Tag Archives: m/f

Covers, Reading

Misadventures in Stock Photography (Part the Fifth, or Hello, Again, Candy Cane Guy)

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I know, I know, I thought we were done with Candy Cane Guy, too! Apparently he’s not done with us…

Remember when he lost his trademark jeans in that tragic fire? Apparently he didn’t have any trouble finding a place to stay after the fire.

But then he learned about the dangers of hunger and got really worried…

…so he had to grab some breakfast.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

…he was up to no good, I’m sure.

And then things got a little crowded and complicated. O_o

But in the end, he was left out in the cold, all alone.

Maybe he’s learned a lesson?! Nah. I bet we’ll see him again someday…

So it’s kind of fun to see some of the original stock images. Does this look familiar?

How about this?

And of course, how could we forget that classic pose that started it all?

“My goodness, Mom, that boy seems very naughty to me. Probably even naughtier than the big kitty.” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

“Once in a very blue moon…”

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Tonight – a very rare and special, once in 20 years blue moon! Looks like we’ll have cloudy skies here in Minneapolis, but maybe you will be luckier… Happy New Year!

Don’t forget to leave a comment on the contest post by 7 pm CST, January 6 for your chance to win a copy of Wren Boudreau’s new m/m romantic suspense, Ice Cream on the Side!

Janna’s giving away an ebook copy of Bronwyn Green’s steamy romance, Cuffed and Dangerous – leave a comment by midnight, January 7, for your chance to win.

Don’t forget to stop by Sweet Vernal Zephyr for her near daily updates on new book contests.

Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) shows us that it’s a big week for urban fantasy and paranormal romance releases. And SciFiGuy covers both in his weekend update, along with all sorts of other fun things. Don’t miss his overview of the January paranormal, urban fantasy, and scifi releases, either.

This is a great time of year to get reading ideas as people post their favorite books of 2009 lists. I’m sure we’ll see many more of these over the next few weeks. I might even put one together.

Keira’s got some great book links over at Love Romance Passion. So does Dear Author, including a link to free ebooks at All Romance eBooks.

Certain ebook readers make it very easy to track your reading habits – how much does your reading privacy matter to you?

Shrink Pic looks like a really useful Windows program to resize pictures on the fly.

HP ink costs more than blood?! This graph makes oil look like quite the bargain, doesn’t it?

How did I not know that the magnetic north pole now is shifting nearly 37 miles a year?!

Gizmodo has another handy flowchart of inappropriate times to use your smartphone. Plus a little Snuggie humour…

Unsurprisingly, one of these calendars is on its way to me right now.

Evidence continues to mount that Chaos isn’t simply a minion, but is actually Basement Cat.

Those wacky engineers are at it again – this time they’re playing laser tag with cats.

I think we all need an antivirus kitten, don’t you?

Cute burn warning! (I know you’ll all click anyway…)

