Friday Bargains: Coupons and Autobuys

I love Barbara Meyers, and I just discovered that she has selfpublished two books, that sounds like Romantic suspense.  Both off them costs just 1.99 at Allromance right now.

If passion overcomes betrayal…
For Ian and Melissa…
One forbidden kiss is witnessed by a treacherous woman whose dramatic death the following day destroys Ian’s family, career, and future.
After four years apart can Melissa, whom Ian loves, hates and blames for his losses, save him?
…and duty clashes with deception…
Forced to work with Ian, Melissa discovers his attempts to overcome his haunted past through a fictional alter ego. Keeping promises of her own means deceiving Ian and risking the tentative bond they’ve begun to build.
…grief breeds revenge.
Four years of loss, resentment and threats culminate in Ian’s own words being used against him.
For a bitter lover…revenge can lead to murder.
If Melissa and Ian survive their own version of hell will NOT QUITE HEAVEN be close enough?

 A picture is worth a thousand regrets…
Scarred by childhood abandonment, Amanda Heinrich is trapped by vows she made to her husband, Martin, her child and herself. Even after she meets her soulmate, Hart Michaelson, she sees no escape from the life she’s created.
While she fights her connection to Hart, her focus drifts from her marriage leaving Martin open to seduction by a woman Amanda considers a friend. Photographer Lyla Decker has an agenda all her own and a camera trained to do her dirty work.
When Hart is accused of murder, photographs surface to tell their own version of the truth: Martin was not the honorable man he was believed to be, nor does Hart and Amanda’s relationship appear at all innocent.
Every choice Amanda has made is cast in a sinister light and Hart’s freedom, as well as her own, hinges on her ability to expose a deranged killer’s secrets.
A camera captures scattered moments in time. Soulmates capture each other for life.

Also, Kobo offers 50% off at selected indie romances. The offer expires Sept 4th.  Code: Romance50

Carina Press offers a 5 dollar off if you spend more than 10 dollar. code: SP10SAV50812

On My Wishlist: Contemporary Romance

I am changing the Book recommendation feature, renaming it and giving it themes.

 The books on  my wishlist this week is only contemporary romance by Patricia Rice. Yepp. I am making it easy for myself :).

Ex-country musician Flynn Clinton retires from the road for the challenge of raising his two boys in his old hometown, but the talented, sexy waitress who thinks she runs his new coffee shop has the means to carve what remains of his future into coffee grounds unless he finds some way of offering her the career he’s given up.
After the death of his ex-wife and the accident that ruins his guitar-picking hand, musician/songwriter Flynn Clinton downsizes from Billboard fame and the wild life of the Nashville music scene he loves too much. He ends up in his hometown of Northfork, North Carolina, where he hopes to make a success of the Stardust Café, and raise his pre-teen sons in the unchanging security of small town life—if he can pry them away from his yuppie parents.  All he has to do is convert his bad boy persona into the kind of daddy his boys need, and find a quiet, maternal woman to help raise them.
Instead of finding peace and quiet in the mountains, he runs into Joella Sanderson—a former beauty queen and a sexily talented singer who belongs on the top of the music charts, except she claims her first boyfriend ruined her taste for the stage, and the last ruined her taste for lying, cheating music men. So now Jo serves coffee in the  Stardust Café, singing funny ditties to make her handsome new boss laugh, and hoping one of her creative ideas will produce the revenue the town needs in time to save her mama’s health and her sister’s marriage.  In the process, she transforms Flynn Clinton’s secure world into a colorful madhouse, luring him dangerously close to the glamorous brink that stole his life once before.
Fully believing Joella belongs in the world he’s just left, Flint throws all of his powerful connections—and the heart he doesn’t dare touch again—into helping her develop her music,  until the day Northfork’s only industry closes, threatening the future of the town and their families.  Now, the irresistible Joella must push the immovable Flint into letting music back into his life to save the town, and in the ensuing battle, the Stardust Café explodes with laughter, tears, catastrophe, and love.

Frustrated divorcee Amy Warren is striving to fix her life by helping her home town buy the local mill, and then she can put her Plan for the Rest of Her Life in action by buying a rundown cottage and turning it into her heart’s desire.

Amy’s Plan shatters when Jean-Jacques St. Etienne arrives with loads of cash, charisma, and expertise, with every intention of buying the mill for its designs and then abandoning the community. A European playboy, he has no interest in anything except staying occupied so he needn’t remember the tragedy haunting him.
As mild-mannered Amy and dashing Jacques play a cat-and-mouse game that madly leads to love and can only end in heartbreak, their affair affects the existence of an entire town.

On e-book prices and reader expectations

After I read Submission to Desire by Leah Brooke and Dom’s Dungeon by Cherise Sinclair back to back, I have been thinking about what I want from a book that cost 8-9 dollars.

Well edited.  
If I pay that much money, I expect the book to be edited, copy edited and proofread.  I know that all e-books are edited, but sometimes I wonder about the copy editing and proof reading, especially when I discover a lot of small, easy to fix errors

A professional looking cover. 

Covers are less important for e-books, but they do play an important role to catching an reader’s interest. Also, the quality of the cover gives an hint about the publisher’s standard. 

In short: If you have high e-book prices?

