Blogger Appreciation Week

Nominate your favorite book blog, it fun and hoping to see you during the week.

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Announcing the Second Annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week September 14-18, 2009

Last year over 400 blogs came together to celebrate the art of book blogging during the first ever Book Blogger Appreciation Week! I am so pleased to announce that the second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week will be taking place September 14-18.
WHO Anyone who blogs about books is invited to participate. In fact, we want everyone who blogs about books and reading to be a part of this week!

WHAT A week where we come together, celebrate the contribution and hard work of book bloggers in promoting a culture of literacy, connecting readers to books and authors, and recogonizing the best among us with the Second Annual BBAW Awards. There will be special guest posts, daily blogging themes, and giveaways.
WHEN September 14-18, 2009

WHERE Here at the new Book Blogger Appreciation Week Blog! (Please note that this year there are three separate blogs and feeds—one for the main event, one for giveaways, and one for awards.)

WHY Because books matter. In a world full of options, the people talking about books pour hard work, time, energy, and money into creating a community around the written word. I, Amy, the founder of Book Blogger Appreciation Week love this community of bloggers and want to shower my appreciation on you!
WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

Please help us spread the word about Book Blogger Appreciation Week by posting about it on your blog, stumbling this post, twittering about it, and telling everyone you know that it’s time to have a party and celebrate book bloggers!
Please register by filling out the registration form! Registering ensures your inclusion in the BBAW 09 Database of Book Bloggers and enters you into the drawing for the BBAW 09 Grand Prize!

Come back often as there will be many updates! And follow us on Twitter!

AWARDS
BBAW Award Nominations will open tomorrow, July 15 on the BBAW Awards Blog.

SHEIKH BOSS, HOT DESERT NIGHTS

Again Susan Stephens charms her readers with a very steamy and sexy Sheikh Boss, Hotel Desert Nights.Sheikh Rafik (Raffa as he’s fondly called by Casey) is immediately drawn to the woman he’s sent for from England to help market his country.

Casey Michaels he realizes almost immediately is innocent however she amazes him with her business sense. Life has taught him many lessons and duty to his country is the most important thing in his life. However, she charms him and he’s drawn to her and fights it every step of the way.

Casey Michaels is determined to prove herself and win not only the marketing job but earn the respect of her employer, the sheikh. However, she as well doesn’t count on the intense attraction she feels towards him. She’s there to impress and impress she does when she takes on a charity auction, the proceeds to benefit the desert inhabitants. As she finally spends time in the desert, every thing heats up and not only the weather. Seeing Raffa in his own element with his people makes him more human, and not the playboy sheikh the press makes him out to be but a man of “simple tastes”.

Their love story was for the most part set in the desert, full of sensual tension until they make love and then everything becomes complicated for them both. Sadness like every journey takes place in the form of Casey realizing she must walk away only to have Raffa realize how important she was to him. Sheikh Boss, Hot Desert Nights was just a sweet and beautiful journey in finding happiness.

Behind the book from authors website:

"I couldn’t resist another visit into the desert to unravel the secrets that lie behind the silken veil. I took a younger sheikh for this romantic adventure- a ruthless bad boy on the cusp of greatness, and gave him a determined young woman to go head to head with- in business, and in bed.

It was great to see Casey Michaels growing in confidence and in understanding of a very different culture- not to mention learning how to handle this dark and dangerous alpha male.I had the best time writing the book and hope you enjoy your journey behind the silken veil…" S. Stephens

Book Description:

Casey Michaels has come prepared for her new job in the desert—complete with a safari outfit! But, faced with her gorgeous boss's potent sexuality, she suddenly feels out of her depth….

Sheikh Rafik al Rafar knows an inexperienced woman when he sees one, and in the sultry heat of the desert he begins her sensual awakening. To his surprise, Casey teaches him about the simple pleasures in life. But royal duty is never far from their door….

