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Gay Romance #1
Sweet Nineteen
A chance encounter on a country bus. A brush of thigh against thigh and a sideways, then a downward, glance. Nineteen-year-olds Tom and Mick could hardly have guessed the epic nature of the journey they were setting out on. A journey that would take them into business partnership together. A journey that would bring them little by little to the deepest reaches of the human heart. An adventure that would catapult them into the sweet and sometimes painful mysteries of of life and sex and love.
- GenresM M RomanceGay
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2013
22 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
Anthony McDonald
68 books106 followersAnthony McDonald studied history at Durham University. He worked very briefly as a musical instrument maker and as a farm labourer before moving into the theatre, where he has worked in almost every capacity except those of Director and Electrician.
His first novel, Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, was published in 2001 and his second, Adam, in 2003.
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet became the first book in a Seville trilogy that also comprises Along The Stars and Woodcock Flight.
Other books include the sequel to Adam, - Blue Sky Adam - and the stand-alone adventure story, Getting Orlando.
Ivor's Ghosts, a psychological thriller, was published in April 2014.
The Dog In The Chapel, and Ralph: Diary of a Gay Teen, both appeared in 2014. Anthony is the also the author of the Gay Romance series, which comprises ten short novels.
Anthony McDonald's short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic
He has also written the scripts for several Words and Music events, based around the lives and works of composers including Schubert and Brahms, which have been performed in Britain and in Portugal.
His travel writing has appeared in the Independent newspaper.
After several years of living and teaching English in France McDonald is now based based in rural East Sussex.
His first novel, Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, was published in 2001 and his second, Adam, in 2003.
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet became the first book in a Seville trilogy that also comprises Along The Stars and Woodcock Flight.
Other books include the sequel to Adam, - Blue Sky Adam - and the stand-alone adventure story, Getting Orlando.
Ivor's Ghosts, a psychological thriller, was published in April 2014.
The Dog In The Chapel, and Ralph: Diary of a Gay Teen, both appeared in 2014. Anthony is the also the author of the Gay Romance series, which comprises ten short novels.
Anthony McDonald's short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic
He has also written the scripts for several Words and Music events, based around the lives and works of composers including Schubert and Brahms, which have been performed in Britain and in Portugal.
His travel writing has appeared in the Independent newspaper.
After several years of living and teaching English in France McDonald is now based based in rural East Sussex.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 25, 2021
Scotland stills draws people back.
Mick and Tom are both 19. Both ride the same bus to the same university, but different college campuses that are nearby. Mick is mastering cooking and wants to run a top rated restaurant. Tom is interested in interior design and decoration. But both are much more interested in each other. There free time is spent together or with friends as they become closer.
Trouble is their few best friends want to be closer, too. But with the good fortune of Tom's father's recent family inheritance, good circumstances soon become great opportunities as the lads and friends soon discover that with hard work, trusted friends, and an occasional pint at the favored pub, thing care pair up nicely for everyone. With plenty of room for the next 11 books in this series.
Your duty is to read the rest of this series, plus the other spinoffs that will jerk your mind hard and stretch your body with the best of live and happiness you could ever want while you feel like you are rubbing elbows with the lads as they share their pub tales.
Mick and Tom are both 19. Both ride the same bus to the same university, but different college campuses that are nearby. Mick is mastering cooking and wants to run a top rated restaurant. Tom is interested in interior design and decoration. But both are much more interested in each other. There free time is spent together or with friends as they become closer.
Trouble is their few best friends want to be closer, too. But with the good fortune of Tom's father's recent family inheritance, good circumstances soon become great opportunities as the lads and friends soon discover that with hard work, trusted friends, and an occasional pint at the favored pub, thing care pair up nicely for everyone. With plenty of room for the next 11 books in this series.
Your duty is to read the rest of this series, plus the other spinoffs that will jerk your mind hard and stretch your body with the best of live and happiness you could ever want while you feel like you are rubbing elbows with the lads as they share their pub tales.
