Recommendations based on "Balls to the Wall"

Chris faced up to the fact that he was gay young man in spite of all the stories he read where he didn't fit the profile-his family wasn't loaded, he didn't drive an incredible road machine, and he was neither effeminate nor the super?jock. He didn't hate himself, and while he didn't exactly bolt out of the closet, he wasn't in a state of painful denial either. So, what did he want?Chris wanted love but that's tough to find. But that didn't matter anyway, because everything he heard and saw told him all gay men wanted was sex-and that he knew how to find.Looking for it one night he met Jamie Levesque, and with stars in his eyes he had to change his mind... The way Chris saw it, once he had a boyfriend, everything was going to be different. Just like in the stories, life with Jamie was going to be sunshine and lollipops forever-right?Uh?huh. Right.Read about it in a story that's told by Chris in his own words and in his own special way.

The war is over. The battle for love has just begun.As Marines, Cal and Jim depended on each other to survive bloodshed and despair in the Pacific. Relieved to put the horrors of war behind him, Jim went home to his apple orchard and a quiet life with his wife and children. Knowing Jim could never return his forbidden feelings, Cal hoped time and an ocean between them would dull the yearning for his best friend.But when Jim’s wife dies, Cal returns to help. He doesn’t know a thing about apple farming—or children—but he’s determined to be there for Jim, even as the painful torch he carries blazes back to life. Jim is grateful for his friend’s support as he struggles with buried emotions and dark wartime memories. Then Jim begins to see Cal in a new light, and their relationship deepens in ways neither expected. Can they build a life together as a family and find happiness in a world that would condemn them?Semper Fi by Keira Andrews is a historical gay romance featuring friends to lovers, sexual awakening, first times, found family, and of course a happy ending. (It also contains wartime violence and depictions of post-traumatic stress.)

A critically acclaimed #1 New York Times bestseller with more than one million copies in print! Now a major motion picture. Gritty with pain, betrayal, and brutality, this incredible true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the “Man” in the 1960’s by hopping a train. Untrusting, uneducated, and violent, he spends 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth.Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high-priced deals—an international arts dealer who moves between upscale New York galleries and celebrities.It seems unlikely that these two men would meet under normal circumstances, but when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, meets Denver, she sees him through God's eyes of compassion. When Deborah is diagnosed with cancer, she charges Ron with the mission of helping Denver.From this request, an extraordinary friendship forms between Denver and Ron, changing them both forever. A tale told in two unique voices, Same Kind of Different as Me weaves two completely different life experiences into one common journey. There is pain and laughter, doubt and tears, and in the end a triumphal story that readers will never forget.Continue this story of friendship in What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing, available now. Same Kind of Different as Me also is available in Spanish.

Review Angels of Mercy - Volume 1: Elliot is an exceptional display of walking in Elliot's shoes - a diary of sorts. Being a teenager is hard enough, being gay in a small town and in love with the star quarterback can be dangerous.  Sensual and sarcastic conversations and inward monologues bring life, laughter, disappointments, danger, and a carnal love to Elliot and Marco.  But, will it last? - Saguaro Moon Reviews [4 out of 5 Moons] Kindle edition reviewed Product Description On the cusp of his senior year at Mercy High, Elliot Donahey, an out but terminally shy gay young man who keeps to the shadows – never wanting to be seen or noticed – suddenly finds himself in the arms of the highest profile jock on campus, local star quarterback, Marco Sforza. Their lives, and those closest to them will never be the same.Set against the backdrop of competitive sports, this character study work (the first in a series) deep dives into the lives of these young men who each must "play the game" so Marco can play the game he loves. They are just trying to find some small slice of happiness to call their own amidst their hellish final year of high school.Author's Note: Angels of Mercy is first and foremost, a character study. A great deal of it is inner-monologue. Elliot will pause the action, will break momentum as he grapples with his world – all the while flipping a finger to the fourth wall. He knows you're there. It was far more important to me as its author (and a gay man) that the reader come away with the whys of Elliot’s choices in how he navigates his often tumultuous world. The same can be said of Marco (his jock boyfriend) who will have his own line of books covering the same timeline but from his POV (the first, Diary of a Quarterback Part 1, due winter 2015). I’ve read much queer literature and what I find rather interesting is that for the majority of it, very little is written about the character’s headspace. When you live in a world where you constantly have to be vigilant as you navigate through, it can make for some very powerful storytelling. That is my goal in writing these boys’ lives. I want the reader who may not be queer themselves to come away with what it might be like to be in a gayboy’s shoes – constantly polling and pulse-checking your world because your very survival depends upon it. All of that while you hope, you secretly pray, that you’ll find someone who will see you too and find they can’t live without you in their world. A small slice of happiness to call your own. And though you do everything to keep to yourself, you may still run into those who find your very existence threatens who they are and how they think the world should run. I pull no punches with this work. They are hormonally charged eighteen year old young men who are sexually active. While the sex is present in the work it is not gratuitous in that the main character does evolve from his physical intimacy with his high-profile boyfriend. It is not a genre romance read either, though it has a very strong romance threaded in the work. These elements bring a light to their world that attracts all the wrong attention. In a time where more queer youth are coming out to their teammates and their loved ones, I find that work of this nature is both timely and necessary to tell. I hope you'll find it as interesting and provocative a read as I believe it is.Our Voices. Our Lives - as we live them. About the Author SA Collins hails from the San Francisco Bay Area where he lives with his (legal) husband, their daughter and wonder of all wonders, a whirlwind of a granddaughter. A classically trained singer/actor (under a different name), Mr. Collins knows a good yarn when he sees it. Mr. Collins specializes in character study work. It is more important for him as an author that the reader comes away with a greater understanding of the characters, and the reasons they make the decisions they do, rather than the situations they are

