Quirky Tale of Two Law Enforcement Officers

Author A. J. Thomas doesn't write the standard gay romance which is one of the things I enjoy most about her writing.  In this book she follows two men last seen in her A Casual Weekend Thing. 

If you're following her, as I am, then you too might be having trouble deciding which of her three well-written and highly interesting books is the best. 

At this point, even though their star ratings are nearly the same, I'm going with Sex & Sourdough just because of the difference between the two men and the descriptions of the Appalachian Trail, descriptions that actually made me want to go hiking!

At any rate, here's an excerpt from my review of her latest book that was posted on The Romance Review this morning:

A.J. Thomas carefully explores the unlikely relationship between two law enforcement officers--one with family ties to an organized crime group that the other's agency is trying to shut down--in this riveting police procedural.

When drug lord Alejandro Munoz visits his gay cousin Ray Delgado, asking him to look into the disappearance of Alejandro's sister Sophie, Ray knows something bigger is up. A police detective, Ray discovers that college computer science major Sophie has stolen a big chunk of Alejandro's ill-gotten gains, money he needs to pay an even bigger drug lord.

As he's trying to figure out where Sophie is and with whom she's staying, Ray runs into federal agent Elliot Belkamp, with whom he had a fling in the previous book, A Casual Weekend Thing. The sparks between them are still flying, and even though they try to resist, they cross paths so often that they end up together much of the time.

While Elliot is out to anyone who asks, Ray, because of his Hispanic background and his family ties to organized crime, is still deeply in the closet and declaring he's straight, not gay. But as he and Elliot often end up having sex, Ray is forced to admit to himself he's bisexual and hope that if his sister, his closest sibling, finds out, she won't abandon him.
Read the rest of the review at The Romance Reviews.

Unburying the Buried Treasures

 Today All About Romance is running one of my favorite yearly columns, the AAR reviewers' picks for Buried Treasures, those books published during the year that didn't get as much publicity as we think they should have.

My picks are three gay romances (go figure!):

* Sex and Sourdough by A. J. Thomas:  I'm not much of a hiker, or walker for that matter, but this book made me want to lace up my hiking shoes and get out on the trail.  In addition, Thomas is the kind of quirky storyteller that I enjoy.  I'd read her A Casual Weekend Thing and was blown away by how different it was in a sea of gay romances that are beginning to look cloned.  Both books are unique, each with its own style, so I can't wait to read Thomas' next one and have been telling my friends about her.

* Beyond Duty by SJD Peterson:  Peterson's not an easy author for readers who like their books with little or no sex, but the themes she grapples with are important and worthy of discussion.  In Beyond Duty two career soldiers are retiring and still in prime condition.  They've been lovers for years, meeting up between deployments, and have even bought a house together.  But now they're at a crossroads that will determine what could possibly be the majority of their lives.  The questions aren't easy, and the answers even harder to decide.  Since the troops are coming home and our fighting forces are being cut, this is a book that applies both for hetero and homosexuals.

* Something Like Autumn by Jay Bell:  Our older daughter lives in Italy with her husband, twins, and dogs, and we were going to visit for the first time since they moved there.  I knew the flight from California to Italy would be long, so I saved the third in Bell's Something Like series for the long trip.  What better way to wallow in a favorite author's work?  But sometimes I'm so stupid that I despair.  I knew what happened to the main character before I started the book since he was a character in the previous book.  I knew.  And I read it anyway, over the entire flight.  It's my favorite book, and I will never forgive Jay Bell for not changing the story.  Read it and you'll know what I mean.