When Life Takes Over

Dear readers, authors and fellow bloggers,

This is just a short note from me to explain why my blog has experienced a hiatus of sorts for the past month or so. It has been an incredibly difficult time for me and it's been increasingly hard for me to keep up with reading, reviewing, etc.

This September, my relationship of 15 or so months of incredible love and emotion reached its conclusion. Naturally, this leaves a huge stain on one's emotions and I was am still very emotional and sad about it. It also was a very strenuous time in school, with six exams I have to pass and very little time to do it.

I am very aware that this sort of post can seem unprofessional. The truth is, I'm not a professional blogger. I don't make any money off of this. And when I (as I'm sure many other bloggers do) review a book, it's because our passion for the industry, for the authors and for the written word.

So I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the month of September - the reviews I failed to write, the giveaways I failed to wrap up (and which I'm going to do very soon, the best way I can) and the posts I failed to comment.

This blog is my baby, but I had to temporarily abandon it. Life took over. And I'm happy to continue balancing everything the best I can.

Thank you everybody. Just following your blogs in my Google Reader and reading your books is making my world a better place.

xoxo

Nikola.

Giveaway Winners Galore!

Finally, here are the winners for the giveaways that were just standing there on my blog for a very long time. I hope the winners are happy to receive the books and that I will see those reviews up soon! :)

Kiss of the Rose goes to:

Stacey

The Human Bobby goes to:

Aik

His Last Letter goes to:

The Book Pixie and Spring

Thanks for entering, everybody! I have the next giveaway in store, and it is going to be epic! Think a celebrity author, whose book has been made into a cult TV show and who has recently published her first YA book... If anyone can guess, well, let's just say I'll keep that in mind. And you'll want to win that signed copy, trust me!

Guest Post + Giveaway: Jeane Westin

I am sure everyone here will agree that there is nothing worse than a month full of exams - well, at least it's in the top 10. This is how it's been for me lately, and I'm very sorry I had to hit the pause button with the blog lately.

Today, I hope to make up for this by introducing historical fiction author Jeane Westin to the blog, who has prepared a guest post concerning her book His Last Letter. Please give a warm welcome for Jeane!

Hello Nikola, I'm so happy to hear from you and know you have an interest in England's Queen Elizabeth I and my book His Last Letter:Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester. The book is a novel about Elizabeth's lifelong love, Robert Dudley as I imagined it. Their story started when they were children of eight years and continued until her death nearly 70 year later. Although she was called, and called herself, the Virgin Queen, their long, romantic relationship raise doubts and I decided to imagine that theirs had been more than a deep friendship, although it was always that.

They were playmates first, impetuous companions as adults and the center of each others' lives for decades. Astute to the dangers of choosing any one man, the Virgin Queen could never give Dudley what he wanted most, to be her husband and England's king, she insisted that he stay close by her side. Possessive and jealous, they survived quarrels, his two disastrous marriages to other women, her constant flirtations and political machinations with foreign princes. Yet still, there is no written evidence that confirms the depth of the love between Elizabeth and her "sweet Robin".

  But was there such evidence? At the moment of her greatest victory over the Spanish Armada, Elizabeth receives news of Robin's death along with his last letter to her. Elizabeth kept one page of that letter inscribed in her hand His Last Letter in a locked treasures box by her side until the day she died and that page survives in the UK files to this day.

His Last Letter asks: what if there were a second page to Robin's passionate missive, a page confirming the passionate love affair Elizabeth and Robin engaged in for decades, and a page that the Queen had to destroy?

Upon receiving the letter and overcome with grief, the Queen locks herself in her rooms for three long days, refuses all food, water and comfort and lets Robin's letter transport her back to their last years together, the most dangerous of her rule, as well as to the most passionate moments of their affair. Elizabeth loved Robin until her very last breath, but as queen she loved the throne and her independence more...and that love ultimately forces her to burn the second page of sweet Robin's missive, breaking her woman's heart for good.

Doesn't that sound intriguing? And, since Jeane rules, she has offered two copies of her book to two lucky winners! Here are the giveaway rules:

-US only
-the giveaway ends September 9th
-make sure you leave your email in the comment (no email, no entry!)
-two winners

BONUS ENTRIES:
+2 for following (old and new followers)
+2 for leaving the link in your sidebar (+4 if you leave a graphic!)
+2 for tweeting about this (leave a link!)
+4 for blogging about this

Good luck!

Special thanks to Kaitlyn Kennedy for making this giveaway possible.