Steve Berman is already well-known as an author of young adult material with Vintage, a classic YA LGBT novel that earned him numerous awards, as part of his repertoire. This is a new collection of speculative fiction short stories and his latest offering to the LGBT youth. The multi-talented Jeff Mann is a favorite author whose works focusing on the gay Bear community have garnered him multiple awards and recognition, so I am quite excited to read his latest, a young adult romance geared toward the young Cubs in his community. I am also familiar with the works of the talented Jeffrey Ricker and plan to read his new young adult fantasy -- the amazons and prophesies did it for me.
BOB SENNETT:
THE MUSIC TEACHER -- Releasing February 1, 2014 from Lethe Press
Category: Historical (WWI) Gay Fiction Novel
Pages: 298
Growing up in the early years of the twentieth century, Joe Dooley allows his love for music and his passionate friendships with other young men to blind him to the tides of revolution rising around him in British-dominated Ireland. When he realizes he can't support himself teaching music in Dublin, he enlists in the British Army's peacetime reserves--only to be swept up by the Great War convulsing Europe. Guiding his men through the chaos of the Western Front, Joe comforts himself with music and memories of dear friends: adventurous Severin Coole, an Irish Nationalist, and fiercely loyal Harry Vogeler, an expatriate of Germany. A sniper's bullet throws Joe into the care of conscientious objector Davy Rose, in whose arms he begins to discover a kind of love he had not believed possible. But then he learns that Severin is actively working to liberate Ireland of the British yoke, and during the Christmas Truce discovers Harry across the trenches in the German army. Loyalties increasingly divided, Joe must choose which cause is truly his and which man will be his true partner.
STEVE BERMAN:
RED CAPS: NEW FAIRY TALES FOR OUT OF THE ORDINARY READERS
Releasing February 14, 2014 by Lethe Press
Category: LGBT Young Adult Speculative Fiction, Single Author Collection
Pages: 215
Red Caps might be a rock band. Or they might be something more sinister, a fey source of sounds that are but the backdrop to thrills and misadventures. These thirteen stories provide readers jaded by the traditional, Old World fairy tales with tempting new stories that will entice bored readers from their suburban ennui. Closets are waiting to be explored. Escape from work camp leads to a dangerous encounter on a wet road. That high school year book is magical and might be mocking you...or helping you find love. And isn't love one of the central premises of the fairy tale? These teenage boys and girls need not fear that their love has no worth, because Steve Berman has written for them princesses who love maidens and adorkable students who have wondrous and smart boyfriends. Readers can be assured that, if the tale does not end happily, it ends most memorably.
JEFF MANN:
CUB -- Releasing February 14, 2014 by Bear Bones Books
Category: LGBT/Gay Young Adult Romance
Pages: 215
Not every gay teen yearns for fashion and popular culture. Some boys are pure country folk and like the feel of flannel and the smell of the farm. And they're neither lithe nor muscle-bound but stocky boys, the ones who develop hairy chests, arms, and faces years earlier than their peers. One such seventeen-year-old is Travis Ferrell, shy among most of the other kids at school, but proud of his West Virginia roots. He has not yet admitted his passion for handsome guys--and his idea of what handsome is and what handsome does is not much different from him. Soon he'll learn that he's not unique; gay culture has a name for young men like him. Cubs. Lambda Literary Award-winning author Jeff Mann has written a touching romance for the outsider in us all.
JEFFREY RICKER:
THE UNWANTED -- Releasing March 18, 2014 by Bold Strokes Books
Category: LGBT/Gay Young Adult Fantasy
Pages: 264
Jamie Thomas has enough trouble on his hands trying to get through junior year of high school without being pulverized by Billy Stratton, his bully and tormentor. But the mother he was always told was dead is actually alive—and she’s an Amazon! Sixteen years after she left him on his father’s doorstep, she’s back… and needs Jamie’s help. A curse has caused the ancient tribe of warrior women to give birth to nothing but boys, dooming them to extinction—until prophecy reveals that salvation lies with one of the offspring they abandoned. Putting his life on the line, Jamie must find the courage to confront the wrath of an angry god to save a society that rejected him.
PS: What do you think of the covers? I like them all! But, my eyes keep focusing on the red hearts and lettering for Red Caps and the whole cover for Cub. Hearts and bears! :)