The Complexities of Love by M.A. Quigley
Mark Cooney grows up aware that there is something different about him and hopes that his parents will never find out.
Mark's best friend Dave disappeared when he was thirteen and returned ten years later. Mark became more and more vulnerable as they got closer. It came with a price.
Tormented by his inner demons and refusing to be controlled by anyone, Dave reveals a secret that he has kept since childhood, which leads to a terrible misunderstanding that will have grave consequences for Mark and his family.
The Complexities of Love is a coming-of-age story about Mark as he confronts the truth about his family and his identity.
All he yearns for is for Dave to return his love, but will that happen, or will he find someone else?
Forbidden Rome by Mario Dell'Olio
Mario Dell’Olio has published five books, two were finalists for the Wishing Shelf Book Awards.
His latest release, Forbidden Rome, is a complex and timeless journey of beautiful self-discovery between faith and identity, full of passion, prejudice, and ambition. Mario's previous release, New Men: Bonds of Brotherhood, is a romantic journey of self-discovery inspired by true stories. Filled with romance, hope, and desire.
Mario's first book is a memoir, Coming About: Life in the Balance, about a sailing adventure going terribly wrong. The second book, Body and Soul, is an LGBTQA+ fiction that explores the strife of coming out during the 1980s.
Waafrika 123 - a play by Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko
1992. Kenya. On the eve of the country’s first democratic elections, everyone is brewing with expression, even in the tiny, rural village, Luoland, with no elec - tricity or running water some 250 kilometers northwest of Nairobi. There, although lesbians ‘don’t exist’ in Kenya, two women fall in love: Bobby, a blond American development worker and Awino from the Luo tribe. To complicate matters, Awino’s father is also the Chief who enforces traditions and codes. So when famine strikes, the villagers blame the lesbians for the many, many deaths by starvation. To regain equilibrium, to make everything “normal” once again, Awino – butch bordering on trans – must be “circumcised” – by force – so s/he can act like a real woman rather than a woman “who wants to be” a man, and Bobby must leave. Will Awino and Bobby agree to separate for the good of their community? Or will the village itself change?
Posterity by Jess Newton
Fifty years ago, Captain Nina Brooke hand-picked a crew from across the world to accompany her on the mission of a lifetime. Today, they’re all waking up. The Posterity is making her final approach to their new home planet, and the work is about to begin. Humanity wasn’t an endangered species when they set off on this mission, but it’s a darn sight closer to being one now. No pressure, then.
The new planet seems perfect; plenty of resources, good settlement locations, habitable climates. After what happened to Earth, Nina is conscious that they need to take better care of this one. It takes all sorts to make a world, and Nina’s got all sorts asleep in her cryobay; not only the people required to build it, but the ones to make it feel like home, too. After all, what good is saving humanity if you leave the best parts of it behind?
Some people find it easier than others to start new lives here on the other side of the galaxy, but then, it all depends on what they left behind. As Nina navigates relationships old and new, will she finally find the one thing she’s never had: a home?
Overture And Beginners: The Actor, The Painter and the Little Brown Dog by Betty Valentine
My name is James Porter but the world knows me as Allan. I am and always have been happily gay. I have no problem with this whatsoever. If anyone else finds it awkward then that is their problem, not mine! I am a short, tubby little actor who won’t see sixty again. I also happen to be famous. Some years ago I kicked the last younger lover out of my bed. Plenty of them have used my mattress as a springboard to higher things, treading on me in the process. I decided to stop looking for ‘the one’ and to keep my relationships on a more casual basis. Of course when I stopped looking I found him, in a place I had never even considered looking. I almost lost him a couple of times along the way but I got him back again. This is our story.
Not Quite Out by Louise Willingham
William Anson is done with relationships, thanks. He’s starting the second year of his medicine degree single, focused, and ready to mingle with purely platonic intentions. Meeting Daniel, a barely recovered drug addict ready to start living life on his own terms, might just change that. There are two problems. One: William isn’t out. What’s the point in telling your friends you’re bisexual when you aren’t going to date anyone? Two: Daniel’s abusive ex-boyfriend still roams the university campus, searching for cracks in Daniel’s recovery. No matter how quickly William falls for Daniel, their friendship is too important to risk ruining over a crush. William is fine with being just friends for the rest of forever. Well, not quite.
Content warning - This book includes references to abortion, drug addiction, abusive relationships, PTSD, and self-harm
Do you have any more Indie LGBTQ+ book recommendations for me? Post them in the comments!