Review: Cruising Toward Love by Christi Barth

Format read: ebook
Release Date: 30 August 2011
Number of pages: 312 pages
Publisher: Bookstrand
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Blurb:

Can an unexplained breakup and ten years of heartache be cured by the romance – and endless buffets – of a tropical cruise? When her sister is left at the altar, small town librarian Zoe Balis jumps at the chance to take the bride’s unused ticket for the honeymoon cruise. But she didn’t count on sharing a cabin with the man who broke her heart ten years ago!

Army medic Nate Hyatt never told Zoe goodbye when he enlisted – or the real reason why he dumped her on prom night after a year as high school sweethearts. And he never stopped dreaming about the girl he left behind. Could this voyage be his chance to fix the worst …

Author Interview with Christi Barth + Giveaway

I am happy to introduce to you Christi Barth who stops by BLI today to celebrate the recent release of her third novel Cruising Toward Love. I discovered Christi this year when I stumbled upon Act Like We’re In Love and fell for the story, the characters and Christi’s writing. (You can read my review of Act Like We’re in Love here.) So please give her a warm welcome and if you like your contemporary romances to be equally funny, witty and steamy, you are at the right place! 😉

Stella: Hi Christi, welcome to Book Lovers Inc! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?Christi: I spent years performing in musicals, singing about love and giving people a happy ending in every performance. Then as a wedding planner I spent every day immersed in romance. Now, I write it! Cruising …

Romance and Me: The Enemies to Lovers Trope

I thought we could once again talk about the frequently revisited tropes in romance stories.

If you remember I have already told you how much I love the Friends to Lovers trope in romance novels, today I would like to talk to you about another favourite trope of mine: the just as popular and beloved Enemies to Lovers one! 🙂

I think the reason for my enthusiasm and preference for this trope is quite obvious: when an author chooses to create an enemies-to-lovers story the hero and heroine are expected to have a lot of fights, banters, teasing, which are the perfect opportunity for the author to shine their writing talent and creativity and portray some interesting and vivid characters and the best sparkling and explosive dialogue there can be. I just love when the hero/heroine get in each other’s face and their discussion (=quarrel) becomes …

Guest Post: Five Simons: The Many Faces of One Hero by Monique Martin + Giveaway

I am very happy to welcome to BLI and introduce to you today  Monique Martin, author of the Out of Time series: a highly original and fantastic series which combines time travel, romance, and even has paranormal elements. I loooved Out of Time, the first book in the series and am extremely excited that its sequel was released recently! So please give a warm welcome to Monique and read on to discover this amazing series!

(You can read my review of Out of Time here.)

When I started writing “Out of Time” I had a mishmoshed picture of what Simon Cross (the hero) looked like. He’s not the sort of romance hero you see on covers, shirtless and shiny. (And hooray for them because – hubba-hubba). He’s a forty-year old British professor of the occult who is …

Review: Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep

Format read: ebook
Series: Book #1 in the Bigtime series
Release Date: 1 May 2007 (reissued as ebook on 12 July 2011)
Number of pages: 360 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Blurb:

Bigtime, New York, is not big enough for both Carmen Cole and the superheroes and ubervillains who stalk its streets. An intrepid reporter, Carmen’s dedicated her life to unmasking the spandexwearers, all because her fiancé turned out to be a superhero, and a cheating one at that-sleeping with none other than his nubile nemesis.

Exposing the true identities of the nation’s caped crusaders and their archenemies has catapulted Carmen from her sleepy southern hometown to the front pages of the country’s biggest newspaper, The Exposé. Hobnobbing with millionaires and famished fashionistas is all in a day’s work for a woman on the trail of the Fearless Five and Terrible Triad. But when Carmen …

BLI Holiday Reading Challenge 2011: Holiday Read Recommendations

By now you have signed up for the Holiday Reading Challenge and are in the mood to start reading those holiday themed novels but you just realized that *gasp* you have no idea what to read as you don’t know any holiday themed books.

No need to worry, we are here to help you out with our selection post where we tried to list as many holiday themed books you could read for the challenge as we could think of.

Check them out, there are quite a lot I have on my TBR/wishlist, and if you know of more that should be added to the list please let me know in a comment.

So which ones will you be reading for the Holiday Challenge? 

Genre-specific recommendation lists:

Contemporary Romances
Historical Romances
Paranormal Romances
Free Kindle Reads

and some holiday novels we read in the past years (click on …

The Marathonian Winner Announcement Post

Hey Everyone!

Another week has whooshed by, and not only was it weird being back at the office after 5 weeks away from it but this week was so busy and hectic that it took me 1 whole day just to unwind. And you didn’t make my job easy either as so many giveaways ended this weekend, I have to take a seat just to read out all the winners’ names! *takes a deep breath*

So join me today in congratulating this week’s lucky winners who are none other than…

The lucky winners of a copy of The Academy by T.P. Boje are: 蓁子chingz – Marybelle

The lucky winner of a paperback copy of Tyger, Tyger by Kersten Hamilton is: Julie  

The lucky winner of an ebook copy of Seducing the Myth anthology edited by Lucy Felthouse is:  CelticAmazon

The lucky winner of an ebook copy of Brightest Kind of Darkness by P.T. Michelle is:  Fishgirl182

The lucky winner …

BLI Holiday Reading Challenge 2011: Link Up Your Reviews!

Now that you have signed up for the Holiday Reading Challenge and started (or will soon start) reading holiday themed books, this is where you can post links to your reviews of said books.
Winner will be selected from all submitted reviews, so the more you read and review, the better chance you will have at winning 😉

Please in the “Name” section of the linky leave the title and author of the book:
example:
Name: All I Want For Christmas by Santa Claus
Thank you!

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Review: Because of You by Jessica Scott

Format read: eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley
Series: Book #1 in the Coming Home series
Release Date: 14 November 2011
Number of pages: 224 pages
Publisher: Loveswept
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Blurb:

From the war-torn streets of Baghdad to the bittersweet comforts of the home front, two wounded hearts navigate the battlefield of coming home from war in this explosive eBook original from newcomer Jessica Scott.

Keeping his men alive is all that matters to Sergeant First Class Shane Garrison. But meeting Jen St. James the night before his latest deployment makes Shane wonder if there’s more to life than war. He leaves for Iraq remembering a single kiss with a woman he’ll never see again—until a near fatal attack lands him back at home and in her care.

Jen has survived her own brush with death and endured its scars. And yet there’s a fire in Shane that makes Jen forget …

Interview with Jessica Scott + Giveaway

Today we are very happy and honoured to welcome Jessica Scott debut romance author and career soldier at Book Lovers Inc. Jessica is here to tell us about her debut novel Because of You, a very emotional romance novel and first book in a new series. Read on to learn more about Jessica’s series and life and get to know the characters of Because of You. 🙂

(You can read my review of Because of You here.)

Stella: Hi Jessica, welcome to Book Lovers Inc! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?
Jessica Scott: Hi Stella. Thanks for having me here today. I’m pretty excited about Because of You and I’m delighted to be here. I’m a pretty normal harried working mom. I love reading, writing and all things bookish. I’ve got two little girls, a husband in Iraq and I’ve been on active duty for 16 plus years. I’m blessed …