Top to BOTM Book Club discussion

Welcome to our Goodreads group!

Please feel free to introduce yourself, give recommendations for books and have fun.

I'll start since I'm here first.

My name is Markie, I'm a long time m/m romance fanatic. I adore authors like Jex Lane, Sloane Kennedey, Lucy Lennox, Abigail Roux and many others.
I'm starting to dabble in dom/sub books, having read and loved Saving Sebastion by Luna David, and plan to read more of those in the future.

Hi, I am AnnMarie & have been reading m/m for a few years now. Ella Frank's Try was my gateway drug to the genre, as it was for a lot of folks :) My favorites are T.J. Klune, Charlie Cochet, Nick Wilgus, Mary Calmes, Rhys Ford, Adrienne Wilder, A.E. Via, N.R. Walker & K.A. Merikan (and can't forget Elle Frank!). I love, love, LOVE snarky characters so I am definitely pro Sam & Jory, Dex & Sloane, Bear & Otter, HaveHeart, etc. I also really enjoy a good mystery or police book. I am not a fan of cliffhangers or series that are delayed or never finished despite promises from the authors to the contrary.

AnnMarie wrote: "Hi, I am AnnMarie & have been reading m/m for a few years now. Ella Frank's Try was my gateway drug to the genre, as it was for a lot of folks :) My favorites are T.J. Klune, Charli..."

Yes!! I adore snark too. Cochet and Klune are masters of snarky characters. Also, all the authors you listed are some of my super favorites.

If you're a big fan of Ella Frank, you'll be excited about our upcoming January pick. ;D *HINT HINT*

Markie wrote: "AnnMarie wrote: "Hi, I am AnnMarie & have been reading m/m for a few years now. Ella Frank's Try was my gateway drug to the genre, as it was for a lot of folks :) My favorites are T..."

So you are wanting me to wait to read True?!?!?



lol I make no promises, although I will try to distract myself with holiday reads. I am facilitating the holiday reading challenge on another group on goodreads and getting ready for the 2018 challenges so it's possible :)

Hi my name is Emelie and I have read m/m for years. I love fantasy books and add a little or a lot of m/m is just the best. In recent years I have read more contemporary romance m/m books also. Some of my favorite authors are: T.j Klune, Jex Lane and Lynn Flewelling.

I will try to be active in this group because I want to talk about books I love.

Emelie wrote: "Hi my name is Emelie and I have read m/m for years. I love fantasy books and add a little or a lot of m/m is just the best. In recent years I have read more contemporary romance m/m books also. Som..."

Welcome, Emelie! Glad to have you join us. :D Jump in and chat with us about books anytime you'd like.

Markie wrote: "Emelie wrote: "Hi my name is Emelie and I have read m/m for years. I love fantasy books and add a little or a lot of m/m is just the best. In recent years I have read more contemporary romance m/m ..."

Thanks :D

Hi people I’m Leon. I haven’t read much m/m romance but I’m hoping you can all give me some good recommendations to get me going. Keep them coming and I hope to be an active member of the group. 😃

Leon wrote: "Hi people I’m Leon. I haven’t read much m/m romance but I’m hoping you can all give me some good recommendations to get me going. Keep them coming and I hope to be an active member of the group. 😃"

Welcome, Leon! Our list is growing slowly but surely. Jump in anytime and we'll always chat good books with you. :D

Hi, I'm Joe Cosentino, MM author. I loved doing the entertaining and informative podcast for Top2Bottom. Check out my web site for more info at http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com. Feel free to ask me any questions about my books. Peace.

Joe wrote: "Hi, I'm Joe Cosentino, MM author. I loved doing the entertaining and informative podcast for Top2Bottom. Check out my web site for more info at http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com. Feel free to ask ..."

Thanks for joining the group, Joe! Glad to have you. :)

Hi, I'm Anne from Germany. I started reading m/m romance about four years ago and never stopped. I found your Podcast through Jeff and Will's Big Gay Fiction Podcast and I found them because someone mentioned their Podcast in T.J. Klune's Facebook group. T.J. Klune is also my favorite author at the moment. I can't wait for Ravensong! Thank you for your awesome Podcast and I'll try to be active in this group 😃

Anne wrote: "Hi, I'm Anne from Germany. I started reading m/m romance about four years ago and never stopped. I found your Podcast through Jeff and Will's Big Gay Fiction Podcast and I found them because someon..."

Welcome, Anne! Glad to have you here!

Jess and I are also SUPER excited about Ravensong. Did you know TJ put the first chapter up on his blog??

Hello everyone!
My name is Sam (Samantha), I'm 27, live in California, and have Purple hair (haha!).
I've been reading in the M/M category for well over a decade. I would like to say my admiration and passion began with fanfiction, but quickly transitioned to Manga and Anime. I can easily recall two of the first Anime shows with the M/M tones were two shows I watched on a whim called 'Princess Princess' & 'Sukisho'.
I have read quite a few M/M books and appreciate them as well as the Authors with all my heart.

I read and watch many things outside the M/M category; mostly horror, romance, and thriller stuff. =)

I discovered Markie & Jessica's Podcast literally this week and I FLEW through it. I love their fangirl feels and overall personalities. I have written down many of the titles, now I just need to catch up and join in some of the discussions!

