A Little Bit of Heaven

At eight minutes after midnight on March 4th, four new books I'd preordered downloaded into my Kindle Fire. God, I love when this happens, it's so neat, almost like magic.


Anyway, three of the four I'm dying to read, like yesterday; the problem became which one first?


The books? Oh, yes ...


Hearts of Chaos by Kira Brady. It's the third in her Deadglass series. Hey Lori, it takes place in Seattle.  ;-)  And she uses the regional native mythology in her storyline.


Why Kings Confess by C S Harris. This is the newest book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series, book nine, I believe. They are mysteries that take place in Regency London. For awhile, there was a heroine controversy going on: who would win Sebastian, the actress Kat Boleyn or Hero Jarvis, daughter of his enemy? Despite the heroine, these books are not Romance romances, the mystery comes first. But everything flows together so naturally that I was hooked. Now I have to wait another year for the tenth book.  :-(


Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop, book two of her Other series. I loved the first book, I know I'll like this one too. It takes place in an alternate world with familiar names such as Atlantik Ocean. Pissed me off, cause I got jumped on for using Lundun in a First Page awhile back.


The last book is Carolina Man by Virginia Kantra. I don't remember ordering this one, but it's the last book in the Dare Island trilogy and I've got the first two, so I guess I wanted complete the set. I have no great urge to jump into this book, but I liked the first one, Carolina Home, well enough and this one will get read eventually.


Patricia Briggs' newest Mercy Thompson is due out next week and there's more in April.


Whoot!!

When The Dream Doesn't Look So Good After All

This is what I looked like earlier.

So we got the contracts from Kensington for the titles that Lyrical held and I was so excited. I was finally holding that all elusive New York publishing contract in my hands and even if it was for the e-division, it was still that much of the dream.

A dream I've had for a long, long time.

And then I read the contract. And reread it. And went over parts of it again and again and I realized something interesting. New York contracts suck eggs.

There were a few things that really made me shake my head. But foremost was that I realized my chances for making any money at all were nil. I'd do better self-pubbing all my titles and taking the chance that I might one day write something more than just a few people will read.

Oh they talk a great game and there's a lot of promises that go into it but ultimately, the contract is the final word and the contract had too many provisions I just couldn't agree to. So I refused it.

I'm a little bit heartbroken right now.

On the bright side: if Lucifer ever shows up with a contract, I have a better idea what it might look like ...

Sumissions Call from Lyrical/Kensington

Lyrical Press Submissions Call

Motorcycle Club (MC) erotic romance - Erotic romance featuring an alpha-male who is in a MC. Since the MC life is a very specific one, we are looking for well-researched works that bring this harsh world to life in rich detail.

Sensuality level: Scorching

Required word count: 60,000 – 100,000 words

Key Characteristics: Edgy erotic romance. Strong sexual relationship between main characters.

Hero: Alpha-male anti-hero who is in a MC. Preferably in a position of power.

Submission Guidelines: http://lyricalpress.com/submission-guidelines/

About Lyrical Press: As an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp., Lyrical Press provides authors with top-level editing, stellar cover art and extensive marketing support. Lyrical’s business model allows the house to welcome exciting new talent and gives a home to seasoned authors who want a more personal approach to publishing. Founded in 2007 by Renee Rocco, Lyrical Press offers readers a rich catalog of titles ranging from tender contemporary romances and edgy erotic paranormals, to suspenseful thrillers and shocking science fiction. Authors can expect a personalized publishing experience from Lyrical Press, where the relationship between the author and publisher is understood to be symbiotic. When the authors succeed, the house succeeds. Readers will find Lyrical Press books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, iTunes, and most other eBook sites including www.KensingtonBooks.com.

Courtney Milan

Don't know how often you peruse our sidebar, but if you have a modicum of talent and are interested in self publishing, this is a must read:




http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblings/2014/02/23/traditional-versus-self-publishing-official-death-match-2014/

The Temporary Wife by Mary Balogh

 It's been awhile since I've read anything by Mary Balogh. I loved the Simply and Slightly series and there's been a couple of stand alones since then. I'd forgotten what a good writer she is.

I bought The Temporary Wife in an unrelated duology. They're rereleasing her backlist in e and this plus A Promise of Spring were together. So far, I've just read the first story and then I just had to make this post.

I loved this story.

The premise may have been iffy, but the follow through was splendid.

Anthony Earheart, Marquess of Staunton is positive he hates his father, the Duke of Withingsby. He left his home precipitously and hasn't been back or in touch for eight years. Now his father has summoned him.

"He claims to be ailing. He reminds me that Lady Marie Lucas, daughter of the Earl of Tillden, is now seventeen years old - old enough, in fact, for the match arranged for us by our families at her birth to be elevated to a formal betrothal."

Tony will not be forced and he wants to embarrass autocratic father. So he advertises for a governess (he'll not "go lower than a gentlewoman") with the intent to marry her and present her to his father as his wife.  "She must also be impoverished, plain, demure, very ordinary, perhaps  prim. She must have all the personality of a - a quiet mouse." His 'wife' will only be needed for a few days and then she will be retired with six thousand pounds a year and etc., etc.

