AnnaLund2011

All you self-pubbers out there: here is an extremely comprehensive book of lists of links to E*V*E*R*Y*T*H*I*N*G. For under ten bucks, you get it all.

If you buy this book of lists you will find editors, lay-outers, stock-photo sites, artists, publicists, content editors, printers, POD’ers, anything really—you are handed weeks’ (if not indeed months’) worth of research into the best you can get. The most bang for your buck. (Or so the authors say).

It is crammed with links to every possible thing a self-publishing author might need—and a few links to stuff you never guessed you’d need.

(The only thing missing is a chapter on how to not be a donkey to reviewers. Maybe that could be a chapter at the end in a later edition?) (Pretty please?)

Very, very good guide to the resources out there for indies, so there is simply no excuse for crappy products now.

Make sure you get this as an eBook/Mobi, as all the links inside are live, clickable and instant. (A paperback wouldn’t be the same, at all).

Have fun, Indies. Break a leg, all of you.

***

I was given a free review copy of this book from the author, and a positive review wasn’t promised in return.

Yeah. This was so much fun it was almost silly.

Full of the holiday spirit, and so well written—this novella was cute, and quirky, and sweet, all in one.

Geeks and shorts-wearing Christmas-postmen.

Yumm.

Just as I’ve come to expect of Jay Northcote.

21 pages of fun. Go get it.

***

I was given a free ARC copy of this book from the author, and a positive review wasn’t promised in return—but it is free to download at All Romance eBooks and Smashwords and in most Amazon regions, so there is no excuse not to read it. 

The Sutton Station final installment, and what a beauty it is.

And how brilliant is it that this one is told from Travis’s point of view? What a gorgeous man he is. The whole setting gets a new light, seen from his eyes. Still full of red dirt, but with the added awe of a person who has chosen to live in this wondrous land, one who wasn’t simply born into it.

So, author. You proceed to break my heart in so many pieces I’m still looking for some of them. Then you go on and mend it, like it was never broken in the first place.

As I sit and read, I get lost in the red dirt trails, and I rightly don’t know where I am when I look up from the pages. It takes a moment to realize that I am in my home, not in the outback, struggling.

What I really loved in this last book was the fact that there wasn’t any mandatory romantic crisis, no shocking turn of events to put everything upside down. Just life, and all its quirky happenings of deep joy, coupled with deep sorrow—that’s what a good story is.

The only minus note I have is that the women in this last installment were extremely traditional in their roles, except for a very small window of red disappearing into the setting sun at the end. All the other women, from Ma, to Travis’s mother in Texas, they were all cooking and taking care of their houses. It irked me a bit. One yiihaa-cowgirl scene doesn’t make up for all the fabulous roles these ladies could have presented.

Another thing I absolutely adored was the fact that all the love scenes were mostly fade to black. I am very weary of the explicit sexing, and this was just amazingly well done. Thank you. It was sweet, and good, and just enough.

The epilogue was great, I loved it. It added a lot of little nuggets of fun facts, little things that I know I would be wondering about, later.

Because, you see, this is a story that stays with you. For days, dare I say months? Charlie and Travis are real, to me. They live very far away, so I don’t hear from them very often. But they are friends, nonetheless.

The first three were my Best of 2014.

This last one lands smack-bang in the newly instated Best of 2015.

Read this series.

*** 

I was given a pre-edit ARC copy of this book. A positive review was not promised in exchange.

Yeah.

Snow? Check.

Holiday spirit? Check.

Cute boys? Check.

Good writing? Check.

Add an amazing woman secondary character, and I’m in love. Brandy and all.

This story is just happiness, just like all the happy novellas this author is so good at writing.

Then, suddenly, there’s too much snow, and an old cottage that is very cold indeed. And we all know how to keep warm in cold climates, right? Yup.

Brandy, friendship, and laughter, and holiday dinners with the neighbor.

Interesting that while the story has all the parts that have been used in romance stories over and over for eons, it still never feels old; no, it feels fresh and new. Amazing storytelling.

So grab a blanket, make yourself a cup of tea and some cookies, and dive into the British sweetness. Watch the snow as it falls heavily in the hills of the Welsh countryside. And watch the boys fall, too, all over each other. 

And enjoy. Just enjoy.

***

I was given a free ARC copy of this book from the author, and a positive review wasn’t promised in return.

I did it again

gobsmacked.

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/annalund2011

Why is it that good stories finish so fast? This one just flashed by me, in all its beautiful and sensual happiness. The boys were adorable, and just the right amount of emotional morons to stimulate all my OH FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE MAN JUST KISS HIM. And such things. You know.

This is a story full of sex, tender and loving, and it is explicit to the umpteenth degree. As this author has showed us before, it is quite possible to write full-on porn without ever ending up lewd and disgusting. It is simply making love. In many, many ways, in many, many positions.

Of course, add to all that, they are training for a Mud Race. Well, you get the picture. The boys are sweaty and muddy most of the time.

It is glorious.

They even finally talk it out. About relationships and things. Amazing. How about them apples, eh?

