Grey Randall: Private Dick Casefile #1 Meet Grey Randall, a hard-boiled detective whose sense of humor makes it hard for him to stay strictly noir. It’s 1948 in Las Vegas—the newborn Sin City—and he’s just landed his first murder case. He’s more at ease among the lowlifes, but his new client, a beautiful, wealthy woman, [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 3½ Stars, America, Catt Ford, detective, Fiction, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Five years ago Drew Hibbard dismissed Rogan Brockport from his life. Now, they meet again at the Governor’s Ball and Rogan will know the reason for the abrupt, unexplained cut. After Rogan saves Drew’s life during a pirate raid, he kidnaps him and the perfect opportunity to extract answers from Drew is finally at hand. [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 2½ stars, ebook, Fiction, Keta Diablo, novella, pirates, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
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 »
Young Rob Winston is deemed too small of stature and unsoldierly to take his place in the military ranks of the American Revolution. All he is seen fit to do is to become the sexual comfort and treasure of Colonel Seth Hampton of the army of General Nicholas Herkiner in the Mohawk Valley campaign. With [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 2 stars, America, America War of Independence, BDSM, Dirk Hessian, ebook, Fiction, novella, Reviews, War | 2 Comments »
Billy Bronner is, to all appearances, every inch the 1950s American dream: handsome, clever, captain of the high school football team, looks good enough in tight jeans that people can even forget he’s Jewish. Then the new guy on the block, the enigmatic Leonard Nachman, turns his head, and over the summer Billy discovers a [...]
Filed under: 1950's, America, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | Leave a Comment »
The Matsumoto twins, or “mirror samurai,” are bound together by a horrible crime committed during the civil war. Eager for a new beginning, the brothers travel to America where they are befriended by the Lennartsson brother and sister, Konrad and Klara. Akeno becomes attracted to the seemingly innocent young Klara, while Aki allies himself with, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, American Civil War, Fiction, Japan, Reviews, Silupa Jarun, three stars | 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 »
Long Journey Into Darkness is the dark tale of love and romance between cousins that turns fatal. Very Gay, Set in England turn of the century, coming to New York to start again only to be followed by the past, finding love and ………..there is however a little stage drama, murder and more. Review by [...]
Filed under: 1910's, America, ebook, Fiction, Half of One Star, Reviews | 10 Comments »
Piero leaves his home in Taormina to go to work for a renowned naturalist in England. Unfortunately, he hadn’t reckoned on falling for the Professor’s handsome young nephew, but it seems they have only just begun to explore their mutual attraction when the Professor discovers their relationship. To avoid scandal, he sends Piero away on [...]
Filed under: Asia, ebook, Fiction, Michael Joseph, Reviews, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Baldwin’s haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature. In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself [...]
Filed under: 1950's, 4½ Stars, Essential Reads, Europe, Fiction, Reviews | 7 Comments »
North Carolina, 1876: Rumors abound about the dark, mysterious Dominic Beresford in Chapel Hill. Their curiosity piqued, their libidos functioning on overload, Craven and Anthony are intent on obtaining answers about the supposed licentious gatherings taking place every weekend. When the duo are caught spying on Beresford Hall, their punishment will be swift and severe, [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, America, BDSM, ebook, Fiction, Keta Diablo, novella, Reviews, three stars | 1 Comment »
Dakota Taylor, the gay gunslinger, is back. Here, Dakota leaves his lover Bennie on the ranch for a short trip into town. But as he heads home, somebody tries to use him for target practice. Soon Dakota finds himself two hundred miles from Bennie, with no chance of returning until he finds out who wants [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, Cap Iversen, Fiction, Reviews, Western | 2 Comments »
Bohemia, 1866 They met in a port-side tavern, their lust-filled moments stolen from days of marching and madness. After eighteen months, Captain Rudolph von Ratzlaff and First Lieutenant Mathias Hofmann have decided to run away from everything they hold dear. Resigning their commissions is social suicide, but there’s no other choice. Someone will eventually see [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, ebook, Erastes, Fiction, five stars, novella | 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 »
A very early gay novel, originally published in 1900, by a Belgian writer with the first English translation in 1908, set in 19th Century rural Flanders. A gay count returns after years abroad to an isolated uptight community where his love for a peasant boy brings furious attacks by fanatic and bigoted villages whipped up [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Essential Reads, Europe, Fiction, novella, Reviews, three stars | 1 Comment »
Post World War Two finds Laguna Beach in its heyday as an artists’ colony. Tony runs his uncles’ Grocery store in the town where a man of his bent can hide among the eccentrics who call the place home, including his Aunt Cora, who’s in charge of this year’s Pageant, where denizens of Laguna Beach [...]
