Books like 'Stoking the Fire'
Readers who enjoyed Stoking the Fire by Teodora Kostova also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary gay romance second chances mystery height-difference queer
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Ruined by April Wilson
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFinally! Sam and Cooper's long-awaited story is here... a second chance gay romance, with a guaranteed HEA. Sam... Coming out of the closet was easy. Falling in love with a man twice my age was not. Cooper grew up old-school, hiding his true self. He may be the love of my life, but I can’t be his dirty little secret any longer. He needs to man up and claim me if he wants to keep me... -
The Spoil of Beasts by Gregory Ashe
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsA jailhouse slaughter. A relentless killer. And way too much jackassing around. When word comes that two key witnesses in an investigation are dead, North and Shaw are surprised—and pleased—to learn that their friend, John-Henry Somerset, is interested in hiring them as freelance contractors for the Wahredua police department... -
Pretty Poison (Sinister in Savannah Book3) by Aimee Nicole Walker
Redemption seeker. Chameleon. Damaged heart.By day, Rocky Jacobs is a private investigator. By night, he produces Sinister in Savannah, a true-crime podcast, with his two best friends. Rocky’s life revolves around three principles: possessing skill is better than having luck, a man’s reputation is everything, and there’s no sacrifice too great for those you love...Categorized as:
second chances mystery queer m-m contemporary suspense length-medium explicit-open-door -
Shut Up and Drive by L.M. Krier
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA serial sex attacker is spreading fear in Stockport and DI Ted Darling and his team are on the case.The man randomly targets young women and abducts them from busy supermarket car parks. He's armed with a knife and is clearly highly trained in how to handle it.Ever-dwindling police resources make the manhunt harder, even though the attacker clearly doesn't care whether or not he's caught... -
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The Death of Friends by Michael Nava
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsWinner of six Lambda Literary awards, the Henry Rios mystery series is iconic. Originally published during the darkest years of the AIDS epidemic in the gay community, The Death of Friends received extraordinary praise both as a mystery and an eloquent work of witness... -
Music of the Soul by Annabella Michaels
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsBesides his family, music had always been the most important thing in Carter Greene’s life. Having a career in music was everything he had ever dreamed of. That was until the terrible night when he nearly lost everything. Carter can’t get the image of one particular man out of his mind; the man who found him in his darkest moment... -
Rialto by Jocelynn Drake, Rinda Elliott
Someone has it out for Rialto. Ian Banner is loving his hectic life. He’s newly married, ready to start a family, and opening a new restaurant. All his dreams are coming true. The last thing he needs is a problem with his restaurant. But when one attack after another comes, he grows convinced he has another enemy... -
Jem and Tean: Guys Gone Wild by Gregory Ashe
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsJem and Tean: Guys Gone Wild is a collection of short stories. It includes the following:“First Dates”A prequel to The Lamb and the Lion books, this short story shows Jem and Tean as they are set up on blind dates—with disastrous results.“Cheap Seats”Jem and Tean go to the movies. Jem insists it’s an epic bromance date. Tean insists they’re just casual acquaintances... -
Bandit & Coyote's Passion by Ciara St. James
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBandit has lived with a secret for half his life. One that only a couple of people know. As much as he loves his life and his MC family, he’s terrified to reveal it. What if he does and they desert him? He’ll never be able to stand it if that happens. It isn’t the only secret he has. The second one is as much of a risk as the first, maybe more... -
All the Battles We Surrender by Garry Michael
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTime. That was what Sawyer Montgomery thought he had until he realized that it was running out. Now, all he wanted to do was right a wrong from three years ago. He made a vow to spend what little time he had left with Hawkins, the only man he ever loved. He would try everything to penetrate Hawkins’ armor before it was too late. Time... -
Wilde Fire by Lucy Lennox
Otto: Seth Walker was my first love and I always swore he’d be my last. Even after he moved away our senior year in high school, we vowed to reunite after graduation. But when he suddenly broke things off without explanation and crushed my heart, it was my turn to run. After a decade in the navy, I’ve finally come home ready to move on with my life as Hobie’s newest firefighter... -
When I'm Old and Grey by L.M. Krier
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDI Ted Darling doesn't like coincidences. There are too many for comfort surrounding his latest case. They're spilling over into his private life, too, when some toxic family secrets are uncovered. A serial killer appears to be targeting vulnerable elderly people in care homes and despatching them in the most cynical way. Ted and his team are struggling to get a lead on who the killer really is... -
