Winners for "DREAMS UNLEASHED" announced!

There are 10 winners to announce for ebook copies of Dreams Unleashed by Linda Hawley.

The winners are:

The Secret Writer

Jeanz

Audra Holtwick

Maui (The Traveling Reader)

Clenna Emery

Cindy C Bennett

Krysykat

Julie S

Identity Seeker

Sarah H

Thanks to all who entered.  There are a few great giveaways happening right now.

The Vincent Boys eBook ends tomorrow night

Gratitude Giveaways (US entrants only) until November 27th.

Make sure to enter!

Review of "Crave" by Melissa Darnell

Crave by Melissa Darnell

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Recommended to readers over 13 years old


Description from Goodreads:  Savannah Colbert has never known why she's so hated by the kids of the Clann. Nor can she deny her instinct to get close to Clann golden boy Tristan Coleman. Especially when she recovers from a strange illness and the attraction becomes nearly irresistible. It's as if he's a magnet, pulling her gaze, her thoughts, even her dreams. Her family has warned her to have nothing to do with him, or any members of the Clann. But when Tristan is suddenly everywhere she goes, Savannah fears she's destined to fail.

For years, Tristan has been forbidden to even speak to Savannah Colbert. Then Savannah disappears from school for a week and comes back…different, and suddenly he can't stay away. Boys seem intoxicated just from looking at her. His own family becomes stricter than ever. And Tristan has to fight his own urge to protect her, to be near her no matter the consequences….

My thoughts: Savannah is growing up in a society that is ran by the Clann. Everyone adheres to what the Clann wants, and the clan has hurt her.

The Clann is an elusive group that you become a member of by birth. They control things in Government, Society, School, etc. They Clann has decided that she is not good enough to have their children befriend. She has become a target for ridicule and scorn.

But there is Tristan, he is the son of the leader of the Clann. He is kind to her and protective of her. He tries to defer some ridicule and he always remembers that she was his best friend when they were in fourth grade.

This book is about the clash between vampire and witch worlds. Savannah is the bridge between the two. She is half vampire and half witch. She doesn't fit in to either group and is watched with interest and loathing.

Somehow Tristan and Savannah need to find a way to have their two worlds meet so that they can be together. Until then, they keep their love a secret.

I enjoyed the story. It is told from both Tristan and Savannah's point of view. The story moved at a nice pace and was fun to read.  There isn't content that I find objectionable.  There are kissing scenes and mild swearing.

Blog Tour ~ The Nine Lives of Christmas

The Nine Lives of Christmas by Sheila Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: Received to review for this blog tour
Genre: Contemporary Adult Romance
Rating: PG-13 for content

Description from Goodreads: When a guy is in trouble, he starts making deals with his Creator…and Ambrose the cat is no exception. In danger of losing his ninth and final life, Ambrose makes a desperate plea.  He’ll do anything—anything!—if he can just survive and enjoy a nice long, final life. His prayer is answered when a stranger comes along and saves him, and now it looks like he has to hold up his end of the bargain.

The stranger turns out to be a fire fighter named Zach, the quintessential commitment- phobe who’s in need of some serious romantic help. If Ambrose can just bring Zach together with Merilee, the nice lady who works at Pet Palace, it’s bound to earn him a healthy ninth life.  Unfortunately for Ambrose, his mission is a lot harder than he ever anticipated.  Now it’s going to take all his feline wiles—and a healthy dose of Christmas magic—to bring them all together in time for the holidays.

My thoughts: Ambrose the cat has a problem. He is on his ninth life and a big dog is about to have him for dinner. He starts to make bargain with his maker when he is saved by a jogger. Of course, he is a cat and thinks that he will walk away with business as usual when a little voice inside his head reminds him of his promise to be a better cat. So, he follows the jogger home and decides that he will live with him and help him out.

