Roses & Thorns

Roses & Thorns

Sunday, July 31, 2016

My Valentine Adventure by Amber Daulton





 Blurb:

Parker Townsend raised his children alone after he lost his beloved wife to cancer. When his two little hellions placed a “Mom Wanted” ad in the local paper, Parker found himself roped into an unwanted blind date.

Claire Lauer answered the want ad with few expectations, and met Parker on Valentine’s Day, a day she hated with a passion. As an animal rights activist and a divorcée, she felt more comfortable with a placard in her hand than in the company of a handsome man with emotional baggage.

After a protest takes a turn for the worse, she seeks shelter in her date’s arms and loses time in his bed. Will Parker and Claire find the courage to lay their fragile hearts on the chopping block by morning, or will they forever live in a world of gray?

About the Author:

Writing is the fruit to happiness.

Amber Daulton lives her life by that one belief even though she normally isn’t so Zen.

Author of several novellas, she published her first book in 2012 and hopes to publish countless more in the future. As a fan of contemporary, paranormal, and historical romance novels alike, she can’t get enough of feisty heroines and alpha heroes. Her mind is a wonderland of adventure, laughter, and awesome ways of kicking a guy when he’s down. She probably wouldn’t be too sane without her computer and notebooks. After all, what’s a girl to do when there are people jabbering away in her head and it’s hard to shut them up? Write! Nothing else works.

Review:

Neither Parker nor Claire particularly wanted to go on a blind date on Valentine’s Day. Parker’s kids placed a “Mom Wanted” ad in his brother’s newspaper, and Claire’s daughter all but dialed the number to get her to reply. The only reason either showed up in the end was that it would be rude to leave someone sitting alone in a nice restaurant on Valentine’s Day. In fact, Claire never even spoke to Parker—his brother screened the calls and set up the whole thing, after which his sister-in-law and kids scoped Claire out at work, posing as customers.

But the date goes better than either expects. When Parker asks Claire why she keeps getting text messages, she confesses she planned to attend an animal rights protest at the circus to which he intended to take his kids. As Claire launches into a passionate explanation of the abuses to which the circus owners subject their animals, Parker calls for the check. I’ve driven another one away, Claire thinks. Nope. Parker escorts her to the protest, grabs a placard, and joins in the chant. It’s a perfect date until one of the protesters sneaks inside the circus and frees a tiger, the police show up, and chaos ensues. The couple manages to slip off to their car and even spends the night together, kids safely off spending the night with family.

My Valentine Adventure was a fun romp with kids doing most of the match-making for their respective reluctant parents. It’s another sweet romance, two in a row being a nice break from the sex scenes I’ve been reading in other books, and I confess, writing in my own work-in-progress.

The only reason I’m giving My Valentine Adventure four roses is that again, it could use better editing. I hate to do so, because Ms. Daulton is a fellow #GlassSlipperSister. But, I am nothing if not honest on this site, and anyone who follows this blog knows I’m a stickler for editing issues. It truly is a shame when an author suffers because of inadequate editing, and this is not an indie book. My Valentine Adventure presumably went through both a content and copy editor, who apparently lacked a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style.

Heat Rating:  PG-13
Length:  65 Pages
Digital Price:  $2.99

You’ll notice we always include the publisher’s buy link. That’s because authors usually receive 40-50% of the net proceeds from the publisher. Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%. When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left. So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40-$2.99. If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $1.70-$2.10.

Download the file from the publisher onto your computer as you would any other file. I’ve created a folder for books on my computer, with subfolders by source (Marketing for Romance Writers, Net Galley, Authors who find me on Kindle lists, etc.). That way, if there’s a glitch with your Kindle, the books are on your computer. Some publishers send books in all digital formats. If my Kindle breaks and my kids buy me a Nook, I won’t have to replace all of my books. If you have a Kindle and your hubby has a Nook, you won’t have to buy separate copies, so buying directly from the publisher can save you money.

Moving the file from your computer to your e-reader is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive. Plug the larger USB end of your e-reader charging chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from the folder into which you’ve downloaded the book to Documents/Books directory on your e-reader. You can move the file by highlighting it and dragging it to the documents directory in you Kindle you want to move it to. Or right click on it, and then left click copy or move. Or hit Control/C for copy, Control/X for cut, and Control/V for paste.

Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Been Searching for You by Nicole Evelina



Blurb:

Annabeth is a hopeless romantic who believes in soul mates. In fact, she’s been writing to hers each year on her birthday since she was sixteen.

Now, at thirty-four, she’s still holding out hope of finding Mr. Right, even though he’d be fighting an uphill battle to gain her trust thanks to a traumatic experience years before that’s left her unable to commit.

When Annabeth meets a handsome literature professor named Alex on her thirty-fourth birthday, she thinks her quest may finally be at an end. Things don’t quite go as planned, so Annabeth resolves to do everything she can over the next year to find the unknown recipient of her letters. But blind dates, Meetup events, and online singles sites have nothing on what fate has in store for her when a co-worker unexpectedly quits and Annabeth finds herself working in close quarters with both Alex and her long ago ex, Nick. Fighting her attraction to one and loathing for the other, Annabeth is forced to face all of her old insecurities while keeping an eye on a scheming frienemy who may derail her hopes and dreams.

Written in the tradition of Bridget Jones’ Diary, Kim Gruenfelder’s A Total Waste of Makeup, and Melissa Pimental’s Love By The Book, this romantic comedy shows that love on the sweet side can exist for the modern girl, if only she’s willing to trust herself and search hard enough.

About the Author:

Nicole Evelina is an award-winning historical fiction and romantic comedy writer. Been Searching for You won the 2015 Romance Writers of America (RWA) Great Expectations and Golden Rose contests.

She also writes historical fiction. Her debut novel, Daughter of Destiny, the first book of an Arthurian legend trilogy that tells Guinevere’s life story from her point of view, was named Book of the Year by Chanticleer Reviews, took the Grand Prize in the 2015 Chatelaine Awards for Women’s Fiction/Romance, won a Gold Medal in the fantasy category in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and was short-listed for the Chaucer Award for Historical Fiction. Later this year, she will release Madame Presidentess (July 25), a historical novel about Victoria Woodhull, America’s first female Presidential candidate, which was the first place winner in the Women’s US History category of the 2015 Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction.

Nicole is one of only six authors who completed a week-long writing intensive taught by #1 New York Times bestselling author Deborah Harkness. Nicole has traveled to England twice to research the Guinevere’s Tale trilogy, where she consulted with internationally acclaimed author and historian Geoffrey Ashe, as well as Arthurian/Glastonbury expert Jaime George, the man who helped Marion Zimmer Bradley research The Mists of Avalon.

Nicole is a member of and book reviewer for The Historical Novel Society, and Sirens (a group supporting female fantasy authors), as well as a member of the Historical Writers of America, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Romance Writers of America, the St. Louis Writer’s Guild, Women Writing the West, Broad Universe (promoting women in fantasy, science fiction and horror), Alliance of Independent Authors and the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Review:

Been Searching for You starts off in an unusual way. It’s Annabeth’s thirty-fourth birthday, and she’s writing a letter to her soulmate. She’s done so every year since she was sixteen. As yet, she has no idea who he is. She simply believes he’s out there somewhere, and they’ll find each other someday—even though she finds it hard to trust men after her hometown boyfriend dumped her when she refused to have sex with him.

Her best friend, Mia, is a top model and party girl who dates her other best friend and work-partner, Miles. Together, Annabeth and Miles are the top public relations creative team in Chicago, and her birthday happens to fall on the same night as the Chicago’s Top Fifty Singles event she and Miles have organized. While singles will be auctioned off, there’s also mingling over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Annabeth meets Professor Alex Grantham who has agreed to bid on Mia for a friend. Besides, he’s just getting over someone else. The timing isn’t right.

Been Searching for You was a refreshing, sweet romance about a nice girl who reminded me a bit of myself. Annabeth is a bit smarter than the average person, well-read, and a hopeless romantic who’s been crushed. But she does find her Mr. Right, and since it’s a romance, I don’t think I’m giving too much away by saying she gets her HEA. You have to read the book to find out how.

Author Website:  http://nicoleevelina.com
Heat Rating:  PG-13
Length:  310 Pages
Prices:
Print:  $13.99
E-Book:  $3.99
Audio:  $17.46

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