Reading Update
Lullaby for a Stolen Child (Stolen Child #2) by Anna Mayle. ebook short. Very good short m/m/m dark fantasy about a human stolen by the Fae as a child, the Redcap who took his place, and the golden Fae hunter who’s been entranced by him for years.
In Darkness Bound (The Society #1) by Christine Price. ebook. Very good m/m/m paranormal romantic suspense that I had to read after reading The Usual Apocalypse. And maybe I was more forgiving of its faults than I might’ve been if I’d read it first, but it totally sucked me in and worked for me.
Not Knowing Jack (Regularly Scheduled Life #2) by KA Mitchell. ebook. Very good m/m romance about Jack, a chef, and Tony, Jack’s younger bartender boyfriend. When Jack begins to act mysteriously, Tony realizes how very little he actually knows about Jack, even after living together for a year. This book had the potential to be a five-star read; however, I found the ending rushed and thus rather unsatisfying. (“Wait, where did the previous year go?!”)
Bullied by Jeff Erno. ebook collection. Very good, if somewhat heavy-handed, collection of short stories about gay teens being bullied in school. The stories are told primarily in first person, from a variety of perspectives: the student being bullied, the bully, the parent who’s been lying to herself about her open-mindedness. While the stories are painful and moving, the overall message is hopeful: things can get better, but not without help.
The Hunting Moon by Evelyn Shepherd. ebook. Good but inconsistent paranormal m/m romantic suspense about two cops, a powerful psychic and a werecoyote, on the Columbus Preternatural Task Force. As the werecoyote pursues the mutual attraction that the psychic denies, they’re also trying to solve a string of murders and capture a deranged stalker from the psychic’s past. Several things kept me from rating this book higher: an ongoing issue with word usage and substitution (“saddled” instead of “sidled” being the most memorable) and inconsistencies in the psychic’s powers (if he could lock and unlock doors with his mind, why couldn’t he get out of handcuffs?).
Ash Swan (Cob Brothers #1) by Amber Kell & Stephani Hecht. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance loosely based on the fairytale of the Six Swans. In the first installment of this series, the crown prince, who’s living on Earth for a few years before taking the throne, rescues a handsome bike courier who’d fallen into a pond while feeding ducks and geese in the park, then proceeds to get to know the courier better…
Hey, There’s Fur in My Wedding Cake (Lost Shifters #12.5) by Stephani Hecht. free ebook short. Good short paranormal romance about an exiled wolf shifter who returns to the pack that exiled in order to attend a wedding reception, where he meets a very intriguing feline shifter…
Change on the Fly (Blue Line Hockey #5) by Stephani Hecht. ebook. Sweet m/m romance about an NHL player who sustains a career-ending injury and isn’t doing so well until his best friend from high school shows up at his door.
Swept Away (Beach Bums #2) by Diana DeRicci. ebook. Good m/m romance about a guy who’s retreated to his beach house to try sorting out his thoughts after he drunkenly kissed a guy in a bar on a dare… and enjoyed the kiss so much, his fiancee ended their engagement after he told her about it.
In From the Cold by Mercy Celeste. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a sheriff’s deputy and a country singer who were each others’ firsts in high school, but who’ve taken different and equally self-destructive paths since then… and that doesn’t end when tragedy brings the singer back to their hometown. This book had a lot of unrealized potential, which was unfortunately overshadowed by somewhat choppy writing and the absolutely worst case of pronoun confusion I’ve ever encountered.
The Playwright (The Male Room #3) by Carolyn LeVine Topol. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a playwright whose writing partner and roommate signs him up for The Male Room online dating site, hoping to help him get over a broken heart years before. The insta-love was more insta-lovey than usual in the this one.

I got a new tattoo on Sunday. 🙂 This one first, so you can see where it’s located:

And a close-up, so you can see the bright green eyes!

(Please ignore the bruising…)

My other tattoo is located in the same spot on the back of my left arm.

“May and I have noticed that your new tattoo doesn’t look like us, but instead some freaky black cat. Any last words?” -Chaos

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity on a lark

September 2, 2011 Chris 31 Comments

Congrats to Laura, who won Clear Water by Amy Lane! Clear Water is being released today by Dreamspinner Press.

Brace yourselves. Monday is a holiday in the US, so there won’t be a Misadventure. Surely there’s a Misadventure or two that you might’ve missed and could catch up on instead? 🙂

Contests

Blodeuedd’s giving away winner’s choice of an ebook copy of Crux, Deadlock, or Crossroads by Moira Rogers. Contest closes September 5.

ModernCat’s giving away three steamy 6 packs/9 Lives 2012 calendars. Comment before September 6 for your chance to win.

