Fool for Books Giveaway Hop

Fool for Books
Welcome to my stop for the Fool for Books Giveaway Hop, hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer.

The winner has a choice between a pre-ordered paperback copy of Cress or The Winner's Curse
(click on the covers to see my reviews) from the Book Depository:

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3) The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy, #1)

Thanks for stopping by and good luck!


Due to shipping costs, this giveaway is only open to entrants that the Book Depository can ship to. Please note that you must be at least 13 years old to enter. Please ensure that you correctly enter your email (and check your junk mail folder if I'm not on your contact list) so that I have a way to contact you. You can read my giveaway policy on my policies page. Void where prohibited by law. Enter via the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the other stops!

Blogger vs. IntenseDebate vs. Disqus: What commenting platform do you use?

Go to IntenseDebate  


Who do you use for your commenting platform on your blog? Do you like them? Do you have issues?

How about as a follower who leaves comments on blogs...Do you have a preference of one commenting platform over another?

I started off with just using Blogger. It is super easy for followers to use, but it doesn't let me contact them (unless they leave that info) and they don't see my replies unless they come back and check each post they left a comment on. Who has time to do that??? This frustrates me to no end since I want to be able to communicate with followers and sometimes I actually needed to contact someone and couldn't find a way to do so. I also really hate the whole captcha thing. I don't like having to do it when I leave a comment either, but you can get a ton of spam if you don't.

In April of last year I switched to Disqus. Let me just tell you, I LOVED using them! Using that platform was so easy for me and it was great how well I could keep track of comments. I also loved that it took care of spam for me. There was no captcha. Yay! I could also contact who I needed to and find their blogs super easily. There was one BIG drawback though. Internet Explorer users couldn't use Disqus unless they changed their settings and then sometimes they couldn't see it at all. Obviously this defeats the purpose of using a commenting platform. I just didn't find anything that I really liked better and I didn't really want to go back to using Blogger's system, so I stuck with them for a while and kept my ears and eyes open for a different commenting system.

Let me just input here...Why is a commenting platform that is simple and easy to use for bloggers and followers alike so difficult to have on Blogger??? I mean the follower doesn't need a ton of options, only a few things, like a field for their name, their website (if they have one) and their email. Wordpress seems to have unlimited options in this regard. Anyway, moving on...

Then in late January of this year I ran across IntenseDebate and had a discussion with a blogger I follow who was going to be switching from Disqus and was thinking about going to IntenseDebate. She had the same issues with Disqus that I had. Such a bummer! I made the switch and was happy that it seemed to work and not cause the same issues Disqus did. That happiness was short lived though. In the first month I started seeing some issues where Intense Debate just wouldn't load at all. I even re-installed it a few times, sometimes deleting old comments, but it still continued to have issues. I did this again last night and then checked my posts this morning that were scheduled. None of them loaded with IntenseDebate. Ugh!

I decided that IntenseDebate just wasn't going to work for me. The bummer is that I'll lose a lot of comments when I switch, but switching now is better than later, right? I decided I'd go check out Disqus again to see if anything had changed and guess what? Lo and behold Disqus now has some coding you can change so that IE users shouldn't have any issues. *happy dance* I already loved using them before and I seriously am so happy that they fixed the issue (hopefully it really is fixed).

So, this morning I switched back to Disqus. Phew! The nice thing with Disqus is that even if I switch to Wordpress or a self-hosted site later, Disqus can just come with me. The journey to find a commenting platform that I liked and worked for everyone was kind of exhausting and frustrating. I have missed using Disqus and am happy to be using them again! I'm crossing my fingers that I won't have to deal with issues and changing what I use again!

For those of you that have been debating on switching, I hope I gave you some things to think about. If I had realized that IntenseDebate was going to be so touch and go I would have never switched. I hope that I've maybe saved you some frustration. :)

What do you think? Do you have a preference? Is the newer version of Disqus working for you (especially if you use Internet Explorer)?



Book Blast: Fortune Cookie by Josi S. Kilpack

Fortune CookieFortune Cookie
(A Culinary Mystery #11)
by Josi S. Kilpack
Adult LDS Suspsense
March 4th 2014 by Shadow Mountain

Summary

Sadie Hoffmiller has always liked things to be just so. A place for everything and everything in its place. Order over chaos. And of all things Sadie should be able to control, her own wedding is at the top of the list. With the big day just three weeks away, Sadie is busily adding the final touches to her wedding plans but the arrival of a mysterious letter from San Francisco changes everything. The only person Sadie knows in San Francisco is her older sister, Wendy, whom she hasn’t seen since their mother’s funeral nearly fifteen years ago. Sadie has faced off against murderers and criminals in recent years, yet the possibility of reconnecting with her sister is both overwhelming and frightening. Sadie soon discovers, however, that the letter is just the beginning when Wendy’s world turns out to be a place of unanswered questions, twisted truths, and more than one person with a motive for murder. The more Sadie digs into her sister’s past, the more she places her own future at risk.

