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Welcome to LaurenRoyal.com!
Free on Amazon, Kobo,
and iBooks!
Dear Reader,
Welcome, and thanks for stopping by my little corner of the Internet! For anyone who may not know, after twelve years and ten books, I've left my New York publisher to join the digital revolution as an indie author. I'm excited about this new chapter in my career, because it brings me closer to you, my readers, rather than having a ginormous corporate publisher between us. :-)
Here on this site, you'll find info and excerpts from my books, as well as photos and interesting facts about the real people and real places that are in them. And some historical recipes—yum! (Well, some of the recipes my daughter and I test turn out to be truly disgusting, but I only post the good ones!)
Please come in and look around, then enter my contest and sign my guestbook. If you'd like to receive my e-mail newsletter, please visit the newsletter section.
If you're already one of my treasured readers, you might want to take a look at the Chase and Ashcroft family trees, and I'd love to invite you to join my Street Team. If you've just discovered my books, thanks for giving them a try!
I hope you enjoy your visit!
P.S. If you have questions about how the site works, you'll find some information here.
Did you know you don't need to buy an e-reader to enjoy e-books?
Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iBooks all have FREE apps (software) that you can download to any smartphone or computer. Once you've installed an app (which takes all of two minutes), you can buy e-books on the Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or iBook sites. In our new electronic world, there's no longer any need to drive to a bookstore or order a book and wait for it to come in the mail—choose an e-book online, and 30 seconds later you can be reading it!
FREE apps are available for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, and Windows 7 phones. Go to your device's App Store to download. Or…
Get your FREE Amazon Kindle app here.
Get your FREE Barnes & Noble Nook app here.
Get your FREE Chapters/Indigo Kobo app here.
Get your FREE Apple iBooks app here.
Love your paper books? Afraid you won't like reading e-books?
I felt the same way. As a writer, I've been hearing "The e-revolution is coming!" for a long, long time. For all those years, I swore up and down I'd never abandon my paper books to read novels on a screen. I loved holding books, I loved turning the pages, loved even the smell of paper books. No way, no how was I going to give that up.
Then the e-revolution did arrive—and there was no mistaking it. So in early 2010, wondering what all the fuss was about, I downloaded the free Kindle app on my phone. Heck, it was free, right? And I knew there were free public domain books (old out-of-copyright books, like Pride & Prejudice) that I could download from Amazon to try out. For a grand investment of zero dollars and a few minutes of my time, I could give this digital revolution a go. Then I'd be able to tell people I didn't like it based on actual experience instead of just my preconceptions.
I was sure I would hate the reading experience. Positive, in fact. But guess what? Two chapters into my first e-book, I was hooked.
Here's why:
- Believe it or not (you have to try it to see), e-book pages look and read just like "real" printed books.
- I always have my phone with me everywhere…which means I always have the book I'm reading with me. I don't have to remember it for doctor's appointments. If I'm stuck in the slow line behind the lady with a checkbook, two cartloads of groceries, and 103 coupons, I can enjoy reading a book instead of fuming. I don't have to weigh down my purse with these books, either.
- All the e-book stores allow you to download the first few chapters for free. Of EVERY book. No more wasting money buying a book that looks good, but turns out to be boring. You can read a chunk of every book to make sure you really enjoy it before buying.
- I can take 10 books with me on vacation. Or 20 or 100. The books don't weigh anything, and they don't take up room in my suitcase—because they're all in the phone I'm carrying anyway.
- My phone is backlit. I can read in bed at night without needing a light, without disturbing my husband with the light, and without needing to turn the light off when I get sleepy.
- The font size is adjustable—every book can be a large-print book. Or a tiny-print book, if you want more words on your pages. You can also adjust the page coloring to your preference. Black on white? White on black? My personal preference is sepia-toned (brown on tan), because I find it easiest on my eyes.
- YES, a smartphone screen is plenty big enough to read on. Again, you need to try it to see. (And it's free to try, so why not?)
- Do your arms ever get tired while holding a book in bed? My phone is much lighter to hold than a book. Especially a hardback book. (Some Kindle and Nook e-readers are extremely light, too.)
- You don't need bookmarks. The app keeps track of where you are in a book—when you reopen it, you're in exactly the same place. If you use more than one device to read books—say, your smartphone, a Kindle, and an iPad—their apps automatically sync, so whichever device you pick up always opens to your current reading spot, even if you switch devices.
- Ever want to re-read a certain paragraph or scene but you can't find it in a book? E-books are searchable! If you can remember a few words, you can find what you're looking for. Easily. You can also permanently bookmark your favorite pages, highlight portions, and make notes, all of which the apps make very easy to find later.
- You can't destroy an e-book by rereading it too many times. You can't damage the spine by opening it too far. You can't ruin the pages with spilled tea, and the glue never disintegrates. Every time you open the book, it's in perfect condition.
- There's more. Lots more. I can't remember it all at the moment, but I am a total convert. I have not bought ONE paper book since I downloaded the free Kindle app. In fact, I ended up buying an e-book version of the book I was in the middle of reading at the time, because I didn't want to pick up that paper book again!
