It’s 1886, and Chicago is booming, but for nineteen-year-old Torsten Pilkvist, American-born son of Swedish immigrants, it’s not big enough. After tragically losing a rare love, Tory immerses himself in the pages of a Wild West mail-order bride magazine, where he stumbles on the advertisement of frontiersman and Civil War veteran Franklin Ausmus. Torsten and [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, America, Reviews, Shelter Somerset, Western | 1 Comment »
In 1932, after Captain Joshua Pascal’s family loses its fortune, the Great War veteran’s sense of duty compels him to help his mother convert his childhood home into a Jewish boarding house. He’s lived openly as a homosexual among his friends, but now Joshua must pretend to be a “normal,” and hiding his nature is [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4 stars, America, ebook, Reviews, Ryan Loveless | Leave a Comment »
When royal sartorial adviser Beau Brummell meets a pretty soldier at a ball full of people who have begun to bore him, he’s only thinking of a brief affair and the opportunity to prove that clothes make the man. When Toby turns out to be not only beautiful but kind and a generous lover, Beau [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Cecilia Ryan, ebook, Fiction, novella, Regency, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Horses, love, and the tang of thyme and honey… In Classical Greece, apprentice sculptor Philon has chosen the ideal horse to model for his masterpiece. Sadly, the rider falls well short of the ideal of beauty, but scarred and tattered Hilarion, with his brilliant, imperfect smile, draws Philon in a way that mere perfection cannot. [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ancient Greece, ebook, Elin Gregory, Fiction, novella | 1 Comment »
‘… The accounts of these cases are too bound up with events in my personal life which, although they may provide a plausible commentary to much of my dealings with Mr Sherlock Holmes, can never be made public while he or I remain alive …’ Although Dr Watson is known for recording some sixty of [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, detective, England, Reviews, Rohase Piercy, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
Sorry to cut into the Advent Calendar which I hope you are all enjoying. We will be reviving the Speak Its Name Awards this year and introducing a new category, the Readers’ Choice. The Awards will be: Best Novel Best Cover Best Author and Readers’ Choice. The first 3 are chosen by Speak Its Name, [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, 4½ Stars, Awards, Best of the Year, five stars | 4 Comments »
Not content with a life as a passive and powerless noblewoman, a young Bavarian woman dons her late twin brother’s armor and weapons and sets out to join the disastrous Crusade of 1101. She is able to pass as a young man because, as she observes to her squire, who was also her brother’s lover, [...]
Filed under: 12th Century, 4 stars, Crusades, Fiction, lesbian, Nan Hawthorne, Reviews | 6 Comments »
Gideon Makepeace grew up in Bill Tourney’s Traveling Wild West Show, so he knows Indians better than a lot of folks of his day. He and his half-breed lover, Jedediah Buffalo Bird, are traveling east to New Orleans where Gideon hopes they’ll find a home together, safe among the crowds of the big city. But [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Margaret Mills, novella, Reviews, Tedy Ward, Western | 1 Comment »
Charming rascal Tristan Northwood seems to have it all: an ancient name, a noble inheritance, a lovely wife, and a son he adores. Women love him, men admire him, and it seems there is nothing he can’t do, whether it’s seducing a society wife or winning a carriage race. Little does Society suspect that the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, Regency, Reviews, Rowan Speedwell | 7 Comments »
Fighting air battles over Wake Island, Tarawa and Truk Lagoon, the U.S. Navy pilots of Air Group Two blazed a trail of flaming Japanese planes and hard-won glory across the Pacific skies. Yet among the heroes lived a man with a terrible secret shame, a vice that kept him from enjoying the conventional pleasures offered [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4 stars, Fiction, Reviews, Richard Newhafer, World War II | Leave a Comment »
Stefan, a naive young Pole, meets Gunter, an artist in 1930s Berlin. Their passionate love affair is overshadowed by the rise of the Third Reich. Denounced to the Nazis, they are sent to Auschwitz as pink triangle prisoners. Some things even love cannot withstand. Forty years later Stefan returns to Poland with one question: when [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 4 stars, Fiction, Fiona K Wallace, Reviews, World War II | Leave a Comment »
In 1900, bored, wealthy Bostonian Perceval Fain finds himself in the French colony of Algeria, amusing himself with a number of local men, including members of the French military. Falling under the spell of his exotic desert surroundings, unfulfilled by his hedonistic lifestyle, Perceval meets an impoverished English artist, Preston. At first the two men [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 4 stars, Africa, Fiction, Graeme Roland, Reviews | 2 Comments »
When a series of bizarre murders occur in London’s notorious East End, Scotland Yard’s Inspector Philemon Raft is called on to solve the crimes, but even he is powerless to explain why the victims are displayed in public places — or why the killer insists on drilling burr holes in their skulls. With little to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, detective, Joanne Soper-Cook, Reviews, Victorian | 3 Comments »
Feckless, exasperating Alex Finch is a rich, handsome and talented singer/songwriter who longs for two things: a career as a professional rock singer, and to have his love for Sam Barrowdale reciprocated. But drifter Sam’s two aims are simply to earn enough money to pay his sister’s medical bills and to hide from the world [...]
