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Awarding the Dabwaha Prizes!

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Oh, this is the fun part – awarding all the prizes to the finalists, second place finishes, and the random brackets who get a spiffy prize, too!

Let’s get started, shall we?

The bracket in 2nd Place in Final Championship: fv_angela! You win a Kindle Fire 8.9″ 32GB, donated by Jaci Burton.

The much-coveted Wooden Spoon prize for worst bracket: AMJ! 

You win a $50 LUSH gc, a $50 TeaForte gc, signed copies of MelJean Brook’s Iron Seas series, including print anthologies (Burning Up, The Iron Duke, Heart of Steel), trade copies of Riveted and upcoming Enthralled Anthology (available in July) , plus Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter, by Jessica Sims, and Girl’s Guide to Man Hunting, and Care & Feeding of an Alpha Male by Jessica Clare, donated by MelJean Brook and Jessica Clare.

Random Middle Bracket prizes are given to… random middle brackets. In 224th place? 568th? No worries, people are awesome so we have prizes!

The bracket belonging to Sciley wins a $20 Amazon gift card and a signed set of the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy books donated by Jennifer Estep.

The bracket belonging to Sarah Wynde wins a $20 Amazon gift card and a signed set of the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy books donated by Jennifer Estep.

The bracket belonging to cbackson wins a $20 Amazon gift card and signed copies of Karma Girl and Hot Mama (trade paperback versions) in the Bigtime paranormal romance series donated by Jennifer Estep.

The bracket belonging to bookslave2 wins a set of the Colbana books - Blade Song & Night Blade -  ebook or print, reader’s choice & $15 GC to Amazon or BN, from author Shiloh Walker/J.C. Daniels.

The bracket belonging to moonsurfer wins a $25 gift card to Dawn Addonizio’s jewelry store.

The bracket belonging to Nicole Helm also wins a $25 gift card to Dawn Addonizio’s jewelry store.

The bracket belonging to JMaureen wins all of Carina Press’ March 2013 releases: Bonds of Need by Lynda Aicher, The League of Illusion: Prophecy by Vivi Anna, Hunger Awakened by Dee Carney, A Fine Romance by Christi Barth, Tactical Strike by Kaylea Cross, Magick by Moonrise by Laura Navarre, Lethal Business by W. Soliman, Soul of Kandrith by Nicole Luiken, Cards & Caravans by Cindy Spencer Page, Most Likely To Succeed by Kate Davies, Pooka in My Pantry by R.L. Naquin, and Lord of Secrets by Alyssa Everett. Plus, the bracket owner will also receive the Carina Press titles nominated for the 2013 DABWAHA, all provided by Carina Press.

The bracket belonging to LisaLisa wins a prize pack from author Vivian Arend that includes signed trade copies of the first three books in the Six Pack Ranch series and a $100 Amazon or B&N giftcard, winner’s choice.

The bracket belonging to GirlyNerd will receive the Kickass Historical Romance Prize Pack, provided by Sara Lindsey, last year’s DABWAHA winning bracketologist, Tessa Dare, and Courtney Milan. The prize pack includes: a signed paperback set of Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series, including 2012 RITA Winner A Night to Surrender, DABWAHA 2013 Nominee A Lady by Midnight (plus signed card for free download of the Spindle Cove novella and Tessa Dare STICKERS!); a signed paperback of Sherry Thomas’s 2010 RITA Winner Not Quite a Husband; Courtney Milan’s The Novella Collection, including DABWAHA 2013 Nominee The Governess Affair, and DABWAHA 2013 Nominee The Duchess Wars (winner’s choice of digital format); signed paperbacks of Sara Lindsey’s Weston family novels; and a Romance Novel Magnetic Poetry Kit to write your own naughty interludes and happily ever afters.

The bracket belonging to I Wear Stetsons Now signed copies of Coveted and Kept from the Coveted series and a $20 Amazon or BN gift certificate, winner’s choice, from Shawntelle Madison.

The bracket belonging to Melody1228 wins a cupcake prize package from TBR LLC (aka Jane and Sarah).

