Book picks similar to
Desperate Hearts by Gregory Hinton
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The Luxury Orphanage
Grant Finnegan - 2020
Ravenstone House, built in the early 1800s, was once a majestic home. Then it was used as an orphanage for decades. When it closed its doors in 1956, the building lay derelict for more than thirty years.In its neighbourhood, the house is well known for being haunted. But only when it is converted into luxury flats do the dark secrets from its past come to light. The unexpected events that follow will upend the lives of the residents as the tortured souls trapped beneath Ravenstone reveal themselves to demand justice.Get us to where we belong.It's not our fault.We did nothing wrong.
Dead South
David Banner - 2018
When the body of the girl he loved in high school is found twenty years after her disappearance, Detective Ryan Devereux has a personal stake in finding the people responsible. With his personal life in shambles following the engagement of his ex-wife, Ryan throws himself headlong into the investigation. Things take a turn though when newly discovered evidence leads Ryan to believe that his ex’s new fiancé might have had a hand in the young girl’s murder. As secrets about the past are uncovered, Ryan realizes things were never as he saw them. This Lowcountry detective finds himself thrust down a rabbit hole of danger and deceit the likes of which he might never emerge from. And, when the truth comes out, he might find that the killer is closer to him than he ever imagined. Dead South is book one in the new Lowcountry Mystery Series from bestselling author David Banner. Do you enjoy reading books from Dawn Lee McKenna, Mark Stone, and Steven Becker? If so, come take a walk along the South Carolina Lowcountry. With its thick humidity, Spanish moss, and one-of-a-kind local flair, it’s sure to be a visit you won’t forget!
Partners: A Texas Ranger Western Adventure (Lieutenant Cord of the Texas Rangers Book 1)
Mike Mackessy - 2020
The Boy With the Thorn in His Side
Keith Fleming - 2000
Here, on a locked adolescent psychiatric ward, Keith meets the bewitching Laura. The two teens begin a passionate love affair--only to be separated and placed in different hospitals.By turns lyrical, funny, and poignant, and always informed by touching candor, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side is full of fascinating characters and unexpected twists-at once an odyssey into the extremes of the American 1970s, a universal tale of star-crossed teenage love, and an account of a deeply sensitive young person's struggle to find his place in the world. It marks the debut of a poised and compelling writer.Keith Fleming had been a pretty ordinary Midwestern kid--Little League, Boy Scouts--but the year he turns twelve, his family is torn apart by divorce when he learns that his mother and his Uncle Ed are both gay. By the time Keith is fifteen he has become disfigured by severe acne and is so wild that his father and stepmother place him in a draconian adolescent mental institution. Here he meets Laura, a pretty Mexican girl with whom he begins a passionate love affair.Keith's mother finally demands his release after a series of hospitalizations and sends him off to live with his uncle, Edmund White, in New York. Keith is soon transformed by his young uncle: He is sent to a dermatologist, to Barneys "Boy's Town" for new clothes, and to prep school. He receives a broad cultural education from Uncle Ed at home--all this despite Ed's being poor as well as completely caught up in the beehive of social and sexual activity of 1970s gay Manhattan. In the tradition of This Boy's Life and Girl, Interrupted, The Boy with a Thorn in His Side is a beautifully rendered saga of a deeply sensitive and alienated teen struggling to find his place in the world-and at the same time a very modern tale of teenage love and a young person's touching and complicated bond with an unlikely hero.
The Clouds Still Hang
Patrick C. Notchtree - 2012
The first book deals with Simon’s childhood friendship and eventually love affair with an older boy, the second the trauma of his teenage years and early adulthood, the third his struggle to maintain equilibrium and the consequences of his failure at one point to achieve that. It is a fictional biography, written because it tells a strong story which raises many issues over six decades, the post war baby boomer generation who in many ways never had it so good. His own experience is probably unique, yet will strike a chord with many others who have been through similar things, as well as those with an interest in such matters, either personal or professional. It's a varied, exciting, demanding, sometimes terrifying life story.. Part 1, "The Book of Daniel" has received 5 star reviews and enthusiastically tweeted about. Read here: http://www.limebury.com/books.html It is not suitable for those under 18 years or who find explicit sexual narrative, including sexual violence, offensive.
