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684 ratings | 369 reviews | avg rating:4.01

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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

CHALLENGE

Mel Bossa has read 70 books of her goal of 50!

140%

Mel Bossa

Goodreads Author

Born

in Montreal, Canada

Genre

M/m, Contemporary and Historical, Romance

Member Since

August 2011

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I think I've written and changed my bio on here a hundred times in the last decade. See, that's why I don't have tattoos!

I've been a GR for over ten years and I still use it daily to keep up with my reading and to learn about books, old and new ones, but more importantly, because as I grow older and hopefully wiser, I realize that readers are my favorite type of people. They seem to be a little more empathetic and open-minded, and generally more cultivated.

If you look at my shelves, you'll see that I used to read about 70 books a year but in the last years, I've grown more selective and take my time with my lovers, ahem, books.

Yes, I am also a LGBTQ writer and Francophone Montrealer.

I cherish my readers, and want to take this space here ...more

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Combine Editions
Mel Bossa’s books

Average rating: 3.78 · 1,734 ratings · 552 reviews · 33 distinct works • Similar authors

	Split (Red and Blue Chronicles, #1) 4.06 avg rating — 520 ratings — published 2011 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In His Secret Life 3.96 avg rating — 284 ratings — published 2013 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Auguries of Summer 3.73 avg rating — 115 ratings — published 2016 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Craving's Creek 3.84 avg rating — 96 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Linhart's Beautiful Beast 3.76 avg rating — 66 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blue Awakenings (Red and Blue Chronicles, #2) 2.86 avg rating — 66 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sawdust and Berries 3.17 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Red Dreams (Red and Blue Chronicles #3) 3.51 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 2013 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No River Wide Enough 3.60 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2018 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Music of the Knight 4.19 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 2019 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Mel Bossa…

4 posts
Mel Bossa's Blog

An Irresistible Mess

Another year. Another book. :-)

Coming soon on October 11th.

This one explores themes of self-destruction and redemption, but though the themes may seem dark, there's a lot of humor and color in the story.

Jett was a great man to write and though you will want to smack him upside his head, you'll probably fall for him as Kaiden does...

Because he is one (hot) irresistible mess!

As always, I can offer Read more of this blog post »

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Published on September 28, 2025 06:31

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Series by Mel Bossa

Red and Blue Chronicles (5 books)
by

Mel Bossa (Goodreads Author)

3.89 avg rating — 670 ratings

Nick & Derek (5 books)
by

Mel Bossa (Goodreads Author)

3.89 avg rating — 670 ratings

Mel is Currently Reading

Mel Bossa is currently reading

Stay

by Taylor McNiff (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: 0002-women, 0006-lgbtq, 0008-fiction, currently-reading

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Nov 11, 2026 08:02AM

Mel Bossa is currently reading

Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family

by Thomas Mann

bookshelves: 0012-to-buy, 0008-fiction, currently-reading

read in February 2015

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Mel Bossa said: " This is such a beautiful and human book. The Buddenbrooks will stay with me for a long time, if not forever. This family, all though rich and German and facing ''upper class white problems'' could be my family--your family. Not because of who they ar This is such a beautiful and human book. The Buddenbrooks will stay with me for a long time, if not forever. This family, all though rich and German and facing ''upper class white problems'' could be my family--your family. Not because of who they are and what they do, but because of how they feel about their kin, jobs, lovers, themselves, and more importantly: how they express it all. That is the true genius of Mann and he wrote this at the age of 26!

Each character would be worthy of a long analysis, but I'll choose my favorite three.

