BABBLING ABOUT BOOKS, AND MORE!

Books Read for May 2013 and Mho's Book Haul

2013-06-19T06:15:00.001-04:00

Better late then never! Here are the books I've read for May. A nice variety of books and a range of grades:

1. Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh- A+ (top 10)
2. Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher- A- (top 20)
3. The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand- A- (top 10)
4. In the Darkness by Elizabeth Haynes- B
5. The Letter by Sandra Owens- B
6. Hot Under the Collar by Jackie Barbosa- B
7. Undeclared by Jen Frederick- B
8. Pieces of You by Cassia Leo- B
9. Those Nights in Montreal by Beverly Kendall- B
10. Still Fine at Forty by Dakota Madson- B-
11. Lunch by Karen Moline- C+
12. Love on the Ropes by Pat White- C+
13. Young Annabelle by Sarah Tork- C
14. A Beautiful Struggle by Lillian Anderson- C
15. Held by Kimberly Bettes- C
16. The Right Bride by Jennifer Ryan- DNF
17. The Look of Love by Bella Andre- DNF

My favorite book for May is Nalini Singh's Heart of Obsidian. This book made my heart bleed, but in a good way. The romance between Kaleb (who I still claim as mine) and Sahara is an all consuming, beautiful one. This is a book I want to hold close and never let go. It has a permanent place on my keeper shelf. Click here to read my Heart of Obsidian review and you'll understand why I have so much love for this book and the author.

Mho has been meaning to read Andrew Grey who writes gay romance for Dreamspinner Press. When I was at BEA I picked up this book for Mho. An Unsettled Range was release in January 2012.

Synopsis: The last thing Liam Southard expects when he flees his abusive father is to be taken in by a couple of gay ranchers. Soon he has a new job and a new perspective on his sexuality, and his life starts to turn around. Then someone pulls a gun on him.

In Troy Gardener’s defense, the gun thing was a mistake. Between his marriage falling apart and living in his uncle's isolated hunting cabin, he's been a little edgy. He wants to make it up to Liam, and once he discovers how much they have in common, he wants even more. But with Liam's father popping in unexpectedly and a mining company threatening the ranch’s water supply, the only guarantee is that life is never going to be boring.

Razorbill sent Mho this soon to be release, coming in July. Mho has enjoyed Aprilynne's books in the past and Earth Bound looks dark and filled with suspense and action.

Synopsis: Tavia Michaels is the sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her parents. When she starts to see strange visions of a boy she’s never spoken with in real life, she begins to suspect that there’s much about her past that she isn’t being told. Tavia will soon discover that she’s an Earthbound—someone with the ability to create matter out of nothing—and that she alone holds the key to stopping the Reduciata, an evil society that manipulates global events for its own shadowy purposes. Tavia will ultimately have to make a choice: to come into her powers and save the world from the evil Reduciata or to choose free will and a love of her own.

I can't believe it's half way through the year already and the amount of books me and Mho had read. Do you have any book recommendations you read last month?

The Art of Love Book Review Anne Whitney

2013-06-18T06:12:00.001-04:00

Synopsis: Marina Phillips has spent her entire life as her father’s victim. But enough is enough. All it took was one moment of realization to send her fleeing across the country into the unknown of New York City with no plans and no money. A new life without the constant torture is all she wants, but what she finds waiting is something she never expected.

Fitz is New York’s premiere playboy artist. Sexy, tattooed, and coveted by women and men alike, his performances are heralded as the coming of a new god of modern art. But when Marina wanders into his show, she becomes the inadvertent piece he’s always waited for – a girl to sculpt, to change, and to craft in his own image.

She never expects to fall head over heels into the world of parties, drag queens, agents, and artists craving for her and her benefactor. She didn’t even expect to begin falling in love with someone like Fitz, the sexy, pretentious man of her nightmares.

Above all, Marina never expects her father to stage a cross-country mission to paint her as a kidnapped girl taken by a psychopath.

With her life on the line, Marina has no choice but to accept Fitz’s proposal – change everything she is, inside and out, for the chance to start anew. But Marina has plans of her own. Plans that will rock her world forever.

I was pleasantly surprised by this debut by Anne Whitney. I wasn't sure what to expect with The Art of Love because I'm a bit underwhelmed with New Adult and where this sub genre or category is heading. The Art of Love is unique though. It features a twenty-one year old Marina who escapes from her abusive father and ends up in Manhattan with no money. She's alone, afraid and hungry. She's given a flier for an art showing, and because it has food, she goes there. What she sees there will shock her silly.

