IMPULSIVE, new from HelenKay Dimon!

Okay, random number generator gave me number one! That makes Lisa F. the winner of HelenKay's IMPULSIVE ARC. Thanks to everyone who played - I truly appreciate your stopping by - now you can scroll down and order a copy from Amazon!
Thanks again, HelenKay!


IMPULSIVE is the latest release (available today!) from HelenKay Dimon - finally! Seems like it takes forever for a book to release when I'm really looking forward to it - such is the case with IMPULSIVE!

About the book:
Katie Long was supposed to be undercover. She was just supposed to watch Deputy Prosecutor Eric Kimura at his ex’s wedding and gather intel on his campaign for prosecutor. But he’s a lot hotter in person, and the kind of intel they accidentally shared in the hotel bathroom might lose both of them their jobs. Especially since it seems to be a recurring incident. Is it possible for a one-night stand to last ten days?
Kimura isn’t usually the impulsive type. He’s driven, he’s ambitious, and he knows what he wants—a respectable future in Hawaii politics. Which means wild half-public sex with a beautiful stranger in a short little caterer’s skirt is just tabloid fodder waiting to happen. Conveniently, just as his campaign is coming under attack. Sabotage, media gossip, and an insatiable desire for a woman he just met? If he’s not careful, Counselor Kimura might lose all control…

My review:
Working with her caterer sister at a wedding reception, Katie Long never guessed she would find herself intimately connected with Prosecuting Attorney candidate Eric Kimura. Keeping a close eye on Eric at the wedding reception of his former fiancee is not one of Katie's finer moments, but she desperately needs money. She doesn't know who, but someone was willing to pay for info on Eric's actions and reactions at the wedding and reception, and Katie was in a position to accommodate. Eric wants to explore the possibilities of a relationship with Katie, but she's keeping a secret that could tear them apart before they have an opportunity to see what the future could hold.
Eric knows his every move at the reception is being dissected. His run for the office of Honolulu's Prosecuting Attorney in the upcoming election has put him under the microscope. Meeting Katie is a real bright spot in the harried confusion that his life has become. As Eric and Katie are getting to know each other, his campaign is taking hit after hit with rumors and scandalous accusations about him and his former fiancee.
HelenKay's characters are wonderfully flawed with just enough imperfections to keep them real. Katie and Eric are no exception. Katie was more than a little lost when her parents died and she made some poor lifestyle choices. Eric knows about her mistakes and sees through them to the real Katie - and he likes what he sees. Katie's sister and her baby girl are crucial to Katie's story. The three may seem a little vulnerable, but they possess an underlying strength that bonds them. Eric has friends and family who are extremely protective of him and his professional reputation. Eric knows image is important to all candidates but realizes that he wants Katie in his life too badly to allow her to continue to hold her secret.
I highly recommend IMPULSIVE to all contemporary romance readers. If you've read HelenKay's work before, you already know what an amazing storyteller she is. If you haven't read her work, IMPULSIVE would be an excellent place to start!
Go here to check out an excerpt and then you can click your way over to Amazon to get a copy of your very own! While you're at HelenKay's site, be sure to take a look around - she's got some good stuff coming up!
Because I have a Kindle download of IMPULSIVE ordered, I've decided to offer up for giveaway my ARC. However, it's release week and those first week sales are so very important to authors, so it's going to be quick. I don't want to keep anyone from buying their copy this week. I'll draw a winner on Thursday (10/28). Leave a comment about HelenKay's work - your favorite book, character, cover, setting, etc. and you're entered. No worries if you haven't had the HelenKay experience yet, you can say so! Send a friend who mentions you in their comment and you'll get TWO extra entries. Good luck!
Thanks, HelenKay, for allowing me to read and review IMPULSIVE for you!
Laurie
xo

Fall Festivals abound!

(photo foliagenetwork.com)

Do any of you enjoy going to fall festivals? We absolutely love them - artisan-made unique crafts, great food and gorgeous changing leaves - if only everyone else would stay home so they weren't so crowded! Last weekend we went to the Bob Evans Farm Festival in southern Ohio and had a great time. Decided that having been there three of the last four years, we probably won't go for a couple of years. This weekend we're heading north to Attica, Ohio to a festival that we've never been to, but it came highly recommended from a vendor at the Bob Evans fest. last weekend. If nothing else, we'll enjoy the road trip as it's supposed to be sunny with temps in the low 60s.
What are your plans for the weekend? My weekend is starting off with a visit to the bloodmobile for donation after work. My house needs some serious tending and I have several books for review that I'm very far behind on, so I'll be trying to do some cleaning up and catching up!
Have a great weekend!
Laurie

POLITICS, MURDER, AND LOVE IN STALIN'S KREMLIN - there's a giveaway!

The winner is cories5 - congratulations! If you'll email me your mailing info at ljodamron@gmail.com I'll get your book in the mail. If I don't hear from cories5 by Sunday, I'll draw another name. Thanks so much to everyone for your interest. My oldest daughter is a history major and she is anxious to read it too!

