Here are the winners from the last post, a week ago.

• Goddess of the Hunt, by Tessa Dare: Angela
• Bound by Temptation, by Lavinia Kent: Mary K
• The Perils of Pleasure, by Julie Anne Long: Jacqueline C
• What Happens in London, by Julia Quinn: Monica
• Ten Things I Love About You, by Julia Quinn: peggy h
• Captive of Sin, by Anna Campbell: Julie
• Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake, by Sarah MacLean: ms bookjunkie

Congratulations!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am dreadfully behind on giving books away. So here are the winners from the last post:

• One Dance with a Duke: azteclady (yay! She brought me cookies at the RWA signing, when I was in desperate need of blood sugar–this is random.org karma in action!), Rose, and Tessa K.
• The Irish Warrior: Jacqueline C., Booklover1335
• Skin Tight: Stephanie, Noelle Pierce
• Tempting the Marquess: Vi
• His at Night: Llehn

These are all the winners from two days ago. If you won, congratulations, and send your snail mail to courtney@courtneymilan.com. But don’t be dismayed if your name is not listed! I have more books to give away… so many more books. Here’s the second (of three) batches of books I’ve intended to give away.

• Twice Tempted by a Rogue, by Tessa Dare. This is the second book in Tessa’s brilliant Stud Club series. It’s brilliant for a number of reasons–one is that you don’t have to read the first book to fall in love with the second. I think that out of the entire series, I related to Meredith as a heroine more than anyone else. She’s a widower, and one who has worked hard to make sure that her town stays together. The heart and soul of the town is her inn–a waypost that she cares for quite well, but knows that people only stop there if they have no other choice. It’s warm, comfortable, homey–and it will never be as swank as the posh affairs in Bath or Bristol. But she doesn’t let that discourage her, and she’s determined to do as best as she can under the circumstances.

  Understandably, she is wary when the local lord–who has been absent all these years–sweeps into town. He threatens the inn, and the livelihood of the villagers–and her own sense of comfort. I loved this book, and somehow, again, I ended up with three extra copies of it, not counting my own paper copy and the e-version I bought. How does this happen? I’m not sure, but my inability to say no to Tessa’s books is your gain!

• Crazy for Love, by Victoria Dahl. It’s no secret that I adore Victoria Dahl, and Crazy for Love is no exception. Chloe Turner, the heroine, is That Woman: the woman who everyone believes is so crazy that her own fiance faked his death to escape her antics. Of course, she completely doesn’t deserve the sobriquet of “bridezilla”–but still, it’s given to her.

  But as wonderful and relatable as Chloe is, Max, the hero, is who really makes this book. I’ve known a lot of guys like Max–in fact, I think there’s a little Max in every good, dependable man. Max is a really good guy. Completely reliable. Utterly dependable. So dependable, in fact, that people just depend on him, without thinking of the stress that this puts him under. So when he meets Chloe–not knowing how she’s been labeled by the media–to him, she’s a restful dream come true. She doesn’t need a caretaker. She doesn’t have a raft of problems. She’s just a nice, wonderful girl who really likes him.

  How they deal with the complications that arise is what makes this book so engrossing. And yes, Max is totally, utterly adorable. This is how I somehow ended up with an extra copy.

• The Forbidden Rose, by Joanna Bourne. Joanna Bourne is one of those writers where it’s almost kind of unfair that she’s writing. I mean, let’s face it. She’s like a genius. I say “like” a genius, because, in fact, the only reason she would not be counted as a genius is because she’s beyond that. The Forbidden Rose is set in revolutionary France. For anyone who complains that there is not enough history in historical romance, Jo Bourne will take your complaint and raise you one. And for anyone who believes that history in historical romance serves only to interrupt the romance and the plot, Joanna Bourne will dance in little circles around your belief, and then show you how it’s done.

