It’s #WhatToReadWednesday time! Today, it’s As Young As You Feel Day which stems from a movie from the 1950s with the same name. It’s about a 65-year-old man who doesn’t feel old, and I have a feeling 65-year-olds of the 1950s felt older than the 65-year-olds of today. The day is to prove that age is just a number (they haven’t walked in my body in the mornings, because let me tell you, it wasn’t like that twenty years ago 😆).
To celebrate, I thought I’d give you some book recs (since my-bodied people prefer to read rather than go cartwheeling) with 40+ main characters. Now, I’m not into age-play kink of any form (a little age gap is fine) and I don’t read anything with the word Daddy unless it’s by mistake (blurbs bore me and I most often end up not reading them LOL), so it won’t be those kinds of books, only characters who are a little older than the twenty-two-year-olds you often see in stories. I’ll also say that I often write characters that are 35-45 because while I’m not into age play, I’m not into kids either, so if I read in a blurb that someone is twenty-two, I’m likely to skip that book.
Hey, I get to be as picky as I want with my reads. I’m not saying the books are bad, and each to their own and all that, but I prefer not to feel like a… 🤢 kiddie molester. And no eighteen-year-olds are not mature enough to make informed decisions. And I don’t care how much anyone argues that it’s just fictional characters, it sets the tone of what you accept in society. Aaaand now I’m gonna drop this before I go off on a tangent… more of a tangent. A rant. We’re hovering on the edge of a rant, people, so let’s take a deep breath and force ourselves to step down from the soap box.
So books with main characters over forty!
Cut & Run by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
Let’s start with an obvious one, shall we? I don’t think this series is available in ebooks anymore, or not the first books, or however it is, but check your libraries if you want to read it. I’ve seen the books in my library.
A series of murders in New York City has stymied the police and FBI alike, and they suspect the culprit is a single killer sending an indecipherable message. But when the two federal agents assigned to the investigation are taken out, the FBI takes a more personal interest in the case.
Special Agent Ty Grady is pulled out of undercover work after his case blows up in his face. He’s cocky, abrasive, and indisputably the best at what he does. But when he’s paired with Special Agent Zane Garrett, it’s hate at first sight. Garrett is the perfect image of an agent: serious, sober, and focused, which makes their partnership a classic cliche: total opposites, good cop-bad cop, the odd couple. They both know immediately that their partnership will pose more of an obstacle than the lack of evidence left by the murderer.
Practically before their special assignment starts, the murderer strikes again this time at them. Now on the run, trying to track down a man who has focused on killing his pursuers, Grady and Garrett will have to figure out how to work together before they become two more notches in the murderer’s knife.
Link to paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cut-Run-Madeleine-Urban/dp/193519223X/
Among the Living by Jordan Castillo Price
We’ll continue with another series that I assume many of you have read, at least if you’ve been reading M/M for some time. It’s great! I love Vic.
Once upon a time if you told doctors you heard voices,
they’d diagnose you as schizophrenic, put you on heavy drugs,
and lock you away in a cozy state institution
to keep you from hurting yourself or others.
Nowadays they test you first to see if you’re psychic.
Victor Bayne, the psychic half of a PsyCop team, is a gay medium who’s more concerned with flying under the radar than making waves.
He hooks up with handsome Jacob Marks, a non-psychic (or “Stiff”) from an adjacent precinct at his ex-partner’s retirement party, and it seems like his dubious luck has taken a turn for the better. But then a serial killer surfaces who can change his appearance to match any witness’ idea of the world’s hottest guy.
Solving murders is a snap when you can ask the victims whodunit, but this killer’s not leaving any spirits behind.
Among the Living is book 1 of PsyCop, an ongoing M/M Urban Fantasy series featuring steamy love scenes, astonishing psychic talents, gruesome murders, and a slew of creepy otherworldly creatures.
https://books2read.com/AmongTheLiving
Frog by Mary Calmes
Mary Calmes has many books with characters over 40, but I think this is my favourite 😊
Weber Yates’s dreams of stardom are about to be reduced to a ranch hand’s job in Texas, and his one relationship is with a guy so far out of his league he might as well be on the moon. Or at least in San Francisco, where Weber stops to see him one last time before settling down to the humble, lonely life he figures a frog like him has coming.
