Horrible news

Last night I got the shocking message that a dear friend lived her worst nightmare. Out of respect for her awful loss and her love for blogging, it doesn’t feel right for me to go on blogging and bloghopping as if nothing happened.

Therefore I rescheduled my review for tomorrow to next Wednesday and I won’t post any other posts until then. Nor will I be around blogland much. I’ll only check and answer my e-mail.

I’m wishing her all the strength and love in the world, to deal with the immense pain she’s facing.
~

Blogversary & What I learned

Today 365 days ago I wrote my first post for this blog! So, today is my One Year Blogversary. Yay! To be honest I’d never thought I would still be doing this when I started it, but as it turned out to be, I really LOVE blogging!

What's absolutely great about it, is meeting so many wonderful, like-minded people: other readers, other bloggers and a lot of talented and kind authors. There are too many to mention separately, but you know that I mean YOU! :)

After one year of blogging and reading romance I can say that I’ve learned quite a few things. Here’s ten of them:

1. I need to control my book shopping addiction and accept that I can’t read cq have all books that sound interesting. Just for fun I looked up how many books I bought since I started reading romance (in August 2009) and it’s kind of a shocker! Turned out to be 600+ books, worth of over $ 2500!
2. I love other genres than only contemporary romance (my initial genre), like paranormal romance and m/m romance
3. Meeting virtual friends in real life is a lot of fun
4. Romance book bloggers and readers are an active, fun and loyal bunch of people. Their comments never fail to make my day
5. There's a difference between romance, erotic romance and erotica. And my heart beats the fastest for erotic romance, not so fast for romance or erotica. I think erotic romance combines the best of romance and erotica -> good development of plot/storyline & hot, explicit sex scenes. Leave the first out of a romance and nothing’s left, leave the second out of erotica and nothing’s left. But when you leave the first out of erotic romance you still have the sex scenes, and when you leave the second out of it you still have the plot to enjoy
6. Romance authors are very approachable. In general they like hearing from you, even if you have a request (for a review copy or a guest post/giveaway)
7. I love hosting giveaways
8. Twitter is great
9. The evil day job and real life always get in the way of blogging and bloghopping. I learned to accept that and to feel less guilty about not leaving comments as much as I want to. And thank god for guest bloggers/reviewers who are willing to help me out!
10. I don’t think I’ll ever stop blogging!

You recognize any of these? :)

I’m not big on throwing parties, I always start thinking about organizing one when it’s too late, but as it happens to be I do have a few ebook giveaways the next couple of days at my blog. The authors Stacey Espino, Shayla Kersten, Kele Moon and L.B. Gregg donated copies of their books and to have a chance of winning one (or all) of them all you have to do is drop by at my place at the following days and leave a comment at the post(s) about the books you’re interested in:

Tuesday: Fearless Desire by Stacey Espino
Wednesday: River of Need by Shayla Kersten
Thursday: Beyond Eden by Kele Moon
Friday: Dudleytown by L.B. Gregg

All giveaways run until next Monday, when I’ll announce the four winners.

For now I only have this man candy for you.

Happy Monday!
~

Happy Gay Friday & Randomness

It’s one of those days on which my head feels empty (or too full) and only random thoughts are surfacing. You know that feeling? Or am I the only one who has them?

Anyway, random thoughts cause random posts, so here’s some of that randomness:

1.

I’m currently reading Talker by Amy Lane, that I might feel a bit prejudiced about because I loved the Dedication. ;) It reminded me of myself and hubby and how we started out. It says:

ALL of my work, whether I remember the dedication or not, is somehow dedicated to my husband. “Mate” and I have been together since we were nineteen years old.
We were the ones with the restaurant jobs, taking classes, while living in the shitty apartment. We were the ones with the poor-man’s Christmas tree, and we were the ones who had to choose between heat and light. (We chose light and were grateful for the big camping sleeping bags my parents gave us for Christmas. They were later stolen, because hey—did I mention it was a shitty apartment?)
I write a lot of stories about young love and first-time lovers, and I do it with optimism that the lovers will make it, because Mate and I did. So when you get to the end, don’t worry about Brian and Talker. Have a little faith. Turns out that sometimes, faith and a sense of humor really can be all you need. (And a chance to raid your parents’ garden or eat free restaurant food. That helps too.)

