Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Autumn Blog Hop Winners Are....

  1. First Place Winner, Ronda aka Queen Tutt, will receive their choice of 6 Astraea Press eBooks, a shout out on our social media, in addition to a critique of the first three chapters of a manuscript
  2. Second Place Winner,Molly, will receive their choice of 4 Astraea Press eBooks.
  3. Third Place Winner,Tina, will receive their choice of 2 Astraea Press eBooks
All winners have been notified and have 72hours to respond. If not others will be chosen. 


Thanks so much to all our new followers and we hope you love our novels and content on the blog and social media accounts.

New Release Historical Fairy Tale


Astraea Press proudly release The Ugly Duckling Debutante available now where all eBooks are sold.


Review

Eden Bridgeman

"Sara is now the only hope for a good marriage in a family that has abused her since childhood. Against her wishes she's sent to London with a Aunt and since she is so "wicked" looking the plan is to put her into a compromising situation to force some poor titled gentleman to marry her. If not for a lifetime of humiliation and her acceptance of her outward appearance, she would have died of humiliation. But things aren't always what they seem. Enter in Lord Nicholas, notorious seducer and rake, who has sworn off women in favor of celebicy and religion. His dark secrets keep him from opening his heart to anyone, especially a woman. Sara, his aunts protege` threatens everything he's come to believe in, especially his believe he's incapable of love. But when he puts himself in a compromising situation with Sara forcing them to marry, his secret comes out of hiding, and I promise you, the twists this book take had me standing up with my hand over my mouth in shock. Honestly. I read a lot and I didn't see this coming, at all. Not only is it a great romance, with some great sexual tension, but it has a thread of redemption and hope that lacks in most historical romances. This is a book you don't want to miss. But a warning, don't start it till you can finish, it's addictive" 




 Since childhood Sara has lived with the reality of being ugly. Something her awful family never ceased to remind her. After her sisters run off to Gretna Green, she's left with one choice—go to London and take their place for a Season. It's up to her to marry well and save her family from financial ruin.
A distant aunt decides it’s in her best interest to sponsor Sara for the season and help her snag a husband by any means possible.
Nicholas Devons, Earl of Renwick, is a retired rake and consequently bored with life. He’s given up beautiful women and carnal pleasures. Desperation makes him decide to give his massive fortune away and marry the first country girl he sees.
Lucky for Sara she's that girl. Unlucky for Nicholas, he's to be her new tutor in the ways of the tonTwo waltzes, one masquerade, a violent carriage ride, and two duckless ponds later.... and all that's left is a fun twist on one of the oldest stories ever told.

Monday, September 26, 2011

And so this round ends....

And so the Autumn blog hop has ended. While we are sad we are super excited to have so many new Apeeps in our arsenal. We LOVE our readers. Now it's time for prizes. Winners will be announced Wednesday on the blog September 28th, 2011. Stay tuned for those winners and for more contests.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Samantha Combs Explodes

Samantha Combs does it again with her next YA novel Ghostly. Release for merely hours and the five star reviews are pouring in. Astraea Press is proud to release Ghostly.

Review

Reviews by Anne

" Ok y'all I just got finished reading Ghostly by Samantha Combs and I still stand by what I said months ago, I will own all of her books. This story is so sweet and heart warming, it brought tears to my eyes. Samantha has done a fabulous job of telling a story of friendship, love, devotion, and acceptance. Juice Zander and her friends have quite the eclectic group they are the "misfits" of their high school but clearly the only ones with open minds and large hearts. I love how the characters keep their composure even when faced with a paranormal twist, how the group of friends stood by one another no matter what was going on and how in the face of a blossoming romance friendship was still more important than being selfish. I enjoyed how this story told of coming of age, of realizing who you are even when your confused and that following your heart is always whats best for you and be honest. Honesty may hurt but it lets people know they can trust you no matter what. The characters are unique and diverse but get along none the less, they have good morals and strong wills and that makes this book perfect for teens and adults alike. Samantha did a famous job on this book and the end will bring a tear to your eye. 5 out of 5 stars for Ghostly by Samantha Combs."

