8073. Read 50 Brenda Novak books and get my pin

 Back when the pandemic started, many authors had to pivot from in person book tours to a virtual event. I saw a post on Susan Mallory's Facebook Page about being invited to be a part of Brenda Novak's virtual book launch. I love Susan Mallory. I had no clue who this Brenda Novak was but bought an e-book copy of her book and watched. 

It turns out she has a whole Facebook Group and everything. I joined the Facebook group where I learned that if I read 50 Brenda Novak Books, I get a free pin. So I was determined to read 50 books. 

Brenda writes women's fiction, romance suspense, and suspense. I'm definitely more about women's fiction and regular romance. I like romance and I like suspense but not really together. I like my romance to be as drama free as possible. Brenda started out by writing Historical Romance.

Brenda has several series and trilogies along with stand alone books. I started out with One Perfect Summer  -- a stand alone that I was the book of the book launch. When I joined the book club, I got two free digital books. Then I focused on the books I could get in audio book. I didn't care what series it was a part of initially or what order I read them in. I just wanted to get my hands on as many as possible. 

It may have taken me 5 years to do it but I read my 50th Brenda Novak Book Welcome Home to Whiskey Creek.

And will get my book in my June's book box. Yes, I will keep getting those for now

My favorite series were the Dundee, Idaho series and the Silver Springs Series. There was one Silver Springs series book, Until You Loved Me, that featured a football player and unlike most of the characters in her series, you never really heard about those characters again. I was kind of sad to leave them behind. That was probably my favorite book in the series.

My favorite stand alone was Tourist Season probably because I love being a tourist. 

There were some books and series I liked more than others. I did avoid the historicals because I am not a huge of fan of those. I do have one downloaded to my tablet that I will eventually get around to reading. 

Even though I hit my 50 books, I will keep reading. Now that Brenda has written 80+ books, maybe she will offer a 75 book pin. So I better keep reading. 

Book Talks 2024: Brenda Novak

 I was disappointed back in December 2022 when Brenda Novak announced her book stream tour would not be stopping in Wisconsin.. she would travel through WI but not stop. It didn't surprise me but it would have been nice. I wasn't driving 4-6 hours just to go see her. So when she announced that her book tour this year would take her to Kenosha, I mentioned this to the hubby. He rearranged his scheduled so he could take me.

I discovered Brenda Novak by accident at the start of the Pandemic when she invited Susan Mallery, another favorite author of mine, to be part of her virtual book launch. And I was hooked. I joined online book group. She writes women's fiction and along with some romance and suspense. She really likes conflict so some of her books are struggle because unless I am the mood for a thriller, I prefer light reads. Not all her books are overly suspenseful and are good reading. I am definitely a fluff kind of reader. Her Dundee, ID series is probably my favorite series and Summer on the Island is my favorite one this year. 

Blue House Books in Kenosha was hosting Brenda. It was right down town and the first tour stop to sell out.. The hubby and I had pizza from Cut Stone Pizza before hand. Like most Indie Bookstores, it is not a large bookstore. Even though we got there 10-15 before hand most of the seats were taken. I directed the hubby to a cozy arm chair in the corner while I snagged one of the few remaining seats up front.

Brenda talked about her new book, The Banned Books Club as well as how she got started in writing. She spoke for a good half hour along with reading part of her book. Then she opened the floor up for questions. After that she signed our books we pre-ordered, which was not a requirement. 

Meeting Brenda was pretty dang awesome. She and her daughter, Alexa both recognized me from my blog post I did earlier in the year about places to visit in Wisconsin for a different book she had coming out this year. They even looked to see if any of the recommendations I had in the blog were close. Sadly there were not.. in my original vision there might have been. Brenda was great. I usually hate meeting authors, so famous.. or infamous, that I don't know what to say but it was easy to talk to them. She was impressed I made the journey down. I said I bribed the hubby with pizza. 

It was a fun evening. Maybe one day she will get to my neck of the woods. The only problem is a lack of a good venue, even with the air stream. I would if the Plaza and Lyon's book would sponsor her and she could do it outside on the plaza in Neenah. That would be fun. Hmm. I might have to suggest that.

As much as I loved meeting Brenda Novak, I think R.L. Stine and Debbie Macomber still beat her out for my favorite author events. It will be really hard to beat both of them. 

St. Louis and the south always get big name authors. I will take what I can get around here especially now that the Fox Cities Book Festival is no more. I would suggest always taking the time to meet your favorite author when you get a chance even if it's a few hours away. 

Quarantine Adventures: Brenda Novak Book Launch

Browsing Facebook, I discovered a Facebook Live Event for one of the authors on my to read list. Brenda Novak's new book "One Perfect Summer" was just coming out and she was having a virtual launch party. Okay, I'll bite. I've not read her but the book sounds good and it's women's fiction. Besides I was told there would be prizes.. maybe..

Normally, I don't get to go to these fabulous launch parties or new book tours because they are usually in some glorious warm city in the south or other major metropolis not near me. So due to the pandemic, we are all forced inside thus launch parties and new book tours are going virtual. This makes me excited.

Brenda's launch party was fabulous. Not only did she talk about her new book and give away oodles of fabulous prizes (none of which I won), she had mystery guest authors join her to talk to about themselves and maybe their books. Because Brenda has written both women's fiction and thriller books, she had a wide variety of authors make an appearance. Susan Wiggs and Debbie Maccomber were among the guest authors. Not only did I get to hear some of my favorite authors, but I learned about a few new ones that made my to read list such John Lescroart, Susan Stoker, and Jennifer Snow.

Even though there were technical difficulties, it was a great evening. I did buy "One Perfect Summer" earlier today and started it. I can't wait to finish it and read other of her books.

I have a whole bunch of author events coming up in the next few days and weeks. Some I've never heard of, others I have read. Well at least this pandemic is going to let me connect with some authors I would normally never get to connect with since they don't normally venture this far north. Stay tuned to see which other authors I've discovered and hung out with.