Jude’s Blog

I picked up this book and had a lot of investment in it. It has a nice cover, good description on the back. Everything says that this book is a winner, including the review and the note that it is a USA Today bestselling author. So I’ve never heard of this author before and immediately buy it.

This book gets mixed reviews. It starts out with Zach Taylor who is career military, going home to see his sister. In the meantime, his sister has taken on a border, one he believes is after his trust fund sister’s money. But that doesn’t mean their chemistry doesn’t happen. He proceeds to be downright mean, foul-mouthed and his friend who visits isn’t much better. Though his character scolds himself for his rudeness to this woman named Lily, he carries on.

He learns from her about his sister’s impending wedding to someone, imagining much the same thing about the man she will marry. He sets off on a journey, one Lily crashes to be there for her friend, to be an advocat for the marriage. When they get there, they find out that both future husband and bride have not made it, that a kidnapper is demanding a ransom. This with another jangling plotline also in the background.

This book sizzles with cuss words, sex and a lady who takes a little too much. Somehow we are supposed to believe that Lily, who is quite classy, has fallen in love with his marine.

If you like reading about characters who should never get together, then this is the book for you. If you want to read about a marine on his worst behavior who has very few redeaming character traits, then great. I would not class this as romance fiction but endurance fiction as page after page of expletitive errupts on top of sex scene after sex scene. Even the final pages are dotted with the ‘f’ word.

There are some redeaming features but few. For example, Lily is quite likeable. But the marine’s sister is made out to be a little smarter than a doorknob and a bad judge of character. I somewhat liked the commander who came on scene but did very little because the plot itself more or less vanished.

That brings us to plot. Other than two characters that will be divorced soon after ‘The End’, I didn’t see much plot. Much of it was lukewarm and tossed away before a plausible resolution was met. As well, the author indulged in a sidebar with two other characters who were married to resolve their current differences. This book is a train wreck of plots, including two warring sisters and a horrible cousin.

So if you’re thinking of picking up this book, I’ve given it two stars to make up for the fact that the sentences are strung together very well.

I don’t recommend this book.

Veronica Grant House is a veteran reviewer and has done countless reviews for her local paper. So far she has rated Kate Rizor’s novel ‘The Governor’s Wife’ as a total 5 and same with Carly Philips’ new book ‘Brazen’.

Expect more reviews from this reviewer.

Author: Veronica Grant House
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Phew! I need to take a cool shower. Just finished writing a very steamy sex scene for my new interspecies erotic romance novel, Sierra Sky. It is now 76% complete. Heck, I might even end up with more than 40K words if this keeps up. I haven’t even gotten to the meat of the plot yet. Hehe Having too much fun writing the sex scenes. Phew again!

My site transfer to hawkhost was completed yesterday. I only noticed the site down for a few minutes while the domain propogated to the new host. Most of you probably didn’t even notice. It was a pretty smooth transfer. Let me know if you find anything that doesn’t look right.

I found Hawkhost.com while looking into something unrelated. They have just about everything I need, so I am giving them a try. I paid 3 months, so if all goes well, they will be my host for awhile. Wish me luck that I won’t need to change again anytime soon.

Well, I am canceling with Fatcow and continuing my search for another host. Considering that after my year was up, the renewal cost would skyrocket, it’s best that I bail now while I can still get my money back. They advertise far more than you actually get, so this host should be avoided.

I’m still having a few minor issues with FatCow, so I’m rethinking of using them. First, I can’t seem to get the SSL to work properly.  I have put in a help ticket to ask about it. Maybe I’m doing something wrong.

Then I try to set up the store they have, and it’s pitiful!  I signed up because that sounded great along with the included SSL (which I can’t get to work right).

Now, I almost signed up with the credit card processor they are affiliated with, iPayment.  They sound great on the surface, but they want a lot of personal information to get set up, nothing like what paypal expects for pretty much the same thing.  Luckily, I did a search to see if they have any complaints against them. Thank goodness I did that.  They apparently have a huge yearly compliance fee they charge every year that isn’t obvious as you sign up.  In fact I looked, and the disclaimer is in light grey at the bottom of the second signup page.

So, I quickly closed that browser and will stick with paypal and Google checkout unless something else comes along, but boo to FatCow for almost convincing me to signup with a company that would ultimately cost me far more than it would save me.  What the heck is the point of that!?  Ugh!

After a very rough start, all is smooth over at Fatcow hosting.  They even uploaded my forum backup, since it’s too large for me to do it without tripping the maximum allowed mysql questions.  Jeesh, though it does seem that no host truly knows what unlimited is.  I will have unlimited bandwidth, as long as it’s not related to a database? Seems silly to me, but oh well.

I know I had issues with one of my previous host attempts, and was constantly getting the exceeded error, but I think they had the max set at some absurdly low number, like 5,000.  Fatcow has it at 75,000, which I can’t imagine my little forum will ever use in an hour’s time.

I made the mistake of renewing for another month with Godaddy, so I’m paid up with them through the middle of May.  I figure I’ll keep my eye on the site over at Fatcow to monitor any problems. If it looks good by mid April, I’ll switch everything over.  It should be pretty seemless, since everything is live over there.  Just a matter of transferring the domain over. 

Most of you probably won’t even be able to tell I’ve made the switch.   At least I hope so.