It's hard to claim squatters rights when the owner of the home isn't sure that he wants the responsibility of a cat, but Ambrose is persistent. First order of business is to get rid of the horrible girlfriend. While he can understand why his owner would want a relationship, he can't figure out how such a nice guy could end up with the woman who snuffed out one of his lives.

He instantly loves Merilee, the nice woman who helps them at the pet store. He remembers her from one of his past lives when she tried to help him at the animal shelter. His goal is to get the nice guy together with the nice girl, that would be payment for saving his life and get him a nice ninth life.

This is a very cute romance story, perfect for a nice night in front of the fire celebrating the holiday season.

I just happen to be giving away an audio copy of this book right now until November 27th for the Gratitude Giveaway Hop.  Make sure that you enter. :)

About Sheila: 

Writing since 1989, Sheila Roberts has had 26 books published, both fiction and nonfiction, under different names. Her books have been chosen for book clubs, Readers Digest Condensed books, and her popular novel ON STRIKE FOR CHRISTMAS was made into a movie and appeared on the Lifetime Movie Network. Her novel ANGEL LANE was named one of Amazon’s Top Ten Romances for 2009.

However, before she settled into her writing career, she did lots of other things, including owning a singing telegram company and playing in a band.  Writing and helping others to find ways to better themselves are her greatest passions and her popular newsletter SUPER YOU, is dedicated to helping women improve their lives.

When she’s not making public appearances or playing with her friends, she can be found writing about those things near and dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate. Drop in for a visit at her website: http://www.sheilasplace.com or connect with her at Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/pages/Sheila-Roberts/76502579853?ref=ts and Twitter athttp://twitter.com/#!/_Sheila_Roberts.

Her latest book is the women’s fiction novel, The Nine Lives of Christmas (St. Martin’s Press).

Sheila Roberts lives in the Pacific Northwest. She’s happily married and has three children.

Gratitude Giveaway Hop

Thanks I am a Reader, Not a Writer and All-Consuming Books for hosting this giveaway hop.

Christmas is just around the corner.  I am offering two book packages and one swag to US entrants only this go around.  Sorry, I just took on a part-time job because funds are a little low in my home.

To Enter:
1. Have a US mailing address.
2. You must be 13 or older.
3. Fill in the rafflecopter.
4. You do not need to follow to enter.  Though it is always appreciated.  This is a follower hop.


Package #1

AUDIO BOOK of The Nine Lives of Christmas by Sheila Roberts (Check out my review.  It's post date is November 17, 2011 - the post right after this one!)
Promotional CD for Dark Eden by  Patrick Carman
Bookmarks from "Earth" and "Air" by Shauna Granger

Package #2

ARC of Something Witchy This Way Comes by Veronica Blade
Promotional CD of Dark Eden by Patrick Carmen
Bookmarks for "Earth" & "Air" by Shauna Granger

Swag Package:
Promotional CD for Dark Eden by Patrick Carmen
Bookmarks for "Earth" & "Air" by Shauna Granger

If the wrong rafflecopter is showing, click on the title of this post and it should boot up the correct information.

Continue on the Hop with these links. :)

Blog Tour ~ "The Vincent Boys" by Abbi Glines + a giveaway

The Vincent Boys by Abbi Glines

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: Received from the author to review.
Genre: Contemporary YA romance
Content Warning: Sexual situations and profanity

Description from Goodreads: Being the good girl isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Ashton Gray has grown weary of playing the part to please her parents, and to be worthy of the town’s prince charming, Sawyer Vincent. Maybe That’s why she’s found herself spending time with Sawyer’s cousin, Beau, while he’s away for the summer camping with his family. Beau is nothing like her perfect boyfriend. He’s the sexiest guy she’s ever seen, dangerous in ways she’s only day dreamed about, and the one guy she should stay away from. 
Beau never envied Sawyer his loving parents, his big nice home, or his position as quarterback. He loves him like a brother. Which is why he's tried everything in his power to keep his distance from Sawyer’s girlfriend. Even if he has loved her since the age of five, Ashton is Sawyer’s girl, so therefore she’s off limits. But when Sawyer leaves for the summer, Ashton, the one girl Beau would move Heaven and Earth for, decides she wants to get into trouble. Stabbing the one person who’s always accepted him and stood by him in the back, is the cost of finally holding Ashton Gray in his arms. Is she worth losing his cousin over?.... Hell Yeah


My thoughts: Ashton is faced with a dilemma. She has the perfect gentleman boyfriend, but at the same time she has always loved his bad boy cousin.

