Discussion: Your Reading Influences

Yes, it’s the second discussion in a row this week!  I had a brainwave the other night while thinking up a post and decided that this was actually the perfect topic for a bonus discussion.

A lot of people influenced my love of reading but the main credit would have to go to my parents, who read to me every day before I began going to school.  Even after I started going to school, my mother would still read me bedtime stories up until grade three.  By then I just enjoyed listening to her read rather than actually needing her to read to me.  Even though the school reading program and the teachers did their best to suck all of the joy of reading out of me, I persevered and became the avid reader I am today.

Most of you reading this blog are readers of varying degrees.  So what I want to know now is this: Who influenced your love of reading the most?  Was school a positive influence on your reading or a negative influence, as it was on mine?

Discussion: Blog Tours

No, this isn’t my usual ‘good or bad?’ discussion, but rather just a place to share experiences.  In this case, I want to share blog tour experiences.  And just in the spirit of fairness I’ve devised questions for authors, reviewers and blog readers so everyone can participate!

Authors: Have you ever done a blog tour?  Did you organize it yourself or did you go through a tour company?  Which company?  Would you say your tour was beneficial in terms of sales, exposure and reviews?  Why or why not?  If you had the chance, would you do a blog tour again?

Reviewers: Do you tour with some blog tour companies?  If so, which ones?  If not, why not?  What are some of the benefits of joining a blog tour?  How have your experiences been with blog tours (i.e. good or bad)?

Blog Readers: As a reader, do you enjoy blog tour posts (i.e. cover reveals, book blasts, guest posts, interviews and/or reviews)?  Why or why not?

Would you be interested in donating?

No, I’m not asking for donations just yet.  I’m proposing an idea.

You know, there are a lot of book blogs out there where the owners run giveaways on a much more regular basis than I do.  It’s not so much blogger envy that makes me want to run more giveaways as it is the fact I want to reward my followers every now and again.  Unfortunately I don’t exactly have the finances to run multiple giveaways throughout the year on my own dime.  Shipping out the books to the grand prize winner for my 2013 reviewing challenge ate up half of my giveaway budget (which was quite low to begin with).

What I want to know is this: if it only went toward giveaways for followers rather than for my own personal gain, would you be interested in making a small PayPal donation?  Even if just a couple people gave $5 it would help tremendously and of course all donors would be recognized and thanked properly.  I’m thinking of doing a permanent donors link list on my sidebar at the very least, but maybe I’ll even have a page dedicated to the people who help fund my giveaways.  At this point I’m just gauging interest.  If there’s a lot of interest I’ll absolutely implement such a system and if not it’s no big deal because I’m just testing the waters.

Some of the prizes offered as a result of such donations could include any of the following:

  • Amazon gift cards/PayPal money
  • Print books
  • Multiple ebooks
  • Special book-related swag like book charms, bookmarks, etc.

Would you be interested in donating money toward giveaways on this blog if the option were available?  Why or why not?

Please, I’m very open to any input and suggestions you guys have for me.  If you think that this is a terrible idea, by all means tell me why.  The same goes if you think this is a good idea.  I’m just looking for some feedback at this point.

Novella: Iced in Shadow by Cynthia Luhrs

Iced in Shadow by Cynthia Luhrs(Cover picture courtesy of Wicked Green Smoothies.)

Beware… there’s a nasty spirit threatening to ruin Christmas. Come spend the holiday at Ravensmore Castle with your favorite Shadow Walkers. Iced in Shadow may be read standalone. It takes place after Desired by Shadow.

If you enjoy persnickety gods, supernatural creatures and ghosts with the ability to manifest physical bodies, then try Iced in Shadow.

[Full disclosure: Cynthia Luhrs contacted me and asked me to review her novella after seeing my reviews of the first two books in the series.  She provided me a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.]

