New Releases Giveaway! (Giveaway CLOSED)

Welcome to Giveaway #3 for the First Annual Anniversary Celebration! Below is a gallery of pictures from all of my 2011 New This Week! posts. They're sporadic, but I think I have done enough to give you a nice variety to choose from! Each link will direct you to a different post, beginning from this week's post back to January.

(1) Choose one book from the options below to receive if you're picked as the winner of this contest.
(2) Make sure to read the rules on this post before entering.
(3) Contest is INTERNATIONAL.
(4) Fill out THIS FORM to be entered!

Good luck!!

New This Week! #1
New This Week! #2
New This Week! #3
New This Week! #4
New This Week! #5

Don't forget that this giveaway is part of a four-part giveaway for the 1st Annual Anniversary Celebration. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out and enter the other giveaways below as well.

Giveaway #1: In My Mailbox
Giveaway #2: Before & After

New This Week!

These are just some of the books that were released this week!
Click on the picture for more information.

Before & After Giveaway! (Giveaway CLOSED!)

Before I say anything else, I want to apologize for flooding your Google Readers with my B&A posts today. I scheduled all of my posts last week because I knew I wouldn't be around much this week. Unfortunately, my mind is a month ahead of time... I ended up scheduling them all for a week in June instead of May! Then, Blogger decided it didn't want to cooperate, so I had to re-do them all over again today. Again, sorry!

Now...


Welcome to Giveaway #2 for the First Annual Anniversary Celebration! Below is a gallery of pictures from all of my Before & After posts. Each photo is linked to its corresponding post. Only the author's featured book is eligible for this giveaway!

**This giveaway includes the opportunity to earn extra entries. Simply comment on the posts below for +1 for each comment. Add up your points and include them in the entry form!**

(1) Choose one book from the options below to receive if you're picked as the winner of this contest.
(2) Make sure to read the rules on this post before entering.
(3) Contest is INTERNATIONAL.
(4) Fill out THIS FORM to be entered!


Good luck!!

Remember, this is Giveaway #2 of my 4 giveaways this week. Click here to enter Giveaway #1, and be sure to keep an eye out for the last two giveaways that will be posted this weekend!!

Cloud Nine Review

Cloud Nine: A Paranormal Romance of the Guardians of Man
by Melissa Smith

Publisher: Smith Books
Release Date: January 3, 2011
Series: The Guardians of Man
Genre: YA, Paranormal Romance
Pages: Kindle
Source: Author
Rating: 5/5 (Avg 4.5/5)

What happens when you receive a guardian angel?
What if you don't believe you need one?
What if one wants you removed?

Claire Grayson is a seventeen year old girl on the verge of graduating high school. Better than a year ago her mother went back to work full time. Her father, being an attorney, has always been gone long hours, so that is nothing new to her. So now she has learned to take care of her basic needs on her own. For spending and gas money she works part time as a tutor for other students who need a little help in various subjects.

Her best friends are the bright spots that helped to keep her laughing when she thought herself in love only to have thim break her heart. After the crash of her heart, it took her a while to come back to the land of the living. Just when she did, when she was finally done waiting for him to realize his mistake. When she decided that it was time for her to move on. She meets Sterling Warde.

Sterling Warde is a Guardian. He helps people in need and helps them get on in life with a better understanding of living. While with a charge that was almost ready to take back his own life, Sterling catches a glimpse of Claire and is startled by his reaction to her. Puzzled, he follows her to see what the spark was. What made her reach out and touch his nerves and steal his breath. When he finally reveals himself to her she is afraid of him and doesn't want him around. But with time and patientence, he works to see her safe.

There are people out there that want each of them for themselves. Someone who will stop at nothing to have Sterling. Someone who will do anything to reclaim Claire's affections. Together, Sterling and Claire will dissuade them. Someone will fall. Someone will hurt. And others will...

I cannot sum up this book better than what is already said by the synopsis, so all I can do is offer my humble opinion of the story. It's amazing. The whole concept of this specific guardian form was something that I had to get used to, but once Sterling took on a human form.. it was much easier to adjust.

The characters are great. Claire is your typical teenager in the way that she has a typical teenage voice - a little confusing and erratic and sometimes all out irrational, but it is exactly what you would expect from someone her age. I love the interactions between her and Sterling, who is definitely one of those lovable guy's in YA that we love to swoon over. He is definitely a guardian and I think he did his job well, especially when it came to protecting and taking care of Claire. I also have to note that the other characters in the book are just as great - from Claire's friend to Sterling's "sibling" guardians... and even Sterling's ex, who is someone you just love to hate. She does "woman scorned" quite well.

This is yet another great book from another great indie author! I'd say this is a definite recommended read to all of my YA paranormal romance lovers out there. Melissa Smith is a wonderful writer and I look forward to more from her in the future.

Before & After: Aimee Carter

Aimée Carter was born and raised in Michigan, where she currently resides. Her first novel for young adults, THE GODDESS TEST, will be published by Harlequin Teen on April 19th, 2011. The sequel, GODDESS INTERRUPTED, will follow in January 2012.

Check out more at AimeeCarter.com

It's all much more nerve-wrecking than I'd anticipated. The fear of how readers will react - negatively, or worse, no one will bother buying the book at all - has a nasty habit of showing up at the most unexpected of times, and as a result, I've been a lot more jumpy and anxious than usual. Typically I'm calm and laid-back, but right now I'm wavering between excited anticipation, complete and utter terror, and massive worry that I'll buckle under the weight of more stress than I've felt in a very long time.

And then come the hours when I forget I have a book coming out in a matter of weeks and instead focus on the norm. Those are always nice, and if I could make myself forget more often, I would. But since I'm in the middle of writing the third book right now, the impending release makes me hyper-aware of the fact that I'm writing for an audience, making things even more nail-biting. Sometimes I have to take a break, unplug the internet, and curl up with good book or movie to forget where I am for a while.

In other words, I'd imagine things are progressing rather normally for me at this point in the game. :)

(5.8.11)
It's been a roller coaster, that's for sure, but I'm much calmer now and more relaxed about seeing it on shelves. Whenever I go to a bookstore, I see if they have it in stock. It doesn't feel real yet, and it'll be a long time before it does, I think. But seeing the book there does feel like a huge accomplishment. Even if only a handful of people ever read it, at least those people gave it a chance, and that means the world to me.

I'm still focused on writing the third book right now, and that odd perspective, knowing that the book I'm working on now will hit shelves in a year and a half too, is still hanging with me. But my anxiety levels have returned to normal for now. Now that one book is out, it's easier for me to accept that all three of them will be up there on the shelves some day, and I can't wait to see readers' reactions as the trilogy unfolds. I'm excited for that, nervous for sales, and so, so thrilled to have this opportunity to begin with.

Thank you so much!

Reviews for The Goddess Test
Missy's Reads & Reviews
Sophistikatied Reviews
The Well-Read Wife

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound