Explore This! Halifax, Nova Scotia

Today, I’m whisking you all away to the east coast of Canada. This entire area has always seemed to me to be such a picturesque place (except when the snow matches height with the tops of houses), that I dream of a fantastic road trip, to see all the sites. More specifically, our stop on this Explore post is Halifax.

Halifax is the capital of the province of Nova Scotia. It was originally founded in 1749. A lot of early Canadian history can be discovered in this area, being a short stop from the ocean and a landing place for those coming from the old world. Though there was a former city named “Halifax”, the area is now an amalgamated muncipality. But the former name for its residents, under the previous incarnation, was “Haligonians”.

And, of course, I should mention the reason …

Review: "Lucky Girl" by Cate Lord

Format Read: e-ARC submitted by publisher for review

Length: 268 Pages
Release Date: September 6, 2011
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Formats Available: Trade Paperback, Kindle, Nook, eBook
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher, Goodreads, Amazon.com, BooksOnBoard, Powell’s Books, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Nook

Book Blurb:

Jessica Devlin isn’t looking for love. Heartbroken after being dumped by her unfaithful ex-fiancé, she’s determined to have a fabulous time during her vacation in England where she’ll be maid-of-honor at her cousin’s wedding. After working overtime as beauty editor of Orlando’s O Tart magazine, avoiding dating, and putting on ten pounds, Jess is ready to toss her past like an empty lipstick tube and party like a single gal.

But when she steps into the church on her cousin’s wedding day, she sees the one man who could sabotage her plan—James-Bond-gorgeous Nick Mondinello. …

Cate Lord Lucky Girl Interview + Giveaway

Please join us in welcoming Cate Lord to Book Lovers Inc. today! Cate is here for the next stop of her Entangled Publishing Blog Tour in celebration of the release of her contemporary romance, Lucky Girl, which was released from Entangled Publishing on September 6, 2011. Cate also writes as Catherine Kean and is a multi-award-winning author of historical romance. Her novels have garnered numerous accolades, including two Reviewer’s Choice Awards and the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. Her books also finaled in the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the 2008 National Readers’ Choice Awards. Lucky Girl is her first contemporary romance writing as Cate Lord.

Lea: Cate! Welcome to Book Lovers, it’s such a pleasure to be able to chat with you about Lucky Girl! 😀

Cate: Thank you so much! I’m thrilled to be here to …

The Back to School Winner Post

Hey Everyone!

We have been lucky this past week as the sunny summer weather decided to stay, so I was able to enjoy wearing my sundresses for one more week and I really hope we’ll have a mild and very sunny autumn. That is my favourite season: when the leaves start to change and everything is colourful, when the weather is still nice and warm enough so you only need a sweater or a blazer but it’s not so hot you are melting (=sweating) like in summer. I always liked September when I was younger: the excitement of school starting, of seeing my friends again, of buying all the school supplies. Yep, I very much liked going to school 😀 (I’m not saying there weren’t times when I wished school was over and I did my share of playing hookie, but I enjoyed learning).

But anyway, I’ll stop my rambling about …

The International Giveaways Café (12)

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Welcome back to another Saturday morning get-together, where we have the chance to discuss book giveaways, link up our own giveaways, and enter all the others.

I’d love to hear some feedback if you’ve won any books, either by linking through here or elsewhere in the blogosphere. It’s a great way to see what interesting books we may have missed, and of course, offer our congratulations. This week, I won The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which has me completely psyched!

At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love!  Good luck to everyone and hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend 🙂

As always, here’s the fine print for entering your link: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 …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post – it pretty jam packed this week , so chill out with a nice cuppa and enjoy because we have the new trailer for Breaking Dawn and some fun stuff in the world of publishing!

If anyone is stalling in getting an ereader, I think now is the time. According to reports, ereaders have jumped to 167% with suggestions that this holiday season some will be priced around $100 or so. I think this may be the case with Amazon launching its tablet soon and may cut their black and white ereaders further.

The Guardian has announced their National Book Swap, which is an initiative where people can place books around the country in public places for others to pick up and enjoy. People can print up a sticker or collect one from this …

Review: Dangerous Desire by Diane Escalera

Format read: ebook provided by author for review
Release Date: 18 July 2011
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Blurb:

Sienna Diaz is desperate to find her missing beagle, no matter what it costs. She hires Cruz Santino, the best-and hottest-in the business. He’s an ex cop, dangerous on many levels, which comes in handy when all evidence indicates her beloved pet was snatched to use in a dogfighting ring.

Cruz will do whatever it takes to find Sienna’s lost pet, but he also wants results from the smokin’ hot attraction between them-and he isn’t above breaking his own hands-off-clients rule to get there. However, until he brings her beloved beagle home safely, he won’t have Sienna’s undivided attention…and affection.

My Thoughts: I have to confess that when I first heard of Dangerous Desire and its premise (a pet detective) I thought it would be a comical …

Interview with Author Diane Escalera + Giveaway

Today we would like to welcome to Book Lovers Inc. Diane Escalera who is here to tell us more about her super sexy and hot romantic suspense novel Dangerous Desire! (You can read my review here.) 

Hi Diane, welcome to Book Lovers Inc! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?
 
Diane: Thank you so much for having me! Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, I relocated to South Florida, a sultry paradise I instantly fell in love with. I’m married, have two children and a super cute Dachshund I can’t get enough of. I write hot contemporary romance, and I’m published with Kensington Publishing and Lyrical Press.

Stella: Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?
 
Diane: I’m the organized type, and I need to have a few things in place before I start a new book such as a working …

Review: "Tropical Sin" by Lexxie Couper

Format Read: e-ARC provided by Author for Review
Length: Novella – 87 pages
Series: Bandicoot Cove, Book 3
Genre: Erotic Contemporary Romance, Ménage a trois
Release Date: September 6, 2011
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Formats Available: eBook, Kindle, Nook
Purchasing Info: Publisher, Author’s Website, Goodreads, Kindle, Nook

Book Blurb:

It takes more than a rock star to rock your world. Sometimes you need a friend.

McKenzie Wood is Australia’s star gossip mag journalist, and she’s just spied the story of a lifetime: rumor-shrouded rock star, Nick Blackthorne—who thinks he’s incognito at Bandicoot Cove resort. The word is Nick’s a sex addict about to come out of the closet, and who better to lure Nick out than her BFF, Aiden Rogers—a pulse-poundingly gorgeous firefighter who is always there when she needs him, no matter the challenge.

Aiden admits it’s pretty damned pathetic that he can rush into burning …

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson ‘Literary Fiction"

The question of what exactly is literary fiction has been circling around me a few times recently, and while I attempted to come up with a reasonable answer (it’s for smart people), I had to admit, I had no clue what the main difference is.

More frequently, I’ve been hearing about the loss of literary fiction reviewers/bloggers. More and more we are seeing genre fiction (also aptly named “popular fiction”) on blogging sites. I recently found this article that talks about literary authors turning to genre to sell books. So I ask: what is it about literary fiction that is making this happen?Let’s go back to my silly definition, “it’s for smart people” as a starting point. Genre fiction can sometimes also be referred to …