Whew! This is the fourth installment of Ebook Review Central. It covers the last September 2011 titles I’m going to highlight. It also covers three different publishing houses; Amber Quill, Astraea Press and Liquid Silver Books. Like I said: Whew!
I had asked for suggestions for which ebook publishers to cover in this fourth week. I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions. I was looking for publishers, or a mixed of publishers, that covered a lot of genres, where at least some of the titles would be available to libraries on OverDrive, and where I wouldn’t end up with more than 25 titles to hunt for during the week.
I chose Amber Quill, Astraea Press, and Liquid Silver Books. I know there’s been a lot of interest in Riptide Publishing, and I’m interested in featuring their books. But since their launch was October 31, I’ll be looking at including them when I look at November books.
Amber Quill, when all three of its imprints are publishing, does cover pretty much all the genres between Amber Quill, Amber Heat and Amber Allure. In September (and October), only Amber Allure, their GLBT imprint, actually published any titles. It will be interesting to see their future publishing pattern.
Astraea Press is totally different. They only publish what they consider “wholesome reads”. They’re not an inspirational romance publisher. They’re following a trend that has been noticed in romance publishing, for a need for sweet romances in addition to the spicy and spicier romances. Because Astraea Press only published 3 titles in September, it was difficult for me to pick a featured title. They have more to choose from in October.
Liquid Silver Books, on the other hand, publishes much hotter romances. In every type, setting and variation.
Both Astraea and Liquid Silver titles are available to libraries through OverDrive. Amber Quill isn’t, but I wanted a mix.
Having gone “once around the block” with a variety of publishers, I will say that this issue was the most difficult to do. Not because of the three different publishers, the number of titles isn’t larger than any other week, although I worry about this time next month. It was the subtle variations that gave me the most trouble.
Astraea does not assign ISBNs to their books, so creating the database with book covers was an issue. Neither Astraea nor Liquid Silver easily provides categories for each title, do deriving that data was difficult and required more than a little guess-work on my part.
And now for the featured titles!
The featured title from Amber Quill is Ex Equals by L.A. Witt. This was clearly the standout title for the month, with three very positive reviews. Although the story is specifically a military story (Dear Author reviewed it in honor of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”) the substance of the tale is universal. In a couple, if one person does something seemingly unforgivable, can the other person give them a second chance? Is it possible to earn forgiveness?
From Liquid Silver, the first featured title is Marking Time by Sandra Sookoo. This is a time travel story with a shape-shifter twist. A woman with a faulty GPS goes to a town named Strange Hollow, and travels back in time to 1900. The twist is that she is a wolf-shifter, and the man she falls in love with after she goes through the “way back machine” is a dying phoenix. Good reviews and a very interesting premise make this title worth checking out.
And, the one I couldn’t resist featuring, Ragnar and Juliet by Lucy Woodhull. There is the obvious play on Shakespeare, but this one is strictly science fiction romance on the comic-relief side. According to the reviews, if you’re looking for something short and funny, with a little science fictional bounty-hunting and romance on the side, this is your book.
See you next week for Carina Press’ October books.
Thanks for featuring my book, Marlene! Although when I read “short and funny,” I thought you were referring to me. 😉
Lucy, I’m always happy to help another “vertically challenged” person! And I have a soft spot in my heart for science fiction romance. 😉
I am always looking for SFR so it was great to see Ragnar and Juliet. I will give it a try.
If you’re looking for SFR you might also want to try Ironhaven by Misa Buckley. And check out whatever Heather Massey is recommending at The Galaxy Express! She covers SFR very thoroughly all the time.
Hi Marlene! Thanks for featuring Astraea Press on your website! I wanted to let you know that we do have ISBNs for all of our books. We don’t list them on our website (yet), but you can see them on amazon and bn.com. Let me know if you need anything from us!
Stephanie Taylor
Owner of Astraea Press
Stephanie, You’re very welcome. And I’d love to talk to you some more about this! I hope you don’t mind if I email you?
Thanks for opening a dialog.
Marlene