Worldwide Giveaway: Win a Signed Companion, a DVD of Season 1, An Outlander Soundtrack, A T-Shirt and Swag

My friends over at Outlander Online have this fabulous Outlander giveaway going on until May 15!

Outlander Online

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We’re giving out 2 prize packs! 

Prize pack 1 includes:

A copy of the Revised Outlandish companion signed by Diana Gabaldon, a DVD of Outlander: Season 1 – Volume 1 (Region 1) and an Outlander Online poster.

Prize pack 2 includes: 

A t-shirt donated by Outlander Cast, make sure to check them out. They do an awesome podcast every week. An Outlander Soundtrack, an Outlander tote and an Outlander Online poster.

Here’s what you have to do to enter:

1) Follow our site on Twitter here.

2) Retweet this tweet here.

3) Like our page on Facebook here.

3) Leave a comment below

This Contest is international!

You have until Friday, May 15th at 8:00pm ET to enter.

All comments will be numbered and the winner will be picked using Random.org

 *Only one entry per person please* 

We will…

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18 & Over Book Blogger Follow #16: Review-Go-Round

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that runs over the weekend, hosted by Crystal from one of my favourite blog sites, Reading Between the Wines.

Question of the Week:  Please share three books that are in your review pile (and unread) right now.

I apologise for not having participated in this meme for a while, but here I am back again, admitting my TBR pile is HUGE! I have a huge list of unread books on my Kindle, and a pile of a dozen or more books gathering dust beside my bed.

Top of the gathering-dust pile at the moment is No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole, which I’ve had since last year sometime.  I plan to read it this month for a Good Reads challenge – but I’ve said that before, lol!

I also plan to read Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost this month for the same challenge, and I’ve had that for about as long as the Kresley Cole. I bought it last year on sale and just can’t seem to get up enough enthusiasm to read Mencheres’ story

Finally, and probably the most embarrassing of all, I have been daunted by the size of A Breath of Snow and Ashesby Diana Gabaldon, which has been in that pile since the book came out in 2006! It’s just too big! I’ve had the next book in the series on my Kindle for a year or more, too, so I really must get onto it. Bad me.

Don’t even get me started on the other books in that pile – mostly presents which hold little appeal. But I will get to them one day!

What about you? What’s been on your bedside table for a while? Leave a comment below or link up HERE to follow the meme.

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow #5

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that runs over the weekend, hosted by Crystal from one of my favourite blog sites, Reading Between the Wines.

Question of the Week: Have you read a romance or erotic novel with an M/M or F/F relationship in it? If so, did you enjoy the read? And if you haven’t, is that something you would read in the future?

I don’t have any problem with same-sex relationships in books. In fact, I’ve been quite surprised by my reaction at times 😉

I’m a big fan of Qhuinn in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and can’t wait to see him get his HEA, and of course V and Butch are another couple with more than just a friendship.

I guess the most obvious M/M series I have started to read is the PsyCops series by Jordan Castillo Price. I’ve read the first two books, Among the Living  and Criss Cross, and I really enjoyed the humour and the relationship between Victor and Jacob. I gave them both four cupcakes, and will be reading the rest of the series when I can. You can read my reviews on Good Reads HERE and HERE.

I love Lord John Grey, Diana Gabaldon‘s character in the Outlander series and his own spin-offs, and I also really love the relationship between Gabe and Colton in the Supernova saga by C.L. Parker. Gabe is just hilarious, and I’d love him for a best friend 🙂

Honourable mention must go to Laura Kaye‘s Just Gotta Say – not so much M/M as M/M/M/F… yep. Good times 😉

Oddly, I can’t recall reading much F/F. I guess I’m all about the hot boys!

What about you? Leave a comment below or link up HERE to follow the meme.

The Scottish Prisoner, by Diana Gabaldon

Format: Trade Paperback, 534 pages

Published: November 29, 2011

Publisher: Orion

Back cover blurb:

London, 1760. For Jamie Fraser, paroled prisoner-of-war in the remote Lake District, life could be worse: He’s not cutting sugar cane in the West Indies, and he’s close enough to the son he cannot claim as his own. But Jamie Fraser’s quiet existence is coming apart at the seams, interrupted first by dreams of his lost wife, then by the appearance of Tobias Quinn, an erstwhile comrade from the Rising.

Like many of the Jacobites who aren’t dead or in prison, Quinn still lives and breathes for the Cause. His latest plan involves an ancient relic that will rally the Irish. Jamie is having none of it—he’s sworn off politics, fighting, and war. Until Lord John Grey shows up with a summons that will take him away from everything he loves—again.

Lord John Grey—aristocrat, soldier, and occasional spy—finds himself in possession of a packet of explosive documents that exposes a damning case of corruption against a British officer. But they also hint at a more insidious danger. Time is of the essence as the investigation leads to Ireland, with a baffling message left in “Erse,” the tongue favored by Scottish Highlanders. Lord John, who oversaw Jacobite prisoners when he was governor of Ardsmiur prison, thinks Jamie may be able to translate—but will he agree to do it?

Soon Lord John and Jamie are unwilling companions on the road to Ireland, a country whose dark castles hold dreadful secrets, and whose bogs hide the bones of the dead. A captivating return to the world Diana Gabaldon created in her Outlander and Lord John series, The Scottish Prisoner is another masterpiece of epic history, wicked deceit, and scores that can only be settled in blood.

