Injured crusader Falk du Plessis survives the Battle of Hattin only to be sold at the slave market in Acre. He’s bought by Sinan, a mysterious Saracen who takes care to hide his true identity. Falk has the feeling they’ve met before. Their attraction is instant and mutual and their destinies are inextricably entwined, but [...]
Filed under: 12th Century, 4 stars, ebook, Fiction, Kate Cotoner, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Two outlaws and one widow turn to each other for comfort, but nobody expects lust to become a love affair… Amy Northe hasn’t known a man’s company in the six years since her husband died. That all changes the night her son comes in from chores with two strangers in tow. Kenneth and Leon are [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, America, ebook, Jamie Craig, novella, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
Mr. Leopold Thornton missed his chance ten years ago. He isn’t about to let this one pass him by. Given Leopold’s reputation for vice and debauchery, Mr. Arthur Barrington has a fair idea why the sinfully beautiful man invites him to his country estate. A shooting excursion? Unlikely. Especially considering Arthur is the only guest [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, ebook, Fiction, Regency, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Third Lieutenant Andrew Clayton wanted senior officer Daniel Barrett from the moment they first met. Something about the charismatic man with the scarred knuckles and street-tough voice heats Andrew’s blood and makes his body ache. He’d give up everything for just one taste of the forbidden—his position in Society, his commission…even his life. Daniel’s sure [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 4 stars, Age of Sail, ebook, Fiction, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Looking at The Lord Won’t Mind from a historical perspective Title: The Lord Won’t Mind Author: Gordon Merrick Published: 1970; republished in 1995 Length: 255 pages Charlie Mills and Peter Martin are both young, handsome and well-endowed. They meet and fall madly in love. The book follows Charlie’s path from a closeted gay man to [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4 stars, America, history, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews | 11 Comments »
In 1910, Charles Smythe inherits a ranch from his late uncle. With some misgivings about leaving his life in England, he finally arrives in Arizona Territory only to meet one of his employees, an experienced hired hand named Sombra. In Sombra, Charles finds not only the perfect man to teach him all he needs to [...]
Filed under: 1910's, 4 stars, America, BDSM, ebook, Fiction, Western | 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, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Grieving over the death of his lover, British flying ace Bat Bryant accidentally kills the man threatening him with exposure. Unfortunately there’s a witness: the big, rough American they call “Cowboy” – and Cowboy has his own price for silence. “Out of the Blue” will be a standalone e-book published by Liquid Silver Books, and [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, ebook, Fiction, Mark R Probst, novella, Reviews, World War I | 5 Comments »
John Hilliard, a young subaltern returning to the Western Front after a brief period of sick leave back in England, finds his battalion tragically altered. His commanding officer finds escape in alcohol, there is a new adjutant and even Hilliard’s batman has been killed. But there is David Barton. As yet untouched and unsullied by [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Fiction, Reviews, World War I | 4 Comments »
In seventeenth century Japan, during the golden age of samurai and of the Kabuki theater, young actors known as “flying fish” traveled the countryside, performing for audiences by day and giving their bodies to their samurai patrons at night. Genji Sakura is one such flying fish, yet he dreams of the day he’ll find the [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, ebook, Fiction, Japan, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
London, 1918. Billy Prior is working for Intelligence in the Ministry of Munitions. But his private encounters with women and men – pacifists, objectors, homosexuals – conflict with his duties as a soldier, and it is not long before his sense of himself fragments and breaks down. Forced to consult the man who helped him [...]
