Ebook Review Central, Amber Quill, Astraea, Liquid Silver, Red Sage, Riptide, April 2012

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks> ebooks in libraries

Welcome to the Omnibus publisher April wrap-up post for Ebook Review Central. This is always the last post covering the month (in this case, April 2012) and it’s the one covering the most publishers in one swell foop.

This time round, we have five publishers all in one go. The Amber Quill Press coverage includes whichever imprint Amber happens to publish under. Mostly it’s been Amber Allure, their M/M imprint, with the occasional title from either Amber Heat or, this month, Dear Viking by Lori Soard, a historical/inspirational title from their non-erotic imprint, Amber Quill itself.

The other publishers in the omnibus with new titles in April are Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books, Red Sage Publishing, and Riptide Publishing. The Curiosity Quills database was also updated this month, but they didn’t publish any new titles in April. Don’t worry, they’ve got new stuff in May. (I peeked ahead. I do that with mysteries, too.)

I’m going to do something different with this week’s featured books. There are five publishers in this week’s edition. I am going to try to spread the feature around more.

Going by sheer number of reviews alone, I could feature all three Riptide titles every time. The only time someone else would get featured would be the months Riptide only published two titles. I say this as an observer of the evidence at hand. It’s either good books, good PR, or good both.

But in order to make sure other books get some play, there have to be some other considerations. And one of the reasons I started ERC was to provide a place for librarians to find reviews of ebook-only titles. Some of the featured books need to be from publishers that libraries can get, if those books did well.

Above all the featured books and this featured article, have to be interesting to readers.

So with those things in mind, this week’s featured books are the following:

The number one book was the Riptide title I couldn’t resist, it’s the Josh of the Damned Triple Feature #1 by Andrea Speed. All of the Josh of the Damned books (Pretty Monsters, Peek-a-Boo) just sound like an old-school B grade Sunday movie matinee horror feature, as lampooned by Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the description of the Triple Feature short stories goes it one better. A character in one of the stories is nicknamed “Professor Bobo”, a direct nod to MST3K. One of the other short stories is “I Was Cthulhu’s Love Slave”. Really? Too funny. Josh, the damned guy, who is human, works in a convenience store. His boyfriend is a vampire. But most of the weird problems Josh has working the night shift are human. Of course they are. Well, maybe except for the lovesick yeti.

The second feature story is Cinderella. There’s always a Cinderella. There always has been, and always will be. It’s one of those tropes that has been imprinted in our collective DNA. But the version of Cinderella in Sinders and Ash by Tara Lain is quite a bit different from the usual. Like many modern versions, it’s a bit difficult to figure out who rescues whom. Whether Ashton Armitage, the son of the fifth richest man in America rescues Mark “Sinders” Sintorella from a life working as a housekeeper in a ritzy resort–or whether Sinders rescues Ash from a life of not just hiding in the closet but also stultifying boredom. And it’s still a fairy tale, complete with a fairy godfather this time, of course. The mistaken identity part is even still there, helped by a smidgen of cross-dressing.

I picked the third book because it is from a publisher that is available to libraries and because it received a very favorable review from RT Book Reviews. (And yes, I liked it too.) The Watchmaker’s Lady by Heather Massey is the first book in her Clockpunk Trilogy. Clockpunk is steampunk with very small parts, in case you’re wondering about the term. So instead of big steam engines, think very small mechanical devices, doing very wicked things. The Watchmaker’s Lady is about a watchmaker who uses his skills to make an advanced automata, and uses his watchmaking skills to make clockwork devices for ladies’ intimate pleasures, so he can fund his experiments with his automata. Then things get very, very out of hand. So to speak. The twist at the end of the story is quite a surprise.

That’s a wrap for this week’s featured titles. We’ll be back next week with another edition of Ebook Review Central, taking a look at the Carina Press May books.

I’d love to hear from readers. Do you find Ebook Review Central useful? Interesting? Helpful?

Ebook Review Central, Dreamspinner Press, April 2012

Posted on May 21, 2012May 20, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

In the real world, it’s mid May. Which means that Ebook Review Central is looking at the books published in April. This week, the spotlight is turned on Dreamspinner Press, and the titles that they published in April of 2012.

Before I start on the features, I want to talk about book covers for just a second. In spite of the warnings, we do judge a book by its cover. And using the same stock image multiple times can make readers wonder if they’ve read a book before, when they haven’t.

