Kimberly Gardner ~ Phoenix Rising
From: MLR Press

Oops, forgot that part. Phoenix Rising. I think that will always be my fave of my books no matter how many there are.

I had a really hard time putting together this list, not just because I have so many favorite books and authors, but because every time I read someone else’s list, I was reminded of yet another terrific book or series I had forgotten about. It would have been much easier if TP had asked for my top say … five hundred favorites.*g* But I did finally finish my list. And here it is, in no particular order: The top five books and authors who have most influenced me as a writer of gay romance.

Josh Lanyon ~ Death Of A Pirate King Josh Lanyon’s Adrian English series (most especially Death Of A Pirate King) Okay, so I started off by breaking the rules and naming an entire series insead of one book. But that’s just how I roll. Lol!

I can’t even begin to count the number of times Josh has, just in this series, broken my heart then kissed it better. He is, in my mind, one of the greats in our genre, an author who can paint a picture in the reader’s mind both with what he says and with what he leaves to our imaginations. I heart Josh and I heart these books. They are definitely on my desert island list.

J.L. Langley ~ The Tin Star Was the very first gay romance I read and I remember when I first read the blurb thinking Wow! Just wow! Someone’s writing the kind of story I’ve been longing to read. Then I bought the book and read the book and was totally blown away. I had been reading romance since I was about eleven or twelve and cut my teeth on, believe it or else, excerpts of Harlequin novels from the pages of Good Housekeeping magazine. That’s a lot of romances over the years. And because that’s a long time and a lot of stories, I felt like I had seen just about everything the genre had to offer. Then came The Tin Star. I’m lucky enough to now count J.L. As one of my dear friends and I will be forever grateful to her for having written this amazing romance. ***Teddypig ~ No she’s my dear friend you can’t have her. I called dibs first… MOM! Kim’s hogging all the friends!***

Jet Mykles ~ Heaven This was another one of my early reads in the genre of gay romance and it totally blew me away. It had everything including sexy rockstars and smokin manlove, what more could a romance reader want? g* Heaven Sent is the quintessential gay for you story and nobody does that better than Jet Mykles. Since reading Heaven Sent I have read many more HFY stories, but this remains the gold standard for me.

Laura Baumbach ~ Out There In The Night I love Laura’s books, all of them, so it was really difficult to choose just one for my top five list. But Out There In The Night had to be it, and for a lot of reasons. It’s a compelling romance, told with sensitivity and attention to detail that is a signature of Laur’s writing style. Adam is the most alpha of alpha heroes and the love scenes between him and Connor had steam coming off my laptop screen as I read this book. Laura is one of those writers who delivers a great story and a heart wrenching romance every single time whether she’s writing about were wolves or space aliens or cops. I want to be her when I grow up. ***Teddypig ~ You stole all my friends and now you are stealing my favorite eBooks have you no shame! This was the first eBook I ever bought.***

Suzanne Brockmann ~ All Through The Night Again, it was very hard for me to choose just one of Brockmann’s books to include on this list because when she introduced us to Jules Cassidy, a kick-ass operative and openly gay FBI agent who is totally okay with himself, she gave the mainstream romance market a shove toward diversity and inclusiveness that was sorely lacking before then. In Hot Target Jules and Robin hook up for the first time and in subsequent books their story arc continues, then finally in All Through The Night they get their HEA, and despite the absence of explicit scenes, this is one of the most romantic books I’ve read. Last year I was lucky enough to meet Suz and she is as funny and smart and lovely in person as I always imagined she would be. I have a serious girl-crush on her. Lol! ***Teddypig ~ First you steal my authors and eBooks and now your moving in on LBea’s! I don’t know if that’s gonna fly Kim.***

So that’s my list. And trust me, I could have gone on and on and on because there are so many books and authors I would have liked to mention but couldn’t. Thanks to T-Pig for the chance to share some of my faves and if you haven’t read these books and authors, you should run, not walk, to your nearest book buying outlet and snap them up. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Kimberly Gardner ~ Phoenix Rising
Cover Artist: Anne Cain
From: MLR Press

Elisa Rolle sent this cover art to me as her choice for the best cover of 2008. Elisa is such a gold plated, honest to god, sweetheart who is tireless in her promotion efforts of new and exciting M/M Romance as seen here in her choice.

Thanks Elisa!

Slightly Off Topic Here… I wish more people in our very very very small teapot of an M/M Romance Community would respect Elisa Rolle’s work and her website and her efforts to find and promote new writers and new eBooks. I have never heard a single bad thing about her in all the time she has been doing this great work, not once. Now me on the other hand… Oh boy!

Can I say that it “REALLY BOTHERS ME” seeing supposed grownups, whom I would think should know better, purposefully picking fights on that particular website when that is not the point of what Elisa is doing. If you want to argue with the author or make crazy accusations then could we all agree to take it to email or the author’s website or even your own friggin website people? Hell, bring it over here, but I hope you know what THAT will mean. Elisa is always nice, she cares about writers and their work and I, being more than capable of handling the occasional fucktard moment, am getting tired of seeing a really nice person get abused like that. Not cool!

So for the coming year can we all agree to find another place to wage the next tempest? KTHXBAI