A compelling romance worth reading again, or for the first time.
Alfie Bell is…fine. He’s got a six-figure salary, a penthouse in Canary Wharf, the car he swore he’d buy when he was eighteen, and a bunch of fancy London friends.
It’s rough, though, going back to South Shields now that they all know he’s a fully paid-up pansy. It’s the last place he’s expecting to pull. But Fen’s gorgeous, with his pink-tipped hair and hipster glasses, full of the sort of courage Alfie’s never had. It should be a one-night thing, but Alfie hasn’t met anyone like Fen before.
Except he has. At school, when Alfie was everything he was supposed to be, and Fen was the stubborn little gay boy who wouldn’t keep his head down. And now it’s a proper mess: Fen might have slept with Alfie, but he’ll probably never forgive him, and Fen’s got all this other stuff going on anyway, with his mam and her flower shop and the life he left down south.
Alfie just wants to make it right. But how can he, when all they’ve got in common is the nowhere town they both ran away from.
This dynamic, emotional LGBTQIA+ romance contains never-before-seen content and exclusive bonus material:
The World of SPIRES:
Glitterland, book 1
Waiting for the Flood, book 2
For Real, book 3
Pansies, book 4
Please note: this is not intended to be exhaustive and may contain spoilers.
Sexual content, past bullying (one MC bullied the other when they were children), a parent of one of the MCs dies by assisted suicide after receiving an Alzheimer’s diagnosis (this happens in the past and off page but is discussed in the present), grief/grieving, one of the MCs reflects on being disciplined with a belt as a child (he’s not in a place where he recognises that this wasn’t okay), emotionally distant parents, internalised toxic masculinity and internalised homophobia (challenged on page), homophobia/homophobic language, sexism and gendered stereotyping (challenged on page), mild violence.
This book was written and published before JK Rowling made the full extent of her transphobic beliefs public. I have chosen to leave the text as originally written since I am concerned that actively removing references to that particular author contributes to a narrative in which she is the victim who is being silenced and erased, rather than the one who is silencing and erasing others. This book contains very brief references to the Harry Potter books. This does not in any way represent an endorsement of either the work or the author.
Please note: this is not intended to be exhaustive and may contain spoilers.
Sexual content, past bullying (one MC bullied the other when they were children), a parent of one of the MCs dies by assisted suicide after receiving an Alzheimer’s diagnosis (this happens in the past and off page but is discussed in the present), grief/grieving, one of the MCs reflects on being disciplined with a belt as a child (he’s not in a place where he recognises that this wasn’t okay), emotionally distant parents, internalised toxic masculinity and internalised homophobia (challenged on page), homophobia/homophobic language, sexism and gendered stereotyping (challenged on page), mild violence.
This book was written and published before JK Rowling made the full extent of her transphobic beliefs public. I have chosen to leave the text as originally written since I am concerned that actively removing references to that particular author contributes to a narrative in which she is the victim who is being silenced and erased, rather than the one who is silencing and erasing others. This book contains very brief references to the Harry Potter books. This does not in any way represent an endorsement of either the work or the author.
A compelling romance worth reading again, or for the first time.
for Pansies
Hall’s sex scenes are a heady mix of hot play-by-play, breathy exhilaration, emotional discovery, and endearing awkwardness.
for Pansies
