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Posted by Amanda

The Shots You Take

The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid is $1.99! This m/m hockey romance released earlier this year. Did any of you pick it up?

A sweet and sexy hockey romance about two ex-teammates and former best friends with benefits who are about to discover whether you can ever really have a second chance, from the USA TODAY bestselling author of Heated Rivalry and The Long Game.

After moving back to his hometown ten years ago, Riley Tuck thought he had left his major league hockey career—and his broken heart—far behind. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes, it brings ex-teammate and former best friend with benefits Adam Sheppard back into his life.

Coming to the small town of Avery River, Nova Scotia, might have been a mistake. Adam’s not sure he’ll ever win back Riley’s trust after the way they left things—and the attention he’s getting as a huge hockey star isn’t exactly helping. Yet the chemistry that crackles between them is undeniable, even now.

As Adam helps Riley navigate his grief, long-buried feelings start to resurface. But they’ll have to square off with their complicated past if they’re going to have a real shot at a new beginning.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Tangled Up in You

Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren is $2.99! This is book four in the Meant to Be Disney retellings series. I believe I’ve heard this one has some slightly darker elements than what you’d think, specifically about the heroine’s upbringing.

She has a dream. He has a plan. Together they’ll take a leap of faith.

Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.

Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few months short from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.

But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire on a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they’ve both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Bombshell

Bombshell by Sarah MacLean is $1.99! This is the first book in the Hell’s Belles series. There are a couple more MacLean books on sale. Elyse gave this one a B-:

Objectively I can look at this book and say that some readers may have an issue with how much time spent on the girl-gang scenes versus the romance, but also ONE OF THEM SPECIALIZES IN EXPLOSIONS. I think part of this imbalance is to set up the rest of the series, but the gang’s quest for justice was very heisty and fun.

New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with a blazingly sexy, unapologetically feminist new series, Hell’s Belles, beginning with a bold, bombshell of a heroine, able to dispose of a scoundrel—or seduce one—in a single night.

After years of living as London’s brightest scandal, Lady Sesily Talbot has embraced the reputation and the freedom that comes with the title. No one looks twice when she lures a gentleman into the dark gardens beyond a Mayfair ballroom…and no one realizes those trysts are not what they seem.

No one, that is, but Caleb Calhoun, who has spent years trying not to notice his best friend’s beautiful, brash, brilliant sister. If you ask him, he’s been a saint about it, considering the way she looks at him…and the way she talks to him…and the way she’d felt in his arms during their one ill-advised kiss.

Except someone has to keep Sesily from tumbling into trouble during her dangerous late-night escapades, and maybe close proximity is exactly what Caleb needs to get this infuriating, outrageous woman out of his system. But now Caleb is the one in trouble, because he’s fast realizing that Sesily isn’t for forgetting…she’s forever. And forever isn’t something he can risk.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Villain Edit

The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore is $1.99! I can’t determine if this is more chick lit/book with strong romantic elements or an actual contemporary romance. If you’ve read this, let us know in the comments!

Emily Henry meets Fleabag…and The Bachelor! An irresistibly sharp and sexy dramedy about a cynical romance novelist who goes on a  reality show to revive her career, only to discover that while she may have just met the love of her life, the producers have turned her into the show’s villain.

“The perfect beach read…a real page-turner. Don’t be surprised if you finish it in one day!”–In Touch Magazine

“Fun and frothy… endlessly entertaining.”–Glamour

Good villains make good TV.

Romance novelist Jacqueline Matthis’s big career has gone bust and she’s ditched the bright lights of New York City for her more affordable South Carolina hometown. Desperate, Jac dreams up a comeback plan—she is going to be a contestant on the 1, the most obsessively watched reality dating show in the world.

After all Jac is a romance writer—she knows how to pull off a meet-cute and create a spicy plotline.

On set, Jac quickly establishes herself as a front-runner for bachelor Marcus’s heart, but she’s shocked to discover who’s actually pulling the strings. How was she to know that Henry Foster, her last one-night stand before the show, was actually a longtime producer on the 1? Henry is just as horrified…but they can’t seem to keep their hands off each other.

As Jac plays the game and the show unfurls, she slowly discovers that she’s getting the villain edit. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but as Jac’s secret plan begins crumbling around her, she’s not so sure. What happens if Marcus chooses her? Worse, what happens if her affair with Henry comes to light? What if, in trying to save her career, Jac has ruined her life?

Heartbreaking, smart, and sexy, this novel is for anyone who has ever secretly rooted for—or felt like—the villain.

“THE VILLAIN EDIT is perfect for people who, like me, love mess. I devoured it in one sitting and was left with a total book hangover—it’s the ideal combination of propulsive psychological thrill and delicious romantic tension.”–Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

profiterole_reads: (Kuroko no Basuke - Kagami and Kuroko)
[personal profile] profiterole_reads
Et je talonnerai mes rêves by Aurélie Chateaux-Martin was excellent. It's a standalone in the same world as other novels I haven't read. Dorian and Loïc, rugby players, become sex friends. One day, Loïc has an accident and wakes up without one of his legs.