Cyrus Benning is a successful neurosurgeon, so details are never lost on him. He spotted the prince in a broken-down bull rider’s clothing from day one. But watching Weber walk out on him keeps getting harder, and he’s not sure how much more his heart can take. Now Cyrus has one last chance to prove to Weber that it’s not Weber’s job that makes him Cyrus’s perfect man, it’s Weber himself. With the help of his sister’s newly broken family, he’s ready to show Weber that the home the man’s been searching for has always been right there, with him. Cyrus might have laid down an ultimatum once, but now it’s turned into a vow-he’s never going to let Weber out of his life again.
https://books2read.com/CalmesFrog
Nowhere Ranch by Heidi Cullinan
For all my not being into kink talk (and I have to admit I don’t dare reread this because I fear I’ll dislike it) Heidi Cullinan has several books with characters over forty.
Love will grow through the cracks you leave open.
Ranch hand Roe Davis absolutely never mixes business with pleasure—until he runs into his boss, Travis Loving, at the only gay bar within two hundred miles.
Getting involved with the ranch owner is a bad idea, but Roe’s and Travis’s bedroom kinks line up against one another like a pair of custom-cut rails. As long as they’re both clear this is sex on the side, no relationship, no interfering with the job, they could make it work.
Shut out by his family years ago, Roe survived by steadfastly refusing to settle into so much as a post office box. As his affair with Travis grows into more than just sex, Roe’s past catches up with him, threatening the thin ray of happiness he’s found, reminding him it’s well past time he went on his way.
But even a loner gets lonely, and at this point, there’s nowhere left to run. The shame and sorrow of what he’s lost will stay with Roe wherever he goes—until he’s ready to let love lead him home.
https://books2read.com/NowhereRanch
Family Unit by Z.A. Maxfield
Every time I see this, I smile.
Once, Richard chose family obligation over romance. When new love comes knocking, will he have the courage to answer?
Richard is an artist. A liberal pacifist who is pathologically afraid of guns. Retired marine Logan is methodical and conservative. Yet the minute Logan sets eyes on Richard, his heart turns over like an old car engine and it isn’t long before his motor is revved and Richard is in the driver’s seat–even if it seems like each man is driving a different car.
Richard Hunter gave up on love to parent his grandson. The kid–Nick–has had it rough. Richard vows nothing will stop him from creating a loving and stable home. Not even a tempting, red-hot relationship with a very attractive man. However, when Richard looks into Logan’s blue eyes it’s tough to stay focused.
It’s never easy to become a family, what with a temperamental eight-year-old, disapproving outsiders, and outright extortion attempts. But when push comes to shove, both Logan and Richard are committed family men who want to make a loving home for a little boy who needs them. Together, they’re planning to form a Family Unit, and they won’t let anything stand in their way.
https://books2read.com/FamilyUnit
A Note in the Margin by Isabelle Rowan
This… it’s many, many years since I read it. I checked, and it was released in 2009, and I likely read it then. So many years, and I can’t really remember the plot, but I remember liking it.
John McCann, a man who judges life by the tally of an accounts ledger, has a supreme goal in life: To achieve, live, and enjoy the rarified executive lifestyle. But he’s encountered one problem: The migraines are going to continue to get worse unless you make some major changes in your lifestyle. What you need is a ‘sea change’… Perhaps buy a nice little business in the country, settle down, something easier to occupy your time…
While John knows the doctor is right, he just can’t resign from the job he’s fought so hard for. He decides the sacrifice of taking a year’s leave of absence won’t interfere too much with his plans, and so he finds himself running Margins, a cozy little bookstore, with the help of the former owner’s son, Jamie. John expects to put in his year, get his stress under control, and then get back to business.
