Now here’s an interesting idea – a sort of library for Kindle books.

A small company called Kindle Lending Club is connecting people who are willing to lend e-books to strangers who want to borrow them.

The five-person start-up was founded by a 40-year-old Canadian mother of three. She began with  a Facebook page which proved so popular, that she hired two web developers to expand her idea into a bonafide business. So far, the Kindle Lending Club is said to have facilitated the lending of more than 1,000 books among strangers.

Amazon announced its own Kindle lending program late last year but that seems to facilitate e-book lending only among friends, not on a potentially global scale like the Kindle Lending Club.

I would never want authors to lose out on their just profits. But an e-book library seems like a natural progression. We have libraries for tree-books, why not e-books? If anything, I buy more books from authors whose work I first discovered at the library.

It will be fascinating to see how this concept  progresses.

In her debut effort, The Heir, author Grace Burrowes showcases a mastery of Regency dialogue that had me sighing with pleasure.

Gayle Windham is heir to the Duke of Moreland, who is obsessed with seeing his son married off. To escape the pressure, Windham decides to spend the summer in London, where his new housekeeper immediately draws his interest.

 Anna Seaton is a gently bred lady with a secret past and the two are soon drawn to each. The result is a lovely romance, which is both tender and starkly sensual. The backdrop is sultry London but that doesn’t compare to the heat between this couple.

Burrowes’ characters are unique and fully realized – especially Windham. Her descriptive writing engulfs you in London’s overwhelming heat and I could almost taste the cold, sweet lemonade our hero is so fond of.

This read is well worth the time and Burrowes has just jumped to my must-read list.

Next up for Burrowes is The Soldier.

I’ll be marching right out to pick it up…or to download it onto my Kindle.

However, Burrowes’ covers are SO gorgeous I might just want to buy the tree-book simply for the pleasure of gazing at it.

By the way…

Amazon reports it’s now selling more Kindle e-books than paperbacks. The online retailer says that milestone came sooner than its executives had expected.

According to Amazon, it sold 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperback books since the start of the year.

Does this signal the death of “real” books?

Nope. Because even though Kindle books are going gangbusters, it turns out that paperback and hardcover sales are still rising over at Amazon as well.

BY THE WAY…this is the LAST weekend to vote in Kensington Brava’s Writing with the Stars contest. I’m one of four remaining finalists in the online voting competition. I’d really appreciate it if you’d pop over and give it a look. I sure would appreciate your vote!