Contemporary Romance books

Brett Derwent thinks he has life all planned out. With the freedom of college life just months away, Brett’s eagerly awaiting some fun and independence… until he meets Tommy Hawks. Over the course of one northern Montana summer, an intense romance blooms between the young men, but Tommy has a painful secret—one that even first love can’t mitigate. Continually brutalized by his violent father, Tommy is pushed to the edge, torn between the desire to protect his mother and four siblings, and his fear of losing the love he never expected to find.

When the unthinkable happens and Tommy’s father is found dead, Brett is afraid to learn the truth. Appalled to think that his lover may be responsible, Brett must face impossible questions: how much of his life—of his youth—is he willing to sacrifice for Tommy, and will having faith in him be enough?

Second Edition
First Edition published by Freya’s Bower in 2008 under the same title.

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Sequel to Between Two Worlds

Daniel Schrock and Aiden Cermak have forged a life in the rural Montana foothills, but a shadow still lingers, made stronger when a letter arrives from Daniel's brother Mark inviting him to his Christmas wedding. Daniel fears returning home might force what he wants to avoid: telling his family about Aiden and facing the dreaded Amish shunning.

Despite the uncertainties, Daniel and Aiden head to Illinois, where frustration will not only endanger Daniel’s relationship with his family and the church community, but his bond with his boyfriend, who leaves Daniel with a choice: him or the Amish. Before Daniel can stop Aiden, he’s gone… and threats from the past resurface, crystallizing Daniel’s fears about a murderer still at large.

As he desperately searches for Aiden and the identity of the suspected killer, Daniel will have to decide if love is important enough to risk losing everything he knows. Will Daniel choose to keep his commitment to the Amish church or will he stand by the promise he made to Aiden that first night they made love?

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An Art Series novel

Years ago, Dieter Krumpf’s grandmother died and left him everything, including a photo album containing pictures of the art collection she left behind when her family fled the Nazis. Now, Dieter is calling on the services of a lawyer, Gerald Young, to determine whether his family’s legacy might be returned to him.

Gerald doesn’t hold out much hope that the paintings will be returned, but Dieter’s earnestness speaks to him and he agrees to help. At first he concludes that while Dieter has a case, suing in Austria isn’t practical.  But Gerald is a good lawyer, and as his feelings for Dieter develop, so does his determination to win the case. Together, Gerald and Dieter navigate research, hearings, and a dysfunctional family in the pursuit of fine art—and discover the art of love along the way.

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Benny Oshiro is having the time of his life at a private gig for his band, One Wish, until he’s assaulted and kidnapped by their former manager. When his rescue—or more accurately his rescuer—gets a little hairy, Benny knows he should reconsider their sparking attraction, but no one has ever looked at Benny with the naked want that Curtis does—want Benny can’t help but return.

Curtis Salinas knows at first sight that Benny is the only one for him. But now is not the time to test Curtis’s newly developed control. Outside forces are at work, threatening to expose his family’s secret, and when Benny is kidnapped a second time, Curtis realizes the enemy he’s searching for is only half the problem. To ensure a secure and happy future, he must also face down his doubts and claim Benny for his own.

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Spot Me: Breaking a sweat takes on a whole new meaning when Dan sees Gene, a professional bodybuilder, in the mirror. Does he allow Gene to elbow his way into his life, or will he give up on the idea of a new relationship before it even starts?

Pump Me Up: Maddoc meets Ivan, a hunky, silver-haired ex-Marine who gives him a ride home from the fitness center, and finds himself with a new friend, a workout partner, a protector... and maybe something more.

Core Training: Hugh Douglas isn’t thrilled about his birthday but gets an unexpected present when the much younger Max Pierce flirts hard with him at the gym. Starting a romance won’t be easy, but they might make a life together work.

Crunch Time: George Higgins agrees to help soon-to-be-former professional football player Darren White when the first rehearsal for Talking Sports is looming, and they’ll have to work together if they want Darren’s guest appearance—and their budding relationship—to turn into a full-time gig.

Positive Resistance: Lane spent high school tormenting Stephen to the point of tears. Imagine Stephen’s surprise when years later Lane turns out to have changed to a persistent, attentive suitor who supports him during a family trial.

Personal Training: Holton’s quest to improve his health drives him to the gym, where he meets Marcus, a trainer with the body of a demigod, who to Holton’s surprise, asks him out. Despite several common interests, they’ll have to prove that what really matters is the man inside.

Purchase includes access to download the ebook editions of the novellas featured in this anthology.

