Tag Archives: Katie Allen

Ebook giveaway: Darwin’s Natural Selection by Katie Allen [CONTEST CLOSED]



Congrats to Rho, who won Magpie (Avian Shifters #2) by Kim Dare! Magpie is being released today by Resplendence Publishing.



Many thanks to Katie Allen for donating an ebook copy of her forthcoming m/m romantic suspense, Darwin’s Natural Selection (Human Design #2), for a lucky commenter to win! Darwin’s Natural Selection will be released on October 12 by Ellora’s Cave.

Tom Cooper’s life was changed with one swift act of brutality. It’s been months and he still can’t forget that night, still lives in fear…especially fear of intimacy. So when a big, beautiful construction worker expresses interest, Tom freezes with every touch. How can the same man inspire both lust and terror? His hungry looks seem both dangerous and delicious?

Darwin Bloom is a man without a life, an identity, even a real name. But he might have found a home in Tom. Living on the lam isn’t exactly conducive to relationships, but Darwin wants Tom too much to stay away. He’ll soothe his damaged lover with soft caresses, with patience, with his hard body – until the best sex of their lives in interrupted by agents from Darwin’s mysterious past.

But that’s okay. There’s something wickedly naughty about love on the run.

Excerpt

Katie’s Other Books

About Katie

Katie Allen grew up in the Midwest with a horde of sisters (five) and one beleaguered brother.  After an enjoyable four years working on her creative writing/art degree, and two not-so-pleasant years struggling towards her MBA, Katie somehow ended up as a mechanical engineer in Denver, Colorado. She returned to Minnesota for three years to go to cop school and work for a police department (best job ever–well, except for writing, that is). She recently fled the humidity and mosquitoes of the Midwest and now lives in an off-grid, solar and wind-powered house in the Rocky Mountains.

When she’s not writing (many books are necessary to pay for her unfortunate equine addiction), Katie rides horses, reads (of course), does yoga, hikes, has slumber parties with her nieces and sits in a rocking chair on her front porch with a shotgun across her lap (well, not quite yet on the last one, but give her a few more years in the mountains). Katie loves to hear from readers. You can find out more about Katie and her books on her website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment stating that you are entering the contest. Contest closes 7 pm CDT, Thursday, October 11.
  • By entering the contest, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • If you haven’t commented before, your comment will not be visible until after I moderate it. Please do not leave a second comment because your first doesn’t show up! The blog gnomes will decide your comments are spam and then only ritual dust bunny sacrifice will salvage your entry…
  • If your comment is actually an advertisement or if your CommentLuv link turns it into an advertisement, your comment will be deleted. (Most of you do not need to worry – this refers to some pretty clever comment spam.)
  • Winners will be selected by random number.
  • You must leave a valid email address in the “Email” portion of the comment form.
  • Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from stumblingoverchaos.com!
  • If a winner doesn’t respond to my congratulations email within 48 hours, I will select another winner.
  • If you win, please respect the author’s intellectual property and don’t make copies of the ebook for anyone else.
  • This contest is open worldwide!

“Wha…?” *sunbeam blissout* -Mayhem

The land that linkity forgot



Congrats to jayhjay, who won Broken Memories (In the Shadow of the Wolf #2) by RJ Scott & Diane Adams! Broken Memories will be released by Silver Publishing on November 26.

Congrats to Brandi R, who won More Than Enough (More #2) by Shawn Lane! More Than Enough will be released by Amber Allure on November 27.



Contests

Bookity

  • Alas, Anne McCaffrey died this week. My very first hardcover purchase was her book The White Dragon, which I still have. It cost… $8.95 and appears to be valued a bit above that now.

