Tag Archives: review

News & Contests

Review contest: Win $30 and books!

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Who doesn’t like free books and book money?! Here’s your chance to win both!

The prizes

Grand Prize
$30 Paypal cash! Advance Reader Copy of
Tomorrow We Spy,
Spy Another Day series book 3
(With a sneak peek at the cover!)		 Advance Reader Copy of
True Spy
prequel #3

may 14 review contest

Other prizes!

I’ll be giving away more ARCs of Tomorrow We Spy and True Spy!

Exact number of prizes awarded will depend on the number of entries received—so enter lots!

How to enter

Step 1: Read one or more of my books. This is kind of important to do step 2.

Step 2: Review my books. Here’s a handy chart of some good places to review, with links to my books:

I, Spy
Book 1
 		 Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble Smashwords* Goodreads
Spy for a Spy
Book 2
 		 Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble Smashwords* Goodreads
Spy Noon
Prequel 1
 		 Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble   Goodreads
Mr. Nice Spy
Prequel 2 (free)
 		 Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble
(99 ¢)		 Smashwords* Goodreads
Character Arcs
 		 Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble   Goodreads
Character
Sympathy
Double points!		 Amazon Kobo Barnes & Noble   Goodreads



Step 3: Leave a comment here with a link to your review. You can enter more than one review (i.e. different books or different sites), but YOU MUST LEAVE EACH LINK IN ITS OWN COMMENT FOR IT TO COUNT AS A SEPARATE ENTRY IN THE RANDOM DRAWING!! Please try to use the direct link to your review and not just the review page so I don’t have to go hunting for it. Thanks 🙂 . Note that reviews on my (poor, neglected) newest release, Character Sympathy, count double!

(Can’t comment? Contact me with your links and I’ll work it out.)

Step 4: Check back here on Monday, 2 June 2014, to find out if you’ve won!

Rules, Questions and Details

Entries (comments) must be received by Saturday, 31 May 2014, 11:59:59 PM MDT.

Winner(s) will be drawn at random from the comments. If you want to enter more than once with separate reviews, use ONE SEPARATE COMMENT for EACH review link. Do not put three links in one comment. Comment three times. This makes my life easier. And I need that. Exception: reviews on Character Arcs will count as two entries.

Again, how this works: say you review I, Spy on Amazon and Goodreads, and Character Arcs on Amazon. Come leave three comments here, one with the I, Spy Amazon review link, one with I, Spy Goodreads review link, one with the CA Amazon review link. THREE SEPARATE COMMENTS = THREE ENTRIES! + 1 bonus entry for reviewing Character Arcs. (BUT one comment with three links = 1 entry.) One entry link per comment, one comment per entry link.

More entries = more prizes! I’m not pinning myself down to something in case you guys surprise me and I get really generous. Even if that doesn’t happen, the chance of winning will most likely be pretty dang good. You should go for it.

Do the reviews have to be positive? No. But do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry?

Can I enter if I won/received a free copy of the book? Yep.

Can I enter with a review I’ve already posted? Yep.

Can I enter if we’re friends or family? Yep. Don’t know if I’ll let you win, family member, but you can sure enter!

Winners will be announced on the blog, and maybe even contacted by email. Open worldwide. Void where prohibited. Awesome on all continents. And in the oceans, too. Seas. Islands—okay, the whole planet.

So enter now!

* You may have to have purchased the book from Smashwords to leave a review there. If you really want another entry, please contact me and I can give you a coupon for Smashwords (assuming that you already have the book from another platform/source).

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Reading

TBR Tuesday: Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter

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Apparently, now is the perfect time for me to finally read Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter. I’ve read all of the Heist Society books (still catching up with the later Gallagher Girls books), and this has been out since February—so what took me so long? Cheapness. I waited for a library hold to come in. Then, strangely, when I was almost done with the book, I hit the top of the Lendle waiting list, too, and ended up with a loaned e-copy as well.

K, message received: next time I’ll just buy the book.

Katarina Bishop and W.W. Hale the fifth were born to lead completely different lives: Kat comes from a long, proud line of loveable criminal masterminds, while Hale is the scion of one of the most seemingly perfect dynasties in the world. If their families have one thing in common, it’s that they both know how to stay under the radar while getting—or stealing—whatever they want.

No matter the risk, the Bishops can always be counted on, but in Hale’s family, all bets are off when money is on the line. When Hale unexpectedly inherits his grandmother’s billion dollar corporation, he quickly learns that there’s no place for Kat and their old heists in his new role. But Kat won’t let him go that easily, especially after she gets tipped off that his grandmother’s will might have been altered in an elaborate con to steal the company’s fortune. So instead of being the heir—this time, Hale might be the mark.

Forced to keep a level head as she and her crew fight for one of their own, Kat comes up with an ambitious and far-reaching plan that only the Bishop family would dare attempt. To pull it off, Kat is prepared to do the impossible, but first, she has to decide if she’s willing to save her boyfriend’s company if it means losing the boy.

I really loved this book. I love Ally Carter’s storytelling. The voice in the Heist Society series is different than the Gallagher Girls series—and that’s great. Gallagher Girls books are narrated in first person by Cammie, the protagonist (with some epistolary stuff thrown in for fun). The tone is very conversational, very funny, very fun. It’s something like what I hoped to achieve in I, Spy.

Heist Society not only uses a third-person narration style, at times we even take a step back from the third-person limited style and slip into something much more omniscient. The opening scene of Perfect Scoundrels, for example, reads almost like a modern fairy tale—it’s not told from the main character’s POV.

As much as I love deep POV, this is totally the right choice for this series. There are reasons for narrative distance sometimes, and this series has several. But the analysis is for another time. Right now, I just love basking in the rich story world of the Heist Society series. I was sad to see this book end, and I hope there are more adventures for these characters in the future. (*cough*cough*Disney*Hyperion*cough*)

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News & Contests

Two fun bits of good news!

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I’ve been reaching out to book bloggers, and I have to say Whit of Whit’s Book World wins the speed record! I contacted her yesterday to offer the book, she accepted and I sent it—and today she’s posted her review! I’m so excited! And nervous. Even though I’ve already read the review. Still nervous.

Yay. Another writer neurosis.

Another bit of good news from my email lately: the Orem Public Library, where my friend Donna Weaver and I are holding our book launch, has made up a poster to promote the event!

spiesandpiratesoremposter

Come join us!

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