Monday Book Reviews: More Holiday Tales

Blame the Mistletoe (Love in Montana Book 2), by Dani Collins
Published October 2014 by Tule Publishing Group

About the Book:

Liz Flowers has never enjoyed Christmas, but this one is shaping up to be the worst by far. She let her ex take her daughter to Mexico while she stays behind in a strange town, sitting her former mother-in-law’s high strung little dog. It’s an opportunity to meet new people, but this California girl doesn’t have much in common with the ranchers in small town Marietta.

Blake Canon perks up with male interest when he sees a new face at his friend’s Christmas cocktail party. His son is away and a light affair would take his mind off his financial troubles. Then he realizes he knows Liz. She was once married to the brother of his ex-wife.

Their children might be cousins, but Blake and Liz do the kissing—under the mistletoe. It’s the beginning of a new view of Christmas for Liz, but when their children arrive home unexpectedly, and family secrets are revealed, Liz isn’t sure she’ll stay in Marietta for Christmas after all.

Love in Montana series
Book 1: Hometown Hero
Book 2: Blame the Mistletoe
Book 3: The Bachelor's Baby
Book 4: His Blushing Bride

MY TAKE:
I don't usually like coming into a series in Book Two, but being a Christmas story I gave it a whirl, and found it works well as a stand-alone. I might not have gotten the depth of context of some of the secondary characters,  but for the purposes of this story everything was well laid out.

I absolutely loved this cover art and was completely drawn in. Okay, I found it a bit odd that in-laws knew so little of one another, but living in different states and her divorce following on the heels of his marriage, they only "knew" each other peripherally. I also found Liz's character a bit inconsistent at times, with how strong she was, what a good business woman she was, and how she let her ex walk all over her both during the marriage and after.

Those objections out of the way, I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of Liz hating Christmas and Blake making it his mission to change her mind about the season. And the heat between them is sizzling. (Which is the other reason why it's so hard to imagine that if they'd met at a family event, they wouldn't have already felt the connection between them.) Alternating points of view keep us up to speed on how each of the characters is dealing with the hurdles of dating in a small town, where everyone knows your past - and your ex-inlaws.

Well written, nicely paced story of finding new love and peace in the Christmas season. Grab your copy on Amazon for a holiday smile. (As of this writing, the Kindle version is free.)

Jingle All the Way, by Becca Dale
Published November 2010 by The Wild Rose Press

About the Book:

Single mother Jenica Anderson keeps small town boys at bay and happy without effort but has no clue how to handle a blue-eyed stranger with a wolfish stare and sensual demands that break all her rules. She only knows that for at least one night, she’ll beg him for exactly what she wants for Christmas.

When a snow storm diverts his plane, Burk Teal lands in Keaton, ND and in the arms of a gorgeous redhead who offers him a glimpse of what home and hearth are all about. As she writhes beneath his hands, he finds precisely what he has been looking for in Santa’s frozen backyard.

Sparks fly immediately between these two, but can physical attraction survive harsh reality or will memories of hot sex and the sound of jingle bells fade to nothing more than a decadent episode that happened one Christmas?

My Take:

This novella is short and sizzling, starting with a bang and filling in the plot after. There are an awful lot of Christmas stories by the exact same name, and somehow this little naughty novella seems completely lost, with no reviews on Amazon and only 3 on Goodreads.

It's not very realistic, but the sex is hot and steamy, and once the characters were given outlines and context I found them likeable as well. If you're looking for a complete escape from the holiday madness for an hour or so, give this a whirl. At $1.99 for the Kindle version, it's as affordable as those gingerbread men and satisfying in a whole different way.

Friday Feature: Every Ornament Tells a Story

 If you're like me, your tree probably reflects a little more about you (and your family) than you realize. Whether it's because your mom gifted you the same ornament a few years in a row, or you've saved every ornament your kids ever made, or you collect ornaments with a certain theme (umm, like my mermaids?) ...well, you know what I mean.

 I can look at just about every ornament and tell you where it came from, and/or who made it, and/or who gifted it to me... and why it's special.

The starfish above? That was from when my husband and I took our first (and only) trip to Hawaii. The glittery shells above it? Collected by a friend on my beach and returned to me six months later decorated and all glittered up as a gift. I think of her when I hang them every year.

What stories do your ornaments tell?

Merry Christmas!

Writing Wednesday: Social Media Breakdown

Social Media has been in the news a lot lately - I mean, our President-elect is addicted to Twitter, right? Fake news outlets have flooded our Facebook feeds with stories meant to scare, sway and otherwise influence our opinions, so much so that many people are swearing they'll never look at Facebook again. 

If you're an author looking to sell books, that's not possible.

