At eighteen Dylan Rutledge has one obsession: music. He believes his destiny is to be the greatest composer of the rapidly approaching twentieth century. Only Laurence Northcliff, a young history master at The Venerable Bede School for Young Gentlemen, believes in Dylan’s talent and encourages his dream, not realizing Dylan is in love with him. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, Fiction, Reviews, Ruth Sims, five stars | Leave a Comment »
Henry Chadderton’s father earned his wealth in trade, but he looks to elevate his son to the gentry through marriage into a titled family. And so it is that Edward Montford, the second son of an impoverished baronet, accompanies his twin sister Emma to London in order to introduce her to her future husband. Henry [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2 stars, England, Farida Mestek, Fiction, Regency, ebook, novella | 5 Comments »
In London during the gross indecency trial of Oscar Wilde, Douglas Shrove finds himself still haunted by memories of his dead lover while skirting violence, blackmail and the affections of two men. There are two who seek you out That is what the gypsy told Douglas Shrove a few months after the death of his [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, England, Fiction, M J Pearson, Reviews, Victorian | 3 Comments »
Lord Vincent Prescot’s life couldn’t be better. Thriving investments, well-respected by his peers, and mind blowing sex with a man who submits to his every desire — what more could he want? Lord Oliver Marsden should be more than happy with his life. He’s been in love with Vincent for over a decade and six [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Ava March, Fiction, Regency, Reviews, ebook, novella | 1 Comment »
Bitter Creek is a town on the brink of war. Lines are being drawn and sides taken as two powerful men gather armies of gunfighters. The townspeople are helpless and the law worthless. One man has already died in the opening salvo of this land war and an air of fearful anticipation hangs over the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, American Civil War, Fiction, Reviews, T A Chase | Leave a Comment »
For readers who’ve loved Jane Austen’s most popular novel—the inestimable Pride and Prejudice—questions have always remained. What is the real nature of Darcy’s intense friendship with Charles Bingley, to explain why he would prevent Bingley’s marriage to Elizabeth’s beautiful and virtuous sister Jane? How can Darcy reconcile his own desire for Elizabeth with his determination [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2 stars, Ann Herendeen, Bisexual, England, Fiction, Regency, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Crippled by a devastating stammer, Alfie would prefer to hide himself away in the audience of London’s theaters. But as the perfect Georgian gentleman, it’s his responsibility to find a husband for his ward Eleanor. The pain of having to converse with strangers is lessened by the appearance of the kind-hearted Lord George Caldwell and [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Age of Sail, England, Fiction, G S Wiley, Regency, Reviews, ebook, novella | 1 Comment »
“When I think of the things that happened and the things I did, it is as though I were living them … My hands feel what I touched, and the smells that surrounded me fill my nostrils … Old joys swell my heart, old sorrows clutch at my throat … I remember every face, every [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 19th Century, Anel Viz, Europe, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | 1 Comment »
When war veteran Sir Alan Watleigh goes searching for sex, he never imagines the street rat he brings home for one last bit of pleasure in his darkest hour will be the man who hauls him back from the edge of the grave. A night of meaningless sex turns into an offer of permanent employment. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Bonnie Dee, England, Leslie H Nicoll, Regency, Reviews, ebook, five stars | 6 Comments »
Lieutenant Robert Pierce of the Royal Navy was raised in the shadow of his father, a great admiral, and has spent his life on the high seas fighting the ships of Napoleon Bonaparte. When he loses a leg in battle and is confined to land, Robert is devastated. Taken in by his sister Maria, Robert [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Age of Sail, England, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, novella | 4 Comments »
This long out-of-print and newly rediscovered novel tells the story of two boys growing up in the cotton country of Mississippi a generation after the Civil War. Originally published in 1950, the novel’s unique contribution lies in its subtle engagement of homosexuality and cross-class love. In The Bitterweed Path, Thomas Hal Phillips vividly recreates rural [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, Fiction, Reviews, Thomas Hal Phillips | Leave a Comment »
