I’m not sure whether I should be happy or sad, but today is the day when the last book in Tessa Dare’s debut trilogy will be released. It’s been a wild ride for me–and I have only been hanging on at the edges, by my fingernails. At this point, Tessa and I met three years ago; it seems odd that she has now released three books (and, by this point, written 5).
Still, A Lady of Persuasion is a particularly special book. It’s funny, poignant, and as I’m sure you’re used to by now, the subject of a holiday over at courtneymilan.com, where I urge you to go and purchase a book written by Tessa Dare today. A Lady of Persuasion is, I think, the sweetest of her three books, without being saccharine. It brings all her characters together, but in a way that is not gratuitous. It shows all her characters firmly cemented in their happy endings, and it makes you believe, ever so strongly, that they will really make it–not just into some fairy-tale happily ever after, but into the real happily ever after, the one where no matter what life throws at you, you know you’ll survive because you have a partner at your back who will cheerfully watch over you and make sure that nothing gets through.
It’s a book that features two of the strongest secondary characters ever–I won’t name names, for fear of spoiling it, but let me just say that Tessa took the strongest-willed characters from both Goddess of the Hunt and Surrender of a Siren, and made me ache for their happiness. And then, evil woman that she is, she took that happiness away from them–and then slid it back in place, just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to fill the hunger I had, she let them win it again.
This book also made me laugh, out loud, multiple times. I could list all the times here, but I would spoil all her best lines.
In short, I’m getting just a little nostalgic thinking about this particular ending. Tessa has had a brilliant debut trilogy… and she’s going to do it again, with another three books, in May, June, and July of 2010. Whew!
In the meantime, I will of course continue to promote books I adore on courtneymilan.com. One thing I have noticed is that because I tend to push books on their release dates, and because I will only push books I have read (I am not going to tell you to buy a book that I do not personally want to read), I have mostly picked books from friends, which I managed to read early.
That’s going to change. I really adore books, and I want to make sure I highlight amazing books even if it isn’t their release date. The rule, of course, which I have not yet made explicit, is this: I will always give away at least one copy of a book I promote, which I purchased with my own money. No free copies from the author (unless she wants to add her own to the copy I purchase–but that’s not necessary)–no solicitation. After all, if I’m not excited enough about a book to buy TWO copies of the book (one for me, one for you), why should you take my word for anything?
In the future, I’ll be featuring books, not only from friends, and not only books where I’ve seen an advance version.
But for the present: four random commenters will win a copy of Tessa Dare’s A Lady of Persuasion.