The showing is performance art by Fitz, who is nude. Marina and Fitz's first interaction cracked me up because Marina has never seen a penis up close and personal before. Her reaction is priceless:

"It's hard when you're eye level with a man's naked twig and berries dangling like Christmas ornaments."

Fitz realizes Marina is all alone in the world and takes her in like a stray kitten. His gay drag queen brother, Derek (total lubs for this guy) and their other friend, fellow artist Viridian want to help Mariana when they find out why she's on the run and hiding. Fitz, Derek and Viridian become Marina's fairy godmothers in a way and transform her with a makeover that’s more of a disguise, as well as to give her confidence. Then Mariana becomes Fitz's personal assistant and that's where things become more interesting.

The Art of Love has a fairy tale feeling to it. Marina may at first come across as naive and too innocent but there's more to her than that. Fitz is not your typical love interest found in this type of read. He's really sweet to Marina, and you can't help but fall in love with him. And he has tattoos. Rowl. He has a few secrets, one of which I figured one pretty quickly, but it added something more to the overall story that I felt was needed and to give Fitz more depth to his personality.

The writing is pretty good and I loved the character interaction. I adore Derek and want his story next STAT. The way Fitz and Marina act on their attraction is more believable and real with Mariana, who has no experience with men (which again makes sense when you learn her past). There's one scene in a bathroom with Fitz and Marina that may have you fanning yourself.

If you’re a fan of Painted Faces by L.H. Cosway, I think you'll enjoy The Art of Love. Overall I enjoyed this one. The well rounded, dimensional cast of characters really made this shine and I look forward to more from Anne. (Self-published $2.99)

Final Grade: B

A few other The Art of Love reviews:
Birth of a New Witch
On the Night Stand
SMI Book Club

Book Spotlight: Once Upon a Darkness by Aria Kane CONTEST

2013-06-17T06:19:00.000-04:00

(Available now for $2.99 from Entranced Publishing)

Synopsis: Gretchen and her twin brother, Hank, were abandoned to a zombie horde when they were five years old. Intended to be a sacrifice by their zealot parents, they were instead rescued by The Company. Raised to become soldiers in the war against zombies, they now provide safe passage through danger zones, one contract at a time.

Clint's only skill is war, but he's weary of killing other men. When his contract with the Marines runs out, he takes a job on Gretchen's team, hoping that the search-and-rescue life will suit him better.

On Clint's second day, their four-man team is attacked, drugged, and taken to a prison full of frightened civilians. The only way in or out is by helicopter and, here, their enemies are human. One by one, the captives are culled from the holding area. Rumors say the facility director uses the prisoners as experimental subjects for the testing of a zombie cure.

When Hank is taken, Clint and Gretchen must put aside their personal feelings and find a way out of the prison, surrounded by thousands of starving zombies, before Hank becomes just one more disposable guinea pig in the hands of a twisted mad woman.

Add Once Upon a Darkness on Goodreads!

About the Author

Aria Kane is a recovering mechanical engineer and romance writer. She lives in sunny Florida with a 60 lb mutt who thinks he's a Chihuahua. You can learn more about her at ariakane.com or on Twitter @aria_kane.

To celebrate the release of Once Upon a Darkness, Aria Kane is giving away a Kobo Vox (Android) eReader with a red leather case to one winner (US residents only), and a choice of any Entranced ebook to another winner (international entries welcome).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Plagiarism WTFckery That Happened to Author Lorelei James

2013-06-16T12:01:00.000-04:00

On Friday a massive WTFckery happened. It deals with an unpublished writer plagiarizing a published author.

What is plagiarism?

From Plagiarism.org:

"Many people think of plagiarism as copying another's work or borrowing someone else's original ideas. But terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the seriousness of the offense:

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own to use (another's production) without crediting the source to commit literary theft to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

All of the following are considered plagiarism:
Turning in someone else's work as your own
Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)

When it comes to plagiarism within the writing community, regardless of how an author publishes their work, it's one of the most offensive, dirty and foul things a writer can do to another writer. I have been plagiarized in the past. A few times I found my reviews posted here on my blog and on Goodreads stolen by fake book blogger. I use the word "fake" because they stole my review almost word for word, and because of that they don't deserve to hold the title of a "book blogger". A writer, regardless if they're published or not who plagiarizes another writer, regardless if they're published or not is a thief and a liar and deserves some sort of punishment for their crimes, which usually involves shaming them publicly.

