Book picks similar to
Hostile by Nicole Dykes


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Perfectly Us


Jaclyn Osborn - 2021
    Two hearts forever changed.Alex is magnetic. His vibrant personality and easy smiles draw people toward him. No one would guess he’s secretly hurting.Shiloh is quiet. His social awkwardness and anxious mind make it hard for him to make connections. He’s always felt different. A little broken.When these two meet, they recognize something in each other. One hides his pain, while the other wears scars from his. They’re opposites in every way, but like magnets, it’s what brings them together.What starts as a tentative friendship soon blossoms into so much more, bringing about a summer of self-discovery, healing, soft kisses under the stars, and two imperfect people who learn just how perfectly they fit together.Perfectly Us is a heartwarming and emotional opposites attract, demisexual awakening New Adult LGBT romance with a guaranteed HEA.Trigger warnings: anxiety, depression, mention of self-harm and suicide.

The Place Between


Kit Oliver - 2020
    Charles Henry Abbot, PhD has other ideas. Once Ned’s least favorite professor and now his infuriating colleague, Ned needs Abbot’s help editing his dissertation. With their newly limited work schedules, Abbot suggests the worst idea Ned’s ever heard: pretend to date. Convince their co-workers – and their boss – that they’re in a relationship and nailing this whole personal life thing . . . and each other.It’s an awful idea, but, if it means a graduation cap, would faking a relationship be worth it, so Ned can finish his degree and move home to his daughter?The Place Between is a steamy, m/m romance novel. If you like enemies to lovers, fake dating, and the thin line between bickering and flirting, then you’ll love this fast paced romance.Buy The Place Between to watch Ned and Abbot’s fake relationship unfold as they stumble into the most real thing either of them has ever done.

Striking Distance


Sarah Rees Brennan - 2020
    Pacat and Johanna The Mad.Sixteen-year-old Nicholas Cox is the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion who dreams of getting the proper training he could never afford. After earning a place on the elite Kings Row fencing team, Nicholas must prove himself to his rival, Seiji Katayma, and navigate the clashes, friendships, and relationships between his teammates on the road to state championships—where Nicholas might finally have the chance to spar with his golden-boy half-brother.Coach Williams decides to take advantage of the boys' morale after a recent victory and assigns them a course of team building exercises to further deepen their bonds. It takes a shoplifting scandal, a couple of moonlit forest strolls, several hilariously bad dates, and a whole lot of introspection for the team to realize they are stronger together than they could ever be apart.The first installment of this enticing original YA novel series by Sarah Rees Brennan, rich with casual diversity and queer self-discovery, explores never-before-seen drama inspired by C.S. Pacat's critically acclaimed Fence comic series and boasts original cover and interior art by Johanna The Mad.Text and Illustration copyright: © 2020 BOOM! StudiosFence(TM) and © 2020 C.S. Pacat

Running With Lions


Julian Winters - 2018
    But when his estranged childhood best friend Emir Shah shows up to summer training camp, Sebastian realizes the team's success may end up in the hands of the one guy who hates him. Determined to reconnect with Emir for the sake of the Lions, he sets out to regain Emir's trust. But to Sebastian's surprise, sweaty days on the pitch, wandering the town's streets, and bonding on the weekends sparks more than just friendship between them.

Rim Shot


Skylar M. Cates - 2017
    I also know I’m attracted to guys, but admitting it might disappoint my father, who is all I have in this world. I have big dreams, so I’ll stay in the closet. As long as my life remains scandal-free, I have a shot.Micah: My large family can’t spare the money to help with my education, but that won’t stop me from studying medicine. I needed to get out of the house I was sharing with my ex before I went insane. Luckily, I heard about a guy looking for a roommate. Living with a straight jock won’t be easy, but it’s a chance I’m willing to take.

The Charm Offensive


Alison Cochrun - 2021
    So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star. Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off. As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer.

The Quarterback


Mackenzie Blair - 2017
    Matt is also very much in the closet, and he thinks he’s kept his secret well hidden. Until his best friends take him to a happy endings massage parlor and request a male masseuse for him. In walks Trevor Kim, a gorgeous, pierced, tattooed fellow Bodine student who does massages—without happy endings—to pay for school after his family kicked him out for being gay. Trevor takes one look at Matt and breaks all his own rules about mixing business with pleasure.Matt needs to keep his scholarship, win the National Championship, and survive his asshole father. Instead, he falls in love. Trevor needs to accept that the football god is meant to end up with him rather than a perky cheerleader. It’s time for a happy ever after for both of them.

My Prince


Anna Martin - 2015
    He wasn’t that interested in finding a relationship—his habit of hot and steamy one-night-stands suited him just fine. Falling into a very expensive hotel room bed with Alex really was just another night. Until George learns that the guy he’d slept with wasn’t just ‘Alex’—he’s Alexander van Amsberg, Prince of the Netherlands. George puts the incident behind him until he runs into Alex again, and this time Alex makes sure to get George’s phone number. Despite all the reasons why their relationship shouldn’t work, something clicks, and Alex thinks that he might have finally found the right guy. But Alex’s aristocratic ex stirs up trouble in the tabloid press, and suddenly George’s working class family is put under the spotlight. Alex has to admit that their relationship isn’t a fairy tale, and despite his royal title, he might have lost his chance for a happily ever after. *This is a second edition, re-release of the October 2015 novel ‘My Prince’ by Anna Martin.

