We have a winner for The Real Werewives of Vampire County

Using Random.org I got the lucky number and the name of our winner

 

Elizabeth Hull is our winner!

 

I will be sending Elizabeth an e-mail and she will have until Monday evening to respond.  If I don’t hear from her by then, with her mailing information I will regretfully have to go to the next number on the list.

Hannah Jayne’s “Under Attack” is a Sure Winner!

Under Attack

By: Hannah Jayne

Copyright: November 2011

Publisher: Kensington Books

 

She’s one of the Underworld Detection Agency’s best. But her job is really starting to bite . .

Sophie Lawson is a human immune to magic, which comes in handy for helping paranormal beings transition into everyday life. But fallen angel Alex Grace and his search for the Vessel of Souls is one curse she never saw coming. Suddenly an unexplainable string of killings and destruction has even San Francisco’s demons fearing for their immortal lives. And Sophie isn’t about to trust Alex’s all-too-vulnerable charm or his secret agenda. Now their hunt is revealing dangerous secrets about Sophie’s past, and a malevolent power hellishly close to turning one irreverent human into the ultimate supernatural weapon. . .

 

After a long day at work, dealing with all the monsters and their problems, Sophie is in desperate need of a nice relaxing bath. Unfortunately she is invaded in said bath by none other than Fallen Angel Alex Grace.  Alex only appears in Sophie’s life when he needs something from her.  This will not bode well for her.  Alex talks her into “helping” with his investigation into the deaths of a number of demons in the S.F. area.

So you then add in the fact that Sophie is totally loved by everyone she works with, and unfortunately her new boss Dixon Andrade is not one of those people. He’s been sent in to replace Pete Simpson and he’s going to make HIS changes from day one.  As the only mortal in the company (even though she is the best customer svc. person there) Sophie is afraid for her job.

Between these two opposing sets of problems you can add the fact that when she is let go from the agency that she’s been at her whole working life you can see that Sophie is not in the best of shape.  What she finds out about herself and how her friends stand by her while she’s doing this make for a fantastic second book in the Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles series.

Hannah Jayne has constructed an Urban Fantasy world where the Demons and Monsters are registered and monitored in our world.  It’s different and has me staying up all night just to finish it in one sitting.

FTC Full Disclosure:  I received this book from the publisher who only asked for a fair and impartial review.

Must Love Vampires will Bite you in the Funny Bone

Must Love Vampires

By Heidi Betts

Copyright October 2011

Publisher Brava

 

Love At First Bite
Nightclub dancer Chloe Lamoureaux just met the man of her dreams: Aidan Raines is charming, considerate, rich, and hot. Of course, he’s a little mysterious about his age. And his favorite drink. And he’s not much for sunlight. But he’s asked her to marry him, and she’s ready to do it. Sure, she has a few secrets too—but they’ll have plenty of time to work things out while they’re living happily ever after. Right?

Her identical twin sister, Chuck, isn’t so sure. Maybe reporting for the local Bigfoot-sighting tabloid doesn’t make her an expert, but to Chuck, Aidan and his brother Sebastian look like honest-to-Dracula vampires. Especially Sebastian: beguiling, seductive, and just a hint of dangerous. Maybe she wouldn’t mind him taking a little taste. But with Chloe’s life in the balance, she has to know—do they want hot love or hot blood? Or maybe…a little of both?

I will freely admit to being a Paranormal Romance lover.  Love at First Bite is a look into the life of twin sisters plans for their lives are very different. First you have Chloe, who is a Showgirl, and to all appearances a first class gold digger.  She’s got her secrets just like everyone does, and is out to make her life easier and financially secure.

The other twin is Chuck (Charlotte) a reporter for one of those Supermarket Papers where she specialized in bending the story line a bit to sell papers.  She’s on the trail of a story and needed to switch places with her sister to make it work.  Chloe was more than happy to do it since it gave her a night out with her very rich boyfriend.

Now if you’re wondering how Chuck can take her sister’s place, that’s easy. Both of them are accomplished dancers, having studied since they were small girls.  Their mother was a showgirl before them.  If this is getting confusing, don’t worry about it.  Just read the book and it will all be made crystal clear.

I loved the way the plotting of the story is done from each sister’s point of view.  I also love the way the Boyfriend and HIS brother are two totally different personalities also.  Heidi has written a “can’t put it down till I’m done story” and I think it’s a real hit.

Heidi Betts is a multi published author with well over 30 books in print, both in English and Foreign editions.  She can be found at http://heidibetts.com/ and also at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=658412777&sk=info

FTC Full Disclosure: This book was sent to me by the publisher asking only for a fair review if I read it.

Sealed With a Kill is a Must Read Mystery

Sealed With a Kill

By Lucy Lawrence

Copyright March 2011

Publisher Berkeley Prime Crime

 

Autumn in New England brings out the changing leaves, and the leaves bring out the tourists. When Brenna Miller gets stuck as the tour guide for a group of leaf peepers, she tries to make the best of it. But it’s hard to stay enthusiastic after the trial leads them straight to a dead body.

When Brenna Miller gets stuck as a tour guide for a group of leaf peepers, she tries to make the best of it. They can collect leaves for Brenna’s decoupage class, and it’ll be a great draw for the shop she runs with her boss and best friend, Tenley Morse. But it’s hard to stay enthusiastic after the trail leads them straight to a dead body.