Reading Update
Deep Kiss of Winter by Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter. Kresley Cole’s story is part of her Immortals After Dark series, featuring vampire Murdoch Wroth and Ice Queen (literally) Danii. Since this story ties up all sorts of open storylines, it’s a must read if you follow IAD. This was also my favorite of the two stories. Gena Showalter’s story is part of her Alien Huntress story, and it too ties up some open storylines. While it was pretty good, I didn’t feel as invested in this one.
Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy. ebook. Excellent and highly recommended m/m romance about an Aussie Rules football player, a film festival director, and the complexities of getting involved with someone famous and closeted. If you’ve put off reading m/m romance because you’ve heard it’s all sex, sex, sex, Tigers and Devils would be a very good introduction to the genre – it’s touching and heartfelt: at times I was laughing out loud; at times I was sniffling. I did have some trouble with the Aussie phrases – famed Aussie m/m blogger Kris (and nearly neighbor of Sean Kennedy) directed me to several sites that helped with the lingo barrier.
Thaw and The Stroke of Midnight by Jordan Castillo Price. free ebook shorts. Two sweet holiday PsyCop shorts – one from Vic’s perspective, the other from Jacob’s.
Patient Eyes by Andy Eisenberg. ebook. Good m/m romance about a college freshman who is nearly starving until one of his housemates gets him involved in gay-for-pay pr0n. While I really liked the first 2/3 of this book (I figured I’d be gushing about it without reserve here), I found the last 1/3 disappointing – several critical scenes were skipped, then glossed over in brief flashbacks. There also was a sort of extraneous plot element (hello, stray stalker) that just didn’t feel fully integrated into the story.
Unrequited by Abigail Roux. ebook. Ok m/m romance about multiple unrequited love situations.
Caught Running by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux. ebook. Very good m/m romance about the star high school jock and the nerd, now back and teaching at that same high school ten years later.
Cut and Run by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux. ebook. This m/m romantic suspense about two wildly different FBI agents had a lot of potential, but it just didn’t quite work because it dragged on. Since I know that Urban and Roux can write some great stuff together, it was particularly disappointing.
Pyromancer by Amanda Young. ebook. After mentioning that Young’s m/m books haven’t seemed to really grab me, Tam convinced me to try Pyromancer, which is about a man who can control fire, but only to a certain extent. He can also be incredibly dangerous to the people around him. While I did like this more than the non-paranormals, I ultimately didn’t get completely drawn into this one either.
Burn Card by Laura Baumbach. ebook. So so m/m romance about a crime scene investigator and a guy who owns a security company. I did wonder whether this was part of a series… but not enough to go figure it out.
Seducing Light by K. C. Kendricks. ebook. Ok m/m romance – the title touches on one character being a photographer and the other a famous actor whose last name is Light. The next two books are also by Kendricks – I’ve concluded that while I may find the storylines intriguing, the excessively gushing language always ends up putting me off.
Tango in the Night by K. C. Kendricks. ebook. Another ok m/m romance, this time about two law enforcement agents, one of whom was seriously injured a year ago when his life partner was killed taking a bullet meant for him.
Taming Triton (Southern Cross Resort, Book 1) by K. C. Kendricks. ebook. Again, an ok m/m romance about a guy who’s always suspected that he’s bisexual, but has never acted on his attraction to men until he takes a vacation at the Southern Cross Resort.
Grey’s Awakening by Cameron Dane. ebook. Steamy m/m romance about a high-powered businessman who’s always kept his emotions in tight check. Will that change when he meets a sexy truck driver/artist while taking a vacation?
Time After Time, Liar, and Date Night by Jane Seville. free ebook shorts. These all take place after Zero at the Bone and provide some insight into life after the epilogue.
Tom or an Improbably Tail by Ruth Sims. free ebook short. This was a very cute m/m paranormal romance about a stray cat who isn’t always a cat…

“Ok, deep thoughts are boring. I wonder how this bag will taste?” -Mayhem

Covers, Reading

Misadventures in Stock Photography (Part the Fourth, being an update on our friends from Parts 1-3)

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So I’ve discovered that once you start looking for overused stock photography, it’s a bit like falling down the rabbit hole… Shall we start with our old friend Slouching Guy? Here he is… with long hair, which looks so very natural, don’t you think? *snort*

We’ll be revisiting the other guy in the picture (Open Black Jacket Guy) in a future installment of this series. [Edited: They are the same person! Slouching Open Black Jacket Guy as his own twin?!]

Moving right along, let’s see what Shoulder Guy’s been doing.

I’m not even going to try to guess.

Weirdly, the next book involves a chocolate bodysuit somehow (I didn’t really want to know more on this one, either).

Hey, check out the advanced photoshopping technique below. Shoulder Guy, no longer floating alone in space and chocolate.

Finally, let’s see how Candy Cane Guy’s been keeping busy… Guess he took up vampire hunting. (Nice, um, stake.)

That must not have gone so well for him, based on the next cover. I had not idea that becoming a vampire with sloppy eating habits caused your hair to grow!

Unfortunate, that. Even the other cover model looks horrified.

Somehow he got his blood lust under control and got a haircut.

Whew!

Then, um, he took up macrame.

But was forced to flee offworld due to a crafting misunderstanding.

