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If You Like…. Around this time last year, I did an If You Like post about books involving weddings. It seemed appropriate now to do an If You Like, as a follow up, as it were, about books with pregnant heroines. So, if you like books where the heroine is enceinte for all or most of the novel, you’ll probably like…. – Donna Andrews’s Stork Raving Mad – Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Nobody’s Baby But Mine – Susan Wiggs’s Just Breathe – Georgette Heyer’s A Civil Contract – Kathleen E. Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower What are your favorite novels with pregnant heroines?
Weekly Reading Round-Up I had a bit of a Jennifer Crusie mini-marathon this week (which would have turned into a maxi-marathon if I could have remembered what I did with Welcome to Temptation – Laurie King, The Art of Detection This is the fifth of King’s Kate Martinelli mysteries, about a San Francisco cop. (I went on a Martinelli marathon and read the first four while I was writing The Passion of the Purple Plumeria – Jennifer Crusie, Agnes and the Hitman No one does madcap comedy or renders the implausible plausible better. In this one, a cranky food columnist is attempting to rehabilitate a Southern plantation, put on a wedding for her best friend’s daughter, save the plantation from her best friend’s crazy mother, dodge various old Mafiosi who seem to want to kill her and each other, and collecting an extended family of hit men and their friends, all of whom need to be periodically fed. It’s impossible to describe and incredibly amusing. Think Murder with Peacocks – Jennifer Crusie, Faking It This is the sequel to Welcome to Temptation – Lisa Kleypas, Secrets of a Summer Night While I’m reading old favorites…. This is the first of Kleypas’s wildly popular, Victorian-set Wallflower series, about four girls who band together to help each other find husbands: in this case, the impoverished Annabelle, who must dodge the prospect of ruin and save her family by making a prosperous match. Until ruthless industrialist Simon Hunt gets in the way. (This one and the third book in the series, The Devil in Winter What have you been reading this week?
The Publication Schedule Since I’ve switched from one book a year to two books a year, what’s coming out when has grown a little more confusing. Here’s the publication schedule for both Pinks and stand alones for the near future: – The Ashford Affair (UK edition available now, Spanish edition appearing May 28, Polish edition June 11, Italian edition in July, German edition September 20, and French edition TBA); – The Passion of the Purple Plumeria – The Victorian Book, aka Stand Alone Novel #2, untitled (hardcover): spring 2014; – The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, aka Pink XI (trade paperback): August 2014. The two new Pinks, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria I don’t have an exact publication date for The Ashford Affair paperback yet, but I’ve been told it will be early 2014 (before Stand Alone Novel #2 comes out).
PURPLE PLUMERIA Goodreads Give Away Happy news! My publisher is very generously giving away thirty-five advance review copies of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria this month on Goodreads.
To enter, just follow the instructions on the Goodreads Purple Plumeria give away page. The contest is open from today until June 15th. Good luck!
Pink XI has a title! For today’s Teaser Tuesday… Pink XI has a title! Sally’s story will henceforth be known as: The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed ideas for a flower for Sally! Kudos go to Alexandra and Eirene, who suggested, respectively, “The Mystery of the Midnight Manzanilla” and “The Mark of the Moonlit Manzanita”, which, when put together, became “The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla”. My editor informs me that the manzanilla flower in fact looks rather daisy-like (despite its deadly properties)– so for all those who suggested daisy titles for Sally, this one is for you, too! Pink XI, aka The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, is currently slated for publication in August of 2014, exactly a year after The Passion of the Purple Plumeria More about Pink XI coming soon, including a teaser chapter from Pink XI in the back of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
PURPLE PLUMERIA Winner The first of the advance copies of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria Elizabeth! (Of Comment #115.)
Congrats, Elizabeth! If you email me with your info, I’ll pop your book in the mail to you. To mark the countdown to the publication of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
Weekly Reading Round-Up It’s been a Young Adult week for me, reading-wise. Here’s what I’ve been reading this week: – Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown This is the prequel to one of my all time favorite books, The Blue Sword – Diana Peterfreund, Across a Star-Swept Sea Imagine a space-age Scarlet Pimpernel, with a Persis Blake in lieu of Percy Blakeney and a Justen rather than a Marguerite St. Just. With the kingdom of Galatea in the midst of an anti-aristo revolution, aristocrat Persis Blake of the kingdom of Albion poses as a ditz in order to moonlight as the Wild Poppy. Peterfreund does an excellent job transposing The Scarlet Pimpernel Moving away from YA, I’m just about to start The Art of Detection What have you been reading this week?
Autographed Editions of ASHFORD If you’re looking for an autographed edition of The Ashford Affair (they make excellent gifts!), you can find signed copies at: – The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ; – Murder by the Book in Houston, TX; – Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor, MI; – Lake Forest Bookstore in Lake Forest, IL; – The Corner Bookstore in New York (93rd & Madison); – Barnes & Nobles, New York, Union Square; – Barnes & Nobles, New York, 46th & 5th; – Barnes & Nobles, New York, Citigroup Center, 54th & 3rd; – Barnes & Nobles, New York, 82nd & Broadway. Some of these stores also have signed copies of various Pink books. If it’s out of your way, I would suggest calling before you go to make sure they haven’t sold out, since supplies may vary– or something like that.
More ASHFORD Abroad I’ve just learned that the Polish edition of The Ashford Affair (aka Ashford Park) will be making its way into bookstores on June 11th.
International release dates: Spain, 28 May; Poland, 11 June; Germany, 20 September. France and Italy TBA.
ASHFORD Abroad! The Ashford Affair is going international! You can find The Ashford Affair: – right now, in the UK, in paperback and e-book; – on May 28, in Spain, in hardcover (Spanish title: Ashford Park); – on September 20, in Germany, in hardcover and e-book (German title: Ashford Park). I’m still waiting for details on the French, Italian, and Polish editions, but I’ll post the covers and release dates here as soon as I have them!
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(mystery), in which murder and mayhem ensue as Meg Langslow is awaiting the birth of twins;
(contemporary romance), in which a physicist cons a football player into fathering her child, only to find herself married to the man (one of those plots that really shouldn’t work, but, because it’s SEP, somehow does);
(contemporary romance), in which the heroine discovers she’s pregnant just as she also discovers that her husband is cheating on her, and moves cross country to re-start her life in her old hometown;
(Regency romance), which covers the hero and heroine’s first year of marriage, including the birth of their first child;
(Old School Historical Bodice Ripper) in which the hero mistakes the heroine for a prostitute, impregnates her, marries her, and carries her off to his plantation in America.
and 
). Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:
.
last summer.) In this one, a dedicated Sherlock Holmes devotee is mysteriously murdered. If you haven’t read these yet, start with 
, and move on from there.
.
meets 
, if The Godfather were scripted by Mel Brooks.
.
.
, are among my favorite historical romances.)
(hardcover): available now! 
.
. (Although each can be read as a stand alone.) In the mythical kingdom of Damar, an overlooked– and sometimes openly despised– king’s daughter discovers her own special gifts in time to become the hero that Damar needs.
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to a galaxy far, far away. (There’s even a variant on the famous “They seek him here, they seek him there” moment!) The book comes out in October.
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