Friday, March 29, 2013

Seduction by M.J. Rose

Seduction
by M.J. Rose

Visit MJ:
Book Excerpt
Website
Blog
Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter

Release date: May 7, 2013
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Historical, Mystery, Thriller
Hardcover: 384 pages
Rating: 5

Amazon | BarnesNoble

A Novel of Suspense series:
The Book of Lost Fragrances
Seduction

SYNOPSIS: From the author of The Book of Lost Fragrances comes a haunting novel about a grieving woman who discovers the lost journal of novelist Victor Hugo, awakening a mystery that spans centuries.

In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, Hugo began participating in hundreds of séances to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with the likes of Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus—and even the Devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published. Or so it was believed.

Recovering from her own losses, mythologist Jac L’Etoile arrives on the Isle of Jersey—where Hugo conducted the séances—hoping to uncover a secret about the island’s Celtic roots. But the man who’s invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, has hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different—Hugo’s lost conversations with someone called the Shadow of the Sepulcher.

What follows is an intricately plotted and atmospheric tale of suspense with a spellbinding ghost story at its heart, by one of America’s most gifted and imaginative novelists.


My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): melancholy
Loved the cast of characters of the past and present and how their stories are interwoven. The touch of paranormal element is engaging and kept me interested throughout.

If you liked Les Misérables, you will be treated to references to it in this tale.

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by M.J. Rose
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“Superstitions, bigotries, hypocrisies, prejudices, these phantoms, phantoms though they be, cling to life; they have teeth and nails in their shadowy substance, and we must grapple with them individually and make war on them without truce; for it is one of humanity's inevitabilities to be condemned to eternal struggle with phantoms.”
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Excerpt from SEDUCTION, Chapter 32
Here is what I know. Or do I know anything? It could be madness. For still, I am not certain that I haven’t indeed lost my mind. How can I, who abhor the superstition and illusion the Church perpetuates, be involved in this black relationship with a spirit? With a specter who offers to bring back the dead in exchange for having his name and reputation restored. Who so desired that mankind to stop confusing him with the Devil. But are they not one and the same?


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* review copy courtesy of Seduction tour - check out the schedule for guest posts, interviews and reviews

* if you would like my review copy of this book along with the review copy of The Book of Lost Fragrances (yes, a two-fer) then ADD this book to your Goodreads list and let me know in comments along with your email - offer ends April 30, 2013

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Booktopia 2013 in Petoskey, MI



Booktopia 2013
Petoskey, MI
details and signup here

Registration is now open for the last of the Booktopia 2013 trio which will be held in

Petoskey, Michigan
in partnership with McLean and Eakin Booksellers

Come one, come all!

Well, actually, space is limited so signup before it gets sold out.

~*~

Come for a weekend of authors, fellow books lovers and books, books, and more books!

And you will get to meet Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness - the voices of Books on the Nightstand!

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Last year I had the pleasure of attending Booktopia in Santa Cruz, CA.

I had a BLAST!

Authors featured:

Lynne Cox, author of South with the Sun
Ann Packer author of Swim Back to Me
Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow
Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son
Tupelo Hassman, author of Girlchild
Cara Black, author of Murder at the Lanterne Rouge
Sarah McCoy, author of The Baker’s Daughter
Preeminent audiobook narrators Grover Gardner (Robert Caro’s The Passage of Power) and Simon Vance (Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies)
Matthew Dicks, author of Memoirs of An Imaginary Friend

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What is Booktopia?

Basically, a book retreat limited to a small group (75 participants) sponsored by podcaster, Books on the Nightstand that is

about connecting readers with authors,
and connecting readers with readers.

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DO let me know, if you go.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Winners for March pt2


Here are the winners for giveaways that
ended March 24, 2013

Thanks to all contestants!


Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Winner of my ARC copy: Abby



Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
and Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Winner of both books: Twisting the Lens

~*~

* to see the original giveaway offer, click on the prize title links

* I will email winners for mailing addresses within two weeks.
Winners, feel free to contact me with your info if you don't get my email
or if you are just too darn excited and want to let me know -- like NOW ;-D

* contest policy

* keep in touch with my giveaways and learn about other book giveaways by subscribing via email on my sidebar (you may want to go digest mode)

* if not this time, maybe next time


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Giveaway: Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Every Other Day
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Sixteen-year-old Kali D'Angelo has always known she's different. Sure, she goes to high school and even attends pep rallies. But every other day, Kali becomes something else, hunting and killing demons, hellhounds and other supernatural creatures. On those days, she is indestructible.

When a supernatural creat leaves the mark of death on a popular cheerleader, Kali knows she is the only one who can save her. There is only one problem. Today, Kali is only human.


Special giveaway offer...

Sign up to win Jennifer's latest book, Nobody (if you haven't already) here and you will be eligible to win Every Other Day as well!

YES, the publisher is offering a two-fer!

