Archive for the ‘giveaways’ Category

£50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

£50 Amazon Gift CardHey guys! As you may have seen on my Facebook page a few days ago, there’s no Showcase Sunday post for me this week. By the time you read this post, I’ll be on my way to London (and the London Book Fair) along with Celine, Ellie, Faye and Katie and will probably do a big “London book haul” post next Sunday.

What I have for you instead, however, is an ENORMOUS giveaway sponsored by a UK based company called Appliances Online. So what’s up for grabs, you ask? Appliances Online are giving away a £50 Amazon gift card (or the US equivalent of £50 if the lucky winner happens to live in America)!

The rules:

- Open to USA/Canada and UK residents, since the book voucher will be sent through Amazon UK or US
- There will be one winner, who will be contacted by e-mail
- The winner has 48 hours to get back to me. If s/he fails to do so, I will pick another winner
- And that’s it! Just fill in the Rafflecopter form below and you’re good to go. Good luck and talk to you soon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Magnificently Magic Read-A-Thon: Mini Challenge and Giveaway

Hi guys! It’s day two of the Magnificently Magic Read-a-thon and I hope you’re all having a great time (and getting some reading done in the meantime). As promised, I’m hosting the second challenge of the read-a-thon – and I’ve some goodies to give away as well! So, what is today’s task, you ask? Today we’re challenging you to create a book spine poem!

Book spine poems are recurring items of bookish read-a-thons so most of you must be familiar with how they work. For those of you who are not, here’s an example (which I absolutely love, by the way) from Blue Rose Girls:

poems

The prizes

I’m giving away 5 e-copies of Sarah Baethage’s short story, Right Now, a bundle of swag and a book of choice from The Book Depository up to the value of $10 US. (£7) All you have to do is fill in the Rafflecopter form below – the winners will be picked next week and notified via email. Best of luck to everyone and I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with :) Open internationally!

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Between Boyfriends Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway

Hello everyone! Today I have the pleasure of taking part in author Sarka Miller’s Between Boyfriends blog tour. Sarka stopped by Books, Biscuits, and Tea with a special guest post and giveaway. I hope you’ll enjoy them!

Guest post

Chick Lit Cover Trends: What’s Wrong With Pink?

When I originally envisioned a cover for my chick lit novel, Between Boyfriends, I saw a detailed picture of my protagonist Jan and the two men in her life. On one side would be a small picture of San Diego State University’s Love Library where Jan’s ex-boyfriend Mike breaks her heart. On the other side was a picture of the fictional massage therapy school I invented. The background was sky blue. Yet when I went to design the cover for the ebook version, everything changed. Suddenly I wanted simple. I always admired Emily Giffin’s minimalist covers. Each cover has primarily one element and no background. I also decided I wanted pink. Cliché or no, I love pink and I really love pink and black together. I was still a bit nervous though until a friend criticize the cover as too pink. That’s when I knew I had struck gold.

Writers of women’s fiction often complain when their publishers choose a pink cover. Some of these writers have valid complaints. A few years ago, before chick lit was a “bad word,” publishers were assigning chick lit style covers to books written by women, whether they fit the genre or not. This is a disservice to everyone. But why would a chick lit writer complain about a pink cover? The colour certainly attracts attention and lets readers know that a light, fun story lies below the pink exterior. I decided to adopt the opposite attitude to these anti-pink crusaders. After all, resistance is futile. If pink works, then by George I was going to have the pinkest cover possible!

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Love Comes Later Blog Tour: Excerpt and Giveaway


Please enjoy this excerpt from Love Comes Later, a heart-breaking multicultural romance by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of Love Comes Later, and 5 copies of its companion, From Dunes to Dior.

Abdulla’s mind wasn’t on Fatima, or on his uncles or cousins. Not even when he drove through the wrought iron entry gate, oblivious to the sprawl of family cars parked haphazardly in the shared courtyard, did he give them a thought. Despite the holy season, his mind was still hard at work. Mentally, he clicked through a final checklist for tomorrow’s meetings. I can squeeze in a few more hours if Fatima is nauseous and sleeps in tomorrow, he thought, rubbing his chin. Instead of the stubble he had anticipated, his whiskers were turning soft. A trim was yet another thing he didn’t have time for these days, though longer beards were out of fashion according to his younger brother Saad, who had been trying to grow one for years. Beard length. Just another change to keep up with.