JULY CONTEST

Kate Hardy's Surrender to the Playboy Sheikh is my first contest and all you have to do to win is tell me why Lily doesn't feel the sheikh would marry a non-royal. The answer is on Kate's site located in Behind the Book



My second contest is for Susan Stephens Sheikh Boss, Hot Desert Nights and to win a copy stop by Susan's site and tell me the name of her skeikh.

THE SHEIKHS LOVE CHILD

Kate Hewitt has yet again written a very intense and beautiful love wtory in The Sheikh’s Love-Child. It’s a wild as the desert and so intense at times one will find themselves holding their breath and want to pound some sense into both Sheikh Khaled and Lucy Banks.

Four years earlier the final blow was given to Sheikh Khaled, his knee was in shattered and at some time in his life he might be wheelchair bound so he leaves his beloved rugby team and his lover behind without a word to return to his country and the desert. It’s obvious reading about their past that their relationship was fast and furious and very intense and it’s also left behind a woman with a broken heart, one that never had a chance to tell him they had a son, not matter how hard she tried to reach him.

Now, Lucy Banks finds herself on a plane with the English rugby team as their physiotherapist flying to Khaled’s country Biryal for a rugby match. She not only has a responsibility to the team but to tell her ex-lover they have a son and is scarred to death to see and tell him about Sam.

He has changed…..he’s intense, brooding, angry and dark but he’s still has the power to hurt her. Their first initial meeting is horrible as he doesn’t give her the time of day. I promise anyone who reads this, prepare yourself because time after time one will definitely feel the pain they both inflict on each other. The only time they seem to agree is concerning their son and it was so sweet to read about their first meeting and watch this dark sheikh soften while around his son.

Like all love stories and especially this particular one, there are so many secrets and issues to get past, it becomes overwhelming at times. Sometimes the only way is to forge ahead and forgive and let the past go. Their attempt is to have a marriage of convenience for the sake of their son. But at what cost?

I can only say when they both finally come to terms with their past and I also mean abandonment issues, trust, they way they were raised and the way they can move forward, have a box of Kleenex on standby as it’s quite a spectacular ending as only Kate Hewitt can pen!

Book Description:

With butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Lucy Banks has arrived in the desert kingdom of Biryal—with a secret!

Seeing Sheikh Khaled—the man who once loved and left her—in his sumptuous royal palace, Lucy is blown away by his barbaric magnificence: he's king of the desert and his eyes are blacker and harder than before. He's not the man she once knew. She wants to run away from his overwhelming masculinity, but they're inextricably bound forever…for he is the father of her son.

THE DESERT KING'S BEJEWELED BRIDE

The Desert King’s Bejewelled Bride.

Sabrina Philips has created an amazing and spectacular love story with The Desert King’s Bejewelled Bride. It is also her first sheikh book and I’m certainly hoping it’s not her last as it’s exceptional!

Seven years earlier Kaliq and Tamara met when she visited her father in Qwisar. Even though they were chaperoned by the King’s aide, they were attracted to each other. And Kaliq being duty bound even asked her to marry him and she refused. Though Tamara was attracted to him, one gets the impression she instantly fell in love and also realized he didn’t love her so she refused him and returned home to England.

Now seven years later Kaliq has discovered Tamara is a model and doesn’t think to highly of her occupation nor her but he still finds he’s attracted to her and hires her to take his people’s mind of his ailing father, the King. He brings her home to the desert to model the family jewels which were worn by his mother on her wedding day. However, what she doesn’t count on is her feelings of love for him all over again, for that very same honour and duty bound prince.

So when she puts herself and the jewels in danger and her fearless sheikh rescues her she realizes that theirs is a dangerous game and that she wants him very much. However, Kaliq doesn’t believe she is an innocent until the night they make love and he is shocked to the core. It’s obvious he’s not willing to let Tamara return home to England so he asks her to become his “fake” fiancé and travel with him to visit his friend.