  Seriously. The ending of this book is freaking brilliant, and the beginning and the middle are utterly amazing. And notice that I’ve said almost nothing about the book itself–what is there to say? She’s brilliant. I have an extra copy of this, and you all should want it.

• Money, Honey, by Susan Sey. So, basically, I adored this book. It’s about an FBI agent and a (former) crook. Both of them have a substantial path, that brings them to the place where they are. Elizabeth Brynn, the FBI agent, is a consummate professional–one who believes very strongly in the role of law and justice in society. She’s absolutely committed to her job, and knows that she is making the world a safer place. Patrick O’Connor is a former crook, and Liz isn’t necessarily sold on the former. His sense of morality seems fluid at best, and (at least to her) completely self-centered.

  Right there, you can see that you have some incredible conflict, and that sparks will fly between them. But what takes this book beyond the typical meet-cute plus sparkling conflict, and into the territory of Really Awesome is the depth of the characters. Liz isn’t just any old FBI agent, dedicated to her job Because. Her character is layered and rich and real, and the plot is designed to strip those layers away, one by one, until they shine. Patrick isn’t the selfish, money-grubbing crook that he appears to be–he has a very firm sense of family, and as the book passes by, you quickly begin to learn just how much he’s willing to sacrifice for the ones that he loves. As the book goes by, both of them have their conception of self challenged by the other. And like all my favorite books, this one ends with both of them realizing that love has made them bigger, not smaller, and enlarged their horizons, not shrunk them. Both Patrick and Liz end up in stronger positions than where they started. And that I truly, truly loved.

  I also have a copy of this to give away.

• The Cinderella Society, by Kay Cassidy. This is the only YA in the batch I’m giving away right now. It’s a fabulous girl-power book, with a very pink-pink cover. I have to admit that the cover gave me some trepidation, because I am not a pink-pink girl. But inside, the book isn’t about wearing pink. It’s about finding ways to express yourself in a way that’s true to yourself, about empowering women, and about believing that you can be the best. It’s also a book about a secret society of girls–well-liked girls, no less!–who go around being nice to people. This is such an awesome inversion of the usual popular kids=jerks formula. So many times you see YA books where pretty and popular are used as caricatured short-hand for “evil,” and it’s refreshing to see a book recognize that you don’t have to be mean to be well-liked.

  I have a copy of this to give away, too.

Now, I know you are wondering: Courtney, how is it that you get these copies to give away? Answer: Sheer book acquisitiveness. When I read a book I like, I end up buying it. Multiple times. Just… don’t ask. And don’t tell my husband.

So I am woefully behind. I have a stack of books many books high that I need to give away–and after I missed the first week of them (there were three that week!) the stack has only gotten larger, and my resolve to tackle the pile has shriveled to pea size. Nevertheless, over the course of the next week and a half I will be getting rid of Every. Single. One.

Seriously. You should believe me.

So, first things first. I am woefully late in announcing the winners from the Double Mistress giveaway, which was, like, two months ago:

Bonnie Ferguson: Susan Gee Heino’s Mistress by Mistake
Collie: Maggie Robinson’s Mistress by Mistake

And speaking of two months ago! June was a month that saw a lot of really amazing romances. I meant to post about all of these books individually, and give them away individually, but they were all released on the same day and in my fluzzombottomnation (that is totally a word) about not deciding which to post about first, and which to do when, I ended up not posting about any of them at all, which was a wretched state of affairs. In any event, here goes: June giveaway, in August!

