Greetings readers,
In this issue, I have a bunch of recommendations for you, including books sourced from BookFunnel, and releases from my bookish friends.
Read on for more details...
Greetings readers,
In this issue, I have a bunch of recommendations for you, including books sourced from BookFunnel, and releases from my bookish friends.
Read on for more details...
Greetings Readers!
I'm here with four book promos from Book Funnel. Read on for all the alluring details...
I'm back with some more recommendations from BookFunnel and around the web.
Please note, I understand I've gone pretty heavy on the recommendations front this month, and I'm aiming to streamline for September onwards to just two posts per month, featuring only three books per post. hopefully, that will be less 'spammy' for you.
For those interested in an update about ME you can check out my blog post from yesterday -- Writing, ADHD & Funtimes, and I'll be back this coming Monday with a feature on the amazing writing community WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW.
Until then, take care & stay creative.
T.T.F.N.
Title: Fate is a Mated Bitch
Link: books2read.com/fateisamatedbitch
Blurb:
A different kind of danger arises when a romance author meets a real life Alpha shifter.
Tall, sexy, smug, confident, and covered in mouthwatering tattoos, Walt Lupinski is determined to bring his Clan out of their 'old way is the best way' mentality that leaves them currently in danger. He can't afford any distractions, let alone a fated mate, to get in the way. Especially when it's against the Good of the Clan law to be with her.
When romance author Andy Cryder discovers her fiancรฉ fulfilling one of his secret desires with their real estate agent, she takes off, not expecting to end up stranded on a desolate mountain...or to be rescued by a group of hot men that look more cut out to be on her book covers than in her real life.
For the first time in her life, Andy feels like she belongs. That is, until their Alpha walks in. What unfolds between Andy and Walt could change everything for the better...or destroy two families for good.
If you’re a fan of Charlaine Harris, Georgette St. Clair, or Milly Taiden, you’ll love the Lupinski Clan series.
One click today and meet a new breed of book boyfriend.
Title: Their Pretty Little Monster
Link: https://a.co/d/6hBThCY
Blurb:
In their arms, danger becomes desire.
Every year, monsters demand their Offerings—women like me. This year, I thought I escaped. I thought I was safe. Then he arrived.
The Viscount.
Dangerous and ruthless, he declares me a late Offering.
Swept into the deadly realm of the Shadowfen, I realize I’m not here by chance.
They want to rule, and I’m their key. My reality crumbles, and as much as we act like enemies, they refuse to let me go. Their touch ignites a fire I can’t resist, fueling desires I never expected.
They call me their little monster.
Maybe they’re right.
Because when everything is stripped away, a fiercer side of me no one expected—not even me—emerges.
You see, in the shadows, temptation and peril collide.
So, ready or not, the monster within is about to be unleashed… and these three Shadowfen are eager to claim their prize...
Me…
Their Pretty Little Monster is a standalone paranormal romance with darker themes, enemies to lovers, a sassy heroine who comes into her own power, and three stubborn Alphas who aren’t releasing her.
Title: Celestial Hearts
Link: https://books2read.com/b/mq70X2
Blurb:
Celestial Hearts: A Sci-Fi Romance Anthology is a limited-time collection from three unique voices in science fiction romance.
For readers who long for love stories that transcend galaxies and sweep you away from the realities of planet Earth, lose yourself in this collection and discover your next favorite author! From diners in futuristic space cities to grand ballrooms on luxurious deep space cruise ships, you'll have every chance for a starry-eyed romantic encounter.
Three authors. Three stories. Three chances for love among the stars.
Hurry, this collection won't be available for long! Grab your copy now to get all three novellas at one great price
Title: Claimed
Link: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/weuxilyq91?tid=til4o70pri
Blurb:
Claimed is a mm alien warrior romance and is intended for mature adults only.
