Reading Adventures during the month of lurrrrv....

Welcome to the latest Reading Adventures where the SARA members let us know what they are or have been reading...Get ready to write add some titles to your TBR pile.


Liana Skrzpczak

My February reading has consisted of White Fang by Jack London and The Road to Ruin by SARA's very own Bronwyn Stuart, both of which I'm absolutely loving! Although White Fang isn't a typical 'romance', I guess it could be considered a romance about the relationship between master and companion. :)

Sandy Vaile

Fear for Hire by Natalie S Ellis.

Wow! I highly recommend this fast-paced, unique romantic suspense. Jack is a born protector who is struggling to keep his head above the water of failure. Molly is feisty and tenacious and doesn’t take kindly to being accidentally kidnapped, even if her assailant is gorgeous. She’s convinced he’s the perfect big break story, until she’s embroiled in a mess of falsehoods and terrifyingly twisted minds. But who is pulling the strings in this perverted puppet show? Jack vows to protect Molly until he finds out the truth, but the forces conspiring against them may prove too powerful.

Emmeline Lock 

Rated 5 stars to The Perfect Match by Kristin Higgins, and 4 stars to Club Shadowlands by Cherise Sinclair

Carla Caruso

Gave 4 stars to Be My Baby by Laura Greaves

Khloe Wren

Gave 5 stars to Viper Game (Ghost Walkers #11) by Christine Feehan

Virginia Taylor 

5 stars to Fake by Beck Nicholas

"Although I read books in every genre, Fake is the first Teen Romance I’ve read. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I got a beautifully written, gorgeous story about a girl who isn’t tattooed, doesn’t smoke or drink, and isn’t trying to have sex with the school’s best male athlete. She’s smart, thoughtful, and a loyal friend. 

I loved Kath. That’s right. She doesn’t have a clever name, or a nickname like Bones or Skull. Just Kath. She has a nice mother whom she doesn’t resent and she has a horrible background, like most of us. Well, some of us. She rises above her background and she chooses her friends for the right reasons. 

This is in a closing scene with her mother. ‘Her hands cup my cheek. “If you have to, you will. And with class.”’ That’s Kath – a heroine with class. I loved Kath’s sincerity, her social conscience, and her problems and solutions touched my heart in a very special way.

Fake’s author, Beck Nicholas, is one of those authors who has latched onto the ‘craft’ of writing. Her voice is light and smooth. She doesn’t use clichés or done to death prose. However, my advice is not to begin the book when you should be doing something else, because you’ll forget and end up with no bread for lunch". (review on Goodreads)

and now for moi, Eleni Konstantine

For sweet romance, I read our very own Claire Baxter's  More Than Just One Night. It's a lovely read about second chances at love and allowing them into your life.  

I also love the cover - Disclaimer: My alter ego designed the cover. ;)

4 stars!

For paranormal romance, I read (and chuckled) Dressed to Slay by Harper Allen. This is the first book in a series about the stunning & sarcastic Crosse triplets. The Russian heritage comes to the forefront as Grandpa 'Darkheart' visits and confides that the family business is vampire slaying. Normally they would have confined him to the looney bin, but they'd just been attacked by their Vampire fiances. Throw in a prophecy or two, a club called the Hot Boss, and a very sexy werewolf - oh and the sister who is the Daughter of Lilith (THE vampire slayer of this generation) and there you have it. Fun, adventure, sex, love, family - the works.

I had read book two of this a while back so some of this was familiar but it had been long enough ago, and from another triplets perspective to still make it an enjoyable read. I'll be rereading book 2 before moving to book 3. Helps the little neural pathways connect the dots.

4 stars!

Shifting to my audio - I listened to Shakespeare's Champion (Lily Bard #2) by Charlaine Harris

Lily Bard seems to attract trouble which finds infuriating as she tries to have a quiet normal life. Her past precludes her from that, and so does the town she now lives in. It's a small southern town with ingrained ideas about the social structure - though most people are nice enough, there are those few who want to stir trouble by picking on others. This book looks at racism, sexism, and violence used against others. It's a thinker though having it seen through the eyes of Lily who has been touched by violence and who protects herself by putting up walls. Though the walls have started breaking down. A good story. 

4 stars!

That's it for this time around. I hope we've given you some ideas of books to read - and don't forget our SARA books!