Tamara and Kaliq’s love story is breathtaking but like all love stories it’s not just the passion, it’s the secrets they are both keeping from each other because to tell them would make them both vulnerable, revealing too much of themselves. It’s also Kaliq’s problem with her being so independent and a model on top of secrets which cause him to mistrust her. What I loved the most was their few days spent together as a couple on Montez, just being together and getting to know each other.

When the King dies of a heart attack, and Kaliq literally cuts himself out of her life, she makes the decision to follow him because she loves him and gives him the gift of offering to marry him for the sake of his country which would also allow him to become the ruler of Qwisar. I adored Tamara’s courage, her strength, and when she finally realized just the sort of man her sheikh was she was determined to spend her life with him for the wrong reasons than not at all! If you love the sheikh genre, a hot and roller coaster and sexy romance, then The Desert King’s Bejewelled Bride is for you!

JULY RELEASES

JULY SHEIKH RELEASES......I CAN'T WAIT!
From Mills and Boon July release and August in the North America, an incredible book which I will soon post my review. It’s Sabrina’s first sheikh book and it’s magnificent.

THE DESERT KING’S BEJEWELLED BRIDE – Sabrina Philips
Kaliq Al-Zahir A'zam cannot believe the audacity of Tamara Weston! This teasing little virgin, who once rejected his proposal of marriage, is now a top model, displaying her body on advertising billboards for all to see.
Kaliq still wants Tamara, so he sees to it that she returns to his kingdom for the assignment of her career—she will model the royal jewels she should have worn as his bride, and deliver to him the wedding night he was previously denied….

Harlequin has outdone them selves in July with all of the following sheikh releases, and I for one Can’t wait to ready them all!


SHEIKH BOSS – HOT DESERT NIGHTS – Susan Stephens
Casey Michaels has come prepared for her new job in the desert—complete with a safari outfit! But, faced with her gorgeous boss's potent sexuality, she suddenly feels out of her depth….

Sheikh Rafik al Rafar knows an inexperienced woman when he sees one, and in the sultry heat of the desert he begins her sensual awakening. To his surprise, Casey teaches him about the simple pleasures in life. But royal duty is never far from their door….


SURRENDER TO THE PLAYBOY SHEIKH – Kate Hardy
Karim al-Hassan can have any woman he wants, and sexy little waitress Lily Finch has caught his eye. One glance leads to a searing kiss—and a hunger that Karim plans to satisfy with a temporary fling.

But Lily is actually more than just a waitress. Successful and career-focused, she is determined never to mix business with pleasure—until playboy Karim's slow seduction breaks down her resistance! Soon Karim is breaking his own rules: he wants Lily in his bed—forever!


THE SHEIKH’S LOVE CHILD – Kate Hewitt
With butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Lucy Banks has arrived in the desert kingdom of Biryal—with a secret!

Seeing Sheikh Khaled—the man who once loved and left her—in his sumptuous royal palace, Lucy is blown away by his barbaric magnificence: he's king of the desert and his eyes are blacker and harder than before. He's not the man she once knew. She wants to run away from his overwhelming masculinity, but they're inextricably bound forever…for he is the father of her son.

Please check back in July as I'll be offering both Sabrina's and Kate's book for my July contest.

JANE PORTER'S The Desert Kings

The series features the three royal Fehr brothers of Sarq, a desert kingdom neighboring Egypt. The eldest brother, Sharif Fehr, is featured in the The Sheikh's Chosen Queen and is king of their country. We meet the youngest brother, Khalid Fehr, a darkly brooding nomadic sheik, in the second book, King of the Desert, Captive Bride, and the third book, Duty, Desire, and the Desert King, will feature the middle brother, Zayad, a playboy tycoon sheikh that can't be tamed.



Duty, Desire and the Desert King

November 2009 in the UK
Harlequin Mill & Boon

December 2009 in NA
Harlequin Presents