Penguin Books presents "Read Humane" Books in Support of Pets

Penguin Group (USA) is proud to present Read Humane®—their second year dedicated to the fight against animal cruelty—with a $25,000* donation to The Humane Society of the United States' Animal Rescue Team.

* Regardless of Sales

May is National Pet Month — and Penguin is pleased to offer six of their bestselling mass market titles to support our furry friends.

The Read Humane special editions feature a distinctive Read Humane seal on their covers, conveying their support for this compassionate cause. Participating authors include their Read Humane spokesperson, Jill Shalvis, as well as Linda O. Johnston, Miranda James, Leann Sweeney, Judi McCoy, and Ali Brandon.

Penguin's donation supports the Animal Rescue Team, which works with law enforcement to investigate illegal animal cruelty, targeting the worst cases of animal abuse nationwide. According to The Humane Society of the United States, its Animal Rescue Team rescues thousands of animals from puppy mills, animal fighting operations, hoarders, and other situations where animals suffer from life-threatening cruelty. They also provide expert animal rescue response during natural disasters.


Join in the fight against animal cruelty by making your own tax-deductible donation today. To make a donation online, and to find out more about the work of The Humane Society of the United States, click here.

About READ HUMANE ~

All of us at Penguin love our pets, and we wanted to do something special to help animals in need. Read Humane provides funding to organizations dedicated to protecting animals.

Penguin's 2013 donation supports The Humane Society of the United States' Animal Rescue Team, which works directly with pets in need in several different ways. We want to do our part to create a world free of animal cruelty – by contributing to and raising awareness of the Animal Rescue Team, we're doing just that.

These are the books supporting Read Humane:

     

About The Humane Society of the United States ~

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization, and was voted by GuideStar's Philanthropedia experts as the #1 high-impact animal protection group.
Established in 1954, The HSUS seeks a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people. The HSUS works with local humane societies and supports their work through training, evaluations, publications, and other professional services.
The Humane Society helped to save animals during Hurricane Sandy in the New Jersey and New York area — a place where many Penguin employees live and work. You can learn more about their efforts at www.humanesociety.org.

 You love to read, right? Buy a book or two for yourself, buy some as gifts, maybe buy some and do a giveaway. You can read and help an animal at the same time. :)

All information provided by Penguin's website.  Read Humane is trademark of Penguin Group (USA).

Anachron Press is Looking for Reviewers

Have you ever had a hard time convincing a publisher to send you a book to review? Did you know that publishers often have a hard time getting reviewers to agree to review one of their books? It's even harder for a small press to convince reviewers to review their book. Anachron Press, publisher of fantasy, science fiction, horror, thrillers, and weird tales, will send anyone a free ebook in any format in return for a fair review. The review can be on your site/blog, Goodreads and/or Amazon. This offer applies to any book in their catalog.

Print copies can be expensive for a small press, so they can only offer an ebook. If you like small presses and want to see more independent fiction, lend them a hand if you can. Don't see anything that appeals to you? Maybe you know someone who might and you can share this information with them.

To get your review copy of anything in the catalog, email Colin Barnes, and tell him what book you'd like to review and your email address. You can also sign up to join their roster of reviewers.

I'm not affiliated with Anachron Press in any way but the owner is an acquaintance of mine. I also like to see smaller presses make a go of it as it gives readers more books to read and a wider variety of books to choose from.

Goodreads chat with Terry Brooks April 29th.

Are you a fan of Terry Brooks? Love his Shannara series? Head over to goodreads on Monday, April 29 at 2pm ET/11am PT for a live video chat with legendary fantasy author Terry Brooks. He'll be talking about his latest book, "The Bloodfire Quest", the second in his series The Dark Legacy of Shannara, as well as his previous work and his life as a writer. Don't miss your chance to ask a question of popular author.

RSVP here to get a reminder email the day before the chat.

Click here to watch the chat and join the discussion.

New Look!

Well, as you've noticed, the Nook has a new look. I'd been wanting something different for a while but none of the Blogger themes were quite what I wanted and I wanted some functions, such as drop down navigation, that weren't available and I lacked the ability to do myself.

I poked around a bit and decided I liked Parajunkee's designs. She asked me lots of questions about what I wanted and I asked her lots of questions, which she patiently answered.

As you can see, some stuff went missing. Blogger decided it didn't want to play nicely and Rachel, Parajunkee, saved what she could of widgets and links. I'll be slowly adding back in the missing ones and moving things around but this is a good opportunity for me to do some cleaning and sprucing so some things might not come back. If you find you miss something, let me know and I can look at adding it back.

There's a new button so grab that if you want.

I'm so excited, I love the new design. I hope you do too.

*bounces around the room*

Blog Tour Review of A Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Format Read: Print ARC
Source: from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Buying Links:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Blurb from goodreads:

For Lucy Campion, a seventeenth-century English chambermaid serving in the household of the local magistrate, life is an endless repetition of polishing pewter, emptying chamber pots, and dealing with other household chores until a fellow servant is ruthlessly killed, and someone close to Lucy falls under suspicion. Lucy can’t believe it, but in a time where the accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent, lawyers aren’t permitted to defend their clients, and—if the plague doesn't kill the suspect first—public executions draw a large crowd of spectators, Lucy knows she may never find out what really happened. Unless, that is, she can uncover the truth herself.

Determined to do just that, Lucy finds herself venturing out of her expected station and into raucous printers’ shops, secretive gypsy camps, the foul streets of London, and even the bowels of Newgate prison on a trail that might lead her straight into the arms of the killer.

