REVIEW: Surrender At Dawn by Laura Griffin

Digital Edition Short Story, Published June 14, 2011
TBR Challenge Review

This is the first month of the 2013 TBR Challenge hosted by Wendy the Super Librarian, encouraging readers to tackle their TBR pile one book at a time. Once again, Wendy created a list of suggested themes for each month, this month's theme being 'We love short shorts!'... short stories, novellas, category romance, etc. I actually read a lot of novellas, but very few stay on my shelf for very long without being read, so I searched the recesses of my virtual bookshelves and found this short story by romantic suspense author Laura Griffin.

Surrender At Dawn by Laura Griffin is a short romantic suspense story about a devoted sister who travels to Thailand in search of her brother who has gone missing while on a journalism assignment. Charlotte Whiteside knows her brother is in danger and arrives in Phuket, Thailand with a wad of cash and the name of an American pilot--John Brenner who she's been told to hire to find her brother on a remote island. The search and rescue of Charlotte's brother is deemed dangerous because it is believed he went to this particular island to interview a dangerous drug lord. John "Jack" Brenner is an ex-US Navy SEAL and just the man to do the job.

Surrender At Dawn is a pretty short story--not really long enough to develop the characters or their relationship as fully as I would have liked. However, for a short story, I think the author did a decent job of creating a suspenseful situation and bringing two characters together with the promise of something more between them. The ending to this story is realistic and suggests at the possibility of a future story between Charlotte and Jack. I hope that's the case, because I would enjoy reading another story in which they meet again.

3 out of 5 stars

I have Snapped by Laura Griffin, the 4th book in the Tracers series in my TBR pile and look forward to reading it.

Have you read any books by this author?

Happy Birthday, Izzy Spellman!

If you read The Spellman Family mystery series by Lisa Lutz, you're already well acquainted with Izzy Spellman. And while you may laugh to know Izzy's birthday is on April Fool's Day, it should also come as no surprise! It's such a fitting birthday for this offbeat young sleuth.

Document 5
(latest release)

I started reading the Spellman Family mystery series in the fall of 2009 and quickly became enamored by the female protagonist Isabel Spellman. She's quirky and at times immature and impulsive, often making poor decisions. But her heart is in the right place and she's really doing the best with what she's got and that's an equally quirky family. The Spellman family is a tad dysfunctional, but hey--whose family isn't, right? Theirs perhaps just lingers more on the edge of wacky than most. But who am I to judge? In fact, I suggest you read the series and find out for yourself. It is for the most part a lighthearted, amusing series with many laugh-out-loud moments about a family of private detectives, but don't be fooled by the alleged comic factor--there's a dose of seriousness to the stories as well, especially for the cast of core characters. Document 4--The Curse of the Spellmans even made me cry! --but take that with a grain of salt. I am a crier.

I posted about the first book in the Spellman Family series on my blog WITH THIS POST which pretty much links to a buddy review of The Spellman Files, Document 1 that I did with nath on the blog Breezing Through that you can read HERE.

The Spellman Files
Document 1

If we don't convince you to give the series a try, maybe this will: For a limited time [NOW through April 6 ONLY], the ebook version of the first Spellman Family novel-- The Spellman Files is only 99 cents! Grab it while it's hot or at least dirt cheap! Check your local independent bookstore or anywhere books are sold.. Amazon, B&N, iTunes, etc. You know the drill.

The FREE E-Sampler!

ALSO, there's a series E-Sampler available FOR FREE. The E-Sampler includes a charming letter from the author, a guide to reading footnotes on e-readers [these books have lots of very fun footnotes..], chapter excerpts from all 5 Spellman Documents, reading group guides and special bonus material including dossiers on the Spellman family members and a list of Izzy's ex-boyfriends. No, seriously. Did I mention it's FREE? You've got nothing to lose. Go forth and sample.

Document 5 in the series, The Trail of the Spellmans was released on February 28, 2012 [omgosh more than a month ago, already?! Gotta get my butt in gear!]. I can't wait to read it and see what kind of trouble Izzy is up to! Or uh... I mean, what kind of cases she's solving.

Visit Lisa Lutz at her website lisalutz.com.


Do you read The Spellman Family documents? 

If not, and you decide to pick it up, come back and let me know what you think! :o) 

E-Book Challenge 2012

Host: Sarah from Workday Reads

Challenge: Read the minimum number of ebooks for your chosen level.

My Level: DVD Read 25 ebooks

Time frame: January 1 to December 31, 2012

I did this challenge last year and met my challenge of 12 ebooks in early December, but proceeded to read three more by the end of the year, bringing my total number of ebooks read last year to 15. That's pretty shabby! The thing is, I love my ipad, but I'm still reading from my pre-existing TBR of paper books, plus it's my personal policy to buy new books only if I can't find them at the library first. I also bought a lot of author signed books at the RWA literacy signing in June, so that made up for a lot of my new books bought in 2011. I anticipate reading more and more new releases on my ipad this year, so hopefully I can double the number of ebooks I read.

I'll keep a running list of the ebooks I read throughout the year in this post.

