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
October 2015 Book of the Month & Giveaway
November 18, 2015 06:22 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
I had no five-star reads in September, so I'm fast-forwarding to October. My favorite book from that month's reading is a Regency-set historical romance by one of my favorite authors. It features a heroine who, by day, is a mild-mannered widow, teaching young girls the social graces, but by night, she masquerades as the Black Angel, a super-hero style avenger of wrongs perpetrated on women and children, generally by men of the upper classes. She also has a Robin Hood-esque streak in her, robbing from the wealthy to give to the underprivileged. Our hero is a dissolute rake who leads a scandalous life, but his reasons for doing so are sympathetic. He knows he's not a charming gentleman like his best friend, and it pains him that he can't keep a woman – not even one he's paying – around for more than a few months. When our heroine mistakenly unleashes her avenging angel persona on him, thinking he's a terrible person after witnessing his latest mistress leaving in a huff, it's to great comic effect. But when she starts to get to know him on a more personal level as his neighbor, she quickly realizes her faux pas. But making amends without revealing her secret identity is going to be tricky, not to mention, she has a Bow Street Runner on her tail that could prove deadly if she's discovered.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Liz Carlyle
August 2015 Book of the Month & Giveaway
September 24, 2015 05:35 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My favorite five-star read for the month of August is a brand new contemporary romance/family saga by a wildly popular author. It's also the start of her new series of the same name. Now some readers – even some of the author's staunchest fans – admittedly didn't like this one as much as her others. The most common complaint I heard was that it's too much like a soap-opera. Well, I'll admit that it is. In fact, it strongly reminded me of the old '80's nighttime soaps like Dallas, Dynasty, or Falcon Crest. From me, however, that's a huge compliment, because I loved those shows, and I've been a regular viewer of some of the daytime soaps in the past too.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: J. R. Ward
July 2015 Book of the Month & Giveaway
August 24, 2015 06:00 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
My favorite five-star read for the month of July is the fifth novel in a long-running, epic historical fiction series that is filled with romance, adventure, mystery, Scottish Highlanders, details of life in Colonial America, and a touch of science-fiction in its time travel element. Yes, I'm talking about the amazing Outlander series. I just can't get enough of my most beloved romantic hero, Jamie Fraser, and the love of his life, Claire. These two have captured my imagination in a way that few character's do, and I would literally read anything the author chooses to write about them. In the more than two decades since I started reading this series, no one else has been able to supplant them as my favorite romantic couple. Theirs is a love worthy of legendary status. In this volume, though, their daughter, Brianna, and her now husband, Roger, are front and center as well, afforded nearly as many scenes as Jamie and Claire. While theirs perhaps isn't quite as compelling of a romance as Jamie and Claire's, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading about them. The narrative of this book seems to ebb and flow between more exciting scenes and quieter moments, but in spite of the slower parts, I still found myself eager for the next book when this one ended. That's why I'm naming Diana Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross as my July Book of the Month. If you enjoy historical fiction, historical romance, or time travel stories, and haven't read this wonderful book yet, you should definitely give it a try. Keep reading to learn how you can win a copy for your own library.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
