Give away?

[jmc_bks]

I won a tote bag full of beach-related items from the fabulous K.A. Mitchell.  Among other things, the tote included towels, sunscreen, thermos, glasses, goggles, and a copy of each of her books in print.  However, since I purchased a copy of Diving in Deep at the Literacy Signing, I now have a copy to spare. 

I'd like to pass it on to a reader who would like to try m/m romance, but who hasn't figured out where to start.

I also have a bunch of other books from the various publisher signings that I'll be giving away as well, assuming I figure out how best to do so. 

Suggestions about the best way to do this?

Comments

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

I'd like to try a good m/m...

At my reviews site, I usually pose some sort of book-related question (nothing requiring effort, just a "what's your favorite ____" kind of thing) and then use the random number generator to pick a winning entry.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Then it is yours :)

Must admit that although I enjoyed Diving in Deep, it is not my favorite book by Mitchell. Its sequel Collision Course is...but CC is not out in print yet.

Hmm, that would work for the giveaways.

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-)

I've been wondering about m/m romance for some time now, just wasn't sure who was good to try. Did you read The Assignment by Evangeline Anderson? When I was looking up Diving in Deep, it came up in the "you may like" list, and the excerpt seemed interesting.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

The Assignment is the only Anderson that I've read and really liked. Her other stuff has just been...too campy. Which may be her goal, but it didn't work for me.

I would recommend Josh Lanyon's Adrien English series, which is gay mystery rather than m/m romance but still has a romance thread. Joey Hill's Rough Canvas was very good. And one of the best books I've read so far this year is Sean Kennedy's Tigers and Devils, a gay romance (not erotic romance) set in Australia with a football player as hero.

[marymonroe.livejournal.com]

I agree about the Adrien English books and The Assigment :-D The latter is my most favorite M/M book ever :-D. It was the first I read two years ago, when I was in a severe case of Butch/V withdrawal and I fell for it head over heels and it still hasn't stopped :-D

iperceval, if you want more recommendations, other books/stories I loved are Tere Michael's Faith & Fidelity, Madeline Urban and Abigail Roux's Caught Running (touching romance) as well as Cut and Run (gritty and raw murder mystery) and Chris Owen's 9-1-1 (an incredibly realistic and compelling M/M/M threesome).

I haven't read K.A. Mitchell yet but several friends told me a lot of good of her books. What is her other book in print besides Diving in Deep?

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Regularly Scheduled Life is a single title stand alone, plus she has two novellas in the anthologies Serving Love and Custom Ride.

[marymonroe.livejournal.com]

Thanks jmc ! May I ask what you thought of Regularly Scheduled Life, if you've read it? It sounds very interesting but rather angsty.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

I liked the book and thought it was well-plotted and paced, but it was angsty. At one point, I wanted to smack each of heroes on the side of the head and tell them to just *talk* to each other instead of pretending everything was okay. Probably the reason that I like Collision Course best is that the conflict is not a function of the lack of communication between partners.

If I had to rank them, I would list my favorites in this order:
Collision Course (ebook only, print out 11/1/09)
"Hot Ticket" in Serving Love
Diving in Deep
Regularly Scheduled Life
Chasing Smoke (ebook only)
"Custom Ride" in Temperature's Rising

Mitchell has prequels for most of these at her website and LJ, if you want to check them out before buying. There's also an excerpt of her current WIP, a historical. (It looks really good IMO.)

[marymonroe.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot for the tidbit about the free prequels and for the list :). Big Misunderstandings due to lack of communication between the main characters is also something I have a limited patience for, so it's better to know beforehand ;).