Still, if anyone has any suggestions for good m/m authors, I’d love to hear them.

Also agree on Ransom by Lee Rowan (another Age of Sail) and J. L. Langley’s My Fair Captain, but my absolute personal favorites are anything by the Abigail Roux/Madeleine Urban team, especially Caught Running.

BTW, I liked Captain’s Surrender, too.

What I like about Alex is that she’s so unassuming and seems to be totally unaware of what a fine writer she is. As to the sex, for those readers who want a little more, Alex has a free book called Insubordination available from allromanceebooks.com which continues the story of Peter and Josh by adding a little spice to their love life.

So authors if you’ve sent us books, please be patient. We’re trying.

I’m prone to motion sickness so would probably be hanging over the rail of a tall ship too. Thanks for your suggestions and I’ll check out the reviews you have posted.

Authors who want to submit books to us can fill out the contact form or email us directly (our emails are listed on the Contact page which can be accessed on the menu under the “DEAR AUTHOR” banner at the top of each page.) We used to have a submissions section but with the technical difficulties, it’s been temporarily taken down.

Since you asked for suggestions for titles, I have a few, though they’re not by any means all of the good ones out there! My reviews for the ones I’ve listed, as well as a few others, can be found at my little blog at http://www.reviewsbyruth.wordpress.com/

Standish, by Erastes
Snow Moon Rising by Lori Lake (not m/m; the protagonists are women who love one another, and it’s a great historical)
Two Spirits by Toby Johnson — unusual historical of the Navajo berdache (a must read!)
Whistling in the Dark, but you can’t read that until next year
and if I may immodestly suggest my own… The Phoenix. I’m not sure how to go about submitting a book for review.

Keep the reviews coming!

Ruth Sims
http://www.ruthsims.com
The Phoenix

I don’t know if you’re interested in non-fiction about the period? I’d thoroughly recommend ‘Men of Honour’ by Adam Nicolson if you are. It’s almost as exciting to read as a novel. But that’s *way* off topic. I’m sorry!

“But it’s nice to know that my comparative lack of understanding of the technical aspects of ship-handling results in battle scenes which are easier to read.” — And here I thought you’d deliberately watered down your technical knowledge of the subject! Actually for a romance novel – and I hate to be saying this – I think this level works better. Not everyone is going to know what the names of all the sails are and how to set them. Not everyone wants to know and the subject can be taken to such an extreme as to put off readers who think “Oh, I’m not going to understand this so I’ll pass on this book.” I think you struck a nice balance between O’Brien’s level and total landlubber. A reader with little or no knowledge of “Age of Sail” ships and the handling of them can still follow the action and, if they want, go on and learn more.

After I began reading the O’Brien novels, I got a book titled “Life in Nelson’s Navy” by Dudley Pope that has a whole chapter on captains and how the position could wreck a man who had the slightest inclination towards tyranny. And how, luckily, these men were, for the most part, the exception and not the rule.

It’s a fascinating culture, isn’t it? I have Patrick O’Brian to thank for hooking me on it. And thankfully there’s a lot of new research around that contradicts the old ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ image of a place where it was always a hell on earth.

*g* But it’s nice to know that my comparative lack of understanding of the technical aspects of ship-handling results in battle scenes which are easier to read. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the next one. I’ll also bear in mind what you say about backstory for future things. That would have been a way to make things clearer. Thanks again!

of all the m/m I’ve read I liked Jules Jones’ (http://www.julesjones.com) the best.

I’ve also read Langley and liked her contemporary westerns even though the editing left a lot to be desired and really detracted from the reading experience.

I’m particularly delighted, strange though it may be, that you thought Captain Walker made sense. He is such a bad guy, but I didn’t want him to be a pantomime villain so much as a man corrupted by the combination of too much privilege and an overbearing nature. I think of him as what happens when an alpha male goes wrong.

After I began reading the O’Brien novels, I got a book titled “Life in Nelson’s Navy” by Dudley Pope that has a whole chapter on captains and how the position could wreck a man who had the slightest inclination towards tyranny. And how, luckily, these men were, for the most part, the exception and not the rule.

I agree that it would probably have been easier to discern Peter’s bisexuality in a contemporary story rather than a historical. I did try and think back on what you told us about his sexual history before I made my comments.

I love O’Brien’s battle scenes but they definitely require a lot of background information and a degree of immersion into the book before being understandable.

I’m glad that Peter doesn’t read entirely gay to you. I thought of him as bisexual. He’s sexually attracted to both Emily and Josh. He could conceivably fall in love with a woman and marry her if he wasn’t already in love with Josh. That makes his choice to be faithful to Josh a more difficult one, since he does have the option of being what society thinks he ought to be. It’s difficult to get this across, though, in a society which doesn’t have either the words for, or even the modern concepts of sexual orientation. I may have bitten off more than I could chew there!

I’m so pleased you liked the battle scenes. I’m a big Patrick O’Brien fan, and some of that rubbed off, I hope. I’m also pleased to know that the level of sex scene is about right. I’ve often worried that I’m not explicit enough, but yes, romance is what I’m going for rather than erotica.

Thank you so much again for such a wonderful review! You can bet I’ll be telling everyone I know about it.

As for m/m historical recommendations, my top favourites are ‘The Phoenix’ by Ruth Sims, ‘Standish’ by Erastes, ‘Ransom’ by Lee Rowan – that’s another Age of Sail book – and its sequel ‘Winds of Change’. Also ‘The Master of Seacliff’ by Max Pierce, and ‘The Back Passage’ by James Lear. I’m hearing great things about Tamara Allen’s ‘Whistling in the Dark’ too.

I haven’t read many contemporaries, but the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon is a must-read, and I’m loving ‘Crossing Borders’ by Z.A Maxfield which I’m reading at the moment.

In the SF/F genre I second that vote for ‘A Strong and Sudden Thaw’, and I adored Lee Benoit’s ‘Servant of the Seasons’ series.

I got a little off topic there! Sorry. What I mean is ‘thank you very much again!’

Alex