Giveaway: The Agency by Ally O'Brien

I'm excited to be able to host another great giveaway - this one is for a book that was released TODAY! Special thanks go out to the people at St. Martin's Press/Macmillan, who are helping me giveaway 15 galley copies of The Agency by Ally O'Brien!

About the book (from the publisher): Meet Tess Drake. She’s earned everything she has. Now it’s time to get what she deserves…

Sexy super-agent Tess Drake has worked hard to make a name for herself in the glamorous yet cut-throat entertainment industry. Tess works at an international agency, where she skillfully manages some of the world's biggest egos—her company, Bardwell International operates in the thrilling, fast-paced worlds of Rights, wrongs and revenge. Tess has been an agent there for longer than she cares to remember and now she's in trouble. Real trouble. After the mysterious death of the agency's senior partner, Lowell Bardwright, Tess's sworn enemy, Cosima Tate, has taken over and would do anything to send Tess's career down in flames. And Cosima is only one of the rogue’s gallery of agents in London and New York who want Tess to take a fall.

Tess has another little complication, too. She’s sleeping with men on both sides of the Atlantic who are in bed with the women who are trying to sink her.

Can Tess jump ship without losing her clients and breaking her heart? Or will she lose everything before finding out if she really has what it takes to do what she’s always wanted?

There’s risk and reward in this wickedly funny novel that turns the world of agenting inside out and lays bare all the ambition, sex, adrenaline, bad luck, and good luck at the center of one young woman’s success.

About the author (from the publisher): Ally O’Brien is the pseudonym for a writing duo that includes an international bestselling author of suspense novels and a successful, well-known international entertainment agent based in London. Visit them at http://www.allyobrien.com/.




You can enter this giveaway daily!!!

To be included in the giveaway:
1. Leave a comment here and include a quick date night idea and your email (I need a way to contact you if you win!) (1 entry daily)
2. Post a link to the giveaway on your blog and report it here (1 entry)
3. Become a follower and leave a comment here (or "remind" me you are already a follower so I know you want to be included in this giveaway) (1 entry)


The drawing will be held February 17th. Winners: I will send you each an email, you will need to reply with your address so I can forward it to the publisher. In the event that a winner does not respond, I will go to the next name in the drawing and notify them.

This giveaway is open to residents within the United States and Canada.

~ Wendi

Tuesday Thinger: Here's My Review!

Welcome to another week of Tuesday Thingers! We always love to hear from regular participants as well as new people.


We read, and then we write reviews that we plan to share with our friends . . . and with all of cyberspace! :) A lot of us participate in meme's and link exchanges in order to help bring new visitors to our sites. That said, this Thinger was inspired by a few posts within Library Thing, where I have seen a lot of people asking how to share their reviews and giveaways. I thought that if people were talking within the groups, we might as well discuss it here too.

I've seen plenty of threads throughout Library Thing (and other places) asking about how bloggers share their reviews outside their normal readers, and a few threads dedicated to sharing reviews, like Arc Junkies: Two Pennies for Your Thoughts. There are also plenty of posts dedicated to sharing contests and giveaways, such as Arc Junkies: The All-New Blog Contests Thread, and Bloggers: Book Giveaways.

Today's question: Do you post links to your reviews? Here on Library Thing, or anywhere else? How else do you like to promote your site?

My Answer: I started blogging to catalogue the books I'm reading, and to share my thoughts with others. I quit my "day-job" in Corporate America in order to stay home with our baby, and blogging is one adult way I like to connect to the outside world - so thanks to all my bloggy buddies! :) (I also love to read great new books!)

I seem to be really behind on posting my reviews. I generally post them on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Library Thing, GoodReads and sometimes Christian Books. As far as links, I try to post links to my reviews in the Arc Junkies thread of LT, and on the Saturday reviews at Semicolon.

As far as giveaways, I like to post at Library Thing in the Arc Junkies group, ContestGirl, Online-Sweepstakes, and Twisted Branches.

Finally, I just started participating in a meme-type weekly posting that I call This Week in Books, it seems to be a great way to discover new blogs and read some great new reviews, as well as letting me support some other great bloggers!

Looking forward to reading everyone's answers!!