What John doesn’t expect is how Margins and its denizens draw him in, particularly the quiet, disheveled man who takes refuge in the old leather chair in the second-hand book section. John’s plans for an unattached year of simple business crumble when he meets David and is forced to reevaluate life, love and what he really wants from both. John and David are forced to come to terms with their pasts as they struggle to determine what possible future they might build together.
https://books2read.com/ANoteInTheMargin
Houseboat on the Nile by Tinnean
Another series. This is so much fun… if you’re into spies and stuff 😁
Quinton Mann is CIA through and through. Mark Vincent is WBIS for life. There is no way they could end up as anything other than adversaries–and yet, Quinn takes Mark out to dinner on his birthday–the one no one is supposed to know about–and gives him one hell of a present in the restaurant’s restroom. Mark, not to be outdone, has decided to escalate this game, because it has to be a game, right? There’s no way it can be anything else.
But as the game continues, as Quinn shows up to a WBIS funeral, as a friend of Mark’s penetrates the CIA computer network to get information on Quinn, as Mark breaks into Quinn’s house and gives Quinn a very interesting encounter, both Quinn and Mark realize that this is becoming the most real thing in their lives.
Can they find a way to do their jobs and keep this surprising, intriguing connection?
https://books2read.com/houseboat-on-the-nile
Rattlesnake by Kim Fielding
This is a slow story, gentle almost.
A drifter since his teens, Jimmy Dorsett has no home and no hope. What he does have is a duffel bag, a lot of stories, and a junker car. Then one cold desert night he picks up a hitchhiker and ends up with something more: a letter from a dying man to the son he hasn’t seen in years.
On a quest to deliver the letter, Jimmy travels to Rattlesnake, a small town nestled in the foothills of the California Sierras. The centerpiece of the town is the Rattlesnake Inn, where the bartender is handsome former cowboy Shane Little. Sparks fly, and when Jimmy’s car gives up the ghost, Shane gets him a job as handyman at the inn.
Both within the community of Rattlesnake and in Shane’s arms, Jimmy finds an unaccustomed peace. But it can’t be a lasting thing. The open road continues to call, and surely Shane—a strong, proud man with a painful past and a difficult present—deserves better than a lying vagabond who can’t stay put for long.
https://books2read.com/Rattlesnake
Dear Mona Lisa… by Claire Davis & Al Stewart
Another favourite! Everyone needs some foxes in their lives 😊
Tom; shy office clerk by day and drawer of foxes by night, wakes up one Monday knowing the most extraordinary week of his life is about to begin. In five days, a lifelong ‘secret’ will be made gloriously public—but will it mean losing the person he loves most?
Getting married… It seems only yesterday Tom changed nappies and sang nursery rhymes to a laughing baby. He relishes the demands of being a daddy. But the years tick by and times change. Long-buried secrets must come to the surface which may test even the strongest ties.
Everyone waits as Tom finds the strength to open up and set free the secrets of his heart in a celebration of family, friendship and love.
https://books2read.com/DearMonaLisa
Strain by Amelia C. Gormley
I don’t have a single poly bone in my entire body, not even a tiny one, so I was mostly reading this story through half-closed eyes and wishing really, really hard Rhys only would be with Darius, but… sigh. Still, if you’re into multiple partners and now with The Last of Us being so popular and so on, check this one out!
In a world with little hope and no rules, the only thing they have to lose is themselves.
Rhys Cooper is a dead man. He’s spent years hiding from the virus that wiped out most of the human race, but an act of futile heroism has him counting down his remaining days. The timely arrival of superhuman soldiers offers some feeble hope–but only if Rhys can reconcile himself to doing what is necessary to take advantage of it.
Sergeant Darius Murrell has seen too much death and too little tenderness. His job is seeking out the infected to put them out of their misery, or sending the uninfected survivors to a safe haven where he and his fellow Juggernaut troops will never be welcomed. Rhys’s situation is different, though. Not only is there an improbable chance that Darius won’t have to put a bullet in Rhys’s head, but he has somehow managed to get under Darius’s skin.
The virus Rhys must infect himself with in order to survive is sexually transmitted, and optimizing his chance of exposure requires him to submit as often as possible to Darius–and the other soldiers. Though the boundaries of morality have shifted in this harsh new world, Darius and Rhys question whether their humanity is too high a price to pay for Rhys’s survival.
