Giveaways at Ex Libris

Win a steampunk necklace from Jillian Stone - Open to US only - Ends 22 July

Win a $50 USD Amazon gift card from Tracy Ward - Open worldwide - Ends 23 July

Win The Bargain by Christine S. Feldman - Open worldwide - Ends 26 July

Win a gift pack + Amazon gift card from Robbie Terman - Open worldwide - Ends 31 July

Win a gift pack from Joya Fields - Open worldwide - Ends 31 July

Win Forsaken by the Others and more H&W Investigations books by Jess Haines - Open worldwide - Ends 2 August

Thursday, 30 September 2010

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (#11)


It's Monday, What are you reading this week? is a weekly event hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read and the books to be finished this week.

I'm quite late, but since last week was so productive I absolutely wanted to make this post even if a few days later... (work is crazy and I can't catch up with everything, so sorry for the blog silence).

Books I completed this week



: Wow! Lately I've read at least 4 YA novels which made me seriously reconsider my repeated mantra that I wasn't a big fan of YA books, and Hush Money is one of them. Because if all YA novels are like Hush Money, then please bring them on! This was an amazing read, brilliantly written, and as soon as I finished I wanted to read on. I can't wait to write my detailed review and sing its praises :-)





An erotic paranormal romance between a dark and sexy angel and a vulnerable witch.



 A well-written gothic regency romance, I felt like watching a period drama. :-)




The Panther's Lair by Esmeralda Bishop: a great shifter romance/erotica, my only complaint was that it was too short!


Books I am currently reading


Desire Unchained (Demonica, Book 2)

another 'Wow-book'! I'm still at the beginning, but the story flows naturally and before I realized it I've read 40 pages and almost missed my bus-stop. A very well written page turner.


Books I can't wait to start soon



This one sounds exciting, can't wait to finally submerge myself in the story!

And what are you reading this week?

Welcoming the Fall Winners




The one week long Welcoming the Fall giveaway event has ended and it's time to announce some winners! But first of all let me thank the wonderful ladies at Good Choice Reading, who had the fantastic idea for the event and who organized it, thanks for your hard work, and hope to have many such events in the future! :-) 

I also would like to thank the wonderful authors who have stopped by Ex Libris and offered a prize, thank you to Tatyana Varenko, Maggie Nash, Desiree Holt and Karin Harlow!! :-D

And thanks to everyone who visisted Ex Libris and entered the giveaways, welcome to all new followers, I hope you'll like it here :-)

And now, the time has come to reveal the winners:


Winners of Ordeal

Atta Girl

Kelly

Winner of the USD 10 voucher offered by Maggie Nash

Beth


Winner of any backlist book by Desiree Holt or Cerise Deland

Jolene Allcock


Congratulations! I will shortly send you all an e-mail (or you can write to me if you see your name here first) please respond within 48 hours or I will have to draw another winner.

 
If you haven't won now, hurry and enter the Wind Warrior Blog Tour Giveaway, which has amazing prizes, is open worldwide and ends tonight!

Oh and don't forget to enter Karin Harlow's giveaway to win a signed copy of Enemy Lover too!

Monday, 27 September 2010

Welcoming the Fall - Karin Harlow Giveaway




Today I have another favourite author of mine making a stop at Ex Libris: Karin Harlow, author of the sensational new paranormal suspense novel: Enemy Lover! So if by any chance you haven't heard of or read Enemy Lover, scroll down for your chance to win a personalized copy! And if you have, ask Karin a question, she'll come by later to answer all your questions.


"Chilling suspense and sizzling romance, Harlow is a fresh new voice for paranormal fans." New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan.

ENEMY LOVER

Book one in the highly anticipated L.O.S.T. series.

It’s Jax Cassidy’s first mission for L.O.S.T.—one that will give the former cop who went rogue a chance to prove herself. Her assignment: gain the trust of assassin Marcus Cross . . . eliminate him . . . then take down Marcus’s mentor, Joseph Lazarus, a man with a bold eye on the White House. But the woman who’s known by her team for being a femme fatale succumbs to passion, only to discover Cross’s deadly secret. He’s a vampire, and Joseph Lazarus is his creator.

Left for dead by his platoon in the violent hills of Afghanistan, special ops sniper Marcus Cross was given a second chance at life. His newly heightened skills make him the perfect killing machine, and as Lazarus's right hand man, he’s quickly rising to the top of his dark empire, purging enemies with speed and precision. Only when dangerous beauty Jax Cassidy is sent to bring him in does he begin to question Lazarus’s motives and his own actions. But when Jax’s life is threatened by the one thing that can destroy them both, Marcus must make a bitter choice—her death or his…


There are those who walk along us, dark and otherworldy…

L.O.S.T.
Last Option Special Team

A group of rogue cops, their lives destroyed, rise from the ashes like the mythical phoenix...

