Welcome to the January 2018 Book of Choice Giveaway Hop, hosted by FLYLeF
New Year’s Day is a time for setting goals and making resolutions for the year ahead. And for looking forward to all the lovely new books coming out in the months ahead.
My own personal end-of-2017 had more than its share of low notes, so I’m looking forward to getting lost in a few (more than a few) forthcoming new books. Three books I’m really looking forward to this month: Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra, The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman (Invisible Library #4) and one of my annual treats, Cast in Deception by Michelle Sagara, the next book in her marvelous fantasy series, the Chronicles of Elantra.
Today is the shortest day of the year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. And tonight, well, tonight is the longest night. And possibly a chilly one as well, depending on where you live.
Unlike all the holidays that center around this time of year, the longest night is a phenomenon that simply happens, whether we chose anything to mark it or not. One has to wonder how its been marked in the past, and how it will be in the future. Or how it might be, on some other planet in some other universe, if the planet tilts towards its sun at the right angle to make it happen.
One of the books I read this holiday season, Amid the Winter Snow, shows the Winter Solstice celebration in four completely different fantasy universes. If you’re looking for a holiday book with a bit of a twist, I highly recommend it.
But however you will be whiling away the longest night, here’s a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a $10 Book to help you while away some of the chilly winter nights yet to come.
Today I’d like to welcome one of my favorite authors, Lori Foster, to share some of her own holiday traditions here at Reading Reality as part of the Winter Holiday Traditions (+ reads!) tour from TLC Book Tours and Harlequin Books.
The book that Lori is featuring this time around (we were part of this tour last year too!) is Close Contact, the third book in her marvelous Body Armor series. I read it a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it. I hope that it’s one of the book that you might be thinking of curling up with this holiday season!
Bestselling Romance Author Lori Foster Shares
Her Own Family Holiday Traditions
While I detest cold weather, I LOVE the holidays. Ever since my husband and I first married – more than 39 years ago – we’ve been the holiday people. Family parties are at our house and as the family has grown, we’ve learned to adjust.
To make it easier on families with kids, we do Christmas Eve vs Christmas Day. With both sides of our families attending, we get anywhere from 40 to 70 guests. Much depends on whether or not the young adults bring dates. This year we’ll have kids from 6 months to 21 years. (Yes, I still count them as kids.)
I decorate the house inside and out (I hire decorators for the outside!) and I buy gifts for everyone who will be there. I prefer something wrapped to simple gift cards. Because there are so many people, I start my shopping early!
Before Christmas Eve, I get together 200+ Christmas cards to mail. I also do Christmas packages for my grandkids and a few other very special children who I adore. I’ve found that kids love getting mail! I include a Christmas card, a few pieces of candy, and some fun little toys that mail easily.
In early December, I have a luncheon for local authors and some reader friends. It’s so fun to get together with plenty of time to chat and catch up. We usually do an ornament exchange and (when I’m lucky) I end up with lots of cookies from guests. 😊
About 2 weeks before Christmas, I have a kids’ party – just to help the little ones unleash all that anticipatory energy. LOL. We play games, they win prizes, everyone gets a small gift, and then we chow on kid-fun food and desserts.
This year, we’ll probably have Christmas Eve in our new house! The contractor has been working on it for more than a year, but I think we’re close to it being done. It’ll work out better for us because it’s all one big open space – perfect for so many people to mingle. (Plus there’s still a large lower area where the young adults can go to play video games.)
In the middle of all, I still write! I’m like an ogre when I can’t spend at least a little time each weekday working on a story. However you celebrate the holidays, either in a frenzy of activity as I do, or more calmly, at a slower pace, I hope you have lots of love and peace.
About Close Contact:
There’s no resisting a desire like this…
MMA fighter Miles Dartman’s casual arrangement with personal shopper Maxi Nevar would be many men’s fantasy. She seeks him out, they have mindblowing sex, she leaves. Rinse, repeat. Yet lately, Miles wants more. And when Maxi requests his services via the Body Armor security agency, he’s ready to finally break through her defenses—and protect her day and night.
