The FBI wants her cooperation.

As the daughter of a billionaire and the owner of the city’s top wine store, Jordan Rhodes is invited to the most exclusive parties in Chicago. But there’s only one party the FBI wants to crash: the charity fundraiser of a famous restaurateur, who also happens to launder money for the mob. In exchange for her brother’s release from prison, Jordan is going to be there—with a date supplied by the Bureau.

Agent McCall just wants her.

As the top undercover agent in Chicago, Nick McCall has one rule: never get personal. This “date” with Jordan Rhodes is merely an assignment—one they’re both determined to pull off even if they can’t be together for five minutes before the sarcasm and sparks begin to fly. But when Nick’s investigation is compromised, he and Jordan have no choice but to pretend they’re a couple, and what starts out as a simple assignment begins to feel a lot like something more. . .

Signings!

Labels: booksignings, Julie James

And before you ask, no, I did not get out on there on skates. I am uncoordinated on the best of days, but I wasn't feeling too good on Saturday. But many people were there, enjoying themselves. It looked like a lot of fun.

Labels: booksignings, Joelle Charbonneau

Once again I would like to thank the booksigning gods for being fortunate to live in an area where I can attend these awesome signings. The cool and always interesting Chloe Neill was in Wisconsin this past weekend, and I definitely made it a point of going to at least one of them.

Isn't Chloe just the cutest thing?

Me & Chloe

(I'm always a blur LOL)

Labels: booksignings, Chloe Neill

Emilie, Susan, Carla, Rachel & Gena

at the KMart in Bloomingdale, IL

Then Saturday was the Authors in Motion bus tour, which brought the fabulous Gena Showalter, Rachel Vincent, Carla Neggers, Susan Mallery and Emilie Richards to a city near me (actually quite a few, but I only attended one signing).

Emilie Richards


Susan Mallery



Carla Neggers

Rachel Vincent

Gena Showalter

All the ladies were just lovely, very friendly and sweet. I got a book from each of them, though Rachel didn't have the first book in either of her two series, but I made do with the 2nd in her young adult series LOL. I hope those of you in the Chicagoland/Wisconsin/Indiana area got a chance to stop by and meet these fabulous authors. And who knows, after chatting with them, we might see some of them at the Lori Foster get-together in 2011!

After leaving the signing, I hit a few bookstores, then my night was topped off by a visit to the Cheesecake Factory with one of my good pals. She had to work on Saturday and we decided to go splurge on some excellent food.

I got my usual:

Chicken Madeira

Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake

Actually I went for the Red Velvet Cheesecake but I took it to go, and the presentation isn't quite as impressive when it's already boxed up.

So, how was your weekend?

Labels: booksignings

Labels: booksignings

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to meet my favorite YA author, Simone Elkeles. For those of you who may not know, she wrote the amazing "Perfect Chemistry", as well as another YA favorite of mine, "Leaving Paradise". Her latest book, which I finished moments before the signing (it's amazing!), is my current favorite of her's.

Here are just a few of her releases. I've read 3 of her books so far, and I highly recommend each of them.


The crowd wasn't very big, but Simone took her time with each person, especially the teenage girls, and I was impressed with her patience and enthusiasm.

Simone and me (isn't she adorable?)

I think other than the parents, I was the only adult, but I didn't mind. I could hear comments from parents praising the book and how it got their teen reading, and from school teachers who said that "Perfect Chemistry" was still the top-read book in their school. There were also several librarians there as well. It's pretty cool to hear adults being so positive about these books. They certainly didn't have this kind of reading material when I was a teen.

Here are Alex (Alexander F. Rodriguez) and Carlos ( Giancarlo Vidrio) from Simone's Perfect Chemistry trilogy. I just had to get a poster of these 2 young hotties ;)

I got to chat for a few moments with Simone about the books, and let her know how much I enjoyed them, and that it was another adult and fellow reader - Christine - who brought her books to my attention. Christine, hon, I truly appreciate it! I am such a huge fan, and I have you to thank for that :)

One of her characters in "Rules of Attraction" is a young gay man named Tuck, and I was curious to know whether or not she would be writing a gay YA story. It appeared the thought hadn't crossed her mind, but you just never know, right?

Anyway, it was quite a pleasure meeting Simone. She was lively and funny and totally focused on whoever was standing in front of her. I'm sure she understood how it is for some teens to be shy and uncomfortable, and Simone was wonderful with each person.

Funny sidenote: while standing in line I noticed this guy there who looked very familiar. It turned out to be Simone's husband, but what was funny was that I actually knew him from the building where I work! So he noticed me and came over after I had my books signed and asked me if I worked for --- and we got to talking. Of course I tried to hit him up for some future books LOL.

Srsly, a GREAT day. And to make it even better is that Simone will be at the Chicago Spring Fling this upcoming Saturday. April is shaping out to be an awesome booksigning month.

If you ever get the chance to meet Simone, please do. She is truly amazing :)

So that was my weekend. How was yours?

Labels: booksignings, Simone Elkeles

Here's Beth Kery, author of one of my top favorite erotic romances of all time: Wicked Burn. She's so sweet, and much prettier than my blurry photo-taking skills would indicate. In my defense, I was using my phone to take the pictures, and it's not the best quality. But take my word for it, Beth is adorable.

It was a most fun Saturday, and I also got to meet some Twitter friends, like Colleen. Julie's adorable son Jackson was there, but I missed the opportunity to meet the brilliant Mr. James. Perhaps another time. I also missed seeing my pal Dani again. I got there around 3:30 and stayed the whole time. I figured if I'm going to drive into the city I'm going to make the most of it.

