The Thomas Flair


E.J. Russell - 2020
     Diabetic gymnast Sol Ashvili, an alternate for the 2016 men’s Olympic gymnastics squad, had one thing on his agenda for the last day of competition in Rio—corner teammate Tony Thomas, his best friend for half his life, and finally confess he’d been in love with him for years. But instead of returning to the team suite after winning his second silver medal, Tony jetted out of Rio and turned his back on everything: a college degree, gymnastics meets… and Sol. The first two Sol could forgive—barely. The last? Not a chance. Commentators had a name for Tony’s crowd-pleasing, no-holds-barred, high-octane gymnastics—the Thomas Flair. After the 2016 Games, he parlayed that reputation into a career as an internet celebrity, specializing in extreme sports and risky stunts. His decision to battle his way back into competition shape for a chance at the 2020 Olympic team is extreme all right, but now he must survive the biggest risk of all: facing Sol again after his epic betrayal in Rio. For the sake of the team and the reputation of US men’s gymnastics, Sol and Tony struggle to leave the past behind and find a way to work together. But as the Games draw closer, they’re starting to realize that finding their way back to each other may be the only way for both of them to truly fly high. The Thomas Flair is a 64,000-word enemies to lovers second-chance rom-com set around the Tokyo Olympics that might have been, featuring a thrill-seeker who needs reining in, a perfectionist who needs to let go, redemption, rowdy teammates, and a few gymnastics moves that will never make it into the Code of Points.

Not Like Other Boys


K.A. Merikan - 2014
    Win a boyfriend. ---Ethan. Taxidermist. Goth weirdo. Can’t wait to be done with high school.Ethan is a young artist-entrepreneur with a love for quirky taxidermy. Roadkill is so much better than people. By the end of high school, all he wants is to develop his business, yet all his parents want is for him to go to law school. That is more than enough of a problem for Ethan, so any kind of love life is out of the question. That is until Robert Hunter, the quarterback of the football team, comes crashing into him. Literally.Robert. Quarterback. In the closet. More than meets the eye.Robert is the popular kid, the quarterback on his way to med school. He’s gay, but not exactly coming out since he doesn’t like to stir the pot. One night, spurred on by too much booze, he ends up causing irreversible harm to Ethan, the school’s weirdo.The aftermath.Robert will do anything to avoid charges for what he’s done, but when Ethan makes an indecent demand in return for his silence, Robert might just be in way over his head.For Ethan, it’s a simple act of revenge on a bully, but when Robert turns out to be not-so-straight, their arrangement gets complicated all too fast.POSSIBLE SPOILERS:Themes: First love, fitting in, entrepreneurship, disability, high school, jock/goth, taxidermy, artist, coming out, becoming an adult, enemies to lovers, hurt/comfortGenre: New Adult M/M romanceLength: ~ 90,000 words (Standalone novel, no cliffhanger.)WARNING: Contains steamy, passionate scenes, violent injury, themes of bullying, and a morally ambiguous proposition(This book was formerly published as ‘Diary of a Teenage Taxidermist’)

Red, White & Royal Blue


Casey McQuiston - 2019
    With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

Out in the Deep


Lane Hayes - 2018
    He’s a type A control personality with a penchant for order and a love of water polo. But he’s determined to enjoy his last year of college. The real world with a serious job and big expectations can wait for a few months. He’s going soak up every minute on campus with his friends and teammates before he moves on. The only possible kink in his plan is the new guy on the team… also known as his nemesis. Gabe Chadwick has big Olympic dreams. His transfer between Southern California universities has nothing to do with scholastics. The degree is his backup plan. He’s not there to party or make friends. And he certainly isn’t going to announce his sexuality. But he can’t deny there’s something special about the uptight team captain. However, when an unwitting friendship and mutual attraction collide, both will have to decide if this is the real thing or if they’re about to lose it all in the deep.

Trailer Trash


Marie Sexton - 2016
    Now, instead of spending his senior year in his hometown of Austin, Texas, he’s living with his father in Warren, Wyoming, population 2,833 (and Nate thinks that might be a generous estimate). There’s no swimming pool, no tennis team, no mall—not even any MTV. The entire school’s smaller than his graduating class back home, and in a town where the top teen pastimes are sex and drugs, Nate just doesn’t fit in.Then Nate meets Cody Lawrence. Cody’s dirt-poor, from a broken family, and definitely lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Nate’s dad says Cody’s bad news. The other kids say he’s trash. But Nate knows Cody’s a good kid who’s been dealt a lousy hand. In fact, he’s beginning to think his feelings for Cody go beyond friendship.Admitting he might be gay is hard enough, but between small-town prejudices and the growing AIDS epidemic dominating the headlines, a town like Warren, Wyoming, is no place for two young men to fall in love.

Off Campus


Amy Jo Cousins - 2014
    Some are just harder to hide.With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break.Warning: This book contains cranky roommates who vacillate between lashing out and licking, some male/male voyeurism, emotional baggage that neither guy wants to unpack, and the definitive proof that sound carries in college housing.

Love Is In The Title


R.J. Scott - 2011
    Songs that mean something to him and the people around him. Lately he has been requesting songs for the boy he watches from afar. The gorgeous dark haired blue eyed captain of the football team, Cameron.One night, and the last request, and all of Luke's secrets spill. It seems though, that he isn't the only one with secrets.