The bracket belonging to Southernraeder also wins a cupcake prize package from TBR LLC (aka Jane and Sarah).

Hot diggity, we had TWO 2nd Chance Tournament Winners.

Spoony wins an iPad mini (16GB wifi) with digital copies of the Kowalski series, donated by Shannon Stacey.

AND!

Socrates31, you ALSO win an iPad Mini (16GB wifi) donated by Jen Frederick.

Congratulations to all the prize winners, and big bouquets of sweet-smelling and everlasting thanks to everyone who provided a prize for this year’s tournament.

If you’re a winner, expect an email from us shortly – or you can email Sarah at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTTYcom to unleash all the excitement you’ve got.

Thank you!

We Have a Champion!

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Congratulations and confetti to Abigail Roux, winner of the 2013 DABWAHA, with her book Stars & Stripes:

 Book Stars & Stripes

I think balloon Tigger looks extra happy, doesn’t he?

Special awesomeness: in celebration, Riptide Publishing is offering 30% off backlist titles, and 50% editor’s choice titles from today until 19 April, so if you’re curious about the winning book, or any of their other titles, stock up now!

Congratulations to the author, and to Riptide, who promoted the hell out of the final. There were a LOT of votes cast in the championship!

Congratulations also to our second place finalist, Julie James, and her book About Last Night. 

Ms. Roux wins an iPad from us, and so does…Vi! 

Congratulations Vi! You also win an iPad for having the mostest-correctest bracket of all, predicting not only the winning book, but the championship duel, and three-quarters of the Final Four. 79% pick percentage? NICE.

I’ll be posting the prize announcements this morning, so stay tuned. There are a LOT of prizes to award!

Thank you to everyone who played along, who mongered the votes and bribed and pleaded, and to all the awesome people who donated prizes.

Most of all, thanks to Jane, who is the poll master and the Chief Bracketologist.

See you guys next year for DABWAHA 2014!

Final Four Bracket Winner!

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The championship round is here, and congrats to Abigail Roux and Julie James, who will face one another on Monday, 8 April. Monday should be an epic day!

Book Kindle Paperwhite

It’s time to announce the winning bracket for the Final Four round. With a definite lead, the winner is, Vi! Congrats Vi!

You win a Kindle Paperwhite, donated by Julie James… who coincidentally is one of the finalists, and in third place in the tournament as well. Party all around!

Fun facts: Vi correctly predicted the finalists, Stars & Stripes and About That Night, and has Stars & Stripes set to win. Erin F, our champion in the past rounds, had Archangel’s Storm facing About That Night in her bracket for the championship — as did Julie James, who is in 3rd place.

Plus, 47 people picked About That Night to make the championship – while over 130 had picked Archangel’s Storm. And 29 people picked Stars & Stripes to win. Y’all made some smart picks.

As Jane noted, both books were reader nominees. Both books are contemporary romances as well. I had no idea bracketology could be so entertaining. I’m calling ESPN right now about a job covering the book tournaments.

Remember, no matter how busted your bracket is, there are many, many excellent random bracket prizes to be awarded next week. You may not win the tournament, but you may win something. And no matter where your bracket is in the standings (I’m in 212th place! WOO!), we’re so glad you’re playing along with us this year.

Congratulations to the winner and the finalists, and on to the Championship Round!

Third and Fourth Round Winner: Erin F!

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Time to declare a winner.

We had a tie for the Sweet Sixteen round, which was decided by our trusty tiebreaker.  And lo and behold, the same person won the Elite Eight round as well!

The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight winner is: Erin F! It’s hard to argue with an 85% pick percentage. We should be asking Erin for lotto numbers, right?

If we were going by pick percentage, 2nd place would be held by Julie James, who awesomely picked her own book to win the whole tournament (word), and holds a 82% pick percentage rate.

But with the total points accumulated, right now 2nd place in the tournament standings is held by V, who is one point behind Erin F. It’s a close matchup going into the Final Four. Erin has picked About That Night to win, while V. picked fan favorite Stars & Stripes, which beat Archangel’s Storm in the second round of the Elite Eight. So either player could emerge victorious in the next round – or neither!