After the signing, we headed across the street to the Webster Wine Bar. (I did take a picture, but it was so dark in there it's hard to see after I downloaded it). I talked to Julie a little bit about her next book - her heroine owns a wine store and Julie did extensive, um, research for the book, which has now prompted me to find out more about wine. I never really cared all that much before, but it turns out Illinois has some decent wineries, plus I checked online and there are a gazillion wine-tasting events around the city and suburbs, some of them even free. So I think I'll be brushing up on my wine knowledge.

Shiloh's hubby was also in attendance. Gotta give the guy credit for listening to our chatter. He didn't talk much but you can just tell he's got some interesting thoughts and opinions, judging but the look on his face LOL. I'm sure being married to an author, he's heard it all.

Got exciting news from Joss: she's working on book #4! I won't give anything away, but I'm thrilled to pieces. It's going to also reveal a lot about another character who will be getting a story later on, and I can't wait for his story. It's going to be a doozy, I'm sure. And in Colleen Gleason news, she's got a new vampire series she's working on, so I'm tres excited about that. Keep those books coming, Joss/Colleen!

In other news, I have a interview with Beth to post, which will probably go up sometime this week. I'm looking forward to that. She was very patient with me, as I tend to ask really confusing questions, but I think we worked it all out.

So as you can see, I had a GREAT time. These ladies are 4 of my favorite authors, all auto-buys for me. And I'm looking forward to seeing them again later in the year for other signings. There's the Chicago Spring Fling, which I'll be attending, as well as the Lori Foster get-together, and RWA. It's going to be a fabulous year :)

Labels: Beth Kery, booksignings, Joss Ware, Julie James, Shiloh Walker

*****

I am so there!!!

Labels: booksignings, contest

In case you haven't been around my blog here in the last week or so, I had finally decided to attend the Chloe Neill signing in Wisconsin this past weekend. Once I figured out where it was, it was only about a 45-minute drive from home, so despite the icky weather, I was determined to go.

* Chloe Neill is a pen name.

* Ethan was inspired by David Beckham. Catcher by Paul Walker (yum). And Chloe had Zoey Deschanel in mind for Merit, as well as Jill Flint from the USA Network show "Royal Pains"

* She listened to "Alone" off the Glee soundtrack, like, A LOT, as well as the song "Possiblity" from the New Moon soundtrack and the band Muse. She mentioned Imogen Heap as well.

* She's read and enjoyed the books of Sherrilyn Kenyon, J.R. Ward and Kim Harrison

* Chloe also reads a lot of travel logs and nonfiction by A. J. Jacobs

* She raves about writer Neil Gaiman

* Chloe chose Chicago for her vampire series because New York, L.A. and New Orleans have been done before, and Chicago has a rich and dark history

* She has 3 books under contract so far for her Dark Elite series (and we hope for more)

* Never say never, but chances are she might not write a stand-alone book. She really likes the character development of a series.

* ...and last but not least, we did not get ANY good gossip on Merit or Ethan! Bummer!

But hey I'm not complaining (much) because I got the chance to meet a favorite new author, and I got my books signed. I also bought the first 2 in the Chicagoland Vampire series that I also had signed and need to figure out what kind of contest I'm going to have. Hmmm....

Now for those of you who would love to meet Chloe and want her to come to your hometown, one thing that might be helpful is to contact your local bookstore(s) and request that they invite her in for a signing. I know she's very receptive to the idea, so give it a try. Let them know you'd love to have a favorite author come to their store. Really, it's so easy, and it's a win/win situation: the reader gets to meet a fun and interesting person, the writer gets their name out there and sells some books, and the booksellers are making a profit without really having to spend much money to promote said author. And if the booksellers are savvy, they've figured out that readers, especially romance readers, buy in bulk. It's very unlikely that we stop at one (see previous post about my 16-book shopping spree!

Some exciting news:

Chloe Neill night be coming back to the area in July, when the 3rd Chicagoland Vampire book is released! I've already marked it down on my calendar to attend. And just maybe she'll have a signing in the Windy City!

So far Chloe doesn't have any plans to attend the conferences throughout the year, but I'm hoping she'll consider attending the Lori Foster/Dianne Castell gathering in June. Definitely an inexpensive and fun way to interact with readers and other authors. We'll see just how persuasive I can be *g*

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I used my phone, which doesn't take the best pictures but it's quick and easy and fun to play with and allowed me to take notes and Google some of what Chloe was talking about. I've bookmarked some new tunes and websites to check out, based on some of her comments.

A huge "thank you" to Chloe for doing the signing so close to where I live, and it was a pleasure to listen to her talk about books and answer our questions. It makes me even more impatient for the next book!

Any booksignings in your future?

Labels: booksignings, Chloe Neill

Labels: booksignings, Chloe Neill

The lady of the hour: SEP

I also saw author Tracey Devlyn at the signing, which was pretty cool. She's a part of Lori Foster's Yahoo group, so I knew she'd be there, but didn't know if I'd get a chance to see her with everything going on. She's very nice, and I wish we could have had more of a chance to chat, and see what she's up to writing-wise. But she said she's going to Lori Foster's/Dianne Castell's get-together in June, so hopefully we can catch up.

anyone who's read the Stars books knows about this phrase *g*

Labels: booksignings, SEP

Labels: booksignings, SEP

Labels: booksignings, Colleen Gleason, Michelle Buonfiglio

Labels: booksignings, Josh Bernstein