Black Lace Butterfly Choker + Butterfly Serenade eBook Giveaway
May 15, 2022 05:06 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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This month, for my second giveaway, I’m offering a pretty black lace butterfly choker with black bead accents. This delicate necklace will be a lovely fashion accessory for your wardrobe. In addition, the winner will also receive an eBook copy of my book Butterfly Serenade. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for your chance to win. Good luck! International Entrants: You are welcome to enter my contest, but due to the high cost of shipping overseas, if the winner chosen is outside the US, they will receive the eBook prize, along with a $5 Amazon gift card instead of the butterfly choker. |
Please note that the gift card will be issued from Amazon.com (the US site), as I am unable to purchase one on any international Amazon sites. It’s my understanding, however, that the card can only be used to purchase items on Amazon.com, and not any other Amazon sites. So please be aware of this limitation before entering.
Categories: Giveaways
Tags: Butterfly Serenade
April 2022 Book of the Month Giveaway
May 15, 2022 04:54 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
During April, I read four full-length novels, two short stories, and one children’s book. All of them rated four stars or higher, but aside from one of the short stories, which is already available for free, the only one that received the full five-stars from me to be featured here was the children’s book. It’s a middle-grade, mystery, adventure story about Stanley Yelnats who believes that his family is cursed because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Whether they’re actually cursed is up for debate, but they’ve certainly had a run of bad luck, the most recent of which is Stanley being falsely accused of stealing a valuable pair of sneakers. The judge gives him the choice of going to jail or going to Camp Green Lake, a boy’s reform camp. Stanley chooses the camp, thinking it will be the better of the two options, but at camp he quickly discovers that every day each boy is required to dig a hole that is exactly five feet in diameter and five feet deep. The people who run the camp say it builds character, but when he finds a small gold tube, he quickly realizes that the Warden and her cronies are actually looking for something, probably something valuable. Along the way, Stanley also makes friends with a loner nicknamed Zero, whom he teaches how to read. The two boys help each other out, and eventually through a series of misadventures, they finally discover exactly what the Warden is up to.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Louis Sachar
Mother of Pearl Teardrop Earrings + eBook Giveaway
April 17, 2022 05:30 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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This month for my second giveaway, I’m offering a pretty pair of earrings by 1928. They have a teardrop design in light green Mother of Pearl with a cluster of three faux diamonds above, as well as another stud on the post. In addition, the winner will receive an eBook copy of any one of my books, winner’s choice. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for your chance to win. Good luck! |
Categories: Giveaways
Tags: Butterfly Serenade, Heart of the Season, Hearts Ignite in the Desert, His Heart's Desire, The Key to Her Heart
March 2022 Book of the Month Giveaway
April 17, 2022 05:22 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
During March, I read four full-length books, a novella, and two short stories. There were a few of so-so reads among them, but overall, most of them were quite good, with two receiving five stars from me. However, one stood out slightly above the other. It’s an erotic, historical romance, the first I’ve read by this author and the first in a planned quartet, that received a lot of buzz when it was first published quite a number of years ago. Passion is a widow who endured an unhappy marriage. While browsing the exhibits at the Crystal Palace one day, she’s rescued from being clobbered by a falling potted palm by a man who awakens a side of herself she’d thought lost. His mere touch inflames her in such a way that she can’t resist the pull of his allure, so when he draws her behind an ornate screen, she eagerly accepts all that he has to offer. They make love right there in the museum and make plans to do the same for the next few days. When Passion’s visits to the Crystal Palace come to an end, Mark insists that they must continue to see each other and starts climbing the trellis to her bedroom window every night. Soon, their encounters deepen far beyond mere sex until they both know that they don’t want to live without one another. But Mark is being blackmailed by a social-climbing commoner who has dirt on his mother. He doesn’t care much about the woman who birthed him, but if the information gets out it would hurt his brother as well, something he’s determined not to let happen. But the price that’s being exacted from him is nothing short of marriage to the vile blackmailer’s daughter. Mark plans to do what he must to protect his family, while hoping to keep Passion as his mistress. But when Passion discovers that his betrothed is none other than her own beloved cousin, she can’t bring herself to continue their affair, leaving them both brokenhearted.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Lisa Valdez
Cat's Eye Necklace + Loving Hearts eBook Giveaway
March 20, 2022 05:12 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
This month for my second giveaway, I’m offering a cat’s eye necklace. It features a red stone pendant clasped between silver claws dangling from a black cord. In addition, the winner will receive an eBook copy of any one of my Loving Hearts books, winner’s choice.
Categories: Giveaways
Tags: Heart of the Season, Hearts Ignite in the Desert, His Heart's Desire, The Key to Her Heart
February 2022 Book of the Month Giveaway
March 20, 2022 05:04 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
During February, I read five full-length books and two short stories. There were a couple of so-so reads among them, but overall, most of them were really good, making my decision as to which book would be named my Book of the Month a little harder this time. Ultimately the one that came out on top is a paranormal romance by a favorite author that’s part of a favorite series of mine. This one follows SnowDancer wolves Indigo and Drew. Indigo is a dominant female and a pack lieutenant, while Drew is the pack’s tracker. Drew has been crazy about Indigo for a while, but she’s been trying to keep their relationship friends-only. She worries that getting involved with a male who is both younger and less dominant could lead to disaster. But tired of waiting for her to come around, Drew pulls out all the stops to prove to Indigo that she’s the only wolf for him. Meanwhile, the threat from Pure Psy, the Psy faction that’s determined to maintain Silence no matter the cost, is rising, and Indigo and Drew discover evidence of a Psy incursion onto SnowDancer land. With the help of their alpha, Hawke, and the rest of the pack, they must figure out what the Psy’s new game is and stop it before serious damage is done, but a climactic battle with the Psy could put Indigo and Drew’s relationship in jeopardy before she’s even had a chance to decide whether he’s her perfect mate after all.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Nalini Singh
Pretty Butterfly Watch + Butterfly Serenade eBook Giveaway
February 20, 2022 04:41 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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For my second giveaway this month, I’m offering a lovely butterfly watch. The face of the watch has a pretty butterfly design on a white background. The band is made of multi-colored braided threads edged with a chain. The threads meet at the back where they can be cinched tight around your wrist. In addition, the winner will also receive an eBook copy of my book, Butterfly Serenade. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for your chance to win. Good luck! |
Categories: Giveaways
Tags: Butterfly Serenade
January 2022 Book of the Month Giveaway
February 20, 2022 04:36 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
During January, I read four novels, two novellas, and three short stories. It was kind of a mixed bag with about half of them not even reaching four stars for me. There was only one book that received a five-star rating from me to make it eligible to be featured as my Book of the Month. This author’s books have consistently received this honor so I’ve featured her work several times before. This one is a paranormal romance roughly long novella or short novel length, so meatier than a short story but not quite as involved as the main novels of the series it comes from. It’s about Azagoth aka the Grim Reaper, who is in charge of Sheoul-gra, the world between the human realm and Sheoul, and a kind of holding tank for the souls of demons and other evil beings. Azagoth has lived a rather lonely existence, trapped in his own realm, and is tired of being alone. He’s decided that he wants a mate and demands that Heaven send him one. Lilliana is the angel who shows up for the job, but given a choice between two unsavory scenarios, she didn’t have a whole lot of say in the matter. However, she’s offered a chance to get out of the deal and earn redemption for her “sins” if she finds and steals a time-traveling device which Azagoth possesses. When she first arrives, Lilliana thinks that Azagoth is a jerk and has every intention of finding the device and getting out as soon as possible, but the longer she stays and the more she gets to know him, the more she sees Azagoth’s gentler side and begins to fall for him. But when he discovers her original intentions, he may not be so forgiving.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Larissa Ione
December 2021 Book of the Month Giveaway
January 18, 2022 04:35 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
During December, I read four full-length novels, three short stories/novellas and one children’s book. All of them rated four stars or higher, but only one received the full five stars from me to be featured here. As it happens it was the children’s book, which is a heartwarming, middle-grade, holiday story about a little homeless puppy who goes around town, saving lives, helping people in need, and spreading Christmas cheer during the holiday season. I loved how the puppy is still able to give love and help the townspeople to feel better, even though he is so very lonely himself after getting lost from his canine family. I found this to be a great object lesson for humans in that if we can rise above our own hurts and find the love in our hearts to help others, it might just make us feel better too, not to mention it was a great example of the real spirit of Christmas.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Nicholas Edwards
2021 Best of the Year & Choose Your Own Giveaway
January 18, 2022 04:00 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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It’s January, which means that it’s time once again for my annual Best of the Year giveaway. Ever since I started my review site, The Hope Chest Reviews, in 2008, I’ve been posting a Best of the Year list to highlight all the very best books I read the previous year. As always, I have an eclectic group of books on it from a wide variety of genres. Since I’m a romance writer and nearly life-long romance reader, my focus is mostly on romance, but I also have a nice selection of other books, including fantasy, YA, children’s, biography/memoirs, and non-fiction. I'm a pretty slow reader, so I rarely have time to read books when they're released, although sometimes I do. That being the case, I compile the list from the books I read during the previous year. This makes for a well-rounded list of brand new titles, mixed with older ones, and a little bit of everything in between. |
I read nearly seventy books and novellas in 2021, and just over half of them made it to my keeper shelf, meaning that they earned 4.5 to 5 stars from me. These are the books that make my “Best of …” lists in the individual genres. I've also nominated books in a wide variety of other categories, including best characters, best quotes, and best covers. I hope you'll check out my full list and perhaps find your next great read.
Categories: Giveaways
Tags: Best of the Year, Jim Butcher, Larissa Ione
