So… we are nearing the end of 2009. 2009 was a very long year, in that I started 2009 with a book sold, but not yet on the shelves, and I will end 2009 with a book sold, but not yet on the shelves. In the meantime, however, there were many, many other lovely books that ended up on the shelves in 2009, and I thought it would be cool to end this year by giving away some of those awesome books, as well as (ahem) a Certain Copy of a Certain Book that will not be out on the shelves until 2010.

Here’s the way it works: I will list all the books I am going to give away. If you want to be entered to win some of them, tell me which ones. If you want to be entered to win all of them, tell me that too. If you want to be entered to win almost all of them, well, that’s fine by me, too! Just to specify: EACH of the bullet points below is eligible to be won by a SEPARATE PERSON. You will not win all of the books unless you are randomly drawn in each of the separate 20-plus random drawings.

How many books am I giving away? I am giving away more books than you can shake a stick at! (For reference purposes, you can shake a single stick at 20 books; any more books, and you will need at least two sticks; 40 books, and you will need three sticks, as well as the three arms, unless you can shake a stick with your mouth.) Here’s the list:

• Kris Kennedy’s The Conqueror. A medieval debut, and a Golden Heart finalist. This copy is signed!
• Susan Gee Heino’s Mistress by Mistake. A fun, light-hearted Regency. Also winner of the Golden Heart in Regency Historical.
• Two double-packs: Michelle Monkou’s Only in Paradise and Gamble on Love. Michelle Monkou is the current president of RWA, and I figured she was under a little stress now, so I bought a handful of her books.
• Lynne Raye Harris’s Spanish Magnate, Red Hot Revenge, a lovely story about a Spanish Magnate who wants revenge. Although given the time lapses in the book, I think it should have been called Spanish Magnate, Ice Cold Revenge. We all know revenge is a dish best served cold anyway.
• Kelly Gay’s The Better Part of Darkness. A vivid, gritty urban fantasy in which Heaven and Hell have been discovered on separate planes of existence (although the inhabitants of both are as uncertain about God as we are), and Charlie Madigan has come back from the dead. Also a Golden Heart finalist; Charlie is a heroine who kicks ass while still being truly, desperately, humanly imperfect.
• Jennifer Haymore’s A Hint of Wicked. An emotionally compelling Regency, in which Sophie, the heroine, has finally moved on and remarried after her husband’s death at Waterloo, only to have him return from the dead.
• Debra Mullins’s To Ruin the Duke, in which a duke discovers that an imposter has ruined his good name and sets out to clear it. This book has been autographed by the author.
• Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, a young adult book about a pathological liar who may or may not have committed murder, and who may or may not be telling the truth to the reader.
• Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Demon’s Lexicon, a fabulous debut about a dude named Nick who likes knives, and dislikes people (except his brother). I want to gather Nick up and hug him tight, except I suspect that if I did that he would stab me with a knife. Unless his older brother, Alan, happened to be around. This copy has been signed by the author, who is full of awesome.
• Carolyn Jewel’s Indiscreet, an awesome romance, set in the Regency, which just so happens to also be set in Turkey.
• Lori Brighton’s Wild Heart, a phenomenal debut about a man who survived a horrible attack in India, and has to learn to tame his own feral soul (with a little help, of course!)
• Tessa Dare’s Goddess of the Hunt, a debut novel that wandered into a meadow, merrily picked up starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal, and then fell in a river, and when you asked it, “What on earth are you doing?” it said, “Is it working?” Yes, Tessa, yes! It’s working.
• Annette McCleave’s Drawn into Darkness, a phenomenal, complex urban fantasy in which the hero’s job is to gather souls after death. Then he’s set to watch the heroine’s daughter…. This book won the Golden Heart in paranormal romance.
• Tracey O’Hara’s Night’s Cold Kiss, about a vampire-hunter who begins to fall for a vampire. Another Golden Heart finalist.
• Helen Scott Taylor’s The Magic Knot. American Title winner; Golden Heart finalist, and very cool story where the heroine is an accountant who is drawn into a magical world of fairies. (I have a soft spot in my heart for people who are accountants, even if they do only become cool when faeries reach out to them.)
• Sherry Thomas’s Not Quite a Husband. Set mostly in India, the heroine, Bryony is one of the most repressed and yet emotionally wounded heroines I’ve met. I would like to hug her very tight, but I’m already hugging Nick and Nick would be Really Bad for Bryony. Leo, warm, golden, and open, is much better for her.
• Victoria Dahl’s One Week as Lovers. If I could hug both the hero and heroine, I would, but my arms are already full (see above). I just love Victoria Dahl, and this book is no exception. I read it in a jolting cab and it was so good I couldn’t put it down even though reading made me motion sick.
• The Heart of Christmas, an anthology with stories by Mary Balogh, Nicola Cornick, and Courtney Milan. These stories are about Christmas, and so they are even relevant to the time period! Shocking, I know. Mary Balogh and Nicola Cornick are marvelous authors. I know absolutely nothing about this Courtney Milan chick, so read her contribution at your peril. I hear it’s rather perilous. Peril aside, this book has been signed by Courtney Milan.
• Courtney Milan’s Proof by Seduction. This is not a book that has come out in 2009, and so it does not belong. Nonetheless, I am inserting it here anyway. I have nothing to say about this book, except that if you win it, I will put it in the mail on December 14th, which means you will get to read it before January 1. Can this possibly be a bad thing? No. No it cannot. This book has also been signed.

You have until December 13th at noon, PST, to enter this contest. Go forth and spread the word!