What does a jaded earl see in a studious, shy man? Everything he never knew he was missing. Their first, scorching hot sessions were about passion, not love, but now Peter is desperate to win back the young man he spurned. Review by Erastes This book sort of took me by surprise. First of all, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Bonnie Dee, England, Fiction, Reviews, Summer Devon, Victorian, ebook | Tagged: 19th Century, 4 stars, Bonnie Dee, ebook, England, Fiction, Reviews, Summer Devon, Victorian | 6 Comments »
“Brokeback Mountain” exploded the myth of the American cowboy as a tough, gruff, and grizzled loner. “Queer Cowboys” exposes, through books by legendary Western writers such as Mark Twain, James Fenimore Cooper, and Owen Wister, how same-sex intimacy and homoerotic admiration were key aspects of Westerns well before “Brokeback’s” 1960’s West, and well before the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, Research, Resources, Reviews, Western, history | Tagged: Western, 3½ Stars, Reviews, 19th Century, Research, America, Resources, history | Leave a Comment »
The sequel to Cane. Two men, one war. Can love survive when each takes a different side? Leaving his lover behind to support the abolitionist cause, Piet Van Leyden finds himself leading one of the first all-black Union troops into the heart of battle. Reuniting with free slave and former love Joss brings some comfort, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, American Civil War, Reviews, Stevie Woods | Tagged: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, American Civil War, Reviews, Stevie Woods | Leave a Comment »
Brendan Townsend is a young man who is very loyal to his friends. So when Tony—his best friend, occasional lover, and a complete screw-up—comes to him in trouble, Brendan is determined to help. Tony is being blackmailed by the owner of a “molly house”, the private club that Tony—and other like-minded gentlemen—frequent in order to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Fiction, Lee Rowan, Regency, Reviews | Tagged: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Fiction, Lee Rowan, Regency, Reviews | 2 Comments »
When Loel Woodbine, Duke of Marche, receives news that his great aunt has engaged him to a young lady he has never met, he’s a little nonplussed. His lifestyle doesn’t exactly lead itself to entertaining the fair sex; in fact, he prefers to devote his attentions to men rather than women. However, Marche owes his [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Penelope Roth, Regency, Reviews | Tagged: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Penelope Roth, Regency, Reviews | 7 Comments »
Jack saves Nehemiah from drowning, or worse, on the Cornish coast, surprised to find he has an American in his midst. He’s also afraid that his fellow villagers will kill Nehemiah rather than look at him, all for the peridot ring on his finger. He takes Nehemiah in, sharing his home, and eventually his secrets. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Fiction, Reviews, Syd McGinley, ebook, novella | Tagged: 19th Century, 4 stars, ebook, England, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Syd McGinley | Leave a Comment »
As this book has been reissued by Phaze and is now available in print and ebook – we are reprinting the review showcasing the new cover. From the blurb: Sint Marteen 1855. Privileged young Pieter may have grown up on a sugar cane plantation, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with the way his father [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, Reviews, Stevie Woods | Leave a Comment »
As second son to an earl, Ian Stanton has always done the proper thing. Obeyed his elders, studied diligently, and dutifully accepted the commission his father purchased for him in the Fifty-Second Infantry Division. The one glaring, shameful, marvelous exception: Nicholas Chatham, heir to the Marquess of Carleigh. Before Ian took his position in His [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, K A Mitchell, Regency, Reviews, ebook, five stars, novella | Tagged: five stars, gay historical romance, K A Mitchell | 5 Comments »
Horace is a loner, a mountain man with a claim to a tiny stream of gold and a lonely cabin in the woods. When he finds young Walker wandering lost in his mountains just before the snow flies, he decides he’s found exactly the kind of companionship he craves. Walker is young, naive, and totally [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, B A Tortuga, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, Western, ebook, novella | Leave a Comment »
