Category: Blog Hops

Beach Reads Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Beach Reads Giveaway Hop> Blog Hops> Giveaways

Welcome to the Beach Reads Giveaway Hop, hosted by Stuck in Books.

Barnes & Noble may be having some difficulties, but they have a terrific definition for “beach reads”:

A beach read is a delicate and complicated combination of characteristics: it must be light enough to make you smile while simultaneously being absorbing enough to make you risk sunburn because you simply can’t stop turning the pages (books are the cause of approximately 85% of any bookworm’s sunburns).

While you may not have an actual beach to read on (Atlanta is landlocked, after all) the idea that summer reading is a bit, well, lighter and fluffier than reading the rest of the year seems fairly well established. Your mileage, including your mileage to a beach, may vary. And everyone’s definition of what constitutes “light and fluffy” may also have a certain amount of variance.

When I was in college and grad school, anything that wasn’t part of a class assignment constituted “light and fluffy”. Summer and Winter Break were the only times I had any significant unencumbered and unassigned reading time.

Now, of course, it’s whatever I want it to be. And my definition of “light” has changed to any book that I can’t put down, from the fluffiest romance to the most exciting, but possibly gloomy, epic fantasy. I just want to be so absorbed that I don’t notice that sunburn, or in my case the cat gravity that is putting my legs and feet to sleep.

What about you? What makes a book a “beach read” for you? And which ones are you most looking forward to diving into this summer? Give us your upcoming beach reads for a chance at either a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a copy of the book itself (as long as it’s less than $10).

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And for more chances at more beachy and bookish prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!

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Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop, hosted by BookHounds.

Everything is in bloom around here. We get our profusion of flowers in the Spring, because by Summer it is just too darn hot. Even the grass turns brown.

I love to receive flowers, but I also have cats. Usually one or more of the resident felines loves to eat the flowers. Erasmus used to get a whole rose petal in his mouth, and then let it kind of dribble out, slightly damp. He was a dear, sweet, dim cat, and he never quite got the point. My very first furbaby, Licorice, used to just knock the vase over and consume the flowers. And then, of course, “give” them back to me.

Freddie the Fredinator hasn’t had much exposure to flowers yet. As much of a bundle of energetic destruction as he is, I expect him to accidentally knock the vase over and then run away from the mess. One of these days soon we’ll see.

For your chance at a $10 Gift Card or $10 Book, tell us your favorite flower, or your favorite pets and flowers story via the Rafflecopter below.

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And be sure to check out the rest of the stops on the hop for more blooming chances at bookish prizes!



May I Suggest Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> May I Suggest Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the May I Suggest Giveaway Hop, hosted by Stuck in Books.

It’s May, and may I suggest a book for you to read? That’s the theme of this hop, books that we would suggest to other people to read.

Suggesting books to the universe is a bit awkward, because I don’t know what kind of books the universe likes to read! But seriously, it is difficult to suggest (read that as shove) books to people without having a clue about what they know they like. But I’ll try, using some of the books that I’ve most forcefully suggested to people in the past.

Anyone who things they might like science fiction and hasn’t read Old Man’s War by John Scalzi needs to go out and get it. It is purely awesome. Anyone who thinks that epic fantasy is all either coming of age stories or blood and guts like Game of Thrones should try Imager by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Any mystery reader who hasn’t ventured to Three Pines should grab Still Life by Louise Penny and get themselves introduced to Chief Inspector Gamache. His four sayings of wisdom are ones we all need to remember to say, “I was wrong. I’m sorry, I don’t know. I need help.” We all have problems getting any and all of those phrases out of our mouths, especially when we need to the most.

Want to laugh until you cry, and with a bit of fantasy and commentary thrown in, pick up anything by Terry Pratchett (but start with either Mort or Guards, Guards). Like time travel but waiting for the next Outlander? Try The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn. Want to really sink your teeth into something meaty? American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The TV series may be fantastic, but the book is always better.

And that’s my final suggestion – NEVER judge a book by its movie.

I’ve listed some of my favorite suggestions, but now it’s your turn. What’s your favorite book to suggest? If you could shove one book at someone, what would it be?

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For more fabulous bookish prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!

Life’s a Beach Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways

Welcome to the second annual Life’s a Beach Giveaway Hop, hosted by The Kids Did It and The Mommy Island.

Every summer the publishers come out with a whole bunch of books they label as “beach reads”. It usually means that someone thinks those books are light and frothy like the surf, even if (or often especially because) those books are multi-hundred page family saga/melodrama/romance potboilers. Plenty of sex and sin to while away those hours reading by the beach. Assuming that anybody has time for that anymore, and that we aren’t all back in the beach house slathered in SPF 100.

But about those beach reads, whether you plan to read them on a beach, or at home in air conditioned comfort.

The Everygirl has a great chart to help choose your summer beach reads. It starts with the most important thing – what you are planning to order by Starbucks – before it gets to the more important bookish choices between time travel and invisibility.

What about you? Do you take books to the beach? Or on vacation? How do you decide what to take? (I have an iPad, I take EVERYTHING!) What are you planning to, or hoping to, read this summer?

Share your top picks for your summer beach reads for a chance at a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a $10 Book from the Book Depository, so you can get started on your very own beach reads list.

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And for more fabulous prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Hoppy Easter Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop, hosted by BookHounds.

