Book picks similar to
The Time of My Life by Nora Phoenix
mm
m-m
romance
music
St. Nacho's
Z.A. Maxfield - 2008
He's currently moving from town to town, working in restaurant kitchens, and playing his violin for tips. As soon as he starts to feel comfortable anywhere—with anyone—he moves on. He's aware that music may be the only human language he still knows. Ironically, the one man he's wanted to communicate with in all that time is deaf.Shawn is part of a deaf theater group at the nearby college. Shawn wants Cooper as soon as they meet and he begins a determined flirtation. Cooper is comfortable with down and dirty sex, just not people. As far as Shawn is concerned, dirty sex is win-win, but he wants Cooper to let him into the rest of his life as well.Cooper needs time to heal and put his past away for good. Shawn needs to help Cooper forgive himself and accept that he can be loved. Both men find out that when it comes to the kind of healing love can bring, the sleepy beachside town of Santo Ignacio, “St. Nacho's” as the locals call it, may just be the very best place to start.Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices.
Code Red
N.R. Walker - 2021
He’s at the top of every music chart, every award show, every social media platform, and every sexiest-man-alive list. He’s the bad boy, the enigma, the man everyone on the planet wants a piece of.He’s also burned out and exhausted, isolated and lonely. Not in a good headspace at the start of a tour.Roscoe Hall is Maddox’s personal manager. His job is high-flying, high-demand, high-profile, and he loves it. Maddox has consumed his entire life for the past four years. Roscoe knows him. He sees the real Maddox no one else gets to see.He’s also in love with him.When the tour and stress become too much, when the world begins to close in, Roscoe becomes Maddox’s lifeline. But as Maddox knows already, and as Roscoe is about to learn, the brighter the spotlight, the darker the shadow.Word count: 102K
Vespertine
Leta Blake - 2015
They spent several idyllic months together until Jasper's calling to the Catholic priesthood became impossible to ignore. Left floundering, Nicky followed his own trajectory into rock stardom, but he never stopped looking back.Today, Jasper pushes boundaries as an out, gay priest, working hard to help vulnerable LGBTQ youth. He's determined to bring change to the church and the world. Respected, admired, and settled in his skin, Jasper has long ignored his loneliness.As Nico Blue, guitarist and songwriter for the band Vespertine, Nicky owns the hearts of millions. He and his bandmates have toured the world, lighting their fans on fire with their music. Numbed by drugs and fueled by simmering anger, Nicky feels completely alone. When Vespertine is forced to get sober, Nicky returns home to where it all started.Jasper and Nicky's careers have ruled their lives since they parted as teens. When they come face to face again, they must choose between the past's lingering ghosts or the promise of a new future.
Splinter
E. Davies - 2017
Being a caretaker of his corner of the Smoky Mountains makes him almost okay with having to be on Earth. More importantly, this deep in the woods, Nico's practically a hermit at a remote ranger station. Sure, he has good friends in nearby Knoxville, but he's otherwise free from petty drama and broken hearts... until Deen enters his world.Caught in a compromising position by relentless paparazzi, rock star and international playboy Deen Jayse barely escaped with his career intact. He needs image rehab and a break from fame. His manager strongly suggests a stint in the Smokies, promoting national parks and being wholesome. Which would be a lot easier if Nico weren't there in his sexy park ranger uniform.Nico already has his hands full with arsonists at the park without Deen adding to his workload. He thinks he has to babysit a spoiled celebrity, but when he catches a glimpse of the man behind the persona he sees something he can't resist. They've both experienced the isolation of fame, and while their loneliness brings them together, their worlds threaten to tear them apart. Deen can't just drop everything to go live in the mountains, and Nico can't abandon them... After a taste of being together, how can they possibly face a future apart?Splinter is a standalone gay romance novel with a HEA ending and no cliffhanger. Book #2, Grasp, will be available August 22nd!
The Darkest Flame
Christina Lee - 2015
Privy to plenty of Disciples of the Road business, he’s never been more ruffled as when a new recruit named “Smoke” walks through the door. Something about the man gets his blood pumping, but he knows to keep his preferences under wraps around the club.“Smoke” Callahan has done a couple of rehab stints and is finally clean, thanks to help from the Disciples. He’s on the right path and isn’t about to get sidetracked, no matter how much the guy who manages the bar gets beneath his skin. Besides, his last relationship with a man left him scared, alone, and with a nightmare of an addiction. When the Hog’s Den becomes shorthanded, and Smoke is ordered to help out the one man he can’t have, his longing for the bartender reaches blistering proportions. Vaughn figures a night together should be enough to satisfy their mutual attraction. But neither banks on just how scorching hot it might be. As Smoke’s past unravels and the one person he hopes never to lay eyes on again messes with all he holds sacred, it’s time to involve the Disciples. Problem is, he’ll have to risk his membership, his heart, and his own hide to keep everyone he cares about safe.**Please note: Vaughn and Smoke are both bisexual and this book contains one brief consensual scene involving a female because hey, real life, and also, bisexual. Just FYI…**ALSO NOTE, these two characters were first introduced in my standalone MM called KICKFLIP ( formerly called THERE YOU STAND before a rights reversion). Here's the reading order of this series: THE DARKEST FLAME THE FAINTEST SPARKTHE DEEPEST BLUETHE HARDEST FALLTHE SWEETEST GOODBYE
Between Sinners and Saints
Marie Sexton - 2011
Ostracized by his Mormon family for his homosexuality, Levi is determined to live his life his own way, but everything changes when he meets massage therapist Jaime Marshall.Jaime is used to being alone. Haunted by the horrors of his past, his only friend is his faithful dog, Dolly. He has no idea how to handle somebody as gorgeous and vibrant as Levi.Complete opposites on the surface, Levi and Jaime both long for something that they can only find together. Through love and the therapeutic power of touch, they’ll find a way to heal each other, and they’ll learn to live as sinners in a family of saints.
