Jane Litte's Blog, page 875

Giveaway and Excerpt: Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet by Darynda Jones

Are you enjoying the Giveaways + Excerpt posts? I have a new one this week. Darynda Jones’ fourth book in her grim reaper series released on October 30. It was a hardcover but here is an opportunity to try Jones out at no cost, low risk (it’s only your time!).

Just enter using the Rafflecopter widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt under the spoiler tag:

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Daily Deals: A few holiday titles for the budget conscious

[image error] The Bite Before Christmas by Lynsay Sands Jeaniene Frost. $ .99

From the Jacket Copy:

This holiday season, join two of today’s most popular paranormal authors for a special look into their worlds, where creatures are always stirring and no one sleeps through the night. . . . The Bite Before Christmas

The Gift by Lynsay Sands

Teddy Brunswick knows about the immortals among us. He’s worked with them, called them friend—but he never counted on being snowed in with one over Christmas. Katricia Argene...

REVIEW: Running Wild by Linda Howard, Linda Jones

Dear Ms. Howard and Ms. Jones:

I’ve read one collaboration by you before and it was a … less than successfully executed paranormal romance. I had low expectations going into this book but I was secretly hopeful. Linda Howard’s books remain some of my favorite in the genre. I keep waiting for the magic to happen again.

[image error]Running Wild is successful on two fronts. The blend of authorial voices is seamless. I can’t tell one from the other. Second it is much more romance focused than any of the recent...

REVIEW: Monsoon Wedding Fever by Shoma Narayanan

Dear Mrs Narayanan,

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the first offerings from Harlequin Indian writers and was psyched when Jane told Sunita and me that she had a copy of your first book “Monsoon Wedding Fever.” But just to support the effort, I bought my own copy when it became available at Harlequin.com last month. Overall, I’m glad I read it though the review will probably sound otherwise.

[image error]Riya Kumar and Dhruv Malhotra had a budding romance twelve years ago in college but suddenly Dhruv pulled bac...

Tuesday News: Fake Facebook Update Status; Android usage down; One company seeks to teach the world to code

Beware the False Privacy Notice Posted All Over Facebook – A fake copyright notice spread around Facebook yesterday claiming that under the “Berner Convention” if you declared your copyright over uploaded photos and facebook statuses, you would be able to prevent Facebook from reusing them without your permission. There is no Berner Convention, it’s the Berne Convention and the terms of service may or may not control the copyright. I say may not because terms of service are becoming increasin...

An interview with Kate Cuthbert from Escape Publishing, Harlequin Australia’s Digital First Imprint

Escape Publishing is the digital first imprint from Harlequin Australia. They are current touring the romance blogosphere. Escape currently has five books available for purchase and are open for submissions. Escape Publishing offered me the opportunity to ask a few questions, which I did. The following are Ms. Cuthbert’s answers.[image error]

1) What will Escape Publishing offer readers different from Riva or the new Harlequin Kiss line?

Escape is doing two things that are a bit different: first, we’re real...

REVIEW: Angel in Chains by Cynthia Eden

Dear Ms. Eden:

I saw a lot of twitter chatter about this book a couple of months ago amongst reviewers. I had a copy of the ARC sent to me by Kensington so I figured it wouldn’t be a big hassle to at least give the story a try. While this is the third in the series, I did not feel like I needed to read the first two. In fact, given that the hero of this story was the villain in the previous two, I might have been more receptive to the character’s placement as the hero in the book.

[image error]Azriel was an...

REVIEW: With Everything I Am by Kristen Ashley

Dear Ms. Ashley:

2012 was definitely “The Year of Kristen Ashley” for me. I read about 20 of your books. And then I read most of them again. Generally speaking, your contemporary romances work better for me than your paranormals, as I find your world building to be occasionally half-hearted. I don’t say this as a criticism so much as I believe that you’re wholeheartedly focused on building the romance between your protagonists, and building a paranormal world draws your attention from the roma...

Daily Deals: Cyber Monday book deals

The original Kindle Fire is on sale for $129.00
All Romance is offering 50% rebate all discount eligible books. Look for the “crown” icons to indicate rebate eligible books.
The entire Open Road Media catalog is 80% off. These prices are reflected at your favorite retailer.
Kobo has 80% off deals and 50% off deals. Cyber Monday Only. The 80% off deals are mostly Open Road titles.

Note: the publication of deals will return to 2:0o pm CST after today.

[image error] Crooked Hearts by Patricia Gaffney. $ 1.99

From t...

Monday News: New stalking laws in the UK; Useless Websites; Integrity of science journals in jeopardy; Algorithms misused

[image error]

Original here

Facebook Removes Risqué Photograph of Woman Showing an Elbow – A website posted a picture of a woman in a bathtub where only her head, shoulders and elbows could be seen. The picture was taken down by Facebook for indecency. (Of course, 12 Year Old Sluts is okay, but elbows are not). According to one of the commenters, Facebook uses an algorithm to detect skin tone and if skin tone pixels account for a certain percentage of the entire picture, the image is flagged or moderated. I...