The “American hunk” is a cultural icon: the image of the chiseled, well-built male body has been promoted and exploited for commercial use for over 125 years, whether in movies, magazines, advertisements, or on consumer products, not only in America but throughout the world. American Hunks is a fascinating collection of images (many in full [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 1910's, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 19th Century, America, Leslie H Nicoll, Photography, Resources, Reviews, five stars | Leave a Comment »
For seven years, Emmett Ward has harbored amorous feelings toward his partner, Jack Robison. A chance encounter brought them together—Emmett slaved in an illegal warehouse run by a Korean criminal known as the Dragon Lady, when Jack, a notorious bounty hunter with his sights set on her son Lin Ji, was captured. Emmett helped Jack [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Fiction, ebook, novella, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Rescued from the freezing streets, Ashley finds himself in the arms of an angel – a handsome doctor who nursed him back to health. Little did he know that he’d crept into Oliver’s heart, and the other man wants him to stay warm in his arms forever. Review by Erastes Short review for a short [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, Fiction, Reviews, Sasha Skye, Victorian, ebook, three stars | Tagged: 19th Century, book review, dreamspinner, Sasha Skye, three stars | 2 Comments »
Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic and often bawdy, Lola Dances ranges from the 1850 slums of the Bowery to the mining camps of California and Montana, to the Barbary Coast of San Francisco. Little Terry Murphy, pretty and effeminate, dreams of becoming a dancer. Raped by a drunken profligate and threatened with prison, Terry flees the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, America, Reviews, Victor J Banis | 4 Comments »
When Jason Huxley, Regency dandy and man-about-town, acquires a new valet, he finds himself fighting the unnatural inclinations he thought he’d outgrown. Alfred Threadgill lost his first lover at Waterloo, but now wrestles with his desire for his new employer. He suspects that finding Jason could be the best thing that ever happened to him. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2 stars, Fiction, Lyndi Lamont, Regency, Reviews, ebook | Leave a Comment »
Through the centuries, lives and loves have been lost to the shadows. Stevie Woods brings redemption and a new love in DEATH’S DESIRE; Jardonn Smith has a frisky ghost showing two men the pleasures of love in GREEN RIVER; and Charlie Cochrane’s tale of future love is predicted by a ghost in THE SHADE ON [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 1930's, 19th Century, 3½ Stars, Anthology, Fiction, Reviews, novella | 1 Comment »
Confederate Lieutenant Anderson Blanks has grown weary of the War between the States. When a wounded soldier is heard, dying in the darkness, Andy takes a lantern and canteen in the hopes of easing the soldier’s pain. Andy is shocked to discover none other than Samuel Talley, his first love and a young man Andy’s [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, American Civil War, Fiction, Reviews, ebook, novella | 1 Comment »
Ex Civil-War surgeon George Callahan is a man haunted by his past. Unwilling to deal with the demons of his childhood he turns to opium, and finds back-alley employment with the heartless brothel keepers of San Francisco’s Chinatown. In Volume 1 of this gorgeously illustrated gay historical drama, Dr. George Callahan searches for a Chinese [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, China, Fiction, ebook, five stars, graphic novel | Leave a Comment »
Bend in the Road, set in Eastern Europe in the 1880s, introduces us to two couples that find safe havens in the insular world of a traveling Yiddish theater troupe. IN THE LION’S DEN brings us Daniel Bercovich, a young man in the first throes of finding his identity. Can the man he comes to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 1½ stars, Fiction, Reviews, novella | 10 Comments »
The year is 1883. Eduard van De Lier is a Dutchman overseeing a spice plantation on the island of Java, in the South Pacific. His obsessive attraction to dark-skinned men is just one of his many secrets. His wife Marien knows of his indiscretions, but as she’s content with their Colonial lifestyle, she stays silent. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Fiction, Reviews, ebook, three stars | 2 Comments »
Craven and his friend Anthony discover they’re in over their heads the night they’re caught spying on Beresford Hall. But when Craven meets the dark, mysterious Dominic Beresford, he wonders if fate really does step in and take you by surprise when you least expect. Review by Erastes A short story of less than 40 [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, BDSM, Reviews, ebook, two stars | 5 Comments »