While the cover art shows Loïc playing wheelchair rugby, note that the accident only happens in the middle of the book and the wheelchair rugby only takes place in the last few chapters. The first half of the story focuses on valid rugby, with Covid regulations in the background.

This is bi4pan m/m, which starts with no romance between the two. They separate when they have the occasional girlfriend or boyfriend, so they're not aro, but I think readers on the aro spectrum will vibe with this aspect. The accident changes them and they start falling in love. There's a secondary nb/nb relationship and a minor lesbian character.

savanna

Nov. 28th, 2025 09:07 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
savanna or savannah (suh-VAN-uh) - n., a tropical or subtropical grassland with scattered trees.


grassland with scattered trees
Thanks, WikiMedia!

These occur where the rainfall is seasonal, so that the plants need to be drought resistant -- this causes the trees to be far enough apart that the canopy doesn't touch, allowing grasses to cover the ground. The earlier form was zavana, from Spanish zavana, which in turn had the earlier form çavana, from Taíno zabana.


And because I have an excess word, a bonus: tobacco (tuh-BAK-oh), any of several plants of genus Nicotiana of the nightshade family, especially N. tabacum, cultivated for its leaves which are prepared for use in smoking or chewing or as snuff. From Spanish tabaco, which has an iffy etymology, as it could be from an Arawakan or Carib language, but one Spanish chronicler recorded Taíno tabago, meaning either a tube for smoking tabacco or a roll of tabacco leaves i.e. a cigar; if this is correct, the consonant shift was probably influenced by atabaca/altabaca, a Mediterranean plant with aromatic leaves widely used in traditional medicine, named from Arabic al-ṭubbāq.


And that wraps up this theme of words from the Caribbean language Taíno. That's the late group of words from indigenous languages of the Americas that I have, but I'm not quite done with this series -- but first a week of random lexicography.

---L.
duckprintspress: (Default)
[personal profile] duckprintspress

The crowdfunding campaign for our next anthology, Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling, has 4 days left, and we’re a meager $19 from hitting our funding goal!! And we’ve got a great way for folks to help us cross that finish line in a big way. Now through the end of November, support our Kickstarter by getting a big bundle with our best discount of the year! You’ll get Monsterotica, of course, and all the highest-tier merchandise we’re offering (dragon folding fan! cover art print! medusa bookmark! monster dux sticker! humorous monstery postcard set! monster licks enamel pin! tentacle key chain!), AND you’ll get our entire back catalogue of anthologies in both print and e-book formats. And, you’ll save 30% off compared to the cost of buying all these items individually – the whole bundle can be yours for $310 US!

Get lots of great books and gorgeous merch at one great price!


A graphic with a mosaic of images on it. Most of the images are book covers - the books are Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling; Many Hands: An Anthology of Polyamorous Erotica; A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers; And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks of Inspired by Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing; Scholarly Pursuits; Aether Beyond the Binary; He Bears the Cape of Stars; She Wears the Midnight Crown; and Add Magic to Taste. There's also a semi-circular art piece showing a dragon carrying a human before a sunset; a bookmark with a medusa; an art print showing a winged person and a tentacled person reaching for each other tenderly; four postcards too small to make out the details; a purple duck with six tentacles, an enamel pin design of a monster and person in an embrace, the monster licking the person's cheek; and a neon green and purple tentacle.

Round 156, hour - 7

Nov. 28th, 2025 04:03 pm
lullabymoon: (Laura cute face)
[personal profile] lullabymoon posting in [community profile] fic_rush_48
 Have words magically appeared? *searches*
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
Yesterday Daphne participated in her first 5k! I've taken her to races before but yesterday was the first time we did a course with hundreds of other people and dogs. She was great.

Then there was gardening, Thanksgiving lite, napping, and Legos ♥

I finished building the Yiling Wen settlement last night, did my Black Friday shopping for me, and have enough groceries to last through the weekend. Which means it's time for

The Super Special 10k Catch Up Or Else Writing Marathon Event Of The Year

I'll be here all day.
duckprintspress: (Default)
[personal profile] duckprintspress

Duck Prints Press has two titles in an awesome, HUGE Creator Day itch.io bundle!

On Creator Day, itch.io charges no processing fees, so 100% of proceeds go to creators. To celebrate, we’ve contributed our anthologies Add Magic to Taste and Aether Beyond the Binary to this bundle of 74 titles – books and other media! – by 45 creators. The $50 price tag is an 82% discount compared to buying these items individually – usually just our two anthologies would cost $18!
A graphic over a background of dark grainy wood and autumn maple leaves. Text reads, "support creators this black friday. From midnight to midnight Pacific Time on November 28th, creators will receive 100% of their profits. Snag a bundle to show your support. https://itch.io/b/3410/creator-day-bundle bundle organized by Aimee Cozza." The book covers for Aether Beyond the Binary and Add Magic to Taste are also on the graphic.


Vacation + fandomtree

Nov. 28th, 2025 11:23 pm
mumblemumble: close-up of mao xiaotong's face with her eyes closed ([ladies] dreamy)
[personal profile] mumblemumble
Hello! From Singapore! I'm posting food pics on Bluesky, for anyone interested.

