I have been following Detroit based author Sylvia Hubbard on Twitter for quite some time. Sylvia is a mom, a blogger, an author of 14 books, an editor, a self publisher, the founder of the Michigan Writers Network, and the owner of a literary radio network. In 2010, Sylvia invited me to attend her conference called Essence of Motown where I and the other attendees learned all about the business of self book publishing.
After the Essense of Motown conference, I started reading a lot of Sylvia's short stories that she shares on her website called "The Literary World of Sylvia Hubbard", but I had not read any of her published ebooks. But that all changed one day when I was home on vacation.
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| Sylvia Hubbard |
Sylvia Hubbard is not called the Cliffhanger Queen for nothing...
I happened to swing by Sylvia's website when I noticed that she was live blogging a new book. "Live Blogging" is when an author shares the story that he or she is writing with their audience as they are actually creating the storyline and outlining the characters.
The book that Sylvia was live blogging was called Hope is Love and from moment I started reading the story, I was hooked and I actually spent two hours of my vacation day going back to the start of the live blogging of the story so that I could catch up from the beginning.
Even though Sylvia did not share the entire Hope is Love story on her website, she shared enough that I knew that I wanted to read it again from beginning to end when it was finally published.
Hope is Love is the story of a homeless woman called Hope who is living on the streets in Detroit. Hope is definitely not someone that you would ever think would be homeless. She is very pretty, highly intelligent and resourceful, and knows how to keep warm and out of harms way by methods that would make Macgyver proud. Her natural engineering background makes the reader know that something is going on here that is not what it seems. But her circumstances are so dire that you know if something does not change for Hope, the streets of Detroit will finally do her in.
On Christmas Eve, while Hope is trying to keep warm in an alley, she witnesses an attempted murder that changes her life forever. When a rich Detroit business man is shot in the head and thrown in a dumpster, Hope decides against her better judgement to help him and her entire complicated world becomes even more complicated.
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| The 1st book in the series |
So not your typical love story...
There so so many things that I loved about Hope is Love that it is hard to list them all. First of all, I love a good story and Hope is Love is one story that will keep you interested from the first page to the last. Sylvia Hubbard has been nicknamed "The Cliffhanger Queen" and her stories very imaginative and have lots of twists and turns that keep the reader very entertained. Some critiques might say the stories are so out there that they could never happen, but I think the imaginative aspects of the story are what make you want to see just how it will end.
I also love the level of detail that Sylvia puts into her stories. I was amazed by all the things that I learned about street life and being homeless. The character of Hope does things to survive in this book that amazed me and Sylvia's detailed accounts of street life made me realize that no one survives on the streets without true cunning and intelligence.
Hope is Love also delves in the all the drama involved in an interracial relationship since Hope is African American and James is White. And the story is further complicated with the added drama of Hope being illiterate and living on the streets and James being very well educated and rich.
Detroit is always another character in the story...
I also love that all of Sylvia's stories, including Hope is Love, are set with Detroit as the backdrop. And because her stories involve both the poor and the rich, the reader sees Detroit at its best and its not so best.
One thing I should point out is that Sylvia tends to bring in characters from her other books which might be a little confusing if you have not read past stories. Of course I am sure she does this as a way to intice us all to read those books too :)
So if you like your romance stories a little out of the ordinary with tons of drama and a lot of mystery like I do, check out Hope is Love (affiliate link) on Amazon.com. And if you want to read all the drama that leads up to Hope is Love, also check out Love Like This (I believe it is still available for FREE) by Sylvia Hubbard.
One FREEISMYLIFE reader will win a digital download of "Hope is Love" by Sylvia Hubbard. HOLLA to the FREE!!!
TO ENTER
- Fill out the information in the form below and leave a comment on this blog post.
- One entry per person please. Duplicate entries will be removed.
- The contest ends on Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 11:59 am EST.
- One winner will be selected by random number generation.
- Prize will be fulfilled to winner by Sylvia Hubbard.
(3) EXTRA GIVEAWAY ENTRIES
- You can get 1 extra giveaway entry for following FREEISMYLIFE on Facebook.
- You can get 1 extra giveaway entry for following Sylvia Hubbard on Twitter.
- You can get 1 extra giveaway entry for following FREEISMYLIFE on Twitter.
Enjoy!
Disclosure: I received complimentary digital download of "Hope is Love". Sylvia Hubbard is sponsoring the ebook for this giveaway. All opinions are my own.
The winner of Sylvia Hubbard's new book "Hope is Love" is Marcia of Detroit, MI !!!