I also love that this is a story that also has a bisexual character, and LGBT-characters who walk around in life with a personal weight of internalized homophobia. Growing up in homophobic homes can really trouble your mind.

There is real and true mental growing-up happening in this story.

It’s really beautiful.

Happy reading everyone.

***

I was given a free copy of this book from the publisher, Dreamspinner Press, and a positive review wasn’t promised in return.

Check 'em out!!

See you in December.

I am shattered by this book, and so happy I got to read it.

The first half was thrilling, loving, mindblowing, and so gorgeously confusing!

Then all the pieces are slowly worked together into a whole tapestry of interwoven lives, all seen through the wild and amazing eyes of a young girl.

Absolutely mesmerizing, and smashing language to boot.

There is so much love in here that it almost flows off the pages, oh how I love to read about great-grandfathers who have made a difference. Here, storytelling has a way of taking wings and flying into your dreams at night. Here, fantasy becomes imagination, and then dreams happen, that go on to become reality. Or not.

Of course, you need to love family, and be the kind of reader who doesn’t get upset when she squeals in joy or gushes forth in amazing amounts of tears. Because there was plentiful of both.

This book is going to stay with me for a long time.

There is hope and emotions and happiness and sadness and bisexuality and love and understanding and… Great-Grand Fathers!

Well. Go read it, eh?

Because I find myself crying again, as I’m writing this review.

*** 

A copy of this book was given to me by the publisher, Dreamspinner Press. A positive review was not promised in exchange.

Well, now this was different. I loved that this was a story in which the main character was a boy, or young man, who only incidentally is gay. For once, a story that doesn’t centre on this fact, it was just a baseline, a backdrop. I really liked this. More stories could benefit from this approach.

Tucker is a fine young fellow, and when he finds he can change the weather, of course the government is interested. At first, you think, well, what’s so amazing with a little rain and snow? Then, when you sit down and think about it, you realize you can make or break any country in the world with weather. Very nice storyline, and most unusual. Kudos.

It is also a biting exposé of how the land of the free has changed in the last few decades. Especially Tucker’s parents were complete and utter push-overs, who let the Department of Homeland Security just walk all over them. No fight in them at all, which scared me more than anything in this book. The boy is only 15 years old, and the parents don’t even protest when they take him away? Yeah, scary stuff, together with all the blasé talk about the bugging devices that have been planted everywhere in everyone’s houses…it almost goes into an Orwellian state of big-brotherhood creepiness. I hope this was intentional, because if not, it scares me even more.

The language is very good, without purple prose; it flows and tells the story well. Why then three stars? Well, I felt the second half was truncated, unfinished, and quite a bit rushed at the end. As if the author got tired of writing it, and just inserted the initial synopsis-ending, instead of actually writing a proper ending. The last 20 pages were all telling, no showing, and that’s not how I want to part with characters I have grown to like.

The open-ish end could, of course, be there to make way for a second installment in a series, and that aggravates me, because I like to know beforehand if it is a series or not that I am reading. Actually, I'm not even sure there IS going to be more, so, for me, another chapter would have rounded it off nicely.

All in all a good read, recommended for young adults, with good-natured, sane young characters. I liked this book.

*** 

I was given an ARC of this book by the author. A positive review was not promised in exchange.

John Grisham: Let's Give Old White Guys Who Look at Child Porn a Break

(In case the above link doesn't work, here it is again:

http://gawker.com/john-grisham-lets-give-old-white-guys-who-look-at-chil-1646964144?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow )

Never touching another one of your books, Grisham. Ever again. 

I just read number 2 in this series about a month ago, and I positively love that I get to walk into Ma’s kitchen again at Sutton Station, and sit down for a new episode. I love that place.

This time there is a little drama, handled in the calmest of ways, and then there’s the added bonus of a wombat that walked straight into my heart and sat down and nested. By DOG I love Nugget.

The Aussie drawl is perfect, without ever going into any kind of tedious weird spelling. It just flows right, and I hear a voice-mixture of all the Australians I’ve ever heard, (which are admittedly far too few, and including Steve Irving, the ladies of Drover’s Run, and some of the cast in Spartacus. But hey, it works for me).

I love cattle work, I have done it for years, and this setting rings true. For sure, it tells a good story also about some strong and feisty women, which I cannot but adore. Thank you for them, thank you for Trudy, Ma, and Nara. Thank you for giving Nara a future, and for not quitting on Trudy. Ma? Thank you. Thank you.

I adore the modernization of the station, the look to the future, and I am simply amazed at the evident research behind this story, to bring it alive. Or maybe N. R. Walker is in the cattle business? One would believe so.

There were moments of tension here, and there were moments of knee-slapping hilarity, too. I think the naming of the poddies had me screaming out loud. Travis is to die for, truly.

Here, I’ll leave you with a short paragraph, just so you can see what I’m talking about:

I scoffed out a laugh. “My life used to be boring! I can still remember thinkin’ nothing ever happened out here. It wasn’t that long ago.”

His eyes went wide. It matched his smile. “You make it sound like it’s my fault!”

