Reviewers Locked Out by Amazon’s Latest Glitch
By: Craig | Posted on May 29, 2018
Last week, many Amazon customers were greeted with an ominous sounding message when they tried to leave reviews. It was just the latest in a long line of glitches affecting book reviews, but because the issue was so widespread and absolute, it caused rumor and speculation to fly into overdrive. Fortunately, your Amazon book reviews are still safe. What it really demonstrated, though, is how easily information can be distorted – especially when the company at fault refuses to acknowledge the issue publicly or to their own employees. Now that it’s all behind us, let’s look at what happened. The Timeline Beginning on May 22nd, we were alerted by some of our HG readers that they were being greeted by the following message when they tried to leave reviews on Amazon. Sorry, we are unable to accept your review of this product. This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews. This… Read More >
Finding Kids Books Online
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on May 14, 2018
If you have a young child in your house, then you’re probably used to reading them stories. Whether at bedtime or during the day, reading together is not only a great bonding experience but opens your child’s mind to new thoughts and ideas. But while repetition is comforting to the little ones, you need to add some variety as well. Even if it’s just for your own sanity. Trips to the library can be fun when your own collection starts to run thin, but they aren’t always practical. Especially when you have a cranky child waiting to begin his or her nightly adventure – a problem that the internet was almost designed to solve. What are the options for kids books online, then? Turns out, there are plenty – including us here at Hidden Gems! However, while the internet is filled with rich content for young minds, it’s important to… Read More >
What Makes a Good Book Review?
By: Craig | Posted on September 15, 2017
At Hidden Gems, book reviews are what we’re all about – and although we aren’t writing them ourselves, we’ve seen enough from our readers, and heard from enough authors, to have a pretty good idea about what makes a good book review. If you’re one of our ARC reviewers, or even if you’re reviewing on your own or for someone else, here are a few ideas on what authors are looking for, how to be fair, etiquette, and just overall tips for writing a helpful review. No One-Line Book Reviews As much as an author loves to hear that you “Loved this book!”, that’s not really a review. While your opinion is important to helping support the author, it’s a lot more helpful when it is more detailed in regards to the particular book being reviewed. A one-line review might also look fake to other readers, or even Amazon. Especially… Read More >
Becoming an ARC Reader: Because who doesn’t love free books?
By: Craig | Posted on July 11, 2017
Getting free ARC books and becoming a book reviewer has never been so easy, and now you can do it for all genres and without the hassles of the past! If you scour the web in search of book reviews and becoming an ARC reader, you’ll find plenty of articles describing how you can contact publishers or authors directly, sign up for their various mailing lists, and hopefully get free books from them whenever they actually release one (usually not more than once a month or two). That was certainly the best way to go about it in the past. But things are different now, and we’d like to think we helped pave the way to change. Hidden Gems has been sending out ARC books for authors for about two years now (our first one went out in October 2015) and since then we’ve grown from 2 or 3 a… Read More >
10 Bad Boys You Hate To Love
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on June 7, 2017
Bad Boys. You know you should stay away from them, but you’re inexplicably drawn. Is it the tattoos? The attitude? The washboard abs? Whatever it is, you can’t resist… These are the men that you should avoid at all costs – they’re powerful, often with a strong sense of self or an attitude that the world owes them something and they’re willing to take it by any means necessary. The last thing you should do is fall for them, or get caught up in their world. Here are 10 of the hottest bad boy romance novels around. Each is well reviewed by hundreds of other women that couldn’t resist their charms. Go on and click on these hard-bodied bad boys. It’s no use fighting it… you know you want to! Then, when you’re done, why not share this link with others so that they can enjoy these bad boys, too?… Read More >
10 Sexy and Single Daddy Novels
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on April 7, 2017
Whether a father’s best friend, a teacher, a boss, or simply a man that likes to role play, our recent look at romance trends would be remiss if we skipped the fresh surge of sexy dad books that have been roaring through the Amazon charts lately. While not for everyone, it is interesting to note that these books never have any sort of actual incestual couplings but rather are just essentially older man/younger woman romances that usually involve some sort of power dynamic. At most, they involve a consensual daddy/daughter role-play situation, but often just involve a man who happens to be a single dad. Whatever the case, reading them can often be a guilty pleasure – or just provide you with a new and interesting twist – so here are the top 10 daddy based romance books we’ve found. Like these types of books? Then let us know – we won’t… Read More >
10 Secret Babies and the Men That Love Them
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on March 22, 2017
What is it that makes the secret baby genre so popular? Is it an innate, biological need to propagate the species that drives us to want to read about sexy alpha men stepping up to care for our young? Or maybe it’s something about how the innocence of a child brings out the softer side of our normally rough-around-the-edges hero? Whatever it is that allows this fantasy to have sparked a whole sub-genre of romance novels, we’ll be happy to have it stick around. So here are 10 of the best secret baby romance novels around! And after you read our picks, feel free to visit this post on our Facebook page and sound off about what it is you think makes these book work so well – or if you think we missed any other great books! Happily Ever All-Star – Sosie Frost Every new sub-genre has an origin story… Read More >
10 Hot Threesomes We Wouldn’t Mind Joining
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on March 10, 2017
Whoever said three’s a crowd probably wasn’t referring to the bedroom. Threesome romances are all the rage right now, and although we here at Hidden Gems know that trends come and go, we’re hoping that this latest ménage craze is here to stay. While these books come in many different flavors, for this list we’re focusing on two hot men and one lucky woman. Still, even within that there are a couple different variations. MFM books focus solely on the men satisfying the woman, but MMF books mean everyone is playing with everyone else. We’ve noted which type each book is, for those of you that have a preference. So without further ado, here are 10 steaming ménage romance novels that will keep you glued to your tablets! Double Team (MFM) – Sabrina Paige Sabrina is a trend setter, and her threesome book was one of the first ones we… Read More >
The Hottest Sex Scenes You May Have Missed In Popular Fiction
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on February 9, 2017
It’s easy to find kinky, steamy scenes in romance or erotica mega-hits like 50 Shades of Grey, but sometimes some of the most surprising, and sexy, bits of literature can be found in places not so obvious—and we’re not just talking about works by the Marquis de Sade or Henry Miller. You can find plenty of spicy, scintillating scenes of sin within more contemporary writing—enough to leave you blushing and hiding your books from the person in the next chair over—as long as you know where to look… Exit to Eden, Anne Rice Writing under the name Anne Rampling, Vampire novelist Anne Rice scandalized the literary world with scenes of BDSM years before we allowed ourselves to get down and dirty in the billionaire offices of Mr. Grey. Rampling’s The Club resort allowed visitors to experience life as a Master or Domme, and the POV was through Head Female Trainer… Read More >
Author Spotlight Interview: Jay Crownover
By: Hidden Gems | Posted on January 30, 2017
In our second Author Spotlight interview, we have another NYT and USA Today bestseller for you. Author of the Marked Man series, the Saints of Denver series, and The Point and Breaking Point series, Jay Crownover’s latest novel begins what is surely destined to be yet another bestselling series. Retreat is book one of the Getaway Series, and it was released at the end of December 2016. And don’t worry, we kept this interview short enough to ensure we didn’t delay her next release! HG: Who inspires you to write? Jay: More like WHAT. There are a lot of writers I love and auto-buy…but none of them are why I write. I write because a lyric in a song inspires me, or because I overheard a story at a bar, or because I want words out there in the world that people like me identify with. I write because books… Read More >