The only other drawback to all this is that it has distracted me from working on Sierra Sky.  I really want to get back to that story and will definitely work on it this weekend.  I promise!  But then it will literally take months of waiting for submissions editors and then actual editors and then the publisher’s waiting list before the book is available.  I’ll be on pins and needles until then, waiting with baited breath to see what my readers think of my new “style”. 

Due to GoDaddy being ridiculous about their renewal rates, I am looking for a new host (again). At least it’s been 2 years, but I’m already having a hard time of it. What did Godaddy do this time? They only offer discounts to new customers, which I find unacceptable.  So they give huge discounts to new people, but make all their loyal customers pay $4.99 a month no matter if they pay by the month or 3 years in advance.  They do not offer unlimited service nor do they give us CGI, so naturally they shouldn’t be able to charge that much.

So now I’m looking elsewhere. Thought I found a great deal with FatCow.  Not only do they have everything I need, they also provide all their customers with SSL for no extra cost.  I signed up for a year with their special discount and have uploaded files all day.  Well 3 hours ago, everything stopped working.  I tried their live chat, only to be told their servers were having issues, so it was affecting my site.  No updates listed on their site, so how many users are being impacted?  This doesn’t look good to me.  If my site were already with them, it would have been down for 3 full hours, with no end in sight.  I’m currently on hold with their support team to find out what the issue is. Maybe I can have better luck getting an answer than from their chat or ticket system.

I just don’t know why I have no luck finding a host that is reliable.  What does everyone else use? I have gone through half a dozen and always have issues.  Godaddy has gotten a bit pompous, but I didn’t have to deal with down time with them, and I have never been locked out of ftp before.  I can’t even access ftp with FatCow.  If this keeps up, I will be asking for a refund and leaving them in the dust.

Touching the Brilliance of Sunrise-a novel of faith, love, and second chances is officially classified as Christian fiction romance. The back cover copy, however, promises a good book, plain and simple.

“Some of the best writing I’ve come across,” says the endorsement by travel writer Teresa L. Carpenter. “It had me spellbound as much as the Left Behind series.”

For readers familiar with that Christian fiction series, this sounds like pretty high praise. So what’s it about?

“Melissa, a youthful mid-life artist from California, takes a vacation with her three kids to the coast of Maine. She’s hoping for some quality family time at a turning point in their lives…and dreaming of moving to Maine someday soon. They meet Kraig, a writer from Oregon, walking on the beach with his guide dog. He’s slightly younger, articulate, gentlemanly, deeply intuitive…unlike any other man she’s known.

“Neither is looking for love–but life has other plans. What happens when Melissa realizes she might have to choose between her lifelong dream of living in Maine…and being with Kraig?”

One of the great strengths of this piece of writing is its dialog. The book contains a large amount of conversation, clearly crafted by a writer skilled in this area. The characters all talk realistically, according to age, gender, and so forth, each speaking differently enough that you can almost tell who’s talking without the attribution. There are a believable number of “ums” and “you knows,” along with slang and vernacular–but no profanity.

The descriptions of people and places are also very pleasing to the ear. For example: “As she eased the car onto the highway that would take them out of the hills toward the wine country, the western sky was streaked with watercolor shades of peach and pearly gray. The dark, leafless branches of oak trees stood out like ink drawings against the blue-white background. A light sprinkle of rain dotted the windshield, and the landscape glittered with freshness and newness.”

And because Melissa is an artist and Kraig is blind, we have many delightful opportunities to see the world through her eyes as she describes things to Kraig.

“The characters are realistically, likeably imperfect,” continues the back cover copy. “They talk like real people, have real needs, make real mistakes, learn hard lessons. They grow in their faith and in their relationships with each other, setting an example for those around them…and for you and your family.”

If you like a good story without violence or profanity, an upbeat romance with a happy but believable ending, a novel that makes you feel good about life… Touching the Brilliance of Sunrise is the book to put at the top of your reading list. It’s available from the author’s website, http://justrightcopy.com/books, as well as from Amazon.

Elle Jardine is a freelance writer and avid reader.

Touching the Brilliance of Sunrise-a novel of faith, love, and second chances is available at http://justrightcopy.com/books as well as at Amazon.

You’ll get some special bonuses if you buy it from the author’s website.

Teresa L. Carpenter’s travel blog can be found at travelwithtlc.blogspot.com.

Author: Elle Jardine
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

I’ve been wanting to get my books on Barnes & Noble’s website for years.  Never wanted to go through the hassle of being a “Vendor of Record”, so I was relieved when they started offering ebooks (Nookbooks).  Still, I couldn’t figure out how to be vendor without having to go through the same hassle.  Knowing that they offer plenty of ebooks that aren’t in paperback, I figured there must be a way publishers were getting their books on Nook.

So I emailed Barnes & Noble and asked.  LOL  Yeah, it took me years to figure out I could do that.  And they quickly wrote me back and gave me the URL, so now I have 2 of my books in the works: Formerly Brandewyne and Faith’s Portrait.  Once they are available, I will work on getting more uploaded.  I couldn’t make FB free, so it’s listed at 99 cents.  FP will be the same price as on Amazon and here.

Right now only one of my erotic romances are available through Cobblestone and that’s Painful Reflections.  That is my first one, so they are must wait quite awhile before uploading to Nook.  Anyway, eventually all my ebooks will be available through Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. 

Here is the link to my NookBooks on www.bn.com.