Voodoo Bride's Author Love - Amber Scott (+ giveaway)

Amber Scott is an author I met online while stalking another one of our favourite authors. Amber had an interview up on her blog with that author and the interview was so entertaining I hung around after reading the interview and found out Amber's blog was a fun and friendly place to be.

As the stories that Amber had written sounded like they were of the contemporary romance kind and I'm not too fond of most contemporaries I didn't read them at first, but after lurking and commenting on her blog for awhile and discovering what a fun and cool person Amber is, I decided I should give one of her novellas a try. I picked The Best Revenge an erotic novella where the lead character decides to get back at her cheating boyfriend by seducing his best friend. And I was so glad I gave Amber's writing a try! The Best Revenge is a fun, sexy and hot read!

The next book I read was Play Fling another contemporary romance although with a bit of paranormal mixed into it. And I discovered that I actually really liked contemporary romance if it was written in the fun and delightful way Amber writes her stories.

But Amber doesn't stop at writing just contemporary romance.

Another great read is Love Lust, a wonderful erotic paranormal novella.

And Fierce Dawn, a paranormal romance filled with magical creatures, handsome (winged) men and suspense.

What I admire about Amber's writing is how she makes characters come alive and makes them likeable or despicable depending on their actions and view of the world, but above all she makes them believable and human (even the not so human characters).

So all in all Amber Scott is an author I admire both for her personality and for the amazing books and stories she writes.

And today I got the opportunity to actually share my love for Amber's writing with you all!

Amber is competing today in Menage A Blog with two other authors for getting the most people to support them.

What does this mean for you?

1 - Everyone who comments on this post gets a free ebook by Amber Scott
(your choice among Amber's indie titles)

2 - If you go over to Amber's blog and leave a comment to cheer her on at the Menage A Blog post which will be posted somewhere today (july 18th) you could even win a Kindle!

How awesome is that!

So go over to Amber's site and the Menage a Blog site and pick your side in this battle of the authors! (Amber is the best I can tell you ;-) and get a free ebook along the way!

Author Love - Anne Bishop

Years ago a friend of mine with a similar taste in fantasy books told me to try the Black Jewels Trilogy as she was sure I'd love it. Not being able to find it at my local bookstore and not yet buying online at that time I forgot about it though.

Then one day I came across an anthology called Imaginary Friends and in this anthology was the story 'Stands a God Within the Shadows' by Anne Bishop.

I fell in love with this story. The writing, the story itself, the emotion in it: everything about it was brilliant. So I just had to read more by this author.

I started out my search for more books by Anne Bishop at the local bookstore again. And what did I find: Anne Bishop was the author of the Black Jewels books my friend had mentioned to me years before.

As is usually the case my bookstore still didn't have the trilogy, but they did have one other Black Jewels book: Tangled Webs.

I took a chance and bought the book even though it wasn't the first book in the series.

And I'm very glad I did! Tangled Webs was just as beautiful a read as the short story in Imaginary Friends. There was one negative thing though: the characters were so cool, so intriguing that they overshadowed the story. All the while I kept getting sidetracked as I wanted to know more about them and their history. One thing was certain when I finished the book: I had to read more of this series!

My next read was The Shadow Queen, also a book further along in the series and I loved it, but my curiosity about the characters and their past kept on growing. So my search for the original trilogy was on and finally I found them combined in one large volume.

Absolutely brilliant!

The Black Jewels Trilogy was fantasy at its best: gritty, dark, but also filled with hope, love and friendship. An epic story with the most amazing characters I've come across in fantasy. And just as every other book I've read by Bishop it's written so beautifully it's a joy in itself to just lose yourself in the flow of the text.

When I finished the trilogy I got hold of all the other books in the Black Jewels series and devoured them so to speak. And since then I've been rereading them all on a regular basis.

But it seems my love for Bishop's writing is in danger!

There's a new Black Jewels book 'Twilight's Dawn' with short stories and it has fans of this series divided. Some love it, some hate it. I've been reading reviews that make me think it still could go either way for me, but I'm afraid to read the book I'll confess. The book only being available as hardcover at the moment is helping in me not yet picking it up as well.

So I think I'll wait for a while and first pick up one of Bishop's other books, like Sebastian or maybe I'll start the Tir Alainn Trilogy.

Whatever I will think of Twilight's Dawn though I will keep treasuring the book I've already read and keep rereading them again and again.

Author Love - Diana Wynne Jones

This weekend the sad news reached me that Diana Wynne Jones has died on 26th March, 2011.

I dedicate my second Author Love post to this amazing author who gave me many hours of reading pleasure with just one book, but that book is the most beautiful and cool children's book I ever read.

Somewhere in the eighties I came across this book: 'De Negen Levens' (the nine lives. Original English title = Charmed Life). I was drawn to it by the beautiful cover, then I started reading it and discovered the story was even better than the pictures.