Body and Soul by Patricia Logan
More than ten years ago, a series of train bombings devastated railways throughout Europe. Strange poetry sent to local newspapers right before each bombing, confounded investigators at the time. In one of only a handful of failed covert missions, Jarrett had been sent into North Korea to take out the bomber... -
In Dog We Trust by Neil S. Plakcy
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsan alternate cover edition can be found hereAfter a bad divorce and a brief prison term for computer hacking, 42-year-old Steve Levitan has returned to his home town of Stewart’s Crossing and taken a part-time job as an adjunct professor of English at his alma mater, Eastern College... -
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Rag and Bone by Michael Nava
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOne of the most highly acclaimed writers in the mystery genre "explores new emotional depths" in this last Henry Rios novel. The gay Mexican-American attorney, after the loss of his lover, must face his own mortality while recovering from a heart attack-and reach out to a family he didn't know he had... -
Noble by Annabella Stone
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRed Squadron is the tip of the spear in the war against global terrorism. Navy SEAL Commander, Noble Bauer, leads the JASOC Taskforce and knows his team won’t be complete until he finds a Communications Specialist. He knows just the man for the job. The only problem is can he get him to listen... -
Ghost of Christmas Present by Pandora Pine
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWith only a week until Christmas, Detective Jude Byrne is wrapping up final preparations for his family’s celebration. He’s made a list and checked it twice, bought presents, planned the neighborhood cookie exchange, and hung mistletoe. Jude’s got a handle on everything, that is, until his son asks if his grandfather is coming to celebrate with them—a man Jude hasn’t seen in six years... -
Armor: A Firsts and Forever Series Novella by Alexa Land
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDante Dombruso has always been his family’s armor. It’s his job to keep them safe. But he feels he failed them eighteen months ago, when a mysterious arsonist set a fire intended to wipe the Dombrusos off the map. Now Dante is driven to make things right, yet with each day that passes, the trail grows colder and his frustration increases... -
Modern Warfare by Valerie Vaughn
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsCovert Affairs M/M Romance Book Two Navigating a new relationship is never easy, but Deputy Director Syler Perrin has the uniquely hair-raising privilege of doing it with one Special Agent Arthur Dufault, premiere CIA operative and all around menace... -
Daddy Detectives Episode 1: A Tyler and Ian Jamison Story by April Wilson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis is the first installment in a new series for private investigators Tyler and Ian Jamison. Our heroes are adjusting to life as a married couple and are now parents of newborn twins. While the guys are enjoying paternity leave, their administrative assistant, Kimi, comes to them with a personal emergency... -
Interwoven by Ripley Hayes
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDaniel Owen has spent the best part of ten years renovating his house when he finds the cellar. By falling into it. The mysterious cellar has a mysterious door, and behind the mysterious door is a mysterious box … and in the box … there are clues to the shocking history of Daniel’s beloved home town. A cold case is occupying Mal Kent’s time. A notorious car thief is released from prison... -
A Mean Season by Marshall Thornton
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDom Reilly is back. In this follow up to Year of the Rat, Dom helps clear three men wrongly convicted of rape while also following a pet project—the twenty-year-old case of a man accused of killing his lover in 1976. Meanwhile, Dom gets wind that someone is looking for him. A private detective from Chicago... -
King's Gambit by Aiden Bates, Ali Lyda
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsOld crimes never wash away…I can never make up for the things I did while deep in the gang life. It doesn’t matter how much I've changed. Rory will never see past it.Things burn hot between us, but he's far too good for a bad guy like me.I don't date, and Rory is the kind of guy that deserves more than one night. But for him I might be ready to change my rules. If he can ever accept my past... -
Grinding by Sean Ashcroft
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTwo childhood best friends. One accidental fake engagement. One Labrador puppy. One week to fall in love.When Harvey runs into his childhood best friend—literally—on the way into Otter Bay for his cousin's wedding, he doesn't plan to end up playing the part of the guy's fiancé... -
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Point and Shoot by Patricia Logan
Thayne Wolfe and Jarrett Evans have been working together for nearly a year. Now, living together as well, their relationship has taken on a whole new meaning for both men. It seems that danger has always been a part of their lives in the ATF but when SAC Stanger sends them to a relatively routine crime scene, things quickly get complicated... -