And then there’s the Second Chance Tourney, where two players, Spoony and Socrates31, are tied for first, both selecting Stars & Stripes as their winner.

Let’s talk prizes, shall we?

Erin F has won a signed paperback set of the Guild Hunter series, including Angels’ Flight, donated by Nalini Singh, and a Jane Eyre scarf, a beaded reading bracelet, and an ARC ofFirebird, donated by Susanna Kearsley. Congratulations, and thank you to Nalini and Susanna!

The next round of voting begins Saturday, April 6. A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare and Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux will face each other to make the finals. Plus, About That Night by Julie James will battle Easy by Tammara Webber for the other final round spot.

Get ready, get set, and good luck!

Second Round Winner: ErinF!

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Time to announce the Second Round Winner!

ErinF is in first with 57 correct picks – the only one who managed that many. WAY TO GO ERIN!

Erin wins a big ol’ pile of books from Penguin/Berkley, donated by Cindy Hwang, Executive Editor. Woo! Congratulations to Erin, and thank you, Cindy and Penguin!

If you’re curious who has the top brackets, you can see the top standings at the tourney site and you can see the complete standings list of entries on the site as well. (I’m doing very well! I’m tied for 533rd!)

The voting for the Sweet Sixteen will begin on 28 March 2013. Which books do you think will advance?

And don’t forget – the Second Chance Tourney is now open – make your picks and get ready to gather votes twice as much! WOO!

Game on – and good luck!

Second Chance Tournament: Now Open!

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WHOA what a finish!

With over 3,000 votes cast in the most contentious match, About That Night by Julie James beat Motorcycle Man by Kristen Ashley by a margin of 55 votes. WOW. Given that both authors have a big and supportive group of readers online, that’s impressive. Well played to both!

The battle between Jeannie Lin’s My Fair Concubine and Sarah Morgan’s Once a Ferrara Wife was decided by one vote. Lin came out the winner, so congratulations to her, and to Sarah Morgan for an excellent match. Other close matches in round two included About Last Night by Ruthie Knox won a match with Sarah Mayberry’s Her Best Worst Mistake by three votes.

All He Ever Desired by Shannon Stacey was the winner by a larger margin over Can’t Buy Me Love by Molly O’Keefe, and Tammara Webber’s Easy won… easily (sorry) over Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. I’m told that Shannon Stacey has promised a feather boa Glamour Shot if her book advanced. Anyone seen the feathery wonderment yet?

We have much to discuss after all that voting! First up: the Second Chance Tournament is open today! With 16 books left, you get another shot at predicting the winner, and there’s prizes for that tournament, too!

The winner of the Second Chance Tourney will receive an iPad Mini from Shannon Stacey, plus all the Kowalski books – woo!

The second place finisher in the Second Chance Tourney will receive a Kindle Fire from debut New Adult author Jen Frederick.

Plus, there’s random bracket prizes of awesomeness, some of which will go to random brackets in the main tournament and some to random brackets in the Second Chance Tourney.

You can see the complete list of prizes on the DABWAHA site- and our biggest and hugest most effusivest thanks go to the authors and publishers who offered such excellent prizes to the winners.

But don’t go thinking that this is easier – one of the matches you have to decide is Courtney Milan’s The Duchess War vs. Tessa Dare’s A Lady by Midnight. Patricia Brigg’s Fair Game is up against Nalini Singh’s Archangel’s Storm. About That Night could end up battling About Last Night in a future round – and Courtney Milan could end up battling herself if her novella The Governess Affair advances to the finals. This is fun – and not easy, either!

Good luck, everyone!

Round One Winner: Rissatoo!

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Congratulations to everyone who rocked the internet and shook a few more votes loose from strangers (“What is a Dabwaha?”) – round one is done and we’re on to round two!

Book No Turning Back - HelenKay Dimon

I myself am tied for some ignominious place, but we have TWO people who have tied for first after the first round: Rissatoo and JuliaT. Congratulations to both of you for nearly flawless bracketology!

