Genres 101: Westward, Ho! (Today’s lesson – Western Fiction)

In the last lesson, we hit on some strangely named genres. One in particular, Cowpunk, got me thinking about a type of novel that I know very little about: Westerns. Westerns have been a  big draw when it comes to movie making or television series’ but is the same thing true about their bookish counterparts? It hasn’t been for me, that’s for sure, though  maybe I’m just being a little too prejudice (I also wildly dislike country music!). It’s time I open up my world (and yours!) and see what’s out there; what may in fact be great literature but I’ve (we’ve?) just been too stubborn to read.The Western novel is a relatively new form of book, considering it deals with the “New …

Guest Post: "How do you research?" by Kylie Brant + Giveaway

Today we have the wonderful Kylie Brant here to tell us about some of her methods when researching material for her books. Kylie is the author of the fantastic Mindhunters series plus numerous romance titles such as Terms of Engagement, Terms of Attraction and Terms of Surrender. Today is also the release date of her newest novel, Deadly Sins. Congrats to Kylie and let’s celebrate all we can!

Take it away Kylie! 

Think the worst writing advice I’ve ever heard is that old adage “write what you know”. What I know is not all that interesting. Oh sure, I’ve got some good material based on experience that might make an entertaining short story. If someone wants to know how to make dinner for seven with …

New Releases: August 1-7, 2011

A Midnight Dance by Lila DiPasqua

Inspired by the tale of Cinderella, Lila DiPasqua weaves a steamy story that offers a glass slipper, a dangerous deception, and an impoverished beauty determined to find her handsome prince…and make him pay.

Born into wealth, Sabine Laurent and her twin sister lived a life of luxury, their father’s prestigious theater frequented by royalty and aristocracy alike. And Sabine dreamed of her own prince charming—the devastatingly handsome Jules de Moutier.

That was before the loss of her sister and her family’s fall from grace—a disaster Sabine blames on the Moutier family. Now, with her father’s death, she’s inherited his sizable debt and the responsibility of caring for his spoiled long-time mistress and her two wastrel daughters. But with the help of Sabine’s eccentric friends—the balance of her father’s acting troupe—she plans to get very close …

We Love Your Comments Giveaway: Winner & new Start

This winner of our We Love Your Comments Giveaway for July is……

Alisha (MyNeedToRead)

who commented on our post: ‘Bookish Rants and Raves: Getting Shelved“‘

I tend to laugh it off and joke about it when someone refers to “those vampire books” that I read. (A side note: why is it always “those vampire books”?! Just goes to show that such people don’t know a first thing about that which they speak.)

But really, I embrace being a “genre” reader. When someone is like “oh, that’s not literature, that’s a book (and I was once told this), I’d be likely to say “yup, and I love that book!”

Congrats hon! I just sent you an email. Please email us back in the in the next 72 hours to claim your price.

We will now start counting for August. Here again the rules:

We thought long and hard about …

Interview: Jennifer Ashley + Giveaway!

Please join us in giving a warm BLI welcome to Jennifer Ashley! Jennifer is here to talk about her awesome & extremely popular Mackenzie series and specifically the upcoming publication of the eagerly awaited The Many Sins of Lord Mackenzie which is available from Berkley publishing tomorrow August 2nd! We here at Book Lovers Inc just couldn’t resist the temptation that are those brothers. I for myself awaited the release of Cameron’s book with halted breath!

Jennifer! Welcome to BLI, it’s such a thrill to be able to talk to you today!

Caro: Jennifer can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Jennifer: Sure. I write as Jennifer Ashley, Allyson James, and Ashley Gardner. What do I write? Historical romance, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and historical mysteries (that’s the Ashley Gardner side). What else do I do? Not much! …

The International Giveaways Café (5)

 Welcome back to our home for International Giveaways. If you’re new to the post, you can click here to see our sentiments behind the Café. Otherwise, please take a quick look at the guidelines below and enter your link for your own international giveaway. Or grab some refreshments and visit the links to enter! It’s a win/win situation, right?!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!Guidelines:

If you have a giveaway you would like to share with our other readers, the rules are simple:

1. The giveaway MUST be available to international addresses (Book Depository does count)

2. Add your link below, in the format shown. (Please use the URL for the contest post, not a general blog URL; you don’t want to make it tricky for others trying to enter)
3. Remove your link when the giveaway has ended (we would highly …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

Well it seems the Apple Apps closing buy or direct links to purchase books from other than those they sanction or own has come to fruition, the deadline has come and gone, without any sign for vendors being allowed to use their buy links. Apps by Amazon and Barnes and Noble and others are still able to offer their books on devices on the Apple platform but you are unable to buy directly from those apps but still be able to buy via Safari and sideload the book. I honestly hate this because the whole point is the easy access to purchase a book on a portable device on the format of your choice, I think this is just Apple trying to strong arm the competition and to force people to shop at their ibookstore which …

Bookish Rants or Raves: The Difficulty of Choosing aka The Stress of Vacation Book-Packing

I’ll start with an apology. I apologize beforehand because I am so stressed out and jittery that my every breath is a rant right now so I’ll try to organize the ranting chaos in my head but I can guarantee nothing. *takes deep breaths… mumbles Zen mantras*

 
Ok, I’m back. 🙂
 
So what has me worked up? My vacation. Well to be exact my leaving for vacation. Or if you want me to be even more specific it is packing for my vacation.

First of all work has been crazy this week. Somehow we have 3 major projects (which we have been working on for the past 3-4 weeks!) all ending this week, which means that instead of me taking care of last minute details and cleaning my desk everyone is hysteric at work and we jump around like caffeinated bugs. *deep breaths*
 

Ok, I’m Zen 🙂 Besides work there is of course the small matter that …

Romance and Me: The Curse or the Blessing of the Romance Covers

Hey Everyone!

As BLI familiars you must know our own Susi and Caro’s feature: The Good, The Bad and The Are-You-Kidding-Me, where every second Monday they take a look at book covers and share their thoughts (*cough* rants and gushing rather *cough*) about the beautiful and the ugly, and mostly about the ridiculous.Today I would like to ask the age-old question regarding your thoughts on romance novel covers.

As a teenager I didn’t read romance novels partly because of my upbringing (I come from a bookishly snob family, we only read books which had “some literary value”, I know, I know *eyeroll*) but also because of the embarassing and ridiculous covers of these books, I never would have been caught dead reading these in public:

or even this:

(I can so picture the old ladies around 70-80 years old who upon sitting next to me/in front of me …

Guestpost: A Gargoyle’s Guide to Important Characters in Black Night by Christina Henry + Giveaway

Today we are happy to welcome Christina Henry back at Book Lovers Inc. Black Night, book two in her Madeline Black series releases today. She brought along a little Guide about her characters composed by the more than awesome Beezle. Believe me, he’s a riot. Stay tuned till the end for your chance to win. 

Hi! My name is Beezle, and I will be your incredibly handsome guide for today’s tour of important characters in BLACK NIGHT, the sequel to BLACK WINGS.

The first and most important character in the book, obviously, is me. Whenever I am in a scene I add much-needed intelligence. Maddy is no dummy, but she’s way too emotional and without me she’d end up doing even more dangerous things than she already does. Plus, without me there would never be doughnuts in the house. Maddy doesn’t …