Monday, September 19, 2011

Fall Between The Pages Blog Hop Tour: Astraea Press Publishing House

We are so very excited to be participating in the Fall Between the Pages Blog Hop Tour. Before we get to the post and prizes we have to go over the rules first.

Tour Rules
1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, Sept 19, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, Sept 26, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
Winners will be drawn and posted Sept 27! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS AND BOOK PAGES! EXPERIENCE A NEW PARTY DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR AND BOOK PAGE IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW EVERYONE SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! 



***Hosts have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

Now for the fun part..Fall and Books.


Autumn is an amazing time of year. Halloween, cooler weather, apples, pumpkins, and for your paranormal lovers the releases seem to kick out more in that genre this time of year. But all and all whenever we think about autumn at Astraea Press we think about books. Maybe it's back to school, maybe it's cooler nights, and shorter days that open up to reading by a fireplace or with a cup of cider. All we know is we love it. And what better way to celebrate that love than be giving away some of our amazing reading material.  

Before we can get to the prizes we have to go over the requirements. They aren't hard at all. 

  1. First follow our blog and leave a comment or ask a question on this post. Make sure to leave your email so we know how to contact you if you win. 
  2. Second go to our Facebook page here and like us and leave a comment letting us know.
  3. Third go to our Twitter page here and follow us. 
  4. Fourth Share the hop with your friends.
Time for Prizes 

  1. First Place Winner will receive their choice of 6 Astraea Press eBooks, a shout out on our social media, in addition to a critique of the first three chapters of a manuscript
  2. Second Place Winner will receive their choice of 4 Astraea Press eBooks.
  3. Third Place Winner will receive their choice of 2 Astraea Press eBooks. 
Here are just a few of our titles to check out. Go here to get a head start of picking out your favorite books. 


A gunshot echoes thrusting Darby Lambert into a near death experience.  Inside the confines of an ambulance, she meets “the man in white light”.  He takes away the guilt, but makes her question everything. “You will see them,”  he whispers, as he catapults her back into the real world where she is plagued with dreams of demons, nurses, and rock stars. 
Why has He sent her back? Does she have the courage to rectify her sins? Given the chance, could you erase it all?
Fired with a determination to find the reason why the Moon affects his planet so badly, Berannes gains the magical skills to transport himself there. On misty, sparsely-populated Lume he discovers the sorcerer Tironsar, bent on completing his mysterious Lodestone, which may give him supreme domination over many worlds; and the lovely princess Falmorwy of the Far Galaxy, who is somehow involved in the sorcerer’s plan.
 Berannes finds his dreams of becoming a hero don’t always turn out the right way. The two “star-horses” may be allies, but they carelessly order him around; and dwarfish Dron and Lalmi also have a different agenda for him. Even his growing love for the princess brings him inner torment, as she insists on returning to the perils of the sorcerer’s Citadel on a quest for further information. And always he is conscious of the fact that time is running out—fast!
Michael Drake, a part-time private investigator and part-time jazz club owner, starts the day as he has many others, doing a favor for a friend. In doing so, he falls right into the middle of a torrid affair. As Michael tries to decide whether or not to tell his friend of his wife's indiscretion, she is murdered. Through no fault of his own, Michael is entangled in a murder plot that reaches back to his days in college. The problem lies in the fact that, in clearing himself, he may implicate the friend that he intended to help. That is only the beginning when murder and passion collide in a small south Louisiana town. When the true killer is revealed, Drake must deal with the consequences and the lives he helped destroy.

Don't Forget to go back Here and hit the other blog hops. Happy Hopping.


















 


Friday, September 9, 2011

Rave Reviews for Lucky For Her

The Romance Reviewers had this to say about Lucky for Her.

"Die hard romantics, listen up! Stephanie Taylor has your number and lucky for you her latest, LUCKY FOR HER, is her ace in the hole! Lana and Lucky's story takes a past that was all kinds of wrong and turns it into a future that is all kinds of right.

