The Week Ahead (#3)

Last week was pretty sparse reviews-wise but this week I’m planning my regular 4 reviews per week, which will bring the review count up to 499.  That means that next Monday (the 14th) will be a very special review for review #500.

Angeline by Karleen BradfordMonday

  • A review of Angeline by Karleen Bradford.  I vaguely remember reading this and liking it several years ago so when I saw it at the local library I couldn’t pass it up.  Is it as good as I remember it was?  Probably not, but it’s still nice to dive into your childhood favourites with a new perspective.

 

The Recruit by Fiona PalmerTuesday

  • A review of The Recruit by Fiona Palmer.  I was approached by a publisher to read this book and although contemporary YA really isn’t my thing I decided to give it a try.  So far, so good.  It has a lot of potential and I’m anxious to see how the story turns out.

 

 

Wednesday

Blades of Magic by Terah EdunA review of Blades of Magic by Terah Edun.  If you’ll remember, I loved Terah Edun’s debut series so I’m very eager to get started on this spin-off prequel series.  It will be interesting to see what really happened during the Initiate Wars whose aftereffects cause Ciardis much grief in the Courtlight series.  Apparently this one is going to be a trilogy, so there’s lots to look forward to from Terah Edun in the coming year!

 

 

The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia HollandThursday

A review of The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland.  This one has been on my TBR pile for months and I’ve finally decided to get off my butt and work through the pile.  I’m not very familiar with Eleanor of Aquitaine but from what little I’ve read I can guarantee that if nothing else, The Secret Eleanor will be a very interesting story!

 

 

Friday

  • Book Blast: The Towers of Tuscany by Carol M. Cram

Saturday

  •  Discussion: Re-reading Childhood Favourites.  Are you like me and re-read some of your favourite books from when you were a child?  Or do you tend to avoid doing that out of the fear of learning they really weren’t all that good to begin with?

 

Discussion: ARCs

For those of you who aren’t hip to the book community lingo, ARC stands for advanced reading copy.  Basically, before books are published authors send out a certain number of copies to reviewers to generate hype for when the actual release date is.  Bloggers seem to love them, publishers like giving them out to a certain extent and most self-published authors are eager to send them.  But not everyone seems to like them.

From a blogger’s perspective I do like ARCs.  It’s nice to get physical copies in the mail because, hey, free books.  It’s also nice to get ebook ARCs from my favourite self-published authors because it’s very hard to wait until the actual release date for a book you’re excited for.  Some bloggers say they feel pressure to get and review ARCs but personally I’ve never really felt that pressure.  Maybe I just have too much of a “I don’t care what most people think” attitude.

What I want to know now is: If you’re an author, would you say there are substantial benefits to sending out ARCs to bloggers?  What are some of the benefits?  As a book blogger, do you feel pressure to seek out and review ARCs?  Do you like the idea of ARCs in general?

Cover Reveal: Sworn to Defiance by Terah Edun

Cover Reveal: Sworn To Defiance by Terah Edun

On Sale on Amazon, iTunes & Barnes & Noble April 25, 2014

Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

SWORN TO DEFIANCE (Courtlight #5). I knew I wanted a purple theme this time and a sassy young woman that wasn’t afraid to get her hair wet, shall we say. As you know each of my covers represents a different femme fatale in my Courtlight books.

Here they are in all their glory:
Collage

Sworn To Raise – Ciardis Weathervane

Sworn To Transfer – Stephanie

Sworn To Conflict – Lady Serena

Sworn To Secrecy – Empress Teresa Athanos Algardis

Without further ado, I’d like you to meet the next fair lady to grace the stage of Courtlight covers. No, I’m not going to tell you who she is yet. But trust me, she packs a punch..

But first…did you know that all my newsletter subscribers got a sneak peak into this cover and a secret summer release in MARCH? If you didn’t, now’s the time to join the list and get the latest sales and release news for Courtlight and Crown Service.

Did you sign-up?.

Alright, alright. Really. Here is the next release in the Courtlight series!

Sworn to Defiance by Terah Edun
Sworn To Defiance by Terah Edun (Book 5)

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Coming Of Age

Summary:

Ciardis Weathervane returned to the imperial court of Sandrin to unite her foes. But her efforts hit a stumbling block. The imperial kind. She never thought that before rallying an empire, she’d have to fight the emperor himself. An imposter sits the throne and the court she turned to for help is in turmoil. Ciardis hasn’t survived assassination attempts, torture and really bad luck to be taken down by her own ruler. So she devises a plan. But first she needs to get Sebastian and Thanar to agree. Each seems to love her in their own way. But neither are listening to her.

Pushing them to put aside their differences, in an effort to ward off catastrophe, might be harder than displacing an emperor who would do anything to keep his throne.

Butting heads at court isn’t Ciardis’s only problem. With the princess heir’s threat looming she is forced to travel to the mythical city of Baen, where it is up to her small group to stop the destruction of the entire city while heading a rebellion that could foment a revolution. It wouldn’t be the first revolution that Algardis has ever known. But with Ciardis Weathervane at its head—it would certainly be the last.

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