We Have a Champion!

Congratulations and confetti to Abigail Roux, winner of the 2013 DABWAHA, with her 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!

Second Round Winner: ErinF!

Posted by smartbitchestrashybooks

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!

Posted by smartbitchestrashybooks

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!