Tag Archives: Cat Grant

Linkity leaves you in the lurch as SOC prepares for reduced services during vacation



Congrats to Juliana, who won Vessel (Cutting Cords #2) by Mickie B. Ashling!ร‚ย Vessel is being released by Dreamspinner Press today.

Congrats to Paula, who won Marked Yours and Together Bound (Sentries 1-2) by Elizabeth Noble! Together Bound will be released October 10 by Dreamspinner Press.

Congrats to SusieQ, who won RSVP (Pushing the Envelope #2) by Kim Dare! RSVP will be released by Amber Allure on October 9.


Brace yourselves. This is the last linkity post until October 28, as I’m heading out on vacation in a couple days.

Several contests each week will appear automagically. I’ll announce contest winners. I may or may not post some pictures from vacation. You’ll just have to stay tuned to see what happens. Or doesn’t. ๐Ÿ™‚



Contests

Bookity

Ebookity

Do, Think, Make, Learn

Cookity

  • So, The Kitchn pretty much went nuts with recipe lists this week. Brace yourselves.

4 sweet potato-centric meals

5 Asian-style pumpkin recipes

5 savory fall apple recipes

5 non-cabbage slaw recipes (plus runner bean coleslaw)

8 recipes for cabbage

8 recipes for beet and radish greens

40 recipes for fall vegetables

15 recipes for fall vegetables

4 more recipes for fall vegetables

Crafty

Halloweenity

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

  • Both Chaos and May love to play fetch. Sadly, May’s special gift is always dropping the fetch toy just out of reach…

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Song of Oestend by Marie Sexton. ebook. Excellent kinky scifi m/m romance with cowboys. Weirdly, I’m not a big fan of scifi and even less of a fan of cowboy books, but this just completely worked for me. It’s about an artist who takes a job as a bookkeeper for a ranch on the other side of the world so he can get away from his past at the university. He finds himself unprepared for his new life, but he slowly finds his way and makes his place at the ranch as he befriends the reclusive foreman.
Once a Marine by Cat Grant. ebook ARC. Very good m/m romance about a waiter who’s always been really attracted to Marines, although it’s never turned out well for him. But when an extremely handsome guy (obviously a Marine) sits in his section, he’s drawn to the guy despite himself. There’s more to both of them than what meets the eye – will either of them be able to overcome their previous bad experiences to find love this time?
Mummy Dearest (The XOXO Files #1) by Josh Lanyon. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a professor of archeology who visits a dime museum in Wyoming to study its mummy, only to find that there’s a reality/documentary show there filming the same mummy. I was a bit disappointed that the main characters felt awfully familiar from other Lanyon books I’ve read.
Whitetail Rock by Anne Tenino. free ebook short. Very good short kinky m/m romance about a defensively snarky grad student who meets a hunky motorcycle cop when he’s home from school for the summer. It features this laugh-out-loud funny quote:

“Sam. I’ve got news for you. Not every childhood trauma can be healed by finding the right penis.”

Sam looked devastated. He opened and closed his mouth, eyes wide, then suddenly slumped back against the railing, unable to support himself anymore. “You mean,” his voice was barely a whisper. “All those romance novels lied?”

On This Day… (Stand Alone Short Stories #2) by Kim Dare. ebook short. Sweet and steamy short m/m romance about a dom who arrives home from work to discover his sub has things set up for an anniversary celebration… but he’s not sure what anniversary it is they’re to be celebrating.
Coming Out Wolf by Julia Talbot. ebook short. Very good short paranormal m/m romance about a werewolf who’s decided that he wants his roommate (also a werewolf) as his mate… but his roommate doesn’t seem to be aware of him sexually.
Sucks & Blows by Storm Grant. ebook short, ARC. Punny short m/m paranormal story about a perpetually horny dentist who, in order to convey his sense of humor, mentions on his business cards that he does vampires, too. He doesn’t expect an actual vampire to show up in his office…
The Little Death by Andrea Speed. ebook. Good noir-styled m/m romantic suspense about a hard-boiled PI who’s hired by a “homme fatale” to find his missing twin brother… but nothing’s really adding up in the case, except the bodies. I suspect the references to classic noir detective stories will be obvious to those more familiar with the genre – I thought I was doing well to catch a Maltese Falcon reference!
Fixed by Tristram La Roche. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a guy who’d been living in the south of France with his boyfriend until the economy went bad and he lost everything – home, business, money, and boyfriend. He moves back to Yorkshire in reduced circumstances and isn’t particularly pleased to run into a guy he recognizes from his school days…


“Must. Not. Fall. Asleep…” -Mayhem

Lead on, linkity, lead on



Congrats to Paula, who won Trust in Me by Lori Toland!