A Place to Grow picks up where A Place For You left off. Big Mama has a family to raise, even as a new threat to the cubs emerges. 12 year-old Tracy has places to explore, important things to discover, and her first 5K race to run.Aunt Lynette, Mallory, and Jamie continue to provide the love and support that enable Tracy to thrive.And Tracy's wonderful friend, Kitty, is there to watch over them all.

Seventeen-year-old Phil has felt like an outsider as long as he can remember. All Phil has ever known about his father is that he was Number Three on his mother’s long list—third in a series of affairs that have set Phil’s family even further apart from the critical townspeople across the river. As for his own sexuality, Phil doesn’t care what the neighbors will think; he’s just waiting for the right guy to come along.But Phil can’t remain a bystander forever. Not when he’s surrounded by his mother, Glass, who lives by her own rules and urges Phil to be equally strong; his sister, Dianne, who is abrupt and willful, with secrets to share; his uncle Gable, a restless mariner, defined by his scars; his best friend, Kat, who is generous but possessive. And finally, there is distant Nicholas, with whom Phil falls overwhelmingly in love—until he faces the ultimate betrayal and must finally find his worth . . . and place in the world.

The author of The Two-Bear Mambo serves up a gritty, bawdy, action-packed Texas thriller involving a black, gay protagonist, a chili chef, a femme fatale, a rabid squirrel, a tornado, and several corpses. Reprint.

While reluctantly staying with her biological father, a member of a motorcycle club, sheltered seventeen-year-old Emily falls for the youth her father asked to protect her from a rival club with a score to settle.

Name: George Breed: Harlequin Great Dane Identifying Traits: One blue eye, one brown eye... and a propensity for trouble! George was last seen escaping from the home of hisrecently divorced owner, restaurateur Brad Ralston.He wasn't wearing a leash and had a mischievous glintin his eye and is probably headed for Paws Spa, wheresingle mom Kara Williams can be found groomingdogs and nursing her old crush on Brad. Canine suspect is unarmed, but has an agenda--possiblyrecognizing two of his favorite humans, Brad and Kara,are so busy protecting their wounds from past hurtsthey can't see what's plainly under George's nose. If yousee this dog, please do not report him immediately.He's got matchmaking to do.

Last Dance by Joyce Lavene; Jim Lavene When the local prom queen is found murdered in the high school parking lot, Sheriff Sharyn Howard gets a double shock. The crime scene, complete with the victim laid out in pristine fashion, is eerily similar to another prom-night murder that occurred ten years before. Sharyn's father was sheriff at the time and caught the perp, who's now on death row awaiting his execution -- just days away. Is there a copycat killer on the loose or is an innocent man about to die for the crime? Facing pressure from her mother not to destroy her late father's reputation, Sharyn looks into both murders. Soon she has proof that the real killer was never caught. Now she must race against the clock to stop an execution and catch a killer, before more innocent blood is spilled.