A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon--Sign Up Here!

It's here! The official sign up for A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon! It's just a month away on January 21 - 27! It will start at 12:00am Monday and end at 11:59pm on Sunday.  Times are central standard time so adjust your times accordingly.  Of course, like most read-a-thons, the books read must be novels or novellas, adult or young adult are fine, and you can read children's books too (as long as you do read some novels too).   Note:  Non-Fiction is also okay! You DO NOT have to participate the entire week.  Join in when you can, start in the middle, end early...whatever works best for your schedule.  As long as you sign in at the sign-in post and do some kind of wrap up post, you're in for the big giveaway at the end.  As with my previous read-a-thons, it will be a week of relaxed reading during which we can personally challenge ourselves and whittle away those ever looming TBR piles/shelves/libraries.  I hope you will join me! I will not be hosting any mini-challenges, as we learned from my last two read-a-thons, focusing on the reading rocks. However, if anyone else would like to host a mini-challenge, you are more than welcome. We will have a few scheduled Twitter chats again (and perhaps some more reading sprints). Our twitter hashtag is #WintersRespite

Sign up in the linky below. You do not have to do a post now, unless you want to help spread the word (hint, hint...) If you don't have a blog, use Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads. Having a blog is not required. Be sure to grab the button at the top of this post. (Don't forget that this is just the sign-up linky. There will be starting line sign-in and wrap-up linkies during the read-a-thon and doing both is required to be eligible for the giveaway).

I am looking for prize donations so if anyone would like to contribute, let me know. Authors, this is a great way to promote your book! Email me--truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom

FrightFall Read-a-Thon--Post your Wrap-Ups!

Well, another read-a-thon comes to an end.  I hope everyone enjoyed it! I'd like to thank everyone who participated.  I'd also like to thank everyone who donated prizes and Melissa and Nova for hosting their mini-challenges.  Unfortunately, the Twitter chats were not much of a success.  I had a suggestion in today's chat that I liked which was to have a chat at the beginning to talk about goals and then one at the end to talk about accomplishments.  Let me know what you think about that idea in the comments and if I get a lot of positives, I'll implement it for Winter's Respite in January (21 - 27).  I'm hoping to host another write-a-thon in November over at Stories Inside (yes, I changed the name of my writing blog).  It's all going to depend on what's going on in my personal life.  I may be moving again and, if I do, everything else will take a back seat.  If I do host Sit Down and Write 2, I'm going to make it two weeks instead of one because of suggestions I received from some participants last time.

My wrap-up post will be over at Castle Macabre.  I didn't really do that great, but I did finish one book!

Add the link to your wrap-up post in the linky below by 10am CST (U.S. time) on Tuesday.  I will start drawing giveaway winners Tuesday afternoon.

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FrightFall Read-a-Thon: Prize Promotion Page

This is the prize promotion page for all the prizes being given away for the read-a-thon.  At the end of this post, you will find details regarding how the prizes will be awarded at the end of the read-a-thon.

The Arrow Chest by Robert Parry (One print copy--International) WINNER--RAE
London, 1876. The painter Amos Roselli is in love with his life-long friend and model, the beautiful Daphne - and she with him - until one day she is discovered by another man, a powerful and wealthy industrialist. What will happen when Daphne realises she has sacrificed her happiness to a loveless marriage? What will happen when the artist realises he has lost his most cherished source of inspiration? And how will they negotiate the ever-increasing frequency of strange and bizarre events that seem to be driving them inexorably towards self-destruction. Here, amid the extravagant Neo-Gothic culture of Victorian England, the iconic poem ‘The Lady of Shalott’ blends with mysterious and ghostly glimpses of Tudor history. Romantic, atmospheric and deeply dark.

