Hello hello. I’m hoping by now you’ve had a chance to read my latest book, The Sumage Solution. If you have, as always, I’d adore a review. The second book, The Omega Objection is out now, with more to follow.
In the interim, I’ve put together this list of authors I absolutely love who write m/m fantasy, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance.
Ready?
Love The San Andreas Shifters? Try…
1. R. Cooper’s Being(s) in Love series.
Please please please just ignore the horrible cover art. (Cooper is slowly rolling out new and BETTER covers.)
These books are so sweet and poignant, with prevailing themes of loneliness and cultural (usually human-to-fae) misunderstandings. Beautifully written with gentle HEAs, understated but lovely sex scenes. Some shifter characters.
You do not have to read this series in order at all, just pick and choose whichever blurb interests you. You’ll probably end up reading them all anyway. That’s what happened to me. I started with (and loved) Treasure for Treasure, and I am so NOT a dragon shifter person. If it’s the Max/Bryan dynamic you’re after, then try A Beginner’s Guide to Wooing Your Mate.
2. Charlie Cochet’s Thirds series. (Amazon only)
On a completely different vein, the THIRDS series features genetically altered shifter humans (mostly cats) and their various romances and partners in an elite military task force in a quasi post-plague world. If you like Max, you’ll love Dex, who brings ridiculous snark to a whole new level. You should read these in order, so start with Hell & High Water.
These books can get pretty rough and violent, and also very erotic, so trigger warnings all ’round.
3. A.E. Via’s Promises and/or Nothing Special series (Amazon only)
I you just love the super hot sex and you are into tough tough Alpha military dudes? You cannot do better than A.E. Via. The first Promises is one of my favorites. So tough. So hot. So sweet.
4. The Lodestar of Ys by Amy Rae Durreson.
If your preference runs into the epic fantasy range rather than shifters, then this book is for you. It is particularly stunning and beautiful with its world building. The sex scenes are well done but can get explicit. The beginning is absorbing, featuring a country under siege from a Roman Empire-like menace. But it is the second half, when the main characters fly to the airborne islands of Ys that Durreson’s imagination soars.
I hope someday we get another book of Ys, if only to read more about this beautiful world. You can read my Goodreads review as well, if you like.
5. The Sacrifice and Other Stories by Kim Fielding.
[IMAGE REDACTED TO SAVE YOUR EYEBALLS]
(Another one with a craptastic cover, sigh. Why must this be? It’s so bad I refuse to even show it in this blog.) This is a collection of Fielding’s fantasy m/m shorts, which I like and think are her strongest works.
Fielding writes classic stunning visionary fantasy extremely well. I could see her on the honor roll of the greats of the field, except she also includes gay sex. (And for this she must be ignored and punished, because the world is dumb.)
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, these can also get pretty rough. Her characters are almost always resilient but broken. That’s why I advise starting with this collection, get an idea of her writing style and themes and see if you want more. She’s got a good range. Also, some of her solo ebook offerings are already included here, so if you start with this collection, you won’t double up.
6. Jex Lane’s Beautiful Monsters series, starting with Captive.
Like your vampire with a dose of incubus? This one is for you. That said, I hesitated to recommend this series because it’s not yet finished. It really is a series and I don’t know if Lane can stick the landing. So far as I can tell, Lane is a new author. I don’t mind shouting out something like Rhys Ford’s Kai Gracen stuff, because Rhys has a track record of great HEAs. But Lane, I’m not sure what we are in for in the end.
That said, I sure did find the Beautiful Monsters books riveting. Everything is pretty darn graphic though, from the violence to the sex, so all kinds of trigger warnings on these puppies.
Like Kai, the main characters (and most of the side characters) are pansexual so… yeah… ALL THE THINGS in all the places.
Love The Sumage Solution & The Parasolverse?
So you want something gay that’s more historical and has some Parasolverse feel to it too? Well, hopefully you’ve read Romancing the Werewolf, which is my reunion romance featuring two gay werewolves in Victorian London (Biffy & Lyall).
But I do have a few to suggest while you wait.
7. I really admire KJ Charles.
Both the Society of Gentlemen series and her other regency romance stuff. All m/m, filled with manners and clothing, hiding and danger, and the risk inherent in all four. Some of the sex scenes are quite erotic, but not as many triggers, if my memory serves.
A Gentleman’s Position is my favorite for the class conflict and pinning (I love a good pine) but A Seditious Affair is killer if BDSM is your jam… so to speak. I don’t think you have to read these in order, although it might be slightly more enjoyable if you do. Each one stands alone from the romance perspective.
8. Rowan Speedwell writes historically set m/m
I like Kindred Hearts but also fantasy like Bitterwood (read my review on Goodreads). I’d recommend most of her stuff, pick and choose to your taste.
9. Jordan L. Hawk’s Hexworld series
Start with Hexbreaker (or the short The 13th Hex).
These are wonderful stories in a well conceived and unique magical system involving magicians and their shifter familiars, a victorian setting, fabulous characters with a range of personalities. Lots of cross character pollination, but (so far) no strong carry-over storyline. No cliff hangers.
Want to sample many of these recommendations in short story first?
The Charmed and Dangerous anthology, is actually where I first found a large number of these authors. Not every single story was to my taste, but it’s a well edited anthology of ten stories, and some of them are truly wonderful.
More interested in gay contemporary romance?
Here’s BookRiot on 8 of the Best M/M Romances For Your TBR
Have fun, and happy reading!
Series DE JOUR!
Start with THE SUMAGE SOLUTION
Max needs 3 things – magic, a boyfriend, and a werewolf.
Bad boy mage with an attitude problem meets a sexy werewolf with a white knight complex in this charming gay romance set in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
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GAIL’S DAILY DOSE
Your Infusion of Cute . . .
Me and some of my friends & Alpha readers at the SAS launch party
Quote of the Day:
Just finished “The Sumage Solution” – wow! Put up a review on Amazon UK – I think I’ve put there what words can express of my feelings. SO pure and simple, and lovely, and romantic…..somehow,m poetry in motion.
A wonderful story – for truly, love Does Conquer All (even shifters, and magical folk).
I salute thee!
Autumn blessings from Somerset.
Thank you so much for this, Rhiannon. I’m working on the second book in this series right now and it’s giving me a bit of stick. This is exactly the confidence boost I needed right now! Thank you again for such kind words.