Caught acting outside the law, they are given a choice by the enigmatic Mr. Black: Spend their lives in prison. Or break all ties with their past, assume a new identity, and become part of an elite crime fighting team unofficially sanctioned by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.

Their sole purpose is to close the cases that normal law enforcement channels cannot touch. What they discover is there are no rules--not for them and not for the Others.

L.O.S.T. operatives are the hunters, the cleaners, the end of the road for the bad guys. Immortal. Or not.

No boundaries.

No laws.

No compromises.

When the balance of humanity is in jeopardy, failure is not an option.

Semper Invictus, Always Invincible.

Paranormal author, Karin Harlow, treads the dark side of romance…

A full time writer, Harlow spins dark tales of suspense, love and things that go bump in the night. Drawing from her life as a cop’s wife, her stories resonate with authority and reality. When Harlow isn't writing, she enjoys traveling the California coast line with her husband and one or more of her four children or getting together in far off places with her writing buddies.

When she isn’t busy conjuring up dark tales of suspense, Harlow also writes as award winning author Karin Tabke.

For more information about Karin and L.O.S.T. visit Karin's official website or you can also check out  Karin Tabke's site.


GIVEAWAY RULES

Karin offered one signed copy of Enemy Lover to a lucky winner! .

Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, October 3

You HAVE to do 1-2-3 to be eligible to win!

1. Just leave a comment/question for Karin - Must be meaningful comments not just "Please enter me!" !!
2. Be a follower of Ex Libris
3. Leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.

If you want some extra entries:
You can get +1 extra entry if you spread the word about the giveaway (you can use the share on Twitter/Facebook buttons, or post it on your sidebar), but these are NOT mandatory! (+1 per place you post it)

GOOD LUCK!

Friday, 24 September 2010

Welcoming the Fall - Desiree Holt Giveaway




Today I would like to draw your attention to another new release: Until the Dawn which is the result of a fun collaboration between authors Desiree Holt and Cerise Deland! Desiree says that she is just like us, a reader turned writer and when asked about how she became a writer or decided to try herself out at writing she kindly offered to share her story with us.

After Desiree's guest post, scroll down for a nice excerpt of Until the Dawn and even lower for the giveaway ;-)


I’ll bet everyone else has been asked this question more times than you can count: How and why did you decide to become a writer?

I don’t think it’s actually a conscious decision I made. I have been a reader all my life, since I could string three words together. My mother and sister were both avid readers, and our house was always jammed with books. My sister was more addicted to mainstream, fiction, but my mother loves mysteries, especially if they had a little romance.

So I grew up reading books by Erle Stanley Gardner and Ellery Queen – God, am I dating myself. LOL! And any mystery writer I could get my hands on.

My real hero is a woman named Elizabeth Linington who also wrote as Lesley Egan and Dell Shannon. She passed away at 67 but she wrote nearly a hundred books, police procedurals, all of them with personal stories interwoven and I was just addicted to her. I still have all of her books.

But the more I read, the more I had the desire to create something myself. To put pen to paper-or fingers to keyboard-and see if I could become a story teller, too.

Raising a family and working didn’t really leave me the time I want to write but I kept notebooks filled with ideas, clippings, photos that suggested ideas, all the things that I use today to craft plots. And when my husband and I retired and moved to Texas, I thought surely this was the time. Especially when my husband say, “Okay, quit fooling around. Put your butt in that chair and write.”

I was sure, based on my past reading, that I would write a mystery. I even had it all plotted out and a profile for each of my characters (many of them based on people I’d worked with who I thought deserved to be shot or hanged! LOL!

Well, my dears, talk about hitting a brick wall. I wrote three chapters. Then I rewrote them. Then I rewrote them again. By the time two months had passed I never wanted to see those (expletive deleted) chapters ever again in this life or the next. I was ready to through out both my computer and my fledgling writing career.

Then I read a book, and it’s amazing how one book can change your life. I read CRY NO MORE BY Linda Howard, and lordy, I was off to the races. I discovered that I craved r/s the way ducks crave water. I started looking for similar authors and pretty soon my budget was shot to hell with book buying.

But I finally realized where my heart lay. I sat down and wrote my first manuscript in two weeks. And let me tell you, it was AWFUL!!!! I, of course, thought I’d written a RITA award winner. What a blow to my ego when no on else thought so.

