Recommendations based on "Brixton Rock"

AND THEN THERE WERE SHOTSEverybodyran,ducked,hid, tuckedthemselves tight.Pressed our lips to thepavement and prayedthe boom, followed bythe buzz of a bullet,didn't meet us.After Will's brother is shot in a gang crime, he knows the next steps. Don't cry. Don't snitch. Get revenge. So he gets in the lift with Shawn's gun, determined to follow The Rules. Only when the lift door opens, Buck walks in, Will's friend who died years ago. And Dani, who was shot years before that. As more people from his past arrive, Will has to ask himself if he really knows what he's doing.This haunting, lyrical, powerful verse novel will blow you away.

From hot new talent Jordan Sonnenblick, a "Tuesdays with Morrie" for teens.16-year-old Alex decides to get even. His parents are separated, his father is dating his former third-grade teacher, and being 16 isn't easy, especially when it comes to girls. Instead of revenge though, Alex ends up in trouble with the law and is ordered to do community service at a senior center where he is assigned to Solomon Lewis, a "difficult" senior with a lot of gusto, advice for Alex, and a puzzling (yet colorful) Yiddish vocabulary. Eventually, the pair learn to deal with their past and each other in ways that are humorous, entertaining, and life changing.

The war is over. The battle for love has just begun.As Marines, Cal and Jim depended on each other to survive bloodshed and despair in the Pacific. Relieved to put the horrors of war behind him, Jim went home to his apple orchard and a quiet life with his wife and children. Knowing Jim could never return his forbidden feelings, Cal hoped time and an ocean between them would dull the yearning for his best friend.But when Jim’s wife dies, Cal returns to help. He doesn’t know a thing about apple farming—or children—but he’s determined to be there for Jim, even as the painful torch he carries blazes back to life. Jim is grateful for his friend’s support as he struggles with buried emotions and dark wartime memories. Then Jim begins to see Cal in a new light, and their relationship deepens in ways neither expected. Can they build a life together as a family and find happiness in a world that would condemn them?Semper Fi by Keira Andrews is a historical gay romance featuring friends to lovers, sexual awakening, first times, found family, and of course a happy ending. (It also contains wartime violence and depictions of post-traumatic stress.)

A critically acclaimed #1 New York Times bestseller with more than one million copies in print! Now a major motion picture. Gritty with pain, betrayal, and brutality, this incredible true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the “Man” in the 1960’s by hopping a train. Untrusting, uneducated, and violent, he spends 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth.Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high-priced deals—an international arts dealer who moves between upscale New York galleries and celebrities.It seems unlikely that these two men would meet under normal circumstances, but when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, meets Denver, she sees him through God's eyes of compassion. When Deborah is diagnosed with cancer, she charges Ron with the mission of helping Denver.From this request, an extraordinary friendship forms between Denver and Ron, changing them both forever. A tale told in two unique voices, Same Kind of Different as Me weaves two completely different life experiences into one common journey. There is pain and laughter, doubt and tears, and in the end a triumphal story that readers will never forget.Continue this story of friendship in What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing, available now. Same Kind of Different as Me also is available in Spanish.

Review Angels of Mercy - Volume 1: Elliot is an exceptional display of walking in Elliot's shoes - a diary of sorts. Being a teenager is hard enough, being gay in a small town and in love with the star quarterback can be dangerous.  Sensual and sarcastic conversations and inward monologues bring life, laughter, disappointments, danger, and a carnal love to Elliot and Marco.  But, will it last? - Saguaro Moon Reviews [4 out of 5 Moons] Kindle edition reviewed Product Description On the cusp of his senior year at Mercy High, Elliot Donahey, an out but terminally shy gay young man who keeps to the shadows – never wanting to be seen or noticed – suddenly finds himself in the arms of the highest profile jock on campus, local star quarterback, Marco Sforza. Their lives, and those closest to them will never be the same.Set against the backdrop of competitive sports, this character study work (the first in a series) deep dives into the lives of these young men who each must "play the game" so Marco can play the game he loves. They are just trying to find some small slice of happiness to call their own amidst their hellish final year of high school.Author's Note: Angels of Mercy is first and foremost, a character study. A great deal of it is inner-monologue. Elliot will pause the action, will break momentum as he grapples with his world – all the while flipping a finger to the fourth wall. He knows you're there. It was far more important to me as its author (and a gay man) that the reader come away with the whys of Elliot’s choices in how he navigates his often tumultuous world. The same can be said of Marco (his jock boyfriend) who will have his own line of books covering the same timeline but from his POV (the first, Diary of a Quarterback Part 1, due winter 2015). I’ve read much queer literature and what I find rather interesting is that for the majority of it, very little is written about the character’s headspace. When you live in a world where you constantly have to be vigilant as you navigate through, it can make for some very powerful storytelling. That is my goal in writing these boys’ lives. I want the reader who may not be queer themselves to come away with what it might be like to be in a gayboy’s shoes – constantly polling and pulse-checking your world because your very survival depends upon it. All of that while you hope, you secretly pray, that you’ll find someone who will see you too and find they can’t live without you in their world. A small slice of happiness to call your own. And though you do everything to keep to yourself, you may still run into those who find your very existence threatens who they are and how they think the world should run. I pull no punches with this work. They are hormonally charged eighteen year old young men who are sexually active. While the sex is present in the work it is not gratuitous in that the main character does evolve from his physical intimacy with his high-profile boyfriend. It is not a genre romance read either, though it has a very strong romance threaded in the work. These elements bring a light to their world that attracts all the wrong attention. In a time where more queer youth are coming out to their teammates and their loved ones, I find that work of this nature is both timely and necessary to tell. I hope you'll find it as interesting and provocative a read as I believe it is.Our Voices. Our Lives - as we live them. About the Author SA Collins hails from the San Francisco Bay Area where he lives with his (legal) husband, their daughter and wonder of all wonders, a whirlwind of a granddaughter. A classically trained singer/actor (under a different name), Mr. Collins knows a good yarn when he sees it. Mr. Collins specializes in character study work. It is more important for him as an author that the reader comes away with a greater understanding of the characters, and the reasons they make the decisions they do, rather than the situations they are

Set in London across a single, life-altering summer, Isaac interrogates masculinity and queerness in the digital age and offers a fresh take on desire and intimacy, adolescent obsession and dangerous first love. After inexperienced seventeen-year-old Isaac loses his virginity through a dating app - a disappointing yet addictive experience - he spends his final months before university escaping into a dizzying new world of casual sex with forgettable men. This all changes when he meets twenty-eight-year-old Harrison at a party. Isaac is immediately infatuated by the handsome, charismatic artist, but while they grow closer, his sense of self becomes increasingly hazy. Harrison's demands shift constantly, and after Isaac tries everything to prove his worthiness, he must take a hard look at his ideas about love, sex and men, and his relationship with himself.

From the award-winning author of George, the story of a boy named Rick who needs to explore his own identity apart from his jerk of a best friend. Rick's never questioned much. He's gone along with his best friend Jeff even when Jeff's acted like a bully and a jerk. He's let his father joke with him about which hot girls he might want to date even though that kind of talk always makes him uncomfortable. And he hasn't given his own identity much thought, because everyone else around him seemed to have figured it out. But now Rick's gotten to middle school, and new doors are opening. One of them leads to the school's Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities congregate, including Melissa, the girl who sits in front of Rick in class and seems to have her life together. Rick wants his own life to be that ... understood. Even if it means breaking some old friendships and making some new ones. As they did in their groundbreaking novel George, in Rick, award-winning author Alex Gino explores what it means to search for your own place in the world ... and all the steps you and the people around you need to take in order to get where you need to be.

A Place to Grow picks up where A Place For You left off. Big Mama has a family to raise, even as a new threat to the cubs emerges. 12 year-old Tracy has places to explore, important things to discover, and her first 5K race to run.Aunt Lynette, Mallory, and Jamie continue to provide the love and support that enable Tracy to thrive.And Tracy's wonderful friend, Kitty, is there to watch over them all.

Joey Goldman's flying south for the winter. The second-string New York wiseguy just packed up his faithful girlfriend Sandra and took off for Key West -- land of sun, surf and sleaze -- where a small-time hustler in search of a racket can score the big one. If he can find it. Enter Joey's half brother Gino. On the lam from the mob after one of the most royally screwed-up jewel heists in Florida history, Gino's a man in need of a fall guy. Which is where Joey comes in . . .Suddenly, everyone's after Joey -- including the ruthless Miami don who wants his three million worth of uncut emeralds and who just dispatched his goons to deliver Joey a one-way ticket -- out. Now Joey's where he always wanted to be -- in the big time. All he has to do is find out where the stones are stashed. And for an unikely hero out to make a killing, this could be Paradise . . . if he lives long enough.

Daniel Carr is a man who spends his days working a dead-end job and arguing with his wife. The answer to his family's financial struggles appears to be a valuable piece of commercial property Daniel has inherited, but a promise to his late father keeps him from selling until "the time is right." Losing his job and then his wife, pushes Daniel to the edge. Then a chance meeting turns Daniel in an unexpected direction. Daniel turns to God, but will that obedience cost him everything? A story of faith, love, and redemption, Daniel's Lot portrays the struggle to follow God's direction while fighting to keep one's family and integrity alive.