We have a brand-spanking new edition of Three Times A Bride from Avon Books to give away. In this book you get three stories, contributed by Catherine Anderson, Loretta Chase and Samantha James.

The winner will be selected on June 18th, the day before the the announcement of the A Novel Romance site contest winner.

To enter, go here

Buy Skin Game today

Publisher: Penguin

Format: Paperback, ebook

Written by: Ava Gray

Romance Novel Review from Donna:

“For those of you not in the know, Ava Gray is Ann Aguirre’s alter ego and she writes some damn good science fiction. Skin Game is a fine example of how sharp she can be in tackling the sci-fi genre.

Right off the bat, I have to mention that the characters didn’t fly off the page quite as quickly as they could’ve, but it’s not the end of the world. Though Ava Gray’s writing style in SkinGame is compelling and has a smooth flow about it, the info dumping didn’t really reflect that fact.

The well-plotted story was nonetheless fun and enjoyable and comes strongly recommended. After wrapping up this one, I’m really excited about reading the sequel, Skin Tight, and picking up more Ann Aguirre books in general.”

You know what this time of year is? The end of the university year and since two members of the crew are students, they have their hands tied with exams and consuming ridiculous amounts of jujubes, smarties and coffee.

That leaves two members, one of which needs a little bit of ‘me’ time, which happens once in a while. As for me, well, my man has been working away furiously on a book he will be self-publishing and I felt it’s only fair that with all the marketing and logistic help he helped A Novel Romance with, it’s only fair that I help him set-up his own marketing program.

Other News

Big thanks goes out to The Bibliophilic Book Blog for posting a link to our piece The Hardline On Selling ARCs. Honestly, I had no idea how those who sell ARCs are so vehemently despised. Whether the haters chastised them on Twitter, this site or other related sites, the opinion was loud and resounding – if you turn the publishers against the novel review industry, there won’t be much of one left. Also, try to put yourself in the author’s skin.

New Contest

Speaking of advance copies, we will be formally announcing our contest for a great new Avon Romance novel, so keep checking in.

Buy Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever today

Publisher: Simon And Schuster

Format: Paperback, ebook

Written by: Molly Harper

Romance Novel Review from Dana:

“In Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever all of my favorite players are back and thankfully there’s a little less of Mama Ginger and Grandma Ruthie. Not that these are poorly written characters, but I know I’m not the only one to have had my fill. This time around you get more of Jolene, Aunt Jetty and there’s some interesting focus put on Dick.

NiceGirlsDon’tLiveForever contains more of the same interesting sub-plots that have made this an intriguing series to follow so far. Lately I’ve been seeing some books continuing a series that have been something of a letdown. I can happily say that such is not the case here and that you’ll find yourself continuing to be more endeared to the characters.

The prose is genuinely amusing most of the time in Nice Girls Don’t Live Forever. I can’t wait for the fourth book in the series to come out.”

Buy My Reckless Surrender today

Publisher: Avon Books

Format: Paperback

Written by: Anna Campbell

Romance Novel Review from Martha:

“My first look My Reckless Surrender had me thinking it would be a Regency romp in the Georgette Heyer mould. That idea lasted as long as it took me to flip to the inside image of the book cover. Although our heroine, Diana Carrick, looks rather cheeky on the cover with her come-hither smile, that’s nothing compared to how she looks on the inside flap. There, her gown is half-off and handsome rogue Tarquin Vale looks like he’s ready to make her both hither and come.

That image really sets the tone for the rest of the novel, so if its mix of the trappings of the 1820s with timeless red-hot sex appeals, you’ll enjoy MyRecklessSurrender. Diana is intent on taking the famous rake Tarquin as her lover, for reasons other than what she would consider simple pleasure. Of course, those pleasures turn out to be much more complicated once she’s actually entangled with the man… and finds out he’s more caring and gentlemanly than his reputation would suggest.

