Blog Anniversary: $50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway: Tell Us About Your First Time!
We all remember our first time. Our first time reading a book in the gay romance or MM genre, I mean. 😉
To help us celebrate our 10th year, we want to know what book was your first in the genre. Don’t be shy. We really want to know! Also, by telling us about your first gay romance book, you’ll be entered into one of our $50 Amazon gift card giveaways. Just follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter and you’ll be entered. We’ll even throw in 10 bonus entries if you tell us why you chose that particular book, and what had you checking out the genre when you’d never read in it before.
You can check out ours below.
As with all giveaways, each Rafflecopter entry will be verified, with all invalid entries being deleted.
When On Top Down Under was born, we never dreamed we’d still be going strong 10 years later. We came together over the love of the same book. Before long, two total strangers, from two different continents, were collaborating on a review site that goes far beyond books. We also became the best of friends who consider each other family.
We also know we wouldn’t still be doing this if it wasn’t for our followers and the authors who write the books. Thank you to all of you who have stuck with us. We appreciate you all.
Good luck with the giveaway!
*You have to comment on this post for any entries to be valid.
Cindi:
The very first book I read in the genre was a freebie by Zathyn Priest, One Of Those Days. It wasn’t long after before I’d read everything he’d put out, and counted down the days until another book or short story was published. He’s still one of my all-time favorite authors. The story is short, but a lot is in those few pages. I didn’t end it feeling like it wasn’t finished or that I’d missed anything. There’s a lot of humor – which I love – and even a couple of serious moments. I don’t remember how I found that story specifically. I just remember being curious about the genre after reading about Blay and Qhuinn in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series. While I ended up giving up on her and that series, I never looked back when it came to gay romance. According to Goodreads, I’ve read over 1,200 titles since.
Note that the cover has changed a few times since the original story was published. I believe the one I’m using was the first one used. For that reason, and because it’s probably this cover that caught my eye originally, I’m using it in this post.
Kazza:
The first book I read in the genre was A Fostered Love by Cameron Dane. That led to a great deal more Cameron Dane books for me. Then I fell into gay romance in a big way. Christian Sanchez and Jonah Roberts were full of passion and hurt/comfort and lust and love and desire. The “bad” guy in the book, David, got his own book quite a few years later in the rather angsty Brokedown Hearts. Cameron Dane has always been the Queen of Purple Prose. And her sex scenes could last for pages and pages… and pages. I’ve read her entire back catalogue and tend to re-read it every year. She has written both het romance as well as gay romance.
I’d love to hear the name of your first book in this genre and what you thought about it in the comments section below, good or bad. Thanks for stopping by our 10th blog anniversary celebrations and good luck with the $50 Amazon gift card.
**You have to comment on this post to be eligible for this gift card giveaway**
[…] 1st – On Top Down Under’s $50 Amazon gift card giveaway #1 – Tell us about your first time reading […]
I suspect my “first” would be deemed more pornographic erotica than mm romance, although there were some aspects of romance in the novel. “Street Boys of Paris” by Terry Liewellyn – I remember getting it when I had about $5 to my name from Beat Books in Melbourne when I was potentially too young to be in the store for $2 in their discount bin.
The novel was really well written, to the point that I still have it to this day, I’ve not re-read it in a while, but it definitely conjured up images in my mind, which was helpful back when dial-up was around.
Why did I read the book? Curiosity, really. I didn’t understand why a porn shop was selling novels (I was incredibly nieve!), But after reading it, I remember having a fascination with the genre of written stories, and would often read user submitted writing piece on Nifty because of it (and a *lot* of searching around for other written books too!).
So many books we get our hands on when maybe we’re a bit too young, especially the sexy ones, but we grow into them and then appreciate the hell out of them even more. It’s is so nice that you still have the book to this day, Kris. Thank you for sharing. Oooh, and Nifty can be nasty, lol
Of course your first had to be written by an Aussie, lol. Mine, an American 😀
How funny is that? That didn’t even click until you mentioned it. I do remember one of our first ever conversations being about me reading ZP and him being from Australia.
I don’t know why I even question our little connections anymore. 🙂
My first was Try by Ella Frank. I probably picked it because of the cover. And you could listen to the audio book for free with Kindle Unlimited. I read the other books in the series one after the other.
I’ve not read that one yet. I need to add it to my TBR. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read simply because I loved the cover. 😉
Thanks for the comment, Lorraine. Good luck in the giveaway!
I can’t be sure of first, but I do remember sneeking a read of John Rechy’s Numbers at the library I worked, even shelving it in the wrong place so I could find it later.
First all-nighter was Patricia Nell Warren’s, The Front Runner, bawling my eyes out at 4am was not pretty!
Oooh, the stealthy skillset in keeping the book where you would be able to access it again easily, Graeme. I admire the ingenuity. Also love the first all-nighter
It’s a young adult book but it’s was my first and always stuck with me. Dance on my Grave by Aidan Chambers. Eye opening to younger me. Happy 10th to On Top Down Under. Thanks for the chance of a giveaway or two.
My first in the genre was Willow Bend by Ally Blue. Friends recommended it. I’ve read a lot of hers since. I was sad to see that she passed away recently.
I too left J. R. Ward’s series not long after reading about Blay and Qhuinn. I loved that romance but had no idea a whole mm genre existed until I stumbled upon “Spectred Isle” by K.J. Charles. Loved the cover, read it in one go,….and never looked back! I had stopped reading mf romance in traditional paperbacks out of boredom after my teenage years and discovered mm romance, ebooks, indie authors and a great community all by the same token!
My first read was called Boyfriend Material.
I think one of the first for me was likely Annabeth Albert’s Out of Uniform titles. I’d always enjoyed military and military adjacent romance, and I loved what she did with those characters. I think I went from those to her Gaymers series, and from there, it was kind of a slippery slope to so many other wonderful authors!
I have been reading about this series, everybody was raving about it. It was Cut & Run by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux… I read it and I thought “this is interesting” I moved then to The Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon… and I was a goner…
can’t remember
I don’t remember what gay romance my first book was, but I love them.
I’m relatively new to the genre. My first MM book was City Boy by AE Wasp. Thanks for the giveaway.
This giveaway is over, congrats to Matt