WE'RE BACK! JUNE: 18% Gray by Anne Tenino

WE'RE BACK! Hopefully you have had a chance to catch-up on past month's selections (see: that's what I was doing) Let's get our summer reading on, gang!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Task Force Iota, Book One
 In a future where the United States has split along party lines, Agent Matt Tennimore’s job is to get people out of the Confederated Red States, whether they’re captured special ops agents from his own country or gay CRS citizens who’ve petitioned for asylum. He never expected to have to retrieve his high school crush, aka the guy who ostracized him for being gay. Rescuing James Ayala isn’t going to be easy: he’s crawling with tracking nanos and has a cybernetic brain implant that’s granted him psychic power he isn’t sure how to control. That’s the good news. The bad? The implant is compromising James’s mental stability. So they’re on the run, avoiding surveillance by AI aircraft and hiding from enemy militia. Then James confesses he tormented Matt in high school because James wanted him. Matt can’t resist the temptation James offers, but he wants so much more than sex, assuming they ever make it home alive. Is James really a good bet when he’s got a ticking time bomb in his brain and there’s the question of how much he’s actually changed?

Published by: Dreamspinner Press 

Year of Publication: 2011 

Number of Pages: 280

 

MARCH: Plan B by SJD Peterson

From the Amazon.com Book Description:

Danny Marshal has always lived his life out loud, but his androgynous appearance is only a small part of who he is. One night at a frat party, Danny meets Lance Lenard, football jock and apparent straight guy. Lance is shocked when he's immediately attracted to Danny's feminine side. Danny is happy to be the subject of Lance's first man-on-man experiment—until Lance begins to struggle with the fact that despite his appearance, Danny is indeed a man.

 Lance's whole life has been focused on his goal of playing in the NFL, and he knows those dreams will be smashed if anyone finds out about his little secret. Although Lance has grown to crave Danny's touch, he's not willing to give Danny what he's grown to crave: a boyfriend who's proud to love him for every flamboyant and snarky cell in his body. 

Life sends Danny and Lance in different directions, each of them focused on his respective Plan A. But the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Published by: Dreamspinner Press

Year of Publication: 2013

Number of Pages: 200

JANUARY: The Party Boy's Guide to Dating a Geek (Clumsy Cupids) By Piper Vaughn & Xara X. Xanakas

 

From the Amazon.com Book Description:

Ashley Byrne only wants one thing in life: to finish his tattoo apprenticeship and fulfill his dream of owning his own shop. In the meantime, he spends his nights partying, flirting, and having sex. After all, what else is there for him to worry about? Aside from his hair and his clothes, not much. He's hot, and rest assured no one knows it better than him. He's also used to getting what he wants-until he meets Felipe Navarro. Fee Navarro has everything he needs: a great IT job, a nice apartment, and all the high-tech toys his geeky heart could ever want. He doesn't do casual, and he knows guys like Ash are nothing but. Ash may burn hot for Fee, but Fee isn't willing to take a chance on a vain, little party boy with too many tats and an oversized ego. He wants someone to share his life with, and he won't settle for anything less. Too bad Ash has never been the type to give up easily. He has a plan, and he's not stopping until he proves he's more than just a pretty face-he's someone worthy of winning Fee's heart. 

Published by: Less Than Three Press 

Year of Publication: 2012 

Number of Pages: 274

 

DECEMBER: Homo Action Love Story! by Ben Monopoli

MGBC Note: Sorry, I'm so late this month, but I wanted to get you something for your holiday travels. This book is a wild ride. (see: wild) Go along for the ride, I think you will enjoy it. :)

 

From Amazon.com Book Description:

Boots McHenry and his boyfriend Ryan are young superstars in the North American Paintball League, a high-stakes sport where losers face exile -- five full years of it, on an island so secret no one can be sure it even exists. After Ryan has a tragic collision with an opposing team's paintball, the rules of the game force the boyfriends apart.