Filed under: 1940's, 4½ Stars, America, ebook, Fiction, novella, Parhelion, Reviews, World War II | 5 Comments »
Ever since Cambridge-bound Colin Lancaster secretly watched stable master Patrick Callahan mastering the groundskeeper, he’s longed for Patrick to do the same to him. When Patrick is caught with his pants down and threatened with death, Colin speaks up in his defense, announcing that he, too, is guilty of “the love that dare not speak [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, Australia, Fiction, Keira Andrews, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
TWO QUESTIONS HAVE ALWAYS PLAGUED HISTORIANS: HOW COULD Christopher Marlowe, a known spy and England’s foremost playwright, be suspiciously murdered and quickly buried in an unmarked grave — just days before he was to be tried for treason? HOW COULD William Shakespeare replace Marlowe as England’s greatest playwright virtually overnight — when Shakespeare had never [...]
Filed under: 16th Century, England, Fiction, Reviews, Shakespeare, Ted Bacino, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Istanbul, 1622. Considered hotbeds of sedition, the city’s coffee houses are in constant danger of being shut down by imperial command. Haluk, who runs a cafe in an old caravanserai, is more concerned with brewing the perfect cup of coffee than inciting rebellion. While storms in coffee cups rage around him, Haluk tends his clientele [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, ebook, Fiction, five stars, Kate Cotoner, Middle East, Reviews | 2 Comments »
One chilly night just before Christmas in 1922, eighteen-year-old poacher Danny Costessey comes to regret his impulse to climb a tree to fetch some mistletoe for his mother when he falls, breaking his leg. He doesn’t expect his luck to change when he is found by the furious gamekeeper who’s long hated his family. However, [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 3½ Stars, ebook, England, Fiction, J L Merrow, novella, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Tetsuya, a young male courtesan, is living a life of relative safety until an unknown samurai called Jin arrives on his doorstep, bringing passion and death. Awakened to the strange paths of destiny, Tetsuya chooses to leave the only place he has ever known to follow a samurai who is on a quest for vengeance. [...]
Filed under: 15th Century, 2½ stars, Fiction, Japan, Reiko Morgan | 5 Comments »
Gold was the unbeatable champion of the House of Simeon but after the gods foretell his death, his master refuses to put him into the arena again. Instead, he makes Gold his trainer, and uses his body for his own pleasure. Gold wants nothing more than to fight again. It is all he knows, and [...]
Filed under: Ancient Rome, D.J. Manly, ebook, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | Leave a Comment »
On a lush, tropical island inhabited by rogues, thieves and villains, where men take the law into their own hands, a father and son are thrust into tumultuous events that will change their lives forever. Bernardo de Rodrigo is proud of his son. Alonso is handsome and winning, and everyone he meets is instantly drawn [...]
Filed under: 17th Century, Fiction, Johnny Miles, Reviews, three stars | Leave a Comment »
Rome, 10BC. New soldier Manilus Dardanus is sent to apprentice under General Cassius Valerian in the hope of securing a military sponsorship. Dardanus is idealistic and naive, Valerian brusque and restrained – but each soon discovers the other is not what he expected. In the legion Dardanus finds purpose and strength; in Dardanus, Valerian finds [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, Ancient Rome, Fiction, Heather Domin | 2 Comments »
Ashton Laytham came to Fayerweather, his uncle’s estate, as an orphan at the age of seven. Family and servants alike perceived Ashton as an unlovable child and shunned him; as an adult, the occasional illicit rendezvous aside, Ashton remains aloof and alone. When his uncle dies, yet more abuse falls upon Ashton’s shoulders: the estate [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, England, Fiction, Reviews, Tinnean | Leave a Comment »
When Julian is forced to turn to crime after he loses his inheritance, he decides that he can do better than the incompetent highwayman who tries to waylay him one dark night. That’s how the High-Class Highwayman comes into his own, and he does very well for himself, at least until Griffen Michalis comes along. [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, ebook, Fiction, Julia Talbot, Reviews, three stars | Leave a Comment »
London 1889. For Ira Adler, former rent-boy and present plaything of crime lord Cain Goddard, stealing back the statue of a porcelain dog from Goddard’s blackmailer should have been a doddle. But inside the statue is evidence that could put Goddard away for a long time under the sodomy laws, and everyone’s after it, including [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, detective, England, Fiction, five stars, free read, Jess Faraday, Murder Mystery, Reviews, Victorian | 1 Comment »
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 »
New York 1888 Jonah Woolner’s life is as prudently regulated as the bank where he works. It’s a satisfying life until he’s passed over for promotion in favor of newcomer Reid Hylliard. Brash and enterprising, Reid beguiles everyone except Jonah, who’s convinced Reid’s progressive ideas will be the bank’s ruin. When Jonah begins to discover [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, America, Fiction, Reviews, Tamara Allen | 1 Comment »
Driven from his family when his sexuality is exposed, Jonah discovers drama, passion, and intrigue in a traveling carnival–and in the enigmatic owner, Rafe Grimstone. The preacher’s son and the lord who’s rejected his former life in England feel the heat of attraction from the moment they meet. Open-hearted Jonah is willing to risk hellfire [...]
