I'm Saying Yes
E.N. Holland

Synopsis:
Jim Crane and Allen Prescott became lovers when they met as teenagers; in the years since they have carried on a furtive and secret affair, getting together only when time and their circumstances allowed. Jim has long wished to create a life with Allen but Allen has always refused. His ingrained belief that "people kill queers" has prevented him from recognizing and accepting his love for Jim. I'm Saying Yes opens when Jim, depressed and suicidal, gives Allen an ultimatum: choose me or else. After an agonizing night, Allen makes the decision to accept Jim's offer, finally realizing that a life without his lover is a life not worth living.
I'm Saying Yes chronicles their first four months together as they begin their life as an openly gay couple, in a time-1976-and place-rural west Texas-where this was not the norm. They face challenges that range from simple: figuring out details of housekeeping, to sad: dealing with the death of Hal Lawrence, an older man who becomes a special friend and trusted confidante. It is a transformational time for both men but particularly Allen, who, over the course of the novel comes to accept his sexuality and ultimately, himself.
Jim and Allen have a few rocky moments but the story ends on a happy note because, as Allen says, when you believe in yourself and are guided by a strong and powerful love, anything is possible. Their deeply shared love and commitment to each is other is proof that that is true.

A Hundred Little Lies
Jon Wilson

Synopsis:
Everyone knows Jack Tulle as a widower, a doting father, and an honest businessman. The problem is, it's all a lie.
For eight years Jack has enjoyed the quiet life in the sleepy little town of Bodey, Colorado where he owns and operates the General Store. He sits on the town council. He dotes upon his eight-year-old, headstrong daughter, Abigail. He is even being sized-up as a prospective new member of the family by the bank president.
But when the local saloon announces plans to host a grand prize poker tournament, Jack realizes it could spell trouble. One of the many secrets he's been hiding is that he used to be a con man-mainly underhanded poker, but he wasn't above the odd swindle when the situation presented itself. And a contest like the one his town is planning is sure to draw some old business acquaintances-fellows Jack would really rather not admit to knowing.
Of course there's one man in particular Jack is worried about seeing-Tom Jude is the only person who knows the truth behind all his secrets. Tom wasn't just Jack's partner-in-crime, he was also the love of his life. And Tom knows things-like the fact that the little girl Jack is raising, really isn't his...
As Jack scrambles to maintain his deceptions by lying to friends and neighbors as well as the child he has grown to love, he discovers the real truth: when your world is built on A Hundred Little Lies, exposing a single one of them can bring the whole thing crashing down.

A Dangerous Man
Anne Brooke

Synopsis:
Michael Jones, a young gay artist and part-time prostitute, will do anything to stage his first exhibition. When he falls in love with rich financier, Jack Hutchinson, he seems set to achieve his goal. But a net of antagonistic relationships and inner battles encroaches upon him, so that the consequences of Michael's pursuit emerge in tragedy, leaving him having to fight for all he holds dear, and in the only way he knows how.

Prove a Villain
KC Warwick

Synopsis:
Having returned to Elizabethan London after an absence of two years, Hugh Seaton is happy to resume his old job as tailor to the company of actors known as Strange's Men.
He is less content when he finds himself looking for a murderer, and hiding his former lover, playwright Christopher Marlowe, who is suspected of stabbing one of the players to death. Marlowe wants to resume their relationship, but Hugh has doubts about the wisdom of this, especially as he has already decided to find himself a wife and family rather than risk his soul with the dangerous and disreputable Marlowe.
To complicate matters, the young actor, Barnaby Winter, also has his sights set on Hugh and seems determined to win him. Hugh's enquiries, together with his efforts to keep Marlowe out of the hands of the law, cause him difficulties that threaten not only the lives of both men, but also the fragile relationship between them. Hugh also finds unexpected help from Marlowe's newest rival, a young playwright named Will, who is trying to make a name for himself in the theater world.
Seeking the truth about the murder becomes the least of Hugh's worries, as he tries to decide where his affections lie, and in the process learns more about Marlowe than he wants to know.

The Sallee Rovers
M. Kei

Synopsis:
Book One in the Pirates of the Narrow Seas Trilogy: The Sallee Rovers
Lieutenant Peter Thorton is in love with fellow lieutenant Perry. Both men are given commissions to serve aboard HMS Ajax, taking an Islamic envoy to talks in France. Thorton makes an enemy of the Captain, who is largely incompetent but does not like people who show they know it. During a storm, the Ajax comes to the rescue of a sinking Spanish galley. The Spanish abandon their vessel, leaving their slaves, chained to the oars, to sink with the ship. Thorton and several of the other British sailors attempt to free the slaves and stop the galley from sinking. As they do so, the storm blows the two ships apart, leaving him surrounded by freed slaves who have no desire to voluntarily sail back to the Ajax to be reunited with their captors.
Command of the galley is taken by Isam bin Hamet al-Tangueli (Captain Tangle to his crew) a famous pirate of the Barbary coast, who had been serving as a galley slave following capture by the Spanish. The story then follows Thorton's slow naturalization into the ways of the Sallee Rovers, and his growing understanding that he's better off in a culture that allows him to love other men without censure. Rejected by Perry and wooed by Tangle, Thorton has to decide where his loyalty really lies.
Winner of a Sweet Revolution Award for "Best Full Cast" and "Judge's Pick"