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Meet Patrick Cleary: party boy, loser, and spaz. Patrick’s been trying desperately to transform himself, and the results have been so spectacular, they’ve almost killed him. Meet Wes “Whiskey” Keenan: he’s a field biologist wondering if it’s time to settle down. When the worst day of Patrick’s life ends with Whiskey saving it, Patrick and Whiskey find themselves sharing company and an impossibly small berth on the world’s tackiest houseboat.

Patrick needs to get his life together—and Whiskey wants to help—but Patrick is not entirely convinced it’s doable. He’s pretty sure he’s a freak of nature. But Whiskey, who works with real freaks of nature, thinks all Patrick needs is a little help to see the absolute beauty inside his spastic self, and Whiskey is all about volunteering. Between anomalous frogs, a homicidal ex-boyfriend, and Patrick’s own hangups, Whiskey’s going to need all of his patience and Patrick’s going to need to find the best of himself before these two men ever see clear water.

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The Male Room: Book Three

Nick’s writing partner and best friend is tired of watching his buddy screw his life away to overcome the heartbreak of his first great love affair, and he also thinks that a romantic comedy playwright should actually write what he knows!  Before Nick can wriggle out of it, he finds himself begged, nagged, and cajoled into a coffee date with one of the men who liked his profile at The Male Room, an online dating service for gay men.

No one is more surprised than Nick that the date is a success, and he’s interested in getting to know full-time news reporter and part-time theater critic Mark better. But better means closer, and the closer Nick gets to Mark, the more he remembers why he doesn't go for long-term relationships. Long term affairs just lead to heartbreak, right? Nick’s imagination runs overtime, and he’ll have to trust in his heart if he wants this love story to have a happy ending.

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Unconditional Love: Book One

A six-year downward spiral into a world of lies and deception leads to the end of one man’s life when self-discovery crosses the line between being the perfect son or following his heart.

Jimmy Miller never intended to lead a double life starting the day he fell in love with Darian, but his parents’ divorce, fighting in school, and constantly keeping secrets for his closeted best friend and protector, Matt, force his hand. Jimmy finds the demands too great to withstand and ends it all prematurely, leaving behind an angry best friend and a shattered lover.

Matt and Darian cling to one another in the aftermath of their loss, forging a new friendship immediately tested by the truths of their relationships with Jimmy that are hidden in the pages of Jimmy’s journals. Will Matt and Darian discover what truly happened to their friend? And will this tragedy birth something beautiful between them as they learn the balance between life, family, and friendship when love is simply not enough?

A Bittersweet Dreams title:

It's an unfortunate truth: love doesn't always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.

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A Work Out Story

Determined not to end up like his seventy-year-old diabetic father, Holton knows he needs to make a change. His quest to improve his health drives him to the gym, where he meets Marcus, a trainer with the body of a demigod. For three months Holton works hard, watches what he eats, drops a few pounds—and catches Marcus's eye not only for his slimmer body but for his dedication.

Holton can barely believe it when Marcus asks him out, but he isn’t about to say no. Despite several common interests, though, Marcus and Holton have some roadblocks to overcome. A harrowing event from Holton’s past has made him gun-shy, and Marcus has insecurities of his own. If their relationship is going to work, they’ll have to get past their hang-ups and prove that what really matters is the man inside.

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The Male Room: Book Two

Attorney Sam Solomon is the most desired trick in the back room of the Music Box, his town's most notorious gay club—and very possibly the loneliest.  Sam is tired of one-night stands, and although he likes the world to think he’s too tough for such romantic notions, he secretly longs for the love his friends Jeff and Craig seem to have found. Fortunately for him, he’s just helped set his friends up in business. They run The Male Room, a local Internet dating service for gay men, and Jeff has just the guy in mind for Sam.

Chris Kelly is the last person Sam expected. From his profile, Sam knows that Chris is strong, opinionated, and dominant... in fact, he’s a lot like Sam! Sam may very well have met his match; he just needs to concede that the man he’s falling in love with needs to be his partner in every sense of the word.

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Columnist Drew Walsh made his career by publicly criticizing conservative, anti-gay politician Richard Granger. So when a rumor surfaces that Granger’s son Jonathan might be gay, Drew finds himself in the middle of a potential scandal. Under the guise of an interview about Jonathan's new job teaching in an inner-city school, Drew's job is to find out if the rumors are true. Drew's best friend Rey is also Jonathan's cousin, and he arranges the meeting between Jonathan and Drew that changes everything.

After just one interview, it's obvious to Drew that the rumors are true, but he carefully neglects to mention that in his article. It's also obvious that he’s falling for Jonathan, and he can't stay away after the article is published. Still, Jonathan is too afraid to step out of the closet, and Drew thinks the smartest thing might be to let him go—until Jonathan  shows up drunk one night at his apartment. The slow burn of their attraction doesn’t fade with Jonathan's buzz, but navigating a relationship is never easy—especially in the shadow of right-wing politics.

