Welcome to this week’s news post! This week we have another author meltdown which is a bit of a doozy and news on Barnes and Nobel news as well as the upcoming books to watch out for.

Barnes and Nobel have announced that they will be finally expanding in the UK market with their Nook devices. They have a launched a Nook UK online store which will offer their products but they also plan in teaming up with retailers which will sell their devices to customers in stores although there is no details on who it will be. However it may not be as easy to break into the UK market as the Kindle, which is already offered in a few stores as well as the Kobo and even the Sony ereader have made in-roads in the ereading/ereader market. Barnes and Nobel is also facing a tough financial time, because their last quarter reported on flat sales of their devices and their new tablets have refused to sale as expected. It is going to be interesting to see how this pans out but I suspect despite the Microsoft partnership Barnes and Nobel is going to face a tough time in competing.

The other major news this week, is another incident of an author behaving badly over a bad review. Chicklit author Emily Giffin’s husband didn’t take too kindly when a reviewer posted this review on amazon.  Her husband felt this was suspicious even though the review wasn’t attacking the author personally, or was hate-filled but just a dissappointed fan who felt it wasn’t as good as the previous book. Giffen’s husband felt this needed to comment that this review needed a  as a ‘psycho alert’.  However Giffin, decided to link and tweet this review to her followers on her Facebook and Twitter page, which caused a flame-war in that review thread. This caught on with other reviewers – which led to another reviewer, Corey to change her rating and review because of Giffin’s Author Behaving Badly syndrome, which at this point had led to further attacks by her followers onto those review threads as well as her assistant who also attacked those negative reviews.

This all sounds so familiar right because of previous author meltdowns this year, and the sad fact this is a NY bestselling author who constantly hits the #2 spots in the NY Lists (although she seems obessessed in reaching the #1 which is sad because 1000’s of authors would give their eyeteeth to just hit the list!) and a movie adaptation based on one of her books. But what was really sad was Giffin enacting a passive aggressive stance on her Facebook page by linking this drama but then stating she’s not condoning this. Most of her posts have been deleted along with the comments on the Amazon threads. But Corey has screencapped a good time-line which also summarises the entire incident which you can check out here.  However this took a turn for the worse which led to Corey who was sent threatening phone-calls to kill herself as well as hate-mail because of her stance in changing her review, but she has started a fund for each down-vote she gets on her review she’s going to donate a dollar for a cyber-bullying charity which is beyond awesome.

I wont be buying her any of her books because of this incident and I think this is one of the worse incidents that happened this year over this issue.

The DOJ has responded back to the fillings towards the resistance objections about the settlement agreements that they reached with the Harper-Collins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster over Agency pricing. The DOJ wasn’t impressed with their arguments which basically suggested this will help to fight against the increasing monopolization of Amazon and the Kindle and the Agency agreement will help to protect a level field. But it is up to Judge Cotes to decide whether to agree with the settlement or allow the arguments, by the remaining big 6 publishers, Barnes & Nobel and Apple to be upheld.

A UK charity for Domestic Abuse has called for a book burning of Fifty Shades trilogy – which they view that it condones abuse and violence in relationships. I am a bit leery of any kind of book banning or burning and this is a bit of a stunt to raise awareness for a great cause. But I think this is in bad taste even though there may be serious issues raised in the trilogy but this is no better than those who call out for book banning or burning of Twilight or Harry Potter books, which the former  book has raised similar issues about themes of abuse.

Director Neil Burger is rumoured to helm the big screen adaptation of Divergent, the dystopian YA which is currently in pre-production with filming to commence next Spring. It does look like Hollywood is definitely not falling out of love with the YA genre with a slew fest of books being committed to the big screen.

News in Brief:

Amazon has announced they will be having a Press Conference which rumours suggest will promote their new upcoming tablets on the 6th of September.

Meljean Brook has announced on Twitter that her first full Guardian book, Demon Angel has been sold for a tv/movie option!

Anyone excited for this? Sylvia Day has posted the first chapter of Reflected into You on Goodreads. It is slated for this October!

Ilona Andrews has also posted two chapters of their  upcoming book, Steel’s Edge.  So many good books coming up!

And now for upcoming books to watch out for and cover reveals!

Kim Harrison has unveiled the 11th book in The Hollows series – Ever After. Rachel really looks bad-ass here!

 

 

The ever after, the demonic realm that parallels the human world, is shrinking. If it disappears completely, so does all magic. It’s up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to avert catastrophe and keep life from changing… for the worse.

While saving the world is important, it isn’t Rachel’s only motivation. There’s also the small fact that she caused the ley line to rip in the first place, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate events. That little mistake has made her life forfeit unless she can fix it. It’s also made her more than a few enemies, including the most powerful demon in the ever after—a terrifying entity who eats souls and now has an insatiable appetite for her. He’s already kidnapped her friend and goddaughter to lure her out, and if Rachel doesn’t give herself up soon, they’ll die.

But Rachel has more than a few impressive and frighening skillls of her own, and she isn’t going to hand over her soul and her life without one hell of a fight. She’s also got a surpise: elven tycoon Trent Kalamack. With this unlikely ally beside her—a prospect both thrilling and unnerving—she’s going to return to the ever after, kick some demon butt, rescue her loved ones… and prevent an apocalypse before it’s too late. Or, at least that’s the plan…

 

The 14th instalment of the Harry Dresden series, Cold Days  by Jim Butcher  has a cover and a synopsis and it is slated for November!

 

 

HARRY DRESDEN LIVES!!!

After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.

He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.

Guess which Mab wants first?

Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…

His soul.

 

And finally this caught my eye when I was browsing the other day – Prophecy by Ellen Oh.

 

The greatest warrior in all of the Seven Kingdoms… is a girl with yellow eyes.

Kira’s the only female in the king’s army, and the prince’s bodyguard. She’s a demon slayer and an outcast, hated by nearly everyone in her home city of Hansong. And, she’s their only hope…

Murdered kings and discovered traitors point to a demon invasion, sending Kira on the run with the young prince. He may be the savior predicted in the Dragon King Prophecy, but the missing treasure of myth may be the true key. With only the guidance of the cryptic prophecy, Kira must battle demon soldiers, evil shaman, and the Demon Lord himself to find what was once lost and raise a prince into a king.

Intrigue and mystery, ancient lore and action-packed fantasy come together in this heart-stopping first book in a trilogy.

 

 

 

So what do you think of the meltdown over Emily Giffin? Did you think she could have done more to stop the fallout  and attacks on those reviewers? Also what do you think of Barnes and Nobel move to the UK? Will it be a successful move or is it too late?

I am going to leave y’all with this great link that friend tweeted me the other day. Its a Fifty Shades erotic passage generator – which has some real doozies and I think we need a bit of a pick me up to end the week! I hope you have fun with it as much as I did!

About Has

Has is a bookaholic and feeds her addiction whenever she can. She usually can be found lost in a Romance or an Urban Fantasy novel. Her favourite sub genres are Paranormal, Fantasy and some Scifi. Her most treasured authors are, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Ann Aguirre, Lisa Kleypas and Tamora Pierce. She loves that discovery of finding a brand new author and falling in love with their books. Has also blogs a The Book Pushers - Book chatter and reviews

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