Category Archives: News

We Have a Champion!

Posted by

10

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!

Posted by

6

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!

Schedule for Championship Round Voting

Posted by

2

The finale is here. We expect an epic duel between Abigail Roux’s Stars & Stripes and Julie James’ About That Night.

Interesting factoid here. Both books were reader nominated rather than part of the slate of books put together by Dear Author bloggers and Sarah from Smart Bitches.

The voting period will be from 10 AM to 10 PM CST on Monday, April, 8, 2013.

Final Four Voting Schedule

Posted by

2

April 6, midnight to noon CST

A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare v. Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux

April 6, noon to midnight CST

About That Night by Julie James v. Easy by Tammara Webber

Third and Fourth Round Winner: Erin F!

Posted by

3

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!

Voting Schedule for the Elite Eight

Posted by

0

March 30, 2013 (midnight to noon CST)

(2) The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan v. (8) Easy by Tammara Webber

March 30, 2013 (noon to midnight CST)

(8) Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh v. (15) Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux

March 31, 2013 (midnight to noon CST)

(3) About That Night by Julie James v. (13) About Last Night by Ruthie Knox

March 31, 2013 (noon to midnight CST)

(12) A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare v. (3) Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Sweet Sixteen Voting Schedule

Posted by

7

Don’t forget that our Second Chance Tournament is open. Just hit the “2nd Chance” link in the menu above. No tiebreakers need to be entered. This time we are using “pick percentage” meaning the person who has the highest pick percentage in case of a tie will win.

Onto the voting schedule.

March 28, 2013 (0:00 to 11:59AM CST or midnight to noon CST)

(2) The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan v. (14) Room at the Inn by Ruthie Knox
(6) Irregulars by Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Ginn Hale, and Astrid Amara v. (15) Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux

March 28, 2013 (12:00 to 11:59PM CST or noon to midnight CST)

(8) Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh v. (13) Fair Game by Patricia Briggs
(5) Fault in Our Stars by John Green v. (8) Easy by Tammara Webber

March 29, 2013 (0:00 to 11:59AM CST or midnight to noon CST)

(12) A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare v. (16) The Duchess War by Courtney Milan
(8) My Fair Concubine by Jeannie Lin v. (13) About Last Night by Ruthie Knox

March 29, 2013 (12:00 to 11:59PM CST or noon to midnight CST)

(3) About That Night by Julie James v. (7) All He Ever Desired by Shannon Stacey
(3) Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor v. (7) The Diviners by Libba Bray

Second Round Winner: ErinF!

Posted by

4

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

4

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!

Posted by

2

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!!