When he finally returned, he went on vacation and his trademark jeans were lost in a tragic fire! O noes!

He was forced to get a job at a moving company so he could afford new jeans.

The end. I hope. (Although you’ll be seeing Looking Down Guy from the cover above again, too.)

“Taking revenge can be exhausting….. zzzzzzzz….” -Chaos

Covers, Reading

Misadventures in Stock Photography (Part the Third): Shoulder Guy

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I know I’ve seen more covers with this guy on them, but can I find them now? No. No, I can’t. So please, let me know if you find any others!

Looks like a blisteringly hot desert to me. Probably not such a stretch to find yourself in the fires of hell after being in the heat of the desert… right?

But, wait, now he’s looking the other way! Dude, you’re going to miss your train, and I can’t imagine there are a lot of trains out of hell.

Very nice shoulder there, mmm?

“I don’t think you’re doing a very good job describing the pose you want, Mom. This has to be close enough. Besides, I don’t feel like looking over my shoulder right now.” -Chaos

Contests, Reading

Ebook Giveaway: Faery Surprising by Mia Watts [CONTEST CLOSED]

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Many thanks to Twin Cities author Mia Watts for providing an ebook of her new erotic paranormal romance, Faery Surprising (Faerily Imperfect, Book 2), for me to give away! Faery Surprising releases today from Resplendence Publishing.

Flora Harper isn’t amused when her faery “gift” transports her in the middle of a self-induced orgasm to a professional football locker room after practice. The fact that it’s the team she works for and their new quarterback, Ian Tate, wants to finish what she’s started, flies in the face of the non-fraternization policy.

Ian has been drafted to a rival city on the condition that he catch a blackmailer red-handed. Time is against him and as are the number of injuries he’s had in his career. It sounds like a great deal, except filming the Public Relations specialist in a sexually compromising position leaves a sour taste in his mouth. When he discovers that the PR person is emotionally distant, hard-on inducing Flora, getting a whole lot closer to her feels so incredibly right… until she finds out why he’s really on the team.

And I have to share Mia’s author bio, because it makes me giggle every time I read it:

Mia makes her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she divides her time between a job and spying on people. Mia enjoys long walks in Como Park, daisies, dancing in the snow…(Delete prior sentence, meant for personal ad)…

Mr. Perfect may apply in person for a thorough evaluation and trial. All others will be towed.

You can read an excerpt of Faery Surprising over at Mia’s blog.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment below stating that you are entering the contest. Leave your comments by 7 pm CST, Monday, December 21.
  • 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 sacrificing some dust bunnies will salvage your entry…
  • 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.
  • This contest is open worldwide!
  • No PO Boxes.

Good luck!

“I don’t see any wings on that cover. I thought faeries had wings. But then they’d be birds, because birds have wings. Yummy!” -Mayhem

Hmm. That must be what they call fuzzy logic… 😉

Contests, Gluten Free, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Neither snow nor bitter cold shall prevent bookity linkity!

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As promised yesterday, part two of this week’s bookity linkity. Can you imagine yesterday’s post and today’s post combined into a single post?! You’re welcome. 😉

Dear Author’s giving away 31 different different forthcoming titles from Berkeley/Jove. Leave a comment with your top three choices and your favorite Berkeley/Jove title.

Smexy Books is giving away two copies of Kelly Meding’s new urban fantasy, Three Days To Dead. Contest runs through December 11.

Leave a comment for author Tina Donahue by 12/2 over at Babbling About Books for your chance to win a copy of her steamy romance, Close To Perfect.

Literary Escapism’s giving away a copy of Kelly Gay’s new urban fantasy, The Better Part of Darkness. Leave a comment by midnight on December 15 for your chance to win. Sara at Urban Fantasy Reader is giving away her ARC of the same book and her contest closes at midnight EST, 12/19.

BooksOnBoard and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books are celebrating Hanukkah by giving away a Bookeen Cybook Opus ereader. Break out your creativity and follow the guidelines to write a 200-word pitch for a romance set during Hannukah (or any other Jewish holiday) for your chance to win. Contest closes at noon EST, December 18

Samhain’s having weekly contests throughout December. Prizes include four ebook readers (Kindle or Sony), free ebooks, and more. Head over to the Samhellion blog for details.