Strings Attached


Nick Nolan - 2001
    Closeted teenager Jeremy is sent to live with wealthy relatives after his mother enters rehab. Struggling to fit into the posh world of Ballena Beach, Jeremy joins the high school swim team, dates a popular girl, and begins to think he may have landed in paradise - until his great aunt Katharine starts to dictate his every move and a late-night phone call insinuates that his father's accidental death was not so accidental after all.As Jeremy grows accustomed to the veneer of a fabulous life, so grows his need for answers - as well as the danger of immeasurable harm. Weaving together a murder mystery, sexual ambiguity, and characters with hidden identities and agendas, Nick Nolan offers listeners a deliciously witty novel about the "puppet" who wishes only to be a real boy. Strings Attached is also a surprisingly heartfelt story about coming-of-age and coming out - not necessarily in that order.

By the Creek


Geoff Laughton - 2013
    There’s nothing to do, and he misses his friends in the city. But he doesn’t have a choice. His mother’s job is in Mason County now, so David and his mom are too, and he has to make the best of it.At first, the only redeeming feature of David’s new home is the swimming hole across the field from his house. Then David meets Benjamin Killinger, and suddenly life stops being so dull.Benjamin is Amish, and cooling off in the swimming hole is one of the few liberties he and his brothers enjoy. A friendship with an English boy is not—but that doesn’t stop him and David from getting to know each other, as long as it's on the neutral ground by the creek. After David risks his life to save Benjamin’s father, the boys’ friendship is tolerated, then accepted. But before long, Benjamin’s feelings for David grow beyond the platonic. Benjamin's family and the rest of the community will never allow a love like that, and a secret this big can’t stay secret forever...Gay Contemporary Young Adult/Juvenile

Dumb Jock


Jeff Erno - 2009
    This edition is no longer available.When Jeff Irwin is asked to tutor the town's high school football hero, they find that their relationship proves more challenging than any tutoring session.

The Last Summer


Ruthie Luhnow - 2018
    Only one person has ever seen past Alfie's sarcastic, standoffish exterior—his best friend and the love of his life, Wynn. And though Wynn insists he's straight, Alfie is sure, deep down, Wynn feels their connection, too. Alfie plans to leave town right after graduation—and when he goes, he's bringing Wynn along with him. "This place will kill me if I stay." Wynn is used to being a disappointment—to his father, to his teachers, to his coach. And in a place where two boys would never be allowed to fall in love, naïve Wynn can't comprehend that his feelings for Alfie run far deeper than friendship. But then Alfie shows up at his window in the middle of the night and asks Wynn to run away with him—and though Wynn can't bear the thought of Alfie leaving him, Wynn isn't brave enough to leave. "I've loved you every minute of every day that I've known you." Twelve years later, Wynn shows up on Alfie's doorstep, bedraggled and heartbroken. Though the two friends have not seen each other in over a decade, they find their connection hasn't faded. However, before Alfie and Wynn are able to build a new life with one another, they will have to face the demons from their past. Once more, they find themselves in their tiny, toxic hometown—but this time, they're together. The Last Summer is an m/m emotional, slow burn romance with friends-to-lovers, second chance, and gay awakening themes, plenty of heat, and a happy ending.

The Value of X


Poppy Z. Brite - 2003
    Friends since childhood, they become lovers at age 16 and must deal with the realities of being gay in a hardscrabble neighborhood, a traditional Catholic family, and the restaurant kitchens where they've begun to work.

Everything In Between


Michele Notaro - 2016
    Okay, he actually greeted me. Now I need to say something… anything. Run down my internal checklist—Step One: wipe drool from mouth; I wiped my mouth; check. Step Two: open mouth and speak; say something… come on, anything… nope, I got nothing. Step Three: refer to Step One and repeat. Sigh. This gorgeous man now thinks I’m a moron. Of course, I know that my secret—okay, not so secret—crush, Reese Willoughby, could never have any interest in me anyway. There’s just no way that he hasn’t noticed me openly ogling him at work. I know everyone else in the office has surely seen it. When Reese finally asks for my help with a work project, I can’t help but feel over the moon. Now I can only hope that he notices just how much I like him, because there is no way I’m about to make the first move. ***Everything In Between is the first book in the series Finding My Forever, but is a standalone novel. Each book in the series will feature a different couple, but the couples will show up throughout the series. It is approximately 100,000 words and a contemporary romance between two men with explicit language and graphic sex intended for Adults Only.*** ***Please beware that there is mention of child abuse that could be a trigger for some people.***

Out of the Pocket


Bill Konigsberg - 2008
    They're like brothers, but they don't know one essential thing: Bobby is gay. Can he still be one of the guys and be honest about who he is? When he's outed against his will by a student reporter, Bobby must find a way to earn back his teammates' trust and accept that his path to success might be more public, and more difficult, than he'd hoped. An affecting novel about identity that also delivers great sportswriting.

American Love Songs


Ashlyn Kane - 2010
    Besides, he's much too busy with his band, the Wayward Sons, to go looking for romance. His reticence has nothing to do with his embarrassing crush on Chris, the band's lead singer and Jake's erstwhile best friend. But that was before enigmatic wanderer Parker McAvoy signed on as the band's new lead guitarist.He can only deny his attraction to sweet, dorky Parker for so long before the urge to do something about it becomes impossible to ignore. The trouble is, Parker knows all about Jake's philandering ways—and oh, yeah, he's not gay. Or so Jake thinks until a string of related events provides encouraging new insight. Can he convince Parker to overlook his colorful past and give him a chance? Or will this love song fade out before it even begins?