Dreamspinner uses the exact same cover image for their Day Dream series of, I think they would be classed as short stories. The ebooks are very short, and sell for a very low price. If they weren’t ebooks, they probably couldn’t be marketed except in anthologies. Ebooks have created an entirely new channel for short fiction that hasn’t existed since the golden age of magazines. Using a stock image for the Day Dream series establishes a brand.

On the other hand, repeating a stock image for a novella or novel can give readers a feeling of deja vu. I thought the cover image on Murder at the Rocking R by Catt Ford looked awfully familiar to me. That’s because it’s the same image as the one on the cover on Wilder’s Mate by Moira Rogers, just reversed and further away. Although both Rocking R and On the Trail to Moonlight Gulch are westerns, Moonlight Gulch’s cover looks better because it’s more distinctive. Knowing that Rocking R is stock makes it lose something, at least for me.

But we’re here to talk about reviews.

Book number three this week is First Impressions by Christopher Koehler. They say that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Maybe that’s true, but in this romantic comedy, you can get a second chance at love, if your friends are willing to arrange a lot of painfully funny coincidences. Especially since your friends set you up in the first place and it all went so horribly wrong, when it should have been right. They have to make it better. At a very posh party, Cameron’s friends arrange for him to meet a new man. Unfortunately for him, they also help him dress. First part good, second part bad. They dress him like a bar pickup, and a sleazy one at that. Even worse, poor Henry, the man that Cameron is supposed to meet, is a former, emphasis on former, gay porn actor. Henry left that life behind him, and he wants to make sure it stays behind him. Cameron’s outfit is a reminder of lifestyle Henry left, and Henry spits insults instead of walking away. They trade barbed comments instead of the “meet cute” their friends had planned. The rest of the story is how they past that initial bad first impression, with a lot of help from their friends.

Next up, Frog by Mary Calmes. Frog is a story about city slickers playing cowboys for the weekend. Well, for a lot of weekends. And, it’s a about a lonesome cowboy. Really two lonesome cowboys, but one of them happens to be a city slicker. Brilliant surgeons are often cowboys back in their hospitals (House, anyone), and Cyrus Benning is the city slicker who finds perspective by pretending to be a real cowboy a few times a year. He also finds a real cowboy who, like the desperado in that old Eagles song, had better let somebody love him before it’s too late. Both Cyrus and Weber have been abandoned by fate, and they find what they need in each other.

Final book for Dreamspinner in April is the ebook release of a title that, when it was originally published just a few years ago, won several Rainbow Awards for Gay Fiction including Best Characters, Best Setting, Best Gay Historical and finally, Best Overall Gay Fiction. I’m talking about The Lonely War by Alan Chin.

This is a bittersweet story. It’s a historical story about a gay Asian-American seaman serving with the US Navy in World War II who falls in love with an officer aboard the ship on which he serves. Then his ship is captured by the Japanese and the entire crew become POWs. The final part of the book takes place after the war. No part of this book is an easy journey for the main character. I can’t do this book justice in a brief summary. Read the reviews, especially Leslie’s review at Speak Its Name, and you’ll understand why this book won all the awards.

And why one of the marvelous things about ebooks is the opportunity to bring books like this back and give them new and longer life and a wider audience.

That wraps up Ebook Review Central for this week. And after The Lonely War, a book about World War II, let’s talk about next Monday, Memorial Day in the United States. Although Memorial Day originally commemorated the fallen Union soldiers after the U.S. Civil War (I live in Atlanta now, I’m finding that very interesting) it has come to be a holiday to honor all those who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

It also marks the beginning of summer. And it’s a three-day weekend. Ebook Review Central is going to take next Monday off. I need to get another sort of “leap day” in the calendar, and Memorial Day is a good enough reason.

Ebook Review Central will be back on June 4 with the Samhain April feature.

Ebook Review Central, Carina Press, April 2012

Posted on May 14, 2012May 12, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks> ebooks in libraries

The Carina Press April 2012 list proves, as Carina does every month, that there are high-quality titles published in ebook-only.

It also proves that there is something out there for every taste and variation of romance fiction lover, from science fiction romance to paranormal to male/male to historical to retro to contemporary. Even for those who can’t get enough of Spartacus (the recent TV series, not the old movie).

It does seem like there are some trends.