Put out a product that are worth that much.  There are just a handful e-book publishers that want 7-9 dollars for their e-books. Two that sprung to mind are  Loose id and Liquid Silver.  Here is the thing. Both of them put out a professional product: they have a professional looking covers, and their books are well edited, which means their books are worth the price they demand.   Siren on the other hand, doesn’t put out a professional product. Their books are edited, but sometimes I wonder if they are copy edited.  Granted, their covers have improved a lot the last couple of years, but they  aren’t close to the bigger e-book publishers quality. Which means that I am not paying them full price. In my opinion Siren’s e-books are worth 3-5 dollar. Which is means I will wait until they are available at Kobo, and buy them then.  Or maybe use them as my Buy 10 get one for free book over at Allromance.

What I have been reading this week


Someone at Dear Author recommended Monette Michaels, and  I downloaded the free novella from her webpage, and liked it enough to put this book on my wishlisht.  Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me.  The book was well written, but I felt that the suspense part overwhelmed the romance part. Also, I felt that Keely could do too much. She could fight, she had umpteen doctoral degrees. And she was twenty, or something.  Still, I liked the authors voice enough to give her one more try. But not necessarily this series.

 I have wanted to read this book for awhile, and finally got around to purchase it.  Like all Sierra Cartwright books, this one sizzled. I’ll admit that I thought it would be more suspense, but I did like the characters. To Wolf with his need to dominate, to the more outgoing Nate. Not mention Kayla and the desire she feels.  While I liked the characters, I wish this had been longer.  I felt that this book focused too much on Stone and his struggles, which I can understand since he needed to overcome his past for all of them to get a HEA. But I felt it came at the cost of Kayla and her struggles to accept her feelings for them. When it cames to Nate… well, his feelings for Stone was made clear, plus they had a past. 

Leah Brooke’s books are like crack to me.  They aren’t that good, yet I cannot stop reading them. This book is my favorite.  Mainly since while it sizzled, I loved Brenna for her courage to face down her stalker, not mention daring to speak her mind to Royce and King.  But most of all, I liked it since it is the first book that let the characters be human. Not just giving an impression that everyone likes each other.  That said, in the future I’ll get the books from Kobo, with a coupon, since I think Siren Bookstrands books are overpriced.

Friday Bargains: Allromance deals

I discovered some really nice Ellora’s Cave deals over at Allromance.

All of the following books are a part of the Values from the vault sale and cost 1.49 at Allromance and other retailers, and 0.99(!) at Ellora’s Cave. ( Some cost 1.99)

By Jaci Burton ( Some novels, some novellas, and some short stories):

Hands on

Magnolia Summer 
True Lies 
Fiery Fate
Midnight Velvet

The Heiress series and The Royal Dynasty series by Roberta Gellis are discounted to 1.49 ( Too many books for me to list)

Spotty updates ahead

10 days ago, my harddrive crashed.   The laptop is being repaired, and I should have it back on Tuesday.
Hopefully everything should be back to normal around Sept 1st.   I will try to keep the blog updated, but I cannot promise anything.

Review: Pursuit of Pleasure by Elizabeth Essex:


The Particulars:  Historical Romance, Kensington, available in print and e-book
The Source:  Freebie from Sony
The Grade: C
The blurb:

Lizzie Paxton’s dream in life is to be a widow–if only she could skip the wedding and the husband. When her childhood friend Captain James Marlowe proposes a marriage in name only, she accepts, knowing she’ll have the independence she craves once he sets sail. Though James is the only man Lizzie trusts, she doesn’t trust the scintillating desire he evokes in her.
James knows he shouldn’t get involved with anyone, especially with his uncertain future. But he just can’t help himself when he overhears Lizzie’s declaration. Though he’s promised her a marriage of convenience, he wastes no time in seducing her and taking her over the precipice of desire. Yet not even his beautiful wife can deter him from his cause.
But when Lizzie discovers her husband has deceived her, James must choose between devotion to duty and loyalty to the woman he cannot live without. . .

The Review:
I downloaded this when Kensington offered it as a freebie, last year I think.  But for a number of reasons, I didn’t read it until now.

This, unlike most historical romances I read, is set in Dartmouth.  And I loved how the setting was used, and how it influenced the plot. I could almost hear the waves crashing against the steep cliffs, and the winds blowing over the moor.I could taste the dust in the air as Lizzie visited The Glass House.  But most of all, I loved the Glass House. I loved how isolated it was, and how many secrets it house. But, most of all I liked how Lizzie gradually turned it into a home.  

It took awhile before the plot hooked me, but once it did I couldn’t stop reading. I had to find out wheter or not Lizzie would forgive Marlowe, or not. ( I wouldn’t have, honestly.)  It was fastpaced, and  filled with plot twists that kept on surprising me. I had a hunch who the villain was, but… well, let’s just say I was wrong.  

My favorite character is this book was Lizzie. She suffered a lot in the book, but she never gave up. Yes, she grieved for Jamie, but she didn’t let it run her life. She was determined to keep on living her life.
But, if Lizzie was my favorite character I had a lot of trouble with Jamie and the deceptions that surrounded his “death.” But what redeems him to me is the fact that he hated  lying to Lizzie.   

I felt for the Tuppers, being caught between Jamie’s orders, and Lizzie’s determinations. But, they were good people.

That said, I had one other problem with this book: the romance.  Maybe it was because they had been friends for so long, but I never felt that they were in love. They felt more like friends that got married and had sex.