Running away in 1762 from a dull life in fashionable Georgian Bath, Jesse Sunderland joins an ocean-going merchant ship. Just nineteen years old, naive and keen for adventure in the expanding world where England rules the seas and dominates the colonies, he has to not only deal with the harshness of this life at sea [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 1½ stars, Age of Sail, America, England, Fiction, Reviews, Steph Minns | 8 Comments »
After his younger sister is killed in a tragic accident, William Palmer’s family flees their quiet Warwickshire village for the bustling metropolis of Elizabethan London. The deaths of his parents and the marriage of his remaining sister soon separate William from his family. Taken on by a company of actors in an era where women [...]
Filed under: 16th Century, England, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Conlan, United States Navy Seabees, knows he’s not in Kansas anymore when he steps off the launch at the small island of Ile Dorée and sees gorgeous Frenchman René Dubois waiting for him on the dock. The year is 1943, the place is the Pacific and the world is at war. [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4½ Stars, Fiction, Reviews, Samantha Kane, World War II, ebook, novella | 6 Comments »
When Lucien Mayer, 14th Earl of Ravensberry is taken hostage by a gang of highwaymen, he is drawn to the damaged, reclusive Ambrosius and the dangerous, brooding Dante. Torn between escaping and satisfying his body’s needs, his life will never be the same again.
Review by Erastes
Oh dear, I thought. Another kidnap/rape-non con turns to [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, Fiction, Reviews, Scarlet Blackwell, ebook, novella, three 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 »
Set in the early turbulent years of the Roman Empire, and seen through the eyes of three men, Warrior Prince tells the story of a love that will not be denied, of courage in the face of adversity, of political intrigue, betrayal and death. Against this backdrop of death and mayhem, Lucius and Callistus, two [...]
Filed under: Ancient Rome, Fiction, J P Bowie, Reviews, three stars | 8 Comments »
The exciting prequel to Beyond the Veil!
Read how Malik became the pirate captain who fell for Robert, and how he was forced into a life of pain, fear and violence following his capture by the Corsairs.
Review by Erastes
This is a prequel and sequel to “Beyond the Veil” which was reviewed earlier on the Blog.
Like [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 3½ Stars, Age of Sail, Fiction, Reviews, Stevie Woods, ebook, pirates | Tagged: 18th Century, book review, m/m, Stevie Woods | 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 story. It’s [...]
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 »
1957. Gorgeous, 23-year-old Simon heir to a peerage, meets and falls in love with a Cumbrian sheep farmer, disappointing his parents and flying in the face of the social mores of a period when gay relationships risked a life prison sentence. Told from the perspective of his lover who acts as narrator throughout, the story [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 1½ stars, England, Fiction, Nick Heddle, Reviews | Tagged: 1950's, 1½ stars, book review, Nick Heddle | 2 Comments »
Victor J Banis “Coming Home”, published by MLR Press in 2009, available either as a stand-alone ebook or in the print anthology “Esprit de Corps”, also MLR Press.
The swinging sixties, the Sunset Strip a smorgasbord of horny Marines, looking for a little action before heading off to Nam. A queen’s delight, and it’s all too [...]
Filed under: 1960's, 4½ Stars, Fiction, Reviews, Victor J Banis, Vietnam, ebook, novella | Tagged: 1960's, 4.5 stars, book review, ebook, Victor J Banis, Vietnam | 4 Comments »
In third century Rome, being a freedman doesn’t exempt you from punishment, even when you’ve done nothing wrong. This is the story of a gladiator granted his freedom by an Emperor, only to be caught up in the web of a treacherous patrician whose wife has been murdered. He abducts the gladiator and tortures him [...]
Filed under: 1½ stars, Ancient Rome, Fiction, Jardonn Smith, Reviews, novella | Tagged: 1.5 stars, book review, Jardonn Smith | 16 Comments »
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, Fiction, Parhelion, Reviews, ebook | 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 the high [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 4 stars, Fiction, Jacobite, James Lear, Reviews | Tagged: 4 stars, Jacobite, James Lear, review | 3 Comments »
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, Fiction, Kate Cotoner, Reviews, ebook | Leave a Comment »
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. But [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2 stars, Fiction, Lyndi Lamont, Regency, Reviews, ebook | Leave a Comment »
When Harry Watson, an attractive and personable ex-Guardsman, becomes involved with the young novelist Martin Murray, he is quick to assimilate Martin’s left-wing views. He fits readily into Martin’s circle, along with the earl’s daughter and communist Lady Nellie Griffiths, her playboy nephew Pugh, and the unconfident Oxford undergraduate Gavin Summers. But then Harry’s enthusiasm [...]
Filed under: 1930's, England, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews, Spanish Civil War, five stars | 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 invited [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Fiction, Regency, Reviews, ebook | 1 Comment »
Stodgy British archivist Henry Percival-Smythe slaves away in the dusty basement of Ealing College in 1934, the only bright spot in his life his obsession with a strange Australian mammal, the thylacine. It has been hunted to the edge of extinction, and Henry would love nothing more than to help the rare creature survive.