Voting’s open at All Things Urban Fantasy for the First Urban Fantasy Cover Art Awards. Participate by December 30 for your chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card, along with some of the winning books.

Check out the free reads and giveaways that Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) and Jackie at Literary Escapism found.

Another great urban fantasy weekend report from SciFiGuy. Plus he lists the new paranormal, urban fantasy, and scifi/fantasy releases for December.

Anastasia found some great book-related links and posted them at her Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.

Feeling brave? You can read excerpts from all the contenders in the Bad S3x in Literary Fiction Contest. Jonathan Littell won for his description from The Kindly Ones.

Many thanks to Cecile and Kimber Chin for the copy of Kimber’s ebook, Released, that I won in their contest!

Gluten-Free Living magazine has (unsurprisingly) gluten-free gift ideas on their blog.

Looking for gift ideas for your book lover? Head over to the Love Romance Passion blog for their list. Smart Bitches has a list, too.

Wired magazine has an ereader gift guide. Or you could just read the ereader holiday shopping comic instead.

I would highly recommend not buying your coworkers the new book Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction. Do you really want that annoying guy in the next cube to build his very own pencil crossbow?

Americans consume 34gb of data a day?! Hmm. Maybe not me, since I don’t watch tv or play computer games (anymore) or have a fancy phone. Of course, my music, book, and ebook consumption might help make that up.

After you absorb that statistic, head off to break your brain again over Gizmodo’s post “How Huge Is the Internet on an Average Day?”

Jenre wonders how people manage their TBR (to be read) piles and files.

Read a lot of ebooks on your iphone? This case/stand might be handy.

Do you have trouble determining when it’s inappropriate to use your iphone? This handy humorous flowchart might help!

This is a really cool (and cheap) laptop desk (although the directions are sparse, at best). In fact, I think I could use this even with cats on my lap…

Does your kitteh yearn for a Canadian cardboard cat chalet?

Black kittehs are looking out for what you read!

Poor little Tweety Bird…

Chaos?! 😉

Free cute burns over at Pitter Pats of Baby Cats…

Reading Update
The Renegade Hunter (Argeneau Vampires 12, Rogue Hunter 3) by Lynsay Sands. Finally! Nicholas’ story can be told! Oh yeah, totally not an m/m series. 😉
Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville. ebook. Holy crap. I kept hearing that this book was good, but I really wasn’t prepared for how good it was. This was very, very intense m/m romantic suspense about a hitman and a guy he’s supposed to kill. I laughed a little, cried a bit more, and am glad I started it early enough that I didn’t have to stay up into the wee hours to finish reading. Highly recommended.
Conventional Education by T. C. Blue. ebook. Well done m/m romance continuing the story of closeted actor Lucas and very out goth computer geek Trent that started in Conventional Wisdom. I was hoping things would be tied up a bit more at the end of this one, but now I’ll have to hope that for the next book.
Go Fish by H. T. Murray. ebook. This m/m romance was great fun! I laughed out loud more than a few times at some of the wonderfully clever bits, such as this: “He had no idea why he was thinking with dramatic pauses now. He just was.” Or this:

He was not pouting.

“Yes, you were.”

He was not doing a very good job of keeping his inner thoughts inner, either.

