Tag Archives: HC Brown

Oh crap, I have to come up with yet another linkity title



Congrats to Seanna Lea, who won Acceleration (Impulse #2) by Amelia C. Gormley! Amelia is releasing Acceleration today.

Congrats to Shelley, who won When Love Flue In by Lillian Francis! When Love Flue In will be released by Silver Publishing on December 1.

Congrats to Lori S, who won Eight Days by Cardeno C! Eight Days will be released on December 1 by Dreamspinner Press as part of their 2012 Advent Calendar collection.

Congrats to Stacia H, who won Snowbound in Nowhere by Andrew Grey! Snowbound in Nowhere will also be released on December 1 by Dreamspinner Press as part of their 2012 Advent Calendar collection.

Congrats to Judi P, who won An Isolated Range (Stories from the Range #5) by Andrew Grey! An Isolated Range will be released on December 3 by Dreamspinner Press.

Congrats to Josieb1 and Marie A, who won the Oh, Come All Ye Kinky anthology, courtesy of  Kim Dare and Ava March! O Come All Ye Kinky will be released by Riptide Publishing on December 3.



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Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

  • If I had Christmas lights, I’m sure I’d be taking May to the vet to have them removed from her stomach…

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Of course there were hockey fics. Onward! 🙂
Counterpoint (Song of the Fallen #1) by Rachel Haimowitz. ebook. Very good m/m fantasy romance about an elf who’s captured by humans while trying to protect his sister, then becomes the favored prisoner of the area’s regent. I started reading this nearly two years ago, soon after it was released. Then I learned that the book ended in an evil cliffhanger, so I stopped reading until the sequel came out  (if I’d reached that cliffhanger, I would have been too pissed to ever read the sequel).
Crescendo (Song of the Fallen #1) by Rachel Haimowitz. ebook. Very good m/m fantasy romance picking right up where the first book left off, as a human prince-regent and his elven lover-slave try to find their way through deceit and betrayal and perhaps save both their races.
In the Dark (PsyCop #6.1) by Jordan Castillo Price. ebook short. Good short m/m paranormal romance in which Vic and Jacob go to a fancy Halloween party thrown by one of Jacob’s exes.
Jock Straps on Sale (PsyCop Flash Fic) by Jordan Castillo Price. free online short. Ok ultrashort fic about Vic stopping at Crash’s store.
Black Box (Turbulence #5) by Jordan Castillo Price. ebook short. Good installment of this serial, with several flashbacks to Marlin, the pilot who killed himself at the beginning of the story.
Khyber Run by Amber Green. ebook. Pretty good m/m suspense about an Afghan-American Navy corpsmen who’s roped into helping a group of Marines track down a deserter without knowing the full story. Having just read the blurb, it makes some things clear that weren’t really clear from reading the story, but would definitely have been good to know when reading…
Fontana by Joshua Martino. ebook. Ok novel told from the first person POV of an alcoholic sportswriter who tries to save his career by outting a record-breaking major league baseball player. In Steve Kluger’s hands, this could’ve been a great story.
Stranger in Translation by Charles Raines. ebook. So-so stream-of-consciousness story of a Englishman living in Marseilles, translating a novel into French and becoming intrigued by a stranger who persists in chattering away when he’s trying to enjoy the quiet of a cemetery.
Lord & Master by HC Brown. ebook. Not sure there’s a likeable character in this kinky m/m historical “romance”. Between the characters and the intermittently overwrought and clumsy writing, this wasn’t for me. DNF.


“Not only can I read your minds, I can control your thoughts!” -Chaos


Nothing much new to report from ’round here. May’s still staying in my bedroom overnight and when I’m gone for any length of time, since Chaos keeps hissing (and occasionally growling) at her. Of course, now May’s asleep on the ottoman and Chaos is in the chair looking baleful but not hissing…

Linkity: The post-birthday, pre-Thanksgiving edition



Don’t forget to enter the contest for Media Naranja (Other Half) (Petit Morts #16) by Clare London & Jordan Castillo Price! Contest closes 7 pm CST, November 28.

Go enter the contest for Boats in the Night by Josephine Myles! Contest closes 7 pm CST, November 28.

Definitely enter the contest for Private Eye (Liaisons #1) by SE Culpepper! Contest closes 7 pm CST, November 28.


Congrats to Cori and Lilli, who each won copies of Honored Vow (Change of Heart #3) by Mary Calmes! Honored Vow will be released by Dreamspinner Press on November 21.

Congrats to Kelly, who won Texas Winter (The Heart of Texas #2) by RJ Scott! Texas Winter will be released by Silver Publishing on November 19.