Cold by Brandon Shire
Prison romance, anyone?
Book 1 of the Cold Series – A Gay Prison Romance
Prison is a brutal, heartless, and demeaning environment. No one knows this better than a man sentenced to life in prison for murder. Lem Porter is a high-profile prisoner who had a solid career ahead of him in a field he loved until he killed his brother. He has spent almost eighteen years behind bars and doesn’t have much hope left.
Anderson Passero had it all. He built a career, a name, and a relationship with a man he thought he loved. Only after he very publicly landed in prison did he realize how ignorant he’d been. He has eight months left on his sentence and he is eager to go home and put prison life behind him. He doesn’t know it yet, but he will always carry these eight months with him, and they may just help him to understand what love really means.
https://books2read.com/ColdShire
The Mermaid Murders by Josh Lanyon
Josh Lanyon has a lot of books with characters over forty, so if you’re into mysteries that aren’t too heavy on the romance, give her titles a go.
Special Agent Jason West is seconded from the FBI Art Crime Team to temporarily partner with disgraced, legendary “manhunter” Sam Kennedy when it appears that Kennedy’s most famous case, the capture and conviction of a serial killer known as The Huntsman, may actually have been a disastrous failure.
The Huntsman is still out there…and the killing has begun again.
https://books2read.com/TheMermaidMurders
More books to check out!
I feel like there are a zillion more books I should mention, but I’m unsure if the character is forty or like thirty-eight LOL. And if I was to include all my stories with characters over forty, you’d drown in them, so three on each name? I’ll do three on each name 😁
Conri is king, but someone is trying to take him down. Nick, a blood witch, who is in Conri’s territory refuses to see him, and that puts him on the top of Conri’s list of suspects. When he goes to confront Nick, things don’t turn out the way he’d planned. Nick is his destined mate, but he doesn’t want anything to do with Conri. Conri needs Nick, but can he convince him to fight by his side?
Adrian Green’s next-door neighbor isn’t really a dragon, but he does snarl an awful lot. Lorcan’s apartment is empty, but luckily, Adrian doesn’t mind filling his lair with gems fit for a dragon. But Lorcan doesn’t seem to want anything, and sneaking in presents isn’t easy. What if the way to a dragon’s heart isn’t lined with treasures?
Four years ago, Dimitri Petrov had his leg blown off by a landmine while in military service. Suffering from PTSD, he doesn’t do crowds, people, dates, or dinners. But when Elian Hubert enters the dating agency where Dimitri works in a whirlwind of pink shirts, flapping hands, and outrageous flirting, looking for a Valentine date, Dimitri thinks maybe he can do him a favor.
Kace Channing has been best friends with Luke Holland for thirty-five years. He can’t imagine his world without him. When Luke shows up on Kace’s doorstep, asking for a place to stay, Kace says yes. But he isn’t prepared for the kiss that follows. Then Luke tells him he’s buying a cabin in the woods, he says they need it, the two of them. But won’t kisses and cabins ruin their friendship?
Charlie Wilkins had everything he wanted — a husband, a daughter, a house that was his home. He still has his husband, but William has forgotten who he is. He still has his daughter, but she’s grown now. All Charlie wants is to spend the rest of his days with William by his side, till death do them part. But William is in a nursing home. What was he to do when he no longer could take care of him?
When Detective Quinn Manning saves a young man from one of Fagerdal’s drug lords, his view of reality is altered forever. Hush is a hulder, a pine tree Mary. His people live in the forest and feed off the energy from passing humans. When Manning’s partner disappears, he seeks Hush’s help. While working together, their connection grows, but can a human have a future with a creature of the forest?
Writer of queer, paranormal, historical, romantic suspense, mostly. Lives in the South West of England with Mr AL, two children, a terrifying cat, some poultry. Likes gardening but doesn’t really have time or energy. Not musical. Doesn’t much like telly. Non-binary. Chronically disabled. Has tedious fits.
It’s release day!!! 🥳 
Ofelia Grand 