"When Hobart Detective Douglas Sawyer chases someone along Constitution Dock, the last thing he expects to see is the guy change shape and disappear into the freezing cold water. He also doesn’t expect a government suit to intervene on the case and offer him a job in a remote town in the wilds of the Southwest Coast to report on things that may or may not be weird.
As the leader of his consortium, Ciaran Brenner takes protecting his town of Tenebrae Cove, and his family, very seriously. He’s never been bothered by any cop who takes up post in town because none of them stay long enough to find out the truth.
Until Sawyer, that is.
Sawyer has never felt at home anywhere until he arrives in Tenebrae Cove, the creepy little town in Southwest Tasmania. He can’t explain the unnatural pull he feels toward the water, or to the man who seems to despise him. He knows things aren’t as they appear, not when it comes to the water and not when it comes to Ciaran Brenner either.
For reasons he can’t yet explain, he’s dying to get under the surface of both."
"When given the opportunity to make his dream of owning his own bookstore come true, Winter Atkins couldn’t say yes quick enough. Moving to Hartbridge, Montana, with his favorite aunt is the adventure he needs to start over. And leaving behind a string of unhappy boyfriends because of his asexuality, Winter is all too happy to shelve the idea of dating forever.
Deacon Clark has never fit in. Autistic and neurodivergent, he excels in his studies and at his father’s veterinary clinic, but his social skills are lacking. He’s attracted to men, but his bluntness and aversion to physical touch have made dating impossible.
When Winter brings an injured cat into Deacon’s clinic, it sparks an unlikely friendship; something both men need more than they realize. Hartbridge’s Christmas Cupid has his work cut out for him this year. But with the help of two newly orphaned kittens, from friendship, the strongest bond forms."
"Rhett Ouston loves his job as the captain of the Milvus team. He was born for the world of covert ops, secret missions, and tactical training.
And the best part? He gets to do it all with the love of his life by his side—Milvus team medic Jay Lin.
But then two new men are added to his team, along with doubts and secrets, and everything goes sideways.
Thrown into the deep end in a country they shouldn’t be in, with no help from HQ, Rhett doesn’t know who to trust. And when the mission they’re on to stop a global terrorism deal goes to hell, tensions and trust within his team implode.
“Trust your instincts,” Jay tells him. “They’ve never failed you yet.”
So Rhett digs in, determined to do the one thing he knows how. He’s going to make this team work even if it kills him.
And it very well might."
"Kylan Grant finds solace and comfort in the arms of strange men. He learned early on—far earlier than most—that the fleeting attention and adoration of older men made him feel wanted. Attention he never got anywhere else, attention he craves. Attention he gets from his two daddies.
Leon Ellington and Marek Akhurst met in college and have been inseparable since. Now in their late forties and married, they’re the formidable names behind some of the most lucrative and savage legal cases in the country.
They live together, work together, and play together. What one wants, the other acquires; whatever the urge, whatever the whim. Whatever the cost.
What they want is Kylan.
And what Kylan gets out of it is worth more than the money they pay him.
But as the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, they soon realise there was nothing in their contract about falling in love."
"Dominic Lowing knows stress. He lost his father to a stress-fuelled heart attack, and his own fast-paced career as a lawyer has done little to help. But he knows which coping mechanisms work for him: diet and exercise, of course. And a very active particular sex life.
Fitch Lamont has been working his corner on Wylde Street for two years. Not exactly the direction he saw his life going, but he’s a glass-half-full kind of guy. He has a roof over his head, enough food to eat—sometimes—and two best friends that make it all worthwhile.
When Dominic encounters a rent boy who ticks all his boxes, he decides to make it a regular encounter. But then their arrangement, their personal lives—and feelings—collide in unexpected ways.
Fitch found more than a client in Dominic; he found safe arms and a kind heart. And maybe, if he could let his guard down long enough, he might realise he found his future too."
"Nolan O’Brien is a public prosecutor, and if he ever sees the name Bruno Barbieri again, it will be too soon. After a long week preparing for the trial of the decade, it takes no convincing to hit the men’s club for a few drinks.
Except the club wasn’t the only thing he hit that night.
Benji Smith works on Wylde Street as a rent boy. When he’s chased by two men, he runs into the path of a moving car. With a no-cops, no-hospital policy and needing to escape the men following him, he agrees to go back to the driver’s place.
The last thing Nolan expects is to offer Benji a place to stay, to recuperate, and to lie low. And the last thing Benji expects is to be attracted to the man who saved him.
But their worlds are about to collide in a way neither of them was prepared for, and both men need to decide what’s at stake, what they’re prepared to lose, and what they’ll fight for."
"Doctor Robinson O’Reilly is burned out. Exhausted, jaded, and disillusioned with the bureaucracy of his profession, he’s ready to throw away his entire career. Convinced to take a part-time position in a small town instead, he packs his medical bag for Hartbridge, Montana.
