The Tipsybibliophile

This book SHOULD have been titled... Destructive Mindfucking Relationships: How to be in one. How to surivive one. How to walk away from one with all your limbs mostly intact

Yikes!! This was one hell of a roller coaster of angstyness and fuckery of pretty much every denomination.

Two Doms/Best Friends who are also in business together...Trying to be lovers=DISASTER

Two subs/Best Friends with issues that have issues playing in a band together=DISASTER of NUCLEAR PROPORTIONS


This story was real good, I liked it. I thought there was a lot of substance and the rocker/music theme was done very well. The relationships in this book bring a whole new meaning to the expression "It's complicated", I could have given this five stars, if it wasn't for the fact that I needed a little more time in the end for how things evolved to feel more settled. Still I did like the rawness of this book, and the almost simplicity in which the heart of what a D/s relationship really is was presented, why these relationships work...Why the people who must have that sort of relationship NEED them in soul deep way and how when they can't get what they need with care and safety things can go very WRONG.


Damian/Trevor Learner is the lead singer for the band Firefly, he could have made it big, but things did not work out...He's working for a shitty agent who is bleeding him and his band dry. He's bitter, self-destructive and in a completely toxic relationship with his bandmate and best friend Lenny. They bite pieces of each other like jackals those two. Lenny has a fucked up past and Damian is always on the brink of completely going off the deep end, together they are just a crazy, ugly mess...


Stanley Krane is the best music agent in the business, and he has his eyes set on Firefly, more specifically on Damian...That guy almost puts Stan under a spell whenever he sings...Stanley wants him for his own. In every way. After taking his best friend (an sometimes lover...this is another hot mess right here) country singer Vance Ashcroft to see Firefly onstage and getting the confirmation that the band is as good as he thinks, he makes his move to get Damian and his group to work with him.


Well...That works out, kind of...Thing is Damian is a HOT MESS. He hates himself, he hates his circumstances, he can't accept what he needs, he can't seem to get anyone to see just how close he is to unravelling...He's just lost and bent on destroying himself and Lenny who is just as fucked up as he is (actually worse) does nothing but push him a bit closer to the ledge every day.

Stanley wants Damian, he NEEDS to dominate him, protect him, hold him...But Damian is a prickly little fucker and pretty much to the VERY FUCKING END he's trying to buck Stanley the FUCK OFF. Not to mention that Damian and Lenny never really can seem to be off each other's minds, they are so tied up in such an unhealthy way.

This is a hard fought happy ending...I mean to like the very end I was wondering just how Damian was going to manage to mess himself up again...But I LOVED him, loved his vulnerability, his hurt was so raw...I just wanted someone to pick him up and save him. Stanley did, not perfectly, he made mistakes, but they finally figured a way to have balance.

This book was not just about Damien and Stan...It was about Stan and Vance, Vance and Lenny, Lenny and Damian...Damian and his band...Damian and himself...All of these connections and the complicated way in which life takes us in so many directions and that we must end things, start things, heal ourselves, step back form what's been hurting us, let someone save us if we have to...Reach out, and take what's out there for us...All of that is what was this book was about. It was about ultimately getting down to what matters most and learning how to be happy with how things are.

Very well written, meaty book. Just neeeded a tad more at the tail end for it to be excellent.

RECOMMEND for the fans of the angsty.

Cute and sweet, but I read last week and can't remember anything about it other than one of the guys was an M/M publisher and there might have been Thai food, so don't expect it to change your life...

This book was pretty decent until about 90% and then it went off the rails and kind of never got back on track...

My issue with this author, and this book is a perfect example, is that the stories are just too SIMPLE. Simple characters, simple plots, simple language...Not that I mind simplicity, I like a story that is straightforward and easy to understand, what I do have a problem with is with SIMPLISTIC stories (I'll come back to this later).

Danny is a theater major at the University of Michigan, he is gay and he kind of beats to his own drum...Dresses how he likes, dates who he wants and NEVER hides who he is.

