Book picks similar to
The Snow Ball by Kenn Dahll


unrequited-crush-or-love
abuse
blackmail-and-bribery
homophobia

Lead Me Not


Ann Gallagher - 2015
    But when his sister proposes a documentary to demonstrate once and for all that it’s a choice—with Isaac choosing to be gay as proof—he balks. Until he learns his nephew is headed down that perverted path. Isaac will do anything to convince the teenager he can choose to be straight . . . including his sister’s film.When Isaac’s first foray into the gay lifestyle ends with a homophobic beating, he’s saved and cared for by Colton Roberts, a gentle, compassionate bartender with a cross around his neck. Colton challenges every one of Isaac’s deeply held beliefs about gay men. He was kicked out by homophobic parents, saved from the streets by a kind pastor, and is now a devout Christian. Colton’s sexuality has cost him dearly, but it also brought him to God.As the two grow closer, everything Isaac knows about homosexuality, his faith, and himself is called into question. And if he’s been wrong all along, what does that mean for his ministry, his soul, his struggling nephew—and the man he never meant to love?

Loving Him


Diana DeRicci - 2012
    Sam is on a belated graduation trip to paradise. Deciding getting drunk together beats doing it while across the bar from each other, Sam offers a brotherly shoulder of understanding when he learns just why Hunter is in paradise alone.

Edgewise


Jan Stites - 2008
    She flees from the uneducated, severely depressed patients in her inner-city treatment program, but is forced to return because "Oakhell" is the only facility she can afford. There, she meets Satch, a working-class black woman who scoffs at Simone's denial and cheerful demeanor. In the weeks that follow, Simone and Satch are thrown together both inside and outside of the hospital. Their tumultuous friendship becomes crucial to both women's quests to uncover the truths that propel them toward self-destruction. Alternately heart-wrenching and funny, Edgewise is a timely story of love, abuse and the hope of redemption.

Bonfires


Amy Lane - 2017
    He’s gotten to know his community, including Mr. Larkin, the bouncy, funny science teacher. But when Larx is dragged unwillingly into administration, he stops coaching the track team and starts running alone. Aaron—who thought life began and ended with his kids—is distracted by a glistening chest and a principal running on a dangerous road.Larx has been living for his kids too—and for his students at Colton High. He’s not ready to be charmed by Aaron, but when they start running together, he comes to appreciate the deputy’s steadiness, humor, and complete understanding of Larx’s priorities. Children first, job second, his own interests a sad last.It only takes one kiss for two men approaching fifty to start acting like teenagers in love, even amid all the responsibilities they shoulder. Then an act of violence puts their burgeoning relationship on hold. The adult responsibilities they’ve embraced are now instrumental in keeping their town from exploding. When things come to a head, they realize their newly forged family might be what keeps the world from spinning out of control.

Unforgiven


Ruth Clampett - 2017
    They’ve always had each other’s back, but when one walks in on the other with another man, everything changes. How do you explain to your best friend that he’s the one you’ve always wanted, that until now your life has been a lie? Desperation and shame are two dirty words that run through Jason’s veins. He carries the scars from a wayward priest who stole his innocence and left him shattered. Meanwhile for years he’s watched Dean pursuing woman after woman, as his own heart slowly breaks.When their world blows apart, they learn the powerful bond between them has more fire than either understood. Can two broken souls find the light in their darkness and come together to make a whole, or will sins of the past be forever unforgiven?This standalone is a M/M love story with graphic sex. Trigger warning.

Cherish


Shawn Bailey - 2011
    Trinity also never expected his body to react or his heart to race when the young man momentarily regained consciousness and stared up with beautiful dove gray eyes.As Brennan Demarcus lay on the ground preparing to die a beautiful blond-haired angel appeared and looked down on him with concerned ice blue eyes. His body shuttered involuntarily as he closed his eyes. The last thing he remembered thinking was that maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad as long as he could fly around the heavens with someone as lovely as the angel that had appeared to take him to meet his maker.

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.

Burn Card


Laura Baumbach - 2008
    This story was originally part of the Hostage print anthology.

The Ballerino and the Biker


Rebecca James - 2018
    After years studying the art in Milan, Morgan comes home to New York City to apprentice with the Manhattan Ballet Company only to be hit by the unexpected death of his older brother, Jake. The grieving dancer learns his life is threatened by a dangerous rival motorcycle gang and that pierced, tattooed, HOT biker Zeke Ivers has been assigned by Jake’s MC to guard him. Saddled with the constant presence of the infuriating man, Morgan juggles the demands of an exhausting dance schedule as well as his new responsibilities as CEO of his family’s multi-million-dollar company. He never expects to develop an attraction for the straight, obnoxious biker, but that’s exactly what happens. Estranged from an abusive family, Zeke Ivers has lived at the Sentinel’s club house and worked on cars since he was a teen. When fellow club member Jake Wentworth and a rival club president’s girl are killed on Jake’s bike, the Sentinel’s president delegates the protection of Jake’s little brother, Morgan, to Zeke. Zeke would do anything for the club that pulled him off the streets, but Morgan’s a ballet dancer, for Christ’s sake, as well as annoying as hell. Still, Zeke finds himself inexplicably drawn to the young man. The more attracted Zeke becomes to Morgan, the more the biker is forced to examine his sexuality and decide whether two people from opposite sides of the tracks could possibly have a future together, or if Zeke should do what is fast becoming too painful to consider: let Morgan go.

