Thanks for the fun captions you’ve been leaving on that picture of Chaos from yesterday! I definitely needed the giggles. 🙂 Mayhem did her part by sending one of her toy mice along with me in the bag of library books to be returned. Chaos… um… well, he didn’t succeed in tripping and killing me while I fed him. 😉
I know that there’s a heckuva lot of book linkity going on in this post – fear not, as it’s meant to tide you over until my next post on Monday, August 17. I’m leaving for da cabin up nord bright and early Thursday morning.
Don’t forget to leave a comment on the contest post before 7 pm CDT, Monday, August 17, for your chance to win a copy of Sandra Hill’s So Into You!
For your chance to win a copy of Mr. Darcy, Vampyre (yes, you read that right!), leave a comment over at Yankee Romance Reviews.
If you’d like a chance to win a copy of Robyn DeHart’s romance Seduce Me, leave a comment at Park Avenue Princess by midnight EST, August 30.
Need a new bookcase? Temple Library Reviews is giving one away – comment before September 6 for your chance at it.
J. Kaye’s usually has over a dozen various book/audiobook giveaways going at any given time, covering a breadth of genres. You should subscribe to J. Kaye’s blog. 🙂 (Speaking of good stuff from J. Kaye, is your library part of Library Elf?)
Fantasy Dreamer Donna has links to many, many more book-related contests!
An interesting post about the benefits of print and ebooks at Embrace the Shadows.
Looking for free ebooks to fill your reader? The Finding Free Ebooks blog might be just the thing for you.
Author Monica Ferris is giving away a free short mystery about a female police investigator and the Minnesota State Fair. (It isn’t a Betty Devonshire mystery, for those who follow that series.)
Some tips for how to read faster. I hadn’t thought of it before, but I guess when I’m reading books, I don’t subvocalize. I do for other sorts of reading, such as blogs, emails, etc. Teaching yourself to knit while you read (or is it read while you knit?) might have a similar effect to the technique in the linked post.
Which of the top ten hero types is your favorite? My answer won’t surprise any of you…
Need a giggle? Carolyn shows how adding vampires would spice up an otherwise ho hum spam email.
And while you’re giggling, you simply must check out this hysterical historical romance-themed cover from Minnesota Monthly magazine.
It ain’t your mama’s romance – and that’s not a bad thing.
Notice anything similiar about the cover of Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn novella, Master of Shadows, and the cover of Lynda Hilburn’s book, The Vampire Shrink??
Dear Author always has informative and thoughful posts. Some that caught my eye recently were on buying ebook readers and a wonderfully snarky book news roundup.
Did you hear that Sony’s coming out with some new, less expensive ereaders? They’re pretty cute. Astak’s also coming out with some comparable looking ebook readers in the same price range.
Hmm. Could Kindles go the way of Betamax? (Really too early to assess things like that, but it’s always fun to speculate.)
Reading Update
Spin a Wicked Web: A Home Crafting Mystery by Cricket McRae. I couldn’t resist the cover when I saw this book at the library, and I’m glad I didn’t! Spin a Wicked Web was a well-written and enjoyable read; it managed to avoid the cloying sweetness to which many craft-related novels succumb. I plan to read the other books in this series – and I wish I’d read the others first, as this turns out to be the third book.
Personal Demons by Stacia Kane. Enjoyable paranormal romance about a psychologist who starts a radio show promising to banish people’s personal demons and gets more than she bargained for.
Watch Over Me by Lucy Monroe. Latest contemporary romance in her Goddard Project series. I read half the book, realized I didn’t care about any of the characters and that I’d napped through a s3x scene, and put it in the pile going back to the library. Also, while using the word “adamantine” (and helpfully clarifying it as “diamond-like” within a few sentences) to refer to someone’s abs does showcase your vocabulary, it’s not a common word and using it twice (complete with “diamond-like” reference) in the first half of the book? Sticks out.
Boys of Summer by Cooper Davis. ebook. Sweet m/m romance about how scary falling in love and coming out can be.
Don’t Look Back, 
Dangerous Ground, 
The Dark Horse, and 
The White Knight by Josh Lanyon. ebooks. Suspense and m/m romance by one of the masters of the genre. Well-written, vividly characterized, deeply involving, and definitely steamy hot – what’s not to like?
