Tag Archives: Rowan McAllister

It’s beginning to look a lot like linkity!



Congrats to Sammy2006, Yvette, and Heather K, who won Simple Gifts (Cornwall Novellas #2) by LB Gregg!

Congrats to Morgana, who won My True Love Gave to Me by Ava March, which is now available from by Carina Press. It’s also available in the Men Under the Mistletoe anthology.

Congrats to Dianna, who won Winter Warmers by Josephine Myles, JL Merrow, Clare London, Chrissy Munder, and Lou Harper!



Contests

Bookity

Ebookity

Think, Make, Do, Learn

Holidity

  • Gift Guide: Food (including adorable rainbow cake earrings, which are sold out)

Cookity

Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

  • Truth (as someone who works from home three days a week…).

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Bad Boyfriend (Bad in Baltimore #2) by KA Mitchell. ebook. Excellent kinky m/m romance about a teacher who’s dumped by his closeted boyfriend of ten years, then picks up a hot younger guy at a bar to take along to the baptism of his ex’s baby.
While Under the Influence (Perfect Timing #8) by Kim Dare. ebook. Very good kinky m/m romance about a guy who’s in denial about being gay. He foolishly mentions it to his cousin when he’s drunk, thus setting in motion her plan for him to find out definitively whether he is or isn’t.
Paper Planes by M. Jules Aedin. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a photographer whose partner died in a plane crash a year ago and who isn’t really moving past that until after he becomes friend with an older pilot. I particularly liked that this book didn’t go in for quick fixes – recovering from a significant loss takes time – and that one of the main characters had a disability. Perfect main characters get boring!
Search Me (Cover Me #3) by LA Witt. ebook short. Good short m/m romance following up on Andrew and Nick from Cover Me, who we saw were having problems in Trust Me. I got a little sniffly when things didn’t look too promising for the guys…
The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters by Amy lane. ebook. Very cute holiday m/m romance about a grumbly Colorado alpaca rancher who takes a liking to the cute younger guy who moves in next door.
Let It Snow by Devon Rhodes. ebook short. Good short kinky holiday m/m romance about a professional house sitter who’s feeling lonely and a little sorry for himself on Christmas Eve as he falls asleep making a wish…
What Can Be by Mary Calmes. ebook. Good holiday m/m romance about a guy who hasn’t seen his father or brothers for 13 years, since his mom took him and left. Since then, he’s avoided getting close to people… except he has and now he’s running away from that.
Happiness for Beginners by Zahra Owens. ebook short. Good short holiday m/m romance about two guys, one gay and one presumably straight, who used to play a gay couple on a tv show but haven’t seen each other for ten years. And then the straight one shows up at the other guy’s front door out of the blue…
Winter Rescue by Dawn Kimberly Johnson. ebook short. Good short holiday m/m romance about a guy trying to make it home for the holidays after not seeing his family for a few years, but he ends up in the ditch during a bitterly cold and snowy night and almost doesn’t make it home…
A Walk in the Dark by Kate McMurray. ebook short. Good short holiday m/m romance about a guy with a crush on his roommate’s boyfriend. This needed to be just a bit longer to be a satisfying read.
Prey Time by Sue Brown. ebook short. Steamy m/m/m encounter between a guy in a bar and a couple he picks up… or do they pick him up?
Cherry Pie by Samantha Kane. ebook. Pretty good m/m romance about a wealthy guy who recently moved to a small town in North Carolina from San Diego. One morning, he discovers the son of his house’s former (deceased) owner sitting outside. Alas, I never got fully invested in the main characters as a couple.
No One Should Be Alone by Tinnean. ebook. Ok holiday m/m romance about two operatives in a top-secret government agency who hook up. This one just didn’t work for me – not only could I simply not get into the story, it was told in alternating first-person with insufficiently distinct voices, so I kept getting confused.
Feels Like Home by Rowan McAllister. ebook. Sweet m/m holiday romance about two guys who end up spending a couple of days together because of a snowstorm. Editing inconsistencies kept annoying me and pulling me out of the story. (Really, that spare tire that got run over by a Hummer H2 at the beginning of the story? You’re not going to be putting it on and driving on it later in the story…)
Bringing Home the Ice Prince by Jana Downs. ebook short. Meh short m/m holiday romance written in the sort of flowery, over-the-top style that annoys me no end.


“Can’t… quite… hit… the… itchy… spot…” – Mayhem

Linkity lacks comprehensible weather



Congrats to Courtney S, who won Becoming His by Shawn Lane!



Contests

  • Lynn’s celebrating her blogiversary with a contest – your prize to be determined by whether you knit, quilt, cross stitch, or none of the above. Answer her question in the comments before June 12 for your chance to win.

Bookity

Ebookity

Think, Learn, Do

Cookity

  • Petri dish jello (probably guarantees you’ll never have to bring anything to a potluck again).

Crafty

Cool

  • Instead of carrying a separate little Swiss army knife on my key chain, I could just put my keys on this clever carabiner.

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

  • Cicada ice cream?! (No longer in production, due to health department concerns.)

LOL

  • What’s your unicorn name? Mine’s Poppy Celestial Pony: “Poppy is quick-witted and bright as a spark. She is as dark as the night sky, and she brings the sunshine and chases away clouds.”
  • xkcd on the cloud. (Make sure you hover your cursor over the comic for additional text.)