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During one week in 1916, 16-year-old Vincent de l’Etoile befriends the greatest writer in France and experiences the first great love of his life. Fortunately, he keeps a journal and writes letters, is an exquisitely limpid stylist (kudos to Wynne’s translation), and considers himself too young to have morals. His new friend is Marcel Proust, [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Fiction, novella, Reviews, World War I | 3 Comments »
In the shadow of the 1954 nuclear bomb tests on the Bikini atoll, two sailors begin a tender, passionate affair that will carry them all around the USA: to San Francisco, Manhattan, Fire Island and Washington DC. The lovers learn, with fumbling hands and lips, how to satisfy one another, but the erotic heat of [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4 stars, America, Fiction, Reviews | 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, detective, England, 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, ebook, Fiction, J P Bowie, Reviews | 5 Comments »
It’s the last night of a week-long house party in remote northern England. Every sensual delight imaginable is right at Henry Shaw’s fingertips. Yet all he wants is to be with his host, the deliciously handsome and enigmatic Arsen Grey. Henry’s certain it’s love, not mere infatuation. He’s also sure it’s hopeless. Review by Erastes [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, ebook, England, Fiction, novella, Regency, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Ray’s a former mob enforcer who heads west to live off his comfortable retirement, provided graciously by his ex-employers. He’s got it all. A new place, a new business, and he’s making a pretty good go of it. Better than most folks in 1935 California. Still, things aren’t perfect. There’s some bad stuff going down [...]
Filed under: 1930's, 4 stars, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 1 St. Bride’s College, Cambridge, England, 1905. When Jonty Stewart takes up a teaching post at the college where he studied, the handsome and outgoing young man acts as a catalyst for change within the archaic institution. He also has a catalytic effect on Orlando Coppersmith.Orlando is a brilliant, introverted mathematician [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, England, Fiction, novella, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Free Read Adam Jackson feels frustrated that he isn’t doing more for the war effort; a liaison job with the War cabinet is hardly as glamorous as being in the forces. Nor is London, in the grip of the Blitz, the sort of place where a young man expects to find love, especially when your [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4 stars, Reviews, World War II | 3 Comments »
Ariston is an athlete who dreams of fame and fortune and the chance to open his own Palaestra someday. Iason is an aliptes (masseuse) who dreams of winning the heart of Ariston. Can they overcome the competition of rival athletes and the caprice of fickle gods and attain their hearts’ desires? This is a lovely [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Alex Beecroft, Ancient Greece, Fiction, Reviews | 1 Comment »
On Saturday, January 14, 1950, at 6:18PM, Cadet Richard Cox left his room at theU.S. Military Academy at West Point to goto dinner with an unidentified visitor. The man was supposedly someone Cox knew when he served in Germany. Cox never returned from that meeting. Thirty five years later, a retired history teacher named Marshall [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4 stars, detective, Erastes, history, Reviews, True Life | 6 Comments »
Raised in the city of Capua, renowned for its gladiator training grounds—Lucius, a young patrician, is unprepared for the obsessive desire that almost overwhelms him when he first sees Callistus, a captive Gaul condemned to a life, and probable death, in the arena. Unsuccessful in his attempt to buy Callistus and save him from a [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Alex Beecroft, Ancient Rome, Fiction, J P Bowie, Reviews | Tagged: gay historical fiction, m/m | 2 Comments »
With its sweet tale of inter-racial romance between a young Civil War survivor from Virginia and a Navajo berdache/two-spirit healer of the Old West, this novel demonstrates gender variance as a source of spiritual power and documents “same-sex marriage” as indigenous to the American continent. Reviewed by Ruth Sims Two Spirits combines a moving love [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, American Civil War, Fiction, Reviews, Ruth Sims, Western | Tagged: 4 stars, American Civil War, review, Ruth Sims | 2 Comments »
Review by Erastes I don’t often comment on a book’s layout but this one deserves it. It’s beautifully done – a tasteful cover to complement the mention of Sodomy and a restrained, classical theme inside. Books aren’t often this pretty. Well done, Dreamspinner Press. Greeks Bearing Gifts by D.G. Parker Young Antenor of fallen Troy [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ancient Greece, Anthology, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Here SAPPHO SINGS in her own words. Ancient phrases become the warp and weave of an intricate tapestry so delicately woven it becomes impossible to distinguish the imported threads from the weaver’s own. Readers familiar with the myriad translations of the few fragmented lines of Sappho’s work left available to us may recognize a word [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, 600 AD, Fiction, history, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Richard is worn out, used up, and just plain cynical. Son of a wealthy Bostonian banker, he came west to gamble and carouse when his life fell apart. Though a sensitive and moral man, he finds a reckless life easier to bear—since he has no one to care about and no real hopes for his [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Western | 2 Comments »
NAPOLEON’S PRIVATES 2,500 Years of History Unzipped by Tony Perrottet Harper Entertainment, ISBN 978-0-06-125728-5 From the blurb on the author’s website: What were Casanova’s best pick-up lines? (They got better as he got older). Which Italian Renaissance genius “discovered” the clitoris? (He could have just asked the Venetian nuns). What was the party etiquette at [...]
