Books like 'Twist and Shout'

Readers who enjoyed Twist and Shout by Gabriel (AO3) & Standbyme also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

historical  gay romance  queer  20th century  angst  tortured hero

  • A Kingdom by the Sea by Anna Green

    A Kingdom by the Sea by Anna Green

    Rated: 4.82 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 19 ratings
    The final volume of The Heart Rate of a Mouse trilogy.In November 1978, over a year has passed since music icon Ryan Ross announced his retirement from the public eye. He is far from being forgotten, however, as his musical influence can be heard whenever Brendon Roscoe starts singing on the radio. As the frontman of the upcoming band His Side, Brendon was famously discovered by Ross...
  • An Exaltation of Larks by Suanne Laqueur

    An Exaltation of Larks by Suanne Laqueur

    Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 34 ratings
    September 11, 1973: Eleven-year-old Alejandro Penda watches from his apartment window as Santiago, Chile falls to a military coup, destroying his family and his childhood. Arriving alone in America, he’s taken in by the Larks: a prominent family in the town of Guelisten...
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  • Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

    Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 2 of 5
    Behind closed doors [?] · 97 ratings
    James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel about love and the fear of love is set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris.In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality...
  • Over the Tracks by Anna Green

    Over the Tracks by Anna Green

    Rated: 4.53 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    The first volume of The Heart Rate of a Mouse trilogy.In the summer of 1974, musician Ryan Ross embarks on an exhausting tour in support of his band's breakthrough album. He finds himself struggling to live up to the pressure and expectations of sudden fame in the chaos of endless shows and interviews...
  • Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

    Lie With Me by Philippe Besson

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 49 ratings
    The award-winning, internationally bestselling novel about a love affair between two teenage boys in a provincial high school in 1984 France, brilliantly translated by acclaimed writer and actress Molly Ringwald. While passing through the village where he grew up, the narrator, Philippe, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love, Thomas...
  • Names for the Dawn by C.L. Beaumont

    Names for the Dawn by C.L. Beaumont

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 14 ratings
    Seasoned Park Ranger Will Avery has found his home in the Denali wilderness, cherishing his solitary routines for the decade leading up to 1991. The trade-off that no one knows of his identity as a transgender man feels worth it for the comforting assurance he finds in the towering glaciers...
  • To Trust Man On His Oath by K.J. Charles

    To Trust Man On His Oath by K.J. Charles

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 28 ratings
    A Will Darling Adventures interlude.Set a week after the ending of The Sugared Game (so containsmild spoilers for that book)...
  • A Scarcity of Condors by Suanne Laqueur

    A Scarcity of Condors by Suanne Laqueur

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 10 ratings
    Juleón "Jude" Tholet has survival in his DNA. His father, Cleon, lived through imprisonment and torture during Pinochet's military coup in Chile. His mother, Penny, risked everything to gain her husband's freedom and flee the country with their newborn son...
    Categorized as:
    angst  queer  m-m  historical  mystery  abuse  washington  usa
  • Eryx: A Spartan Tale by Jaclyn Osborn

    Eryx: A Spartan Tale by Jaclyn Osborn

    Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 11 ratings
    My father once told me, above all else... Live and die for Sparta. Honor. Loyalty. Duty. These were the things that mattered most. And then Axios came into my life, teaching me other lessons: humility, brotherhood... love. There were moments when the brutal training stripped me of my humanity, where it turned me into a mindless beast of flesh and muscle set to destroy everything in my way...
  • Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen

    Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Private Detective Evander "Andy" Mills has been drawn back to the Lavender House estate for a missing person case. Pat, the family butler, has been volunteering for a book service, one that specializes in mailing queer books to a carefully guarded list of subscribers...
    Categorized as:
    queer  mystery  historical  m-m  length-medium
  • Skybound by Aleksandr Voinov

    Skybound by Aleksandr Voinov

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Germany, 1945. The Third Reich is on its knees as Allied forces bomb Berlin to break the last resistance. Yet on an airfield near Berlin, the battle is far from over for a young mechanic, Felix, who’s attached to a squadron of fighter pilots. He’s especially attached to fighter ace Baldur Vogt, a man he admires and secretly loves...
  • A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