Looking at both Carina and Samhain, I’ve noticed that the Retro romances don’t get a lot of new reviews. How that translates to sales is something that I’ll freely admit I wonder about. The reviews for Susan Edwards’s White Series are mostly, but not exclusively, from RT Book Reviews‘ and All About Romance‘s backfiles; they are reviews for the original release of the books. This is also true for the Samhain Retro romances.

The Roman Empire period may be making a comeback. Surrender to the Roman is one of several “blood and sandals” romances that’s come out recently. Spartacus may have started (or resurrected) a sub-genre. There’s a post at Book Lovers Inc. that plays with this question.

New/old sub-genre questions aside, this week’s featured titles are from romance sub-genres that are a little more familiar. Which is pretty interesting, considering that not a single one takes place in a here-and-now that’s exactly the one we know!
The third featured title this month is the erotic historical romance Improper Relations by Juliana Ross. Unlike a lot of historicals that take place in England, this is Victorian Era rather than Regency. Equally unusual, this one is not about a noble rake sweeping a complete innocent off her feet. Not that Leo isn’t a rake, well, not exactly. He appears to be one. It’s just that Hannah is only sort of innocent. She’s a widow. She simply doesn’t know what pleasure is. After watching Leo debauch a housemaid in the library (to both parties clear mutual enjoyment!), Hannah finds herself willing to let Leo teach her everything she’s missed about pleasure. They both learn a few other lessons, ones that neither of them expect. This novella is short, erotic, and surprisingly sweet at the end.

The second featured title is the paranormal entry in this week’s list. Darkest Caress by Kaylea Cross. An ancient magical race, the Empowered, is here on Earth to fight on the side of Good in the coming battle against the forces of evil. While they’re waiting for that battle, they need a place to stay. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the realtor that the leader of those good guys, Daegan Blackwell, hires to help him find some property, turns out to be a long-lost member of the Empowered herself. And his destined mate. And she doesn’t believe him until she becomes a target for the evildoers herself. Reviewers compare this one to Kresley Cole, Lara Adrian and even J.R. Ward.

But this week’s big winner was Ava March’s Fortune Hunter, the second book in her Brook St. Trilogy. This is a male/male Regency and did even better in the reviews than the first book, Thief. Readers definitely love this series, and are snapping up each book as it comes out. The biggest complaint I’m seeing is that because these are novellas, the stories are too short! But Fortune Hunter is the story of Oscar and Julian. Julian Parker is from the poor, American branch of the Parker family. His name gives him entry in wealthy English society, but nothing more. He come to England to find a rich wife to support him in style, even though he knows he prefers men. Oscar Woodhaven is rich, exceedingly rich, but all that his wealth has bought him is loneliness and grasping relatives. He needs Julian’s friendship as much as he needs his love. They have found what they need and want in each other, if they can figure out a way to keep what they have. Especially in the face of a society that will more than condemn them.

So this week we have the Regency, the Victorian Age, and an paranormal version of now where the Empowered fight the darkness. The contemporaries just didn’t stand a chance this month. Next month may be different. Come back and see!

And come back next Monday to check out the Dreamspinner Press April features. We’ll be back!

Stacking the Shelves #2

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Stacking the Shelves

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves! This is my second stab at both this meme, and my new Gimp graphics program. About the meme, the deets on that are over at Tynga’s Reviews. We all post what we’ve received, borrowed, bought, etc. during the week.

About the graphics program…Gimp stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It’s Open Source, and it’s an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. I wanted to do a big cover spread picture, and MS Paint just isn’t that able. So far, well, see big cover spread below.

From Kensington Books (in response to On My Wishlist #6)
The Seduction of Phaeton Black (print ARC)

From the author or publicist for review at Book Lovers Inc.
Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards (ebook)
Star Dust: First Contact by Ann O’Bannon (ebook)
Big Sky Country by Linda Lael Miller (print)

From BookBrowse First Impressions for review:
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (print ARC)

From the publishers:
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See (print)
I am Forbidden by Anouk Markovitz (print)
The Kissing List by Stephanie Reents (print)
The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya (print)
The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Caspian Kang (print)
All the books above, except for the Lisa See book, came in a plastic-wrapped wodge from the publisher. I don’t know why. They also came with their very own tote bag. Based on the size of said plastic wodge, they really NEED that tote bag!