It's about Cat Chant and his sister Gwendolen, orphaned as the result of a tragic boat accident and adopted by their relative, the mysterious sorcerer Chrestomanci. Cat begins to settle in at Chrestomanci Castle, but Gwendolen hates it. No one—least of all Chrestomanci—seems to appreciate Gwendolyn's magical powers, and after weeks of playing nasty magical practical jokes on the various inhabitants of the Castle, Gwendolyn finally leaves by going into a parallel world and replacing herself in Cat's world with a double called Janet. Cat and Janet eventually find the way to set the worlds right again, with some help from unexpected quarters.

I completely fell in love with this story and the way it was written *. After borrowing the book time and time again from the library I was overjoyed when I found it at a secondhand store and finally could call it my own.

I've been rereading this book over the years at least once a year and could recite the story in my sleep, but however often I reread this book it never grows old, it never loses that magic that I encountered on my first read.

I did try reading other books in the same setting and featuring Chrestomanci, and they were nice reads, but they never got hold on me like Charmed Life did. (Part of this may be because I read them in Dutch and in the new translation which sucks *.)

But then one day I was reading a movie magazine and read something about a Movie called 'Howl's Moving Castle'. The article caught my eye because it was a movie by Hayao Miyazaki (I absolutely love his Tonari no Totoro (my neighbour Totoro)), but held it because it also named Diana Wynne Jones as the author of the book the movie was based upon.

So I went out and bought Howl's Moving Castle.
Luckily it was easy to find because of the hype around the movie.

And when reading Howl's Moving Castle I fell in love with Diana Wynne Jones' writing all over again. I can advice anyone who's only seen the movie to pick up this book as it's so much richer than the movie. It gives so much more in both emotions and story.

I now have two books by Diana Wynne Jones that I will keep on rereading for the rest of my life and I will also keep an eye out for her other books as these two give me so much joy I'm sure there are more of her books that I will love just as much as these two.


* Note to Dutch followers: Please find the old translation as the book has been translated again for a newer Dutch edition and that translation is horrible.

Author Love - Mercedes Lackey

I've decided to do a series of posts on some of my favourite authors.
In these post I will tell about how I discovered them and why I love the books of these authors so much.

Not sure yet if I'll make it a weekly feature or if I'll post them whenever the mood strikes me.

First up:
Mercedes Lackey.

A long, long time ago (probably in 1989 or 1990) I discovered a book in my library called 'Rolans Keuze' (Rolan's choice. Original English title = Arrows of the Queen). It was the first book in a trilogy and it sounded like something I might like, so I borrowed it.

I absolutely loved it!

For those who do not know anything about Lackey's books:
Arrows of the Queen is about a young girl, Talia, who doesn't fit in the strict patriarchal society she lives in. She runs away and is found by a magical horse-like creature who brings her to the capital of the land where she lives. Once there Talia discovers she's destined to be a herald (in short: heralds are the protectors of the land) and she's enrolled in a college to be trained.

The plot may sound like it's been done time and time again, but Lackey's writing (even in translation) is wonderful, Talia is such a sweet character and the world building is so magical and yet recognisable that I do not care one bit if it's an original plot or not because all those things I just mentioned make it original and fresh.

All in all I can safely confess I was hooked from the start.

Now I must tell you that at the time I didn't really read books in English yet, so after reading 'Rolans Keuze' I kept looking for the translation of the next two book in this trilogy, but without any luck. I did start reading some roleplay books and comics in English in the next few years, but never dared make the step for my normal reading.

And then one day (must have been somewhere between 1994 and 1996) I was browsing for books in my local bookstore and spotted the complete 'Heralds of Valdemar' trilogy in the foreign language section.

Having reread 'Rolans Keuze' a gazillion times by then and still loving it as much as the first time I read it I made the decision I just had to try to read the books in English so I bought all three books in English.

I will confess I read those books with a dictionary at my side and it was slow reading at first. But it was so worth it! The books were everything I hoped they'd be.

After finishing that trilogy I immediately went out and bought the next trilogy I could find (The Last Herald Mage) and so on.

After those first difficult reads with my dictionary handy my understanding of the English language grew and it wasn't long before I could put my dictionary aside again and enjoy reading English just as much as I enjoy reading Dutch, which opened up a whole new world for me as there were (and are) so many beautiful stories out there that weren't translated to Dutch. And with my improved English I was able to make friends all over the world as I now could communicate with other English speaking and writing people online.

So Mercedes Lackey's writing is responcible for expanding my world in more ways than one. Reason enough to love her as an author, but it's not the only reason or even the most important reason. Her stories and writing are beautiful and rich and it's her books and characters that make her one of my favourite authors. Rereading one of the many books I have from Mercedes Lackey always feels like catching up with a dear friend and I'll keep on rereading until I have worn my copies of her books out at which point I'll have to go out to get new ones ;-)