Anyone that would like to friendship it up, ask any questions, or any and everything...just let me know!

I'm so excited to be involved in this group!

Sam wrote: "Hello everyone!
My name is Sam (Samantha), I'm 27, live in California, and have Purple hair (haha!).
I've been reading in the M/M category for well over a decade. I would like to say my admiration ..."

Welcome fellow fujoshi!! We're glad you're here!

Thank you so much for the sweet words. We definitely are fangirls of the genre and want to absorb all things m/m. Speaking of anime, the last good BL (kinda) anime we watched was Yuri On Ice. I know Banana Fish has been getting a lot of love lately. Have you seen it? Would you recommend it?

I'm also a huge fan of thriller m/m books, but more on the action side. I think the only real horror ones we've read have been Katze Snow and Jex Lane. What are some of your favorite horror m/m reads?

Hello there. Like Sam, I've come to this via Jessica and Markie's podcast - and how lovely the podcast is! I feel that they are sitting in my kitchen having a cup of tea not talking into a mic three thousand miles away. So, I definitely intend to read January's Roman history suggestion. I imagine I'd like the historical aspect -as well as the M/M, of course.

Jude wrote: "Hello there. Like Sam, I've come to this via Jessica and Markie's podcast - and how lovely the podcast is! I feel that they are sitting in my kitchen having a cup of tea not talking into a mic thre..."

Welcome, Jude! We're glad you're here with us! If you like historical romances, you'll really like Dominus. I'm excited to be reading it again.

I'm so happy you enjoy the podcast! <3

Hi! I've been reading m/m romance for over ten years now. Gosh! Although I know authors who have been writing it since 2000 or so. Among the first books I read were those in J.L. Langley's "With or Without" series. I didn't know at the time how much yaoi tropes had influenced the books.

I also liked a number of authors who were writing for Torquere Press at the time, though many of those books had a lot of sex scenes and not much plot. I'll forgive a lot about a book if the protagonists are kind-hearted people, though. Not to say they can't have flaws, but I don't care to read through the viewpoint of a malicious character. Real life can be tough enough, you know?

A number of the authors were publishing through independent e-publishers. Some of those e-publishers and some e-bookstores are now defunct, but I was happy to see that many of the authors have republished the books.

I got into Goodreads through the Backlot Gay Book forum. It had started on the AfterElton website, which became the Backlot, and then folded into "New, Now, Next"(?), I believe. At some point, AfterElton/the Backlot lost its forums, including popular forums about what members had been reading. So they switched to posting about books on here.

I saw Markie and Jessica on Jeff and Will's Big Gay Fiction Podcast. I haven't read the books they have, so I can't discuss, but perhaps we'll have overlap some month. :)

But happy reading, anyway!

Emilie wrote: "Hi! I've been reading m/m romance for over ten years now. Gosh! Although I know authors who have been writing it since 2000 or so. Among the first books I read were those in J.L. Langley's "With or..."

Welcome, Emilie!

I'm so glad you could join us. Wow, ten years fly past, right?
I can definitely understand not wanting to read from a malicious character's point of view. I don't mind my character having some negative traits, but it's hard to want to cheer for them if they're 100% evil.
That being said, I do like the anti-heroes at times. I think I have a soft spot of the bad guys, as long as they can still be loveable.

Hopefully one of these months a book pick of ours will align and you can jump into the discussions! We always love chatting about books with people. <3

We're always looking for recommendations too!

Hi! I'm Rachel (and I go by vassalady in fannish circles) and I've been listening to the podcast for the better part of a year. Finally decided to jump in to the reader groups!

I mostly read comics these days, so this month is SUPER exciting for me, and I hope a few of you enjoy this month's reads. Thank you for doing these! And I'm always happy to talk/rec comics!

Bouncing off of Emilie's intro, a fun fact: Without Reservation (which I read back in the day) got a manga adaptation in Japan, which I only recently found out about. (Not licensed, though, unfortunately!) So seeing more western creators embracing comics as a medium, either originally (like Fence) or as adaptation (like Something Like Summer) is really exciting!

Hi, I'm Nabilah and I recently discovered this podcast. My first foray into m/m was through historical fiction novels set in Ancient Greece by Mary Renault. Nowadays I mostly read BL manga and comics and thought I would expand my reading material again.

I am liking these recommendations, including Dominus which seems like something up my alley.

Rachel wrote: "Hi! I'm Rachel (and I go by vassalady in fannish circles) and I've been listening to the podcast for the better part of a year. Finally decided to jump in to the reader groups!

I mostly read comic..."

Welcome, Rachel/vassalady!

I'm glad you're here with us! I'm also super excited to see more western BL comics happening. I really hope with the success of comics like Fence, this will get other artists/authors eager to jump on board!

Nabilah wrote: "Hi, I'm Nabilah and I recently discovered this podcast. My first foray into m/m was through historical fiction novels set in Ancient Greece by Mary Renault. Nowadays I mostly read BL manga and comi..."

Hey, Nabilah! Welcome!

I'm excited to have you in the group! I hope you get a chance to read Domimus. I adore that series so much!
I'm also excited to be branching more into manga for the podcast! There's so many awesome manga/comics out there to find. <3