Home Run Series by Cole Bates

Eighteen-year-old Alex Matthews is smart, good-looking, the star of most of the plays his high school puts on, and gay. Since he came out of the closet in middle school he’s been tormented by the same group of boys he goes to high school with, the jocks on the baseball team who have shown him no mercy. He keeps to himself as much as he can and doesn’t even tell his mother who raised him alone and has been his best friend... moreEighteen-year-old Alex Matthews is smart, good-looking, the star of most of the plays his high school puts on, and gay. Since he came out of the closet in middle school he’s been tormented by the same group of boys he goes to high school with, the jocks on the baseball team who have shown him no mercy. He keeps to himself as much as he can and doesn’t even tell his mother who raised him alone and has been his best friend. So, when his mother meets and marries the father of one of those very same boys an Alex is faced with a choice between breaking his mother’s heart and living under the same roof as one of his tormenters, he chooses the latter. Now the question he faces is how to survive with Ryan Reed, one of the most popular guys on the baseball team living in the room next door. Alex tries to ignore him both at home and at school, but in spite of all of the years of strife between them, Alex begins to see something in Ryan that goes way beyond his hot body, gorgeous face and seemingly black soul. Can Alex save Ryan from himself, and if so, at what cost to his own life? Ryan Reed is good-looking, athletic and one of the most popular seniors in school. He’s grown up with a single father so most of what he’s learned about life was how a “real man” would handle things. He has it in his head that masculinity also means keeping your emotions tucked away where no one can see them and they can’t be used against you. He’s learned how to channel his feelings into baseball and any angst that’s left over is used spent in the torture he and his friend’s heap on his new step-brother, Alex Matthews. Picking on Alex is not as much of an option now however since his father has warned him not to. But not participating in the actual bullying and doing something to stop it are two different things and Ryan’s not ready to risk his reputation to save a boy he’s not even sure he likes. When Ryan’s future is threatened by failing out of high school he’s surprised when the most unlikely of all people steps up and offers to help him. Alex is willing to tutor him and Ryan is willing to try and use his step-brother’s brilliant brain to get what he wants. What he hadn’t bargained for was how spending so much time with Alex would change the way he looked at things. He begins to realize that although Alex doesn’t have the physical size and strength that he does, he has something Ryan does not. Alex is brave and even after everything he’s gone through, he’s good. Ryan goes from wanting to take advantage of his step-brother’s kindness to actually wanting to stand up to his friends and protect him. But will he be able to find the courage to do that and in the process will his most tightly guarded secret be revealed? Home Run is approximately 30,000 words in length and includes steamy gay bonus stories less

Previously published as First Base. This book is the sequel to Home Run by Cole Bates In middle and high school, Ryan was one of the masculine jocks who tormented Alex Mathews because he was different. Alex could never have imagined then that he and Ryan would become live-in lovers during college. Both have blossomed where they can be themselves openly, but at home, Ryan is still in the closet to his parents... morePreviously published as First Base. This book is the sequel to Home Run by Cole Bates In middle and high school, Ryan was one of the masculine jocks who tormented Alex Mathews because he was different. Alex could never have imagined then that he and Ryan would become live-in lovers during college. Both have blossomed where they can be themselves openly, but at home, Ryan is still in the closet to his parents. When Ryan keeps putting off telling his family that he is gay, Alex wonders how long he is willing to keep their relationship a secret. Is Ryan delaying the day of reckoning with his father because he has fallen for another jock on his baseball team? Alex decides to transform himself into the more macho man that he thinks Ryan wants, but nothing seems to be helping their relationship. Will Ryan lose his lover because he is too afraid to risk his father’s reaction? When he searches his soul, which will Alex value more: love or living in the sunshine? “This was such a charming and very sweet romance. The characters were engaging, loveable, and well depicted,” says one reviewer. less

Alex Matthews was tormented by the same group of boys all through middle and high school for being “different” which in translation meant being gay. So who would have ever thought that he’d end up falling in love with one of them and happier than he ever imagined? He and Ryan have settled into their shared apartment and shared life, away at college and away from the stressors of a close-minded small town and most of all, Ryan’s close-minded father... moreAlex Matthews was tormented by the same group of boys all through middle and high school for being “different” which in translation meant being gay. So who would have ever thought that he’d end up falling in love with one of them and happier than he ever imagined? He and Ryan have settled into their shared apartment and shared life, away at college and away from the stressors of a close-minded small town and most of all, Ryan’s close-minded father. Alex is willing to give Ryan some time, but when Ryan seems to have put telling his father what he really wants out of life way on the backburner, Alex begins to worry. He wonders if he’s losing Ryan to one of the hot jocks on Ryan’s baseball team and with the help of his close friend Harry, he tries to “transform” himself into what he thinks Ryan might really be looking for. When nothing seems to be working Alex will have to examine his own soul and decide if living with Ryan in the closet from his parents will hurt more or less than the hole that losing him will leave in Alex’s soul. Ryan Reed is as popular in college as he was in high school, and surprisingly, everyone he knows at NYU knows he’s gay. He feels free and happy and most of all content that he can live with the man he loves and be himself without feeling like he needs to hide behind a reputation that was never really his to begin with. At least as long as he stays in the city he feels that way. Back home Ryan knows that his father still believes he’s raised a masculine jock that leaves a string of broken hearted women everywhere he goes. Alex is pressuring him to tell his father about them, and even considering issuing an ultimatum that if Ryan continues to cling to the lies he’s held onto for so long, he will end up losing the only person in the world that has ever loved and accepted him for exactly who he was. Ryan’s going to be forced to grow up quickly and make a choice that could alter the very course of his life and Alex’s. less

Previously published as First Base. This book is the sequel to Home Run by Cole Bates In middle and high school, Ryan was one of the masculine jocks who tormented Alex Mathews because he was different. Alex could never have imagined then that he and Ryan would become live-in lovers during college. Both have blossomed where they can be themselves openly, but at home, Ryan is still in the closet to his parents... morePreviously published as First Base. This book is the sequel to Home Run by Cole Bates In middle and high school, Ryan was one of the masculine jocks who tormented Alex Mathews because he was different. Alex could never have imagined then that he and Ryan would become live-in lovers during college. Both have blossomed where they can be themselves openly, but at home, Ryan is still in the closet to his parents. When Ryan keeps putting off telling his family that he is gay, Alex wonders how long he is willing to keep their relationship a secret. Is Ryan delaying the day of reckoning with his father because he has fallen for another jock on his baseball team? Alex decides to transform himself into the more macho man that he thinks Ryan wants, but nothing seems to be helping their relationship. Will Ryan lose his lover because he is too afraid to risk his father’s reaction? When he searches his soul, which will Alex value more: love or living in the sunshine? “This was such a charming and very sweet romance. The characters were engaging, loveable, and well depicted,” says one reviewer. less