Love & Other Mushy Stuff: Would you take one for the team?


Lyndsey Gallagher - 2021
    

Loving Jay


Renae Kaye - 2014
    And Liam believes it, until a chance meeting with James “Jay” Bell turns Liam’s world upside-down. Jay is vivacious and unabashedly gay—from the tips of his bleached hair to the ends of his polished nails. With a flair for fashion, overreaction, and an inability to cork his verbal diarrhea, Liam believes drama queen Jay must have a screw loose. An accident as a teenager left Liam with a limp and a fear of driving. He can’t play football anymore either, and that makes him feel like less of a man. But that’s no reason to question his sexuality... unless the accident broke something else inside him. When being with Jay causes Liam’s protective instincts to emerge, Liam starts to believe all he knew in life had been a convenient excuse to stay hidden. From intolerance to confrontations, Liam must learn to overcome his fears—and his father—before he can accept his sexuality and truly love Jay.

Until Forever


M.V. Kasi - 2019
    But ten years later, he returned as a ruthless, powerful businessman who has neither forgotten nor forgiven her. Can she stop the man she once promised to love until forever from destroying her?Ridiculed as bastard, Hiten is the firstborn son of a rich, royal man and a beautiful, poor woman. When his sweet mother died tragically, he was shunned by his father’s family and sent to the neighboring estate as a servant. He grew up there, while forming an inseparable bond and friendship with the estate’s beautiful, spirited heiress who promised to love him forever. But his heart shattered and he was forced to leave when the girl he loved dearly betrayed him cruelly.Over the next ten years, he ruthlessly made a large fortune. His father now wants him to return and inherit. But as a powerful billionaire, he isn’t interested in his father’s royal titles or estate. What he wants is closure—revenge on his half-brother’s beautiful widow...A PASSIONATE TALE OF BETRAYAL, LOSS, REVENGE & FORBIDDEN LOVE.

Mark of Cain


Kate Sherwood - 2014
    When he sees who’s bellied up to the bar, though, he reaches for his cell phone to call the police.It’s Lucas Cain, the man who killed Mark’s brother three years ago. Apparently he’s out of jail and hanging out with his old crowd, which has to be a breach of parole, right?Pulled over upon leaving the bar, Lucas blows a clean breathalyzer and hopes this isn’t a harbinger of things to come. He’s ready to build a sober, peaceful life. His friends aren’t ready to let him move on, though, and he ends up taking refuge in an Anglican half-way house.Thrown together, Mark and Lucas find common ground in the struggle to help a young gay man come to terms with his sexuality—and the fight against homophobic townsfolk. As attraction grows, the past is the last stumbling block between them and a future filled with hope.Warning: Bad boys being good, good boys being bad.

Tiger Drive


Teri Case - 2018
    Too many secrets. Four people who want to matter. In Nevada, Sloan family matriarch, Janice, is tired of her white trash life--dealing with debt, kids, her son's motorcycle gang, and Harry, her drunk of a husband. She can't shake her lifelong dream of singing at the Grand Ole Opry.As Janice's teen daughter, Carrie, plans her escape to college, Janice confronts the fact that she's forty-eight and running out of time. She decides to leave her two young sons with Harry and move to Nashville for one year to pursue her dream. But before Janice can leave, Harry's worst betrayal yet destroys everyone's plans, and detectives start digging up the family dirt.Times are desperate for the Sloan Family. They might survive if they can become each other's unlikely heroes. Do they have what it takes to confront the truth about their lives and each other and break free from their way of life on Tiger Drive?Debut novelist, Teri Case puts us inside the minds of mother, father, daughter, and son to portray how addiction, poverty, and secrets can derail the best of intentions. But with a little hope and a dose of trust, the human spirit can prevail."Tiger Drive is an outstanding [novel], with . . . layered characters, relationships that make me ache for the characters and yearn for a positive resolution, and character journeys that intertwine in heartbreaking, soul-soaring ways." --Deborah Halverson, DearEditor.com"I LOVED Tiger Drive so much . . . I know I'll be thinking about these characters for a long time." --Lizette Clarke, Author Accelerator

The Skinny on Love


Fyn Alexander - 2014
    After a failed attempt at a relationship with Roslyn, his long time female BFF, he knows he must take a hard look at himself. The first thing John does is to try to find out what happened to his mother who disappeared when he was four years old. Roslyn recommends Sky Cook Investigations to help him. The first time John meets Sky he finds himself extremely attracted to the man’s bear-like physique and eager to please manner.Sky Cook, thirty six years old, is sweet, mild mannered and desperately in need of a health regime. He knows he needs to lose weight but is thwarted by issues from his childhood. Sky also wants a loving, yet dominant man to direct him, so when John suggests they barter services, the perfect storm for a relationship unfolds.