Stalker


R.D. Hero - 2013
    He's always one step behind his white knight, with camera in hand, and no one's ever gotten in his way until Eric's best friend, Pacer Daringer, cast a shadow over Abel's happily ever after. Now Pacer has the little stalker in his sights, and he's determined to teach Abel a lesson. What he didn't count on was that Abel might like it.

Desperately Seeking Santa


Eli Easton - 2017
    It sounds like a total snooze-fest until Gabe learns that the event’s Santa is a mystery man. He shows up in costume and no one has a clue who he is. Uncovering Santa’s identity sounds like the perfect angle to turn a fluff piece into serious journalism.Mack “The Mountain” McDonall, at 6’10”, is University of Wisconsin-Madison’s enormous star wrestler. When Gabe first claps eyes on him at a wrestling match, it’s lust at first sight. Gabe’s friend, Jordan, sets up the pair on a date. But when Gabe chatters on about his plans for outing Santa, Mack goes cold, and their first meeting becomes an epic fail.As Gabe researches the children’s home, he learns that Mack has secrets a guy famous for being a brute wouldn’t want the world to know. Can Gabe find his holiday spirit, write a killer article, win the heart of a surly giant, and give everyone a very merry Christmas?NOTE: This 50,000 word short novel features a new couple but includes Jordan and Owen, from the author’s book “Superhero”. It can be read as a stand-alone.

An Unexpected Kind of Love


Hayden Stone - 2021
    His shop may be struggling, his only employee is a menace, and his plumbing is one creaky pipe away from disaster, but he can handle it. Maybe. He cannot, however, handle the film company that’s thrown his Soho street into chaos. And he definitely can’t handle the charismatic American actor Blake Sinclair. Which is why he’s extremely reluctant to lease out his shop as a set for Blake's film, but it’s his one opportunity to save his business. Now he can’t get away from the distractingly hot actor. Then Aubrey finds himself alone with Blake in a trailer, and what happens next turns London’s heat wave into an inferno that leaves him breathless.Aubrey is not cut out for the high-profile life of dating a celebrity, especially an American actor who’s not even out yet. Good thing their tryst is absolutely not going anywhere. Of course, when you expect nothing, that’s exactly when it starts to mean everything.

When Everything Is Blue


Laura Lascarso - 2018
    Theo hates lying to Chris, but in coming out, he might lose the one person who understands him best, a risk he’s not willing to take. When a relationship with another young man goes south, Theo is forced to confront his own sexuality along with his growing attraction to Chris and his stunted, tenuous relationship with his father. Will Chris abandon Theo when he learns the truth, or will he stand by him in this tumultuous season of self-discovery? In this quirky coming-of-age romance, Theo’s path to manhood is fraught with awkward firsts and a few haters, but also the unexpected comfort of a friend turned lover.

Saugatuck Summer


Amelia C. Gormley - 2014
    At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. But let’s get real. Walking the fake-it-til-you-make-it road to independence and self-respect isn’t easy. Especially since my mom’s a deadbeat alcoholic, and most of my family expects me to turn out just as worthless. Oh, and I’m close to losing my college swimming scholarship, so let’s add “dropout” to the list.My BFF has invited me to stay at her beach house on the shore of Lake Michigan. That’ll give me one summer to make money and figure out what I want to do with my life. So of course I decide to have an affair with my BFF’s married, closeted dad. Because that always works out.Now I’m homeless, friendless, jobless. Worthless. Just like my family expects, right? Except there’s this great guy, Jace, who sees it differently. He’s got it all together in ways I can only dream of—he’s hot, creative, insightful, understanding. He seems to think I don’t give myself enough credit. And if I don’t watch out, I may start to believe him.

Coach


Declan Rhodes - 2020
    Adam is gay and Nate is straight. Their lives are about to change. Minor-league hockey star forward Nate Slater knew he was on the edge of fame until tragedy struck. A three-player ambush ended his playing career, and he retreated from his beloved game disillusioned about human beings and life in general. To nobody’s surprise, he couldn’t stay away for long and he grabbed hold of the comeback ladder on the lowest rung, player-coach for a team in his city’s recreational league. To others, the Galeforce Flyers were a ragtag team of questionable talent. For Nate, they have unexploited skills that can take them to the top of their league, and he agrees to be their star forward and coach. Perhaps the most promising player is Adam Kennedy, a kid only two years out of college who plays goalie with elegant dexterity. Although he knows in his heart that everything turns out well in the end, Adam is experiencing a rough patch in his life. Fired from his job, and low on cash to pay his rent, he considers a humiliating return to life with his parents. After his teammates step in and lean hard, Coach Slater offers the empty second-floor in his house as a temporary solution to Adam’s housing dilemma. The quiet Adam is a good housemate for the sometimes brooding Nate. The kid is gay and the coach is straight. They maintain their distance in the house until the night Adam spots his coach…dancing. Coach is a 58,000-word standalone gay hockey romance with first time and friends-to-lovers themes. It includes steamy scenes and a guaranteed happy ending.

Burn that Bridge


J.R. Gray - 2021
    Coming out as trans in rural Alabama, where football rules and cheer is life, might have been the worst way to start my senior year. There are no safety nets for people like me in places like this. But sometimes, hope shows itself in the most unexpected places. New friends help us survive —and maybe— thrive. But falling for Sebastian was not part of the plan.Embracing my identity put my happiness at odds with my safety. I’m terrified. Terrified to be me. Terrified to be happy. Terrified to love him. Welcome to senior year.Try to make it out alive.