Goodbye Paradise
Nealy Wagner - 2015
But for twenty years, Josh and Caleb called it home. In Paradise, there is no television. No fast food. Just long hours of farm work and prayer on a dusty Wyoming ranch, and nights in a crowded bunkhouse. The boys of the Compound are kept far from the sinners’ world. But Joshua doesn’t need temptation to sin. His whole life, he’s wanted his best friend, Caleb. By day they work side by side. Only when Josh closes his eyes at night can they be together the way he craves. It can never be. And his survival depends on keeping his terrible desires secret.Caleb has always protected Josh against the worst of the bullying at the Compound. But he has secrets of his own, and a plan to get away — until it all backfires. Josh finds himself homeless in a world that doesn’t want him. Can Caleb find him in time? And will they find a place of safety, where he can admit to Josh how he really feels? Warning: Contains a hot male/male romance, copious instances of taking the Lord's name in vain, and love against the kitchen counter. This book was previously released under the title: In Front of God & Everyone.
Exposed
Bey Deckard - 2017
The camera is an extension of himself where he exposes his passion for the intersect of pleasure and pain. However, the lens also acts as a barrier, protecting his subjects from the shameful mistakes of his past, and Greg is left isolated and lonely.Emyr stands on the cusp of fame, but adulation and abuse are both eroding his confidence, and one night, at the river’s edge, he seeks solace in the rain, hoping to hide his tears.The photographer and the virgin rock star share an accidental connection on that dark, drizzly night. When Greg invites Emyr back to his hotel room, no strings attached, the young man should have bolted. Instead, an odd sense of trust allows him to follow Greg’s lead.When the camera comes out, Emyr learns the stage isn’t the only place he loves to perform as Greg touches something inside him that rarely awakens. Faced with a beautiful, talented boy whose soul is as lonely as his own, will Greg be able to face his past and come to terms with it, or will he run from the connection he so desperately desires?
Let There Be Light
A.M. Johnson - 2018
Hard work and drive kept Royal O'Connell one step ahead of his competition. His spot on the swim team, keeping his scholarship, was the only plan that mattered. His world was ebony and ivory. Natural talent and ambition set Camden Morgan apart from the other music majors. His dedication scoring him a full ride. Normally, their paths would have never crossed….But when Royal meets his best friend's new roommate, his big plan and Camden’s controlled environment faces a variable that could destroy it all. Attraction. The world they live in had no room for error. That undeniable pull between them was dangerous and neither one of them could've prepared for the choice they'd have to make. Love isn't always an easy road and, when everything they've worked for is on the line, they'll have to decide if being together is worth the risk. Let There Be Light is a full-length standalone.
Something About You
Riley Hart - 2018
Frankly, he's as regular as can be. He works construction with his brothers, loves his small-town life, and shares a close bond with his family, especially his grandmother. Okay, so maybe he has a few secrets in his closet, like his bisexuality…and that other thing he doesn’t talk about… Grayson ‘Saint’ St. Claire has it all: a dream job in LA, money, freedom. Saint doesn’t do attachments, which is just the way he likes it. Still, he’d be lying if he didn’t admit he missed his deceased parents, the only family he had... Until he gets an email from some guy named Tyler, revealing the existence of a grandmother he’s never met, prompting Saint to drop everything and drive across the country. Saint and Tyler couldn't be more different. Tyler dislikes Saint on sight, but there's something about Tyler that gets under Saint's skin. It’s not until they get to know one another that everything begins to change for the better. But the Holloways and St. Claires have secrets, their pasts tied together in tragic ways. With the odds stacked against them, Saint and Tyler have to face the fact that love alone might not be enough…
Locked In Silence
Sloane Kennedy - 2017
It’s easier not to try anymore…Ten years after leaving his small Minnesota hometown in his rearview mirror for what Nolan Grainger was sure would be the last time, life has decided to throw the talented musician a curveball and send him back to the town he lived in but was never really home.At twenty-eight, Nolan has traveled the world as a successful concert violinist with some of the best symphonies in the country. But success breeds envy, and when Nolan’s benefactor and lover decides Nolan has flown high enough, he cruelly clips Nolan’s wings. The betrayal and ensuing scandal leaves the violinist’s career in shambles and with barely enough money to start fresh somewhere beyond his vindictive ex’s powerful reach. But just as he’s ready to get his life back on track, Nolan gets the call he’s been dreading.After a stroke leaves his father a partial invalid, duty-bound Nolan returns to Pelican Bay and a life he’s spent years trying to forget. When he’s forced to use the last of his own money to keep from losing the family home, desperation has him turning to the one man he’d hoped never to see again…Even