• One Dance with a Duke (three copies). I loved Tessa Dare’s first trilogy a lot–but in all honesty, I think that in reading her second trilogy I can see all the ways that she has grown as a writer since then. One Dance with a Duke has all of the amazing writing, amazing chemistry, and amazing characterization that I saw in Goddess of the Hunt, Surrender of a Siren, and A Lady of Persuasion–but it also has something more. I’m not sure what to call it, but there’s a certain depth to this book–and to every book in this trilogy–that is new. This is not to imply that the other books were shallow–far from it! Just that I found myself identifying with Amelia far more strongly than I had identified with any of the characters in her prior trilogy. Amelia’s a woman who just wants to make things come out right. She wants her brother, who is hurting, to heal; when she meets Spencer, the hero of the book, she quickly intuits that his arrogance is a cover for a deeper social anxiety, one that she wants to make better. She’s an extraordinarily loving, and lovable, individual. What makes this book so wonderful for me is that Tessa shows how this quality is simultaneously both her greatest strength, and yet an incredible weakness. I really loved seeing Amelia’s journey, and I adored this book!

  I adored it so much I have three copies to give away. I did not buy them all at the same time, and yet every time I encountered this book at the store I ended up picking up a copy. It was irresistible–much like Amelia and Spencer!

• The Irish Warrior, by Kris Kennedy. This book pretty much freaking rocked. If I were trying to describe it to someone, I think I would call it a medieval adventure. With explosions. Of both the literal and the hoo-boy-does-the-hero-rock-her-world variety. Finian is just an incredible hero–strong, stalwart, and once he realizes how much he wants and needs Senna, utterly willing to do anything and everything just to have her. He’s Irish, and Kris writes him with just that added bit of flair–no random bits of Irish dialect thrown in to fake the Irishness, but the rhythm and cadence of his speech just lulls you into the feel of the accent. You could sleep to the sound of his voice… If, that is, the rest of the story let you. But it doesn’t. Senna and Finian are in serious trouble: they are hunted by the English Lord Rardove. They’re going to win.

  This book beat me out in the 2008 Golden Heart–and I completely, utterly understand why. It’s compelling, incredibly so, and unputdownable. I have two copies of it.

• Skin Tight, by Ava Gray. If you read Skin Game, you already know how awesome Ava Gray is. But, seriously, Skin Tight is a step above that. The hero, Foster, has an insidious, painful power: when he touches a woman, she stops seeing him. In his place, she sees the man she most wants. A less honorable man would doubtless take advantage of this power, sleeping his way through a swath of womankind. But to Foster, it’s a curse. Nobody ever sees him for himself. Nobody ever wants him for himself. The fact that every woman sees him as her fondest wish is a living nightmare. He doesn’t dare touch any woman, and the more he wants her, the more he knows he cannot lay hands on her–because once he does, he’ll destroy everything she sees in him.

  He’s a lonely, desperate man, and Mia Sauter–a brilliant accountant–is just the woman to see past his dark facade. I don’t want to say too much about this book, but I read it in one, long gulp, unable to put it down. And then when I was done, I went back and read parts again–and again–and again. This is the mark of true genius, and Ava Gray truly delivers.

  I have two copies of Skin Game to give away.

• Tempting the Marquess, by Sara Lindsey. Sara is fast becoming my go-to author for sexy, sweet historicals. Tempting the Marquess is no exception. This book is laugh-out-loud funny and warm and at the same time deeply emotional. It’s about Jason Traherne, who is mourning his wife’s death, and about Olivia Weston–who is both fanciful and practical, all at the same time, who wants him both as knight in shining armor, and as the wretched man that he is. Olivia well and truly tames Jason.

  Also, this book contains one of my favorite tropes ever. I would say more, but it would be a spoiler. Let’s just say, all you need to do is tell me this thing occurs and I will walk to the cash register, book in hand.

  I have one copy of TTM to give away. In fact, I’m sure I have more, but I have no clue where the other copy went. I suspect Mr. Milan is reading it on the sly.

• His at Night, by Sherry Thomas. Like all of Sherry’s books, His at Night is gorgeously written. But this book is more than that: it also has the most complex plot that I’ve seen from her yet. Lord Vere is a man who everyone in society thinks is an idiot. He’s not, though; he’s only pretending. He’s been pretending for years–so long that he almost doesn’t even remember who he is anymore, himself, and has had to invent imaginary friends to keep him company.

