Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling Series, Book 1)

Slave to Sensation was one of the first paranormal romances I ever read—could I have asked for a better introduction to the genre? This book has a permanent spot in my keeper shelf and remains my favourite in the Psy-Changeling Series.

Slave to Sensation was the first book I ever bought based purely on online buzz after author Nalini Singh ran a viral marketing campaign through Dear Author. I’ve never regretted my decision, and this series, currently up to its sixth book, is still an auto-buy for me.

Slave to Sensation begins with a chilling prologue that introduces Silence—a process of conditioning Psy children into suppressing all emotion in order to stamp out the growing violence and insanity in the Psy population. Gifted with advanced mental capabilities, the Psy consider themselves perfect in their Silence.

Sascha Duncan has always suspected she’s flawed. Lately, she’s been leaking emotion, and only her ability to mimic Silence protects her from being forced into rehabilitation. When Sascha meets Lucas Hunter, alpha of the DarkRiver changeling pack, to negotiate a historic business deal, his emotional changeling nature batters at her mental shields. (more)

Read on for a chance to win a copy of Dying For Mercy. The contest ends midnight on Sunday, August 9 AEST, and it’s open to anyone, including readers overseas.

Although I usually hang around the romance shelves in the bookshop, my serious love for reading started with mysteries*, and I’ll always have room in my shelves for the odd crime fiction. So when Book Thingo was offered a chance to give away 2 copies of Mary Jane Clark’s new release, Dying For Mercy … I couldn’t say no.

What the book is about

I was sent a book description, which I thought I’d post in full to give you an idea of what the book is about and if it appeals to you:

When death shatters the serenity of the exclusive moneyed enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York, Eliza Blake, cohost of the country’s premier morning television show KEY to America, is on the scene. While attending a lavish gala at her friends’ newly renovated estate, Pentimento, Eliza’s host is found dead—a grotesque suicide that is the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose the sins of the past involving some of the town’s most revered citizens.

Determined to find out the truth, Eliza and her KEY News colleagues—producer Annabelle Murphy (more)

Courting Disaster by Kathleen O'Reilly (Southern Legacies: The Prestons, Book 6)

A virgin country singer paired with a playboy race car driver hero could’ve been a recipe for disaster, but Kathleen O’Reilly writes some of the best couple dynamics I’ve read in a category romance.

Courting Disaster is the sixth book in the Southern Legacies series, and this is painfully obvious in the first few chapters. The only mildly interesting event in the first 40 pages is a parking accident, which sets up the meeting between playboy race-car driver Demetri Lucas, a close friend of the Prestons, and country-and-western singer Elizabeth Innis, who’s part of the Prestons’ extended family.

Once O’Reilly gets through the series continuity info dump, the book picks up the pace and we’re treated to a romance that’s both somewhat traditional and yet unpredictable.

Old-fashioned romance with modern sensibilities

Elizabeth is a famous singer whose virginal reputation is part of her “brand”, if you will. O’Reilly gives her a back story in which this is plausible if not entirely believable. (more)

It warms my heart to know that romance readers love Aussie characters, but it takes more than the odd “no worries, mate” to get Aussie readers to believe that a character really is Australian.

To help authors out, here are 15 tips on how to make your Aussie characters more authentic. I’ve written them with romance authors in mind, but they apply outside of romance, too. Update: Check the comments for more great tips!

1. Eric Bana is a comedian, not a sex symbol. Do not, under any circumstances, compare your hero to Eric Bana unless he wears a mullet, and there had better be a very good explanation for that.

2. Aussies are obsessed with sports. Obsessed. It’s theoretically possible to have a hero—or heroine, for that matter—who doesn’t have at least a passing knowledge of cricket and/or footy (rugby union, rugby league or Aussie rules), but they’d better have a damn good reason for it.

3. We don’t buy coffee from Starbucks. (more)

Congratulations to everyone who won an award at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) national conference last weekend.

Rosemary’s Romance Books in Brisbane was awarded the Steffie Walker Bookseller of the Year Award. According to the RWA website, this award is given to a bookseller “who provides outstanding service to romance readers and demonstrates notable support of romance authors and the romance genre.” Awesome win.

The other Aussie winner is Stephanie Laurens for Best Novella.