About the author:
Robert Parry is a UK writer of historical fiction with special interests in Tudor and Elizabethan history, Victorian Gothic and Pre-Raphaelite art. His debut novel, ‘Virgin and the Crab’ appeared in 2009, and his 2nd, ‘The Arrow Chest,’ in 2011. He is currently working on a story set in the 18th century – entitled 'Wildish' - which, all being well, should arrive in February of 2013. His work spans the Tudor, Georgian and Victorian eras, and combines reality, dreams and the unconscious within a well-researched and vivid historical setting.
Details, plus news, competitions and more can be found at http://robertparry.wordpress.com
Also, various articles by Robert Parry can be found at http://endymion-at-night.blogspot.com

Tales from the Mist--Various Authors (One eBook copy--International)  WINNER--LISA (LIT & LIFE)

TALES FROM THE MIST will take you on a journey into the dark world of the paranormal. These twelve stories vary in their degree of horror, yet all reach across the boundaries of their genres into the chilling realms of the macabre. Witches, ghosts, shape-shifters and vampire rats are some of the creatures that reign within these pages.

TFTM is a collection of short stories put together by the WG2E Street Team. Our website is: http://beachbookblast.blogspot.com/ and we're on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BeachBookBlast?ref=ts&fref=ts

There are 11 original stories plus a reprint from Scott Nicholson.

Officially releases 10/17/2012.  You can join the newsletter at the BBB site, to get notice once it's available.

Two Prize Packs--Two Winners (US only)--thank you, Kai from Fiction State of Mind, for donating  WINNER--CHRISTINA
Prize Pack #1--Adult

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr
In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures--if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

All Mallory knows of The City is that her father--and every other witch there--fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.

From Melissa Marr, bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series and "Graveminder," comes a brand-new tale of lush secrets, dark love, and the struggle to forge one's own destiny.

Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone by  Stefan Kiesbye
Shirley Jackson meets The X-Files in this riveting novel of supernatural horror

The village of Hemmersmoor is a place untouched by time and shrouded in superstition: There is the grand manor house whose occupants despise the villagers, the small pub whose regulars talk of revenants, the old mill no one dares to mention. This is where four young friends come of age—in an atmosphere thick with fear and suspicion. Their innocent games soon bring them face-toface with the village's darkest secrets in this eerily dispassionate, astonishingly assured novel, evocative of Stephen King's classic short story "Children of the Corn" and infused with the spirit of the Brothers Grimm.

Prize Pack #2--Young Adult/Middle Grade

Grandpa's Monster Movies by A.G. Cascone
Deadtime Stories #10
C.T. and his cousin Lea are staying at their grandparents' old farmhouse. The home movies they found in the attic give them a piece of family history that nobody talked about.

Professor Gargoyle by Charles Gilman
Every volume in the Lovecraft Middle School series is fully illustrated and features an original lenticular portrait on the cover. Display them on bookshelves—and then watch the cover characters morph into monsters as you pass by!

In Professor Gargoyle, we’re introduced to 11-year-old Robert Ashton and the strange world of Lovecraft Middle School. It’s a brand-new state-of-the-art facility—so why do so many creepy things keep happening? Why is the science teacher acting so strangely? And where are all the rats coming from?

As Robert explores with his new friends Glenn and Carina, he discovers that the school may be a portal to another world.

Winner's choice from Three Books (below)  WINNER--PATRICIA (chose Interview with the Vampire)

One winner will get their choice of three of my favorite scary/supernatural books.  I will have the book shipped from Better World Books so this prize is International.  Please note:  the book will be a used copy.

18 Stories by Edgar Allan Poe (and it's edited and has a foreword by Vincent Price--the man himself!)
A chilling compilation of some of Edgar Allen Poe's best-loved stories, edited by Vincent Price and Chandler Brossard and with an introduction by Vincent Price, including:
"The Black Cat - The Fall of the House of Usher - The Masque of the Red Death - The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - The Premature Burial - Ms. Found in a Bottle - A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - The Sphinx - The Murders in the Rue Morgue - The Tell-Tale Heart - The Gold-Bug - The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether - The Man That Was Used Up - The Balloon Hoax - A Descent Into the Maelstrom - The Purloined Letter - The Pit and The Pendulum - The Cask of Amontillado"

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice 

'In a darkened room a young man sits telling the macabre and eerie story of his life - the story of a vampire, gifted with eternal life, cursed with an exquisite craving for human blood. Anne Rice's compulsively readable novel is arguably the most celebrated work of vampire fiction since Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1897. As the Washington Post said on its first publication, it is a 'thrilling, strikingly original work of the imagination ...sometimes horrible, sometimes beautiful, always unforgettable'. 

