Actual books I want.

[animeartistjo]

Not just fanfiction--published stuff! All m/m of course. *g*

Josh Lanyon's Adrien English omnibus. LooseID. Argh! Read the "After Series" interview Lanyon had with the main characters and it was so depressing, I'm striking this. T_T I'm a romantic at heart and while the ending wasn't the typical "happily ever after", I WANT that type of ending in anything I'm actually paying money for. T^T

Er... Nightrunner. Who wrote it? Trilogy. Fantasy.

Kirby Crow's Scarlett and the White Wolf. Trilogy, only as eBook. Fantasy. Hee, blonde top, brunette bottom? Maybe? <3

Elisa Viperas's Dark Lord Seeks Friendship, Maybe More. Torn because, who does he end up with? I'm hoping for the cliche answer--it's the adviser. But, only one novel! Ugly cover art b/c only offered as eBook ($4).

Jet Mykles's Heaven Sent Just Heaven and Purgatory, though. Art by PL Nunn! >.< ($12.82 print omnibus) Excerpts match the title. Maybe Faith from the series as well.

Emily Veinglory's The Wicca Man: Tongue-Tied Only first in series. ebook only. HOT excerpt.

Comments

[carvedwood.livejournal.com]

If my opinion counts at all... you should rethink the Adrien English mysteries. I generally avoid Lanyon's interviews and such myself, so I understand where you're coming from on that, but there is a reason why he's my favorite M/M mystery author, and one of my favorite M/M writers in general. Trying to adjust from the romance genre to mysteries can be difficult - the mystery genre can end up feeling dry, dull, overly-technical. Lanyon bridges that gap wonderfully. What he lacks in "happy ever after," he more than makes up for in common sense. I can promise, you won't find any prostate-licking or self-lubing ukes in his books.
The rest of your choices makes me think you're more interested in romance and fantasy; if "happy ever after" is all you're looking for, then no, you probably won't like it. However, imo, Adrien is a very endearing character. I would have enjoyed reading about him even if there hadn't been a sniff of romance in the story.
If it turns out that you buy it, enjoy it, and decide you want to try more in the mystery genre, then I can give you the names of a couple of other M/M mystery authors that you might also enjoy.

As for Myckles... She admits to having strong yaoi tendencies, but I picked up a couple of actual yaoi novels at Yaoicon, and I have to say that Myckles was by far the better buy. To illustrate: the yaoi novels will continue to sit on my bookshelf until I find someone with much lower standards to dump them on, and Faith is sitting on my desk, already well-read.
I have all four of the Heaven Sent books in both ebook and print. I know that in my review I said that I liked Heaven most, but that was before I'd read Faith, which is now my favorite. Other than that, I strongly stand by my original review.

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you for your input.

I have to admit that I haven't read that many mystery novels, m/m or otherwise before; I've just never seen the appeal. I don't mind a little mystery with my sci-fi or fantasy, but most of them seem to be a lot darker than my preferred genre of reading.

I really liked the excerpts from the Myckles book, but several people have informed me that they're PWPs and I like my romance to slowly build up. Do they start having sex two chapters into the book? Or is it more towards the middle or the end? However, I do like my books to be in print, so the fact the the first two are available as an omnibus is a total pro towards purchasing them. Your positive response towards "Faith" only reinforces mine.

Thanks!

[carvedwood.livejournal.com]

Trust me, I've never seen the appeal of straight-up mysteries before, either. And I have tried. In my case, it wasn't the fact that they were dark, it was the sheer tedium. It's Adrien himself, I think, who makes the difference. He's funny, and sarcastic, and sweet, and sometimes a little bittersweet. I was lucky, I got to read the PDF of Fatal Shadows on Lanyon's site before it was taken down in preparation for the re-release. That meant I was hooked before I had to spend one cent on it, but I certainly don't regret it. I fangirl Lanyon like whoah. (And, yes, I'm in love with Adrien.)

I simply cannot agree with the people who told you that the Heaven Sent books are PWPs, and LdDurham agrees with me. There's a lot of sex, yes, but there's also a story in between. Is it edgy, angsty, deep, gut-wrenching? Well, not really. These are romances, after all, they don't pretend to be anything else. Boy meets boy, boy falls into bed with boy, boy takes for-freakin'-ever to admit he's in love. And that's the difference between a PWP and a romance, isn't it? In romance, it doesn't matter how soon they fall into bed, what matters is how well they fall in love.

It's ironic. You want UST and slow build-up, which is what happens in the Adrien English books, but you don't like a dark story, which is what you won't find in Heaven Sent. Both sets seem to sit on opposite ends of what you're looking for.