Blodeuedd’s giving away two copies of The Lady of the Storms by Kathryn Kennedy. Contest closes September 7. US & Canada.

Fiction Vixen is celebrating her two-year blogiversary by giving away a Kindle loaded with ebooks! Contest closes September 7.

Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud. Contest closes September 12. US & Canada.

Bookity

New releases and more: Elisa Rolle (LGBT), Tor.com (YA paranormal, UF/PNR/horror, scifi, fantasy), AAR (romance audiobooks), and Book Lovers Inc (a little of everything).

Author and publisher news from Dear Author.

Haruki Murakami on being a novelist.

Kassa on “should read” versus “want to read” books.

Vacuous Minx on the gay-for-you/out-for-you trope in m/m romance.

The Lambda Literary Foundation changes its award rules again.

Neil Gaiman on google and librarians. (via Neil Gaiman’s Journal)

Woe! (Thanks, Juni!)

Some Dalek/book humor.

Turn an old action figure into a bookend.

Make book covers from stretchy fabric.

Ebookity

Stephani Hecht has a free Lost Shifters-related short story, Hey, There’s Fur in My Wedding Cake, available for download.

Kaje Harper has a short m/m-themed young adult story, Intervention, that you can read free on her website.

A children’s picture ebook from David Bowie’s song “Space Oddity” was briefly available free… but has been taken down due to copyright issues.

Interesting post about not being able to resell ebooks from Confessions of a Community College Dean. (I don’t agree with all of it, but it’s a good discussion to have.) (Thanks, CursingMama!)

Amazon’s beta testing a way that you can ask authors questions from within their books as you read. Authors, I’m curious what you think about this. 🙂

BookHunch (still beta) will be a crowd-sourced book review site.

Do, Make, Learn, Think

Are you familiar with FEMA’s Waffle House disaster index? (Strangely, this is not from The Onion.)

If you’re looking for a used car, beware of cars damaged by Hurricane Irene, even if you don’t live near the East Coast.

Before and after Hurricane Irene photos…

iPad tips and tricks.

Make a retractable dock for keeping your iPad safe in the kitchen.

Keyboard shortcuts all computer users should know. I’d add CTRL-Z (undo) and CTRL-Y (redo). CTRL-Z is very handy when you’ve just moved or deleted something inadvertently. 🙂

Use a binder clip to keep your headphones from tangling.

Turn a milk jug into a lightbox for photographing small objects. Or build a larger tabletop softbox.

There’s a scientific reason why images of animals are so popular on the internets.

New research suggests that the gender gap in spatial reasoning is not genetic, but cultural.

Chocolate might be good for your heart!

Gluten-Free

Easy Eats is a new online gluten-free magazine. You can get the first issue free by going to the subscription page and selecting the special introductory offer ($0) of one free issue.

Thomas Keller is introducing a high-end gluten-free flour, which will be available later this month and supposedly can be used as a cup-for-cup substitution with gluten-containing flours. (Unfortunately, it contains milk powder, so is not lactose-free.)

Gluten-free marshmallow peach berry pie. (via The Kitchn)

Cookity

Twelve chocolate cookie recipes. (via The Kitchn)

Biscuits with chocolate gravy?! (via The Kitchn)

Weird ice cream from around the world. (via Consumerist)

Fifteen sweet peanut butter dessert recipes.

Fifteen recipes using late summer vegetables.

Crafty

Crochet a slice of rainbow cake.

Or maybe some pears.

Get garter stitch borders to lay flat.

Needle-felt Kermit the Frog. (via CRAFT)

Cool

Teeny tiny TARDIS. (via CRAFT)

Baby food jar LEGO minifig heads!

If Doctor Who was cast by the Muppets…

Steampunk ships. (Thanks, Bron!)

Steampunk Darth Vader.

Gorgeous geeky cakes.

Owl post necklace.

Typewriter sculpture.

The Survival Strap bracelet.

“Blackboard” lunch bag.

Yarn-bombed NYC bridge.

Moon illusions. (Thanks, Jeanne!)

Poor Clark. Bruce won’t take his calls…

Cat, food, and cool linkity from MrsPao.

Clever waste-free Christmas cookie cutter.

Cool or Wha…?

Self-portrait and pseudo-3D quilts.

Keyboard Cat quilt…

Black velvet paintings for geeks. (via CRAFT)

Yarn brain earrings.

LEGO Nyan Cat.

Hello Kitty duct tape.

Zombie’s Day Out short film.

Haunted dollhouse.

Wha…?

Gollum wedding cake. (via The Mary Sue)

Taxing prostitutes in Bonn, Germany, via parking meter… (Thanks, Kim!)