Boots is shattered without Ryan, so when his best friend Clemente Santiago suggests a daring, high-seas mission to find the island and reunite the pair, Boots jumps at the chance. They assemble a crack team to join them, including fashion model and mixed-martial-arts champ Colby Kroft, hunky-but-shy sea-captain Marcus Tumble, and Piper Pernfors, the ex who's aching to make Boots forget Ryan ever existed.

HOMO ACTION LOVE STORY! is a lighthearted, sexy adventure from the author of THE CRANBERRY HUSH and THE PAINTING OF PORCUPINE CITY. It's a perfect storm of beautiful fishermen, murderous pirates, blossoming romances, and secrets that call almost everyone's motives into question. Land, ho! This page-turner is sure to float your boat.

Self-Published on Amazon Digital Services, Inc. 

Year of Publication: 2012 

Number of Pages: 364

 

NOVEMBER: Latakia by JF Smith

 

From Amazon.com Book Description:

Matthew likes his life in Richmond. He has his friends and his softball and his volunteer work. And he has a very good-looking boyfriend, Brian, who he’s been happily dating for over a year now. So what if his friends tend to question just how good his boyfriend is, and so what if Brian tends to have inexplicable mood swings. And so what if Brian seems to invite Matt’s suspicions on occasion. If he just shows a little faith and trust, he’ll appreciate what he has with Brian the way he should. Right?

But suddenly, Matt finds himself in a desperate life-or-death situation on a trip overseas, and he realizes just how much he misses home, and Brian. He’s luckily rescued by a team of US Spec-Ops Forces, only to find out they’re a bunch of bigoted jerks. Worse, a quirk of his situation forces him to spend time with them that he’d rather not. And that’s when he finds out that first impressions can be misleading. When called upon, he steps up when every fiber of his being tells him not to, and discovers something deep inside himself that he didn’t realize was even there. And his life will never be the same. He finds that he can, after all, make some very overdue changes in his own life.

What Matt doesn’t realize is that the bond of brotherhood runs both ways. And he winds up changing the lives of several of the men on that Spec-Ops team as much as they changed his.

All it takes is faith and trust.

Self-Published on Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

 Year of Publication: 2011

 Number of Pages: 340

OCTOBER: Don't Let Me Go by J.H. Trumble

From Amazon.com Book Description:

Some people spend their whole lives looking for the right partner. Nate Schaper found his in high school. In the eight months since their cautious flirting became a real, heart-pounding, tell-the-parents relationship, Nate and Adam have been inseparable. Even when local kids take their homophobia to brutal levels, Nate is undaunted. He and Adam are rock solid. Two parts of a whole. Yin and yang.

But when Adam graduates and takes an off-Broadway job in New York--at Nate's insistence--that certainty begins to flicker. Nate's friends can't keep his insecurities at bay, especially when he catches Skyped glimpses of Adam's shirtless roommate. Nate starts a blog to vent his frustrations and becomes the center of a school controversy, drawing ire and support in equal amounts. But it's the attention of a new boy who is looking for more than guidance that forces him to confront who and what he really wants.

Tender, thoughtful, and unflinchingly real, Don't Let Me Go is a witty and beautifully written account of young love, long-distance relationships, and learning to follow your heart.

 Published by: Kensington Books

 Year of Publication: 2011

 Number of Pages: 353

 

SEPTEMBER: Scrap Metal by Harper Fox

From Amazon.com Book Description:
Is there room for love in a heart full of secrets? One year ago, before Fate took a wrecking ball to his life, Nichol was happily working on his doctorate in linguistics. Now he’s hip deep in sheep, mud and collies. His late brother and mother had been well suited to life on Seacliff Farm. Nichol? Not so much. As lambing season progresses in the teeth of an icy north wind, the last straw is the intruder Nichol catches in the barn. He says his name is Cam, and he’s on the run from a Glasgow gang. Something about the young man’s tired resignation touches Nichol deeply, and instead of giving him the business end of a shotgun, he offers Cam a blanket and a place to stay. Somehow, Cam quickly charms his way through Nichol’s defenses and into his heart. Even his grandfather takes to the cheeky city boy, whose hard work and good head for figures help set the farm back on its feet. As the cold Scottish springtime melts into summer, Nichol finds himself falling in love. When tragedy strikes, Cam’s resolutely held secret is finally revealed and Nichol must face the truth. He’s given his heart away, and it’s time to pay the price.

