This week we're doing things a little differently with our weekly Beefcake. After the success of Megan Frampton's Heavy Stubble and Beards: Who's Your Favorite Bearded Hero? post, we decided that we want to hear from you and what's a better occasion than Mother's Day. Many women will give and receive flowers on Mother's Day this Sunday, but don't you agree eye-candy is a much yummier treat than silly flowers? We've started the gift-giving with this sweet picture of Ewan McGregor in Big Fish, but we want you to build-your-own-beefcake. In the comments, share the Beefcake you'd love to receive flowers from, get as a gift, or give as a gift (and then steal back!).

Is your ideal gift someone who your mother would approve of? Or a mother's worst nightmare? Share, discuss, obsess! We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In our third annual edition of Irish Corned Beefcake (Check out Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 for a few of our favorites), and boy-o we've got a treat for you. We compiled some old favorites (you can't have Irish Corned Beefcake without Colin Farrell and Michael Fassbender!), as well as some new eye candy. We present you with delicious eye candy thanks to Irish hotties—or at least hotties of possible Irish descent—Cillian Murphy, Jedward (they're Irish twins from the singing competition, Eurovision), Stuart Townsend, Once Upon a Time's Jamie Dornan, George Clooney, and Ben Affleck.

[Plus so much more Irish goodness!...]

Last night's Christmas Special is the last episode of Downton Abbey Season 3. Enjoy the recap, and check back at H&H for Downton Abbey Series 4/Season 4 news, speclation, and recaps!

************SPOILERS************

Editor's note: Do not read this recap unless you've seen the episode or are willing to be thoroughly spoiled.

Need a refresher? Don't miss Naz Keynejad's recaps of the Series 3/Season 3 premiere, episode 3.02, episode 3.03, episode 3.04, episode 3.05, episode 3.06, episode 3.07, and episode 3.08. And now, onto the recap for the Downton Abbey Series 3 finale, episode 9, the Christmas Special:

The episode starts a year later, as the family is taking off to go on a trip to “Shrimpie’s” estate (Duneagle Castle) in Scotland.

[Family time with the Crawleys, all right!...]

It's the weekend before Valentine's Day and we know some of you will be doing your Valentie's Day plans ahead of schedule. So, what are you hoping will be in that red box from your significant other? Or are you celebrating it with a special day with your lady friends for Galentine's Day?

This coming Tuesday will mark Mardi Gras. Yes, it harkens in the beginning of Lent, but in New Orleans in Louisiana it also starts a time of drunken excess and revelry before the season of sacrifice. So in honor of the holiday we present some of our favorite men from the great state of Louisiana—Ian Somerhalder, Zachary Levi, and True Blood's Sam Trammel. Enjoy!

[+2 more Louisiana ladies' men!]

In need of some sexy reading material to fill your e-reader? I’m here for you. Each month I will bring you an assortment of erotic pleasure reads to tempt your palate—and your credit card....

Grab your sexiest red undies and some mistletoe—December brings us a seasonal cornucopia of holiday fantasies all wrapped up in a pretty bow just waiting for you to unwrap and enjoy.

Red Hot Holiday anthology
by Anne Calhoun, K.A. Mitchell, and Leah Braemel
A super sexy sweet anthology that not only brings plenty of heat to the table, but also portrays the beautiful emotional connections made between two people who find love with one another during the often trying holiday season.

I'll be home for Christmas…to fulfill all your dreams.

This holiday, a Mountie is determined to get her man. A widow finds a fireman who ignites her passions again. And two men unsure of their commitment discover a happily ever after—and a blindfold—under their tree. No matter your desires, this collection of three shorts is bound to treat you to all the joys of the season.

“I Need You for Christmas” by Leah Braemel
“Breath on Embers” by Anne Calhoun
“Wish List” by K.A. Mitchell

Stories also available for purchase separately.

[The rest of the best...]

Author Valerie Bowman not only writes great books—Secrets of a Wedding Night has already been released, and watch for her Secrets of a Runaway Bride out in March, 2013)—but she is a regular H&H contributor and, it turns out, a fabulous parody-er! 

We're pleased to run a special version of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” she wrote for She Loves Hot Reads. Thanks, Valerie!

To the tune of “Walking In a Winter Wonderland”…

Dukes are hot; earls are to–oo.
Viscounts make me want to dro-ool.
If he wears a cra-vat, he’s super hot.
Oh, Re-gen-cy, his-tor-i-cal romance.

Make a be-et in White’s bo-ok.
Run off and kiss, inside a no-ok.
A romance novel for me, must be a Re-gen-cy.
Oh, Re-gen-cy, his-tor-i-cal romance.

[You know you wanna sing it...]

Christmas is upon us and we have all sent out our wish lists. But what are you hoping will be under your tree?

Christmas lights image courtesy of waferboard via Flickr.

If I could fill a Christmas basket for each of you with my favorite Christmas historical romances of 2012, I’d include a book for each day of Christmas week: four new releases and three reissues.

