Today’s forecast is for sunshine and linkity

Contest Update

  • JessaLu’s celebrating her blogiversary with a big contest – she’ll have five knitting related prizes, one for each year that she’s been blogging. The prizes are wonderful – some of her gorgeous box bags, socks knit for you on her sock knitting machine, or gorgeous sock yarn dyed by Scout. Contest closes midnight EST, February 19… and tell her I sent ya. 🙂

Reading & Beyond

  • What are your reading neuroses? A major one of mine is getting extremely anxious about what’s going to happen to characters in books, to the point that I need to put the book down and have a bit of a lie down.

Yay, Minnesota!

Get Your Geek On

Eh, Canada

  • Music blog Star Maker Machine is focusing on Canadian songs this week in honor of the Olympics.

Yum

Fun & Kitties & Goats, Oh My

  • Aww! How come my kitties have never slept in such a configuration?!

Reading Update
Thanks to jmc of Shuffling through a book-less desert, where I won a copy of the historical m/m romance, Seducing Stephen!

Love Ahead by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux. ebook collection. These two m/m romances were decent, but you can definitely tell that they were older stories from Urban and Roux. And, as Tam pointed out when she read them a week or two ago, how names are used in each story was definitely odd. In the first, both guys mostly used each others’ last names. That was ok, since they knew each other through their work at a construction site. Then, later in the story, when they started to use each others’ first names, it was obviously supposed to indicate their growing closeness and intimacy. I get that. But why the hell did they both have first and last names that could be first or last names?! It was so confusing. So very confusing. And in the next story? The name thing? Really? You never exchanged actual names after talking to each other on the phone for months? *headdesk*
Snow Plowed (Bay City Paranormal Investigations) by Ally Blue. free holiday short. This was a cute’n’steamy m/m Valentine’s short with the characters from Love, Like Ghosts. And if you haven’t read the Bay City Paranormal Investigations series, what are you waiting for?! It’s one of the series that sucked me into reading m/m romance. Hmm… Ok, maybe that’s why you haven’t. 😉
Petit Morts 1-5: Hue, Tint and Shade; Slings and Arrows; Moolah and Moonshine; Other People’s Weddings; Spanish Fly Guy (1, 3, 5 by Jordan Castillo Price; 2, 4 by Josh Lanyon). ebook shorts. These delightful little m/m romances are all loosely based around a mysterious chocolate shop and Chance, its equally mysterious proprietor. Although I enjoyed each and every one, I think that #4 (Other People’s Weddings by Josh Lanyon) was my favorite, with #1 (Hue, Tint and Shade by Jordan Castillo Price) following closely behind. Recommended. (Val at Obsidian Bookshelf has much more detailed reviews of the Petit Morts, as does Jenre of Well Read.)
Holiday Outing by Astrid Amara. ebook. Another delightful Hannukah m/m romance from Astrid Amara! A successful author of gay fiction, still closeted to his family, gets snowed in with his family (and a high school nemesis) for Hannukah.
Fantasies: Thanksgiving by Cassandra Gold. ebook. Enjoyable m/m romance about two guys, one gay, one straight, who have been friends for many years… and then something changes in their friendship. (We’ll be revisiting this cover image at some point in the future, too.)
True North (Lost Boys & Love Letters, Book 1) by Bethany Brown & Ashlyn Kane. ebook. Darn good m/m romance about a deeply closeted petroleum engineer and the new doctor in town, and about how limiting it can be to let your fears control you.
Picture Perfect (Lost Boys & Love Letters, Book 2) by Bethany Brown & Ashlyn Kane. ebook. Ok m/m romance that started out feeling like a freestanding story, but seemed as if, partway through, it suddenly needed to become part of a series (the few paragraphs that were apparently supposed to tie it to True North didn’t seem, to me, to fit)… probably right about the time it detoured into m/m/m for a bit. Very ambivalent about reading the third book.
Hero by Heidi Cullinan. ebook. This was another read for Kris’ m/m rut challenge. This was a fantasy (I guess sort of an urban fantasy, actually) based on the Japanese myth of the kitsune. Intellectually, I could tell it was a pretty good story, but I was fighting against the fantastical elements of the story the entire time. So, basically, I don’t think I can fairly rate this one.
Heart and Soul (The Assignment, Book 2) by Evangeline Anderson. ebook. Ah, this poor m/m romantic suspense got a bit caught in my expectations for it (sequel to The Assignment!) and my discomfort with parts of the story itself. Don’t get me wrong – it was a decent read and definitely worth reading if you enjoyed the previous book (and subsequent shorts) – but I had trouble reading around all the plot holes. *sigh*
Coach, In Bear’s Bed, Office Advances, and A Biker’s Vow (Campus Cravings, Books 1, 7, 8, & 9) by Carol Lynne. ebooks. Reading Carol Lynne is like eating potato chips – not very filling and you know they’re probably not good for you, but you just can’t stop. O_o As you might guess from the name of this series, it’s set on a college campus. (And yes, that is Candy Cane Guy In Bear’s Bed! That naughty boy…) Oddly, at the end of A Biker’s Vow, this series appears to be intersecting with Lynne’s Cattle Valley series.
Sonny’s Salvation (Good-Time Boys, Book 1) by Carol Lynne. ebook. See my comment on reading Carol Lynne books above. 🙂 Sonny quit the FBI to run the family ranch in Nebraska after his dad died. Too bad there aren’t many gay men in rural Nebraska… (And I already know I won’t be reading past the third book in this series, based on the subject matter of the fourth book.)
Rules Were Made To Be Broken by Lenore Black. ebook. Pretty good m/m romance about a guy who recently took over running the family sporting goods store and his (straight) best friend who’s feeling a bit jealous of the store and all the time it takes up. Very nice review of this and Lenore Black’s other works over at Dear Author.
Dead Men Get No Tail by Misty Malone. ebook short. Ok m/m romance about two college roommates, one of whom decides to have a fake funeral for himself. This one left me sort of “Huh?”
Fool for Love by Cassandra Gold. ebook. I’m not a big fan of May-December romances, but Cassandra Gold does a nice job with this m/m romance between a professor and his college student neighbor.


