Review: Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts by Mitzi Szereto

Format Read: ARC provided by the publisherNumber of pages:  224 pagesRelease Date: 1 July 2011Formats available: PaperbackPublisher: Cleis PressPurchasing Info: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository, Author’s website, Cleis PressBook Blurb:

Imagine that Jane Austen had written the opening line of her satirical novel Pride and Prejudice this way: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a good romp and a good wife — although not necessarily from the same person or from the opposite sex.” In Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts Mr. Darcy has never been more devilish and the seemingly chaste Elizabeth never more turned on.

The entire cast of characters from Austen’s classic is here in this rewrite that goes all the way. This time Mr. Bingley and his sister both have designs on Mr. …

Guestpost: Lessons Learned by Jocelynn Drake

Hello out there! I hope you’re enjoying your Thursday so far. Today we are very excited to have Jocelynn Drake author of the Dark Days series here to tell us about some of the lessons she has learned since becoming a published author. 

Ms. Drake the stage is yours…

I’ve been a “professional writer” (defined here as having a paid contract with a publishing house) for approximately four years, and by many accounts I am still a newbie, a little wet behind my ears as I stumbled over various learning blocks in my path. I have had six books and one novella published, while being contracted for three more short stories and two books in a new series. At first glance, I struggle to believe that the “newbie” title still fits, but I’m still learning many things about the publishing industry …

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson – Women’s Fiction

I received an interesting e-mail the other day, asking if I’d like to review a book that was classified as “flit-lit”. It has been at the tip of my fingers for the last several Genres 101 posts to write about, well, let’s start off by referring to it by my main title of “women’s fiction”, but I kept hesitating, thinking there really couldn’t be all that much to talk about. Of course, the e-mail I mention just proves me wrong; offering another subgenre to what is probably a pretty huge list of them. But how different can, say, Chick-lit (the term we’re probably all most familiar with) be from Hen lit? Well, let’s delve in and see…

First to mention is the Romance Novel. This novel has some illustrious roots, with Jane Austen, then Georgette Heyer …

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson – Humour

There is nothing better to get you out of a funk than something that will make you laugh, so this week, as I battle a head cold in scary humid weather, I thought we’d take a look comedic writings. I need a good laugh right now. Normally, I stick with fiction but I figured it would be nice to add in a few non-fiction examples in this category also.

The big thing is: what makes us laugh? I have a strange sense of humour at times, so for me, sarcasm and irony blended with intelligent writing are the best mix to tickle my funny bone. Defined by Wiki (I’m going to briefly paraphrase here), Comic Fiction is writing that is meant to amuse the reader while making them think about controversial issues, using subtlety, puns, and a carefully crafted narrative style. I’m not sure if I completely …

The Write Factor

Breaking News: The Around the Bookish World News Week-in-Review post has been postponed to tomorrow (Saturday) due to some spontaneous happenings on Twitter (ie. hence the topic of this post).

Yesterday morning a post about grammar errors and typos diminishing the experience of reading had Twitter aflutter. This post made us think about whether ARCs are a different species than finished books, or whether they should be treated the same.

For those of you who don’t know what ARCs are, they are Advance Reader Copies, which are review copies printed from galleys/proofs during the copy edit stage, meaning that both the author and the editor are still going through some proofreading and last minute changes/polishing. Meaning that ARCs are far from being finalised and that is why each and every ARC has two notes/warnings on the cover:
1) that the book we are about …

Review: Magick Charm by Jennifer Wells

Format read: PDF from authorNumber of pages: 288 pagesRelease Date: 1 September 2010Publisher: Crescent Moon PressFormats available: paperback, ebookPurchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Kindle store

Book Blurb:

Janie Adler likes her quiet, orderly life reviewing books for a small New Orleans newspaper exactly the way it is. So what if Duke Hot Pants, the hero of her favorite romance novel, is the only man in her life? She has a Pulitzer Prize to chase. That is until her quirky twin sister Rachel moves in, bringing boyfriend drama, a smelly ferret, and irrational belief in all things magickal along with her.

Persuaded by a local voodoo priestess-and maybe one margarita too many-the twins cast spells to improve their love lives. Loser-magnet Rachel focuses on avoiding the wrong men and Janie seeks her romance novel ideal. While …

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson "Punk"

Today, I’m going all out Punk…I’ve dyed my hair green and spiked it, now we’re really ready to rock! Oh, wait….wrong Punk. In our last talk, I mentioned “Splatterpunk” which was a subgenre of Horror, but there is a separate part of the Speculative Fiction category that encompasses many other Punk types. It seems it started out with the term “Cyberpunk“, thought up by Bruce Bethke in the early 1980’s, which blends cybernetics with the punk music of the originating time. It’s essence is about a type of technology that has become highly evolved, for example blending humans with computers and usually occurring in a dystopian society. The first thing that comes to mind here are those scary, crazy Cyborgs in Star Trek….Yes, I’m a trekkie and a trekker (and I know the difference, lol). There are a bunch of movie versions of this genre …

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson "Fantasy"

Thanks to the inimitable pattepoilue, our new feature has a better name: Genres 101. I hope everyone is seated comfortably, with pencil and paper ready, as we begin the first in our series of lectures (ok, I might be stretching that a bit but just go with me, k?) on the definitions and applications of genre names.

The main common denominator in all of these seemingly similar, imaginative, genres is that they all fall under the “Speculative Fiction” label. I mentioned before, that for Spec Fic, I always think of the question “What if?” as the determining factor in placing a book in this category. But there are so many answers to that question, that we must break it down separately. Today’s lesson will cover all (most?) things under the realm of “Fantasy.”

For me, I’ve always linked Fantasy and Science …

My Wishlist: "Man Love" Edition

Hello and welcome to another edition of my wish list segment here at Book Lovers, Inc.

Its great to be back here with you once more to share a little about what I can’t wait for!

By now most of us have already received their copy of Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning. Sadly I am getting my copy until this weekend. Been hearing lots of great things about this one. Going to be sad to see it end.

Anyway…

I would like to call this wish list edition “Man Love” Here are a few m/m titles who’s heroes I would love to get up close and personal with.

Warriors Cross by Madeleine Urban, Abigail RouxPublisher: Dream Spinner PressRelease Date: August 2009ISBN: 9781615810307Book Info & Purchase Links: Amazon Book Depository Goodreads

Cameron …

Review: SWEET AS SIN by Inez Kelley + Giveaway!!

Please give a warm Book Lovers welcome Inez Kelley who convinced the heroine and hero of her upcoming publication “SWEET AS SIN” to share their thoughts with respect to their love story. 😉 We hope you enjoy John and Livvy’s review as much as we did!! Stay tuned till the end and answer the question for your chance to win!

Hi all! And thanks to the Book Lovers Inc. crew for letting me stop by. When I was invited to blog, they gave me several options like interviewing them or reviewing my own book, etc. Hands down, I knew what I wanted to do. I had to bring the hero and heroine from SWEET AS SIN with me for an interview.

JOHN: What’s with this hero shit? I’m nobody’s hero.

LIVVY: *Elbows his gut* Shut up and let her …