Puzzle by Nora Phoenix
Branson loves his job as an analyst for the CIA. Working on the investigation into the assassination of the president is fascinating, and even more so when Ryder, a geeky forensic accountant without a filter, joins the team.But Ryder doesn’t seem to like Branson. At all. And when he explains to Branson why, Branson is forced to face an uncomfortable truth in the mirror Ryder holds up... -
Second Wind by Aimee Nicole Walker
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSecond wind: a new strength or energy to continue something that is an effort. After an amicable divorce, Lincoln Huxley is ready to embrace the sexuality he repressed for more than two decades. Rush Holden is no longer willing to settle for closeted men or those who don’t share his dreams of marriage and fatherhood. A chance encounter on a lakeside pier is the second wind they both need... -
The Christmas Summons (Wild Heart Ranch) by Kelly Fox
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom USA Today Bestselling Author Kelly Fox comes a Wild Heart Ranch Christmas novella. I’ve loved Gael Hernandez from the moment I laid eyes on him. We had a moment back in the summer, but he needed time to recover from the traumatic events that reshaped his family.It’s now Christmas, and I think my talented shoemaker is finally ready to let me love him for the rest of his life... -
His First Surrender by Max Walker
SAM CLARK Family, friends, and video games. The three things that define my life. When a fourth variable gets added in the form of a smoldering detective named Rocky Hudson, suddenly everything changes. Life isn’t as simple anymore, and it begins to start feeling like a new world is opening up to me. A new world filled with firsts... -
Forbidden Lover by Jocelynn Drake
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDevlin Relic was off limits.The sweet man had already lost a husband and nearly lost his life when someone put a contract on his head last year.He needed to focus on raising his adopted son and finding a nice, normal man.Kai was anything but nice and normal.He was an assassin, and that did not fit into Dev’s neat and tidy life... -
One Vote for Murder: Dr. Maxwell Thornton Murder Mysteries by S.C. Wynne
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsFrenemies and psychopaths keep life interesting. If they don't kill you, that is.Maxwell foolishly hoped things might settle down once he found the perfect new location for his medical practice.Not. So. Much.After a shocking revelation, Maxwell finally knows why River Martin hates him with a passion. And River isn't willing to let bygones be bygones. To put it mildly... -
One Vote for Murder by S.C. Wynne
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrenemies and psychopaths keep life interesting. If they don't kill you, that is.Maxwell foolishly hoped things might settle down once he found the perfect new location for his medical practice.Not. So. Much.After a shocking revelation, Maxwell finally knows why River Martin hates him with a passion. And River isn't willing to let bygones be bygones. To put it mildly... -
Zenith by Eli Easton, R.J. Scott
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA killer haunts Prophet, and this time it’s personalThe discovery of a body at the Thompson Cabins sets off a chain of events that hits too close to home for Sheriff Gabriel Thompson. When his brother Sam becomes a prime suspect in the murder investigation, Gabriel is forced to keep secrets from Tiber and call in outside help as he fights to prove Sam’s innocence... -
His Protector: a First Love, M/M Romance by Sue Brown
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhat kind of courage does it take to travel two thousand miles just to say hello to a man who doesn’t know you exist? At thirty years old and never been kissed, Walker is about to find out. After a rocky start to his life in the agency, newly trained operative Walker takes the biggest chance of his life before his first mission. He returns to J.T... -
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Yellow, Volume 02 by Makoto Tateno
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsYellow Volume 2 marks the return of our heroes Goh and Taki to infiltrate the Japanese narcotics trade. This time, they're after your garden variety heroin that's being "floated" to Japan in a most unique way... -
Hit the Brakes by Beth Bolden
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsCan they fake it til Tate makes it?Tate Ward is in a bind. His food truck hasn’t been the runaway success he’d always dreamt it would be. When he tries to join a new food truck collective to gain a larger following, his sales aren’t even high enough to win a spot. What he needs is a high profile endorsement—and he knows just the guy.Tate hasn’t seen Chase Riley since high school... -
Fire and Glass by Andrew Grey
State Trooper Casey Bombaro works too hard to have time for a love life, never mind a family. But when a missing persons case leads him to three scared kids and eventually their uncle—an old friend from Casey’s college days—all that changes.Bertie Riley hasn’t seen his troubled sister, Jen, or his niece and nephews in years. Now suddenly Jen is gone and Bertie is all the kids have...Categorized as:
mystery queer second chances contemporary m-m dual-pov friends to lovers hurt-comfort -
Kiss Marry Kill by S.C. Wynne
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsSnakes don’t only crawl in the grass.River Martin has begun to reveal his true motives for being in Rainy Dale, and, shocker, it’s not good news for Maxwell.If Maxwell is going to go to war with River, he’ll need people on his side. In his quest to be more of a people person, he’s roped into attending the wedding of one of his young patients, Janelle Raiden... -
In Sequence by Cole McCade
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsABOUT THIS EPISODE The Golden Ratio killer resurfaces in California to target a former victim, and this time the case takes Malcolm and Seong-Jae hunting deep into his past, searching for connections between victim and killer that may reveal his identity... -
Snow Storm by Davidson King
The city of Haven Hart rests under the heel of Christopher Manos. He reigns over the most dangerous and deadliest citizens as the most powerful crime boss the city has seen in generations. Yet, for the last five years, the harshest edges of his nature have been tempered by the loving devotion of his husband, Snow, and the nephew Christopher adores like a son... -
Posies and Poison by Wendy Meadows
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsBrenda Sheffield can’t believe her luck when she finds out that the family business, The Sheffield Bed and Breakfast, has been handed down to her upon the death of a relative. For too long, she’s been idle – a new challenge is precisely what she needs... -
Killer Bond by Jocelynn Drake, Rinda Elliott
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDaniel Hendricks wants a vacation. Ward Security’s accountant and resident code breaker just needs a little R&R from the chaos and usual shenanigans of the office. But what was supposed to be a sexy vacation hook-up explodes in his face when he’s mistaken for a rogue secret agent... -
Baby's Got Blue Eyes by L.M. Krier
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsSomeone is dumping bodies on DI Ted Darling's patch and he's not happy. Ted's a good solid copper, in an old-fashioned way, with an excellent clear-up rate. He also happens to be gay and has his own unique way of dealing with any prejudice that brings him. But this killer seems to be running effortless rings round him and every promising lead just takes him up another blind alley... -
Stacking the Deck by Charlie Cochet
Ex-Special Forces Communications Sergeant Jacopo “Jack” Constantino knows a thing or two about communications technology. As head of Cyber Security at Four Kings Security, Jack spends his days working with high-tech systems. Life for Jack is pretty uneventful—despite working with his brothers-in-arms—and he finds himself longing for a little excitement.Be careful what you wish for... -
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Hanging the Stars by Rhys Ford
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHalf Moon Bay: Book Two Angel Daniels grew up hard, one step ahead of the law and always looking over his shoulder. A grifter's son, he’d learned every con and trick in the book but ached for a normal life. Once out on his own, Angel returns to Half Moon Bay where he once found… and then lost… love. Now, Angel's life is a frantic mess of schedules and chaos... -
Turnabout by Laurel Greer
“Auden and Carter are the swoony heroes I didn’t know I needed in my life! Turnabout is spectacular, and everyone should read it.” USA Today bestselling author Sarina BowenI don’t have time for an unplanned visit home to help out in my father’s struggling letterpress shop...Categorized as:
second chances height-difference queer m-m contemporary length-medium explicit-open-door cold hero -
Summer Drifter by R.J. Scott
One man craves family, the other isolation; neither of them was searching for forever love. Experienced and much-in-demand horse trainer Levi doesn't need or want people. With his horse and dog at his side, he lives out of his trailer and trains horses in the summer to earn just enough to head south for winter... -
Slay Ride by Davidson King
Christmas is a time for joy, family, and friends to gather around the tree and fill their hearts with love. Unfortunately, there are some people who don’t deserve happiness during the holidays. Mason keeps to himself. His best friend, JJ, is the only one he chooses to be close to, plus his job keeps him busy. Excitement isn’t something he needs or wants in his life... -
His Warrior: a Second Chance M/M Protector Romance by Sue Brown
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsWill an alpha guy like Si willingly give his heart to Howie for a second chance at love? Si Raines thought his plans were set for the future. He’d marry his fiancé, the bar-owner Howie Gray, continue with his covert ops career, and when he was ready to retire from that, find a new job and settle down to life together... -
Skin and Bone by T.A. Moore
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDigging Up Bones: Book Two Cloister Witte and his K-9 partner, Bourneville, find the lost and bring them home. But the job doesn’t always end there. Janet Morrow, a young trans woman, lies in a coma after wandering away from her car during a storm. But just because Cloister found the young tourist doesn’t mean she’s home...
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