Hale No, RT!

ETA 2: I'm adding this one on top of the post, because RT has issued an official, public statement condemning Hale's actions and saying that they are working on an anti-harassment policy. I'm happy to see that they take our concerns and safety seriously.

ETA 3: This is the last one, I promise (and hope!). This isn't about the Seal of Excellence. We know it was awarded way before everything happened; this is about the Book of the Year nomination (and yes, I know they are somewhat related). 

I say this because there's a lot of emphasis on the SoE, and I want it to be clear that that's not the issue here. Finally, unequivocally means there shouldn't be room for doubt, so I probably wouldn't use that word, considering that the Book of the Year nomination remains (as far as I can tell). 

I'll stop here, before someone starts subtweeting about me. Oh, wait! 

I have a love-hate relationship with “Best of” lists and book awards. Every year I celebrate when books I loved get mentions and nominations, and despair when the next book on the list is one I hated. But everyone with an opinion is bound to have mixed feelings each season, so I (mostly) roll with it, and in some cases, I just ignore the offending award.

The RT Awards nominees were announced yesterday and just when I thought that nominating the ignorant, terrible, no good, super-racist sounding Primitive Nights (I mean, Jesus Christ, go read that review so we can be miserable together) would be the worst thing I would find on that list, this happened:

Yep, Kathleen Hale’s book was nominated for RT Book of the Year.

That One Time a Publisher Sued a Blogger

By now, you have probably heard that last week Ellora’s Cave sued Dear Author and Jane Litte for defamation.

When I first heard about the lawsuit, I thought it was a joke. My second thought was that my blogging days were over, because I was suddenly very afraid. Not only was EC suing a blog, they were also suing a blogger and using her legal name*, effectively doxxing her. Other things I briefly considered were stop posting negative reviews or stop the reviews altogether and just write general articles that didn't mention specific books. That’s not going to happen, but for a moment there it felt like the only viable option. Even if EC just wants to gag DA and frighten their authors into silence, the chilling effect, as Sunita puts it, is likely to inhibit other voices and criticism including authors, readers, and bloggers, which is why this is an issue that affects and concerns us all.

Random Musings: Blogging Platforms, Publishing Experiments and Spoilers

Source: Someecards

If you were wondering why things have been so quiet around the blog, the answer is that my blogging mojo decided to leave. I’ve also been busy and tired, which means that I’m using all the energy I have left on being lazy and doing nothing but read.

In order to lure my mojo back, I’m going to spice things up a bit with a post that’s all about old news, new news that I didn’t properly analyze and a rant. Because let’s face it, there’s always some energy left to whine.

Heroine Week: Closing Thoughts and Many Thanks

That was good!

I wanted to offer some final thoughts and reflections, but I’m pretty much speechless and overwhelmed by every single one of the contributions. The guest posts speak for themselves and pretty much scream that our love and appreciation for the heroine is alive and well.

If there’s something I learned this week, is that our relationship with these characters is complex and personal. In a way, heroines (in Romance in particular, but also in literature in general) offer us a space to explore different aspects of ourselves, as well as serve as tools to reflect issues affecting women. But there’s still a long way to go, and my wish is that Heroines and the books they inhabit become more welcoming and diverse.

Heroine Week: Wherein I Tell You How Awesome It’s Going to Be and Why

Welcome to Heroine Week, an event whose main purpose is to celebrate female characters and focus the conversation on them.

Heroine Week is all about, well, the heroines, but also about the guests. They made this event possible, and I’m grateful and honored to host their insightful, funny and thought-provoking posts.

Here’s a tiny preview of what you can expect:

A New Feature and an Update

Credit: ginnerobot

All reviews and no play make Romance Around the Corner a dull blog, so I’ve been thinking about ways to improve and freshen up the blog. The one I came up with still involves reviews, but there’s a twist.

We have talked about hype and how popular new releases get all the attention. I will be the first to admit that shiny new books are hard to resist, but we should make room for older books, especially those we hold dear. Our perception of old favorites can change during time, because while the stories remain the same, readers tend to grow and change. However, new perspectives don’t necessarily lessen the value of the books, and may even give us a new view and appreciation of the stories. So I thought that it would be an interesting experiment to re-read these old favorites and see how (or if) our reactions to them have changed and how they hold up to the test of time.

Update on Heroine Week

Image courtesy of Sura Nualpradid at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The response to Heroine Week has been really positive, so I’m feeling overwhelmed and happy.

