Great giveaway~! Ends May 3rd

What Happens in Scotland by Jennifer McQuiston

 Free Book Friday is giving away 5 autograph copy of  Jennifer McQuiston's debut book What Happens in Scotland.

I did a review on her book a while back and I'll say it was an amazing read.

 Hop on over this giveaway ends on May 3~

Book Blogger Confession

Hosted by the fabulous For What It's Worth and Midnyte Reader~

Question of the day (it's a long one):

~Amazon buys Goodreads (Find the announcement here) DO you think this is a good thing for readers – or is Amazon the devil? Will this move effect you? Will you be leaving Goodreads?
~ The death of Google Reader As Google continues to phase out it’s less popular products, bloggers were scrambling to find a new reader platform to follow their favorite blogs. What have you switched to for a reader?
The big fear though is the loss of Google Friends Connect. How are you preparing if indeed GFC is discontinued? How many subscriber options are too many to offer your followers? What ones are the most popular on your blog?
~ What do we owe authors?  This is an interesting post about this. An author had tweeted that if you get all your books from the library it deprives an author of income, another suggested using this fun little graphic to help readers spread the word about a book they love.
What are your thoughts on this? Do they have a point? Do they go too far in expecting readers to only buy their books at indie bookstores, avoid Amazon or expecting readers to go forth and publicize their book after a purchase?

~

Okay, Amazon buys Goodreads. I don't really care....kind of.  I like having Goodreads on its own even though I do buy most of my books from Amazon. I know I won't be leaving Goodreads any time soon or ever but then...hmm. I do understand that if Goodreads and Amazon work together it'll be easier to review and purchase books. I know that sometimes when I add a book on to my to-read list on Goodreads and I don't have it on Amazon I tend to forget to buy or read them :(  So I see that this would help us readers on books we want but also help with the review postings so we don't always have to copy and paste.

Oh my Gosh~! The death of Google Reader! Why why why~ GFC is how I keep in touch with my favorite bloggers. And yes~, I was one of those bloggers who scrambled to secure the blogs I wanted to keep. Although I have chosen Bloglovin, I barely go on it because I still have GFC, I know I'll have to start going on it soon so that I'll know how to work it and use it. What has the world gone too? Whay are they hating on us readers and bloggers!

As I said before I purchase most of my books from Amazon. I do occasionally buy from BN and The Book Depository, or Smash Words. And sometime from Indie Book stores if the book I want isn't available anywhere else, which is totally fine with me, besides, sometimes, the pricing. But is getting all my books from the library a bad thing? No, I love the library. It was the first place where I fell in love with books and reading as a child. I don't think it's depriving the author of an income. I mean, most books from libraries that I know of were donated. They were bought at one point right? Although I'm all for money and for authors, I don't think libraries should be put down for allowing people access to books that they may or may not have thought to have picked up if it weren't in a library. I do that too sometimes, roam bookshelves for new books or books that I thought I would never pick up otherwise. Sorry if I'm going off on a tangent but it's true.

Authors expecting readers to go forth and publicize their book after a purchase? I do help authors promote their books (I'm in multiple Street Teams)  and sometime review books that I totally love~ but if it's expected for me to do a review even if I don't plan to I don't see it as a good way to promote, unless I said or agreed to it for an ARC.

Okay I'll stop writing. You're probably confused and bored by now. Happy Reading :)

The Readers Round Table blog reviewed "An Heir of Deception"

The Readers Round Table reviewed "An Heir of Deception" +  they have an awesome giveaway~!
        http://daysgoneby.thereadersroundtable.com/?p=242&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readersroundtable+%28The+Readers+Roundtable%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Tortured Hero Blog Hop

Showers of Books Giveaway

Monday WIP

To Quinn From Ella

The hall was much quieter than the ballroom full of laughter and music. Ariella made her way down the dark corridor. If her mother knew she had snuck off to her study she would be in for a long lecture on propriety. As she opened the doors to her study the warmth from the fire reached her skin and warmed her to her toes. It was a good thing she told her maid to keep the fire in her study tended to. At the sound of a click Ariella closed her eyes and leaned back onto the door and sighed.

“I knew you would be in here,” a male voice spoke.

Ariella’s lungs leaped into her throat as her eyes flew open. She knew that voice, though it had changed over the years it still held a ring of familiarity. Instead of looking at the hearth where the voice came from her gaze fell to her desk where paper scattered on its surface.

Damn, Ariella thought.  She forgot to remove the key to the bottom drawer of her desk when she left to change for the ball. Ariella took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

“What are you doing here,” Ariella asked. “Shouldn’t you be out there enjoying your ball?”

A snort came from the hearth as the male figure rose from his seat and turned to look at her. “Shouldn’t you be there also being a good Host?” replied Quinn.  

Ariella narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t move from her post. “Welcome home Mr. Cavendish,” and she curtsied.

“Ah, Miss Ariella Garside, it is nice to be back,” he said with a hint of sarcasm and bowed.

