LGBT/Gay Fiction Recommendations

[Leslie]

I read this last week--borrowed it for free with my Amazon Prime--and I can't figure out what I think of it. It is definitely thought provoking.



One thing that annoyed me--I think the story is supposed to be set in the US, but I believe the author must be British. He sure writes like he is British, using British expressions and so on (crackers for cookies, eg). Even though it's supposed to be the US, it didn't feel or sound like the US and that kept pulling me out of the story.

If anyone else gives this one a go, I'd be curious to hear your opinions.

L

[Geoffrey]

On Saturday, I read Gulliver Travels by Justin Luke Zirilli.



This is a coming of age tale set in contemporary New York.  One of the things I really liked about it is the author/narrator's perspective.  It's a more Millennial worldview without all that angst one gets in similar novels written by Gen Xers or Boomers.  This isn't a coming out tale and there is no drama around reactions by the general population which makes more room to tell a story about a guy with serious advantages many don't have when moving to a new city to start a new life and the poor choices he makes once he's there.

Many of the events in the story are a bit over the top when taken together, but not so unrealistic individually.  From my days as a party promoter, I knew guys exactly like each of the characters in the book and I've seen or been a part of events similar to everything that transpires.  It's a bit of a madcap roll coaster ride but it's also based on reality.

My only complaint was the timeline of the story.  I kept going back and forth between feeling like it took place over a year or so and that it all happened at once.   Maybe that's part of the fun but it was a little disconcerting.

[Leslie]

I picked up Gulliver's story when it was free (same weekend I'm Saying Yes was free) and started it but wasn't sure I wanted to continue. Maybe I'll get back to it. I've been in a really weird reading frame of mind for the past few months and having a hard time finishing anything.

L

[Leslie]

This is an indie book I read about on Goodreads, with lots of 5 star reviews. Price is just $2.99 and it's 400 pages long (good value for your money).



I'd give it 4.5 stars. It started off a little shaky with some typos and an early scene that I thought was sort of stupid and unnecessary. There is also scene at the end that I thought could have been cut without damaging the story. But in between was a good crime mystery, a man coming to terms with himself, some hot romance and a whole lot of other action. I woke up early this morning and said to myself, "Oh, yeah, I have that good book I'm reading on my Kindle," and ended up staying in bed 2 hours longer than planned, just to read. It's been a while since I've done that and it felt good.

Given the reasonable price, I recommend this, even with the few flaws. If anyone else gives it a go, report back and let me know what you think!

L

[Steph H]

It sounds good, Leslie, and between your recommendation and a couple of the reviews on Amazon from people I've learned to mostly trust as having the same taste as me, I'm sold.  When I'll read it is another question, though I think it'll get moved quite near the top of the TBR list.

[Leslie]

This book came out in 1979, went through one printing, then quickly died a slow death. Apparently, people weren't ready for gay romance in the WWII skies at the time. It became a cult classic, though, and people were paying ridiculous prices for the $2.50 paperback (including me: I paid $41 last summer!). Now it's been republished in a new, shiny ebook (and also print) edition:



Although it's 99.9% the same from the 1st edition, there was one, huge glaring mistake at the end which I pointed out to the publisher (he's a friend) and thank God, it's been fixed!!

Definitely a 5 star book and highly recommended. Enjoy!

L

[Julie K. Rose]

I'd strongly suggest Heather Domin's Allegiance. She's the author of the awesome Soldier of Raetia, and she came out with this free book at New Year's (which I believe is only available at Smashwords, for all e-reader formats).

Here's the blurb:

1922. William Young is an MI5 informant, using his working-class background to gain the trust of those deemed a threat to the Crown. Tiring of his double life, William travels to Dublin for one last assignment: infiltrating a circle of IRA supporters. But these "rebels" are not what he expected — and one of them, a firebrand named Adam with a past as painful as his own, shakes William's uncertain footing to its foundation. As the crisis in Dublin escalates, William treads a dangerous path between the violence in the streets, the vengeance of the Crown, and the costliest risk of all — falling in love with the man he was sent to betray.