My review:

Gabaldon never disappoints, and here she has the added bonus of lots of Jamie Fraser as well as Lord John to work with. In other words, it’s pure win!

It’s been a while since I read any of the Outlander series (or Cross Stitch as it was called here) – I own the last two books but have been put off by their enormous size so they remain beside my bed gathering dust – so I had forgotten some of the relationships, including Hal and Harry Quarry’s previous dealings with Jamie. I like Harry. He’s one of my favourite secondary characters along with Tom the valet. But being reminded that he put Jamie in irons made me question why I liked him so much and come to the conclusion that maybe it was just the excellent poetry, lol!

Anyhoo, this story has all the elements we love from Gabaldon – mystery, romance, politics, fighting, men in period costume, men out of their period costume (!), women who are more than just a pretty face, and quite a few laughs. This also had a supernatural element, which DG also introduced into a previous Lord John adventure. What I loved the most was how this book filled out the main Outlander story by providing interesting background on Jamie’s time at Helwater and his early relationship with young Willie.

Not quite a five-cupcake read for me because I found myself putting it down at times, but it certainly made me want to dust off the volumes by my bed.

My rating: 4.5/5

The Monster (Price) At The End Of This Book

I recently had a bad experience buying a book from a local major retail chain, and it made me realise that I mostly shop online for a couple of very good reasons.

For two years now I have bought all my books through The Book Depository in the UK (let’s call it TBD for short). My husband discovered them after ordering some hardcover Tintin books through Amazon UK, only to discover they were being dispatched via the Book Depository. He looked up their website and found he could have got them cheaper buying directly, as the Book Depository offers free international shipping.

Their site has books I find hard to source here in New Zealand, and often has them earlier than we can get them. They are much cheaper and take about a week to arrive in my letterbox, which I find much more convenient than having to drive to town and pay $4 an hour for parking.

However, for my birthday my brother-in-law gave me a voucher for a major New Zealand book retailer, so I decided to use it two weeks ago to buy the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire.

I bought the first book, The Hunger Games, through the Book Depository for £5.42 ($NZ11.82), delivered to my door. Catching Fire was $NZ24.99, so I got no change from my $25 voucher. Sure, it was essentially free, but I had to pay my petrol and parking money.

However, it turned out to be a false economy when I reached page 234 and found it jumped to page 283 – 48 pages missing! As a result I couldn’t finish the book at the weekend and had to wait until last Monday to return the book to the store, meaning more petrol and parking money. The staff member happily replaced my copy with the last one they had in the store – its Wellington flagship on the Golden Mile of Lambton Quay – but it got me thinking about how I had never received a dud book from my online retailer.

I decided to conduct a quick price comparison in that store and along the Quay at the other major book retailer. Coincidentally, they are both owned by the same parent company, but often have vastly different stock.

Example 1: The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. At the New Zealand stores, paperbacks are $NZ30.99 each. I bought Club Dead last month from the Book Depository for £4.53 ($NZ9.91).

The same book at Amazon US is $US7.99 plus a minimum $US9.98 shipping (total $NZ25.48) or the Kindle version is $US10.82 ($NZ15.34). At Amazon UK it is £3.97 plus a minimum £8.78 shipping (total $NZ27.89).

Example 2: An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. Paperback in Wellington $NZ32.99.

TBD £5.99 ($NZ13.10).

Amazon US $US11.56 plus a minimum $US9.98 shipping ($NZ30.54) or Kindle $US14.40 ($NZ20.47).

Amazon UK £5.59 plus a minimum £8.78 shipping ($NZ31.43).

Example 3: Innocent, by Scott Turow. Hardback in Wellington $NZ43.99.

TBD £13.48 ($NZ29.48).

Amazon US $US18.47 plus a minimum $US9.98 shipping ($NZ40.43) or Kindle $US11.99 ($NZ17.04).

Amazon UK £9.00 plus a minimum £8.78 shipping ($NZ38.89).

Example 4: Dark Lover, by J.R. Ward. Paperback in Wellington $NZ24.99 at one store and $NZ26.99 at the other.

TBD £4.82 ($NZ10.54).

Amazon US $US7.99 plus a minimum $US9.98 shipping ($NZ25.54).

Amazon UK £5.00 plus a minimum £8.78 shipping ($NZ30.14).

Example 5: Dr Who: The Writer’s Tale – The Final Chapter, by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook. Paperback took several months to get to New Zealand, where it retails for $NZ64.99.

I bought mine at Christmastime from TBD for £12.74 ($NZ27.87).

Not available from Amazon US, but Amazon UK £8.49 plus a minimum £8.78 shipping ($NZ37.77).

Example 6: A New Zealand author. The Jane Blonde girl spy book series for kids, by Jill Marshall. In New Zealand $NZ19.99 each.

TBD £5.39 ($NZ11.79).

Prices range on Amazon US between $US5.21 and $US8 plus a minimum $US9.98 shipping ($NZ21.59 to $NZ25.55). Kindle editions are $US7.90 ($NZ11.23).

Amazon UK between £1.00 and £4.99 plus a minimum £8.78 shipping ($NZ21.39 to $NZ30.12).

New Zealand book prices are expected to go up again on October 1 when GST rises from 12.5 percent to 15 percent.

Retailers are often in the news complaining about how their sector isn’t recovering from the recession, but when online retailers are vastly cheaper and so incredibly convenient it’s hard to see how the bricks and mortar bookstores can survive. With e-books starting to take off here too, there are even fewer reasons for me to shop on Lambton Quay.