if I could speak, there wouldn’t be anyone there to listen…Pelican Bay’s golden boy, Dallas Kent, had the quintessential perfect life. Smart, gorgeous, and popular, the baseball phenom was well on his way to a life filled with fame and fortune. But more importantly, he had a one-way ticket out of Pelican Bay and far away from the family who used love as currency and whose high expectations were the law of the land. But a stormy night, sharp highway curve and one bad decision changed everything, leaving Dallas with nothing.Because the accident that took his parents, his future and his crown as the boy who could do no wrong, also stole his voice.Despised for the horrific wreck that ended the lives of two of Pelican Bay’s most respected residents, Dallas has retreated to a secluded stretch of land where he’s found refuge in a menagerie of unwanted animals that don’t care that he once had the world at his feet or that he’ll never speak again.But when the quiet, bookish boy he wasn’t allowed to notice in school suddenly reappears ten years later at Dallas’s wildlife rehab center in desperate need of a job, Dallas is thrust back into a world he’s worked hard to escape.Dallas’s silence was supposed to send Nolan scurrying, but what if Nolan ends up being the one person who finally hears him?Will two men who’ve been fleeing from the past finally come home to Pelican Bay for good or will the silence drive them apart forever?
Face the Music
K.M. Neuhold - 2018
I was so sure becoming a rock star would heal the dark corners inside me. But every time I walk onto the stage, with a roaring crowd screaming my name, all I can think about is the boy I left behind. All I want to do is rewind and make a different choice. Jace I thought I hated Lincoln when he ghosted me ten years ago and destroyed my heart. I thought I hated him when he wrote a chart-topping hit about our idyllic young love. But I’ve never hated him as much as I do right now, standing in front of me like he has every right to be in my world again. He’s not the rock god I thought he was...he’s still that same lost boy I used to love. Can I ever trust him with my heart again? ***Face the Music is the first book in the Replay series. Each book in the series will focus on a different band member getting a second chance at love. Each book can be read as a stand-alone. This book contains descriptions of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and sexy times.
Worship
Ella James - 2019
That’s the way I want it. Making you feel like we know each other—like we could go grab a beer sometime—is part of my job. Maybe the most vital part. It doesn’t hurt that I’m easy on the eyes, single at 35, and born richer than sin. My aesthetic matters much more than it should, but all the better for my worthy cause. And it’s a worthy cause. I’ve made an art out of making you feel good, and my influence makes you want to be good. Good like me. You think you know me, but you don’t. Everyone has secrets. Mine could cost me everything.So I’m a fortress. No one’s ever even gotten close. Until tonight. See that man, the tall guy dripping on the bow of my yacht? The one I just pulled from the ocean? He’s the one who’s going to cost me everything.***Book Two, Adore, will release November 11th.
The Husband Gambit
L.A. Witt - 2018
Payment: $1.2 million. Hayden Somerset is convinced the ad is a joke, but he responds anyway because, hello, $1.2 million. He’s broke, living in a tiny apartment with two roommates, and exhausted from praying his ancient car survives just one more week. His skyrocketing rent and crushing student loans aren’t helping either. At this point, there isn’t much Hayden wouldn’t do for that kind of cash. The ad isn’t a joke. Jesse Ambrose is absolutely serious. His father, the charismatic patriarch of a powerful Hollywood dynasty, has his eye on politics, and he’s counting on California’s liberals and progressives to elect him. But Jesse knows what his father believes when cameras and voters aren’t around. As the election looms, he’ll do anything to force the man’s hand and show the public who Isaac Ambrose really is. Anything, including marrying a stranger so his father will make good on his promise to disown Jesse if he ever takes a husband. Now he just has to wait for his father to take the bait… and try not to accidentally fall in love with his fake husband.
Hush
Tal Bauer - 2017
marshal running from his past.A trial that can plunge the world into war. Federal Judge Tom Brewer is finally putting the pieces of his life back together. In the closet for twenty-five long years, he’s climbing out slowly, and, with the hope of finding a special relationship with the stunning Mike Lucciano, U.S. Marshal assigned to his DC courthouse. He wants to be out and proud, but he can’t erase his own past, and the lessons he learned long ago. But a devastating terrorist attack in the heart of DC, and the subsequent capture and arrest of the terrorist, leads to a trial that threatens to expose the dark underbelly of America’s national security. As Russia beats the drums of war, intent on seeking revenge, and the United States struggles to contain the storm before it races out of control, secrets and lies, past and present, collide in Judge Tom Brewer’s courtroom. With the world’s attention fixed on Tom and this case, he suddenly discovers he may be the only person who can put everything together in time to stop the spark of a new world war.