Book Review Policy

I felt it was past time I write up a policy, so here I go. If anyone thinks I'm forgetting something, tell me in the comments.

Genres I Review: YA (male- or female-oriented), fantasy (traditional/high, urban/low), SF (hard and soft), horror, literary fiction, chick lit, general fiction, some non-fiction

Genres I Can't Review: I review romance and erotica exclusively for The Good, The Bad and The Unread. If you want a book reviewed in those genres, you should contact the site owner according to site policy.

eBooks: I will review eBooks, but it takes me longer because I don't have an eReader and thus cannot carry the book around to read in my free time.

Self-published: I've reviewed self-published in the past, but I'm going to stop. I buy self-pubbed when I know the author's work, but I've been burned enough not to accept self-pubbed willy-nilly.

About my reviews: My reviews do not include the publisher's blurb, but I try to include necessary summary within the review's text. I provide links to the author's site and to the book's listing on Amazon (through the cover picture). The majority of my reviews are positive because I tend to put down books I don't enjoy, but I will be honest if something doesn't work for me.

I am in college. The speed in which I review depends on how busy I am and how interesting I find the book, among other things. I do work to review all requests.

Other services offered: I enjoy hosting giveaways, guest blogs, and interviews.

Please contact me with requests at inbedwithbooks AT yahoo DOT com.

Note, if you have my campus address (the one that says I live at "University"), this address with not be valid after mid-May 2009. At that point please contact me for my permanent address.

I will be in England most of July and August 2009. This will affect my reviewing.

Last Day to Enter Birthday Contest!

To enter, you must comment on the Blogiversary post as well as any post made on my birthday.

Winner will be announced tomorrow, and will receive:
FIREFLY LANE by Kristin Hannah
VAST FIELDS OF ORDINARY by Nick Burd (ARC)
Jimmy Coates poster signed by author Joe Craig
Reader essentials like bookmarks, coffee, and tea
possibly another book and whatever I feel like tossing in

Author contests from March 18-31 will remain open until April 6.

Interview with 'Shane'

Jeri Smith-Ready is the author of the Aspect of Crow trilogy, REQUIEM FOR THE DEVIL, and the WVMP radio series. The first book, WICKED GAME, is out in in mass market today, for those who are cheap like me. (My review is here.) The second, BAD TO THE BONE, comes out May 16.



Available online is the site for WVMP radio, with includes special info about the vampire DJs.

You'll also want to get THE WILD'S CALL, a prequel to her trilogy, available for free to those lucky few with Kindles.



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Guest Blogger Jeri Smith-Ready with 20 Questions for Shane McAllister

Hi, everyone, and happy birthday to Liviania! When I asked our lovely hostess for topic ideas, she suggested something about the month of March, or the number 20, since that’s the age she just turned.

I pondered, and pondered, and finally decided to interview the hero of my vampire novels Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone, Shane McAllister. For one thing, his birthday is March 1 (he was 41 this year, but funnily enough, still looks 27). Also, unbeknownst to him, his true “turning tale,” the story of how he became a vampire, was just posted to my website this past Sunday.

So I asked my friends on Twitter and Facebook to submit twenty questions they would ask their favorite obsessive-compulsive grunge vampire DJ. They came through with some great ideas, and I added two to the end:

1. Where did you grow up?

Born, raised, and died in Youngstown, Ohio. Proud Steelers fan.

2. When did you get interested in music?

In the womb? My family is hard-core Irish-American, so there was always a lot of music. My mom would sing constantly—she’d do happy songs while she cooked and then sad songs when she put me and my sister to bed.

But I was the only one of the four of us to actually pick up an instrument. And I mean literally pick up, because I stole my first guitar, from my uncle. He wasn’t using it. He didn’t even miss it for like two years.

3. Were you an outcast in school?

At home, yeah, but not at school. Then again, maybe I was, from the perspective of the perfect people. But it was a big school, so everyone could find their own niche. I hung out with the other art/music/drama weirdos. And sometimes with the stoners, because they had the best, um, albums.

When I was thirteen I got into a fight with some bigger guys (long private story), and even though they kicked my face in, I managed to take a couple down with me. So my dad got me boxing lessons (this was the inner city—no fancy-schmancy karate classes). After that, no one messed with me (or the person I was originally defending).

4. What is the appropriate way to style flannel?

The only appropriate way is not to style it at all. Just put it on, let it hang. Take it off, check your oil with it. Put it back on. Whatever.

5. How many drunks do you have to drink to get drunk?

Far more than will fit in this vampire’s belly. Sadly, it takes a lot extra of any drug to affect our bodies. We each drink a pot of coffee a day to help us wake up.

6. If you could spend the week in any rock star’s shoes, who would it be and why?

Tough question. I’m going to say Bono. He gets to fly around the world, meeting presidents and prime ministers, and having influence on important issues like poverty. I wouldn’t want to do that all the time, but for a week it would be majorly cool.

7. What made you go with Regina?

She made me feel alive at a time when I was close to dead. She was just, I don’t know. Magic.