Ebookity

Think, Do, Learn, Make

Holidity

Cookity

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Cop Out by KC Burn. ebook. Very good m/m romance about a straight cop who, after his partner on the force is killed in the line of duty, discovers that his partner was gay and had been in a long-term relationship. As he helps his dead partner’s boyfriend, he finds himself reevaluating his own sexuality…
Private Dicks by Katie Allen. ebook. reread. Well, um, it’s the second time I’ve reread this book this year and the fourth time I’ve read it in the past two years. Do I need to say more? 🙂
Hide Out (Private Dicks #2) by Katie Allen. ebook. reread. Third time I’ve reread this one, second time I’ve reread it this year. 🙂
The Second Door by TC Blue. ebook. Good holiday m/m romance about a guy who has a crush on his best friend and downstairs neighbor. He doesn’t want to chance their friendship, so he has to watch as his friend makes bad dating choices over and over…
Make a Right by Willa Okati. ebook. I’m pretty sure I cried for 2/3 of this book. I’m pretty sure I’ll have a crying hangover in the morning, too. The struggling couple in this m/m romance just got to me, over and over… and I can’t even tell you that it was anything other than a decent, angsty read, because I can’t step back far enough from the emotional impact it had on me. Your mileage will definitely vary. 🙂
It’s Not Shakespeare by Amy Lane. ebook. Sweet m/m romance about a community college professor who becomes involved with a younger mechanic introduced to him by one of his students.
This Rough Magic (A Shot in the Dark #1) by Josh Lanyon. ebook. Good m/m mystery set in the 1930s about a young man who fears that his sister’s thuggish boyfriend has stolen a valuable Shakespeare folio, so he hires a private investigator to find the folio. Sadly, this read too much like every other Josh Lanyon mystery.
The Closer You Get (The Distance Between Us #2) by LA Witt. ebook. Good m/m romance about an unrepentantly slutty bartender who befriends a virginal college student and helps him get rid of that pesky virginity, then panics when he realizes he’s developed feelings for his friend. I struggled a bit with this one because I had been frustrated by the previous book, The Distance Between Us.
The Name of the Game (Game #1) by Willa Okati. ebook. reread. Good m/m romance about a gay DJ who has a crush on his straight cop roommate. In an attempt to get rid of his psycho girlfriend, the cop decides to pretend to be gay and the DJ’s boyfriend and things get a bit complicated…
Starch Contrast (A Choose Your Own M/M Romance Story) by Deanna Wadsworth. free ebook short. Cute short story about a shy m/m romance author who goes to a gay romance conference in Idaho. (Sorry, you’re just going to have to read it to find out why there’s a potato on the cover…)
Altered Heart by Kate Steele. ebook. reread. Pretty good paranormal m/m romance about a werewolf enforcer who kills a psychotic alpha werewolf and rescues the young man/werewolf being kept as a pet by said psychotic alpha werewolf. It felt like the author was setting things up for a second book, but it doesn’t appear to exist.
Imperfect by Cassidy Ryan. ebook. Ok m/m romance about two cops who are partners at work and bed partners off duty. But one is prickly and erratic and just might explode… This had a lot of potential; however, the book wasn’t long enough for that potential to be realized, so it ended up feeling abrupt and not exactly believable.


“Why are you calling me a green-eyed monster?!” -Chaos

Listening to linkity



Congrats to Inka, who won Riley’s Regret (Lost Shifters #11) by Stephani Hecht! Riley’s Regret will be released by eXtasy Books on May 15.



Blogger seems to be spectacularly messed up at the moment. Links to posts on Blogger may not work or, if they do work, you may not be able to comment on the posts. Check Blogger Status for updates.



Contests

Bookity

Ebookity

Think, Do, Make, Learn

Listening

Eyre linked to a song I shared with her a while ago (“We All Need More Kindness in This World” by Guy Davis), and it reminded me of some other songs that have good messages:

Cookity

Crafty

Cool

Cool or Wha…?

Wha…?