Using our trusty tiebreaker, the winner of round one is: Rissatoo! Congratulations, rissatoo!

You win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon or BN (your choice) and a digital copy of HelenKay Dimon’s new book No Turning Back.

Please email me and we’ll hook you up with your prize.

Thank you to HelenKay Dimon for the first round prize. You can find out more about HelenKay and her books at her website, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

Round two voting is underway – so get out the vote! Good luck!!

 

The Bribes, The Videos, The DABWAHA

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The best part of the DABWAHA is always the trash talking, the vote mongering, and the creativity that is unleashed to gather votes and try to advance to the next round. This year’s creative offerings are no different: grade A excellentness!

Sarah Morgan and her son created a video for Once a Ferrara Wife: 

Link!

ETA: Ros Clarke is leveraging the power of baby animals and hot dudes to attempt the trouncing of Morgan’s book:

Link!

Jeannie Lin is promising some seriously awesome dancing should she advance to the next round:

Link!

And Molly O’Keefe is also behind a video asking for support by warning of…great chaos:

Link!

But wait – there’s more! Susanna Kearsley’s helping O’Keefe, too – it’s book training time!

Link!

Laura Florand is offering some seriously dangerous threats – and adorableness – as she tries to gather votes for TWO books:

Link!

And Dawn Addonizio is ready:

Link!

And Astrid Amara also has a video bribe…with THREATS! OH NOES!

Link!

Lest you think there are only videos offered as creative requests for voting, get ready for All The Temptation of the Writers!

Ruthie Knox is not messing around: she has voter guides, side-by-side comparisons to the books her books are facing, PLUS promises of deleted scenes, extra epilogues, and other terribly tempting things. Battle of the Bad Girls? Knox is ready.

But the real temptation: “If Room at the Inn advances to round 2, I will post the first chapter of my first manuscript, Rebound. As is. With all the embarrassing newbie mistakes left in.”

 Duuuuuuude.

Kit Rocha is promising deleted scenes featuring Jared & Ace over at Facebook. As in she’s making said promises at Facebook, not that Jared & Ace got frisky at Facebook. Though who knows, maybe they DID. It is a deleted scene. Could be ANYTHING.

But Kristen Callihan is not without her own ammo:

And she’s offering up her own unpublished material:

And then there’s Tessa Dare, who is lining up a whole buffet of what she calls ‘incentives’ to gather votes:

She is not monkeying around here, yo.

It is ON. Get ready for voting, and good luck!

Announcing the 2013 Reader Nominees!

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logo
Time to announce the reader nomination winners, and the complete slate of 2012 DABWAHA nominees!

The YA Reader Nominee is:

Book The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

( A | BN | K | S)

An interesting pick, and definitely one of the best books of 2012.

 

 

 

The Contemporary Reader Nominee is:

Book About That Night - Julie James

About That Night by Julie James

( A | BN | K | S)

Julie James was the runner up to last year’s tournament, and with reader support behind her she may go equally far this year.

 

 

 

The Historical Reader Nominee is:

Book CoverThe Duchess War by Courtney Milan

( A | BN | K | S)

This book won by a good margin, so this book clearly also has some fan support behind it. Excellent!

 

 

 

The GLBT Reader Nominee is:

Book Cover

Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux

( A | BN | K | S )

This book took the lead early in the reader nominations, and stayed permanently ahead of the other books in the results. But I also wanted to point out that one of the second place books, Country Mouse, by Amy Lane and Aleksandr Voinov, collected a good number of votes in the last few days, too.

 

 

 

The PNR/SF Reader Nominee is:

Book Blade Song JC Daniels

Blade Song by JC Daniels

( A | BN | K | S)

Never doubt that enthusiastic campaigning can work in a book’s favor – this book had nearly twice as many votes as the others behind it.

 

 

 

The Series Reader Nominee is:

Book Cover

The Oil Tycoon and Her Sexy Sheikh by Ros Clarke

( A | BN | K | S)

Again, many more votes than the next runners-up, likely a result of campaigning online.

