December 31st, 2009 — A-C, Crime and Protection, Detective, Guest Blogger, Mystery, Suspense/Thriller
If you're a LRP virgin, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. It's free and easy! See you tomorrow! ~Keira.
by Mary Burton, guest blogger and author of Dying Scream.
The average daily chase for me doesn’t have a whole lot of thrill attached to it. I’m usually chasing my miniature dachshunds, Buddy and Bella, through the woods because they’ve gotten onto the scent of something. I’m chasing a deadline or I’m chasing down a recipe for another kind of cookie or bread. All good stuff, but not so thrilling.
However, when I pick up a book, especially a romantic suspense, I can really sink into a thrilling chase. Not only is there a sense of the romantic chase (the chemistry, the tension, the energy that hooks the hero and heroine together) but there is the added layer of a very literal chase—the race to catch a killer. It’s this double pursuit for love and justice that drew me first as a reader and then as a writer to romantic suspense.
In DYING SCREAM, the hero and heroine don’t seem to be in any kind of chase when the story opens. If anything, they are running in opposite directions. Adrianna Barrington and Gage Hudson are not only former lovers with far too many unresolved emotions, but they quickly find themselves on opposite sides of a murder investigation. There are so many reasons why these two would never make it and yet the Pull between them, which they thought was long dead, is so strong that the race toward true love quickly begins.
And if the emotional struggle is not enough for these two, they also have a serial killer that is quite literally chasing Adrianna. If Gage can’t out guess this dangerous killer, he will lose the woman he has finally come so far to find.
So, if you’d like to escape the mundane and sink into a book that feeds your need for a thrilling chase, consider DYING SCREAM. It was great fun for me chasing after these two characters as their story unfolded and I hope you’ll find their journey as thrilling as I did.
Mary Burton
www.maryburton.com
Buy: Dying Scream
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December 26th, 2009 — 2.5 Stars, Australia/New Zealand, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Cooking, Great Britain, Housekeeper/Maid, J-L, Secret Baby, Travel, Tycoon
When Cristo Verón, owner of a vastly successful private plane company, heard that his soon to be brother-in-law might have gotten some maid pregnant in Australia, he hops on the soonest flight out to check the woman and her claim out. He expects to find a pretty face and not much else, instead he finds that Isabelle Brown. She is not what he expects and pretty soon Cristo is determined to have this little housekeeper as his mistress. Will he figure out he wants her all to himself or will he lose the only thing money can’t buy?
Magnate’s Make Believe Mistress is a quick read. There were some inconsistencies that I wondered about as I read. For instance, why did he check out the woman’s claim instead of the potential father? Why not hire a detective to sniff her out? It is an interesting spin on the "secret-baby" plot though, so I give Bronwyn Jameson credit for that.
I was there was more meat to this romance. I kept waiting for something big to happen. There really wasn’t a whole lot of conflict to the story once the hero figured out the heroine wasn’t pregnant, but her sister. No angsty blow-up that either party had to overcome. I was expecting Cristo to fume like most romance novels heroes, but he didn’t. It would have been refreshing if it didn’t seem so odd considering his character.
The story was decent, but not something I’d reread again.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
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October 19th, 2009 — Contests, Guest Blogger, P-R
by Tracy Cooper-Posey – guest blogger and author of Ningaloo Nights
I’m so glad to see Love Romance Passion back up and running on their new home. I hang out here on a daily basis, and have found some interesting new-to-me authors and titles, like Jo Davis and her fabulous book When Alex Was Bad
, which I discovered right here on LRP.
The Internet is a fascinating place, when you really think about it. It actually doesn’t exist. There’s a term some geeks and more and more communications people use for it: “The cloud”. That’s an interesting way of referring to it because it really is a nebulous thing that you can see from a distance as a solid, attractive-looking thing, but when you get up close and personal, it really isn’t anything at all. It’s a bunch...well, okay a whole lot...well, alright, millions of computers talking to each other. That’s it. That’s all the Internet really is. Somewhere in the middle of all those computers talking is a very, very busy junction point that in our minds we’ve built into this mental image of a meeting place that we’ve come to know as the Internet – a cloud that doesn’t really exist, but feels as solid, warm and friendly as many other brick and mortar meeting places we know in our home towns. And for a lot of people, the Internet is far more warmer, safer and friendlier than our home towns. It can also be a lot more romantic. I speak from experience...I met my husband here, thirteen years ago, and moved from Australia to Canada to be with him.
