Tag Archives: SE Culpepper

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Sometimes I can’t think of a linkity title and then I am very sad

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Congrats to Raevyn, who won the M/M Week books by Erastes, Kim Knox, Ava March, KC Burn, Dev Bentham, and Larry Benjamin from Carina Press. All six books will be released on March 19.

Congrats to Sarah Madison, who won Diversion by Eden Winters! Diversion will be released on March 18 by Amber Allure.

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Reading Update
Moving in Rhythm by Dev Bentham. ebook arc. Very good m/m romance about a closeted online math instructor whose crippling shyness and social anxiety have him living a hermetic life. When his brother is deployed to Iraq, he agrees to take care of his pregnant sister-in-law during the deployment, and finds himself being forced, protesting, out of his shell… not always smoothly. This was a wonderful combination of sweet and serious.
Social Skills by S Alva. free online. Good m/m romance about a college freshman who plays the violin and has crippling social anxiety. He’s nearly incapacitated by anxiety when he realizes that the closeted football player he’s tutoring is gay and likes him.
Ghosts & Flames by Kaje Harper. ebook. Good holiday paranormal m/m romance a guy with a ghost problem who runs into a guy with a vampire problem. While the final 2/3 of the story was very involving, the first third simply had too much info-dumping – I kept wondering if this was the second book in a series.
Question Mark (Liaisons #2) by SE Culpepper. ebook. Good but uneven m/m romance about Mark from the previous book, who finally realizes that he needs to get over his ex and decides that a trip to Bora Bora is just what he needs. While I was rooting for Mark and his guy, parts of their interactions just didn’t make sense.
Stroke! by MJ O’Shea. ebook short. Good short m/m romance about a guy on his college crew team who’s struggling to keep a freshman from taking his varsity spot. The big mystery was pretty obvious from the beginning.
Maple Leaf Red: Sugaring Off! by Vic Winter. ebook short. Cute short paranormal m/m romance about a guy living alone on a remote Canadian sugar bush who helps an injured wolf…
And Then I Met Him by L Arthur. free online. Pretty good m/m romance about a straight college student who works at a tutoring center and becomes strangely fascinated by a defensive and troubled young man.
Sorry Now? (Paul Turner #1) by Mark Richard Zubro. Good gay mystery about a Chicago police detective trying to figure out who killed the daughter of a homophobic minister and politician.
Political Poison (Paul Turner #2) by Mark Richard Zubro. Pretty good gay mystery in Chicago police detective Paul Turner tries to figure out who killed a professor/alderman. The background stuff that doesn’t change much between books was copied and pasted from the first book. Grrr. Strangely not feeling the urge to check more of this series out from the library… And seriously – why would you try mouth-to-mouth on someone who was poisoned?!
Promise in a Kiss by Piper Vaughn. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about two guys who made a promise to each other when they were kids, then lost touch. While this was sweet, it felt more like a tease than an actual story.
In the Penalty Box (Seattle Marauders #2) by Riley Shane. ebook. Ok m/m romance about a closeted hockey player and the freelance writer who used to have a crush on him. Alas, this did not stand up well against the fabulous (and free) m/m hockey player romance, Heart in Hand.
In the Name of the Law by Sue Holston. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about a cop who’s been in love with his straight partner for years.
Schooled in Murder (Tom & Scott #12) by Mark Richard Zubro. Ok mystery in which Tom stumbles a dead body or two at school and is under suspicion for murder, with unsuspected enemies coming out of the woodwork. The whole thing with the blurb for this and the previous book saying that Scott is a former professional baseball player is beyond weird. Quote from the book itself: “Scott plays professional baseball.” That seems pretty clear to me at least!

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Land sakes, linkity!

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Congrats to Sara V, who won Hot Hands (College Fun and Gays #1) and Grade-A-Sex Deal (College Fun and Gays #2) by Erica Pike!

Congrats to Darcy, who won Lesson Learned by Lillian Francis!

