Guest Post from Bella Andre Author of the Sullivan Family Series

Please enjoy this guest post by Bella Andre, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of the contemporary romance series, The Sullivans. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including special romantic swag baskets for each book, an iPad Mini, Kindle Fire, Nook Color, and Kobo eReader, and Amazon and iTunes gift cards!  

Why I Love Family-Based Romance Series

A guest post by Bella Andre

  I love reading romance (I read one book a day when I can!), and one of my favorite tropes is the family-based series. I absolutely love Julia Quinn's historical romance Bridgerton series and have loved taking that idea of the big family into present day with my Sullivan contemporary romance series. What I love when I read - and what I want my readers to get from The Sullivans - is to feel like they're a part of the family, and to know each of the characters so well that they can begin to know anticipate what the will start saying and doing at family gatherings. I love it when I'm reading a big family scene and I know, "Oh, this character is going to react like this" or "This character will hate this!" I love it even more when the characters surprise me and I learn new things about them. One of the advantages of writing a series about a large family is that even as the hero and heroine are having conflict with each other, we can see them being loving towards their families, so we know the depth of love they're capable of. There are plenty of big family scenes in my Sullivan books for you to get to know each character, what they're like, and how they feel one another. Just like a real family, every Sullivan has a special relationship with each of the others. Smith and Sophie are extra close, as are Marcus and Lori. Ryan and Zach are so close in age that they spent a lot of time together as kids and have a special bond as adults.

The Sullivans are on tour with Novel Publicity. Follow along for your chance to win amazing prizes. We've got special romantic swag baskets for each book, an iPad Mini, Kindle Fire, Nook Color, and Kobo eReader, and Amazon and iTunes gift cards. WOW! You'll also get introduced to this amazing contemporary romance series via excerpts as well as interviews with and guest posts from New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Bella Andre. You'll definitely want to learn more about the family that has captured the world's heart. All the info you need to join the fun and enter to win amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win! To Win the Prizes:

1. Purchase any of the Sullivan ebooks by Bella Andre for just $4.99 (optional)
2. Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity (go here)
3. Visit today’s featured social media event (that's where the HUGE prizes are)

About The Sullivans: In this sexy, emotional and funny contemporary romance series, each member of the Sullivan family will eventually find true love...usually where he or she least expects it. Get the eBooks via Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, the iBookStore, or the Kobo Store. Audiobooks are also available for the first five in the series (with more coming soon). Plus, keep an eye out for paperback editions coming from Harlequin Romance starting Summer 2013.

About the Author: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Bella Andre has always been a writer. Songs came first, and then non-fiction books, but as soon as she started writing her first romance novel, she knew she'd found her perfect career. Known for "sensual, empowered stories enveloped in heady romance" (Publishers Weekly) about sizzling alpha heroes and the strong women they'll love forever, nearly all of her novels have appeared on Top 10 lists at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo. Her books have been Cosmopolitan Magazine "Red Hot Reads" twice and have been translated into nine languages. Winner of the Award of Excellence, The Washington Post has called her "One of the top digital writers in America" and she has been featured by NPR, USA Today, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. She has given the keynote speech at Book Expo America on her self-publishing success and has sold more than one million books. If not behind her computer, you can find her reading her favorite authors, hiking, swimming or laughing. Married with two children, Bella splits her time between the Northern California wine country and a 100 year old log cabin in the Adirondacks.

• Sign up for Bella's newsletter at www.eepurl.com/eXj22
• Visit Bella's website at www.BellaAndre.com
• Follow Bella on twitter at www.twitter.com/bellaandre
• Join Bella on Faceboook at www.facebook.com/bellaandrefans

Moving on up...

Well, we're packing up and moving on to bigger and better things, for future reviews, and to read any already published reviews please visit As Seen Through My Specs 2: Electric Boogaloo

There are some new features and a flashy, sexy new interface, come, visit, stay a while, comment, enter contests, tell your friends.  It'll be 18 kinds of awesome*.

*level of awesomeness may vary by personal preference

The Magick of Christmas by Susan Mac Nicol

I had the pleasure of reading another of the sweet short stories from Buroughs over my winter break, this one by new author Sue Mac Nicol.

Though not my usual genre, vampires are about as far as I go into supernatural, and even then it's only 3 authors or so I read, I found this short story about a witch in London to be a pleasant read.

Stacey goes for her morning coffee every day and lately Mr. Hunky has been showing up in line and all the ladies are drooling over his fine, fine self.  Sure, she could say hello, but she's self conscious about a limp she has and well, just walking up to a stranger is always awkward and weird, fear of rejection always looms large (at least that's what I recall from my singleton days).