Although I’ve been very fortunate in my career in a short time, I have yet to sell that first effort. Have just finished the 40th rewrite -no joke-because I think I finally get it.

So if you’re stuck at a point in your writing, or wondering if the success fairy will ever visit you, take heart. She’s waiting right around the corner. Just be sure that what you’re right is from your heart because that’s what works the best.

I don’t think you’ll ever see MURDER AT MASS in print but maybe one of these days you’ll see TARGET, my first romantic suspense and the one that led me to write the others.

And by the way, thank you, Linda Howard.

Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, here’s an excerpt from my upcoming release with Cerise Deland, Until the Dawn. It’s my ultimate romantic suspense, an erotic thriller, with a hot alpha male, a kickass heroine, lots of danger and yummy love scenes.


Until The Dawn

Appetizer: Madison Sommers is sure she has the world in her hand—a great job working for the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a beautiful townhouse in Georgetown, her ambassador father finally at home rather than at the other end of the world. And in Dan Foreman a lover she adores. The sex is beyond anything she could have imagined, for Dan knows how to use every part of his body, including his talented hands and mouth, to give her screaming orgasms. She wonders if life could possibly get any better.

But then Dan disappears and the world turns upside down. Until he reappears in the dark, to addle her brain with the hottest sex she’s ever known and a secret that could bring down the country.


Excerpt

He raised her hands to kiss each of her fingertips in turn. “I’ve outgrown the one-night stands, Maddie. The quick lays that leave you feeling like a cave man.” He pressed both her palms to his cheeks and his torso to hers. “I want a relationship that means something bigger. With one woman. With brains.” He smoothed her hair. “And beauty.” He kissed her eyelids. “And a body.” He cupped her ass and pushed her groin to his. “And a passion for me.”

She wound her arms around his massive shoulders and pressed her breasts against his solid chest. “I think you’ve got her.”

He threw his head back and laughed, then caught her under her legs to swing her up into his arms. “Where then, my dear woman, is your bedroom?”

She pointed the way up her stairs into the back of her house and her huge master bedroom. He carried her up and there, next to the king bed awash in linens of ivory and cream, Dan paused and set her to her feet. His hands fell over her from her throat to her shoulders, her arms and her fingertips. Those he raised to his shirt collar. “Undress me.”

She trembled. Her lips quivered. But she began to undo his buttons, loosen his tie, peel back his suit coat and drop everything to the floor. When she came to his belt, and his waistband button, she gazed into his eyes, now clouded with desire, and stopped. He stared at her. “Do it.”

She spun away from him. New spunk rising in her veins, she shrugged one shoulder to let her spaghetti strap fall below her elbow, then did the same with the other. Reaching around to her zipper, she pulled it open with a brisk tug that had her dress sliding over her breasts and her hips and pooling at the floor.

He inhaled sharply.


For more information about Desiree and her books, visit her official website and you can also swing by Desiree's blog.


GIVEAWAY RULES

Thanks to Desiree's generous offer, the winner gets their choice from Desiree Holt's or Cerise Deland’s backlist.

Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, September 29.

You HAVE to do 1-2-3 to be eligible to win!

1. Just leave a comment/question for Desiree - Must be meaningful comments not just "Please enter me!" !!
2. Be a follower of Ex Libris
3. Leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.

If you want some extra entries:
You can get +1 extra entry if you spread the word about the giveaway (you can use the share on Twitter/Facebook buttons, or post it on your sidebar), but these are NOT mandatory! +1 per place you post it.

GOOD LUCK!

Thursday, 23 September 2010

Welcoming the Fall - Maggie Nash Giveaway




Today I would like to let the spotlight shine on Maggie Nash, who would like to talk to you about her new release The Dream Master and share a hot excerpt with you ;-) So I'll just leave Maggie do the talking now, please give a warm welcome to Maggie!


Thanks Stella for having me at your blog this week for the Welcoming the Fall Spotlight. I'm so excited to share some info about myself and my latest release. If you post a comment listing a title of any of my backlist you will be in the draw to win a $10 gift voucher from Total-e-bound!

Here's a little bit about me and my latest book:


How did I get started in writing?

I think it was around 2002 when I found myself at home one day, stranded with no car, didn't feel like doing the housework and all I wanted was a good book to read. The problem was that I'd read all of the books in my shelves, and the really good ones I'd already read several times. I twiddled my thumbs for a while, then thought - why don't I write one of my own? So I sat down and wrote the first chapter of my first book. Then I realised that if I wanted to do it right, I had to learn the craft. So I joined RWAus, several online reading and writing communities, hooked myself up with a few critique partners and the rest, as they say, is history! Of course, it wasn't easy...it was lots of hard work. It took me three years to sell my first book, but the journey was and is an incredibly rewarding one.

