My Unforgettable Reads of 2012

So as it stands right now, I've read 41 books this year. Not quite there on my 50/50 Challenge, but close. And frankly, there are a few half-read or almost-finished-but-lost-interest books in the stack.

However, I thought today would be a good day to go through my read list from this year and pull out my top reads. These are the books that I can still remember when I look back at the list. Others, though I may have enjoyed them, fade and become murky. So the ones I can still remember certain characters and scenes get put on this list. Enjoy!

New Adult

So I've been on a big New Adult kick lately and I've found some winners (including one I just finished this week and loved.)

Easy by Tammara Webber

Really likeable characters you were pulling for.

Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

One of those you cannot stop reading. Worth it for the Facebook updates alone.

On Dublin Street by Samantha Young

Sexy and angsty and an Irish hero--hello.

Women's Fiction

More Like Her by Liza Palmer

Funny in parts, tearful in others.

(Warning - there is a school violence scene in this one)

The Reason Is You by Sharla Lovelace

A little romance, a little paranormal, and lots of memorable characters.

Erotic Romance:

An Ordinary Girl by Barbara Elsborg

Very angsty and a tragic backstory but really enjoyed it.

The Principal's Office by Jasmine Haynes

Super smexy. And liked that it was an older heroine.

Sheltered by Charlotte Stein

Ignore the weird cover. LOTS of sexy tension in this one.

The Theory of Attraction by Delphine Dryden

A geeky, dominant hero. Need I say more?

Dark Erotic:

The Angel by Tiffany Reisz

One of my favorites of the year.

Captive in the Dark by CJ Roberts

Very, very dark. I blogged about it here.

Male/Male Romance:

Hot Head by Damon Suede

Soooo much sexual tension. Gah. Loved this one.

Horror/Thriller:

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Think And Then There Were None meets high school.

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff

College, empty dorm, ouija boards. Scary fun.

So those are my picks. What were some of your favorite reads of 2012? 

The Next Big Thing...And Boy Is He Big

Six-Seven, in fact. That's how tall Grant, the hero in FALL INTO YOU, is. What? You thought the title was referring to something else? ;)

So I've been tagged by both Leah Petersen and Paul Anthony Scott on the Next Big Thing blog hop, and I kept forgetting to do the post, lol. It's been a crazy few months. But anyway, I figured today would be a great day to do it--ya know, before the end of the world comes or whatever. So here goes...

The Next Big Thing Questions:

What is the title of your book?

FALL INTO YOU

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I’m a huge college football fan. So I watch lots of documentaries about the sport. (Yes, I’m a nerd.) So, the football scandal that Charli is investigating in the story is loosely inspired by the Southern Methodist University football cheating scandal in 1987. It rocked college football and landed the university with the “death penalty”–a cancelled season, no scholarships, no bowl games. If people ever doubted that football was a BIG deal in Texas, this proved how serious it could get. So I figured it wasn’t a far stretch to believe that Charli’s life could be in danger if she revealed a similar scandal.

What genre does your book fall under?

Erotic Romance with BDSM

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

He's not an actor but the visual inspiration for my very tall, very dominant cowboy hero is country singer Blake Shelton.

And Charli is a red-headed tomboy, so I think Emma Stone would be fantastic for it--awkward, sarcastic, and funny.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 

I'm cheating and putting the blurb because I'm bad at the one sentence thing. :p

When tomboy sports reporter Charli Beaumonde loses a dream TV job because she’s not girly enough for primetime, she’s determined to land a big scoop and prove her boss made a mistake. But when she gets too close to a football scandal and finds her life threatened, Charli accepts an offer from family friend Grant Waters to hide out at his place—even if Grant predicts nothing but trouble from his buddy’s hard-headed, uncompromising, irrepressible, younger sister. There’s one more problem…

Grant’s “place” is The Ranch, a BDSM resort in Texas, and he’s used to being in charge —even if that means trying to keep Charli in line. But much to Grant’s surprise, she’s intrigued—even envious—of his trainees. They’re the epitome of what she’s never been: sexy, beguiling, and totally irresistible to a man. Still, Grant doesn’t believe for a minute that the sharp-tongued Charli has it in her to be anyone’s submissive. But Charli’s already on her knees vying for the chance to prove that even the Master can be wrong sometimes.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I've honestly forgotten since I've written two other books since. I believe 3-4 months.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Just like the rest of my books in the series, if you like Shayla Black, Maya Banks, Cherise Sinclair, Sylvia Day, etc., this will probably be your kind of thing. :)  But I've also been known to convert those of you who *think* you won't like erotic romance. I'm like a gateway drug--just try a little and see. ;)

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I got the idea for the heroine, Charli, when I was in the crowd at ESPN’s College Game Day at the SEC Championship game and saw Erin Andrews reporting. It made me wonder if a girl who loved sports but was more tomboy than supermodel could get that job. Plus, I was a tomboy growing up, so I channeled a little bit of that. : )

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

This is probably my most personal story so far because I was a tomboy growing up, taller than most of the boys, and never felt "cute" or "girly". Just awkward. I still struggle with this at times because even now my idea of high fashion is wearing my good jeans and pair of cowboy boots. If I never had to wear heels again, it would be too soon. And I yell at the TV for football games like a dude. So I can relate a lot to Charli and how it feels to be seen as one of the guys. :)

So that's it! FALL INTO YOU is out January 1st. You can read the first chapter here.

