Tuesday, July 14, 2009

ATLANTIS UNMASKED by Alyssa Day & Books Which Slip Through the Cracks at Enduring Romance Through No Fault of Their Own

All us reviewers here at Enduring Romance read and review books out of love for great stories and a desire to help our fellow readers find the books they'll love. We don't get paid, except with free ARCs and we have very busy real lives outside the blogosphere. Once in a while a book which we meant to review will not get reviewed. I was just over at Romancing the Blog http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/ and noticed the advertisements for Alyssa Day's newest books, ATLANTIS UNLEASHED and ATLANTIS UNMASKED, and I thought, "Oh, crap, I don't think the first two books in her series got reviewed!" http://www.alyssaday.com/

What happened is Alyssa Day sent me the first two, but I was suddenly deluged with ARCs when they arrived. So, I packed them up and sent them to another reviewer. Since then, that reviewer has stopped reviewing for us, due to an even busier real life outside the blogosphere.
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Sometimes we have near-misses too. Just yesterday, author Lauren Hope emailed me because she couldn't get a hold of the reviewer who reviewed her first novel, HIDDEN SHADOWS. Well, it's smart to try to get the reviewer who loved your first book because odds are she'll love the second one too. Unfortunately, that reviewer has since been deluged by real life outside the blogosphere too. I looked up Ms. Hope's new book, CHASING SHADOWS,
loved the premise (estranged parents team up to rescue their baby) and asked her to send it to me instead. She did, electronically by the way. I have a groovy new mini-laptop, so I'm happy to read eBooks now too. http://laurenhope-booknews.blogspot.com/
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Then, there are books which slip through the cracks because of my own human error. I've been wanting to read and review WARLORD'S DAUGHTER by Susan Grant
since it came out in March of this year. You only have to click on Susan's name in the tags to know how much we enjjoy her stories here. But, alas, I still have not reviewed and I can't find it anywhere. How it slipped through the cracks when I was so excited about it, I have no idea. Such is life. MOONSTRUCK, also by Susan Grant, is up for the RITA, the most prestigious award in the Romance genre. http://susangrant.com/
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My policy here at Enduring Romance is we only do positive, or mostly positive reviews, because our goal is to help readers find the books they'll love. Think of us a matchmakers. We want the authors who write the books we love to keep writing and they can only do that if they make money for their publishers. So, when we choose books to review we only choose books we're sure we'll at least like. If an ARC arrives and I realize after a few pages in that I cannot read it or post a positive review, I mail it back at my own expense. I've only had to do that once. The book was beautifully written, but I didn't find out until a few pages in that it contained scenes of child rape and murder. Well, if you've hung out here long, you know how incredibly sensitive I am about children.
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So, if you're an author or author's associate who's sent an ARC to an Enduring Romance within the last three months and it still has not been reviewed, email me, Kimber An, and I'll try to track down what happened. However, if you sent an ARC which was not specifically requested, you should know that requested ARCs take priority.
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I'm still reading and reviewing right now, though not on a set schedule due to my new baby. Besides pregnancy bedrest, I'm also a clumsy nursing mother. I'm pinned down while my baby nurses, which means all I can do is sit there and read until she's finished. I'll get back on a regular blogging schedule in a couple of months.
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So, maybe you're wondering what I'm reading now. THE KING'S DAUGHTERS by Nathalie Mallet.
Her first book, PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE, was my favorite book of 2008. http://www.nathaliemallet.com/

10 comments:

Nathalie Mallet said...

Kimber An, congrats on the new baby! That's awesome! Is it a boy or a girl?

Kimber Li said...

Thanks!

Girl, my very own little Kick-Butt Heroine, and what an aim too. She isn't out yet. She's just trying to get out early. All my babies do that.

Pregnancy's the hard part for me. Recovery and babycare is easy.

Nathalie Mallet said...

Have you picked a name for her yet?

Kimber Li said...

Oh, yes, she's had a name for a long time. In the blogosphere, however, she's simply known as 'Lil Bean.'

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Kimber Li said...

dang multiple posts