Book picks similar to
Trading Teams by Romeo Alexander
m-m
sports
mm
romance
Deep in the Count
Madison Parker - 2013
Although his coach is confident he has a successful career ahead of him, Brandon's not so sure. What if he doesn’t make it? What will he have to fall back on? He wishes he were smarter. He looks at his friend's roommate and thinks he’d give anything for that confidence and those brains. Because brains and confidence? That’s sexy! If only he could get Corey to notice him, come up with a plan that would appeal to Corey's inner geek… Corey's program of study and academic standing are sure to land him a good job in his chosen career field: cryptology. Those popular kids? They think that because he’s a “geek” he’s missing out on life, but they’re wrong. He’s got his eye on the prize and doesn’t need the distractions of a social life. So why is he having such a hard time ignoring his roommate's flirty friend?This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love Has No Boundaries" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.
Pull Me Under
Zarah Detand - 2014
Deny, deny, deny.2. Hope that his team and the public will just get over it.3. Make himself look better by means of a long-term, committed relationship.The problem? He has yet to really kiss another man.The solution? His manager knows just the guy.Enter Henry Brown: music student, openly gay, currently single, and so pretty that the public will just eat him up. He's all too happy to lend Ben a hand.Between public appearances and the media spotlight, they become friends. But when benefits come into play, the question is: are they ready for the real thing?Pull Me Under is a cheerful tale of two people finding truth in the middle of a media whirlwind — an emotional rollercoaster of slow ascents, magnificent drops and stomach-turning loops, all while hoping to come out with the sun on your face and a smile in your heart.
Screwups
Jamie Fessenden - 2014
Even as a successful business major, he is absolutely miserable. Not only is Jake pursuing a field he hates when he’d rather study art, he is utterly terrified of what will happen if his father finds out he’s gay. When he finally gets up the courage to move into the creative arts dorm on campus, his new roommate, Danny, is openly gay—and there’s no denying the attraction between them.Danny Sullivan has been out since high school, and he appears comfortable with his sexuality. But something happened in Danny’s past—something that gives him nightmares he refuses to talk about. Unknown to Jake, the way he mistreated his friend, Tom Langois, when Tom came out to him in high school, is mild compared to the way someone very much like Jake treated Danny.It may be too late to fix the mess Jake made with Tom, but if Jake wants to be with Danny, he’s going to have to fix the mess made by another closeted jock he’s never even met.
There's This Guy
Rhys Ford - 2017
Every penny he makes as a welder goes to care for his dying father, an abusive, controlling man who’s the only family Jake has left. Because of a promise to his dead mother, Jake resists his desire for other men, but it leaves him consumed by darkness. It takes all of Dallas Yates’s imagination to see the possibilities in the fatigued Art Deco building on the WeHo’s outskirts, but what seals the deal is a shy smile from the handsome metal worker across the street. Their friendship deepens while Dallas peels back the hardened layers strangling Jake’s soul. It’s easy to love the artistic, sweet man hidden behind Jake’s shattered exterior, but Dallas knows Jake needs to first learn to love himself.When Jake’s world crumbles, he reaches for Dallas, the man he’s learned to lean on. It’s only a matter of time before he’s left to drift in a life he never wanted to lead and while he wants more, Jake’s past haunts him, making him doubt he’s worth the love Dallas is so desperate to give him.
Something Like Summer
Jay Bell - 2011
But over time it can change.The hot Texas nights were lonely for Ben before his heart began beating to the rhythm of two words; Tim Wyman. By all appearances, Tim had the perfect body and ideal life, but when a not-so-accidental collision brings them together, Ben discovers that the truth is rarely so simple. If winning Tim’s heart was an impossible quest, keeping it would prove even harder as family, society, and emotion threaten to tear them apart.Something Like Summer is a love story spanning a decade and beyond as two boys discover what it means to be friends, lovers, and sometimes even enemies.
Unscripted
J.R. Gray - 2019
The more famous he becomes, the more he hides. The only person he ever let see the real him rose with him from nothing to the very top.They were the king and queen of Hollywood— and then she wanted a divorce. The only way to survive his depression is to bury himself in work. If he can be a character, maybe he won’t have to remember himself. A gay role can’t be any different than playing a straight one, can it?But instead of finding solace in the character, he finds it in his costar. Hale becomes his best friend, his lifeline, the light in his darkness. Quell is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about himself while filming intimate scenes with Hale that feel more real than anything ever has before.He’s lived his entire life following the script. What would life be like unscripted?
On the Ice
Amy Aislin - 2018
A busy schedule of practices, games, classes, homework, two part-time jobs—and now, working with a tutor to help him pass the class he’s failing so that he can keep his scholarship—shouldn’t leave him with enough time to flirt with the NHL player in town. But that doesn’t stop him. Placed on the injured reserve list until his broken arm heals, NHL defenseman Alex Dean is using the time off to be with his ailing grandfather and get a head start on the book he’s been commissioned to write. He doesn’t expect to get roped into a tutoring gig, especially not for cocky, smart-ass Mitch. But Alex soon discovers that there’s more to Mitch than meets the eye...and he really likes what he sees. Only Alex doesn’t dare risk his NHL career by coming out, and a relationship between them would jeopardize Mitch’s chances with the organization too. It looks impossible. Then again, the best things usually do...On the Ice is an m/m contemporary romance featuring a flirty college hockey player who meets his match in a demisexual NHL player.