RWA sponsors the the RITA^®, arguably the genre’s most prestigious award. Here’s a list of the winners:

A Mother’s Wish by Karen Templeton (Best Contemporary Series Romance) — Excerpt
Danger Signals by Kathleen Creighton (Best Contemporary Series Romance: Suspense/Adventure) — Excerpt
Hell Week by Rosemary Clement Moore (Best Young Adult Romance) — Excerpt (more)

Gratuitous use of a still from Mr Darcy's pond scene in Lost in Austen (via lovestoknit at Flickr)

If you thought zombies were blasphemous to Pride and Prejudice, beloved classic of romance literature, check out this hilarious Twitter parody by Mad over at Under the Mad Hat.

Here are some snippets:

MrsB: A Mr Bingley–worth 50,000 followers a year–has joined Twitter! He’s brought a friend, Mr Darcy–worth 100,000 followers a year! Pls RT

… LizzieB: @JaneB If I could love a man who would love me enough to take me for a mere 50 followers, I should be well pleased…

LizzieB: @JaneB …but such a man wouldn’t be sensible & I could never love a man who was out of his twits. LOL

… CubicleSurfer: Does anyone know what #Bingley is and why it’s suddenly the no. 1 trending topic? (more)

History Lesson 3 by Sanja Gjenero (via stock.xchng)

Today’s SMH reports that the Productivity Commission is likely to recommend the removal of parallel importation restrictions (PIR) on books to Australia.

If this happens, despite the Productivity Commission receiving a majority of submissions in support of retaining all or part of the current restrictions, it will be clear that the loudest voices in the media have prevailed.

It helps, of course, if your lobby group includes former NSW Premier Bob Carr, and former ACCC chairman Allan Fels.

Lobbying for cheaper prices

Carr has written several editorials in support of an open market for books, citing affordability and availability to children. It’s ironic that local authors of children’s books believe they’ll be one of the hardest hit by an open market. This is because illustrated children’s books are more expensive to produce due to their larger, non-standard formats, and because authors have to split the royalties with illustrators. (more)

Skin Trade by Laurell K Hamilton (Anita Black, Vampire Hunter, Book 17)

I have some good news and some bad news about Skin Trade, the seventeenth book in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. The good news is there are only 2 properly defined sex scenes in the whole book, and the bad news is there are only 2 properly defined sex scenes in the whole book.

OK, so I’m conflicted about this series, but I keep buying the damn books soon after their release, just not in hardback anymore.

Anita arrives at her office to find a head in a box sent by the vampire Vittorio (the stripper-killer in Incubus Dreams) from Las Vegas and is on a flight there within hours. When she arrives, she finds that her preternatural reputation has preceded her and she is held for several hours, having to justify her powers, humanity, knowledge and skill to the local law enforcement. Given that she is known for living with the Master Vampire of her city and her ties to the shapeshifter community, the cops’ suspiciousness towards her seems reasonable, but it reads like short, pretty little female Anita manfully holding her own in a pissing contest with the big boys, and it slows down the book’s pacing. (more)

Abandoned Book by swotai (via Flickr)

If you’ve been following the debate on the parallel importation of books in Australia, The 7.30 Report ran a segment yesterday on the debate. Unfortunately, it didn’t look past the usual rhetoric surrounding the issue.

In fact I don’t think the segment even highlighted all the main arguments on either side or the parallel importation debate. I’m particularly frustrated by the final comment from Allan Fels, former ACCC chairman, Dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government:

It’s also claimed that Australian books in fact are priced much the same as the rest of the world. I don’t agree. But if it is true, what have we got to fear from removing the import restrictions?

What we fear is that change might actually harm the industry, (more)

Photo by kesh (via morgueFile)

Regular readers might have noticed that the Book Bizzo hasn’t been posted in the last few weeks. I originally came up with the idea of a weekly news round-up because I thought it would be easier and faster to do than posting each item separately. As it turns out, I was completely wrong. The time it takes to put a Bizzo together is equivalent to posting a review. So after some deliberation, I’ve decided not to keep going with the Bizzos on Saturday. (Although I have a quick round-up in this one—mainly for Aussie romance authors and book news.)

I’m tossing up alternative ways to post news items. In the meantime, I post interesting items as I encounter them on my Twitter feed, so feel free to follow @BookThingo. I try to post mostly on topic, although it wouldn’t be Twitter if I didn’t digress occasionally. I might start posting shorter, more frequent round-ups on the blog, but we’ll see… (more)