Author: DeAnne

Holiday Blog Tour: An Alaskan Christmas

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I got the chance to read another great read from Harlequin’s Holiday Blog tour and it did not disappoint! Thanks again to Harlequin for giving me the opportunity to read this one.

In Alaska, it’s always a white Christmas—but the sparks flying between two reunited friends could turn it red-hot…

If there’s one gift Erika Sheraton does not want for Christmas, it’s a vacation. Ordered to take time off, the workaholic surgeon reluctantly trades in her scrubs for a ski suit and heads to Wild River, Alaska. Her friend Cassie owns a tour company that offers adventures to fit every visitor. But nothing compares to the adrenaline rush Erika feels on being reunited with Cassie’s brother, Reed Reynolds.

Gone is the buttoned-up girl Reed remembers. His sister’s best friend has blossomed into a strong, skilled, confident woman. She’s exactly what his search-and-rescue team needs—and everything he didn’t know he craved. The gulf between his life in Wild River and her big-city career is wide. But it’s no match for a desire powerful enough to melt two stubborn hearts…

Buy Links: Harlequin  Indiebound Amazon Barnes & Noble 
Books-A-Million Target Walmart Google iBooks Kobo

It’s definitely the time of the year for warm and fuzzy stories centered around or set at Christmas and this one definitely fit the bill. Erika is a hardworking surgeon, perhaps too hardworking, who is forced to go on vacation. Not knowing what to do she decides to venture back to her hometown, which is culture shock and in adjustment that scares her at first.

The interaction between her and Reed, as well as her and Cassie are wonderfully real and written well. Their reactions and internal dialogue regarding each other are really well done. It’s a heartwarming romance that tackles some very real issues such as being socially awkward, feeling inadequate, hard family issues and more.

The characters are far more complex than you would imagine and this book definitely delves into their inner workings. Even with that depth it is still a warm Christmas story about people finding themselves and figuring out what is really important to them.

Jennifer Snow lives in Edmonton, Alberta with her husband and four year old son. She is a member of the RWA, the Alberta Writers Guild, Canadian Authors Association and SheWrites.org. Her first Brookhollow book was a finalist in the Heart of Denver Aspen Gold contest and the Golden Quill Award. More information can be found at http://www.jennifersnowauthor.com.

Social Links: Author Website Twitter: @JenniferSnow18
Facebook: @jennifersnowbooks Instagram: @jensnowauthor Goodreads

I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season, happy reading!

5 Books I Would Love to Get for Christmas

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Anyone into reading likely has a long list of books they want to get to or are eager to have in their hands as soon as they come out. We all have those books on the lists that we want to have sooner rather than later. These are some of the books I’d love to see added to my library soon.

The Illustrated Harry Potter Books – Ok, technically these are four books at this point, but they are something that I haven’t been able to justify buying for myself just yet and would love to re-read the series through these editions.

Serpent and Dove – At first I didn’t have a ton of interest in this one, but after seeing the spectacular feedback for it, it’s definitely something I want to check out.

The Silence of Bones – Ok, this one isn’t out yet, but I have been pining for it ever since I heard about it. I cannot wait until it comes out so I can get my hands on it.

Night of the Dragon – Same thing with this one. I’ve had the privilege to read both of the previous books early and have loved both of them so much. I have a feeling Night of the Dragon will break my heart, but I love the trilogy too much to get mad about it.

Capturing the Devil – Though I haven’t read the rest of this series, I really want to get this one so I have the complete series and can then hopefully just binge them!

Happy reading!

Review: The Black Bull of Norroway

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Sibylla always wanted adventure, but she didn’t know it would come in the form of a giant, magical bull. Is he a man or a monster? And who knew a prophecy could be so literal?

Based on the classic Scottish fairy tale, this is the first title in a new series co-created by sibling writer/artist team CAT SEATON and KIT SEATON, begins the adventure of a lifetime.

This one has been on my radar ever since I heard it was based on a Scottish fairy tale. I love things that are based on mythology or fairy tales, so I definitely wanted to check this out. I was not disappointed by the story in any way, thought I’m still a tad confused as to what is happening.

I do like the way the story slowly pieces together, each character adding another layer to the overall story and mythos, but there are moments where I definitely wished I had more information. The art style was beautiful with just enough whimsy to know that it’s a fairy tale. I especially loved the facial expressions and what they conveyed.

All in all I can’t wait for the next volume to see what happens to the characters and how they will resolve their issues.

Happy reading!

2020 Reading Goals

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Even thought 2019 isn’t over yet, I have a lot going on in the last couple weeks of the year so I don’t know exactly how much reading I’ll get done other than review books. Saying that, I’m going to go ahead and get to work on setting my goals for 2020.

This year I set a goal to read 175 books and so far I’m at 293. I don’t know that I’ll up my goal for next year, but probably try to aim for the same kinds of results.

I would definitely like to whittle down my backlist. I have a lot of physical books that I haven’t read. Thankfully audiobooks help a lot with taking care of that, so I will strive to keep that up.

