Release Day Happiness for White-Hot Hack by Tracey Garvis Graves

Posted June 7, 2016 by Jana in Blog Tour, Book Spotlight / 2 Comments

I don’t usually participate in release day blitzes, but Tracey Garvis Graves is and always will be my one and only exception. I love everything she’s ever written, and I can’t wait to read the conclusion of Kate and Ian’s love story! White-Hot Hack is out today, and this is basically the best news you’ll receive all day so there you go.

White-Hot Hack by Tracey Garvis Graves
Series: Kate & Ian #2
Published: June 7, 2016
My review of book #1: Heart-Shaped Hack
Genres: Adult, contemporary, romance
Read the prologue!
Add to Goodreads
Buy: Amazon • B&N • Apple • Kobo

Their love story began in Heart-Shaped Hack. Join Kate and Ian for the thrilling conclusion in White-Hot Hack.

When cybercriminals doxed undercover hacker Ian Bradshaw and forced him to flee, he begged Kate Watts for forgiveness and vowed never to hurt her again. He also convinced her to marry him, and when their idyllic summer on Roanoke Island comes to an end, the newlyweds relocate to their new home deep in the heart of Virginia’s horse and wine country. Ian still struggles with boundaries, but he keeps Kate’s lingerie drawer filled with surprises, and there’s no shortage of number-six kisses. There’s even a fast, new car to replace his beloved Shelby.

Ian promised Kate that life with him would never be boring, but spending her days picking out paint colors and going to Pilates isn’t going to cut it. Meanwhile, Ian discovers that building a white-hat security firm from the ground up seems harder the second time around, and he might have underestimated how much he’d miss the undercover work he walked away from. To make matters worse, the hacktivists are threatening national security, and the task force could really use Ian’s help.

Kate and Ian have always worried that their past would catch up to them, and when faced with the biggest showdown of their lives, they must capitalize on the one thing they excel at most: teamwork. Ian claims no one is a better hacker than him, but in order to triumph, he’ll have to prove it. And if he can’t, he risks losing the woman whose heart he worked so hard to hack.

About Tracey:

Tracey Garvis Graves is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author. Her debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into twenty-seven languages, and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film. She is also the author of Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, and Cherish.

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Apollycon ’17 Venue, Hotel, Volunteer, Ticket, & Schedule Info + FAQ’s

Posted June 3, 2016 by Jana in Bookish News, Giveaway / 0 Comments

Hey there! I’m one of 25 official Apollycon 2017 bloggers so over the next year I’ll be giving you all the information on the conference so you know exactly what’s going on.

Ok, guys. This post has all the information about Apollycon you could possibly need. Seriously, it’s info city over here. Today we’re announcing the venue for the event and how to book hotel rooms there at a discounted rate. You’ll also find information on signing up to volunteer at Apollycon, where to go to buy tickets, the full events schedule, and a bunch of answers to questions you didn’t even know you had.

The Venue

Apollycon 2017 will be held at the beautiful DoubleTree by Hilton at the Entrance to Universal Orlando!

Go look at the website! This hotel is beautiful!

Hotel Rooms Available

There is a block of rooms reserved at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, at a discounted rate. To book a room, go here. You can book a room for an arrival as early as 3/19/2017, and check out as late as 3/31/2017 with access to the Apollycon 2017 rate. These rooms will go quickly, so book early to make sure you don’t miss out. If by chance the room block is sold out, you may still contact the hotel to inquire about other available rooms, but they may not have the discounted rate.

Want to Volunteer at Apollycon?

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased here! The ticket sale will be live at 12PM EST on Friday, June 3rd, 2016. Please note that there has been a ticket update: The FAST PASS (which was previously announced) will no longer be available for purchase. For more info, check out the Apollycon tickets page, or the Apollycon website.

Event Schedule

Friday, March 24th, 2017
Time TBD – On-site Registration Opens

2pm-5pm – Exclusive Titan Signing:
This signing will be for Titan pass holders only. All attending authors and vendors will be on site during this session as well. This signing will end promptly at 4PM. If you still have books you need to have signed, you may attend the General Signing session on Saturday.

Saturday, March 25th, 2017

Time TBD – On-site Registration Opens

12pm-5pm – General Signing Session:
This session is free to all attendees! Please keep in mind that we are asking that you still register to attend the event (registration opens at 12PM EST today). All authors and vendors will be on site and available at this time. Some authors will be ticketed and/or have book limits (that may differ from the general book limitations which can be found in the FAQ section below), so please be prepared to adhere to the specified instructions.