LOL

Teh Cute

Reading Update
Private Dicks by Katie Allen. ebook. reread. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a former cop, now working as a PI, who finally comes out to his straight investigative partner. There’s just something about Rhodes and Wash – this is the third time I’ve read the book. 🙂
Hide Out (Private Dicks #2) by Katie Allen. ebook. reread. This excellent m/m romantic suspense is about a cop who’s guarding one of the characters from Private Dicks for seven months until he can testify in a trial. Really, why aren’t there more witness protection books that include remodeling the safe house? 🙂
Bad Case of Loving You by Laney Cairo. ebook. reread. Very good kinky m/m romance about a resident and the doctor supervising him at the hospital. They just can’t seem to keep their hands off each other…
Infinity Pools (Postcards from Paradise #2) by LA Witt. ebook. Very good m/m romance finishing up the story started in Getting Off the Ground about a jilted groom who meets another guy when bad weather delays his flight… the flight that was supposed to be taking him on his honeymoon, instead of on a now solo vacation.
Saturday Night, Live (Alphabet Soup #1.5) by CB Conwy. free ebook short. Steamy short m/m encounter between the owner of the construction company and a guy who shows up on his doorstep demanding to be spanked.
I Like You (Alphabet Soup #2) by CB Conwy. ebook short. Steamy short kinky m/m romance continuing the story of Andy and CK from Alphabet Soup.
Ermine & Bougainvillea (Ermine #1) by ID Locke. ebook. Very good kinky paranormal m/m romance about a gay stoat shifter being chased by homophobic coyote shifters who escapes into a thorny thicket and meets a sexy dryad… There is vine sex…
Claiming Rights (Ermine #2) by ID Locke. ebook short. Very good short kinky paranormal m/m romance following up on the stoat shifter and the dryad after they’ve been together for a while.
Sharing Paul (Portals #3) by Jade Archer. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a jaguar shifter with a secret – two men live inside his body – who rescues a human being beaten to death by thugs in the park.
Ink Illusions by Val Kovalin. ebook. Good m/m romance about a gay man helping a female friend raise her daughter. Then the daughter’s father gets out of prison and things get complicated.
Chocolate Bites (Of Cocoa and Men #2) by Vic Winter. ebook short. Ok short paranormal m/m romance following up on the baker and the werewolf from the first book. Alas, this story just didn’t have the magic of the original.
Wolf Moon by Ethan Stone. ebook. Ok paranormal m/m romance about an orphaned college student who doesn’t know that he’s a werewolf until he’s drawn into a world he didn’t realize existed. While the storyline had a great deal of promise, the writing was simplistic and repetitive – basically, the writing got in the way of the story.


“I feel weird… all blurry or something.” -Mayhem

Pink fluff of linkity (I have no idea what that means, either)

Thanks to Ralph at The Dancing Dove, where I won a copy of Journey To Compromise by Mira Ismine, and to Kim Dare, at whose blog I won a copy of one of her books for only being a sort of bad guesser.


Contests

  • Authors Bronwyn Green and Paige Tyler gracefully dealt with both having released books called Just Right based on Little Red Riding Hood by having a joint contest! Visit both blogs by March 29 for your chance to win copies of both books.

Books & Reading

  • Really excellent post about DRM over at An American Editor. My favorite quote from the post: “Right now Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and publishers are able to ignore the consumer in the nascent ebook market. But the backlash is coming.” (As an aside, I’ve chosen to reward publishers and bookstores that make and sell DRM-free books and avoid those that don’t have DRM-free offerings.)
  • Nice post over at Dear Author reacting to the complaint that ebooks and “the loss of the public nature of the physical artifact will result in the loss of culture.”
  • Gizmodo had a blurb about “online music industry giants” making a plea to stop music piracy. I couldn’t help but read the following sentence while thinking about the publishing industry and authors: “…it’s tough to take an earnest plea for buying music seriously when it comes from business middlemen rather than, you know, musicians.” So, authors, keep spreading the ebook anti-piracy message, because you are the people most likely to be heard.
  • Emily candidly discusses that topic we all avoid – book addiction (and there’s a great comic included!).

Learn Stuff

Moment of Silence

Knitting

Things That Amused Me

Cute Burns

Reading Update
Reading Update Update: I’m slowly working on adding my wee reviewettes to my LibraryThing. (Would that I had thought of this quite some time ago…) Depending on the tone and formality of said reviewettes, they’ll either be in the Reviews or the Comments field. When you view my LibraryThing, click on the various available styles until you find one that shows the comments. (Which letter that will be varies by browser, weirdly.)
The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny (Nightside, Book 10) by Simon R. Green. PI John Taylor’s back in another dark noirish urban fantasy; what else is there to say?
Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger. Excellent m/m romance told in epistolary style about two boys (a nerd and a jock) who fall in love in high school and then lose touch with each other after going to college. I’d heard nothing but good about this book, yet I still wasn’t prepared for how it sucked me in. Highly recommended.
Hideout by Katie Allen. ebook. This excellent m/m romantic suspense is about a cop who’s guarding one of the characters from Private Dicks for seven months until he can testify in a trial. Really, why aren’t there more witness protection books that include remodeling the safe house? 🙂 Highly recommended. Hopefully, now that Katie’s writing full-time, she’ll give us some more of her excellent m/m romance soon. (Oh, and you really need to read Private Dicks first to get the most out of this book! I promise, it won’t be a hardship.) As if you hadn’t guessed, highly recommended.
Sex and Sexuality by Willa Okati. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a professor who went through “homosexual deprogramming” when he was younger and is now trying to follow the straight life, complete with evil bitch fiancee (more caricature than anything else). Published in 2007, this is definitely not one of Okati’s stronger books.
From Afar by Ava March. ebook. Very good historical paranormal m/m romance about a vampire obsessed by a young lord who has to change the lord into a vampire to save his life. The ending was a bit abrupt – perhaps there’s to be a sequel? (I know, I know, another historical!)
The Hit List by Anne Brooke. ebook. This m/m romance was a mixed read for me. I found the first third very frustrating, not really knowing what the heck was going on. In fact, I put the book aside and read the previous two books. When I returned to The Hit List, the middle third wasn’t quite so frustrating, and the final third was quite good. In fact, I started to suspect that the first third was meant to put the reader into the very confused headspace of the narrator.
Paul’s D’Marco by Leiland Dale. ebook short. Ok short m/m romantic suspense about a police detective and the psychic that’s called in to help the police find a serial child killer. A titch more editing and fleshing out the story would’ve moved this from ok to good.
Persistence Pays by Mara Ismine. ebook short. Very cute m/m romance about a martial artist who’s been trying for years to avoid spending too much time with his irresistible but slutty best friend.
Emergency (A City Hospital Novel) by Drew Zachary. ebook. Typical sweet’n’steamy m/m romance from Drew Zachary about an EMT who’s good friends with a doctor going through a divorce and questioning his sexuality. Very low angst.
Caught Running by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux. ebook reread. Good m/m romance about two guys who went to high school together who are now teaching and coaching at that same school. (I noticed headhopping this time, but don’t remember noticing it the first time I read the book.)