Thank you for all the birthday wishes yesterday! 🙂 I took yesterday and today off from work and did absolutely nothing. Tonight, Jeanne and I are going to see The Mountain Goats play at the Fitzgerald Theater – Neil Gaiman is part the event, too.



Contests

  • Cecile’s giving away backlist ebooks from Rachel Haimowitz, Aleksandr Voinov, LA Witt, Brita Addams, or Cat Grant. Read the contest directions carefully! Contests close November 18 at midnight, EST.

Bookity

  • So last week’s AJ Llewellyn drama led to a larger discussion of transphobia and transgender issues. For me, this post by Aleksandr Voinov tied everything together.

Ebookity

Do, Think, Make, Learn

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Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Stay the Night by Scarlett Parrish. ebook. Very good m/m romance about Kit, an awkward and antisocial computer programmer who is extremely attracted to his new housemate, but manages to push him away at every turn. Kit reminded me all too much of myself…
Boats in the Night by Josephine Myles. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a guy who’s not really doing so well since his boyfriend left him a month ago. He’s dealing with a hangover when he hears a bunch of noise at the base of his garden and discovers a broken-down narrowboat, with a most fascinating owner…
True Colors by Clare London. ebook. reread. (Totally reusing my original reviewette here!) This turned out to be a very good and intense m/m romance after a sort of shaky start – I almost put the book away because there were so many different people introduced in the first few pages and I couldn’t figure out who was important and who was peripheral. But in the end? Totally redeemed, because Clare London deftly tied in those seemingly extraneous introductory bits.
Where You Least Expect It by M. Durango. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a straight guy whose unlikely friendship with a cyclist he almost ran over has him very confused about his sexuality.
Closet (Todd Mills #1) by RD Zimmerman. ebook. Very good m/m mystery about a prominent and closeted tv reporter whose boyfriend is murdered… and he’s being set up to take the fall. As a bonus, it’s set in Minneapolis in 1995. 🙂
Reclamation (Dominion #2) by Lissa Kasey. ebook. Very good m/m paranormal romance in which Sei’s seeing a Dominion-ordered psychiatrist to help him work through the events of the last book, but he seems to be getting worse instead of better. I would definitely have enjoyed this book more if I hadn’t read the prologue – it made me too anxious to really settle into the story.
Consequences (Dominion #2.1) by Lissa Kasey. free ebook short. Good short m/m paranormal romance about Gabe messing with Sei a bit after Sei gets caught out while shifted.
Touching Wood by Kim Dare. ebook short. Steamy kinky short m/m scene about a dominant and submissive reconnecting with each other in their playroom.
Wight Mischief by JL Merrow. ebook. Good m/m romance about a guy who goes to the Isle of Wight to research ghosts with the self-absorbed journalist friend he’s fancied himself in love with for years… a fancy he reevaluates as he keeps running into a sexy and reclusive author with a creepy, domineering guardian.
Drive Safe by Sean Kennedy. free ebook short. Cute short m/m romance about a guy driving home through the outback who stops to help a drag queen whose car has broken down.
Congratulations Lucky Winner by LB Gregg. free ebook short. Madcap short m/m story about a hotel manager charged with storing two very unusual awards that are to be given out at conventions in the hotel.
Speed Dating the Slow Way by Chris Owen. ebook short. Steamy short m/m romance about two guys who become briefly reacquainted during a charity speed dating event, then reconnect some time later.
Pulled Long (Long Shots #3) by Christine d’Abo. ebook arc. Pretty good m/m romance about Ian, a coffee shop owner who’s been fascinated by and flirting with a handsome customer for months… until he found out the customer was in the process of getting divorced. As he didn’t want to be some straight guy’s rebound, he backed off. I was annoyed by the whole martyr thing that Ian had going on – that’s a trait that drives me nuts. If that doesn’t bother you as much as it does me, you might enjoy this more than did I.
Between You and Me by Willa Okati. ebook. So-so m/m romance about two guys who’ve been best friends since college and now, in their mid-thirties, are starting to realize why neither of them have found “the one”. This just never came together for me – the language was convoluted and the whole beach in the rain scenario… *shakes head*
Stroke the Demon by Eden Cole. ebook. Meh kinky m/m paranormal menage about an orphaned 18-year old who discovers that the mysterious benefactors who’ve been paying for his school and living expenses are demons, and that he was basically bred to be their sex toy. This was one of those stories that had way too much sex for the tiny amount of plot.
Love Revisited: Nash & Paul (Nash & Paul #2) by HC Brown. ebook short. I read this out of sick fascination to see if it was as bad as the first book. It was. Maybe worse. It’s hard to quantify levels of badness at this level.
Saving Tate by Will Banks. ebook short. This m/m short was just bad, from using the phrase “gay lifestyle” to the clumsy writing to the excess of poorly executed plot crammed into too-few pages. Not recommended at all.


