Gay Romance Reader Recs
4June 24, 2015 by Anne Tenino
The Preliminaries
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As many of you know, I developed a poll asking people what books they’d recommend to brand-new readers of LGBTQ Romance (click here to take the survey—I’m leaving it up indefinitely, and I’ll update results occasionally—oh, and I’ve updated the questions, so feel free to take it again even if you already have, especially if you have other recs).
Now, I’m going to share some of the results.
The first result is that 99% of all the people who’ve taken the survey thus far (163 responses as of June 23, 2015) are recommending only M/M romance. If you have any, any titles you’d recommend for readers of lesbian romance, trans romance, asexual romance or anything else, please tell me. And yes, feel free to share the survey link and ask others to take it. Here’s the exact address: https://docs.google.com/a/annetenino.com/forms/d/189OFWbBpL5FyVuZj8o5B0c9kTZhy5J1n9QNYZ7A1Upg/viewform
Okay, here’s what you’ve been waiting for:
The results
As of June 23, 2015
The Top Ten (ish)
1. Cut and Run by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban (36 votes)
2. Promises by Marie Sexton (14)
3. Hot Head by Damon Suede (12)
4. Tigers and Devils, Sean Kennedy (9)
5. Tie (8 votes)
Bear, Otter and the Kid by TJ Klune
Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels
The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles
Too Stupid to Live by Anne Tenino
9. Hell and High Water by Charlie Cochet (7)
10. Tie (6 votes):
Tell Me it’s Real by TJ Klune
Widdershins by Jordan Hawk
Top Five (ish) Authors
By number of different titles recommended, 1 vote per title.
1. Amy Lane, with 16 separate recommendations.
2. Tie, 6 titles:
4. Tie, 5 titles:
Interesting, huh? Only two authors are mentioned both on the top titles list and the top authors list.
Anyway, those are the “big” results, but there are some other recommendations I thought you might be interested in. First, a number of respondents listed either authors only (implying any book by them would be a great starting point for new readers in gay romance), or series names only. This is the complete list of those mentions:
Authors:
Series:
Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon (recommended 5 times)
A Matter of Time series by Mary Calmes (recommended twice)
Cut & Run series by Abigail Roux (recommended twice)
Bad in Baltimore series by KA Mitchell
Bluewater Bay by multiple authors
Dark Hollow Wolf Pack series by Shannon West
Dark Horse series by Kate Sherwood
Moon Pack series by Amber Kell
Sinner series by Rhys Ford
Something in Common series by Talia Carmichael
Something Like . . . series by Jay Bell
THIRDS series by Charlie Cochet
Troubleshooter series by Suzanne Brockmann (majority of titles are not LGBTQ romance)
Whyborne and Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk
I’ll have more info up eventually, like the top recs per subgenre, but now I have other stuff to do. Like write . . .
Anne Tenino 
I stopped reading at the survey link (I love surveys), I filled it, then I read the rest…
I also recommended 3 M/M books. But at the third place I was actually considering two books and the other one is not a straight (no pun intended) M/M. It’s … trans? Fluid? I don’t know, but it’s great.
I don’t want to “cheat” and fill the survey again, so my fourth vote here, in comments: “Static” by L.A. Witt. – Contemporary/Science Fiction/Trans(umm not exactly, but this is the closes one) (one of those, where the world is almost like ours, except for one tiny detail) – Angsty/dramatic/Realistic – sexy level 4.
Awesome! Thank you for the fourth rec!
Sent from an iPhone. All mistakes courtesy of auto-correct.
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I’ve voted twice so far, and may vote again if I think of more gateway books that aren’t m/m.
I included one m/f with a trans MC. I also noticed that bi wasn’t listed as an option but I (helpfully) added it as “other” for one of my f/f recommendations.
Yay, thank you! I didn’t put in “asexual” either. I’m bad, and should fix that . . . once I’ve done the 50 other things on my list. 😛