Lucky O'Donnell and Lana Roche grew up in the same small town, living very different lives. Of course, during that time Lucky was known as Fat Jack who loved the head cheerleader from afar. During senior prom time, he took a chance and asked out the shy beauty only to be shot down. Motivated by his mistakes, Jack turned his life around, got fit and returned to become the hunky Sheriff of his hometown. Lana married the captain of the football team right after high school and lived to regret it. Nearly a decade later, she manages to escape her abusive marriage and returns home to lick her wounds and hide the baby she hopes her ex, James, never finds out about.

Damsel in distress, meet knight in shining armor. Lana finds herself majorly attracted to the Sheriff in town but doesn't make the connection between the awkward boy and the man of today. Once she does, despite all her fears of men and love, she agrees to give him a chance. In return, Lucky agrees to pose as her new husband to give her unborn child the safety from its father that she desperately desires. Funny thing about pretending to be in love with Mr. Right Now, sometimes he turns out to be Mr. Right.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Astraea Press...Trend Setting Authors and Now An Award Winning Cover Artist

Congratulations go to Elaina Lee for her award for Spartan Heart Part 1 cover art. We love her and her amazing talent.

*clapping*

August 2011, by Sassy Brit's Alternative-Read!

Here is a link for bragging rights.







Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Keepers – A New Author’s Bumpy Road


The Keepers – A New Author’s Bumpy Road


Things seldom go as planned.  I, for one, am the type who would like to have my life mapped out, color coded, and filed in alphabetical order.  Sounds like a mundane existence eh?  However, coping with ADD, a full-time family, a J-O-B, and my love of writing makes me a little crazy at times. 
When my first novel, The Keepers, debuted I was ready to hit the ground running, and that’s just what I did.  My sales background lends me to being a marketing bulldog and the sales were rolling in!  Who wouldn’t be happy with that scenario?  I’d built a ton of momentum, and things were going great.  However, in my rush to get the book out there, I didn’t stop to read over what we had published.  That being said, the novel generated a lot of great reviews and fans.  I’m forever grateful for the zest with which my growing list of followers nabbed it up, devoured it, and then supported it. 

A few weeks in, I got my first lousy review.  This happens to everyone, and I didn’t think much about it.  After a couple of weeks, I got another review that wasn’t exactly glowing.  I believe you can’t please everyone, all of the time, and if you try, you’ll make yourself completely insane.  But, both the reviews mentioned bad editing and that bothered me.  You can - not like a book, because it’s not for you, but to not like it because the editing is poor is another story.
Having read a heap of Astraea’s books, I knew this wasn’t the norm.  That’s probably why I didn’t take the time to scrutinize the editing. When I pulled up a copy I realized there truly was a problem and I went to my fabulous publisher, Stephanie Taylor, and brought it to her attention.  We aren’t really sure what happened, maybe the wrong version got pulled into copy, or maybe we were so amped up on new novel fever that we missed the corrections.  Who knows? 

Truth be told the reason doesn’t matter, we just knew we had to get it fixed.  Steph immediately pulled it down and sent it back to the editing department.  Now, being a new author, I was crushed.  My baby was going back in for an overhaul, and it had just begun to make waves!  However, I knew it was the professional thing to do.  We couldn’t have a great story out there that deserved attention, but have people turned off because the editing wasn’t up to par. 
Just like anything else in life, you’re writing career will throw you curve balls.  After I wiped a few tears and dusted the dirt off, I was excited because I knew in the end the product that was delivered to my readers would be better, even if it meant a small hiatus. 

I just wanted to take this time, to thank everyone who has stood by me and patiently waited while we corrected our technical difficulties.  I also want to thank Stephanie.  Astraea is a new press, we haven’t made our first birthday yet, and she handled the entire thing with class and professionalism.  I hope you will all enjoy the new life that was breathed into the book.  No content changes were made - for those of you who have worried about this! 

I look forward to hearing all the good reviews on The Keepers and my new novel Jamais Vu!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, once again.

Cheers!
Monique O’Connor James