Lance is a jock, a big star in the football team, he is also the twin brother of Danny's best friend's girlfriend Katie (still never really got an explanation to how Katie and Bo were in the same classes and studying for the same assignments if they were two years apart in college, but I guess that's beside the point...). Danny and Lance meet at a party, Lance is kind of an asshole, but he seems to be interested in Danny. Things progress and they start a friends with benefits thing (on the DL of course since Lance can't be out or admit he's gay)...Now here is where I really liked the book, I thought Danny and Lance where sweet, even if they were doomed from the beginning. Lance's ONLY plan is to become an NFL star, and Danny's ONLY plan is to make it to Broadway...This is where things go the simplistic route, I feel like the setup for this story was considerably washed out and by the end, I was barely getting any information. Things evolve in a way that you'd assume there is just no coming and back and then WHAM here is a SIMPLE solution and we get our HEA...It just felt forced. In any case the chemistry between Lance and Danny was great...But I just needed more story in there.

Overall I liked some aspects a lot, others not so much, and it's definitely the best book I've read by this author.


If only the 10% would have been a little tighter, this could have been a solid story for me, simplistic premise nonwithstaning. And I'd still would love to know DID LANCE EVER GET A JOB?! Rent in the Theater District in NYC does not cost pennies people!!!!

2.75 Stars This was an opposites attract story with a twist...A geek who was not really geeky at all and a beast that was far from beastly...I thought it was funny and very smexy, and overall enjoyed it.

The story went off track in the end, and I just got muddled up in too many tangents. I did like it, but the second half was not as good as the first half for me.

Sarah Black…Gay Romance’s Warrior Poetess has done it again. Made me love a book so much, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, or be scared, because there’s no way I’ll ever find something to read I’ll love as much as this story

In gay romance there is so much GOODNESS, so much stuff to love and savor, and fall in love with. So many wonderful writers…Books that are good, great, funny, wonderful, moving, poetic, frightening, transcendental, enriching, enthralling…So much wonderful writing….And then there’s Sarah Black. For me in this genre (and beyond really) she is the gold standard, what Sarah brings to her books it’s the stuff of life. She writes about things that are important, things that are hard, things that make life worth all the hardships. She writes about LOVE. She writes about violence, honor, consequences, about the heartbreak of seeing someone you love be hurt, about defending your home, your heart, your family, about claiming your life even if it costs you the life you’ve had. She writes it all so beautifully, the words she uses, the men she makes. It’s like saints, angels, superheroes, warriors and lions and all the things that are powerful and righteous in this world are all in the hearts of those men she writes…Now the story.

Retired General John Mitchel is a year into life after the military. He’s teaching leadership at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, he lives with his nephew Kim and he gets to spend a few hours a week with his lover Gabriel Sanchez. Gabriel the man that was at his side for 25 years of military service, his Horse-Lord who piloted apache helicopters like a hellion, so that John could go in and do what had to be done. For 25 years Gabriel had John’s back, and for almost as long he’s had John’s heart, his soul, his life, everything really. But John and Gabriel have had to love in the shadows, settle for stolen moments, they couldn’t be gay men and lovers and do the work that needed to be done in the war zones they fought in while in service. It wasn’t allowed then, so they accepted that being in love in the open was just not something that could happen for them.

But now, in this new stage of life where things seem a little less scary, and not being able to be together is beginning to seem like they are letting the world rob them of their lives, it seems that they need to reevaluate how they want to live out the rest of their lives. Gabriel is married and has two children, he had tried to have a “normal” life, tried to make a marriage and kids work. John never felt like he had the option of living in the open, but they never could stay away from each other. They were bound so tightly the thought of living without seeing each other, even if it was fleetingly and in moments that always felt stolen never really was an option. But now they want more, they want to wake up in the same bed, they want to dance naked in their bedroom and laugh and make love and drink tequila from a pitcher and be free to BE.


So here they were 52 and 48, and thinking it might be a good time to be brave, and start their life. But how could they do that without wrecking themselves? How would they deal with the fallout? Would they lose the lives they’d built, by stepping out of the shadows and being honest about who they were?

There are a lot of things happening in John’s life, he is struggling with his sense of purpose, life out of the military seems to have put things as leadership and honor in perspective. He feels surrounded by men who are too weak to do what’s right. His nephew Kim has been hurt, and the man responsible might get away with it, because the men that are supposed to be Kim’s protectors are too busy being politically savvy to do their job…The world is gone a little mad and John is starting to think that in a world like this the life that he built based on honor, ethics, respect and loyalty might be stripped from him if he ever showed the real face of his love.

Reading this book was an exercise in feeling joyfulness and observing beauty. The men in this book, the boys in this book. So wonderful.I was mesmerized By everything, the setting, New Mexico shined. Albuquerque, which frankly is the one place I would pick to live in, if I could choose any place in the world. So much to learn in this book.

