March Recap: Reading Escapes, vampire authors galore, giveaways and a day just for Barrons

Vampire Book Club kept busy in March. We launched our Reading Escapes event (with the help of awesome blogger friends). Launched five contests for 16 books. Plus four author features, nine reviews and even a day devoted to Barrons.

GIVEAWAYS

Because we know you care about getting the free swag, we’ll start there this month. VBC still has four contests open for entries right now — and three are prize packs! Yay! Four copies of Adrian Phoenix’s Etched in Bone are up for grabs (enter by April 12) and you can still enter to win our Reading Escapes giveaways through April 21.

We have a big pile of books awaiting contests in April, too. We suggest preparing yourselves.

GROUP READ

The March group read was Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel. The first in her Infernal Devices series it was filled with suspense, action, hot boys, creepy vampires and even creepier clockwork automatons. We loved it. We managed to keep last night’s Twitter discussion chat mostly spoiler-free. A big thanks to all who turned out. We especially loved some of your theories about what might happen in the next book. (Love child?!)

The poll for the April group read closed last night, and it’s obvious we have so much in common, readers. You guys picked my favorite novelist Richelle Mead’s first Georgina Kincaid novel Succubus Blues as our April read. It’s been quite a bit since I first read Succubus Blues, so I’ll do a re-read and (finally) post a review. I can already imagine the things you guys will say about Georgina, Seth, Carter, Jerome and the gang when we chat on this one.

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS AND GUEST POSTS

We got to talk vampires, wraiths, star-crossed lovers and even the male mind with four stellar authors this month. If want to know why vampires will always persevere in literature, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s eloquent post is a must. Want to know how Adrian Phoenix preps for stepping into the male psyche? Her hilarious guest post fills you in on research methods.

• Q&A with Claudia Gray, author of the Evernight series
• Chelsea Quinn Yarbro guest post on the incredible durability of vampires
• Q&A with Colleen Gleason, who writes historical vampire romance novels like The Vampire Voss
• Adrian Phoenix’s guest post on writing from the male POV is amusing and insightful. Also, we’re giving away four copies of her latest, Etched in Bone, at the end of the post.

REVIEWS

In March, we decided to make sure everyone was up-to-date before we reviewed the always tumultuous third novel in Richelle Mead’s Dark Swan series, Iron Crowned. We also got in some great light urban fantasy and went all swoony over Victorian vampires and shadowhunters.

• Storm Born by Richelle Mead (Dark Swan #1)
• Thorn Queen by Richelle Mead (Dark Swan #2)
• Iron Crowned by Richelle Mead (Dark Swan #3)
• Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers
• Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• Friday Night Bites by Chloe Neill (Chicagoland Vampires #2)
• Under Wraps by Hannah Jayne
• The Vampire Voss by Colleen Gleason
• Hunted by the Others by Jess Haines

OTHER FUN STUFF

One of my favorite posts this month was when I decided it would be more fun to celebrate Barrons than St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. So, VBC posted some favorite lines from and about the enigmatic hero Jericho Z. Barrons from Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series. One that got you guys going: “Our sex is fierce. We will both be bruised.” Heh. Read them all, including your additions in the comments.

Things are stressful at VBC HQ, luckily reading relaxes us. We figured we’d help out by providing our list of 10 Characters to Make You Feel Better.

If You Like was back in action, this time trying to help the YA segment. We suggested that if you’ve fallen for Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series, you should read Cynthia Hand’s Unearthly. Find out why.

Alongside the three prize packs up for grabs, we launched our Reading Escapes event by asking our blogger friends to tell us which book series is their ultimate reading escape. You can read their suggested escapes here, here and here.

And, finally, we did a little housekeeping around here. You can now find a list of all our reviews sorted alphabetically by author and, as promised, you can now subscribe to get a newsletter akin to this post. Yep, you asked for it, so we now have the option to subscribe to our newsletter (a monthly recap of all things VBC) in the right sidebar. (Or you can just click here to subscribe.) We’re utilizing Google Friend Connect, so if you already follow us via GFC, it’ll be easy to ask for the newsletter.

ON DECK

We have author features scheduled with L.A. Banks, Tessa Adams and Kristina Douglas, for starters. Lots of reviews coming your way for April and May releases, including our love for the YA dystopian novel Enclave by Ann Aguirre. (Loved it.) Plus, you know, even more contests, because we love you like that.

Also, a quick reminder: We’re on Facebook. Not that we’d bribe your friendship, but we do some giveaways over there on release days. We love talking to readers on Twitter and Facebook, so follow/like/etc.