The Nesting Habits of Strange Birds by Charley Descoteaux
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (August 11, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1632160439
ISBN-13: 978-1632160430
Amazon: The Nesting Habits of Strange Birds
Amazon Kindle: The Nesting Habits of Strange Birds
All he ever wanted was to be a normal guy….
Phil Brask spends his days in the basement of his mentor's Victorian home, converting legal documents into electronic format. When the pipe feeding the water heater bursts, Lee Redding arrives in the plumber’s truck and draws Phil away from the narrow focus of his computer and camera lens. Lee gives Phil hope for a life beyond the walls he’s constructed using the nesting habits of migratory birds and dense legal files, a guided tour through a world filled with romance and music…maybe even family. But there’s a reason Phil retreated behind those walls, why he panics at a simple touch.
Lee has a good life—working with his uncle and on his mother’s farm, playing bass in a horrible metal band, and hooking up when he pleases—but he’s always suspected something was missing. When he meets the hot photographer with the icy-blue eyes, he knows exactly what that something is. Phil isn’t like other guys, but neither is Lee beneath his carefree exterior. Maybe Lee's the perfect guy to show Phil that everything doesn’t have to be done the hard way and "home" isn't a four-letter word.
First Exposure by Alan Chin
Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books (August 19, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1626390827
ISBN-13: 978-1626390829
Amazon: First Exposure
Amazon Kindle: First Exposure
Straight, married Petty Officer Second Class Skyler Thompson battles homophobia from his navy buddies, the military, and his wife when he takes a job creating flower arrangements at a gay-owned florist. But rather than yield to pressure and quit, he refuses to give up the joy of creating beautiful arrangements, battling homophobia for artistic expression. His dream is to leave the navy and open his own florist shop.
Ezra Dumphy—his shipmates call him Dumpy because of his obesity—is a gay sailor who likes to dress in drag. He is shunned by his shipmates, tragically lonely, and uses drugs to cope with his solitude. What he wants more than anything is someone to share his life with.
From the Hat Down by Andi Marquette
Paperback: 382 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (July 6, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1499153260
ISBN-13: 978-1499153262
Amazon: From the Hat Down
Amazon Kindle: From the Hat Down
Meg Tallmadge is a veterinarian at a clinic in Laramie, Wyoming. She’s got a great job, great friends, deep ties to the family ranch, and big plans for her vet future. Sure, there are bumps in the road, like her mom’s continued denial about who Meg is and her painful and infuriating attempts to make Meg a “proper” woman. Then there’s Meg’s recent breakup with a girlfriend, which has her wondering why she can’t seem to open up to relationships. But Meg knows that life is messy, and sometimes all you can do is get through and shake it off. What she can’t seem to shake off, however, is her past.
It’s been almost ten years to the day since she met the love of her life, and about eight since she let her go. Meg has a hard time admitting that maybe she didn’t really let go, and that maybe some things you never really get over, no matter how hard you try. But her past is half a world away, caught up in her own life, relationship, and journalism career, and Meg isn’t one to chase the ghosts of past relationships. Even if they send you a birthday card and nudge what you thought were the closed-off parts of your heart. After all, second chances are the stuff of fantasies and movies where the good guy always gets a happy ending. You can’t count on something like that.
Or can you?
Tiger Boys by Linda Gayle
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Amazon Kindle: Tiger Boys
Grad student Jules has always felt different. He’s got buddies, sure, but relationships make him turn tail and run. Dreams of tigers and memories of a mysterious great-grandmother make him wonder if there’s something his parents aren’t telling him. When an unexpected inheritance offers clues to Jules’s destiny, he’s intrigued, to say the least. It doesn’t hurt that the news is delivered by a sexy Russian who seems to know Jules better than he knows himself.
A prince of a powerful tiger clan, Sergei Sidorenko wants to live as an ordinary man. But his family nags him to take his place as king. They offer him a deal: teach the lost prince Julian how to shape-shift and control his untapped sorcerous talent. Then Jules will be king, and war between the once-rival clans will be avoided. Most importantly, Sergei will be released from clan obligations forever. It sounds like an easy out. But Sergei doesn’t count on Jules being so temptingly innocent, so eager to learn. Lessons in sorcery turn to lessons in love. And Sergei falls hard for Jules.
Dark clouds gather over the tiger clans. In a bid to seize power, Jules’s ambitious older brother, Anton, works on the key to immortality. And he needs Jules’s flesh and blood to finish the spell. Tangled in Anton’s machinations, with a traitor in their midst, Jules and Sergei must fight for their lives—and for the love that destiny would deny them.
