reviews_and_ramblings | Rainbow Awards: Best Gay Erotica Contemporary

And the Rainbow Award goes to:

1) Heidi Cullinan - Special Delivery (Dreamspinner Press)

Amazing story with just the right level of kinkiness;) I really couldn't find any drawbacks:) --Caroline

Sam Keller knows he’ll never find the excitement he craves in Middleton, Iowa—not while he’s busting his ass in nursing school and paying rent by slaving away in a pharmacy stockroom. But before his mother died, he promised her he’d grow up to be a good man, so he needs a stable career and a good husband, not a dead-end job and empty sex. Then Sam meets Mitch Tedsoe, an independent trucker who makes a delivery to a shop across the alley. Innocent flirting quickly leads to an affair, and when Mitch offers to take Sam on a road trip west, Sam jumps at the chance for adventure with his fantasy man... but Mitch also comes with a past. A threesome with the other man in Mitch’s life would have been just another kinky ride, but somewhere between the Mississippi River and the Colorado Rockies, Sam falls in love. But can a relationship born out of escape and indulgence become something that lasts? Will a fantasy man be willing to settle down into reality, or is the adventure and excitement Sam finds with Mitch just another stop on a delivery man’s journey? For better or for worse, eventually Sam is going to discover the answer, because no matter how far away he travels, eventually all roads lead home.

2) Anah Crow & Dianne Fox - Slow Bloom (Torquere Press)

This was great as I've never liked a big age gap before, but this book made me believe a 30 year gap could really work. I read it twice! --Anna

Ricky Talbot, fresh from his first year at university, is looking to have a perfect summer. He gets to work for the man he's had a crush on for years and spend the rest of his days in the pool, training for the swim team. Jack Corson, on the other hand, is a suburban hermit with a tangled past. Jack's a lot more experienced than Ricky, cantankerous and more than a little anti-social. When an unexpected one-time encounter between the two of them turns into more, Ricky and Jack must see if they have what it takes for love to bloom despite all of their differences, the distance between them while Ricky's away school, Jack's past and Ricky's parents. Can their slow-blooming love come to fruition?

3) A.J. Llewellyn - The Wine-Dark Sea (Ellora's Cave)

Daniel’s poignant journey in search of a soul mate to share that indefinable unconditional love he yearns for. --Ro

Daniel is an elegant chair… He’s a handsome Englishman. A successful writer living in Paris, writing guidebooks that help people discover the secret delights of the city and country he loves. As for discovering the secrets to navigating the treacherous Paris social scene, Daniel himself relies on a book, which imparts some unusual advice—be an elegant chair, seen and not heard. And he’s getting a lot of practice. His last lover, Alain, is undergoing a tremendous transformation that he didn’t confide in Daniel. His current lover, Francois, is a celebrated artist, as arrogant as he is amorous. Their needs and dramas overshadow everything, including Daniel. He is a very elegant chair… Against a backdrop of the world’s most romantic city, between rounds of sizzling sex and sensational betrayal, Alain and Francois teach Daniel about passion and pain, loss and lust, gentle humor and poignant heartache. It will take someone else, someone unexpected, to teach him about love.

Honorable Mention:

4) L.A. Witt - Rules of Engagement (Dreamspinner Press)
5) K.C. Kendricks - Tango in the Night (Amber Quill Press)
6) Claire Thompson - Texas Surrender (Romance Unbound Publishing)
7-tie) Kimberly Gardner - Bound To Please (MLR Press)
R. Jackson - Bears in the Wild: Hot & Hairy Fiction (Lethe Press)
9-tie) L.A. Witt - The Distance Between Us (Samhain Publishing)
Ryan Field - Shakespeare's Lover (Ravenous Romance)