From NetGalley (ebooks all):
Thieftaker by D.B. Jackson
The Rare Event by P.D. Singer
The Wanderers by Paula Brandon
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood (part of Penguin First Flights)
Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller (for review at Book Lovers Inc)

From Entangled Publishing for book tour
The Fallen Queen by Jane Kindred (ebook)

I know, I know. I was bad this week. I’m not quite sure what to do with that tote from Hogarth Press (that’s the wodge). Have a contest and give it away?

But please tell me, did you get lots of books this week too? What’s stacking up on your shelves?

Ebook Review Central, Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books, Riptide Publishing, March 2012

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

It’s time for the March four-in-one feature at Ebook Review Central. This is the point in the cycle where ERC covers Amber Quill Press, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books and Riptide Publishing, and usually wraps up whatever the month is that we’ve been covering.

Well, this is still the four-in-one, but it’s not wrapping the month. Next week ERC will be doing a “leap week” post and adding in some new publishers. It’s both a way of bringing some new titles into this wrap-up, and, pushing out the calendar a bit. I started ERC three weeks after the end of the covered months. Now I’ve caught up to it. I have to push back, and the best way is to add in some fresh material.

All the publishers in ERC are going to stay in.

Meanwhile, back to the March titles for our current four publishing contenders…March was not an all-Riptide month the way February was. Almost, but not quite.

In reverse order this time, just to keep you guessing until the end…

The third place finisher this month was Dark Soul Vol. 5 by Aleksandr Voinov, published, of course, by Riptide. I’ll admit I was expecting this one to make the list, the only question in my mind as I looked at the review sheets for this month was how it would stack up. The built-in audience for this final volume of Voinov’s tale of mafiosi, their enemies and their even more dangerous secret lovers had a lot of pent-up emotion just waiting for this. As one reviewer said, “just beautiful”. These are stories about dark characters who make all their choices in shades of grey, but the ending is very satisfying for those who love watching their heroes struggle with the darkness inside.

From characters who hold their secrets inside, we switch to a character who is forced by circumstance to display at least some of his difficulties where everyone can see them. Permanently Legless by J.L. Merrow (Amber Quill) easily rolled into second place in this week’s tally. Being “legless” usually means drunk, but in this case, it refers to the wounds Chris sustained fighting in Afghanistan. He’s adjusted to the loss of both legs, with his love of life and confidence intact, but when he meets Josh again, the guy he had a one-night stand with just before he left on that last tour of duty, he’s uncertain again. Josh isn’t. Readers loved this story of a wounded warrior finding his HEA with a guy who doesn’t care about his disability.

The number one book this week by an absolute landslide was Frat Boy and Toppy, written by Anne Tenino. From the reviews, it looks like everyone loved it because it made them laugh. The “frat boy” in the title is Brad, and he starts the story as a typical frat boy jock with a lot of frat boy friends. But there’s something different about Brad. In spite of appearances and outward behavior, Brad has a crush on the Teaching Assistant for his History Class. The male Teaching Assistant. Brad’s pretty sure he’s gay. The book is the story of Brad figuring out what to do about it. Especially since that TA doesn’t do relationships. Which is what Brad wants, once he starts figuring out what he wants in general. The one thing the reviews have in common is the phrase “laugh out loud”. Actually, there are two things, the other one seems to be “love Brad”. Romantic comedy fans, take note of this one.

So this week’s features can be summed up as light-hearted (Frat Boy and Toppy), heart-warming (Permanently Legless), and soul-searing (Dark Soul Vol. 5), but not all in the same book!

It’s also notable that, looking back, the last time the featured books in this four-in-one post were not all male/male romances was the December 2011 feature. Will this trend continue? We’ll see in the coming months!

That’s it for this issue. Come back next week to see which publishers will be added to Ebook Review Central in “Leap Week”.

Ebook Review Central, Dreamspinner Press, March 2012

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

When I performed my regular search of the blogosphere for the reviews of the Dreamspinner Press March titles, I admit that I was really hoping that Amy Lane’s Super Sock Man would get enough reviews to make the featured title list this month. The title of this coming-of-age story grabbed my attention, but four reviews wasn’t quite enough to put a title over the top this month.

So what did it take? Take a look at the reviews listed for these featured titles and you’ll see.

The number three title this month was A Helping of Love by Andrew Grey, the latest entry in his Taste of Love Stories. Series entries often do well, as fans of the series provide a pre-built audience and jump on the new title as soon as it comes out. This story gives readers not just sensuality and love, but also deals with disability issues and learning to trust after surviving an abusive relationship. One hero is wheelchair bound, and you guessed it, the other hero’s previous lover was was an abuser. This one looks like another hit for Mr. Grey.