We are in a small room with the vampire, face to face, as he speaks--as he pours out the hypnotic, shocking, moving, and erotically charged confessions of his first two hundred years as one of the living dead.

He speaks quietly, plainly, even gently... carrying us back to the night when he departed human existence as heir--young, romantic, cultivated--to a great Louisiana plantation, and was inducted by the radiant and sinister Lestat into the other, the "endless," life, learning first to sustain himself on the blood of cocks and rats caught in the raffish streets of New Orleans, then on the blood of human beings... to the years when, moving away from his final human ties under the tutelage of the hated yet necessary Lestat, he gradually embraces the habits, hungers, feelings of vampirism: the detachment, the hardened will, the "superior" sensual pleasures. He carries us back to the crucial moment in a dark New Orleans street when he finds the exquisite lost young child Claudia, wanting not to hurt but to comfort her, struggling against the last residue of human feeling within him. We follow them across Austria and Transylvania, encountering their kind in forms beyond their wildest imagining . . . to Paris, where footsteps behind them, in exact rhythm with their own, steer them to the doors of the Théâtre des Vampires--the beautiful, lewd, and febrile mime theatre whose posters of penny-dreadful vampires at once mask and reveal the horror within . . . to their meeting with the eerily magnetic Armand, who brings them, at last, into intimacy with a whole brilliant and decadent society of vampires, an intimacy that becomes sudden terror when they are compelled to confront what they have feared and fled... 

In its unceasing flow of spellbinding storytelling, of danger and flight, of loyalty and treachery, Interview with the Vampire bears witness of a literary imagination of the first order.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
There he lay looking as if youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey, the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst the swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion.'

Giveaway Details:  This is a read-a-thon participant only giveaway.  To be eligible, you must sign in at the starting line post when you start to read and complete a wrap-up post at the end and link it here at the official read-a-thon wrap-up (I will give everyone until Tuesday morning, 10/9, at 10am CST to complete their wrap-up posts).  We have a total of 3 book prizes.  This means there will be 3 winners.  The first winner chosen will get first choice of all prizes listed and I will continue in this manner until all 3 winners are drawn.  Regarding the book won from me, I will get it sent out as soon as I can.  I know I still owe people books from last time (and before...ugh!).  I haven't forgotten and I greatly appreciate your bearing with me during my financial problems.  The eBook prize will be sent to winner via email and the print book will be shipped by the author.  Winners will be chosen after the wrap-up post deadline (see above).

I'd like to thank Robert Parry and Rhonda Hopkins, and all the generous authors, at Beach Book Blast for their generous donations!

FrightFall Read-a-Thon: Starting Line #FrightFall

Welcome to the starting line! Be sure to sign in here, at the beginning or when you start reading.  Remember, you do not have to have a blog to join us.  You can sign in linking to Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads...wherever you will be updating from.  And you don't have to start at the beginning.  Start on any day this week, or if you're working all week, join us for the weekend.  People can sign in up until Friday night at 11:59pm CST.  I'll be stopping by and visiting you so I hope you will have your book piles/reading lists posted. *hint hint*  Make sure at least one book is a scary one.  Also, a reminder that I'm allowing children's books for those of you who have kids...with one condition...five picture books equal one novel.  Sound fair?  Middle grade novels can count as one book.

Join us on Twitter using the hashtag #FrightFall.  We are going to have four Twitter chats this week.  I had to tweak the times on the evening chats because I'm usually not home until around 5-5:30pm CST through the week.  I tried to have a good variance of time.  Hope one of the slots will work for everyone.  Here's the Twitter chat schedule:

Wednesday from 5:30 to 6:30pm CST
Friday from 6:30 to 7:30pm CST
Saturday from 10am to 11am CST
Sunday from 1 to 2pm CST

At other odd times on Twitter, we might even have some reading sprints throughout the week.  There won't be any prizes if/when we do, but you will get bragging rights.  Just remember to have fun this week.  Again, my read-a-thon credo is "a week of relaxed reading during which we can personally challenge ourselves and whittle away those ever looming TBR piles/shelves/libraries."  I have done away with mini-challenges so we can focus more on the reading, but please do stop by and visit your fellow read-a-thon-ers if you get a chance...and again, we will also be on Twitter for social interaction.  =O)

PRIZES/GIVEAWAYS

I will have the prize and giveaway page posted during the day on Monday so come back here to find it (sad to say, not as many prizes this time).  I will also have easy access links at the top of the blog.  There are going to be a couple of easy mini-challenges with prizes hosted by two of our participants.  I will indicate next to the blog below if the challenge is live or not.  Thanks, ladies!