Congrats to Cursingmama, who won Stranger in Black by Devon Rhodes!

Congrats to Lauren, who won Between Sinners and Saints by Marie Sexton! Between Sinners and Saints will be released on May 29 by Amber Allure.

Congrats to Melanie M, who won A.J.รขโ‚ฌโ„ขs Angel by L.A. Witt! A.J.รขโ‚ฌโ„ขs Angel is being released by Samhain Publishing on May 31.



Contests

Bookity

Ebookity

Do, Think, Make, Learn

Cookity

Crafty

Cool

  • Fabulous linkity from The Mary Sue that includes The Doctor and the Little Prince, how to make chocolate zombie truffles, Jack Sparrow statue made from scrap iron, and more!

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Reverb by Jet Mykles. ebook. Excellent m/m romance about the lead singer of a rock band who’s really attracted to his straight lead guitarist and finally has the opportunity to seduce him… and then things go very, very wrong. Keep your hankies handy for this one!
Highway Man by Eden Winters. ebook short. Excellent short m/m romance based on the song “Papa Was a Rodeo” by the Magnetic Fields. I like to think that part of the song is an epilogue for the story. ๐Ÿ™‚
Nothing Ever Happens by Sue Brown. ebook. Very good, very angsty m/m romance about a gay man staying married both for his son’s sake and out of fear of his overbearing, homophobic mother. Things start to break down when a new couple move to the neighborhood… Be warned that there’s infidelity in this one, which isn’t usually to my taste, either, but I got sucked in despite that.
Pain Management by Cassidy Ryan & Zoe Nichols. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about two guys who are business partners and best friends, until a drunken night together threatens all of it. Um, I might’ve cried a bit – this one really got to me! I got sniffly on the reread, too.
Deliberately Bound (Bound #3.5) by Ava March. free ebook short. Steamy short kinky m/m romance in which things don’t go at all as Vincent had planned upon Oliver’s return from London.
A Weapon of Opportunity by Kiernan Kelly. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance about a gay cop in love with his straight partner, who was killed in the line of duty five years earlier… but his ghost remains.
A Fool for You by Cat Grant. ebook. Good m/m romance about a dyslexic keyboardist who gets screwed over by his band members and boyfriend because he wasn’t able to write his music down. The pacing on this felt odd to me – an overnight change from brat to not-brat plus insta-love just didn’t quite gel.
Stroke to His Cox by JL Merrow. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about the cox of a rowing team, who has a crush on one of his rowers.
Keeping House (Truth or Dare #1) by Lee Brazil. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a trust fund baby whose controlling older brothers manipulate him into getting a job and supporting himself. If only it hadn’t been insta-love…
Impossible to Resist by Em Woods. ebook short. Steamy short m/m romance about a guy who’s phobic about being touched, but that doesn’t stop him from having a crush on one of the co-owners of the firm where he works. I did have a couple niggles: refractory periods and whether someone with haptephobia would actually change so quickly. Also, it felt like there was an awful lot of story for so few pages.
Lipstick & Handguns (Lawful Disorder, Book 1) by Gabrielle Evans. ebook. Ok m/m romantic suspense about a cop who finds himself getting too attached to a guy who survived being abducted and tortured. I kept getting distracted from the story by typos and descriptions that had me rereading to see if I’d read them right.


“Send me all your everythings now, please. Thank you.” -Mayhem

Linkity, plus 2010 Reading Year in Review

Contests

Bookity

Ebookity

Think, Do, Learn, Make

Best of 2010

Cool

Huh

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update


I read 864 books in 2010, compared to 811 books in 2009. I had six dnf (did not finish) books, which I have not listed. I tagged 858 of the books I read as m/m, 826 as ebooks, 350 as shorts, and 24 as rereads. You can find my reviewettes of these these books in my LibraryThing (in the “Review” or “Comments” field, depending). Please note that not all of my books are in GoodReads, although Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขm trying to be better about adding them!