Receiving a large inheritance has brought chaos and uncertainty into Maxi’s life. Her ex has resurfaced, along with lots of former “friends,” and someone is making mysterious threats. Then there’s Miles, who doesn’t ask for anything…except her trust. Pleasure is easy. Now Maxi has to give her heart as well as her body…or risk losing a man who could be everything she needs.
“Foster writes a tale that is off-the-charts hot and steeped with mystery.” – RT Book Reviews on CLOSE CONTACT
“Mysterious things that go bump in the night fuel this romance right into a blaze.” -Night Owl Reviews on CLOSE CONTACT
About Lori Foster: Lori Foster is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author with books from a variety of publishers, including Berkley/Jove, Kensington, St. Martin’s, Harlequin and Silhouette. Lori has been a recipient of the prestigious RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for Series Romantic Fantasy, and for Contemporary Romance. For more about Lori, visit her Web site at www.lorifoster.com.
~~~~~~ TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY ~~~~~~
Lori and Harlequin are giving away a$50 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky entrant on this tour!
Welcome to the Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway Hop, hosted by Stuck in Books!
Let’s talk about holiday traditions. I’m being deliberately inclusive here. I don’t celebrate Christmas, I celebrate Hanukkah instead. You may celebrate both, neither, or something else altogether. My husband and I kind of celebrate December, as in its a great occasion to give each other presents, whether there’s a holiday involved for either of us or not. And we both get a couple of paid holidays from work, which is also a nice thing to celebrate.
While I’ve never had a Christmas tree, for obvious reasons, I have always enjoyed decorating other people’s trees, especially since I’ve never had to clean up the mess. I’ve also had one or more cats continuously for the past “lo these many years” and cats and decorated trees only mix badly, messily, and with broken ornaments and shredded wrapping paper.
What about your holiday traditions, whatever holiday or holidays you celebrate this time of year? Answer in the rafflecopter for your chance at a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a $10 Book from the Book Depository to make your holiday just a bit shinier, whatever it might be.
Winter is really coming, even down here in Atlanta. It’s in the upper 60s as I type, but by the time you read this post the temperature will have dropped 20 degrees and a cold rain is supposed to be falling. My friends up in Anchorage probably think of that as a balmy day, but down here it’s time for everyone to get out all of their winter clothes that it is barely cold enough to wear.
Hopefully your winter won’t be too frostbitten this year!
No matter how cold it is, or not, there’s always time to curl up with a hot libation of your choice and a good book. I’m giving away the winner’s choice of a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a $10 Book from the Book Depository to help provide either the book or the libation. Fill out the rafflecopter for your chance at something to help you while away the cold winter months!
Welcome to the December Book of Choice Giveaway Hop, hosted by FLYLēF.
And now we’re into the post-Thanksgiving OMG can I get everything done in time for the holidays season. The days are winding down, the daylight is getting shorter (at least in the Northern hemisphere) and the Winter Solstice with all of its attendant holidays is rushing closer.
It’s even cooler here in Atlanta. At least cool enough to break out the jackets. And to be grateful for the cats curling up at our feet at night. When they cooperate – which isn’t half as often as we’d like.
There’s always time for a good book – even if it’s on the nights when you can’t sleep for worrying over all the stuff you have to get done!
Three books I’m really looking forward to this month, A Distant Heart by Sonali Dev, Back Home at Firefly Lake by Jen Gilroy and War Games by Jess Anastasi. And even though those last two sound like polar opposites, all three books are the latest installments in long-running series that I really like. Firefly Lake with its small-town feel and its second-chance at love stories seems particularly apropos for the holiday season.
As everyone knows, Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. It’s the day when all the stores run all the crazy doorbuster sales, starting at absolutely obscene hours of the morning. Or the night before.
