Release Tour incl Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway:
Pictures of You by Leta Blake
’90s Coming of Age, Book 1
Growing up gay is hard enough, but in Knoxville, Tennessee, it’s even harder. Peter Mandel is an 18-year-old private school senior who’s passionate about photography and bent on keeping his homosexuality a secret from everyone. Enter Adam Algedi, a charming, worldly guy who doesn’t do labels, but does want to do Peter.
Barely able to believe gorgeous Adam would want him, Peter is swept away on a journey of first love and intimate discovery. But as the web of lies he and Adam are weaving grows tangled, can Peter find the confidence to do the right thing? And will his crush on Daniel, a college acquaintance, put him on a different path?
Join Peter in the first book of this three-part coming of age series as he struggles to love and be loved, and to grow into a gay man worthy of his own respect.
Leta Blake’s ’90s Coming of Age series is a must-read for fans of New Adult Romance and coming-of-age fiction.
This series by Leta Blake is gay Coming-of-Age Romance.
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Pulling onto the highway, Adam said, “Some friends you had at public school, Eater. So what happened? Did they beat you up? Is that why you left?”
I looked out the window, watching as buildings and trees flashed by.
“What do you think they’ve told Eric Morgan about you?” he asked.
“That I’m gay. Funny, since I am and all.”
Adam’s jaw clenched. “So, they hurt you, didn’t they?”
I shrugged.
“Didn’t anyone stick up for you?”
I hated talking about this stuff, and just when I’d started to feel like less of a loser, of course my past showed up to ruin everything. “You know, I’m like Johnny Cash—a solitary man.” Adam’s eyes called me on my bullshit, and I groaned. “What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me why your friends didn’t stick up for you.”
I was quiet for a long time, but I finally said, “When I was a kid, my best friend was Ella Burstein. She lived next door, and we played Strawberry Shortcake together every day.”
Adam lifted an eyebrow. “Strawberry Shortcake, Peter? Really?”
“The doll smelled good. Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Go on.”
“Ella moved to Virginia when I was ten, and then I mainly played with these two girls from school.”
I picked at the edge of my uniform tie, pulling a few threads. My mom would be annoyed if she had to buy me a new one. It wasn’t like the uniforms were inexpensive.
“Somewhere along the way, I guess it was in middle school, they stopped inviting me to their slumber parties. Which makes sense, right? I mean, I’m a guy. I’m sure their parents saw me going through puberty—”
Adam snorted. “Well, they were wrong.”
I gave him the finger. “I’m sure they thought I had no business at a slumber party with a bunch of girls. If they only knew, right?”
“Peter, you really don’t come off as that gay, you know? I mean, if you did…then…” He shrugged.
My stomach ached. If I did then what? Then he wouldn’t be with me? Why? Because he wasn’t attracted to flamers, or because then everyone would know about him? I really wasn’t sure what the deal-breaker was in that scenario.
“So, was that it?” Adam asked. “You didn’t have any guys to be friends with?”
“I tried, I guess, but I sucked at sports—”
Adam made a noise of agreement, and I was getting really annoyed now. I glared at him and fought the lump stupidly rising in my throat. I didn’t need this bullshit from him. Not now, not after the coffee shop.
“What?” he asked, like he wasn’t being a dick.
“Nothing.”
“You’re not good at sports. That’s nothing bad. You’re good at a lot of other stuff.”
“Like what? Sucking you off?”
Adam’s eyes flashed angrily. “Like photography. Like being a great person. Come on, Peter, I’m not trying to pick on you. I just want to understand how it was, so I can figure out how we’re going to deal with it, you know?”
Deal with it. What was there to deal with? The fact was, I was gay, and that was a dangerous, scary thing to be. A few hours ago, I’d been happy, maybe the happiest I’d ever been in my life, and then, just because I was gay, a few words from some dickwad made everything fall down around me.
“Everyone seemed to know I was different. Mostly guys avoided me. Until they started harassing and tormenting me. And then they beat me up.”
Adam sucked in a breath like he’d been punched, and he put his hand in my hair, tugging at it a little.
“When they broke my nose, the principal called my parents to come get me. So they found out. They wanted to know what happened.”
“What did you say?”
I took off my glasses and rubbed at my eyes. I felt bad about it even now. I didn’t know what I was so afraid of—my dad was liberal-minded, but what if this was the one time he wasn’t? I needed him. Especially since my mom was so unreliable, losing days to her writing and ignoring the reality of me with all of her might, avoiding the trauma that truly knowing me would remind her of. I loved them both, but I couldn’t be honest with them. If my dad couldn’t handle it, what would I have?
“I told them it was because I’m a Jew.”
“Not really, though. Your mom’s not a Jew.”
“Don’t even go there, Adam,” I said irritably. “I’m a Jew, okay. I say I’m a Jew, so I’m a Jew.”
“No, you say you’re an atheist. And I don’t think it works like that. I don’t think you get to just decide if you’re a Jew or not.”
I threw my hands up. “I’m an atheist Jew. And I didn’t just decide, okay? Leave it alone.”
Adam’s eyes took on a little heat the way they always did when I stood up for myself. He liked it when I was bossy, I could tell, but it wasn’t a default setting of mine.
“So, you didn’t tell them this guy Jason had it in for you because you’re gay.”
I put my glasses back on and gave a small shrug. “I told them Jason and his buddies thought I was gay.”
“And what did they say?” Adam seemed deeply interested in my parents’ response, and I wondered, not for the first time, what the situation was with his parents and what they might or might not know about Adam’s sexuality.
“My dad was furious about the anti-Semitism, and scoffed at the idea I was a ‘homosexual,’ as he always puts it.”
“Oh,” Adam said quietly.
“Yeah.” I shoved some of my curly hair off my forehead. I needed a haircut. “And Mom was just overwhelmed. ‘We’ll get him into Kingsley! This is unacceptable!’ All that kind of stuff. She has a bad personal history with violence from when she was young. She freaked out when she saw my face.”
Freaked out wasn’t the half of it. Dad had needed to sedate her just to get her to calm down. She’d gone down the rabbit hole of bad memories, and it had taken a few days for her to resurface. I hadn’t told Adam about my uncle, or about my mom’s history with depression. I didn’t see the point. Besides, no one had ever really told me about it either. I’d just picked it up over the years in bits and pieces from Dad, Mom, and overheard phone calls before my grandmother died.
“What’d you say when they mentioned Kingsley?”
I laughed, and it sounded kind of wounded to my own ears. “I just sat at the kitchen table with a tissue stuffed up my nose to stop the bleeding. I didn’t say anything.”
Adam pulled into my driveway, and he turned to me with a serious, intense look on his face. “Peter. No one will ever hit you again. Okay? Not on my watch.”
My smile felt wobbly, and I took his hand. I wanted to kiss him, but we were in the car, and someone might see. I didn’t know how he could keep a promise like that, but it touched me all the same.
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About the Author:
Author of the bestselling book Smoky Mountain Dreams and the fan favorite Training Season, Leta Blake’s educational and professional background is in psychology and finance, respectively. However, her passion has always been for writing. She enjoys crafting romance stories and exploring the psyches of made up people. At home in the Southern U.S., Leta works hard at achieving balance between her day job, her writing, and her family.
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