Once again, I am posting more than one week of the reading journal, because, well, because. If any of these sound interesting, do give them a try! I’ve inserted author links again this time.
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WEEK ENDING AUGUST 6:
1-2 [re-reads] ‘Magic Burning’ and ‘Magic Escaping’ by Kaje Harper. Action-packed MM starring a firefighter and the teacher / sorcerer he falls for.
3. ‘Kamikaze Boys’ by Jay Bell, YA MM starring two Kansas teenagers who get up to some stupid adolescent shit and end up in real trouble. But all is worked through, lessons are learned, parents clean up their acts, and ultimately the MCs have a credibly promising future ahead. Well written and gripping – I stayed up waaaaaayyy too late to finish this.
4-5 [re-reads] my own Las Vegas-set FM novel ‘A Winning Hand’ (it’s my discounted title this month) and related FM novella ‘Take a Note.’
6. ‘Recipe for Trouble’ by Dylan Morrison, a new-to-me author who I mini-binged. All three I read are close 3rd person single POV. This one is set in NYC. POV character is a video editor who’s a contractor for a big publishing conglomerate shifting from mostly print to mostly online; the love interest is a test cook for their foodie magazine. Both have anxiety issues. While this is billed as “grumpy + sunshine” it’s really “socially awkward + pathological pleaser,” the latter being manipulated by company higher-up. Not low conflict, but most of the conflicts are external. The resolution/conclusion glossed over a couple of things, but that did not prevent me from buying another.
7. ‘Fall Into You’ by Dylan Morrison, which I liked even better. MM set mostly in Ohio. The POV guy is a research botanist in Chicago who learns he’s inherited his estranged father’s apple farm, heads over to investigate, is immediately subjected to escalating pressure from a consultant to a big entertainment company that’s been trying to buy the property for years, and immediately at odds with the farm’s manager, for good reasons that are carefully revealed and resolved later on.
8. ‘Second Helpings’ by Dylan Morrison, which I liked just a touch less, because there is present day stuff but also scenes (some really stressful & painful) from the MCs’ teenage relationship, in which traumatic events affected both boys but POV guy in reputationally damaging ways that other characters, particularly his SHITTY parents, do not wholly make amends for. Second-chance this time. The POV guy runs a long-established Cleveland, OH deli which is in trouble because … (no spoilers).
All three Morrisons are recommended for anyone looking for MM romance set in the real world, featuring realistic obstacles/problems, fade to black / closed door sex scenes, humor + Real Feels, and some of the most thoroughly imagined characters I’ve seen in a while.
WEEK ENDING JULY 30:
1. [re-read] my own novel ‘The Ghost of Carlos Gardel,’ the one about my community of LA dancers & actors bringing together an indie film about … Carlos Gardel. Stars Andy & Victor, co-stars a lot of others. I think it works as a standalone, but there are a lot of characters and more than the two POVs. No regrets. This was a book I needed to write.
2. ‘Canceled for Christmas’ by Oliver Takely, which is probably the last of his US-set books I’ll try. This is my third read from him; the one set in England was much more relatable.
3. ‘Essays of E.B. White’ from Perennial Classics. A great book full of great writing.
4. ‘The Stoker Connection’ by Jackson Marsh. A person who’s favorably reviewed several of my books has been raving about this author, but most of Marsh’s books are MM historical mystery/thriller and in series, so I haven’t yet dived. However, this one is MM contemporary standalone. I liked it VERY much. The MCs are 18 yrs old, both in their last year of school pre university, having both independently developed theories about the truth underlying Bram Stoker’s Dracula. They join forces (eventually also bringing in each of their BFFs). Humor, teenage realism, sweetness. It’s a quest, coming-of-age, thriller, *and* romance novel.
5. ‘Augustin Station’ by Justin Greak. Liked this one a whole lot, too. It’s a coming-out novel starring a 34 yr old American teacher working in Sweden … alongside his wife. On a solo holiday in Romania, he meets a professor, leading to a long encounter during which many boxes are opened. It’s supportive, compassionate, affectionate, and honest, though they are not destined to meet again. The book concludes as POV guy is several years into a new, open life. Some lovely writing, apparently drawn from the other’s own life.