1.  Tides of Passion by Tracy Sumner
2. Wife by Wednesday by Catherine Bybee
3. The Bro-Magnet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
4. Conor's Way by Laura Lee Guhrke
5. Forever Mine by Delilah Marvelle
6. Capturing the Silken Thief by Jeannie Lin
7. The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan
8. Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh
9. Hearts of Fire by Kira Brady
10. Beautiful Mess by Lucy V. Morgan
11. Before the Moon Rises by Catherine Bybee
12. Embracing the Wolf by Catherine Bybee
13. Ride With Me by Ruthie Knox
14. The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith
15. Cold Fire by Kate Elliot
16. Through the Lens by K.M. Jackson
17. The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
18. Mina Wentworth and the Invisible City by Meljean Brook
19. Venom by Jennifer Estep
20. Holiday Kisses by Shannon Stacey et. al.
21. Lumberjack in Love by Penny Watson
22. We'll Be Home For Christmas by HelenKay Dimon
23. Deck The Halls With Love by Lorraine Heath
24. Tangled Threads by Jennifer Estep
25. The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright by Tessa Dare

***CHALLENGE COMPLETED DECEMBER 30, 3012***

A 500th Post Holiday Giveaway

It took me almost exactly four years [my blogging birthday is December 29, 2007], but I've finally reached my 500th blog post and this is it! That's an average of 125 posts a year, 10.4 posts a month or about one post every 3-4 days. That sounds about right.

What started out as a place to share my thoughts on books with an emphasis on romance novels has expanded and transformed into pretty much a personal blog. I still post regularly about bookish things, but also about fitness, food, family and other assorted adventures. All are topics I'm passionate about and enjoy sharing with my readers here on the happily ever after... I hope you all enjoy the mix, too. :)

To celebrate this 500th post milestone and the upcoming holiday season and to thank all of you who visit the happily ever after... and keep me company on this blogging adventure, I'm giving away a holiday ebook prize to one lucky winner. Below is a list of holiday novellas, most of which are new releases, from which one lucky reader will win up to three stories of their choice.

I'm afraid I don't know a lot about the restrictions of purchasing ebooks for recipients overseas, but I will look into that between now and the closing of the entries and see what I can do. In the meantime, assume that you will at least need to have one of the following to qualify for the prize: A kindle or kindle app on your reading device OR an iPod touch, iPad, or iPhone with either iBooks or the Kindle app installed, depending on the book below.

Winner will choose from the following list of fantastic holiday ebooks:
  Click on titles to see the book on goodreads.

   

Newly Fallen by Megan Hart [kindle only]
A steamy contemporary Hanukkah romance!

A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian [iBooks or kindle]
A Midnight Breed novella, book #9.5
Paranormal romance, not so Christmas-y

Once Upon a Winter's Eve by Tessa Dare [iBooks or kindle]
A Spindle Cove novella, book #1.5
Historical romance.

Or perhaps one or more of the following contemporary romance novellas from the Carina Press holiday anthology, Holiday Kisses:

 

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey [iBooks or kindle]

It's Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon [iBooks or kindle]


 
A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton [iBooks or kindle]

This Time Next Year by Alison Kent [iBooks or kindle]


Romance not your thing? That's okay! We can still be friends and you can choose this "regular" Christmas book: ;)

The Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere [kindle only]







To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment letting me know which THREE holiday novellas you would like to read.

All entries must be received by Friday, December 16, 2011 12 noon EST.

Be sure to leave an email address if it is not easily found in your profile.

Happy holidays! :)

Book Smuggling* just became a piece of {birthday} cake!

*Book smuggling per the definition of my neighborhood book smugglers, Ana and Thea of The Book Smugglers and Carolyn Crane of The Thrillionth Page as witnessed in this video HERE.


It was my birthday last Friday {see my birthday post for a chance to win a Kiss My Face mini facial kit!}, the evening of which I spent celebrating with my husband and daughters. We ate Thai food for dinner and splurged on birthday cake for dessert. My husband also came home with two movies from redbox for a family movie night that never quite happened. There was a gift wrapped birthday present on the dining room table all day long on Friday, and I waited patiently for the everyone to be home so I could open it. I only picked it up and gently shook it once. ;)


After dinner, I finally got to open my birthday present and was incredibly surprised, practically speechless, and very, very excited about this gift . . . it's an iPad!!!!

Wow, what an amazing gift. I think I'm still reveling in the shock and thrill of it. :) 

Now I can use iBooks on my iPad which is so much easier to read than on my iPhone, plus I can do a million other really cool things, too! Typing a lot of text--for example, an email more than a few sentences long, isn't the easiest thing to do on the iPad, but maybe it's just a matter of getting used to. I find it very easy to type paragraphs on my iPhone, so hopefully it will get be just as easy on the iPad the more I do it. Anyway, this is one cool gift. My husband still knows how to wow me after all these years. xo

Screen shot of my iBooks shelf 

on my iPad:

A week or so ago, I read the short novella, The Taming of Mei Lin by Jeannie Lin using iBooks on my iPhone. I really like the way the books are displayed in color on my iBooks bookshelf and how easy it is to buy books through iTunes. Turning pages, leaving bookmarks, making notes, and looking words up online are extremely easy in iBooks. I can see myself using iBooks exclusively to read ebooks, but I'm then limited to what iTunes sells.


I have several other ereader apps on my iPad that I've had on my iPhone for awhile, although I admit never having used them other than to poke around in the main menus now and then. The other ebook reader apps I have are the Amazon Kindle, B&N ereader, Borders ebooks and Stanza. I plan on trying each one, but at this point, I want YOUR opinion on these different platforms. 


What ebook reader device(s) or iPhone-iTouch-iPad app(s) do you use?


If you use more than one, which is your favorite and why?


Which bookstore has the best prices for ebooks? I'm guessing Amazon has the monopoly on cheap?


I'm looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations, AND I'm looking forward to reading shelves and shelves of books on my iPad!