Teaching Him a Lesson by Brit M. ebook. Nicely done m/m romance about a professor and his teaching assistant, who has a psycho ex. Damn those psycho exes anyway! (And hey, contemplate the cover knowing that both guys had long hair…)
Horizons by Mickie B. Ashling. ebook. Pretty good m/m romance about a deeply closeted college football player with a homophobic family who finds himself falling (despite himself) for the very out ER doctor who cares for his broken arm. (Hmm. Sort of a weird cover, isn’t it?)
Absolutely, Positively Not by David LaRochelle. Steven’s a sophomore in a small Minnesota town who’s trying to figure out his sexual orientation. He just knows that he absolutely, positively is not gay. Right?
Near Life Experience by Alix Bekins. ebook. Very well done m/m romance about two friends whose friendship changes in interesting ways after one of them finds out an ex is HIV positive and goes in to be tested.
Beautiful Boys by Anne Cain. ebook. This is a fairly good collection of four interrelated m/m romance stories. (Not sure if I’d call any of the characters in the stories boys, or match them to the cover art, but…)
From the Heavens by Vic Winter. ebook. Enjoyable m/m romance. When a stressed out paramedic needs to get away from it all in the mountains and is rescued by a handsome ranger, how will his life change?
Spare Parts (Romentics) by Scott & Scott. ebook. Ok m/m romance about that tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive…
Two In Two Out by G.A. Hauser. ebook. D’oh. I really, really need to remember not to get more books by this m/m author. The writing is awkward and simplistic and the characters… Well, if they were two preteen girls, their gushing internal monologues might be ok. Might be. Plus I think this book exceeded an allowable use threshold for forms of “adore”.

“I’m soooo sleepy… why are you bothering me? You must hate me.” -Mayhem

Covers, Reading

Misadventures in Stock Photography (Part the First)

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While some book covers probably use original photographs taken specifically for that book, many use stock photographs. Stock photos get used over and over – to the point that you might have a sense of deja vu even when faced with a cover you’ve never seen before. Take a look at this first cover:

Nice candy cane. *ahem* But the smiley face in the next two variation of this photo? Puzzling. (And yup, the second guy back there does mean that this is an m/m title, which Hot for the Holidays is not.)

The hole in the jeans is a nice subtraction, isn’t it? And hey, in the next cover, the photo has been so cleverly disguised that you can’t even tell it’s the exact same cover…

…or maybe you can. 😉 Do the candy cane and smiley face cover a tattoo or a mole or??? Does anyone have other examples of this particular shot used on other covers?

Many thanks to Sydney, who tracked down the original stock photo! To sum up, the jeans did have holes and there’s no mole or tattoo being covered

Stop by my contest post or The Thrillionth Page by 10 am CST, December 6, to vote for the Softest Kitteh Evah on Our Street!

Yes, there’s been more taunting.

“My tummy is super soft, too, Oblio! Plus I have a bikini on my tummy, so there! (Oh, and Mom says if you click on my picture, you’ll almost be able to feel how soft my tummy is.)” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

So many book links, so little time…

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Stop by my contest post or The Thrillionth Page by 10 am CST, December 6, to vote for the Softest Kitteh Evah on Our Street! Oh, dear, the taunting has begun. Can escalation be far behind?

Um, that would be no. 😉

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is giving away a Sony Pocket Digital Reader if you leave an appropriately tagged quote over at the Sony Style Words Move Me page. Contest closes midnight EST, 12/3.

Smexy Books is giving away an ebook copy of Penny Watson’s new romance, Sweet Inspiration, which is about Santa’s sexy sons looking for love, plus a box of Williams-Sonoma hot chocolate mix. Contest runs through 12/3.

SciFiGuy’s giving away a copy of Lili(th) Saintcrow’s new young adult urban fantasy, Betrayals. Contest closes midnight EST, 12/4.

Literary Escapism is giving away a signed copy of Kelly Meding’s intriguing new urban fantasy, Three Days to Dead. Contest closes midnight, 12/8. SciFiGuy’s giving away three copies of the same book (not signed), plus a copy of Kelly Gay’s new urban fantasy, The Better Part of Darkness. This contest closes at midnight EST, 12/8.

Book Junkie’s celebrating her birthday month by giving away 35 books. Read the directions and fill out the form – she’ll choose a winner on 1/1.

Check out the list of December 1 paranormal and urban fantasy releases over at Fantasy Dreamer and her links to contests and free reads. SciFiGuy’s weekend urban fantasy report always has a staggering amount of information. Heh, looks like Jackie at Literary Escapism got sucked into the whole “how evil is my blog?” thing while doing her weekend update. (Don’t miss her December edition of the Escapist Newsletter.)