Creepy candle girl. (via Gizmodo)

Model motorcycle made from… lobster shells.

Giant ear iPhone case.

Darth Vader iPhone case.

LOL

G-Male: If Google Was Your Boyfriend… funny, yet creepy.

English doesn’t borrow from other languages… (Thanks, Jase!)

Best obnoxious responses to misspellings on Facebook. (Thanks, Lorette!)

Knitting and the Internet… from 1997.

Norse crisis flowchart. (via The Mary Sue)

Some dark hurricane humor from xkcd. (Make sure you hover your mouse pointer over the comic for additional text.)

Best or worst hurricane shopper ever?

Hurricane Irene autocorrect fails.

Hmm. He has a point.

Darth Vader cake wrecks.

Do you know how to tie a tie with the Lovecraft knot?

“A 100% Improvement in The Matrix Reloaded.”

What Schrodinger didn’t know…

How kittehs pick the most inconvenient place to stand.

Fuzzy Potter, the kitten wizard.

Force cuddling your cats.

Be very suspicious…

Teh Cute

Kitten and the Bean! Baby cheetah! Kittens! Panda and baby! Kitten! Baby oncilla (seriously, you will squee out loud)! Kittens! Hedgie! Kittens! Baby jaguar! Kittens! Dall sheep lamb! Kitten! Ferret! Baby ring-tailed coatis! Baby zebra! Bunny! Cat and fresh kitten! Tiger! Panda and baby! Falcon! Baby lion! Baby cheetahs!

Reading Update
Barging In by Josephine Myles. ebook ARC. Excellent m/m romance about a somewhat slutty travel writer who’s rented a narrowboat for a week so he can write about and photograph life on the canals. When he (literally) runs into a hunky, prickly boater who takes an instant dislike to him, things get a lot more interesting… for both of them. This was a story that built slowly, but never felt like it. And make sure you have your hankies handy! Highly recommended. Available September 20.
Shattered Secrets (In the Shadow of the Wolf #1) by Diane Adams & RJ Scott. ebook. Very good m/m paranormal romantic suspense about a wolf shifter who hooks up with a cop who doesn’t realize he’s hooking up with a shifter… and isn’t pleased when he does realize. But a shifter-related case throws them together again and things get complicated. So… when’s the next book coming out? 🙂
The Usual Apocalypse (The Society #2) by Christine Price. ebook ARC. Very good paranormal m/m romantic suspense about an agent who works for a paranormal investigation organization and is very good at his job because people can’t lie to him. Usually. When he takes over an internal affairs investigation because the previous investigator and her husband were found murdered in their beds, he has no idea that his life is about to change irrevocably in multiple ways. I didn’t realize that there was a previous book (In Darkness Bound). I see some reviewers have complained that it wasn’t a romance – rest assured that this most definitely was. Available September 26.
Prep Work by P.D. Singer. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a somewhat disgraced celebrity chef who discovers that the intriguing chef at the pub where he’s having dinner is a fan.
For the Attention Of (Pushing the Envelope #1) by Kim Dare. ebook short. Good kinky short m/m romance about a dom who receives a very intriguing and mysterious invitation, which he can’t resist.
Pop, Pop, Snap! by Winnie Jerome. ebook short. Good kinky short m/m story about a cashier at an amusement park who runs into the guy he broke up with to date a guy who turned out to be a jerk.
A Prideless Man (Supernatural Mates #3) by Amber Kell. ebook. Pretty good paranormal m/m romance about a guy with rheumatoid arthritis who moves to the shifter town because he’s always enjoyed being around shifters… and discovers that most of what he thought he knew about himself is wrong.
Riddle of the Sands (Fathom’s Five #2) by Geoffrey Knight. ebook. Pretty good action adventure about a group of gay adventurers rushing against time both to find an antidote to a rare poison with which one of their group has been injected and to find a lost Egyptian pyramid. Only recommended if you can suspend disbelief for a plot more over-the-top than anything from an Indiana Jones movie.
The Curse of the Dragon God (Fathom’s Five #3) by Geoffrey Knight. ebook. Ok action adventure in which our group of gay adventurers is all over the place, trying to rescue their beloved Professor and prevent a bomb from destroying Beijing. I know that this series is deliberately over-the-top, but sometimes it works, and sometimes… not so much. Particularly if you have people arriving instantly in San Francisco from Krakow and the Caribbean. But hey, you might enjoy this if you don’t mind hearing bad porn music playing in your head during the sex scenes.
Danny’s Boy by Kate Aaron. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about a guy who can’t find work after university, so returns to the small town where he grew up and runs into his homophobic former best friend. While I quite liked the story, the pronoun confusion was extreme and frustrating.