    A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    In the golden 1900s, Harry Cane, a shy, eligible gentleman of leisure is drawn from a life of quiet routine into courting and marrying Winnie, eldest daughter of the fatherless Wells clan, who are not quite as respectable as they would appear. They settle by the sea and have a daughter and conventional marriage does not seem such a tumultuous change after all...
  • 夜畫帳 第三卷 by Byeonduck

    夜畫帳 第三卷 by Byeonduck

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 15 ratings
    白羅謙一直以為自己是不得已才留在尹府。為了先生的官途,他才重拾春宮畫筆,甚至不惜委身尹勝浩,付出比他想像更多的代價。可被他寄託了所有的先生,卻似乎並不這麼想。比起對他呼來喚去動手動腳的尹少爺,先生那不經意間流露出的輕視,更傷人。他在尹勝浩帶給他的肉體歡愉之中漸漸沉淪,本以為這一切的本質都是傷害,可當隱隱感受到尹勝浩對他流露出的在意與占有慾時,少年越發感到迷惘……本書特色※韓國話題性耽美漫畫第三卷堂堂登場!※韓國Lezhin...
  • Only You by Leta Blake

    Only You by Leta Blake

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 13 ratings
    Join Peter Mandel on his final steps to love in Only You, the highly-anticipated final book of Leta Blake's ’90s Coming of Age series.Despite the lingering wounds of his past relationship, Peter is ready to take a chance on finding a faithful love and embracing his true self.Peter and Daniel explore their connection despite Daniel's complicated home life...
  • A Mean Season by Marshall Thornton

    A Mean Season by Marshall Thornton

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Dom 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...
  • Crimson by Casey Morales

    Crimson by Casey Morales

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    (Alternate cover edition of ASIN B0CHHBZJ6C.) What if two Ivy League boys were dropped into a James Bond movie? Harvard University, 1941 Will Shaw and his friends are typical American students, still celebrating the end of the Depression and dreaming about a future filled with success. The war in Europe is far away and someone else's concern. Until it isn't...
    Categorized as:
    queer  20th century  m-m  mystery  military  war  historical  audiobook
  • Hidden Treasures by Marshall Thornton

    Hidden Treasures by Marshall Thornton

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    It’s about a dress. A valuable blue sequined dress worn by a famed actress in a film from the 1940s. For some reason everyone thinks video storeowner Noah Valentine has it. Which might not be a big deal except that it’s connected to the murder of a prominent Hollywood costumer.In the second of the Pinx Video Mysteries, Noah attempts to solve the mystery of the dress...
  • The Charioteer by Mary Renault

    The Charioteer by Mary Renault

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 34 ratings
    After enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans’ hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance...
    Categorized as:
    queer  20th century  angst  historical  m-m  war  military  caretaking
  • Midnight Flit by Elin Gregory

    Midnight Flit by Elin Gregory

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Miles Siward and Briers Allerdale return for another thrilling Jazz Age adventure.“Silk stockings on expenses.” Miles’s aristocratic mother has information of importance to the British Government and he must escort her home from Bucharest immediately, but their plans go violently awry and Miles and Lady Siward find themselves on a train to Belgrade - where Miles’s lover is posted...
  • Deck the Halls in Secret Agents by Aster Glenn Gray

    Deck the Halls in Secret Agents by Aster Glenn Gray

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 7 ratings
    Christmas Eve, 1991. The Soviet Union is on the rocks, and so is George Douglass's career in espionage. Nonetheless, the American agent is wading through a blizzard on one last mission.But when George emerges from the snow at a supposedly abandoned chateau, it's lit up like a Christmas tree...
  • After Being Forced to Marry the Evil Star General by 顾三跃

    After Being Forced to Marry the Evil Star General by 顾三跃

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Zhao Yelan was born as a criminal s*ave and was rescued by the Third Prince. After years of painstaking efforts to put him on the throne, Zhao Yelan became a sycophantic minister whom everyone detested, but he was actually given a marriage by that person to general Yan Mingting, the lone star of Tiansha.The general caused the death of his own father, his mother, his wife, and his dog...
  • Unspeakable Acts by Jackson Marsh

