You could be the lucky winner of one of FIVE books that author Kimberly Frost is giving this week on Amberkatze's Book Blog. All you have to do is answer one simple question to be entered into the draw. You have till Wednesday to get your entry in so make sure you go over there and read the interview and enter the contest!
And now time for a winner! Author Tracey O'Hara was giving away a signed copy of her new release, Death's Sweet Embrace!
Congrats to :
Justpeachy36
Keep reading to find out how to claim your prize!
If you didn't win this time then make sure you check out Tracey O'Hara's books!
Another contest will be starting tomorrow so I hope you will all stop by and enter!
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How to claim your prize!
Please contact me via email - Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot eu within the next 7 days to claim your prize. Your claim will go quicker if you send me your address. If you won a contest where you can choose your prize, then please make sure you state in your email which book you would like. This will help things go alot quicker! Do you have a Kindle? I can send your prize to you instantly if you are willingly to get a Kindle edition (if it works...)
If you email me and don't get a reply within 48 hours please post on the blog letting me know. Some email gets eaten by my spam filter. However please don't send me more than one email unless you really don't get an answer within 3 days. I am not online 24/7 ;) Sometimes it takes a little longer to reply.
If a prize isn't claimed after 7 days I will, if the author agrees, pick another winner.
Please also note that I can not be held responsible for prizes that come direct from authors. I will check with them for you if you haven't received your prize but I can not hunt down your mail! Any prizes that come from myself could come from a 3rd party eg. Amazon or Bookdepository. If I am sending a prize myself please be aware that it could take a few weeks to reach you as it is coming from Europe.
Never miss out on a new Author Event, Contest or Book Review! Subscribe Now!
Use the Bookdepository or Amazon links/banners to keep the prizes coming! Oh and advertise Amberkatze's Book Blog wherever you can ;)
The J.F. Lewis contest is now closed and it is time to find out who won!
One lucky winner will get a copy of the new release in the Void City series. I hope that the people who didn't win all go and get themselves a copy of Crossed!
So congrats to the winner :
Lingeorge!!!
Keep reading to find out how to claim your prize!
Didn't win this time? Then make sure you enter the Tracey O'Hara contest before it closes on Sunday! Oh and there is another author contest coming up within the next couple of hours! Kimberly Frost is giving away a few books!!!
----------------------
How to claim your prize!
Please contact me via email - Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot eu within the next 7 days to claim your prize. Your claim will go quicker if you send me your address. If you won a contest where you can choose your prize, then please make sure you state in your email which book you would like. This will help things go alot quicker! Do you have a Kindle? I can send your prize to you instantly if you are willingly to get a Kindle edition (if it works...)
If you email me and don't get a reply within 48 hours please post on the blog letting me know. Some email gets eaten by my spam filter. However please don't send me more than one email unless you really don't get an answer within 3 days. I am not online 24/7 ;) Sometimes it takes a little longer to reply.
If a prize isn't claimed after 7 days I will, if the author agrees, pick another winner.
Please also note that I can not be held responsible for prizes that come direct from authors. I will check with them for you if you haven't received your prize but I can not hunt down your mail! Any prizes that come from myself could come from a 3rd party eg. Amazon or Bookdepository. If I am sending a prize myself please be aware that it could take a few weeks to reach you as it is coming from Europe.
Never miss out on a new Author Event, Contest or Book Review! Subscribe Now!
Use the Bookdepository or Amazon links/banners to keep the prizes coming! Oh and advertise Amberkatze's Book Blog wherever you can ;)
The J.F. Lewis giveaway ends on Wednesday! You have until 4pm CET (Central European Time) to enter the contest. You could win a signed copy of his new release, Crossed!
Make sure you check in on Wednesday because author Kimberly Frost will be about and she is also going to be giving away some books! Yes books as in plural! As in more than one!!!
February is turning out to be a busy month on Amberkatze's Book Blog. Instead of just one author guest a week I have two! I hope you can all keep up!