Filed under: 1900's, 4½ Stars, America, Bonnie Dee, ebook, Fiction, Reviews, Summer Devon | 2 Comments »
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 »
Their pirate vessel destroyed, Captain Amery White, ship’s surgeon Gavin Watson, and quartermaster Quinn Davies are left without a livelihood or a home. The three men have served together since they were old enough to put to sea, sharing hardships and comfort until Amery and Gavin formalized their union with a matelotage—the pirate equivalent of [...]
Filed under: 18th Century, 2½ stars, Age of Sail, Ariel Tachna, Fiction, pirates, Reviews | 1 Comment »
HEROES IN HELLCATS Jack Hardigan’s Hellcat fighter squadron blew the Japanese Zekes out of the blazing Pacific skies. But a more subtle kind of hell was brewing in his feelings for rookie pilot Fred Trusteau. As another wingman watches–and waits for the beautiful woman who loves Jack–Hardigan and Trusteau cut a fiery swath through the [...]
Filed under: 1940's, Ensan Case, Essential Reads, Fiction, five stars, World War II | 8 Comments »
A Civil War veteran and recovered opium addict, Adam Finlay, knows the cost of taking pleasure too far. In life, as in poker, he plays things close to the vest. The only way he knows to survive is to let no one in. Jackson Talbot loves a challenge. And no one is a greater challenge [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, American Civil War, ebook, Fiction, India Harper, novella, Reviews | 1 Comment »
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 »
After plotting against his incompetent king, Han and his supporters are driven from the Hittite Empire and seek refuge in Egypt. Instead, he finds only suffering. Taken captive by Prince Itamun to ensure the village of refugees will follow the pharaoh’s will, Han plots ways to turn the young prince’s desire for him into a [...]
Filed under: Ancient Egypt, BDSM, C D Leavitt, Fiction, Reviews, three stars | 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 »
October 15, 1898 Dear diary, that’s how you’re supposed to begin these things, or so I assume. I never in a million years thought I’d write in one, let alone under these circumstances. This was Jonathan’s doing. When he asked me to make this entry, it was something I had to do, for him. He’s [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, ebook, Fiction, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Lord Oliver Marsden’s life is perfect…well, almost perfect. His bookshop is doing well, his bank account isn’t empty, and his nights are filled with a deliciously dominant man…who tends to be a bit too domineering outside of the bedchamber. But Vincent loves him and that’s all that should matter. Right? And of course, Vincent still [...]
Filed under: Ava March, BDSM, ebook, Fiction, five stars, Regency, Reviews | 1 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 »
By the close of 1882, the inhabitants of the American West had earned their reputation as untamed and dangerous. The line between heroes and villains is narrow and indistinct. The concept that a man may only kill if backed into a corner is antiquated. Lives are worth less than horses. Treasures are worth killing for. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Abigail Roux, America, Fiction, Reviews, Western | Leave a Comment »
He’s at the end of his rope…until fate casts a lifeline. Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 8 The Great War is over. Freed from a prisoner of war camp and back at St. Bride’s College, Orlando Coppersmith is discovering what those years have cost. All he holds dear—including his beloved Jonty Stewart, lost in combat. A [...]
Filed under: 1910's, 4½ Stars, Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Charlie Cochrane, detective, England, Fiction, novella, Reviews, World War I | 4 Comments »
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 »
London, 1840. At the height of Victorian hypocrisy, two men meet and fall in love. Their romance is forbidden, punishable even by death, but their passion blossoms thanks to a paper Valentine. Saint Valentine’s Day has become a new and very popular day for lovers. Thousands of Londonites are clamouring for the ideal romantic gift. [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 1½ stars, A.J. Llewellyn, ebook, England, Fiction, novella, Reviews, Victorian | 56 Comments »
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