Things come to a head when her boyfriend, Sawyer, leaves for a camping trip with his family for the summer. She spends time with Beau and the flicker becomes a flame between them. She doesn't want to come between them and ruin their relationship, but she is not the person that she has been trying to portray and wants nothing more than to be with Beau.

This story is about whether to let the heart or the head rule your emotions. It is about relationships where everything isn't as perfect as they seem. There are hidden secrets that threaten to rip the fabric of their fragile relationships.  I was also impressed that Abbi addressed the stigma of whether or not there can be a "bad seed".  Beau is known for being the son of the wayward Vincent brother, while Sawyer is the son of the perfect Vincent brother.  Sometimes stigmas are placed that have no basis in fact and trying to overcome them can be nearly impossible.  Does money really equate being better than someone else?

Most of all it is about being true to yourself and not trying to be something that you are not.

I enjoyed this story. I would caution that there is material that is inappropriate for a younger audience. (sexual situations and profanity)

Giveaway:  Each stop in this tour is offering a kindle copy of the book.  Please enter using the rafflecopter.  i am requiring that you leave a blog comment, this will gain you entry into the grand prize.  The thing is that you will need to visit all of the blogs to enter for the grand prize.  You will see a linky with all of the blog hosts. Make sure to stop at each one.  The grand prize is a $20.00 B&N gift certificate, kindle copy of the book, and a signed tote bag.

On Writing for Young People ~ Guest post by Catherine Austen

Today Catherine Austen is stopping by to share about her experience for writing for young people.  Finding good books for children to read is one of the challenges that I am trying to take on here at Bookworm Lisa.   So without further commentary from me, let's here from Catherine!



On Writing For Young People
By Catherine Austen


“I can’t survive without knowing what happens next!” That’s what my youngest son cried one night when I closed the book we were reading. (The chapter was a cliff-hanger, one of many in the Deltora Quest series by Emily Rodda.) 


There is something special about the way young people react to books. “Read it again!” preschoolers shout on rainy afternoons with a pile of picture books. “You have to read this—it changed my life,” teens whisper in the fiction section of libraries. 


Books really do open doors for young people. Some open tent flaps by bringing a silly character to life for a toddler. Some open stuck lockers by making history fun for a middle-grader. Some open windowless towers by shining hope into a lonely teen’s life. (And some books open doors that parents would rather keep closed for a few more years.) 


Like most writers, I wrote for many years before publishing my first book. As a university student, I wrote about a dozen short stories for small literary journals. I expected that I would always write for adults as a sort of sideline career. 


But mainline careers and families have a way of exhausting a person, and for years I didn’t write much at all. (Fiction, that is. I wrote a lot of papers and proposals. I am always amazed by people with full-time jobs and toddlers who find the time and the psychological space to write books. I couldn’t.) 


When I quit office life to raise kids and write freelance, I expected that I would return to stories for adults. But as a parent I was immersed in children’s books:  reading to my own children, volunteering in a school library, getting acquainted with great children’s stories, seeing the joy books bring into young lives. So I tried writing stories for kids. 


I wrote my first children’s story in 2003. It was not good enough to publish but it was not completely horrible, so I wrote more. And more. For years I persevered, surviving off brief editorial encouragements scrawled on rejection letters. I came close to giving up. (It’s really hard to see the point in writing for children if your work never reaches children.) But I didn’t give up.


