#BookBlogWriMo: #WaitingOnWednesday

Day Nineteen

#WaitingOnWednesday

This Nineteenth day of November brings us to what we're #WaitingOn...or waiting sort of patiently to be released so we can devour it. Makes complete sense right...wait that long on a book, and can't stop reading until it's 4 am with a finished book. Sigh. That is the best.

I'm sharing three I'm waiting on with you fine folks today. 

1) Better When He's Bold by Jay Crownover

While I'm not uber-crazy about this cover, unfortunately, the first book in the series was AWESOME! So...I will be waiting to find out what sort of shenanigans we get up to in this one. They're going to be crazy, I can just tell you that right now. 

Goodreads | Pre-Order on Amazon




2) 'Til Death by Bella Jewel

With a line like "I married a douchebag" in the blurb...we knew we wanted to read this one....and it is coming up in our lineup very very very soon. CAN'T WAIT! 

Goodreads | Pre-Order on Amazon for only 99 cents!





3) Ride Steady by Kristen Ashley (Chaos Series #3) 
Ride Steady is so far in my future, it doesn't even have a cover yet. But never fear, I will wait with bated breath for this book, because the CHAOS MC is like kryptonite. I definitely will be pulling an all nighter, or most-of-the-nighter to get my hands on this book! Girl knows how to write about badass bikers better than anyone that I enjoy reading about...so, Joker. Bring it on. 

Goodreads | Pre-Order on Amazon

1)  Anything Tiffany Reisz. She writes smart characters. I've not read all of her books but I've very much enjoyed everything I've read of hers...so I'm actually not necessarily waiting on her newest..just waiting on time to catch up with some of the older titles so that I can get to her newest one. Girl, I agree. I loved that novella series of hers we read, and can't wait to get more of Nora + especially Kingsley. I'm on Team Kingsley.

2) Black Iris by Leah Raeder. 

This one promises to give me the diversity and prose that I've been waiting for and I know Leah is going to blow me out of the water with it; can't wait. 

Goodreads | Pre-Order on Amazon





3) After Dark by M. Pierce. 

What can I say--M had me from book Night Owl and I'm so damn curious as to what will happen at the end of this trilogy.

Goodreads | Pre-Order on Amazon

#BookBlogWriMo: Favorite Sub-Genres - Day Eighteen

Day Eighteen

Favorite Sub-Genres

While we love reading pretty much anything, it is well known I would think at this point that we focus primarily on Romance novels on this blog. 

My favorite Romance sub-genres are: 

Dark Romance - especially it seems dark erotica. Very dark and twisty themes, with people who are completely fucked in the head by some past experience. Sign me up. 

Contemporary Companion Series'- if you tell me Kristen Ashley has a series of eight books centering about a certain group of people...I could probably read them in a VERY short amount of time..Hello, Rock Chick. Point is, companion novels make me their bitch, often. 

Our love of bikers, and rockers as previously referenced, or mine anyways, definitely leads us to Romantic Suspense...which probably includes everything above...but, yeah. Guys meets girl, and there is something to solve giving even more depth to the story. Heck yes. 

I like all of these and I love to laugh when I read; I'm naturally emo-ish so when I can read something that makes me laugh, I'm all about it. Kristen Ashley does the best Romantic Suspense + Comedy + Sexiness (hence using her as my comfort reads). 

I also like literary fiction. This is what I do in my day job and I love when I come across something that we can do on the blog that it's a little different than we normally do.

But, I'll read anything (even the back of a shampoo bottle).

#BookBlogWriMo: Favorite Book Tropes - Day Seventeen

Day Seventeen

Favorite Book Tropes

My all time favorite tropes have to be about bikers, rockers, and for some reason really rich CEO's. 

Does that make me shallow? 

Probably. But the story does seem to go better when they're not fighting tooth and nail to get by. Real life seems to do that to us. I mean, don't get me wrong, each angst ridden story has it's ups and downs, but sometimes the best trope is when it is an external conflict instead of internal between the two main characters. 

