August, 1988 – the hottest summer in more than a century in New York, a city shadowed by the AIDS epidemic. Gary Gaines is 35 years old and three years past losing, in the most sudden, unexpected, terrible way, the love of his life, Becker Barnes. And then again, he is not past it at all. One night, to forget their mutual pain, Gary and his best friend Julia Stern, an even more recent widow, venture out to a funky East Village restaurant. There Gary meets, in the most unlikely circumstances, Rick Fennell, a 22-year-old waiter freshly moved from the Midwest. Despite the generation gap between them, a relationship slowly begins to develop. But Gary cannot bring himself to take Rick seriously, and his tight circle of family and friends, all of whom adored Becker, share his skepticism. Abruptly, circumstances cause Gary to decamp from New York to his parents' home in Florida. As the days and nights pass, he is forced to face the consequences of his paralyzing grief, and make...

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I this August, we proudly announce the publication of Flower of Iowa by Lance Ringel. In the tradition of historical novels about the epic war that tore Europe in half, Flower of Iowa is a sprawling tale of battle, courage, the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of love. This unforgettable book recalls Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, if that classic tale of love and war had featured two men at the bruised heart of the story.Taking place in France during the final months of the bloody war in 1918, Flower of Iowa focuses on American soldier Tommy Flowers. As the naïve young man struggles to learn how to be a good soldier, he becomes attracted to Nicole Lacroix, a young French barmaid. However, Flowers finds himself in a rivalry for her affections with his brash Australian lieutenant, Jamie Colbeck.At the same time, Tommy befriends British soldier David Pearson – a friendship that soon...