Gray is one of the most underrated writers of queer romance. I loved this historical romance featuring two spies—one American, one Soviet—who initially fall in love while working on a case together during the Cold War, and who then part and reconnect over the course of the following decades. Gray brings mid-twentieth century history to fascinating life via her deftly-realized and often deeply funny characters, as American Daniel and Russian Gennady must manage not just their cultural and political differences and stereotypes, but also Gennady's boss's insistence that Gennady "honeytrap," or seduce Daniel in order to blackmail him into releasing vital state secrets. Not to mention adjusting to massive historical changes as the Cold War melts...
At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet and an American agent fall in love.. Soviet agent Gennady Matskevich is thrilled when he's assigned to work with American FBI agent Daniel Hawthorne. There’s just one catch: Gennady’s abusive boss wants him to honeytrap his American partner. Gennady doesn't want to seduce his new American friend for blackmail purposes… but nonetheless, he can’t stop thinking about kissing Daniel.. FBI agent Daniel Hawthorne is delighted to get to know an agent from the mysterious Soviet Union… and determined not to repeat his past mistake of becoming romantically involved with a coworker.…
The third and final entry in Milan's Victorian England-set WEDGEFORD TRIALS series features the same light humor and deeply feminist characterizations and storylines as the previous two books in the series. While romances that root the story's main conflict in characters whose problems could be solved if they just confided in one another can often be tedious or annoying, Milan creates believable and compelling reasons why Andrew Uchida and his childhood friend and crush Lily Bei feel the secrets they are each keeping cannot be shared. Milan's clear affection for her characters—Andrew, a charming jokester with a lot more going on below the surface that at first appears; Lily, an ambitious, painfully direct suffragette who often finds unwritten social rules a mystery—shines through every line, as does her characters' affection for their families and their larger immigrant community. Traditional romance tropes abound in Milan's stories, although in her skilled hands those tropes often play out in unexpected ways. Only a true master of the form can play with it and subvert it the way Milan does but still hold tight to its central promise: the Happily Ever After at book's end.
Nobody knows that Andrew Uchida is the rightful heir of an earl. Not his friends, not his neighbors, not even the yard-long beans growing in his experimental garden. If the truth of his existence became public, the blue-blooded side of his family would stop at nothing to make him (and anyone connected with him) disappear. He shared one passionate night with the woman he loved…and allowed himself that only because she was leaving for Hong Kong the next morning.Then Lily Bei returns, armed with a printing press, her irrepressible spirit, and a sheaf of inconvenient documents that prove the very…
The mid-twentieth century proves fertile ground for Sebastian's queer Historical Romance, featuring a smart and ambitious working-class reporter and a wealthy newspaper owner's hapless son, forced by his father to toil for a year in the newsroom before being welcomed into management. From their opening meet-cute (a hilarious and character revealing matter of a necktie caught in a file cabinet), Nick Russo finds himself drawn to hapless but good-natured Andy Fleming, a man he should resent but can't quite bring himself to despise. Not only because Andy's self-deprecatingly aware of his own lack of self-confidence and scatterbrained tendencies, but because Nick finds himself smitten by his very opposite. Over their months working together, Nick and Andy become best friends, even when Andy starts dating a woman. Nick's assumption that he'll never have a partner or a family, and that he'll always have to hide a vital part of his identity from the world, gradually gives way to tentative hope after a post-break-up Andy temporarily moves in with him—and then stays and stays...
The familiar grumpy/sunshine trope takes on deep resonance when set against the backdrop pre-Stonewall NYC queer life, especially when portrayed in Sebastian's evocative prose.
A New York Times Notable Book of 2023A New York Times Books Review Best Romances of 2023 pick • Apple Books’ Best Books of the Month • Amazon Best Books of the Month Editor’s Pick, Romance • An NPR “Books We Love” • Library Journal Romance Pick of the Month • LibraryReads Hall of Fame: June 2023 • Publishers Weekly Best Romances of 2023Casey McQuiston meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in this mid-century grumpy/sunshine rom-dram about a scrappy reporter and a newspaper mogul’s son "‘for Newsies shippers,’ [that] absolutely delivers” (Dahlia Adler, Buzzfeed Books).“A spectacularly talented writer!” —Julia…
An inheritance lost. A betrothal threatened. A scandal brewing…
Outspoken Quaker Bathsheba Honeychurch knows how difficult it is for an unmarried woman to successfully champion political change. Her solution? Wed best friend Ash Griffin as soon as he comes of age and begin remaking the world. But when Ash’s urbane, aloof cousin arrives with inconceivable news, Sheba’s future dreams are suddenly at risk…
The death of the Earl of Silliman reveals an appalling lie: it is not Noel Griffin, but his long-lost cousin Ash, who is the true heir to their grandfather’s title. Raised to place family above all, Noel accepts his grandmother’s bitter charge: find Ash, disentangle him from his religious community, and train him to take on the responsibilities and privileges of a title that Noel had been raised to believe was his. Noel certainly won’t allow a presumptuous, irritating Quakeress to thwart him in doing his duty—no matter how fascinating he finds her...
When scandal threatens both their reputations, can Sheba and Noel look beyond past dreams and imagine a new world—together?