After one morning of intense staring and fantasizing Stacey heads to her office, coffee in hand, only to have Mr. Hunky, whose name is actually Nicholas show up at her desk to pick up a file, turns out he's a client for the lawyer she works for, I love how the Universe works.

When handing him the file Stacey also passes through an attraction spell.  Nicholas asks her out and they have a wonderful time, with all kinds of twists and surprises.  Too much more would give it all away.

It was a fun read, and it takes place in London, a place with which I am obsessed and hope to visit one day soon.  If supernatural is your thing and you're as interested in London as I am be sure to pick this one up.

I'm looking forward to reading her other short story and maybe I'll even expand my horizons into some other supernatural books.  If you've got a good suggestion please leave it in the comments below.

The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher

If I've said it once... well ok, on the blog I've only said it once, but I'm sure when all is said and done I'll have said it a million times...

DON'T STICK YOUR DICK IN CRAZY (The credit for that phrase goes to B&S)

This is a story that's been in the TBR for a little while, I got added to a Facebook discussion group on this one, still not sure how that happened, but it's a book some people are very passionate about, and after reading it I can see why.

It's the story of Caleb, Olivia, Leah with a splash of Jessica thrown in.  The book jumps around from the present to the past so make sure you pay attention and keep up.  It's like the most amazing episode of General Hospital ever, there's cheating, lying, duplicity, amnesia, pregnancy, stalking... it's 18 kinds off awesome.  Caleb the main character seems to have a penchant for sticking his dick in the craziest of the crazy.  I'm pretty sure that Leah would fall under the clinical diagnosis of sociopath... just saying...

I loved this book, it sucks you in from the get go and holds you by the nuts until the very end where you're still going... "ummm, ok, what now Tarryn, WHAT NOW?"

There isn't much more I can say in a review that doesn't give the plot and twists away.  The writing was very well done, well edited (not something I see much of these days) and really gripping.  I can see why the readers to TO and the sequel Dirty Red are so passionate and have such crazy discussions about this book.

I'll be reading the sequel shortly, but reading this story was such an emotional mind fuck that I needed to read something lighter and look at pictures of puppies and kittens to get myself back on even keel.

Grab a bottle of wine, fasten your seat-belt, buy it, read it, love it.

As a give-away for this review I'll be giving a copy of the sequel Dirty Red to who ever has the most creative comment regarding what they've done to get, or keep a partner.  Nothing illegal please gentle readers.

Comments accepted through Friday January 4, a winner announced on Saturday, Jan 5.

Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Everyone once in a while a book comes along and knocks you on your ass, and changes your world view.  The last book that had that effect on me was The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  A book, now nearly 10 years old which defined where I was in my life in that place and time, waiting, always waiting.

Very seldom do I read something these days that shakes me to my core.  This book has been getting a ton of hype, and a nice woman in my book group loaned it to me.  I've had to put it down a couple of times because of how it was hitting me.  I have a close family member who suffers from PTSD and alcohol has shaped my formative years in ways no person should have to deal with.

Describing this book is challenging, but I'll give it a stab, Kasey, and her sister Livie start a new life in Miami leaving behind a lecherous abusive uncle and a blind to reality fundamentalist Christian aunt who became their guardians after their parents died in a drunk driving accident.  The uncle has squandered away their insurance and having had enough Kasey packs up Livie and runs.

They settle in a run down apartment complex in Miami and set up as close to a normal life ass possible, with some interesting neighbors.  Storm/Nora is a bartender who gets Kasey a job tending bar in the gentleman's club where she works.  Storm is a single mom of a beautiful little girl who has a troubled past of her own.

Kasey plays the typical avoidance scenario, pain is hard, and it sucks, and PTSD sucks, and she copes in ways that are less than healthy, drinking, sex, violence, she runs the gamut of little girl lost ways to act out.

She meets and falls in love/lust with Trent, the quiet, secretive neighbor.

She doesn't open up, she doesn't talk about her past, she locks it all inside, often with some really dangerous consequences.

This isn't a neatly tied with a bow story about love, sex, or life.  It's raw and visceral and it slaps you in the face every now and again.

It is a story that's worth every second of time you take to read it, and re-read it to gain insight into the nuances you missed the first time around.  I try and read TTTW once a year, I'm positive this book is about to go into regular rotation for me.  And from me that is THE highest compliment I can give a book and an author.  I've read well over 450 books in the last two years.  The fact that of all those this is one I will pick up over and over to read is a big deal.

So, let's start of our re-vamped blog, now with an enhanced experience with a give-away.  In the comments section tell me about a book that has changed your life or you feel defines you as a person.  Comments will be accepted through January 2, 2013.  In the end I'll pick a random poster to receive a copy of this book through the book-seller of your choice.