    
Culinary Mysteries


Fortune Cookie Tour

About the Author

JosiJosi S. Kilpack hated to read until her mother handed her a copy of The Witch of Blackbird Pond when she was 13. From that day forward, she read everything she could get her hands on and accredits her writing “education” to the many novels she has “studied” since then. She began writing her first novel in 1998 and never stopped. Her novel, Sheep’s Clothing won the Whitney Award 2007 for Mystery/Suspense. Lemon Tart, the first book in the Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery series was a finalist in 2009. Josi currently lives in Willard Utah with her husband, children and super-cute cat.

book blast button

Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 4/30/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Rock Star Tour Launch for What Goes on Tour by Claire Boston

A themed tour with Prism Book Tours...

It's time to launch The Rock Star Tour for
What Goes on Tour
By Claire Boston


What Goes on Tour
What Goes on Tour
by Claire Boston
Adult Contemporary Romance
Ebook, 282 pages
February 11th 2014 by Momentum Moonlight


What goes on tour, stays on tour … or does it?

Few people know that socially awkward Adrian Hart is actually rock god Kent Downer, and that's the way Adrian likes it. His privacy is essential, especially now that he has guardianship of his orphaned, ten-year-old niece, Kate. But when the nanny quits in the middle of his tour Adrian finds himself in a bind.

Until Libby Myles walks into his life.

Libby has only ever wanted to become a full-time author and prove to her parents that she can make it on her own. On the surface, the temporary job as the nanny for Kent Downer's niece looks perfect—the pay is fabulous, the hours are short and Kate is a big fan—it's the rock star that's the issue.

Arrogant and way too attractive for anyone's good, Kent Downer has enough swagger to power a small city. But when he's out of costume he's different—shy and uncertain. For Libby it's a far harder combination to resist. She needs to find a balance between work, writing and ignoring her attraction to the rock star, because if she falls for him, it could mean the end of her dream.

But when a horrible scandal is unleashed—putting young Kate in danger—there's more heat between Libby and Adrian than just sexual attraction. Libby must figure out if Adrian ever cared for her, or if it was all just part of the show …

   
 


Here's some background on What Goes on Tour and the author:

What Goes on Tour is single title novel and the idea hooked me right from the beginning. I liked the thought of writing about a rock star who wasn’t like the normal party hard singer with a full entourage that you see in many novels and TV shows these days. 

I’d love it if readers enjoyed the novel and maybe took with them that people are often different from their public persona.

One of my favourite scenes is probably the dancing game scene because I had a lot of fun writing it.


Something unique about me… I’ve recently taken up vintage motocross and I’m the passenger on a sidecar. I’ve attached a photo because people often think that a sidecar passenger just sits on the side but it’s a lot more work than that!

- Claire


Claire Boston was a voracious reader as a child, devouring anything by Enid Blyton as well as series such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, The Baby-sitters Club and Sweet Valley High. Then one school holidays when she’d run out of books to read her mother handed her ‘Hot Ice’ by Nora Roberts and Claire instantly fell in love with romance novels.

The love of reading soon turned to a love of writing and she struggled to keep within the 1500 word limit set by her teachers for her creative writing assignments. When she finally decided to become serious about her stories she joined Romance Writers of Australia, found her wonderful critique group and hasn’t looked back.

When Claire’s not reading or writing she can be found in the garden attempting to grow vegetables, or racing around a vintage motocross track. If she can convince anyone to play with her, she also enjoys cards and board games.

Claire lives in Western Australia, just south of Perth with her husband, who loves even her most annoying quirks, and her two grubby, but adorable Australian bulldogs.



Tour-Wide Giveaways
March 31 - April 20

$50 GC & ebook of What Goes on Tour

a Rafflecopter giveaway

10 ebooks of What Goes on Tour


Prism Book Tours
Are you a blogger and want to receive information about new tours? Go HERE.
Are you an author or publisher and would like to have us organize a tour event? Go HERE.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten "Gateway" Books/Authors In My Reading Journey

I'm participating in Top Ten Tuesday today, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Here's today's topic: 
Top Ten "Gateway" Books/Authors In My Reading Journey

I thought this was kind of a fun topic to discuss, so I thought I'd join TTT today.
Here are my books (in no particular order):


1. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomerey. This was one of the first books I read on my own when I was young and loved. I read all the books in the series and watched the movies multiple times. It was my first introduction to romance.