TeddyPig reports that AllRomanceEbooks is giving away three free first-in-series ebooks from Loose Id, including the first Dark Elves book by Jet Mykles.

Free holiday m/m romance by T.A. Chase featuring the guys from the Love of Sports – grab it over at the Samhellion blog.

This list of DRM-free ebook publishers is a good reference.

Oh, dear, looks like Barnes & Noble is having problems getting the Nook out there. It’s hurting their stock, too.

Speaking of which, TeleRead has a list of reasons why it might be better to wait on getting an ebook reader if you don’t already have one. Check out their ebook reader predictions for 2010, too.

Awful Library Books manages to amuse and horrify me nearly every day.

Package delivery company secrets revealed in this amusing “training manual”. *snort*

The Washington Post on the Twilight craze (via Mary Lou), which inspired me to look back at these posts from Smart Bitches and Lilith Saintcrow about some of the less obvious messages in Twilight.

Hmm. Maybe this is part of my problem with the whole dating thing…

And here I thought Chaos had patented that glare as a kitten.

O noes! Flee, flee, before the evil horde swarms across the land.

Poor Basement Cat!

What if Hewlett-Packard built R2-D2?

Reading Update
Blood Vice: Nightfall Syndicate, Book 1 by Keith Melton. ebook. Very good, very intense paranormal romance about a vampire who does mob hits because he doesn’t want to kill innocents. Things are complicated a bit by an ancient enemy and a mob leader’s daughter. This one just came out in print, too. Recommended.
The Ultimate Kink (Quinn Security, Book 2) by Cameron Dane. ebook. Brace yourselves – this was an m/f romance ebook! 😉 The first Quinn Security book was an m/m romance and I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I enjoyed this one, for what it’s worth. But this was ok. And I’m guessing that the next Quinn Security will be m/m.
Aussie Rules by Jill Shalvis. Ok contemporary romance. Mel’s barely holding her struggling aviation business together when Australian Bo shows up after ten years, raising all sorts of uncomfortable questions about Mel’s missing mentor and her possible role in Bo’s father’s death.
Snow on the Mountain by P.D. Singer. ebook. Very good m/m romance. After an exciting summer in Fire on the Mountain, Jake and Kurt are working at a ski resort for the winter and, of course, there are complications. Maybe it’s just me, but this cover sort of freaks me out. (Of course, after I finished reading this, I had to go back and reread Fire on the Mountain.)
Forgotten Song by Ally Blue. ebook. Ok m/m romance. Can a singer with a tortured past escape it to trust and love again? (Another sort of weird cover, although this is more in a 1970s sort of way.)
Diving in Deep by K.A. Mitchell. ebook. Very good m/m romance about getting a second chance with that guy you had a crush on as a teenager, who’s grown into an emotionally unavailable adult. I definitely got sniffly on this one. (This is also the precursor to Mitchell’s book Collision Course.)
Regularly Scheduled Life by K.A. Mitchell. ebook. Another really good m/m romance by Mitchell that had me crying pretty hard more than once. After becoming famous after being wounded during a school shooting, will Sean be able to return to his regular life with his partner of six years, Kyle? Recommended, but keep the tissues handy. (And does this cover have it going on or what?!)
Between Friends by Sean Michael. ebook. This m/m romance never really grabbed me, although it’s well rated and obviously enjoyed by others.
Win and Lose by T.C. Blue. ebook. The title of this pretty good m/m romance is a play on the nicknames of the two main characters: Winston and Lucien. Win’s a tattoo artist in the middle of nowhere and Luz’s the lead singer of a band who is lost in a snowstorm in the middle nowhere.
Spilled Ink by Rob Knight. ebook. Hmm. Musta been tattoo parlor week. Shortish but enjoyable m/m romance about a cop who goes to get a tattoo to commemorate his slain partner and ends up falling for the tattoo artist.
Take Me Out by Gabrina Garza. ebook. Meh m/m romance about two baseball players on a minor-league team.
Doggy Style by Ashely Ladd. ebook. Minds out of the gutter – it’s the name of a store that sells fashions for dogs. Of course, that’s not necessarily so clear when “Doggy Style” is emblazoned across the baseball team’s jerseys as the team sponsor. So, while the name was clever, that was the only clever bit about this m/m romance. I was laughing out loud about how hokey it was, plus I kept paging back to see if I’d skipped paragraphs or chapters. This wasn’t something that a few transitions could’ve fixed. Probably would’ve been a DNF, except I kept going to find out if the whole story was a disjointed dream sequence or something. (It wasn’t, more’s the pity.)
Love in an Elevator by Sean Michael. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a photographer and a high-powered businessman. Hmm. Not sure an elevator phobia was really enough to carry the story and balance all the steam. And oh, this book had a doozy of an editing miss – a completely random name switched in once for one of the characters at an inopportune moment. (“Samuel?! Who the *blip* is Samuel?!”)
Bad Case of Loving You by Laney Cairo. ebook. Very good, very steamy 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…
Undercover Blues by Laney Cairo. ebook. Hmm. Whose bright idea was it to send the allegedly straight cop undercover to hook up with the crime lord’s brother? Nicely done, even if I had to guess what some of the Aussie slang meant. 😉
Another Fine Mess, edited by Syd McGynley. ebook. I picked up this m/m romance collection primarily to read the story by Laney Cairo, which was related to Undercover Blues. Some of the other stories were fine, although I definitely skipped two or three.
I Can’t Drive 55 by Jade Falconer. ebook. Pretty sure that this method of getting out of a ticket should not be attempted outside of a fictional setting!
This Time for Keeps by Christiane France. ebook. Ok paranormal m/m romance about a man whose partner dies… so why do the pillows still smell like his shower gel? And who keeps changing the tv channel?
Interlude by Vivien Dean. ebook. Ok m/m romance about piano players with a dueling pianos gig in Nevada.
Off the Beaten Path by Katrina Strauss. ebook. Good m/m romance about a jock and an environmentalist who are sure they have nothing in common until they end up sharing a tent while working on a trail project.

