Tag Archives: Evelyn Shepherd

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Linkity leers

May 25, 2012 Chris 20 Comments

Due to the US holiday, there won’t be a Misadventure on Monday!

Contests

Jenre’s giving away an ebook copy of Changing Worlds by Cari Z. Comment by the end of May 26 (GMT) for your chance to win.

The Erotic Romance Scavenger Hunt is underway (through noon CDT, May 28). Start from this post.

Bronwyn Green’s giving away an ebook copy of Hit or Stay by Ninette Swann. Contest closes 7 pm EDT, May 29.

Joder’s giving away an ebook copy of The Forbidden Claim by Kelly Gendron. Contest closes 11:59 pm CDT, June 1.

Blodeuedd’s giving away a print (US) or ebook (elsewhere) copy of Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch. Contest closes June 3.

Bookity

New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk (various sorts of romance), and Book Lovers Inc (various sorts of romance).

Book and publishing news from Dear Author. And from Smart Bitches.

Who won this year’s Nebula Awards?

Teach Me Tonight on “Fiction, controversy and the sexual double standard”.

“The evolution of LGBT characters in comics, fandoms and YA lit”.

Why are fountain pen sales increasing? (via Neil Gaiman’s tumblr)

Commencement speech given by Neil Gaiman.

Expanding bookcases.

Jane Eyre necklace.

Twelve famous writers and their favorite snacks.

“How reading fiction can make you a better cook”. (via Lifehacker)

“50 tips on how to write good”.

3-D Scrabble, anyone?

Ebookity

Readlist is a webapp that can turn urls into ebooks.

The image of self-publishing is improving.

Humorous reasons to buy a tablet.

Dear Author’s primer on the price-fixing lawsuit.

Results of the Taleist survey of self-published authors.

Think, Learn, Do, Make

Great white egrets are nesting in the UK for the first time. (Thanks, pao!)

Imagine a world where all the ketchup pours easily out of the bottle, no smacking or shaking required.

Ten gadgets you shouldn’t buy right now.

Ten myths some religious people believe about atheists. (Here’s my favorite quote from the article.)

How California strawberries are produced. (via The Kitchn)

Hating cilantro might be genetic.

How brain freeze works. (via The Kitchn)

A majority of unemployed people in the US have attended at least some college. (via the mprnews tumblr)

Cookity

Make your own (less luridly red) maraschino cherries! (via The Kitchn)

Salted coffee caramel sauce.

Strawberry-kiwi crisp. (via CRAFT)

Kid-friendly vegetarian meals and snacks.

Green pea pancakes with smoked salmon. (via CRAFT)

Gluten-free pasta frittata with kale.

Vegan gluten-free picnic recipes.

Quinoa with chickpeas, asparagus, and fresh peas.

Texas grapefruit cocktail. (via The Kitchn)

Brrrrrrity!

Make ice cream in a food processor.

Dark chocolate sorbet. (via The Kitchn)

Buttery popcorn ice cream.

15 homemade ice creams.

10 nondairy frozen treats. 10 more nondairy frozen treats.

10 recipes mixing coffee and ice cream.

5 homemade ice cream sandwiches.

5 non-alcoholic frozen drinks.

Easy frozen yogurt pops.

Crafty

Crochet a seed bead bracelet. (via CRAFT)

Cool

Use robotic arms to play with real cats – if you catch them awake! (Thanks, Cole!)

Artistic cat serving dish (for serving people, not cats).

Black cat tea set.

Aw, that could be Mayhem!

Avengers-themed cocktails. (Thanks, Alison!)

Hooded TARDIS bathrobe. (via The Mary Sue)

Matt Smith (Doctor Who) is going to carry the Olympic torch through Cardiff on Saturday, May 26.

LEGO British birds. (via Apartment Therapy)

Turn old diskettes into ships from Star Wars. (via CRAFT)

Photos from Sunday’s annualar eclipse.

Cool or Wha…?

Lawn Twister, anyone?

R2-D2 hoodie.

Star Wars-themed wall climbing holds.

Video games brought to photographic “life”.

Portable travel nightstand.

Wha…?

Mix tape coffee table.

Porcupine chair.

Not for coulrophobics…

Helicopter drops nearly 1000 hot dogs on Detroit… isn’t that going to be sort of nasty in the heat?!

Knitted hamburger wall art.

Cupcakewursts.

I got nothin’. Ditto.

“Nude” censorship towel.

Flesh-eating bacteria and a penile implant… ewww.

Meat balloons. (No, not condoms…)

LOL

Stephen Colbert made Maxim’s list of the 100 most beautiful women in the world. 😀

“What London is really like”.

Another photo from my neighborhood…

Or, as the case may be, Panther Princess Mayhem. 😉

Tail assault! (via Piper Vaughn’s tumblr)

Cat vampire.