Lady Louisa’s Christmas Knight, Grace Burrowes
I love Grace Burrowes’s large, loving Windham clan—eight siblings and parents who are as fascinating as their children. Lady Louisa’s book is the sixth in the series. It features not only a Windham heroine who is smart and different and determined to avoid matrimony (for what seems to her very good reason), but an even more unusual her—a pig-farming knight who is clearly her social inferior. Secrets abound, and the delighted reader is soon cheering for these two practical lovers to attain an HEA that is everything their poetry-loving hearts deserve. Library Journal named this book one of the best romances of 2012.

[They hero and heroine certainly sound refreshingly different...]

Want something extra naughty for the holidays? Erotic romance author Opal Carew, whose His to Command #1 releases on January 8, wrote her own version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” for the holidays (first featured at the site She Loves Hot Reads). It's written from the point of view of a reader living the events of Opal’s books—with each day of Christmas representing one of her books.

Look for more Opal Carew at H&H in the new year, including a special His to Command sneak peek you won't want to miss!

“Opal’s 'Twelve Days of Christmas'”

On the first day of Christmas,
Opal gave to me
A ménage with identical twins.

On the second day of Christmas,
Opal gave to me
Fun at a swinger’s club,
And a ménage with identical twins!

[Keeps gettin' better...]

Click here to log in or register to enter for a chance to win a fully stocked holiday stocking from Heroes and Heartbreakers!

Have we got a stuffed stocking for you! Heroes and Heartbreakers has found plenty of Christmas cheer (and heroes, and heroines, and rockin' sexytimes!) to fill a stocking so it will be hung by the chimney with plenty of care (if you know what we mean)...

We've got books for a fabulous holiday giveaway, that is. What did you think we meant?

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins December 19, 2012, at 10 am ET, and ends December 26, 2012, 11:59 am ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. Click here for details and official rules.

~Snowflakes image courtesy of aussiegall via Flickr~

[About the prize...]

With the holidays coming up, many of us are trying to decide on what type of e-reader or tablet to put on our wish lists. More options than ever are available, but here’s the catch: There’s a law of diminishing returns when it comes to decision-making. According to research I read last year—and remembered because it fits me to a T—choosing from a small number of items is great, but too much choice and our brains go into overload. So I’m here to hopefully help you limit your choices to a reasonable number, at least if you live in the U.S.

First, though, there are questions to consider.

Do you plan to use your device to read text-based books like novels, or are you interested in both novels and color image-heavy media like cookbooks, how-to books, books for kids, or magazines? Will your device be used primarily for media consumption, gaming, or for most of the things you currently accomplish with your laptop or desktop? How much money do you want to spend? Do you have an open-source philosophy regarding such things, are you happy to be tied to a proprietary, closed system, or perhaps you’d prefer a hybrid?

Amazingly, all these questions matter. One device might suffice, but some of us may conclude that we need two.

[That would be twice as nice...]

It's probably no secret that I'm a huge Lisa Kleypas fan, so when Lisa Kleypas announced that Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor was to be adapted for television by Hallmark Hall of Fame as Christmas with Holly, I was filled with equal parts excitement and trepidation. Who doesn't want to see a favorite novel on the screen? How many of us have done fantasy casting of J.D. Robb's In Death books and how many of us think that Colin Firth was exactly the right man to play Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride & Prejudice? Then again, how many of us cringed watching Gary Oldman and Demi Moore take on The Scarlet Letter (how many of us even got to the travesty of an ending)? You get my point.

When I first saw pictures of the cast, I was a little taken aback. Yes, I'm one of those people who visualizes heroines and heroes (and heartbreakers) in my mind. And, being a woman of a certain age, I frequently visualize them as older than they probably should be. So Mark and Maggie in Christmas with Holly initially looked like babies to me. I mostly got over this, because they really did look like the right type and, when I finally saw the movie, had the necessary chemistry in spades. One obstacle disposed of.

[Onto the next...]

If I were headed for a desert island and were allowed to take only one Christmas romance, I’d take one by Carla Kelly. The problem would be choosing just one. Of course, I could take Carla Kelly’s Christmas Collection, published last year by Cedar Fort. It includes four of her novellas previously published in the Signet Regency Christmas anthologies: “The Christmas Ornament” (A Regency Christmas, 1998), probably the most light-hearted of Kelly’s stories, with an Oxford scholar as hero and a pair of matchmaking fathers; “Make a Joyful Noise” (A Regency Christmas Carol, 1997), with a hero who finds his heroine when his mother gives him the task of recruiting new voices for a choral competition; “An Object of Charity” (A Regency Christmas Present, 1999), with a ship’s captain who’s coming home to an estranged family and the niece and nephew of his first mate, killed in action, for whom the captain feels responsible; and “The Three Kings” (A Regency Christmas II, 1990), in which the hero and heroine travel through war-torn Spain.

[This doesn't even scratch the surface!...]

Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is the best holiday story ever. Perhaps that's hyperbole. But according to some experts, Dickens' work is responsible for Christmas as we know it today—as a more secular holiday celebrated with family gatherings, Christmas trees, gift giving, and philanthropy. It has even affected the way we speak. We can thank Dickens for the phrases “Merry Christmas,” “Scrooge,” and “Bah! Humbug!”

