Showing posts with label Marie Force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marie Force. Show all posts

Friday, August 10, 2012

Best Blog Post Ever


In one week Ravishing Romances went from completely on time to totally behind.  Some serious stuff happened and family takes priority.  (Me and my immediates are all great and in good health.)  

To keep the blog active, let's pretend this is the best blog post ever and give stuff away!

Ravishing Romances has featured contemporary romances lately - continuing the trend: comment below (leave your email so I can contact you), follow my blog (links to your left) and enter to win:

Amber Lin's Giving It Up
(If you win this, you can email your receipt to Amber and receive free Giving It Up shower soap.  Rawr.)

Gina L. Maxwell's Seducing Cinderella

Jessica Scott's Because of You

-OR-

Marquita Valentine's Twice Tempted

There will be three winners, each winning one novel a piece.  eBooks will be sent via Amazon.

Contest ends Monday, August 13.


What's Taking so Long?


I have approximately 16 novels on my To-Be-Reviewed list.  I could technically post a review every other day and knock them out quickly.  But I won't.

Authors put their blood, sweat and tears into their novels and I refuse to give them anything less in return.

I don't skim. I don't speed read. I don't rush through a point just to throw up a post and move on.  

Writing a review is a very involved process.  Most books are given to me by the author and my reviews are discussed with them prior to any posting.  If I dislike their novel they usually wish to know why and we discuss it in great detail.  Before I criticize a section I double-check my facts.  If I find typos, I'm usually typing a 30 minute email showing them where the typos are.

To upload a post takes even more time.  The review is filled with links to their social media sites, book selling sites and previous interviews.  

It is a great compliment to receive any book for review and it will be treated as such.

If I have to review these novels 6 months after their published date - I'll do it if that's what is required to get the review right.  Ideal? No.  But I will not disrespect these talented people with giving them half of my attention or efforts.  

I recently received this Facebook post from an author, "This is a TERRIFIC review.  Wow.  Nailed it.  Thank you."

Time it took me to write his review?  3-4 hours (not including reading).

Time it took him to write his novel?  Probably months.

It's the least I can do.

Comment and Follow to win everyone!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Upcoming Interview: Marie Force on McCarthys of Gansett Island Series

McCarthys of Gansett Island Series rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Marie Force is interviewing here tomorrow
She's answering reader questions & giving away her entire series

How are the sex scenes?
Plentiful, surprising and trickled throughout. They get hotter as the series continues.

How are the story lines?
Entertaining and fulfilling enough to make you forget you're reading a romance novel.
Until someone takes their clothes off.
Then you're glad you're reading a romance novel.

Would you read it again?
I've read them all twice. I've read some thrice.

Novels (click for excerpts)

Maid for Love (currently FREE on Amazon and other sites);
Fool for Love;
Ready for Love;
Falling for Love;
Hoping for Love;
Season for Love (read Sallie's review); and
Longing for Love (Coming late summer/early fall 2012).


Fans are fascinated with Marie Force, her endearing female characters, and the entire lickable McCarthy (and others) male cast. 

Marie is a self published author with a Harlequin Fatal Series on the side.  She has described her entire writing career as "the house that Jack built" because Jack is the main character of her first novel that lead to the Treading Water Trilogy.

Hello Jack, Clare....Reid.
The McCarthys of Gansett Island is a soon-to-be seven book series that has everyone emailing Marie, "When is it that next book out again?"

These addictive stories follow the McCarthys and friends through unexpected parenthood, broken engagements, first times and loving another while carrying someone else's baby.

Many series become as unbelieving as daytime soap operas, but Marie's well paced, practical writing keeps reality - and plot development - in check.
Marie's writing also improves throughout the series and - wait for it - so do the sex scenes.  Season for Love has more sex than any book prior and Hoping for Love is quite surprising for a woman who writes intimate encounters "like no one is ever going to read it."

Well, we read it Marie...and it rocks.

In her last novel, Season for Love, Marie brought her A game and...whew.