Most novellas in series don’t actually add anything to the series.  They’re just sort of a slice-of-life of the characters that can be read as a standalone novella or are just rehashings of events already covered in the previous novel(s).  This is not the case in Iced in Shadow!  It’s not necessary to read before Reborn in Shadow (book 3) but it does some really important setting up for the novel that gives it a little more depth.

Hamish, Colin’s brother that quite deliberately caused his downfall, is back as a Shadow Walker.  How does such a villain get to fight on the side of good, the side that protects humans?  Is he really all that evil in the first place?  I won’t spoil too much but I have to say that maybe things aren’t as straightforward as they seemed in regards to Hamish’s character from the first two novels.  He’s more complicated than I thought and it adds quite a bit of depth to someone who’s shaping up to be a very three dimensional character.

Also unlike a lot of novellas, this one actually has a plot.  There’s a very deliberate reason behind writing this and I loved the surprise ending.  I don’t want to give too much away again but let me just say there’s going to be some family in-fighting in Reborn in Shadow because of the confrontation at the end of this novella.  I also think there will be a little more romantic tension between our two Shadow Walkers and their wives because of the events that take place here.

Yes, this can be read as a standalone but you will get so much more out of it after you read Lost in Shadow and Desired by Shadow.  It really builds on the story and it makes me even more eager to get a start on the third book, Reborn in Shadow.

I give this novella 5/5 stars.

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Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn

Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn(Cover picture courtesy of The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment.)

The Third Daughter of the Queen wants her birthday to arrive so she’ll be free to marry for love, but rumors of a new flying weapon may force her to accept a barbarian prince’s proposal for a peace-brokering marriage. Desperate to marry the charming courtesan she loves, Aniri agrees to the prince’s proposal as a subterfuge in order to spy on him, find the weapon, and hopefully avoid both war and an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.

Third Daughter is the first book in the The Dharian Affairs Trilogy (Third Daughter, Second Daughter, First Daughter). This steampunk-goes-to-Bollywood (Bollypunk!) romance that takes place in an east-Indian-flavored alternate world filled with skyships, saber duels, and lots of royal intrigue. And, of course, kissing.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

I almost didn’t pick Third Daughter to request because the cover gave me the impression it would be a stereotypical Bollywood sort of novel with no real substance.  Still, the blurb was good enough that I decided to ignore the cover and give it a chance.  And honestly, thank goodness I did!

I’ll be honest with you guys in that I really haven’t read much steampunk.  It was only really last year that I actually picked up my first steampunk novel.  Still, I absolutely loved the world-building in Third Daughter.  It’s set in an Eastern-flavoured world on the verge of an industrial revolution.  Many courts like the ones in Dharia favour the old-fashioned styles of dress with corsets and starched skirts, but at the same time there are things similar to handheld computers for long-distance communication and airships.  It’s a time of upheaval as new weapons are being created and the kingdoms engage in subtle power plays for supremacy.  Really, Susan Kaye Quinn couldn’t have chosen a better time as a setting for her fantasy world.

The characters are wonderful.  I absolutely loved Aniri.  She’s sort of your typical rebellious princess in the beginning but when she agrees to go on a mission for her mother you really get the feeling that she also cares about her country.  Aniri isn’t selfish, even if helping her country means leaving behind the courtesan she loves and pretending to be engaged to a ‘barbarian’ prince.  She and Ash (the aforementioned prince) develop slowly over the novel and their feelings for each other become more and more complicated as emotion gets in the way of duty.  There’s a lot of romantic tension in this novel but it’s not a romance novel per se.

The plot was truly wonderful.  I loved the twists and turns that kept me guessing right up until the end.  I sort of knew who was behind the big airship plot but it turns out I was only half right.  That’s the thing about Third Daughter: it keeps you guessing and just when you think you’ve figured everything out, Susan Kaye Quinn throws you for a loop.

Even if you’re not the biggest steampunk fan out there, I’d definitely recommend Third Daughter.  It has great characters, is set in a well built fantasy world and the plot is fast-paced and unpredictable.  You can’t ask for more.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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