Venery Books

Grand Prize in the 2017 Writer's Digest Awards. First Place in the 2019 North Street Book Prize 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 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. "Life has rules. You cannot come in the middle of the night and take what we agreed isn't yours." Across three decades and two continents, Suanne Laqueur's award-winning novel explores the unpredictability of sexual attraction, how family ties are forged, torn and mended, and how love's downfall can turn to exaltation.

"I swear. Give me one more chance and I will make the most of it." 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 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 desire to connect with someone, but Javier Landes is the last person Stef expected. Geronimo "Geno" Caan is Stef's most challenging case. Shattered physically and mentally after a brutal sexual assault, Geno learns to let art express what can't be spoken aloud. But as Geno's attachment to Stef intensifies and spills onto 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 that will stay with you forever. (Contains adult themes of sexual attraction and sexual violence, written in adult language.

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.

So this is another f**ktn of gratuitous boning with the Venery boys. That’s it, that’s the blurb. If you’re new here, you’ve been warned. This is pure, shameless fluff. It doesn’t fit anywhere or take the place of anything in the Venery novels. It just is what it is. The bathroom was steamy and dark, a lit candle on the edge of the sink. Jav lolled in the tub, his hair slicked back. Stef brought in more candles and poured out two shots of rum to chug, then more generous tots to sip. He sat on the bathmat and read out loud. Jav rested an arm on the ledge of the tub, cheek on his bicep, damp fingers playing with a fold of Stef’s shirt. The walls of the little room drew close. Even the fixtures seemed to lean on their elbows and listen.“This is nice,” Jav said softly, drawing up Stef’s neck and behind his ear. For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will like. Contains adults being nice to each other in adult situations using adult language.