I look forward to hearing your responses.

And if you don't win, you should pick up this story anyhow, it isn't a pricey ready and would be worth it at ten times the price.

http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Tiny-Breaths-ebook/dp/B00ALQC858/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356553125&sr=1-1&keywords=ten+tiny+breaths

Re-Re-vamp coming soon-ish, or soon adjacent as the case may be...

Starting in late January we'll have some more interactive stuff for readers here at As Seen Through My Specs, we'll be doing some give-aways and I'll be working to reach out to try and get some guest posters and hopefully even some intervies.

More info will follow, so for you regular readers keep your eyes here, and for your irregular readers, try some prune juice and then come back and keep your eyes on the site for more news.

Tomorrow a review... honest... unless the Mayans got the date wrong and the world does end, or I get too wrapped up in cleaning my bedroom before Christmas company comes.  My closet looks like it should be under a haz-mat tent and I have 6 baskets of clean laundry to put away.

I've read a ton of stuff lately, having a hard time deciding what to review.

Also, how is it that my mother in law had no idea I'd written a book and was writing another?  Even my own mom knows and I hardly tell her anything... or at least she doesn't generally remember what I tell her... it's a 50/50 thing.

While you wait for a new review visit Pinterest, which I did last night and fell in love with about 100 different bookcases, my office/library will not have room for that many so I need to whittle that down.  You could also go look up Alex Minsky https://www.facebook.com/AlexMinskyFanPage?fref=ts, wounded warrior, funny guy and all around hottie, and ladies, he's single.  Found him through the Kally Masters Rescue Me group.  Seriously, someone needs to get him on Ellen, or the cover of Men's Fitness, or something, he's a great example of courage and pushing through to the other side and life after service, although as a Marine he'll always be a Marine and never a former Marine.  I don't know, it's their thing... you never retire, Semper Fi.

It's Christmas this week (we just finished Hanukkah, and then there was also Diwali this month), what will you be buying with your Amazon/B&N/Kobo gift cards?  Not that I need any more books, because the TBR list is long already but I'm always interested in what's out there.  Plus if *I* get a gift card I might need advice on what to buy.

Leave a comment with what you're reading or REALLY want to read and who knows, maybe this will be the time I start with the give-aways.  That will require organizing myself, but since this week and a half off from work is all about writing, blogging, reading and setting up my author stuff you never know.

OK, stream of consciousness over, Mela signing off and getting back to actual writing, or reading, or eating that piece of chocolate mousse cake from Gregg's in the fridge, seriously, it's a thing of beauty.

The Boat Builder's Bed by Kris Pearson

While on our conf-cation to San Diego my husband and I ate in a Kiwi bar in La Jolla.  In honor of that decent meal and the hubs' lamb burger I picked up this gem to read and review next.  (It takes place in New Zealand.)

This is the love story of Sophie and Rafe.

Rafe, recently divorced millionaire superyacht builder with a huge chip on his shoulder from his upbringing and his bitch of an ex-wife stumbles across Sophie's new design business.  She seems quite familiar to him, and that's because she used to worked for the aforementioned bitch ex-wife.

 As luck would have it he has a house which needs interior design, and he's attracted to our pretty little heroine, even though she fights it at every turn.  She isn't interested in his money, or his social standing, she just wants the financial security and positive buzz decorating his house could bring her.

Regardless he pursues her relentlessly, and eventually she gives in, I mean c'mon, he's a hottie, and he showers her with gifts and affection and seduction.

He's got secrets (and don't forget there's that jealous, bitchy social grubbing money hungry ex-wife), but so does she, her's is a whole lot bigger than his, and as is always the case, the longer you keep secrets the more they fester, and sometimes it comes to a point where there is no way to tell the secret yourself, it always happens that it comes out when you least expect it and usually is spouted out as an act of vitriol by your enemy.

Can they work past what she's hiding, can he forgive her lie?

Pick it up, read it and find out definitely worth your time!  Also, it's a standalone, so there's no angst wait for the next book in the series.

Besides an enjoyable read, I also learned some interesting things about New Zealand culture, there is whangai, the informal inter-family adoption culture among the Maori, and the social and emotional stigma it can bring.  I also learned it takes two years to finalize a divorce, that's one hell of a long time to be tied to somebody when you decide that your marriage is over.

Where I Need to Be by Kimberly Knight

I picked this one up as a group read with one of my FB book groups.  It was released today and is a first book written by one of the members in the group.  It got bumped up ahead of the now... 228 (had to check the Kindle) books waiting to be read.

This is a well told romance between Spencer and Brandon.

