Giveaway: The Chance to Win Two of JoJo Moyes’ Novels

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, our reading tastes may be more open to checking out books involving love and romance.  And just in time to help spark this fire and desire is an opportunity for you to take home two of JoJo Moyes’ novels! JoJo writes extremely well-crafted tales of love in a fresh and wonderful way. She has easily become one of our favourite authors guaranteed to win the Literary Hoarders Approved stamp every time we finish one and we’re very excited to be able to offer you the chance to win not one, but two of her titles!

This offer is open to all those with a US mailing address and may be gifted to you simply by leaving us a comment below. No crazy questions, no skill-testing questions, no hoops or circles to fight through, no “extra entries” if you do this, this or that, just simply say something below that may tell us why you want to win this fantastic offer. Because we love you and want to share the love and awesome experience of enjoying the stories JoJo Moyes writes.

Book #1 is the newly designed cover for an earlier released title, The Last Letter from Your Lover.

A Brief Encounter for our time, The Last Letter from Your Lover is a sophisticated, spellbinding double love story that spans decades and thrillingly evokes a bygone era. In 1960, Jennifer Stirling wakes in the hospital and remembers nothing—not the car accident that put her there, not her wealthy husband, not even her own name. Searching for clues, she finds an impassioned letter, signed simply “B,” from a man for whom she seemed willing to risk everything. In 2003, journalist Ellie Haworth stumbles upon the letter and becomes obsessed with learning the unknown lovers’ fate—hoping it will inspire her own happy ending. Remarkably moving, this is a novel for romantics of every age.

Book #2 is the wildly wonderful, keep your box of tissues handy, Me Before You. You will easily and very quickly fall head over heels in love with Lou and Will. We’re positive on that note.

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.
Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that.
What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.

Hurry and Comment Below! We’ll draw the lucky winner on the big V-Day, Friday, February 14, 2014. We look forward to hearing from you! Good luck!

Book Giveaway! Under the Wire: Marie Colvin’s Final Assignment

Today, Tuesday, October 8 is publication day for Paul Conroy’s, Under the Wire: Marie Colvin’s Final Assignment.

To celebrate the publication day and to encourage you to pick up this stunning, inspirational and incredible book, we are hosting a Book Giveaway!

The publisher will send one copy to our randomly chosen winner with an US Address, so please comment below expressing your wish to read a copy. Deadline is Friday, October 11!

Trust me, this is one you’ll want to read.

It’s gripping, and yet, Conroy has also infused subtle humor into this heartbreaking story and all the while writing a wonderful tribute to his beloved friend, Marie Colvin.

From the publisher: Zero Dark Thirty meets 127 Hours — Under the Wire is a riveting war journal from photographer Paul Conroy, who accompanied Marie Colvin (called by her peers “the greatest war correspondent of her generation”) during her ill-fated final assignment in Syria.

Under the Wire: Marie Colvin’s Last Assignment (Weinstein Books; Hardcover; 320 pages;October 8, 2013) is by photographer Paul Conroy. A former soldier with the Royal Artillery, Conroy has worked extensively in combat zones, producing footage from conflicts in the Balkans, the Middle East and Libya.

Marie Colvin, the internationally recognized American foreign-war correspondent who was killed in a rocket attack in 2012 while reporting on the suffering of civilians inside Syria, was renowned for her flair and her fearlessness: she reported from dangerous places no other hard-core correspondent would dare to go. Conroy, who had forged a close bond with Colvin as they put their lives on the line time and lime again to report from the world’s conflict zones, was with her when she died. Under the Wire is Paul’s gripping, visceral, and moving account of their friendship and the final year he spent alongside her.

If that isn’t enticing enough, I’ll include small excerpts below that give reason to why Marie Colvin embraced the dangerous conditions she consistently dropped herself into. She didn’t do this as for adventure-thrills, thrill-seeking acts of selfishness. No, for Marie, reporting from the front lines of many of the deadliest wars was for reason, for purpose and to ensure the world really and truly saw what war did to the innocent – to the civilians of these war-ravaged countries. The excerpts will not only show you the incredible nature of this woman, but will also give you an idea of how wonderfully and powerfully Paul Conroy shares his story:

“In a famous speech she had given at St. Brides on Fleet Street, a church traditionally associated with journalists, a few years earlier, she argued passionately for the need to send reporters to dangerous places. She believed war reporting was a way of speaking truth to power, of holding governments to account by telling the public what their governments were doing in their name. For her, war reporting was about bearing witness to the plight of ordinary civilians so that she could record it for the world and reveal the brutal consequences of decisions taken by men in high places. It sounds grand, but she believed that without war correspondents governments could conduct themselves as if in a vacuum: their lies and propaganda could be conveyed without challenge, allowing them to carry out atrocities far from the prying eyes of the world. In her words, it was about sending back the first rough draft of history and cutting through the sandstorm of propaganda that flares when armies, tribes or terrorists clash.”