The Nothingness of Ben
Brad Boney - 2012
His life is perfect until he gets a phone call that brings it all crashing down: a car accident takes his parents, and now he must return to Austin to raise three teenage brothers he barely knows.During the funeral, Ben meets Travis Atwood, the redneck neighbor with a huge heart. Their relationship initially runs hot and cold, from contentious to flirtatious, but when the weight of responsibility starts wearing on Ben, he turns to Travis, and the pressure shapes their friendship into something that feels a lot like love. Ben thinks he’s found a way to have his old life, his new life, and Travis too, but love isn’t always easy. Will he learn to recognize that sometimes the worst thing imaginable can lead him to the place he was meant to be?
Maps
Nash Summers - 2015
If Maps ruled the world, his best pal would still be living next door, and there wouldn’t be any gap-toothed new guy staring at him as if he’s bonkers.Pity Maps doesn’t rule the world . . .
Starfish and Coffee
Kele Moon - 2012
Now jaded and broken, Alex and Matt still can’t deny their sizzling connection or the memories of one perfect, uninhibited year together. At twenty-two, Matt Tarrington is rich, good-looking and destined to be powerful, but behind that confident exterior lurks a man who resents the life his family thrust upon him. Desperate for an escape, Matt heads to Mirabella Island off the coast of Florida for a year of relaxation and some wild nights with vacationing party-girls. Matt never expected to find real passion in the arms of Alex Hunter, a handsome, laid-back local. Alex is gay, but closeted. Matt should be completely off limits, but Alex finds the deeply in denial rich boy too tempting to ignore. Especially when a bet has them working together, fighting the heat in the rundown, beachside cafe where Alex sweats for every dollar. Their love felt inevitable until youth left them vulnerable to hatred and greed. Now after six years of hating the lies they live, Alex and Matt will have to risk it all for the second chance they both desperately need.
My Summer of Wes
Missy Welsh - 2010
Now, during the summer between high school graduation and going away to college, Mal wants to take control of his life and make some improvements...starting with making a new friend. Wes, the boy across the street, quickly becomes both friend and a sort of mentor to Mal. With Wes's patient guidance and example, Mal's breaking free of his life-long shy shell and taking chances. Mal is also feeling free enough to start listening to the tiny voice inside him that whispers his attraction to Wes. After years of denying it, could Mal be gay after all? Self-acceptance comes easy for Mal with Wes by his side. What about telling Mal's parents? What about being out at college? Mal's about to undergo some very challenging times as he grows up fast and must decide what he'll stand for and against. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: This an extensively expanded second edition of this book.)
Always Mine
Sloane Kennedy - 2019
Until I met the one boy who changed all that. When we were kids, Xavier Price understood horses, but somehow, he got me too. He’d made me feel like I wasn’t just the overdressed, too sensitive fifteen-year-old geek who loved math and didn’t always say the right thing. But all that changed the night he threw my trust back in my face and betrayed my family in the worst kind of way. And while I’m back in Eden to make sure my uncle’s horse ranch is operating in the black, the one thing I know I won’t have to deal with is the man who’d been on the verge of stealing my heart ten years ago. Because Xavier Price is still in prison for what he did and even if he weren’t, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to show his face in Eden ever again. Right? Xavier Wrong. That’s what returning to Eden after ten years behind bars feels like. But it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of choices. And it wasn’t like I was going to be handed any decent job offers, let alone my dream one of working with horses. But that’s exactly what happened and now that I’m foreman of Black Hills Ranch, I’m not letting this job go for anything. Not even the spoiled little rich kid I’d thought was different when he’d glommed onto me ten years ago. I have no doubt Brooks Cunningham didn’t wait long to move on to bigger and better things the second my jail cell was locked behind me, and that’s just fine by me. I’d been wrong about the sweet, emotional boy who’d had a habit of wearing his heart on his sleeve anyway. Except fate has decided to have another go at me by tossing Brooks right back into my sometimes too small world. Gone is the scrawny, stars-in-his-eyes nerd who used to do math problems just for fun. In his place is a gorgeous specimen of a man who thinks he can go toe to toe with me and once again destroy everything I’ve worked for. Not happening.
Dirty Mind
Roe Horvat - 2017
He’s a respectable man in his thirties who stays fit, has a decent career and travels alone—his only vice is an occasional greasy meal. And beer. And violent computer games. Nobody has to know about the other Alex—the acclaimed porn writer. His ingenious erotic fantasies earn him good money and keep his capricious mind harmlessly entertained. When his young friend and protégé Christian transfers to Freiburg for medical school, Alex is overjoyed…and terrified that Christian will find out about Alex’s indecent alter ego. The time they spend together, as lovely as it is, could overturn Alex’s carefully balanced life. Suddenly, the writing is not good enough, his hair seems to be thinning, his careful hookups leave him unfulfilled, and his dreams are haunted by the innocent young man he’s vowed to protect. However, Christian is not a boy anymore. He’s a grown man of twenty-one, clever and deadly attractive. And he’s hiding some secrets of his own.
Perfect Imperfections
Cardeno C. - 2014
Before embarking on yet another international concert tour, he wanders into a bar in what he considers the middle of nowhere and meets a man who wins him over with his friendly smile and easy-going nature. Accountant slash bartender slash adventure-seeker Reg Moore has fun talking and drinking with The Jeremy Jameson and can’t say no when the supposedly straight rock star makes him a once in a lifetime offer: keep him company on his tour by playing the part of his boyfriend. Listening to music, traveling the world, and jumping off cliffs is fun. Falling in love is even better. But to stay with Jeremy after the stage lights dim, Reg will need to help him realize there’s nothing pretend about their relationship.