Loot & Links

First up are the books I bought new. I have had my eye on a couple of releases I was looking forward to for January. I purchased the new Megan Hart. Can I just say the cover for Switch is scrum-diddily-umptious? Megan Hart has some mighty fine book covers, lucky gal!

Susan Crandall is another one of those authors who I love but never read. I thought I'd change that and get her latest romantic suspense release. Although, Jane from Dear Author reviewed it and had few issues with it. I'll be curious to see how my feelings match up with Jane's.

I had reserved popular hardcover books at my library a while back and finally my name was at the top of the wait list for Deep Kiss of Winter, the duology featuring Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter. Other books I didn't have to wait for were Don't Tempt me by Loretta Chase and A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James. Sarah of Monkeybear Reviews had written a lovely review of A Duke of Her Own and had it listed as one of her favorite reads for 2009.

Kristi J from Ramblings On Romance just recently posted a review of Cash, an Out of Print (OOP) western which she enthusiastically pimped. Upon reading her review (which was Saturday morning), and finding out that Cash was the sixth book of the Rock Creek series and all the books are fabulous and are all OOP - I immediately tried to see if I could locate the books. So off to my local used book store I went to see if they had any. Sadly, they did not.

On the bright side, I was able to pick up a few other books that managed to catch my eye. Two were old Jo Goodman books and the third was Tears of the Moon by Nora Roberts which Ames reviewed recently. Her review was fresh in my mind and so I had to get the book.

Loot & Links

I have noticed that a few other bloggers do a segment called Mailbox Monday. Some do a segment called Library Loot. I also noticed that others do a link round-up of posts around the blogosphere that they think are worthy of notice. I have decided to combine those ideas to create a new type of post that will (hopefully) become a recurrent event.

Loot & Links will be the title. Since there is no day of the week that starts with the letter 'L', I'll just post it whenever the mood strikes me! It could be on a Monday, or possibly a Saturday. Who knows. I might just mix it up because I am CRAZY like that!

On with the show, you say? Alrighty then.

Sarah of Monkey Bear Reviews had a wonderful guest blogger during the month of November. Magdalan had a series of posts entitled Four Smart Authors - part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 in which she introduced me to four authors I have never read. Her reviews were very enthralling and I found myself over at paperbackswap trying to find these books, many of which are sadly, out of print. I was lucky enough to receive two in the mail this week.




I received two books for review from publicists. I am super excited about Daughtridge's latest, which will be in stores in March. I love her SEALed series! I have never read Joan Johnston but I seem to be a sucker for any romantic suspense. Shattered is part of her Bitter Creek series and I hope I don't feel too lost just jumping with this one.




I picked up two books from the library today, as well. What Happens in London I never planned on reading, but then word around the web was so positive I just couldn't resist. Katiebabs pimped it, so did The Book Smugglers, as did Tracy and many others. Heart Mate and this whole series in general, has been pimped extensively by Holly from Book Binge. Also, Ames did a joint review with Holly at Breezing through. Since Robin D. Owens will be at RT 2010, I had to give this series a try.




One more thing I want to share with you and that is the alternative cover for Heart Mate. My library book did not have the above cover with the nice bicep and tattoo as the focus. Instead, my library had quite a different cover - an older version that had I seen first I am pretty sure I would never have picked this book up. I know it's completely superficial of me, but what can I say?

Take a look at this baby. This picture doesn't really do it justice. You really have to see it in person to get the true essence of just how bad this cover really is. First, take a look at the hero's stance. Could he be any cheesier with his "He-Man" stance, pirate shirt and HUGE gold heart necklace. All I could keep thinking about was Jerry Seinfeld saying, "But, I don't want to be a pirate!"

Then what is with the cat? I could see if it was a big cat, like a tiger or lion. Seriously, it's a house cat. It's a shame it didn't turn out quite as noticeable on the Internet but those cat's eyes are a possessed and glowing emerald green. Then, as if that isn't enough, in the top right hand corner there is a label that says "Magical Love". Because we don't want to read about realistic love. No. We readers want "Maaaaagical Love".



Just saying. This was a really bad cover.