My life is a busy one, with four sons, a gorgeous husband and a feisty poodle names 'Sam". When I'm not writing, I work as an Instructional Designer and Nurse Educator. I live in Sydney, Australia.



THE DREAM MASTER

Publisher: Total-e-bound
ISBN: 978-0-85715-289-3

Appetizer: Police detective Helena Peters has been secretly in love with her partners for years. It doesn’t help that he never looks at her as anything other than his work partner. What would he do if he discovered what she was really thinking?

His classic Greek looks were responsible for Dimitri Michaels’ arrogant success with women, so going undercover and pretending to be lovers with Helena should be a piece of cake, but she isn’t the person he thought she was.

Why was the only girl in his dreams now the only one who’d been right under his nose for years? More to the point, can he keep her safe long enough to convince her what he feels for her isn’t an act?

The Dream Master excerpt: (Hot)

“What are you doing, Dim?”

“Put down your cup, Hels.”

She unfurled her legs and reached over to place her cup on the table. Here was his chance and he wasn’t going to waste it. In a quick move, he hooked his hands under her armpits, pulled her to her feet and swooped down on her mouth.

She twisted and attempted to turn away, but he placed his hands on either side of her head, holding her firmly in place. He traced her lips with his tongue and she gasped. At the unexpected opening, he invaded her mouth, exploring every crevice, thrusting deeper and deeper. Oh God, she tastes so good.

Her hands slid up to his shoulders and she squeezed gently, drawing him closer to her. Her hair smelt of strawberries, a scent he suddenly found incredibly alluring. Sparks between them well and truly ignited a heat he never, ever expected. Shit, this is Hels. She moaned as he angled his head to taste more. He sucked in her sweet breath, groaning when she unconsciously wriggled her body against his straining jeans.

What the fuck am I doing? He couldn’t be getting a hard on? Not with Hels. She’s his partner, his buddy. They were just practicing for the mission. Fuck. Pushing gently on her shoulders, he broke their lip lock. His erratic breathing made speech fairly impossible, so he just stared at her face, trying to figure out what happened.

She stared back, those beautiful indigo eyes shining with arousal. Damn, where did that thought come from? He’d never noticed how beautiful they were before. And he’d never noticed them aroused before. Shit. This is Hels. He dragged his gaze from hers and pushed her gently away. She landed with a small bounce on the couch across the other side of the coffee table as he backed up a few steps. His hand shook as he raked his fingers through his hair before smiling at her stunned expression.

“I guess we now know we can be convincing.”



That's all folks!

Maggie


You can buy The Dream Master here, and for more information about Maggie and her books, visit her official website.


GIVEAWAY RULES

Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, September 29.

You HAVE to do 1-2-3 to be eligible to win!
1. Just leave a comment/question for Maggie - Must be meaningful comments not just "Please enter me!" !!
2. Be a follower of Ex Libris
3. Leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.

If you want some extra entries:
You can get +1 extra entry if you spread the word about the giveaway (you can use the share on Twitter/Facebook buttons, or post it on your sidebar), but these are NOT mandatory! +1 per place you post it.


GOOD LUCK!

ETA: Must be meaningful comments not just "Please enter me!" !!

Wednesday, 22 September 2010

Welcoming the Fall - Ordeal Giveaway




For the first giveaway in Welcoming the Fall Giveaway I would like to welcome paranormal romance poet Tatyana Varenko, who some of you old followers of Ex Libris may already know, as I've been singing Tatyana's debut piece Ordeal's praises :-)

Tatyana wrote this little piece for us bloggers, enjoy:

To Bloggers


Where do you get the time required
To cope with all the things you do?
You work, make chores, and feel inspired
To blog, to read, and to review!


Your energy seems everlasting
To keep responding to requests
Of authors hopefully entrusting
You with new books they put to tests.


And you are friendly and sincere
In every criticism you make
Bringing your point neat and clear
As if it were a piece of cake!


Tatyana has generously offered 2 ebook copies of her paranormal romance Ordeal, told in verse!


Ordeal by T. K. Varenko

It is a verse-ornated story
About love, betrayal, wrath,
Royal vampires' bliss and glory
Bringing them straight to their death.

Luella, fierce, strong vampire,
Falls for a pretty human catch
Sent on her fiancé's desire
To celebrate they are engaged.

This unexpected turnabout
Is doomed to come to a dead end:
Her human sweetheart's dead to shroud;
Her fiancé's avenged for that;

And she is punished for blood treason,
Banished into a mortal child,
Whose human body is a prison
For all her powers to bind.