Now, I'm not going to tag others but feel free to consider yourself tagged if you'd like to participate on your own blog! 

A Year Of Book Buying in Review: Did Social Media Influence My Choices?

What does a year say? Today I was reading Janice Hardy's blog about having too many Twitter followers (and I agree, go read it. It's a great article.) But she linked to an older post by The Intern on author social media presence and if it makes a difference. Does all that tweeting/blogging/spinning plates in the air really effect book sales? 

I've talked about the topic before from my own perspective as an author. However, I thought it would be interesting to look at my own book buying habits as a READER over the past year to see if all that social media book buzz made me buy books. 

*Now, the caveat here is that since I am in this industry, I am dialed in to social media and the world of authors, book bloggers, editors, and such. Readers like me are probably a very small segment of the book buying population. But I still thought it'd be interesting to look at my personal stats.

So here's a look at my 2012:

Format...

Number of ebooks (not including free) bought this year: 80

Number of print (not including free) bought this year: 23

Thoughts: Wow, I've definitely become an ebook junkie. But this is probably less about a preference for ebook than it is the sale factor. All those ebook sales get me. Plus, I get LOTS of free print books from conferences so I only have so much room.

How'd I find out about the books I acquired?

On Sale (not including free): 35

Discovered Online through someone other than the author (book blogger, twitter rec, etc.): 22

Free ebooks: 17

Favorite Authors/Auto-buys: 16

Heard About Online Directly From Author: 14

Random purchases: 5

Free print books: A lot, probably at least 50.

Thoughts:

-On sale is clearly an effective strategy for me BUT there were a lot more sales I passed up. Often those sales were paired with an online mention/rec by a book blogger or someone I know. So the sale alone is often not enough.

-Yes, I discover most of the books I buy from online soures, BUT it's rarely directly from the author. It's more word of mouth via other authors, readers, and book bloggers.

-The authors who I bought based on directly hearing about their book from them are almost 100% people I've already built relationships with online. So they are friends. These were not purchases from random authors who I've never chatted with who just happened to put out a "buy my book!" tweet. That absolutely is white noise to me. I don't pay attention at all unless I already know the person.

Now, those are the books I've bought, what about the books I've actually READ?

Books discovered via online recommendation by someone other than the author: 17

Books by Favorite/Trusted Authors: 13

Books bought on Sale: 10

Books I heard about directly from the author: 4

Random: 2

Free ebooks: 0

Free print books: 2

Thoughts:

-So even though books on sale got the most buys, they didn't get the most reads. Why is this important? Because a sale gets an author their first buy, but a read gets an author their NEXT buy. And the only FREE books I've read this year are two print books that I got at a conference. I've read 0 of the free ebooks I've downloaded.

-Online recs from book bloggers and online friends I trust clearly are effective for both what I purchase and what I read.

-Favorite authors get moved to the top of the pile for reading. I bought 16 of these and read 13. And the three that are unread are only unread because I just got them. So this is stil the strongest bought to read conversion.

Overall: So it looks like YES, my book buying is highly influenced by my online connections. It's the thing that most gets me to buy books because even the sales are discovered via social media. BUT I discover new books and authors through other people not through the author herself. The only books I've bought directly from my connection with the author are people I'd already developed a friendly relationship with.

So what does this mean for authors on social media? 

In my opinion, it means that you should focus on building genuine friendships with people. Trying to sell your books directly to your followers is probably not going to be very effective. But if you build real relationships with people, entertain and help with your blog/tweets/etc., then maybe those people who have gotten to know you will be the people to spread the word on your behalf. And THAT buzz is what actually gets me, as a reader, to buy...and probably many other people as well. But also realize that many, many readers are never going to dial into the online book community, so it's still a small lake in a big ocean. So don't kill yourself trying to be the social media master. Do what you can and write more books.

What are your thoughts? Where do you find out about the books you buy? What's your biggest book buying influence?

My Crazy TBR Pile & My Tough Love Rules To Cut It Down

The free books I brought home from RWA Nationals this year - I've read two so far.So this weekend I decided to do a little house cleaning when it came to my books. This involved organizing my Goodreads list into shelves and culling some of the herd. This also meant going through my physical bookshelves and taking inventory of what I haven't read yet. And the numbers, my friends, are rather insane...

Right now, I have exactly 100 unread novels/novellas on my Kindle and over 200 print books on my shelves waiting to be read. 0.0 I knew it was bad, but...well, I didn't realize it was that bad.