~Happy Reading~

 

Reading Adventures: holiday reading

Well it's the end of January now, but since we've been on a break, I would like to say 'Happy New Year!!' Did everyone have a little bit too much bubbly and food over the holiday period? I know I certainly did - the food not the bubbly. Well not much anyway :)

This was meant to be the last edition of 2014 however... (sorry, life!)

Welcome to our first edition of Reading Adventures for 2015. What did SARAs have on their reading pile for the holidays? 

Let's see...


SARAs reading SARAs
It seems there were a few books that were in common on the SARA reading lists and they were books by other SARA authors!

Stone Castles by Trish Morey

- Linda Knightley
- Lilliana Rose
- Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights

(Eleni: it's in the top 10 of my TBR)

Fake by Beck Nicholas

- Lilliana Rose

- Eleni Konstantine

"This was the first book of my reading rank for 2015. 

What an amazing book. Beck Nicholas is one talented writer. Loved the voice and this story of revenge and secrets. I would have loved this book as a YA. Looking forward to more from this amazing author!"

The Road to Ruin by Bronwyn Stuart

- Linda Knightley

- Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights

- Anne Oliver

(Eleni: it's in the top 10 of my TBR)












Of course, there were non-SARA books ......

Linda Knightley had been looking forward to - 

River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz

Seventh Heaven by Catherine Anderson

Called by Fire by Delwyn Jenkins

(Eleni: Linda, Delwyn's book is on my 2015 TBR pile!)

Lilliana Rose had been looking forward to - 

A Dance with Dragons, Part 1: Dreams and Dust by George RR Martin

Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices, book 2),  by Cassandra Clare

(Eleni: both of these are on my 2015 TBR piles, Lilliana. Great minds!)

Anne Oliver had been looking forward to - 

Re-reading Nora Roberts' The MacKade Brothers bundle. 

"I love her old romances".

(Eleni: Just before the Christmas break I finished listening to her The O'Hurleys series. Thoroughly enjoyed.)

Alison F had been looking forward to - 

I am looking forward to settling down with I selection of 'new to me' Betty Neels books I scored from Book Depository. These have been saved up for my 'Christmas Treat' which means lying in bed during daylight hours and reading and not feeling the least bit guilty about it!

Okay I lied - I will feel guilty about not doing the housework, but it is Christmas after all. 

(Eleni: One of these days I have to read a Betty Neels book. I have one on my TBR pile.)



Dianne had been looking forward to -

Writing Without a Parachute: the art of freefall by Barbara Turner-Vesselago.

A book on loan from the SA Writers Centre.

(Eleni: Dianne, this looks like a book after my pantser heart!)











Suzie Hindmarsh-Knights was reading - 

Vicious Circle (Hector Cross, book 2) by Wilbur Smith

"It's dark."

(Eleni: One author not on my TBR pile - yet!)

Liana Skrzypczak read - 

These aren't that Christmassy (in fact they're kinda depressing), but this is what I read these holidays!


Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft (Short Story)

The Golden Bird by Wilhelm Grimm (Short Story)

(Eleni: Going to the classics, Liana!)

Eleni Konstantine managed to read a few books in early January (damn cold kept me from reading between Christmas and New Year's Eve).

Fake by Beck Nicholas - 5 stars! (- see above for review)

Home for Christmas by Fiona Greene (novella) - 5 stars!

"I try not to be biased when it comes to reviews of people I know and respect. But I suppose we all have our biases. I was lucky enough to read the pre-submitted version but I read this story again in this form, and it blew me away. This a sweet story about two people falling in love slowly via long distance. There is so much heart and soul entwined and it's easy to get swept away. This was perfect holiday read. A book to leave you with a smile on your face when you finish. "

After Dark (Harmony #1) by Jayne Castle (audio) - 4 stars

"Humans on another planet into the far future."

Much Ado About You (Essex Sisters #1) by Eloisa James - 5 stars!

"Delightful historical romance with wit and charm."

I hope everyone had a relaxing time reading. Check in next time with some more Reading Adventures.

So long (sort of) and thanks for all the fish

I've been website mum since inception and blog mum for a while now but the time has come for me to hang up my hat.

It's been a great ride with some ups and downs in my personal life making SARA online fraught with twists and turns. Great fodder for a novel, I suppose.

Through it all the SARA members have been a wonderful support.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all who have helped with the blogging in the last few years - especially the amazingly talented and hilarious Emmeline Lock, who has graciously taken up the role of blog mum. So I leave this baby in good hands!