  Elissande knows everything about pretending. Her uncle–who is psychologically cruel, and inventively vindictive–has convinced everyone he is a saint and a martyr. She knows better. It’s not casual abuse that he deals in; he strikes hard, to the center of who the characters are. He keeps her aunt addicted to opium, unable to flee; every time Elissande begins to enjoy something, he takes it from her. And so when she meets idiotic Lord Vere, instead of seeing a moron, she sees escape: A man she can trap into marriage, and a marriage that will free her and her aunt from the nightmare that they live in.

  Lord Vere, of course, is not best pleased to be so used, and the path that the characters take to find the truth of themselves is truly awe-inspiring to watch.

  I have one copy of His at Night to give away.

So there you have it. You have 48 hours. Leave your name in the comments, listing any and all books you might want, and I will announce the winners on Thursday, and announce the next set of giveaways as well!

This book has a companion post, which will go up soon, called “three awesome books you should read tomorrow,” in which I will gloat about having read early copies of some of the most-anticipated releases.

But today, I’m going to talk about three truly incredible–and I mean utterly mind-blowing–books that I read in the last month. These books utterly blew me away. And because none of these books is a romance, I don’t know any of the authors. The closest you get is Sarah Rees Brennan, who I (a) met once at a booksigning, and (b) shares an agent with me.

Here you go: incredible books you should read, today.

1. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin.

Okay, I did meet N.K. Jemisin at the Romantic Times booksigning–I went up to her just before the doors opened to babble freakishly and demand a signed copy. This book utterly blew me away. I have read a lot of fantasy–a lot. I’ve been reading fantasy since before I started reading romance. And I have never read anything like this. It winks at the fantasy tropes, and then it turns them around.

This book is about a really awesome woman who is summoned by her grandfather, who happens to be the most powerful man in existence, and told that in a few weeks she will either be the ruler of the not-so-free world, or her cousins will have killed her.

It’s got plot. It’s got characterizations. It’s got romance. And the romance it has–between the main character, who describes herself as someone who is sometimes mistaken for a boy, and the oldest god in the universe, who might actually kill the heroine, just because–is phenomenal. Normally I do not like the “he is so powerful, and he might kill her!” thing because extreme power imbalances between hero and heroine get my skeeves up. But this book is not one where I ever, ever feel that Yeine, the heroine is powerless. Not because she is so almighty and grand and imbued with special snowflake skills and sweet-smelling blood. No; it is because Yeine is empowered, even when she feels most helpless. Love, love, love and adore this book a million times over.

I’m not sure which books to compare this to, because it is like none of them. All I will say is that I put it in the category of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, and Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora. It is nothing like either of those books, though, except that it is utterly brilliant. If this is the future of fantasy, I am giddy.

Which is why I have now purchased 4 copies of this book: one in e-format, another in print, so Mr. Milan could read it (he says that it gets 4 1/2 stars, but 3 1/2 Sherman Tanks, it having girly stuff)–and that copy has since been given to my sister–then the signed copy at RT, which no, you can’t have, and then another copy at the bookstore the other day because it looked pretty on the shelf–that copy is the copy I am giving away at the end of this post.

2. The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Okay, so I blogged briefly about the first book in this series. And that first book pretty much kicked ass. It was full of awesome. It made me weep. For reasons that I will not disclose, because they are spoilery, and reasons that I will disclose: because Sarah Rees Brennan is a genius.

The Demon’s Covenant, the sequel, is even better. I did not think it was possible. But it is. The book is so, so brilliant. It is about a girl, named Mae, whose mother is a lawyer and works long, long hours, and whose father ignores them. Naturally, she and her brother get into trouble. You might think that Mae’s pink hair and sassy T-shirts would indicate the sort of trouble she gets into. But no, it’s not that kind of trouble. Jamie’s peer pressure is from magicians: “See, Jamie, you could be cool like us! All you’d have to do to get unlimited power is to kill a few people.”