There are trials in this book, and a strong lesson in living with the consequences of our actions. Strong, clear lessons about cowardice, bravery, resentment, revenge, about what makes a life worthy, what makes us people worth defending, worth sticking up for, and that in the end a life built with honor, bravery and goodness will triumph in the face of bigotry and prejudice. Lives built on solid ground can rise above the destructive effects of things done in anger or out of spite, even if they are warranted or deserved.

Anything I read from Sarah Black always leaves me feeling like I’ve just been in the presence of absolute wisdom, and something so special that I feel only humbled and grateful. Humbled by her bravery in writing what she feels need to be written, and not what will sell more books, and grateful for having found her stories to read.

Sarah Black you make feel bolder and braver, and like I love this world a little more than I used to before I started reading. Thank you.

I tried to finish this book, I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY did. But sadly I could not.

I'm about to quote LL Cool J folks...I've got to..."Don't call it a comeback!!"...Ty and Zane for fuck's sake what the hell? How can this even be that good after six books?! Two of which I barely got through!!!...This book was fucking brilliant. Jeeeeeezuz...This series might be the most torturous thing I've done to myself since I started reading M/M Romance, Ty and Zane have made me homicidal more than once, I've given up on the series, thought it had gone to shit, felt hopeful again only to be annoyed and turned off by irritating promotional antics by the author. I wasn’t going to read it! I was not going to READ IT…But it's Ty and Zane, and I love those two fuckers, so I bucked up because the end is near, and I want to KNOW where these guys will end up...I was reticent...I thought I'd be disappointed, pissed or both...And then I started reading and this book bitch slapped me INTO SUBMISSION…Like.A.Fucking.BOSS.

This is by far my favorite book in the series...Hands down. This is the most coherent chapter of Ty and Zane’s love story I’ve read so far. This series has had its share of ups and downs, and I almost gave up on it until Stars & Stripes, it was a good transition book and it left me wanting more of Ty and Zane. But if book #6 was putting them back on the right track this book, Touch & Geaux, it’s the catharsis, where these two men finally stripped themselves to the bone and showed each other who they were inside and out. I finally feel like I have a sense of who they are, where the come from.

Ty and Zane are always burning for each other and biting and so hot, so in love and then so cold, they love each other but why is everything always so hard? Why can they love and fuck and fight so fiercely, and keep their guards up like they do? WHY??? I wanted to know!!...Now I do, they finally showed all their secrets. We got to see part of their pasts and how those events had changed them, and how they shaped them.

I loved the twists and turns in this book, it was fast paced from the get go, we hit the ground running and landed in none other than NOLA baby! It was a fabulous place for Ty and Zane to bring their usual mayhem, and it worked incredibly well. I thought the author did a fabulous job of setting the story and exploiting all the kinds of crazy shit that only Ty and Zane could get up to in a city like New Orleans.

Honestly this is the kind of story that makes M/M so unique, characters with so many flaws, who fuck up so badly, who can be so cruel to the one they love and yet you WANT THEM HAPPY. I want them happy…Forever and ever and ever…This book was heart wrenching, they tore each other’s hearts out in this one, my goodness they didn’t stop tearing at each other, but it’s what had to happen for them to truly have a chance to have a future. Because anything else would have been another pair, not Ty and Zane.

I totally and completely loved this book, and can hardly wait to see what will happen next with these two guys. I can’t even say it’s more of the Ty and Zane I know and love, because it isn’t, they aren’t! They are better than the guys I fell in love with, they are BETTER. I don’t even know how to explain…But maybe they can…

“Who are you, Ty?” Ty smiled against his cheek. “I was an assassin,” he whispered. “I’m a Marine. I’m the man who doesn’t miss. And I’m yours.” Zane bit his lip on a smile.

“Who are you, Zane?” Zane cocked his head. “I’m an artist. I’m a geek.” He felt Ty smile. “I am one badass motherfucker on a motorcycle.” Ty began to laugh. Zane dipped his head until they were staring into each other’s eyes. “And I’m yours.”

Ty and Zane, not a coincidence that it rhymes with crack cocaine…And I ain’t putting down my pipe any time soon.

Amy Lane...AMY FRIGGING LANE MAN. Respect.