Filed under: 13th Century, 14th Century, 15th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 1900's, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 19th Century, 4 stars, Age of Sail, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Early Middle Ages, history, Reviews, Victorian | 3 Comments »
Robert Schumann, the Romantic composer, was a vibrant and complex man. Schumann’s public biography was carefully cleansed by his wife, his survivors, and his friends, but his own letters and diaries give indication of a series of passionate affairs with both sexes that sparked the creative outpouring of music that defined his artistic life. It [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Set in occupied Poland during World War II, this novel is based on the true story of Stefan K., a Polish boy who, at 16, fell in love with a German soldier. When their liaison was discovered by the Gestapo, the teen was tortured and sentenced to a labour camp, eventually escaping during the chaotic [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4 stars, Erastes, Reviews, True Life, Uncategorized, World War II | Leave a Comment »
Pantarkes’ goal is to enter the Olympics and win the laurel crown. But at the age of 16, after accidentally killing the son of a high official, Pantarkes is forced to flee from his native home in Sparta. For two years his Olympic dreams are postponed as he becomes embroiled in the wars and turmoil [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Ancient Greece, Erastes, Fiction | 5 Comments »
This work is set in London, 1889. Oscar Wilde, celebrated poet, wit, playwright and raconteur is the literary sensation of his age. All Europe lies at his feet. Yet when he chances across the naked corpse of sixteen-year-old Billy Wood, posed by candlelight in a dark stifling attic room, he cannot ignore the brutal murder. [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | 10 Comments »
A lyrical gay coming-of-age story first published in 1951, acclaimed by many including Gore Vidal and The New York Times, about Matthew, a young American who moves to France with his mother following his parents’ divorce. In boarding school and on trips with his mother into the countryside, Matthew investigates his budding sexuality and complicated [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, Fiction, Reviews | 11 Comments »
Ardennian Boy from coauthors William Maltese and Drewey Wayne Gunn, is historical romance and literary erotica blended into one masterful novel. Maltese’s sensuous prose retells the tumultuous love affair between poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, while Gunn’s lyrical translations of their bawdy gay poems, woven naturally into the fabric of the story, enlighten even [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Reviews | Tagged: France, MLR Press, Wayne Gunn, William Maltese | 2 Comments »
Review by Hayden Thorne BOOK BLURB: Weatherhill is a minor English public school, and it is the last term of a school year. A new headmaster, Mr. Crabtree, has arrived, determined to restore the school’s slipping reputation for producing leaders of men and, above all, to crack down on the “moral laxity” he fears is [...]