I’ve been trying to stick to posting everyday here on the blog and I definitely want to keep that up, I’d love to network more and be able to bring more exciting content.

There are a lot of series that I’m in the middle of, so another goal is to try and complete more series. I was able to take a few off of my list this year, but not nearly enough to make me happy.

I’m also carrying over my goal to bring in less books than I read each month. I have succeeded every month except for November this year and that really made me feel better about my book buying.

What are some of the goals you want to accomplish next year? Happy reading!

Holiday Blog Tour: Christmas From the Heart

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Tis the season for holiday books that are sure to warm the heart! I’m so glad I got the participate in this special holiday blog tour as I was able to read a couple of great books, the first of which was Christmas From the Heart by Sheila Roberts.

USA TODAY bestselling author Sheila Roberts takes readers to a small, snowbound town, where a young woman fights to save her family’s charity that brings Christmas to families in need, and a stranded millionaire loses his heart and finds the true meaning of Christmas.

Sometimes you need to look beyond the big picture to see what really matters. Olivia Berg’s charity, Christmas from the Heart, has helped generations of families in need in Pine River, Washington, but this year might be the end of the road. Hightower Enterprises, one of their biggest donors since way back when Olivia’s grandmother ran the charity, has been taken over by Ebenezer Scrooge the Second, aka CFO Guy Hightower, and he’s declared there will be no more money coming to Christmas from the Heart.

Guy is simply being practical. Hightower Enterprises needs to tighten its belt, and when you don’t have money to spare, you don’t have money to share. You’d think even the pushy Olivia Berg could understand that.

With charitable donations dwindling, Olivia’s Christmas budget depends on Hightower’s contribution. She’s focused her whole life on helping this small town, even putting her love life on hold to support her mission.

When Guy’s Maserati breaks down at the edge of the Cascade foothills, he’s relieved to be rescued by a pretty young woman who drives him to the nearby town of Pine River. Until he realizes his rescuer is none other than Olivia Berg. What’s a Scrooge to do? Plug his nose and eat fruitcake and hope she doesn’t learn his true identity before he can get out of town. What could go wrong?

Buy Links: Amazon Google Play Barnes & Noble Apple Books Kobo

This book is built on a trope that I will admit I am a bit of a sucker for, in that a rich Scrooge like character meets his nemesis and doesn’t admit who he really is while realizing his perception of her was completely wrong and perhaps falling for her in the process. As soon as I heard the premise I was hooked and had to pick it up.

This book does a great job of telling a heartwarming Christmas story including changing hearts and perceptions, acts of kindness, family and togetherness and more, but it also goes much deeper than that. There are a lot of discussions throughout the book about how people cope with different things, such as the loss of loved ones, grief, and how people move on. We also see a lot of discussion regarding different economic situations and how some people may not realize the struggles that others face.

Even with these deep subject this still managed to be a fun story with a lot of humor and banter. It also features a large cast of characters that are for the most part amazingly supportive of each other and of Olivia’s non profit. No character is perfect, not even Olivia, which is refreshing. There were some things that happened in the last portion of the book that I didn’t love, but they didn’t hugely affect my enjoyment of the book.

Sheila Roberts lives on a lake in the Pacific Northwest. Her novels have been published in several languages. Her book, Angel Lane, was an Amazon Top Ten Romance pick for 2009. Her holiday perennial, On Strike for Christmas, was made into a movie for the Lifetime Movie Network and her novel, The Nine Lives of Christmas, was made into a movie for Hallmark . You can visit Sheila on Twitter and Facebook or at her website (http://www.sheilasplace.com).

Social Links: Author website Facebook: @funwithsheila
Twitter: @_Sheila_Roberts Instagram: @funwithsheila

Christmas From the Heart is out now, so be sure to check it out if it sounds like it is up your alley. Happy reading!

Review: Randomize

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In the near future, if Vegas games are ingeniously scam-proof, then the heists have to be too, in this imaginative and whip-smart story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian.

An IT whiz at the Babylon Casino is enlisted to upgrade security for the game of keno and its random-number generator. The new quantum computer system is foolproof. But someone on the inside is no fool. For once the odds may not favor the house—unless human ingenuity isn’t entirely a thing of the past.

I had very high hopes for this story, mostly because I’ve heard great things about Andy Weir’s other works, but it just didn’t really hit the mark. I felt like it was a scene more than an actual story and just didn’t fully see the point of it.

The writing itself was good, I have no complaints regarding the writing, but it’s telling when the most interesting character was one of the minor characters (the IT guy). I felt like the story started off with a bang with him, but then swiftly faded. Perhaps it was meant to be a closer look at human greed and what motivates people, but it just wasn’t enough.

Happy reading!

Review: Crystal Fighters

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Through a series of events, she discovers that other players in the game have created a secret magical girl fight club that adds a whole new world of thrills and challenges to her mundane world. Now that she’s gotten her wish of finding peers like her and something exciting in her life, she also discovers a dark side to magical girls, and finds herself having to prove her worth in a series of tournaments where if she loses she can never come back.