As always with any new book by Amy Lane, I was super excited to read this one, but I was also kind of trepidatious. One of the main characters in the book is black, and even though I LOVED LOVED LOVED [b:It's Not Shakespeare|12861173|It's Not Shakespeare (It's Not Shakespeare, #1)|Amy Lane|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347655868s/12861173.jpg|18013056] and the interracial couple in that story, it is always a delicate thing, to manage a respectful, appropriate, subdued portrayal of a character like Terrell. An African American man who comes from a place where being gay is just not a possibility. A young black man with a lot of anger, with a lot of resentment, who has been touched by bigotry and injustice too many times. It is very easy to make a character like that either shallow or incredibly over the top. I think Terrell was perfect, just right. I knew Terrell.

This story was Amy Lane in her sweet spot, characters who from the very first paragraph were open and raw on the page, showing us all that they had, their yearnings, their wants, their fears, their desires, everything.

Colby and Terrell are coworkers at Papiano's a local restaurant. Colby serves and Terrell tends bar, but they are more than that. They are buddies. Terrell is kind of prickly he's 30 years old and has a degree in journalism that so far has not gotten him much. He's still in the same job, a few years after getting his degree. Colby is a recent graduate, 25 and he kind of makes Terrell's life 100 times better than it ever was before. Colby is this golden boy, with golden hair and a beautiful smile that for some reason, can't seem to get enough of spending time with Terrell. Terrell doesn't get it. If only he could be gay, Colby would be the man of his dreams. But that's not his life and besides Colby isn't even gay...FAST FORWARD TO MAKING OUT IN STORAGE ROOM....BOOM...Oh shit, Colby is gay, and now Terrell really needs to face the music....Oh and their coke head boss got shot, and no one knows who did it...Fun times.

Amy Lane KILLED IT with this book, for reals. I mean I say this with every book, but damn it's for real people, this was a proper murder mystery, with all kinds of whodunit deliciousness PLUS Colby and Terrell falling in love...Actually no, not falling in love...Colby and Terrell becoming a couple, finally getting to the place that was right.

Colby was fantastic, he was heroic and relentless he gave Terrell no quarter, they WOULD be together. He SHOWED Terrell that he would love him, that for once in his life there was someone that would love him unconditionally, that would not give up on him. Terrell had reasons to be skittish, but Colby had been wearing him down for a year and when he made his move he did not rest until Terrell could open up to what he could have with Colby. Happiness. Lust. Passion. Sweet sweet love (Terrell only knew sex that made him feel shame)....LOVED THEM. Loved this story. It is not and easy road, but they get there and in the midst of it all we get all kinds of awesomeness. A crimmie, a look at what it is like to be a young black man trying to break out of the cycle of poverty and violence, injustice, learning to accept who you are and letting go of the things and the people that will never accept you...All of that and a hellishly fucking awesome cat battle, that made me almost piss my pants laughing, made for some fabulous reading.

Amy Lane has had my number since I read about Crick and Deacon, that is the truth, but she keeps working on her craft and she keeps getting better and better, and she has made a niche for herself writing absolutely fantastic interracial couples.

Amy Lane.You rock my world.

More like 3.5...SIGHS Where do I even start? I'm happy that Qhuinn and Blay FINALLY against all FUCKING odds got their HEA. They finally are together...BUT...WHY IN THE HELL did I have to read 400 pages of boring, bullshit tangents...WHY? WHY? Why is JR Ward, suffocationg her main storylines with so much side bullshit on other couples that we will be happy to read about when their own time comes?!?! I don't need to know about Assail (the fucking cokehead douchebag) and fucking Sonia (whatever her names is) the cat burglar, I wanted to kill something every time a Qhuay chapter ended, and I had to read about fucking Trez and his sex addiction!!!!!


Ok that being said...I did love a lot of things about the story:

1. It was HOT. I was half expecting her to gloss over the man on man action, but she don't roll like that and she BRUNG it, true I missed the usual "preparation" step that is normally a part of an M/M romance love scene, but other than that, those boys were sizzling hot.

2. I loved loved the end. The end was perfect. I usually don't like her epilogues, but this time it was so sweet and so perfect...Awww I get warm fuzzies just thinking about it.

3. She did a great job of making Layla a likable character.

4. I really appreciated how she finally put it all out there with both Blay and Qhuinn and we finally got to understand them both so well. I always felt like I never really knew Blay and in this novel I finally understood him.


In the end, I was mostly satisfied and if I could only rate Qhuinn and Blay I probably would have given the story five stars, but I was bogged down with all the tangents. I probably skimmed through like 20% of the book. Ever since John Matthew's book JR Ward has been increasingly choking the life out of her main couples with pointless shit and it's fucking exhausting.

