Romance and Me: Why Do We Love Those Highlanders?

Hey Everyone!

Something has been constant from the very first historical romance novel I have read (Velvet Angel by Jude Devereaux) when I was about 18 to this day: the kind of hero I find irresistible. The one that always makes me swoon from the very first scene he enters the story and makes my heart and eyelashes flutter:
the Scottish Highlanders!

I bet many of you understand my boundless attraction to them, but for those who need to see the light and understand why Scottish Highlanders are better than any simpering Regency or Edwardian Duke*, here it is:
– they are always warmhearted (no matter how big and strong they are, every single one of them melts in front of little children :-D);
– they are ALWAYS tall, strong, muscular, fierce looking, with chests hard as rock and a colossal height, they are the epitome of virility;
– a woman always …

New Releases: May 2 – 8

Hounded by Kevin Hearne 1st book in the Iron Druid series

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, …

Author Interview with Gabi Stevens + Giveaway

We are very happy to welcome Gabi Stevens to BLI today! Gabi is the author of the Time of Transition series: a magical contemporary romance series about fairy godmothers! Book #1 The Wish List was released in May 2010 and Book #2 As You Wish was just released on 26 April 2011.

So please give a warm welcome to Gabi and join us in celebrating the release of As You Wish, a modern Beauty and the Beast story! 

The Latin Lover: Gabi can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Gabi: Well, I was born in Southern California to Hungarian parents. I went to boarding school for high school, then college, where I spent my junior year in Germany, then moved to Illinois with my husband for grad school. Over the course of years I learned …

Explore This! Scotland: Land of the Bravehearted (and home of the kilt-clad men)

Today’s virtual travels take us to place I consider my home away from home. While not actually born in Scotland, I did spend some of my early years there and constantly long to go back. But, I will admit that my inspiration to post this comes from my fellow BookLover, JoJo and her month of Highlanders. Seriously, is there anything better than a man in a kilt?

Anyway, here are just a few of the many wonderful sites that you’ll see on a tour of Scotland (Lowland and Highland), most of which I have personally visited and would gladly do so again!

The majestic Ben Nevis, highest mountain in the UK.

The Brig O’Doon, famed by Robert Burns’ Tam O’Shanter poem.

Burns’ …

Interview Author Vanessa Kelly + Giveaway

We are very happy to welcome Regency author Vanessa Kelly here at Book Lovers Inc again today. Her new novel, My Favorite Countess, will be released tomorrow and she was brave enough to answer some of out question about her writing in general and also about her new book. Please give her a warm welcome and check out the end of teh post for your chance to win.

BLI: Vanessa can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Vanessa: I write sexy Regency-set historical romance for Kensington Zebra. My next book is called My Favorite Countess, and it comes out tomorrow. But I also have a writing alter-ego. I’m half of V.K. Sykes, the pen name for the books I write with my husband. We write very sexy contemporary romance for Carina Press, and we’re also working on a …

We Love Your Comments Giveaway: Winner & new Start

This winner of our We Love Your Comments Giveaway for April is……
Nicola O.

who commented on our post: ‘Genres 101: Today’s Lesson “Occupational Fiction“‘

Oh, there’s a bunch of “sports lit” in romance – Susan E. Phillips, Rachel Gibson, Carly Phillips, Marie Force, Sherryl Woods, and just recently I discovered Luann McLane. Just to name a few.

I also just finished Nora Roberts’ Bride Quartet and one of the things I want to blog about is how she wraps each character’s profession into their point of view. I really love it.

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 May. Here again the rules:

We thought long and hard about how we should show you, the readers of Book Lovers Inc …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter/Passover break! This week has been an interesting one for WTFERY and developments.

An interesting report from the US has found that ibooks store is not the success that Apple aims it to be, this is partly due to the fact that people who have ipads aren’t using it to primarily read ebooks and that only 40 percent of ipad users have read a book. Another 45 percent has stated they would prefer reading an ebook on their macs or PCs.

Agents are now stipulating that price escalators for ebook royalties should be implemented more widely, due to the rise of ebooks, especially when they have overtaken Mass Market print books earlier this year. 

Self Published author Stephanie Mcafee has joined the ranks of Amanda Hocking into mainstream traditional publishing as she scored …

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson "Occupational Fiction"

Today, we’re going to take a look at books about jobs. For all of those reading with jobs, this just reminds you of work, right? None to thrilling, but hopefully we can change the way we see things as we envision “work”  through the imagination of some of our favourite authors.

There are all types of employment out there, but the tricky part in this area is finding occupations that are worthy of writing (and reading) about. Here are the major categories that fall under this ho-hum seeming genre:

Hollywood Novel: These books are recognized by their setting, Southern California, and the main theme involving the movie industry. Examples here would be The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins. This seems like a fairly wide scope when you …

Guestpost: "Putting In The Punk" by Tee Morris + Giveaway

We are very happy to welcome author Tee Morris here at Book Lovers Inc today. He co-authored the new Steampunk work “Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel” with  Pip Ballentine and today he is here to tell us a bit about the genre his new novel is set in. Please give him a warm welcome and be sure to check out what a great prize-pack he brought along. Enjoy!

We Need the Punk, Gotta Have That Punk

Soon came a day under skies that were gray

When I knew I couldn’t stay in this ghost town full of

Clones and clowns and carbon copy towns, with

Kine and swine and nothing that was mine,

And this town’s decline with my hatred intertwined,

So I gather all I find and I bolted it to me,

Fueled my fires and I grabbed my pliers, and I’m lit!

I made …