Jack Chandler (Author of The Higher Education of Matt Griffith)

Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing John of John by Douglas Stuart (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I waited two years for this book to come out. If this were a concert, I’d be the guy camping on the sidewalk, wearing a band t-shirt, and arguing about the meaning of lyrics with anyone unfortunate enough to be near me in line. The book was worth the ...more
Sep 16, 2026 06:57PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of John of John by Douglas Stuart. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — John of John by Douglas Stuart <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jack Chandler and 61 other people liked David's review of The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1): "What a fantastic book! A well-paced story that had me constantly hoping for the best, and then to be rewarded with a beautiful ending that left my heart warm. The audio-book ranks as the best I've ever listened to. The voices were perfectly matched t" Read more of this review »
Sep 12, 2026 08:56PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing Santa is Not a Killer by D.J. Ciccarello (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Have you ever wondered what’s propping up all the magic at the North Pole—whether all those centuries of tradition come weighted with more than accumulated dust? Honestly, I never thought about any of this, but then I was raised in a severely fundam ...more
Sep 11, 2026 10:10PM · 1 like · like · see review
Jack Chandler liked Nicole Cammarata's review of The Higher Education of Matt Griffith:
Sep 04, 2026 08:46AM · see review
Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing Campfires and Desires (The Havenwood Series Book 3) by Grafton Carter (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Do you ever get tired of chain restaurants and their market-tested menus? Ever get the itch to discover a hidden gem and earn bragging rights with your friends? If that’s you, there’s an undiscovered world of flavor in indie books—the publishing equi ...more
Aug 18, 2026 08:09PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Campfires and Desires by Grafton Carter. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Campfires and Desires by Grafton Carter <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Safekeep is a lesbian love story wrapped in historical fiction, tied with a shiny ribbon of mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed unwrapping it. We’re plopped into the Netherlands in 1961, watching life through the eyes of thirty-two year-old Isabel. She’ ...more
Jul 21, 2026 07:35PM · like · see review
Jack Chandler liked Cane23's review of The Higher Education of Matt Griffith: "Seeing how popular Matt's story has become makes me happy and proud to have been one of its first readers, religiously (hmm, what a word 😁) waiting for each new chapter until the very end. Bravo, Jack! Higher Education is a fun, occasionally dark, witt" Read more of this review »
Jun 09, 2026 10:59PM · see review
Jack Chandler is now following Cane23's reviews
Jun 09, 2026 10:59PM · like
Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing Waiting for Something Else by Martin Cloutier	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Lambda Literary Awards are the Kentucky Derby of LGBTQ literature, and this year’s winners will be announced June 12. Martin Cloutier’s Waiting for Something Else is a finalist in the Gay Fiction category, and while the competition is fierce (The ...more
Jun 08, 2026 09:31PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Waiting for Something Else by Martin Cloutier. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Waiting for Something Else by Martin Cloutier <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jack Chandler is now following Martin Cloutier Author of Waiting for Something Else
Jun 08, 2026 09:31PM · like

Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing

John of John
by Douglas Stuart (Goodreads Author)

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I waited two years for this book to come out. If this were a concert, I’d be the guy camping on the sidewalk, wearing a band t-shirt, and arguing about the meaning of lyrics with anyone unfortunate enough to be near me in line.
The book was worth the ...more

Jack Chandler and 61 other people liked David's review of The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1):

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

"What a fantastic book! A well-paced story that had me constantly hoping for the best, and then to be rewarded with a beautiful ending that left my heart warm. The audio-book ranks as the best I've ever listened to. The voices were perfectly matched t" Read more of this review »

Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing

Santa is Not a Killer
by D.J. Ciccarello (Goodreads Author)