Who knows, maybe the change of pace and mountain air will do him good.
Firefighter Captain Soren De Silva moved to Hartbridge two years ago. He loves the town, the people, his job. What he doesn’t like is the lack of queer men. Well, the lack of available queer men. There are a few queer couples in town whom Soren can only look at with envy.
He wants what they have.
There’s a new doctor in town; not Soren’s usual type, but there’s something about him that Soren can’t ignore. A friendship sparks between them and Soren can’t help but wonder if that Hartbridge Christmas magic the others joke about is real.
Because a spark leads to flames, and this is not a fire Soren wants to extinguish."
"When three men turn up in their sleepy little town of Tallowwood, Harry and Asher know something’s wrong. Not because someone could find them, but the fact that Asher’s informant and oldest friend, Yunho, failed to alert them. Messages and phone calls unanswered; Harry and Asher go to Thailand to find Yunho is missing.
Harry and Asher find themselves thrown back into the game of shadows and murder, in a race across the globe to find him and find who’s behind the kidnapping.
The list of their enemies is long, their web of entanglement even longer, and Harry and Asher are about to find out once and for all who is predator and who is prey."
"Chase Soria
Every budding actor knows acting is a difficult gig. There will be grueling auditions and punishing rejections. If you’re lucky, there’ll be roles that pay the bills and even roles that won’t.
Roles we don’t believe in.
But that’s what acting is—acting as if we do believe in them.
So when the semester’s production project is announced and I’m cast as one of the leads, I’m ecstatic. A lot of responsibility, a lot of work, but I’m up for it. Even when I find out what my role is and who my partner is. Amos, the brooding James Dean wannabe, is my on-screen boyfriend. Which is great, except for the fact he hates me.
I can do this. It’s just acting.
Nothing more.
Amos Beddington
The 90s are back, apparently. 90210 and Friends, but with a reality TV spin, which means cameras following us around as if they’re capturing the everyday lives of Franklin U students.
Me, but not me.
Me, with no more than a character description, no script or screenplay. Method acting, being the character 24/7, not just when the cameras are rolling. With a campus boyfriend.
Method acting is immersive and intense, and it can be confusing if the lines begin to blur. I mean, I’ve dreamed of being with the irritatingly gorgeous and annoyingly popular Chase Soria, and now I have to be his on-screen boyfriend?
I’m a good actor, sure. But how can I be convincing when I’m not sure I can even convince myself?"
"In the winter of 1882, a boy from the mountains has to prove himself a man.
~*~
When Albie Bramwell’s father died, he was left with two thousand hectares of mountain to farm, and little help to run it. Abandoned by all but two of his workers, the whole town of Alpine Falls called him too young to run the farm alone.
Young, yes. At just nineteen, he was determined to prove them wrong. Even if it killed him.
In search of a new life, Percy Collins found himself in a small mountain town where he ran into a man not much older than himself and scored a job at Echo Creek. A property full of misfits, or so the townsfolk had called it. But what Percy found was a home.
What Albie found was something he never thought possible. A man to love, and a man to share his dreams.
But times were tough, the winter harsh, and money scarce. Albie and Percy would need to do more than prove themselves worthy. They’d need to not only prove themselves better than anyone else. They’d need to prove it twice."
"Keats McCulloch opened his florist shop in Sydney two years ago and he’s living his dream. Even though running his own business leaves little room for a personal life, he is very single, sometimes lonely, but otherwise happy.
Linden Acres has sworn off men for all eternity. Armed with his cheating boyfriend’s credit card and a floriography list, he decides to buy him the perfect farewell gift. The biggest, prettiest bouquet of ‘murder flowers’ his money can buy.
Keats convinces Linden to avoid possible jail time and go with a more subdued, somewhat passive aggressive bouquet of black roses and basil leaves. After all, nothing else says you’re dead to me and I hate you with such elegance.
Keats finds Linden hilarious and charming, and Linden thinks Keats is kind of wonderful . . . It’s too bad he’s sworn off men forever. Yet their paths cross again and again, as if fate was planting seeds in the hope that one will bloom.
“I’m more of a green carnations kind of guy.”"
"Hartbridge Christmas Series - Book FourEnglishman Braithe Branson arrives in Hartbridge, Montana, to take on a brief substitute kindergarten teacher position. His introduction to the sleepy town is being pulled over for speeding. Not an ideal start, but at least the deputy was cute.
Colson Price takes being a deputy very seriously. After all, his job is all he has. Disowned by his family ten years ago, he's vowed to stay closeted so it won't cost him everything all over again.
But the holidays are tough for Colson, and the new guy in town is far too tempting. With a promise of some very private no-strings encounters on the downlow, he can't resist.
Braithe is charmed by the handsome deputy, the gorgeous town, and the great group of friends he meets. But as the countdown to leaving gets closer, the more tangled the 'no strings' becomes."
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