Jane Litte's Blog, page 895

First Page: Bad Magic

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When Regis was a child, his mother told him a fairytale about a man trapped in a tower, cursed by a sorceress and guarded by a dragon, waiting to be awoken by his true love. Regis, five years old and no fool, hadn’t b...

Daily Deals: Four books by NY Times Bestselling authors for $1

These are deals good at both Amazon and Sony. You can check the whole Sony

[image error] The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty Trilogy) by Anne Rice. $2.99.

From Jacket Copy:

Before E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, there was Anne Rice’s New York Times best seller The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty In the traditional folktale of “Sleeping Beauty,” the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story,...

REVIEW: The Demoness of Waking Dreams by Stephanie Chong

Dear Ms. Chong:

I hope that Harlequin isn’t marketing this as a romance because I can foresee a lot of unhappy readers if it was. The Demonness of Waking Dreams asks the readers to step into an Alternate Universe Venice and imagine that the world is populated by demons and angels who are engaged in some kind of battle, although it isn’t clear in the beginning. Nothing is clear in the beginning. Not what the two sides are fighting over. Not what differentiates the two sides. Part of this may be...

REVIEW: Flirting with Intent by Kelly Hunter

“Ruby’s Relationship Rules…

Ruby Maguire is done with being jerked around by men. Now she just needs to know three things about a potential bedmate: his name, where he’ll be in a week’s time and what it is he wants from her.

Damon West knows plenty about subterfuge and secrets, and nothing about being truthful with women. But Ruby demands honesty between them so Damon gives her as much as he can: I’m Damon West. I’ll be leaving Singapore in a week. And I want you to touch me.

At least, that was...

Friday Film Review: Shelter

[image error]Shelter (2007)

Genre: GLBT Romance

Grade: B

This movie had been mentioned so many times on other movie reviews here and at Netflix that I knew I needed to see it. I’m probably going to disappoint a lot of people with my grade but while I liked it, it ultimately comes across to me as a candy fluff film. Sweet, likeable, nice while it lasts but not something that will stick with me very long.

“Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach (Trevor Wright) spends his days working a dead-end job a...

Friday News: Huge win for fair use; ComiXology to accept self published comics; New ebook app has security concerns

[image error]

Image via Big Stock Photo

Author’s Guild v Hathi Trust: A Win for Copyright’s Public Interest Purpose – Nancy Sims has a really fantastic write up of the Hathi Trust Fair Use win from yesterday. Hathi Trust is a consortium of five majority universities who built a digital library of over 10 million books, over 76% that are still in copyright. This digital library was built, in part, by Google’s scanning efforts that are being sued separately. The Authors’ Guild and others sued Hathi Trust for...

Daily Deals: Four series romances for one dollar

The following deals are good at Amazon and Sony (for the ePub readers)

[image error] Virgin River by Robyn Carr. $1.

From Jacket Copy:

Wanted: Midwife/nurse practitioner in Virgin River, population six hundred. Make a difference against the backdrop of towering California redwoods and crystal-clear rivers. Rent-free cabin included.

When the recently widowed Melinda Monroe sees this ad she quickly decides that the remote mountain town of Virgin River might be the perfect place to escape her heartache, and to r...

REVIEW: No Matter What by Janice Kay Johnson

Dear Ms. Johnson:

HSRs are known to be issue books and sometimes the issues are so prominent that they overtake the book and that was the case for me in “No Matter What”.

[image error]Molly Callahan has a fifteen year old daughter, Caitlyn, who is dating Trevor Ward whom Molly views as a trouble maker from her position as Vice Principal at the high school. Trevor walked in at the start of the school year and turned everyone’s heads, even a few of the younger female teachers. Fights with other students and a...

REVIEW: Midnight Scandals by Courtney Milan,Sherry Thomas,Carolyn Jewel

Disclaimer: Robin aka Janet does freelance editing and she edited this novella. Sunita received the ARC and neither saw the book in earlier forms nor talked about with with Robin or any of the authors.

Dear Ms. Jewel, Ms. Milan, and Ms. Thomas,

I’ve been waiting for this anthology since I first heard about it last spring. The authors are among the strongest writing historical romance today and the premise linking the three novellas is clever and unusual: each is set in the same location but i...

Thursday News: Bent Objects; Apple destroys secrecy; Questionable free speech issue

Yesterday around 3-4 pm CST, Amazon engaged in some weird pricing shenanigans with several books (who knows how many) getting a 31% off treatment. Initially some on the Amazon boards thought it signaled the end of agency for Simon & Schuster but after investigating, I noticed that several Macmillan books were also 31% off. I’m not sure whether it was a pricing glitch, a signal that S&S books are about to be freed from agency deals or what. But if you are a price watcher, some of your favorite...