Cats suck at philosophy.

Cat logic.

What do cat owners think about?

Teh Cute

Baby red wolves! Baby ocelot! Baby cheetahs! Baby maras! Baby dholes! Kitten! Baby fennec! Baby Pinsker’s hawk-eagle! Baby black bear! Baby penguins! Cheetah and baby! Baby lion! Baby lions! Kitten! Baby blue-footed boobie!

Reading Update
The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger. Very good epistolary historical fiction about a 12-year old Jewish boy living in Brooklyn in 1940 who starts corresponding with the New York Giants third baseman, beginning a life-changing friendship for both of them. This was touching and funny and had me in tears at the end.
Gambling Men: The Novel by Amy Lane. ebook. Very good m/m romance about two guys who’ve been best friends and business partners since college, but suddenly up the ante to maybe being much more. I really enjoyed this… other than the pervasive sense of dread that things were going to become an angstfest at any minute. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run #4) by Abigail Roux & Madeleine Urban. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense in which Ty and Zane are kept continually off balance, by each other and by a series of bombings and bank robberies. I am very, very glad that I’d heard this was something of a cliffhanger and waited to read it until the next book was available.
Armed & Dangerous (Cut & Run #5) by Abigail Roux. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense in which Ty and Zane are sent to bring in Julian Cross (from Warrior’s Cross) for an old home week sort of read that ties things up well enough to end the series… but doesn’t.
Switch (True Colors #4) by Clare London. ebook short. arc. Very good steamy short m/m romance in which Zeke and Miles reconnect after Miles being out of town, returning just in time for Zeke’s gallery show.
Bomber’s Moon (Under the Hill #1) by Alex Beecroft. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a guy who contacts a paranormal investigator after an unsettling encounter with the Fae. This ends on a cliffhanger, so make sure you have the second book handy!
Dogfighters (Under the Hill #2) by Alex Beecroft. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance that pulls together the threads from the first book for a dramatic, bittersweet finale. (There are three MCs, but only two end up together.) I think this book should’ve been part of the first book – and maybe it was at one point. There were also a few parts that felt as if they muddled rather than advanced the plot.
Learning the Ropes (Sex Sells #3) by Kim Dare. ebook. Good kinky m/m romance about an ad agency employee who’s assigned to put together an advertising campaign for a leather club owned by one of the agency’s partners. Although the employee isn’t into bdsm, he offers to do a scene so he has a better idea what the club is about.
Queen’s Man by KD Sarge. ebook. Good m/m scifi romance about Joss, a bodyguard who sees his one-night stand gunned down, then saves the guy’s daughter and spends the rest of the book protecting her, his boss, and his “stalker”. While it was a fun read, I couldn’t relate to Joss’ over-the-top perfection.
Event Horizon (Theo Bourne #2) by Evelyn Shepherd. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance in which Detective Theo Bourne and his partner (in every sense of the word) Carlos Ramirez have to face both a mysterious mystical monster and Theo’s attraction to someone else.
Diva and the Frat Boy (Men of Holsum College #2) by Daisy Harris. ebook. Pretty good m/m romance about the rather serious president of a gay fraternity who finds himself unexpectedly attracted to a very flamboyant junior. While this story touched on issues like prejudice within the gay community, there wasn’t any real follow through. I also never got a sense of emotional connection between the main characters.
The City of Counts by Keira Andrews. ebook short. Short m/m paranormal about a tax accountant who meets a sexy guy while waiting at the DMV, then goes out with him. This felt more like a tease for a longer story than a complete story. 🙁
After the Fall (The Right Choice #1) by Talia Carmichael. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about a bookstore owner who just wants to have sex with the contractor renovating his store, not start a relationship. But the contractor has other plans…
The Wolfing Way (Lifting the Veil #1) by Susan Laine. ebook. Ok paranormal m/m romance about a guy about to graduate from college who discovers he’s the fated mate of a werewolf and is afraid that all his choices are about to being taken away. As others have noted, this started promisingly, but deteriorated into near-purple prose and cliches.

Stylized May is stylized! 🙂 (Embiggen for best effect.)

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Linkity and a new tattoo!

September 9, 2011 Chris 46 Comments

Stop by and enter the contest for Barging In by Josephine Myles! Contest closes 7 pm CDT, September 19.

Congrats to Cayce, who won Love is in the Title (Love #1) and Love is in the Hallways (Love #2) by RJ Scott!

Congrats to D, who won Galen and the Forest Lord by Eden Winters!Â Galen and the Forest Lord will be released by Torquere Press on Saturday, September 10.

Contests

Bronwyn Green’s giving away an ebook copy of Anna Mayle’s Lullaby for a Stolen Child (Stolen Child #2). Contest closes 7 pm EDT, September 9.