Nova at My Seryniti  LIVE NOW!

Melissa at Must Read Faster  LIVE NOW!

Okay, I think that's about it.  I hope you all have fun this week.  If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below.  I will be posting my updates at my horror blog, Castle Macabre, so stop by and visit me.  Happy Reading!

SIGN IN HERE:

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FrightFall Read-a-Thon--Sign Up!

It's here! The official sign up for the FrightFall Read-a-Thon! A week long fest of scary reading (well, at least one scary book anyway).  All you have to do to participate is read at least one horror/scary book.  For the faint-hearted among you, it can be a spooky mystery, a scary thriller, or something classically gothic.  This time I'm allowing children's books for those of you who have kids...with one condition...five picture books equal one novel.  Sound fair?  Middle grade novels can count as one book.  I will not be hosting any mini-challenges, as we learned from my last two read-a-thons, focusing on the reading rocks.  However, if anyone else would like to host a mini-challenge, you are more than welcome.  Of course, there will be a big giveaway at the end.  And we will have a few scheduled Twitter chats again (and perhaps some more reading sprints).  Our twitter hashtag is #FrightFall.

Sign up in the linky below.  You do not have to do a post now, unless you want to help spread the word (hint, hint...)  If you don't have a blog, use Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads.  Having a blog is not required.  Be sure to grab the button at the top of this post.  (Don't forget that this is just the sign-up linky.  There will be starting line sign-in and wrap-up linkies during the read-a-thon and doing both is required to be eligible for the giveaway).

I am looking for prize donations so if anyone would like to contribute, let me know.  Authors, this is a great way to promote your book! Email me--truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom

During the entire month of October, I'm hosting Season of the Witch at Castle Macabre.  My reading focus in the scariest month of the year will be witches and I'll be inviting others to join me.  There will also be at least one giveaway and hopefully some guest posts.  Wanna write a scary post?  Let me know.  It does NOT have to be witch related, but if it is, that's great too! So witchy reading at Castle Macabre will fit right in with this read-a-thon!

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Reminder: Write-a-Thon starts Monday!

Just a friendly reminder about the Sit Down and Write Write-a-Thon starting Monday at 12:01am CST. Remember, it's not just for writers of novels or stories...it's for bloggers too, so if you have some reviews or general blogging to catch up on, why not join us?  For details and sign-up, visit The Story Inside Me (my writing blog) HERE.

Write-a-Thon Dates Announced!

I have the dates and the button! I'm hosting at my writing blog, The Story Inside Me.  

Full details and sign-ups will be posted over THERE in the next couple of days.  

Hope you will join me!

High Summer Read-a-Thon Giveaway winners are still being drawn.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten.  I think the last winner drawn is out of town! Thanks for bearing with me. =O)

High Summer Read-a-Thon Wrap-Up

Well, another lovely read-a-thon has reached its end. *sniff*  It has been great fun hosting once again.  I hope everyone was able to accomplish the goals they set and even if you didn't, I hope you enjoyed it above all else.  I would like to thank you for joining me again and I hope you will join me for the FrightFall Read-a-Thon October 1 through 7.

I've also decided to host a Write-a-Thon for writing our novels, stories, reviews, articles...whatever you need to get written.  I'm thinking August or September.  I have a poll up at The True Book Addict to help me decide when so I would appreciate a vote if you're interested in participating.  Thanks!

I would like to extend a special thanks to Nova and Laura for hosting mini-challenges at their blogs.  You guys are awesome! Also, an extra special thanks to the authors, publicists, and publishers who donated our terrific prizes.

Speaking of prizes...please have your wrap-up posts added to the linky below no later than 10am CST on Tuesday (U.S. time).  I will start choosing winners and continue choosing until all prizes are awarded.  Good luck!