Isn’t that the cutest dedication evah?


2.
Did you hear of the 18 & Over Tag Along Friday yet? It’s an initiative from Bitten by Paranormal Romance and is for a specific group of book bloggers who primarily post adult content and book reviews. Check out the list of 18+ bloggers who joined this tag along by clicking on the button below.

3.
Last week Eyre posted a YouTube video with a song from The Cure which reminded me of my teens, when I was one of those black eyelined fans with highly back-combed purple hair, lol! Here’s a vid of their song ‘Lovesong’ that I still love and occasionally listen to.

4.
Aww

5.
I’m not sure what to think about this expression of love *g*:

6.
There’re a few upcoming novels that I’m jonesing for and of which I recently saw the covers. These are two of them (coming out in November and December):

7.
Let’s conclude with the shallow ;) The cover hussy in me started to purr because of these two covers.

I know at least one of these cover models is Jed Hill, who’s one of the hottest cover models out there (he’s also on Jaci Burton’s upcoming novel The Perfect Play). So, shall we drool a little more over this hottie?

Have a happy Friday!

Remember me? ;) Well… I’m back again!

It feels like I was gone for ages, but it was only 18 days really! I’m uber relaxed, totally happy and anxious to fall back into my blogging addiction again! :) Boy have I missed you!!!

First things first: Thank you all for coming over to my place the past couple of weeks and showing all the comment love! I really appreciate it, although I’m a little sad that I missed the party! ;)
Especially a warm thank you to my guest bloggers: Leontine, Kris, Pattepoilue, Tam, Bronwyn, Cecile and KC, who not only wrote these wonderful posts but also were here to respond to all the comments! Awesome! They rock, don’t you agree?!

I’ll be busy this afternoon with reading all your comments (yay!) and hopefully with some bloghopping --> don’t know where to start, I’ve missed so many posts…
And maybe I have some time left for twitter… although I doubt it… because there’s also some laundry to do (bleh!) and a back-from-vacation-family-dinner to attend tonight (sort of a tradition in hubs family).
The rest of this weekend looks busy too – we’re meeting our best friends tomorrow and on Sunday hubs and I have a date for a Millennium-marathon --> we’re going to watch all three Millennium-movies in a row – while eating some pizza in between. We thought this was a nice way to end our joint vacation – hubs has to go back to work on Monday, I still have another week… which is a good thing because I have a lot of reviews to write, with all the wonderful books I’ve read during my vacay!
And of course I have to start collecting all the entries for the contest so I can announce the 6 winners this weekend!

Yep, vacation is definitely over, lol!

Good thing we had such a relaxing time! I can recommend vacationing in France, Bretagne, if you ever have the chance. We stayed for the best part of our vacation in an apartment at the sea, which was bright and spacious with the best view we could’ve wished for. With the huge difference between high and low tide the view of the sea and small harbor changed several times a day, at one moment you could swim nearly right in front of our door, at the next moment you had to walk for almost a mile before you even reached the water. We enjoyed the low tide walks the most, looking for souvenir shells and getting fascinated by all the squirming little crabs and other sea creatures.
Our evenings we spent partly on the balcony listening to one of the bands that played on a little stage at the boulevard, and partly hanging on the couch in our living room with wine and a good book – in my case a smutty one – and me with my feet in hubby’s lap who was so sweet to rub them every time! *sigh*

Still, it’s good to be home again. :) One of the things I look forward to is catching up with DeRo, aka Deniz and Roman from the German soap Alles Was Zählt, which I watch through Eskimokissproject’s channel on YouTube. I’m wondering if they’re back together again…
Never heard of them? Here’s what you’re missing:



And no, I didn’t forget it’s Happy Gay Friday today! So, here’s the cookie you’ve all been waiting for ;) I’m really glad I can browse my folders with boyz again! :) And because you, and I, had to do without them for a couple of weeks, I add a nice vid of kissing boyz this week. Enjoy!

BTW commenting on this post still counts for my Vacay Giveaway until I announce the winners in a new post on Saturday or maybe even Sunday (depends on how much work it is, there are hundreds of comments on the giveaway posts, from a lot of different peeps --> thanks again for playing!).

