Title: Discovered: Little Boy Lost Book Four
Author: J.P. Barnaby
Cover artist: Catt Ford
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Amazon Buy Link
Genre: Contemporary m/m, young adult
Length: Novel (200 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Jamie and Brian’s angst-filled journey continues in this fourth book in the series, told (for the first time) from Jamie’s point of view.
Title: What They Always Tell Us
Author: Martin Wilson
Publisher: Delacorte/Random House
Amazon Buy Link
Genre: YA, contemporary gay fiction
Length: Novel (304 pages)
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: More subtle and nuanced than the usual “coming-of-age” story, told in an unusual and effective way. Not to be missed!
Title: Vanished: Little Boy Lost Series Book Three
Author: J.P. Barnaby
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Amazon Buy Link (N/A)
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (210 pages)
Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Choosing to give up college and a scholarship, Brian (McAllister) Schreiber makes his way to San Diego to search for his best friend and lover, Jamie Mayfield.
A fun post by guest reviewer Leslie
It all began innocently enough. Several weeks ago (or maybe months) K.Z. Snow mentioned—either here or on Goodreads, not sure which–that she was reading I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell and said it was a “very unusual” memoir. That was enough to pique my curiosity so I downloaded the sample to my Kindle and then promptly forgot about it. Then, two weeks ago, on my birthday, my friend Geoffrey recommended the same book to me. Since it was my birthday, I decided to treat myself to a day of leisure reading so I bought the book and dived in.
“Very unusual” is putting it mildly. IANMTD covers about eight months in Josh’s life when he was 26 and first living in New York City. He was a mild mannered advertising executive by day and at night he was drag queen name Aquadisiac—Aqua for short—who was known for her towering hair, heels, and live goldfish in her breasts. Josh was madly in love with a sex worker named Jack and despite a rather bizarre lifestyle (and even more bizarre schedule), they made it work.
Title: I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip
Author: John Donovan
Publisher: Harper & Row (1969); reissued by Flux in 2010
Amazon Buy Link
Genre: YA; Contemporary
Length: Novel (228 pages)
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: A classic of children’s literature that I only discovered two weeks ago!
Title: Paragraph 175
Directed by: Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman
Narrated by: Rupert Everett
Genre: Documentary
Length: 81 minutes
Amazon Buy Link
Year released: 2000
Rating: N/A
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Painful to watch, at times, but very interesting documentary that recounts the persecution of homosexuals during WWII in Nazi Germany.
Title: The Painting
Author: F.K. Wallace
Publisher: Self-published
Amazon Buy Link
Genre: Historical
Length: Novel (65794 words)
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: A classic love story, set against the backdrop of war and its aftermath. I cried more than once, but the perfect ending made it all worth it.
Title: Full Release
Author: Marshall Thornton
Cover Artist: Alessia Brio
Publisher: Torquere Press
Amazon Buy Link: N/A
Genre: Contemporary mystery
Length: Novel (268 pgs; 79000 words)
Rating: 2 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: A murder mystery that didn’t know if it was funny or suspenseful, plus an incredibly annoying main character, ultimately ruined this book for me. Nice cover, though.
Title: Knight Errant
Author: K.D. Sarge
Publisher: Turtleduck Press
Genre: M/M sci fi
Amazon Kindle buy link
Length: Novel (312 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: A pitch perfect space opera that hit all the right notes for me.
Title: The Palisades
Author: Tom Schabarum
Publisher: Cascadia Publishing
Cover photograph by the author
Buy link: Amazon
Length: Novel (290 pages)
Genre: Contemporary gay fiction
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
Title: Bob the Book
Author: David Pratt
Cover Artist: Peach Boy Distillery and Design
Publisher: Chelsea Station Editions
Buy Link: Amazon
Length: Novel (186 pages)
Genre: Contemporary gay fiction
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Think Toy Story for adults, with books instead of toys.
Title: This Rough Magic
Author: Josh Lanyon
Cover Artist: April Martinez
Publisher: LooseId
Length: Short Novel
Genre: Mystery, historical fiction (1930s)
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5
A dueling guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Vintage Lanyon: what Josh does best. A clever mystery with lovely writing and a pair of very likeable protagonists.
Title: Abandoned, Little Boy Lost Series #2
Author: J.P. Barnaby
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Buy link: Amazon
Genre: Young adult, contemporary
Length: Novel (200 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Brian McAllister endures his senior year of high school without his best friend and lover, Jamie, at his side.
>>>This review contains spoilers for the first book in the series, Enlightened.<<<
Title: Despoiling David
Author: Shabbu
Publisher: Barbarian Spy
Buy link: Amazon
Genre: Erotic historical
Length: Novella (80 PDF pages; 22,780 words)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
A guest review by Leslie
In a nutshell: Plantation smut!
In lieu of a review this week…a fun post and commentary by guest reviewer Leslie
Perhaps you were watching Glee the other night and saw an ad that featured videos from the It Gets Better Project. Perhaps you even thought it was an ad for It Gets Better. Actually, it was an ad for the Google Chrome browser. Don’t feel bad if you were confused—it seems that many people are missing the point of the ad campaign, at least according to the New York Times. Even if it’s not completely successful at this moment, I still think it’s a terrific ad. If I wasn’t already a Google Chrome user, you can be sure that I would be downloading the browser today!