Please welcome author Tracey O'Hara, a new author to me but maybe one you have come across before. I was lucky enough to get an ARC copy of Death's Sweet Embrace and really enjoyed it. Now I hope to read Tracey's debut, Night's Cold Kiss.
Enjoy the interview and don't forget to enter the contest at the end. Tracey is very kindly giving away a signed copy of her new release.
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Amber - Welcome to Amberkatze's Book Blog! It is great to have you here as a guest! Could you start things off by telling my readers a little about your Dark Brethren Series?
Tracey – Thanks so much for having me as part of my tour. The Dark Brethren series is a world where humans live knowingly alongside what I refer to as parahuman races. These races have vampiric type beings, shapeshifters, shape morphers, Mer-people and a whole lot more that I have yet to go into fully myself.
Amber - The second book in the series, Death's Sweet Embrace, has just been released. Can you tell us a little about the story?
Tracey - DEATH’S SWEET EMBRACE is the second Dark Brethren novel. It continues on from the first with a new protagonist -- Kathryn “Kitt” Jordan, a parahuman medical examiner and a snow leopard shifter (an Animalian). She has just lost her brother, the only family she’s had in the last 20 years, to a psychopathic killer and had her world turned completely upside down.
Now a sadistic killer is murdering young Animalians but cutting out their still betting hearts while they are alive. Kitt must join forces with a team lead by her brother’s closest friend to help solve this mystery. Problem is, her ex lover who she hasn’t seen for many years is also part of this team.
We also get to follow some of the characters from the first book, especially Oberon and Antoinette and are introduced to some new ones as well.
There is a glossary of terms on my website to explain some of the terms I use.
Amber - Now I haven't read the first book, Night's Cold Kiss, but didn't have a problem keeping up with Death's Sweet Embrace. Did you want the books in the series able to stand alone? Will readers need to read the books in order?
Tracey – I describe them as being like a TV series that follows a key group of people. Each story is a standalone story with the main character focus changing from book to book, but there will also be a overall thread that will be apparent in the books too.
Amber - How did you come up with the idea for the Dark Brethren series? Was it a long process or did it just come to you?
Tracey – First there was Antoinette, then Night’s Cold Kiss, and then half way through writing that book, the idea of the Dark Brethren came as a big bad that manipulates events from afar. This started to make things fall into place, and while I did not completely understand what the Dark Brethren were, I knew they were there. As I write each book, I am discovering more about them and what drives them.
Amber - What kind of research have you done for your books? Anything interesting or is the research boring?
Tracey – I researched forensic pathology stuff, particularly autopsies. Since I live in Australia and I set my books in an alternate version or the US, I try to make that city as realistic as I can. And even though I make up my own lore, I at least research traditional lore on vampire, shapeshifters etc so I can engage readers in the familiar as well.
Amber - How do you pick the names for your characters? Do they have any special meanings or are they completely random?
Tracey – Well Antoinette was called Antoinette because her mother was French and her father Romanian. Petrescu is a Romanian name. Christian was always Christian. Oberon was called Oberon because Oberon means bear. Kitt was always going to be Kathryn Jordan, even before I picked her species. And Raven Matokwe just came to me, it sounded real cool and heaps mysterious.
Amber - Did you always wanted to be an author? Why did you pick the Paranormal Urban Fantasy genre?
Tracey – Actually no. I only started writing about 7 years ago. And paranormal urban fantasy found me. I have always liked horror, fantasy and sci-fi. It was the story that came first, then I worked out what genre it was.
Amber - I am sure that being an author has its ups and downs. What experiences have you had so far?
Tracey – One thing that found out is how totally different it is to what I expected it to be. I love having my books out there and being enjoyed by people, but it also opens it up for me and my writing to be ridiculed and dismissed. Working full time and trying to balance everything has also been a challenge. But having someone come up and say how much they really enjoyed my story is a pretty awesome feeling.
Amber - Alot of authors have 'soundtracks' for their books. Is there any music influenced your books?