A Christmas Carol is the tale of a miserly, mean-spirited English accountant named Ebenezer Scrooge who hoards his wealth and hates Christmas. On Christmas Eve, he's visited by the ghost of his dead business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of past, present, and future Christmases. They convince him to do good works and love mankind.

Unfortunately, there is one part of A Christmas Carol that's always been a real downer, in my opinion. Scrooge could have had romantic love and a family of his own, but he alienated his fiancée Belle with his greediness. By the time he finds redemption, it's too late to reverse his past mistakes with her. That's why current romance novels that utilize the themes, characters, or plot of a Christmas Carol are such fun to read. Unlike poor Ebenezer, modern Scrooge-like heroes and heroines can find true love before it's too late.

[If they can reach out and grab it, that is...]

Christmas with Holly, the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie based on Lisa Kleypas's contemporary romance Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor, first in the Friday Harbor series, debuts on ABC tonight at 9 p.m. EST. Will you watch?

And stick with H&H for special coverage of the next book in Lisa's Friday Harbor series, Crystal Cove, starting in January!

One of the first new Christmas books I read this year was Mischief and Mistletoe, an anthology that includes stories by eight romance authors who blog together as the Word Wenches. They are (in the order in which they are listed on the cover) Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverley, Joanna Bourne, Nicola Cornick, Anne Gracie, Patricia Rice, Cara Elliott, and Susan King. It’s an interesting collection on several counts, not least because this is a gifted group of writers. Among them, the Wenches have written 231 novels and 74 novellas, made every bestseller list in the genre, and amassed a string of awards that include several RITAs and one RWA Hall of Fame inductee (Jo Beverley). 

The stories are short, around ten thousand words, and although five of them are reunion stories, they cover a variety of classic romance tropes from road stories to mistaken identity to protagonist as thief (with a good reason, of course). The stories are also remarkably true to the authors’ individual styles and voices. These are writers whose books I read regularly, and I didn’t really need the attached names to recognize the returned hero transformed by his war experience as Mary Jo Putney’s, or the French spies as Joanna Bourne’s and so on with most of the stories.

[A story for every writer, and reader...]

There's something so well-matched about romance and Christmas—a season all about love and a genre that celebrates it. I like my Christmas romances especially hot, and in a year that seems to be somewhat underpublished in Christmas romances, here are my very favorite erotic contemporary Christmas collections.

For the past three years, Carina Press has been offering Christmas collections of stories grouped by genres. I've enjoyed all of those that I've read, but the one erotic contemporary Christmas anthology I love best is Naughty and Nice. This collection features an all-star line up of authors Shannon Stacey, Jaci Burton, Megan Hart, and Lauren Dane, with Stacey and Burton offering the “Nice” stories and Hart and Dane bringing the “Naughty” ones. Whatever you prefer, sweet or heat, it's here. Burton's story, “All She Wants for Christmas” begins her Kent series with the story of a female country singer who returns to her hometown to rekindle the flame with her first love.

When it comes to Christmas stories, I want nothing left to the imagination, and Hart's and Dane's stories follow up with fan favorite couples from previous works of theirs, so it was perfect for me. Dane's story “Believe” gives a glimpse of Jude and Rory from Second Chances, whose intense BDSM relationship, full of ups and downs, is one of the best, most realistic romances I have ever read. And Hart's return to Brandon and Leah from Taking Care of Business and No Reservations (also a spicy Christmas read) is another delightful look at beyond the happily ever after. Their romance has a slight twist in that Leah is a bit of a female dom, but Brandon is all man.

[Someone's met her match...]

Sarah Frantz, Ed.; Joey W. Hill, Ava March, Kim Dare, et al.
O Come All Ye Kinky Anthology
Riptide / December 3, 2012 / $16.99 print, $8.99 digital

20% of all proceeds from O Come All Ye Kinky will be donated to the Domestic Violence Project of the National Leather Association–International.

Christmas is a time of love and joy, and the New Year is a time of renewal. But they are also times of stress and strife, family drama, pressure and heartache—a potent mix of high expectations and conflicted emotions. Add in power exchange relationships, kinky gift swaps, and unconventional love in a sometimes unforgiving world, and you have a formula for a sizzling anthology of stories that tug at your heart.

From Ava March’s forbidden Regency love among men, to Katie Porter’s scorching hot contemporary tale of two women discovering holiday happiness, everyone will find a favorite here. Pervertible toys abound: Lambda Literary Award finalist L.A. Witt’s candy cane, Jane Davitt’s wrapping paper and tape, and Alexa Snow’s Christmas candles all please and delight. Newcomer Elyan Smith and fan favorite Kim Dare both celebrate New Year’s Eve with romantic flair and kinky fireworks, while bestselling author Joey W. Hill’s poignant story of love lost and regained will lead you home.

Whatever your desires, we invite you to explore new fantasies and old with these eight kinky tales of holiday happy endings.

This anthology is sure to put some extra naughty in your nice this holiday season. Eight erotic authors showcase their talents in stories that feature M/M, M/M/F, and F/F romances during the Christmas season. Sadomasochism features predominantly throughout the anthology, ranging from the lightest BDSM to explicit details.

[Something for everyone?...]