Warning: Contains explicit M/M sex and the disruption of a quiet Scottish town by a fistfight and some tight designer jeans.

Published by: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

Year of Publication: 2012

Number of Pages: 258

AUGUST: Almost Like Being In Love by Steve Kluger

Sorry for the skipped month, I was still getting caught up on previous months books! 

A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.

Published by: HarperCollins

Year of Publication: 2009

Number of Pages: 378

JUNE: In One Person by John Irving

A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp. His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers—a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”

Published by: Simon & Schuster

Year of Publication: 2012

Number of Pages: 450

    

MAY: Dreaming in Color by Cameron Dane

Can a house possess a soul and want two men to fall in love? The sight of the red door saves Colin Baxter in his dream, but very quickly a man appears and the dream becomes something of raw sexual need with a person Colin can’t identify. He just knows the man needs him, and Colin aches to heal his lover…even if the man doesn’t really exist. Marek Donovan just wants to be left alone to lick his wounds and recover from a terrible loss. The rundown house in Fiji suits his minimal needs just fine. He doesn’t want to face the world again, and on a small, secluded island figures he’s safe from everyone and everything. Particularly guilt from his past. Dreams of this nameless man and his house plague Colin for two years, but he’s come to care about his phantom lover so deeply he doesn’t want them to end. Then Colin visits Fiji and comes face-to-face with the house from his visions, prompting him to believe these dreams just might be his destiny. Colin knocks on the door, determined to find answers. He doesn’t expect the man who answers to be someone he already knows. -- CONTENT NOTE: This is an erotic romance novel and contains explicit scenes of male/male loving, as well as a flashback containing violence.

(I made a promise that this month's book would not be coming-of-age, so here you go...)

Published By: CreateSpace

Year of Publication: 2011

Number of Pages: 346

APRIL: Kamikaze Boys by Jay Bell

If the world is against you, don’t give up. Find yourself a kindred spirit. Then you can start fighting back.

They say Connor, the one with the crazy eyes and creepy scar, tried to kill his old man. Lately he’s been seen hanging out with David, the gay guy who always eats lunch alone. They make an odd pair, the loser and the psychopath, and bad things happen to people who mess with them. Not that Connor and David are looking for trouble. Even when taking on the world, they seem more interested in each other than fighting.

Kamikaze Boys is a story about breaking the chains that bind you and using them to beat down anyone that gets in your way. Better yet, it’s about holding hands with the guy you love while doing so.

Published by: CreateSpace
Year of Publication: 2012
Number of pages: 278

MARCH: Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg

Star quarterback Bobby Framingham, one of the most talented high school football players in California, knows he’s different from his teammates. They’re like brothers, but they don’t know one essential thing: Bobby is gay. Can he still be one of the guys and be honest about who he is? When he’s outed against his will by a student reporter, Bobby must find a way to earn back his teammates’ trust and accept that his path to success might be more public, and more difficult, than he’d hoped. An affecting novel about identity that also delivers great sportswriting.

Published by: Dutton Juvenile
Year of Publication: 2008
Number of pages: 272

FEBRUARY: Gulliver Travels by Justin Luke Zirilli

Heartbroken and hungry for a new start, Gulliver Leverenz flees his family, friends, and bastard of an ex-boyfriend in Los Angeles, with his sights set on New York City – a place he’s only ever heard of. With no money, no job, and no direction, Gully lands in NYC’s hottest gayborhood, Hell’s Kitchen, living with his only friend — fraternity brother and current rising gay nightlife star, Todd DiTempto. From Midtown to Fire Island and everywhere in between, Gulliver sinks fast into the chaotic life of sex, booze, and boys. Just barely scraping by in the city that never sleeps (alone, at least), Gully quickly discovers that this strange, concrete jungle has some major surprises in store. Luckily he has some tricks up his sleeve, and he isn’t afraid to use his claws.