From the sweetness of A Helping of Love, we head to something considerably rougher for the second place title. Mine by Mary Calmes features a cover that Tori Benson, in her review over at Heroes and Heartbreakers, just shouted out as, and I quote, “ZOMG!” But besides the cover, the story is about a co-dependent couple who make some seriously risky life-style choices. Choices risky enough to get one of the men kidnapped. The thing is, that kidnapping seems to be on top of some death threats. Not instead, mind you, in addition. It’s pretty clear that getting to an HEA for this pair is going to take some major work, but the reviewers say that it is well worth buckling up for the roller-coaster ride.

Number one is a book that was a “Recommended Read” at Guilty Pleasures and a “Top Pick” at Night Owl Reviews, as well as highly rated at a host of other sites. Which title am I talking about? Appropriately, it’s Rarer than Rubies by EM Lynley. The main characters in this one are an M/M romance writer on vacation in Bangkok and the spy who falls in love with him. (Reed Acton, the mysterious man who starts following around our hero, Trent Copeland, isn’t exactly a spy, but…it sort of fits.) One reviewer said it was like an M/M version of Romancing the Stone. That apparently worked really, really well for a lot of readers and reviewers. Books that are this much fun are rarer than rubies. Truly.

That’s it for Ebook Review Central for this week. We’ll be back next week for the Samhain March feature. Ta-ta for now!

Ebook Review Central, Carina Press, March 2012

Posted on April 9, 2012April 8, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

Carina Press published a very interesting line-up of titles in March of 2012, and Ebook Review Central is here to take a look at the hits for the month.

Every four weeks, as the Carina Press issue rolls around, I continue to be amazed at the range of fiction that Carina publishes, and at how quickly the blogosophere produces reviews for their fiction. When ERC first began, October 24, 2011, with the Carina Press September 2011 titles, the one-month delay was built in to allow for titles published at the end of the month to get read and reviewed.

Even the titles Carina published March 26, barely two weeks ago, Alien Velocity by Robert Appleton, Gate to Kandrith by Nicole Luiken, Her Dark Protector by Carol Stephenson and A Kiss in the Wind by Jennifer Bray-Weber, all have reviews. (I’m in the middle of Alien Velocity right now!)

Carina Press does an amazing job, month after month, of making sure their books get in the hands of reviewers. They also publish just plain good stories. Clearly a lot of readers think so.

About those stories…what were the highlights this month?

The Kowalskis pull the hat-trick for first place! Shannon Stacey’s Yours to Keep, the third book in her Kowalski Family series was the number one title this month. The completes the series, and makes the third month in a row Ms. Stacey’s Kowalski family member of the month has had the most and best reviews. This is the one I read first, and I enjoyed both the story and the family so much I had to read the first two books. It’s the story of a young woman who pretends she has a fake fiancé to keep her grandmother from worrying about her. But when her grandmother plans a visit, she needs a real-pretend fiancé to keep up that pretense. Then the fake turns real, and suddenly Emma Shaw and Sean Kowalski are playing for keeps.

Beauty in the Beast by Christine Danse is described as a dark fairy tale, or as a collection of dark fairy tales. The description reads like a cross between Beauty and the Beast and 1,001 Arabian Nights, with a little bit of steampunk and the alchemy of the Brothers Grimm thrown in for good measure. Because this version of the Beauty and the Beast story involves a group of travelling players who are lost at the “Beast’s” castle, and not just the titular “Beauty”, the reader gets several stories told by the players in addition to the romance. More than enough reviewers found this mix of shape-shifting with fairytale haunting enough to push this book into the number two slot.

Carina dedicated the week of March 19 to publishing male/male romance titles. All of the books published that week caught the attention of reviewers. and readers. Brook Street: Thief by Ava March is the start of a historical romance trilogy that did well with reviewers. But not quite as well as Moving in Rhythm by new author Dev Bentham. Lucky 13 reviews and all of them really terrific! Everyone loved this book. There was something about the idea of a gorgeously handsome but painfully shy hero that grabbed all the readers and wouldn’t let go of their heartstrings.

Moving in Rhythm may be a book about dancing lessons, but from the sound of it, the love story sings to every reader.

