Win an ARC at the SPI Seafood and Music Festival

This weekend South Padre Island is hosting the Landshark Seafood and Music Festival and everyone is excited about this eagerly anticipated event. Local businesses and restaurants will be on hand with a sampling of what the Island has to offer. So, if you plan to be in the area, make sure you take the time to stop by and see what all the fuss is about - and if you are interested, our mass transit system, The Wave, will be running until 2:30a.m. so you can leave the car at home or back at the hotel.

In support of the music festival the newly formed Business Alliance is sponsoring a booth to highlight our local independent stores and to help to get the word out about this little sandbar we call home.

Paragraphs is happy to take part and we are offering an advanced readers copy of one of the books described below to the lucky winner of an hourly drawing.

“The Strain" begins with a newly landed plane stopping dead on the runway. When the rescue crews arrive, they discover that all the passengers and crew are dead in their seats, with their necks cut and their bodies devoid of blood. This utterly original novel is absolutely fantastic and like no vampire novel I've read. You will love it!”

-- Jon Tobin, Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI

“The Magicians" is a darker, more adult take on the idea of a secret academy that trains would-be wizards. Lev Grossman explores the realms of magic, alternate realities, and wish fulfillment as visited by less-than-heroic characters. Raising the question of what would you do if you could do whatever you wanted, The Magicians is thrilling and deliciously disturbing.”

-- Lisa Wright, Oblong Books And Music,LLC., Millerton, NY

"The Little Stranger" follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in declineaits masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.


Hailed by the "Chicago Tribune" as a tremendous talent, Nguyen infuses her first novel with humor, compassion, and insight, as she explores the story of estranged sisters and the cultural and family history that binds them.

Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor, a coming-of-age novel set in small community of African-American professionals in the Hamptons, is a masterpiece. Is Whitehead the greatest writer of his generation? He bids fair.”
-- Sarah McNally, McNally Jackson Books, New York, NY

Chronicling world-changing events that have never been so intimately observed in fiction and brimming with unmistakable warmth and humor, "The Wish Maker" is the powerful account of a family and an era, a story that shows how, even in the most rapidly shifting circumstances, there are bonds that survive the tugs of convention, time, and history.

The peace of Three Pines is shattered when a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing long-buried secrets.

Written by a direct descendant of Bram Stoker and a well-known Dracula historian, "Dracula: The Un-Dead" is a bone-chilling sequel based on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition.

And best of all, from Quirk Books publisher of the New York Times Best Seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem!

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon.

Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest-and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Have fun at the South Padre Island Seafood and Music Festival
and thanks for attending.