“Come to the black kitty side. We have cookies. Unless the big kitty ate them.” -Mayhem

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

In which May discovers the wonders of white sparkly feathers (and there are lots of book links)

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Congrats to Dana, Kelly B, CC, elaing, and Marjorie, who all won copies of Lisa Dale’s It Happened One Night! (I’m amazed at the number of readers I have from Ontario. At least one, but usually two Ontarions have won in each of my Hatchette Book Group giveaways.)

Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) is giving away five Nancy Holder books (plus a tin of Wicked mints) – leave a comment by 8 pm CST, November 27, for your chance to win.

Donna’s also got a great list of bookish giveaways – head over and check it out. Sweet Vernal Zephyr keeps up with many of the latest contests in her Contest Bar (in the sidebar).

The latest Bookworm’s Carnival is up over at Literary Escapism.

Eeeek! How desperate are you for a free ebook? Desperate enough to read Shatnerquake (oh, bummer, looks like it isn’t available for free anymore). Maybe it would be less painful to sign on with Fang-tastic Books as an ebook reviewer.

Beware – Fictionwise has (for an unknown amount of time) all of their er0tica ebooks on sale for 30% off… and they categorize all their m/m as er0tica. (Tangentially, I’m amused that my m/m meme post from Friday is zooming up in page views, albeit low in comments. I can hardly wait to see the search terms on that one…)

The Minneapolis Public Library’s Holiday Clearance Sale runs from Wednesday, November 25, through Saturday, December 19, at the main library downtown.

Hee hee – the shortlist for the bad s3x in books award is out and includes such authors as Philip Roth, Paul Theroux, and Nick Cave.

Wow – too bad this ebook reader from Qualcomm is only an early prototype.

Interesting comic about ebook reading.

Check out the Gizmodo list of gift ideas for readers.

For you iphone people, this sounds like a fun app. Too bad you can’t add your own cats.

This wedding cake caused a spit take (definition 1, people!).

Oh, how I wish I could’ve attended this book signing event…

I am not surprised.