[Jay Bell]

This is an indie book I read about on Goodreads, with lots of 5 star reviews. Price is just $2.99 and it's 400 pages long (good value for your money).

I'm eager to check this one out. There must be something good there for a self pub to reign at the top of the charts. The other day it was number one in romance and general gay fiction!

[Coral Moore]

I just wanted to say to the participants of this thread: Thanks! I started reading Josh Lanyon a few weeks ago based on the recommendations here and I've been having such a great time reading his books. I can't wait to have time to go through some of the other recs in here.

Mucho hearts!

[Geoffrey]

Have you read any of Diana Gabaldon's Lord John books?   I'm reading Lord John and the Private Matter and it's just great fun.



Its set in Georgian London and centers around a gay military officer/sleuth .. it's not a romance but a detective thriller with a hidden gay sub-culture thrown in.  I like that it's not Victorian as that's been done to death and I like that it's just well-written and fun.  My only concern is whether the gay culture is too much like the gay underground in the 1960's and 70's ....

[Leslie]

I'd strongly suggest Heather Domin's Allegiance. She's the author of the awesome Soldier of Raetia, and she came out with this free book at New Year's (which I believe is only available at Smashwords, for all e-reader formats).

Here's the blurb:

1922. William Young is an MI5 informant, using his working-class background to gain the trust of those deemed a threat to the Crown. Tiring of his double life, William travels to Dublin for one last assignment: infiltrating a circle of IRA supporters. But these "rebels" are not what he expected — and one of them, a firebrand named Adam with a past as painful as his own, shakes William's uncertain footing to its foundation. As the crisis in Dublin escalates, William treads a dangerous path between the violence in the streets, the vengeance of the Crown, and the costliest risk of all — falling in love with the man he was sent to betray.

Sounds good and the price is right! I've already downloaded it. Thanks for the recommendation!

L

[Leslie]

I just wanted to say to the participants of this thread: Thanks! I started reading Josh Lanyon a few weeks ago based on the recommendations here and I've been having such a great time reading his books. I can't wait to have time to go through some of the other recs in here.

Mucho hearts!

Josh is great and his book Come Unto These Yellow Sands is in the DABWAHA competition. I don't vote because I think the whole thing is way too confusing and I haven't read most of the books. But if you want to check it out, here's the link.

http://dabwaha.wordpress.com/

Josh has some stiff competition with GhosTV by Jordan Castillo Price. I was actually thinking of going back and re-reading some of the Vic and Jacob books. I've been missing those two guys.

L

[Leslie]

This was a good book that I read last week. It's a murder mystery that was originally published in the 90s and has now been reissued as an ebook. The main character, Doug Orlando, is a detective with the Brooklyn PD. He's gay and gets a lot of harassment from his fellow officers because of this (the circumstances of his outing are part of the story). It's definitely a mystery and not a romance at all but I really enjoyed it and would rate it 5 stars.

[Linjeakel]

Have you read any of Diana Gabaldon's Lord Johnn books?   I'm reading Lord John and the Private Matter and it's just great fun.



Its set in Georgian London and centers around a gay military officer/sleuth .. it's not a romance but a detective thriller with a hidden gay sub-culture thrown in.  I like that it's not Victorian as that's been done to death and I like that it's just well-written and fun.  My only concern is whether the gay culture is too much like the gay underground in the 1960's and 70's ....

I love the Lord John books, though I have to say I listened to them rather than read them. The narrator, Jeff Woodman (an American who perfectly captures an aristocratic Georgian Englishman - and others) is part of the reason I liked them so much. I could listen to him read the phone book in that accent!

I first came across the character in the Outlander series and when DG decided to write a separate series of books about him, I was intrigued enough to try them out - I've 'read' all of them - the most recent as a Kindle version as the audiobook isn't available here yet.