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Nobody
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Visit Jennifer:
Book Excerpt
Website
Blog
Goodreads
Twitter: @jenlynnbarnes

Published: January 22, 2013
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Genre: Dystopia, YA
Paperback: 400 pages
Rating: 3

Amazon | Barnes&Noble

Zombie sighting:
This juice is way more potent than your mom's zombie pills.
- page 215, chapter 18


There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away.

That's why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they're young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.

Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute's monitoring. But now they've ID'ed her and send seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her. Yet the moment he lays eyes on her, he can't make the hit. It's as if Claire and Nix are the only people in the world for each other. And they are--because no one else can really see them.


My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): fade
An eye opener for both Nobody characters. Lots of push-pull love relationship doings while the two try to figure out the mysteries of their world.

I liked the premise of this story, but found the overall story just alright.

--~ Book Giveaway courtesy of publisher ~--
signup to win this book

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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~*~

* review copy courtesy of publisher

* if you would be interested in receiving my review copy let me know in comments along with your email
-open to all
-offer ends March 24, 2013

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Happy Release: The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose


The Book of Lost Fragrances
by M.J. Rose
Paperback Publication Date: March 13, 2013
my review

Publisher: Atria Books
Paperback; 384p
ISBN-10: 1451621485

SYNOPSIS: A Secret Worth Dying For.

Jac L’Etoile is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind when her brother, coheir to their father’s storied French perfumery, makes an earthshattering discovery in the family archives, and then suddenly goes missing— leaving a dead body in his wake. In Paris to investigate his disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend of the House of L’Etoile. If there is an ancient perfume developed in Cleopatra’s time that holds the power to unlock memories of past lives, possessing it is not only worth living for . . . it’s worth killing for, too.

Fusing history, passion and suspense in an intoxicating web that moves from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris, this marvelous, spellbinding novel comes to life as richly as our most wildly imagined dreams.

Read an EXCERPT.

Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound

Praise for THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the March 2012 Indie Next List

Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top Ten Mystery/Thrillers Spring 2012

"Compelling... suspenseful tale. Once you catch a whiff, you will be enchanted". —Associated Press

"Rose has entered another realm and written what is bound to be one of this year's best books." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"From 18th-century Egypt and France to present-day Paris, New York, and China, Rose's deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance. Rose imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish." —Publishers Weekly, Starred and Boxed Review

"Amazing... utterly engrossing. Elegantly written, with unforgettable characters. Will keep you up all night—and leave you with powerful feelings of revelation, wonder, and the infinitude of human possibility." —New York Times best selling author Douglas Preston

"A simmering brew that mingles the erotic sensuality of Patrick Suskind's Perfume with the dark and timeless obsessions of Rider Haggard's classic, She." —New York Times best selling author Katherine Neville

About the Author

M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com. The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype. She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.



Thursday, March 7, 2013

Giveaway: Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes


Nobody
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Just released: January 2013

There are people in this world who are Nobody. No one sees them. No one notices them. They live their lives under the radar, forgotten as soon as you turn away. That’s why they make the perfect assassins.

The Institute finds these people when they’re young and takes them away for training. But an untrained Nobody is a threat to their organization. And threats must be eliminated.

Sixteen-year-old Claire has been invisible her whole life, missed by the Institute’s monitoring. But now they’ve ID’ed her and sent seventeen-year-old Nix to remove her.

Nix is a killer. Claire is his target. But from the moment he sets eyes on her, everything changes, because only the two of them can truly see each other – and two Nobodies are more than twice as dangerous as one.



Read more about this world....


ABOUT Jennifer Lynn Barnes:

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the author of the popular Raised by Wolves series.

A former competitive cheerleader, teen model, and comic book geek, she wrote her first book at the age of nineteen.

She just completed her PhD in developmental psychology at Yale University and has returned to her native Oklahoma to teach at the University of Oklahoma.

You can visit her online at www.jenniferlynnbarnes.com or follow her on Twitter @jenlynnbarnes.


--~ Book Giveaway courtesy of publisher ~--

WIN a copy of this book!

Open to US and Canada only.

Offer ends: March 24, 2013

TO DO:

ADD this book to your Goodreads reading list.

TELL me if you have read anything written by Jennifer (please include title).

AND, leave your email (if I don't already have it)

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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* currently reading this

* stay tuned for review

* the winner of this giveaway will also get a copy of another book by Jennifer Lynn Barnes --> Every Other Day

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Winners for March pt1


Here are the winners for giveaways that
ended February 28, 2013
and March 3

Thanks to all contestants!

Whip Smart by Kit Brennan
Winner: nurmawati djuhawan of nurma love books


The Girl on the Cliff by Lucinda Riley
Winner: Valerie
Winner for ARC copy: June G of Writing is a Blessing


~*~

* to see the original giveaway offer, click on the prize title links

* I will email winners for mailing addresses within two weeks.
Winners, feel free to contact me with your info if you don't get my email
or if you are just too darn excited and want to let me know -- like NOW ;-D

* contest policy

* keep in touch with my giveaways and learn about other book giveaways by subscribing via email on my sidebar (you may want to go digest mode)

* if not this time, maybe next time

--> check out the current giveaways and upcoming events on my sidebar


 
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