Filed under: 1960's, 4 stars, America, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
The First World War cast a long shadow, and in the winter of 1920, it’s still at its darkest. When solicitor’s clerk George Johnson moves into new digs, he’s instantly attracted to friendly fellow lodger Matthew Connaught, who lost an arm in the Great War. As the two become inseparable, George begins to wonder whether [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, ebook, Fiction, JL Merrow, novella, Reviews, World War I | 4 Comments »
Orphaned Crispin Thorne has been taken as ward by Philip Smallwood, a man he’s never met, and is transplanted from his private school to Smallwood s house on an island on the beautiful but coldly remote, Horsey Mere in Norfolk. Upon his arrival, he finds that he’s not the only young man given a fresh [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, England, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
I had always believed that I would return home to empty rooms for the rest of my life, for who would I want, and be wanted by in return? It had been an impossible alchemy until Alexander Montrose, and the summer of 1923. 1923 was the summer I fell in love with Alexander Montrose. I [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, ebook, Europe, Fiction, Reviews, Sophia Deri-Bowen | 2 Comments »
Buccaneer adventure/romance. The second of a series chronicling the relationship between an emotionally wounded and disenchanted English lord and an insane and lonely French exile, set among the buccaneers of Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1667. Part two of an epic four part “love story for men” set amongst the buccaneers of Port Royal during the [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, pirates, Reviews, W A Hoffman | Leave a Comment »
Doctor Jude Evans has built a safe but barren life for himself in a small western town where he pours all his passion into caring for his patients while hiding his secret yearning to love another man. Gabriel Fontenot is a drifter who is handy with a gun, prospecting for gold and trying to forget [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, ebook, Fiction, Jan Irving, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
People look up when Dakota Taylor rides into town. His legend precedes him and if that legend isn’t always founded in reality … well, Dakota’s not about to disappoint folks. Nor does he want to disappoint the handsome Bennie Colson, who has a job for him. Trouble is, Ben’s job means taking on a whole [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, America, Fiction, Reviews, Western | 2 Comments »
“For centuries throughout America, both before and after the arrival of the Europeans, gay and lesbian Indians were recognized as valued members of tribal communities. Combining make and female roles, gay Indians worked as mediators, artists, healers, and providers for their tribes.” (from the back of the book) Living the Spirit: a Gay American Indian [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, America, history, Research, Resources, Reviews, textbook | 4 Comments »
Jade Swift has always wanted a man to fall madly in love with him and make him his own. He wants to be mastered. When he meets Marcus Wynterbourne, a dominant man with a passion for the whip, it is love at first sight. Marcus is an MP, gay, and trying to live as freely [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, England, Fyn Alexander, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
A young man coming to grips with his homosexuality during the latter half of the 19th century, through four years of The Civil War, the Indian Wars with General Custer’s 7th Cavalry, into the rough and tumble town of Cheyenne and up into the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. *Available in Kindle format, 382KB [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, America, American Civil War, ebook, Fiction, Jack Ricardo, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
Home Station on the Prairie The Nebraska territory is a lonely place for young Jamie, who longs to be a Pony Express rider, but only manages to take care of their horses. Still, he has the ponies, and his father, and before he knows it he has Thad, a boyhood friend from back in Iowa. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Kara Larson, novella, Western | Leave a Comment »
Lee Masters is fired from his cattle drive when his sexual orientation is discovered. Frustrated and angry, he rides to a mountain lake where he meets Running Buffalo, Tatanka, who is also exiled from his tribe for refusing to adhere to tribal custom for braves who prefer men to women. They strike up a friendship, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Terry O'Reilly, Western | Leave a Comment »
Reggie Grayson has a secret admirer. A traveling Shakespearean actor in 1883 Virginia City, Reggie’s already been robbed at gunpoint by a masked bandit, and now he’s receiving drawings and roses from a mystery man who won’t leave his name. Is this any way to make his debut as a leading man? Desperate to discover [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Aaron Michaels, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Podcast, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
In the spring of 1588 two young men fell in love: an Irish mercenary serving the Spanish ambassador in London, and the son of an English earl. Then Dermot Channon must leave England when the embassy is expelled just prior to the onset of war, and Robin despairs of ever seeing him again. Seven years [...]
