Wow! We have an exciting week here at The Book Tart Hold onto your hats and check back often :p

Monday~ Review of Clutch by J.A. Huss

The winners of my 3 contests that closed on the 29th will be announced too

Tuesday~ Wicked fun interview with Delilah S. Dawson, author of Wicked As They Come and the brand new novella The Mysterious Madam Morpho plus a contest!

New Book Spotlight! Remember you can visit my New Fiction Release database anytime to see the new releases by month and day

Wednesday~ Guest blog by Junco author J.A. Huss and La Revenant and I are planning a vlog chat too

Stop Mr. Postman Where I show you all the books that were delivered into my hands over the past week or so

Thursday~ undecided… ummm it’s a surprise? *shrug*

Friday~ Author interview with J.K. Hogan and a review of her paranormal romance Fire On The Island

Saturday~ Hopefully a vlog… I’m a bit stressed out this week *pulling hair*

Don’t forget to enter the current contest

• The Night Budda Got Deep In It ebook and print giveaway Now-Oct 7th

I love to read YA novels and enjoyed Aaron Michael Ritchey’s The Never Prayer immensely. I loved the writing, it pulled me into Lena’s world and made me root for her. Click HERE for my written review and HERE to see my interview with Aaron By the way, I sigh a lot in this video! *sigh* That would be because I filmed it at 2 am! :p

 I am overjoyed to introduce you all to one of my favorite people in the world. My brother. He’s joining my Court of Reviews as the Baron of Books! *happy dance* He’s been a huge support of my endeavors to get The Book Tart up and running. In fact, when I was manually trying to enter in all the new book release data by hand a few years ago, he helped me out and saw more romance covers and plot synopsis than the majority of males ever do, or at least will admit too :p I adore him. He’s smart and funny and snarky and he’s blushing as he’s reading this I know. :p I asked if he would review a book he recently read and he started telling me about this Battletech novel. He said you definitely do NOT have to have read the rest of the series to get into this story because it gives the background you need to enjoy it. Which is a huge relief because I’m a science fiction fan and this review intrigued me, so I went and looked up the series. There are 63 stories in the Classic Battletech collection! So, please give a warm welcome to the Baron of Books and take a look at Close Quarters.

(((hugs))) The Queen of Tarts, Kat

The Baron of Books Review of

Close Quarters by Victor Milan

So as I try to write this review, I find it rather hard.  Some have suggested I treat it like I’m telling a friend about this book, and I think I’ll try that.  Though, as always, I’ll put my own spin on it.

Firstly, the basics, just to get them out of the way.  This is a review of Close Quarters, a Battletech Novel by Victor Milan.  Published (at least, according to the web) in 1994.  Which, interestingly enough, is a little later than I thought it was published.

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I’ve been on a contemporary romance kick and this book caught my eye. I *whispers* ummm *cough* read gossip sites *cough* ;p I like to follow Hollywood so this story line where the hero is an actor sounds fun and like one of my fantasies. Take a look at the excerpt. <g> I’ve added Cassandra by Starlight to my TBR list and wanted to share. Oh! At the bottom of this post is a rafflecopter for a chance to win a copy of this ebook

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I sing all the time. You might have noticed the *singing* if you have read any of my posts or tweets before <g> I’m actually writing this listening to The Marvelettes sing Mr. Postman. It’s a great song. Oooohhh Mr P oh oh ost man. And yes, please picture me singing :p Well, I’m sorry to say that my book collection has not grown very much this last week. I’ve been sick. Just with a head cold. But it totally threw off my groove man. (ummm, I’m quoting The Emperor’s New Groove lol) Anyway, I spent the weekend hibernating and being whiny and pretty miserable and I’m just almost better. I’d say I’m at 80% or so. I loathe, despise and consign to the 7th circle of Hades, cold bugs. It sucks (and blows <g> I went through an entire box of tissues and had to use toilet paper!) All that whining to say, I didn’t read much, or shop much. *boo!* Did you get anything fun this week? I’d love to know

As always, please don’t forget my New Fiction Release Database… Where someday, someday, my prince will come… What? *sigh* yep, singing again. :p Someday I will have a wish list option. Supposedly that’s being worked on. *shrug* I really really want it! It’s a LOT of work to page through, for example the 34 pages of books that came out yesterday and have to jot down little notes. I can’t wait till I (and you) can just click a little wish list option and save a list of books for later.

Ok. the books added to my library this week… Just click on the book if you’re curious. As I was adding books to this page I remembered my lovely boss gave me some beautiful autographed hardcover books when she came back from New York last weekend. She went to The Mysterious Bookshop. I so want to go! But this was the next best thing *squee!*

Ebooks

$0.99 for the next day or two!

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I love books. I’m crazy, mad obsessed with books and I buy scads and read heaps… though truthfully the reading has slowed down since I launched this site. *head/desk* The whole purpose of The Book Tart was to share my love of reading, meet readers, find new books to read, and of course The New Fiction Release Database so that I could know what books are coming out on what days. But the reviewing thing is making me question myself. Maybe I need to reevaluate my system… Aack!