Marie has graduated from the school of Self-Published to Self-Published-and-Self-Employed-because-I'm-Awesome.  

Join us tomorrow (read the interview) and find out why fans (me included) will continue to follow the McCarthys of Gansett Island series and consistently buy anything Marie Force writes.



Thursday, July 19, 2012

Romance Novel Humor


I spend a lot of time with romance novels.  A lot.  They're entertaining, written by smarter-than-average women (mostly women) and can be amusing as hell.

Here's just a few:


"Giving It Up" by Amber Lin
Word Search 
fuck - 163
knew - 140
take - 132


"Season for Love" by Marie Force
Quote:  "It makes me hot when you're bossy.  Like last night when you told me to fuck you harder.  So hot."


"About Last Night" by Ruthie Knox
The hero's name is Neville.


"Sampson's Lovely Mortal" by Tina Folsom

Tweets 

Samson's Lovely Mortal (Scanguards Vampires #1) is now available on !!! Listen to the sample on  - 
There's a whole new meaning to, "How bad could things get if there was a gay couple in the room?" when it's narrated by a dude.





Have any other funnies about your romance novels?  Please share!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Book Update: "Longing for Love" of McCarthy's Gansett Island Series (by Marie Force)

Marie Force 
August 1
She's answering your questions; giving away her books!

Longing for Love

"Longing for Love" is book 7 of


Ask and you shall receive, internet searchers. Apparently everyone wants to know when Marie's Longing for Love will be released.

Unfortunately no one knows yet - not even Marie, but I can tell you what we do know:
  • Marie hopes to have Longing released by late Summer/early Fall of 2012, as she wrote on her website;
  • Upcoming Release: Longing for Love
    McCarthys of Gansett Island, Book 7  
    For those of you excited for the next installment of the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series, I'm aiming for a late summer/early fall release of Longing for Love, featuring Tiffany and Blaine. I'm working on it now, so check back for updates or join my mailing list for launch day notices with an email to marie@marieforce.com.

  • On June 12 Marie posted the following Evan McCarthy and Grace Ryan update for Longing on her blog;
In Longing for Love, book 7, Evan and Grace from Hoping for Love will hit a bump when her parents come to the island for a surprise visit and discover that not only does their daughter have a boyfriend she never told them about, but he's living with her, too. Something tells me Evan is going to be rather hurt by the fact that she never bothered to tell her folks about him.
Since you all have been on best behavior this week (snort), I thought you deserved a tiny tidbit from LONGING FOR LOVE. This just made me giggle while doing a re-read, so I hope it amuses you, too. From Tiffany, after the first night she spends with Blaine, and she is convinced theirs is a summer fling that will burn itself out by Labor Day. She is thinking about how he's a man of few words...
Tiffany didn’t care if he ever said more than “spread your legs” to her.
Happy Tuesday!
  • You can read the (hilarious) beginning of Longing if you purchase Season for Love (Longing's preview is in the back);
  • When there is a cover, it will appear in the Gansett Island section of Marie's website and on Ravishing Romances; and
  • When there is an excerpt, it will also appear in the Gansett Island section of Marie's website and an update/link will be provided on Ravishing Romances.
I'll also continue to offer updates on this blog as I receive them from Marie's Facebook, blog, email and other sources.  So check back for details!

Click here for more Gansett Island

Monday, June 11, 2012

Season for Love (by Marie Force)


Season for Love rating:  5 out of 5 stars
Release Date:  June 5, 2012
The McCarthys of Gansett Island series rating:  5 out of 5 stars


Season for Love is book 6 in this series.  Though books 1 - 4 can be read as stand alone novels, Season for Love really should be read in order since it follows so many different characters.

How are the sex scenes?
Numerous, creative, varied and uncensored.
Everybody's doing it.  This book has more sex than any other in Force's Gansett Island series. 
That's a lot.

How are the story lines?
All 9 of them are great. 
Seriously. 
I counted 8 romance stories and a few non-romance ones.