A classic picture of Chaos from early 2004! How would you caption it? 🙂

Should auld lang linkity be forgot…

Yup, linkity’s on Thursday because there won’t be a post on Friday this week. Happy New Year to all of you!


Congrats to Tj, who won The Stroke of Twelve (Perfect Timing, Book 6) by Kim Dare! The Stroke of Twelve will be released by Total-E-Bound on January 3, 2011.

Congrats to Susmita, who won Offside Pass by Stephani Hecht! Offside Pass is the first book in Stephani’s new hockey series and will be released by eXtasy Books on January 1, 2011.


Contest

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Best Of

Belated Gift Idea

Cool

Huh

  • Um. If it’s cold enough that you’re using the Nose Dialer instead of taking off your gloves to dial the phone, you’re probably going to get snot all over your phone…

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Ummm… So I’ve been on vacation since last Friday and have gotten rather a lot of reading done… and I read a lot of shorts. Don’t freak. 🙂

Life Changes Everything (Life, Book 2) by T.C. Blue. ebook. Very good m/m romance mostly about Ben from Life or Something Scary Like That as he goes on with, well, life after the events of that book. This book does a nice job tying up the loose ends, even if I was kind of cranky about one of them while it was in process.
Sno Ho by Ethan Day. ebook. Reread. Very good m/m romance about a guy staying at a ski resort whose boyfriend was supposed to join him there, but instead dumped him over the phone. Funny, yet touching.
Life in Fusion (Sno Ho, Book 2) by Ethan Day. ebook. Very good m/m romance that picks up exactly where the first book left off and continues the story of Boone and Wade during the six months Boone said needed to pass before he would move in with Wade. And like the first book, this manages to be both funny and touching.
Big Balls and Trouble by Sarah Black. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a pro football player who’s in Boise for the summer and ready to admit that he’s always loved the childhood friend he hasn’t seen for years. I found this story frustrating because it was so short – it felt more like a fragment from a longer story than something that could stand on its own.
Tooth and Nail (His Hearth, Book 2) by Mary Calmes. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a big, tough warder who takes too many chances because, according to the other warders, he doesn’t have a hearth (i.e., a mate). And then he rescues an angel…
Just One Bite (Volume 1) by Scarlett Blackwell, J.L. Merrow, Josephine Myles, Erik Orrantia, Nix Winter, & Stevie Woods. free ebook collection. Scarlett Blackwell: Very good, want more! Vampire. :: J.L. Merrow: Very good. Stone circle. :: Josephine Myles: Very good. Genie. :: Erik Orrantia: Pretty good. Mayan. :: Nix Winter: Ok. Fantasy. :: Stevie Woods: Pretty good. Vampire.
Delany’s Catch by Diana DeRicci. ebook short. Pretty good short paranormal m/m romance about a wolf shifter who walks into a bookstore to ask for directions and realizes that the proprietor is his mate.
Same Time Next Year by Eden Winters. ebook short. I’m not usually a fan of ghost stories, but this one, about a guy whose true love died when they were in college, worked pretty well, although I found it to be very sad.
Vanilla: The Dominant Ingredient by Andy Slayde & Ali Wilde. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a sub-for-hire, escaped from a bad situation, who is desperately trying to convince the man he’s staying with while he sorts out his life that he’d be the perfect sub. I want to read more about these characters!
Commanding Acquisitions (1-800-DOM-HELP, Book 2) by Christine d’Abo. ebook. Good kinky m/m romance about a dom, struggling not to lose his bookstore, who’s also lonely and needing something more than just casual encounters. He finds the mysterious 1-800-DOM-HELP business card in his office…
Floggers’ Holiday Sale by Stormy Glenn & H.C. Brown. ebook. Meh two-story kinky m/m holiday romance collection. The two stories were supposed to be about two different doms, each of whom purchased a sub at the Floggers’ (bdsm club) holiday auction, but things weren’t consistent between the two stories: in one, the dom’s not allowed to take possession of the sub until they both negotiate contracts; in the other, the club owner sends the virginal sub with the notoriously brutal dom and just tells the dom to bring the sub back to the club at the end of the week. Editing was consistently horrible across both stories, although perhaps a bit worse in the Stormy Glenn story – for the first part, “dominate” was substituted for “dominant” and “dominant” was substituted for “dominate”…
Hang a Shining Star by Ashlyn Kane. ebook short. Very good m/m holiday romance about a high school teacher who runs into a former student working at a Christmas tree lot and, discovering that the former student has no one to spend the holiday with, impulsively invites him over. My only complaint with this one was that the main characters were named Evan and Eric – I kept getting the names mixed up, as did the editor/proofer at least once! 🙂
