Guest Blogger: Ivy Adams

Give a whiny welcome to Ivy Adams, our pal and the author of the new young adult  novel, The International Kissing Club:

Piper, Cassidy, Mei and Izzy are the misfits of Paris, Texas.  For sixteen years, they've dreamed of escaping the stifling fishbowl of life in their small Texas town.  When Piper is the victim of an embarrassing prank, she ends up kissing a pig in front of the entire town.  And when the video footage goes viral, the girls decide there's nowhere in America left to hide.  They grab their passports and sign up for an international exchange program in search of life, love and internet redemption.

To make their time in France, Australia and China (or at home, in Izzy's case) more interesting, the girls launch the IKC fan page where they record each kiss while abroad.  Lucky for them, amazing guys abound at every turn.  But sometimes fun, flirty vacation flings turn into more serious romances, and sometimes you don't return the same person you were when you left.  Will the girls' relationships—and their friendships—be able to survive?

I was talking to my mother the other day about the selection of books at Target and Costo(she's a die-hard romance reader and has been since she had to cross into Canada from Detroit to get Harlequins) and she admitted to being really disappointed with what they carried.  Not necessarily with the books out right now at Barnes and Noble, but with the books that the discount retailers were choosing to pick up.  The selection is dwindling, in her opinion.

I, too, have noticed the shrinking shelf space allotted to books in recent months, especially in the women's fiction and romance genre.  While my Costco carries an abundance of bestsellers geared towards men, I only have a choice of two or three of my favorite authors.  "Why is that?" my mom asked.  To me, the answer is abundantly clear, but I've been wrong before, so I thought I'd ask all of you.

The answer, in my opinion, is e-readers.   A bunch of studies have been done in the last year or so on who the typical ebook reader is.  What the studies show is that she is an upper middle class woman between the ages of 30 and 50, who likes to read romance and women's fiction.

Now we all know that that demographic is changing—the Kindle Fire and iPad are changing it—but the fact of the matter is, the people who read electronically the most are women just like me.  And I'm guessing, if you're a regular at this blog, women like you as well.   So, what the writer in me would like to do today, is ask you how you all feel about e-readers?  Do you own one?  Do you use it regularly, if you do own one?  And if you don't, do you want to own one?  Or are you stuck on the feel of a book in your hands?

I have a Nook and I use it regularly, because it's easy and convenient and I can get a book at three in the morning when my insomnia strikes and Barnes and Noble is closed.  But at the same time, I admit that I still love to hold a book in my hands.  I love the smell of new books that overwhelms me whenever I walk into a Barnes and Noble and I love trolling up and down the aisles looking for a book that leaps off the shelf at me.  Just the other day, my author copies from my latest young adult contemporary release, The International Kissing Club, arrived and I squealed like a little girl when I opened it.  I took the books out, poured over every detail of them—including the hot pink foil lettering, the airplanes scooting between the sections and the yellow bellyband at the top of the binding.  No matter how convenient my Nook is, it can never give me that same feeling, that same excitement.

So while I understand that e-readers really are the future, I would be lying if I said I won't miss the print book.   How about you?  How do you like to read your books?  Leave a comment and be entered to win the daily prize and the weekly prize in our Around the World in 80 Kisses tour (listed at tracy-deebs.blogspot.com) and the grand prize of a Kindle Fire (to be announced on Valentine's Day), so you too can join the e-reader revolution . 

[From Julia:  Hey!  That's TWO Kindle Fires to be given away!  All you have to do is leave a comment and be entered to win one of TWO Kindle Fires.  Pop over to the address above and leave another comment to increase your chances].

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