Gay teen fiction continues a strong year with two new coming-of-age stories, A Secret Edge by Robin Reardon (Kensington) and Saints of Augustine by P. E. Ryan (HarperTeen).

A Secret Edge takes it title from a comment made by seventeen-year-old Raj to the novel's protagonist sixteen-year-old Jason Peel: “The truth is that the biggest problem most straight men have with us, with gays, is that they're terrified of us…like we have some kind of secret edge over them.”

Jason and Raj are both on the high school track team and this is the story of their love affair, their lover's quarrel, and their making up. A deeply- felt story, Reardon's novel feels authentic in its portrayal of growing sexual awareness and its sometimes tentative exploration, as well as the pressures gay boys feel in their desire to come out and yet to not alienate their peers.

There is a sweet moment in the post-argument stage of their relationship where a sad, distraught Jason (who has a fondness for David Bowie) says, "That night, in my dreams, unbidden, David Bowie comes to me. It's a little different this time though. It's not really a wet dream. He doesn't speak. He just wraps me in his arms and holds me while I cry.”

At the core of this engaging novel is the issue of violence versus nonviolence, interestingly presented in the form of Raj's introducing Jason to Gandhi, one of Raj's national heroes. Violence versus nonviolence is an issue as Jason, fearing he might be attacked for being gay, carries a switchblade with him whenever he is alone. The knife serves more as a courage affirming symbol than an actual weapon, although Jason is quite skilled at using it. Raj is appalled that his boyfriend even owns a switchblade, much less being willing to use it.

The book's building antagonism comes to a head in the conclusion, when Jason (who ironically has forgotten to bring his knife along) comically rescues Raj using his “secret edge.”

This is the kind of novel I would have loved to read as a teen. I hope that many gay teens find Secret Edge and beg the author for more books as well.

Saints of Augustine by P. E. Ryan (pseudonym for gay writer Patrick Ryan, who was praised for his debut adult gay novel Send Me) tells the story of two high school friends in St. Augustine, Florida. Sam and Charlie's friendship is about to be shaken to the core because Sam is gay and has been holding off telling Charlie.

The rift in their friendship occurs during a sleepover in a backyard tent when Sam, looking at his friend Charlie sweetly sleeping, has an overwhelming desire to kiss him. He doesn't, but instead abruptly cuts his friend out of his life as though Charlie had crossed an unforgivable line. A confused Charlie misses Sam as he struggles to negotiate his own life including a widowed father erasing his pain with alcohol and Charlie's own dangerous indebtedness to his weed supplier.

As with the movie When Harry Met Sally, the inevitable reuniting of best friends must happen, in this case a year later, near the end of the story. Sam has just gone on his thrilling first “gay” date with cute Justin, the only out gay boy in his school that he knows. Meanwhile, Charlie's car has been vandalized by a thug to whom he owes five hundred dollars.

The two finally come clean with each other as they offer each the solace and companionship they have missed. Instead of freaking out that his best friend is gay, Charlie kisses Sam to show him what it would have been like had Sam kissed him in the tent a year earlier. Sam loans Charlie some money he has saved to cover his debt.

In a scene that is the climax of the carefully paced, alternating point-of-view chapters, Charlie says, “This is probably the best and the worst day I've ever had. We're not saints, and we're not screw-ups. We're just…people.” This is a well-told, appealing story of a believable friendship that even straight boys would enjoy.