Filed under: 16th Century, 4 stars, Elizabethan, Fiction, Mel Keegan, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Patrick, fabulously wealthy and with a good eye for pictures and young men, brings the impressionable Nicholas Milestone to London, intent on reducing him to utter dependence by playing on his naivety and greed. But Nicholas proves to be not quite as pliable as hoped, and a witty social comedy develops as he struggles with [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4 stars, England, Essential Reads, Fiction, Michael Nelson, Reviews | 1 Comment »
This time, one touch could destroy everything… The suspected murder of the king’s ex-mistress is Cambridge dons Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart’s most prestigious case yet. And the most challenging, since clues are as hard to come by as the killer’s possible motive. At the hotel where the body was found, Orlando goes undercover as [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 4 stars, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, England, Leslie H Nicoll, Murder Mystery | Tagged: 4 stars, Charlie Cochrane, England | 5 Comments »
Jack Cavendish needs to get to his station at Fort Charlotte, a fur-trading outpost in Grand Portage, Upper Canada. The fort is only accessible by canoe, and there’s just one man willing to take him on the perilous, thousand-mile journey from Montreal this late in the summer. Young Christian Smith, the son of an Ojibwe [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 4 stars, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews | Tagged: Canada, Kiera Andrews | 3 Comments »
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, ebook, England, Fiction, Reviews, Summer Devon, Victorian | Tagged: 19th Century, 4 stars, Bonnie Dee, ebook, England, Fiction, Reviews, Summer Devon, Victorian | 6 Comments »
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 »
Josef Jaeger turns thirteen when Adolf Hitler is appointed Germany’s new Chancellor. When his mother dies, Josef is sent to Munich to live with his uncle, Ernst Roehm, the openly-homosexual chief of the Nazi brown shirts. Josef thinks he’s found a father-figure in his uncle and a mentor in his uncle’s lover, streetwise Rudy, and [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4 stars, Fiction, Jere' M. Fishback, Reviews, YA | Tagged: 1930’s, 4 stars, Fiction, Jere' M. Fishback, Reviews, YA | 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, ebook, England, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Syd McGinley | Tagged: 19th Century, 4 stars, ebook, England, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Syd McGinley | Leave a Comment »
A colorful novel of the circus world of the 1940s and 1950s, rich in detail, bursting with power and emotion. Mario Santelli, a member of the famous flying Santelli family, is a great trapeze artist. Tommy Zane is his protege. As naturally and gracefully as they soar through the air, the two flyers find themselves [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 1950's, 4 stars, America, Essential Reads, Fiction, Marion Zimmer-Bradley, Reviews | 12 Comments »
The history books tell us that Piers Gaveston was many things: arrogant, ambitious, avaricious, flamboyant, extravagant, reckless, brave, and daring, indiscreet, handsome, witty, vivacious, vain, and peacock-proud, a soldier and champion jouster, the son of a condemned witch, who used witchcraft, his own wicked wiles, and forbidden sex to entice and enslave King Edward II, [...]
Filed under: 13th Century, 14th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged: book review, Brandy Purdy | Leave a Comment »
Reynard is the impoverished son of a cavalier, driven to highway robbery to support his sister, Emilia. But a puritan he robs proves to be his new neighbor–and Emilia returns to the house with her intended fiancé, who demands her promised dowry or the deeds to the family lands. Finally a new sheriff turns up [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, 4 stars, ebook, Emily Veinglory, England, Fiction, Reviews | Tagged: 17th Century, Emily Veinglory | Leave a Comment »
Some Gave All – Four stories in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Review by Vashtan Calling this anthology a “mixed bag” is the best I can say for the whole anthology. It brings together stories of four authors: “Memorial Meeting” by Aline de Chevigny, “Flyover” by Jefferson Dane, Thanet Blake’s Memorial” by [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4 stars, Anthology, ebook, J M Snyder, Korean War | Leave a Comment »
Rafael Hurt comes from Mississippi to play Blues guitar, and he’s hiding a dangerous secret. When a young girl is found murdered during Rafe’s first gig at The Blues Angel, Rafe and Deke Davis, a veteran reporter, have to find the killer before the secrets of the past explode into racial violence and destroy any [...]
Filed under: 1960's, 4 stars, America, Leslie H Nicoll, Sarah Black | Leave a Comment »
When Ben gets a chance to leave his New Mexico home to visit his childhood friend in Hollywood, he jumps at it. 1930s Beverly Hills is full of bait and switch tricks that Ben just isn’t used to, especially when he meets up with Johnny, someone he knew a long time ago, better than he’s [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Parhelion, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
An erotic adventure story for men who love men, set at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion in war-torn Scotland. Charles Gordon is sold into near-slavery as the plaything of corrupt military officials, but his talents-both in and out of bed-win him powerful friends as well as dangerous foes. Review by Jean Roberta. “You’ll take [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, Jacobite, James Lear, Reviews | Tagged: 4 stars, Jacobite, James Lear, review | 3 Comments »
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