In Eowyn Ivey’s magical debut novel The Snow Child, a couple creates a child out of snow. When she appears on their doorstep as a little girl, wild and secretive, their lives are changed forever.

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for a couple who have never been able to conceive. Jack and Mabel are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone, but they catch sight of an elusive, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and leaves blizzards in her wake. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who seems to have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in the Alaska wilderness, life and death are inextricable, and what they eventually learn about Faina changes their lives forever.

Eowyn was inspired to write the novel after she discovered the classic Russian fairy tale of the snow maiden. She was shelving books in the children’s section of Fireside Books when she happened across a copy of Freya Littledale’s retelling of the fairy tale with illustrations by Alaskan artist Barbara Lavallee. The story haunted Eowyn with its loneliness and magic in a landscape so similar to the one she grew up in. She spent the next few months researching the original tale, and depictions of it in Russian art work, before she began writing.

The Snow Child has been described as a “remarkable achievement”, “stunningly conceived” and “enchanting from beginning to end.” – FROM THE AUTHOR’S SITE

Forthcoming in hardcover by Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown & Co., February 1, 2012.

Stay in touch with The Snow Child updates via Facebook.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Eowyn (pronounced A-o-win) LeMay Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. Her mother named her after a character from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

Eowyn works at the independent bookstore Fireside Books where she plays matchmaker between readers and books. The Snow Child is her debut novel. Her short fiction appears in the anthology Cold Flashes, University of Alaska Press 2010, and the North Pacific Rim literary journal Cirque.

Prior to her career as a bookseller and novelist, Eowyn worked for nearly a decade as an award-winning reporter at the Frontiersman newspaper. Her weekly articles about her outdoor adventures earned her the Best Non-Daily Columnist award from the Alaska Press Club. Her articles and photographs have been published in the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Magazine, and other publications.

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Thanks to Little, Brown, and Company, we’re giving away THREE COPIES of The Snow Child. This giveaway is open to those with a US/Canadian mailing address (No PO Boxes) and runs now through 11:59pm February 29th.

To enter, answer this question…

Can you remember a tale from your childhood that is forever etched in your brain because it impacted you somehow?

First, my dad was good friends with Emmett Kelley, one of the most famous clowns in history. He would appear smack-dab in the middle of a huge spotlight, a white, upside-down smile dipping toward his chin. In his hands he’d carry a broom and dustpan. He’d step outside the spotlight and start sweeping it into a smaller circle. Then, smaller. When the spotlight was no bigger than a dinner plate, he’d sweep it into his dustpan. To me, a little kid, it was magic! My heroine, Calliope Kelley, is named for Emmett Kelley.

Second, the seed for my circus theme was planted when I researched my generational saga, Heaven’s Thunder, and learned that the circus had visited Colorado Springs in the early 1900s. A big circus. With elephants! And what was then called a cameleopard (giraffe). Curiosity piqued, I began to research traveling circuses. Although no one circus is the basis for The Greatest Love on Earth, P.T. Barnum’s comes close.

I didn’t consciously think in metaphoric terms while writing The Greatest Love on Earth, but I believe life is akin to a circus. Life is full of strange, funny, and amazing things. The circus is quirky, sparkly, fascinating and scary. Just like life, a circus can sometimes be dangerous. Just like life, a circus is lots of fun.

As a child I saw circus performances at NYC’s Madison Square Garden. Picture a very plump Shirley Temple look-alike with red corkscrew curls, shouting, “Oooh, look at the baby elephant holding its mother’s tail…ooh, ooh, look at the horses!” Even today, if I shut my eyes, I can smell the popcorn and cotton candy, hear the music of the calliope, visualize the colorful parade. I thought about running away to join the circus, but only because I was crazy about horses and wanted to be an equestrian (like my heroine, Calliope Kelley). My parents wisely let me ride once a week at a nearby riding stable, and the dream receded. Years later I had my own horse, Arapaho, and rode bareback.

I know some people are afraid of clowns, but in 1875, the time period of The Greatest Love on Earth, clowns weren’t the least bit scary. On the contrary, they kept the audience amused between acts and always carried smelling salts, just in case women in the audience fainted while watching dangerous stunts (or from their tight corsets).