As we meet Spencer she is drowning her sorrows in ice cream and watching The Voice (probably for the same reason I watch the Voice*).  Her roommate Ryan gives her the talking to that only a best friend can, kicks her in the ass and shoves her back in to life.

Spencer re-enters the world by joining a gym her job has asked her to write an article about.  The first night there on the treadmill she meets her very own "Gideon Cross"; I loved the meta-ness of this, a book inside a book, like Inception... but I digress, after some smiling and flirting neither does anything about it.

As fate would have it they both end up in an airport on the same flight to Vegas, then the same club where they do some serious dirty dancing, the kind even Patrick Swayze probably couldn't handle, and then end up at the same poker table in Vegas, Fate is a crafty bitch.  

They return home to San Francisco and run in to each other again at the gym and their relationship blossoms.  Turns out he's the gyms owner.

There's a crazy ex-girlfriend with some serious drama, and the two main characters just coming of long term-ish relationships trying to figure out where they belong, and if that place is with each other....

Things don't tie up neatly, it's book one of a series, and you know me, I'm a series whore.  I'll be eagerly awaiting the next release.

Kudos Kimberly, I only hope when my first book gets published it's as good as yours and people enjoy it even half as much, because so far all the buzz I've read and heard is positive and well deserved.

* Namaste to you too Adam...

Writing and traveling

So this week I'm at a conference for work on the west coast and I've also been hard at work on edits on my first book and writing my second book. It's been putting a cramp in my reading schedule, you know all the learning and touristing, and writing.

The good news is I have a title for my book, a cover art concept, I just need an artist, if you're out there and interested drop me a line, no nudity involved, just some photorealistic images.

I also have a pen name and will be setting up an authors page on Facebook soon. I'm looking forward to the holiday break at work, it will give me a chance to do some of the less glamorous stuff that comes along with writing.

I'll be back to reviews later this week, I need to be able to get in to a book, I've started and stopped a couple of different books and read a short story at my lunch break today because I couldn't get into anything that had more than 4 dots on the Kindle App, it just felt like too much of a time commitment to me.

After a dinner of In-N-Out Burger tonight, whose fries are not good cold, BTW, I'm going back to hopping between edits and writing, I'm clearly in ADD mode.

Recommend something that's gonna suck me in and knock my socks off gentle readers, because right now even the hype ain't doing it for this book worm.

Rock the Heart by Michelle A. Valentine

Because rocker is the new kinky rich dude, and I'm a highly suggestible person (thanks book group girls) I picked up this little gem to read.  Also didn't hurt that someone mentioned that Michelle based the main character on Adam Levine, not that he's dreamy or anything... but I digress...

This book follows Noel and Lane (Lanie) through the rekindling of their romance.  Once high school sweet hearts Lanie has gone off to work in marketing and Noel has made it big with his band Black Falcon.

Lane broke his heart and dumped him because she thought he was being immature in thinking music could be a viable career, instead of giving it all up, going to college and being a grown up.  So um, yeah, she's working as an intern barely scraping by and taking money from her mom and he's got money coming out of his ears and has made it big time.

Fate throws them together through  an opportunity at the marketing firm where Lanie is interning.  She gets thrown on tour with the band.  After a less than friendly reunion, Noel sees this as his second chance to get her back in to his bed and back in to life.

Noel has some serious stuff he's hiding, and his bandmates don't seem keen on keeping his secret.  Lanie's got her own baggage and an overwhelming need to prove herself in her career and keep her job whatever it takes.

Will they work it out?  It's definitely worth the ride to find out.

My only problem with this book, and as far as books go it's a big and small problem, when Lane and Noel finally get back in bed together Noel asks what Lane has been up to sexually, if she's on the pill, and wants to have sex with her without a condom, and she agrees.

Wow!  He's a fucking rock star who has likely had more pussy in the last two years than a year's subscription to Cat Fancy magazine, and he doesn't deny it or say he's been celibate she just takes him at his word he's clean and goes for it.... seriously??!?!?  It's a plot thing and a trust thing, and I suppose on some small level I get that.  However too many books I've read lately have downplayed the importance of safe sex (esp in this trope).  It isn't just about preventing pregnancy, it's about the prevention of the transmission of disease, and in a post 1980's world where HIV and other nasty shit exists if you aren't the only sexual partner someone has ever had you best be wrapping that bad boy up until everyone decides you're in a committed relationship and all appropriate testing has been administered.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now.

It really was a great book with a twist and ending I did NOT see coming, and usually I can see them from a mile away.  I'm looking forward to Rock the Bed, the story of Noel's bandmate Riff and Lane's friend Aubrey.  Yeah it's a series... stop judging me....

Click it, buy it and enjoy.