I’ve never been back to Australia since I arrived here on October 4, 1996. The cost of airfares vs. a writer’s income has a lot to do with that. So when Ellora’s Cave asked me to participate in the Going Down Under series, I jumped at the chance because it was an opportunity to return to Australia at least in my imagination ...my own personal cloud, you might say. The more interesting counterpoint to that is that my office is in the basement of our house, and I wrote Ningaloo Nights during the early summer – in June, which this year was quite hot — for Alberta Canada, I hasten to add. Here, if it hits 30 degree Celsius (about 85 or 90 degree Fahrenheit) people start to talk about heat waves, which even after thirteen years of Canadian summers I still find hilarious (although I keep that to myself). Although, given that Canadian winters can drop down to 40 degrees below zero (which is actually minus 40 in Fahrenheit, too), the houses here are the mostly perfectly insulated and sealed boxes in the world. So even at a measly 30 degrees in summer, being stuck inside can be uncomfortable.
Except that in my office it’s bloody freezing, all summer long. I even have to turn on a radiant fan heater under my desk to keep my toes from dropping off, and I wear tights, too. I get strange looks from delivery people and other daily door-knockers when I answer the door wearing a sweater and tights and have my arms wrapped around me while they’re sweating on the porch. J And that was the conditions I experienced while I was writing Ningaloo Nights where the hero and heroine sweated through the 40+ Celsius dry, dry heat that I remembered from my years of living in Western Australia. I had to try and conjure up the imagery of the dazzling, flat and dusty West Australian countryside during the hottest month of the year, while I was stuck in a dark basement, while my toes were shoved up against a fan heater.
Believe it or not, I had a blast writing that book. I barely noticed my actual surroundings. I was very much living in my personal cloud. I was out driving around the Exmouth gulf territory with Mason and Sherry, soaking up that dry heat and feeling my skin bake under the sun....oh, and imagining what Mason might do to me next!
- Buy page for Ningaloo Nights http://tinyurl.com/yg4nhud
- My website: http://www.TracyCooperPosey.com
- My blog: http://www.TracyCooperPosey.com/blog (There are pics of the conference there if you’d like to see them, including me in neon pink go-go boots.)
- Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TracyCP
Giveaway: Tracy has kindly offered the readers of LRP a chance to win an ebook copy of Ningaloo Nights. The winner can choose from one of these formats: .lit, .pdf, mobipocket, rocketbook, and html. To enter all you have to do is ask Tracy a question or leave a relevant comment. Multiple entries allowed. This contest ends October 26, 2009.
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May 23rd, 2009 — About
The last two times I wrote, I talked about reducing your TBR pile through monetary and organizational methods. This time I'm going to share with you tips on how to get through your pile by answering the following question: How can you read more books?
Check out these reading methods below:
1. Books in multiple places.
This goes against the organizational methods mentioned earlier, but more books in more places where you sit down and relax can be very helpful in encouraging you to read them. So go ahead, put some by your bedside table, next to the couch, by your bathtub, etc.
2. Read more than one book at a time.
Combine this tip and tip #1 and now you're cooking... er reading. Your mind can keep track of more than one story, you can follow multiple books and not get lost. Go ahead and try this on for size and see how you do. Chances are you'll get through a bunch more books because you won't be locked into any one particular story.
3. Conversely, read only one book at a time.
If you're someone who is easily distracted this might be the method for you. Reading a book at a time allows you to focus more and pay attention to all the things you love.
4. Schedule reading.
By setting a time to sit down and read you're making a plan. You will read a whole lot more by doing this. Make it a daily habit or schedule it when you know you won't be interrupted by every day demands like dinner and phone calls.
5. Read for an hour before bed.
It's a great way to relax and it's similar to #4. You are guaranteeing a time to read for yourself, which allows you to focus on your reading and your day to day business.
6. Read for an hour after waking up.
Wake up an hour earlier and get to reading. Allow yourself the luxury of not being in a hurry to get ready for the day. I personally like to combine #5 and #6. It's amazing how many books you can get through by doing both.
