The International Giveaways Café (59)

Welcome back to this week’s list of great *bookish* giveaways from around the world. New giveaways are added in every week, so make sure you check ’em all out and enter your own info, if you too are hosting an *international* book giveaway. We love to spread the word 😉

Also, remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; 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 the rest of your weekend!

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 (Book Depository does count)
2. Add your link below, in the format shown. (Please use the URL for the contest post, …

Around the Bookish World: Week-In-Review

Welcome to this week’s news post! We have news that the first publisher to remove Agency pricing is HarperCollins’ price drop, more YA adaptations and movie news as well as our usual covers and books to watch out for!

HarperCollins has dropped Agency pricing and will be allowing discounts and other associated special offers with retailers this week, they are the first publisher to undergo this and I suspect that Hachette and Simon and Schuster will follow suit soon since they have also settled with the DOJ. Macmillan, Penguin and Apple who have refused to settle will be heading for trial sometime next year to challenge this ruling.

And talking about HarperCollins – one of their imprints, Harper Voyager which releases SF and Fantasy titles, are looking for open and unagented manuscript submissions for a two week period. In the weeks between the 1st and the 14th of October, they will …

Dual Review: The Last Victim by Karen Robards

The Last Victim by Karen Robards

Format Read: e-book provided by NetGalley courtesy of Publisher for Review
Length: 336 Pages
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Thriller
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Formats Available: Hardcover, Nook, Kindle
Purchasing Info: Publisher, Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Nook, IndieBound, Kindle

Book Blurb:

Dr. Charlotte Stone sees what others do not.

A sought-after expert in criminal pathology, Charlie regularly sits face-to-face with madmen. Obsessed with learning what makes human monsters commit terrible crimes, Charlie desires little else from life—no doubt because when she was sixteen, she herself survived a serial killer’s bloodbath: A man butchered the family of Charlie’s best friend, Holly, then left the girl’s body on a seaside boardwalk one week later.

Because of the information Charlie gave police, the Boardwalk Killer went underground. She kept to herself her eerie postmortem visions of …

pssssssst you know what?

Guess what? Today is Anna’s Birthday!!! *g*  It’s time to celebrate! We’ve decided to make this an educational post. How many do you recognize? You can’t drink or open presents until you got them all right 😉

Boldog Születésnapot!  gelukkige verjaardag!  joyeux anniversaire!   
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! να τα εκατοστήσεις!
 buon compleanno!   lá Breithe sona duit!   生日快乐 !  
 felix dies natalis!  ra whanau koa!  feliz aniversário!  С днем рождения !
 สุขสันต์วันเกิด!  grattis på födelsedagen!  hyvää syntymäpäivää

Happy birthday Anna!!!

We all hope you’ll have a fantastic day with cake and presents and an awesome party. Can I bring my teddy to the b-day party?

Lea: Anna!!!! Happy, Happy Birthday to You. I hope your day is filled with love and laughter, prezzies, chocolate and CAKE!!! Indulge & enjoy! (((Hugs)))

And it was delicious!

Caro: O Canada! Our home and…wait wrong song. Happy birthday to youuuuuuuu! Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to …

Bookish Rant: The Buying and Selling of Book Reviews

I wish I had a dollar for every person who sent me a link to the New York Times article about paying for book reviews. You know the one, “The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy” from August 25. There’s a slight irony in the NYT publishing it, since no one really knows exactly how they compile their bestseller list, but I digress.

The things that keep circling in my mind about the whole “paying for reviews” thing go like this:
1.       It feels like there are more books out there than ever
2.       It is definitely harder to get people’s attention for anything than it used to be
3.       Most people pick the next book they are going to read because they’ve already read that author (96% based on the Goodreads May Newsletter) so how does a newbie author get on readers’ radar?
4.       Book Blogging is a labor of love, …

Dual Review: The Oil Tycoon and Her Sexy Sheikh by Ros Clarke

Format read: eARC provided by publisher
Release Date: 14 July 2012
Number of pages: 131 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Read an excerpt

Blurb:

His duty, her dreams, undone by their desire…

In the male-dominated oil industry, executive Olivia McInnes plays a careful game – she’s cold, uncompromising, and ambitious as hell. Once she seals the deal to drill in the clear waters of Saqat, she’ll finally prove herself worthy to take the reins of her father’s oil company. Her only obstacle is marine biologist – and Saqat’s royal heir – Sheikh Khaled Ibm Saqat al Mayim, who’s determined to protect both his people and his country from environmental devastation…

It’s not long before Olivia’s icy cool exterior is shattered by the intelligent and wickedly hot sheikh, and business is surpassed by sweet, stolen pleasures. But outside the bedroom, there’s …

Guest post by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez + Giveaway

Today we are happy to welcome back to Book Lovers Inc Melissa Bourbon Ramirez whose latest release is a sexy paranormal romance Deceiving the Witch Next Door, which debuted Entangled Publishing’s new Covet line! Melissa stops by today  while surfing the blogosphere with her virtual blog tour, please give her a warm welcome and answer her question for a chance to win a copy of Deceiving the Witch Next Door!

Photo by Maylett

My husband and I are trying (desperately) to buy a 1900 Victorian home just off the square in a neighboring town. I don’t think the deal will go through, unfortunately, but I’m hopeful that it will. I’m hopeful that in a few short months, we’ll be patching up walls and cleaning hundred year old floors and sleeping in a creaky house with double hung windows. When I walk in that house, I feel the history and …

Bookish Rant: Stand By Me, or, An Ode to the Supporting Character

What’s Snow White without dwarves? Sherlock Holmes without Dr. Watson? Harold and Kumar without Neil Patrick Harris? I’ll tell you: they’re moderately enjoyable characters that are missing that extra ingredient to make their adventures a little more amusing, their observations more profound, their wacky jokes even more hilarious.

I’m a big fan of the supporting figure in many a medium, but it’s that role in genre fiction that really produces some winners. Perhaps it’s the relative freedom afforded to stories that are heavy on world building and long-term character development. But whether a supporting character is nearly a main character, a second-string figure, or a fleeting blip of a presence in a story, they have the power to leave some of the most lasting impressions upon readers.

What makes for a good supporting cast of characters? Tough to answer that subjectively. *I* think good supports are the right balance of caricature …

Review: The Theory of Attraction by Delphine Dryden

Format Read:ebook provided by publisher through NetGalley
Number of Pages:136 pages
Release Date:July 9th 2012
Publisher:Carina Press
Formats Available: ebook, Kindle Edition
Purchasing Info:  Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Author’s Website | Goodreads | Publisher’s Website

Book Blurb:

Camilla can set her watch by her hunky rocket-scientist neighbor who jogs past her window each day. She relishes each glimpse of his shirtless abs, and is dying to see more. But it’s hard to connect with a man who doesn’t seem to know she exists…

Ivan feels at home in the lab, not in social situations. When he finally approaches his attractive neighbor, it’s not for a date—he wants tutoring in how to behave at an important fundraiser. Ivan doesn’t expect the chemistry between them to be quite so explosive, and is surprised when Cami actually accepts his proposal to embark on …