Rainbow Awards: Best Gay Coming of Age / Young Adult
And the Rainbow Award goes to:
1) Louise Blaydon - Summer Song (Dreamspinner Press)
This is one book that took me by total surprise. In truth, I think I would have most probably overlooked it as the cover was so-so and nothing about the blurb hinted at what a marvelous story lied ahead. This is a first-time/virgins story about Billy Bronner, an all-American high school senior, and Leonard Nachman, the kinda hot/kinda geeky guy who moves into the town with his mother. At times sweet and others sensual, "Summer Song" excelled in taking this reader back to a time when being homosexual meant being sent to jail. This was also a book about two young men growing up a little and learning the value of respect and dignity and how love knows no limits. --Luce
Billy Bronner is, to all appearances, every inch the 1950s American dream: handsome, clever, captain of the high school football team, looks good enough in tight jeans that people can even forget he’s Jewish. Then the new guy on the block, the enigmatic Leonard Nachman, turns his head, and over the summer Billy discovers a new world of romance and love-in a man’s arms. But when Kit O’Reilly, Billy’s best friend and shadow, comes home after spending the summer with relatives, he finds Billy acting… differently. Soon enough, it becomes obvious that this change is related to Len, and Kit will have to decide if he’ll accept the relationship Billy and Len have forged, or if he’ll push Billy and their longtime friendship away.
2) Dakota Chase - The Eye of Ra (Prizm Books)
Gorgeous book! --Lori
Not totally as into it as it didn't have the deep characterization I like but it is a good light read. --Janice
What do you do when you accidentally destroy your history teacher’s prized collection of historical artifacts? If you’re teenaged delinquents, Aston and Grant, this is more than just a rhetorical question. They've made a huge mistake, one that might cost them everything. Adding to their misery, their history teacher’s name is Merlin. Yes, that Merlin, and the answer to their dilemma is deceptively simple according to the old wizard. You go back in time to replace the items you destroyed! Aston and Grant find themselves in ancient Egypt, where their first task is to find and retrieve “The Eye of Ra,” a golden amulet owned by none other than King Tut, the boy king of Egypt. Neither of them is all that versed in history, so they have to play it cool and learn as they go. It's not just the amulet that's causing them trouble, either. They soon become friends with Tut, and find that they want to help him out. Surrounded by enemies, needing to survive in a primitive world, Aston and Grant quickly learn one basic truth. History isn’t dead when you’re living it.
3) Hayden Thorne - The Curse of Arachnaman (Prizm Books)
The Curse of Arachnaman follows the events in the first three books in the Masks series, including Masks: Rise of Heroes and Masks: Evolution. Eric is settling down into a near-normal existence. He's learning to cope with a different kind of closet - being kept from talking freely about his relationship with Calais and the other superheroes - as well as an increasingly protective mother, his sister’s new squeaky-clean boyfriend, and a bingo-obsessed best friend. Eric also learns that sometimes, being an asset to the forces of good means simply being himself. In the meantime, Vintage City is under siege from a new threat, one who’s proving to be much more dangerous than all of the other supervillains the heroes have faced combined. Good people find themselves at the mercy of an angry lunatic who will stop at nothing to purge the city of what he sees to be undesirable elements. Can Eric and his friends triumph over evil again, or will this be their last battle?
Honorable Mention:
4) Chris Corkum - XOXO Hayden (P.D. Publishing)
5) K.P. Kincaid - The Next Competitor (Prizm Books)