Teh Cute

Reading Update
What Happened to Larry Alan? by Dawn Kimberly Johnson. ebook. Excellent m/m romance about a guy who gets hit in the head with a soccer ball and has a chance to change some pivotal events from his past.
Any Closer by Mary Calmes. ebook. Feel-good m/m romance about a good-hearted guy who owns a construction company and finds out something sordid about the past of one of his employees/friends.
The Love of a Mate (Pack Discipline #4) by Kim Dare. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about the pack troublemaker, who’s incredibly suspicious when the beta’s brother begins a subtle pursuit.
The One that Counts by Chrissy Munder. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy who’s feeling introspective after his father’s death and shares some things from his past that his partner didn’t know.
Just-You Eyes by Clare London. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy, accompanying his sister to a heterosexual speed dating night to even out the numbers of men and women, who meets a hotel employee and has an uncharacteristic one-night stand.
Cherries on Top by Rowan McAllister. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy who doesn’t do relationships, but finds himself unable to resist the sweet, previously straight bartender who takes him home.
Between Friends by Lou Harper. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about two guys who’ve been friends since they were kids. One’s closeted, in deep denial, and the other’s not willing to be his dirty little secret.
We’re Both Straight, Right? by Jamie Fessenden. ebook. Very good m/m romance about two straight college guys who have been best friends for years. When one of them learns how much money they can make doing a “straight guys’ first gay experiences” porn shoot, he convinces the other to do it with him.
A Deadly Kind of Love (Deadly Mystery #6) by Victor J. Banis. ebook. Very good m/m mystery in which Tom and Stanley head to Palm Springs to help a friend who found a dead man in his hotel bed. I must confess that it was refreshing to read a nearly angst-free installment of their story!
Long, Lonely Howl by Lyn Gala. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a YMCA youth counselor who inadvertently finds out about werewolves and has to make some life-changing decisions. Be aware that the ending’s a bit abrupt and is definitely HFN.
Shades of the Past (EMS Heat #9) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good m/m romance about an EMT whose partner and cousin died on the job because she wouldn’t listen to him. He blames himself for her death and isn’t doing very well at all. (I wanted just a bit more in each of the later scenes in the book.)
Bad Company by KA Mitchell. ebook. Good m/m romance about two guys who were friends when they were kids, but haven’t spoken for years… until one decides to piss off his homophobic father and “go gay”. Strangely, he wasn’t the person who needed to be smacked in this book.
About Damn Time by Elizabeth Jewell. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about two guys, close friends and both gay, who’ve never gotten together – but will a bet change that? I was doing ok the story until the sex scene – someone who’s just spent nearly six months restoring a classic car is probably not going to be ok with having sex on the car’s hood, especially with belt buckles flopping all over the place…
Hairy, Horny, and Over Here by J.L. Merrow. ebook short. Very funny m/m story about a photographer and a hunter out looking for jackalopes in the woods on the Isle of Wight. I’d suggest reading this book in conjunction with I’ll Tell You a Secret, Jackalope. 🙂
Pearls Before Swine by Vic Winter. ebook short. Very steamy short paranormal m/m romance about a guy who considers himself very civilized and proper, but has to reconsider after he runs into (literally) a shifter at the museum and invites him over for coffee…
What You Wish For: The Nine of Cups by Alex Marcus-Jacobs. ebook short. reread. Ok short m/m romance about a college student who gets a disconcerting tarot reading, just prior to a life-changing event. The conversations were my main reason for not rating this higher – they were awkward and didn’t feel realistic.
Obsidian (What You Wish For #2) by Alex Marcus-Jacobs. ebook. Ok kinky m/m romance continuing the story of the college student and his older lover/Dom. Like the previous book, this seemed stilted and awkward to me.
Layoffs by Dallas Coleman. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about two guys who get laid off from the same company because others took credit for their work.
Neon Yellow: Obsessive Adhesives by Andy Slayde & Ali Wilde. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a player who starts to see the appeal of the quiet guy from Accounting. Only… who keeps leaving those unnerving post-it messages on the guy’s computer monitor?! I would’ve rated this higher if there hadn’t been some real TSTL moments in it. You know there’s a stalker. You know he’s been following your new boyfriend; in fact, he broke into your boyfriend’s house and completely trashed it (besides leaving those increasingly threatening post-its at work). Why would you decide to get away from the situation and go camping (ie, isolated)? And most especially, why wouldn’t you be completely freaked out when the axe and other items disappeared from the campsite?!?!?
Rushing Towards Perfection by Mya. ebook. Ok kinky m/m romance about two guys who are rushing into a relationship without knowing a lot about each other. This one just didn’t quite work – it felt like sections were missing.
Run With Me by Eden Cole. ebook. Meh m/m romance about the son of a crime boss who keeps running away from his father, even though his father always sends brutes to beat him up and drag him home. But maybe the latest guy who’s tracked him down will be different…
Sex Scene: Take One by Lee Avalone. ebook. Incoherent trainwreck. Any sex scene that has “his large log” in it… no. Just no.


Mutant kitty!!!! O.O