Monday, July 06, 2009

RITA-nominated giveaway: Tote #4

[Ed. note: We continue our RITA® giveaway with our next tote. Be sure to leave your comments on the posts for a chance to win. One tote per winner will be awarded, but you can comment on any post throughout the contest period.]

Karen Rose, Scream for Me
2009 RITA® finalist for Romantic Suspense

“I was delighted to receive the call from RWA this year telling me that SCREAM FOR ME was a RITA® finalist! I’m honored and so pleased that the judges enjoyed it. I’m also honored to be grouped with my fellow finalists. Each one is a master at her craft and each one is a lovely, friendly, giving person.

Being nominated this year was especially exciting, because for the first time my husband, Martin, will be joining me for the award ceremony. Having him there with me will be so sweet! FYI, Washington, DC – the location of this year’s RWA – is our hometown. Martin and I went to college in nearby College Park, MD and most of our dates were spent haunting the museums of DC. In fact, my husband proposed to me on the steps of the US Capitol in July 1983. After the awards ceremony and reception – since he’ll be in a tux and I’ll be dolled up – we’re going to go back to the Capitol steps and have some passerby snap our picture! It will be almost 26 years since I told him, ‘Yes.’ My hero!”

About Scream for Me:

Special Agent Daniel Vartanian has sworn to find the perpetrator of multiple killings that mimic a 13-year-old murder linked to a collection of photographs that belonged to his brother, Simon, the ruthless serial killer who met his demise in DIE FOR ME. Daniel is certain that someone even more depraved than his brother committed these crimes, and he's determined to bring the current murderer to justice and solve the mysterious crime from years ago.

With only a handful of images as a lead, Daniel's search will lead him back through the dark past of his own family, and into the realm of a mind more sinister than he could ever imagine. But his quest will also draw him to Alex Fallon, a beautiful nurse whose troubled past reflects his own. As Daniel becomes attached to Alex, he discovers that she is also the object of the obsessed murderer. Soon, he will not only be racing to discover the identity of this macabre criminal, but also to save the life of the woman he has begun to love.

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Eloisa James, Duchess by Night,
2009 RITA® finalist for Historical Romance

“I was particularly happy when Duchess by Night finaled for the RITA® because it's a book inspired by my childhood. I grew up on a farm outside a very small town in Minnesota. My greatest delight was when my mother would go into town for grocery shopping and drop me at the Carnegie Public Library -- where I discovered Georgette Heyer's historical romances. I still remember the cover of every one of those library editions. I read them over and over and over. Duchess by Night features a heroine who's dressed as a boy, imitating one of Georgette's favorite plot devices. And I took a stab at her witty conversation, though I admit to failure... still, to get a RITA® nomination for this particular book means that in emulating her, I achieved my best. So I'm grateful (again) to Ms. Heyer!”

About Duchess by Night:

Harriet, Duchess of Berrow, is desperate to flee the sadness of being a widow. Whether presiding over the Shire Court of the Duchy of Berrow, or dressed as a prim Mother Goose at an extravagant masquerade ball thrown by one of her wicked friends, Harriet’s in a rut. And she’s beginning to long for something altogether different.

It’s time for a complete change of pace – she will throw off her widow’s weeds and escape…to the famously dissolute house party held at Lord Strange’s country estate? But no duchess can appear at one of Strange’s parties without risking her reputation forever. So when the Duke of Villiers offers to accompany Harriet, she jumps at the chance – even if it means disguising herself as a young man.

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Irene Hannon, Where Love Abides
2009 RITA® Finalist for Inspirational Romance

“For a writer, getting the RITA® call is akin to learning you’re up for an Oscar. This is my third such call—I won the RITA® in 2003 and was nominated in 2008—so I’ve been thrice blessed! I’m especially pleased about the nomination for WHERE LOVE ABIDES, because in this book I dipped my toes…very tentatively…into suspense, with a cop hero and a heroine who has a mysterious past. That whetted my appetite for more—and I went on to write my first full-fledged suspense book, AGAINST ALL ODDS.

That book came out in February, and has since made the two premier best-seller lists for inspirational fiction (the Christian fiction equivalents of the New York Times and U.S.A. Today lists). It was also named a “Top Pick” by RT BOOKreviews. So it seems my instincts were on target when I added a dash of suspense to my romance in WHERE LOVE ABIDES. Now we’ll see what the RITA® judges have to say!"
About Where Love Abides:

The widowed sheriff's daughter wanted just one thing: a mom. But the lady she'd set her sights on didn't consider herself mother or wife material. Christine Turner couldn't abide her attraction to handsome lawman Dale Lewis. She'd moved to Oak Hill for a fresh start, but no matter how much she wanted it, she didn't believe a family was in God's plan for her life. Dale decreed it a crime for such a lovely, kind woman to hide away on her farm. Especially when he wanted to make his daughter's dream and Christine's come true.

