Welcome to the Love Bytes Reviewers’ Best of 2021
Another year has passed in which books have brought all of us a much needed escape and sense of comfort. Our Love Bytes team reviewed approximately 1,300 LGBTQ+ books in 2021, from contemporary romance to fantasy, paranormal, historical, adventure, mystery, comedy and everything in between. Each day for the next few weeks, we will feature one of our reviewers’ top picks from books and audiobooks published in 2021. These lists highlight how diverse our tastes in reading are, and offer something for everyone. With thousands of fantastic new books each year, written by hundreds of creative and talented authors, it’s so difficult to narrow our lists down. We all have many favorite authors not featured here and wish we could acknowledge them all.
Stephen’s 2021 Favorites
The Half Wolf – Audiobook by Jay Northcote (author) & Hamish Long (Narrator)
This tale of Welsh Werewolves and first love impressed me on several fronts. The characters were adorable, the narrator was spot on with his accents and did excellent men’s and women’s character voices. The small town ambiance was so clear that it was almost a supporting character in the story. The gradual way the two MCs came together, both knowing that a cross species relationship was doomed had that star-crossed quality that we all love and the way that the issue was resolved leading to a happy ending made perfect sense.
Netminder – Audiobook (Codename: Winger #4) by Jeff Adams (Author), Kirt Graves (Narrator)
This YA action series had a little something for everybody. Hockey playing, computer cracking openly gay kids with supportive parents. The challenges felt real and something even rarer, realistic. Over the 4 books in this series Main character Theo really grows up a bit and comes into his own. Yes, there’s a betrayal part way through the series but by the end our hero is well past it and headed in a positive direction.
Keeping Hope (Littlefield Fowl #1) by Alexandria Redding
A sports centered m/m novel where the action feels like it’s from a masculine perspective. The author clearly knows the sport and the characters personalities inform their positions. I also enjoyed that the book had a main story arc and several minor story arcs that moved toward the finale.
Headstrong – Audiobook (Vino & Veritas #3) by Eden Finley (author) and Tim Paige and Iggy Toma (Narrators)
This is a tale of what happens when an irrepressible optimist meets a stubborn curmudgeon. That the straight curmudgeon starts getting jealous when the gay irrepressible optimist that he agreed to play wingman for starts getting close to “losing his virginity” is just icing on the cake.
Stuck With You – Audiobook by Jay Northcote (author) & Hamish Long (Narrator)
Snowed in together over Christmas, workmates find office-place annoyances turning to affection. Sweet holiday listen with several sexy spanking scenes.
Dead Serious Case #1: Miz Dusty Le Frey by Vawn Cassidy
The opening shot in a new m/m mystery series. By turns romantic, funny, and poignant. A coroner who starts seeing dead people. Of course he also starts “seeing” the hot new Scotland Yard detective from the north of England. Either way, I’m hoping to see more of them both in 2022.