Leander Mayfield is the only surviving son of a poor farmer… or so he believes until the day he learns he is in fact the new Earl of Dearborne. Still recovering from a lingering illness, the sensitive young man travels to Great Britain to claim his estate and embarks upon a bewildering new life. Julien [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, Fiction, Hayden Thorne, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll Rancher Paxton Terhune has lived a cold, lonely life for three hard years. A lynch mob took his lover, hanging him in front of Pax. A corrupt mine owner put a price on his head, chasing Pax from his own lands and into the high country. But Zane Steadman, a [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, Fiction, Reviews, Western, ebook, novella, three stars | 1 Comment »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll When Alastair Romilly de Vere accepts a dare to spend a night in a haunted folly, it’s not the prospect of a ghostly presence that he finds daunting. Alastair is desperately in love with his cousin’s fiancé, Jude, the man who is to be his companion for the night; an [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, Fiction, Leslie H Nicoll, Regency, Reviews, ebook, novella, three stars | Tagged: 3 stars | Leave a Comment »
A year after serial killer John Whittaker’s reign of terror was brought to a swift and righteous conclusion, London finds her streets darkened with the blood of innocents once again. Disfigured bodies with vile, ritualistic markings are turning up at an alarming rate, and the police are at a loss to apprehend the killer, who [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Fiction, Reviews, detective | 1 Comment »
Exiled to an abandoned presidio in southwestern Texas, Father Alonzo Vargas is accustomed to being utterly alone except for his white donkey, Angelica. He is also fully acquainted with the corrupt and rotten sheriff, John Cullen, the man responsible for his semi-permanent exile. When he finds a victim of the sheriff hanging upside down from [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Jamie Craig, Reviews, Western, ebook, novella | 1 Comment »
In 1850, Jonathan Thomas, a young, personable, and aristocratic Southern gentleman, has returned to his antebellum home from an Ivy League school in the North. His father is dying and Jonathan is sole heir to the family’s lavish, prosperous, and renowned Rainbow Plantation. While up North, two major revelations had seriously shaken his self-image. His [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | 4 Comments »
Nathaniel, or Natty as his family calls him, is a young man at a crossroads. His mother wants him to spend time with her family, far better off than his father, who is a poor vicar. His father would rather he do just about anything else, and his cousins have no interest in getting to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Alex Beecroft, England, Fiction, Hayden Thorne, Reviews, YA | Leave a Comment »
Purporting to be an anonymous memoir found in an attic, its author is an arrogant but brilliant homosexual whose life has crossed with that of Charles Darwin with startling regularity. He is writing it on a small island in the Java Sea of which he is the only human inhabitant. Aware that his life will [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 1 Comment »
When cousins Sean and Patrick McConaghy set sail from Ireland in 1820 to settle in the wilderness of Upper Canada, they have no idea what obstacles and opportunities await them in this new land. Sean and Patrick know little about clearing land, building a shelter and farming. But with hard work and the help of [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Alex Beecroft, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
A young Scotsman and a Cavalry Officer embark on a forbidden love affair as the winds of war threaten to tear them apart. When Robert Alexander Macdonald locks eyes with Captain Charles Wentworth at a social gathering in London, it’s not long before they are also locking lips and engaging in a covert love affair. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, J P Bowie, Reviews, ebook | 5 Comments »
It’s the Winter of 1802 and the long war between England and France has entered a fragile truce. But the lives of Commander William Marshall and Lieutenant David Archer, have become more complicated than ever. As a Commander, Will is accustomed to making tough decisions. Can he give an order that will surely put his [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Age of Sail, Fiction, Lee Rowan, Reviews, novella | 1 Comment »
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