While in some of the books the fact that John is gay is almost irrelevant, there are some which dramatically spell out the very real difficulties of being an eighteenth century gay army officer, where being found out would have meant at the very least ruin for your entire family and in many cases death.

All but the last book, The Scottish Prisoner - deal with Lord John's life and adventures during the times he wasn't in the Outlander stories - a sort of filling in of the gaps, so you don't need to have read O/L to read the LJ ones.

The Scottish Prisoner though, does deal with a part of his history with the love of his life, Jamie Fraser, the central character in Outlander, which wasn't covered in O/L. (Despite John's feelings, this most definitely is NOT a romance). I felt my knowledge of that series did add flavour to this book and also the foreknowledge of their interactions over the course of many years to come since the current books in the Outlander series are quite a long way ahead in the timeline compared to the LJ ones.

If you like historical detective / adventure stories with an original kind of 'hero', mixed with, as Geoffrey says, an intriguing chance to delve into a less well known sub-culture, the I would highly recommend these.

[Steph H]

Geoffrey and Linda, thanks for the info on the Lord John books, sounds like something I'd like. I've never read or really been interested in reading the Outlander books, so wouldn't have run across the character.  Even though the time setting is different, the description y'all gave kind of sounds like Joseph Hansen's Brandstetter series - a detective who happens to be gay, where the books don't focus on him being gay (even though it comes up as he didn't hide it that much either; those are set in the....1970's-90's, I think it was, maybe a little earlier).

I don't remember offhand what time period Georgian was, but I adore the Regency period romances and even more the few books I've found that are Regency gay romances, so I'm sure I'll like these.

Leslie, thanks for your recommendation as well, it sounds good.  As much as I hate the true stereotype of cops being harassed for being gay, I like stories with cops (FBI, whatever).

Carol, glad to hear you've been enjoying Josh Lanyon's books, isn't he great?  Just yesterday I re-downloaded the Adrien English and the Holmes/Moriarty books to my Kindle so I can re-read them in the next few weeks.  If you haven't tried Andrew Grey yet, he's another one I'd highly recommend.  As is Jordan Castillo Price that Leslie mentions (yeah, Leslie, I need to re-read those too! )

I've been mostly on a sci-fi kick lately so don't have much in the way of current recommendations for this thread, but if you haven't read Carol Lynne's Seasons of Love series yet, I would suggest that.  It starts with Spring, then, predictably, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  It's different from her other series in that it follows essentially one couple (and various supporting characters) over roughly 40 years.  I don't think Winter is on Amazon yet, but you can get it at Total E-bound if you get done with the others before it's on Amazon.

[JRTomlin]

Josh is great and his book Come Unto These Yellow Sands is in the DABWAHA competition. I don't vote because I think the whole thing is way too confusing and I haven't read most of the books. But if you want to check it out, here's the link.

http://dabwaha.wordpress.com/

Josh has some stiff competition with GhosTV by Jordan Castillo Price. I was actually thinking of going back and re-reading some of the Vic and Jacob books. I've been missing those two guys.

L

I think Come Unto These Yellow Sands is one of Josh's best novels, possibly his very best. While I didn't feel that he quite managed to portray the protagonist's hunger for cocaine, he did really well in portraying his despair at having that come back and his desperate desire not to fall back into addiction.

The relationship was good, of course, and the mystery was actually one of his better ones.

I have been rather on a book buying kick recently but everything I've bought has disappointed me somewhat. I would love to find a really STRONG LGBT novel. Everything I've tried lately was too much pure fluff which is fine if that's what you are looking for and I don't mind a little fluff but pure fluff is like cotton candy. Not something you can live on.  

I loath the Outlander books, so I haven't read any of  Gabaldon's other novels. They sound a bit too fluffy for my taste probably though I'll take a look. I'm desperate for something to read!