2. The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter. This book opened up so many new possibilities for me. I got completely absorbed in it when I read it and it started me off on a reading binge for some of the classics, such as Robin Hood, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, etc. It also was my first tragedy.

3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. If you can believe it, I didn't read P&P until I was married. I had read a bunch of other books and many classics, including Jane Eyre, but somehow missed this one. This was my go-to book during my husband's first year of law school. :)

4. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I just LOVE this book! I remember going with my dad on a date when I was a pre-teen to the book store and this was the book I chose. It was the first Dickens I read and it was a great one to start with! This book started me off on wanting to read more of his works, but also more books from his era and more classics all around. I need to re-read it.

5. A Bride in the Bargain by Deeanne Gist. Another favorite. This was the first Christian Romance I read. I've been addicted to the genre ever since. I don't know how long I would have continued to not read these types of books if it wasn't for A Bride in the Bargain.

6. Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart. This was the first suspense I had read in ages, such as in since childhood, when I picked this up from the library a couple of years ago. It got me started into wanting to read more suspense.

7. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. Shocking, I know. Is there anyone left who hasn't read this series? I have always read a lot, but during college I didn't read all that much for pure enjoyment for obvious reasons. Then I got married and still didn't pick it back up. I had a bunch of friends and bloggers I followed who all loved Twilight and I finally decided to give in and see what all the buzz was about. I picked this up during my husband's third year of law school, I think. It kick-started my reading in a big way. I began mostly reading YA and reading as much as I could, including re-reading this series four times. Let me tell you, I needed something to relax to at night when my three little ones were finally in bed and my husband wouldn't be home until late every night. We kind of joke around that I was a single mom for four years during law school. I mostly was. He basically slept at our house and we saw him on Sundays. Books are such life-savers!

8. What the Doctor Ordered by Sierra St. James. This got me into reading LDS Romance. It's cute, funny, heartbreaking, romantic, and just good. You might know the author better as Janette Rallison or C.J. Hill.

9. Austenland by Shannon Hale. This was one of the first Adult titles I read. It showed me that there were authors that wrote clean Adult Romance. It also totally cracked me up. It's probably one of the reasons I continue to read books from that genre once in a while. I'm always looking for another clean and fun chick-lit.

10. These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. Most of this book is written through letters, or Epistolary in nature. It's the first book that I read written that way. It's another Adult book that let me know there was more out there in that genre for me to enjoy.

What books have been a part of your journey?



Weekly Update #57


Welcome to my Weekly Update where I post my blog's schedule for the week. I'm linking up to The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I'm planning on continuing to get a lot of reading done this week. I only have two more weeks to finish reading for the Whitney Awards and several books to still read. Here's what to look forward to this week:

We're launching The Rock Star Tour for What Goes on Tour by Claire Boston! I'll also be participating in a blast for The Fortune Cookie by Josi S. Kilpak.
What Goes on Tour Fortune Cookie (A Culinary Mystery, #11)

We're celebrating Harlequin Heartwarming's release of Eva's Deadline by Linda Hope Lee with a Blitz! Woop!! I'm also joining the Fool For Books Giveaway Hop. Come see what I'll be giving away!
Eva's Deadline Fool for Books

I'll be participating in Waiting on Wednesday. Come check out what I can't wait to read! You can see what I picked last week here. I'll also be reviewing Silver Linings by Kaylee Baldwin as part of A Ripple Effect Romance tour.
Silver Linings (The Ripple Effect Romance Novella Series, #2)

I'll be participating in the blog tour for BLuminexcence by Braden Bell. My son and I just love this series!
Luminescence (Book 3 of Middle School Magic series)

Friday Favorites will, of course, be up again. I'm planning on sharing a favorite, so come on by to find out what. You can see last week's Friday Favorites pick here.

I'll be participating in Stacking the Shelves, if I have books to share. You can see what I added last week here. I'll also be reviewing Jenny Oaks Baker's new album titled the Classic: The Rock Album. She is very talented and I can't wait to see how her covers of these songs sound!
Jenny_oaks_baker_classic_rock_album

I'll be participating in a blog tour for What Goes on Tour by Claire Boston with a review.
What Goes on Tour

My Monthly Giveaway for March has one more day! What can you win? A hardcover of These Broken Stars. If you haven't entered yet, you can do so HERE. A new monthly giveaway will be up on Tuesday for April. I can't believe it's going to be April already!
These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1)


Did you miss any of these posts from last week?


What do you have going on this week?