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When Bobby Kincaid is walking the slackline—a narrow, flat webbed rope stretched between two anchor points—he offers a silent gift of beauty to the air and sky.  Making peace with the world is one reason he’s drawn to the seastacks off Scotland’s Orkney Islands.  Colin Rose, the Olympic skier who pushed Bobby away after a horrific accident two years earlier, is another.  But Bobby and Colin will each need to heal before they can return to that space between earth and heaven where they both can fly.

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When Michael accepts a company assignment overseas, he doesn't count on being dumped by his boyfriend on the way to the airport. The breakup is a bad omen—Michael's time in Europe would be one long misery of loneliness and corporate backbiting if it weren’t for his friendship with his coworker, Stephan.

When he finds out Stephan wants more than friendship, Michael is torn. Even if he chooses to risk his one bright relationship in Europe for a chance at love, when this project is over, isn't his only choice to say goodbye?

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Offered a yearlong medical research fellowship in France, Shane Johnson has many hopes for the experience: a chance to improve his French, an opportunity to hone his research skills before starting his PhD at Baylor, and the freedom to live life as an openly gay man for the first time. He’ll chronicle his year abroad with its challenges, victories, and setbacks as he struggles to balance his faith with his sexuality.

As he navigates the shoals of a first kiss, a first relationship, and perhaps even lasting love, Shane will have to balance his newfound emotions with his long-term plans, and he’ll face the decision of how his once-in-a-lifetime experience will fit into the life he wants to lead.

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Keeping Promise Rock: Book Three

Six years ago, Jeff Beachum comforted a frightened teenager outside an HIV treatment clinic, and Collin Waters has remembered his kindness ever since. Now, after six years of crushing on the kind, brown-eyed sweetheart of his dreams, Collin is feeling adult and together enough to make his move. Too bad fate, which has never been kind to Jeff, has something else in mind.

Jeff's life had fallen completely apart before that long-ago day, and it isn’t much better now. Jeff has toughened up, become self-reliant, been the funny guy his friends turn to, the one who gives advice and comfort when needed. But every phantom from Jeff’s past is about to come out to haunt him, and the family Jeff has staked his future on isn’t in such great shape either. Collin is more than a starry-eyed kid, and it’s a good thing, because Jeff’s going to need all the help he can get. No one knows better than Jeff that life can be too short to turn your back on honest love, and that living happily is the best promise of all.

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The Male Room: Book One

Craig just got fired from his dead-end job, and Jeff just got kicked out of his dead-end relationship. Frustrated with their unhappy lives, the two friends decide to let off some steam by going out to the Music Box, the town’s most notorious gay club. But after an unsatisfying night in the back room, Jeff decides there has to be something better for them out there, and he drags a reluctant Craig into starting a fledgling business called The Male Room, an online alternative for the gay dating scene in their area.

Jeff has another motive: Craig has picked up the pieces of Jeff's broken heart more times than he can count, and Jeff has loved him forever. The Male Room is Jeff’s last hope that helping others find love might lead Craig to the one perfect match right in front of him.

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Where there’s smoke, there’s fire...

Since 9/11, Brooklyn firefighter Griff Muir has wrestled with impossible feelings for his best friend and partner at Ladder 181, Dante Anastagio. Unfortunately, Dante is strictly a ladies’ man, and the FDNY isn’t exactly gay-friendly. For ten years, Griff has hidden his heart in a half-life of public heroics and private anguish.

Griff’s caution and Dante’s cockiness make them an unbeatable team. To protect his buddy, there’s nothing Griff wouldn’t do… until a nearly bankrupt Dante proposes the worst possible solution: HotHead.com, a gay porn website where uniformed hunks get down and dirty. And Dante wants them to appear there—together. Griff may have to guard his heart and live out his darkest fantasies on camera. Can he rescue the man he loves without wrecking their careers, their families, or their friendship?

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A Work Out Story

Blobby Bobby and Lane the Pain. A thousand years ago, Lane spent his time in high school tormenting Robert Stephen Phillips to the point of tears. Stephen thought he’d left all of that behind, including his extra weight and his horrid nickname, when he came out to his parents. But now Stephen’s been transferred back to his hometown and will once again have to face his disapproving parents and childhood nemesis.

Imagine Stephen’s surprise when Lane turns out to have changed from school bully to persistent, attentive suitor. If Lane the Pain can hear Stephen’s most painful of intimate details and still want to pursue a relationship, is it possible that Stephen can reconnect with the family that turned on him years ago?

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