Yes, Brandstetter (very close to my all-time favorite mysteries) started in the late 1970s and ran through the early days of the plague years, ending in the early 1990s. You can actually read them almost as one book as each one pretty much takes up where the last one left off. Hanson was so underrated in his own time.

Edit: I agree that the competition from GhosTV is pretty stiff but on a literary standard, I think that Yellow Sands is the better of the two. There's not a lot of theme or depth (imo) to the Price books, but they're darn fun. And the characterizations are very strong.

I'll have to take a look at what else is nominated. I couldn't figure out how to vote and kind of threw up my hands.

[Steph H]

I really hated the way Brandstetter ended though.  Not saying it wasn't probably the best way, I just hated it.   But no spoilers for those who haven't read them...    It's only been about 7 months since I read those, so I'll give it another few months before I re-read.  lol  I agree they're very good.

[JRTomlin]

This was a good book that I read last week. It's a murder mystery that was originally published in the 90s and has now been reissued as an ebook. The main character, Doug Orlando, is a detective with the Brooklyn PD. He's gay and gets a lot of harassment from his fellow officers because of this (the circumstances of his outing are part of the story). It's definitely a mystery and not a romance at all but I really enjoyed it and would rate it 5 stars.

I'm buying this one. I hadn't heard of it before and it sounds really good.

I agree on the end of the Brandstetter series. It was logical. I couldn't argue with it, but I hated that part. It was painful. Agree, anyone who hasn't read them has to do so to find out what we're talking about.

[JRTomlin]

I'm eager to check this one out. There must be something good there for a self pub to reign at the top of the charts. The other day it was number one in romance and general gay fiction!

It's okay but frankly not good enough to rate that many 5-star reviews. I think being at the top of the charts has more to do with how weak all the other new LGBT novels are at the moment than how good this one is. I am seriously tired of everything on the chart being pretty much pure erotica and I suspect that has a lot to do with why so many people are picking this up.

It's a fun read but not great characterization and the plot is only so-so. I didn't find the romance believable particularly. His teenage trauma that was the reason for his being closeted was somewhat shallow and unconvincing on an emotional level, especially that he would have repressed it. If you want a rather light read, this isn't bad though. Just don't expect anything spectacular.

This is the kind of read that I probably won't quite remember next week and would get a 3-star rating from me.

[telracs]

boy, i'm feeling stupid now....  i apparently bought a Josh Lanyon book 18 months ago!  and never read it.....

[JRTomlin]

boy, i'm feeling stupid now....  i apparently bought a Josh Lanyon book 18 months ago!  and never read it.....

Haha! That's funny, scarlet. 

[Coral Moore]

Have you read any of Diana Gabaldon's Lord John books?   I'm reading Lord John and the Private Matter and it's just great fun.



Its set in Georgian London and centers around a gay military officer/sleuth .. it's not a romance but a detective thriller with a hidden gay sub-culture thrown in.  I like that it's not Victorian as that's been done to death and I like that it's just well-written and fun.  My only concern is whether the gay culture is too much like the gay underground in the 1960's and 70's ....

I've only read the first one so far, but I've been meaning to pick up the rest. I like the Lord John character very much, but she's a heavy read for me and I'm not in the mood for them all the time.

[Coral Moore]

boy, i'm feeling stupid now....  i apparently bought a Josh Lanyon book 18 months ago!  and never read it.....

I hope it's Come Unto These Yellow Sands. That's the first one I read and so far it's my favorite. I'm reading the Adrien English books now and am enjoying them too, but they are very different, a little more noir I guess.

[Steph H]

Oops, Coral, sorry, I just realized I called you Carol. You probably get that a lot but my apologies nonetheless for not reading better! Y'know, especially on a board for reading....

Scarlet -- read the book, whatever it was!!!!!!!    (Which one was it?)

[telracs]

Scarlet -- read the book, whatever it was!!!!!!!    (Which one was it?)

OUCH!  It's the Dickens one and I started it on the train ride home...
I WILL be looking into the other ones later.