WEEK ENDING JULY 24:
1. ‘Outside the Wire’ by William Leet. Lambda Literary Awards finalist (2025, gay romance). Late 1960s to early 1970s timeline. MC1 is drafted for Vietnam, MC2 stays home in Louisiana – the why of that wasn’t clear to me. They had a brief but intense teenage relationship before MC1 heads off to boot camp, where he bonds with a guy in his basic group. This is not the book for people who want teenage lovers to remain completely faithful to each other. Both men develop other relationships, which didn’t bother me; I thought they both needed people to hang onto. They come back to each other via a long, difficult road involving MC1’s recovery from drug addiction and a great deal of support from family and their friend group. There is a happy ending and it’s credible, but don’t go into this unless you can take realistic war horrors and on-page heroin use.
2. [re-read] my MM figure-skating novel ‘Totally Thrown.’
3. ‘We Could Be Heroes’ by Philip Ellis, another 2025 Lammys finalist. Quite polished MM featuring a closeted American movie star in Birmingham, England for re-shoots on his superhero sequel who falls for a local bookstore clerk/drag queen. The actor’s costar, trainer, stuntman and agent are all aware of the clandestine affair; they are not found out. But the actor does have a meltdown at the end of filming which brings the affair to a painful (and, it seems likely, permanent) end. Except … it’s a romance novel. Their eventual reunion is handled well. High stakes, high conflict story in which neither MC covers himself with evolved emotional glory, but I would happily re-read this one.
4. ‘Wesley the Owl’ by Stacey O’Brien, a memoir by a biologist, given a nonreleasable owlet by her boss at Caltech, who spends the next 19 years adoring the bird. I couldn’t fully relate to this human but I could definitely see why she loved Wesley.
5. ‘The Spring Before Obergefell’ by Ben Grossberg. This was the 2025 Lammys winner for gay romance, and I can guess why (having now read all but one of the finalists; the last of them is already, sadly, out of print). It’s good, but not a lot of fun, being 100% in POV of a 50 yr old in Ohio who lives with his father (troubled relationship), has never had (or thought he wanted) a long-term relationship, finds himself with an articulate handsome younger man on one hand and an inarticulate mutually unsuccessful age peer on the other, falls for option 2 but doesn’t know what do to about it (and neither does the love interest), so things don’t go well. The POV character eventually picks himself up, sorts himself out (with help), makes a big gesture, and ultimately succeeds. Unfortunately – for me as the reader – most of the success is presented in an epilogue written in ‘this could have happened’ style, which struck me as annoyingly literary and a way of copping out of a genuine and heartfelt happy ending. But then, it’s not a happy book, and the mere fact that these two men might make a life together is, in view of their histories, happy enough. BUT also, a lot of this is about facing up to aging and mortality, yet the MCs have sex naked. One or both of them use PrEP, and I’ve heard firsthand from my own gay friend that a lot of gay men do without condoms, but goddammit PrEP only works against the one pathogen.
6. ‘How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)’ by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut, members of a 60+ year long experiment in Siberia devoted to discovering the genetic keys to domestication. The science is quite fascinating, presented for the general reader, i.e. not too overbearing. Also, come on, foxes.
Then I DNFd a nature memoir called ‘Fox and I’ by Catherine Raven, whose narrative voice I bounced off hard. I was out before I got to 6%. Couldn’t stick even for the fox.
7. ‘Raising Hare’ by Chloe Dalton. Another nature memoir, but this one is ravishing. Really lovely, wholly engaging, deeply observed, all the stars.
8. ‘Any Closer’ by Mary Calmes. A new-to-me author. MM novella set in Nevada featuring a construction company owner and one of his contractors, who realize after 3 years that they’re in love. It’s clearly part of a series but stands alone nicely. These guys are total guys, which was fun, and while there’s not an excess of building stuff on the page, their work is a big part of the story frame. I liked it.
9. ‘FIRE on Fire’ by Lukas Gaines. Opposites-attract MM contemporary, set mostly in San Francisco, though with a long and pretty hair-raising sequence featuring their joint escape – on foot – from a retreat up in Lassen when a wildfire threatens the site. For those who’ve managed to avoid personal finance blogs, FIRE stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. It’s the raison d’etre of MC1. MC2 is a painter surviving in the Bay Area due to the strings-attached patronage of a tech billionaire who happens to own the company MC1 works for. Chapter 1 added nothing to the book but I’m glad I read past that. The conflicts are realistic and true to character. I did think, given the MCs’ well-established issues, the author could have managed a black moment that didn’t involve a third party. Someone who can do a great action sequence that delivers on character development *and* write credibly about being an artist interests me.
10. [re-read] my MM novella ‘Third Time Lucky.’