Interview with Karen Erickson + Giveaway

Today I am happy to welcome to Book Lovers Inc. romance author Karen Erickson, who besides being a prolific writer is also an adventurous one: she has experimented and written contemporary romances, historical romances, paranormal romances, fantasy romances, erotic romances, and any combination of these 😀 Karen is celebrating the release of Under His Protection, the 1st book in her new romantic suspense series featuring Secret Service agents (and let me tell you they are definitely delicious alpha males), so please give her a welcome and there is a wonderful giveaway for you if share with us your reading preferences.

Stella: Hi Karen, welcome to Book Lovers Inc! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Karen: Well, I’m a mom of three, a wife to one and the owner of too many cats. I’m a native Californian who lives about an hour below …

Review: The Prophet by Amanda Stevens

Format read: ebook via netgalley
Series: The Graveyard Queen, #3
Genre: urban fantasy
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Number of pages: 352 pages
Publisher: Mira
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Book Depository, Amazon Kindle

Book Blurb:

My name is Amelia Gray.

I am the Graveyard Queen, a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. My father passed down four rules to keep me safe and I’ve broken every last one. A door has opened and evil wants me back.

In order to protect myself, I’ve vowed to return to those rules. But the ghost of a murdered cop needs my help to find his killer. The clues lead me to the dark side of Charleston—where witchcraft, root doctors and black magic still flourish—and back to John Devlin, a haunted police detective I should only love from afar. Now I’m faced with a terrible choice: follow the rules or follow my heart.

Read an excerpt from The Prophet

My Thoughts:

This series is …

Guest post by author Kristan Higgins + Giveaway

Today we’re happy to welcome once again Kristan Higgins on Book Lovers Inc. Kristan’s new novel, Somebody To Love was released this week. If you don’t know this author, Kristan write wonderful contemporary romances that always mix humor and emotions. I’m a big fan and I can’t recommend enough these books. Let’s give a warm welcome to Kristan and stay tuned and you can maybe win one of her books.

One of the things I really liked about writing SOMEBODY TO LOVE was that the heroine is a single mom.

This was a first for me, as I like to (cough) escape from my own angel-babies through writing (don’t tell them!). But the time had come, I thought, to delve into the issues a single mother would have in finding love.

Parker adores Nicky, her lovely, five-year-old son, who’s about to start all-day kindergarten. She has a slight …

Elements in Lit 201: Ailments and Cures in Historicals

In my reading line up, I have Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore, which leads off with the shooting death of Vincent Van Gogh. I also have The Mad Lord’s Daughter by Jane Goodger. What could these two books possibly have in common, you might ask? Probably very little, but they got me thinking about the types of illnesses we come across when reading about the past….and the usually scary ways the sickness was treated. So, I thought we’d spend a little time being online doctors today. Who’s with me?

A few other books have caught my attention, namely The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley and Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale. These books, along with the two previously mentioned, feature forms of mental illness in their pages (I say Sacre Bleu is included in this mainly because of Van Gogh’s real life issues; I’ve yet …

ARC Review: The Saint Who Stole My Heart: by Stefanie Sloane

Format read: egalley from NetGalley
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Number of Pages: 304
Genre: regency romance, historical romance
Series: Regency Rogues #4
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Formats Available: paperback, ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon , Barnes & Noble,

Blurb:

Desire, danger, intrigue, and steamy seduction unite a sexy spymaster and an intrepid bluestocking as Stefanie Sloane’s luscious new series continues.

Possessed of a brilliant mind and a love for puzzles, Dashiell Matthews, Viscount Carrington, is a crucial member of the elite Young Corinthians spy league. Assuming the façade of an addle-brained Adonis, he hunts for a notorious London murderer known as the Bishop. When fate causes him to cross paths with Miss Elena Barnes, Dash discovers an enigma that will prove delightfully intoxicating to unravel: a voluptuous beauty as intelligent as she is fearless.