High Summer Read-a-Thon--Starting Line

Welcome to the starting line! Be sure to sign in here, at the beginning or when you start reading.  Remember, you do not have to have a blog to join us.  You can sign in linking to Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads...wherever you will be updating from.  And you don't have to start at the beginning.  Start on any day this week, or if you're working all week, join us for the weekend.  People can sign in up until Friday night at 11:59pm CST.  I'll be stopping by and visiting you so I hope you will have your book piles/reading lists posted. *hint hint*  

Join us on Twitter using the hashtag #HSreadathon  We are going to have three Twitter chats this week.  I know that the majority voted for two, but I want to have one on Sunday mid-day so that International people can join us.  Here's the Twitter chat schedule:

Wednesday from 4 to 5pm CST
Friday from 8 to 9pm CST
Sunday from 12 to 1pm CST

At other odd times on Twitter, we might even have some reading sprints throughout the week.  There won't be any prizes if/when we do, but you will get bragging rights.  Just remember to have fun this week.  Again, my read-a-thon credo is "a week of relaxed reading during which we can personally challenge ourselves and whittle away those ever looming TBR piles/shelves/libraries."  I have done away with mini-challenges so we can focus more on the reading, but please do stop by and visit your fellow read-a-thon-ers if you get a chance...and again, we will also be on Twitter for social interaction.  =O)

PRIZES/GIVEAWAYS

I will have the prize and giveaway page posted during the day on Monday so come back here to find it.  I will also have easy access links at the top of the blog.  There are going to be couple of easy mini-challenges with prizes hosted by two of our participants.  I will indicate next to the person if the challenge is live or not.

Nova at My Seryniti--Based on Page 99 Test challenge  LIVE NOW

Laura at Book Snob  LIVE NOW

Okay, I think that's about it.  I hope you all have fun this week.  I will be posting my updates at my blog, The True Book Addict, so stop by and visit me.  Happy Reading!

SIGN IN HERE:

High Summer Read-a-Thon: Prize Promotion Page

This is the prize promotion page for all the prizes being given away for the read-a-thon.  At the end of this post, you will find details regarding how the prizes will be awarded at the end of the read-a-thon.

ec·o·nom·ics: a simple twist on normalcy (one eBook--International)
Professional football players, corporate tobacco advertisers, volatile gasoline prices, and the Cold War all share an undetected commonality—each is an intrinsic part of economics. Though not obvious to the naked eye, each entity shares a pattern with the others. This book helps to shed light on these mutual characteristics. It is an extensive compilation of theories interpreted using supportive examples.

A person with a professional degree graduates from high school at age eighteen. At an average of eight years to fully earn their education, the age they start a professional position is twenty-six. They must also factor in the debt of $150,000 that will have to be paid back for their education. If the person works the same number of hours per year and retires at the same age as a person with less than a high school diploma, the average lifetime earnings of a person with a professional degree is $3,115,080 after educational debt repayment. This is a 287 percent lifetime increase for an eight-year average investment in human capital. If that isn’t a worthwhile payout, I don’t know what is!

Economics is an enthralling science that encompasses our actions, thoughts, and emotional rationality every day in the unconscious. This book dissects economic theory into bite-size, entertaining snippets that anyone can understand and apply to their daily routines. It is a compelling depiction of history, business, pop culture, and social movements intertwined with relevant economic trends. Economics is part of daily life, and this book challenges readers to question how and why people make decisions by adding a simple twist on normalcy.

About the author:

Kersten L. Kelly is a self-published author of narrative non-fiction and semi-fiction books. She grew up in Munster, Indiana, and currently works in a sales role based out of Chicago, Illinois. She started writing at an early age and graduated from Indiana University with a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Communication & Culture. She then went on to earn a Master’s in Business Administration from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She has a passion for learning, teaching, and writing as well as international travel in her spare time. This book is her first piece of published work. 