Dracix
I feel a great love, and I know what will set my beloved's heart free. A life with me would never be enough while he remains captive. If I wish to declare and prove my love to him, I must do it by setting him free. With my military position and the backing of others within the rebellion, I have a plan to get him home and expose my people and our crimes to the rest of the galaxy. I know I will be seen as the enemy, but as long as he knows the truth and the evil stopped, I can die a happy male.
For love, honor, and justice!
You can also visit https://books.bookfunnel.com/preorders-and-new-releases-september/kn4er1qcjj for a list of 18 new romance recent releases and pre-order titles, including Beyond Starlight: An Alien Fated Mates Collection.
Happy Friday, Readers!
Thank you to anyone who has visited or commented on my blog or social media posts this week. The support is greatly appreciated.
Today, I want to discuss some of my favourite books.
I was going to start with a disclaimer about my previous love for the Harry Potter Series and how that has changed since J.K. Rowling's true anti-trans ideology has become more apparent. However, I have decided to write a full-length blog post about that in the future, as I think it's something important that should be discussed.
Now onto books I love. Please note, if there are issues with the author (i.e. Patrick Rothfuss not fulfilling charity incentives), I don't discuss that here. For the sake of this post, I am separating art from the artist.
In order of when the books were introduced to me:
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
As I mentioned above, in my late teens, I was a Harry Potter fan, which renewed my love of reading, and I was on the lookout for new books to read. At the same time, I was heavily into gothic subculture. One night, my sister and I were looking for something to watch on TV and stumbled across the Interview with the Vampire movie starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
I was instantly in love.
As soon as I was able, I went to the bookshop and bought as many Anne Rice books as I could get my hands on, absolutely devouring The Vampire Chronicles. By the time I'd read all the Chronicles that had been published, Anne Rice was firmly one of my favourite authors, and I ventured into her other works. I already loved all things witches, so The Mayfair Witches trilogy seemed like a no-brainer.
Ironically, I started the book and could not get into it. I hated that I'd bought this book, by an author I loved, about witches, and I couldn't get into it. I honestly don't remember why; it just didn't pull me in, and I put it down and moved on to something else.
One of these something else's was Blackwood Farm, another book in The Vampire Chronicles, which briefly featured appearances by Rowan and Mona Mayfair.
Mona Mayfair captured my heart completely, and I needed to know more about her and the Mayfair Family, so I tried to read The Witching Hour again.
This time, something clicked. I think maybe the first few chapters aren't a true representation of the book as a whole, and the switching POVs was frustrating for me (ironic given I later fell in love with GRRM).
But once the story got going, I was hooked. I loved the history of the Mayfair Witches and the gothic horror that came with it, and I was intrigued by how that history would affect the current-day storyline and romance between Rowan and Michael.
The Talamasca were fascinating to me, and I wanted to join them. Lasher was equal parts enthralling and terrifying.
The end of the book left me reeling, and I immediately dived into the next, thrilled to see my beloved Mona featured more prominently.
By the time I got to the final book and then read the tie-in/cross-over with The Vampire Chronicles, The Witching Hour had cemented itself as one of my favourite books ever.
The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
I am super lucky to have a bookworm for a brother-in-law, and when we saw each other during the holidays, we'd discuss our favourite books. B-I-L always mentioned His Dark Materials and recommended I read them. One year, he bought the complete series for me as a birthday gift.
I'm so glad he did.
I instantly fell in love with Lyra, her world, and the idea of Dรฆmons. I needed to know what Dust was, and how it connected to Lyra, Pantalaimon, and the world as a whole.
Then we were introduced to Iorek Byrnison, and that changed everything. How can you not love an armoured, talking polar bear? That's the point I knew these books were something special.
As I often do with series I love, I jumped from one book to the next in quick succession, so they all blurred into one big story. A story I adored, and still hold close to my heart many years after finishing the series.
The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The other bookish person in my life is my sister, and we sometimes have a similar arrangement as me and B-I-L, where we recommend books for each other, and buy the recommended books for the other as Christmas or birthday gifts.