I recently spoke on a panel with two other authors from my publisher, sharing our experiences and advice on getting published. The article that appeared in the newspaper this Sunday about the event left out one important point I know I mentioned: You need to get out there on Social Media. No maybe. No someday. Do it. Do it now.

As an author you’re expected to engage with readers in order to promote and sell books. You need to have a presence online to help attract attention from readers, agents, publishers, and other authors.

But how much self-promotion can you really do without annoying the snot out of your friends, family and coworkers?

Tons of self-marketing opportunities abound on the internet. You can lose days researching and get completely overwhelmed... without actually getting anywhere. But there are a handful of places you need to establish an author presence, and it’s fairly simple to set them up and maintain, putting in as much or as little time as you have in any given week.

Must Have Social Media:

Facebook

Goodreads

Amazon’s Author Central

Blogger or Wordpress for a place to blog

Setting Up your Facebook Author Page

Currently, the first place you need to be is Facebook. If you don’t yet have a personal Facebook page, bite the bullet and sign up. You need a personal page in order to “like” other pages and join groups (and start establishing links to other authors.)

From your home page, go all the way to the top right corner and click the arrow to open a new menu. Click “Create Page” and choose “Artist, Band or Public Figure.” Under “Choose a Category” scroll down to “Author.” In the next line type your Author Name as you would like it to appear on the page. (Hint: Many people add “Author” or “Writer” to the front or end of their name so as not to confuse it with their personal page. If you have a pen name, that problem doesn’t exist.) Once you click the blue “Get Started” button, Facebook will walk you through the rest of the set up process.

Now that you have your page, you need content. You can’t post “Buy My Book” every day. People will get bored. Or mad. Or (gasp) unfriend you. Find funny posts that relate to your book, or your setting, or your life. Pictures attract more attention than mere words. Links do better when you introduce them rather than auto-post them.

Your author page is a public persona, not a place for complaining about laundry or posting pics of your dinner menu (unless your book is a cookbook.) Mix it up and see what gets the most page views – for Author Pages, Facebook will give you metrics on how well each post “performs.” See what works and do more of that.

Getting Into Goodreads

Many authors I know have heard wild stories about Goodreads and are scared to dip a toe in those shark-infested critical waters. Don’t be a wimp. You’ve already decided to be an author, so start working on the thick skin to go with the job description.

Goodreads is the largest online source for finding avid, passionate readers, so use it… but be smart. Remember, publishing is a business. You can’t cry or rant over a bad review, at least not in public. Save that for after work cocktails with friends. In public, keep your chin up and your smile firmly in place.

First of all, join the Goodreads community. Create a profile that says who you are, and include the books you’ve written. If your publisher has already posted your books to Goodreads (and most do) you can “claim” them and establish yourself as a Goodreads Author (you’ll see that tag after many author’s names. If you click the name, it will take you to their Author Page.) Read a few Author Pages from authors you like and admire, and style your page after theirs. You can add links to your website and blog, and even add a live feed from your blog.

Join groups that relate to your own book(s) or groups of like-minded authors. Post reviews of books you’ve read and liked, remembering that karma is alive and well on the internet. Stay professional and don’t comment on threads that get emotional. It’s not worth it.

Amazon Author Central

If you have an Amazon account and a book being sold on Amazon.com, then you need to establish your Amazon Author Page (https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/landing?ie=UTF8&ref_=ntt_atc_dp_pel_1). They make it easy, and walk you through the set-up process, but unlike other online author hotspots, you can’t establish your presence until your book is actually for sale on Amazon. Once you’re on there, claim your page and add content! Here’s another place to link your live blog feed and list upcoming events. Amazon will walk you through the process, just keep your persona consistent with your Goodreads and Facebook images.

Blogger or Wordpress

Having a website is empowering, but more important is having a blog – and that can be established free of charge with Blogger or Wordpress. The only cost is in time, because you can’t create a blog and let it sit unused, gathering virtual dust. Both sites will help you set up your free page, and have lots of options for creating your own unique look and feel.

Establish a routine for posting: once a week, three times a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays, whatever works for your schedule as long as you add content on a regular basis.

Pictures add interest, but be careful to use only your own or free images. Don’t steal from random internet sites. (The fines are not worth it.) That said, posts with images generate more interest than those without, and Smartphone pics look just fine on Blogger.

Like Facebook, you can’t just say “Buy My Book” every day, or people stop visiting. Blog about things that interest you or relate to your book. My latest romance features a mischievous Saint Bernard puppy, and I routinely post “Puppy Tales” on my blog, chronicling the adventures of my own Saint Bernard. My books are set on Cape Cod, and I write about the Cape quite a bit. I also host other authors and their books (and they in turn host me on their blogs, reaching new readers.)

Definitely post about upcoming events or book signings. Give people a few days notice – don’t wait and post after the event. Too late! And if your blog is connected to Goodreads and Amazon Author Pages, that news will spread.