    Unspeakable Acts by Jackson Marsh

    Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    "Death will come da capo, suddenly silent, and you will not hear your final applause. Fail us, and you die." Blackmail, a death threat and an opera. The Clearwater Foundation is to be launched with a charity gala at the City Opera House where Archer's old friend, Cadwell Roxton, is to star. But Roxton has a dark secret...
    Categorized as:
    queer  historical  mystery  m-m  victorian  length-medium
  • Now and Then by William Corlett

    Now and Then by William Corlett

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    Now. Christopher Metcalfe returns to his family home in Kent after the death of his father. Sorting through a box of memorabilia from his days at public school, Chris is suddenly confronted by the face that has haunted him for thirty years...
  • Separate Rooms by Pier Vittorio Tondelli

    Separate Rooms by Pier Vittorio Tondelli

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    Soon to be a major film adaptation by Luca Guadagnino, Separate Rooms is a masterpiece of Italian literature, and a heartbreaking portrait of love, grief, and the daily realities of being a gay man in 1980s Europe.Thomas, a young German musician, is dying. His older boyfriend, a renowned Italian writer named Leo, finds it impossible to watch the slow and inevitable demise of his lover...
  • Dublin Bay by John Patrick

    Dublin Bay by John Patrick

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 5 ratings
    In 1939, the world tumbles toward war and the lives of two young men will be forever changed.James Brennan grew up in the poorest of Dublin’s tenements, turning adversity to advantage wherever he could. But he’s nearly a man now—with a good education at that—and wants more from life than what he can get as a day laborer, or following his father into the factory...
  • When Skies Have Fallen by Debbie McGowan

    When Skies Have Fallen by Debbie McGowan

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    For many in war-torn 1944, love blossoms in the dance hall, and airman Arty Clarke is no exception. He’s a thinker and a dreamer; however, it’s not the beautiful, talented dancer in his arms—his best friend Jean—who inspires his dreams. For when his gaze meets that of Technical Sergeant Jim Johnson, Arty dares to imagine a different dance...
  • Till Death Do Us Part by Tangstory

    Till Death Do Us Part by Tangstory

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Set in early-20th century China, this story takes off in the port city of Tientsin (Tianjin) that is divided into lands called concessions and owned by several foreign powers. Shen Liangsheng is a charismatic and cunning playboy, a son of a rich businessman, who has profits as his top priority...
    Categorized as:
    queer  historical  m-m  war  contemporary  length-medium
  • How Long Has This Been Going On? by Ethan Mordden

    How Long Has This Been Going On? by Ethan Mordden

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    An epic novel depicting the changing landscape of gay life in modern America--beginning in 1949 and moving to the present day. Among the many characters who populate this dazzling trip are a policeman who becomes a legendary porn star, an acid-tongued lesbian bar owner, and a drag queen who, readers eventually learn, is the novel's true narrator...
  • Help Wanted by Marshall Thornton

    Help Wanted by Marshall Thornton

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    In the sixth Pinx Video Mystery, Noah is thrilled that it's been months and months since he's been involved in a murder... but then, the boys learn that Javier O'Shea (tall, dark and LAPD) has been arrested for theft of evidence. As the bodies pile up, they learn that Javier may, or may not, have run afoul of rogue cops at the notoriously corrupt Rampart Station...
    Categorized as:
    queer  mystery  humor  m-m  historical  audiobook
  • Cairo Malachi and the Adventure of the Silver Whistle by Samantha SoRelle

    Cairo Malachi and the Adventure of the Silver Whistle by Samantha SoRelle

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    “The first time I met the love of my life, he died in my arms.”Cairo Malachi, Conduit to the Spirits, is a liar, a thief, and a fraud. He may be building a reputation as one of the most fashionable mediums in London, but he doesn’t even believe in ghosts and has certainly never conjured one...
    Categorized as:
    queer  victorian  historical  m-m  length-short
  • Just a Little Seduction by Merry Farmer

