December 2020 Book of the Month Giveaway
January 17, 2021 05:01 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
I normally read several holiday-themed stories during the month of December, but I think this may be the first time I've spent the whole month reading nothing but. Nearly all of them were enjoyable, but only one rose to the five-star level to be named as my Book of the Month. It’s a paranormal romance that’s the latest release by a huge favorite author of mine who I’ve highlighted a number of times before. It features a fan-favorite couple who’ve been a part of this long-running series since nearly the beginning. They’ve recognized each other as mates, but they’ve never gone through an official mating ceremony. Then after a blizzard hits their home, they have to deal with an unexpected tragedy that brings a great deal of sadness and guilt. But in the end, they come to the realization that their love can conquer this challenge, too, and it’s finally time to make their union official.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
April 2020 Book of the Month Giveaway
May 16, 2020 07:04 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
After having only a couple of five-star reads during the first three months of the year, I found myself with so many in April that I had a hard time choosing which one to feature as my Book of the Month. I finally settled on the newest book of one of my all-time favorite series that I’ve featured several times before. This book is a turning point in the series that essentially makes it the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. That’s because the war that has dominated the series from the beginning finally culminates as readers get to see whether a long-held prophecy is fulfilled, and if so, in what way. But in addition to some major changes in the overall series story arc, we also have a beautiful, love-conquers-all romance between our main hero and heroine that of course makes it all worthwhile.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
September 2019 Book of the Month Giveaway
October 19, 2019 06:52 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
September was a very good reading month for me with all of the books/novellas I read being winners. However, there was only one full-length romance that hit that all-important five-star mark to earn Book of the Month status from me. It’s the latest release in a favorite series, by a favorite author, who I seem to keep featuring again and again. That’s because her books are just so well-written and always seem to resonate with me. In this one we have a hero who is assisting with the investigation of the brutal murder of a female vampire, which appears to be connected to the murder of the heroine’s sister eight months earlier. As they work together to find answers, the pair develop a tender and passionate love affair. But the killer is still on the loose and may be looking for another target, leaving our heroine and possibly other vampire females vulnerable.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
2018 Best of the Year & Choose Your Own Giveaway
January 22, 2019 12:50 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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I’ve been an avid reader all my life, and in 2008, I decided to start reviewing books, as well. That’s when I founded my review website, The Hope Chest Reviews. Since becoming a published author, I haven’t stopped writing reviews of the books I read for pleasure, in part, because I’m now more aware than ever just how important reviews can be to a author in helping readers discover them. That’s why I stubbornly insist upon keeping this up indefinitely, despite the extra time it takes. Ever since I started my review site, I’ve had an annual tradition of posting my Best of the Year list to highlight all the very best books I read the previous year. As in past years, I have an eclectic group of books on it from a wide variety of genres. |
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Categories: Giveaways
Tags: Best of the Year, J. R. Ward, Jessica Bird, Lisa Kleypas
October 2018 Book of the Month Giveaway
November 20, 2018 12:32 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
I read a number of books in October that I enjoyed, but only one full-length novel made it to five stars. It’s the first book of a brand new series and the latest novel by one of my all-time favorite authors who I seem to keep featuring again and again. That’s because her books are just so darn good, I can’t help myself.:-) She writes about a very famous paranormal Brotherhood, but in this new contemporary series, she’s created a different sort of brotherhood made up of firefighters and other first responders. Anne and Danny, our hero and heroine, who are both firefighters, enjoyed a very steamy one-night stand in the two short prequel novellas, but the heroine had worked too hard to make it to where she was in a man’s world to give that up for a relationship. When this story opens, it’s been about three weeks since that fateful night, and there’s still an unrequited attractions simmering between them. Their station house is called out to fight a warehouse fire, during which Anne becomes trapped and Danny must make a gut-wrenching and life-altering decision in order to free her from the flames. From there we fast-forward ten months to see Anne reinventing herself as an arson investigator, where she’s looking into a string of warehouse fires that may be connected to the last fire she fought and which place her in the cross-hairs of a desperate arsonist.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
July 2018 Book of the Month Giveaway
August 17, 2018 04:58 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
For my Book of the Month choice this month, I have the final book of a contemporary romance series that is one of this author’s earlier works. Both the hero and heroine of this book were introduced in previous books of the series and have close ties to the other characters, but their book stands well on its own. In it, our heroine has decided to take control of her life along with her shares of the family-owned grocery store chain, but she’s going to have to face down her jerk of an older half-brother to make her case. She’ll be doing it over a long holiday weekend at the family estate, which she’s dreading. That’s why she asked a friend to come with her. When he can’t, he suggests another guy she’s had a crush on since meeting him to go in his place. Our hero isn’t too keen on accompanying her either at first, but he’s attracted to her, too, and eventually can’t resist the pull of being near her. So he ends up being her moral support, defender, and lover for the weekend. He would have liked to be a whole lot more if only her brother hadn’t interfered, casting a pall over their burgeoning relationship.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward, Jessica Bird
January 2018 Book of the Month Giveaway
February 17, 2018 06:27 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
I had a number of five-star reads in January, but the one that stood out the most was the latest release from one of my all-time favorite authors, whose books I’ve shared again and again. In this particular book, we get not one but two love stories complete with two very sweet and passionate HEAs. One features two relatively new characters, who we’ve only known for a couple of books, while the second pairs a character who’s been around a while in this world with someone who is brand new. I ended up loving both couples and thought they were amazing together, and I hope you do, too.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
2017 Best of the Year & Choose Your Own Giveaway
January 15, 2018 04:22 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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Long before becoming a writer I was an avid reader, and in 2008, I decided to start reviewing books, as well. That’s when I founded my review website, The Hope Chest Reviews. Since becoming a published author, I haven’t stopped writing reviews of the books I read for pleasure, in part because I’m now more aware than ever just how important reviews can be to a author in helping readers discover them. That’s why I stubbornly insist upon keeping this up indefinitely, despite the extra time it takes. Ever since I started my review site, I’ve followed the annual tradition of posting my Best of the Year list to highlight all the very best books I read the previous year. Once again, I have an eclectic group of books from a wide variety of genres. |
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Categories: Giveaways
Tags: Best of the Year, J. R. Ward, Jessica Bird, Lisa Kleypas
August 2017 Book of the Month Giveaway
September 16, 2017 06:36 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
I had two five-star reads during the month of August, but only one of them was a romance. Since I write romance, I always favor those over non-romance titles when there’s more than one five-star book to choose from for my Book of the Month. It’s the final volume of a relatively new trilogy from one of my favorite authors, who coincidentally was also featured last month (yup, she really is that good.:-)). This trilogy is a family saga that’s reminiscent of the old nighttime soaps from the 1980s, which the author admits inspired her writing of it. During my teen years, I was a big fan of those sudsers, so I’ve been entranced by the series since the first book was released two years ago. Now it’s complete, and while it almost seems too soon to let go, it was a great ending that warmed my heart.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
July 2017 Book of the Month Giveaway
August 18, 2017 03:44 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
July was another good reading month for me. I read five novels, one novella, and two short stories, all of which rated the 3.5 stars or better needed to qualify to be recommended by me. However, only two of them got a perfect five-star rating from me and only one was a romance, so that’s the one I’ll be highlighting this month as my Book of the Month pick. It’s a slightly older contemporary romance by a long-time favorite author who IMHO is phenomenal at her craft and has been from the start. It’s the story of a hero who’s injured in both body and spirit and the one woman he’s been in love with from afar for years but thought he could never have.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward, Jessica Bird