Happy Gay Friday!!

Vacay Giveaway Kick Off & Where did July go?

I’m in the middle of packing while I’m writing this post. By the time you’ll read it, me and my love will be on our way! First we’re heading to Belgium where hubs needs to pick up something he bought on ebay and then our next destination is Bretagne in France. From Wednesday on we’re in a rented apartment which has no internet access whatsoever…

In a way I’m actually looking forward to that. I know, it’s weird, because I will really miss blogging and bloghopping! Especially since I haven’t been able to hop for a while now due to the preparation of our vacation and my Vacay Giveaway event, which starts today!
I want to apologize for being absent on most of your blogs the past couple of days, but I’ll be back after my vacation and will read all the posts that I’ve missed! I promise. :)

But I look forward to almost three weeks of reading and relaxing and having all the time in the world and being full time together with hubby. Although that scares me a little too, lol!
I’m really glad that my blog is in good hands with my guest bloggers until I’m back again! Check in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday if you like to, to discover who these guest bloggers are and to show them some comment luv! In return you’ll have a chance of winning one of six wonderful prizes! :) Look below for the contest rules and prizes.

~~~~~

July was a really slow reading month for me and I was so busy wrapping things up at work and preparing for the vacation (on my blog and at home) that I completely forgot to post my DIK Reading Challenge Review! I did read the book, Islands by Samantha Kane, but forgot to write about it. So, that Challenge is a fail now :(

And here is the short list of only 12 romances I read in July:

1. Double Shot Cappuccino by Stephani Hecht, 4 stars
2. Gay Friendly (G-A-Y, #9) by Kim Dare, 3.75 stars
3. Tempted by Megan Hart, 3.5 stars
4. Seeking Kokopelli by Shelley Munro, 2.75 stars
5. Finding Home (Quinn Security, #1) by Cameron Dane, 3.5 stars
6. Saying I Do (Quinn Security, #3) by Cameron Dane, 4 stars
7. Raising Kane (Rough Riders, #9) by Lorelei James, 4 stars
8. Blinded By Our Eyes by Clare London, 4.5 stars
9. Bus Stop by Pepper Espinoza, 4 stars
10. Islands by Samantha Kane, 4 stars
11. As You Are by Ethan Day, 4 stars
12. Tie 'Em Up, Hold 'Em Down by Carolina Valdez, 2.75 stars

~~~~~

Although the month flew by, July did have a great final when I met Leontine at Utrecht, a city in the middle of our country, the Netherlands. I can’t tell you how much fun we had! We met at the Central Train Station at 11am, went down town for some coffee. We started talking on our way there and never stopped talking until it was time for Leontine to catch her train home at 6pm! In between we had lunch, ate some ice cream, went to the bookstore and walked around town along the canals, before we ended up at another pavement café for a drink. Leontine brought me a fun bag with all sorts of goodies, like book marks, signed covers and a book from Josh Lanyon! She’s a generous person who never bores you and likes to laugh a lot. When we had to say our goodbyes after 7 hours we felt as if we still could talk for hours and hours! From now on we’re going to call each other and hopefully meet again soon in person!

How was your month? Did it fly by too? Have you read any good books? Did you meet cool peeps?

I look forward to your comments when I come back from vacation, just know that I won’t be here until August 20th to respond as you’re used from me! But my guest bloggers will be.