I first heard of this from author Cat Johnson on Facebook and clicked over to her blog where she had all the information. It appears a person by the name of Alison Gilmore plagiarized All Jacked Up, a 2009 book written by Lorelei James and published by Samhain Publishing. Alison Gilmore would post one chapter at a time on her now deleted blog. Since this came out, Alison Gilmore has done a mass purging, aka deletion of all the evidence because we all know if you delete the evidence on the internet that means it's gone forever and never happened (rolls eyes). But there is a great action one takes called screenshots, and when the publishing community from authors to readers hears one of their own has been attacked in such a manner, the support is amazing and there is a big call to action to take down the criminal (yes, I use criminal in this case because PLAGIARISM IS STEALING AND IS MORALLY AND ETHICALLY WRONG).

Lorelei confronted the plagiarist on Twitter and Alison Gilmore went on the attack, playing the victim. She accuses Lorelei of bulling her and had the audacity to say there's no evidence that she did such a thing. One of her reasons she would never plagiarize an author like Lorelei is because smut is for those who can't write:

Two such bloggers, who I must give a round of applause to, due to their investigation skills, has a play by play of the Alison's Twitter conversation, including the screenshots of the work she stole and even more shocking WTFckery where Alison also plagiarized author, Renae Taylor as well as also plagiarizing from Rilzy who has more on this plagiarism. Click here to read Rilzy's post called ...on Plagiarism and Disgust about Alison Gilmore.

Some examples of this plagiarism thanks to Rilzy:

"She has two stories up: Temptation and one called A Bitch Called Fate. The titles may be the only things she “wrote” as both of the works were plagiarized. How do I know this? Well first I pulled up: A Bitch Called Fate. Here is a screenshot from Alison’s now defunct website:

"compared it with a screen shot from Lorelei’s book ‘All Jacked Up':

The second blog who did amazing investigative reporting is Limecello and her blog A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet with the post: Yesterday I "met" a Plagiarist.

Alison Gilmore is not only an intern at W.W. Norton & Company Inc, but allegedly, will offer her a job to fund her MA in publishing, as she stated on her now deleted blog. I wonder what W.W. Norton would think about one of their interns plagiarizing?

This is just the latest in a long line of plagiarism in publishing. If you google "romance author plagiarized", a whole list pops up. The best known plagiarism cases within the romance genre community were of two well known and once respected authors- Cassie Edwards and Janet Daily, both of which plagiarized their writing peers.

A writer's words are sacred, regardless if you write books, screenplays, music lyrics or book reviews. When someone without ethics steals those words and makes them their own, the have violated the writer of the original work.

"Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed."- Iago, Act 3, Scene 3 from Othello by William Shakespeare

The Reign of Inferno is Over with Entwined With You Crushing the Competition (Best Sellers This Week)

2013-06-15T08:08:00.002-04:00

I always get a thrill when I see a romance take over the #1 spot on the book charts. Dan Brown's Inferno at #1 is over because Sylvia Day's Entwined With You has stomped all over the competition. Not even Stephen King could beat Day! Entwined is the #1 book this week and has sold over 130,000 copies, compared to Infernos 93,000 sold. This should come as no surprise because of the mega success of Day's Crossfire series. Not many books in their first week out sell over 100,000 copies, so big congrats to Sylvia on her success!

And the Mountains Echoed is at #3. Stephen King's Joyland is at #4 which some may find interesting. It's only available in print and still sold over 75,000 copies in a week. The reason King didn't allow Joyland in print is: "Maybe at some point, but in the meantime, let people stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one," the author told the newspaper."

I wonder how many of King's readers bought Joyland at Amazon, though? Hmmm...

Also to note on the NYT Combined Fiction and Ebook list:

Mary Kay Andrews' Ladies' Nights is #12. This looks adorable! The heroine is a blogger!

Synopsis: Grace Stanton’s life as a rising media star and beloved lifestyle blogger takes a surprising turn when she catches her husband cheating and torpedoes his pricey sports car straight into the family swimming pool. Grace suddenly finds herself locked out of her palatial home, checking account, and even the blog she has worked so hard to develop in her signature style. Moving in with her widowed mother, who owns and lives above a rundown beach bar called The Sandbox, is less than ideal. So is attending court-mandated weekly "divorce recovery" therapy sessions with three other women and one man for whom betrayal seems to be the only commonality. When their “divorce coach” starts to act suspiciously, they decide to start having their own Wednesday "Ladies' Night" sessions at The Sandbox, and the unanticipated bonds that develop lead the members of the group to try and find closure in ways they never imagined. Can Grace figure out a new way home and discover how strong she needs to be to get there?

Self Published author, Sandi Lynn's Forever You, the second book in her Forever Trilogy is #25.