~ Wendi

If you are new to Tuesday Thingers: Welcome! The meme was originally created as a way to network with other bloggers and to learn about Library Thing! I'd like to encourage you to join us. If you don't know what Library Thing is - you are in a great place to learn about new things, and if you are an old pro, stick around and share your wealth of information! Visit Library Thing here. To join in, copy the picture and question into your post and link back here so people can read other responses. Make sure you leave a comment here with a link to your post so we can stop by! If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave a comment here!

Mailbox Monday

Many thanks to Marcia at The Printed Page for hosting Mailbox Monday every week!

It is so much fun to see what everyone is getting in the mail.

Thanks for taking the time to visit ~ I just love hearing from you! Please let me know if you have read any of these books - I'd love to hear how you liked them!! :)

Here are the books that came into my house last week:

Bones of the Dragon ARC by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Fiction / Fantasy - I believe this was a Shelf Awareness find, but I don't have anything in my email. . .

Gingham Mountain by Mary Connealy - Fiction / Christian - Received this one from the publisher for an upcoming WildCard Tour.

I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna - Non-Fiction / Health

A Quiet Flame ARC by Philip Kerr - Fiction - Another great find from Shelf Awareness.

Size 2 For Life by Ashley Marriott and Marc L. Paulsen, MD - Non-Fiction / Health - I received this one from the publisher via Bostick Communications.

Voices Under Berlin by T.H.E. Hill - Fiction / Spy - Another great find from Bostick.



What was in your mailbox last week??

If you would like to participate in Mailbox Monday, head over to The Printed Page and grab the logo. Make sure to visit other blogs hosting Mailbox Monday and comment/leave your link!

Tag Your It! What I Love

I've Been Tagged! Patricia over at Patricia's Vampire Notes has tagged me for the What I Love meme. It looks fun and easy, so here goes!

Here are the rules:
Link to the person who has tagged you.
Write down six things that make you happy.
Post the rules, tag six others and let them know you did it. Then tell the person when your entry is complete.

Six Things That Make Me Happy:

1. My husband and my son - being a Mom/Wife has been a lot more rewarding than I thought it would be. :)

2. Reading - it is so nice to be able to "travel" to other places without having to buy the plane tickets! Plus, the images I can picture in my mind are so fascinating - it is like escaping to another world for a temporary break.

3. Taking my son to the Children's Museum or other play areas - it is so much fun to watch him playing with other kids and having fun. I'm amazed at how quickly he is growing and developing.

4. Learning to make new (and tasty) desserts. Hmmm - vanilla ice cream ball covered in toasted coconut, drizzled with chocolate. . . .

5. Completing craft projects - I just love to work on craft projects but often pick projects that take a while or require a lot of attention - it feels great when I finally get them done!

6. Date Night! Now that we have a two-year-old, I think we've had a total of 2 date nights, so I REALLY appreciate them when we have them. A nice dinner and a movie is appreciated a lot more now than it used to be.

Now for some of the people I'd love to hear from:

Donna - Write By Faith

Jenners - Find Your Next Book Here

Kristi - Books and Needlepoint

Ruth - Bookish Ruth

Gretchen - Back Cover Reviews

Jenny - Jenny Loves to Read

Award Time!! Lemonade Award AND the Your Blog is Fabulous Award

Ohhh - Aren't awards fun? I was so honored to receive the Lemonade Award from Yvonne of Socrates' Book Reviews, the Your Blog is Fabulous from Teddy Rose of So Many Precious Books, So Little Time!

The Lemonade Award is for blogs with great attitude and/or gratitude. There are so many blogs that deserve this award!
For this one, I'm going to choose a few of the blogs who regularly participate in the FIRST WildCard Tours, a group of bloggers who review Christian books. These bloggers all work hard to review and share the books on tour. A note about WildCard Tours - it is a free tour group where authors and/or publishers can have bloggers sign up to be a part of the WildCard Tour for their book. The bloggers agree to post the WildCard Tour of the books they sign up for, and are encouraged to include an honest review in the tour post.

So, the award goes to:

Wyn of Wyn is Reading Books - I really enjoy stopping by and reading her reviews, plus right now she has a really nice giveaway going on for the book Dear God, It's Me and It's Urgent!

Stacey of Word Up! - Stacey has some wonderful reviews, as well as some great posts on Bible Studies. I thought her current post Plagues - Old Testament? New? NOW! had some very good information and challenged the reader to really think.


Mimi B. of Woven by Words - Mimi has posted a great review of the book Scrapping Plans by Rebecca Seitz. I was hoping to get in on this tour, but didn't sign up in time. It was great to be able to read her review and the first chapter of the book!