The signing will end promptly at 5PM, as we will need to clear the space for the after party which will be occurring later that evening.

8pm-11pm – Demigod After Party:
You must purchase a Demigod pass in order to attend. (This is included with both the Titan AND the Apollyon pass, so you won’t need to purchase 2 separate passes.) The party will include:

1,001 Dark Nights gift bags for the first 300 people! – Be among the first 300 people to arrive, and you will get to take home a bag filled with goodies!
Mingle with your favorite authors! – Featured authors & cover model(s) will be in attendance!
Photobooth Fun – We will have a photo booth with fun props where you and your friends can capture the fun!
Hit the dance floor with your friends! – We will have a DJ bringing the tunes!
Giveaways! – There will be chances to win gift cards, an iPad, a Kindle Fire tablet, signed books, and more throughout the party!

Frequently Asked Questions

The Saturday general signing is free. Do I still need to register?
Yes. If you solely wish to attend the Saturday signing (which is FREE), we are still asking that all attendees register for a general signing ticket.

Are there ID requirements or an age limit to enter the event?
Plan to bring your ID with you when picking up your registration on site.

What are my transport/parking options for getting to the event?
There will be on-site paid parking available at the venue hotel.

What are the book limitations?
You may bring as many books from home as you’d like, but you can only get 5 books per author signed at a time. You’ll be asked to go to the back of the line to get any additional books signed by the same author. **Please note: There may be some authors that have a different book limit (less than 5), but we will make a formal announcement on the Apollycon site/social media closer to the event.

Is my registration/ticket refundable/transferrable?
All paid passes/registration will be fully refundable until January 1st, 2017. Beyond that point, it will be transferable (so you can resell your pass to another attendee) should you no longer be able to attend.

I plan to sign up to volunteer. Do I still need to pay for a pass?
Yes. If you are interested in getting the swag/items that comes with the Titan or Apollyon passes, you must still purchase the a pass. If you purchase the Titan pass, and are selected to be an Apollycon volunteer, you will still be granted access to the full Friday signing that comes along with it.

Can I purchase books at the event?
Yes! There will be an onsite bookseller with books for purchase (Hours of operation will be posted closer to date of the event.). Self-published titles will be sold by the author at their respective tables, at the author’s discretion. As we get closer to the event, we will provide a list of books that will be available for purchase at the event. **Please note: There may be limited titles/formats available through the bookseller, so if you have specific titles you’d like to have for the signing, your best bet is to purchase them before the event.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
You can reach the Apollycon 2017 event organizers (Steph & Hannah) using the messaging options on the Apollycon social media pages, or at apollyconevent[at]gmails[dot]com.

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– For more FAQ’s, check out the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Apollycon website.
– For additional information regarding this event, including attending authors & vendors, check out the Apollycon website.

That Artsy Librarian | Just Finished My Second to Last Semester!

Posted May 27, 2016 by Jana in About Me, That Artsy Librarian / 7 Comments

That Artsy Librarian is a feature all about my journey through graduate school as I work towards my Master’s degree in Library and Information Science.

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my grad school experience, so I thought I’d do that today! I feel like I’ve been in school forever… And I have. I’ve been in grad school for three years. I honestly can’t believe it. I never thought I’d ever go to grad school, much less do a program that takes almost as long as my undergraduate degree.

I just finished up my second to last semester, and I took library marketing and collection development classes. In marketing I spent the semester writing marketing plans for a local library. The first plan was for the ENTIRE library: all of the services and programs available there. It was so complicated and long… 20 single-spaced pages. The second plan was just for the library’s teen services department and it was 16 single-spaced pages. It was fun, but super stressful because I was never really clear on what my teacher wanted. lol. I also made an 8-minute powerpoint audio/visual presentation for my first plan. The course also required I write reviews of scholarly publications and participate in weekly discussions on our required readings. It was a very intense course.

My collection development course was interesting… I was paired up with a classmate and we had to put together a 15-minute audio/visual presentation on weeding library collections. I also did a group assignment on the principles of collection development, which I did not find incredibly useful. The bulk of my final grade came from a 20-item collection I developed for the same library I used in my marketing class. I decided to do it on art and its influence on popular culture. Seeing as how I got my undergrad degree in art history, I thought this was a really fun topic and I enjoyed my 20+ hours of research. Not only did each collection item have to fit the theme, it also had to have positive professional reviews from publications such as Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. I spent a lot of time researching those and quoting them in my justifications for each item. I also had to fight for why the collection was necessary, how I would maintain the collection and add to it in the future, and I had to include an itemized list of prices and vendors. I also had to design a marketing tool to advertise the collection to the general public. We all know graphic design is my thing, and I made a large format poster that looks awesome.

