William Ashton, retained as a gardener by Edward Hillier, discovers his new master to be a detached and driven man. Over the years, as travail and tragedy bring them closer together, he understands that they have more in common than he first realised, but the affection they feel for one another will be sorely tested [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, ebook, England, F.M. Parkinson, Fiction, Victorian | 3 Comments »
Painfully introverted and rendered nearly mute by a heavy stammer, Lord George Albert Westin rarely ventures any farther than the club or his beloved gardens. When he hears rumors of an exotic new orchid sighted at a local hobbyist’s house, though, he girds himself with opiates and determination to attend a house party, hoping to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, ebook, England, Fiction, five stars, Heidi Cullinan, Reviews, Victorian | 2 Comments »
Rag & Bone is #2 in the Inspector Raft Mystery Series. Scotland Yard Inspector Philemon Raft arrives on the scene of a deadly fire in Whitechapel, only to find a much more sinister force at work, destroying lives with swift abandon – and a lunatic may help Raft capture the master criminal known only as [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 4½ Stars, Fiction, Joanne Soper-Cook, Reviews, Victorian | 1 Comment »
Book one in the Past Perfect Series Love stripped down to the bare bones. 1875. The Bone Wars. Dinosaur hunters will go to any lengths to make bigger, better discoveries—and to see their rivals broken. Henry is a man of science—precise, proper and achingly correct. When Albert arrives in his life in a storm of [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, America, ebook, England, Fiction, Paige Turner, Reviews, series, Victorian | 2 Comments »
‘… 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 »
Trusting a psychic flash might solve a mystery…and lead to love. Inspector Robert Court should have felt a sense of justice when a rag-and-bones man went to the gallows for murdering his cousin. Yet something has never felt right about the investigation. Robert’s relentless quest for the truth has annoyed his superintendent, landing him lowly [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, BDSM, Bonnie Dee, detective, ebook, England, Fiction, Murder Mystery, Reviews, Summer Devon, Victorian | Tagged: 4½ Stars, BDSM, Bonnie Dee, detective, ebook, England, Fiction, Murder Mystery, Reviews, Summer Devon, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
(From Publisher’s Weekly) A biographical fantasia, White’s latest imagines the final days of the poet and novelist Stephen Crane (The Red Badge of Courage), who died of TB at age 28 in 1900. At the same time, White also imagines and writes The Painted Boy, a work that he has Crane say he began in [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2½ stars, America, Edmund White, England, Europe, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | 3 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 »
Sherlock Holmes is called in on one of his most personal cases ever when his young nephew, Bramwell, disappears. Has he been kidnapped by his own father and forced to marry against his nature or is something more sinister afoot? In his search for answers Holmes and Watson will cross swords with the angelically beautiful [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, detective, ebook, Fiction, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
When Victorian private investigator Nick Romney’s step-father, an Anglican bishop, is murdered, Nick refuses to get involved. At the urging of his family, though, Nick and his lover Davy step in to investigate. Together they uncover the truth of the bishop’s involvement in the dark and horrifying world of child prostitution, the reason why he [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, detective, Europe, Fiction, five stars, Murder Mystery, Reviews, Victorian | 8 Comments »
To discharge a debt to his friend, Andrew Nash, Lord Thomas Barrington returns to the family estate he fled six years earlier after refusing to marry the woman his father had chosen. To Thomas’s dismay, Barrington Hall is no longer the joyful home he remembers from his childhood, and his young niece has no idea [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, ebook, England, Fiction, Jamie Fessenden, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | 3 Comments »
They once faced each other on a battlefield. Now soldier-turned-spy Jonathan Reese must keep watch over the man he’s never forgotten. A close encounter reveals Karl von Binder, the count’s son, also recalls the day he spared Jonathan’s life. Sparks fly between the former enemies and Jonathan begins to lose perspective on his mission. He [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Bonnie Dee, ebook, England, Europe, Fiction, five stars, Reviews, Summer Devon, Victorian | 4 Comments »
London, 1889. Dr. John Williams suspects somebody has been blackmailing one of his patients, Sir Hugh Cockburn. The same day, the body of a young man is found floating in the Thames. Mere coincidence, or is there a connection? Willliams’ eccentric cousin, Cyril Fosterby, turns his mind to unraveling the mystery. Review by Erastes The [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Anel Viz, detective, ebook, England, Fiction, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | 2 Comments »
Invalided out of the East India Company’s army, James Brooke looks for adventure in the South China Seas. When the Sultan of Borneo asks him to help suppress a rebellion, Brooke joins the war to support the Sultan and improve his chances of trading successfully in the area. Instead, he finds himself rewarded with his [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 2 stars, Fiction, Reviews, Tom Williams, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
Congo Free State, 1888 On a mission deep in the jungle, Oxford anthropologist James Litchfield comes face-to-face with a local legend: a wild man who wanders with mountain gorillas and lives as one of their own. The chance encounter with the savage, whom James calls Michael, leads to a game of observation and exploration. Their [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, 3½ Stars, Africa, ebook, England, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
CLICK ON THE SNOWFLAKE TO OPEN THE DOOR!
