Explore This! San Francisco (Past and Present)

 Today, we’re heading to San Francisco, California, but our route is a little different this time. We’re not only travelling the virtual distance to this lovely city, we’re also moving through time. Cool right?

I have to thank the awesome Stella for this idea. It was she who pointed me to When the Walls Fell by Monique Martin. From the Goodreads summary, this novel takes place during the time of the great earthquake that devastated the city. In searching for images of the time, there are many, but all show a dire state of the devastation. Rather than do an entire post of emotion inspiring pics, I decide we’d take a look at San Francisco through the years. So, put on your best time travelling outfit and let’s check it out:

This is the burgeoning …

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 …

Guest Post: My Musings on How Vampires Went from Drooling Corpses to Hot Superheroes By Beth Kery + Giveaway

Please join us in giving a warm BLI welcome to National Bestselling Author Beth Kery today. Beth is a prolific author having penned numerous novels published by Samhain, Berkley, Ellora’s Cave and Harlequin. Beth is here to celebrate the release of Silken Rapture, Book II in her Princes of the Underground series which is coming from Samhain Publishing in digital format on November 22, 2011. 

Silken Rapture is an erotic paranormal romance and Beth is here to talk about a topic near and dear to us paranormal romance lovers….vampires! Take it away Beth!

With the second book in my Princes of the Underground series, Silken Rapture, releasing from Samhain on November 22nd, I got to thinking about the evolution of vampires. Actually, I was revisiting the hilarious tongue-in-cheek article from Cracked.com, called Six Mind Blowing Ways Zombies and Vampires Explain America—if you haven’t read it, I …

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!

document.write(‘

The International Giveaways Café (20)

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

We’ve made it into November now, just one month away from the holiday season (for those of us that celebrate it.) One thing that is consistent (year round) though is…you guessed it! Book Giveaways. Whether rain, snow, or sunshine, there are always great books around with a potential to win. So, add your link below or peruse for your chance to win. Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Let us know what your weekend has in store. Have you won anything recently that you’ll get the chance to read now? The Book Lovers would love to hear!

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

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 …

Around the Bookish World: News Week-in-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! This week we have more news and development from Kobo, Authors hiding their real gender and covers galore!

A Japanese company called Rakuten, has purchased the Canadian based Indigo’s Kobo in a deal worth $315 million. Rakuten is behind a few e-ventures and companies,including an ebook store and it looks like buying into Kobo is a way to shore up and expand more into ebooks and publishing. It also looks like with a huge backing from Rakuten, Kobo will be able to expand and compete more fully with other ebook devices like the Kindle.

Another case of plagiarism has reared its ugly head. Thriller writer, QR Markham, was caught plagiarising from a variety of novels including the James Bond series, with his new book Assassin of Secrets. The book has been removed …

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 …