See you later! Au revoir, mes amies! :)

~~~~~



Contest rules:

Leave a comment on this and/or any other blog post between August 2nd and 20th for a chance to win one of the six Vacay Giveaway prizes.
A comment on one of the posts from August 2-20 gives you 1 entry for the contest, a comment on 2 of the posts 2 entries, a comment on 3 of the posts 3 entries, etc. So, the more frequent you return to show some luv to my guest bloggers the higher your chances to win one of the six prizes! :)
In the weekend of August 21st I’ll announce who the 6 winners are (selected with random.org); winner #1 can choose first, winner #2 second, winner #3 third, etc. from one of the six prizes. Don’t forget to check back then or leave a way for me to contact you in your comment or profile.

The prizes are, in random order:
• A $15 Gift Certificate from any online bookstore I can buy from
• An ecopy of Daughters of Persephone by Julia Rachel Barrett
• One of Mia Watts’ ebooks of choice. Check out her books here
• A book of choice from The BookDepository (of max $10 and only when they ship to your country... sorry)
• One of Bronwyn Green’s ebooks of choice. Check out her books here
• An ebook of choice from DreamSpinner Press

With thanks to DreamSpinner Press, Mia Watts, Bronwyn Green and Julia Rachel Barrett for sponsoring this Vacay Giveaway by donating their prizes!

We Have a Winner!! Oh. And some other Happy Stuff

I brought all the commenters on Keta Diablo’s blog tour post – okay not literally, just their names – to Mr Random and he picked one lucky winner! And her name is:

*drumroll*

Twimom227 (aka Jen)

Congratulations Jen! You win a copy of Blood Oath! Keta will be sending your book directly.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, thanks to the wonderfully generous Keta Diablo for appearing on my blog and giving away one of her books!

~~~~~
If you didn’t win, be sure to come back this Saturday for another sexy giveaway when the lovely writers Jenna Byrnes and Jude Mason drop by! They’ll celebrate a new release in their Kindred Spirits series and will give away a book to one lucky commenter (winner’s pick). It’s an overnight contest that’ll only run until Sunday, so mark your calendars! :)

~~~~~
And, I want to thank Vixen Pearl from Vixen Reviews for giving me this award!! Thank you very much Vixen!! :)

Here's how this award works:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award! I’m sure they’ll be thankful ;-)


So, here are 7 things about me…

1. I’m an awful procrastinator
*
2. I hate people who start whistling unfamiliar tunes in an occupied train (happened to me today)
*
3. I still miss my Binny every day but refuse to give in to hubby’s wish for a naked cat, I need fluffy and cute
*
4. I’m going horribly into withdrawal during my upcoming vacation without internet access
*
5. I once spent the night with two gorgeous Italian guys while I was in Rome on a passage to India (My excuse: I was only 19 years old ;) and for the first time traveling alone)
*
6. I love the tv-show Supernatural (read Dean Winchester/Jensen Ackles) and even take the DVD of the last season with me on vacation
*
7. Almost all these 7 secrets are related to vacation. Guess what? My vacation just started an hour ago!! Yippeeeh!

Now, the 15 recently discovered, fantastic bloggers:
*depends a bit on how you define ‘recently’, but okay*

1. Redd @ The Forgotten Hollow
2. Diana @ Book of Secrets
3. LynnMarie and her gang @ Happily Ever After Reviews
4. Amora @ Amora’s Place
5. Steph @ Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust
6. Sherri @ Urban Girl Reader
7. Mama Kitty and her Staff @ Mama Kitty Reviews
8. Carole and Silver @ The Romance Reviews
9. DemonLover @ Demonlover’s Book Reviews & More
10. Evi @ Zwillingsleiden (in German but with the occasional review in English)
11. Jenny @ SupernaturalSnark
12. Ash @ Smashattack Reads
13. Yvonne @ Diva’s Bookcase
14. Daydrmzzz @ Day Dreaming (she just started but her layout and genre preference look promising)
15. This one I leave open – maybe you can tell me which fantastic blogs you’ve recently discovered?

And actually Vixen Pearl’s own blog is fantastic and new to me too and it’s really worth visiting!

I’ll drop by tomorrow at all these wonderful places to fulfill the 4th task! It’s too late now (over here). :)

~~~~~
And I just found out that I have myself won a book!! It’s Double Blind by Heidi Cullinan and I won it over at International Heat *thanks for the tip Chris!*
It’s the perfect way to start my vacation!!
*going to dance a little now*

I hope you’re all having a great day too! Wishing you a lot of Happy Stuff!!