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  • How fast do you read? (Thanks, Jase!) I only got 533 words/minute – I think I’d do a lot better on a test using a contemporary example. 🙂

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Reading Update
Heart in Hand by salifiable. free online. Very good m/m romance about two hockey players on rival teams who become friends – and more – through an unusual turn of events. I got sniffly more than once while I was reading this one. What didn’t work so well for me were all the hockey details in the last third of the book, which got to be a bit much. (Note that this is, as Kate puts it, set in an alternate universe and features two real-life NHL players.)
Private Eye (Liaisons #1) by SE Culpepper. ebook. reread. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a PI who gets involved in the case of a missing teenager when he’s contacted by a cop who’s a friend of the family. Too bad the extremely hot cop is straight… I’m looking forward to the sequel and wondering how SE’s going to get me invested in Mark.
Waking Up Naked (Sex Sells #2) by Kim Dare. ebook. Very good kinky m/m romance about a guy who wakes up naked and hungover in a strange bed with no idea how he got there. And when he eventually does figure out where he is, things don’t go so well…
Songs You Know by Heart by Dr. Noh. free online. Good short m/m romance about a wealthy jerk of a businessman with a taste for rough sex who offers to blow the straight guy who mugs him in the park, never expecting to see him again…
Technicoloured Something by Zebbie. free online. Good m/m romance about a prickly gay architecture student who’s in a wheelchair. He’s not happy that his partner for a major class project seems to be bicurious and hitting on him.
Second Wind by Mickey S. free online. Good m/m romance about a widower with a young son and a conservative family who becomes friends with a gay man and finally acknowledges the feelings he’s always had for men. It doesn’t go over so well with his family… This story suffered from excessive name use during conversation and could definitely have been shorter, but it was sweet anyway.
Here Comes the Corpse (Tom & Scott #9) by Mark Richard Zubro. Good gay mystery which starts with Tom and Scott’s getting married. Too bad Tom finds a body in the bathroom at the reception.
File Under Murder (Tom & Scott #10) by Mark Richard Zubro. Ok gay mystery in which Tom finds a severed head in a file drawer at the clinic for gay teens where he volunteers. This one was kind of dull, and Scott was nearly absent from the story.
Everyone’s Dead But Us (Tom & Scott #11) by Mark Richard Zubro. Ok gay mystery in which Tom and Scott vacation at an island resort and bodies start turning up everywhere. This was beyond silly, actually. And what the heck is up with the book blurb, which says that, “Tom Mason, former Chicago area high school teacher, recently made a public splash by marrying his long-term lover, former professional baseball player Scott Carpenter.” The problem is that, as far as I remember, neither of them has retired from their professions. Their wedding a few books back was timed after the end of the baseball season. The next book is set at the school where Tom teaches, and it sure sounds like he’s still teaching. The blurb on GRs matches the blurb on the dust jacket.

“Oh oh… what was that scary noise?!” -Mayhem

Contests, Reading

Ebook Giveaway: Question Mark (Liasions #2) by SE Culpepper [CONTEST CLOSED]

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Congrats to Peyrac, who won Light Outside the Closet (Haven Coffee House Boys #1) by Stephani Hecht! Light Outside the Closet is being released today by Devine Destinies.

Many thanks to S.E. Culpepper for donating an ebook copy of her forthcoming m/m romance, Question Mark (Liaisons #2), for a lucky commenter to win! S.E. will release Question Mark on March 13.

Coming back from being well and truly dumped is a struggle for the average guy. For Mark Newland, it’s much, much worse. With a long string of broken relationships behind him, Mark is confronted with a choice: grow up and fix the man he’s become, or continue on his lonely and bitter path. With reinvention in mind, Mark heads for a vacation in Bora Bora, hoping it will bring him closer to what he wants. He simply never figured it would be in the form of Hollywood’s most eligible gay bachelor, Zane Whitlow.