One Real Thing by Anah Crow & Dianne Fox. ebook. Excellent m/m romance about two guys who were best friends in college. One got married and started a career and followed a path of things he felt he should do. The other slowly spiraled down and out of control. This book was, at times, not an easy read. It left me feeling gutted more than once. But it’s so very worth reading to find out for yourself if either of them can be saved…
All She Wrote (Holmes & Moriarity, Book 2) by Josh Lanyon. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense/mystery continuing the story of Kit Holmes and J.X. Moriarity, mystery writers (although not coauthors), as Kit flies across the country to play amateur sleuth for a writer friend who thinks someone is trying to kill her.
Primal Red (Bellingham Mysteries, Book 1) by Nicole Kimberling. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about an investigative reporter for a free weekly paper who hears screaming, then sees a woman die in the arms of an artist that he’d very much like to date…
Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Bellingham Mysteries, Book 2) by Nicole Kimberling. Good m/m romantic suspense continuing the story of the investigative report and the artist – this time, they’re camping in the snow and participating in a New Year’s Eve snow sculpture event when they discover a dead body.
Black Cat Ink (Bellingham Mysteries, Book 3) by Nicole Kimberling. Good m/m romantic suspense in which our artist and investigative reporter search for a stolen penis statue and acquire a black kitten.
Appearing Nightly (The First Real Thing, Book 2) by Cat Grant. Very good m/m romance about a singer/drag queen/bar co-owner who’s fascinated by the cute, skittish guy who recently started working at the bar. You really need to read The First Real Thing before you read this book!
The Stroke of Twelve by Kim Dare. ebook. Very good kinky m/m romance about an aimless young man who wakes up after a night at the bar to find he has a piece of paper with an address and a time written on it and only the vague memory of a handsome older man handing it to him. Curious, he turns up at the address on time… and his life is changed in a way he never expected.
A Change of Tune by J.M. Cartwright. ebook. Good m/m romance about a successful (and deeply closeted, even from himself) rock musician who leaves his band and moves to an out-of-the-way town in West Virginia, where he meets a very pushy sheriff…
Offside Pass (Blue Line Hockey, Book 1) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good m/m romance about a newbie sports reporter trying to figure out the dark secret in the past of three brawling hockey brothers, one of whom he finds very attractive.
It’s Smoking in the Locker Room by Stephani Hecht. free ebook short. Smoking (heh) short m/m romance about a college student whose secret high school crush (and former captain of the high school hockey team) emails him and asks to meet in their old high school locker room.
Burnt Orange: Sooner or Later by Dallas Coleman. ebook short. Good short m/m romance, told in a series of key scenes, that follows two guys who become friends in grade school, despite one being a Sooner and the other being a Longhorn and neither realizing the other is gay… I got sniffly once or twice during this one.
Sagittarius: Mr. November (Boys of the Zodiac, Book 9) by Pepper Espinoza. ebook. I read it because I love the song “Mr. November” by the National, but it’s actually a good (if rather heavy on the dreary football details) m/m romance about an older quarterback who’s been traded to a new team under mysterious circumstances.
Pulling Away (Book 1) by Shawn Lane. ebook short. Reread. Good short m/m romance about a guy who’s isolated himself since his parents died two years earlier, only really talking to a friend he met online.
The First by Rachel West. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about two guys in college who broke up because one caught the other kissing someone else while very drunk at a party.


Hey, Stella!!!!” -Chaos

A flood of linkity!

Congrats to Jane, who won Not Anymore by Em Woods! Not Anymore will be released by Total-E-Bound on September 27.


Contests

Bookity

Ebookity

Learn, Make, Do, Think

  • I must confess to finding human-powered gadgets very cool – if all tvs and video games were powered by exercise bikes, would America have an obesity epidemic?

Linkity Peeps

Cool

  • Cute game, although it may cause cubicle workers to weep uncontrollably… (Thanks, Jase!)