“Pink fluff, I devour you!” -Mayhem

Ebook Giveaway: Hideout by Katie Allen [CONTEST CLOSED]

Many thanks to Minnesota author Katie Allen, who has donated a copy of her brand-new m/m romantic suspense release, Hideout, for me to give away!

When Officer Peter Giordano is assigned to keep Trevor Haas safe until he can testify against his murderous father, he expects the hardest part of his job will be keeping his hands off the gorgeous witness. The two men hide out in the small, sleepy town of Honeysuckle, fixing up their dilapidated safe house by day…exploring each other’s bodies by night.

Their small-town neighbors have some secrets of their own, however, including one that someone is willing to kill to protect. Soon, a neighbor is dead and Pete and Trevor are thrown into the middle of a murder investigation. The two men struggle to keep Trevor’s true identity a secret, knowing his father will stop at nothing to silence the star witness against him – even if that means killing his own son.

Note: Pete and Trevor won’t have to go it alone. Wash and Rhodes, the crush-worthy heroes from Private Dicks, are along for the ride once again.

As I’ve mentioned before, I really enjoyed Private Dicks (sheesh, where are your minds?! It’s about private investigators – duh) and it’s become one of my comfort reads.

Oh, and Hideout already got a 4.75/5.00 review over at Jessewave. Congrats, Katie!

About Katie:

Katie Allen grew up in the Midwest with a horde of sisters (five) and one beleaguered brother. After an enjoyable four years working on her creative writing/art degree, and two not-so-pleasant years struggling towards her MBA, Katie somehow ended up as a mechanical engineer in Denver, Colorado. When her job disappeared during the recession, it was the kick in the rear that she needed to head back to Minnesota and jump into writing full-time.

When she’s not writing (many books are necessary to pay for her unfortunate equine addiction), Katie rides horses, reads (of course), does gymnastics and looks for new (and occasionally insane) ways to research her books (cop school, anyone?). Katie loves to hear from readers.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment below stating that you are entering the contest. Leave your comments by 7 pm CDT, Monday, March 22.
  • If you haven’t commented before, your comment will not be visible until after I moderate it. Please do not leave a second comment because your first doesn’t show up! The blog gnomes will decide your comments are spam and then only luck and counterintuitive espionage will salvage your entry…
  • If your comment is actually an advertisement or if your CommentLuv link turns it into an advertisement, your comment will be deleted. (Most of you do not need to worry – this refers to some pretty clever comment spam.)
  • Winners will be selected by random number.
  • You must leave a valid email address in the “Email” portion of the comment form.
  • Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from stumblingoverchaos.com!
  • If a winner doesn’t respond to my congratulations email within 48 hours, I will select another winner.
  • If you win, please respect the author’s intellectual property and don’t make copies of the ebook for anyone else.
  • This contest is open worldwide!

“You are growing very, very sleepy… When you awake, you will remember nothing about having sent me sparkly pink feather toys. Nothing at all…” -Mayhem

Kitty toes and linkity

Congrats to Kathy K, who won the copy of LB Gregg’s Catch Me If You Can (Romano & Albright, Book 1)! (Don’t forget about LB’s review contest, which runs through March 16.)