If Zane is suspicious of romance, he blames it entirely on his career. Never totally sure that men he’s been with wanted him over a taste of his fame, he errs on the side of caution when it comes to love. Until he meets Mark Newland, that is. Only hours into his vacation and for reasons he can’t understand himself, Zane abandons his usual safe approach in favor of pursuit. But Zane’s not the only one who thinks Mark might be the perfect guy…

With attraction, fear, and insecurity warring within Mark, will he have the strength to believe he deserves lasting love, or will his old ways come back to haunt him?

Also by S.E.

About S.E.

S.E. Culpepper lives in Connecticut and does all her work during her son’s nap and bedtimes. She loves romance, especially when it smacks negativity in the face. S.E. Culpepper is currently editing the sequel to Private Eye which should be released early next year, maybe sooner if the stars align. In her spare time she does gigs as a photographer.

You can find out more about S.E. at her website, blog, and at Goodreads.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment stating that you are entering the contest. Contest closes 7 pm CDT, Monday, March 12.
  • 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!

“What?” -Chaos

Contests, Reading

Ebook Giveaway: Private Eye (Liaisons #1) by SE Culpepper [CONTEST CLOSED]

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I turned 45 today. Eeek! How did that happen?!

Congrats to Tina, who won Touching Wood (Stand-Alone Shorts) by Kim Dare! Don’t forget, Kim is donating all royalties from sales of this book to ALSO Out Youth.

Many thanks to S.E. Culpepper for donating an ebook copy of her m/m romantic suspense, Private Eye (Liaisons #1), for a lucky commenter to win!

Rafe Bridges stopped mixing business with pleasure long ago, but when he receives a call from an intriguing cop who needs help searching for an old family friend, he breaks down and takes on the case. With each day that passes, Rafe becomes further fascinated with Jeremy Halliday…but the biggest problem isn’t his attraction to the cop or his growing need for him. It’s the tiny little detail of Jeremy being straight.

Jeremy isn’t as immune to Rafe as he’d like to believe and as they work together, sifting through a case that is more mysterious and dangerous than it seems, Rafe draws away from him. Knowing he might miss out on someone incredible, Jeremy has to figure out what and who he really wants. And soon.

Nothing is black and white anymore.

About S.E.

S.E. Culpepper lives in Connecticut and does all her work during her son’s nap and bedtimes. She loves romance, especially when it smacks negativity in the face. S.E. Culpepper is currently editing the sequel to Private Eye which should be released early next year, maybe sooner if the stars align. In her spare time she does gigs as a photographer.

You can find out more about S.E. at her website, blog, and at Goodreads.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment stating that you are entering the contest. Contest closes 7 pm CST, Monday, November 28.
  • 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!

“I will get my revenge, oh yes. No birthday amnesty for you, oh no.” -Chaos

Contests, Linkity linkity link, Reading, Reviewettes

Halloweenity Linkity Booity

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Congrats to Melanie M, who won More Than Anything by Shawn Lane! More Than Anything will be released by Amber Allure on October 30.

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  • If you want an Android tablet for reading, but think the Kindle Fire sounds too locked into Amazon, check out the Kobo Vox.

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  • What number human were you on the planet? I was (roughly) the 3,429,463,820th person alive on the planet when I was born, and the 77,402,259,003rd person to have lived since the beginning of human history.

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So, The Kitchn’s gone a little crazy on recipe lists… which I can’t resist. Brace yourselves. 🙂

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  • Top 50 autocorrects from Damn You Autocorrect’s first year: Part 1.