Other Social Media Sites

As I said, there are tons of places to get your name and book out there. Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Triberr and YouTube would be the next ones down the list to establish a presence.

If you enjoy social media, go for it. If you don’t, don’t sweat the extras but at least establish the minimum presence. 2016 may be on the way out the door, but “Social Media” is here to stay.

If you're an established author, what are your thoughts? What social media outlet do you favor? Do you think Facebook and Twitter are worth the time investment? What other outlets do you like or have good luck with? I'm eager to hear other ideas! Happy Holidays!

Monday Book Reviews: Two More Must-Read Christmas Stories!

A Kiss Under the Christmas Lights
By Peggy Jaeger
Published December 2016 by The Wild Rose Press

About the Book:

With Christmas just a few weeks away, Gia San Valentino, the baby in her large, loud, and loving Italian family, yearns for a life and home of her own with a husband and bambini she can love and spoil. The single scene doesn’t interest her, and the men her well-meaning family introduce her to aren’t exactly the happily-ever-after kind. 

Tim Santini believes he’s finally found the woman for him, but Gia will take some convincing she’s that girl. A misunderstanding has her thinking he’s something he’s not.
Can a kiss stolen under the Christmas lights persuade her to spend the rest of her life with him?

My Take:

I absolutely adore Peggy Jaeger's Valentine novella about Chloe San Valentino and her large, meddling Italian family, so when I found out there was a Christmas story about Chloe's younger sister Gia, I snatched up a Kindle version to sweeten my holiday season. (Read my review of 3 Wishes, a Candy Hearts novella HERE.)

Gia San Valentino is the baby of the family, a good Italian girl in her early twenties still living at home with her overprotective family. In the lead up to the holidays she's crazy busy with studying for her CPA exams while helping care for her elderly grandmother and helping out with her family's booth at the annual church Christmas festival.

Her well meaning family has set her up with numerous dates, but none of them make her heart stop like the new soon-to-be-ordained priest at her local church. She's more than convinced she's going to go to hell for having such carnal thoughts about a man of the cloth, and that's before he even kisses her. After? She can't think straight, let alone care. One kiss will never be enough.

This over-the-top New York Italian family makes for such fun reading, especially having grown up in Northern New Jersey with so many Soprano-like neighbors. Jaeger nails lots of the little details that make you both cringe and laugh out loud, and despite the fact that I figured out the story's "twist" well before Gia did, it only added to the fun to watch her emotional turmoil.

For a different sort of Christmas story that will definitely make you smile, grab a copy of this fun, fast read. You won't be disappointed! Grab it on AMAZON today.

Better to Give, by K.K.Weil
Published November 2016 by The Wild Rose Press

About the Book:

For most people, the holidays are a time of warmth, happiness and celebration. But to Jenna Samuels, they mean only one thing. Mounting debt. A single mother, Jenna struggles to make ends meet and to her, it’s a season of excess and distress.

James Garrison is in over his head, too. His ex-wife said he wasn’t equipped to take care of his twins, and now that he’s got joint custody, he fears she was right. They’re wild, spoiled, and always fighting. When they knock Jenna’s daughter into the “Gifting Tree,”—a part of their town’s charity collection—the parents are immediately attracted to each other. But James has had his fill of cold women and Jenna won’t make the mistake of falling for another man who disappears when life gets too heavy.

As their paths cross, James and Jenna must decide whether first impressions are accurate, or if sometimes, people are not what you assume at all.

My Take:

After reading and reviewing several older Christmas romances, I thought I'd buy a few brand new ones. This was my first purchase and I was not disappointed.

Told all in first person POV, the chapters alternate between the two main characters. Where some he said/she said narratives give us the same scenes in different views, the author here does a great job of showing us how both characters feel during each scene, keeping the plot moving along quickly through the month of December as the holidays heat up.

Jenna is a single mom of one little girl, with a baby-daddy who left before Nora was born and parents who disowned her for choosing to drop out of college at 19 and keep the baby. She's been going it alone for so long she's not quite sure how to let someone else in, using a wall of sarcasm to keep men away.

James is a recently divorced dad of rambunctious twins. He had to sue his bitter ex-wife for a formal joint custody arrangement in order to spend time with his kids. He doesn't want to waste his few nights a week laying down the law and as a result they act like brats. When a stranger (Jenna) calls him on it, his eyes open to the possibility that he's approaching his parenting responsibilities the wrong way. He also opens to the possibility that not all women are bitter manipulators like his ex.

An innocent dinner with all their kids leads to sparks, and things progress quickly. This is a fast, fun read (albeit too short) where both characters learn and grow as they fall in love. The HEA on Christmas night ties a bow on this sweet holiday story and left a lingering smile on my face.

Grab your copy and your holiday smile for only $2.99 on AMAZON.