I actually do look forward to seeing where Xcor and Layla will end up and how the whole scheming of the Band of Bastards will play out, and I am a little curious about Trez and Selena. I also wonder if Saxton will get his own story in the future, but I seriously hope that she'll be a bit less ADD with ther next books, because she almost killed my enjoyment of this one that I had been waiting for so long to read.

Do I recommend? Of couse I recommend it! It's Qhuay!!!!! *HUFFS*

After a real dodgy start, this series is 2-2 with me for books #3 and #4, another winner for the Tucker Springs series. Loved this book. I thought it was a clever and an extremely well presented case for gay men who are Christians and choose to remain "in the fold" so to speak despite the horrible views that many people of faith have towards LGBT people. It's very rarely that we get to see that side of the coin with a character that is coherent and likeable.

L.A. Witt tends to be hit or miss with me, but when she grabs me with a book it's usually in a big way. This book along with Static and Where There's Smoke is in my favorite of hers.

We know Seth from the first book in the series he is a tatto artist in Tucker Springs. He's single and as luck would have it, his new neighbor is a very fetching gentleman who seems to be directing some serious flirty vibes right at him...The only big fat bummer is that the guy is the new minister in a local church and Seth don't do the church thing. He was raised by fundamentalist assholes who dropped him as soon as he came out to them and never looked back. He experienced first hand the sad reality that certain "Christians" only embrace the Golden Rule when it applies to people that look, act and live exactly like they do, so like most sane people he gave that whole situation a big FUCK YOU and moved on.

Little problem for Mr. Seth is Darren, the neighbor, the guy who is pastor...He's not like any Christian he's ever met, not in the slighest. He's nice, understanding, likes to smoke a little weed and IS HOT IN BED, like no one hes ever been with. Seth cannot reconcile who Darren is with the people that cast him aside and told him he was someone WRONG and hateful. Seth struggles, but at every turn Darren shows him a new side of himself that is even better than the one's he's already seen and Seth slowly begins to drop his defenses and embraces what he can have with Darren.

This book was really thoughtful, I identified a lot with both guys, in many ways. I swear I might even know Darren. It was so refreshing to read a different perspective on what relationships like this one can arrive at. Compromise being a big theme here. I've got very little to complain about, maybe that I would have liked to see the ending drawn out a bit more, but I do hope to see more of these guys in next installments...

LA Witt is back on my radar in a big way after this one.

This story tugged on my heartstrings like nobody's business. WOW. So touching and so incredibly raw and honest, with a strong helping of optimism. I usually don't like shorts too much, because more times than not they feel unfinished. This genre however has authors that can really pull off a fantastic short story. This is one of those stories. It did what it was supposed to, it gave me big emotions, a tight arc in a short time and left me thoughtful, but satisfied.

Auntie Social is a bit of an enigmatic drag queen who has been an institution in the Atlanta nightlife since the 1980s, she's been a beacon in raising awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS, over a million dollars, and she has agreed to sit down with a Paul Stewart to talk about what has been the drive behind all that work.

So Auntie Social, or Matthew Trammell, before one of his shows sits down with Paul and tells his story.

Matthew lost the love of his life to AIDS back in the 80s, and it changed his life forever. He was a young man then, about to start college and that first love was one that marked how he would live his life.

This story is short, and not perfect but it is such a raw and honest account of this man and what it was like for him to live through losing someone he loved at such a young age. Not just that but also the fear and the shroud of silence with which so many men had to live through watching the people the loved the most waste away. I cried for Matthew and for Patrick, for what they were able to have and for what they lost.

It was such a scary and awful time in the history of this country, so many men dying alone, withering away when they should have been in the prime of their lives and the people who the left behind in despair. The shame they were made to feel, the condemnation from family and even those that were obligated to treat them

This is a story from that time that shows us just how tragic all that was. It also brings light to the bravery and the fire with which men like Matthew became trailblazers to shed light on HIV/AIDS and raised money to educate, prevent, treat, so so so many people, sometimes doing it against all odds. Those men were warriors, heroes, champions and it's a shame how little credit they get.

Loved this short, ugly cry and all.

Sarah Black. I <3 You.