8. Literary hero?

The guy from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. I’d kill for his record collection. But not his luck with women.

9. Which fictional character would you like to be?

Wow, another hard question. Most fictional characters have really bad lives, or there wouldn’t be much of a story, right?

Except for James Bond. Bad stuff happens to him, but he never loses confidence, and everything turns out okay in the end. My James Bond wouldn’t wear a tuxedo, though. I did that enough when I was a wedding DJ. I vowed that the next time I wore a tux, it would be at my own wedding.

10. Do you play any instruments?

I play guitar—mostly acoustic but some electric, too. At the moment I’m trying to form a band so I can plug in more. I can also play bass, but I don’t know if that counts as a separate instrument. Drums are also a very satisfying outlet for frustration.

11. Does the toilet paper go OVER or UNDER? With the WVMP vamps being OCD, are there fights about this?

Regina says OVER, and she’s pretty much in charge. So, OVER it is.

12. If the TP question is moot, are there certain repeated fights where one vampire’s OCD trait clashes with another’s?

Ouch. Yeah. Regina actually wanted to arrange our communal record collection by catalog number instead of artist name. She was voted down five to one.

13. Boxers or briefs?

Please. Does any guy ever answer, ‘briefs,’ even if he really wears them?

14. Your own best feature?

My modesty. Next question?

15. Favorite concert you’ve been too... alive or undead.

Hardest question ever. So I’ll just say the first thing that came to mind: The Queen is Dead tour by The Smiths. It was the first concert I’d ever been to where the audience members weren’t trying to knock each other over. Everyone was just listening and loving it.

16. Favorite book from a genre you would not usually read from?

Probably I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert. I say, “probably” because I’m told it’s a “young adult” book. I didn’t know that was a separate genre. I’m really not clued into the book world, so for me, a book is either fiction or nonfiction and that’s it.

But anyway, I love that book. Even though I’m a guy, I could totally relate to Emily the main character. I remember what it was like to be young and bitter and so incredibly conscious of what everyone thought of me. And to always feel like I had to pretend to be cooler and tougher than I was.

[Ed. Read Stephanie's guest blog here.]

17. If you could have written any book which one would it be?

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. Except I’d have to be Scottish. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

18. What inspires you?

Music is the easy answer. But I’ll also add, at the risk of sounding outrageously sappy, that Ciara inspires me. She inspires me not to take life so seriously. She inspires me to stay in the present, which means thinking about the future, something I hadn’t done in a long time before I met her.

19. Do you listen to any new bands?

Oh yeah. Ciara’s helping me out on that front. I like Flogging Molly and The Killers a lot. The Black Angels have some heavy, trippy stuff I love when I’m in the right mood. Probably my favorite right now is Dead Confederate. They’re like Nirvana with a Southern rock edge.

20. Speaking of Nirvana, if you could tell your idol Kurt Cobain one thing, what would it be?

I don’t know. *long silence* Anything to make him laugh.

That’s twenty questions, right?

Yeah, we’re done.

Thank God. Tell Liviania I said, Happy Birthday, okay?



Shane can be found on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/shanewvmp/ and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ShaneMcAllister . His girlfriend Ciara Griffin, the books’ protagonist, is at at http://www.myspace.com/ciarawvmp/ and http://twitter.com/CiaraGriffin .

Oh, and I’m at at http://www.jerismithready.com/, at http://www.myspace.com/jerismithready/ and http://twitter.com/jsmithready . I love to hear from people who actually exist (as opposed to people like Shane), so please drop by and say hi!

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You can also talk to Jeri here - she said she'd be around today and Wednesday so people can ask questions of both her and Shane. I recommend asking something, since one lucky duck will win either a signed copy of WICKED GAME or BAD TO THE BONE ARC, winner's choice.

I think Shane should listen to some Dropkick Murphys.

kc dyer is Celebrating her Roots

kc dyer's new novel comes out this month, but it's preceded by four others: SEEDS OF TIME, SECRET OF LIGHT, SHADES OF RED, and MRS. ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK. The first three are a series about some time-travelling kids. (This means I must rec them to my neighbor who loves time-travel.)

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Hey Gang,

When Liviania asked me to participate in her month-long blogging party, I agreed without a second thought. This is a month of celebration for me, so I'm really happy to have the chance to share it with you, too. My new book, A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW, was just born this month, and like any new baby, it has brought me a great deal of joy. WALK is my fifth novel for young people, and as with any new baby, it's my favourite -- at least until the next one comes along.

This book is all about beginnings. Everybody comes from somewhere, and many people don't end up in the place where they began. Life's like that, eh?

Now, I've given you at least two hints in the previous sentences as to where I made my own beginnings. Can you tell? I was born in Canada, and I still live here, although at some considerable distance from where I first showed up, and after having taken a pretty convoluted path. These days I live outside the beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia, and I'm pretty happy about that. I love the place I live, but I also love all the other places I have lived before. And I am particularly interested in the places where my family lived, long before I was even an inkling.