Here are a few updates:

• The tentative date is July 1-7. This can change depending on whether people can write the guest posts on time or not. I’m very accommodating! Final date is July 8-14
• I’m looking for more people to guest post, so please email me your ideas at brie.clementineATgmail.com
• If you don’t feel like writing a whole post, but still want to contribute, send me a paragraph or two about your favorite heroine and why you love her (it can be Romance, Urban Fantasy, YA, etc.). If I get enough submissions, I will include them all in one post. 
• I’m working on a banner for the event (with my amazing knowledge of Paint) but if anyone wants to help me with it, I would appreciate it. It's done! If you're going to use it on your site, make sure to include the image credit to Sura Nualpradid at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I hope you guys are as excited as I am. Suggestions and ideas are welcome.

Sport Romances and Hyping Next Week

Hey, guys!

I couldn’t finish today’s review, and I was thinking that I almost managed to blog every single day of this week (Saturday and Sunday don’t count *grins*). But then I remembered that I have a new post on Heroes and Heartbreakers and that I forgot to tell you about it, so it counts as an extra day of blogging.

This time I’m talking about Sport Romances, why they are so appealing and I wonder about the lack of sport player heroines. So head on over there and let me know what you think!

Next week is probably going to be the last week of blogging before I go on my Christmas break (although I’ll have a review or two for the week of the 17th), so I’m going to make it count. Anne Calhoun and Jill Sorenson will join us and there will be giveaways, and I’ll have a couple of roundup posts including my Best of 2012 list. Can you believe the year is almost over?

Have a fun weekend, and see you next week!

Last Minute Links and Deals

Image Credit: Horia Varlan

This is an exciting week that started a bit slow, it’s Labor Day so I guess everyone must be outside enjoying what’s left of the summer. I have some last minute links and deals that I found online and I’ll share them with you in case you’re feeling a bit bored. Don’t get used to seeing much book deals on the blog because I’m lazy, but there’s always Dear Author’s Daily Deals if you’re looking for good deals.

Nice Girls Don’t Review Books

That's my cat! He's now a LOLcat.

This year has been convoluted at best, ugly and frightening at its worst. What started as a series of flameouts and dramas involving authors behaving badly, took an unexpected turn in the form of a blogger plagiarizing. Worse, now we’re in the presence of something that’s disturbing and demoralizing: the Stop the Goodreads Bullies (StGRB). They are a group of people who created a website dedicated to hating, intimidating and bullying, all in the name of a twisted version of good used as an excuse to hide their hateful ways. They consider negative reviews as bullying and personally attacking authors. They say they want everyone to be nice, when in truth what they really want is revenge. These are people who went off their rockers and decided to punish, intimidate and demoralize reviewers (1). Let’s focus on the “be nice” part.

Winner! About Last Night by Ruthie Knox

The winner of About Last Night by Ruthie Knox is: Kaetrin

Congratulations! 

I've sent you an email, if you didn't get it check the spam folder or contact me directly.

Thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to Ruthie and Random House for making the giveaway possible.

See you next time!

Ginger Heroes, Hops and Not-So-New Adults

Don't mess with the gingers! (source)

My newest post on Heroes & Heartbreakers is about redheaded heroes. This was quite a difficult list to make because there aren’t that many. And when they do show up, they are either Scotsmen or don’t look like a redhead at all (no freckles, no pale skin). But I think I found a few good examples to show you how appealing redheads can be. I also want to say thanks to everyone on Twitter who recommended books to me.

Winners!

The winners of Her Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry are:

1. Maureen
2. Rebe
3. Brianna (The Book Vixen)

Congratulations!

Emails are on their way.

Thanks to everyone who was part of the giveaway, you had many great things to say about Contemporary Romance. And special thanks to Sarah Mayberry for donating the copies and for doing such a great interview. 

Snark, Mother’s Day, Plagiarism, Women’s Fiction and Dude-Lit

Happy Friday everyone! 

I’ll be out for the weekend and I won’t have time to congratulate you on Mother’s Day, so I’m doing it now. Hope you guys have a great time with your moms, grandmother, kids, friends, siblings, and/or fathers.

Here are some links to keep you entertained while I’m gone:

Joint Review: We'll Always Have Paris by Jessica Hart

Yesterday, our friend and fellow blogger nath invited me to her blog, Breezing Through, to buddy-review We’ll Always Have Paris by Jessica Hart, a sweet and funny contemporary romance, with a happy heroine and a straight-laced hero. It was a different experience for me because this is my first joint review ever. Fortunately, nath is a pro so I was in good hands. Make sure to stop by and tell us what you think!