(Isn't this button just adorable!!) Recipients of this award are encouraged to write five things that they are addicted to and then pass it on to five other blogs.

Five Things I'm Addicted To:

1. My family! Without a doubt - if my family members are available, I absolutely love to spend time with them. Extended family members actually complain a little that they never get to watch our son. :)

2. Books, Books, Books - As if you all didn't already know that! I LOVE reading. I love sharing my reviews, and talking about books with people - in fact, I participate in three different book clubs.

3. Crafts - When I'm not doing things with family or reading (which really hasn't been leaving me much time anymore), I love to do crafts. ANY crafts! I prefer to do Hardanger, knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking and beading . . . but I also enjoy making candles, soap, stamping, sewing, spinning yarn, making cigar box purses, Pergamano paper crafts . . . . do you see where I'm going here . . . I really could go on and on here!

4. Chocolate - anyone who knows me really well knows that I've always got a stash of chocolate in at least two rooms in the house! LOL

5. Interactive games! Have you tried the Wii Fit yet? It is wonderful! And the bowling - we've had family over for entire days of Wii Bowling! Then we've got the XBox 360 Rock Band thing going on too - my niece loves to come sing or play the guitar - it really is fun! Bet you didn't know that about me! No - - - I'm not really a gamer, but I do like to play games WITH people, so I guess you can lump this one in with my number 1!

Now - to pick five more people to share this award with. . .

Amy of Passages to the Past - She has an amazing post about one of Queen Marie Antoinette's homes - the pictures she has shared are truly beautiful - I encourage you to stop by!

Janel of Janel's Jumble - Ohhh - the book she has recently reviewed is Sweet Love, and if the cover doesn't make you want to run out and pick it up, her review probably will!

Ramya of Ramya's Bookshelf - She has quite a few reviews up for books I've recently added to my wish list. :) That list only seems to get longer as I read more reviews!

Patricia of Patricia's Vampire Notes - She has written so many great reviews it is hard not to get completely sucked in to this genre! ;)

Kathy of The Oklahoma BookLady - I love to stop by her site and check out the pictures she shares (if only I could take pictures like she can!). I also love to read her reviews. . . . remember that when you visit and get distracted by all her wonderful pictures.


I tried to spread these awards around as I've tried to catch up on all my awards over the past few days. If you weren't on here, please consider yourself tagged by me if you would like to play along. I also understand that not everyone has the time to participate in these awards. :)

This Week In Books

This Week In Books is all about great bloggers and the books they are reading! We are trying to support each other by sharing posts from the previous week. I invite you to take a look at some of these posts. These blogs are all wonderful, and promise some great reading!

Amy at My Friend Amy's has written a post about teens and assigned reading. Similarly to Amy, I feel that I really benefited from all those assigned books (didn't love all of them, but I certainly appreciate literature better because of it!). Stop by and check out her post on The Book Nerd Who Loved Assigned Reading.

Stop by Devourer of Books and read a great review of To Hold The Crown by Jean Plaidy. This sounds like a great historical fiction book during the time of King Henry VII.

Shelley over at Write for a Reader has done a wonderful interview with author Merrily Kutner, who writes childrens books.

Trish over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? has written a review of The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffery Deaver. The book sounds very interesting, and sounds like a must-read for any mystery/action fans!

Stop and visit Bookroom Reviews, where Tracy has posted a review and giveaway of Beat The Reaper by Josh Bazell. This book has been getting rave reviews, and sounds like it is quite the funny adrenaline rush!

Marta of Marta's Meanderings has shared a wonderful review of The Family Bones by Kimberly Raiser. From her review, it sounds like this sci-fi-ish thriller was a non-stop page turner!

Stop by Beth Fish Reads and check out her review of Out From Boneville by Jeff Smith. This is the first book of the Bone series published by Scholastic. The story itself sounds really cute and the cover is charming in a cartoonish way! Beth has also reviewed the second book in the series, The Great Cow Race.

Kiera over at Love Romance Passion has written a wonderful post called Books Reek of Smoke Stench? Try These Tips to Get Rid of Odor, which anyone who has received a smelly book will appreciate!

Lastly, Britt over at Confessions of a Book Habitue has written a review of State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy. The book sounds like laugh-out-loud mystery. Stop by and check it out!

Well, that is all for this week - I hope you will stop by and visit a few of these posts!

~ Wendi