Change was all around him, Abdulla thought. The cousins getting older, he himself soon to become a father. Abdulla felt the rise of his country’s profile most immediately in the ballooning volume of requests by foreign governments for new trade agreements. By the day, it seemed, Qatar’s international status was growing, which meant more discussions, more meetings.

He slid the car into a gap in the growing shadow between his father’s and grandfather’s houses. It would have to serve as a parking space. The Range Rover door clicked shut behind him as he walked briskly toward his father’s house, BlackBerry in hand, scrolling through his messages. Only then did the sound of wailing reach him, women in pain or grief, emanating from his Uncle Ahmed’s house across the courtyard. He jerked the hands-free device out of his ear and quickened his pace, jogging not toward the majlis where the rest of the men were gathering, but into the main living area of Uncle Ahmed’s, straight toward those unearthly sounds.

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League of Strays Blog Tour – Excerpt and Giveaway

League of Strays

Hello and welcome back! Today I’m excited to be participating in a blog tour for L.B. Schulman’s new book, League of Strays. After yesterday’s review (which you can check out by clicking here, if you haven’t read it yet) I have an excerpt and a giveaway for you guys. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Excerpt

In this scene, Charlotte is asked to share her most humiliating moment, but her experience is mild, too ordinary to intrigue the League of Strays. So to keep their interest, Charlotte decides to embellish the truth….

“And?” Kade asked. “What happened?”

They all leaned forward like flowers bent to the sunlight. Kade’s almond-shaped eyes glided across our faces, taking it all in. I wondered what they would think if they knew the truth. I couldn’t admit this to the League of Strays. I had to come up with something recruitment-worthy. Enticed by the captivation in their faces, I invented a different ending. “I was confident and prepared when I went into the audition, but a few measures in, my tuning pages slipped. I asked if I could start over, but it kept happening.”

“I bet that was frustrating,” Kade said, anticipation glimmering beneath a sympathetic look.

“What happened to your viola?” Nora asked.

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Heven and Hell Series Blog Tour – Guest Post and Giveaway

Hello and welcome to my stop for the Heven and Hell Blog Tour! The tour is featuring the newest novel in the Heven and Hell series: Charade! Charade is currently traveling aroung the blogosphere with some really fun stuff! Look for special posts on: Dragons, witches and angels. There are interviews, short stories and recipes, and much more!

Today I’d like to introduce you to Cambria Hebert, author of Charade, who is joining us with a wonderful guest post. In addition, we’re also giving away a $10 Starbucks gift card and an e-book copy of Charade – how cool is that? :) So without further ado, please welcome Cambria Hebert!

Guest post
A.k.a Cambria on Tea, Coffee, and Cinnamon Rolls

So glad to be here everyone! *Yawns* Oh my! Excuse the yawning… I am dragging today! Oh wait, I have just the thing for that. Coffee!!!

As many of you know (and if you don’t you will now!) I am a HUGE coffee lover. Starbucks is my homeland. Yes, I just said that, LOL. There is almost nothing better than walking into a Starbucks and getting a whiff of that intense coffee aroma. It’s rich, it’s bold and it’s relaxing. Yes, I know its caffeine but coffee never seems to hype me up, it relaxes me. But, it does help put a little re-start into my day, especially when I am dragging.

So when Vicky and I were deciding what today’s tour stop on the Heven and Hell Tour: Charade would be I got inspired by coffee and the name of this blog! No, it doesn’t say coffee. But it does say books and tea! Two of my other favorite things!

Books, particularly, the Heven and Hell Series (had to throw that in there), go so well with a mug of coffee or tea. Coffee and tea also goes very well with writing. I do admit that while I love coffee, I drink much more hot tea. But let me tell ya, if I had a barista in my kitchen I would drink coffee more. LOL. No matter how many gadgets I buy or times I try my coffee never tastes as good as a latte from Starbucks.

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Farsighted Giveaway (International)

Hello everyone! :) I have some good news for you! I’m sure some of you might remember that I reviewed a book called Farsighted by Emlyn Chand some time last year and I loved it to bits. Not only was it one of my favourite books in 2011, but Farsighted was chosen as a finalist in the 2012 BookBundlz Book Club Pick contest this month, because they think it has potential to be a great selection for book clubs.

This could be huge for Emlyn, but she needs our help and this is where we readers come in. Farsighted is up against the other 4 finalists and needs your votes! Make sure to stop by the Book Bundlz Voting Page and cast your vote :)

In addition to this, we have a signed copy of Farsighted to give away to one lucky winner. The giveaway is open internationally! Good luck and please spread the word! (:

 


a Rafflecopter giveaway