March Madness for Romance & A Giveaway!

Basketball isn't the only place where you can find some March madness! DABWAHA is a bracket tournament for romance novels created and hosted by Jane from Dear Author and Sarah from Smart Bitches Trashy Books. It's a tournament of books in which 64 books published in 2011 among 8 different categories are put up against each other bracket-style and voted on by readers over approximately 2 weeks until a single champion is crowned.

Visit the DABWAHA site to learn how the tournament works, which books are competing, the rules and prizes. Of course, while you're there, fill out your own bracket and join the fun. You have until Wednesday 11:59 am EST to submit your picks.

I submitted my bracket today and was faced with some tough decisions! I struggled with quite a few of my choices--even for the books with which I'm familiar. In fact, the hardest part was when some of my favorite books ended up facing off against each other and I had to choose! Like Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison up against Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh?! Gah! Can both win? In the end, I simply tried to take my preferences out of the thought process and just speculated which book voters would more likely choose.

But speaking of my favorites. .. Meredith Duran is an historical romance author who wrote one of my all time favorite romances, The Duke of Shadows, published in 2008. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed all of her books to date, including A Lady's Lesson in Scandal which I was pleased to discover is the readers nomination for the historical romance category in this year's DABWAHA tournament!

Last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Meredith Duran in New York City after the literacy signing at the RWA National convention in June. She wasn't participating in the signing event, but she so graciously offered to meet up with me anyway and signed two copies of A Lady's Lesson in Scandal for me! Did I mention she's super cool as well as immensely talented? I kept one copy and the other was meant for a giveaway on my blog, but I never got around to it, so I'm doing it now. :)

To celebrate the nomination of A Lady's Lesson in Scandal in DABWAHA and the upcoming release of Meredith's next novel, At Your Pleasure on March 27, 2012... I'm giving away a new copy of A Lady's Lesson in Scandal by Meredith Duran, autographed by the author! 

Giveaway Rules: 
To enter for a chance to win, you must have left at least one comment on my blog in the past, leave a comment in this post about anything related to DABWAHA or Meredith Duran's books.

Giveaway ends on Friday, March 16, 2012 at 5:00 pm EST. Open in US only. Winners have one week to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen. Please leave an email address in your comment if it is not easily found on your blog or profile page.

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At Your Pleasure by Meredith Duran will be released on March 27, 2012.

Glittering court socialites and underworld cutpurses alike know that Adrian Ferrers, Earl of Rivenham, is the most dangerous man in London. Rivenham will let nothing—not the deepening shadow of war, nor the growing darkness within him—interfere with his ambition to restore his family to its former glory. But when tasked by the king to uncover a traitor, he discovers instead a conspiracy—and a woman whose courage awakens terrible temptations. To save her is to risk everything. To love her might cost his life. 

Lady Leonora knows that Rivenham is the devil in beautiful disguise—and that the irresistible tension between them is as unpredictable as the dilemma in which Nora finds herself: held hostage on her own estate by Rivenham and the king’s men. But when war breaks out, Nora has no choice but to place her trust in her dearest enemy—and pray that love does not become the weapon that destroys them both...

Visit Meredith Duran on her website at www.meredithduran.com for information about her books including excerpts, stories behind the story, research, reviews and where to purchase her books.

Meredith Duran also blogs with fellow historical romance author Sherry Thomas at Plotters & Manipulators Unite.


 p.s. In case you were wondering... DABWAHA = Dear Author Bitchery Writing Award for Hellagood Authors

Congrats, IRON KISSED by Patricia Briggs!

In case you haven't already heard, Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs won the DA BWAHA Tournament last night!!! By a very narrow margin, I might add! Wow, that was close. Both novels are phenomenally written by two tremendously talented authors. If you haven't read one or both of these books yet, I strongly suggest you do. They are both really awesome reads.

So thanks to all of you who voted for Iron Kissed whether you voted because you read and loved the book or because you were thinking of me and Carolyn Jean. Wow... your votes could have been the ones to push Iron Kissed over the edge for the win. Thank you!

Carolyn Jean is so excited about her win that she is hosting an 'OMG I'm so excited I won' contest on her blog, The Thrillionth Page! She's giving away four books from the bracket, how cool is that? All you need to do is comment on which book from the entire bracket you're interested in reading and you're entered!

I have actually read a lot of the 64 books in the tournament (a few more are on my TBR pile) and of those I've read, 9 made it to the last 16 spots that made up the second tournament. Now I'm very interested in reading Be With Me by Maya Banks. It nearly beat The SpyMaster's Lady in the final four, so I've got to read it now, for sure.

Have you read Be With Me by Maya Banks already? Did you love it?

IRON KISSED for the WIN PLEASE! :)

URGENT!!! Please vote Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs for the win at http://dabwaha.com/blog/ on Monday, April 6, 2009 from 9 am EDT to 11 pm EDT.

Have you been following DABWAHA? It's the March Madness tournament for romance-- a tournament created by Dear Author and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books that involves 64 favorite novels from different romance genres, a few hundred reader participants, voting polls, and in the end... ONE winner! Well... actually two. There is the Grand Tournament and a Second Chance Tournament.

The Second Chance Tournament popped up after the round two, for which participants where given the opportunity to submit a second chance bracket. Pretty neat for someone like me whose pick for the win lost very early on. I voted Flat Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy. I don't know why... I didn't even read it! I heard so much positive buzz about it when it came out and it seemed like everyone was reading it except me and I was missing out on a winning book. I guess that notion stuck with me and I just ran with it when I filled out my bracket! LOL Oh, well. Thank goodness for second chances!

Tomorrow is the final vote and it is down to two exceptionally written novels, both of which I've read and LOVED! But Mercy Thompson ... she's my heroine. Best heroine ever. Love her.

Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs vs. The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne.

So here is where the URGENT part comes in.

If Iron Kissed wins the vote, Carolyn Jean of The Thrillionth Page WINS THE WHOLE TOURNAMENT!!!! Carolyn would acquire incredible FAME (sort of... in romance land ... maybe for a day or so... ) and great FORTUNE (a Sony Reader)!! So cool!

But wait! There's more!

If Iron Kissed wins, yours truly (that would be me) WINS THE SECOND CHANCE TOURNAMENT! Wooohooo! I, too, would acquire FAME (well, not really ... who pays attention to the second chance tournament, anyway?) and FORTUNE (an iPod Touch)!

If you'd like to help me (and Carolyn Jean) out, please vote for Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs in the DABWAHA poll today! It would be awesome!

The poll will be open from 9 am EDT to 11 pm EDT!!

http://dabwaha.com/blog/

Thank you!!!!! :)