Squeee!!!!

This would definitely be May’s idea of paradise.

Completely how I remember it when Chaos ate a coffee bean as a kitten.

Tofurkey and gravy flavored soda. Bacon flavored envelopes. *blink blink* Please,  just say no.

If you’re poking around in my archives, trying to find posts with Reading Updates, I’ve added a “Reviewettes” sub-category to the “Reading” category. I’m working backwards to update posts and 2009 is done.

Reading Update
So Into You by Sandra Hill. I have the sense that this is probably one of a number of related books set in the Louisiana bayous? (I haven’t read any Sandra Hill before.) Anyway, this was a well-written contemporary romance and it totally sucked me in… even though I wanted to slap the main female and male characters more than once. Or twice. Or three times. 🙂 (I received this copy from the publisher for review.)
Loves Me, Loves Me Knot (Chicks with Sticks, Book 2) by Heidi Betts. This well-done contemporary totally sucked me in – I sniffled more than once while I was reading it. I definitely recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a bit of yarn’n’steam with their romance reading. (Interesting. I see that the Kindle and mass market pb versions are $6.99, but at Diesel Ebooks, the mobi version’ll set you back… $12.03, after $1.97 discount. WTF?!)
To Serve and Protect by Chris Owen, C. B. Potts, Tory Temple, and Alexa Snow. ebook. Decent m/m romance collection about firefighters and cops.
Man of Mystery by Madeleine Urban. ebook. Happy father and downtrodden househusband Alan transforms into Terence, man of mystery, after an accident leaves him with amnesia. Recommended – Madeleine Urban definitely knows how to write an intense m/m romance.
Old Poison (Dangerous Ground, Book 2) by Josh Lanyon. ebook. Very intense and very well-done m/m romantic suspense from Lanyon. You definitely need to read Dangerous Ground before you read this. Both are highly recommended.
Another Dream (Dreams, Book 2) by Addison Albright. ebook. Good m/m romance. Really, my only complaint about Albright’s books are the number of times the characters use each other’s names in conversation. Way, way more than is normal – and enough to be annoying.
Surrendered Victory by K.C. Kendricks. ebook. Nicely done m/m romance about two guys who work for rival construction companies – one who has been afraid to admit that he might be gay, the other very comfortable being gay.
Somebody To Love by Carolina Valdez. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a helicopter pilot/firefighter who is very intrigued by the masked Chippendale dancer who wanders over to kiss him after the show (at a combined bachelor/bachelorette party in Las Vegas). (I bet this cover rates way up there on the MamaTulip Abs Approval Meter.)
Son of a Preacher Man by Jamie Craig. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a man who returns to the town where he lived briefly as a teen, hoping that another encounter with the son of a preacher man will help him sort out his confusion over his sexuality.
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys by Lynn Lorenz. ebook. Fun m/m romance about a New Orleans dress-up party in which attendees are told whether to attend in drag or stag.
Superstar by Rick R. Reed. ebook. A story of obsessive love unfolds through flashbacks as a man standing on Seattle’s “Suicide Bridge” tries to decide whether to end things.
Through the Closet Door by Rick R. Reed. ebook. Touching story about a married man in his 20s who’s struggling with coming out.
Man-Amorphosis by Rick R. Reed. ebook. Amusing, tongue-in-cheek tale of a gay man who wakes up to discover part of his body has changed its configuration, so the first thing he does is get into drag and head out to bag straight guys. Dang, Reed is definitely a versatile writer!
Mind F*cked (Faerily Imperfect, Book 1) by Mia Watts. ebook. Very nicely done and ever-so-steamy m/m paranormal romance about a stunning half-fae security expert who can read minds and a bank manager who doesn’t believe in magic or that anyone so gorgeous could find him attractive. Recommended.
She’s Got Balls by Mia Watts. ebook. Enjoyable m/m romance about an FBI agent and a cop who have to go undercover as a married heterosexual couple. My only complaint was that the story needed a bit more fleshing out near the end.

“Pretty sparkly feathery snowy toy!! Yum!!” -Mayhem