For those who celebrate Easter, a slightly early Happy Easter to you. And for those who celebrate Passover, happy middle of Passover. For those who are just happy to celebrate the beginning of Spring, happy that. Longer days and warmer weather are always something to celebrate, in some places more than others.

As someone who celebrates Passover, and who has a birthday at this time of year, one of my childhood memories is of not being able to have birthday cake or a party at my birthday more often than not. At that time, there just wasn’t much in the way of baked goods that were Kosher for Passover. Except this one cinnamon crumble coffee cake that was surprisingly yummy, but not exactly birthday-cake material. Based on the offerings at the grocery store this week, solutions for this particular dilemma now abound!

But it isn’t Easter without some mention of Peeps. I still don’t believe they are a food, but they clearly make great dioramas. This one struck a chord and a funny bone, as I remember when my room did look kind of like this – except that the stairs went the other way. My room was at the top of the house when I was in high school.

Maybe you want a good book to read with your Peeps? Even when this blog hop is over, it still won’t be too late! (Especially if you like your Peeps “well seasoned”)

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And for more chances at more fabulous prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop.



Rain Rain Go Away Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Rain Rain Go Away Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Second Annual Rain Rain Go Away Giveaway Hop, hosted by The Kids Did It and The Mommy Island.

Today is my birthday. I am participating in this hop as part of my annual Blogo-Birthday celebration. Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the founding of Reading Reality and today is my birthday, so, “blogo-birthday”!

You might also call this a hobbit birthday. It’s my birthday and instead of (or in addition to) receiving presents I am also giving presents all week long. Including today.

It’s April, and as I write this, it is raining cats and dogs here in Atlanta, although so far I haven’t seen any poodles in the road. Maybe later.

But that makes this an excellent day to curl up with a cup of tea, a purring cat, and a good book. Let me know how you like to spend your rainy days for a chance at your choice of a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a $10 book from the Book Depository.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more fabulous prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!

Spring into Romance Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Spring into Romance Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Spring into Romance Giveaway Hop, hosted by The Herd Presents. In this case, the Herd is presenting a blog hop. (Sorry, I just can’t resist the puns!)

This is a hop for sharing our most anticipated upcoming reads for the spring. I’ll say upfront that not all of my most anticipated reads are romances, but maybe yours are.

In April, the books I’m looking forward to most are Song of the Lion by Anne Hillerman and Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon. They are both part of reboots for series that I thought were dead long ago. In the case of the Hillerman book, the original series died because the author Tony Hillerman did. His daughter Anne has picked up the action, and it’s marvelous. Sometimes even better than the original, because the point of view has shifted from all of the men to one of the women, and it makes things very different. Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series was one of my favorite merchant space empire series, but she seemed to have finished a while ago. And suddenly Cold Welcome appeared, the first book of Vatta’s Peace.

On the romance front there’s Slow Burn Cowboy by Maisey Yates, The Captive Shifter by Veronica Scott, White Hot by Ilona Andrews and stretching the definition of Spring just a bit, Silver Silence by Nalini Singh and Theron and Hemi in Anna Hackett’s Hell Squad series.

What about you?

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As always, for more bookish prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop

April Book of Choice Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Book of Choice Giveaway Hop> Giveaways

Happy April Fools’ Day! I promise this is not an April Fools’ joke.

Welcome to the April Book of Choice Giveaway Hop, hosted by FLYLēF.

The rules for this Giveaway Hop are wonderfully simple. Once a month, participants in the hop give away either a book of the winner’s choice to, of course, the winner, or the means to buy same. Meaning a gift card.

I always like giving away books and gift cards. And this coming week is my Blogo-Birthday, and I especially like giving away presents at celebrations, sort of like a hobbit birthday. This is my 6th Blogo-Birthday. On April 4, Reading Reality will be 6 years old! And on my birthday, April 5, I’ll be quite a few years older than that. I’ll be giving lots of stuff away this week.

But for this hop, it’s all about the books that you are looking forward to this month. What are you absolutely itching to read this month? For me it’s a tie between Song of the Lion by Anne Hillerman and Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon. Both are the latest entries in series that I thought were finished, but am oh-so-glad to see continuing. What about you?

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For more bookish prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on this month’s hop!

Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop for 2017, hosted by Bookhounds.

The leprechaun may be hiding a pot of gold at the end of his (or her) rainbow, but I haven’t found it yet. And if I did my cat, Freddie the Fredinator, would probably knock it over!

I may not be Irish, but I’m lucky enough to participate in this hop. Maybe you’ll get lucky too. I’m giving away the winner’s choice of a $10 Gift Card from Amazon or a $10 Book from the Book Depository.

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And for more chances to get lucky this St. Patrick’s Day, be sure to visit the other stops on the hop!



March Book of Choice Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Book of Choice Giveaway Hop> Giveaways

Welcome to the March Book of Choice Giveaway Hop, hosted by FLYLēF.

The rules for this Giveaway Hop are simple. Once a month, participants in the hop give away either a book of the winner’s choice to, of course, the winner, or the means to buy same. Meaning a gift card.

I like giving away books and gift cards, so here I am in my first Book of Choice Hop. I love the idea of this hop, but so many firsts of the month are on weekends this year. It’s kind of weird the way the calendar works.

So, what book coming out this month are you most looking forward to getting your hands on, or sinking your teeth into if you already have it? For me, it’s a toss-up between In this Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear, the next book in her Maisie Dobbs series and The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. What about you?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And for more fabulous bookish prizes, be sure to visit the other stops on this month’s hop!