Published by: BoiParty Books
Year of Publication: 2011
Number of pages: 296

JANUARY: Prove It by Chris Owen

 

Warren and Silas meet for the first time at the age of five. It doesn’t go well. When they reach junior high they have a truce in place and Tal, a new guy in their class, acts as a catalyst, bringing them together as best friends. Together all through high school they survive school plays, Tal’s girlfriends, Silas’ boyfriend, and Warren’s endless studying. College is more of the same, until Silas and Tal coax Warren out of the closet. For Warren nothing changes, but for Silas the world has unexpectedly changed forever. He had no idea he was in love with his best friend at all, and when he finally tells Warren the reaction is another surprise. Prove it. Warren knows all about Silas, knows the tricks, the games, the very best and the very worst about him, and Warren loves him back. But Warren also knows that if they’re going to be together it’s got to be forever, and he can’t just risk everything for what might be another one of Silas’ whims. Silas has to prove he loves Warren, and he wants to do just that. But how do you win the heart of someone who knows you better than anyone else?

Published by: Torquere Press
Year of Publication: 2011
Number of pages: 186

DECEMBER: The Unborn Spouse Situation by Matt Rauscher

 

Augie Schoenberg is twenty-two, an aspiring filmmaker at a school without a film school, and desperately single. He’s just moved into the Harley Hutt, the wildest party house on campus, and has fallen hard for his roommate Victor Radhakrishna, a campus political activist who is, for Augie, “a practical demi-god: a crusader for justice in skateboarding shoes.” The problem is, Augie is the only gay one in the house – or so he thinks. This darkly comic novel of sex, betrayal, and cultural clashes follows Augie’s search for love: from the cornfields of Illinois, to the gay beach and underground clubs of Chicago, and finally to the ecstasy-fueled nightlife of London, where Victor’s secret threatens to keep the two apart forever.

Published by: Lethe Press
Year of Publication: 2010
Number of pages: 236

NOVEMBER: Something Like Summer by Jay Bell

 

Love, like everything in the universe, cannot be destroyed. But over time it can change.

The hot Texas nights were lonely for Ben before his heart began beating to the rhythm of two words; Tim Wyman. By all appearances, Tim had the perfect body and ideal life, but when a not-so-accidental collision brings them together, Ben discovers that the truth is rarely so simple. If winning Tim’s heart was an impossible quest, keeping it would prove even harder as family, society, and emotion threaten to tear them apart.

Something Like Summer is a love story spanning a decade and beyond as two boys discover what it means to be friends, lovers, and sometimes even enemies.
For more information on the author, Jay Bell, check out: http://www.jaybellbooks.com/

Published by: CreateSpace
Year of Publication: 2011
Number of pages: 288

OCTOBER: Drama Queers! by Frank Anthony Polito

 

Ever since Mrs. Malloy assigned us the What I Want To Be When I Grow Up paper earlier that year in her 1st hour English, my mind had been made up. . . I, Bradley James Dayton, will be a famous actor someday!

Meet Bradley Dayton–a wickedly funny high school senior whose woefully uncool life always seems to be full of drama, even in the sorry little suburb of Hazel Park, Michigan. It’s 1987, the era of big hair, designer jeans, and Dirty Dancing. George Michael has “Faith” and Michael Jackson still has a nose. Brad, on the other hand, has a thing for acting, and while his friends are trying to get laid, Brad’s trying to land the lead in Okla-homo! and practicing the Jane Seymour monologue from Somewhere in Time.

Sure, he’d like to get laid too, but while Brad has known he was gay forever, the rest of “Hillbilly High” is not so forthcoming. Brad’s already lost one best friend, Jack, who dropped out of marching band to step into the closet. But lately, things are looking up. Not only has Brad made Homecoming Top Five, but Richie, a new, totally cute member of drama club, definitely seems to be sending signals–and he’s not the only one. Before senior year ends, Brad will know more about love, lust, and friendship than he ever thought possible. Because if all the world’s a stage, he’s ready to be in the spotlight. . .