Her memories obliterated,
She is to find her love at last
Who proves to be too much related
To the misfortunes from her past.

For more information visit Tatyana's website


Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, September 29.
Only one entry per person please - duplicate/multiple entries will be disqualified.


All you have to do is fill out THIS form. You MUST be a follower to enter.
(Click the "Follow" button on the left sidebar if you are not a follower yet.)

You can get +5 extra entry if you leave a comment/question for Tatyana in the comment section.

You can get +1 extra entry if you spread the word about the giveaway (you can use the share on Twitter/Facebook buttons, or post it on your sidebar), but these are NOT mandatory!


ALL YOU NEED TO ENTER IS TO FILL OUT THE FORM AND BE A FOLLOWER OF EX LIBRIS





GOOD LUCK!

Tuesday, 21 September 2010

Welcoming the FALL Giveaway starts tomorrow!


(Grr blogger just lost my whole ready-to-be-posted post, without saving it! grr!, so here it is again..)

Another fantastic week long giveaway event is starting tomorrow:

Welcoming the Fall Giveaway
September 22-29!

Fall is my favourite season, I just love all the colours and that it is still sunny and nice warm to go hiking or just being outside without the scorching heat and the sweating. And the leaves! and the chestnut trees! They remind me of when I was young and couldn't wait for September so school would start again and I could meet my friends, go to classes and shop for new school pens and stuff! :-D Loved the excitement fall always brought. :-)

But back to our fall celebrating giveaway. Welcoming the Fall Giveaway is organized by the wonderful ladies of Good Choice Reading, and here is the description of the event in their own words:

Join us September 22nd - 29th for our Welcoming the Fall Giveaway! Over 50 blogs participating giving away some GREAT BOOKS and anything that has to do with books.

Here at Ex Libris I will be doing things a bit differently: I will feature one author/novel for a day, so come back often, because each day a new giveaway will be posted!

September 22: Win Ordeal by T.K. Varenko - International 

September 23: Win a 10 USD gift card to Total-e-bound to buy some great ebooks! - International

September 24: Win a Desiree Holt or Cerise Deland novel - International

September 27: Win Enemy Lover by Karin Harlow - International


And here is the list of all participating blogs:


Monday, 20 September 2010

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (#10)


It's Monday, What are you reading this week? is a weekly event hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read and the books to be finished this week.

This week was quite good too, had time to do lots of reading, finished three not so short books (350-490 pages each) .

Books I completed this week



: I just discovered the Vampire Academy series a couple of weeks ago, and immediately fell under its spell. Richelle Mead's writing is enthralling, the characters are interesting, and these books just keep turning the pages themselves! lol :-)




: Wow! This book was a revelation! Tonya Plank's writing style is captivating and natural, Sophie is a very likable girl-next-door character, Swallow is truly a great surprise novel. would recommend it to everyone. It is very well written, the story never gets dull, you just keep on turning the pages and it has so much humour! :-)



: Second book in the Demonica series. It was a fast (and steamy) read.


Books I am currently reading



This morning I started reading Hush Money (Book #1 in the Talent Chronicles series) by Susan Bischoff. I'm still at the very beginning, but I like the author's writing style and I have a feeling this will be a thrilling read.

Books I can't wait to start soon

- : This is the sequel to one of my favourite reads of 2010 (Embers). I fell in love with Anya, Sparky and Laura Bickle's evocative storytelling, can't wait to read book #2! :-D

- : I LOVED Mind Games and I'm counting the days to the release of Double Cross!! September 28 cannot come soon enough!


And what are you reading this week?

Sunday, 19 September 2010

In My Mailbox (#24)

In My Mailbox
is hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren

Despite the quite horrible weather (gray, cloudy, rainy and cold like in November, urgh) we had a nice weekend: just lounging, reading, I'm catching up on last season's Vampire diaries episodes, also baked a few cookies and a cappuccino cheesecake, which was delicious, yum! I like these quiet, relaxing weekends, feels so cozy to sometimes just "be" :-) 

Here are the books I have received this week:

Books I have received for review:

Space Junque by L.K. Rigel: sounds like an exciting sci-fi novella

eARC of Undertow by Moira Rogers - Yay! :-)

Sparks by Laura Bickle
I LOVED Embers, can't wait to start reading Sparks! :-D


Books I have won:

Water Bound by Christine Feehan won from Carolyn at The Book Chick City


Shadow Run by A.C. Ellis
won this from Charles Forgues at his BlogFest giveaway


Book I have received:


Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens
Received this for my birthday from Jennifer, thank you so much! :-)




So that's what was in my mailbox this week, and what was in yours?

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