For once I seem to have had a little luck and I have won something. Recently I read about the First Look program over at The Brown Bookloft. It sounded like fun--in exchange for getting a book that is soon to be released you write up a review about it and submit it to the Harper Collins website. You put your name into a drawing (online), and they pull out I am not sure how many names--and if it is you, they send the "advance reading edition" to you. Each month they have a list of new releases, and you enter your name into the drawing.
My choices, and I was chosen for both of them, are: The Stranger House by Reginald Hill, and Court Lady and Country Wife by Lita-Rose Betcherman. I love mysteries, but I have never read Reginald Hill. It sounds like a good one, though. The nonfiction title is right up my alley--biography of two gentlewomen in the time of Elizabeth I. I had put my name in another online drawing for the new Jacqueline Winspear mystery, but unfortunately my name wasn't chosen. It doesn't take much to make my day--I am pretty happy to get two new (and not yet released!) books!