“BEST OF THE DECADE: I considered all three books in the Venery trilogy as one unit. Laqueur’s ability to pull you into her books so completely, to feel such attachment to her characters that you can’t stop thinking about them when you’re finished reading, is absolutely dazzling. These books are gorgeous, sensitive, sexy, and emotional, full of moments that made me smile, made me blush, horrified me, and made me full-on ugly cry at times.”
Grand prize in the 2017 Writer's Digest Awards.
"I only wish other writers had Laqueur's kind of talent. This precise and vivid word choice.”
First place in the 2019 North Street Book Prize
"An exploration of how people find a new family and home base after traumatic displacement ... the strength of this book was the characters' rich inner lives—their yearning for love and their devotion to one another, and the men's vulnerability as they overcame the taboo of same-sex attraction. There were not enough books in the contest where I genuinely felt something for the characters. This was one of them."
September 11, 1973: Eleven-year-old Alejandro Penda watches from his apartment window as Santiago, Chile falls to a military coup, destroying his family and his childhood. Arriving alone in America, he’s taken in by the Larks: a prominent family in the town of Guelisten. Though burdened by unresolved grief for his disappeared parents, he becomes fiercely loyal to the Larks, eventually marrying one of their daughters, Valerie.
September 11, 2001: Javier Landes watches from his apartment window as New York City falls to terrorism. As one of Manhattan’s top-paid male escorts, this professional lover has never lacked for company and is loyal only to himself. But in the wake of 9/11, Jav is named guardian for an orphaned nephew in Guelisten and now he must open his carefully-guarded heart to pain he's long suppressed.
Alex, Valerie and Jav meet first in their twenties, with a sudden attraction each finds strange and compelling. When they meet again in their forties, they discover not only is their bond still strong, but their life experiences are strangely similar. All have been shaped by separate 9/11's, and their unfinished business from the past will change everything they know about love, loyalty and friendship.
Across three decades and two continents, Suanne Laqueur's fifth novel explores the unpredictability of sexual attraction, how family ties are forged, torn and mended, and how love's downfall can turn to exaltation.
Ex-hustler Javier Landes is asking for his third chance at love. The third time proves to be the charm when he meets a Manhattan art therapist named Steffen Finch. What starts as casual and curious deepens into a passionate, soulful relationship—everything Jav has ever wanted, and everything he fears losing.
Stef’s business card reads Curator & Sailor. His creativity and insightful nature have made him into a talented therapist, the one to call for tough cases. His professional success can’t conceal a deep need to connect with someone, but Javier Landes is the last person Stef expected.
Geronimo "Geno" Caan is Stef's most challenging case. To cope with his ordeal, he's allowed an alter-ego called Mos to make decisions, and now lives a double life within a web of lies. Under Stef’s navigation, Geno uses art to express what Mos forbids to be spoken aloud. But as Geno’s attachment to Stef gradually extends to Jav, the boundaries between professional and personal begin to blur.
Over the course of a year, Jav, Stef and Geno form an unexpected and unconventional triangle, revealing how men make love in times of war and how love is a great wisdom made up of small understandings. The long-awaited second book of the Venery series, A Charm of Finches is an epic tale of survival and secrets guaranteed to make you think and feel and remember.
Juleón "Jude" Tholet has survival in his DNA. His father, Cleon, lived through imprisonment and torture during Pinochet's military coup in Chile. His mother, Penny, risked everything to gain her husband's freedom and flee the country with their newborn son. But as a closeted gay teenager growing up in Vancouver, Jude is targeted by a neighborhood bully called El Cóndor, culminating in a vicious hate crime that forces the Tholets to flee their country again.
Jude cautiously rebuilds his life in Seattle, becoming an accomplished pianist, but his his wings have been clipped and he cannot seem to soar in his relationships. Only family remains a constant source of strength and joy, until a DNA test reveals something that shocks all the Tholets: Jude is not their child.
Stunned by the test results, the Tholets must dig into their painful past, re-examine their lives in 1973 Santiago and the events surrounding Jude's birth story. It’s a tale rooted in South America’s Operation Condor. It spreads through Pinochet’s terrifying regime of detention camps, torture, disappeared civilians and stolen children. The journey forces Penny Tholet to confront the gaps in her memory while Cleon must re-live an ordeal he’s long kept hidden away in a secret world. The tale ends with Jude digging through his genetic code in a quest to find his biological parents. Are they alive? Or are they among Los Desaparecidos—the Disappeared Ones?
Suanne Laqueur’s third book in the Venery series explores the desperate acts of love made in times of war, and the many ways family can be defined.
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Pelippé Trueblood is on the voyage of a lifetime and hosting a temperamental, half-man half-horse onboard his ship. He just might end up killing his difficult guest. Or kissing him.
Trueblood is descended from giants and poised to be one of the world's great mariners. Raised by his father on the mighty ship Cay, he’s chosen at nineteen for a perilous voyage predicted in ancient prophecy: find the lost Tree of Life and anchor her branches back to the sky. Young and unseasoned, Trueblood fears the gods may have picked the wrong man for the job. Worse, scripture demands he be accompanied by the beautiful, brooding Fen il-Kheir. Nothing in Trueblood's life at sea has prepared him for this dangerous new crew member, nor the feelings he plants in Trueblood's heart.
Fen is a kheiron—a creature with the ability to shift between man and horse. With his dark past, his distrust of humans and his contempt for prophecy, Fen proves a reluctant passenger who could jeopardize not only the voyage, but the very future of the world. As the journey progresses, Fen finds himself more and more drawn to the Cay's charismatic commander, bringing the kheiron closer to everything his human nature longs for, and everything the beast in him fears.
A feud of the gods. Ships built by giants. Spice that makes the world beautiful. Flying horses. Murder and misery. Belonging and bravery. Sailors, centaurs, warriors, queens, courtesans and storytellers. A tapestry of mythology and human experience, The Voyages of Trueblood Cay is both Javier Landes’ fantastical life story, and Suanne Laqueur’s most adventurous love story.
Publisher's Note: Gil Rafael is the pen name of Javier Landes, who is a fictional character in Laqueur's Venery series. The Voyages of Trueblood Cay is the novel Javier is writing throughout the series. It contains subtle references to people and situations in Venery, however it's not necessary to have read the series beforehand. Trueblood Cay can absolutely be enjoyed as a standalone.