Ok, here’s the thing, I don’t really pay attention to stars. Unless they are sparkling with sequins or you can wish on them. I am the girl who enjoys 2 star reviewed movies, and even the occasional 1 star will be a movie I personally get a kick out of. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy reading book reviews and seeing what they enjoyed or what bugged them about a book… But the stars aren’t really an influence for me. So, I haven’t given stars, or in my case, if I did give something numerical ummm quantifiable? Countable? it would be cherries :p anyway, I haven’t given them on my reviews posted here on The Book Tart. I’ll tell you I loved the book and why. But I get that stories are subjective and every reader brings something of themselves to the story so my loves might not be yours. And I’m totally ok with that. I just like to talk books. I really like to TALK books, which is why I vlog, so I can just spaz out and tell you about a book I just read. Almost every book I read is one I loved while I was reading it and I want to tell my friends about because I enjoyed the read and I’ll  say, if you like YA paranormal, you should really try The Never Prayer or if you enjoy contemporary romance pick up Cari Quinn’s No Flowers Required. They are great books! And then I go and post my review on Goodreads or Amazon and you have to give a rating.  GGGRRRR! I don’t wanna! *stomps foot* I really don’t. But I mostly give 4s cause if I HAD to break it down it would be something like this

1= did not finish

2= ok, readable, but problematic

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 It’s my favorite day of the week again. I adore Tuesdays! My database now lists ebooks too. Soooo, it counts ebooks and print books even if they are the same book *shrug* For today September 25th, The Book Tart New Release Database lists 330+ books! Click HERE to see them.

I love playing with my new ADVANCE SEARCH option. You can select the the genres you are interested in and the formats. If you only want to see print releases for today’s date you can filter it to show only physical books. There are 260+ print books listed Click HERE to see them. It’s fun… but still a work in progress.

I know the database is still missing some books so please, please CONTACT ME  I would love to include the book you are waiting for. I want this list to be as complete as I can make it.

Oh, I have a few contests going on, make sure you’ve entered.

Here are the books that jumped out at me.

(((hugs))) Kat

The Queen of Tarts

 Read PINK  Coming Up Roses by Catherine Anderson

 Martian War by Kevin J. Anderson

 Dark Light of Day by Jill Archer

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Queen of Tarts Review

of No Flowers Required

by Cari Quinn

 Oh my goodness! I am in love! This contemporary romance gave me what I wanted and more! It is a sweet, sexy story with a lot of heart and humor. I loved the characters, I loved the story arc, I loved how grounded this tale was in relatable situations. The heroine, Alexa, owns a small business and her hopes and fears and stresses are very familiar. She’s dealing with expectations from, well, herself mostly, and the promises she made to the woman who mentored her and left her the little flower shop she’s now struggling to keep afloat. The hardware store down the road has began selling flowers. Alexa really HATES the hardware store and it’s bargain arrangements that are outselling her artistically arranged original pieces. She’s just downsized and sold her house because of the money pinch she’s under and is feeling very vulnerable and like a bit of a falure as she moves into an apartment above her flower shop. I admired her so much. She is a fighter and not planning on quitting, you can feel her drive to work even harder to make the store succeed.

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I met Aaron at the Romantic Times Book Convention in Chicago last spring at the Fairy ball (I have a great pic at the bottom of this interview) and we began emailing a bit this summer. I’m so glad I met him! I loved The Never Prayer. My review is after this post. Click HERE Where was I? Oh, yeah, Aaron asked for my honest opinion of his young adult novel and I said if I was going to do that I wanted to have my way with him on my virtual couch *tries to waggle eye brows* lol sooo, he was a good sport and agreed. I <3 this interview so much and hope you get a kick out of meeting Aaron and enjoy the hoops I make him jump through. And he is a great guy and giving 2 lucky commenters a copy of The Never Prayer!

Without further adieu….

Me: Hi Aaron! (((hugs))) Come in, come in. *scoops books and tv remote off the couch* have a seat on my virtual couch.  Can I get you anything? Really, skies the limit (it’s VR and all in our head anyway :p) I’m having a Starbuck’s green tea frappuccino WITH whip cream! Lol

So, Aaron… How’s your summer been? Gone on any roller coasters or camping trips?

Aaron: My summer has been outtakes from a 1980’s era music video about the rock star on the road, missing home, riding in the bus, pining over girls with really frizzy hair walking around in a cloud of hairspray.  I smell Aqua Net and I melt.  Seriously.

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Queen of Tarts Review

 of The Never Prayer

 by Aaron Michael Ritchey

The Never Prayer is a paranormal YA novel with angels and demons, good and evil, despair and most of all- hope. It is a fast paced novel. I fell into the story and didn’t look up till I was finished. I loved Lena and wanted to see her succeed. She is making some poor choices because she feels she has no options left. Her parents have died and she and her little brother are staying with their aunt who can’t afford to keep them. Lena starts to run drugs. It’s all tied up with the red purse she uses for deliveries. She always promises herself it’s the last time, but when the end of the month rolls around and her aunt tells her they need more money or they’ll be out on the street… She pulls out that red purse.

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