Wednesday 26 April 2017

Darcy's Honour by Victoria Kincaid - Guest Post, Excerpt and Giveaway

Book cover: Darcy's Honor by Victoria Kincaid
Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Victoria Kincaid back to the blog to celebrate the recent release of her latest book, 'Darcy's Honor'. She has brought with her a guest post about the concept of honour in relation to Mr Darcy, an excerpt of the book, and she is offering an international giveaway, paperback or ebook, for one lucky commenter here. Read on for more details!

Thursday 20 April 2017

Blog Tour: My Mr Darcy and Your Mr Bingley by Linda Beutler - Vignette and Giveaway

Blog Tour: My Mr Darcy and Your Mr Bingley by Linda Beutler
 Today I have the pleasure of hosting the last stop on the blog tour for Linda Beutler's latest book, 'My Mr Darcy and Your Mr Bingley'. I had the pleasure of hosting the cover reveal, which I shared with the lovely Rita of the 'From Pemberley to Milton' blog. The reason that there was a joint cover reveal is that both the front and back covers have a story to tell. To finish the tour off nicely, this last stop has a lovely vignette that refers to the item on the back cover of the book, the infamous wine container. This is a real item that was lotteried off. You can read more about it on one of Linda's previous posts. Now, firstly I'll share the book blurb and then I'll hand over to Linda for her vignette. There is also a giveaway associated with this post - see below for details!

Friday 14 April 2017

Mistress by Sophie Turner - Giveaway Winner

A little while ago I was joined by Sophie Turner, for a guest post about horses and an excerpt of her new book, 'Mistress'. Sophie was very kindly offering to give away an e-book copy to two commenters on the post. The randomly selected winners are:

Book cover: Mistress by Sophie Turner
NovElla
and
Sophia Rose

Edited to choose another winner as one of the winners didn't get back in touch :( Congratulations to both winners.

Thank you so much to Sophie for her guest post and giveaway!

If you were not lucky enough to win a copy of the book in the blog tour, you can buy it now. Treat yourself, you deserve it :)


Monday 10 April 2017

The Darcy Monologues - Spotlight on Caitlin Williams, Review and Giveaway

Blog Tour: The Darcy Monologues, Edited by Christina Boyd
The blog tour for 'The Darcy Monologues' drops by today. This book features short stories from fifteen fantastic authors: Susan Adriani * Sara Angelini * J. Marie Croft * Karen M Cox * Jan Hahn * Jenetta James * Lory Lilian * KaraLynne Mackrory * Beau North * Ruth Phillips Oakland * Natalie Richards * Sophia Rose * Joana Starnes * Melanie Stanford * Caitlin Williams. Phew! I see some excellent authors in there! The collection has been brought together and edited by Christina Boyd. The stories can be Regency or modern but what each story has in common is that they are from Mr Darcy's point of view.

The very first story in the anthology, 'Death of a Batchelor', is by Caitlin Williams, author of 'Ardently' and 'The Coming of Age of Elizabeth Bennet', and we have a focus on her here today with a fangirl post by author of 'Suddenly Mrs Darcy' and 'The Elizabeth Papers', Jenetta James, who is also a contributing author to 'The Darcy Monologues'. To accompany the blog tour there is an international giveaway, with fantastic prizes for two winners.

I'll start by sharing the anthology blurb and then we'll have Jenetta's fangirl post and an interview with Caitlin Williams. If you are not too tired by then, my review of the anthology follows, plus a chance to enter the amazing giveaway!

Saturday 1 April 2017

Planned Reading for April 2017

Hello to you all! It's starting to feel like springtime here. I love the spring. I have some spring cleaning to do though, which I am not so fond of! Reading-wise, I haven't been feeling it lately, I never seem to have time or mental energy for it. I have been listening to quite a bit in the way of audio books though. I plug my phone into the car and it makes for a very enjoyable commute! I have also been listening to the books while doing housework and on lunchtime walks. The only problem I have is that I don't think I'll be able to listen to anything new, as I am doing something while I'm listening. On a reread your attention doesn't have to be 100%. But even so, I have some JAFF to read so I am thinking that I'll have to avoid JAFF audio books so I don't overlap the stories. It makes it tricky to decide what to listen to.
Book cover: Audio cover of The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Last month I listened to 'Cotillion', by Georgette Heyer, and 'Persuasion' by Jane Austen and I'm currently listening to The Grand Sophy' by Heyer. I've read all of these many times so they have been very enjoyable to listen to. Do you have any audio book suggestions for me? I don't have a subscription, but if I can get them relatively cheap on kindle and upgrade to audio they are not too expensive.


Book Cover: Marvel Version of Emma by Jane Austen - Graphic Novel
I have also had some new acquisitions to add to the bookcase, courtesy of Mother's Day here in the UK. I have a Marvel version of 'Emma'. This is a graphic novel. I previously read a Manga version of 'Emma' so it'll be interesting to see how this compares.

Book cover: The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
I also have a copy of Paula Byrne's 'The Real Jane Austen; A Life in Small Things'. This is a book about Austen's life, focussing on the small things which may have had significant impact on her writing.

Book cover: Illustrated Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen with Illustrations by Hugh Thomson
One thing I wanted for my bookcase were some illustrated novels. I was lucky enough to get two. Firstly, an illustrated 'Pride & Prejudice'. This is quite a large book, the same kind of size as an annual. The illustrations inside are copies of Hugh Thomson's 1894 pictures, though they have bee coloured for this version.

Book cover: Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen with Illustrations by Hugh Thomson
The second illustrated book is a vintage one, a 1924 'Sense & Sensibility', also with illustrations by the same author.

So, now onto the reading for this month. Well, aside from all the catching up I have to do on planned reading that I hadn't managed, which is an albatross around my neck that is getting bigger and bigger, I am planning on reading some things which have come to me as part of the perks of blogging. Yes, that's right, books which haven't yet been released. I have two books to read that I'm very excited about.

The Darcy Monologues
The first one is called 'The Darcy Monologues', an anthology by some wonderful authors. I have read books by pretty much every contributing author to this anthology, and had many enjoyable reading hours courtesy of them. The stories in the anthology range in era, however, what they all have in common is that they are from Darcy's point of view. I'll share my review with you later this month as part of the blog tour but it's not available to buy until May. There is a fantastic prize package, open internationally which a lucky reader can win so please check back here for that. There is also a prize draw open as part of the cover reveal celebrations which you can enter by joining in the fun at one of the blogs that took part.

Book cover: The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A Flynn
The other book I have to read is a story by Kathleen A Flynn called 'The Jane Austen Project' (not to be confused with 'The Austen Project' books, which saw some famous authors like Alexander McCall Smith and Val McDermid create contemporary versions of Jane Austen's works). This book is also available to buy in May. This story sounds very interesting; two researchers are sent back in time to try to get hold of a suspected undiscovered Austen manuscript. Let's hope they can save her letters from Cassandra's destruction too! And take a photo, so we know that our upcoming £10 notes are accurate :)

I noticed something that I wanted to tell US-based readers about; Meryton Press is having a wonderful giveaway for you. Go and take a look (after you finish reading my post of course!).

So, that turned out to be a lot to tell you about! Kudos to you if you made it to the end. Remember, you can still enter to win an e-book of Sophie Turner's P&P variation, 'Mistress' here. Let me know what you're planning on reading in the comments, and if you have any audio book recommendations that won't make me crash my car then let me know those too! Happy reading, my friends!