For more information go to: http://www.dramaqueers.net/

Published by: Kensington
Year of Publication: 2009
Number of pages: 416

SEPTEMBER: Regularly Scheduled Life by K.A. Mitchell

 

Sean and Kyle have enjoyed six perfect years of what their friends called a disgustingly happy relationship. But what happens one sunny morning might be more than even the most loving couple can survive. When the bell rings that morning in chemistry teacher Seans first-period class, a terrifying sound fills the hallsgunshots. Sean runs to tackle the shooter, sustaining a bullet wound to his leg. He is unable to save the lives of the principal and two students. Kyle hears about the shooting on the radio, and in the flash of an instant finds his life irrevocably altered. Everythingespecially his hearthangs suspended in a nightmare until he finds out Sean is alive. Kyles just relieved the worst is over. Or is it? Putting that day behind them isnt as simple as it sounds. As Sean struggles to make something positive out of the tragedy, Kyle fights to save their relationship from the dangers of publicityand Seans unwillingness to face how the crisis has changed him.

Published by: Samhain Publishing
Year of Publication: 2009
Number of pages: 296

AUGUST: Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon

McCarthy-era Washington, D.C., is as twisted and morally compromised as a noir Los Angeles in Mallon’s latest, a wide-ranging examination of betrayal and clashing ideologies. The young ladies in the secretary pool are agog over dapper bureaucrat Hawkins Fuller, though his attentions covertly focus on newly minted Fordham graduate and good Catholic Tim Laughlin. Hawkins helps Tim land a job and, after feeling out the impressionable young man, makes a place in his bed for him. Mary Johnson, a friend to both closeted men, watches with rising alarm as Tim and Hawkins carry on their affair and Washington seethes in paranoia over Communists and “sexual deviation.” Mary, meanwhile, succumbs to her own lustful yearnings and has an affair with a married businessman, leading to a predictable, though deftly played, quandary. The District’s social milieu is solidly realized, with such period icons as Mary McGrory and Drew Pearson in evidence alongside political heavyweights—McCarthy, Kennedy, Nixon and the like. Less convincing, however, is the on-again-off-again and largely one-sided relationship between Washington greenhorn Tim and cold, calculating careerist Hawkins. Mallon (Bandbox; Dewey Defeats Truman) offers an intricate, fluent and divergent perspective on a D.C. rife with backstabbing and power grabbing. (Publishers Weekly)

Published by: Vintage
Year of Publication: 2008
Number of pages: 368

JULY: Strings Attached by Nick Nolan

From BOOKS TO WATCH OUT FOR by RICHARD LABONTE, Volume 4 number 1 – Adolescence is a hazardous way of life for 17-year-old Jeremy Tyler; his father died in a mysterious accident when he was a child, and his mother has since descended into alcoholic hell and forced rehab; that’s when he’s sent from the Fresno slums of his childhood to the posh estate of his overbearing great aunt Katherine and her censorious husband – liberated from an economic prison, only to land in an emotional one – and is overwhelmed by the change. It’s not easy for him to fit into the upper crust, particularly because he’s trying to hide how much he’s attracted to other boys. Jeremy’s story of breaking free from the strands of dishonesty, deceit, and self-doubt has its parallels to the tale of Pinocchio, but Nolan’s queer take is totally contemporary: think the TV series The OC – girls with mean cheekbones, well-built guys with snotty attitudes, and Jeremy in the role of a queer Ryan Atwood. He’s a good-looking kid, with a sleek swimmer’s physique – and the swim team’s champ is out to get him. He dates one of the smart-set girls in an attempt to keep his gay hormones at bay – but that doesn’t do him much good. Nolan’s debut novel is a kitchen sink of genres – coming of age, coming out, mystery, romance, erotica, even a dash of the supernatural – that add up to an impressive story about the passage from boyhood to manhood.

Published by: BookSurge Publishing
Year of Publication: 2006
Number of pages: 312