FREE/BARGAIN - Romance + Discussion - 2016

[library addict]

Day 11 of Harlequin's 25 Days of Christmas

No books, it's a downloadable paper doll.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by library addict

Day 11 of Harlequin's 25 Days of Christmas

No books, it's a downloadable paper doll.

OMG Can they get any more lame than this? The calendar was pretty bad but this...... it's.....what do they think we are 5 year olds!?!

Sent from my XT1528

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by library addict

Day 11 of Harlequin's 25 Days of Christmas

No books, it's a downloadable paper doll.

They give away enough books with the my rewards coupons. I doubt there'll be any in the 25 days of christmas thing.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by PurpleStar

They give away enough books with the my rewards coupons. I doubt there'll be any in the 25 days of christmas thing.

They had one basically 50% off sale already (the buy one, get one/buy two, get two, etc on Friday). Usually there are just two big sales during the event. But I think 25 days is a stretch. Maybe they should just do 12 days of Christmas

[library addict]

Weekly Report:

Read:

• Island of Glass (The Guardians Trilogy #3) by Nora Roberts (B-/3 stars)
• All I Have (expanded Superromance version/Farmers' Market #1.1) by Nicole Helm (A-/5 stars)

I've decided to spend the rest of the month rereading, particularly some of the Harlequins I bought back during the big 5¢ sale. I purchased the Lovelace novella even though (a) it's not one of my favorites and (b) I already own the anthology in digital. Not sure where my brain was.

Purchased:

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by library addict

All I Have (expanded Superromance version/Farmers' Market #1.1) by Nicole Helm (A-/5 stars)

I really liked this series by Nicole Helm.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by copyrite

I really liked this series by Nicole Helm.

I read the original Harlequin e version back in 2014. One of my reading goals for next year is to catch up on Helm's books. I am woefully behind.

[Terisa de morgan]

My weekly report:

• Purchased
  
• Read
  

[Blossom]

I'm reading Stray by Rachel Vincent. Still reading Potent Pleasure by Eloisa James.

I haven't bought anything that I remember. I can't download my Google Play Books I bought last week. My library refuses to load.

Sent from my XT1528

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by library addict

Read:
Island of Glass (The Guardians Trilogy #3) by Nora Roberts (B-/3 stars)

How did you like this trilogy over all? I've been holding off on it until all three books were out so haven't read it yet. Some of her more recent trilogies have been just "okay" for me, but not great.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

How did you like this trilogy over all? I've been holding off on it until all three books were out so haven't read it yet. Some of her more recent trilogies have been just "okay" for me, but not great.

The plot felt recycled from her earlier trilogies, but then again there's only so many variations on a quest to defeat evil you can make.

The first one started slow, but I ended up getting sucked into the story and really enjoyed the romance and setting (Corfu). Like many first in trilogy books, the romance suffers from lack of page time as that's spent introducing the many characters, But the h/h of that book ended up being my favorites which is rather unusual for her trilogies. Usually I like the second or third book best.

The second book, I can see why the heroine could get on people's nerves, but I thought she was funny, kind, and earnest. The way she spoke was mostly used for humor, but came across as artificial at times (mixing up her vocabulary and such).

The third book featured my least favorite characters. Plus it suffered from having to wrap up the various storylines. There were parts I enjoyed, but mostly it was a straight point A to point B plot without surprises. It also suffers the most from earlier trilogies fatigue as it's set in Ireland and she's written better stories set there.

For all three books, too much page time was spent describing food and there were entirely too many cutesy pop culture references.

Having said all that, I do think the trilogy is worth reading. It's just not up to the same level of the stuff she wrote earlier in her career. So more in the "okay" range as you said.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by PurpleStar

They give away enough books with the my rewards coupons. I doubt there'll be any in the 25 days of christmas thing.

That's still no excuse for giving away completely lame stuff. At least make it wallpapers or screensavers, or exclusive snapchat filters or something.

[AnemicOak]

I wouldn't mind seeing them package up some of their previous "online reads" into an eBook anthology and offer that as a free download (kind of like Tor.com and Baen have done).

I've done it myself on the rare occasion they've had an online read from an author who's series I read (like Cop Next Door by Julie Miller) so I could read it as a "book" instead of bunch of text on a website.

I offered to get the paper doll for my niece and she thought that sounded like a dumb thing she'd never want to do.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I wouldn't mind seeing them package up some of their previous "online reads" into an eBook anthology and offer that as a free download (kind of like Tor.com and Baen have done).

I've done it myself on the rare occasion they've had an online read from an author who's series I read (like Cop Next Door by Julie Miller) so I could read it as a "book" instead of bunch of text on a website.

And they used to do this. There's been a couple of collections of their website shorts from years back. A Valentine for Harlequin's 60th Anniversary and A Taste of Romance as some examples.

I took some of the ones by Julie Miller, Merline Lovelace, Lori Borrill, Karen Templeton, etc and ones connected to their multi-author series like Romancing the Crown and Athena Force and made my own. But unless you catch them as they go up it can be hard to track down all the parts years later. I admit I don't often look for them anymore since they did their website overhaul.

ETA: Okay I went and downloaded it just to see and you get two cartoon looking guys (one blond, one with dark hair) and various outfits (not all are safe for work so to speak). The strange think is the guys each only have one arm. It's been a long time since I've seen a paper doll, but don't they usually have both arms?

[ScalyFreak]

Maybe you are supposed to print two copies of the one arm, and flip one of the copies?