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Reading Update
With a Kiss by Kim Dare. ebook. Excellent kinky paranormal m/m romance loosely based on Sleeping Beauty. A young man who’s being mentally, physically, and sexually abused by his boyfriend comes to the hospital every week for three years to read to a vampire in a mysterious coma. And then the vampires is awakened… This book shines in not trivializing the process of recovering from abuse.
I Just Play One on TV by AL Turner. ebook. Excellent m/m romance about two actors in a suspenseful science fiction tv show with a lot of “subtext” between their characters. One actor is out, although it doesn’t seem to be public knowledge, while the other is deeply closeted and in denial… Let’s just say I spent the last part of the book crying.
Across the East River Bridge by Kate McMurray. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about two academic rivals with an unfortunate chemistry who work together to solve the cold case mystery of two men murdered together in late 19th century Brooklyn.
Guarding Morgan (Sanctuary #1) by RJ Scott. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a guy being kept in an FBI safe house so he can testify about a shooting he witnessed. When the safe house is compromised, he ends up in the care of an intriguing agent for a special organization dedicated to keeping witnesses alive… Definitely looking forward to the next book in this series!
Private Eye (Liaisons #1) by SE Culpepper. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense about a PI who gets involved in the case of a missing teenager when he’s contacted by a cop who’s a friend of the family. Too bad the extremely hot cop is straight…
Just Desserts (Petit Morts #14) by Josh Lanyon. ebook short. Very good short m/m romance about a guy confined to a wheelchair after his drunken cousin crashed their car. Unfortunately, this story didn’t provide any additional insight into Chance and his own journey.
Loose Change (Petit Morts #15) by Sean Kennedy. ebook short. Very good short m/m paranormal focused entirely on Chance, set up as a series of brief scenes.
Media Naranja (Petit Morts #16) by Clare London & Jordan Castillo Price. ebook short. Very good short paranormal m/m romance about a young man who accompanies his dying grandmother and her friend to a tropical resort.
Immortal Coil (Petit Morts #17) by Jordan Castillo Price. ebook short. Excellent short paranormal m/m romance about a high school teacher and former coach whose life changed dramatically several years ago. When he wanders into a small street carnival, he doesn’t know that it’s about to change again. (This story is also the culmination of Chance’s story arc.) I loved this quote: “If everything were anything,” Chance said softly, “the barriers would break down, and we’d all lose ourselves to chaos. And then there would be no cotton candy.”
Independence by Clare London. free ebook short. Steamy, kinky short m/m scene between an established D/s couple.
Learning To Walk (City Hospital #3) by Drew Zachary. ebook. Sweet m/m romance about a guy, seriously injured in a motorcycle accident, who develops feelings for his physical therapist. Since there’s not much conflict in this one, I think it’d be a good read to help recover from an angst-fest book.
Cycle-pathic by Stefan Seabourne. free ebook short. Steamy short m/m scene between a bike courier and the lawyer whose car he dented… with a surprise ending.
Sugar on the Mountain (Mountain #8) by PD Singer. free ebook short. Cute short m/m scene between Allan and Mark in Allan’s catering kitchen.
Blood on the Mountain by India Harper. ebook. Good m/m romantic suspense about a security firm co-owner who goes to Rio to protect a client doing nonprofit work there. This ended with plenty of unanswered questions, although I fear the sequel might be m/f, featuring the other (female) co-owner of the security firm.
Gambling on Love by Jane Davitt. ebook. Good, slightly kinky m/m romance about two guys who fell in love with other in high school. When they were caught kissing in the locker room, one of them left town and didn’t return until 11 years later. He’s very different and he doesn’t want to stay… but the one who stayed doesn’t want to leave. While I’m a fan of Jane Davitt’s work (particularly that written with Alexa Snow), this book never fully came together for me – I couldn’t get invested in the characters or the story.

Missed out on GayRomLit, but still want part of the experience? Read on!

I came back from GayRomLit (GRL) with lots of swag – not only swag that I’d picked up for myself, but also swag I’d accumulated from people who didn’t have enough space in their luggage, or who didn’t want to deal with hassles in Customs. In fact, I came back with enough extra swag to have a GRL Swag Giveaway Contest!

Wanna see? Ok.

*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

“Why are you giving away these great kitty beds and toys, Mom?!” -Mayhem

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

Um. Well. You can’t see if very well, huh? But you get the idea!

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment below stating that you are entering the contest. Leave your comments by 7 pm CST, Monday, November 7. CONTEST CLOSED.
  • By entering the contest, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
  • Cats not included in prize.
  • 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.)
  • Winner 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 US only, due to shipping costs. Sorry. 🙁