Needless to say, Mae is more than a little unsettled by this–especially since she’s already sacrificed a great deal to keep Jamie magician-free. And so naturally, she calls the quiet, unassuming fellow at the bookstore, who might also be a bit of a psychopathic killer, to come help.

I started reading this book over dinner. I had a deadline and stuff. I did not stop, and then I had to stay up until 2 AM. Curse you, Sarah Rees Brennan. Curse you, and your incredible skills. Everything I can say about this book is a spoiler, and so all I will say is: Mmmmfffff!!

Mae is the protagonist of this book. And I wasn’t sure about that at first, because I loved Nick–creepy, odd, weird Nick–so much in that first book that I was really frightened to leave his completely unsettling point of view.

Also, I am shipping Alan so hard it is not even funny. I am not even sure what that says about me, but he is such an earnest, geeky little Slytherin, and that so hits every button I have. I am not sure who I am shipping Alan with, but it has to be someone awesome. Like maybe Sin. Why, oh why, do I have to wait for that book?

I bought this book in e-copy. Then I went to the store and I bought another two. One of those I will force upon Mr. Milan. (One of the reasons I married Mr. Milan is the ease of forcing books upon him.) The other, I will give away. Again at the end of this post!

3. The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness.

I don’t know how I heard of this book, but the title intrigued me and so I picked it up. The first three pages–written in this colloquial almost stream-of-consciousness style–kind of annoyed me. Then I started getting into the narrator’s head, and it all just kind of worked.

And oh, how it worked.

The narrator of this book is almost thirteen years old (or is he?). And he is looking forward to becoming a man in a month’s time. In the interim, he has chores to contend with and his very annoying, stupid puppy, named Manchee, who he said he did not want to get.

His dog talks. Manchee is not very smart for a dog–my dog is much, much smarter than Manchee, but Manchee is actually a ruddy good dog, as we come to discover. Todd lives in a place called Prentisstown, which is the only settlement on an entire planet. A little more than a decade ago, there was a bit of biological warfare. The germs that were spread made two things happen: animals all talk (although they’re not very smart), and men–and I do mean, men, not women, all began to broadcast their thoughts, all around them. There’s no privacy any longer. The germ didn’t affect women the same way, though–the women all died instead.

This book is completely, utterly brilliant. I reached the end, screamed, and immediately dashed for book #2, which is winging towards me as we speak. This book was absolutely ridiculously good.

Most of all, I have to say that there was a fair bit of violence in it. I’ve admitted before violence makes me queasy, but this worked for me, mostly because the violence had the real, emotional cost that I think this all takes. Books that don’t recognize that cost–where someone kills someone, however evil, and then blithely moves on–do not work for me. They work for some. But this book was laden with all the shades of emotional and moral complexity that I love.

I haven’t had time to get a second copy of this book, but I will before Friday.

So, here’s the deal: I’m giving away copies of each of these books, to three separate commenters. Post, tell me which one(s) you want, and on Friday I will pick winners. These books are all utterly mindblowingly amazing. I don’t really know any of the authors–something that is rarely true in romance. Edited to add: You can say you want more than one. It will not hurt your chances at the others.

These books are so awesome I cannot resist buying extra copies. You benefit!

I finally pick the winners of Sara Lindsey’s Promise Me Tonight:

ms bookjunkie
Julie
Fedora

Send me your snailmail addresses and I will get your books in the mail!

While we are at it, All About Romance is giving away a massive basket of books by debut authors, gift cards, chocolate, and a pink Snuggie. One of the books you can win is mine! Enter a comment to win over on their website. So that is pretty awesome.

And while we are at it, I recently found out that my book will be released in Australia/New Zealand on March of 2010. This means I must escalate my plans to have an international version of my site so that it predates the actual release. You will see a contest relating to that shortly….