Happy Gay Friday & Free Reads and other Randomness

~~~~~
Make sure you enter the giveaway to win one of Keta Diablo’s Gay Fiction Books before July 28th!
~~~~~

TGIF! Cookie time! :)

And TG my vacay is only a few days away! :) Next Wednesday will be my last work day, if everything goes well, and I can say adieu to the office for 4 and a half weeks!
* I’m dreaming about Thursday - I think I stay in bed for the best part of the day, with my ereader of course. Let’s see if I can pull myself out of this annoying reading slump.
* And then on Friday I’m meeting blog buddy Leontine in Utrecht! Squeee!! I’m so looking forward to that! Can you imagine how much we’ll have to talk about? We planned on doing some book and ereader shopping too, in between the talking *grin*.
* On Saturday hubs and I have this family event to attend. My complete family gets together at my aunt and uncle’s house for a BBQ and lots of cocktails until the wee hours of morning.
* Sunday we’ll start packing our car for our vacation!
* Monday we’ll depart, by car, to France! Yay! We’re heading towards Bretagne, a province at the West Coast, but might as well end up in the south of France (or Spain, or Italy, lol) depending on the weather. We haven’t booked anything so we’re free to stay and go wherever we like! Doesn’t that sound like heaven?

But don’t worry, you won’t miss me! These awesome galls will keep my blog alive and kicking while I’m away:
~Leontine from Leontine’s Book Realm
~Kris from Kris ’n’ Good Books
~Pattepoilue (aka Caroline) from One Book Away From Heaven
~Tam from Tam’s Reads
~Bronwyn Green from Bronwyn’s Blog
~Cecile from All I Want and More
~KC from Smokinhotbooks

And during that period, from August 2 until 20, I’ll run a contest in which you can win various prices by just leaving comments on the guest posts. Easy peasy, right?

~~~~~
Have you ever been to Lulu.com? I’ve downloaded a few free books from that site last week.

The first was Broken by Alyssa Turner which can be found here.
The author asked me to check this novella out and wrote this: “Thanks for checking it out, and I hope you enjoy it! Broken is a short erotic romance that breaks the mold somewhat. I am hoping to bring something new to the genre with my writings.”
That made me curious enough to want to read it. :) Maybe it piqued your curiosity too?

And then there was this series I heard Leontine talking about and which is also dowloadable for free at Lulu.com. It’s called Special Forces and written by Marquesate & Vashtan.
The first book, Soldiers, can be found here.
The second book, Mercenaries, part 1 here and part 2 here.
And the third book, Veterans, here.

~~~~~
And last but not least a few random pics that made me smile or laugh...

Because this was how I often felt this week ;)

Have a Happy Friday!

Monday's Hot Couple

[image]

Only a picture today, no smutty scene, because I'm still reading the same book as last week! O_o
I know, it's indeed unparalleled. But the day job, the heat and some social obligations are keeping me away from home and my ereader... Even tonight I have to work because of some deadline and I'm really unhappy about it. With a bit of luck I have some time for myself again coming Thursday.
I'm looking forward to it, because I have some good books waiting on my ereader, like Clare London's Blinded by Our Eyes and Megan Hart's Naked. But first I have to finish Lorelei James's Raising Kane, that I'm really enjoying.
How about you, which book are you reading atm and are you enjoying it?

Ps: Don't forget to drop by on Wednesday for the Keta Diablo Giveaway.

Happy Monday!

Happy Gay Friday & Does Summer Affect Your Blog(hopping)?

Wew, I think I’m officially in a reading slump this month. So far I’ve only read 6 books and just one was a full-length novel… Let’s just say I’ve had other things to keep me occupied. ;)
The truth is, my vacation is coming up by the end of the month and our secretary is going on vacay one week ahead of me. So, we’re working our asses off to get all our little projects completed before we leave it all behind for four weeks. That way I’ll feel much more relaxed while sitting in the French sun, sipping French wine and nibbling from French bread and French cheese. :D

But it’s costing me some of my reading hours…

Aside from that I’m busy plotting and planning some guest posts with a few of my bloggy friends for when I’m on vacation and touring through France. Because I don’t want it to go all quiet over here. In fact, I want you to have a great time without me! So, I’m really happy that these friends are helping me out with some fun posts! Plus I’ll run a nice ‘Vacay Giveaway’ during those first weeks of August! I hope you all join in the fun!

