Rebecca Hunter's Blog, page 13

Amazon Giveaway: Stockholm Diaries, Melanie

  Click on this link to enter my first Amazon giveaway! The prize: One of four paperback copies of Stockholm Diaries, Melanie.   I'm at the beginning of my writing career, so mostly I'm just focusing on writing good books and getting some solid reviews. But I've also started testing some promotional tools for writers, mostly to see what they do. After hearing from other authors about their experiences with Amazon giveaways, I decided to try out my own.   The offer is similar to that of a

Looking Back: 2015 in Reading

Some highlights from my 2015 reading (not necessarily published in 2015):   Best contemporary romance: Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas Best paranormal romance (a category I didn’t even know I liked!): Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh Best erotic romance: Willing Victim by Cara McKenna Best historical fiction: The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne Best angsty, dark, don’t-want-to-even-admit-I’m-reading-this-stuff romance: Ruin and Rule by Pepper Winters Best literary fiction: Euphoria by Lily King

Grey by E.L.James

  Yep, I’m writing about it. Why? I decided that I—a student of what makes romance stories work—couldn't ignore a book that so clearly works for so many readers.   But I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to put my money behind the book, so I check it out from the library. Note: I waited on long ebook hold list in my intellectually minded little Northern California library system, again attesting to the popularity of Ana and Christian’s story.   I’ll stay away from whether or not I liked the

Euphoria by Lily King

  This is beautifully written fiction loosely based on the period Margaret Mead’s life where she and her then-husband, when they meet up with the man who will became Mead’s next husband (in real life) in New Guinea. Intrigued? I knew little about Mead before I read this book, but the premise of this love triangle was enough to get the attention of my romance brain.   I read Euphoria with my long-time book group, and our two-hour discussion didn’t come close to covering all the idea this book

Anyone checking out Booklikes?

I’m in the middle of a review for Lily King’s Euphoria, which I should be posting in the next day or so, but I thought I’d put up a quick note about a new (or new-to-me, at least) reader site I just discovered. It’s called Booklikes, and it seems relatively unexplored.   So like any curious author out there, I signed up for an account, just to see how it works. Interestingly, I had the option of importing my reviews from Goodreads or LibraryThing to get me started.   As a reader, I rely on

X-It by Jane George

  X-It is not the kind of book that you find on romance blogs or top romance lists, though not because the book isn’t good. It is—good, I mean. Great even.   But this book eschews all romance expectations, and it explores a kind of attraction and love that I rarely see in romance fiction.   The setting—gritty 80s New York, alphabet city, and its punk/drug/club/art scene—doesn’t lend itself to melodramatic emotional explorations and muscle-bound alpha males. Instead, we follow J.J., fresh from

Willing Victim by Cara McKenna

  First, let me begin with the disclaimer that McKenna herself writes on the blurb for this book:   “Reader Advisory: Although all sex acts are 100-percent consensual, Willing Victim contains role-playing scenarios that may upset some readers who are sensitive about rape, even in a simulated capacity.”   Whoa, right? I’ve heard about this book many time since the beginning of my romance binge almost two years ago, but I’ve never picked it up because… well, because I wasn’t sure it was for me.

Romance Debuts Author Interview

Today I'm featured on the blog, Romance Debuts. This is a great site to discover new, up-and-coming authors as well as new series by established authors. Come stop by! https://romancedebuts.wordpress.com/2...

Stockholm Diaries, Melanie Release!

  A biographer, a little island in the Stockholm archipelago and the sexy man she finds there...   Today's the day! Stockholm Diaries, Melanie is available on Kindle/Kindle Unlimited. Paperback is coming soon. Thanks to all those who preordered.   This book is an island romance and focuses a lot on the characters' emotional development. I hope you enjoy it!   Here's how I described the ideas behind the book on Goodreads:   "This is book #3 in the Stockholm Diaries series (#2 will be Caroline's

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

  I'm going to flip the order of this review around (no spoilers) and simply say this: The end of this book is beautiful. The characters and the plot come together in a way that is magical, both within the story proper and from the perspective of the reader. The idea of magic is subtly woven into a Nazi Germany/occupied France plot so that as we read this meeting of all the forces at the end, we readers feel the magic in what the characters experience in sharing a jar of peaches (I hope that’s