Someone Like You
Timothy James Beck - 2006
Marc Jacobs suits. Hugo Boss suits, Food, Drinks, Dry cleaning. A room at the five-star hotel or a lane at the bowling alley. Of course, something things are harder to come by just ask... Vienna. She's one beautiful sister who is not going to be dependent on any man ever again, thanks to her cheating, should-be-dead ex. When she's not selling overpriced mascara to rich snobs, Vienna's checking out the scenery. Not that she wants another man. Much. Good thing she can tell it all to... Davii. The top hairdresser at CosmicTology is fast with a wickedly funny quip and with his shears. Nobody gets one over on Davii. But what he craves is a nice guy to come home to. A guy who makes him want to be a better person. A guy who looks an awful lot like... Derek. He never planned to become a kept man, but it's hard to give up Belgian waffles delivered by room service. But no more. It's time for a New Derek - new life, new friends, new job. And who better to help him take those baby steps toward independence than... Christian. Cool and savvy, he's cornered the market on charm. His sales skills have won him a fawning clientele. There's nothing he can't do, no point he can't score, no woman he can't woo. But there's a first time for everything.Meeting for coffee, dishing over drinks, dealing with heinous bosses, scheming backstabbers, clueless customers, and the occasional object of desire, four new friends are about to discover the joys of shopping for love in a place where what you need most might just be where you least expect to find it.
What's Done in The Dark: Season 1
Solae Devhine - 2011
Not only is he different but his wife, sister, brother, and best friend have changed.The only thing they have in common are their secrets and their need to hide them. They soon find out that all things will be brought to light… one way or another.This is the Complete First Season of the Best Selling Saga What's Done in the Dark.(27,136 Words) Revised Edition
First Person Plural
Andrew W.M. Beierle - 2007
Beierle brings to life characters at once unthinkably foreign and utterly real. Frank and fearless, sexy and witty, First Person Plural is a masterfully rendered, powerfully imaginative work, as complex and as extraordinary as the bonds of love. Owen and Porter Jamison are conjoined twins inhabiting one body with two heads, one torso, and two very different hearts. As children, they're seen as a single entity--Owenandporter, or more often, Porterandowen. As they grow to adulthood, their differences become more pronounced: Porter is outgoing and charismatic while Owen is cerebral and artistic. When Porter becomes a high school jock hero, complete with cheerleader girlfriend, a greater distinction emerges, as Owen gradually comes to realize that he's gay.Owen, a reluctant romantic, is content at first to settle for unrequited crushes. Porter's unease with his brother's sexuality leaves Owen feeling increasingly alienated from his twin, especially when Porter falls in love with Faith, and Owen becomes the unwilling third side of a complicated love triangle. When Owen finally begins to explore his own desires, the rift grows deeper.As Porter and Owen's carefully balanced arrangement of give-and-take, sacrifice and selfishness, is irrevocably shattered, each twin is left fighting for his relationship--and his future--in a battle of wills where winning seems impossible, and losing unthinkable. . .Andrew W. M. Beierle has been a journalist for more than thirty years. He has studied at the Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Napa Valley, and Kenyon Review writers' workshops.
A Horse Named Sorrow
Trebor Healey - 2012
But the ensuing romance proves short-lived as Jimmy dies of an AIDS-related illness. The grieving Seamus is obliged to keep a promise to Jimmy: “Take me back the way I came.” And so Seamus sets out by bicycle on a picaresque journey with the ashes, hoping to bring them back to Buffalo. He meets truck drivers, waitresses, college kids, farmers, ranchers, Marines, and other travelers—each one giving him a new perspective on his own life and on Jimmy’s death. When he meets and becomes involved with a young Native American man whose mother has recently died, Seamus’s grief and his story become universal and redemptive.
The Guncle
Steven RowleySteven Rowley - 2021
That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.With the humor and heart we’ve come to expect from bestselling author Steven Rowley, The Guncle is a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times.