The Name of the Wind was one of these books. I think she bought it for me in exchange for me buying her the His Dark Materials trilogy.
Another book of magic and mystery that instantly pulled me in. I spent hours thinking and theorizing about who or what The Chandrian are, and how Kvothe will defeat them. It also helped that Kvothe was a redhead with green eyes—a sure-fire way to win my heart!
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
By now, it should be clear I love books with magic, mysteries, great world-building, and lore. A fellow Harry Potter fandom friend recommended the books to me, saying that the Lannisters made the Malfoys look like babies in comparison.
I was intrigued.
Then I heard there was going to be a TV show based on the books, starring Sean Bean. I decided I wanted to read the books before I watched the show so that my first impression of the characters and the story was directly from the books.
Comparing the A Song of Ice and Fire series to the Harry Potter series in any way absolutely does not do justice to George R. R. Martin's books, which are phenomenal and one of the best fantasy book series ever.
My redhead-loving streak continues as Sansa Stark became one of my favourite characters. I also have a love-hate relationship with the Targaryen Family and can't decide if they're the coolest people ever or psychopaths. Maybe a bit of both.
Even though the TV series finished on a sour note, and we don't know if and when GRRM will finish the book series, the world of Ice and Fire is so rich and full of lore that I could spend hours reading theories and watching videos about different obscure characters. It's no surprise I'm currently obsessed with the mysterious and witchy Alys Rivers.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I'm one of those people who, when something becomes super popular, I become curious and want to check it out. Sometimes I end up hating the super popular thing (Twilight just was not for me), and sometimes I love it.
The Hunger Games series was one of those 'I love it' times. Although I'd read some YA fiction, I had never read anything set in a world like Panem, and I wasn't sure what to expect.
I had a sort of vision in my mind of what YA books were like (again, Twilight ruined my perception here), and I was expecting a love story set in a war-torn world. Yes, The Hunger Games has that, but oh boy, does it have SO MUCH more. I don't think I've read another book like it that focuses on war, corruption, class systems, and rebellion. It's a series that really makes you stop and think.
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Ghibli movies are my guilty pleasure. When I'm stressed and feeling down, I snuggle in bed and watch one. My favourite is Howl's Moving Castle, so imagine my surprise when I learned it was based on a book.
I also have a soft spot for children's and young adult fiction, especially if it's fantasy. Sometimes you just need something easy and fun to escape into.
I started reading Howl's Moving Castle recently, fully expecting it to be exactly the same as the movie. While it's very similar, there are many key details that make it stand out, and in my opinion, make it better than the movie. Sophie is slightly different, and I liked her much more in the book. Howl is even more of a brat in the books than he is in the movie, and somehow, that made him more endearing. I do love a troubled, broken man. Bonus points if they are magical. ;)
The book is whimsical, light, and easy to read, which for me is perfect. I can switch off and lose myself in another world for a few hours, without having to think too deeply about anything or worry about the world. Perfection.
While these six are just some of my favourite books, if I listed all the books I've read and enjoyed, we'd be here forever. Honestly, I'm pretty black and white when it comes to reading. It either hooks me early on and I become obsessed, or it doesn't hook me and I forget about it.
I can only think of a few series I completed (or nearly completed) that I didn't enjoy. I jump between genres, enjoying both contemporary and other-world stories. Romance is a bonus for me, but not always a necessity. But I'm more often drawn to stories with magic, mysteries, world-building, and lore.
That's all I have for you this week. Now I really should get back to writing my own book, and resist the temptation to play with the new Sims expansion.
Be sure to come back on Monday, for an interview with indie author and graphic designer Clare Bentley.
Until then,
Take care and stay creative.
T.T.F.N.
Hello friends! I’m Diana Dawn and I’m a self-published author. I write clean romance stories including fantasy, historical and contemporary. I have a story featured right now in the “Beyond Starlight” boxed set. I thought I would use this blog post opportunity to offer some pointers to new writers.