She Sings of Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things by Caren J. Werlinger
Paperback: 306 pages
Publisher: Corgyn Publishing (April 25, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0996036814
ISBN-13: 978-0996036818
Amazon: She Sings of Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things
Amazon Kindle: She Sings of Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things
Margaret Braithwaite was a rising Regency scholar and an acclaimed author. Thirty years later, she’s a one-book wonder, a fifty-something college professor with the dubious distinction of being an expert on Jane Austen, hidden in the shadow of her famous husband and his Civil War novels. “Too young to retire, and too old to start over,” Margaret feels as dried up and dead as the neglected gardens her husband took such pride in before he became ill. Wyck Fitzsimmons is the Asheville landscape architect Gavin Braithwaite hires to restore his precious gardens to their former glory. She learned a long time ago that plants and trees are safer and more reliable companions than other people. Under Wyck’s care, the gardens begin to come back to life, but the flowers aren’t the only thing blossoming. For the first time in decades, Margaret feels the stirrings of love, but those long-buried feelings frighten her more than the prospect of withering away alone in her ivory tower of academia. Gavin, more observant than most people give him credit for, sees the attraction developing between his wife and his gardener. Using every means at his disposal, he arranges things so that Margaret has no choice but to remain faithful to him, even after death. Margaret, confused and faced with losing everything that offers her any kind of security, flees to England – to Austen and Wordsworth country – where she tries to forget Wyck and all the feelings she has awakened. Back in North Carolina, Wyck must come to terms with her own past and somehow find a way to forgive before it’s too late to make amends. Love, it seems, can take root in even the most barren hearts, if only Margaret and Wyck can find the courage to let it grow.
Charities Donation program progress:
328$ Albert Kennedy Trust: http://www.akt.org.uk/
1165$ Ali Forney Center: www.aliforneycenter.org/
10$ Australian Marriage Equality: www.australianmarriageequality.org/
70$ Audre Lorde Project: http://alp.org/
25$ BiNet US: http://www.binetusa.org/
125$ CARE: careprogram.org/
125$ The Center Colorado: http://www.glbtcolorado.org/
25$ LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland: http://www.lgbtcleveland.org/
574$ COLORS: www.colorsyouth.org/
130$ Covenant: www.covenanthouseno.org/
75$ Diversity Role Models: http://www.diversityrolemodels.org/
25$ The Diversity Center: http://diversitycenter.org/
10$ Gay and Lesbian Foundation of Australia: www.galfa.org.au/
367$ Galop: www.galop.org.uk/
150$ GLYS: http://www.glyswny.org/
135$ Human Rights Campaign: http://www.hrc.org/
75$ Huntsville GLBT Advocacy & Youth Services: http://www.glbtays.org/
125$ It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org/
100$ Inland Northwest LGBT Center: www.thelgbtcenter.org/
28$ In Other Words: inotherwords.org/
40$ Los Angeles LGBT Center: www.lalgbtcenter.org/
440$ Lambda Legal: www.lambdalegal.org/
50$ Lambert House: www.lamberthouse.org/
50$ Lancaster LGBT Center: http://www.centralpalgbtcenter.org/
50$ LEAP: http://www.glbtleap.org/
515$ Lost-n-Found Youth: www.lost-n-found.org/
50$ MKE LGBT Center: www.mkelgbt.org/
155$ Moveable Feast: http://www.mfeast.org/
25$ Odyssey Youth Center: www.odysseyyouth.org/
25$ Out Youth: outyouth.org/
50$ Pathfinders: pathfindersmke.org/
235$ PFLAG: community.pflag.org/
175$ Point Foundation: www.pointfoundation.org/
130$ Ruth Ellis Center: http://www.ruthelliscenter.org/
879$ SAGE: giveto.sageusa.org/
25$ Seta: seta.fi/seta-in-english/
25$ Terrence Higgins Trust: www.tht.org.uk/
730$ The Trevor Project: www.thetrevorproject.org/
160$ UCAN: www.ucanchicago.org/
25$ WayGay: http://www.waygay.org/
225$ You Can Play: http://youcanplayproject.org/
75$ YouthCare: www.youthcare.org/
25$ You Will Rise Project: youwillriseproject.blogspot.com/p/our-mi
1135$ Other Funds
TOTAL: 8961$*
* more than 150$ is a direct donation from a supporter of the Rainbow Awards who isn't submitting; while some authors were more than generous, arriving to donate 5 times the suggested amount, being the submission fee a non mandatory and voluntary direct donation, we were struggling to raise the same amount as last year and there is who decided to cover part of it. I thank you for all you are doing, and if you wish to donate to the above links, please drop me a note with your donation and I will update the total.
2014 Rainbow Awards Guidelines: reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/416
This journal is friends only. This entry was originally posted at http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4418918.html. If you are not friends on this journal, Please comment there using OpenID.