Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and participated in the L.K. Below Never a Princess, Always a Frog giveaway. Random.org chose number 2, so the winner is...

Robin

I will be contacting you via email to gift you your kindle copy. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by and thank you to L.K. for joining us!

Be sure to come back tomorrow when Stephanie Haefner will be joining us to talk about her newest release Soap Dreams!

Interview with L.K. Below

Today, I have an awesome author visiting my blog. Please join me in welcoming romance and YA author, L.K. Below.

Tell us a little about your latest release, Never a Princess, Always a Frog?
Never a Princess, Always a Frog is the beginning of a new series. Each book -- a hot contemporary romance -- will revolve around a fairy tale which parallels the story. In Never a Princess, Always a Frog ("The Princess and the Frog"), Colleen visits a rowdy Halloween party wearing nothing but green paint. Will she be able to find herself a prince? The second book, Beauty in His Bed, will feature Colleen's plus sized cousin.

Do you have a favorite book that you've written or one you recommend a new reader start with?
Each of my books hold a special place in my heart. Setting aside my newest release, I particularly love Stone Cold Kiss. The Hero, Seamus, will get any woman's heart pumping. Sexy silver-tongued Irishman? Yes, please!

What is your favorite thing about being a writer?
There are many ups to be had in writing. Talking to someone who enjoyed my book, reading a great review, or getting a hefty check (hey, that never goes amiss :) ). But the absolute best part is writing. I craft my worlds and stories because I love what I do. There's nothing quite like the feeling of completing something or immersing in a new world. It's the best feeling in the world.

What do you want readers to take away from your books?
If they can forget their lives for a while, wear the characters' skins, then I've done my job. If they come away from my books feeling uplifted and optimistic, I've done my job. I want my books to do what every other great romance book will do -- transport the reader.

What do you do when you're not writing?
There's a time when I'm not writing? Ha! Every now and again, my boyfriend forces me to relax. In that case, I watch a movie, or paint, or draw, or if I'm lucky I'll research somthing interesting. Although the last is still technically writing...


Who are your favorite authors?
I love the classics. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, and just about anything by Lord Byron.

Moving into more modern times, some of my favorites include: Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Terry Pratchett, R.A. Salvatore, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Julia Quinn, and Kresley Cole.

What are you currently reading?
Right now I'm reading Captive Bride by Bonnie Dee. If you ever get the chance to read it, do. It's an interracial historical set in 1870 San Francisco. I'm always looking for historicals set in unusual times or places. And this one delivers!

What can we look forward to from you in the future?
This October, I'm excited to launch a new trilogy. This urban fantasy trilogy features a secret organization, a mad murderer, a gothic heroine, and a vampire or two. Stalking Shade, the first installment, comes out from Lyrical Press, Inc. on October 3rd. The second book, Out of the Shadows, is slated for an April 2012 release, and I'm currently working on the third and last, This Blackened Night. I love Lori, the main character, and I'm very excited to see what others think of her and the persistent faux-vampire determined to win her heart.

Any parting thoughts?
Please join me on my website, www.lbelow.net, or on my blog, http://lbelow.blogspot.com, where I blog daily.

Thank you to Sondrae for having me!!

Thank you for joining us, L.K. 


Now for the contest. I will be giving away a kindle version of L.K. Below's latest release Never a Princess, Always a Frog to a random commenter between now and Thursday at 3pm EST. To enter, simply leave a comment or question and be sure to leave your email address (alternatively you can email it to me at sondraebennett@gmail.com if you prefer not to leave it on a comment). Winner will be announced on the blog as well as contacted via email.

Guest Post

I'm over at Romancing the Book, and we're giving away an e-copy of Arctic Winds. Stop on by and say hi for your chance to win.

http://www.romancing-the-book.com/2011/07/blogoversary-day-2-sondrae-bennett.html

How I Spent My Weekend...

June has turned out to be a rough month for me time wise. It seems like every time I get a stack of work done and can put it behind me, two more stacks rise to fill the blank spot. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And because the end is in reach, I decided to take a weekend off. A whole weekend off. Which meant no forum stalking, no chatting with my Goodreads groups (even though I love you guys), and little to no twitter.

Instead, I spent the whole weekend on my couch, being a reading fiend. Literally. In the two-- and a half if you count Friday night-- days, I read two and a half books. I couldn't get enough of them. I started reading Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night by Kresley Cole, having already read the first two in the series, and couldn't stop after finishing. I then breezed through book four and am currently about 100 pages in book five. So far, book three has been my favorite of the whole series. If you are a fan of paranormal romance and have not picked up the Immortals After Dark series yet, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

I say in my profile that I love finding a good book and immersing myself in the world and characters and let me tell you, Ms. Cole is a master of both. I can think of no greater way to spend my weekend than caught up in the world she created. Well, okay, that's a lie. Reading on the beach with a fruity umbrella drink in hand would have been preferable to reading on my couch, but other than the lack of beach hunks to oogle, absolutely perfect.