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Dana Marton, Tall, Dark and Lethal
2009 RITA® Finalist for Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure
“To be nominated for the RITA® is such an honor, I can still barely believe it. RWA puts a tremendous amount of time and effort into this contest, and I truly appreciate that. TALL, DARK AND LETHAL is my favorite book about the most unlikely couple I’ve ever written. Bad neighbors can be a pain, no matter how sexy. And Bailey truly couldn’t stand the stubborn and overbearing Cade, even before he blew her house up. I couldn’t be happier that of all of my books, this one is the one to be a RITA® finalist. I’m so proud of the way these two handled their differences and put their lives on the line to fight for freedom and the lives of innocents. Their book being a finalist is kind of like watching your kid winning a ribbon at school. Just the absolute best feeling.”

About Tall, Dark and Lethal:

Her moody, arrogant neighbor had a way of getting under her skin. And that was before he blew her house up. She was so not impressed that he managed to save her life at least. But in the game of hide and seek that follows, nothing is as it seems. Soon Bailey Preston realizes that tall, dark and handsome Cade Palmer might just be the only thing standing between her and the faceless enemies who want to destroy her.

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Yasmine Galenorn, Dragon Wytch
2009 RITA® Finalist for Paranormal Romance

“When I got the call that I’d been nominated for the RITAs®, it took me a few minutes to understand what she meant. For one thing, I’d been asleep and was still blurry-eyed and without my caffeine. For another, I’d actually kind of forgotten I’d entered. You see, it’s a contest I never expected to have a chance in, so I didn’t really give it a second thought after the fact.

For one thing: my books have other-than-HEA endings—I write a series and you can’t wrap everything up all happy and nice at the end of every urban fantasy/paranormal romance without sort of shutting down the series story arc. So while the endings wrap up the story within the book, nobody just lives happily ever after. And for another, almost all my characters have what are euphemistically called ‘alternative lifestyles.’ The main character (half-human, half-Fae) of DRAGON WYTCH does get married at the end—to two of her three lovers (one of whom is a dragon-shifter and one who’s a youkai-kitsune fox demon) in a polyamorous wedding. I figured those two things right there would axe any chances I had because old stereotypes of love and marriage die-hard.

What making the finals for the RITAs® means to me is that attitudes may be shifting: There may be more tolerance for alternative lifestyles. And even more important to me: the definition of romance isn’t so limited anymore. Because in my mind, love can expand to include more than one person. Love can cross gender lines and race lines (whether it be a gay couple, an interracial couple or—say, a dragon-Fae match). I think the most important thing this says to me is that perhaps, if there’s more tolerance for alternative sexuality/relationships in the RITAs®, maybe one day there will be more tolerance for them in our everyday world. And that would be a wonderful thing.

So being nominated as a finalist for the RITAs® does more than strengthen my pride over my writing—it gives me hope.”

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IMHO: That's it for today. Be sure to leave a comment for our authors if you want a chance to win this tote and tune in Wednesday for more featured RITA®-nominated finalists.

TJB

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please enter me in the contest!

Wow another great set of books!

Good luck to everyone!

Thanks,

Terri W.

Danielle said...

Good Luck to all the nomimees.

MJFredrick said...

Good luck Rita night! What gorgeous covers, too!

Margay Leah Justice said...

This is another great set of books!
Margay

At Home Mommy Knits said...

Best of luck to all the nominees!

CrystalGB said...

Great books. Count me in.

vickyb said...

So many good books to read! I can't wait!

JeanMP said...

Another great set of books, can't wait to read them.
Good luck to all the nominees.

tetewa said...

Another great tote, count me in!

Cheeky Girl said...

These all sound like fantastic books - Congrats to all the nominees and good luck!

Judy said...

Great books. There are a couple in this group, I already have on my TBR list and one I have read!! Congrats to everyone!!

jcp said...

Great prize!! I have not read any of the books.

Anonymous said...

Looks like fun. Congrats to all the nominee's (though I'm sure Dragon Wytch will win because its Awesome (and the only one i've read)).

I'd be most interested in winning these other books to win.

Karen Rose said...

Thanks, everyone!

Good luck in the tote drawing and hope to see you at RWA (next week! How did the time fly by so fast?!?)

Babyblue22 said...

Congrats to all of the nominees!!!
All the books sound great.
Have fun in DC and Good Luck!!!