Snow and Mistletoe by T.C. Blue. ebook short. Very good short m/m holiday romance about a guy with a really bad self-image who hasn’t had any luck finding journalism work. He starts finding mysterious presents outside his apartment door – he’s sure they’re from his friends, trying to cheer him up, because no way could he have a secret admirer…
Christmas with Danny Fit by Amy Lane. ebook. Very good m/m holiday romance about a guy who’s still living with his mother at 30, not really living his life, until his burgeoning friendship with his sexy assistant at work inspires him to start making changes.
You Can’t Choose Your Family by Zahra Owens. ebook. Very good holiday m/m romance about a couple who’s been together for 20 years. One guy’s family is fabulously accepting; the other’s was controlled by his fire and brimstone father. Now that his father is dead, will anything change?
Christmas Bells by Andi Deacon. ebook short. Very good short m/m holiday romance about an assistant professor, staying at his parents’ house for Christmas, whose brother brings home a very attractive friend from grad school who doesn’t have anywhere to go for the holidays.
Silver Thaw by Nora Catherine Price. ebook short. Very good short m/m holiday romance about next door neighbors who get the chance to know each other a bit better because of an ice storm.
Sharing Christmas by Shae Connor. ebook short. Steamy short m/m holiday romance about a guy, recently moved to Atlanta for work, whose next door neighbor invites him over to help put together packages for the homeless shelter.
The Santa Mug by Patric Michael. ebook. Very good m/m holiday romance about a guy whose boyfriend died four years ago and who’s basically retreated from the world since then, until a friend drags him along to a family Thanksgiving celebration.
A Very D Christmas by Jane Seville. ebook short. Very good short m/m holiday romance about D and Jack from Zero at the Bone, reconnecting with family, and being a bullied teenager. (Through 1/31/2011, a portion of the purchase price will be donated to the Trevor Project.)
The Christmas Visit by Marshall Thornton. ebook short. Good short m/m holiday romance about a guy returning to the small town he grew up in to see his dad at Christmas. He keeps running into the deputy who he’d had a crush on and who is now married…
Secret Santa by Deanna Wadsworth. ebook short. Steamy short m/m holiday romance about a guy waiting naked, blindfolded, and wrapped up with a bow as a present for his boyfriend, hoping to revitalize their fading relationship.
Well-Hung by the Chimney by E.M. Lynley, Ryan Field, & Chloe Stowe. ebook. Pretty good m/m holiday romance collection. I really liked EM Lynley’s story about the difficulties involved in mixing business with pleasure. Ryan Field’s story about a couple dealing with career changes and meeting family was ok. I found Chloe Stowe’s story about an Air Force colonel and a doctor at the Air Force base to be sort of confusing. I might’ve enjoyed Field and Stowe’s stories more had I realized they were about characters from a previous collection and read it first.
A Little Something for Santa by J.M. Snyder. ebook short. Ok short m/m holiday encounter about a guy waiting tables at an all-night diner who confesses to the cook that he has the hots for Santa.
A Christmas Eve Wish by Nicole Dennis. ebook short. So-so m/m holiday romance about a celebrity chef, planning to escape to his mountain cabin for a few days, who gets caught in a blizzard and discovers his cabin is trashed. This one didn’t work for me because of instalove and awkward writing.
All I Want for Christmas by Aeryn Traxx. ebook short. So-so short holiday m/m romance about a guy dreading his friends’ holiday party because his cheating ex will be there.
It’s a Calling by Mara Ismine. ebook short. Ok short paranormal m/m romance that I actually read in October, but I somehow managed to not write down the dates I read it or what I thought about it beyond “Huh.”
My Life in Your Hands by A.R. Moler. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about an ER doctor and an undercover detective who get together.
Eyes Wide Shut by Meredith Shayne. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a doctor and a miner who care deeply for each other, but that’s not enough, because the miner doesn’t want anyone to know they’re together. Part of this takes place in Perth!
Of Sound Mind by Elizabeth Brooks. ebook short. Good short futuristic m/m romance about a guy who has cancer and doesn’t want to telepathically bond with his destined mate because if he dies, his mate would die with him.


This is definitely a picture you need to click on to embiggen. 🙂

“Have a Happy New Year. Or else.” -Chaos

http://squee.icanhascheezburger.com/2010/12/28/cute-baby-animals-when-worlds-collide/