Another reason I decided to use a circus setting for The Greatest Love on Earth was because I hadn’t read any “circus novels” that take place during my time period. More recently, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants comes to mind, and there’s a marvelous short story, Sleeping With the Plush, written by Toni L.P. Kelner for Alfred Hitchcock Magazine. Of course, there are several circus-themed movies, including The Greatest Show on Earth and Trapeze and the Marx Brothers in At the Circus, and Broadway has Barnum and Carnival (a musical adaptation of Lili) and The Fantasticks. One entire summer I played The Girl in a dinner theatre production of The Fantasticks, and to this day, when I look up at a cloudy sky I start singing “Soon it’s Gonna Rain.”

During my research for The Greatest Love on Earth, I was gobsmacked to discover that, in 19th-century America, carousels were always called merry-go-rounds (in France they were called carousels). I had written a sensual love scene with my hero and heroine atop a merry-go-round horse. The hand-crafted merry-go-round was hidden within a forest. The scene was very visual, but I needed to know what kind of music an 1875 merry-go-round would have, so I called a local research librarian. Research librarians knew me by my first name because I’m a stickler for facts and don’t always trust the Internet. This lovely woman called me back and said that a small band played the music (think: Mary Poppins). I laughed and said that wouldn’t work for my love scene. She offered to leave the “merry-go-round book” at the front desk, and I’m so glad she did. Because I learned that 1875 merry-go-round horses don’t go up and down!

Here’s a paragraph from the rewrite: “Brian lifted Calliope up onto the gray Arabian’s saddle. She clutched the rod that extended through its body. He grabbed the leather reins attached to its throatlatch. He jumped to the ground and started running, the reins held tightly in his hands. Her wooden horse swung out past the platform, flying through the air as if it had wings. When the merry-go-round was in full swing, Brian released the reins.”

Since Brian and Calliope consummate their love for each other in that scene, I had to build a gazebo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Former singer/actress and perennial rule-breaker Mary Ellen Dennis is the author of several award-winning historical romance novels and culinary mysteries and is growing her audience for both. She is married to novelist Gordon Aalborg (aka Victoria Gordon), whom she met online through a writer’s group; they live on Vancouver Island. She has two books in stores this month, released by Sourcebooks Casablanca: The Greatest Love on Earth—set in the exotic world of a 19th century circus and sweeps readers into death-defying feats, dangerous rivalries, and a love that has all the thrills and romance of the greatest show on earth., and a reissue of The Landlord’s Black-Eyed Daughter: A fast-paced and passionate retelling of the story of two timeless lovers who would die for each other. If only they didn’t have to. This gorgeous romance gives the poem a whole new depth and a happy ending. For more information, please visit www.maryellendennis.com.

He’s fearless, except when it comes to Calliope Kelley…

Nothing could shake the courage of lion tamer Brian O’Connor, until the circus is threatened and the love of his life deserts him…

Danger, drama, dazzling excitement are her world…

Bold, beautiful Calliope Kelley would jump through flaming hoops to protect her father’s circus. But when disaster strikes and Calliope loses everything, she knows she must build brand new dreams…

Torn apart and betrothed to others, a twist of fate brings Brian and Calliope back under the bigtop, where together they’ll walk the high-wire to see if great loves turn to ashes or rekindle to burn brightly forever…

• Pub. Date: August 2011
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
• Format: Mass Market Paperback , 448pp
• ISBN-13: 9781402249822
• ISBN: 1402249829

BUY FROM… Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Sourcebooks

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…I’m giving away TWO copies of THE GREATEST LOVE ON EARTH for readers of The Book Faery Reviews. This giveaway will run now through the remainder of August.

GIVEAWAY ENTRY…Leave a comment below for Mary Ellen Dennis.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES…

1) Follow @farrah1230 on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (use the tweet button in the post)

2) Become an RSS feed and/or email subscriber (see sidebar)

3) Like The Book Faery Reviews on Facebook (see sidebar)

Please note that giveaway notifications are done within post comments, on the Facebook page, and within the monthly newsletter.

