Book picks similar to
The Fall by Ryan Quinn


fiction
coming-of-age
gay
first-reads

Drawn In


Sean Ashcroft - 2017
    But when he moves back to his hometown after losing his wife, he finds Jude sick and at risk of dying, all because his medical insurance was cancelled. Between wanting to help Jude out and wanting to get custody of his daughter back, Owen takes the plunge into a fake marriage, hoping to solve everyone’s problems at once. As Jude begins to recover and the two of them settle into married life, Owen starts to get a little too comfortable with being married to his best friend. Owen begins to wonder if he missed out on a lot by getting married for the first time when he was eighteen--including the chance to explore his sexuality. Jude seems like a safe person to experiment with, but will that put Owen’s little patchwork family at risk? And what happens when outside forces challenge their newfound stability? Can Owen and Jude find a way to be happy and raise Kalya together? Drawn In is a standalone gay romance with a HEA ending. It does not contain a cliffhanger, but it does contain a sweet baby girl, a big family wedding, glow-in-the-dark condoms, and socks with rubber ducks on them.

Rescue Me


Scarlet Blackwell - 2010
    Hiring nurse James Hayden to look after him seems like the best idea for Matt, whose fierce independence has been compromised by his injuries. The two men clash from the start as James struggles to help Matt rebuild his shattered body and heal his crushed soul. The bond they form is forged in fire and ice, and the wounds they inflict on one another can only be erased by Matt's admission that he can't live without James's loving touch. Will Matt realize too late that James is the only one who can rescue him from himself?

Swimming in the Dark


Tomasz Jedrowski - 2020
    But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.

When Love Takes Over


Jacob Z. Flores - 2013
    His boyfriend of three years dumped him, and his writing career is going nowhere. On a whim, he heads to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to nurse his broken heart and figure out his next step. He’s expecting to find rest and relaxation on the sandy beaches of Cape Cod. Instead, Zach meets a hunky porn star during a chance encounter at a leather shop he mistakes as a place to buy a belt that is definitely not for whipping. Van Pierce is smitten when shy and inexperienced Zach crashes through a shelf of fetish gear. Though Van’s got an insatiable appetite for men on and off the set, his porn persona, Hart Throb, hides a broken heart. He’s struggling to find the reality the porno set doesn’t offer, and Zach is fighting to find the fantasy that will set his writing on fire. The odd goofball and the suave beefcake may either find love amid Provincetown’s colorful pageantry where summer never seems to end—or more heartbreak than either can imagine.

The Gardener


Charles Reeza - 2015
    He lives alone and he's doing everything he can to keep it that way. "I prefer plants to people," he tells his only friend, Donna. "It's just the way I am." An accountant by day, he spends his free time tending his impressive garden and reading grim 19th century novels from the private library in his Victorian house. His cautious, predictable life is governed by a set of sensible rules, just the way he likes it. One winter day, a young man shows up to ask about the apartment for rent above the garage. Adam quickly decides Sam is not a suitable applicant, no matter how polite and attractive he is. Unless, just once, Adam bends his rules. How bad could it be? Adam would never let things get out of control.What follows is a humorous emotional roller coaster involving social awkwardness, gardening, classic literature, flirting, doughnuts, office politics, a southern lady, pickup trucks, ice cream, dish washing, sex, a stern Scotswoman, great meals, homophobia, arson, the police, psychotherapy, a renovation project, and a guy who calls everyone "dude." Did I mention murder? And what about that handsome guy at the office who compliments Adam's neckties? What does he want?Nope . . . Adam would never lose control of his life!With a full cast of well-developed characters, The Gardener will take you on a journey of self-discovery that explores the many variations of love, relationships, commitment and family.~~~~~~This is a full-length contemporary M/M romance novel written by a gay man. It depicts realistic relationship problems, with HEA.

What Belongs to You


Garth Greenwell - 2016
    There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months, drawn by hunger and loneliness and risk, and finds himself ensnared in a relationship in which lust leads to mutual predation, and tenderness can transform into violence. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he’s forced to grapple with his own fraught history, the world of his southern childhood where to be queer was to be a pariah. There are unnerving similarities between his past and the foreign country he finds himself in, a country whose geography and griefs he discovers as he learns more of Mitko’s own narrative, his private history of illness, exploitation, and disease.What Belongs to You is a stunning debut novel of desire and its consequences. With lyric intensity and startling eroticism, Garth Greenwell has created an indelible story about the ways in which our pasts and cultures, our scars and shames can shape who we are and determine how we love.

Fall For Me


Ann Lister - 2013
    Exposing the story would boost Ryan's career, but it would also come with the risk of ruining Dagger's privacy – and possibly his Rock God status.The unlikely friendship that develops between Dagger and Ryan brings Ryan to question more than just his journalistic oath to report the news. It also forces him to take a look at himself and newly discovered feelings – feelings that make Ryan blind to the risk of becoming front page news himself.Will Ryan find the courage to make a life decision to give himself true happiness with Dagger or take the path that would likely lead to heartbreak and destroy his career forever?

Ache


Marley Valentine - 2021
    But falling in love with my soon-to-be-married-to-a-woman best friend is nothing but heartache.Through all the years, and all the men I’ve fooled around with, he’s always been at the back of my mind. An unrequited crush I wish I could shake. A dream that was never going to come true.When I whisk him off to a surprise bachelor party weekend in Vegas, I surrender to the idea that this is an opportunity for me to finally let go of my feelings for him and say goodbye.But after a heated exchange and an even hotter kiss, everything I thought I knew about our friendship changed.Maybe I had it wrong. Maybe, after all this time, we were more than best friends. Maybe, just maybe, he felt it too.

