Books Tagged With when - period - 1920s

Word Count: Click here to reveal71000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Lesbian (Click here to hide)

Summary: The stage is set for murder It's the summer of 1929 and there's a serial killer on the streets of London. Bodies of young women are dumped at the stage doors of London’s theatres. Noël Coward's assistant Florence Miles, known to her close friends as Bill, is dragged into the investigation when the body of her former secret lover is found outside His Majesty’s Theatre. Bill forms an unlikely alliance with the Chronicle newspaper’s senior crime reporter Simon Sampson. Together they discover that the killer has friends in high places… This is the prequel to the LAMBDA finalist A Death in Berlin. It explores the secret world of the 1920s, a time when your sexuality could make you a lawbreaker. When gay men and women were constantly on their guard, careful about how they presented themselves in a hostile society. A Death At His Majesty's is the first of a series that brings together Bill and Simon and follows them as they embark on a series of sleuthing adventures.

Word Count: Click here to reveal37,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sheriff Avery O’Rourke has tried to obey his strict Christian faith and lead a “normal” life. In 1923 in a rural East Texas town, “normal” means heterosexual. A cholera outbreak has made Avery a young widower, so he is married to his job. When a murder investigation forces him to confront his truth, will he finally be able to accept being gay? Veterinarian Garland Sands has returned from Europe to take over his father’s practice. Struggling with shellshock (PTSD) and heartbroken by the suicide of his French lover, he resigns himself to a quiet, solitary life as a country vet. But the murder of the town doctor brings the sheriff to Garland’s doorstep looking for help with the investigation. Seeing Avery awakens dormant feelings. Can he love a man who hates what he is? This isn’t the lavish 1920s of The Great Gatsby. This is the flip side of that coin—rural East Texas. No electricity. No indoor plumbing. No flappers. In 1923, the timber barons have left and racism, homophobia, and sexism thrive. A Little Sin is a realistic mystery with unlikely heroes and a timeless romance between lovers caught in a world where their love is forbidden. This book contains steamy sex scenes and is intended for adults only.

Word Count: Click here to reveal110000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Welcome to another place in time...where one can be swept away into lands and eras long forgotten. This collection of short stories was birthed because a sworn "I don't like historicals" reader fell in love with what have become some of her favorite books by most of her favorite writers. Surprisingly, they were all historicals. Determined to make others feel the love, these authors were asked to contribute small tastes of how amazing historical storytelling can be. Along with a foreword written by Alex Beecroft, enjoy these original short stories that make up "Another Place in Time". Office Romance by Tamara Allen The post-war economy is at a standstill, much like Foster Wetherly’s life until he’s forced to do battle with irritatingly confident—and competent—fellow ex-doughboy Casey Gladwin for a position in their shrinking department at Manhattan Security Mutual. Introducing Mr. Winterbourne by Joanna Chambers Lysander Winterbourne appears to lead a charmed life. Handsome, amiable, and a renowned sportsman, he is the darling of London society. As far as Adam Freeman is concerned though, Lysander is just another spoiled aristocrat. A wealthy mill owner, Adam has no time for the frivolous world of the ton, but when his younger brother becomes engaged to Althea Winterbourne, he reluctantly agrees to be introduced to society–with the Winterbourne clan’s golden boy as his guide. Resigning himself to a few days of boredom, Adam is surprised to learn that there is much more to Lysander than his perfect surface. But will Adam have the courage to introduce Lysander Winterbourne to his own secret self? The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh by KJ Charles Lord Gabriel Ashleigh is a ruined man. Last night he lost everything at the card tables to his brother’s worst enemy, notorious gambler Francis Webster. Tonight, he’s going back for one more game. Ash thinks he has nothing left to lose. But Francis sets the stakes, and they’re higher than Ash could have imagined… Two Regency bucks. One game of cards. Everything to play for. Unfair in Love and War by Kaje Harper Many men lost brothers overseas in the summer of 1944. Warren Burch was one of them. For months he still clung to his big city life in Philadelphia, but finally he's made the difficult choice to return to his home town. Warren's polio-stricken leg won't let him serve, so the least he can do is be there for his mother, when brother Charlie never again will. Arriving home means a whole new life, constrained by the rhythms and prejudices of a small town. Fortunately, it's made more interesting by the mysterious and attractive young man next door. Carousel by Jordan L. Hawk When a child goes missing, is it a simple case of a young runaway, or are more sinister forces at work? “Carousel” is part of the Whyborne & Griffin series and takes place between the events of Stormhaven and Necropolis. It can be read as a standalone. Deliverance by Aleksandr Voinov This is a re-vamped, re-edited, improved version of "Deliverance". It's about William Raven, a templar, who thought he'd escaped his past. (Same character as in "The Lion of Kent".)