Well this story was a solid 3.5 Stars read for me until the last chapter and then it went a bit down, that ending was RUSHED. I guess it might just mean that we are getting another book with Cole and Jeremy's story, but I felt like the end needed a bit more of a polish....THAT BEING SAID...It was a nice starting over story, there were really no other characters in the book other then the MCs and teh evil ex, and the smexing was pretty sedate, but overall it was a nice short read.

Well color me SURPRISED! This little ditty packed a hell of a punch!

I had no expectations really with this, other than a fervent hope that the story was at least a bit better than that cover (I'm still cringing...) and as soon as I started reading I was very happy that indeed it was much better.

So Riley (kind of femmish gay man in his 20s) and Graham (big burly hunk of ex-navy man) are hunkering together as one of the survivors of some plague that has left the world full of infected undead. They have been huddled together for three months. They have been a good team staying alive and trying to bypass all the risks that are outside of their bunker...Things could be worse they've managed to stay fed and healthy. Riley has a bit on an issue with his attraction to Graham specially with having to spoon with the man for warmth every night, but there is nothing to be done, Graham is straight...And they have to escape, the city is getting to risky and their only chance to stay alive for the long haul is to head to the mountains...Just a few miles out of the city, the only thing is that they have to walk through like a gamillion zombies that could kill them or infect them to arrive on the other side. They do it anyways though, because they both want to stay alive.

This story was pretty action packed, and the more intense scenes totally got my heart rate up, there WAS some serious channeling of the show Walking Dead here, but hey it was entertaining, AND it had some deelicious man on man smexin thrown in the mix.

The romance between Riley and Graham was cute and also very hot. Poor Riley was a horny mess, and went Graham came at him with the sexy he had NO CLUE what hit him!

Overall very entertaining, not too long, not too short, with two VERY sexy smutliscious encounters, a lot of fast paced post apocalyptic goings on, made for a very satisfying story. The writing got a tiny bit cheesy at times, but I'm not gonna gripe about it, and with that cover there have to be cheesines somewhere...

Hope that we get another visit with Riley and Graham wherever they have ended up.

I liked this book a lot. It was suprisingly mellow and the erotica was definetly not front and center, but I liked how the plot focused on the guys getting to a good place before they jumped into bed (I did feel like the "we are not having sex" mantra got a bit repetitive at times, but still the story worked for me).

Vince Fierro is 38, thrice divorced and starting to feel like happines is just not in the cards for him. While on a job at a gay couple's house he has a revelation...Maybe he IS gay. He kind of rumiates this thought, talks it over with his sister and decided to go to a gay bar and see how he deals with that.

Vince comes from a huge traditional Italian family, so he is scared of his family's reaction if he turns out to be gay, and he's also very self concious of how being gay would affect him as a MAN. On his night out he ends up seeing Trey Giles a young guy from his neighborhood...So Trey is gay...Gay and cute...Fast Forward to them spending a nice night out dancing and flirting and Vince having to face up to the fact that this gay thing is here to stay.

Trey has a hard life situation his mom is an alcoholic, his grandma is sick and it's up to him to support the family, at 25 he feels beaten down with all the responsibilities of school, work, home...He has no one to lean on. Vinnie becomes that person, even though Vin is not reay to be out to the world he slowly becomes more and more the person Trey can count on and it's hard for him, because life has taught him that he can't count on anyone but himself. Vinnie doesn't give up though and they end up becoming a solid thing.

Vin is so scared of what his family will think and he is still trepidatious about sex...But they take their time and get their happy ending.

This book was sweet, and despite the mom's constant fuck ups pretty straightforward. I liked both characters and really enjoyed the romance.

Recommend for fans of either author, this book was definitely better for me than their last joint effort. Very nice.

Graham and Tommy have been in love and best friends all their lives. They live in Lincoln County, New Mexico though, and that means that they need to keep the in love part under wraps.

Graham is so angry though. It's been two months since Tommy came back from Iraq and not a single word. No a word other than a three line letter the whole year he was gone. A whole year when Graham could barely breathe from worry that Tommy would come home in a casket...I mean sure they've always kept things quiet and Graham has always let Tommy make the first move...Graham is hurt an angry.

And then the're's Baxter his sous chef at the Mad Moose restaurant and a rabid out and proud man who is going on and on all over town about "tolerance" and Graham can barely take it...Lincoln County is not a place where that stuff flies. There's bound to be trouble.

This story is short and poignant, as snapshot of a town, of what happens when a few people decide to garner hate, of what happens to men who come back from war with invisible scars, of love that endures, of priorities, of loyalty.

Loved it. Which it had been longer.