Speaking of giveaways, I have agreed to join in a few blog tours in July and some come with a giveaway. Here’s what you can expect for the next weeks:

July 21
Blog tour to celebrate six new m/m releases from Keta Diablo, including a giveaway of one of her books (winner’s choice)

July 27
I’m guest posting over at Leontine’s Book Realm, with a review of Lorelei James’s Raising Kane, and she’ll give away one of Lorelei James’s Rough Riders books (winner’s pick)

July 29
Blog tour Pack of Lies. I’ll be reviewing Vanessa Vaughn’s m/m novel Pack of Lies, which is a beautifully written first book of a paranormal series.
*M/M ‘purists’ alert: this m/m book also has m/f scenes!
I usually don’t watch book trailers that often, because I like to make my own picture of the characters but the one for this book is fast and beautiful without forcing an image upon the viewer, so here it is:



July 31
Blog tour to celebrate the release of Alex’s Appeal, the third m/m book in Jenna Byrnes’ and Jude Mason’s Kindred Spirits series, including a giveaway of one of the books from this series (winner’s choice).

August 2 – 16
KC and K-Khan from Smokinhotbooks are having a party: 14 Days of FAB (Freakin' Awesome Books...so far this year) and I join them with a guest post on one of those days. They’ll have a giveaway at the end.

August 2 – 20
Vacay Giveaway. Party time at my blog while I’m on vacation, with various guest bloggers and a giveaway of two gift certificates for two lucky winners at the end.

Well, I believe that’s enough info for today ;)

I’m curious what you do with your blog - if you have one - when you’re on vacation? And what about bloghopping? Do you use summer and vacation time to bloghop more and find new places, or the opposite, do you spend less time online? Personally I discovered the whole world of book blogs during summer time last year when I used the relaxed days of vacation and summer to spend some time online! :)

Have a Happy Friday!

Spreading the Smutty Love

Leontine is having a big party, starting next Monday!

Look what she has in store for us smut lovers:

SMUTTY RESEARCHERS AT PLAY giveaways:

July 19th: Column - A gal and her smut + the grand 'Research the Smut' Giveaway: a 30 dollar Gift Certificate to any e-book store I can buy a GC

July 20th: Guestblog - Smutty approved book characters by KC from Smokinhotbooks Giveaway: Copy of The Darkest Lie send to you by the author (For US only)

July 21st: My first time story & an excerpt + Giveaway: a novel from Joey W Hill's backlist send to you by the author.

July 27th: Guestreview - Lorelei James, Raising Kane by Janna from Erotromreader (that’s me ;)) + Giveaway: E-copy giveaway of a Rough Rider novel by choice.

July 28th: Guestblog - A guide into the smut by @Ferishia + Giveaway: A copy of Demon’s Fire send to you by the author.

July 30th: Interview with R.G Alexander about her upcoming release, Possess Me + Giveaway: $ 10,- Gift Certificate to Amazon given by the author.

Go check out Leontine’s place for more details!

This and That on a Lazy Sunday

This:
Our Sunday is warm & lazy and our whole nation is excited and anxiously waiting for the big event! Tonight is the World Cup final: Netherlands – Spain. Nobody thinks we’re going to win, not even Octopus Paul:



Seems that this German oracle has predicted the outcome of all Germany’s matches right. LOL! But we’ll see.

I plan to enjoy the match anyway, if it’s not for the game than at least for the running and sweating hotties. ;) We have a few pretties in our team and Spain even more! :D