Space Raptor Butt Trilogy
Chuck Tingle - 2016
Nobody could have expected what would happen when the story continued. Collected here is the entire trilogy of Chuck Tingle’s history making Space Raptor Butt series.SPACE RAPTOR BUTT INVASIONSpace can be a lonely place, especially when you’re stationed by yourself on the distant planet Zorbus. In fact, Lance isn’t quite sure that can last the whole year before his shuttle pod arrives, but when a mysterious visitor appears at Lance’s terraforming station, he quickly realizes that he might not be so alone after all. Soon enough, Lance becomes close with this mysterious new astronaut, a velociraptor. Together, they form an unlikely duo, which quickly begins to cross the boundaries of friendship into something much, much more sensual. It’s not gay if it’s a man and a dinosaur, is it? SPACE RAPTOR BUTT REDEMPTIONAfter a year stationed on planet Zorbus, astronaut Lance Tanner and his raptor lover Orion return home to find that they are not greeted as heroes, but as villains. Unbeknownst to Lance, his space travels have been funded by the villainous Scoundrels Inc, a corporation that has deep ties to the illegal trade of unicorn tears and a destructive mining project at the core of the earth. Now Lance is on trial for a number of false charges; from having connections to the wicked Scoundrels, to being too strange for space. The opposing lawyer argues that space is only for serious astronauts, and that love between a raptor and a man is giving space travel a bad name. Lance is arguing that there’s room to be weird in space. More importantly, Lance is arguing for the idea of love itself; that just because something comes out of darkness doesn’t mean it can’t become a beacon of light. Of course, this all culminates in a hardcore dinosaur on astronaut pounding that will have your jaw on the courtroom floor! SPACE RAPTOR BUTT ASCENSIONSoon after blasting off on their mission to find refuge for the people of Earth 1 on the dinosaur inhabited Earth 2, Orion and his space raptor lover Lance find a spaceship stow away, the notorious CEO of Scounrels Inc, Vam Dox. Vam claims that his intentions are pure, but it’s hard to trust such a sad, strange man. After landing in Hugona, the planet capital of Earth 2, our heroes restrain Vam Dox and head off to secure an important diplomatic relationship with the pterodactyl president, but that’s when all hell breaks loose. Soon, Vam Dox is storming the capital with a band of rabid dogs, and Lance and Orion are wrongly taking the blame! Fortunately, Lance and Orion know that the only cure for evil this strong is to prove their love in a hardcore gay encounter at the steps of the capital building. When the smoke clears, will Vam Dox be revealed as the super villain that he claims to be, or a meek, lonesome manbaby who is starved for attention?
You Are Here: A Memoir of Arrival
Wesley Gibson - 2004
-- Alison Lurie
The One: A Short Story
K.C. Luck - 2018
Someone with the same habits, the same hobbies, the same interests. She wants The One. And she will do anything to find her. If you like a quick, little read with a touch of romance, a touch of spooky, then you will love KC Luck’s page-turning short story. Note: This is a short story and includes strong female characters in a lesbian relationship.
My Ex-Life
Stephen McCauley - 2018
A delicious novel for fans of Tom Perrotta, Maria Semple, and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney about how sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back.David Hedges’s life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7.The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him.Julie definitely doesn’t have a problem with marijuana (she’s given it up completely, so it doesn’t matter if she gets stoned almost daily) and the Airbnb she’s running out of her seaside house north of Boston is neither shabby nor illegal. And she has two whole months to come up with the money to buy said house from her second husband before their divorce is finalized. She’d just like David’s help organizing college plans for her 17-year-old daughter.That would be Mandy. To quote Barry Manilow, Oh Mandy. While she knows she’s smarter than most of the kids in her school, she can’t figure out why she’s making so many incredibly dumb and increasingly dangerous choices.When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off thirty years ago―they’re still best friends who can finish each other’s sentences. But there’s one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.In prose filled with hilarious and heartbreakingly accurate one-liners, Stephen McCauley has written a novel that examines how we define home, family, and love. Be prepared to laugh, shed a few tears, and have thoughts of your own ex-life triggered. (Throw pillows optional.)
Neon Fever Dream
Eliot Peper - 2016
Do yourself a favor and check out Neon Fever Dream." -Popular Science
A dark secret hides in the swirling dust and exultant revelry of Burning Man.Asha Amarasuriya is bored and struggling to get by as a martial arts instructor in Oakland. When an enigmatic seductress offers her a golden ticket, Asha decides to take a leap of faith and head to Burning Man. But there is more than meets the eye at the infamous desert pilgrimage and Asha gets sucked into a quest to unravel a sinister mystery at the heart of Black Rock City.Will Asha and her friends survive to expose the shadowy conspiracy? By the time the Man burns, their lives will have changed forever.