What drew me to this graphic novel was the cover, then I read the premise and immediately wanted to pick it up. A virtual reality game where a glitch leads to a cutthroat arena? Yes, please. Stella could definitely use some more fleshing out as a character but she was by far the most individual of everyone. I really hope this becomes a series as there are a few characters I would love to find out more about, and I’m very interested in the events that were alluded to at the end.

I loved the art style of this graphic novel, so many poppy bright colors and saturated tones. The illustrations themselves were very dynamic and moved the story along wonderfully. It’s a fun adventure that I’m excited to see more from if more comes out.

Happy reading!

5 Great Bookish Gifts

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Do you have a book lover in your life that you can’t figure out a gift for? I know a number of people who run into this dilemma at the end of the year and have been asked what I think they should get, so if you’re wondering the same thing here are some great gifts that the book lovers in your life may love.

Reading journal – A lot of people create their own bullet journals or planners for this, but some people like journals that are pre-made and already set up, such as this one on Amazon.

These often have room set up for reviews, reading challenges and more. It’s worth looking through a few different ones before you find what you are looking for.

Bookmarks – A bookworm will typically have an unending supply of bookmarks, so picking them up is never a bad thought. Plus they come in a wide range of styles and function. I personally love the bookmarks from Book Art Bookmarks and wish I had the money to buy a bunch of them. Her designs are beautiful and fit books perfectly. You can position the focal over the spine of the book or over the cover.

Supplies for Annotating – A lot of readers like to write in their books and annotate their thoughts and feelings. I am not one of those people. The most I do is use page flags (which I have a large supply of) but some people go full out with their annotating. Great gifts would be post its, page flags, highlighters and special pens (packages of multiple colors).

Lapdesk – Readers love to read in bed or on the couch, we love to have beverages and possibly our computers or electronic devices nearby. Also, if we’re bloggers or we like to take notes, we need to be able to multitask. A lapdesk is a great tool to have and would be multipurpose. You could use it with your laptop, tablets, books and more. I personally have this one and love it.

A Book Subscription Service – There are so many bookish subscription boxes out there right now that you can really find one that could easily appeal to your book lover. Many of them have gift options of just a few months if you just want to give them a trial of it to see if they like it. My personal favorite is Book of the Month. I love their selection and then fact that you can do add ons so that if you see books from past months that you want you can pick those up. (Full disclosure, the link above is my referral link, if you sign up you get to do so for $5 and I get a free book credit).

So there you go! Hopefully that helps you find gifts for the book lovers in your life. Happy reading!

Amazon Wishlists: My Take

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Anyone who’s been a member of Book Twitter or Booktube knows that a few years ago a number of booktubers put up their wishlists after they (at least some of them) were asked to by fans. This resulted in backlash from people who took it as those content creators pushing for gifts, when in actuality most of them never even mentioned their wishlists, just included then in their info boxes.

So let’s dissect this a bit – in my perusal of different channels at this time, I never once saw a booktuber pushing for gifts (I’m not saying there weren’t any, just that I never saw it). Also, in a lot of cases when it was mentioned it was usually “People have asked me for it, so it’s in my description box.” Then came the mob of people calling them entitled and saying they were asking or pushing for people to buy then things, so pretty much all of them removed the links and stopped mentioning it.

I’m sure there were some people who may have been pushing and such, but the overall reaction and mob mentality that occurred was really uncalled for in the grand scheme of things. If a fan chooses to buy their favorite booktubers a gift that is their decision, I never saw any kind of pressuring or demands for people to buy things. Over time the wishlists have come back and thankfully there hasn’t been as much backlash as before.

I’m all for people sharing their wishlists and don’t see a problem with it as long as there isn’t any pressure to try and make people buy things. Heck, my wishlist is linked in my twitter profile, but I haven’t otherwise advertised it. A lot of people ask for the lists because they want to give gifts, they want to give people they admire or like a little bit of happiness and I don’t see a problem with that.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I personally don’t mind people sharing their wishlists. They aren’t forcing anyone to buy them things, just allowing them to if they want to. What are your thoughts on it?

Happy reading!

Review: Ivy in Bloom

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Ivy in Bloom captures the weariness of a young girl tired of a long winter. “I stare out the window,” she says on the first spread of brown and gray, “looking for birds or flowers / or even warm showers / but I don’t see any such thing.” But then Spring comes when “March is out of breath snow melting to flowery waters and watery flowers spring rose from its wintry rest.” And Ivy’s “heart dances with daffodils.” As these words also dance across each spread, Ivy’s world erupts into a riot of color.

Ivy in Bloom is an adorable children’s book that melds the author’s own words with poetry from famous poets. All of the poems are woven together to tell a story about a girl lamenting for spring and the time it takes to arrive.

I loved the way the poems were mixed together and another great feature is that all of the poems used and their authors are explained in a section at the end of the book, making this not only a great children’s book, but a way for the reader to seek out and find classic poets and their work.

Happy reading!