Bikers - my favorite brand of biker by Kristen Ashley. She set my gold standard for those burly guys...and made them super hot. #RideFree bae. 

Rockers - I have no artistic talent whatsoever, so I LOVE stories about people who do. Music is my next love after writing, and I really wish I had went into PR so I could have gotten hired as a personal assistant to a rock star at some point. (Though, living in the midwest probably hindered this plan more than my chosen career path of nursing...)

Rich CEO's - C'mon. Love it, or hate it, (though I kind of loved it) Fifty Shades helped put erotica on the map of success. I can't even explain to you why I love these so much, but I will read it every single time that Shel says, "Hey, what about this one?" 

This is going to sound like I'm trying to cheat--but I swear I'm not...I really don't care. I'm becoming more interested in seeing more diverse characters in my fiction. I'd like my immersion into another world to include more variety--more color, more sexually diverse characters, and a variety of storylines. Other than that, I want good writing. I'll follow you anywhere if you write the hell out of your book.

#BookBlogWriMo: Least Favorite Thing About Book Blogging - Day Sixteen

Day Sixteen

Least Favorite Thing About Book Blogging

You'll see me bitch about this until the end of time, but non-prepared posts. If I sign up for a tour...and someone is being PAID by an author to organize this type of exposure...it would be very nice to not have to look up any of the information be it: cover, blurb, author info, author links, and buy links. It takes up so much time, and may I remind the tour peeps...they're being paid for it. We are not. Courtesy, please. 

/rant

Sorry. Okay, this wasn't probably intended to be a bitch fest. So I should probably just shut up. But, that is a biggy. And no html posts. That is saddening too sometimes. And...not receiving information until really late at night before the post is to go live the next day. 

Along those exact same lines, building posts for the blog when they aren't sent properly is super annoying and time consuming. 

I also hate when I have to send an email to a writer saying that his or her novel didn't work for us. I know how hard it is to put your writing out in public and I hate to disappoint, but at the same time, I will not promote via review a novel I don't like. 

#BookBlogWriMo: Favorite Things About Book Blogging - Day Fifteen...better late than never!

Day Fifteen

Favorite Book Blogging Things

It is very difficult to think of the best parts of blogging, but probably telling people that I blog is a top 5. It is an interesting reaction, ya know, telling people that you've read 175 books this year, and their eyes kind of bug. Or that you read about 280 last year. Definitely bug. That makes me smile. I don't think people think they have the time to read, but I like letting them know that yes, you do. This is something I do for myself that gives me great joy, so that is a favorite. 

Connecting with authors...or for instance right now on Twitter a group of girls are reading the same book. I too am reading this book, but definitely not doing as great at Twitter as my ninja partner is, that #hashtag quote queen over there. It is fun to watch, and definitely as I'm reading this epically strange book (I mean, shit it is weird!) the writing is fantastic, and I am very excited to start recommending it...and I've only read about 12%. 

The other is seeing people succeed in this business. I aspire to write, but until I get myself sat down and actually finish what I am writing...I will be the best cheerleader ever for everyone else!! I LOVE (you have no idea how much) seeing books we've read and reviewed at the start as indie authors, and then they're in Target, B+N or Wal-Mart, and I gush like it is my own success. It makes me happy to see a baby book grow into something people nationwide can buy. Very excited. 

Anyways, what type of things do you like about blogging Shel! 

I enjoy connecting with other readers and bloggers and exchanging ideas or debating the merits of something; it's probably also why I like teaching so much. Haha.

I also love being introduced to really good writing and writers--it's fascinating, this whole writing process, and I love when I find writing that's fresh or new OR when a writer is willing to be open with his or her fans and shares tidbits of the writing process or background.

And of course, reading. I love escaping into new worlds and reading offers me the chance to do that.