Word Count: Click here to reveal10,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Polyamorous (Click here to hide)

Summary: Clockwork mummies, thieving deities, airship pirates, psychic queens, mechanical scarabs, unrepentant scoundrels, mysterious museums, trickster djinns, suspicious werewolves, abducted scientists, fearless spies, and vengeful gods... All this and more wait inside the pages of Clockwork Cairo. Featuring stories from: George Mann, Gail Carriger, Nisi Shawl, Tee Morris & Pip Ballantine, David Barnett, Rod Duncan, Tiffany Trent, P. Djeli Clark, Jonathan Green, E. Catherine Tobler, Chaz Brenchley, K. Tempest Bradford, Benjanun Sriduangkaew and others...

Word Count: Click here to reveal75000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealDemisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A dancer who cannot dance and a doctor who cannot heal must find in each other the strength to love.  History books will call it The Great War, but for Benjamin Holm, that is a misnomer. The war is a disaster, a calamity, and it leaves Benjamin profoundly wounded, his mind and memory shattered. A year after Armistice, still struggling to regain his mental faculties, he returns to Paris in search of his closest friend, Elias. Benjamin meets Louis Donadieu, a striking and mysterious dance master. Though Louis is a difficult man to know, he offers to help Benjamin. Together they search the cabarets, salons, and art exhibits in the newly revitalized city on the brink of les années folles (the Crazy Years). Almost despite himself, Benjamin breaches Louis’s defenses, and the two men discover an unexpected passion. As his memory slowly returns, Benjamin will need every ounce of courage he possesses to recover Elias’s story. He and Louis will need even more than that to lay claim to the love – and the future – they deserve.

Word Count: Click here to reveal38352 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A chance meeting they never forgot. Six years after meeting British soldier Aiden Foster during the Christmas Truce of 1914, Jochen Weber still finds himself thinking about Aiden, their shared conversation about literature, and Aiden’s beautiful singing voice. A visit to London gives Jochen the opportunity to search for Aiden, but he’s shocked at what he finds. The uniform button Jochen gave him is the only thing Aiden has left of the past he’s lost. The war and its aftermath ripped everything away from him, including his family and his music. When Jochen reappears in his life, Aiden enjoys their growing friendship but knows he has nothing to offer. Not anymore. Author’s note: This story was originally published in 2014 by another publisher. This edition has some added content, and uses UK spelling to reflect its setting.  

Word Count: Click here to reveal96200 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: When tailor Marvin Gottschalk abandoned New York City for the brash boomtown of silent-film-era Hollywood, he never imagined he’d end up on screen as Martin Brentwood, one of the fledgling film industry’s most popular actors. Five years later a cynical Martin despairs of finding anything genuine in a town where truth is defined by studio politics and publicity. Then he meets Robbie Goodman. Robbie fled Idaho after a run-in with the law. A chance encounter leads him to the film studio where he lands a job as a chauffeur. But one look at Martin and he’s convinced he’s likely to run afoul of those same laws—laws that brand his desires indecent, deviant... sinful. Martin and Robbie embark on a cautious relationship, cocooned in Hollywood’s clandestine gay fraternity, careful to hide from the studio boss, a rival actor, and reporters on the lookout for a juicy story. But when tragedy and scandal rock the town, igniting a morality-based witch hunt fueled by a remorseless press, the studio brass will sacrifice even the greatest careers to defend their endangered empire. Robbie and Martin stand no chance against the firestorm—unless they stand together.

