Its Winner Day! (Follower Giveaway and Suzanne Barrett Giveaway)

Its time to announce the winners to two different giveaways I have had going on.

Up first is The Follower Love Giveaway and two lucky winners will be winning a copy of To Tempt a Rake by Cara Elliott:

Yi Wen Liang

Kelly Whitley

The winner to Suzanne Barrett's E-book giveaway is:

Beverly @ The Wormhole

I will be contacting all of you and you will have 48 hours to get me the information needed. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Got any tips or tricks to blogging slump?

It finally happened, I am a bit burned out on book blogging. I am still reading, just not blogging about it. I have been doing a lot more "pleasure" reading and not as much "review" reading. I have not accepted anymore new reviews from authors and I have a very light schedule currently. I think I am trying to get the love for reading back, if that makes sense. Last October was a huge month for me. It was the month that I had 16 reviews scheduled. I was still catching up in November. Even though I have yet to have another month like October and I learned from it (I only agree to 5 reviews a month now), I just have this slump feeling. I am a little worn out I think. So I guess that means I need a small break. So, Beck's Book Picks might not be as active as usual. Maybe some of you have noticed that the past 2 weeks, it has been a little slower here. I have been a bad blogging buddy too. I have not been making my rounds and leaving comments. I think for those who are non bloggers, you might not know how much hard work this can be. Not only as a blogger do I want to produce a quality blog for my reviews and giveaways, but I was a blogging relationship with the blogging world. So I have to stay in constant contact with other bloggers and have blogs I visit frequently. As I stated above, I am a little burned out. So,time for a little break. A little recovery time to get my mind fresh and hopefully once I am feeling a little but better, I will be ready to share all these great books I have been reading.

So,do you have any tips or trick that have gotten you out of a blogging slump?

To Tempt A Rake by Cara Elliott

Publication Date: February 1, 2011
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Circle of Sin #3
Format I Read: Paperback
My Rating:


Book Blurb: Kate Woodbridge has spent most of her life sailing to exotic ports around the globe, acquiring an expertise in botany, along with a few less ladylike skills. So when a deathbed promise to her parents brings her to London to seek reconciliation with her grandfather, the imperious Duke of Cluyne, she feels like a fish out of water. Her outspoken views and fiery temper tend to set off sparks in Society-especially with the rakish Conte of Como.
A devil-may-care rogue, Marco finds the alluring and mysterious Kate a tempting target for his flirtations. But when murder strikes at the duke's country house party he begins to suspect that she's hiding a dark secret. He has his own clandestine reasons for offering to help her prove her innocence . . . And so begins a journey of dangerous deception that leads from England to the glittering ballrooms of Vienna, where Marco and Kate must duel with a deadly villain . . . and their own explosive attraction.


My Thoughts: I found this to be a cute book. It caught my attention and kept me interested until the end. This is one of those book where you meet the characters and you really get to know them. You feel the spark between the two and you can feel that they are really drawn to one another. It is almost right past the halfway point that the mystery begins. This is when it starts to get really interesting. You are no longer reading about these two characters and there attraction to one another that they must fight off, but there is a murder and Kate is a suspect. She had to prove her innocence and her and Marco join together to prove this and who the killer really was. So you might be asking, why did I only give this book 3 stars. It was predictable. The story line wasn't quite fresh in my opinon and while I did it enjoy it as I stated from the time I begun it to the ending, I had this book figured out. However, I still think this book is a great read.

Best of all, I am giving away two copies of this book in the Follower Love Blog Hop. Click HERE or scroll down one entry to fill out the form.



**This book was provided to me by the publishers in return for my honest review.**

Follower Love Giveaway Hop

I am so excited to be taking part in this giveaway hop. Simply fill out the form below with your name and e-mail address. Then scroll down a little farther and hop on along.

I want to first say thank you for coming by Beck's Book Picks. I love blogging and I love hearing from my readers. Please check my side bar for more giveaways that I currently have going on.

Up for grabs are two copies of  To Tempt A Rake by Cara Elliott. This is a very exciting read and I know that other will enjoy it. Here is a quick blurb about it:

Kate Woodbridge has spent most of her life sailing to exotic ports around the globe, acquiring an expertise in botany, along with a few less ladylike skills. So when a deathbed promise to her parents brings her to London to seek reconciliation with her grandfather, the imperious Duke of Cluyne, she feels like a fish out of water. Her outspoken views and fiery temper tend to set off sparks in Society-especially with the rakish Conte of Como. A devil-may-care rogue, Marco finds the alluring and mysterious Kate a tempting target for his flirtations. But when murder strikes at the duke's country house party he begins to suspect that she's hiding a dark secret. He has his own clandestine reasons for offering to help her prove her innocence . . . And so begins a journey of dangerous deception that leads from England to the glittering ballrooms of Vienna, where Marco and Kate must duel with a deadly villain . . . and their own explosive attraction.