I’ve always enjoyed collection development, and this was the third collection I developed for my program. I’ve also done a children’s picture book collection on multicultural friendships and a teen collection on post-apocalyptic topics (fiction, graphic novels, non-fiction, reference, DVDs, CDs, etc.). I find collection development to be a bit of a treasure hunt and I have a lot of fun searching for items. This has been something I’ve learned about myself since I joined the program, and I’m actually surprised! It’s a good kind of surprise, though.

This was probably the most work intensive semester I’ve had, hence the lack of activity going on here on the blog. I’ve done my best to keep up, but I know things slowed down a lot. I did get A’s in both classes, though! 100% in marketing and 99% in collection development, so my devotion pid off. Now I have a few months off to read and relax and enjoy the summer before jumping in to my final semester. I’m taking my last class this fall, and it’s my capstone course. Essentially, I will be designing and conducting a research study. My final paper of the program will be discussing the results of that study and their applications and relevancy to the field of information science. I already chose my topic, but more on that in a later post!

Yay summer!!!

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne Paperback Release Giveaway

Posted May 23, 2016 by Jana in Book Spotlight, Giveaway / 13 Comments

Today we’re celebrating the paperback release of Sweet by Emmy Laybourne, which releases on June 7th! It’s also got a brand new cover, which I quite like. The lovely people at Macmillan have offered my readers the chance to win a copy. Read a little bit about the book and enter to win using the Rafflecopter below.

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne
Published by Square Fish on June 7, 2016
(Originally published on June 1, 2015)
Genres: Horror, Contemporary, Thriller, Survival
Pages: 304
Amazon • Add to Goodreads

They’d kill to get thin.

The luxurious celebrity cruise launching the trendy new diet sweetener Solu should be the vacation of a lifetime. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She’s already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host Tom Forelli-the hottest guy ever!-and she’s too sick to even trythe sweetener. And that’s before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

Tom knows that he should be grateful for this job and the chance to shed his former-child-star image. His publicists have even set up a ‘romance’ with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when the hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it’s Laurel that he’s determined to save.

Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 trilogy, takes readers on a dream vacation in Sweet that goes first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly, wrong!

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Discussion: Lauren Oliver’s Delirium Trilogy Gets New Covers

Posted May 17, 2016 by Jana in Cover Talk, Discussion / 15 Comments

We’ve all come to expect that the trilogies we love might possibly get new covers. It’s kind of a thing that happens. I’m usually not ok with it. I was not happy when Stephanie Perkins’s Anna and the French Kiss companion books were redesigned, I hate the new covers for The Winner’s Curse trilogy by Marie Rutkoski, and redesigning the covers of the Ruby Red trilogy by Kerstin Gier is a downright sin.

The Delirium trilogy has been redesigned three times now. I loved Delirium‘s original cover, especially on the hardback because removing the dust jacket gives you more cover detail of the woman’s face.

I’m not the biggest fan anymore (what can I say? Tastes change). But I like it much better than the “random girl on the cover” syndrome we have been exposed to with the most recent cover redesign.

Boy, did I hate these. At least the original cover stood out from the crowd. These ones look so generic and weird (who shoves flowers in their faces like this?), plus the model looks like she can only make one facial expression: “I’m going to seduce you with my slightly separated lips and my bedroom eyes,” which doesn’t even make sense because love is outlawed in this trilogy. To be honest, I’ve always loved random girls on covers because I like to picture my own characters, thank you very much.

But now… LOOK at this re-design. I love them! I want to re-buy these books with these covers, and this rarely happens to me! But these are so pretty! I love the minimalist design and the colors and the symbolism. SO great. I can see adults, teens, boys, girls, etc. reading these whereas the older covers make the series look so juvenile and geared towards girls. This is so much better, and I can see the trilogy popping back up on everyone’s radar as a result of these new covers. And the novella covers are pretty great too.

So! What do you think of these new covers? What do you think of cover changes in general? Do you usually like the change? Do you get mad having to re-buy books so your covers match? Do you care at all? Let me know in the comments!

(New cover images taken from the Epic Reads site.)