Award winning romance author, Leigh Michaels, is stopping over with her exclusive interview today at The Book Faery Reviews. Author to about a hundred books, she is currently promoting her latest novel, Just One Season In London published by Sourcebooks Casablanca and released just this month. Now on to the interview!

Welcome “Leigh” to The Book Faery Reviews! We’re absolutely delighted to have you here today and since I enjoyed reading your last novel The Mistress’ House, I couldn’t wait to get a copy of Just One Season In London to read more by you!

Let’s first talk about your name since Leigh Michaels is a pen name for you. I’ve always wondered why some authors used pen names. Why did you choose to use a pen name, did you come up with the name yourself, and how long have you been using it? Do you sometimes wish you wrote in your real name or any future plans for doing so?

When I chose my pen name I was just signing my first contract with Harlequin, and at the time the publisher preferred for authors to use pen names. I was happy to do so, and I chose a combination of part of my own first name and my husband’s first name – mostly because before I’d sold that first book, he never said, “You could use all this time to get a real job.” I like using a pen name because it helps to keep just a little distance between the real person and the writer/celebrity. That helps keep me from feeling too important when I’m in my real-life role – and I’m less likely to throw my weight around. I’ve used my real name from time to time on non-fiction projects, like local history books – but I have no plans to write fiction under my real name.

I read that you were a teacher and an editor. How long have you been teaching romance writing? You are an editor as well; do you edit a variety of genres or just romance? How did you get into doing both?

I started teaching at the community college level years ago, with courses like freshman comp and creative writing, so it felt natural to move into specialized seminars for writers and then to online classes for romance writers at Gotham Writers Workshop (www.writingclasses.com). My first all-romance class was about 15 years ago, and three students from that class have gone on to publish commercially, with more than 30 books between them. One won a Golden Heart (unpublished manuscript) and one a RITA (published book), both awarded by Romance Writers of America. Since then I’ve had a large number of students become published – something which is really fun and rewarding for me. (It’s like becoming a grandma – I didn’t do any of the hard work, but I get to brag about the baby.) The editing grew out of the teaching career. I critique mostly romance, but occasionally I dip into other genres if I feel drawn to the story. And I acquire and edit non-fiction books – mostly local history – for the small publisher my husband and I operate (www.pbllimited.com)

You’ve written 80 contemporary romance novels and you have 3 historical romance titles: The Mistress’ House, Just One Season in London and The Wedding Affair (which will be in stores in September). Have you decided to switch over completely to historical or do you just write what comes to mind at the time?

I actually don’t plan very far ahead – which sometimes drives my agent around the bend – but for the foreseeable future I’m planning to stick with historicals. However, there are always a few contemporary ideas which are just too good not to use… so it will depend on how I feel in any given year.

With your historical romance novels, have you done any special research to help you in writing accurately for the time? Travel to historical places? Or is it just book research?

I’ve been researching the Regency period forever, first by reading novels set in the Regency period and then looking up all the non-fiction resources I could find. But I have spent significant time in England, and there’s nothing like walking along the street where Jane Austen lived for a while, or seeing the architecture of the period which still survives, or strolling through gardens at Hampton Court or formal rooms at Windsor Castle or Apsley House, to get the feel of how people lived.

What was the first romance novel you wrote? If you could revamp it today, what would you have done differently to it—or would you leave it alone? Have you found your writing has evolved since then?

The first romance novel I wrote has long since been consigned to the fire – literally – along with the next five I attempted. Burning them was a very freeing experience, trust me! The first one I sold was called The Grand Hotel, and I think it still holds up quite well, all things considered. But yes, if I was writing it today I’d approach the story much differently. My writing style has tightened up and become much more direct – and funnier – since then. And I think the heroine would be a little less rigid, too.

Other than romance, what do you like to read? Do you have a preference in genre when it comes to your personal reading? What do your own reading bookshelves look like?

I read a lot of mystery, mostly cozies, and also science fiction, fantasy, and alternative history. And nonfiction – a lot of magazines but also books about oddball topics, because a writer never knows what fact will come in handy someday. My office has a wall containing all the editions of my books and a wall of reference stuff, but I also have a sitting room lined with shelves of favorites and keepers. It’s a very peaceful, quiet room where I could stay for a month at a time and never get bored.