October 2, 2017
Sweet Nineteen
By Anthony McDonald
Anchor Mill Publishing, 2013
Four stars
This book is disarmingly simple. It is unlike your typical m/m romance novel in that it feels oddly like a memoir. There is also a fresh innocence to it, a matter-of-factness that caught my attention and kept me smiling and emotionally engaged throughout. To my mind, this is a gay romance that only a gay man could write, because it seems not so much like a work of imagination as one of memory.
Mick and Tom are both nineteen, and in college in southern England (which is like college in the US, but it is clearly a vocational training college and not a liberal arts college). They meet quite by accident on their morning bus, and more or less fall for each other instantly, but not in a way that is either prurient or unbelievable. The book is simply the story of this stroke of immense luck, in which two young men discover their gay identity and each other in one fell swoop.
I was totally charmed. “Sweet Nineteen” follows the established tenets of gay romance, but without the judgmental aspect found in the unwritten rules of the m/m world. The book reflects the author’s perspective on love between two men in a comfortingly traditional way. It is neither edgy nor adventurous. The sex is not particularly erotic, but, if I dare say so, adorable.
All in all, “Sweet Nineteen” was a kind of revelation for me, an authentic and somewhat artless fairy tale about young love. It touched something in my own memories of my distant youth. It made me smile, and it made me care. What more can one ask?
By Anthony McDonald
Anchor Mill Publishing, 2013
Four stars
This book is disarmingly simple. It is unlike your typical m/m romance novel in that it feels oddly like a memoir. There is also a fresh innocence to it, a matter-of-factness that caught my attention and kept me smiling and emotionally engaged throughout. To my mind, this is a gay romance that only a gay man could write, because it seems not so much like a work of imagination as one of memory.
Mick and Tom are both nineteen, and in college in southern England (which is like college in the US, but it is clearly a vocational training college and not a liberal arts college). They meet quite by accident on their morning bus, and more or less fall for each other instantly, but not in a way that is either prurient or unbelievable. The book is simply the story of this stroke of immense luck, in which two young men discover their gay identity and each other in one fell swoop.
I was totally charmed. “Sweet Nineteen” follows the established tenets of gay romance, but without the judgmental aspect found in the unwritten rules of the m/m world. The book reflects the author’s perspective on love between two men in a comfortingly traditional way. It is neither edgy nor adventurous. The sex is not particularly erotic, but, if I dare say so, adorable.
All in all, “Sweet Nineteen” was a kind of revelation for me, an authentic and somewhat artless fairy tale about young love. It touched something in my own memories of my distant youth. It made me smile, and it made me care. What more can one ask?
December 28, 2018
There is a definite pungence to the sweetness of being 19, in lust and in love, and discovering the nuances of both. At times it is aromatic; at other times, intoxicating.
Mick and Tom, with the help of older wiser gay friends, are learning to navigate in their 19th year the differences between love and lust, and the seasons two must journey toward becoming a couple. It's a trip well worth joining them on, through the skilled pen of Anthony McDonald.
Come aboard; inhale the brine of the Scottish sea air; savor the sweetness of the English countryside; eavesdrop in their bedchambers; revel in their rutting, as salty as it is sweet!
Mick and Tom, with the help of older wiser gay friends, are learning to navigate in their 19th year the differences between love and lust, and the seasons two must journey toward becoming a couple. It's a trip well worth joining them on, through the skilled pen of Anthony McDonald.
Come aboard; inhale the brine of the Scottish sea air; savor the sweetness of the English countryside; eavesdrop in their bedchambers; revel in their rutting, as salty as it is sweet!
December 10, 2013
I loved this book. The characters were so masterfully written that you felt their aches, their doubts and their love. I didn't want the book to end. I had to stop reading many times just to savor the moments. I look forward to reading more from this author.
March 18, 2021
Amazing & Beautiful
Don't let the book's blurb put you off if you think this will be just another how-I-met-a-boy-and-became-gay story. Instead, get ready for one of the most amazingly plotted and beautifully written how-I-met-a-boy-and-fell-in-love stories you are likely to ever read.
Set in a number of small towns surrounding Canterbury in England, and expanded occasionally to the highlands of Scotland, this tale of Tom and Mick will grab you quickly--like each of them tentatively grabbed each other on the bus--and hold you enthralled through the end.
