This week I finished my first Christmas themed romance book of the year. It read A VIRGIN RIVER CHRISTMAS by Robyn Carr. I didn’t know that this was book 4 of a series. I’m a stickler for reading a series in order. That said this book can be read as a stand alone. So fear not fellow series lovers, you can read this book first and still want to read the other books in the series.

In A VIRGIN RIVER CHRISTMAS we find feisty widow Marcie Sullivan looking for the man who saved her husband in Iraq, Ian Buchanan. Ian is hiding in the mountains in
Virgin River to lick his wounds and deal with the fact that the man he brought back to Marcie and his best friend would have been better off dead instead of living as a vegetable for 3 extra years. Together Ian and Marcie learn to heal old wounds and move on with life.

This is a wonderful book. The message in it is quite clear, love, life and laughter will always exist and help one move beyond their pain and loss of a loved one. I truly enjoyed reading this book. The characters came alive and I indentified with them. Did it put me in the Christmas spirit? Nope, but it was well worth the read any way.

I am proud to announce the first guest at my “I AM A SURVIVOR” feature is none other than best selling author of VINTAGE BLOOK AND THE SACRED SCEPTERS, A B Wallace. Here is a little bit about Ms Wallace

The early days, A. B. Wallace’s interests centered around dancing, school, and work.

Reading and writing were monstrous creatures she dreaded. Then one day, a strange form of enlightenment struck. (She believes it may have been lightening but is still unsure.) From that day forth a reader was born and the imagination sparked to life. She has been writing ever since and her husband now wonders to whom he has been married for over thirteen years. Her mother, although proud of her daughter’s accomplishments, ponders on occasion if A. B. Wallace is the same daughter she gave birth to. But her three dogs are absolutely sure of A. B. Wallace’s identity. (She believes it has something to do with who feeds and walks them.)

Since that fateful day, several of her short stories have been published in various literary magazines, on the internet, and in anthologies. Signed copies of her first novel, THE MARK OF THE WEREWOLF, can be ordered at Shocklines. And her second novel, VINTAGE BLOOD and the SACRED SCEPTERS, has been released by LBF Books, and can be ordered at http://lbfbooks.com.

A.B. WALLACE was born in Italy but has lived in the United States since she was five years old. She has a B.A. in Sociology from St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, has worked as a Case Worker for the Hudson County Division of Welfare in Jersey City and has held several administrative positions with the Federal Government in Washington. She now lives in Virginia.  

For more information about A B Wallace visit her site click here and to purchase a copy of her book click here 

I am thrilled to announce that my ebook for Deadly Secrets out and for sale on LBF Books. I had a sponsor pay for the first 25 copies and make them available to readers for free.

The wonderful news came this afternoon through my publicist that Smart Bitches Trashy Books announced the launch/free ecopies on their site. I’m over the moon! This site is awesome. I read it every day. So to have them mention my book and say name was quite a thrill. Thanks Smart Bitches!

Am I hoping to sell thousands of copies of my books? You bet but it won’t happen in one day. It’ll take time but I’ll get there. I’m determined to get there.

Have you ever picked up an older book from one of your favourite authors and be disappointed? Now when I mean old and I don’t a year or two ago. I mean the book was published in the late eighties or early nineties.

Well this week I decided to crack down on my to be read pile. Let’s face it I’m not going to get rid of it any time soon. I have well over 850 mass paperback and another 100 or so hard covers and trade paperbacks. I’ll never be at a loss of reading material that’s for certain.

I picked up an old (1992) Victoria Pade book. I LOVE her books. I usually devour them within a week or so of purchasing them. I picked up this book in a used bookstore a while ago. Now the book was over all well written, I would expect no less. However it didn’t have the pizzazz that her new ones do.

What do you do when this happens to you? Stop reading, remove author from your favourite list, finish the book or just chuck it saying that everyone has a bad day an author is entitled to a bad book every few years?