Word Count: Click here to reveal45000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: The Legend of the Ghost Train Today, people say that on a quiet night in the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, you can hear the far off shriek of a locomotive whistle and the rumble of the train’s cars as they clamor across the tracks. The legend claims the train moves through the valleys and mountains searching for lost souls that need a lift to the other side. In the early Twentieth Century, railroads were not only a way to transport people, they also carried all types of goods across the country. Lumber from the forests of Tennessee, coal from the mines of Kentucky, and tobacco from the fields of Virginia were just a few of the industries that depended heavily on the railroad system. Even the Vanderbilt’s built a train system to carry the products needed to construct the great Biltmore Estate. The Legend of the Ghost Train series will carry you off to a simpler time before WWII and the Great Depression. It’s about the love between two men that wasn’t spoken of and ghosts of past loves that still linger in the mountains. Some haunt the living looking for a loved one. Some want revenge for wrong doings. And, others are evil and will stop at nothing to repeat the past and kill again. Jesse Lawson was never afraid of the strange and unusual dreams he had. But lately, they were becoming darker leaving him with a need to discover why he was having them. He believed he would find answers at the site of logging camps in The Great Smoky Mountains. His great grandfather had lived and died there, and Jesse was sure it was Jackson Douglas haunting him. Carter Thompson never knew his great great uncle George Thompson, but he inherited his land, home, and money. George had come here to America to find work in the lumber camps. Meeting Jesse Lawson was about to turn his world upside down. Jesse’s dreams somehow involved Carter, and the more they searched the closer they became. George left journals that could clear up many mysteries, including Jackson Douglas’s death. Now it seemed that something was trying to destroy Carter and Jesse’s growing attraction to each other. Whoever it is will stop at nothing to keep them apart, even if they have to repeat the past to do it.

Word Count: Click here to reveal67429 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: During the War to End All Wars, Roddy Sayer survived his trip down the Ruzizi with his beloved, Charlie Pearson. He survived the sinking of the Konigin Marie Christine he and Charlie engineered. But now it’s 1922, his beloved is dead after working on a dig in Egypt to unearth royal tombs, and Roddy is alone, with odd, erotic dreams of an Egyptian prince ensnared by the machinations of a high priest. Is he losing his mind? Thomas Fortescue-Smythe, who flirted with Roddy and made advances toward him before, finds him again. Tommy persuades Roddy to come to his family home in England, and eventually, to share his bed and his body. But when Roddy sees an Egyptian man and knows it is the same man who was the high priest in his dreams, can he keep himself and Tommy safe?

Word Count: Click here to reveal144000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: New York City, 1924 Once their paths cross, their worlds will never be the same. Danny Moore and his crew only meant to rob the hotel suites of rich guests. He wasn’t supposed to find himself in gangster Ricky il Sacchi’s room. And il Sacchi wasn’t supposed to wind up dead. Now Danny has the attention of another notorious gangster. Carmine Battaglia is intrigued by the Irish thieves who would have made off with a huge score if not for il Sacchi’s death. They’re cunning, careful, and exactly what he needs for his rum running operation. But Danny’s already lost two brothers to the violence between New York’s Irish and Sicilian gangs, and he’s not about to sell his soul to Carmine. With gangster’s blood on his hands, Danny needs protection, whether he likes it or not. And that’s to say nothing of the generous pay, which promises to pull him and his crew—not to mention their families—out of destitution. Working together brings Danny and Carmine to a détente, then to something so intense neither can ignore it. Something nearly enough to make them both forget the brutal tensions between their countrymen. But the death of Ricky il Sacchi hasn’t been forgotten. And someone is determined to make Danny bleed for it. The Venetian and the Rum Runner is a 144,000-word gay historical romantic suspense novel set during Prohibition and the Roaring Twenties. CW: graphic violence, PTSD