September 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway #1
October 9, 2016 04:33 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
I had two five-star reads in September, and OMG, what reads they were! Normally when I have multiple five-star reads, one stands out a little above the other, so I would choose that one to highlight and give away. But this month, I simply couldn’t. Each of my favorite reads couldn’t be more different from one another if they tried, but each touched me in a deep and indelible way that I couldn’t ignore. That’s probably why I couldn’t make up my mind between them. That’s great news for you, my readers, though, because my indecision means you get a chance to win two incredible books this month.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Barbara Kingsolver
August 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway
September 9, 2016 07:31 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
August was an excellent reading month for me, mostly consisting of five-star reads, but one stood out a little above all the others. It’s the second installment of a new family saga from an insanely popular author that’s filled with drama, angst, mystery and yes, romance. It’s all about the incredibly dysfunctional Baldwine family trying to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the family patriarch’s presumed suicide that soon starts looking like murder instead. It’s also about all of the dirty deeds in which he engaged prior to his death that have ripped the family to shreds and nearly destroyed their bourbon-making business that’s been the family’s legacy for centuries, and how the members of the family must start pulling together to survive the fall-out. I’m totally hooked by this series and can’t wait to read more.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
July 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway
August 5, 2016 07:27 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My favorite read from July is an oldie (it was first published over 20 years ago) but a goodie. Just like with my June Book of the Month, the hero is a bad boy and the heroine is good girl and his perfect foil. However, this time it’s a contemporary romance that full of the emotion and passion that I love, while still having a suspenseful mystery on the side that’s constantly lurking in the background begging to be solved. The story contained a lot of my favorite romance tropes, like older woman/younger man and opposite sides of the track. The supporting cast was stellar, showing the darker of side of small-town life. Overall, it was yet another perfect read that left me with a smile on my face and a sigh at the end.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Karen Robards
June 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway
August 5, 2016 07:03 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My favorite book from my June reading was, once again, the latest book in one of my all-time favorite series. This time, though, it’s a masterfully written historical romance that’s filled with complex characters, especially the hero, as well as dastardly villains of whom the hero can sometimes be one. Because of this, I wasn’t certain if I could come to fall for him in the way I want to every time I read a romance, so I went into the story with a little trepidation about whether he might do nasty things I couldn’t stomach, along with a healthy dose of skepticism as to whether he could be convincingly redeemed. Even though I’m now keenly aware that not all readers agree with me, I, personally, was very pleased with how everything turned out and that I did indeed fall for the hero despite his villainous actions. That for me is the mark of a very, very good author.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Elizabeth Hoyt
April 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway
July 5, 2016 03:23 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
Yeah, I know. I’m extremely tardy getting this post up. I hope readers will forgive me, but I was crazy busy during the month of May with preparations to attend the Romance Novel Convention at the beginning of June. Since returning, I’ve been struggling to get back into the swing of things.
I actually had several five-star reads in April, but my favorite was the latest release in one of my all-time favorite series, The Black Dagger Brotherhood. It revisits a couple who were front and center way back in the second book of the series and expands upon their HEA, while also continuing the storylines for many other secondary characters of whom we’re bound to see much more in future books. As is typical for this series, there are lots of things going on which made the book very hard to put down.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
March 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway
April 28, 2016 07:42 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My only five-star read in March was an oldie but a goodie. It was the second book written by one of my favorite authors and equally as good as the first. It’s the story of a spoiled princess and the man she’s loved all her life. But despite his reciprocal affection for her and all his successes in life, he can’t shake the feeling that his origins as a street urchin make him unworthy of a woman of royal blood. It was a deeply emotional and romantic read that I could hardly put down.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Gaelen Foley
February 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway
April 4, 2016 06:41 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My favorite five-star read from February was a small-town, contemporary, western romance by one of my favorite authors. It has also become my favorite thus far in the series of which it’s a part. It’s filled with tender romance, family drama, and a light mystery that kept me fully engaged, and I was very impressed with how deftly the author juggled a diverse and extensive character palette. It was simply an all-around great read that I really enjoyed.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Catherine Anderson
January 2016 Book of the Month & Giveaway
March 2, 2016 03:58 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My favorite book from my January reading was quite possibly the sweetest romance I've ever read. It's a tender story filled with human emotions that really tug at the heartstrings. IMHO, it would be a perfect book to turn into a Hallmark Channel movie. It had been quite a while since I'd read a historical romance set on the old west, and this was a great book to reinvigorate my interest in this romance sub-genre.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Cheryl St. John
December 2015 Book of the Month & Giveaway
January 20, 2016 10:15 AM Posted by juliannadouglas
December was another great reading month for me. I had multiple five-star reads that month, so it was very difficult to pick my favorite. I ended up choosing the hottest, steamiest book I read. It's an erotic romance with not one... not two… but three incredibly sexy heroes. They and our heroine have been best friends since childhood when they met while playing at the border of her parents' property and their amazing foster mother's property. Now that they're adults, all three men are madly in love with her and don't want to make her have to choose between them. They know it's going to take a lot of work and patience, but they've devised a plan in which they'll all share her. The only problem is that after experiencing a mind-blowing night of passion with them a year earlier, she went running scared.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Maya Banks
November 2015 Book of the Month & Giveaway
January 4, 2016 03:28 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
Due to the busy nature of the holidays, I fell behind on my Book of the Month posts, so I'm excited to finally bring you some new reading recommendations. November was an excellent reading month for me. Four out of the five books I read that month ended up receiving five stars from me. That must be some kind of record.:-) I had a hard time deciding which one to highlight as my book of the month, but since my focus as both a reader and a writer is romance, I ultimately decided on the only one that was actually a romance novel. It's the second in a series that isn't quite like anything I've ever read before. It's kind of a family saga, except in this case, the family is a band of three brothers who grew up together in foster care and are unrelated by blood. In their case, though, they couldn't be closer if they were blood brothers. They were all abused, both in their foster home and before by their blood families, so they made a commitment to always look out for one another.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Debra Anastasia, Poughkeepsie