I have decided to take my commitment to Breast Cancer one step further. How you might ask? Well it’s quite easy I want to start a monthly or maybe a weekly blog where I interview Breast Cancer survivors. I want to give these wonderful women a chance to speak of their courageous fight and hopefully help another who is reading the blog.

Who do I want to interview? Doctors, professionals, writers, stay at home moms? If it were up to me I’d interview and feature them all. I just want to give their voice a bigger audience.

So if you are a survivor of Breast Cancer please email me leeann_burke@hotmail.com or simply post a comment on this blog saying you’d like to be featured/interviewed.

I spent the afternoon alone at the local cinema. What did I go and see? PASCHENDAELE. Since I’d read the book I knew what would happen. It still impacted me as much as the book did. I’m glad I read the book first. The book gave Mr. Gross the opportunity to go deeper on an emotional and detail level with all the characters. There is only so much you can put in a movie.

What did surprise me was how graphic the movie remained true to the book. The battle scene, were amazing yet quite gruesome, specially the opening one where Michael Dunne stabs a young German soldier in the face. This is a war movie so I had expected some hard to watch scenes but the attention to details that were put into PASCHENDAELE are what set this movie apart.

I recommend it hole heartedly.

Even though most romances are written by women I find that most of them don’t address issues that real women have in their lives. However there are some rare gems that do. In my opinion NIGHT PLAY does it very well. How? Well for starters the heroine is a solid size 18, which is close the average size for a woman. Clary has issues with her weight and body issues (like most women me included). This insecurity is amplified by being dumped by Taylor her boyfriend of 5 years. Enter Vane a were-hunter who falls for who she is full figure and all. It’s funny whenever she talks about loosing weight or not eating he reminds her he loves her the way she is and she should to. What woman in her right mind wouldn’t want a man like that?

Along with Vane comes the most dysfunctional family I have ever read about. I mean Ms Kennyon to kill each other repeatedly. Vane also discovers he has more siblings than he knew about. Fury is a new brother, I can’t wait to read his story. He’s going to need a heroine who’s going to kick his ass in a major way.

If you are in need of a good book where the characters are very relatable and well written then NIGHT PLAY is for you.

If you haven’t seen last weeks show or don’t want to know what might happen in future shows. Stop reading now. I mean it!

Yep they killed off Jim last Friday. It was tender and sweet moment, but I had kept hoping he wouldn’t die or maybe they would just put him in a coma right up until the last second. What did they do? Kill him. Now what will happen with Melinda? Well I hear that guilt is going to be a big thing for her. She feels that she killed him. I have heard that he will be appearing on the show but from the other side. He will describe to Melinda what its like from the other side. What do I hope happens? I’d love to see the season end with her finding out that she’s pregnant with Jim’s baby. Now the possibilities of that are slim and let’s face it being a single Mom she won’t have time to run off in the middle of the night to go after ghosts. However it would still be cool!

Today is a day to remember and be thankful for the lifestyle that we currently have. I attended the Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa where the oldest WWI veteran, John Babcock spoke briefly via video feed. Why is this so important? He’s the only Canadian living WWI vet and he’s 108 years old.

They did something special during the ceremony this year. In honour the 90^th anniversary of WWI Armistice they had a passing of the torch from the sole living WWI veteran to a WWII veteran to Korean War veteran to a peace keeping veteran a “modern-day” soldier who served in Afghani. This torch ceremony is in reference to Lt.-Col. John McCrae’s famous poem, In Flanders Fields. Quite a few of us had tears in our eyes during this moment.

I hope you took a moment to thank those who sacrifices their youth and some their lives so we can have what we take for granted most days. Today I’m taking nothing for granted.

My wonderful publisher, LBF Books, received late last week the logo from the American Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF).  I also got permission to put it up on my site. Since I can’t wait until my web mistress put it up I am putting it in my blog today.

Here it is!

Isn’t it beautiful? I certainly believe it is.