Only the lure of a collection of rare books bequeathed to her family by Dash’s late father could tempt Elena from …

Review: Somebody to Love by Kristan Higgins

Format Read: Ebook ARC through Netgalley
Number of Pages: 425 pages
Release Date: April 24th 2012
Publisher: HQN Books
Formats Available: Paperback, Kindle Edition, e-book
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s website, Amazon , Book Depository

Book Blurb:
After her father loses the family fortune in an insider-trading scheme, single mom Parker Welles is faced with some hard decisions. First order of business: go to Gideon’s Cove, Maine, to sell the only thing she now owns—a decrepit house in need of some serious flipping. When her father’s wingman, James Cahill, asks to go with her, she’s not thrilled — …even if he is fairly gorgeous and knows his way around a toolbox.

Having to fend for herself financially for the first time in her life, Parker signs on as a florist’s assistant and starts to find out who she really is. Maybe James isn’t the glib lawyer she always thought he …

New Releases: April 23 – 29, 2012

Tricked (Iron Druid Chronicles, #4) by Kevin Hearne

Druid Atticus O’Sullivan hasn’t stayed alive for more than two millennia without a fair bit of Celtic cunning. So when vengeful thunder gods come Norse by Southwest looking for payback, Atticus, with a little help from the Navajo trickster god Coyote, lets them think that they’ve chopped up his body in the Arizona desert.

But the mischievous Coyote is not above a little sleight of paw, and Atticus soon finds that he’s been duped into battling bloodthirsty desert shapeshifters called skinwalkers. Just when the Druid thinks he’s got a handle on all the duplicity, betrayal comes from an unlikely source. If Atticus survives this time, he vows he won’t be fooled again. Famous last words.

Be My Prince (The Royal Trilogy, #1) by Julianne MacLean
Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
Coveted by Shawntelle …

ARC Review: Sunrise Point by Robyn Carr

Format Read:egalley from NetGalley
Number of Pages:384
Release Date:April 24, 2012
Publisher:Mira
Series:Virgin River #19
Formats Available: Mass Market Paperback, Nook, Kindle
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon , Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Book Blurb:

Tom Cavanaugh may think he wants a traditional woman, but in Virgin River, the greatest tradition is falling in love unexpectedly….

Former Marine Tom Cavanaugh’s come home to Virgin River, ready to take over his family’s apple orchard and settle down. He knows just what the perfect woman will be like: sweet, decent, maybe a little naive. The marrying kind.

Nothing like Nora Crane. So why can’t he keep his eyes off the striking single mother?

Nora may not have a formal education, but she graduated with honors from the school of hard knocks. She’s been through tough times and she’ll do whatever it takes to support her family, including helping with harvest time at the Cavanaugh’s orchard. She’s always kept …

Guestpost by Author Stefanie Sloane + Giveaway

Today we’re thrilled to welcome author Stefanie Sloane at Book Lovers Inc. The Saint Who Stole My Heart , the 4th book in Stefanie’s Regency Rogues series is coming today! Our review will be up in a few hours, don’t forget to check it out. Please let’s give a warm welcome to Stefanie who will give us a glimpse of  a deleted scene from her last book. Welcome Stefanie!

“In writing, you must kill your darlings.”
—William Faulkner

Every writer can attest to the anguish and pain to be found in the act of deleting scenes. Unfortunately, there are times when it’s unavoidable. Believe me, I’ve tested this theory, and it always wins. The “darlings” Faulkner refers to in the quote above are an author’s favorites: favorite characters, favorite set-ups, favorite themes. Anything she enjoys writing, really. Because if you enjoy writing it, chances are that …

The Good, the Bad and the Are-You-Kidding-Me?

This week we will talk about science fiction and futuristic book covers. I chose some covers of series I read and we will judge the books only by the cover here. In no way does it say anything about the book.

The fascination with the future and the advancement of our life is and proballly will always be a topic where the author’s imagination can go wild and shine. Join the conversation and don’t forget to tell us which is your favorite and which one is not. *wink*

Caro: The good thing with Gini Koch’s Alien series is that you can’t mistake it for anything but Sci-fi. I mean come on…it’s in the title! LOl But apart from the title the covers themselves always show Aliens and Alien technology. Dos Santos never does wrong.

I really like the cover for Unacceptable Risk. It’s edgy without overdoing the sci-fi …