“Sheesh, May, you totally missed this spot by your elbow when you were bathing. What a slob.” -Chaos

*strikes kitty yoga pose #742* -Mayhem

34 thoughts on “Today’s forecast is for sunshine and linkity”

  1. You and I have the same reading neurosis…however, I deal with mine by flipping to the end of the book and reading the last several pages. I’m sad like that…also have to read the plot spoiler for movies that look like they’ll create angst before I see them.
    .-= Melanie´s last blog ..Ash Wednesday… =-.

  2. Lots to browse through again. I do like these posts, they have a little bit of everything in them.

    Great reading week for you! Always amazes me how many books you read. I know there a lot of shorts there but still that’s a lot of reading.

    Thanks for the mention! 🙂

    I’m so ready for the weekend to get here. Actually, I was ready Monday. 😉
    .-= Donna-FantasyDreamer´s last blog ..Review: The Battle Sylph by L. J. McDonald =-.

  3. The review of Petit Morts and chance to win is now live at my blog, Chris.

    It’s funny that #4 was my least favourite story out of the Petit Morts. I loved Slings and Arrows though.

    I’m in two minds as to whether to read The Assignment spin off, mostly because I loved that book and I don’t want to be disappointed in the sequel which seems to have had mixed reviews.

    You know the whole name thing never bothered me in Love Ahead. Perhaps it’s because it was one of the first m/m books I read and I was still all sparkly eyed about the genre.
    .-= Jenre´s last blog ..Review: Petit Morts by Jordan Castillo Price & Josh Lanyon. Plus a chance to win your own Petit Mort! =-.

  4. You know, I do the same thing – I get so involved in a character or plot, that I have to put the book down, and lie down. Then I end up dreaming of the character/plot/ending, la la la…
    .-= Brigitte´s last blog ..The Things I Do. =-.

  5. Wow, thanks for all the heads up! Links and reviews! Honey, you have been a busy little bee!!!! Your kitties are adorable no matter what position they sleep in… Hope all is well and you are having a great day!