Now let’s chat about your latest novel out this month, Just One Season in London. In no more than 5 sentences, could you give us a description of the story?

Viscount Ryecroft has a beautiful sister to marry off – but no money to fund a London Season for her, so perhaps he needs to find an heiress for himself first. Sophie Ryecroft is willing to marry for the good of the family – but she can’t meet the sort of man Rye has in mind for her except in London. Rye and Sophie’s mother, Miranda, will do anything for the sake of her children – even taking up again with a man she knew long ago and  offering to be his mistress. And they have Just One Season in London to make their dreams come true.

Is there a back story of how you came up with the idea for the book? 

At first I thought this was the story of a mother and two daughters, but then – fortunately for me – Rye reared up off the brainstorming pages and demanded to get a full role in the story.

Which character did you find the most enjoyable to write and why?

I loved them all – because they’re truly a loving and happy family, each willing to sacrifice to make life better for the other two. But Sophie was a great deal of fun, because she’s young enough to do the unexpected, naïve enough to be surprised when her ideas don’t pan out the way she wanted, and hopeful enough to bounce back regardless.

You’ve spoken at events, taught workshops, and been on blog tours. What’s something nobody has asked you that you wished they did so you could share it with their readers and others? And what would that answer be?

My students will tell you that I’m never short of an opinion or hesitant to share it – at least about writing and publishing. So if there’s something I think the audience is longing to ask, I generally go ahead and answer anyway. But one of the questions I wish hadn’t come up was a reporter who asked – with a wink – if I actually did all the things I’d put in the book. After a frantic rummaging through my memory to recall exactly what HAD been in that story, I took the dull – but safe – route and said “No.” She seemed very disappointed…

Thank you for being a guest at The Book Faery Reviews today. It was an absolute pleasure!

Thank you for inviting me!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Leigh Michaels is the author of nearly 100 books, including 80 contemporary novels and more than a dozen non-fiction books. More than 35 million copies of her romance novels have been published by Harlequin. A 6 time RITA finalist, she has also received two Reviewer’s Choice awards from RT Book Reviews, and was the 2003 recipient of the Johnson Brigham Award. She is the author ofOn Writing Romance, published in January 2007 by Writers Digest Books. Leigh also teaches romance writing on the Internet at Gotham Writers’ Workshop.  She lives in Ottumwa, Iowa, where she is working on her third book from Sourcebooks, The Wedding Affair, which will be in stores in September. For more information, please visit www.leighmichaels.com.

JUST ONE SEASON IN LONDON BY LEIGH MICHAELS—IN STORES JULY 2011

A family that courts together…

Viscount Ryecroft has a beautiful sister he needs to marry off… if only he had the money for her Season in London.

His family is in financial ruins, and his mother is willing to do anything to help her children, including sell herself to the highest bidder…

Finds passion on their own…

Sophie Ryecroft will sacrifice love to marry for the good of her family… but instead finds passion and solace in an attractive alternative.

With so much riding on their one and only Season in London, Rye, Sophie, and Miranda can’t help but get hopelessly entangled with all the wrong people…

Celebrated author Leigh Michaels effortlessly weaves three tales of unexpected romance with surprising twists you won’t soon forget.

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Thanks to Sourcebooks, I’m giving away 2 copies of Just One Season in London to someone with a US or Canada non-PO Box mailing address. This giveaway runs now through the end of July to those with an US/Canadian mailing address (No PO Boxes).

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment or question for the author, Leigh Michaels. 

Dracula. A name of horror, depravity and the darkest sensuality. Yet the real Dracula was just as alluring, just as terrifying, his tale not one of a monster but of a man… and a contradiction.

