werewolf issues, a werewolf with mixed loyalties, an alpha werewolf and a horse-shifter) to uncover and derail a nefarious plot to create an army of super-beings. Strong world-building, vivid personalities and the distinctive cultures of each of the various paranormal strains combine for a rich narrative, and Arthur’s descriptive prose adds texture and menace. She also creates strong empathy for Riley, whose vampire half is beginning to assert itself, making her already precarious fertility problems worse. As in her first entry, though, Arthur can occasionally lose her reader amid complicated paranormal plot points, and her publisher’s insistence on marketing her as paranormal romance may frustrate; though the heroine’s multiple sexual partners fit her werewolf nature, they do not fit romance genre conventions and are better suited to readers of erotica/romance hybrids. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

If you like the regular romance genre stuff, then this might not be the series for you. But if you like to kink it out a little bit, then give Keri Arthur and Riley Jensen a chance!

sex, soft-core, vampire, were-wolf, orgies, kissing, romance, genre, paperback, fiction, paranormal, fiction, multiple sexual partners, paranormal romance, keri arthur, full moon rising, kissing sin, sin, sexual partners

Tags: fiction, full moon rising, genre, keri arthur, kissing, kissing sin, multiple sexual partners, orgies, paperback, paranormal, paranormal romance, romance, sex, sexual partners, sin, soft-core, vampire, were-wolf

There are plenty of sites out there that are useful for the “sharing books” idea. This article came to mind after reading the Publishers Weekly article on the topic. The concept of Freecycle but just for books appealed to me. I tried the local Cheshire Kat trading site, but I just did not keep up with it. Recently, I stumbled across Book Mooch which is set up in such a way that I seem to be drawn to it. I just keep wandering around finding books and adding them in. As you can see from a sample bookshelf in my own bedroom, I read an eclectic variety of books, and any one of them could be mooched!

They have two systems for adding books. One is to enter the title, ISBN, or author. Another way is to enter multiple titles at once. If you have the book on hand, then you can just flip it over and enter in multiple ISBN’s. It makes it very easy to add 2, 3, 4, or even more books at a time.

Another aspect that I like is the nice factor. I have only dealt with two people so far (I am a newbie) but both were very nice! One, after an email apologizing for my lateness in sending out a book, replied in about 4.7 seconds saying, basically, “no worries!”
One aspect that I do not like about this international site is that not everyone chooses to send their books to other countries. If you want a book, but say it is only available in Australia, but that user will only send to other Aussies… You are just out-of-luck.

Regardless of all that, you can find so many books, and even though you have to wait for your points to build up as you send out books that people mooch from you, eventually you get to mooch too!

Remember that you do get fractions of a point for every book you add (to help you get started). I have found that if you add some pretty generic titles, you will get a better footing for giving away books. Not that I am doing that of course. I am the only moocher on all by 2 of my books (being The Bourne identity and Princess Diaries: In the Spotlight).

If you like to read, I would recommend grabbing your “must read these books now” booklist and stop over at bookmooch.com… or any of the others listed in that PW article, and just browse around. A little effort could have you on the pathway to a LOT of fun!

book trading, bookmooch, books, fiction, freecycle, genre, hardcover, mooching, non-fiction, paperback, publishers weekly

Tags: book trading, bookmooch, books, fiction, freecycle, genre, hardcover, mooching, non-fiction, paperback, publishers weekly