In her debut novel Murder at Rosamund's Gate, Susanna Calkins seamlessly blends historical detail, romance, and mystery in a moving and highly entertaining tale.

Bea's Thoughts:

Historicals tend to be hit or more miss for me and in the past few years I've mostly moved away from them. The blurb for this one though sounded so interesting that I couldn't pass it up. Calkins gives us enough detail to understand the time period and solidly base her story but doesn't go overboard and drown us in details. She did take a few liberties as she admits in her notes at the end. One liberty was in language; she opted not to make it completely accurate but instead it's a blend of authentic and modern without being screamingly modern. I appreciated that and found that it made for a smooth read.

Lucy and her fellow servants have a good employer and are treated well. Lucy, I suspect, takes more liberties than was customary but again, Calkins handles it well and makes it feel realistic. As the story progresses, Lucy is treated more like a member of the family than a servant. I liked that the story wasn't rushed and we got glimpses of daily life and the law. English courts and law were very different in 1665 and I was fascinated by the procedures and the differences from modern day procedures and laws.

Events occur over the course of a little more than a year. The murder is actually not the central plot to the story; there are several plot lines including a potential romance with a man not of Lucy's own class and rank. I wish there had been a little more emphasis on the murder but eventually Calkins winds things up. I didn't figure out who the culprit was but looking back, there were clues.

Calkins has a easy style, never pretentious, and she drew me in right from the beginning and held my interest all the way through. She's planning more books featuring Lucy and I look forward to reading them.

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GIVEAWAY

Like the review? Want to read the book? Click here to enter a giveaway. There are 3 prizes: A $40 Amazon.com gift card and two hardback copies of Murder at Rosamund's Gate for a total of 3 winners.

You can also follow the tour:  http://cozymysterymarketing.com/?p=39

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Cover Reveal - Breaking the Reins by Juliana Haygert

I have a cover for you, for a New Adult Romance scheduled to release in August, and it has horses! Horses, people. How could I pass this up? Horses in the book and a horse on the cover. :) Yep, I was one of those horsey girls growing up and while I haven't ridden in years, I'm still fond of horses.

So, besides horses, what else does "Breaking the Reins" have? How's about a blurb? :D

Blurb from the author (I was sooo tempted to say 'from the horses's mouth' :D)  ~

Horses, mansions, tea parties, and lies are twenty-year-old Hannah Taylor’s life. To others, her family and her relationship with Eric is perfect. But she knows the truth. She lives it.

After a fire takes her grandma’s life and kills her horse, Hannah’s immaculate life spirals out of control. Her father disapproves of her decision to run her grandma’s ranch instead of focusing solely on learning the family business; Animal Control brings her Argus, a mistreated horse that she can’t turn away even though she’s not ready for another horse; and her boyfriend, Eric Bennett, a world famous polo player, becomes possessive and authoritarian. Despite her best efforts to disguise it, Hannah grows wary of him.

Then, Leonardo Fernandes struts onto the polo scene. A cocky rookie with a messy life of his own, he’s drawn to Hannah and isn’t afraid of showing it, even when Eric makes it clear she is his and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. Hannah suffers for Eric’s jealousy. The abuse only gets worse when Leo steals the title of best polo player in the world from Eric.

But the title isn’t enough for Leo. He wants Hannah too, and she can’t deny her attraction to him either. Somehow, she must find a way to break free from abusive Eric before he breaks every bone in her body.

So, horses, abuse, romance (non-abusive), and a ranch - sounds good to me. Want more? How about a teaser?

Click to enlarge image

A little info about the author -

While Juliana Haygert dreams of being Wonder Woman, Buffy, or a blood elf shadow priest, she settles for the less exciting—but equally gratifying—life of a wife, mother, and author. Thousands of miles away from her former home in Brazil, she now resides in Connecticut and spends her days writing about kick-ass heroines and the heroes who drive them crazy.

Find Juliana online:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

And now, for the cover. *pats the horse*

Now, I'd buy it just for the horse alone (look at those eyes!). I'm not so sure that the cover reflects that the story is a romance or that it deals with an important topic such as abuse, but it's an attractive cover.

Cat Thursday - Cats and the Internet

Welcome to the weekly meme hosted by The True Book Addict that celebrates cats; their foibles and humorousness and the joy they bring. You can join in by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you made or came across, cat art or share with us pics of your own felines, then post your link up at The True Book Addict.

New Cover! Making It Last by Ruthie Knox

"Making It Last", a novella sequel to "How to Misbehave", the first story in Ruthie's Camelot series, is due in mid-July and it now has a cover. We get to see Amber and Tony again, something I'm looking forward to very much. I loved their romance and enjoyed the small glimpses we got in "Along Came Trouble".

The tentative blurb from Ruthie's site:

The final Clark family story of the Camelot series revisits Tony and Amber Mazzara twelve years after How to Misbehave. Work and parenthood have challenged the foundations of Tony and Amber’s happy ever after. Can they turn a few stolen days in Jamaica into the chance they’ve been needing to find each other again?

40,000 words. More details to come!

There are four books in the Camelot series:

1. How to Misbehave
2. Along Came Trouble
3. Flirting with Disaster (Release date, June 10th)
4. Making it Last (Release date, July 15th)

*bounces around the room* Is it July yet?

 

What do you think? Will you read it? Does the cover grab you?

*bounces some more*