His tale is told by those who knew him best. The only woman he ever loved…and whom he had to sacrifice. His closest comrade…and traitor. And his priest, betraying the secrets of the confessional to reveal the mind of the man history would forever remember as The Impaler. This is the story of the man behind the legend…as it has never been told before. – FROM AMAZON

Paperback: 416 pages

• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (May 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402253516
• ISBN-13: 978-1402253515

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Chris Humphreys is a British actor, playwright and novelist. Born in Toronto, Canada, he was raised in Los Angeles, California until the age of seven and then grew up in the United Kingdom. For acting he is best known for his role in The Bill where he played PC Richard Turnham from 1989 to 1990. He has also been in Zorro, Coronation Street, Hawkeye, Dangerfield, Highlander: The Series, Goodnight Sweetheart, Wycliffe, Silent Witness, and The Core. He publishes historical adventure novels and young adult fantasy novels under the name C.C. Humphreys. The main character for his Jack Absolute series is based on the main character of the play The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. – FROM AMAZON

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…We’re giving away ONE copy to a lucky commentor of this post thanks to Sourcebooks. This giveaway is a short one. It lasts only through June 30th (this coming Thursday!).

To enter this giveaway: Share with us what you always thought about Dracula.

EXTRA ENTRIES…

• Follow us on twitter and send out a tweet about this post & giveaway. (Just use the ReTweet button at the top of the post)
• Subscribe to our feed or e-mail newsletter (see left sidebar and note that all giveaways notifications are done via monthly newsletter and within giveaway post; individual emails no longer sent out)
• Like us on Facebook (see left sidebar beneath email subscription)

GIVEAWAY NOTIFICATION: The selected commentor will be noted within the comments at the end of the giveaway, Monthly Newsletter that goes out to all e-mail subscribers (subscribers also receive an RSS email for days there is a post), and on our new Facebook Page. You must either subscribe to these comments, check out the Facebook page, or read at least the Sunday email in order to find out if you are the winner as we will no longer be sending out individual emails to winners.

Good Luck!

A copy of the book was provided for review & a giveaway from Sourcebooks. No money compensation was received.

In my case, that’s easy to prove. I’m a native of New Orleans, I set my stories in New Orleans, I draw my scenes here, I base my characters on amalgams of local people perhaps known only to me and sometimes one person in the audience. Fragments of stories might come from my own misbegotten life. But most importantly, my books reflect the emotional landscape I’ve traveled. That’s whyI say even a science fiction writer surely draws from his or her own personal material. It might take a psychiatrist to find it, but it’s there.

In my latest novel, I’m not subtle. I’ve been told this is the novel I was born to write. Someone less kind might say, Hey, this is nothing but a roman aclef. TOO JEWISH is based mostly on my father’s life, and while I’d like to think there’s a lot of historical accuracy in it, it’s deeply fictional, and it’s also deeply speculative. It’s also pretty deeply true.

My father escaped from Nazi Germany the day Hitler invaded Poland, leaving his mother behind, and taking along what would become a burden of survivor’sguilt that would almost destroy him. This is true. What is not true, and what becomes the central focus of the novel, is that he did not learn of her fate. Part truth, part fiction, some thought…and all contradiction, as the saying goes. My father married into a family that didn’t accept him. TOO JEWISH is the story of my parents’ marriage, and while the narrative details may veer away from accuracy, the pain and sadness are exactly as I saw them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Patty Friedmann’s two latest books are a YA novel called Taken Away [TSP 2010] and a literary e-novel titled Too Jewish [booksBnimble 2010]. She also is the author of six darkly comic literary novels set in New Orleans: The Exact Image of Mother [Viking Penguin 1991]; Eleanor Rushing [1998], Odds [2000], Secondhand Smoke [2002], Side Effects [2006], and A Little Bit Ruined [2007] [all hardback and paperback from Counterpoint except paper edition of Secondhand Smoke from Berkley Penguin]; as well as the humor book Too Smart to Be Rich [New Chapter Press 1988]. Her novels have been chosen as Discover Great New Writers, Original Voices, and Book Sense 76 selections, and her humor book was syndicated by the New York Times. She has published reviews, essays, and short stories in Publishers Weekly, Newsweek, Oxford American, Speakeasy, Horn Gallery, Short Story, LA LIT, Brightleaf, New Orleans Review, and The Times-Picayune and in anthologies The Great New American Writers Cookbook, Above Ground, Christmas Stories from Louisiana, My New Orleans, New Orleans Noir, and Life in the Wake. Her stage pieces have been part of Native Tongues. In a special 2009 edition, Oxford American listed Secondhand Smoke with 29 titles that included Gone with the Wind, Deliverance, and A Lesson Before Dying as the greatest Underrated Southern Books. With slight interruptions for education and natural disasters, she always has lived in New Orleans.