Filed under: 1960's, 4 stars, Fiction | Leave a Comment »
Review by Hayden Thorne BOOK DESCRIPTION: This is the classic French literary novel, banned for 30 years, now translated for the English market. Wicked Angels is the English translation of the classic 1955 French literary novel Les Mauvais Anges, banned for 30 years for what was called its ‘subversive’ subject matter. It is the story [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4 stars, Essential Reads, Fiction | 2 Comments »
In the notorious Five Points slum of 1870’s Manhattan, Galen ‘the Mongoose’ Driscol steps out of jail and back into the arms of his transgendered lover, Wira Boruta. When Galen tells Wira that he’s tracked down the man who tried to kill them as children, Wira is unwilling to listen, and pleads with Galen to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars | 2 Comments »
Edited blurb: In the year 1746, after the armies of the Scottish Highlands rebelling against the King of England were at last defeated at the Battle of Culloden, the English government began a vicious campaign of punishment and humiliation against the people of Scotland. Jamie MacDonald, a young Scot mourning the deaths of his father [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 4 stars, J P Bowie, Jacobite, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
From the blurb: …Cinnamon Gardens is a residential enclave of wealthy Ceylonese. Among them is Annalukshmi, an independent and high-spirited young teacher intent on thwarting her parents’ plans to arrange her marriage. In a parallel narrative, her uncle, Balendran Navaratnam, respectably married but secretly homosexual, has his life disrupted by the arrival in Ceylon of [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Review by Erastes HMS Privet has the reputation of being a cursed ship: every first lieutenant serving aboard her dies gruesomely. Lieutenant Daniel Leigh is determined to solve the mystery and volunteers for the place himself, putting his life in desperate danger. Little does he suspect that he will fall in love with the captain, [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Age of Sail, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Review by Erastes Andrew Wyndham takes a post as tutor to the son of the weathly Duncan Stewart at the mysterious and beautiful mansion “Seacliff” surrounded by rugged seas and mysterious fogs. Mysteries and scandal follow in traditional gothic fashion. It’s not going to be a surprise to anyone that I enjoyed this book. First [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 4 stars, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Review by Hayden Thorne FROM THE AUTHOR’S BOOK PAGE: Escaping into the fantasy of his books when he’s not working in the general store, Ethan Keller has lived a sheltered life in his mother’s boarding house. One day, an enigmatic cowboy passing through the small Texas town takes an immediate liking to the shy seventeen-year-old. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, Reviews | 11 Comments »
Review by Erastes Alex is a reporter, determined to follow a great race through the Sahara and earn his name in his field. What he doesn’t count on is desert cheiftan Alfahl kidnapping him and carrying him off.Alfahl needs and English tutor, and Alex fits the bill. Alex fascinates him, as much for the [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4 stars | 4 Comments »
Reviewed by Hayden Thorne FROM THE PUBLISHER: In this novel based on the life of the masters and boys at Harrow school, two boys compete for the love of a third. Lord Horace Vachell was an English novelist who introduced polo to Southern California when he moved there in 1882. REVIEW: I must say right [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Essential Reads, Victorian | 4 Comments »
Subtitle: Book One of the Dragon’s Disciple trilogy Review by Alex Beecroft Review: Toshiro Itou is an ambitious young man in 19th Century California. His mother sent him to a father he never knew so that she could pursue her own ambitions with her powerful lover. Bitter and rebellious, when he chances to meet the [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Alex Beecroft, ebook, Fiction | Leave a Comment »
Review by Erastes From the publishers website: Overseer Nicolas Wells had been coming to Mount Desert Island for ten summers to help build cottages for the rich and powerful. Despite his secrets, he had grown comfortable in the peaceful little island town, getting to know its inhabitants and even to consider some of them [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews | 2 Comments »
From Amazon: Amid the bustling marketplaces of a rich and vibrant Damascus, where the dark alleyways teem with fear and hostility, Hilu unfolds a story charged with emotional and sexual conflict in this powerful literary tour-de-force from a unique new voice; at times wickedly funny, at others painfully sad, but beautifully told throughout. Review by [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4 stars, Fiona Glass | 1 Comment »
From the publisher’s description: Banished from England and forced to work as indentured servants in Colonial Virginia, Lance Morley and Adam Bradley share a secret that could cost them their lives. As Virginia Bedfellows, they find love, passion, and pleasure on the Ashley Landing plantation, building a life together that’s immoral in the eyes of [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 4 stars, Lee Benoit, Reviews | Tagged: Colonial America | 5 Comments »
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