Sapphires Are an Earl's Best Friend Special Pre-Order Gift! + Giveaway

I got this email yesterday and had to tell you all about it, not to mention this will be the perfect time for me to try rafflecopter for the giveaway of the previous book  ;)

Sapphires are an Earl’s Best Friend Pre-Order Gift!

Send proof of your pre-order of Sapphires are an Earl’s Best Friend by Shana Galen (PUBLICATION DATE: March 4, 2014) and we’ll send you a Jewels of the Ton-themed package of tea and candy!

We’ll send this special tea to anyone who shows us their pre-order receipt until February 28, or supplies run out. Just email your receipt to casablanca@sourcebooks.com.

Additionally, everyone who sends us their proof of pre-order will receive an exclusive SECRET epilogue NOT FOUND IN THE BOOK! Once Sapphires are an Earl’s Best Friend hits stores on March 4, Shana Galen will send out an epilogue to the fans that pre-ordered the book.

That’s not all: everyone who sends us their proof of pre-order will also be entered in a random drawing for a Jewels of the Ton themed spa gift basket!

Be sure to follow Shana Galen on  Facebook, Twitter, and her Website  for more details leading up to the release of Sapphires are an Earl’s Best Friend, including more giveaways, more exclusives, and MUCH MORE of her fabulous regency romances!

The winner of the Jewels of the Ton themed gift backed will be announced on Shana Galen’s Facebook page on Monday, March 24, 2013.

.......................................

And now to the giveaway that Sourcebooks sponsors when I post this :)

1 copy of When you give a Duke a Diamond

Open to US and Canada

a Rafflecopter giveaway
(My first raffle copter giveaway! I made different options to check how things work, but I can't say I like rafflecopter, but we will see how it goes)

Review: Secrets of the Sea House - Elizabeth Gifford

Scotland, 1860. Reverend Alexander Ferguson, naïve and newly-ordained, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the Hebridean island of Harris. His time on the island will irrevocably change the course of his life, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after Alexander departs. 

It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. But their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child's fragile legs are fused together - a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? Ruth needs to solve the mystery of her new home - but the answers to her questions may lie in her own past. 

Based on a real nineteenth-century letter to The Times in which a Scottish clergyman claimed to have seen a mermaid, Secrets of the Sea House is an epic, sweeping tale of loss and love, hope and redemption, and how we heal ourselves with the stories we tell.

My thoughts:

This was a book of mystery and legend, and set in in modern times and in the 1800s. 

First there is Ruth who came the Hebrides because her mother had told Ruth that that was where they were from. But she does not know anything more than that or who her father was. She also had a really crappy life after her mother died and she has some issues from that. This book is then the discovery of her own past. She also wants to find out about the house they live in as they find a "mermaid" baby under the floor. In the background there is the selkie myth binding the the two stories together as Ruth's mother had told her they came from selkies.

Back in time reverend Alexander Ferguson comes to the far away Hebrides and his new parish. He is trying to find out about the truth about mermaids/selkies. Back in his time we also see through the eyes of Moira, his maid. She did not have an easy lot in life. The laird of the isle is evil and evicts his people and sends them to Canada because he wants the land. And living there was hard to begin with. While I read about these two I wondered how the baby got there, but there is much to go through before that.

I also loved the explanation she used for the selkie myth. It is one that has been known, but yes like Alexander I would have loved the idea of real selkies. I will not tell you anything more cos if you do not know the explanation then you can be surprised here.

Conclusion:

Some books I read fast, some I read slower. This one was one of the slower ones as I had to take it all in, the prose was different too and it's one of those books you read and reflect on (which I seems to have done a lot lately.) But it's all good

Cover

ok

Mass Market Paperback, 303 pages
Published January 2nd 2014 by Corvus (first published August 1st 2013)
Fiction / Historical fiction
for review

Review: The Railwayman's Wife - Ashley Hay

In a small town on the land's edge, in the strange space at a war's end, a widow, a poet and a doctor each try to find their own peace, and their own new story. On the south coast of New South Wales, in 1948, people chase their dreams through the books in the railway's library. Anikka Lachlan searches for solace after her life is destroyed by a single random act. Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, has lost his words and his hope. Frank Draper is trapped by the guilt of those his treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle with the same question: how now to be alive. Written in clear, shining prose and with an eloquent understanding of the human heart, The Railwayman's Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings, and how hard it can be sometimes to tell them apart. It's a story of life, loss and what comes after; of connection and separation, longing and acceptance. Most of all, it celebrates love in all its forms, and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book. It was quiet, reflective and sad. I liked how it was written, sometimes the style does not work but here it certainly did.  Maybe cos of the sad reflective style of it all.

Anikka is married to Mac. But something happens and shatters her life. She shares the story with Frank, a doctor who saw horrors in the war, and Roy, a poet struggling to write after the war. They all deal with going on with life, in one way or another. As they all live close to each other they meet.

The book jumps a bit, but just as I mind it in some books, I do not mind at all here. It fits the style. She thinks back and shares those memories with us.

It's not a book where you should expect drama or fireworks. But it was still a book I read fast and could not put down. I would recommend it and I feel like I should read more books set in Australia. I do always like them. There is just something about them.

One thing though, I never did understand where from her dad came from. See, she can speak a bit of Finnish, ok so she is Finnish? Well then she talks about her dad and a thunder God, sure it could be but I am thinking more of Norse myths here. And she said something about coming from Scandinavia, Finland is not a part of Scandinavia. But her name would be more Finnish, but her dad's name is Swedish. Haha, yes I nitpick, I am a Swedish speaking Finn after all.

Conclusion:

Anyway, a wonderful story even with it's sadness. It also shows how some manages to move forward and some gets stuck.

Would I read more by this author?

yes

Cover

Nice

Paperback, 320 pages
Published January 2nd 2014 by Allen & Unwin (first published January 1st 2013)
Fiction
For review

Best of 2013

Now where did 2013 go? Anyway, before we start with the best of I will give some stats from a year of blogging :)

I read 211 books last year + 10 short stories

I dnf 9 books (or so)

I listened to 9 audio books (all this fall, I am quite smitten, but I do have a hard time finding good ones)

And now to the Top 5 of 2013, in now real order as that would be too hard

I had planned to make another book best book of the year, but when I had a look back I of course remembered this one from early 2013. I was so caught up in this book and when I finished it I was all o_O Fantastico! Never ever have book 2 in a series made me feel like this. It was an awesome book.

This one was meant to be the best, but then in a way it was still the best book of the year cos I really can't compare The Kingdom and this book. The Kingdom was a masterpiece of emotions while Promise of Blood was a masterpiece of writing. The best fantasy book of this year and a chunkster I could not put down. I fell in love.

And the rest are in no real order

The first 150 pages I was all holy F this is exciting! Omg Hugh!!! Squeeee. Best Kate book so far.

This was epic fantasy at it's best, it was just so bloody epic. Never have there been a city like this city.

This series had NOT compared to Mercy and when I started book 3 I did not really have any hopes for it. But it showed to be the best in the series so far and I do love this series now. This is was Briggs rule.

And here are some of the other good books I have read this year, all awesome 4 stars

Series started this year: Too many
Series finished: Too few

Most read Author this year: Karen Miller
Fav genre of the year. Still Fantasy













Best covers of the year, I can't decide between these 3:

Here is to hoping 2014 will be awesome too!