VISIT PATTY FRIEDMANN: WEBSITE | BLOG | FACEBOOK

When young, brainy Bernie Cooper escapes the Nazis and ends up in New Orleans, he thinks at first that he’s landed softly, almost immediately finding love with Letty, not only a nice Jewish girl, but fifth-generation Southern upper crust. But suddenly, snobberies he couldn’t even have guessed at are set in motion. It seems Letty’s prominent Jewish parents hate him for being . . . too Jewish! – FROM B&N

• Pub. Date: January 2010
• Publisher: BooksBNimble
• Buy from: Barnes & Noble | Amazon

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…Thanks to Pump Up Your Book Promotion and Patty Friedmann, we’re having a giveaway! One lucky commenter will receive a copy of Too Jewish. This giveaway will run through the month of June and someone will be selected July 1st. Giveaway is open to US and Canadian addresses only.

MANDATORY ENTRY…Leave  Patty a comment below about her guest post here.

EXTRA ENTRIES…

• Follow us on twitter and send out a tweet about this post & giveaway.
• Subscribe to our feed or e-mail newsletter (see sidebar and note that all giveaways notifications are done via monthly newsletter and within giveaway post; individual emails no longer sent out)
• Like us on Facebook (see sidebar)

GIVEAWAY NOTIFICATION: The selected commentor will be noted within the comments at the end of the giveaway, Monthly Newsletter that goes out to all e-mail subscribers (subscribers also receive an RSS email for days there is a post), and on our new Facebook Page. You must either subscribe to these comments, check out the Facebook page, or read at least the Sunday email in order to find out if you are the winner as we will no longer be sending out individual emails to winners.

Good Luck!

To celebrate the Royal Wedding, Sourcebooks and The British Babes Book Brigade are giving away lots of books & royal wedding mementos!

Visit The British Babes Book Brigade Fan page each day for a change to win…

• The 1^st place winner will get a William & Kate wedding memento (it is top secret for now (just like Kate’s dress J) but check the page out on Monday to find out – oh and they are all different so there will be a different memento each day).  Along with that they also get their choice of three books from any of our British Book Babes.
• The 2^nd place winner will have their choice of any two books from any of our British Book Babes.
• The 3^rd place winner will have their choice of one book from any of our British Book Babes.

Just click on the Facebook Fan Page Button above and LIKE these gals Facebook style! Each day visit and leave a comment on the giveaway post.

IN ADDITION…Sourcebooks is letting The Book Faery Reviews give away TWO Georgette Heyer book titles to ONE lucky commentor of this post. All you have to do is leave a comment below of what you think of the upcoming wedding or couple (William & Kate). This giveaway will run through the remainder of April and is open only to those with a US/Canadian mailing address (no PO Boxes).

• The Werewolf Upstairs – by Ashlyn Chase
• Agent X - by Noah Boyd
• Edward McKay Used Books & More Gift Certificate
• 21-Day Weightloss Kickstart by Neal D. Barnard, MD
• Sins of the House of Borgia by Sarah Bower
• The Book Faery Reviews is THREE!! We’re having an awesome birthday bash giveaway!

The Book Faery Reviews is three years old this month!

Woohoo! Boy has time flown by and it’s been LOTS of FUN!

Below is a slide show of previous guest authors at The Book Faery Reviews:

To celebrate our time blogging, we’re opening up the book vault and giving away THREE different packages! THREE readers of The Book Faery Reviews will receive one of the following packages:

PACKAGE #1 - $50 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com OR Barnes & Noble {Winner’s Choice}

PACKAGE #2 – $25 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com OR Barnes & Noble {Winner’s Choice}

PACKAGE #3 – Book Pack

The Case for Falling In Love by Mari Ruti

Mental Floss: The History of the United States by Erik Sass

Blue by Lou Aronica

The Remains by Vincent Zandri

Wishin’ and Hopin’ by Wally Lamb

Dear Sparkle: Cat to Cat Advice by Sparkle the Cat

The Heir by Grace Burrowes

The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook by Matt Dunn

MANDATORY GIVEAWAY ENTRY…Just leave us a comment on this post. YEP! SUPER EASY!