Huh

LOL

  • The bad ex service… make sure you hover your cursor over the comic for additional text!
  • My kitties did not enjoy this black cat meow mix video. At all. Chaos was so sure that I was hiding another kitty in my laptop that he got mad and started to act out. (Thanks? Lisa!)

Teh Cute

  • Fetching kitty! (Both Chaos and Mayhem are fetching kitties – in both senses of the words.)

Reading Update
Seriously, was this my week to read about mysterious guys or what?! You’ll see. ๐Ÿ™‚
Ruthless Pursuit (Lost Shifters, Book 6) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance continuing the story of the search to find the Lost (Feline) Shifters, who were abducted when they were young and raised by humans. This installment is about trying to capture the criminally inclined Andrew.
Man and Wolf by Kate Roman. ebook. Decent paranormal m/m romance about a vet who meets and immediately connects with a mysterious guy who brings in his poisoned dog. I enjoyed this one, although an entire storyline of menace never really played out to be anything. Plus the sex-to-story ratio was a bit skewed.
Touch of a Wolf by Jez Morrow. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a grad student who just caught his boyfriend cheating and moved out. He has an uncharacteristic sexual encounter in an alley with a mysterious guy he runs into on the street – who later shows up on his fire escape – and his life is changed, possibly forever.
Wicked Cool by Val Kovalin. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy with a junk removal business who becomes very intrigued by a mysterious property manager he meets while on a job. Can he deal with the unknown, or will all the secrets drive them apart?
His Gift by Clare London. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy who wakes up injured in a rainy ditch, with no memory of how he got there. He manages to make it to an old house, where he meets a handsome, mysterious man and his life takes on a dream-like quality.
Bound by Blood (Soul Mates, Book 1) by Jourdan Lane. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a bartender with a vampire phobia who slowly realizes that not only is the hot guy he’s been ogling a vampire, he’s the Master vampire of the city… (I can definitely tell that Lane was influenced by Anne Rice’s early Vampire Chronicles and LKH’s early Anita Blake books. It works.)
Ethan’s Choice (Kindred Spirits, Book 1) by Jude Mason & Jenna Byrnes. ebook. Decent paranormal m/m romance about an analytical guy who’s considering buying the seaside inn he’s vacationing at. But why are the current owners selling it after only six months? And could the hunky handyman possibly be gay?
Almost Home by Nicole Gordon. ebook short. Intriguing short m/m story about two guys who’ve been friends for years, while one has been going through some rough things that just ended with his father’s death. Sadly, this book simply stops, with no resolution of any sort. However, I did leave a question for Nicole Gordon on her blog and she’s working on a sequel.
What They Say About Love by Alexi Silversmith. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy who breaks up with his girlfriend instead of proposing to her as he’d intended. He decides to go out and pick up a guy to explore a side of himself he’s kept under wraps since college…
The First Real Thing by Cat Grant. ebook. Good m/m romance about a male escort who picks up the wrong guy in a bar and finds himself in an actual relationship… with a guy who doesn’t know what he does for a living.
Not Anymore by Em Woods. ebook short. Good m/m romance about a guy who’s on vacation in Hawaii with his sister and her boyfriend when his attraction to a guy who approaches him on the beach outs him to his family. Things get really complicated when his nasty ex shows up and then the identity of the guy from the beach is revealed. Despite a few niggles, this was an enjoyable read and I’ll definitely look for future books from Em Woods.
Vince by J.M. Snyder. ebook. Pretty good young adult m/m story about two guys who’ve been best friends since they were little… until, when they’re 14, one confesses he’s in love with the other and gets laughter in return.
Just the Right Notes by Sean Michael. ebook. Good kinky m/m romance about an architect and a composer who periodically escape to their cabin for a weekend of D/s play. Will that be enough to keep them grounded when their lives go into crisis?
Prisoner of the State by Alex Morgan. ebook short. So-so short kinky m/m about a police chief who abducts a guy he pulled over for speeding and keeps the guy in his basement as a sex slave. This would’ve been better if it had been fleshed out more – it read more like a story outline at points.


“This sock, it has a flavor! It tastes… woolly.” -Mayhem