Joyland is #1 on the NYT ebook...oh my bad...

The top 3 ebooks are the same as the combined fiction. Kristen Ashley as finally made the NYT with Fire Inside at #18. Kristen can be a big hit or miss, with a big concentration on miss, but I really enjoyed this latest by her. I usually have a big issue with her heroes, because I feel they are a rehash of every single hero she's writes from their personalities to the way they speak, which can be very annoying because they have their own type of language and lingo that annoys me to the extreme. But I give Fire Inside a solid B. I really like the hero, Hop (he has a Village People type mustache that is oh so sexy) and his relationship with the heroine Raine, is a scorcher and keeps you reading. Plus these two are a more mature couple at forty years old and up, which is not usually found in the romances I read.

Self published author, Lauren Blakely's Trophy Husband is #30.

Over on the hardcover list, Nalini Singh's much anticipated, Heart of Obsidian is #22. I really thought after all the buzz, heavy promotion and non stop excitement, Obsidian would have cracked the top 10. This book is walls to the balls awesome with a hero (he's mine, so back off) you will swoon over big time. He literally makes the world shake for his heroine while they love one another in all their sexy and hot glory.

Onto the USA Today best sellers...

The top 4 here are the same as the NYT Combined list. The three books in Sylvia's Crossfire series on here, making her a triple threat. This week there aren't many debut self published author appear here like in the weeks prior.

The book at the #10 spot caught my eye because it has an adorable puppy on it. It's a non-fiction type of memoir called Dog Lived (And So Will I) by Teresa Rhyne. Based on the blurb, it looks to be a real tearjerker, but one with a happy ending.

The tale of a dog who wouldn't let go and the woman who followed his lead.

Teresa Rhyne vowed to get things right this time around: new boyfriend, new house, new dog, maybe even new job. But shortly after she adopted Seamus, a totally incorrigible beagle, vets told Teresa that he had a malignant tumor and less than a year to live. The diagnosis devastated her, but she decided to fight it, learning everything she could about the best treatment for Seamus. Teresa couldn't possibly have known then that she was preparing herself for life's next hurdle - a cancer diagnosis of her own.

She forged ahead with survival, battling a deadly disease, fighting for doctors she needed, and baring her heart for a seemingly star-crossed relationship. The Dog Lived (and so Will I) is an uplifting and heartwarming story about how dogs steal our hearts, show us how to live, and teach us how to love.

Jennifer Ashley's Tiger Magic is #69. Alison Brennan's Stolen is #81. Emma Chases' Tangled has dropped to #102. Jodi Thomas' Can't Stop Believing is #105 and Jaci Burton's One Sweet Ride with the sweetest man-titty cover is #108.

Can we say, nom?

A book that could chart in the future...

Before Now is the second book in the Sometimes Never series by Cheryl McIntyre. It was released a few weeks ago and is prices at $2.99 and categorized as a New Adult novel. It looks to have all the similar tropes those who read NA enjoy- aka the trouble bad boy hero and the sweet and innocent heroine who changes him for the better.

The majority of the reviews have been positive.

One review on Amazon gives Better Now 5 stars: "This being an angst fest, you know the inevitable final straw moment appears. And let me tell you your stomach will bottom out when it does. It's a trainwreck. Poor Lucy. I wanted to hate Park and yell at Lucy to make him grovel while she dragged him behind a moving car. Luckily after all the emotional turmoil I endured I got one fabulous ending."

But Goodreads reviewer Jill wasn't that impressed: "Overall just kind of blah. I found more than a few times I was totally fine with putting the book down to do something else, even clean my apartment. That alone clued me into how disconnected I was to the story. It just didn't hold my attention for long at all.The beginning was good, and I enjoyed it at first, but somewhere around the middle I just stopped really caring either way."

Synopsis: Park Reed is a bastard in every sense of the word. He hasn't always been this way. But after his heart was broken by the only girl he ever loved, being heartless gets him through the day and allows him to fill his nights with the nameless girls he has no intentions of seeing again. He now lives his life following his ever-growing list of “life lessons.”

Lucy Braden is everything Park is not. She’s sweet, caring, and an all-around nice person. She tries to follow Lucy's Rules to Live By everyday.

When Park moves in with Jessie, which happens to be the floor below Lucy, Jessie's one stipulation: Lucy is off limits to Park. The problem with that is Lucy is determined to be a good friend to Park and see past the drinking and random girls to find the man beneath it all. The other problem: Park follows his own rules.

And there you have it! Your chart topping books of the week!