Also, forgot to link to my [community profile] fandomtrees post, oops. Here it is, and it's still all cdramas all the time. 😄 I tried not to replicate my Yuletide requests, but there's still a lot of overlap.

- Zhang Kangle dramas (still not over him, hi)
- Parallel World
- Lost Tomb Reboot (but the one ship only two other people like)
- Holiday cards, pls 🥹

Good luck to me with that!

And hello everyone! <3

In the words of Sir Larry....

Nov. 28th, 2025 03:07 pm
oursin: Hedgehog saying boggled hedgehog is boggled (Boggled hedgehog)
[personal profile] oursin

'My dear boy, why don't you try acting?' (attested from the mouth of Dustin Hoffman, to whom Olivier addressed this plea when Hoffman was going to extreme Method lengths).

Experience: I was stabbed in the back with a real knife while performing Julius Caesar.

And this was not a dreadful error in the props room or something out of a murder mystery:

It was the Exeter University theatre society’s annual play at the Edinburgh fringe and I’d landed the part of Cassius in Julius Caesar. The director decided that instead of killing himself, Cassius would die during a choreographed fight with his rival, Mark Antony. We also chose to use real knives, which sounds absurd, but we wanted to be authentic. The plan was for the actor playing Antony to grab my arm as I held the knife, and pretend to push it behind my back. We must have rehearsed the sequence 50 times.
We were about halfway through our month-long run, performing to a decently sized audience. Dressed in our togas, with the stage dark and moody, we began the fight as usual. Then something went wrong.
There was a sharp piercing feeling. The knife was supposed to have been quietly slipped to me – instead, it had gone into my back. I realised what had happened while acting out my character’s death, and thinking: I have to lie here until the lights go down.
....
When a doctor told me I’d come close to dying, and that the play had to stop using real knives, I remember thinking: “You just don’t understand theatre.”

However, right at the end of the article he does acknowledge: 'I’m super conscious of safety nowadays'. We should hope so.

What next - real poison where text requires? What was the director thinking? I would think using Real Knives might make it less authentic with choreographing to ensure Doing No Harm

theemdash: (Writing)
[personal profile] theemdash posting in [community profile] getyourwordsout
If you're running around GYWO—whether you're a 2026 writer or just joining us for the Year-End Marathon—you've got a work in progress and we want to know about it. Comment to tell us a little about what you're working on (obviously only what you're comfortable sharing—please note this post is public), and read other comments to find out what everyone else is working on, too. If you find an idea you love, let that writer know you're excited about their work!

Kermit the Frog manically typing on a typewriter


What Are You Working On?
Answer the questions below and/or include a few other fun or unique things about your WIP that you want to share.
  • Fandom or original work?
  • Working or file title?
  • What's your pitch, your vibes, or a major component or trope driving your story?
  • What are you looking forward to the most (a specific scene/moment, writing a twist, being DONE)?

One last reminder that this post is public to allow our YEM-only writers to participate, too, so make sure you only share what you feel comfortable sharing publicly.

another day older

Nov. 28th, 2025 02:31 pm
pensnest: six marshmallows in a rough tower; each has woeful, zombified features (Zombie marshmallows)
[personal profile] pensnest
Yesterday I shovelled two tons of sand.

I just thought you should know.

Round 156, hour - 9

Nov. 28th, 2025 02:07 pm
lullabymoon: (Janeway with a gun)
[personal profile] lullabymoon posting in [community profile] fic_rush_48
 This hour is really not feeling it. 

DAY 28: THREE DAYS LEFT

Nov. 28th, 2025 08:28 am
marcicat: (peace dreamsheep)
[personal profile] marcicat
*AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*ultimately, I managed about 300 words yesterday, which is a lot fewer than I'd hoped, but a lot more than I expected!

*OH NO IT IS TIME TO DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS

*not in the story, though

*in the story it's time to ::checks notes:: wrap up the conversation at the end of file #2

*...yeah, and then figure out what in the world is happening in file #3

*good news! it only needs to keep happening for about 1500 more words, or even a bit less than that!

*less good news! I stared at the file for 20 minutes today without writing a single word, then scrolled tumblr for an hour!

*last sentence written: "Why do you have it?"

emotional support fiber

Nov. 28th, 2025 07:43 am
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
woven cloth

Maybe 2.5x the length of the futon! The weft is various handspun yarns. :3 It has hideous Baby's First Floor Loom Attempt nature but fortunately, both Joe and the catten are very forgiving. Now I get to rewarp the loom... /o\



Morning's handspun single. :3
dolorosa_12: (sellotape)
[personal profile] dolorosa_12
December is generally a quietish month for me, and it will be even more so this year as I'm not doing any travelling over Christmas. For this reason, I thought it was an excellent opportunity to do another iteration of the December talking meme.

For those who don't know, the December talking meme involves writing posts (theoretically one per day, although in practice it tends to be less) in response to specific prompts.

That's where you come in! Please suggest topics for me to write about, and I'll assign them to a day in the list behind the cut. I'll use some of them as prompts for the remaining Fridays of the year, as well.

Available dates )

Please do also do this meme in your own journals if you have the time and interest!

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