That’s our three hits for this week from Carina. Ebook Review Central will be back next week to feature the March titles from Dreamspinner Press.

Ebook Review Central, Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books, Riptide Publishing, February 2012

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

March went out like a lamb in this part of the country. February is going out here at Ebook Review Central. This is the four-in-one post, featuring titles from all of the Amber Quill houses, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books and last but definitely not least this month, Riptide Publishing for the month of February 2012.

Before we get to the featured books, let’s talk about the publishers for just a second, because we have more than one. This issue is always different, because the featured titles can move around from publisher to publisher, depending on who has the “hottest” titles in any given month.

But there are definitely some trends.

Astraea Press hired a review coordinator a few months ago. Opal Campbell is doing a bang-up job. Every Astraea Press title gets reviewed.

Amber Quill is…not doing as well. Or they are and they aren’t. Amber Quill is an umbrella name for three houses, Amber Quill for more general fiction, Amber Heat for erotic m/f fiction, and Amber Allure for m/m fiction. The titles they publish from Amber Allure always get reviewed. The Amber Quill and Amber Heat, not so much. This month, the Amber Heat titles, not at all. Whoever or however they do it on the Amber Allure side of the house, please replicate it on the Amber Heat side! It’s not good to see this many books from one publisher with no reviews.

But Riptide Publishing seems to be doing everything right. I have yet to see one of their titles not get reviewed. In at least four places and usually more! Also, from the perspective of the person researching Ebook Review Central every week, Riptide’s website is an absolute gem. Not just because they have a complete entry for every book with all the data readily available in one place, but also because they track the reviews! (I always find a few more, but it is so helpful to have a starting point.)

Riptide published three titles in February 2012. Those three titles each received at least twice as many reviews as the next nearest competitor. Not only did they get the most reviews, they were all pretty darn good ones, too.

Featured title number one for this all-Riptide issue is Dark Soul Vol. 4 by Aleksandr Voinov. This is a collection of three shorter works, Dark Rival I, Dark Rival II and Dark Temptation. These stories involve Silvio, Stefano, the Russian mafia, and whether a man involved in a crime family can afford to be himself without hurting the ones he loves the most. This series has been described as obsessive, dangerous, compelling and delicious. Repeatedly. Notice that this is volume 4 and plan your reading binge accordingly.

The second entry on the Riptide hit parade is The Heart’s Greater Silence by Anne Brooke. This is not a story with an HEA, or even a Happy for Now. Mark loves Craig, but he’s having sexual affair with Richard. Richard is a minister, and is married to his vocation, but he’s having his sexual needs attended to by Mark. When Craig is confronted by Mark’s betrayal, Mark’s world falls apart. This is a moving story about someone who throws away his chance at a happy ending.

But the third featured title in this all-Riptide ERC does end this issue on a much lighter note. Few Are Chosen by Storm Grant is an Urban Fantasy, but this story is one that every single reviewer said they laughed through. Any story about virgin teenage demon hunters who squabble over tighty-whities not being proper super-hero undies and which of them is more the “Chosen One” than the other has a leg up on funny. The reviewers say that the story pokes some gentle fun at Buffy, but with one of the boys wearing a black leather duster, it sounds like my favorite Chicago wizard, Harry Dresden, has some fun thrown his way as well. Harry’s a big wizard, he can take it. (Few Are Chosen sounds like one I’d like to read!)

I never know which titles will be featured until I finish searching for all the reviews. To have all the featured titles in this issue be from the same publisher was a surprise until the very end.

Next week the cycle comes back around to Carina Press’ March titles. Time marches on!

Ebook Review Central, Samhain Publishing, February 2012

Posted on March 26, 2012March 25, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Ebook Review Central> ebooks

Samhain Publishing’s list for February 2012 is, as usual, long and extremely diverse.

On the one hand, we have the sweetness that Samhain’s Retro Contemporary romances bring to the line in Kane and Mabel. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, or perhaps at several opposite ends, we have the chills and thrills of their Horror line, represented by Genesis of Evil, and the naughtier sides of romance, from their Red Hots (I wonder, do they want us to think of hot dogs, or not, with that particular warning label?) like Off Limits and Reckless Territory. Those titles even sound hot.

