Instabuy!

Jun. 8th, 2015 10:28 am
katekintailbc: (Bookworm Remus)
Anne Wagener, a writer who used to be in my local writers' roundtable group before she moved away, just published a book and it hit Amazon today. I bought it in record time for me--about 5 seconds. I hadn't even finished the email Anne sent out about it before I purchased it.

Amazon description of Borrow-a-Bridesmaid by Anne Wagener:
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade—or, in Piper Brody’s case, make a Craigslist ad offering yourself up as a hired bridesmaid! A hilarious, touching, coming-of-age novel from debut author Anne Wagener.

Piper is a recent college grad who decides to sell her body on Craigslist—as a hired bridesmaid. Her airport bookseller job just isn’t bringing home the turkey bacon, and no one’s going to pay her to analyze Milton’s poetry. Turns out, having an English literature degree from an upstanding university isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Piper’s Craigslist endeavor soon picks up steam, netting her clients such as Southern peach Stacey, whose interracial marriage causes a family feud, and Alex, a bride-to-be who’s so type A she’s type A-plus. Between fighting off matching T-shirt–wearing teams of “bustle bitches” at gown sales and learning more about fondant than the Cake Boss, Piper falls for Charlie Bell, the brother of a client. A fellow aspiring writer, Charlie’s the only person recently who’s encouraged Piper to follow her dreams. Not to mention, he’s pretty darn cute.

But when Charlie turns out to be the groom in one of her gigs—and set to marry the craziest bridezilla of them all—Piper must band together with her newfound friends and stop Charlie from making the biggest mistake of his life.

I had the privilege of getting to hear a half dozen chapters and scenes of this book when it was in its earliest stages, and I've always wondered what happened to the characters after that. It's the kind of clever concept that stuck with me over several years. But the writing was exceptional when I heard the early versions; I can only assume it has not lost its brilliance. Anne had a way of making you care deeply about characters you've only just met. I am SO excited to find out what happens in this book after wondering for years!

It's available on Kindle and other ebook platforms.
katekintailbc: (Bookworm Remus)
I was at the Kensington, MD, Day of the Book Festival today with the other members of BCinDC, handing out over 1,000 books for free to readers. Our booth was at the very end of the row, next to the food trucks, and we could spread out nicely (a luxury we won't have at Gaithersburg next month). I walked the length of the festival (which had really expanded this year) in hopes of finding some material about the festival that I could put in my scrapbook. I was a bit overwhelmed by booths on either side and a lot of self-published authors or local authors who write in genres that I don't often read. There were book sellers and other organizations/companies who sponsored the festivals. I made it to the end without stopping or making more than a few smiles and nods along the way. I listened to a bit of the steampunk reading (very cool). I ducked into a few stores to look for literature and finally found some (yay) then I headed back.

I walked back pretty quickly, not wanting or intending to buy anything. I literally walked past a table, glancing nicely at the people sitting there and at the books spread out there. Just as I passed, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the poster on display advertising them as YA. Now, there's a lot of YA out there, but there usually isn't all that much at local book festivals like this. Plus, well, one of the covers had a rather cute gent on it. I asked for a bookmark, and the woman sitting at the table told me I could have one, of course, and that the author had been by earlier to sign some copies.

Autographed copies are special to me, even when I don't know the author. I like author's handwriting and it's neat that they've touched that particular copy and put a little more of themselves into it specially. But I really didn't intend to buy. I don't really have the money to spend on copies of books I've never heard of!

Then the woman said "They're on sale today: two for $10." Well, all right then. $10 for two signed YA books? I couldn't pass that up. I looked at the selection, thinking. "Unless there isn't another one you want." HA! You've got a table full of YA titles and you think I'm hesitating because I don't want another one? No, I hesitate because I can't choose from your selection which I want! She asked what kind of stories I like and I rambled off a bunch of things. The girl sitting next to the woman pointed at the first book in a series and told me that one was the best.

So there it was. I didn't even read the back covers! LOL And, hey, I probably should have bought MORE! All the books! But now that I've had a chance to read the back covers/inside flaps, I'm excited about them.

I feel like such an easy mark... but I'm really excited about the deal and the adventure reading a completely unknown-to-me author. Turns out the author studied at the university I work for. So that's pretty cool. I feel good about supporting her a little. And it's nice to know that if I like the first book, there's a series I can dive into as well.

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