1. Write what you know.*** I know this is said a lot, but it’s true! I struggle more trying to write out of my comfort zone. But when I focus on something I know, the words and content just flow much easier, and it will also seem more real to the reader. This isn’t an exclusive “rule” of course, it just makes writing a little easier. It really helps, at least in the beginning, when you’re still trying to figure out your writing styles and preferences.
2. Do your research.*** You certainly can’t always stay in your comfort zone, or else you wouldn’t be able to stretch yourself as a writer. The key is consistency within your story and within the genre you’re writing. For example, the story I have in this boxed set, “Beyond Starlight”, is actually not in my typical comfort zone. I hadn’t written science fiction before, but I had the story in my head and wanted to write it. I found that the key to this is to do your research and read other books in the same or similar genre. You may not be familiar with the genre, but the reader may be a pro. So, you want to be sure not to pass his or her “suspension of disbelief” … which means to write something so far-fetched within the genre, that the reader can’t believe it, even in a fiction story. Admittedly, this is pretty subjective, but just keep it in mind. I was part of a post-apocalyptic boxed set a couple of years ago and had a story I wanted to write for it. Originally, the idea for the setting of my story was to be in the pre-colonial era. So, it was a struggle for me to completely change the story and the setting to fit into a post-apocalyptic world. It was such a challenge that I almost gave up! LOL! But I pushed through and completed the story and ended up being very happy with how it turned out.
3. Stay organized.*** I always have an idea for a story in my head. I find it helpful to jot things down as I think of them so I don’t forget. It never fails… I’ll be driving and think of something for my story, and I tell myself to not forget so I can write it down later. Then later, I’m like “what was that idea I had?”, then I’m kicking myself! LOL! So even if I’m not in a situation where I can write something down, I pull out my phone and record a short note that I can reference later. Also, when I am first writing a story, I’ll have a general overview of it in my head. So, before I go into the details of writing the setting or the dialogue, I’ll do an outline of the story, and sometimes I’ll even do a spreadsheet of all the characters and their relationships, birthdates, and so on. Additionally, if your story has a lot of time points or dates, it might be helpful to do a timeline that shows dates and gaps in months, years, etc. I have a series that spans across five years, so I did a timeline that shows the year, the season and a general description of the important event in the story, so I can keep track and keep consistency throughout the series. I also keep a document with all of the dates for my deliverables. For example, I have a spreadsheet that has the name of the story (whether it’s a stand-alone book or story in a boxed set) its pre-order date, deliverable due date, release date, Facebook group link (if applicable), date I signed up for the set, etc. Don't let a deadline creep up on you and catch you unawares. Put things on your calendar. Make notes to yourself... even send emails to yourself. This helps me to remember things, too!
4. Get inspired.*** I find it helpful to get inspiration for my story if I can really visualize things in my head. So, I will gather various photos. These can be pictures that no one will see but you… anything that can get you inspired. I like to gather photos of what I see my characters looking like, whether it’s pictures of movie stars or character drawings. Plus, I’ll find photos of the different settings in my story, like if it’s a forest or the beach. Personally, I also get inspired by music, like if I am listening to a song and can see one of the scenes of my story play out in my head like a music video. LOL! One story I wrote recently took place in the 1400’s in a European-style setting. I got inspired by attending a Renaissance faire, and while I was there, I enjoyed watching the court dancing they did. I had a very similar scene in my book, so that was very inspiring for me. I also had another story that took place on a cruise ship. I gathered a lot of inspiration while on a Caribbean cruise vacation with my family. It was a win-win! LOL! You can use anything to get inspired and get your juices flowing to help you with your story.
I hope these notes helped to give you some takeaways that you can cater to your own writing practices and styles, etc. Thank you all for listening! Reminder to stay motivated!