Would you read it again?
More than the two times I have already?  Yes.


Summary

Season for Love by Marie Sullivan Force is a contemporary romance novel based in fictional Gansett Island, Rhode Island.  It's book 6 in Force's McCarthys of Gansett Island series and is featured as a Sallie's Series Recommendations here.  In Season for Love Owen Lawry, a traveling musician who lives in his van, and Laura McCarthy, a pregnant, soon-to-be divorced newlywed, finally explore the crackle, sizzle and pop that has sparked between them since book 4, Falling for Love

Season opens with Owen watching the Gansett Island ferry leave for the mainland - without him on it.  He's decided to pass on his autumn gig and stay on Gansett to help Laura with the renovation of the Sand & Surf Hotel.  Despite his no-strings lifestyle, he's determined to give them a try and Laura decides to give him the chance.  There are a few struggles and revelations, but in the end they have to choose whether "they" are worth fighting for.

Season also checks in with Gansett's previous couples and introduces new characters:
  1. Blaine and Tiffany are hot as ever and set up beautifully for their book Longing for Love, the next in this series;
  2. Mac and Maddie are enjoying new baby Hailey and waiting for the infamous "6 weeks" to end;
  3. Janey and Joe are living happily ever after and have to deal with a surprise of their own;
  4. Luke and Sydney are inching slowly towards Sydney's recovery and the next steps in their relationship;
  5. Grant and Stephanie continue to argue about the screenplay and have relationship troubles;
  6. Evan and Grace are going strong while Evan suffers through his career set back;
  7. Seamus is running the Gansett Island ferry business and charming the lasses; and
  8. We catch up with Dan Torrington, meet Jenny Wilks and more.

Review

Having read the entire Gansett Island series, I am thrilled to see Owen and Laura resolve their purgatory relationship status.  Season doesn't add an entire book's length to their story, but it does explain Owen's nomadic lifestyle and address Laura and her low-life, scumbag, idiotic, moron of a husband's marriage.  (For those who haven't read the previous books do so now and experience full shock value when learning why Laura and he-who-should-be-an-eunuch need a divorce.)  Though their book is shared with other couples, I feel like we get a complete glimpse of their relationship's turning point.  The Epilogue was especially satisfying.

As always, Force's writing is wonderfully entertaining.  Her Season plots have you making a mad dash to your computer to post, "Did you read that??" on her Facebook page.   I appreciate how the characters always stay in character.  The Mac you knew from the first book is the same Mac you know now with slight variations due to his life experiences.  Force hasn't taken the easy way out and written cheesy dialogue just to move the story along.  (Well, there's Seamus, but his lines are so in character.)  I very much appreciate the way Force introduced Laura and Owen a few books before they were featured.  When telling this many stories in one novel it's vital the readers still feel connected to the characters.  This happens in Season because we met the hero and heroine so far in advance.

This book is h-o-t.  If people aren't having sex they're talking about it, thinking about it or running like hell to avoid it.  Season is definitely not for those who think romance should happen behind closed doors. 

Season  for Love is great novel and allows readers to follow all their favorite characters. 

Marie Sullivan Force hits a home run with Season for Love and her entire Gansett Island series. 



Comment About It

Do you like a series that only mentions characters from previous novels or a series that continues their story?  Or does it matter as long as the stories are good?



Learn more about Marie Sullivan Force and her upcoming titles on her webpage:

http://www.mariesullivanforce.com/index.php

Click her Facebook link to like her page and have access to all the Gansett Island books reader groups.  If you haven't met Marie's Facebook fans you are missing out.

Read the McCarthys of Gansett Island series:

Maid for Love;
Fool for Love;
Ready for Love;
Falling for Love;
Hoping for Love;
Season for Love; and
Longing for Love (Coming Soon!  Marie expects to release it late Summer/early Fall of 2012.  When she has more information I will post it on Ravishing Romances).

Disclaimer: No compensation was received for this review.  Book purchased by Musing Sallie.