Tracey – I listen to metal, heavy rock, pagan rock and some classical. It depend on what scene I am working on and the mood I am after.
Amber - Will there be more books in the series? Which other characters do you see telling their story?
Tracey – The next book is about Bianca Sin – the white witch. I like to see each of the characters have their own book – but I would want to do it only if I can come up with a good story for them.
Amber - What books do you enjoy reading? Do you have any favourite authors/series?
Tracey – I love reading. Unfortunately the last couple of years I have not had time to read as much as I want. I read a little urban fantasy. Vicki Pettersson is one of my favourites. But I also love George RR Martin, Raymond E Feist, Stephen King and Anne McCaffrey.
Amber - Have to say that I totally loved the were snow leopard ;) But if you could be any paranormal creature, what would you be and why?
Tracey – I think I would like to be a witch. I would love the power.
Amber - Thanks for being a guest! I hope you will pop by again some other time!
Tracey – It was my pleasure and I would love to.
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Contest Time
The lucky winner of this giveaway will get a signed copy of Death's Sweet Embrace!
How To Enter
Just answer the question!
What is high on your To Be Read Pile?
No answer = No Entry
Earn more entries for each link you place about this contest on the net. You can post on Facebook, Twitter & MySpace but make sure you add links here for me to confirm your entries! However please do not make individual postings for each entry. Please post all your entries in one post.
Advertise Amberkatze's Book Blog on your site and get an extra entry for this and every other contest!
You can also earn extra entries by emailing your friends about the contest. Just make sure you send a copy of your email or receipt to me at Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot net.
Make sure you post your links here so I can confirm your entries.
Keep the contests going by using the Bookdepository.com and Amazon.com links/Banners below and around the site!
The contest will stay open until Sunday 13th of February 2011 4pm CET and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.
After centuries of secret conflict, humans and parahumans have reached an uneasy truce. But unspeakable evil now threatens the tenuous peace.
Teenaged shapeshifters are being slaughtered by a sadistic serial killer who rips their still-beating hearts from their paralyzed bodies. A task force forms to halt the madness, including the vampiric Aeternus Antoinette Petrescu, as well as Kitt Jordan and Raven Matokwe, members of enemy Animalian tribes . . . and forbidden lovers.
A centuries-old blood feud has divided their shapeshifting peoples, and if their passion is discovered it will doom them both. But past hostilities must be put aside, for the killer they seek is but the first sign of the all-consuming nightmare of The Dark Brethren.
My Review -
I wasn't sure I really wanted to read this one. For some reason the cover was putting me off while the blurb was egging me on. In the end I decided to take a chance on this book and see if it was as good as it sounded and better than it looked. To sum things up - It was worth it.
Due for release in January this is the second Dark Brethren novel and comes after Night's Cold Kiss. This is something I didn't realise when I started reading Death's Sweet Embrace. It was only when I was feeling a little confused about the technical workings of the paranormal elements involved within the story that it suddenly became clear to me that this wasn't the first in the series as I had presumed. In the end this didn't really bother me that much because I also found out that the first book was from another characters perspective. It seems the first book was all about Antoinette and this one centered on Kitt.
Which was fine with me because Kitt is, wait for it, a Snow Leopard! Or at least a were snow-leopard which made this book an instant hit for me. I love were-cats but a snow leopard is just amazing. I have no doubt that this fact alone will have me praising this book. However on the other hand there isn't much to moan about when it comes to this book because on a whole this was a good read. A little too fast and furious sometimes but I managed to keep up and I enjoyed what I read. This had a Jeannie Frost feel to it but also had a taste of J.R. Ward.
Death's Sweet Embrace is certainly how a good Urban Paranormal Fantasy should read and I am glad I took the time to check it out. Tracey O'Hara has devised an interesting new look on things and has made it extremely colourful and exciting. I will definitely be checking out the first book in the series to add the the missing pieces to the puzzle and look forward to any more parts in the series.