My new book is all about a kid named Darby who is happy where she lives, and doesn't know or care too much about it, until she's forced to move away for the summer. And when she's unhappily esconced with her grandparents in a weird little one-lobster town, things start to happen. Things involving an old out-building with a stone window frame. Things that make her suddenly sit up and take notice -- for the first time -- not only where she came from, but where the other people she cares about came from, too. When she finds herself crawling on her hands and knees through 10,000 year-old snow, coming face to face with a polar bear, and riding the Atlantic waves on a coffin ship, Darby finds a lot more adventure than she ever expected in a sleepy little Maritime town.

Darby's adventures got me thinking. Where were YOU born? Do you still live near there? And what kind of adventures did YOUR family go through to get you where you are today?

If you'd like to share your ideas, leave your story in the comments. And I'm pretty sure Liviania will let me do a draw to give one of Darby's new books away.

If you'd like to read more about how Darby celebrated her new book, you can read her blog HERE. Or, if you'd like, you can read my blog here: http://kcdyer.blogspot.com/ And my website is here at http://www.kcdyer.com/I look forward to meeting you -- and hearing YOUR adventures.

~kc dyer

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Not only will I hold a draw, I'll hold one to give away two signed copies of A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW, one each to people who can follow rules.

Since this is my blog, I'll tell my story here instead of in the comments. I've never left the US, but Canada might be the first other country I visit. My sister now lives in N. Dakota, so when my mom and I drive up to see her we might as well drive the extra bit. This'll come before I leave for England.

I was born in a small suburb of Houston that is much larger now. My family moved to a suburb of Austin while I was still tiny, but moved back to that original 'burb before I entered elementary. I thought I would live there through high school, but my mother moved to be closer to her family after the divorce. Since then, my main residence has been in a Dallas/Fort Worth area suburb. I still visit my dad in Houston frequently. Plus, I go to college in Austin.

The odd thing about the college I chose is its the one my sister always wanted to go to. (She didn't.) I dreamed of Ivy Leagues and Rice until money slapped me in the face and laughed. But I'm really happy with the quality of my education.

So, there is one strip of Texas with which I'm really familiar. (Buy your klobasneki and kolaches at Hruska's in Ellinger, the Czech Stop in West, and Zamykal Gourmet Kolaches in Calvert.)

Fourth Week Summary

During this week the first half winners were announced. I'll try to send e-mails to the three people who haven't contacted me yet, but it'd be great if I didn't have to.

Other contests still open can be found in the Third Week Summary. There are more to come as both kc dyer and Jeri Smith-Ready are giving something away.

Last week's first guest was Susan Fine, a debut YA author and teacher. She says to check her blog in May for opportunities to win a copy of INITIATION.

The second guest was Ann Haywood Leal, the debut author of ALSO KNOWN AS HARPER - an ARC of which is up for grabs. Generally, we all envy that's she been to Ireland.

Next came Jonathan Bernstein, whose debut book is HOTTIE. Everyone with eyes hates the new cover. Bookstore buyers across the nation feel a deep shame.

Fourth, our first debut vampire novelist of the week: Melissa Francis, with BITE ME! Let's up her adorable ARC cover doesn't get changed.

After her came another YA debut novelist Cheryl Renee Herbsman. BREATHING looks like it's going to be romantic and lovely, and some people are going to get awesome promo bookmarks for it and other novels.

The week's penultimate guest was Fran Cannon Slayton, discussing her debut WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS as well as random trivia about herself. Those with a fondness for railroads should be excited about the signed ARC up for grabs.

Finally, the other debut vampire novelist, Jaye Wells. I've been looking forward to RED-HEADED STEPCHILD, so I'm glad at least one commenter will have the chance to read it. And if you don't know anything about Lilith, the interview might teach you something.

Check out previous summaries and the first winner's post for buttons you can use to link to the blogiversary/birthday celebration. It's almost at an end, but I've had a great time and hope you have too.

Here's the final reiteration of the rules:

Each author contest can be entered by commenting on his or her interview or guest blog. The comment must be relevant to the content of the post.

Bonus entries can be earned by:
+5 Making a graphic that I can include on the blogiversary/b-day posts and others can use to link to the contest (must say http://inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com)
-These five entries can be distributed about contests of your choice
+1 Link to the contest
+1 Follow my blog
+1 Buy one of the author's books (and send me proof)

The last contest post will go live on the 31, but the second half contests (starting March 18) can be entered until April 6. Winners will be announced April 7. You can only win once during this block, but you can still win something even if you won in the first half of the month.

My birthday contest is separate. I will give my prize (to be determined) to someone who comments on both my birthday and the blogiversary. No, I am not telling you which day is my birthday. (For those who know my b-day, like Bookluver_Carol and Reviewer X, I'll make you do something else if you want the prize.) No extra entries, though I might be bribable. In fact, anyone who's dumb rich enough to buy me a Kindle 2 wins instantly.

My contest prize includes FIREFLY LANE, an ARC of THE VAST FIELDS OF ORDINARY, some coffee and tea, some bookmarks, and a signed Joe Craig Jimmy Coates poster - with more to be added.