This isn't the sort of romance that I typically chat about here, but Paul R. Gregory has a book that released earlier this year (April, 2010), POLITICS, MURDER, AND LOVE IN STALIN'S KREMLIN The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina, and while I haven't read it, it sounds fascinating. I have a copy for giveaway to one of my readers here. Read the description and if you too are intrigued, simply leave a comment and your name will be in the draw. I'll let this one run a while, drawing a name on Tuesday, October 12th. Know a history buff? Please send them over!
About the book:
In Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin’s Kremlin: The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina, Paul Gregory sheds light on how the world’s first socialist state went terribly wrong and why it was likely to veer off course through the story of two of Stalin’s most prominent victims. A founding father of the Soviet Union at the age of twenty-nine, Nikolai Bukharin was the editor of Pravda and an intimate of Lenin’s exile. (Lenin later dubbed him “the favorite of the party.”) But after Bukharin crossed swords with Stalin over their differing visions of the world’s first socialist state, he paid the ultimate price with his life. His wife, Anna Larina, the stepdaughter of a high Bolshevik official, spent much of her life in prison camps and in exile after her husband’s execution.
Drawn from Hoover Institution archival documents, the story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina begins with the optimism of the socialist revolution and then turns into a dark saga of foreboding and terror as the game changes from political struggle to physical survival. Told for the most part in the words of the participants, it is, as Robert Conquest says in his foreword, “a story told to show the horrors of fate, of personal mistreatment and suffering by real people.” It is also a story of courage and cowardice, strength and weakness, misplaced idealism, missed opportunities, bungling, and, above all, love.
Here's a link to Amazon for anyone who wants to snag a copy for themselves or if you want more information!
Thanks for checking it out!
Laurie

GOING DOWN, the latest from Shelli Stevens

The latest release from author Shelli Stevens is GOING DOWN, Book 1 in her Holding Out for a Hero series. Check out Ms. Stevens' website for ordering details and an excerpt. I haven't read every one of Ms. Stevens' books, but have read a few and enjoyed them all. You'll have to excuse the hugeness of the book cover I put up - although I doubt that any of you are seriously complaining!

A little about GOING DOWN:

One man wants her heart. The other wants her dead…

Eleanor Owen needs to get out of Chicago and quick. It’s not that she doesn’t want to obey the subpoena to testify against her drug-trafficking ex-boyfriend. It’s making it to the witness stand alive, should a dirty cop make good on his threats.
Tiny, remote Wyattsville, Oregon looks like the perfect place to disappear, but it’s hard to blend into the woodwork when one of the town’s infamous namesakes sends her heart racing. Worse, Mr. Tall, Hot and Packing is the town sheriff, which means she should stay as far away from him as possible.
Tyson Wyatt is positive the sexy new girl in town is hiding something. Question is, what? He vows to feel out her secrets—including what she feels like beneath him. Preferably naked. Until then, he’s not buying the story she’s selling.
Their chemistry is sheet-melting hot, and Ellie realizes much too late that the man with the badge is as dangerous to her heart as her ex is to her life…

My Romance Junkies (4 blue ribbons) review:
When a woman on the run ends up in a small Oregon town to hide out and catches the interest of the local sheriff, it goes without saying that sparks are going to fly. GOING DOWN has sparks and more, as Shelli Stevens gives readers an intriguing love story about learning how to trust, and love, again.
Eleanor “Ellie” Owen has left Chicago in a hurry, but not before putting great thought and planning into her escape. She’s been subpoenaed to testify against her abusive, drug trafficking ex-boyfriend and is terrified that he or one of his friends, including a corrupt police officer, will act on their escalating threats should she testify for the prosecution. Renting a house in Wyattville, Oregon, under an assumed name seems like a good idea until she almost immediately catches the eye of local sheriff Tyson Wyatt. Wyattville is typical of most small towns, where everyone knows their neighbors – and their neighbors’ business. Tyson’s family and the local townspeople aren’t shy about butting in and trying to match the two. But the closer Tyson gets the more distant Ellie becomes, leaving both frustrated and confused.
Wyatt feels certain that Ellie is hiding something but she’s not talking. As their relationship intensifies, Tyson is more deeply bothered by her distrust. He has never fallen head over heels for someone in such a short amount of time but has no doubt that this could be the real thing, if only Ellie would trust him enough to tell him the truth. It angers him to think that someone could cause physical and emotional harm to someone as sweet as Ellie. Eventually, Ellie has to explain her painful, frightening past to Tyson, and the two work together to secure her safety in testifying.
GOING DOWN is a quick read but at no expense to the quality of the story. Ellie’s fear is believable and I feel certain it’s a fair example of the thoughts and actions of someone living in true fear. Tyson’s determination to find the truth is equally well written, and I appreciated that he wasn’t constantly hounding Ellie for the truth. He was patient and kind, waiting for her to come to him with the truth. Townspeople and Tyson’s family are secondary characters that add to the delicious richness of the storytelling. I give GOING DOWN a strong recommendation and encourage anyone who hasn’t read any of Shelli Stevens’ work to give her a try.

Thanks for checking it out! This book is a steal at $3.50 - I encourage you to go grab a copy for yourself! Here's a link to purchase from Samhain.

I'll be putting up a giveaway in the next day or two for a brand spanking new copy of POLITICS, MURDER, AND LOVE IN STALIN'S KREMLIN (The story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina)by Paul R. Gregory. Not the type of book you typically here and no, I haven't read it yet so there won't be a review, but it sounds incredibly interesting.
Laurie