Filed under: Advent Calendar, Joanne Soper-Cook, Victorian | 18 Comments »
Teleny is the haunted musical genius that everyone desires but no one has truly touched… until the fateful night that he senses Camille’s presence in the audience. The wealthy young man is instantly seduced by Teleny’s dark beauty and smoldering melancholy. This groundbreaking and powerful early gay novel, written in secret by Oscar Wilde and [...]
Filed under: 4½ Stars, graphic novel, Victorian | 3 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 »
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 »
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, ebook, England, Fiction, Reviews, Sasha Skye, three stars, Victorian | Tagged: 19th Century, book review, dreamspinner, Sasha Skye, three stars | 2 Comments »
Talented and witty, and with a fabulously successful play playing to packed houses, Oscar is the toast of the town. On one of his club nights he plays a game with his guests, “who would you murder” and sets into motion events which look like they will result, not only in his own death, but [...]
Filed under: England, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | 7 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 »
James Ellsworth is a bit jaded, especially for his young age. He hates school, and longs for his parents’ estate, where life is far more pleasant. Meeting new schoolmate Daniel Courtney is a much-needed distraction, one that will prove more and more engrossing as James and Daniel grow older. When his father dies, James is [...]
Filed under: Fiction, five stars, Reviews, Victorian | 5 Comments »
A Three novella anthology from Cheyenne Publishing Featuring: Aftermath by Charlie Cochrane Gentleman’s Gentleman by Lee Rowan Hard and Fast by Erastes Expectations riding on young Englishmen are immense; for those who’ve something to hide, those expectations could prove overwhelming. Aftermath When shy Edward Easterby first sees the popular Hugo Lamont, he’s both envious of [...]
Filed under: 1920's, 19th Century, Alex Beecroft, Anthology, Charlie Cochrane, Erastes, five stars, Lee Rowan, novella, Regency, Reviews, Victorian | 4 Comments »
Devlin Montebanc knows that a Victorian man needs a place to go, some place he can be at ease, enjoying his port, his cigars, and some special male companionship. That’s why he maintains the Hyacinth Club, a traditional men’s club with a twist. The sophisticated men of the Hyacinth Club find their pleasure in this [...]
Filed under: Alex Beecroft, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | 6 Comments »
In London, with Jack the Ripper’s crimes still raw in the great city’s memory, a well-known male prostitute is brutally murdered, the head neatly severed, and the body set on fire. Detective Inspector Phillip Devlin of Scotland Yard, mid-thirties and secretly gay, is called to the murder scene by plainclothes constable Freddie Collins, and soon [...]
Filed under: detective, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, three stars, Victorian | 1 Comment »
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 »
Walter Starling – newly engaged as a footman in the house of Dr. Richard Reynard – is shy, naive, and religiously inclined. His sheltered upbringing hasn’t prepared him for the world he encounters hidden behind the facade of upper-class Victorian respectability. Dr. Reynard, dashing bachelor and celebrated London surgeon, is bored of the empty rituals [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Fiction, Victorian | 1 Comment »
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 »
Reviewed by Hayden Thorne REVIEW: It’s fairly common knowledge now that Teleny’s authorship continues to be debated among scholars. Was Oscar Wilde truly a part of the novel’s creation? If so, which scenes or chapters did he himself write? John McRae’s introduction (a very worthy read in itself) to the only annotated and unabridged edition [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Fiction, three stars, Victorian | 3 Comments »
Niels got more than he bargained for when he broke into a certain townhouse in the fashionable section of London. The arrogant and dictatorial lord who caught him red-handed was more than willing to take advantage of the situation. Temporarily forced into a unique form of servitude, Niels learns more than he ever expected to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, Erastes, Fiction, Reviews, Victorian | 5 Comments »
E.F. Benson’s delightfully nostalgic classic of public school life is in the tradition of P.G. Wodehouse’s Tales of St. Austin’s. Memorably evoking the joys and torments of boyhood, from midnight feasts and glorious days on the cricket field to waxy masters and hilariously embarrassing parental visits, Benson follows young David Blaize from prep school to [...]
Filed under: 19th Century, five stars, Reviews, Victorian | 6 Comments »
Review by Lee Benoit In the current issue of The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide literary critic David Bergman describes four dynamics that define gay literature: creating art; providing positive images; changing attitudes; and market viability (see comment below). In Chris Hunt’s Street Lavender we get all four, neatly and delightfully packaged. And it [...]
Filed under: five stars, Lee Benoit, Reviews, Victorian | 5 Comments »
Gaywyck is the first gay Gothic novel. Long out of print, this classic proved that genre knows no gender. Young, innocent Robert Whyte enters a Jane-Eyre world of secrets and deceptions when he is hired to catalog the vast library at Gaywyck, a mysterious ancestral mansion on Long Island, where he falls in love with [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Essential Reads, Reviews, Victorian | 2 Comments »
At fourteen, Kit St. Denys brought down his abusive father with a knife. At twenty-one his theatrical genius brought down the house. At thirty, his past and his forbidden love nearly brought down the curtain for good. This is a Victorian saga of two men whose love for each other transcends time and distance and [...]
Filed under: five stars, Reviews, Victorian | Leave a Comment »
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