Quinn’s face was masked in shadows as his back was toward the fire but Ariella knew his face held a mischievous smirk. With the hearth at his back it made him look dangerous and powerful, especially now that he wasn’t a young boy anymore. 

Ariella’s heart started to race. “Why are you in here?”

“Relaxing,” as he shifted to the side of the chair so nothing stood between them.

She raised a quizzical brow. “How did you know this was my study?”

“Your father wouldn’t have all these books,” he replied as he stretched out his arms. “That or the letters addressed to Quinton Cavendish on the desktop.”

Ariella’s eyes widen in alarm as panic took over her body. She wrote to him frequently when he was on the continent. Most of them she didn’t send. Those that she did send him, informed him about their village, how their own families are doing, and just about anything she could find to get him to respond to her letters. He rarely responded.

She darted across for her desk at the same time Quinn moved to block her from reaching it. Ariella had to stop short before she rammed into him. That wouldn’t have been good.

Now that he was facing her with half his face cast in firelight, he looked even more dangerous. He wasn’t the young man she remembered; hard lines now etched his face and jaw. His eyes were a pools of darkness.

“Nah ahh,” Quinn replied as he wiggled a finger standing between her and her desk.

“Those letters were not on the desk when I left,” Ariella retorted. “How dare you go through someone else’s private stuff!” exclaimed Ariella.

“Those letters were address to me,” Quinn shrugged. “So I have a right to read them.”

“They were locked away!” Ariella threw out her arms.

“True,” Quinn replied tapping his chin. “Now they’re out.”

“Move aside,” Ariella uttered between clenched teeth.

“No.”

Trying not to stomp her feet Ariella planted her feet down, “I said move.”  

“Why?” Quinn raised an eyebrow.

She hated acting like a child in his presence, but he just wouldn’t listen.  Heaving a sigh she relaxed and then gave him her outmost seductive smiled. His face faltered and at that moment she tried to dart around him.

Interview and Giveaway at

You can win a Rose Gordon book from her amazing Bank Brother’s Series~! Click on the blog page logo picture and hop on over, there’s only one day left.

Click on the book covers to learn more about them.

Good Morning Minnesota’s Crazy Mid April Weather!

Can you believe this is what it looks like in mid April?! I know I know ~ it's Minnesota you say, but still, Come On! I'm getting tired of the snow and it's weather! Just this past Tuesday I was excited for Spring because I saw green grass, Green Grass people! And now my hopes are dashed.

Uhg~ So not want to go to college today. Now this is going to suck walking in the snow!

Book Blogger Confessions

How long do you see yourself blogging for? Do you think it's ok for a blog to evolve over time? For example: You may have started out as a book review blog but now your interest is in cooking as well. Do you incorporate that or start over?

How long do I see myself blogging? Well, as long as I can! That is if I'm not busy and occupied by other things that life throws at me. Why does life always get in the way? If I can read forever without reality intruding, I suppose I'll be fine with it. Sadly I don't find myself blogging as much now days. But I do check out other blogs and see what everyone else is doing.

Do I think it's okay for a blog to evolve over time? Heck yea. Look at mine, I have nothing! Well, kind of nothing but that's because I'm still getting use to doing things. I'm not so good with technology (I'm still pretty young but technology just isn't my thing).

But yea, I think it can evolve. If you go back to my first couple of post when I started blogging you can see that I had nothing to talk about. Most of it was about life and blog hopping and just pictures. I still do that but now I'm starting to do reviews and some giveaways. I'm still not doing anything but we'll see over time.

To start a blog over I find it to be too much work. I think you can always incorporate it but maybe just on a new page tab? But then if the blogger wants to have a totally new blog specifically for that other interest then it's up to them. You can never have too many blogs. Well, sometimes.

The Reluctant Duke, Georgiana Louis

The Reluctant Duke, Georgiana Louis 

Finally it's HERE~! I have been waiting forever for this. I cannot wait to read it~

Author Georgiana Louis, who I had introduce last year, Finally got her Spares Series out with book #1 The Reluctant Duke. Check out her book. You will love it~
"The Spare's Series" books about 4 friends who unlikely became entitled and find love along the way. This series sounds AMAZING!
I have been reading excerpts of each of these books and they're just...wow.
Can't wait for them to come out!!
The first in the series is:
The Reluctant Duke, Georgiana Louis
Then: The Ruined Marquis, Georgiana Louis
Next is: The Recalcitrant Earl, Georgiana Louis
Finally: The Rakehell Duke

Check out her blog for some awesome excerpts of this book and her other books at: http://georgianalouis.blogspot.com
And her Author page at: http://georgianalouis.com/
Buy the book here: http://redrosepublishing.com/books/product_info.php?products_id=1316

No strings Attached Hop

Wednesday Wonderings...of a Relationship Virgin~

For anyone out there who cares.

I’m currently writing a story. It’s a Historical Romance and well, there’s not much going on at the moment. I got the jest of the story and some of the plot down and the characters are in line but then I thought,

"How am I to write a love scene or kiss scene without ever having experienced it?"

