BOOKS
The Things That Come
David never wanted to hurt anyone, but he didn’t ever think he’d ever be made to choose between his own mutilation or someone else’s life. With a threat like that hanging over his head, he returns to his hometown and reconnects with the one person who might believe that the things that come to visit him some nights aren’t just another hallucination.
Between his current predicament, an active serial killer, the still-unsolved murders of his classmates in high school, and trying to make his life livable again, David isn’t headed down an easy path. He’ll need all the help he can get and with a past like his, it isn’t easy to ask.
Lucky for him, an old friend and a new one join together to help David keep himself, and others, out of danger. Or, they do the best they can while trying to stay off the radar of the police, FBI, and whatever it is that’s been making David’s life a living hell.
For a Glance
Welcome to Hell.
This new m/m saga by Dan Ackerman expresses Ackerman's familiar languid sensitivity, sensuality, and charm, featuring Lucifer, who first appeared in What Everyone Deserves (2017 Rainbow Award honorable mention), now in his own novel.
As the king of Hell, Lucifer's role is mainly bureaucratic--sorting souls, managing unruly demons, and dealing with the politics of Heaven. A demon sneaks a human lover into Hell, leaving Lucifer conflicted, and with an opportunity for revenge against his enemies back on Earth.
Meanwhile, at a brothel, Lucifer meets Ira, a lovely gray demon. Starting a romance is difficult with his life in constant turmoil and when there are souls to save that don't want saving. Mundanity and horror mix in a sprawling, alluring hellscape.
What Everyone Deserves
In this 1950s period drama, Junius is a New York City fertility demon with a crush. Ever since falling from heaven he's been alone. Except for the mothers and children he watches over.
James Kelly Rosenburg, a black soldier with snowflakes in his hair, walks right into his life with a big problem. James Kelly, turned vampire during the war, is new to New York and its prohibition against vampire killing in city limits.
Junius offers to teach him to overcome his bloodthirsty instincts and live a proper Manhattan life. Their growing friendship leaves them both conflicted as they explore a city both welcoming and alienated by their kind.
The Road Upstate
Junius Thompson, fallen angel and fertility demon, thought that getting James Kelly to admit his feelings for him would be the hard part. A few months later, though, and James Kelly is still secretive and prickly. June knows he needs time to adjust--who wouldn't?
He invites James Kelly to accompany him on a trip upstate as he checks in on a handful of farms that pay for his brand of magic to keep their crops and livestock in good health.
The trip becomes a balancing act for June. His relationship with James Kelly needs careful tending, he's escorting a young witch to a school in Lilydale, and he's expected at a fertility festival in the Adirondacks. The festival becomes more of a problem than he anticipated: James Kelly is a fish out of water, an unexpected face from June's past makes an appearance, and worse, fairies are afoot.
It takes everything June has to get through the trip in one piece and by the time he makes it back to New York City, he's not sure he's succeeded.
That Doesn't Belong Here
That Doesn't Belong Here begins when Levi and his friend Emily discover an impossible creature in an abandoned pick up. The thing is wounded, frightened and the two friends cannot leave him to the mercy of rubberneckers and tourists. This novel explores what it means to be a person, as the creature, Kato, begins to display not mere intelligence or friendliness but what can only be explained as humanity. The question of who we are allowed to love arises for Levi and Kato, as they are not just crossing the boundaries of gender or sexuality, but of species.