Among the Living and 
Criss Cross (PsyCop, Books 1-2) by Jordan Castillo Price. ebooks. More excellent romantic suspense and m/m romance, but with a titch of paranormal!
Protect and Defend by Francesca Hawley. ebook. A steamy paranormal romance about a cop who’s a shapeshifter and a writer who turns out to be his mate. Unfortunately, there were far too many pages used for the amount of story available, and the draggy bits were too sappy for me. (But hey, it has a great cover and it wasn’t even m/m!)
“I’m sure you heard wrong. No way would Mom leave us for four days!” -Chaos
Enjoy the cabin!
Mom will make sure the neighbor feeds you guys, Chaos, I’m sure of it.
Four days! How did it get to be mid-August anyway? Didn’t this summer pass by 10 times faster than any summer in the past? It’s crazy when time flies like that, but by the time someone goes to all the links you’ve gone it will be Christmas. Chaos…trip your mama!
Have fun! I hope da cabin up nord, has every modern convenience you need. <- I'm lazy like that. LOL! No fetching water or outdoor plumbing for me. *g*
Thanks for all the book links, I plan on checking them out and linking my weekly post.
Yay for going up nord! Have a great time, and I hope the weather is good…
Chaos, Mayhem – behave.
I think I’d go with the Nerd Hero. 🙂
Have fun up nord – it’s supposed to be nice here this weekend (knock on wood), so I hope you get the same kind of weather.
Hey! Thanks for the linkage! So sweet, and I hope you have tons of fun at the cabin. Looks like you picked the ideal evilly hot days to escape Minneapolis.
So glad you’re loving Lanyon. He really is one of the masters of the genre. I have those same Jordan Price ebooks lined up to read soon.
Oh, and that MN Monthly cover is hilarious! How very cool. I wonder what the article is like. Is it out yet? Must check at our neighborhood Kowalskis. Perhaps I’ll see you there stocking up on the cabin food.
Who takes care of the babies when you abandon them? Surely not the psychotic neighbor.
Have a great weekend! : )
Wow! Thanks for the link!! Love those covers. 🙂 Did you sign up for the M/M reading challenge…can’t remember who’s hosting it…probably will come to me later.
oh, look at those eyes, how could you leave them behind. 😛
Have a great long weekend away!
Chaos, four days is only 96 hours and I’ve read that we sleep at least 16 hours per day (some of us even more!!!). So you’ll be sleeping through maybe 64 hours of your Mom being Up Nord. Leaving only 32 hours to eat, preen, nap, knock stuff of bookshelves etc. Use your precious time wisely!
~ Your friend Rufus ~
Mmmmmmmmm – mutts! Man butts! Have a great long weekend at da cabin!
Or how about video discs! My father bought one of those players when they first came out. Back from Sock Summit, but since I didn’t do anything but work at the booth, i didn’t really have a sock summit. Nice food in Portland, though. Have fun up nord.
Have an excellent trip!
So many great book links here!! Thank you!!
Off to find my hero in the top ten — hope you find yours at the cabin! (Or at least have some good books with you).
Chaos needs to think of it as plotting time, not missing time.
Have a good trip!
OK, I’ve obviously been a gamer geek for far too long, because adamantine didn’t even ping on my radar as odd.
Mithril would be odd, mostly because it never broke out of the fantasy genre, or electrum which is real but I’ve only seen in D&D.
I save your linky posts for the end of the day so I have time to click, click, click! I enjoy them more and more.
For the cabin? She would, Chaos, she would. It’s for your own good though.
Have fun at the cabin! As usual, I loved reading your book covers. Er, reviews!!
Enjoy your long weekend!
Have a great long weekend!
Chris- Have a great time up north.
No guilt inducing stares from the cats, no, not a one.
Chris…
Sorry I missed your linkety post yesterday! I hope you have an awesome time at the cabin. 🙂
Cool reviews. I have the Josh Lanyon books and am looking forward to the read. I think I’m also going to pick up “Boys of Summer”, I’ve heard great things about that one too.
Best
L
Have fun in da nord. Cute photo of Chaos 🙂
Now to type w/out vocalizing… good thing I talk fast. But that linking thing, how on earth does a person (um, you) do that quickly?