    Just a Little Seduction by Merry Farmer

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    David Wirth has made it his life’s work to fight for the rights of those who cannot defend themselves and to navigate England’s choppy legal waters for fellow members of The Brotherhood. Tracking down the three villainous noblemen, including a powerful duke, who have masterminded a child kidnapping ring promises to be the pinnacle of his career seeking justice for the helpless...
    Categorized as:
    queer  victorian  historical  m-m  length-medium
  • Just a Little Madness by Merry Farmer

    Just a Little Madness by Merry Farmer

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Opposites attract and sparks fly, but can they be contained?Member of Parliament, Edward Archibald, lives in constant fear of being discovered as a gay man and having his life ruined because of it. He has avoided scandal in every way possible...until his brother runs off with a married duchess and kidnaps Lord Selby's son and heir...
  • Just a Little Mischief by Merry Farmer

    Just a Little Mischief by Merry Farmer

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Valet Xavier Lawrence hasn’t seen much of the world. So when his employer, the Duke of Selby, takes him along on a transatlantic voyage in pursuit of his missing son and heir, Xavier is thrilled with the opportunity. But the excitement over his first taste of salt air and the sea is nothing to the thrill of an opportunity for a secret affair...
    Categorized as:
    queer  victorian  historical  m-m  length-short
  • Just a Little Rivalry by Merry Farmer

    Just a Little Rivalry by Merry Farmer

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Solicitor John Dandie will go to the ends of the Earth for his friends and his clients. And in the case of Lord Blake Williamson, Duke of Selby, in the search for his missing son, the ends of the Earth just happen to be Long Island, New York. With Lady Selby finally cornered at her father’s seaside mansion, convincing the woman to return Lord Stanley should be child’s play...
    Categorized as:
    queer  victorian  historical  m-m  length-short
  • Sweet Honesty by Joan Vassar

    Sweet Honesty by Joan Vassar

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Atlanta, Georgia, 1950–Michael can’t believe his eyes as he watches the man he loves marry a woman from the back row of Mount Zion Baptist Church. When the beautiful couple is pronounced man and wife, he leaves his home in Georgia for the chance of a better life in New York City.Alexander is just trying to exist in Queens, New York...
  • The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua [成化十四年] by Meng Xi Shi, 梦溪石

    The Fourteenth Year of Chenghua [成化十四年] by Meng Xi Shi, 梦溪石

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    It is the fourteenth year of Chenghua.As the harem has Imperial Consort Wan, the Western Depot has a Commander named Wang Zhi. Crown Prince Zhu Youcheng is merely eight years old—and no one knows if he will be able to reach adulthood without issue...
    Categorized as:
    queer  historical  mystery  m-m  length-medium
  • Middle Ground by Ursula Zilinsky

    Middle Ground by Ursula Zilinsky

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 5 ratings
    Two males meet in a Nazi labour camp: half-Jewish teenager Tyl von Pankow, saved from the gas-chambers by the influence of his Prussian grandfather, and Johannes von Svestrom, war-wounded veteran of the Afrika Korps, now sentenced by Hitler to a terrible command...
  • Full Circle by Michael Thomas Ford

    Full Circle by Michael Thomas Ford

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    History professor Ned Brummel is living happily with his partner of twelve years in small-town Maine when he receives a phone call from his estranged friend--Jack--telling him that another friend--Andy--is very ill and possibly near death...
  • Putting on the Ritz by Joe Keenan

    Putting on the Ritz by Joe Keenan

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Putting on the...
  • The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault

    The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    Set in Greece of the 4th century BCE, The Mask of Apollo the actor Nikeratos. Thru the eyes of this warm, sympathetic & living character we experience the war-weary, self-searching world of his time. Always on his travels Niko, the tragedian, takes with him an antique mask of Apollo, a relic of the theater's golden age, which from being his mascot becomes by degrees his artistic conscience...
  • The Flower That Seems to Truly Dance by Saki Tsukahara