Black Friday got its name because the opening of the holiday season was usually the first day of the year that retail outlets began operating at a profit, in other words, in the black, and out of the red that means debt and loss and other bad things.
But with Cyber Monday now happening all holiday season (and all year round!) things are not what they used to be in the world of retail and in-person shopping. Which won’t make today any less frenetic if you go to the sales.
I’ll be with friends, and doing my shopping online. What about you?
For a chance to get a start on your holiday shopping, fill out the rafflecopter for your chance at either a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a $10 Book from the Book Depository.
We’re ramping up to the holidays, with Thanksgiving next week. Can Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years’ be far behind?
So, while you’re out running around getting the holidays ready for everyone else, how about getting a little something for your own stocking?
I’m giving away the winner’s choice of a $10 Amazon Gift Card or a $10 Book from the Book Depository. All you have to do is answer one little question in the rafflecopter below. Do you think you’re going to find a lump of coal in your Xmas stocking? Or have you been good?
Welcome to the November Book of Choice Giveaway Hop, hosted by FLYLēF.
It’s hard to believe that the holidays are almost here. There’s a nip of autumn in the air, even here in Atlanta. As I write this, it is Halloween, and we’re waiting to see just how many trick-or-treaters we will get at our new address.
Halloween is much more of a harbinger of fall down here than Labor Day, because we can feel the weather changing. We are far enough south to have a fairly mild winter, but far enough north that the leaves do change. “And they have.
Cooler weather means more opportunities to curl up with a cup or tea or a mug of hot cocoa, a warm cat and a good book.
The monthly book of choice giveaway hop is a chance to share upcoming books that we just can’t wait to get, and, at least at Reading Reality, enter the giveaway for a chance at either one of those books, or a gift card to help you get one.
I have a few books I’m really looking forward to this month. Nalini Singh is starting a new contemporary romance series with Cherish Hard. And M.J. Scott, the author of one of my favorite fantasy romances of the last few years, The Shattered Court, is finally publishing book 2 in the series, The Forbidden Heir. I’ve been waiting two years for this one, but not much longer.
And, of course, there’s Artemis, the second book from Andy Weir, the author of The Martian. Artemis sounds a lot different – instead of a lonely astronaut, marooned on Mars, this one is a heist story set on a slightly more populated Moon. It looks like fun.
What about you? What books are coming out this month that you just can’t wait to read? Answer in the rafflecopter below for your chance at a $10 Amazon Gift Card or the book of your choice, up to $10, from the Book Depository.
Halloween is creeping closer and closer. That means it’s time for the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop, hosted by Bookhounds!
It also means that pumpkin spice is taking over the world. hopefully only on a temporary basis.
Is it my imagination, or did the pumpkin spice parade start rolling out even earlier this year than it did last year?
But seriously, or at least semi-seriously, it’s that time again when the air starts to get just a bit crisp, for relative definitions of crisp depending on where you live, the leaves start to fall, if they haven’t already, and everyone buys large packages of small bars of candy and pretends that all the candy is for the veritable hordes of trick-or-treaters expected to bombard your doorstep on Halloween.
I try to only buy candy I can’t eat – it saves loads of regret the next day (week, month, year). On that other hand, my husband really likes Snickers. To each their own.
As usual, I tried to pick a book with some vague relationship to scary stuff to review for Halloween. I don’t read much horror, so this is always a stretch. The planned book is Black Box Inc by Jake Bible. It’s urban fantasy, which is usually as close to horror as I get, in a post-extradimensional happening world. It looks like it has definite possibilities on the slightly creepy scale, just perfect for Halloween.
I don’t read horror (or watch it) because it scares me. If I want to be scared, all I have to do is watch the news. But what really creeps you out?
About Lori Foster: Lori Foster is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author with books from a variety of publishers, including Berkley/Jove, Kensington, St. Martin’s, Harlequin and Silhouette. Lori has been a recipient of the prestigious RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for Series Romantic Fantasy, and for Contemporary Romance. For more about Lori, visit her Web site at 