Enlightened


J.P. Barnaby - 2010
    Brian also has a secret: he is in love with his best friend, Jamie. But in Crayford, Alabama, being in love with another boy is the worst kind of sin.Brian and Jamie will discover just how deep their emotional bond runs, and at what cost. What will they do if their secret is discovered? From fumbling through their first sexual experiences to hiding all aspects of their relationship from everyone in their lives, Brian and Jamie battle for the one thing that is truly theirs—love.

His Cocky Valet


Cole McCade - 2018
     At twenty-three years old, he's suddenly the head of a multibillion dollar global corporation he is in no way equipped to run. His father is dying. His mother's run away. He's spent his entire adult life playing fast and loose with his life and his loves, but when he's dragged into a position of responsibility with the fate of the company on his shoulders, he goes spinning into freefall. And Brand Forsythe is the only man to catch him. Icy, detached, nearly twice Ash's age, the massive monolith of a British valet is impossible to deal with and like no servant Ash has ever met. Domineering and controlling, Brand quickly puts Ash's life in order. And quickly takes Ash in hand. Even if by day Ash has to project authority, leadership, and calm...by night he's discovering the breathless pleasure of giving up control. The shivering thrill of surrendering to Brand. The sweet taboo of being submissive to the man in even the smallest things. Ash can't quite understand why it feels so good to put himself in Brand Forsythe's capable, commanding hands. He only knows, as he faces the hardest decisions of his life...the only thing that can save him is the love of his cocky valet. Author's Note: If you're reading this, you likely know why this book exists. Bask in the petty, my darlings. Bask.

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover


Robbie Michaels - 2012
    Mark Mitchell's strategy for surviving is to emulate the mighty turtle: pull back inside his protective shell and keep a low profile to avoid trouble. And it works-nobody bothers him. Of course, nobody really knows him, either, even in a town so small it seems like everybody must know everyone else.Mark certainly knows Bill Cromwell, whom he meets officially when his father volunteers him for manual labor at the school. Bill is his polar opposite: outgoing, gregarious, athletic. But when a massive snowstorm traps the two boys together for three days, Mark learns that being popular doesn't mean you can't be bullied or abused-or gay-and that bullying doesn't stop at the school doors.Mark isn't na ve. He's seen the news reports of gay teen suicides, and he's determined not to become a statistic. But it's not himself he's worried about.

At Swim, Two Boys


Jamie O'Neill - 2001
    Powerful and artful, and ten years in the writing, it is a masterwork from Jamie O’Neill.Jim Mack is a naïve young scholar and the son of a foolish, aspiring shopkeeper. Doyler Doyle is the rough-diamond son—revolutionary and blasphemous—of Mr. Mack’s old army pal. Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the nude, the two boys make a pact: Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, on Easter of 1916, they will swim to the distant beacon of Muglins Rock and claim that island for themselves. All the while Mr. Mack, who has grand plans for a corner shop empire, remains unaware of the depth of the boys’ burgeoning friendship and of the changing landscape of a nation.

The Cranberry Hush


Ben Monopoli - 2011
    He lives alone, works in a comic book shop, and has a crush on his coworker he can't seem to act on. Like an old comic book, his life's colors have started to fade. Everything brightens when Vince's long-lost friend Griff appears on his doorstep in the middle of a blizzard. They were roommates in college, so close back then that Griff's girlfriend called them "lifebuddies" -- but Vince's love for Griff had ended the friendship, he thought, forever. They haven't spoken in years. Why has Griff shown up again? And, more importantly, can Vince handle his return?Vince and Griff are two twentysomethings struggling to find their places in the world and in each other's lives. This is a story of friendship and love, both unrequited and requited, and of learning how to fly through the post-college void, which just might hold more than a cranberry hush.

Oleander House


Ally Blue - 2006
    All his life, he's experienced things he can't explain. Things that have colored his view of the world and of himself. So taking a job as a paranormal investigator seems like a perfect fit. His new co-workers, he figures, don't have to know he's gay. When Sam arrives at Oleander House, the site of his first assignment with Bay City Paranormal Investigations, nothing is what he expected. The repetitive yet exciting work, the unusual and violent history of the house, the intensely erotic and terrifying dreams which plague his sleep. But the most unexpected thing is Dr. Bo Broussard, the group's leader.From the moment they meet, Sam is strongly attracted to his intelligent, alluring boss. It doesn't take Sam long to figure out that although Bo has led a heterosexual life, he is very much in the closet, and wants Sam as badly as Sam wants him. As the investigation of Oleander House progresses and paranormal events in the house escalate, Sam and Bo circle warily around their mutual attraction, until a single night of bloodshed and revelation changes their lives forever. Warning: this title contains explicit male/male sex, intense violence, and graphic language.

Claiming Marcus


Jocelynn Drake - 2019
    But nothing prepared me for Marcus Varik.Tall, dark, and mind-numbingly sexy.But he’s also shy, protective, and adorably eccentric.Oh God, I should have never agreed to betray him. Hopefully, it's not too late to fix my mistake before I lose more people I love. Claiming Marcus is the first book in an MM paranormal romance series that has vampires, betrayal, annoying brothers, music, heartbreak, hope, sexy times, and a raven named Ozzie.