"If I make it up would it be too unrealistic?"
"But I have been reading many of these scenes in my readings so does it matter?"

"I'm practically an expert at feelings and emotions so why it is so hard for me to write it!?"

I’m currently at a writers block on this issue. Unfortunately I’ve never been in a relationship. 

"What?" you say, "You have got to be kidding me?" 

Nope, nahhdahh. Never been in a relationship with a human being (intimately or emotionally? Book boyfriends don’t count) nor have I ever been kissed – like truly kissed- not that I have been anyways. But I do kiss my nieces and nephews ~on the cheek~ but they don’t count.

This is giving me a hard time because I feel like I wouldn’t know how to mix in the right amount of feelings into a scene without ever experiencing it. The fluttering of the heart and butterflies in the stomach maybe but other than that, nothing.

I had to leave the kissing and love scenes out on one of my story

I mean, I do enjoy stories that don’t have love scenes in them but I felt like….like I’m missing something if I don’t have it in my story. Like it’s not fulfilled if it’s left out -  a cliff hanger! Although, many of my stories are left in cliff hangers. *shakes head*

Okay~ I don’t know what I’m talking about anymore. I’m just spazzing, but it really did give me a writers block headache.

It’s so hard being a Relationship Virgin trying to make it good being an amateur  Romance Writer.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser scene from Sins of a Ruthless Rogue

Clayton return ed his focus to the other room. Olivia resisted the arguments of both Kate and the modiste, and soon she was left alone to rest. She stood and stretched, hands high above her head, back arched. Then with unconcerned, leisurely deliberation, she slipped off her dressing gown and then her stays, leaving her clad only in her shift.

She reached down to grasp the hem and slowly, so slowly, lifted it. It skimmed passed her knees. Clayton could hear nothing but his pulse echoing in his ears.

If he valued his sanity, he'd move away now. The thoughts of what she might do alone and naked shuddered through him.

The linen lifted another quarter inch, revealing the pale skin of her thighs.

At least close your eyes. Give her privacy. He was no longer a lad waiting by the window of the mill to catch a glimpse of her as she arrived with her father.

Another quarter inch...

But she dropped the shift, letting it fall back to her calves. "Was that enough of a show for you?"

Review: Secrets of a Runaway Bride by Valerie Bowman

The Thrill Of Escape

Miss Annie Andrews is finally free to marry the man she loves. With her overprotective sister out of the country on her honeymoon, nothing can prevent her flight to Gretna Green—nothing, that is, but an abduction by the wrong gentleman.

The Sweetness Of Surrender

When Jordan Holloway, the Earl of Ashbourne, promised to look after his best friend's sister-in-law, he didn’t realize she would prove so difficult. But when he spirits her away to his country house to prevent her elopement, he discovers that the tempting beauty knows how to put up a fight. To make matters worse, he’s stuck playing the role of honorable protector...when what he really wants is to run away with her himself.

Review

This was a fun a enjoyable read.  Made me laugh and tear up and just smiles all around.

Miss Annie has a strong personality and although I didn't like her first because of her insistent probing of being in love (with the wrong man!) but in the end I couldn't hate her because love will always have that effect on young lover.

Jordan I Adored~!  At first glance I knew I would love him. His appearance in the first book where he had to assist in retrieving Miss Annie in her first attempt to Gretna Green was just as hilarious and I knew their relationship would be wonderful. I love how he tried to treat her like a sister for the sake of his friendship with her now new brother-in-law but it just seems to never work. You really get a feel of who he really is by many of his actions.

Towards the end of the book I really really enjoyed it. After being unable to handle Annie in Town, Jordan abducts her to the country so that he can marry her off to the local gentry and introduces his lovely brothers~! They were just as delicious as Jordan. I do hope they get their own HEA.

Ah, Medford was just as great a character as he was in Secrets of a Wedding Night. Always so insightful, if only he will be able to do that in his book coming up this fall.

Both Annie and Jordan go through a lot of ups and downs and funny and intense bickering but all is good to a great love story!

www Wednesday

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What are you currently reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

 

Teaser Tuesday

Secrets of a Runaway Bride by Valerie Bowman

"Do you feel that?"His breath came hot on her neck and cheek and Annie shuddered.

"Ye...Yes."But she wasn't exactly sure what he was asking. She felt quite a lot at the moment.

"Do you feel how the pistol is like an extension of you hand when you hold it this way?"he asked.

Uh-huh." All she could do was nod. she wanted to turn and bury her face in his neck, but instead she swallowed and kept her eyes on the target.

"Cock you thumb, like this," he breath and Annie closed her eyes briefly while he nudged her thumb with his forefinger. "Now stare down the target."

She nodded and bit her lips.

"Keep your eye trained along the the top of the pistol. Do you see?"

She could barely get a yes from her dry throat.

"Lock your arm," he commanded, moving his strong arm, warm hand down to her elbow and squeezing.

Annie gulped. "All right."

"Now," he said." Keep you eye on the pistol and the target at the same time."

Another nod.

"Fire!"