Visit Kersten:

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS

Twitter: @KerstenLKelly

Available on:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | 

CreateSpace | Books-A-Million

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A Lovely, Indecent Departure (One print copy--International) Winner--Aleksandra
Parents are charged with teaching their children right from wrong, but above all else is caring for their general welfare and when Italian immigrant Anna Miller loses her fiver-year old son, Oliver, in a custody dispute with his father she does the unthinkable and kidnaps him. They flee rural North Carolina for Italy and with her family’s help disappear into her native homeland. Months pass with no sign of the mother and son. The boy’s guileful and mean-spirited father, Evan Meade, turns to a private investigator when the ineffective efforts of the federal authorities working alongside the local sheriff, Monroe Rossi, fail to track them down. But even as the search draws them closer to Anna, Evan’s true nature betrays itself and the question to what’s in the child’s best interest becomes not so clear anymore.

At the center of the search for the missing boy is Sheriff Rossi, the embattled lawman, a divorced father himself whose black-and-white brand of upholding the law has lent much to his method of parenting. His frustration and obligation to both his community and his estranged family deepens the closer he comes to all of those involved, but at greater risk to his life’s work is the blurring of the line that occurs between law and justice. Stuck in the middle of this is Oliver, who battles his mother and others while trying to come to grips with this strange new world in which he has been thrust. 

Objectively detailed, deftly and gracefully written in a voice that refuses to intrude on the minds of its characters, A Lovely, Indecent Departure is a literary thriller capturing in stark detail an intoxicating world in which modern archetypes are turned upside down. 

To preview a sample of the book on Scribd.com please click here.

About the author:
I was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana but consider my childhood home the green, rolling foothills of East Tennessee and the southern Appalachia mountains, settlement to all sorts of interesting people, composites of which can be found throughout my writing. Most of my adulthood I've spent in the Sandhills and Piedmont of central North Carolina, where I live now with my wife and family. A Lovely, Indecent Departure is my first novel.

Visit Steven:
WEBSITE | TWITTER
FACEBOOK | GOODREADS

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Dog Days (One print copy--U.S. Only)  Winner--Laura (Book Snob)
In Elsa Watson's Dog Days, struggling café owner Jessica Sheldon volunteered to be the chairperson of Woofinstock, Madrona’s annual dog festival, to overcome her reputation as “number one dog hater” in her dog crazy Northwestern town. Determined to prove her dog-loving credentials, Jessica rescues Zoe, a stray white German shepherd— and in the process the two are struck by lightning. 

Jessica wakes to discover paws where her feet should be, and watches in horror as her body staggers around the town square…. Zoe and Jessica have switched bodies. Learning to live as a dog is difficult enough, but Jessica’s real worry is saving her café from financial ruin. To complicate matters, she’s falling hard for Max, the town veterinarian. 

It’s clear that Zoe is thrilled to live life on “human terms,” thoroughly relishing all of the fun and food Woofinstock has to offer. But Zoe is also anxious to use her new human skills to find her missing family—who may not want her back. And Jessica needs to confront a complicated figure from her past before she can move on with her life. 

Jessica and Zoe will need to learn from each other to set things right, and possibly find acceptance and love in the bargain.

About the author:
Pacific Northwest native Elsa Watson has always loved animals. After raising chickens and inoculating goats in the Peace Corps in West Africa, she and her husband moved to an island near Seattle where they’ve filled their lives with dogs, more chickens, and the cat they brought home from their travels. She currently works at the West Sound Wildlife Shelter, a wildlife hospital and education center. Elsa is the author of MAID MARIAN(Crown, 2004; Three Rivers Press, 2005), a re-telling of the Robin Hood legend. 

Her novel DOG DAYS will be published by Tor-Forge in May 2012, followed by THE LOVE DOG in February 2013 and two e-novellas: A CHRISTMAS TAIL in October 2012 and THE PUPPY TRAP in January 2013. To learn more, visit www.elsawatson.net. (Goodreads)

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Rebel Puritan (A Scandalous Life) (One print copy--U.S.only) Winner--Stephanie Helgeson
Our New England ancestors wore black hats with buckles and ate turkey with the Indians, but what else do we know about the Puritans? (hint: it wasn't Puritans who held the first Thanksgiving) Our nation battled even more fiercely over religious and political freedom then than it does today. Rebel Puritan explores those struggles, seen through the eyes of Herodias Long. This true-life girl married at thirteen to escape servitude, but when she learns that it is easier to marry a jealous man than to be freed from him, Herodias realizes that her troubles have just begun.   Read reviews at Goodreads.