    The Flower That Seems to Truly Dance by Saki Tsukahara

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    "No one can know about these feelings. But at least I can think of you while I dance."It's the 16th year of the Showa era (1941), and Soutarou Kuramoto, the son of a distinguished family, is returning from his studies abroad with something on his mind. As a child, he told his best friend, Haroumi Asuma, "I hate the way you dance"...
    Categorized as:
    queer  historical  m-m  contemporary  length-short
  • Rebel by Sally Malcolm

    Rebel by Sally Malcolm

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 3 of 5
    Open door [?] · 10 ratings
    Falling in love is just the beginning...Samuel Hutchinson has lived his whole life in Rosemont, Rhode Island. And as far as he’s concerned, his future is fixed: complete his legal training, marry a respectable woman, and settle down to raise a family.But Sam never counted on meeting Nathaniel Tanner...
  • Forever Hold His Peace by Rebecca Cohen

    Forever Hold His Peace by Rebecca Cohen

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Sebastian and Anthony face an uncertain future together when accusations of witchcraft and a traitor in their midst threaten everything they’ve fought for.Playing the role of his twin sister Bronwyn, the wife of Anthony Redbourn, Earl of Crofton, is not an easy task, but Sebastian does it willing for them to be together...
    Categorized as:
    queer  historical  m-m  medieval  length-short
  • Eleventh Hour by Elin Gregory

    Eleventh Hour by Elin Gregory

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Borrowed from the Secret Intelligence Service cipher department to assist Briers Allerdale - a field agent returning to 1920s London with news of a dangerous anarchist plot - Miles Siward moves into a 'couples only' boarding house, posing as Allerdale’s 'wife'...
  • Counterpoint: Dylan's Story by Ruth Sims

    Counterpoint: Dylan's Story by Ruth Sims

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    At eighteen Dylan Rutledge has one music. He believes his destiny is to be the greatest composer of the rapidly approaching twentieth century. Only Laurence Northcliff, a young history master at The Venerable Bede School for Young Gentlemen, believes in Dylan’s talent and encourages his dream, not realizing Dylan is in love with him...
  • The Flight of the Heron by Historical Novel

    The Flight of the Heron by Historical Novel

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Diving into the historical turmoil of the Jacobite Uprising, 'The Flight of the Heron' by Historical Novel is a captivating historical novel that skillfully weaves together the intricacies of politics, loyalty, and love during this tumultuous period...
    Categorized as:
    queer  historical  war  m-m  length-short
  • Gemini by Michel Tournier

    Gemini by Michel Tournier

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Jean and Paul are identical twins. Outsiders, even their parents, cannot tell them apart, and call them Jean-Paul. The mysterious bond between them excludes all others; they speak their own language; they are one perfectly harmonious unit; they are, in all innocence, lovers.For Paul, this unity is paradise, but as they grow up Jean rebels against it...
    Categorized as:
    queer  20th century  m-m  incest  historical  length-long
  • On Wings of Song by Anne Barwell

    On Wings of Song by Anne Barwell

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A chance meeting they never forgot. Six years after meeting British soldier Aiden Foster during the Christmas Truce of 1914, Jochen Weber still finds himself thinking about Aiden, their shared conversation about literature, and Aiden’s beautiful singing voice. A visit to London gives Jochen the opportunity to search for Aiden, but he’s shocked at what he finds...
  • The Door Behind Us by John C. Houser

    The Door Behind Us by John C. Houser

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    It’s 1919, and Frank Huddleston has survived the battlefields of the Great War. A serious head injury has left him with amnesia so profound he must re-learn his name every morning from a note posted on the privy door. Gerald “Jersey" Rohn, joined the Army because he wanted to feel like a man, but he returned from the trenches minus a leg and with no goal for his life...
  • Man's World by Rupert Smith

    Man's World by Rupert Smith

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    Contrasting today’s blogs with diaries of the past, this novel follows two parallel narratives that are 50 years apart and vastly different, at least at first appearance. In modern-day London, Robert searches for fulfillment in a world of sex, drugs, designer clothes, and hip gay clubs, during which he records his experience on his blog...
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