Here is a taste of what conditions Paul and Marie experience when sneaking “under the wire” to get to these locations undetected so they can capture the news and photos of what is truly going on:

…we felt exposed as the car inched ever closer into the unknown of the front line. No headlights, no moon, only darkness and silence. The silence was unlike anything I had ever felt before. There was the silent bravery of the drivers risking their lives in order to make our journey possible, Marie’s silence as she faced the unknown, her gaze locked on to the black road ahead, and there was my own silent terror. I felt numb and cold.  The car accelerated rapidly, bringing Marie and me out of our individual trances with a start. We exchanged nervous glances in the back of the vehicle. The car soon reached its top speed, leaving the ground as we sped across the pitted, broken roads. That’s when we heard the piercing whistle of bullets. The fact we could hear them over the sound of the engine and noise of the road meant that the bullets were close….More incoming fire. This time I could hear the deep thud of 14.5mm anti-aircraft rounds above the noise of the car engine. The explosive bullets could stop us dead in our tracks, literally. Every seventh round was a tracer. Watching the bright pink glow of the bullet arc like a sprite towards our speeding vehicle was bewitching. The reality of a direct hit was unthinkable.”

Under the Wire is written with great intensity and an edge of your seat anticipation, but it is also a beautifully written story of a trusted and much loved yet amazingly inspirational friend. This friend that lost her life doing what she was most passionate about. I’m halfway through and it’s most definitely a page turner!

Remember to leave your comments below by Friday, October 11! The publisher will mail directly to the randomly chosen winner a copy of Under the Wire: Marie Colvin’s Final Assignment.

Giveaway! JoJo Moyes’ The Girl You Left Behind

GIVEAWAY! 

The Literary Hoarders are so pleased (and excited) to be able to offer 1 copy of JoJo Moyes’ latest novel The Girl You Left Behind! (US Addresses only please). Viking/Penguin has graciously said one copy will be sent to one lucky winner (randomly chosen) as well!

Jackie and I read and Looooved Me Before You and we also read it for our Wink 3 Book Club and everyone there raved about it. It was a breakthrough hit for JoJo and everyone we’ve recommended it to has loved, loved, loved it!

The Associated Press said, “There are books that you cannot put down. There are also books where you become so invested in the characters, you force yourself to stop reading to prolong the experience because you don’t want the story to end, and that’s what can happen when you read Me Before You.”

So the hardcover of this new one is sitting here staring me in the face just begging me to dive in to it! Knowing how fantastic Me Before You was, and reading this amazing description about it below, I can’t imagine that The Girl You Left Behind won’t become another major fan favourite!

The Girl You Left Behind isn’t on sale until August 20th, so if you comment below, or better yet, Like Us and comment on our Facebook page, you may just have the lucky, lucky chance of reading before it hits the stores!

(Taken from Viking/Penguin.com):

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Me Before You, a spellbinding love story of two women separated by a century but united in their determination to fight for what they love most

Jojo Moyes’s bestseller, Me Before You, catapulted her to wide critical acclaim and has struck a chord with readers everywhere. “Hopelessly and hopefully romantic” (Chicago Tribune), Moyes returns with another irresistible heartbreaker that asks, “Whatever happened to the girl you left behind?”

France, 1916:  Artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his young wife, Sophie, to fight at the front. When their small town falls to the Germans in the midst of World War I, Edouard’s portrait of Sophie draws the eye of the new Kommandant. As the officer’s dangerous obsession deepens, Sophie will risk everything—her family, her reputation, and her life—to see her husband again.

Almost a century later, Sophie’s portrait is given to Liv Halston by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. A chance encounter reveals the painting’s true worth, and a battle begins for who its legitimate owner is—putting Liv’s belief in what is right to the ultimate test.

We hope you take advantage of the offer and tell us below (and/or on our Facebook page) why you really, really, really need to be the one to get your hands on JoJo Moyes’ latest! This offer is available until Tuesday, July 30th.