Diana Dawn is a writer and author of the book series, Whispering Willows. As a lover of fairy tales and romance, Diana has focused her writing on romantic fiction, with a hint of classic fables. She has been a lifelong writer and first began creating stories in grade school. When she isn't glued to her computer or lost in her next romance story, Diana enjoys taking vacations with her husband and three children. She would love to hear your thoughts or feedback. Drop her an email at Diana@DianaDawnBooks.com for a special free promotional offer related to her Whispering Willows book series!
Find Diana Dawn online at https://dianadawnbooks.com/
Greetings Readers!
Reads2 Love brings you 102 steamy summer reads.
Athletes In Love is a collection of 45 spicy sports romances.
BookMojo brings you 30 books that are available for pre-order.
If you're interested in some more personal news, there is new content on my blog, including a teaser from Kyra Lennon's ALL OF YOU, my author origin story, and my favorite TV shows.
Until next time, take care and read on!
T.T.F.N.
It's Friday, and you know what that means? A new chapter of my serial Urban Fantasy Web Fiction LICHES, LEGENDS AND LOVE is now live on my website!
http://claredugmore.weebly.com/webfiction/liches-legends-and-love-chapter-eighteen
Congratulations to Kyra Lennon on the re-release of her rockstar romance, NOBODY KNOWS.
Blurb:
It's not easy being friends with rising rock stars - especially when you're the glue holding them together.
Razes Hell are climbing the charts, and Ellie can't believe her childhood friends, Drew and Jason Brooks, are drawing in crowds after years spent playing in dodgy bars.
From obscurity to overnight success, Ellie soon realizes life in the public eye isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when dark secrets become headline news and old conflicts are re-ignited.
When a fake feud meant to boost the band’s popularity threatens to rip the boys apart for real, Ellie finds herself torn when her loyalty to Jason collides with her blossoming relationship with Drew.
Nobody knows how deep their issues run—nobody but Ellie. With friendship, a music career, and a new love on the line, can Ellie keep their tangled pasts from ruining their futures?
ORDER HERE:
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSTQ1VWD/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BSTQ1VWD/
It's Day Seventeen of the Write Here, Write Now LoveFest, and we've got Anna Edwards, and her rockstar romance SING.
๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ซ๐
Tate Gordon is the lead singer of Saving Tate, the hottest new rock band in Seattle. Having been mentored by music legends, Berrettini, for several years, the group are about to head out on their first world tour. Tate’s excited, but he’s struggling at the same time with the secrets he’s been keeping. His friends don’t know the truth about his youth or the confusion running through his head. Will Tate’s past destroy everything the group have been working for when his past returns in a chance encounter?
Zoey Danson is a hot commodity in the record industry, and her boss wants her to travel with one of his top clients, Saving Tate, as they embark on their world tour. She’s not entirely sure about being stuck on a tour bus with four famously horny men but mounting debts, thanks to her deadbeat mother, mean she doesn’t have a choice.
When Zoey ascends the steps of the tour bus, looking hot and carrying a clip board with a full itinerary, sparks instantly fly between her and Tate. Can these two keep it professional, or will their instant attraction lead to an explosive disaster no one could have foreseen?
๐๐ข๐ง๐ , Book 1 - Tate's story
• Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/3dxWdWY
• Amazon US - https://amzn.to/3dw1puj
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnaEdwardsWriter
It's Day Fifteen of the Write Here, Write Now LoveFest, and we've got Samantha Jayne Grubey and her new-adult, coming-of-age romance ESCAPING REALITY.
Escaping Reality
Nobody wants to live without their best friend, but when Holly is murdered, Chlo has no choice.
Chlo is the only person who has the answers - too bad she can’t remember when she wakes up two weeks later.
Chlo is sent to a rehabilitation centre where she has to learn to grieve, along the way of trying to access her memories she has to deal with her feelings for Corey, her best friend’s brother.
For Holly was always a reason to stay away, now it’s their reason to try.
Buy Link: https://books2read.com/EscapingReality
Add to your TBR: https://www.goodreads.com/.../show/46131626-escaping-reality
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaJayneGrubeyAuthor/