Read Around the Rainbow is a blogging project featuring yours truly, A.L. Lester, Ofelia Gränd, Holly Day, K.L. Noone, Amy Spector, Addison Albright, Fiona Glass, Lilian Francis, and Ellie Thomas. Every month, we pick a topic and then we blog about it. Check the other blog posts by clicking the RAtR widget in the sidebar, or the links at the bottom of this post.
The RAtR topic for August is What are your favorite autumn-colored (yellow, orange, and red) M/M romances?
I’m partly to blame for this topic. “I want a fall theme on the next RatR post,” I exclaimed in our little group when it was time to pick a new topic, because autumn is my absolute favorite season. For the longest time it’s been spring, and don’t get me wrong, I still love it. The rebirth after a long, dark winter, the return of the light, all the beautiful spring flowers, just the thought of it makes me long for it.
But since a couple years back, fall has inched ahead of spring as my favorite season, and to be perfectly honest, I’ve been eagerly expecting it since the end of July. I absolutely adore the colors and I love the fresh, crispy air. I declare soup season opened on September 1st, refill my tea stash, and take every opportunity to wear my thick sweaters and woolly socks. And not to forget; reading in front of the fire.
But back to this month’s topic. My fellow webring authors humored me, and we decided on our favorite MM romances with yellow-orange-red covers. So here’s my contribution.
Jesse’s Diner :: The Terms of Release :: Watermelon Kisses
I’ve read Jesse’s Diner a gazillion times, it’s on my Goodreads Feelgood Re-Reads shelf (I blogged about it here) and you can probably tell that I love it a lot. I agree that it can be discussed whether the cover is actually yellow or not, but let’s call it a pale yellow and leave it at that, right? 😁
BA Tortuga is my go-to author when I’m in a cowboy mood, and The Terms of Release is one of my favorites written by her. It’s has a mild star-crossed lovers feel to it, but without a tragic Romeo-and-Juliet-esque ending, and both the characters are fantastic. I realize I haven’t written about it here on the blog before, probably because I read it back in 2014 when it was just released, long before I started this blog.
Watermelon Kisses was my first Freddy MacKay book. I read it for my 2018 Advent Calendar thing on the blog (check out the post here) and fell head-over-heels in love with it. It’s a beautiful story and everyone should read it, and I especially recommend it if you want a different read for the holiday season; the MCs aren’t white and the holiday isn’t Christmas. Also, the same cover image has been used more recently (Tic-Tac Mistletoe by N.R. Walker), but if you only want to read one book with that photo, I suggest you pick this one. That’s saying something, considering I’m a N.R. Walker fan 🙂
I’ll post a Watermelon Kisses quote, and then I’ll stop fangirling. Promise.
Esmail kissed Amir’s forehead and sighed. They leaned against each other, beard against beard, heart against heart.
That was my three autumn-colored books, so this is where I say goodbye, right? Nope, because I live to break the rules, so I decided that I wanted to do a second one, a yellow-orange-red recommendation of favorite books written by fellow RatR authors. And no, I’m not picking favorites among the bunch; they’re all lovely people and super talented writers. It’s just…not everyone has suitable color-coded covers that go with the theme, or at least ones that I’ve read 😁
The Twelfth Enchantment :: A Christmas Cotillion :: Out of Focus
You know by now that I’m a huge K.L. Noone fan, and The Twelfth Enchantment just solidified her position on my list of favorite authors. She’s the equivalent of one of those singers that can sing the phone book and make it great; I’m sure that even if K.L. Noone wrote a steampunk book with a cliffhanger, drug abuse, misunderstandings, and shower sex, with a guy smoking on the cover (all things I hate!) I’d still love it. 😁
A Christmas Cotillion was my first Ellie Thomas book, but definitely not my last. She writes short historical stories and I’ve loved all the ones I’ve read.
I’ve recommended Out of Focus by A.L. Lester before here on the blog (you can find it here) and as for the reason why you should read it if you haven’t already, I’ll just quote myself: “Britishness, Welsh Theatre, a quiet romance, and regular guys. Oh, and I almost forgot: tea!”
One more thing before I post the links to my fellow author so you can go check out their autumn-colored book recs:
Autumn-colored books written by me!
Late Night Poetry :: Resolutions for an Arbitrary Holiday :: So Far Away
LNP is perfect if you’re in the mood for a second-chances romance sprinkled with old poems read on an answering machine, RfaAH is a meet-cute that features a knight-in-a-shining-armor character, a sprained ankle, an old stone ship, and stupid New Year’s resolutions. SFA is about an established couple, separated by a pandemic (a made-up one, not covid).
And now, I’m done. But don’t forget to check out the other posts on the topic. I can’t wait to see the my fellow authors’ fall-colored covers
Ofelia Gränd :: Amy Spector :: Addison Albright :: Ellie Thomas :: Lillian Francis :: A.L. Lester :: Holly Day
Nell Iris 
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