And I have a true addiction because I CAN'T STOP BUYING BOOKS. I see someone tweet about something awesome or I see one of those Daily Deal posts and I'm all click, click, click. Buy, buy, buy. Plus, if I have friends or favorite authors that put a new release out, I want to support them and buy it when it comes out. I know the buying won't stop--though I may be putting a lockdown for the month of December since I need to be buying Christmas gifts for someone other than myself. :) But I realized I do need to come up with a plan to start working through some of the books languishing on my real and virtual shelves.

So here's what I'm thinking. I have admitted in the past that I am a chronic finisher. Meaning, I have a really hard time giving up on a book unless the writing is just outright horrible. But this habit slows down my reading. If a book isn't completely sucking me in, I put it down and then don't read other stuff until it's done. Not good.

And even though I've abandoned more books in this past year than I have in the past, I'm still pretty hooked on trying to finish things. But I realized as I'm staring at all these unread books that LIFE IS TOO SHORT and there are too many FANTASTIC books to waste time on a book that's just okay.

So here are my new Tough Love Rules for the coming year:

1. If a book hasn't completely captured me (i.e. I don't want to put it down and can't stop thinking about it) by the end of chapter 3, then I'm moving on. 

As a writer, it's beat into us that we have to hook a reader from page one. I work hard to write books that do that from the first line. So why am I accepting less as a reader? Yes, sometimes page one is hard, but by three chapters, you should have me.

2. If I'm enjoying a book, but I'm just not in the right mood for it at the time, I will move it onto my new "Limbo" shelf on Goodreads.

Sometimes I'm just not in the right headspace for a certain book. For example, it may be a light, fun romance but I'm in a dark mood and want something grittier. It's nothing wrong with the book per se, just not the right time.

3. If there are books on my TBR shelf at this time next year that have been there for at least 2 years, I'm donating them to the library or a hospital. (Or holding a massive blog contest.)

I tend to hoard books. "Ooh, it sounds good. I'll probably read it one day." Yeah, if that hasn't happened in two years, it will probably never get read.

We'll see if these three things help me. I'll update next year and let y'all know. And in the meantime, if you want to follow the list of what I read. I'm active on Goodreads and I keep a running list of what I read each year here.

So what's your TBR pile look like? How do you go about picking your next book to read--i.e. is it my method (Ooh! New! Shiny!) or do you have a more organized way to go about it? And how long do you give a book before you move on for good? Anyone else have a "limbo" type shelf?

What's On Your Christmas List?

First, before we get to today's topic, I wanted to let you know that I'm over at author Kieran Kramer's blog today giving you 5 Behind The Scenes Facts about FALL INTO YOU and a chance to win a copy of CRASH INTO YOU and a signed copy of Kieran's IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A VISCOUNT. I'd love it if y'all stopped by and commented.

Hope everyone (well, at least those of you in the U.S. who celebrate it) had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. We went out of town so it was pretty low key. This also meant that I didn't do any Black Friday shopping. So now I'm facing Christmas in a month with no presents bought yet. Ack.

However, as I'm going through Cyber Monday deals today, I'm, of course, not only making lists for those I need to buy for, but I'm making my own wish list. Now, this doesn't mean I'll actually get these things. Considering hubs and I don't exchange presents and much of our family has the "only buy for the kids" agreement, the chances of me actually getting gifts are relatively slim. BUT that doesn't mean I'm not adding things to my list. :)

 So here's what I want Santa to bring me this year:

  

1. Kindle Paperwhite

Okay, so yes, I have a Kindle Fire and really enjoy it. BUT it's more of a multi-purpose device and not simply a dedicated e-reader. I have had a good experience reading on the Fire and love seeing all those book covers in gorgeous color BUT I do get tired of the glare on the screen and reading a computer-type screen for extended periods after being on a computer all day writing. Plus, it's a little heavy to hold after a while. I miss my E-ink in these instances. And this one fixes the problem of my previous e-ink, which was that I couldn't read it in the dark. (Plus, like books, I'm starting to think one can't have too many reading devices.) :)

Image via Barnes and Noble

2. These fancy schmancy editions of classics that Barnes and Noble has on sale today.

As much as I love an e-reader, I also love having pretty books on my shelves and these are gorgeous. I'm tempted by the Complete Works of Shakespeare (even though I have a beat up hardback of that from college), the Edgar Allen Poe collection, and the Stephen King one.

3. For FALL INTO YOU to hit the USA Today or NYT Bestsellers' list.

Hey, a girl can dream, right? Can't Santa make any request come true? ;) If you'd like to be Santa's helper by pre-ordering FALL INTO YOU, I promise that one New Year's Day you'll be graced with a sexy, dominant cowboy, a sharp-tongued heroine, and a LOT of steamy, smexy times. Fair trade, right?

All right, so that's my short list. What's on your Christmas list this year?