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
August 2018 Book of the Month Giveaway
September 13, 2018 04:10 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
This month’s Book of the Month selection is from an author I’ve featured several times before. She’s one of my favorites, and yes, she really is just that good. This particular book is a historical romance and one of her beloved fan-favorites. In it we have a cynical bad boy who has clawed his way up from the bottom to become one of the wealthiest men in England paired with the good girl, country miss who sees the diamond in the rough. Aside from neither of them being from aristocratic stock, they have little in common, but they still fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. I loved how these two came together and fell in love despite the odds and how they adored each other unconditionally, while a jealous, obsessive former paramour of our hero adds a bit of intrigue and suspense. It was simply a great read and one that I definitely recommend.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Lisa Kleypas
April 2018 Book of the Month Giveaway
May 18, 2018 08:17 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My latest Book of the Month is a slightly older book that’s one of this author’s earliest works. When perusing reviews after reading it, I noticed that several readers weren’t as enamored of it as I was, feeling that the heroine was too much. Normally I’m not as big a fan of feisty spitfire heroines, but in this case Lily made sense to me. She’s without a doubt a headstrong, independent woman, but at the same time, her life underscores the difficulties a female in her position and with her temperament faced in an era where the word feminism wasn’t yet a part of the mainstream consciousness.
Left at the altar by a man who didn’t understand or appreciate her personality, Lily became a traveling companion to a spinster aunt who was as eccentric as she was and left Lily her fortune when she passed. Then Lily was sweet-talked by a silver-tongued Italian devil into giving up her virginity, only to have him leave her pregnant and alone. Still she was determined to raise her daughter by herself until the little girl was kidnapped at two years of age. After spending her entire inheritance hiring investigators and paying blackmail money to keep her child safe, Lily had no other option but to win the money she needed to continue the search, so she spends her evenings at a gambling hell doing just that. Then she discovers that her shy, retiring sister is about to marry a man who doesn’t seem suited to her at all, so Lily shows up on his doorstep, intending to disrupt their wedding by fair means or foul, never expecting to fall in love with the man herself. But she isn’t sure if she can trust him with her deepest, darkest secret. Despite her being impetuous and stubborn, I found Lily to be likable. She never gives up on anything or anyone whom she cares about, whether it’s finding her lost child or freeing her sister from the clutches of a man she knows isn’t right for her. And yet underneath all that bluster, beats a vulnerable heart that doesn’t trust easily, which made her relatable to me.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Lisa Kleypas
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
November 2017 Book of the Month Giveaway
December 20, 2017 01:27 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
For the month of November, I had only one five-star read. It was actually a re-read of an old favorite from an author I’ve long admired. In fact, when I started reading regularly again ten years ago after a long absence from it, this author was the first one I picked up and this book was among some of the first of hers that I read. Despite being a tad bit frustrated with the heroine, the hero was yummy and the story was an intense, angsty, romantic one that gave me all kinds of feels, just the way I like them. Not to mention, I basically got two romances for the price of one, which made it even better. This is definitely a book that I could read again and again.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Lisa Kleypas
September 2017 Book of the Month Giveaway
October 13, 2017 03:47 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
I only had one five-star romance read during the month of September, but it was an awesome one that I’m very pleased to recommend. It was a re-read by a long-time favorite author of mine, and the final book of a trilogy. In fact, it was this series that made me a fan. All three books ended up being five-star keepers, but this one was my favorite of the bunch. It totally blew me away with how romantic, passionate, beautiful, and just plain amazing it was, and I could probably read it over and over and never get tired of it.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Lisa Kleypas
April 2017 Book of the Month Giveaway
May 20, 2017 02:58 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My April Book of the Month choice follows right on the heels of March’s Book of the Month. It was another re-read for me, and the second in the series. While April was a very good reading month for me, with the majority of the books I read rating 4.5-5 stars and nothing less than 4 stars, this particular book was the biggest stand-out for me, because it was nearly perfect in every way. I think I ended up enjoying it just a teensy bit better than last month’s BOM, because of the stronger focus on the romance. The incredibly steamy love scenes were an added plus, too. It’s the story of a heroine who sets out looking for revenge against the man she believes was the cause of her beloved brother’s death, but unexpectedly finds love with that same man instead. The hero has been burying himself in his work to drown out the pain of losing his first wife and child, while waiting to remarry until just the right woman comes along, and he may have finally found the woman of his dreams in our intrepid heroine. It all made for a great story that I loved.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Lisa Kleypas
March 2017 Book of the Month Giveaway
April 15, 2017 03:32 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My favorite read from the month of March was actually a re-read for me. I first read it about ten years ago, when I was coming off a book drought that had lasted at least that long. When I became a mom in 1995, reading somehow got put on the back burner. I guess having a cranky, demanding infant, who turned into a cranky, demanding toddler, and then baby #2 three years later will do that to you.:-) In any case, reading fell off my radar for quite a while, but during that time, I remember looking longingly at my stuffed bookshelves. In 2007, I became determined to get back to reading, and I did. My latest book of the month pick was the first book I chose from those packed bookshelves and the first I had read by this author. It made me fall in love with her work and immediately run out to get the other two books in the series.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Lisa Kleypas