At least Brenna has nothing to do with the investigation this time around—until she learns that the victim was Tenley’s father’s business partner. Now it’s up to Brenna to ensure that Morse Point’s namesake family doesn’t take the fall before the crafty killer puts the finishing touches on a perfect crime…

 

Brenna’s day started out as usual, she was with the Porter sisters (twins who were almost 70yrs young) when Ella Porter notices Nate William’s truck going by with a young woman seated next to him. Nate pulls into the Communal Parking lot and pulls up next to them, getting out of his truck.  He introduces them to Siobhan Dwyer who he explains is Brenna’s new neighbor and will be moving into the cabin next to hers.

Siobhan looks the trio over in a desultory manner, basically dismissing them.  This is our introduction to the third book in the “Decoupage Mystery series”.   Brenna is (according to some folks in town) a murder magnet. If there’s a dead body around, it will surface somewhere she is bound to be.  So when she is asked by a friend to take his leaf peeper tour only the tourists with her are surprised to find a body covered by leaves along the forest trail.  Brenna will need all her wits and skills about her as she gets drawn into the investigation and works to clear her best friend’s father from the murder charges.

Sealed With a Kill is the third book in this series and I think it’s going to be a long running series bringing us years of reading pleasure.

Lucy Lawrence AKA Jennifer McKinlay can be found at http://www.jennmckinlay.com/

FTC Full Disclosure: I won this book in a Goodreads.com giveaway and decided to review it.

FB Has Changed the Rules, Read this notice

Facebook apparently has rules for pages that nobody knows about/pays attention to. But Facebook is serious, and they’ve updated the rules today.

These rules I’m referring to are about promotions/contests run on Facebook. They aren’t directed solely at authors, of course, but since many authors routinely post contests on Facebook through their author pages, I thought I should bring attention to this issue. Turns out that if you don’t follow the rules, Facebook can and will delete your page at any time and without warning.

First, feel free to read the Facebook rules straight from the company itself. It’s in pretty plain English.

However, for those of who would rather read my summary, please pay attention.

According to Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines (which includes contests, although they define them differently than how we commonly use the term), we:

1) May NOT hold a contest on our Facebook pages unless it is administered through a third party app and is placed on a unique page tab or canvas page.

2) Must disclose that participants are giving information to us and not to Facebook; must acknowledge to participants that the contest is not sponsored, endorsed, or associated with Facebook; and must have participants somehow acknowledge that they release Facebook from any liability.

3) May NOT use any part of Facebook’s features or functionality to enter participants in the contest. This means participants cannot be required to like a status/picture, comment on a status/picture, enter their own status/picture, or even like the page as a condition to be entered into the contest.

***You should read this last one again. If I’m reading this correctly, it means that we can no longer hold “Like my page and I’ll give away a Kindle when I reach 5,000 fans” contests.***

(Note: If you read the rules on the Facebook link, #3 and #4 are in clear contrast as #4 says you CAN do this. However, as #3 is the update to what I read just last week, I’m certain that it holds the most weight and Facebook will probably clear this up soon.)

4) May NOT use any Facebook features or functionality (such as asking people to “Like” something) in order to receive votes for a promotion. (I have to admit I’m not really sure I’ve ever seen anything like this; if someone can clue me in, please do.)

5) May NOT use Facebook to notify winners of any contest whether held on Facebook through the third party app or on a separate website (such as our author websites). This notification includes posting on our own walls, posting on winners’ walls, chats, and direct messages.

6) May NOT use Facebook in the name of a promotion (such as “Check out the Ashley March Facebook Contest”), nor any trademarks, copyrights, intellectual properties. We may NOT use Facebook in the rules and materials of any contest except as stated above in #2 as required. (Note: Because all of these rules are meant to govern us if we “communicate or administer a promotion” on Facebook, I believe this guideline specifically applies to what we post or link to on Facebook about a contest; see below for a run-around.)

In my opinion, what does this all mean for us? I don’t blame Facebook for protecting itself, but it definitely limits us to the point where we can ONLY communicate on the site. Of course, the point of having social media is to interact with readers, but I know a ton of readers who enjoy Facebook contests and a lot of authors (including myself) who have ran “Like Me” contests in the past in order to increase the number of readers on their page.

In essence, the only things we CAN do are:

1) Use Facebook to mention and provide links to contests we are holding elsewhere (unless it’s a Facebook contest; see below).

2) Continue to run “Like Me” contests on our author websites. However, we can only use Facebook to monitor the number of people who become a fan. We can’t use Facebook to advertise the contest because of #6 above and we can’t use Facebook to notify winners. Publicity for “Like Me” contests will have to come through Twitter (yay, Twitter, my new best friend!), newsletters, our own websites, etc.

3) Announce that you’ll run a contest AFTER you get a certain number of “Likes.” Then run the contest on a separate tab through the third party app or on your own website.

All of this is a big blow to author promotion, and I know some people are going to continue running contests as they see fit anyway. For me, however, I’m going to be following the rules simply because I don’t want to find out one day that my page has been deleted. If you know of any authors who are running contests on Facebook or are otherwise violating these rules, please let them know!