What did you do this weekend?

Rereading Blues

You know those books that you love so much, you just want to hug them? The books with characters and plots you could read over and over again? Some are obvious keepers. Watchers by Dean Koontz is a book I reread every year. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a book I've only read once, but know I will reread many times in my lifetime. Some are less obvious. The books are great reads, but if after a few years, they haven't been picked up again, there's no reason to believe they ever will be again. After all, when you read dozens of books a year, you amass quite a collection over the course of a lifetime.

Lately, I've had a craving to reread some books that I read and loved years ago. This happens to me every now and then. Certain scenes or characters get stuck in my head, and the need to go back and reread the books assault me. It wouldn't be a problem except for one thing...

In the past five years, I've moved five times and am currently gearing up for another cross-country move. Each time, I was... convinced... to give away some of my gigantic book collection (this is before the kindle revolution allowed thousands of books to fit in a small device). I don't know how I decided which books to keep and which to get rid of, but every now and then, the book/s that I want to revisit aren't in my collection. Lately, I've been all about rereading some of my favorite Nora Roberts books. And while I've kept quite a few of them, others unfortunately, haven't made the cut. Which leaves me with the option of re-buying the books, or trying to find them at the library, garage sales, or other avenues.

But it could be worse. I have hundreds of great romance stories when I'm in the mood for a reread. I might not be able to find exactly what I'm looking for, but there are plenty of great books to reread, or read for the first time, to tide me over until I do find the one I'm looking for.

Do you reread books? What are some of your favorites?

Website Launch

As some of you may have noticed, I've been mysteriously absent from not just blogger but twitter, facebook, etc. the past week. Well, I'm sorry about that, but at least it was for a good reason. After some issues getting in touch with my website designer, I decided to take matters into my own hands. So the past week, I've been learning how to use Joomla and how to put my design onto the website just how I wanted it. It's been absolutely exhausting since computers have never been my forte. BUT. The hard work paid off and my website is now live and fully functioning. I had to change a few things that I could quite figure out, like the design on the contact page, but I'm happy with the changes and couldn't be happier with the final results. I even figured out how to change the little icon beside the web address and in the page header (like the orange B for blogger or the little bird for twitter) and custom made one for the site.

Stop on by and tell me what you think!

www.sondraebennett.com

The good thing about doing it myself is that I can change things myself, so if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

A Month in Review (May)

Can you believe it's already June? I'm having a hard time grappling with that fact. Time seems to have slipped away from me...again as I begin planning/scheduling a blog tour for Chasing Paradise's August release.

But the start of a new month does bring to mind all the books I read in the last month. So here goes:

3 stars - And if I'm being honest, closer to 2. I love Tymber Dalton and I love the Triple Trouble series but I had a lot of issues with this prequel. The one thing that bothered me the most, was the lack of interaction between the two heroes and the heroine. The story built a relationship between the heroine and Brody (one of the heroes in the Triple Trouble series) and showed the strong bond between the heroine and her gay best friend, but there was very little between the three leads. When she was upset, the heroes allowed the other two men to comfort her. Tymber Dalton is still on my auto-buy list. I think she's fantastic. But this was a disappointment.


I'm grouping these two together since they are books 3 and 4 in the same series.

Overall - 4 out of 5 stars. Both books were entertaining, enjoyable, and wrapped up the series in a very nice way. I did learn recently that some of the secondary characters in these books have their own series. They immediately went on my TBR pile.

I really wanted to like this story. I've seen the author around on various social sites and have always respected her persona. She seems friendly, well informed, and a genuinely nice person. But this book didn't do it for me. I could see why so many think this is a cute story. I could see why so many people rated it highly. But something about the style just didn't work for me. I recommend giving her a try. It's a short story and only 99cents on kindle, but also recommend sampling before buying. My rating: 2.5 out of 5


4 out of 5. It took me a little while to get involved in the action but as soon as this story captured me, it kept me engrossed for the rest of the book, so much so that I read for two days straight without stopping. At one point, I even let my coffee get cold beside me because I was so consumed with the book (and for a coffee addict, that's saying a lot). The ending left room for a sequel and I'm hoping Sonya Clark will pen one. I'll certainly be watching out for one...



A reread and just as wonderful as I remembered. I only got through the first story in the book, Playing the Odds, and plan to read Caine's story at some point this month. 5 out of 5 stars


What books did you read in May?