A wild and sexy romp through the 19th Century based on the real-life adventures of the audacious Lola Montez, “The Sensation of Europe.”
It is 1842, London, and the gorgeous, ever-capricious twenty-two year old Eliza Gilbert, (a.k.a. Lola Montez) is in deep trouble and seeks escape from a divorce trial. Desperate to be free, Lola accepts an alluring offer of a paid trip to Spain, provided she fulfill a few clandestine tasks for Juan de Grimaldi—a Spanish theatre impresario who is also a government agent and spy for the exiled Spanish queen, Maria Cristina.
Lola soon finds herself in Madrid, undercover as a performer in a musical play. But when she falls dangerously in love with the target, General Diego de Léon—the “perfect Spanish soldier, lover and horseman”—Lola becomes a double agent and the two hatch a plot of their own. Disaster strikes when the plot is exposed, Diego is captured, and Lola is forced to flee on horseback to France, with a dangerous group of Loyalists in hot pursuit. Will Lola’s reckless daring, feminine whiles, and signature whip be enough to save her life, her lover and her cause?
She will have to be bolder and more whip smart than ever before.
Written with zest and a passionate, fiery fervor by debut author Kit Brennan, Whip Smart irresistibly whisks readers into a vivid journey through 19th Century, France, England and Spain, riding sidesaddle with Eliza Gilbert, the hot-headed Irish girl, as she transforms into Dona Maria Dolores de Porris y Montez—a.k.a. Lola Montez, The Sensation of Europe!
“A fun and sexy romp! I can’t wait for the sequel!”
– Gwyn Cready, RITA Award winning author of Seducing Mr. Darcy, A Novel Seduction and Timeless Desire: An Outlander Love Story
PARTICULARS OF THIS BOOK :
Find your copy here: Amazon
Publisher: Astor + Blue
Pages: 274
Genre: Fiction
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Victorian era and its personalities have always been of major interest to Brennan. Her play Tiger’s Heart explores the life of Dr. James Barry, who was actually a woman living a double life disguised as a man in order to practice medicine, which was not an option open to women at the time.
Kit divides her time between the vibrant city of Montreal and the quiet lake wilderness of Ontario alongside her husband, Andrew, and a variety of animal friends. Whip Smart: Lola Montez Conquers the Spaniards is her debut novel.
THE BOOKISH DAME'S COMMENT :
The above book is just one of the great ones you'll find from publisher Astor & Blue Editions.
Please click on this link to see their full catalog: http://astorandblue.com/catalog
The Bookish Libraria is happy to host a guest post article from Tony Viardo, the CEO of the publisher, Astor + Blue Editions regarding concerns about the exploding market of ebooks vrs. print books! Mr. Viardo....
Digital Publishing: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas?
So how many articles have we read about E-books and
Digital Publishing this year? For anyone who generally follows the book world
(rabid booklover, book-blogger, industry pro or casual reader), we’re literally
inundated with the amazing numbers—“E-book sales up 125% (again) over the 175%
they were up from last year’s 225% increase!”—and equally amazing technological
announcements—“Next Fall, the new ZimWittyZoomDitty tablet not only updates
your Facebook and Goodreads friends whenever you snort in disgust … it cooks
dinner for you at the same time!”
This leads many to take at least casual stock of what’s
going on/going to happen to the “Publishing World” as we know it. And if your friends are like my friends
(hardcore print book consumers), that stock is usually pretty morbid (sharp
Greenwich Village angst not included): “Print
books are doomed, so are brick-and-mortar stores. Goodbye literary quality. Oh and some pajama-wearing
techie living in a basement with a laptop is going to be the new Sulzburger;
we’ll all have to bow down!”
If you (or that good friend of yours) fall into the mortified
category, my take (for what it’s worth) may come as positive news: E-books are not, and will not be, the Grinch Who Stole Christmas; in this
case, the “Print World’s” bacon. Now, as the owner of a “Digital First”
publishing house (Astor + Blue Editions, www.astorandblue.com)
my opinions may easily be written off as self-serving and invalid. But bear with me for a minute… these are
fact-based observations and I might just make sense (Someone tell my mom and
dad).
As someone who earns a living from publishing, I have to
follow numbers and industry trends as closely as possible. And while some see doom and gloom for Print,
I see exciting developments for both Print and E-book formats. What do the numbers show? Digital book revenue is skyrocketing, print
revenue is declining. Natural conclusion? E-books are killing print books. But not so
fast. Historically, Print revenue has always seemed to be declining (even
before E-books were invented), but that doesn’t mean the book market is
dying or shrinking.
We have to remember that in fact the book market is growing.
Readership always grows because population
always grows. Every year, new readers
enter the vast pool of the club that is “adult readership,” (despite Dancing
with the Stars). And every year more readers are being born and theoretically being
inspired by Ms. Crabtree’s elementary reading class. **So why the decline? Readership grows gradually, but the sheer
number of books and book vendors grow exponentially, showing an investment loss
almost every year. (Basic statistics: the widening universe makes it look like
a shrinking pie when it isn’t).
So what does this mean?
If you look at the numbers (historically), revenue for print books may
have declined, yes, but not more than “normal,” and not significantly more
than it did when there were no E-books
around. (This is arguable of course, but the long term numbers do not show
a precipitous drop-off). The yearly revenue decline, if there is one,
can just as easily be written off to economic conditions as to E-book competition. Bottom line:
Any drop in print revenue that may be caused by E-books are not
significantly sharp enough to declare that E-books are destroying print book sales. (Hence no Grinch).
What may be happening, and what I believe is happening is
that a whole new market for E-books is developing, while the print book market
growth, like Publishing as a whole, is still growing at a historically gradual
pace. (Boringly flat). Come up with your
pet anecdote here, but I believe that more new readers are entering the market (who
otherwise wouldn’t have) because of E-readers; existing readers are consuming
more books (both print and e-book) than they did before; and while it would
seem that a certain print title is losing a sale whenever readers buy it in E-book
format, this is offset, at least somewhat, by the fact that more print titles
are being bought (that otherwise wouldn’t) because of the extra marketing buzz
and added awareness produced by the E-book’s cyber presence. All of it evens out in the end, and I believe,
ultimately fosters growth industry-wide.
So take heart Print fans, E-books are not the dark
villain you think they are. And here, I
should correct my earlier analogy—that E-books are not the Grinch Who Stole
Christmas. They may actually be the
Grinch…in as much as, at the end of the story, the pear-shaped green guy ended
up not only giving all the presents back to the singing Who-villers, he created
a flash mob and started a big party as well.
Tony Viardo, CEO
Astor + Blue Editions
*NOTE: Astor +Blue Editions has put its entire first season’s list of e-book titles on a holiday promotional sale for $0.99 or $1.99. Here's the link to the catalog - http://astorandblue.com/catalog/. The sale will continue through January 7, 2013, for your convenience!
All books may be found at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and other locations.
The Dame wishes to thank Mr. Viardo and Astor + Blue for this informative guest post.
1 comments:
Awesome! : )
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