The secret behind Diana’s actions is revealed at the same pace as her relationship with Tarquin develops. If you’re like me though, by the end the mystery will have become less important than the sweet love between the two of them. Reckless Surrender is a journey as romantic as its Regency setting, and who could not love all those sugary passages along the way?”

Before we delve into the meat of the matter concerning the sale of ARCs – a little history lesson will greatly elucidate the point. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the punk rock scene, but a very valuable lesson in determination can be pulled from this formerly underground culture. Some of you reading this weren’t even teenagers yet when the internet became a popular medium of communication, so try and imagine a world before the term “blog” became recognized by major dictionaries. Hell, in this world, even the term “website” would have gotten you funny stares.

Before every single household had a computer or two nestled somewhere in the basement, the back of the living room or in the kid’s bedroom, members of the punk scene diligently used to put out what was called a Zine. You can read up on that here.

What made zines so special was the fact that,

A) Unlike websites, they required a lot more handiwork to slap together.  Think collages, aligning written work on typewriters and then binding hundreds of photocopies together (by hand).

B) The only thing ‘viral’ back in that day were STDs, so getting the word out meant a little more than simply Pinging your latest work on Digg and facebook.

C) Since zines came in print form, it meant that money was required to produce and mail them – and no profits were going to be made. Zinesters walked away with barely enough to cover initial overhead. All this to say that only the most dedicated stuck around and kept producing. Some zinesters carried losses for years simply because they were intensely passionate about what it is they did.

A video Worth Watching

So why wax so philosophically on a bygone era? Simple. We now live in a fire-and-forget society where anyone can set up a blog for free. With user 2.0 technology anyone can have their own little corner of cyberspace up and running in minutes. With this kind of hyper-convenience comes a reduced sense of duty and loyalty and a seemingly increased sense of entitlement.

How many ‘bloggers’ existing on the cybersphere today would have put out a (30 pages or so) monthly zine for at least one year in the pre-internet days? Certainly not the type who sell Advance Reader Copies of books. With increasing use of the internet now even for book reading, it’s only natural for publishers to seek out the ‘little people’ to help promote their products with their earnest voice. Zines that managed to get free music from record labels did so through tenacity and building a following the hard way.

Modern bloggers lack that pre-ingrained integrity. The proof is on Ebay. Just type Advance Reader Copy in the book section and voila – you’ll find a few hyenas hawking privileged material just so they can net themselves and extra $30 or $40 at the most.

What these bloggers don’t understand is that over time, their actions will cost the book review site scene its privileges. These bloogers obviously haven’t written books themselves and therefore would never understand how infuriating it could be for the author to have his/her uncorrected work put up for sale. As for the book publishers, well, if someone were to make you look like a sap, are you going to take it? Probably not, and you can bet that if they can’t identify the specific blogger selling their ARCs on Ebay, they’ll likely blanket-bomb the entire list of sites they mailed a specific title to with blacklistings just to be sure it doesn’t happen again. Thanks guys, hope that 30 bucks was worth it.

I know that some younger readers might have a hard time grasping what is being said here, but in an age of instant gratification, it’s those that dig in for the long haul and never bite the hand that feeds them who will succeed.  The rest will simply turn up ‘404 Site Not Found’ over time.

Buy The Man Handler today

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Format: Paperback

Written by: Cairo

Romance Novel Review from Donna:

“The Man Handler is about as erotic as it gets. The text is undeniably graphic, and for those into this kind reading, you’ll truly enjoy the way the author puts everything into words without getting vulgar about it.

Cairo, the international man of mystery, has done it again. This author knows how to write a good book with a whole lot of nasty, freaky sex. If you have a significant other handy, TheManHandler will definitely teach you a few things to enhance your bedroom experience. In this story, the potential (not to mention the build-up) is great and his characters come with some true staying power.

I’ve read this author as himself  (not just as Cairo) before and I like him both ways. Either way, we’re talking about an author with talent here, and I like what he’s doing with The Man Handler.”