Reviewed by Lesley
TITLE: Pride By The Book
SERIES: Love in Maplewood Book 6
AUTHOR: Jeff Adams
PUBLISHER: Big Gay Media
LENGTH: 281 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2025
BLURB:
One small-town Pride festival. Two enemies forced to work together. An unexpected chance to find their happily ever after.
NHL star Ethan Gallagher faces his worst fear when he’s named grand marshal of Maplewood’s Pride festival: public speaking. The only thing more daunting? Working with Andre Thompson—the passionate librarian who made his high school years miserable.
Andre has planned every detail of the festival except for the undeniable attraction he feels toward the man he once considered a nemesis. As they navigate festival chaos, enemies become lovers and misconceptions transform into desire.
With careers pulling them in opposite directions and a small town eagerly watching their romance unfold, Ethan and Andre must decide if their summer flame can survive beyond the festival.
Pride By the Book delivers an enemies-to-lovers, small-town romance where second chances lead to steamy encounters, heartfelt connections, and the transformative power of being truly seen by another person.
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With the highest percentage of LGBTQIA+ residents in Vermont, Maplewood is a town where everyone belongs. And with festivals year round, there’s always something fun happening! This multi-author, low-angst queer series features ten standalone romances—each set against the backdrop of a different festival. Come for the celebrations, stay for the happily-ever-afters!
REVIEW:
In this instalment of Love in Maplewood we have reached Pride Month which is very apt for when it is being published.
Town Librarian Andre Thompson was raised in Maplewood by his two Dads and has always been an organiser even during his school days. His big frustration at school was school hockey star Ethan Gallagher who unlike his teammates would never participate in the events he organised. As the main organiser of Maplewood Pride, he is concerned how he is going to work with Ethan who has been selected to be the Grand Marshall for Pride in Maplewood this year.
Ethan Gallagher now an NHL player for Seatle, loves Maplewood where he grew up with his two Mums. He loves coming home to Maplewood each year in the off season and running an ice hockey camp for local kids with his friends. He is honoured to be asked to be the Grand Marshall this year but is dreading working with the man that bullied him at high school. Only his Mums and closest friends from school know why he had to concentrate so hard on his studies and why being the Grand Marshall is going to be especially hard for him.
I am not going to say any more about the story because you should read this book to find out more.
This book does have characters in it from some of Jeff’s other works, but I really didn’t feel I was missing anything in this book by not having read their stories. It has however encouraged me to go and seek them out.
Unusually for me I read the “A Note from …” section at the end of the book and I found it really interesting. I had already enjoyed reading this book, but this added insight into Jeff Adam’s intent with the story added value to the book.
What I really appreciate in this book is the way that Jeff Adams has very intentionally – but also very discretely used elements from the real world. For example, the banned book event that Andre is up for an award for was inspired by a Brooklyn Public Library initiative and the books referenced in the library scenes are real books quoted with approval.
RATING: 
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