NEW RELEASE
Book Title: Armed and Ready for Love
Author: Dann Hazel
Publisher: Original Press
Cover Artist: Josh Fippen
Release Date: November 6, 2024
Tense/POV: third person, past tense, single POV
Genres: Dark MM historical romance
Tropes: Small town romance, second chance, hurt/comfort
Themes: Coming out, forgiveness
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 91 509 words/ 332 pages
This is the first book in the series, Aphrodite in Disguise, but may be read as a standalone.
It does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited
We all live obsessed by our fiery passions. And yet, we remain so far from satisfaction.
Blurb
Jonathan Wren survives growing up in the South amid extreme homophobia and the ravages of a pandemic. When he meets a charismatic young man in a gay bathhouse, he falls in love, despite his best friend’s warning that looking for love in a bathhouse is a fool’s game.
Several years pass after realizing his friend was right. True love remains as elusive in Jonathan’s life as snow in Miami.
Until he meets Ryan during a trip to Savannah.
But even then, there are obstacles in his way.
Jonathan struggles with his own self-loathing, partially brought on by Andre Fast’s rejection of him. Andre was a childhood friend who, after gaining fame and fortune, delivers condemnation and hatred toward gay men.
Jonathan wonders how he can ever attain his “happily ever after.”
Armed and Ready for Love is a dark gay romance, a story of the sadness of love lost, the betrayal of old friends, the torment of obsession and the frustrations of searching for the right man.
Excerpt
Tommy was tall. Thin but muscular. Not, he said when Jon shamelessly commented on his physique, from consciously bulking up, but because he enjoyed yardwork, sailing, swimming and biking. Like Jon, Tommy remained in his hometown to attend college—he was a junior at the College of Charleston—and while he didn’t live at home, as Jon did, he visited his parents frequently.
“I’m an only child. And they’re doting parents, for sure. There’s something of a co-dependency in that dynamic, I’ll admit.”
He wore round, wire-framed glasses, a big turn-on, as Jonathan was increasingly attracted to the intellectual type. He noticed a sexy twinkle in Tommy’s playful eyes.
Jonathan continued to sip his third gin and tonic while Tommy enjoyed a glass of Pinot Grigio.
“Who was that guy with you when I walked in?” Tommy’s feigned nonchalance was not especially effective at concealing his suspicion.
“He’s a friend of mine. From college.”
“Close friends?”
Jonathan smirked. “I don’t know exactly what you mean by that.”
“Sorry,” Tommy said. “I have a tendency to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“Let me put it this way. We’re close, but not intimate.”
Predictably, the two of them wound up in Jonathan’s room. Right away, Jon began crawling all over Tommy with pent-up desire.
“Hold on, cowboy!” Tommy said with a friendly laugh. He placed his glasses on the table next to the condoms. “I’m flattered. Truly I am. But how about we take it slow? Maybe it has something to do with my being from genteel Charleston, but I’m an incurable romantic. I don’t want to jump your bones before we’ve barely said hello.”
Jonathan wanted to say, sarcastically: But you stumbled into a gay bathhouse. But Jon felt such harshness would probably offend him.
The tension settled into comfort as the men talked, this time about dreams and goals and the progress they’d made in coming out. “Mom and Dad don’t know,” Tommy admitted. “Whose parents do? But I’ve never told them I was straight, either. I think they suspect I’m gay because they never ask about girlfriends anymore. That’s a relief, but I feel like a stranger to them. Still, I do believe they love me—and would continue to love me, even if I laid it all out for them. But why risk it?” He shrugged, then leaned into a common rationalization among closeted gay men. “My sex life is my own business.”
Jonathan nodded with perfect understanding.
“What about your parents, Jonathan?”
Jonathan chuckled glumly. “No one in my family knows. I’m as big a wimp as they come. After hearing Mom tell the story of my father’s Navy experience with a gay man in New Orleans, I knew to keep my mouth shut.”
Tommy’s face lit up. He snuggled even closer in the small bed. “Do tell!”
About the Author
Dann Hazel has been writing both fiction and nonfiction for more than twenty years.
Besides writing romance, he has taught high school English and journalism, college psychology and human sexuality, directed federal grants and worked as a therapist in a psychiatric hospital. His fiction genre interests include thrillers, horror, literary and gay romance. He has published the Some Like It Haute Gay Romance Series, including Room for Dessert, My Own Private Biscuit and Lonely Diner.
Nonfiction works include Witness: Gay and Lesbian Clergy Report from the Front and Moving On: The Gay Man’s Guide for Coping When a Relationship Ends.
Dann’s personal interests include reading and writing, cinema, jogging, Broadway, keeping abreast of current events and travel.
Currently, Dann lives in Central Florida with his husband, Josh, and their American Eskimo canine, Flurry.
Social Media Links
Blog/Website | Facebook | Instagram| Twitter
Giveaway
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