Avon Addict Blog Hop!

Ack!  I'm tardy! I thought my day was tomorrow {facepalm}.

If you followed the hop links here, I'm so glad you stopped by!


If you're a regular Alpha Heroes reader and didn't know about the Hop, please check out the Blog Hop Home Page at Pure Textuality (and BIG BIG thanks to Jena for organizing), and if you haven't been to the prior hoppers, I highly recommend it!

Kristi Bug
SOS Aloha
Save Your Money for Books
Toot's Book Reviews

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I have to admit, I have never paid much attention to the publishers of my favorite books, and especially not before I started blogging.  Mostly I only noticed that, when a favorite author switches houses, often a large chunk of her previous titles would disappear from that listing you usually see on the leader pages inside their books.

Because of the Authors
I am reader with a lot of author loyalty.   When I find a writer I like I'll track down her backlist and stalk her new releases.  I'll check out her blog, "like" her Facebook page, and, as of this year, look for her Twitter account.

So when it turned out that some of my all-time favorite historical authors are in the Avon family, I couldn't help but jump on the Addict program: Julia Quinn, Loretta Chase, Lisa Kleypas, Lecia Cornwell, and Anna Campbell.  Not only that, but I am absolutely an old-skool romance lover and titles from Kathleen Woodiwiss, Bertrice Small and Rosemary Rogers -- Fabio covers and all -- hooked me on the genre thoroughly from the very beginning.  It's an absolute thrill to be involved with all these wonderful writers and their legacies.

Avon has a great list of contemporary and paranormal authors, but I have to say that I feel like their strength is in the Regencies.  It's a really crowded market but Avon has some of the best out there -- writers whose characters and historical texturing stand out, in my opinion.  Some of the new loves of my life in historical fiction that Avon introduced me to (in no particular order) are:

Sarah MacLean
Katherine Ashe
Sophia Nash
Cathy Maxwell
Julie Ann Long

I'll post my giveaway package when I get home but I can tell you that it will include copies from at least 4 of the 5 ladies above (I can't remember whether I got a physical book from Julie Ann Long or only ebooks) PLUS a few extra goodies.

If you've been reading here long, you may recall that I treated myself to the RT Convention in Chicago in April of this past year, which was an utterly AMAZING experience.  Exhausting, yes, but wow, so much fun.  Note, this is NOT a perk of the Addict program, but something I was planning to do anyway.

However, the wonderful people at Avon DID include me and the other Addict who attended in a  fabulous dinner event with all of the Avon authors and several of the industry folks who were there.  I didn't take any photos because I didn't want the authors to feel uncomfortable; it was clearly an event meant to give the authors a bit of a respite from the crazy fan hordes at the conference.  I sat at a table with Jeaniene Frost and Pamela Palmer and we mostly talked about monster movies.

At the con itself, there were a number of events but the Avon one blew them all out of the water for being just what I as a reader wanted -- super-well-organized, lots of great books, and access to my favorite authors.

I wouldn't want to end this post without talking about a couple of the paranormal authors that Avon publishes - Joss Ware writes one of the more unusual paranormal romance series that you're ever going to find, and I have to admit that I really love them.

The other paranormal author I wanted to highlight is Karina Cooper. There isn't much I love more than discovering the first book of a new paranormal series, and when we got an advanced ecopy of Tarnished back in March, it was one of the reasons I bought an e-reader.  This is a creepy dark steampunky UF series that you do NOT want to miss.  THEN she turns out to be local to me, so I stalked her at the Seattle area RWA book fair too.

My goodie box will definitely include something from these two favorites.  There may or may not be an author signed copy involved.

I'll upload a photo of the giveaway package probably tomorrow morning.  Comment on THIS POST for a chance to win a whole whack of fabulous Avon titles -- you have until noon on Monday, Pacific Time.