“It is!” I told him. “Since you got here, it’s been not-boring every day.”

Language is important to me, and even though I was given a pre-edit ARC copy, I found very few errors and typos. This is a serious author who self-publishes, with respect for the readers. I salute that, and point my finger to this series in evidence for those who say that self-published isn’t up to par. It may be true sometimes, but with this author, not at all.

Absolutely smashing work. Top marks.

And the best part? At the end there, in the list of books written by this author? It says Coming Soon, Red Dirt Heart 4.

YAY! DOUBLE YAY!

I love a series where every book is a complete stand-alone piece, where I don’t feel cheated at the end. Where the storyline is rounded and I feel I’ve got all the answers I needed, for now. That means the next book is just going to be a bonus-new-encounter-with-favorite-boys. Where Australia can re-enter the scene, and charm my socks off.

*** 

I was given a pre-edit ARC copy of this book. A positive review was not promised in exchange.

Delightful short story in period dress.

Absolutely adored it.

There was careful attention to word usage, painting beautiful imagery, all in only very few pages.

I am finding that I really love a well-rounded short story, when done this way, with just enough information to paint a backdrop and build a couple of characters.

Loved the characters, loved their simple way. 

And adored the hea. Ms Jaye is known for them!

Excellent read.

***

I was given a free copy of this book from the author, and a positive review wasn’t promised in return.

This is all I look for in a story set in the country-side: nature, horses, sheep (lots of sheep!), and hot men. Lots of nature. And really lots of sheep.

Absolutely marvelous storytelling, where the Australian landscape is brought to life in front of me.

Without ever falling into the trap of transcribing dialect, the Aussie sound shines through in word choices and actions. The Aussie drawl when Hank calls Doc “Quackle” simply resonates within me.

For once, I adore being in a first person setting, because Hank is adorable. Clueless, but adorable.

Favorite sentence:

I gave you a lamb to name. What part of that doesn’t say I love you?

Now, add to this all the sensual loving, all the good feels and heeee-haaa sexing, there is brilliant wit in here. Crushing humor that had me bellowing out loud. God, I love a book that makes me laugh, and Hank? He’s just the best. Did I say clueless and adorable? Hot and totally unaware.

Shearing gun and fun guy éxtraordinaire.

My favorite combo.

Will look into this author to see what else is there.

***

I was given a free copy of this book from the publisher, Dreamspinner Press, and a positive review wasn’t promised in return.

Cutesplosion.

Ah, that elusive hottie that got away. The one you can’t stop thinking about. What if he came back? And you suddenly realize he’s not out of your reach, after all?

That reach is, however, being conditioned by a set number of dates, as a game, because Nathan has no wish to become one of Owen’s conquests.

A hilarious, sweet, and profound story, so cute I got into a serious case of the giggles.

It is simply fluffy sweetness.

And still, suddenly, that sweetness becomes serious, because there is this feeling of deeper connection than just the usual sexing. Maybe five dates before hitting the sack isn’t all that bad?

The only thing I didn’t much care for was the POV switch. I don’t like those, even when they are well done, as it was here. I like to enter one mind and stick to it, see the world through those eyes.

But that’s me, and doesn’t have anything to do with this book.

Self-published, and yet both well-written and edited.

Kudos, Northcote.

You do this very well.

Feed me more words.

***

I was given a free copy of this self-published book from the author, who is a Twitter friend. A positive review wasn’t promised in return.

I adore these boys. I love that it’s not set in the US. I’m in love with their red dirt outback. There is heat in this writing, and it’s not all from the sunshine. There is simply heat, here.

There are some pretty awesome characters, too, both a couple of kick-ass women and a couple of Australian native aboriginals who are both cool, true, and fully fleshed out. As are all the secondary characters here.

Yes, there is so much to discover. At the same time, it’s like stepping into the kitchen where old friends live. It’s recognizable. It’s safe. It’s friendly. There are horses in the yard, and cattle to move. There are more stars in the night-skies than ever, and they all look different from the ones we’re used to. 

It feels like home.

And what I really liked is that there is not so much angst. It’s calm, and I really needed this happy. There’s a little trouble, of course, but minimal.

The only thing that bugged me was the chopping off of the final “g”, as in seein’, walkin’, tellin’—not at all because I don’t like the usage, but because it wasn’t consistent. In the same paragraph, it could be used, and then not used. I love it in conversation, a bit less when it’s on and off in the flow of the story background text. Now, use it, or don’t use it. 

All in all a gorgeous story, (and for a self-published story, the quality is really very good). I’d like to hook up with these boys again. They say another book is on the way.

I love a series where every book is a complete stand-alone piece, where I don’t feel cheated at the end. Where the storyline is rounded and I feel I’ve got all the answers I needed, for now. That means the next book is just going to be a bonus-new-encounter-with-favorite-boys. Where Australia can re-enter the scene, and charm my socks off.

I love this story. Australia comes alive, in all its immense, colorful, and difficult nature.

It is simply beautiful.

*** 

I bought a copy of this book with my own money.