Thanks also to Maggie Mundy, Carla Caruso and Khloe Wren for help with the blog, to Bronwyn Stuart for her work on the Facebook page, and once again thanks to Emmeline for being the Twitter guru.


I wanted to also thank all of you readers who have visited the blog, and another thank you to all who took the time to comment over the years. On behalf of SARA, I have appreciated all your support. Please continue to keep that support up.

We have a wonderful band of SARA members who are doing amazing things and this blog is one of the places to support them - the others being FB and Twitter of course.


I sat watching a wonderful slide presentation by Trish Morey and Bronwyn Stuart at our last meeting and was so proud of everyone's achievements in 2014! It's one of the reasons I have loved being the blog and web mum - I got to put all those achievements up for the world to see.

Thumbs up SARA!!!

Source: Bestclipart.com

I will still continue to support everyone from the sidelines and will keep in touch with SARA reading in the Reading Adventures column, so I'm not riding off into the sunset.

At least not yet.

:D

Yia sou,
Eleni!

Southern Speak ~ Finding the Author 'you'

As part of my graphic design business run by my alter-ego, HelzKat Designs, I ask writers to think about the look of a banner or website/blog that I create on their behalf.

I get them to think about their author brand. To think about what public face and image they will have as an author. This is not the personal you. It's the professional you related to your writing.

Branding helps you and the reader know where you fit in. Humans love to categorise things. And because there are different ways to brand yourself, an author can find a way to market themselves that suits them.



Genre as your brand

For example, the author me writes mostly fantasy and paranormal stories, with the tagline, Doorway into Fantasy and Paranormal Fiction. I use a fairy as the avatar on my website banner and blog, and even on my business cards. I love the fairy as it indicates the fantastical, it can be bright and dark at the same time, which reflects my writing.

I've changed the look of my banner a few times over the years.

But early last year, I realised that I use the fairy for identiy on my business card and that I should change my banner it to reflect this.

My client and fellow SARA member, Maggie Mundy writes Dark Speculative Fiction and so the banner I created reflects this.

But how about if you are a writer that has many different genres?

That's okay, too. You don't have to be genre specific with regards to brand, though many authors like to keep their different genres seperate by different names.

For example, Nora Roberts writes her romances as Nora Roberts, but her futuristic crime series as J.D. Robb.

Jayne Ann Krentz writes as as Jayne Anne Krentz for romantic suspenses, Amanda Quick for historical romances, and Jayne Castle for her paranomal romances.

You know what type of stories you will get when you pick a book by the author name. This is reader expectation.


But as you can see with the J.D. Robb cover, Nora's name is mentioned - this is marketing and in the hopes of getting readers to pick up the book.



My client, Tracey O'Hara writes Dark Urban Fantasy but wrote erotic romance as Tracie Sommers. She's since changed this to have all her writing under one name - Tracey O'Hara - which is becoming more common. With the book cover to the right, I created the look of the short story that went with the rest of her Dark Brethren series.


Another client, Dakota Harrison writes both contemporary romance and fantasy/sci-fi. I created two banners for her to distinguish the two styles.

Your writing 'voice'
This can indicate your brand as well.

For example, Meg Cabot, writes adult, YA, and MG books. But it's her writing voice that makes it Meg Cabot. It's a fun, quirky style with bits of seriousness thrown in.



Cecilia Ahern writes quirky stories usually with romances and magical elements. Therefore the style of her website is generic but her books have an illustrated approach. The stories are set in this world but not quite of this world but in no means are what is called paranormal romance - that has a different connotation.

 





My client and fellow SARA Claire Baxter, writes fun, sweet, entertaining romance.  This is indicated with both her romances with publishers such as Random Romance and Entangled Publishing, but also with her self-published work such as More Than Just One Night.





You can go by theme

For example, Nikki Logan writes sweet romances, sexy romances, and romantic suspense under her A Romance with Nature tag. Her work involves nature in some way.

The name as the brand

Tara Moss writes both crime fiction and young adult paranormal stories. Her brand is her name - Tara Moss. This has seen her through her careers as a model, journalist, and TV presenter and most people relate to her.



Client and SARA member Virginia Taylor writes both historical romance and contemporary romance (with mainly a romantic comedy slant). Her  brand is her as is reflected in this design.

Rebranding

Fiona McIntosh (who will be a special guest at the upcoming A Fair to Remember) is now focusing her fiction on historical romantic adventures alongside her fantasy stories which she built her career on.




So have you thought about your branding?