Another Great Tote TJ!!

~Afshan
Afshan522@aol.com

housemouse88 said...

Congrats to all the nominees! I've heard about some of these authors but not all of them. Please count me in for the contest. Have a great day.

house_mouse88 at yahoo dot com

chey said...

Congrats to the nominees! All the books sound wonderful!

KELLY FITZPATRICK said...

Wonderful covers! Great blurbs! Good luck to one and all. You're all winners.

P.S. I started Yasmine Galenorn's Night Huntress.

The Scarf Princess said...

Another great collection of books! Whoever gets these would be very lucky!

Unknown said...

Congrats to the Rita finalists! This is another group of great books. Good luck ladies!

Jane said...

Congrats to the nominees. The only authors I'm familiar with are Karen Rose and Eloisa James.

lrhubble said...

congrats to all the authors on the nominations. Very impressive line up of books. Wow all the books are making my TBB list grow by leaps and bounds. :-)


Larena

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Yowch. Deferring an entry into this is painful. VERY painful. But... no need to enter me. My TBR stack is too high for me to bring anything into the house right now.

I've got this posted at Win a Book, as usual, TJ. Let me know if I can do other book-related posts for you or any of your author friends. We'd love to be part of their promo loop, too.

M. said...

Wow, talk about diversity! Inspirational, suspense, historical, dragons! Great cross-section. All but Eloisa James are new-to-me. I've read and very much enjoyed the first two in Ms. James Desperate Duchesses series, so this third installment is very tempting for me. The only reason I haven't bought it yet is because of menacing TBR....

mrsshukra said...

Count me in!!!!

Estella said...

Congrats to all the nominees!
This is a great set of books.

Unknown said...

There's something for everyone in this tote - Christian to paranormal. Love it!!
Please enter me!

Beth said...

Please enter me

TJ Bennett said...

Welcome, everyone, and glad you love the variety. Since I never know who's going to win what, I like to mix it up a bit. Something will surely appeal to everyone in these totes. :-)

And thank you to Karen Rose for stopping by! Good luck on July 18.

TJB

Samantha Hensch said...

I loved Duchess by Night, and now that I know the author is from my home state, that makes it even better!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for featuring my book! I'm keeping fingers, toes and eyes crossed until Saturday night. Which means my current novel is not progressing all that fast :-) Dana Marton

TJ Bennett said...

LOL, Dana! I don't know how you can concentrate on anything. When I was a Golden Heart nominee in 2005, it messed me up for weeks!

Good luck at the RITAs! Thanks for stopping by.

TJB

dag888888 said...

Congratulations, nominees, great books!
dag888888[at]yahoo[dot]com

Dina said...

wow, lost of great books & authors. Several are new to me too. Saw your post on Barbara Vey's PW blog.

delitealex said...

Congrats nominees. great books

Judy said...

Reading about all these nominations and books makes me wish I could go to the convention.

Mozi Esme said...

I would love to be able to read these!

Kammie said...

Congratulations to all the RITA Finalists! That's something to be so proud of! I enjoyed reading your posts and learning more about your stories.

Jeanette J said...

More great books for the judges to choose from. Good luck to all.

TJ Bennett said...

Dina, thanks for the heads up about the PW post. Didn't know she'd put it up. :-)

TJB

aromagik said...

Tall Dark & Lethal looks especially yummy, but they all look great!

Sue A. said...

Congratulations on the well deserved nominations to all the authors!

Mariee said...

Great books! Please count me in.

Patricia Barraclough said...

Wow, what a great selection! Wish I could win again!

Calila1988 said...

Good Luck to everyone!!

Unknown said...

Oh, I'm coming late to the contest, but it's okay, it's great to see all the nominees and the info about the books. Great job!

Pam P said...

Congrats and good luck to you all. I've read a couple of Karen's but need to get this one. have Dana's and Duchess by Night in the TBR now. Just getting ready to start reading the Galenorn, can't blame Camille for wanting both of those sexy shifters!

mrsshukra said...

Please count me in!

Pat Lynch said...

Great books. You did a great job sorting these books out.

Leanne said...

"Tall, Dark and Lethal" gets my vote: there is something very sensual about the combination of life-threatening action, romance, and humor. This handsome young man blew the lady's house up??! I think there is going to be a good page-turning conclusion to this book.

"Dragon Wytch" caught my eye as well, since I am into paranormal, and I agree with the author in that it is a testament to our society when we can read and write romances between different species, lifestyles, and persuasions.

Marie said...

These all look wonderful!

marielay@gmail.com

delitealex said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Congrats to all the nominees!
Alot of great books and authors!!!!