Hubby and I are going to a barbecue first and after that we will watch the match with a group of people. So... party time! :)

~~~~~~~~~~
That:
This weekend I heard of the start of a new publisher (and seller) of ebooks: LazyDay Publishing. And they are looking for talent. They are open to all genres and keeping an open mind about anything that comes their way. Although, they are going to be erotica and romance heavy. They asked me if I could spread the word. :)

The following is their Open Call:

LazyDay Publishing Accepting Submissions (40%-50% Royalties)

LazyDay Publishing is a new digital publisher that is focused on the future of storytelling.

All books will be on our site, but will also be available with all the leading third party distributors. Our books will be easily available in all leading formats. LazyDay Publishing will be a dominating presence in the future of the digital book.

LazyDay Publishing will be officially launching December 1, 2010! Please follow us during this exciting time by visiting our site as well as following us on Twitter.

Our initial web page is designed for the author, but will vastly change on December 1, 2010 to become a fully integrated online ebook store and digital publishing house that will be focused on the reader.

We are actively pursuing authors who want to be part of our team. Please see our submission guidelines on how to get published here.

I hope you’re all having a sweet, lazy Sunday!

Random Hotness

Temperatures are high and at work it has been busy. But who cares because... we made it to the finals of the Worldcup!! Woohoot! :) Ahum, yeah, I'm totally cool about it! ;) So, Sunday night is the match and we're up against Spain. I thought maybe I could treat you all to some nice candy, since it has been ages that I've done that! And perhaps in return you can cheer for the Dutch team, okay? *bats eyelashes*

But first go check out the giveaway at the new Romance Reviews blog. They have great prizes for more than one winner!

And are you wondering what yaoi is? Kris @ Kris 'n Good Books is having a series that tells you all about it. Click the button to go to her place.

And my Dutch blogger friend Leontine is having a mighty interesting week (or actually 12 days) coming up: Smutty Researchers at Play, with some awesome guest bloggers ;) Go see what she has planned @ Leontine's Book Realm.

And last but not least, the wickedly witty blogging twin sisters KC and K-Khan are celebrating their birthday with a giveaway of Maggie Stiefvater's Linger which ends July 9. Go check it out @ the Smokinhotbooks blog.

So, now it's finally time for some wet and cool hotties! Enjoy!

[image]

[image]

[image]

[image]

Mondays Hot Couple & The Tudors

[image]

No time today to post much. I have this deadline tomorrow morning, by then a bunch of articles needs to be edited and ready to send to the lay out designer. And I’m behind, as always, due to my fabulous ability to procrastinate.

Anyhoo, with any luck and some more perseverance I’ll make it in time and even have my DIK Challenge review finished by tomorrow (of Caught Running by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux). On Wednesday a review of Three Wrong Turns in the Desert by Neil Plakcy will hopefully be posted (it’s almost done at this moment). And Thursday maybe another review or my June wrap-up post will show up.

For now, I don’t have a sexy scene for you, but maybe this video about one of history’s classic love stories, will entertain you instead. It’s the romanticized love of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and the clips are from the TV show The Tudors. The song is Sarah Brightman’s Eden. I haven’t seen the show yet, but recently received the DVD of the first season from a friend.
Have you watched or ever heard of this show?
Is it just me, or is Jonathan Rhys Meyers sexy as hell?



Happy Monday!

Happy Gay Friday & This and That

To conclude my ‘Gotta Love Historicals Week’ I have chosen these vintage gay couples as my weekly cookies. They are from the wonderful website Gaytwogether.

Don’t know how it is at your places, but it’s hot over here. And it’s even getting warmer over the next couple of days. And that, while things were going to heat up anyway, coming Monday when our soccer team is playing the next worldcup match. ;) All Dutch people will go batty over this match, because the winner will make it to the quarter finals.

And amidst this heat we suffered a power loss for almost 7 hours yesterday. Aside from having no AC during the hottest hours of the day, I nearly freaked out about having no access to internet, lol! I was working and found out that hardly anything can be done without electricity. The only thing that still worked was my laptop, which I just recharged.
After a few hours there was nothing much more left for me to do than whip out my Jewel and read until the power did get back on. What a shame, huh? *g*
So, what lesson did we learn? Well, a few things but the most important one to always keep the ereader charged to its limit for unexpected cases of power loss. ;D

And here are some of the m/m books I’ve read the past week or so, and haven’t blogged about yet *but hopefully will soon*

Bad Boys, Bad Boys (Boys in Blue, #1) by Mia Watts

Reasonable Doubt (Boys in Blue, #2) by Mia Watts

Three Wrong Turns in the Desert by Neil Plakcy

Bring The Heat by M.L. Rhodes

Love & Loyalty (Faith & Fidelity, #2) by Tere Michaels

Duty & Devotion (Faith & Fidelity, #3) by Tere Michaels

I Fell in Love with a Zombie by Sean Kennedy

And at the moment I’m reading the book for my DIK Challenge, Caught Running by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux.

What books are you reading at the moment or coming weekend?

Happy Friday!