In 2008, I signed my first contract with Kids Can Press for a picture book, My Cat Isis (published early this year with gorgeous illustrations by Virginie Egger). My first children’s novel, Walking Backward, was published in 2009 by Orca Book Publishers and was nominated for several Canadian literary awards. This fall, I published two more books: 26 Tips for Surviving Grade 6, a middle-grade novel with Lorimer, and All Good Children, a teen novel with Orca. 


I’m awfully glad I didn’t give up.  

I hope to publish stories for adults again someday, but I won’t stop writing for children and teens. I am thrilled to think that my books have opened doors for young people. And I just can’t get enough of their reactions. 


“This author seems to know what it’s like to be a kid,” a teen reviewer wrote about All Good Children.


“This is so funny I laughed out loud,” a tween girl emailed about 26 Tips for Surviving Grade 6. 


“I’m going to be a writer, too,” a third-grade boy said after I read My Cat Isis at his school. His full reaction was, “She’s a writer and she’s just someone’s mom? Wow. I’m going to be a writer, too.”


That’s a door I’d like to see all young readers pass through. 

Catherine was kind enough to send me copies of her books to review.  I will be reading and reviewing them in January.  I am really looking forward to sharing them with you.  They sound wonderful.  If you would like more information on the blog tour, you can go here.

Review of "The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy, Randall Wright and Barry Moser

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Age Recommendation: Middle Grade

Description from Goodreads: Skilley, an alley cat with an embarrassing secret, longs to escape his hard life dodging fishwives brooms and carriage wheels and trade his damp alley for the warmth of the Cheshire Cheese Inn. When he learns that the innkeeper is looking for a new mouser, Skilley comes up with an audacious scheme to install himself in the famous tavern. Once established in the inn, Skilley strikes a bargain with Pip, the intelligent mouse-resident, and his fellow mice. Skilley protects the mice and the mice in turn give to Skilley the delectable Cheshire cheese of the inn. Thus begins a most unlikely alliance and friendship. The cat and mouse design a plan to restore Maldwyn wounded raven and faithful guard in the service of Queen Victoria to his rightful place in The Tower, but first they must contend with a tyrannical cook, a mouse-despising barmaid, and an evil tomcat named Pinch. Will the famous author suffering from serious writer s block who visits the Cheshire Cheese pub each day be able to help?


My thoughts: Set in Victorian England this is a fun book portraying the unlikely friendship between a cat and a mouse.

Skilley is a street cat who find out about the mice infestation in a shop that sells cheese and figures out a way to be the cat to take care of the problem. He meets a mouse named Pip and they find a way to cooperate and both of them are able to meet their unique needs. Their biggest dilemma is how to help the raven, Maldwyn find his way back to the tower of London.  In the mean time they have to stay out of the way of the very evil cat named Pinch.

This book is story of friendship, loyalty, and forgiveness. I loved the mouse society.  Many unique mice live in the Inn, of course, where else would they be when there is the worlds best cheese? We can't forget Charles Dickens role in the story as he struggles to overcome writers block while studying these remarkable animals.

I really enjoyed this book and know that middle grade readers will enjoy it as well.

Blog Tour ~ Geek Girl

Geek Girl by Cindy C. Bennett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley and then direct from the publisher
Genre: YA Contemporary

Description from Goodreads:  Jen's life of partying and sneaking out has grown stale. So on a whim, Jen makes a bet to turn Trevor, a goody-two-shoes geek, into a "bad boy." As she hangs out with Trevor, however, she finds it's actually kinda fun being a geek. But when Trevor finds out about the bet, Jen must fight for the things she's discovered matter most: friendship, family, and, above all, love.


My thoughts: I vacillated between four and five stars and thought that the way the book made me feel at the end was definitely worth the five stars.

A misguided bet with unforeseen consequences turns out to be the best mistake ever made for Jen. On a whim she bets her two punkish friends that she could turn a good boy bad. Her mistake is underestimating the power that is in staying true to yourself and having fun being yourself rather than portraying a persona that is not who you really are.