About the author:
Jo Ann Butler has spent most of her life digging up New England's past as a colonial archaeologist, genealogist, and history junkie. She tapped this work for her first historical novel, Rebel Puritan. 
Visit Jo Ann at WEBSITE or BLOG

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Unrest in Eden (One print copy--U.S. only)  Winner--Melissa C.
Father Ignaz Pfefferkorn, ex-S.J., released in January, 1778, and destitute after ten years of Spanish imprisonment, begs his way across France to his home in the Rhineland. He arrives in Unkel-on-the Rhine to find factional strife and ultimately murder in his hoped-for paradise. He is recruited to solve the crime, aided by unlikely helpers: a wealthy Cologne socialite and a head smuggler. He succeeds, only to find himself caught in the cross-fire of the French Revolutionary Army’s invasion of his homeland.  (read reviews on Amazon)

Donated by Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist
WEBSITE

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Angel Sleuth: A Mystery (One eBook copy--International)  Winner--Srivalli
Kaitlin Singer needs time off—from a philandering husband, from a writing career stalled on a buzzard as a main character, and from the stash of chocolate in her lingerie drawer. Her decision to return to her childhood home might seem like the perfect way to get her life back together were it not for her mother foisting two visitors on her, guests who claim to be guardian angels. Perhaps not all is lost, for the angels might just be the companions she needs to help her solve the murder of a local newspaper columnist. To uncover clues to the crime, Kaitlin takes over the dead woman’s work, writing the column as well as volunteering in the senior center, moves that put her in the path of the killer. She and her guests will need assistance from a pot-bellied pig and some pool skills to bring the murderer down. 

About the author:
Lesley retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York. In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office. Back north, she devotes her afternoons to writing and, when the sun sets, relaxing on the bank of her trout stream, sipping tea or a local microbrew. She was winner of the 2009 Sleuthfest short story contest sponsored by Mystery Writers of America, Florida Chapter. She is author of A Deadly Draught released by Mainly Murder Press and Dumpster Dying (Oak Tree Press). Her short story Murder with All the Trimmings appeared in the UntreedReads anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry.

Donated by:

FROM ME: These are like new paperbacks--Never Let Me Go is trade paperback and The Host is a large, mass market paperback.

Never Let Me Go (One copy--U.S. Only)   Winner = Randi
From the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, a moving new novel that subtly reimagines our world and time in a haunting story of friendship and love.

As a child, Kathy–now thirty-one years old–lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed–even comforted–by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.

A tale of deceptive simplicity, Never Let Me Go slowly reveals an extraordinary emotional depth and resonance–and takes its place among Kazuo Ishiguro’s finest work.

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The Host: A Novel (One copy--U.S. only)  Winner = Gina
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.

Featuring one of the most unusual love triangles in literature, THE HOST is a riveting and unforgettable novel about the persistence of love and the essence of what it means to be human. 

NOTE:  I loved this book! It's one of my favorites.

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Giveaway Details:  This is a read-a-thon participant only giveaway.  To be eligible, you must sign in at the starting line post when you start to read and complete a wrap-up post at the end and link it here at the official read-a-thon wrap-up (I will give everyone until Tuesday morning, 7/24, at 10am CST to complete their wrap-up posts).  We have a total of 8 book prizes.  This means there will be 8 winners.  The first winner chosen will get first choice of all prizes listed and I will continue in this manner until all 8 winners are drawn.  I do ask that anyone who wins a prize from me to please bear with me in sending the books out.  My family has been in a financial pinch for many months so it might take me a bit to post them.  I will greatly appreciate your patience.  All other prizes are either eBooks which will be obtained via email or print copies will be shipped by the authors, publisher, or publicist.  Winners will be chosen after the wrap-up post deadline (see above).

I would like to thank all the authors, Untreed Reads, and Stephanie Barko for their generous prize donations!

Read-a-Thon Twitter Chats--Please Vote!

I've created a poll to determine how many Twitter chats we should have (if there's any interest at all) and some days to choose from.  You can pick multiple answers.  Please choose if you would rather have 2 or 3 chats next week and then pick 2 or 3 days/times that you prefer.  Poll is at the top of the left sidebar and you can vote until noon Sunday (CST).

Thanks!