And leave you wishing for more.
Perfectly drawn, Tom and Mick and their families create a wonderland of love, and the two boys create a magical, scorching and almost (yes, almost) angst-free relationship that sometimes bears down on each of them somehat ruefully because neither one of them can believe how the other one loves him so much.
That's all I'm going to tell you. For the rest, just settle back and smile, sometimes laugh, sometimes wipe a tear, and have a lovely time.
Don't let the book's blurb put you off if you think this will be just another how-I-met-a-boy-and-became-gay story. Instead, get ready for one of the most amazingly plotted and beautifully written how-I-met-a-boy-and-fell-in-love stories you are likely to ever read.
Set in a number of small towns surrounding Canterbury in England, and expanded occasionally to the highlands of Scotland, this tale of Tom and Mick will grab you quickly--like each of them tentatively grabbed each other on the bus--and hold you enthralled through the end.
And leave you wishing for more.
Perfectly drawn, Tom and Mick and their families create a wonderland of love, and the two boys create a magical, scorching and almost (yes, almost) angst-free relationship that sometimes bears down on each of them somehat ruefully because neither one of them can believe how the other one loves him so much.
That's all I'm going to tell you. For the rest, just settle back and smile, sometimes laugh, sometimes wipe a tear, and have a lovely time.
November 27, 2017
As the title suggests, the story is sweet. The two main characters, Tom and Mick are believable, almost as if you have seen them or meet them at a pub, club or event. I enjoy the style and ease and descriptions of the author, like the " Adam" books and their wonderful evocation of French countryside and this book with its almost dreamy reflective quality, perhaps an old memory and not a story at all.
July 29, 2013
Wow what a fantastic story. I wished it would just go on and on. I fell in love with the characters and must admit it had me moist eyed more than once. Cannot wait for the next book in the series to appear. Anthony never fails to deliver and deliver he has with Gay Romance in Garda. Please read it you will not be disappointed.
July 6, 2013
Another beautiful story told only as Anthony MacDonald could.
Two guys who meet on a bus and share a loving relationship that takes them from college days in England too a grand hotel in Scotland.
Two guys who meet on a bus and share a loving relationship that takes them from college days in England too a grand hotel in Scotland.
November 16, 2022
loved!
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I loved it. It’s about two nineteen year old college students who meet on a bus on the way to school. It starts out with Mick stealing shy glances at Tom’s profile as he sits next to him on the bus. Those glances leads to longing (and lustful) stares at Tom’s lap. At the end of the bus ride Mick thinks of Tom throughout the day which leads us to their second ride. Oh boy! It doesn’t take them long to become great friend and more. This was a wonderful story. It had some angst as there were growing pains between these two young men but they had wonderful mentors who helped them with their struggles. I highly recommended this 5 star book.
This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I loved it. It’s about two nineteen year old college students who meet on a bus on the way to school. It starts out with Mick stealing shy glances at Tom’s profile as he sits next to him on the bus. Those glances leads to longing (and lustful) stares at Tom’s lap. At the end of the bus ride Mick thinks of Tom throughout the day which leads us to their second ride. Oh boy! It doesn’t take them long to become great friend and more. This was a wonderful story. It had some angst as there were growing pains between these two young men but they had wonderful mentors who helped them with their struggles. I highly recommended this 5 star book.
August 11, 2025
'Sweet Nineteen' by Anthony McDonald
McDonald is one of my fave writers, and this book is a good example of his attention to descriptive details, what it might look like and feel like for two teen boys who are attracted to each other during a bus trip.
This is a very sweet storyline with some confusion and angst thrown into the mix; hey, they're teens trying to figure out what they want! I liked that the storyline covered their relationship over several years, and how they worked out their relationship (sometimes it went off the rails).
Good book!
McDonald is one of my fave writers, and this book is a good example of his attention to descriptive details, what it might look like and feel like for two teen boys who are attracted to each other during a bus trip.
This is a very sweet storyline with some confusion and angst thrown into the mix; hey, they're teens trying to figure out what they want! I liked that the storyline covered their relationship over several years, and how they worked out their relationship (sometimes it went off the rails).
Good book!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews