Contest: Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

CLOSED

An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else.

Thanks to Hatchette Books I have 5 copies to give away!

I'm going to try a little experiment here and see if I can make use of the forms this time. I haven't done this before so please bear with me. It shouldn't be that hard should it? Should it?? To help me make sure it's working could you please leave a comment just saying that you sent an entry with the form. You don't need to repeat all the information, just tell you you did it. Thanks for your help and your patience!

Contest:
Five copies will be given away.

Rules:
- This time you must be a follower in Google Friend Connect. You can click the box in the sidebar to follow or to check if you're not sure.
+1 new follower
+2 already follow
- Please don't forget to leave a comment telling me you entered.
- Contest ends December 14th at 11:59 p.m. EST
- U.S. and Canada only (sorry!)
- Five winners will be drawn by Random.org

Extra entries:
+3 bonus points if you promote this contest and leave a link.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contest at Pudgy Penguin Perusals

Have you seen the great contests around the blogs from CSN? Kaye is having one too at Pudgy Penguin Perusals for an office chair. At the risk of reducing my own chances of winning new furniture (darn!), I'm still telling you to hurry over and see for yourself! Contest ends 9/20.

Contest: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

It's time for another contest!

In honor of this month's blog tour for The Host by Stephenie Meyer, Hatchette Books is allowing me to give away three copies! I will have my review for the tour tomorrow, June 23rd.

Rules:
- To enter leave a comment with your email address.
- Contest ends June 30th at 11:59 p.m. EST
- I'm sorry that this contest is only for the U.S. and Canada, no P.O. boxes.
-Winners will be drawn by Random.org

Extra entries: (You don't need separate posts)
+1 for new followers.
+2 if you are already a follower.
+3 if you promote this contest. Please leave a link.

Good luck!

Review: Kill For Me by Karen Rose

"You shoulda listened
to your mama,"

he said mockingly,
"Now you're mine."

Six girls have been viciously attacked. One survived. Only she can reveal the secrets of a disturbing ring of people who kidnap and sell teenage girls on the black market. But those responsible for the crimes will do whatever it takes to maintain her silence.

Susannah Vartanian and Luke Papadopolous have both sworn to stop the murderers for their own personal reasons. The investigation leads them to the shady realm of Internet chat rooms, where anyone can mask his or her identity. They soon discover a chain of deception so intricate they don't know whom to trust. Finding comfort in each other's arms, they begin to unravel the intricately knotted threads. but the killers are ruthless and determined, and won't hesitate to take extreme measures to insure their anonymity and keep their business intact. When Susannah proves to be inexplicably linked to the crimes, her life is soon in danger, and Luke will do everything he can to save the woman he loves.

My only problem with this book was that I didn't get the chance to read the two books that came before it. This is the last one in the trilogy that started with Die For Me and Scream For Me. It certainly wasn't necessary to read the first two to enjoy this book. I've read Karen Rose before and she knows how to keep the story twisting and turning until the very end and then throws in just one more. The plot is heavy with horrific crimes, from brutal rapes thirteen years earlier to kiddie porn, sexual slavery and murder. The author handles these well and build the suspense throughout the story. The romance that is blossoming between Susannah and Luke helps to offset a bit of the evil. The desire to see two damaged individuals overcome their past, to reclaim happiness and put their lives as victims behind them, keeps the reader cheering them on.

Fans of suspense, thrillers and mysteries will not be disappointed. Karen Rose delivers a powerful punch with this book alone, or the series as a whole.

Thank you to Book Binge where I won this book in a contest.
Author website karenrosebooks.com


Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: February, 2009
Pages: 432
Price/Format: $16.99/Hardback
Type: Fiction, Thriller

A Christmas Contest

My Christmas books came from Hatchette this week! I love holiday books and even though Christmas is over I was still excited to see these books come. They are nice little "feel good" stories that are easy to read. The reason I won this set of books is because Anysia at Booklorn - Books I Have Known chose my favorite holiday memory. It was so sweet of her and very much appreciated. It was also fun for me to retell it and my teenage boys love hearing it again too. In fact, they've been watching old videos of themselves during their vacation. Since the VCR had been broken and Santa just brought a new one they can now watch them again. I really need to convert those to DVD but I don't see that happening anytime soon. A new VCR was easier and cheaper for now, although they are getting harder to find. Soon to go the way of the beta players? Anyway, I thought I would post the story again directly from Anysia's blog. It was a fun contest!

******************************************************

The last winner of a Hachette Holiday Season book pack.

By Anysia | December 17, 2008

Sorry for the delay in picking the last winner (it’s been crazy here–more so than usual–is my only excuse). It was also really hard to pick one winner from the stories that were submitted. After a lot of dawdling and thinking I picked the following story by Wrighty:

I have so many Christmas traditions and memories that I cherish. We became engaged on Christmas Eve, my oldest son was born on Dec. 22nd, my brother became engaged on Christmas Eve, the list goes on and on. But one of my favorite memories was when my two oldest children outsmarted us.

My husband and I stay up late every year putting together gifts and watching A Christmas Story marathon (”you’ll shoot your eye out!”) until the wee hours of the morning. When my kids were 9 mths. 3 1/2 yrs. and 5 yrs. we got them a electric powered jeep to ride on. We were up until 3:00 a.m. putting it together and charging the battery. We put a huge red ribbon on the top, checked all of the presents and headed to bed. As a precaution, we locked the door with the hook and eye latch that’s up at the top of the door. Since they wouldn’t be unwrapping the jeep we wanted to make sure we went into the room with them in the morning to see their excited little faces when they saw their big gift. We went to sleep knowing they would be up and in our room in just a few hours.

We woke up later than expected with no kids in our faces and it was too quiet upstairs. We checked their rooms and they were empty, even the baby’s room. We hurried down the stairs just knowing we would have very anxious kids. The door was shut but it wasn’t locked. We opened it and all three of them, even the baby, were sitting in their jeep! We had no idea how they did it. They were so proud because they helped the baby out of his crib and down the stairs. Then they took the broom and raised it up to the lock and popped the hook out of the eye! They had been riding back and forth for almost an hour. They only had about 15 feet of space in that room and it was too narrow to turn around so they were just going forward and then reverse, over and over again. But they took turns! We were so shocked but it was the funniest thing to see.

It’s only one of many stories we tell our now teenagers but it’s one of the best. Sorry I rambled but thanks for letting me relive that one. Happy Holidays!