Contests

Books & Reading & Readers, Oh My!

Learn Things

Things That Didn’t Fit Elsewhere

LOL

Reading Update
The Larton Chronicles by James Anson. I heard about this delightful m/m romance when Josh Lanyon mentioned on his blog that it was one of his comfort reads. The book is about Robert, ex-policeman and mystery author who moves to the obscure village of Larton, and Michael, the horse-mad and out of control village “squire”. Written in a fabulously understated style that seems quite British indeed to me (Jenre and EH will have to confirm or deny this for me), the book chronicles the ups and downs of building a life together. (Also, all sex occurs entirely offsides and is only referred to in the most discrete terms.) I’d definitely recommend picking this up directly from the publisher and not from Amazon – the price difference is quite significant. Recommended.
The Dark Farewell by Josh Lanyon. ebook. As previously mentioned, I won this historical m/m romance over at Jessewave’s. This was an extremely well-done story about a reporter from NYC in central Illinois to follow up on a union-related massacre when he becomes intrigued by a medium who is staying at the same boarding house. From Josh’s comments on Jenre’s review of this ebook, I was sort of prepared for the abrupt ending to the story, which is modeled on ghost stories from the period (early 1920s), but I found myself really wanting to know more about these characters! Recommended.
No Souvenirs (Florida Series, Book 3) by K.A. Mitchell. ebook. Very good, steamy, and intense m/m romance about that mysterious ER doctor we met in previous books. Hard to go wrong with K.A. Mitchell! Recommended.
Custom Ride by K.A. Mitchell. ebook. Good m/m romance about a guy who has an anonymous encounter with a mysterious stranger at Pride (in Minneapolis!), then keeps encountering the guy again back home in St. Cloud.
Scared Stiff by Laura Baumbach, William Maltese, Josh Lanyon, & Sarah Black. ebook collection. This was a good m/m paranormal romance collection overall, although each story had its foibles. Baumbach’s was unfortunately plagued by egregious editing errors such as misused words, missing words, and randomly introduced names. (Wait, I thought that Eli and Mason were in bed together. Where did this “Josh” come from?!???) Black’s story suffered somewhat from the main characters overusing each other’s names in conversation, so their conversations seemed stilted. (Handily, author Patti O’Shea just posted about this very problem.) Lanyon’s story was very good, with just a condom use issue. I skipped Maltese’s story because I’m not a big fan of his style, plus it was fantasy.
Primal Passions (Lost Shifters, Book 1) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Enjoyable paranormal m/m romance about a paramedic who suddenly discovers that the world is much weirder than he knew when he’s imprisoned by thugs and rescued by a feline shapeshifter.
Fire and Ice by A.J. Llewellyn & Stephani Hecht. ebook. I definitely like Stephani Hecht’s work on her own better. This m/m romance about a former boxer and a hockey goalie was all over the place, with instalove and bits of story that didn’t fit very well.
Garron’s Gift and Rawley’s Redemption (Good-Time Boys, Books 2-3) by Carol Lynne. ebooks. Ok m/m romances being the continuing story of the Good brothers, their guys, and dangerous homophobes in their small Nebraska town. It appears that this series, like Campus Cravings, also intersects with the Cattle Valley series. Apparently Cattle Valley is like the Borg…
Now and Forever by Addison Albright. ebook short. Sweet m/m romance short about a couple planning their wedding reception, during the all-too-brief time gay marriage was legal in California.
Moving On and Moving Along by Addison Albright. ebook shorts. These are sweet m/m romance shorts about a guy trying to move on after his lover was killed in a car accident a year ago.
Aidan and Ethan (Seeking Redemption, Book 1) by Cameron Dane. ebook. Angsty m/m romance about a guy who vanishes without a word after planning a life together with his best friend, then reappears over a decade later. I started out feeling as if the entire premise of the story was extremely flimsy, but that was actually addressed a bit later. (Also, not so good with the condom thing in this book.)
Private Dicks by Katie Allen. ebook. This m/m romantic suspense was a reread – it’s one of my comfort reads. Obviously I think it’s a good book! 🙂 And you’ll have a chance to win a copy of the sequel in the not-too-distant future…


“Mom, do I really want to know why you’re taking a picture of my back toes?” -Chaos

If you commented on this post before 7:30 am CST, March 11, your comment has vanished. Sorry! My fault entirely.