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Have you ever wondered what’s propping up all the magic at the North Pole—whether all those centuries of tradition come weighted with more than accumulated dust?
Honestly, I never thought about any of this, but then I was raised in a severely fundam Have you ever wondered what’s propping up all the magic at the North Pole—whether all those centuries of tradition come weighted with more than accumulated dust?
Honestly, I never thought about any of this, but then I was raised in a severely fundamentalist Santa-free home. I was that kid who, in the fourth grade, proudly made the school bully cry by telling him Santa wasn’t real.
So when I tell you that I enjoyed Santa Is Not a Killer, that ought to add a little zing to your eggnog.
D.J. Ciccarello is a skilled storyteller. In his fifth book, he ventures into new territory with a fantasy-mystery set at the North Pole.
The book begins with the murder of Tinsel Bellweather, an elf with a secret. We’re there amid the snow and wind and trees as a stranger confronts him, then kills him with an ice dart.
Santa is a suspect.
Harper Winters is Santa’s granddaughter and has only recently returned to the North Pole. What? You thought Santa never got jiggy with Mrs. Claus? In Ciccarello’s reimagining, Santa has not only a family but all the drama that goes with it. Harper’s mom, Crystal, fled the Pole with her young daughter two decades ago.
Harper’s back with questions—just in time to get pulled into the mystery of Tinsel’s murder. She teams up with B.J. the reindeer and Jinx the elf. Fasten your seatbelts: this sleigh ride is nothing like the animated Christmas specials you watched as a kid.
Ciccarello balances the darker material with a dry wit—one character calls the North Pole “the happiest labor camp north of despair.” But the humor doesn’t crowd out the book’s more reflective moments. Another character explains the accommodation that comes with age: “You stop fighting the snow and learn to shovel it elegantly.”
What happens when tradition matters more than truth? What price do families—and societies—pay to preserve it?
These are questions that transcend the Santa myth and strike at the core of our current crisis of truth, law, and democratic norms. That’s me talking. Ciccarello’s too good a writer to get that heavy-handed. I’m just explaining what resonated with me: everything has a price, especially when preserving tradition requires looking away from truth.
Okay. Intermission over. Back to the main feature. Bottom line: whether you just want to escape into fantasy-mystery or whether you like a tinge of philosophy in your gingerbread, Santa Is Not a Killer is the perfect holiday read.
I received an advance reader copy of this book. This is my honest review. ...more

Jack Chandler liked Nicole Cammarata's review of The Higher Education of Matt Griffith:

The Higher Education of Matt Griffith by Jack Chandler

Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing

Campfires and Desires (The Havenwood Series Book 3)
by Grafton Carter (Goodreads Author)

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Do you ever get tired of chain restaurants and their market-tested menus? Ever get the itch to discover a hidden gem and earn bragging rights with your friends?
If that’s you, there’s an undiscovered world of flavor in indie books—the publishing equi Do you ever get tired of chain restaurants and their market-tested menus? Ever get the itch to discover a hidden gem and earn bragging rights with your friends?
If that’s you, there’s an undiscovered world of flavor in indie books—the publishing equivalent of mom-and-pop restaurants.
Try Grafton Carter’s Campfires and Desires. It feels lived-in rather than researched. It doesn’t follow the tired recipe for publishing-house MM romance.
Campfires and Desires is the literary equivalent of choosing Vito’s Italian over Olive Garden.**
Welcome to Havenwood, Grafton Carter's fictional town where being LGBTQ is no more scandalous than having brown eyes. Imagine a friend group that includes straights, gays, a drag queen, and a non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns. In red-state America, that sounds utopian.
In Havenwood, it's just Tuesday.
Havenwood is a delightful Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood for grown-up gays. It's the kind of place many of us wish existed. For 268 pages, it does.
Campfires and Desires is Grafton's third Havenwood novel. In many ways, the town is the secret ingredient that keeps readers coming back for another helping.
The book opens with a daring hors d’œuvre. Liam, owner of the Stag and Lantern bar, is being orally serviced by a rando he met online. MM romance readers would call it spicy. I just call it hot.
Afterward, the rando asks Liam if he ever gets tired of such hookups.
Nope. Bye-bye.
I told you it’s a daring first course. Most MM romance treats sex as dessert—page 136 or so, maybe even later—and then the author starts clearing the table, as if they don’t really know what should come next, as if the closest they’ve come to gay sex is watching a few porn clips. But I’m digressing into a hot-button gripe of mine.
We learn that Liam is neurodivergent. He’s got ADHD, which explains so much about him.
I perked up at this point. I have a loved one who has ADHD. I’ve seen it up close and know both the unique challenges it presents and the thrill of watching a mind connect dots in different ways than mine.
I had a hunch that Grafton was writing from experience, so I emailed him about it. Sure enough, his husband has ADHD. See what I mean about lived-in?
And then there’s Liam’s pastime of going to gay campgrounds, the clothes-are-optional, sleeping-arrangements-are-fluid kind of campgrounds. This, too, seemed genuine, although I must admit I wouldn’t know firsthand.
The last time I went camping, I woke to skittering sounds. A tribe of raccoons had taken over the campsite. They were prying open the ice chest while another inspected one of my sneakers with obvious disappointment.
Since my camping experience begins and ends with raccoons, I can't vouch for the veracity of Grafton's hot-tubbing-with-bears scenes. But, as I suspected, he and his husband do the camping circuit. Again: lived-in.
So far I've talked about Havenwood, hookups, ADHD, and campgrounds. I haven't even gotten to Sam. If Liam is the savory hookup king, Sam is something sweeter. Gentle. Caring. Kind.
Yes, this is a friends-to-lovers trope. Those are common in MM romance, but I’ll bet you’ve never read one where the cautious character tags along on a camping trip and watches the wild one do his bear baiting.
Ever read a MM romance with a three-way?
Have I got your attention? This isn’t Olive Garden, folks.
The three-way isn’t there for mere titillation. It changes things between Liam and Sam, but you’ll have to read the book to see how.
So the next time you're hungry for something beyond the publishing equivalent of endless breadsticks, pull up a chair in Havenwood. The menu's different there.
**Shoutout to Cathy Cummings, founder of Vito’s and friend of gays. Rest in peace, Cathy. ...more

Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing

The Safekeep
by Yael van der Wouden

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The Safekeep is a lesbian love story wrapped in historical fiction, tied with a shiny ribbon of mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed unwrapping it.
We’re plopped into the Netherlands in 1961, watching life through the eyes of thirty-two year-old Isabel. She’ ...more

Jack Chandler liked Cane23's review of The Higher Education of Matt Griffith:

"Seeing how popular Matt's story has become makes me happy and proud to have been one of its first readers, religiously (hmm, what a word 😁) waiting for each new chapter until the very end.

Bravo, Jack!

Higher Education is a fun, occasionally dark, witt" Read more of this review »

Jack Chandler is now following Cane23's reviews

Jack Chandler rated a book it was amazing

Waiting for Something Else
by Martin Cloutier

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The Lambda Literary Awards are the Kentucky Derby of LGBTQ literature, and this year’s winners will be announced June 12. Martin Cloutier’s Waiting for Something Else is a finalist in the Gay Fiction category, and while the competition is fierce (The The Lambda Literary Awards are the Kentucky Derby of LGBTQ literature, and this year’s winners will be announced June 12. Martin Cloutier’s Waiting for Something Else is a finalist in the Gay Fiction category, and while the competition is fierce (The Sunflower Boys is also in the running), you probably wouldn’t lose money betting Cloutier’s novel will at least place. (Horse-racing lingo for finishing in the top two.)
Frankly, Waiting for Something Else might very well win. It has thoroughbred quality.
Cloutier came out of the gate with an unusual ambition: to write a genuinely funny literary novel.
He succeeded.
He introduces us to three characters who are literally waiting—as in working at a gourmet restaurant in Brooklyn, but also figuratively waiting for life to give them what they want. There’s James—tall, bald, formerly fat—who wants a domineering woman and has his eye on Sherry. Roger is openly gay, dates muscular go-go boys, but wants a meaningful relationship. He thinks James fits the bill. And Sherry, who is attracted to artists and married men, has drunk sex with Roger and thinks she can straighten him out.
Here’s Roger’s opinion of his escapade with Sherry:
He let Sherry do all the work. For as friendly as the breasts looked with all their bouncy fullness, the vagina with its red folds and creases appeared rather angry. He remembered reading somewhere that you have to be more polite at the front door than the back. The whole apparatus seemed unnecessarily complicated—too many foyers and vestibules before the main entrance. Was this biology’s way of increasing anticipation—an endless list of opening acts before the main concert?
My sentiments exactly.
Most books that aim for funny settle for absurdity. Skippy Dies comes to mind. Cloutier achieves it through the setup of three people, each wanting someone else. I was reminded of one of my favorite Frasier episodes, “The Ski Lodge.”
Setup alone won’t carry a novel, and this is where Cloutier separates himself from the field. The best humor exposes the truths we spend our lives trying to hide.
On the subject of truths: yes this book is funny, but that’s not why I recommend it. If you just want comedy, watch SNL. What you won’t find there, or even on my beloved Frasier, are characters so real they could be your frustrating coworkers—or a deep dive into the chicken-or-egg debate about human sexuality.
The comedy here takes you around the first two turns of the track. James’s reticence about his sexuality is what fuels the home stretch.
Here Roger is presented as openly gay and fixed in his sexuality, despite his oopsie with Sherry. James, on the other hand, is a conundrum. He has only ever been with women and seems truly attracted to them. We’re right there while he ogles Sherry’s boobs.
James wants Sherry—until he doesn’t, until he settles on the something else.
I’ll be honest. As a preacher’s kid who tried damned hard to settle on the something else, this disturbed me, as in ranting-to-my-husband level frustration. It was my gentle husband who pointed out that Cloutier never pushes the argument that far. He leaves the question unanswered. Does James settle? Or fluidly change his orientation?
Here’s James contemplating this issue:
Some things, like a penis, could not be so easily accepted. To accept a penis required more than a minimal commitment. It wasn’t like a party invitation. You couldn’t just accept a penis one day and then cancel it the next. There were implications. Society demanded a choice. He needed to be branded with one of the LGBT letters. But why did it have to be like that? Why couldn’t sexuality be like someone’s income, impolite to mention and unethical to judge?
This—not the humor—is why you need to buy this book. Even if you don’t read it, you’re going to want it on your coffee table, so you can prove to your friends you can spot a thoroughbred when you see one. ...more