My heart ached for Jen as her story unfolds. Cindy shows us a young woman who aches from years of physical and emotional abuse. She becomes a person who shows the world that she doesn't care. She parties and dresses in ways that show rebellion and not the insecure person that she is.

She learns from Trevor and his geeky friends what true fun and friendship is. I love that Trevor accepts her unconditionally. He is a remarkable young man. He is polite and kind to everyone he meets. His love helps her become the person that she wants to be.

There is drama and heartache. It isn't resolved overnight for the characters. They have to face the emotional impact of their decisions. This seems real to me. This is contemporary YA fiction that gives a great message. Great job Cindy! You have made a novel that is worth reading and sharing. A positive message that is told in a great way.

Many thanks to Cedar Fort for their patience with me.  I originally downloaded this on my kindle from Netgalley.  Then my kindle died and my copy was gone with it.  When I emailed  Cedar Fort, they were gracious enough to send me a PDF copy to review for this blog tour.

About Cindy:  (from Goodreads) Cindy C Bennett was born and raised in beautiful Salt Lake City, growing up in the shadows of the majestic Rocky Mountains. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. She also has two sons. She volunteers her time working with teen girls between the ages of 12-18, all of whom she finds to be beautiful, fascinating creatures. When she’s not writing, reading or answering emails she can often times be found riding her Harley through the beautiful canyons near her home (yes, I ride a Harley and no, you'd never know it to look at me!). 



Here are some links if  you would like to find out more about the publisher or Cindy Bennett.

Author Website: www.cindycbennett.com 

Author Blog http://cindybennett.blogspot.com/

Author Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/authorcindycbennett or FB Geek Girl page http://www.facebook.com/geekgirlthenovel

Author Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/cinbennett

Author Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4116333.Cindy_C_Bennett

Publisher Blog http://www.cedarfortbooks.com/

Publisher Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cedarfortbooks

Publisher Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/cedarfortbooks

Publisher GoodReads http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4202252-cedar-fort

I copied the tour calendar from Cedar Fort's page.  If you would like to go to the blogs participating.  Here they are.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					4	5
		November			Night Owl Teen/ Nuttier Reads/ Jolene’s Been Writing/	Reading Eating and Dreaming/ Five Alarm Books/ Coffee, Books, and Me/
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Inklings Read/ The Character Connection/ Courtney’s Book Nook/	Wordpaintings Unlimited/ Vampire Wire/ The Crazy Dream Blog/	Forbidden Passions/ As the Spine Breaks/ The Plot Thickens/	Thoughts at One in the Morning/ Bookworm Lisa/ Books to the Sky/	Totally Obsessed/ Passion for Novels/ Twisting the Lens/	Nocturnal Book Reviews/ Getting Your Read On/ A Casual Reader’s Blog/	Jeanz Book Read and Review/ LDS Women’s Book Review/ Books Complete Me/
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Pages of Gold/ Book Spark/	Zone Out Mode/ Taffy’s Writings/ Wrathsqueen’s Books	Mrs. Papillion/ Lani Woodland/ Imaginary Reads/	Princess Reviews/ A Book Lover’s Review/ Reader of Fictions/	Reading For Sanity/ Coma Calm/ Nightly Reading/	Creating Childhood Memories/ Jagged Edge Reviews/ Just Another Book Addict/	Starcrossed/ The Incessant Droning of a Bored Writer/ Krazy Book Lady/
20	21	22	23	24	25
Young Readers/ Like Minded Souls/ Letters Inside Out/	Six Mixed Reviews/ Fictitious Musings/	Mudrock and Pink Nail Polish/ Practical Frugality/ All About Me/	Living, Loving, Laughing, Reading/ This Great Perhapsless/ The Awesome Magic Attic/	TToria/ Mommy Wants to Read/ Bee’s Knees Reviews/ Alexa Loves Books/	Ali’s Bookshelf/ Biblio Junkies/ Book and Movie Dimension a Blog/