7. Listen to audio.
See if you can get some of your reading in audio format instead of the standard print. This way you can hear a book while running, walking, driving to work, at the gym, and more. Listening to books is a fabulous way to get through your reading.
8. Quit reading bad books.
This is why you use blogs and other review sources. We read the bad books so you don't have to do so. Put down the read that's killing you to get through. You're not obligated to finish a book ever. Pass it on to a friend, donate it to the library, swap it at Paperback Swap, whatever you feel like doing to get it out of your sight.
9. Carry a book with you everywhere.
Not everybody has a whole lot of time that they can put aside to read. By carrying a book with you if there's ever a down time you can whip it out and read a few pages.
10. Turn off the TV.
Really, you can use that time spent watching shows to read more. Don't want to miss your shows? Record them and watch them later minus commercials or better still watch your shows online later at Hulu or the network website.
11. Read sitting up and with a good light.
If you read sitting up and with good lighting you're not likely to fall asleep in the middle of a paragraph and snooze your way through your reading time.
12. Keep background noise to a minimum.
Lots of noise equals lots of distraction which you can't have if you're going to get through that TBR pile! Plus it's considerably less annoying than listening to commercials on the radio or on TV.
13. Skim / Scan.
Yes, I know it's your pleasure reading and you want to squeeze every minute of out the experience, but not everything needs to be read. If you can't follow through with #8 at least this method helps you slog through the book faster.
14. Speed read.
I read pretty fast, I could read faster if I learned how to speed read. I hear you can read faster and still retain all the information from the book without any problem with some practice. What better practice material than your pleasure reading? A faster reading speed might be just the ticket to get through that towering pile.
15. Shut off wi-fi when reading ebooks.
Most ebook readers are still using laptops and desktop computers. Shut down your internet connection before you open a book and this will let you focus on reading instead of your email and instant messages.
16. Stop rereading!
I don't mean rereading a book you've read before, though that certainly won't help you get through your TBR pile. I mean stop rereading the same text over and over again. You're either doing it unconsciously (which means pay attention and stop) or consciously by going backwards to find out what you missed/forgot or by trying to find out where you were in the book. Stop it now! Use a bookmark and pencil lightly where you left off between reading sessions and erase on opening. As for missing something, trust me, authors will reveal it again so keep reading further. You might just find out that the next paragraph jogs your memory anyway and you've read more instead of less.
How's that for a fairly exhaustive and in depth list? Do you have anything you can add? If so leave a comment and share with others!
Photo Credits: Betsssssy
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March 26th, 2009 — Links and Challenges, News
Today is part four of five in announcing the Top 50 Romance Novel Blogs. I hope you take the time to go to these blogs and see what they have to offer!
And as always be sure to drop a comment and let me know if I've missed any of your favorite haunts as I will be composing a fan list to supplement my list at the end.
- Romance Book Scene- for everyone who loves a happy ending.
- Romance B(u)y the Book- Dish with Michelle and the Bellas @ RBTB about Love, Sex, Family, Life, and, of course, Romance! (They have a newsletter subscription contest going on - ends 31st of March.)
- Romance Novel TV- Video interviews with romance authors, really need I go on? Make it a destination of yours.
- Romance Rookie- I have to promote Jill just because of the Florida background- though her 500+ bk reviews don't hurt either. She works at my alma mater. If it weren't for the trees and two kids I'd say we were the same person. (I loved Nancy Drew growing up and am also a Virgo.)
- Romance Vagabonds- Four ladies + romance novels + hunks = a whole lot of fun.
- Romancing the Blog- The title of this blog was my first idea for naming my blog. Isn't it cute? The columnists on Romancing the Blog are readers, reviewers, aspiring authors, and bestsellers.
- Romantic Inks- I just love the colors of this website and the design - very pretty. 15 women actively write for this blog - that's a whole lot of wonderful posts!
- Romantic Time BOOKreviews- RT News Blog.
- Sapphire Romance Realm for fabulous book reviews, movie reviews, author interviews, and other goodies.
- Shapeshifter Romance- Love Lycanthropes- werewolves, wereleopards, dragons, selkies, and more? Here's a website devoted entirely to them!
Top 50 Continued:
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