Desert Island Keepers is giving away an ebook copy of Katie Reus’ Deadly Obsession. Contest closes 7 pm PDT, September 9.

Smexy Books is giving away five different sets of new releases, in a variety of romance genres. Contest runs through September 10.

Bronwyn Green’s giving away winner’s choice of a print or ebook copy of RA Evans’ Asylum Lake. Contest closes 7 pm EDT, September 12.

MJ O’Shea and Piper Vaughn are giving away two ebook copies of MJ’s new book, A Little Bite of Magic (Little Magic #1). Contests close 9 pm PDT, September 12.

Joder’s giving away an ebook copy of Take Me Down by Lauren Hawkeye. Contest closes 11:59 pm, September 15.

Caught in a FAB Romance is giving away a signed copy of Lauren Dane’s Never Enough. Contest ends September 20.

To win your choice from Devon Rhodes’ backlist and you’re on Twitter or Facebook, guess the date by which she’ll get sick now that her kids are back in school.

Bookity

New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR, plus newsletter), Renee’s Book Addiction (a little of everything), and Book Lovers Inc (a little of everything).

Book and publishing news from Dear Author.

Carolyn Crane on “scarcity thinking” in writing.

All Hallows Read. (via Tor.com)

Man goes to jail because of overdue library books.

Make mini-accordion books.

Vintage typewriters. (Thanks, Bron!)

Bookbath! (via Caught in a FAB Romance)

Less napping, more reading.

Ebookity

Sixty-one percent of ebook readers in the US are female.

Add a solar panel to your ebook reader.

An American Editor on how the Agency 6 changed his book buying habits… and definitely not in the way they intended.

Think, Do, Make, Learn

The results of IBM’s 2011 Commuter Pain Study.

The summer of 2011 was the worst summer for movie theaters since 1997.

Malware prevention and cleanup for your PC.

An award-winning Swedish nature photographer turns out to have been using stock photos and photoshop…

Make a travel flashlight from a soda can and a cereal box.

Scientists still don’t understand female orgasm.

If canning looks to be the only way out of your CSA veggie overload, check out these five canning websites.

JP Morgan explains the Euro debt crisis using LEGOs.

Cookity

Make your own butterscotch Tastykakes. (via The Kitchn)

Twenty-three lemon desserts. (via The Kitchn)

Nutella-filled shortbread. (via The Kitchn)

Chocolate dipped cookie dough gelato sandwiches. (via The Kitchn)

Snickerdoodle pumpkin ice cream sandwiches. (via CRAFT)

Red velvet ice cream sandwiches. (via The Kitchn)

Easy fridge garlic dill pickles.

Shrimp pad thai. (via The Kitchn)

Pizza dip. (via The Kitchn)

Betty Crocker’s Outdoor Cookbook from 1961. (via CRAFT)

Blueberry rum smash.

Crafty

Crochet a Ms. Pac-Man amigurami. (via CRAFT)

Crochet a granny ripple pattern.

Knit zoetrope hat.

A knitted and crocheted garden! (Thanks, Jeanne!)

Knitting with glass.

Encrypted WWII cross stitch.

Crafty non-Wreck cakes.

Cool

Geyser right before it erupts.

Camera desk lamp.

Propane tank that looks like a giant LEGO head.

LEGO dragon.

LEGO kraken.

Disney princesses as Sith warriors.

A capella version of the Doctor Who theme song.

Formal TARDIS dress. (via The Mary Sue)

Dalek art car.

Linkity from Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.

Cool or Wha…?

The Back to the Future shoes are now available from Nike.

Blunt umbrella.

A mixer with a hood ornament.

Boar’s head balaclava.

Those crazy Aussies drew a penis on a Google Street View camera…

Dumpsters as mobile urban mini parks.

Hipster Harry Potter characters.

Pink Dalek dress.

My Little Pony Ood. (via The Mary Sue)

Knitted BMW engine. (via KnittyBlog)

Wha…?

Google uses more power than Salt Lake City.

Bomb alarm clock.

Eleven foot tall iPod dock.

Dress your dog up like a dinosaur.

Ack! The risk of overused sperm from sperm banks…

LOL

Have you been to PassiveAggressiveNotes.com yet?

The Oatmeal’s recommended curriculum for high school seniors.

August 2011’s 15 funniest autocorrects.

Hmm. I wonder if I could get away with putting this up on my cubicle wall?

Evil shouldn’t smell like strawberries.

New Simon’s Cat!

Cat ideology.

Teh Cute

Kittens! Swan and cygnets! Kitten! Swan and cygnets! Cat and kitten! Muntjac and baby! Cat and kittens! Lion cubs! Young cheetahs! Lioness and cub! Tiny turtle! Fawn and fox kit! Painfully cute kitten! Young panda! Owlet! Fennec kit! Baby bat! Tiger and cub! Lion cub!

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.