But which titles will be featured this week? Let’s see what we have here…

The number one title stole the top spot and the souls of its readers. The hero, or perhaps anti-hero is a better term, is a soul collector who lands himself on demon death row for betraying his demon boss. His attempt at suicide by demon hunter results in a rescue by a virgin white witch looking to rid herself of a curse that guards her virginity. And she’s found the one demon hunter who would be more than happy to help. If this sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s Getting Familiar With Your Demon, by Jodi Redford, and reviewers (and there were plenty) gave it high marks. Be prepared to lose yourself in Redford’s series That Old Black Magic, because Demon is book 4. But this looks like a great place to get lost.

If romantic comedy is more your style, then check out the number two selection for this month, Tamara Morgan’s Love is a Battlefield. This first book in her Games of Love series (yeah, a first book in a series!) is a tale about two sets of re-enactment fanatics fighting over the same territory for their “games” who end up having some games of their own. This sounds utterly delicious, the Jane Austen Regency Re-Enactment Society going to war with the Highland Games athletes, with the men in kilts. What does a proper Highlander wear under his kilt? This story provides a sexy, and funny answer to that question.

The last title featured is acclaimed by all the reviewers for its charm, its emotional depth and the painstaking research that went into it. The book is A Private Gentleman by Heidi Cullinan. This historical male/male romance takes place in the mid-19th century, and is much more than a simple love story. Or even more than a complicated love story, for that matter. The story is about love that reaches beyond class boundaries, but even that’s been done before. What captivated the reviewers was the way this story dealt with issues of disability, addiction and childhood abuse, and how the love between the two heroes eventually helped them come to terms with their pasts, their present and their possible future.

Ebook Review Central will be back next week with our four-in-one issue. We’ll see begin April by highlighting February from Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver and Riptide Publishing. Come back next week!

Ebook Review Central, Dreamspinner Press, February 2012

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference> Ebook Review Central> ebooks> ebooks in libraries

We’re back at Ebook Review Central to take a look at the Dreamspinner Press titles from February 2012. But before we do that, I’d like to give a shout-out to Ariel Tachna from Dreamspinner for her session at the Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference on March 7.

Ariel said that one of the big reasons Dreamspinner placed all of their titles on NetGalley was to give librarians a chance to review the entire Dreamspinner catalog every month.

Ebook Review Central was created as a way for librarians to have “one-stop-shopping” for reviews of ebook-only or ebook-predominately titles. Over the last few months, I’ve discovered that a lot of readers, authors and publishers are finding it useful. I’m very happy with that!

Back to the February featured titles…

The first feature is Chase in Shadow by Amy Lane. There was absolutely no question that this would be number one. Every review is near or at the top of the reviewer’s rating scale, and there is a reason. This book isn’t just a story, this one seems to reach out and grab the heartstrings of every person who reads it. Because this one evokes personal stories. This is about one young man who is trying, so hard, to take care of everyone in his life but himself. He’s leading a double life, and pretending he’s not gay. He has a fiancé he loves. His life is a struggle on every level, financially, educationally, with his family. When his two lives collide, he almost doesn’t make it. And the story of his nearly not surviving that collision is what touches all the reviewers.

Ty’s Obsession by SJD Peterson is a story with a decidedly different flavor. This contemporary western BDSM tale is the second featured story of the month. Ty’s story is the third tale in Peterson’s Whispering Pines Ranch series (after Lorcan’s Desire and Quinn’s Need) and the reviewers say that the crew just gets better with each story. Also that the story needs to be read in order, so be prepared to get them all, since Peterson leaves loose ends dangling that lead to the next book. But series fans are more than happy to dangle, eagerly waiting for that next book.

Last, I’m going to give the third featured place to a January book. There weren’t a lot of reviews for this one when the January 2012 ERC for Dreamspinner went to “press” but in between, the word-of-mouth has clearly gone around, and it’s very, very good.

Bonds of Earth by G. N. Chevalier is a book about not just surviving a war, but also about surviving the peace. And about having dreams above your station, and trying to make them come true, and what happens when a war shatters you. And how rebuilding someone else helps you rebuild yourself. The clear message that war is always hell, and that not all wounds are physical, since the war in this story is the first “War to End All Wars”, the one history now labels World War I. And added to all of that the love story of two gay men who fall in love at a time when imprisonment is still a very real possibility.

Bonds of Earth sounds like an absolutely fantastic read, but I agree with a comment that several reviewers mentioned, that the cover doesn’t do it justice.

But that’s it for this week. Please join me again next week at Ebook Review Central. March Madness will continue with the February featured titles from Samhain Publishing.

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