First, Antonie--Tony--Buddenbrook. She is of the third generation of Buddenbrooks and as she is growing up, her family estate and business is undergoing changes and upheaval because of all of the changes in the social and political structure in Germany. She is a dram queen, a bit of a spoiled brat, but honest and curious about people and new ideas. She could have made an important or at least interesting contribution to the world, but instead, she is forced to marry a dimwit twice her age who later turns out to be a fraud and a thief. The sorrows of young Tony, and later, older Mme Antonie, are heartbreaking and seem punitive. But I got the impression Mann wasn't punishing the woman for not wanting to conform or stay married to men she loathed, but punishing her because he'd written her so that it was impossible for the reader not to love her and root for her, and so, by punishing her, he was able to reveal the injustice that good people (in this case a woman) have to endure when they try to please everyone and meet society's expectations of the time. In the end, Tony conserves her childish innocence, and even when she seems to break down and lose hope, it's really just a little kid asking to be comforted, not really believing in its own doom. She was the perfect voice for what Mann was trying to tell and I enjoyed her more than I did Kitty from Tolstoi's Anna Karenina, which is saying a lot!

My second favorite character is Thomas Buddenbrook, the older brother, because all though he is cold and stiff, often authoritative in his admonishing his weaker brother Christian, Thomas has these superb moments of lucidity in which his inner dialogue had me enthralled. He is a philosopher with these brilliant ideas that echo those of Mann's I'm sure and of Mann's major influences. But sadly, Thomas can't follow through with his emancipation. He is weighed down by the great burden of his family's business and name, and in the end, his demise, the way he dies, shows just how much one little rotting thing inside us can spoil all of our good intentions. He is a complex character and his relationship with his young son Johann (Hanno) is one I won't forget.

Which brings us to my last favorite character, Hanno, the last Buddenbrook. The artist. The frail and wonderfully gifted Hanno. It is here that Mann shines. In this character who embodies Germany's gentler temperament and its ability to produce such extraordinary art/music. It's said that Mann believed that it took four generations of bourgeoisie to produce one single artist. He and his brother Henrich who also became a writer, were in Mann's eyes, the result of rejecting all that had come before them. In Hanno, the pianist, last descendant of the Buddenbrooks, art gets center stage. But, Hanno is at odds with the world around him, can't concentrate at school, can't find the motivation to participate in all this noise he hates. He is the misfit, the one whose nerves won't be able to stand living much longer. It's a tragic ending for the Buddenbrooks, but a fitting one.

Hanno foreshadows the great Adrian LeverKuhn, the central figure in Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in reading an epic family saga with all its drama, betrayals, love affairs, sibling rivalry, that is set against a backdrop of just enough politics and events of the time to give it some meat.

I loved it! ...more "

Sep 22, 2015 12:14PM · see review

Mel’s Recent Updates

Mel Bossa started reading Stay by Taylor McNiff (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Yes some parts were horrible to read and the abuse did drag on and on but the characterization of Olliver was very well done. All of his contrasting feelings about himself and Huck... All the colors were there. I was impatient after a while because of ...more
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Mel Bossa has read The Fire Line (The High Country Trilogy, #1) by Lennon Sorenson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Not going to rate this as I am not sure if it's written by A.I. from reading a few informed reviews. ...more
Oct 23, 2026 06:09AM · like · see review

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Quotes by Mel Bossa (?)

“O'Reilly, I've been running from the worst of myself all my life, and now it looks like the best of me just caught up.”
― Mel Bossa, Split

tags: gutted, m-m-romance

7 likes

“O'Reilly, happiness does eventually come, it just needs a lot of foreplay, that's all."

And what better lover could happiness find?”
― Mel Bossa, Split

tags: happiness, m-m-romance

5 likes

“I've been thinking about you and all my fucking sauces have been splitting. O'Reilly, everything you don't say speaks to something gentle in me. Something I thought I'd choked.”
― Mel Bossa, Split

tags: m-m-romance

4 likes

See all Mel Bossa's quotes »

Mel’s Quotes

“Go without hate, but not without rage. Heal the world.”
― Paul Monette

44 likes

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

9270 likes

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
― Dante Alighieri

tags: afterlife, attributed-no-source, hell, morality, neutrality

2235 likes

“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings -- always darker, emptier and simpler.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

2347 likes

“The urge for destruction is also a creative urge!”
― Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin

67 likes

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