EXTRA ENTRIES…(Be sure to leave a comment for each entry.)

• Follow us on twitter and send out the following tweet:

The Book Faery Reviews is 3 years old and having a Birthday Bash #Giveaway w/ @farrah1230! #tbfr http://ow.ly/3SaOm

• Post the following message to Facebook:

Just entered The Book Faery Reviews 3 year Birthday Bash Giveaway! You can too! http://ow.ly/3SaOm

• Include the following text plus link on your blog:

Go to The Book Faery Reviews to enter to win 1 of 2 prize packages to celebrate 3 years!

• Subscribe to our feed or e-mail newsletter (see sidebar and note that all giveaways notifications are done via newsletter and within giveaway post; individual emails no longer sent out)
• Like us on Facebook (see sidebar)

Good Luck!

This giveaway runs now until 11:59pm ET on February 28th, 2011.

Look at the book cover for Sins of the House of Borgia. When you look at the cover, what is the first thing to pop into your mind about the book? What does the body language of the female on the cover suggest to you? How about the background behind her? Do the colors express something alone to you? I know what I think but I think it would be more fun to hear from you. Just leave your thoughts about the cover below! Simple!

Giveaway open to US/Canadian addresses only (No PO Boxes) and will run now through the end of February.

Violante isn’t supposed to be here, in one of the grandest courts of Renaissance Italy. She isn’t supposed to be a lady-in-waiting to the beautiful Lucrezia Borgia. But the same secretive politics that pushed Lucrezia’s father to the Vatican have landed Violante deep in a lavish landscape of passion and ambition.

Violante discovers a Lucrezia unknown to those who see only a scheming harlot, and all the whispers about her brother, Cesare Borgia, never revealed the soul of the man who dances close with Violante.

But those who enter the House of Borgia are never quite the same when they leave-if they leave at all. Violante’s place in history will test her heart and leave her the guardian of dangerous secrets she must carry to the grave. – FROM AMAZON.COM

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (March 1, 2011)
• Language: English

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Sarah Bower is literature development officer for Creative Arts East and teaches creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She was the UK editor of Historical Novels Review for two years, until the beginning of 2006, when she stepped down to make more time for her own writing. With the highly talked about Spring 2011 premiere of Showtime’s new series The Borgias, there is no doubt this notorious and legendary crime family will soon be in the spotlight. – FROM SOURCEBOOKS

With Dr. Barnard’s advice on how to easily start a plant-based diet, you’ll learn the secrets to reprogramming your body quickly:

• Appetite reduction: Strategically choose the right foods to naturally and easily tame your appetite.
• Metabolism boost: Adjust eating patterns to burn calories faster for about three hours after each meal.
• Cardio protection: Discover the powerful foods that can help reduce cholesterol nearly as much as drugs do in just weeks.

Whether you are one of the millions who are anxious to get a jumpstart on weight loss or who already know about the benefits of a plant-based diet but have no idea how or where to start, this book is the kickstart you’ve been waiting for. Complete with more than sixty recipes, daily meal plans for the 21-day program, tips for grocery shopping, and more, this book will teach you how to make the best food choices and get your body on the fast track to better health.

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Life & Style (February 28, 2011)
• Language: English

We’re giving away 2 copies of 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart to 2 lucky readers of The Book Faery Reviews. This giveaway runs now until 11:59pm ET on February 28th, 2011 and is open ONLY to US/Canadian NON-PO Box Addresses.

MANDATORY GIVEAWAY ENTRY…Just leave a comment on this post telling us you want to get this book. (This must be answered first for all other entries to count.)

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A copy of the book was provided to me for review courtesy of Hachette Books. No other compensation was received. All opinions expressed are of my own.