  6. Holy shit girly, you are chatty on the book reviews today. A dozen sentences for the first one. 🙂

    I forgot to mention Ally’s when I did my review. Will have to do that next time when I actually have books to review. I’m still waiting to start Petit Morts until I have some time to give them my focus. I enjoyed True North and Picture Perfect (although I know some people didn’t like the m/m/m part). The third one was okay. Remember my chart? LOL

  7. I love those calligraphy cats.

    One of my reading neurosis is one that was mentioned in the article – sometimes, I get turned off of a book if it’s gotten too much hype. I’ve waited until the hype dies down before starting a certain book.

    And sometimes when I’m reading a really good book, I just won’t stop until I GIT R’ DUN. 🙂
    .-= mamatulip´s last blog ..Root Down =-.

  8. Good heavens woman! All this stuff and I can’t stick around to investigate all of it *pouts*. I’ll have to come back later.

    The one thing I did hone in on was the reading neuroses. I have several. I check the end of the story if I get worried that the couple is going to fall apart (even when it’s a romance and HAS to have a HEA or HFN). And in m/m, just when the guys are getting it on I worry that someone is going to walk in on them even though I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen this happen! And, if I am attracted to a newly released book that is part of a series, I must go find all the ones that came before and read them, even if I’ve never heard of them, before I can crack open the new one.

    Ta for now!

    But thanks for the shout out for my story at Kris’s blog!
    .-= wren´s last blog ..M/M Romance Challenge – My So-Called Reviews, part two =-.

  9. Goats! We have big mountain goats (like the ones in the first photo) in our local canyon. When my city-boy husband first moved to Utah for a temporary job assignment, his company rented a place at Snowbird Ski resort for him to live in. He and his partner were driving up the canyon late one night, when they encountered a big, white, shaggy, horned creature in the road ahead of them. The next day he excitedly told everyone that they had seen a unicorn.
    .-= Cheryl S.´s last blog ..FO: Fountain Pen Shawl (Scarf) =-.

  10. Ohh, I really liked the Brown/Kane books. I need to re-read them though cause it’s been a while and I still have the third sitting.

    Heh. Carol Lynne. Most frustrating writer ever. I did read the fourth book of the Good Brothers series and was surprised that I wasn’t completely squicked out although it was out of my comfort zone. It’s actually a not bad series.

    Anything with JCP or Josh Lanyon’s name on it gets bought. Off to spend even more money… *sigh*
    .-= Sayuri´s last blog ..Twit up your life =-.

  11. I laughed so hard at that “V-day” mouse at Gizmodo, I scared my dog.

    I broke down and went ahead and got Petit Morts last night. (I’m trying to keep to a budget, and am WAY over it this month.)

    Already have have Holiday Outing and True North is wishlisted at Fictionwise. May have to move it to the cart!
    .-= Renee´s last blog ..February 2010 Book Releases =-.

  12. Lol about your reading neuroses. Really? That’s so cute 🙂
    As are the kittens. When I still had two cats I really enjoyed those moments when they did that…
    Thanks to your linkity to Tracy’s contest I discovered her blog, can you believe I’ve never been there before?!
    There are so many books on your list I want to read. Although I’m not sure anymore about the Evangeline Anderson book now…
    .-= ErotRomReader Janna´s last blog ..Todays Man Candy – Olympic Hottie Sven Kramer =-.

  13. I’m like Melanie. I will read the last few pages if the angst gets to be too much. Of course, this has resulted in me not finishing books because I got so annoyed at dumb choices. It is also a huge reason why I love romances – it’s a given that there will be a HEA.

    Thanks for the linkies! I’ll have to go check out some of them.
    .-= Nicole´s last blog ..Olympic Goals =-.

  14. There’s something kind of freaky about watching people buy stuff at the book depository.

    Goats, you’ve got to love them. Except one of them is a lamb.

    I’ve often wondered what the deal is with animals and shoes.
    .-= Sydney´s last blog ..Surprise! It’s Snow! =-.

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