So, fill out the form below and then continue hopping. Thank you so much for being a part of Beck's Book Picks.

Pass It Forward: Giveaway Hop

Welcome to February's addition of  Pass It Forward. I am excited to being doing this meme for a second month now. So, what is Pass It Forward? Its a giveaway hop where you can get rid of your old books and pass it on to someone else. Essentially your hosting a giveaway and linking it to this post. I can provide you with the code if your interested in putting this on your  blog too so readers can keep hoping. I ask that you please grab a button on the right side bar so the giveaway can be linked back here. If you have any more questions, most should be answered HERE.

This month I am giving away Montana Glory by R.C. Ryan. This is my ARC copy. The book of coarse deals with a hunky cowboy who falls hard for a single mom.

The last thing in the world Zane McCord wants is a wife. But after returning home to the family ranch in Montana to help his cousins search for the lost treasure that is their legacy, Zane can't help notice that love and marriage seem to be contagious. Both his cousins have succumbed, but he refuses. Determined to stay a bachelor till he dies, Zane wants to devote his time to filming documentaries and taking care of the ranch...and then Riley Mason walks into his life. The last thing on Riley Mason's mind is romance. Sent to the McCord ranch to save the family's accounting problems, she only wants to impress her firm in Helena and be on her way. Life as a single mother isn't easy and she needs to impress her bosses for a raise. But when Zane McCord opens the door, her breath catches in her throat and a desire she's never experienced before takes over her. When the McCords insist that she and her daughter, Summer stay at the ranch, she's forced to give in and before long, she's pulled into their search for the long lost treasure. But she absolutely draws the line at getting involved with Zane McCord, playboy and heartbreaker extraordinaire. But as they all get closer to finding Coot's lost treasure, a dangerous series of accidents target Riley and her daughter Summer. Can Zane keep her safe while trying to win her heart?

Interested, then enter the form below. Its quite simple. This giveaway will end on the 15th of February. One winner. This is US Only.



And finally, fill in the linky below. I have to use a new service, since Linky tools is now charging. I don't use the service enough to justify the $24 for a year. Please enter the name of the book and the date your giveaway is ending. I can't figure out how to add the code to the post without putting another linky. So please leave me a comment (with your e-mail) for the code and I will get it right to you.

How To Marry a Duke Winners!

Yikes, the 31st of January has come and gone. I have been swamped this week. So, its time to announce the three winners to this giveaway. Thank you to everyone who entered. I had an amazing turnout for this book. Thank you again!

The winners will have 48 hours from the time they get my e-mail to send me their address. If someone has already won this or does not respond I will choose another winner. Once again, thank you for entering!

Winners chosen using random.org

Marlene Breakfield

Stephanie M

Regina Hott (Gina ~ Hott Books)

All That's True by Jackie Lee Miles

Publication Date: January 1, 2011
Genre: General Fiction/ Young Adult
Add to your Goodreads TBR List
My Rating:


Book Blurb:  "My life was close to perfect-until my brother Alex got killed and my mother started drinking and my father starting having sex with Donna, my best friend's stepmother, who's not even thirty years old."

Thirteen-year-old Andi St. James' privileged life in Atlanta is interrupted one fall, to say the least. With an equal mix of joy and sorrow, All That's True follows Andi's poignant-and sometimes laugh-out-loud-journey to young adulthood, where she struggles with the elusive nature of truth and the devastating consequences of deception.

My Thoughts: This book was almost like sitting with the main character, Andi as she struggled with life. Andi starts out so innocent in this book, and while still innocent at the end, the layers are being pulled down as she discovers more and more of what life can bring. She starts out the book two months after her older brother Alex passed away. You watch through her eyes how her parents deal with this; her mother turning to alcohol and here father is having an affair. The book goes on as you learn more about the parents, but everything is through her perspective. Its refreshing to remember how young and innocent a thirteen year old is, but how much they actually understand. This book will also take you back to the early 1990's when in some ways things seemed much simpler. I enjoyed the era that the author wrote this book.

I think this is an excellent book for anyone to read. Its a story and it almost seems real. It isn't some made up crazy story that most of us love. Even though this book is fiction, it feels real. I think this book is also appropriate for a young adult reader.



**This book was provided to me by the publishers in return for my honest review.**