Queer Reads: Riley Nash
For day 11 of “this book is hella gay and you should read it,” I bring your Riley Nash.
Riley Nash has written 7 novels and a handful of novellas, and they are all fantastic. His characters have some fucked up shit happen to them, from surviving abuse to struggling with gang violence, poverty to mental health issues. These books aren’t “dark” in the “oh hey, it’s a serial killer” (legit a whole subgenre of mm romance), but they are definitely dark in the angsty, emotional way.
Featured in the little graphic are the four books found in the Water, Air, Earth, Fire series, and the two Dirty Strays books. Hold Me Under is about Victor, a former swimming champion with a horrific past and Ethan, the fake boyfriend hired for PR who ends up helping him heal and find true love. Make Me Fall features Gray, Victor’s old family lawyer who feels really bad about the events preceding book 1, and Jonah, the law student who is really terrible at it but who is the most endearing character ever. Show Me Wonders, my personal favorite of the four, is about Oliver, a single dad who likes knitting and his kid, and Jackson, a convicted felon with a heart of gold. Oliver and Jackson get stuck in a cave-in while riding a train, and are the only two survivors. Teach Me To Sin is a MMM book featuring Colson, who is Gray’s asshole ex, Alek, Victor’s childhood friend and swimming teammate, and Benji, a little chaos gremlin who deserves nice things (Colson and Alek. Benji deserves Colson and Alek.) The other two books in the little graphic are a duo (which I have hopes might become a trio) set in a trailer park in north eastern Colorado. Scout, from Bad Dogs, is the little brother of Jackson, from Show Me Wonders, but otherwise the books are unconnected.
Aside from gut-wrenching emotional turmoil, Nash does a fantastic job with found family, overcoming said emotional turmoil, and finding love even when life is full of lemons. Nash also is a own-voices trans author, and the novella Becoming Light is the softest, sweetest, hottest story about a guy recovering from top surgery and his best friend’s dad, who is very helpful to his recovery (wink wink).
Remember folks, read queer all year.