 

 

 

The Novella Reader Nominee is:

Book Turning Up the Heat - Laura Florand

Turning Up The Heat by Laura Florand

( A | BN | K | S)

This one was a very close race – a lot of good novellas with a lot of reader support!

 

 

 

The Crossover/SRE Reader Nominee is:

Book A Risky Proposition - Dawn AbbonizioA Risky Proposition by Dawn Addonizio

( A | BN | K | S)

Campaigning: it does a DABWAHA book good.

Winners and Champions!

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First, congratulations to the winner of the DABWAHA 2012 Tournament:

Book Cover

With over 60% of the vote, this book was a truly impressive champion.

And now it’s time to award the prizes! Because the prizes are AMAZING.

For winning the DABWAHA, Sara Lindsey will receive a 16GB ipad, e-ARC of Coveted, Tote Bag filled with Coveted swag, $50 iTunes gift card, e-copy of “Because of You” and e-copy of “Ride With Me” by Ruthie Knox, courtesy of Jessica Scott, Shawntelle Madison (who is last year’s DABWAHA winner and now a published author), and Sarah and Jane.

For the inestimable honor of having the very worst bracket, the Wooden Spoon prize goes to Tony KS. The Wooden Spoon prize this year is a “Rest and Relaxation” Package: signed copies of :Meljean Brook‘s The Iron Duke, and Heart of Steel, Jessica Sims‘ Beauty Dates the Beast, Jessica Clare‘s  The Girl’s Guide to Manhunting, a $50 Lush gift card, and a $50 TeaForte gift card. This prize was donated by Jessica Sims and MelJean Brook.

For coming in second in the DABWAHA Tournament, K. Nichols wins an 8G Nook Tablet, a prize donated by Julie James, the winner of last year’s DABWAHA, and a Final Four finalist this year.

The winner of the Second Chance bracket, determined by tiebreaker was Julia Markovic, and she wins a prize donated by Maya Banks: a Kindle Fire, a 100 Amazon gift card, and an ARC of Echoes at Dawn (KGI #5).

The second place finisher, determined by tiebreaker, in the Second Chance bracket was Julia Turner, and she wins a $50 GC to Amazon or B&N from Eric Selinger and Sarah Frantz.

Three random bracket prizes were offered by Jennifer Estep:

  • Victoria Yarbrough wins paper copies of SPIDER’S BITE, WEB OF LIES, VENOM, TANGLED THREADS, SPIDER’S BITE, and BY A THREAD in Estep’s Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series and a $10 Amazon gift card
  • Ursula Avery wins paper copies of KARMA GIRL, JINX, and HOT MAMA in Estep’s Bigtime paranormal romance series; a Kindle or Nook e-copy of A KARMA GIRL CHRISTMAS e-story; and a $10 Amazon gift card
  • K Shelley wins paper copies of TOUCH OF FROST and KISS OF FROST in Estep’s Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series; a paper ARC of DARK FROST (out on May 29); and a $10 Amazon gift card

And for being the champion of the tournament, Karen Marie Moning wins an iPad from Jane and Sarah, and To Be Read LLC.

Winners, please email me at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom, and we can arrange for prize awarding mayhem.

Thanks to Avon and Carina Press and Harlequin for advertising on the site this year, and for offering prizes to the winners. Thanks also to Helen Kay Dimon, Cindy Hwang at Penguin, Jaci Burton, Julie James, Jessica Scott and Shawntelle Madison, Jessica Sims, MelJean Brook, Maya Banks, Jennifer Estep, Sarah Frantz, and Eric Selinger for offering prizes.

And thanks to Jane, who woke up at midnight to turn the polls on and off for the better part of the tournament, and did some amazing tournament software management behind the scenes to make the whole shebang run smoothly.

And biggest thanks to all of you who made this year’s tournament so much fun, from the Twitter trash talking to the videos to the vote encouragement. It was tremendous fun, and you helped make it that way. See you next year!