Charity Duncan applies for the job. Her father, a gentleman, died leaving nothing but debts. She and her oldest brother are working in London to support their younger siblings (4 of them!) and Charity is finding it difficult to find work.

Of course, she gets the job and of course, she turns out to be anything but mousey.

The thing is, the characters of these two protagonists and the secondary characters are so well fleshed out. I believed in their backstory and the reasoning for their gradual change of attitude. And through it all they remained true to themselves. I wondered if Charity might be considered a Mary Sue or a Pollyanna, but I never considered her so. She was just a very discerning young woman and she was a catalyst in the redemption of Tony's fractured family and Tony's fractured psyche.

There is a scene between Tony and his father which had me crying. I don't cry. I am a hardhearted bitch and I don't cry over books. I just don't.

Mary Balogh made me cry. She is just that good.

Of course, since it's a romance there is a HEA which comes sooner rather than later. This is one of those short Regencies that used to be published years ago. (Still may be, for all I know.)

I do recommend this book.  Highly.

She made me cry.

Amazon link



** for some reason it won't let me post the bookcover. I'm using Netflix ... I'm running out of engines, lol.

The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts

Another of my favorite books has been digitized, The Honk and Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts. I'm not quite sure how to categorize her books, but they're not romances per se; I'd say they had romantic  elements and a deep understanding of the human psyche. I'd compare her to Fanny Flagg, another favorite of mine.

Caney Paxton is a paraplegic, injured during the Vietnam war. Along with PTSD, he has survivor's guilt because of the way he was injured. He's not left the Honk since it was built.

Vena Takes Horse and a badly injured dog show up at the Honk and change Caney's life.

The story of Caney and Vena and the others: Molly O, Bui Khanh, a Vietnamese refugee, and the regulars at the Honk and Holler, will warm your heart. All of them have problems and bad things can happen, but always there is hope and the resilience of the human spirit. Not everyone gets a happy ending (Mollie O and her daughter, Brenda), but the characters learn to accept what they must and then take their lives in a different direction.

Not all is depressing, there is humor too:

"A week later, the little locomotive in the city park was defaced with the word 'Niger' painted on its side either by a racist who couldn't spell or someone with an obscure connection to the age-old river which twisted its way through West Africa."

LOL!

I highly recommend The Honk and Holler Opening Soon.  I loved all the characters, I loved the story, I loved the writing and the humor and even the pathos.

Amazon link

Rage Inducing Read

Have Their Cake and Eat It Too

Recently I read a series by Addison Fox, the Alaska Nights, three novels and a novella that were cute. Well, the first two novels were cute with two New Yorkers transplanted to a small town in Alaska where the men were a nice alpha looking but beta acting mix and it was fun to read their romances.

But then came the third book. In this book there was the hero and heroine who grew up together and he was a terrific hockey player who was recruited by a New York team and left town to pursue fame, leaving his girlfriend behind too.

I wanted to murderize the hero and slap the shit out of the heroine. It was a classic have his cake and eat it too situation that pissed me off no end. Enough so that I DNF’d yet another book.

This was something similar in KA’s Kaleidoscope book with the hero having a girlfriend but he and the heroine were friends and had a deep emotional/intellectual connection that bypassed his relationship with his girlfriend.

So basically these stories have the heroes getting anything/everything they want from the heroines and then leaving and coming back and again, getting everything they want. In KA’s book, the hero was an asshole and the heroine deserved better. In Fox’s book it went deeper and worse and I had a growing rage when reading it.

The heroine, Avery, had an alcoholic mother and she was taking care of her all her life (she died maybe a couple of years before the hero returns). The hero, Roman is the hockey whiz who gets his big league contract and leaves Avery who he had a deep connection with and goes to New York for glory.

So how does Roman get to not be a douche nozzle?

He refused to make Avery choose between him and her mother because it would have caused her resentment ultimately.

Wow. So caring. So considerate. So full of douche nuggetry that I wanted to make this fictional character real so I could kick him in the nuts. Yeah, the rage was great.

Seems to me that Avery deserved to make the choice for herself. And maybe not spending her life taking care of her adult alcoholic mother and instead having her own life with more happiness and I dunno, less unhappiness that was none of her choice or fault?

Oh yeah, and of course the hero is losing his eyesight so that means that he’s going to lose his career so the reader knows right off the bat that he’s not choosing the heroine at all, he’s losing his career so he’ll come home and coach the kids and then the nice heroine who spent years nursing her mother can now nurse Hottie McHockeyPants.

To say I hated it would be an understatement. I wanted her to smack him in the face, get together with the hot young bartender who wanted her or go back to Ireland where there was someone who wanted her and stay away from a career in nursing those people who want to suck the marrow from her bones.

If the roles were reversed and the heroine came back after losing her career/sight and choosing the hero as a last resort she’d be called any number of names and people would tell him to set his sights higher.

God, I hated this book. I couldn’t get through it, the rage was so great.

READ THIS BOOK:

READ THIS BOOK:

STAY AWAY FROM THIS
PIECE OF RAGE INDUCING
ASS-HATTERY