Uniquely Pleasurable is now closed for all users. Existing reviews and discussion posts will remain archived here, though I’ll be deleting all the promotional posts.

My reviews and those by Paul Bens have been duplicated at our new review blog, Outlaw Reviews. We’ll be reviewing GLBT fiction and non-fiction there, as well as film, TV and other media, but also anything else that takes our fancy. Please feel free to wander over and take a look.

Thank you to all who have supported UP since it was set up in 2005.

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Title: The Silent Hustler
Author: Sean Meriwether
Genre: contemporary literary fiction, erotica, single author anthology
URL: Amazon
Price: US$15.00
Other information/warnings: Explicit content.
Summary (from the publisher): Best known for being the editor of edgy gay fiction of the Velvet Mafia website, Sean Meriwether has quietly been writing short fiction and building up a body of his own work. The Silent Hustler collects his short fiction published over the last decade. Meriwether’s fiction spans in range from the literary (“Things I Can’t Tell My Father”) to the revolutionary (“Burn the Rich”) to the downright raunchy (“Sneaker Queen”). Slip into bed with The Silent Hustler. You won’t feel guilty in the morning.

My Review:

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Title: Sweet Oblivion 5: Elixir
Author: Jordan Castillo Price
Genre: Paranormal/vampires
URL: Changeling Press
Price:US $4.49
Other Information/warnings: Violence, explicit m/m, gore and graphic medical details
Summary [from the publisher]:
Wild Bill and Michael might have thought they made it out of the subterranean vampire nest unscathed, but in her anger, Silk left Michael a taste of her wrath that’s impossible to shake.

It’s a race against time to cure Michael of a bizarre affliction, and though the hunter and his favorite vamp have few enough friends, Bill can’t ash a cigarette without burning another bridge. Now Wild Bill must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice to save his lover.

His friends? His scruples? His pride?

His humanity?

My review:

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Title: A Report from Winter
Author: Wayne Courtois
Genre: Memoir
URL: Amazon
Price: US$18.00

Summary (from the publisher): It’s January 1998, and the author is returning “home” after a ten-year absence to a Maine winter that’s even more brutal than usual. His mother, Jennie, is dying of cancer; she is well cared for, but unable to speak.  Needing support, Wayne calls on his longtime partner, Ralph, who heads northeast for his first exposure to the Maine cold. It’s also his first brush with Wayne’s family, including a feisty aunt and an emotionally distant brother. The contrast between a nurturing gay relationship and dysfunctional family bonds is as sharp as the wind sweeping in from the sea. Leavened with humor, A Report from Winter weaves childhood memories with the harsh realities of a family life that’s short on love. The memoir is a tribute to hard-won relationships in an uncaring world.

My Review:

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Title: His Convenient Husband
Author: J.L. Langley
Genre: Gay contemporary erotic romance
URL: Samhain
Price: US$3.50
Other Information/warnings: Explicit sex
Summary:
The Bar D is losing money. Fast. It’s also losing its patriarch. Micah Jimenez, the nephew of the ranch’s foreman and practically adopted grandson, is doing everything he can to keep it afloat, but when a relative comes out of the woodwork, threatening to take the ranch once it’s up for grabs, Micah is forced to take drastic measures. The only person he knows with the kind of money that might bail them out is the man who left the ranch four years earlier and broke Micah’s heart. Tucker Delany has moved on with his life, working hard in Dallas, but he’s never really forgotten Micah or his past. When a condition of the will states the ranch will go to the first to get married – even if it’s just a civil union – Tucker does what he thinks will save them all…
My review:

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Title: Edinburgh
Author: Alexander Chee
Genre: Contemporary literature
URL: Amazon
Price:  US$11.20
Other Information/Warnings: Possible sexual abuse triggers
Summary (from the publisher): As a child, Fee is a gifted Korean American soprano in a boys´ choir in Maine. Silent after being abused by the director, he is unable to warn the other boys or protect his best friend, Peter, from the director´s advances. Even after the director is imprisoned, Fee continues to believe he is responsible, and while he survives into adulthood, his friends do not. In the years that follow, he struggles to bury his guilt and grief, until he meets a beautiful young student who resembles Peter, and he is forced to confront the demons of his brutal past.

My Review:

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Title: The Chancellor’s Bride
Author: Kirsten Saell
Genre: Fantasy menage erotic romance
URL: Samhain
Price: US$5.50
Other Information/warnings: Explicit sex including m/m, m/f, and m/m/f, as well as BDSM; attempted rape; sadomasochistic scenes; sexual slavery
Summary:
Chancellor Collin sur-Gaerig is on the verge of political greatness, which means he should very soon take a wife. His reluctance has little to do with the women he meets, and more with the fact that he’s in love and totally devoted to his servant, Harral. When he discovers a woman, unconscious and half-dead, in the street on a rainy night, he takes her home so she might receive medical attention. But Aelis takes both him and Harral by quiet storm, burrowing into their lusts and affections in spite of the fact that her future isn’t exactly secure. Someone is determined to strike her down. The question remains, however, whether it will take all three of them at the same time…
My review:

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Title: Healing Heart
Author: Thom Lane
Genre: Fantasy slave fiction
URL: Loose Id
Price: US$6.99
Other Information/warnings: Violence (inc between lovers), graphic depictions of illness, explicit m/m
Summary [from the publisher]:
Coryn is the rarest of mages, a young man with the gift of healing. A chance encounter with a sick slave on the road leads to love unimagined, a match for his gentle heart, and the two to a town riven with plague. It’s too much for one inexperienced healer—but still, Coryn will break himself with trying and his new boy’s heart in the process. What will it take to heal a healer’s heart?

My review:

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Title: Boys of Summer
Author: Cooper Davis
Genre: Gay contemporary erotic romance
URL: Samhain
Price: US$3.50
Other Information/warnings: Explicit m/m sex
Summary:
Hunter Willis is on the brink of discovering the depth of his feelings for his secret lover, and coming out in order to keep him…
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Title: Kelland
Author: Paul G. Bens Jr.
Genre: Mystery, horror, family drama
URL: Casperian Books
Price: US $12.50
Other Information/warnings: Contains depictions of sexual abuse
Summary [from the publisher]:
When the Truth Is All That Matters

The truth begins with a family evacuated from Saigon during the final days of the Việt Nam War. Or perhaps it begins later, with a devoutly Catholic child with the voice of an angel who is troubled by visions both sacred and profane. Or perhaps later still, with a couple drifting apart following a tragedy.

Kelland appears to them all in the guise of a small boy, a lover, a priest…Kelland is an enigma, a puzzle, and an almost imperceptible presence. Kelland is violence, sorrow, and joy. Kelland is the common thread tying five disparate strangers together.
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