New Year's Blog Hop!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

A WORD FROM OUR BLOG HOP SPONSORS....

It's another year over! Can you believe it? Well we authors, readers, and bloggers sure can't. And to celebrate the New Year with bang, we're going crazy and sending out so many prizes, fun parties, experiences, and other goodies, that it's a bit scary. Each author has a favorite New Year memory, book, idea, or way to party and we're going to show you! Can't wait to see you January 1st - 6th!

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

But that's not all....

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $300 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!
(The Swag Pack is US ONLY.)

AND NOW A WORD FROM LEXI...
Can you believe it’s 2013? Time flies, for sure! I hope you all celebrated responsibly last night and today. I’m spending the day with family, watching football and…thinking about where 2013 will take me. I’ll definitely continue writing. It’s a passion, and job, I can’t and don’t ever want to give up. But you know what else I’m hoping to do this year? Read more.

Now, it may seem like an odd hope to have, especially for a writer, but reading is a luxury I have to fight to keep. You see, in the last 3 years, the total number of books I read dwindled each year. I was sure that in 2012 I’d be able to read a book a week. Yes, I had a lofty goal that I shared with the world. On all my social media sites, I vowed to read 52 books in 2012.

Didn’t happen. I managed to read 30, which isn’t too shabby, but I had really hoped for more. So, in 2013, one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to read 40 books. I think that’s doable and still a bit more than last year. What do you think?

Also, though, I’m planning to read a wider variety of books. I’m a romance writer who happens to love suspense, so naturally a lot of what I read is romantic suspense. But I also like contemporary romances, inspirational romances, historical romances. I bet you’re saying to yourself, “This woman only reads romances”, but you’d be wrong! I also love non-fiction historical stories, crime dramas, thrillers, classics. I’m pretty open to trying any type of story once. In 2013, some of the stories I plan to read are Rebecca (by Daphne du Maurier), Common Sense (by Thomas Paine), a book about the history of Ireland I can’t seem to find in the house, The Art of War (by Sun Tzu), and anything I can get my hands on by Alexander McCall Smith and John Hart. Of course, I’ll also be reading new romances too. I'm a new Jodi Thomas fan and I can't live without reading Laura Griffin's books or anything by Jill Shalvis. 

What about you? Do you have books you plan to read this New Year? Or do you have any other New Year’s Resolutions you’d like to share? Leave a comment and be in the running for a prize from me as well as be in the running for those fantabulous GRAND PRIZES mentioned above.