Loose Lips

by Joseph Brennan

Finalist - 2023 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Romance and Erotica

Dockyard mansex adventurer Olli Turner has stowed away on the biggest ship the world has ever known, forced to set sail incomplete.

Built up rivet by rivet through his formative years, RMS Queen Elizabeth watched over Olli's sexual awakening. Staying with her seems to promise passage to a new world of landed men. 

Yet in March 1940 war is churning. That short coastal voyage to Southampton he was expecting turns into a daring dash across the Atlantic and plants instead seeds of a years-long life at sea.

Conspiring undercurrents sabotage his troopship to troopship bounce as need for a place, however perilous, in arms of to-war men proves a powerful piece in this war's chess match of primal evils.

Genres: Fiction

331 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 22, 2022

About the author

Joseph Brennan, PhD is an authority on gay pornography published by Oxford University Press. His debut novel Loose Lips: A Gay Sea Odyssey is a Finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Romance and Erotica.

Reviews

[Levi Huxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set on the high seas during World War II, Loose Lips blends adventure, lurid intrigue and queer romance into an explicit slice of pulp fiction.

I liked it! Beyond the rough and raunchy prose is a fascinating and well-researched origin story that identifies in the homoerotic male-only milieus of wartime the emerging iconography, attitudes and values of twentieth century gay culture.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love me a good m/m erotic novel, and this one certainly does not hold out.
Set in the 1940s aboard a transport ship, we follow the main character through some rough, and very sexy trysts during the sailing.

The anatomy of men/ship parts analogies were wonderful for me as a first time reader of stories set at sea, and I really enjoyed getting lost in this world.

Do not get me wrong, there is some very dark themes running through this book, with moments of light, and while the erotic side of this book is at the forefront, it's the little details, the thoughts and the desires that really held me and kept me wanting more.

I can not wait for his follow up book, and anticipate it will be just as hot, but just as rewarding to read as this.

[S.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this. The style of writing is rather dense for my tastes and I would have liked to have discovered more about the characters through their own words. However I did enjoy the way the author cleverly employed real historical facts about the old liners; it sent me scurrying to Wikipedia to find out more! I am giving the book three stars because the writer is fairly new and is learning his craft and at no point did I think not to finish. It may seem petty but I would advise him also to think again about his cover, as you cannot make out the title or its central image, meaning that it is impossible to tell what kind of book it is or what it's about.

[Colin Oldenburg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in the 1940s the lead Oliver finds his way as a stow away aboard RMS Queen Elizabeth. His journey takes him from ship-to-ship around the world with men at sea throughout the war.

The setting kept me interested and I didn't find this predictable like other M-M romance novels but the storyline left me wanting more. The spicy scenes were spicy but at times a bit much and I would have preferred more character layers and development. The rising action build came too quick. It's almost like we're reading a really good first draft as this piece could have used some better editor guidance to help this really set sail.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

The quality of writing is good. The main character is well sketched. The setting is excellent. I'm a gay ocean liner nerd so I figured this would be for me. A teen stows away on the Queen Elizabeth as it makes it's high stakes dash across the Atlantic to escape the Luftwaffe in 1940 - such a great opening. It's all downhill from there. This is softcore porn for the socially isolated. The lead character sees out WW2 being a c** d**** on ocean liner troop transports. That's it. That's the book. There are romances and emotional stakes. But as for the war raging globally... what of it? Egregiously self indulgent, tawdry historical fiction. Do not trouble yourself.

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars. I saw this book on a list of Lambda finalists and figured we all need a little M-M romance in our lives. Loose Lips reads like the first full draft of a novel with potential after heavy editing. The plot has a reasonable start, then meanders for like 150 pages with distractingly-unbelievable and hasty relationships, and then the last 50ish pages suddenly becomes a caper. I think there was a base layer of an interesting story, but sadly it did not reach fruition.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre mixture of literary language, lurid sex scenes and WWII history.

I'm not familiar with a Glasgow dialect but what was used here was very evocative of something.

I found this ebook online at the library. For a first novel it was good but eventually became a bit overwrought and could have used a major trim, also perhaps more humour because it was welcome.

At various stages I would give this 4.5 stars, at others 2, so an average of 3.

[Sophie Vinther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! It’s niche, so not a story for everybody… but if you’re bored of the “same old” format you find in contemporary stuff, give this one a go!