Browsing Tag

reviews of my stuff

Victory of the Hawk

Victory of the Hawk is IMMINENT and people are even reviewing it!

Just a couple more weeks to go until Victory of the Hawk comes out, which is exciting!

Particularly when I stumble across early reviews like THIS ONE at Library Journal–wherein I’m reviewed in passing with a few other titles!

I particularly like this quote:

Somehow, Highland is able to introduce numerous characters and story lines and connect them seamlessly. Readers will be pleased at how the author ties up these plots and ends the trilogy.

The reviewer points out quite correctly that I do not have much overt romance resolution in this book–although there is some. But there’s not much by romance reader standards, to which I note again that I am not actually writing a romance here, so that’s all to the good. And yeah, I’ll totally take this entire review as a lovely treasure!

I’ve updated the Victory of the Hawk page with this review’s link, as well as adding in several more links to where you can buy the book. It still hasn’t shown up on Carina’s actual site, but the instant it’s up there, I WILL be letting you all know!

(I note in particular for any of my readers in Quebec that Archambault does have the Rebels of Adalonia books for digital sale on their site, too. And I’m pretty tickled to see surrounding graphics promoting The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies on the page for Victory right now. I consider this delicious genre synchronicity and will take any excuse to have my work in the company of Tolkien that I can get. >:D )

March 19, 2015 by
Victory of the Hawk

Seeking reviewers for Victory of the Hawk

And in other news: I have finally received the shipping copy of Victory of the Hawk! Which means I’m going to start needing reviewers for it. So if you’re inclined to leave me a review, on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or on your own site, please talk to me and I’ll set you up with a copy.

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is book 3 of a trilogy, and will make best sense if you’ve already read books 1 and 2. If you haven’t read the first two books and you’re up for reviewing the trilogy as a whole, I’ll get you copies of all three books.

Reviews and rankings on Amazon and Goodreads are most useful to me, but in-depth reviews on personal sites are also helpful. ANY word out there about the book will help raise its visibility. So if you can commit to doing a review, contact me. I can offer EPUBs of all three books, and I have PDFs for the first two. (Carina has not provided me a PDF for Victory.)

March 4, 2015 by
Valor of the Healer

A Valor of the Healer review!

I spotted this first on Goodreads, then confirmed the link via Google Alerts: the Demon Librarian has put up a loverly four-star review of Valor of the Healer!

This makes the first official review I’ve seen posted on a standalone site (as opposed to on Amazon or Goodreads). And there’s some good commentary there, including about the cover. (The reviewer is right, the character portrayed on Valor‘s cover is actually quite a bit more badass-looking than the Faanshi in the Valor of the Healer Movie In My Brain. I reconcile this by thinking of cover!Faanshi as how she might eventually look in another five or ten years!)

And now, I am Anna’s Vague Startlement That People She Does Not Actually Personally Know Are In Fact Reading and Reviewing Her Work!

The Valor of the Healer page has been updated to include this review link, and while I’m at it, I also spotted that there’s a page up for Valor now on LibraryThing. So if any of y’all out there are users of that site, there you go!

June 6, 2013 by
Faerie Blood, Valor of the Healer

A few quick reminders and requests

Some of you loverly people have been kind enough to report in that you’re quite liking Valor of the Healer, for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart! If the spirit moves you, please consider rating and/or reviewing it somewhere suitably visible. It will help. At the level at which I operate as an author, word of mouth is critical to try to encourage others to boost my sales.

Amazon remains the best and highest visibility place to rate and/or review a book, but Goodreads would be good, too. I haven’t gotten much yet in the way of ratings or reviews at Goodreads, and Amazon has nothing at all.

Also, don’t forget that if ebooks aren’t your thing, Valor IS also available as an audiobook. Ratings and/or reviews on that would also be awesome.

And of course Faerie Blood is still available, and because Valor‘s selling for $2.99 at the moment, I’ve put Faerie Blood at the same price. So now’s a really good time to grab the ebook if you haven’t already. Also, I DO still have a small number of print copies available: seven, to be precise. The only way to get Faerie Blood in print is still to talk to me directly, so if you want one, do let me know. I’ll be happy to mail it to you! The best and fastest way to pay me for a copy remains Paypal.

Questions? Talk to me!

And as always, a roundup of everywhere you can buy both books is available on Valor’s official page and Faerie Blood’s official page. Thanks all for your ongoing support!

April 28, 2013 by
Valor of the Healer

Four weeks and counting till Valor of the Healer!

And as of today, I see that people are starting to add it to their To-Read shelves on Goodreads. At least one person there has it on an arc-2013 shelf, which means HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS! People are indeed actually pulling it down off of NetGalley!

That sound you just heard is the sound of my head exploding at the notion that not only do I have a book coming out in four weeks, it’s a book coming out on a big enough scale that there are ARCs for it, and people are actually looking at them. Yeah sure fine I’m digital-only on this release, but this is still a way bigger deal than the release of either edition of Faerie Blood. And now suddenly I’m all nervous and thinking, “Seriously?! People I don’t even know want to read my book?! REALLY?” (Imagine me saying that last “REALLY?” about an octave above my normal voice, too!)

If anybody out there is actively interested in reviewing the book–for Amazon, or Goodreads, or B&N, or anywhere else where reviews can be publicly posted, including book review blogs–you can indeed now pull it down off of NetGalley. Or talk to me directly. I will be overjoyed to provide review copies to anybody who wants to help me get the word out!

YOU GUYS! I’M GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER BOOK!

March 18, 2013 by
Valor of the Healer

Will there be a print edition of Valor of the Healer?

Since I’m already getting asked about this, I’d like to issue a general reminder: there will not, at least at first, be a print edition of the forthcoming Valor of the Healer.

This is basically because Carina Press is primarily a digital imprint. Carina does release a small number of titles to retail print, but from what I’m being told, there are several factors that dictate whether a book will be released in print to the retail market–and it’s a decision that Carina makes in conjunction with parent company Harlequin.

Carina is investigating other means of delivering print editions to readers, but details on these are not solidified so there’s not much I can say to this yet. When I have more details I can share, I will definitely let everyone know.

The good news is, though, that Carina is a DRM-free imprint. Anyone in the world can go straight to Carina’s site and buy books right off the site. Or, you’ll be able to find them on the major ebook sales sites as well–Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iTunes, Sony, etc. EPUB will be the major format being delivered (unless of course you’re a Kindle reader, in which case you’ll be getting a Kindle file), but since it’s DRM-free you will be able to convert it in Calibre if you need to!

If you have a vested interest, though, in seeing Valor go to print, here’s what you can do to help: buy the book. Even if you’re not a digital reader yourself, if you can think of people you can gift it to who would like to read it digitally, do that. My sales numbers will be only one of the factors Carina and Harlequin would look at to dictate whether or not to print it, but if the book actively sells, that will help.

Spreading the word will help, too. Some early reviews would be excellent. If you’re a book blogger, I have a shiny production-class PDF I can hand you right now if you’d like to review the book. I’ll have an EPUB on the way as well that I can share with reviewers. If you’re not a reviewer but you know people who are, point me at them, or point them at me, or both!

If you’re not an official book reviewer, you can still help once the book drops by reviewing it on Amazon, on B&N, on Goodreads, and anywhere else that it’s possible to talk about the book. Talk it up on your social networks, on your blogs and journals, wherever it might be at all appropriate.

Getting excited here, people! Faanshi and Julian and Kestar have all been living in my head for years now–especially Faanshi and Julian–and I’m very eager to share this story with you all!

February 13, 2013 by
Valor of the Healer

I need your review blog recommendations!

RIGHT THEN, I have to start thinking about getting the word out for Valor of the Healer, since this puppy’s dropping on April 15th!

Now, as y’all know, Valor is predominantly high fantasy, albeit with romantic elements. By ‘romantic elements’, I mean, there’s a love story on the side, but the focus is on the fantasy rather than on the romance. You may expect that I’m not going to get explicit with any expression of said romance, since that’s generally not my m.o.

My question for you, O Internets, is this: which review blogs shall I contact about potentially reviewing it?

Some of you who may be reading this are people who reviewed Faerie Blood in the past, so if you’d be up for taking a look at Valor, do let me know.

But I’d also like to start pinging any blogs which are:

  • Primarily focused on SF/F, but which are also friendly to romance-friendly works
  • Specifically targeted at SF/F with romantic elements
  • Geek-girl friendly
  • General fantasy

Valor is not yet on NetGalley, but Carina does maintain a presence there, so Valor should hopefully be showing up there sometime in March. I’m also on the alert for when I myself will have access to ARCs to distribute as appropriate.

Note also that as Carina is a digital publisher, any blog that reviews it has to naturally be friendly to digital-only publications!

So if you’ve got recs, or if you’ve got specific interest in reviewing the book and are yourself a review blogger, please talk to me and thank you in advance! And signal boost, O Internets! Signal boost like the wind!

February 8, 2013 by