You can also find nath on her other blog, the wonderful and appropriately named Books, Books, and more Books. Thank you nath for inviting me and I can’t wait to do it again!

Help Wanted: Guest Reviewers

Hi everyone!

I have mentioned a couple of times before that we’re looking for guest reviewers, so this post is to give you more details about it, let's call it the official post.

We have been blogging for a year now and I would love to add more weekly reviews. Right now we’re reviewing an average of 3 to 4 books a week, which is great but pretty much our limit. So we would love to add a couple of guest reviewers to our team. I’m calling it “guest” to keep the pressure out, this doesn’t have to be a permanent position with a mandatory number of reviews, If you only wish to guest review one, that’s fine. If, on the other hand, you feel pretty serious about reviewing but find the creation of your own blog a daunting task, this is the perfect opportunity to join a blog that’s already there, all the fun, none of the fights with Blogger.

If you’re interested email me at brie.clementineATgmail.com. I will give you all the details and answer all your questions. If you have reviews posted on sites like Goodreads or Amazon that would serve as samples, please include a link. 

Remember that we review Romance and fiction with strong romantic elements, so that’s what we’re looking for. I’m particularly interested in F/F reviewers, since that’s a genre we have been neglecting and I would love to feature some of its books. 

That’s it. If you are interested and/or want to know more, contact me directly!

News and Announcements: Cheating Heroes & Heartbreakers

I’ve got some news to share with you all!

I’ll be blogging over at Heroes &Heartbreakers, the community website dedicated to everything Romance. I bet you’re already familiar with it but if you don’t, you should check it out because it’s a great way to interact with other Romance fans, find out about new books and other interesting topics.

Today I’m blogging about cheating heroes with a twist, because I talk about two books featuring two different types of cheating heroes that I actually enjoyed (I reviewed one of the books here). I think it’s a different take on a much talked about subject, one that show us that maybe we can enjoy hated tropes when handled right. So come on over and let me know what you think!

Also, in case you’re wondering, Romance Around the Corner will remain the same, I’ll still be reviewing and blogging here as usual. The offer of a guest reviewer spot is still open, though, so if you’re interested email me at brie.clementineATgmail.com. I’ll write a detailed post on this next week.

I’m out for the weekend so I won’t be able to answer comments until Sunday, I hope you enjoy the post and let me know how you like it.

See you around!

Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop: Sign Up Now

We’re back! That’s right, we had so much fun with the Shameless Giveaway Hop, that we decided to do a new, hotter edition. 

Because it’s never too early to celebrate and prepare for summer, we bring you the Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop.

Winners, News and Announcements

This was a slow week here at Romance Around the Corner. I was quite busy so I apologize for not answering to all your comments. We did have some fun, though, with an author guest post and Marie’s review of The Girls' Guide to Dating Zombies.

I would like to, once again, thank Tiffany A. Snow, for writing such an interesting post and for the giveaway. Also, thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on the post.

Before I announce the winners, I want to let you know that we are going on a tiny hiatus and will be back next Thursday to our regularly scheduled blogging. We have a couple of reviews ready and an awesome giveaway.

The winners of No Turning Back by Tiffany A. Snow are: EVERYONE! That’s right, everyone who commented on the post wins a copy of the book (except Marie, of course). So Jade and Na get an ecopy of the book, and Chrisbails gets the signed copy. Congratulations guys! As usual, emails are on their way, if you didn’t get it check your spam folder or send me an email brie.clementineATgmailDOTcom

Before you go, the winner of the Josephine Myles giveaway never responded so I had to choose a new winner, the lucky person is: Yto. Congrats! I’ve already emailed you. 

Remember that I will be out of town so if you don’t hear back from me before Thursday don’t panic!

Thank you so much everyone, have a nice weekend!

News and Updates: Shameless Giveaway Hop

Hey guys!

We have had an overwhelming response to the Hop and we couldn’t be more grateful and excited about it. I thinks this is shaping up to be a fantastic week full of goodies and fun.

I just wanted to remind you all that the sign up process ends today so if you want to participate this is your last chance.

To everyone else, thanks so much for the support and don’t forget to have the post ready to go live on the 20^th.

If you have any questions you can contact us through our blogs: Red Hot Books, Michelle's Book Blog and Romance Around the Corner.