Sunday, March 30, 2014

Can You Feel the Looooooove Tonight?

What really happens in your brain on a first date?  This video. Kind of disturbingly accurate. 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

It's Almost Call Day!!


As a former Golden Heart winner and active member of RWA, March 26th is always a party day for me.  Calls are going out to the new class of Golden Heart and RITA nominees and much of the romance community is waiting eagerly for our phones to ring.  It is one insanely nerve-wracking and exciting morning - and the Rubies are here to share it with you.  Whether you're waiting for a call yourself or hoping your favorite author gets that much deserved RITA nod, swing on over to the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood and raise a glass of cyber bubbly.  There will be prizes aplenty - but really, it's just fun seeing all the SQUEEs and OMGs as the calls start coming in.  Don't miss it!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Over-Marketing

**Warning: Rant Incoming**

I’m reading this book. It’s Nalini Singh, so it’s beyond excellent.  Her books are so utterly exquisite to me.  But I have a bone to pick.  Not with Ms. Singh, who is up to her usual insanely stellar standards.  No, I’m annoyed with the folks who packaged the book.  It’s the blurb.  It’s making me crazy.  Observe:

From "the alpha author of paranormal romance" comes the most highly anticipated novel of Nalini Singh's career--one that blurs the line between madness and genius, between subjugation and liberation, between the living and the dead. The one that finally reveals the answer to the most tantalizing Psy-Changeling myster of them all...

A dangerous, volatile rebel, hands stained bloodred. A woman whose very existence has been erased. A love story so dark, it may shatter the world itself. A deadly price that must be paid.

The day of reckoning is here. 

See that?  All style, no substance.  It's like those awful TV promos.  The last thirty seconds of this week's Scandal will be the most SHOCKING OMG MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE.  Awesome.  Thanks for letting me know in advance what my emotional reaction to your show is gonna be, doucheface.

Here's the thing.  This is an ongoing series and I devour each book as it comes, but what’s vexing about this blurb is that it tells us nothing about the story.  We don’t even get to know who the hero and heroine are!  In a series like this where non-hero & heroine characters also get POV sections, you can’t even rely on whoever the first POV on the page is to tell you.  It took me a solid fifteen pages before I was certain whose book I was reading.  And I felt like the back cover blurb was intentionally vague about who the hero is in order to try to con us into thinking we were getting a book about the Ghost.  Whether Kaleb Krychek is the Ghost or not, this is his book, so why not just freaking SAY SO.  To not give us his name, not give us Sahara’s… arg.  It just feels like I’m being jerked around.  I don’t want the blurb to give away crucial plot points, but I do at least want to know whose book I’m reading.  It’s so annoying to me when authors get so big and famous that we don’t even get blurbs anymore.  You get quotes about their awesomeness and giant pictures of them on the back and a title.  That’s it.  Me?  I still want a blurb.  I don’t care if you’re an autobuy author (which Nalini Singh absolutely is!), I still want to know what I’m buying. I shake my fist at you, marketing department. Stop trying to SELL me so dang hard and just let me see what I'm buying.

Rant complete.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

It's DABWAHA Time!


It's time for the annual romance novel cage match!  Sixty-four books enter, only one will emerge - and YOU can vote, fill out brackets, win prizes, and prove your mastery over all things romance.  Go forth and WIN, minions.  Get your DABWAHA on!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Mary Hughes's Downbeat Release Party!

Come one, come all!  I am a huge Mary Hughes fangirl and today I get to help her celebrate the release of her latest paranormal-rom-com Downbeat.  Join us at the Facebooks for lots of authors, lots of prizes, and lots of fun. 


Or just check out Mary's latest HERE.  You can bet it's gonna be a stitch.  Nobody cracks me up like Mary.

Striking the right note could shatter more than their hearts.

Biting Love, Book 7

After an attack that slaughtered his family, vampire Dragan Zajicek walled off his heart and went on a sixteen-hundred-year rampage with the bad boys of history.

Now a rock star of the concert podium and master freelance spy, he’s taken the baton for a small orchestra near Chicago to investigate rumors of a monstrous, undefeatable vampire dubbed the Soul Stealer.

But it’s the lovely, unassuming Raquel “Rocky” Hrbek who mesmerizes him from the first touch of her luscious lips on her flute.

Rocky, a shy shadow scarred by middle school cruelty, is mystified as to why core-meltingly gorgeous Dragan would notice a mouse like her. As his stolen kisses draw her dangerously close to the edge of her carefully constructed comfort zone, he exposes her secret—she’s investigating the monster herself.

As their quest draws them closer together, the monster zeroes in on the woman Dragan’s rebellious heart tells him is his mate. Now they must find a way to destroy the indestructible before Rocky is utterly consumed. And Chicago is bathed in the blood of innocents.

Product Warnings: Contains a master of seduction and symphonies, an awkward and innocent flutist, small-town humor, heart-stopping action, and an exodus to Iowa. Oh, and the cheese balls are ba-a-ack—and deadlier than ever.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Ebook Lovers Unite!

It's Read an Ebook week at Samhain!  All this week Samhain authors are at the Cafe (and on Facebook) chatting about the joy of ebooks and giving away PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES!!!! 
Tuesday, March 4: 8-10PM EST in the Cafe
Wednesday, March 5: 1-3PM EST in the Cafe
Thursday, March 6: 1-3 PM EST in the Cafe 
Friday, March 7: 8-10PM EST in the Cafe
Saturday, March 8: 1-5 PM EST on Facebook

Come on by, Ebook Lovers, and win, win, win!   

Monday, March 3, 2014

Naughty Karma Honored!


Guess what, you guys?  Naughty Karma is a finalist for the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence!  How cool is that?  Swing on by and check out all the books being honored this year, including my fellow Ruby, Beth Langston! 

Saturday, March 1, 2014

TRR's Anniversary Party is Under Way

All this month at The Romance Reviews they will be celebrating their third anniversary with more than 450 prizes up for grabs and a Grand Prize of a $100 Gift Certificate!

You'll need to register and log-in before you can play, but registration is free and easy.  And you can earn points and win stuff!   (Special shout out to my mom who has insanely good luck winning prizes from TRR.  Hi, Mom!)

And (hint, hint) if you particularly want to win a copy of Naughty Karma, be sure you play on March 6, from 12:00am EST to 11:59pm EST. 

Good luck, reader friends!