Then a [...]
Filed under: 1930's, Australia, Fiction, Reviews, five stars | 6 Comments »
The ghosts of the past will shape your future. Unless you fight them.
Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 4
Cambridge, 1907
After settling in their new home, Cambridge dons Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart are looking forward to nothing more exciting than teaching their students and playing rugby. Their plans change when a friend asks their help to clear [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Charlie Cochrane, England, Fiction, Reviews, detective, five stars | 2 Comments »
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, Fiction, Reviews, ebook | 4 Comments »
Trapped in his life as a pleasure slave, Noori serves each master who passes through the amir’s realm. No one sees beyond the slave’s body—no one bothers to look—until the sheikh of a desert tribe discovers the once-free, educated man could be an asset to his business. Noori’s life is turned upside down as the [...]
Filed under: 1½ stars, Fiction, Reviews, ebook, novella, uncertain time | 10 Comments »
Set in the hills of Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, the book is told from the point of view of Gabriel Harkin, the eldest of four children in a working-class family, who struggles through a loving yet often brutal childhood. It’s a turbulent time in Ulster, and, in the staunchly Catholic community to [...]
Filed under: 1960's, Fiction, Ireland, Reviews, five stars | 3 Comments »
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 »
Living in Cork, Ireland, a hotbed of resistance to British rule, makes Ian Mulroney’s life dangerous despite his peaceful beliefs. But disgusted by the brutality and shootings in the streets, he agrees to join the local IRA brigade to use his skills with medicine and learn the ways of war. There he meets Devlin Walsh. [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 2½ stars, Fiction, Ireland, Reviews | 10 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, Fiction, Western, ebook | 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 [...]
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 »
In this sequel to Shadow Road: The Page of Swords, Bailey is now training under Lord Charles, and he’s working hard toward his goal of taking over as The Shadow, just as Charles took the position over from his late lover, Robert.
Things are not easy for either of them, though. Bailey yearns for Charles’ [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, England, Fiction, Reviews, ebook, novella, three stars | 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 »
In 1920’s Ireland, Shannon understands all too well that the love and hunger he feels for his best friend, Ciaran, is forbidden. He’s already shunned by his town and emotionally damaged from enduring painful confessions after a male teacher’s molestation at age fourteen. But when he finds Ciaran grieving over the sudden death of his [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Ireland, Reviews, ebook, unrated | 7 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 »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll
Lessons in Discovery by Charlie Cochrane – Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 3
Orlando’s broken memory may break his lover’s heart.
Cambridge, 1906.
On the very day Jonty Stewart proposes that he and Orlando Coppersmith move in together, Fate trips them up. Rather, it trips Orlando, sending him down a flight of stairs and leaving [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Charlie Cochrane, Fiction, Leslie H Nicoll, Reviews, ebook, five stars | 8 Comments »
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, Fiction, Mark R Probst, Reviews, World War I, ebook, novella | 5 Comments »
In 1919 His Lordship declares that the Western Front may now be secure but the home front is still being undermined by Prime Minister Lloyd George and all his damned meddling . Only the humble gardener, Freddy has the intelligence to make money out of the new garden city full of homes fit for heroes [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 1920's, 1930's, Fiction, Reviews, World War I, unrated | 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 man [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Fiction, Japan, Reviews, ebook | Leave a Comment »
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 Sutcliffe, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, England, Fiction, Hayden Thorne, three stars | Leave a Comment »
A literary cause célèbre when first published more than fifty years ago, Gore Vidal’s now-classic The City and the Pillar stands as a landmark novel of the gay experience.
Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience forms [...]
Filed under: 1940's, America, Fiction, Hayden Thorne, Reviews, World War II, three stars | 1 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 [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Fiction, Reviews, World War I | Leave a Comment »
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, Reviews, World War I, novella | 1 Comment »
Set in 1920s Chicago, The Folded Leaf follows two very different boys who find themselves forming an unlikely friendship. Lymie is thin, clever and terrible at sport. Spud is athletic and quick to fight and blithely accepts Lymie’s passionate devotion to him. The bond between them is obsessively close, until they leave home for [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 4½ Stars, America, Essential Reads, Fiction, Reviews | 3 Comments »
With the recent series of college murders behind him, Cambridge Fellow Jonty Stewart is in desperate need of a break. A holiday on the beautiful Channel Island of Jersey seems ideal, if only he can persuade Orlando Coppersmith to leave the security of the college and come with him. Orlando is a quiet man who [...]
Filed under: 1900's, Charlie Cochrane, England, Fiction, Reviews, detective, five stars | 1 Comment »
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 »
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 bounty [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, Fiction, Reviews, Western, ebook, novella, three stars | 1 Comment »
Review by Leslie H. Nicoll
Jonathon Carver, a young Puritan school teacher, meets the handsome Nathaniel Morgan, master cooper. He comes to recognize the longings he has had all his life as desire for the love of another man. Nathaniel provides that love.
Their love must be carefully guarded as they live in Colonial America at [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, America, Fiction, Reviews, ebook, novella, three stars | 2 Comments »
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