Croy Cycle

If I Remember Him is, an LGBTQ historical novel set in the small town of Croy, Oklahoma, in the 1950s. The action is begins fifteen years earlier when a monstrous tornado all but wipes the town off the map. Lerner Phillip Alquist, the town's wealthiest citizen, vows to build a library as a memorial to his wife, who died in the storm. Two wars and economic depression delay the construction, but by 1952, the structure is ready to be dedicated, its entrance adorned with a terra cotta sculpture commemorating the town's history and featuring likenesses of many of its leading citizens. However, the town's growing political and religious conservatism and Alquist's own greed and bigotry threaten to undermine the project just as it nears completion. Will the library and its commemorative sculpture unite the town's fractured communities, or cause them to shatter and erupt in violence?

Set in the same Oklahoma town as the rest of the cycle, this fourth and final book in the series starts on the same afternoon that ends Book 3, but on the other side of town. Characters that appeared only in the wings before-gender-fluid Beau and robust farm boy Frank-suddenly take center stage. Beau follows his dream of starting a rock band, and Frank faces the devastating end of his only real connection in life and the disintegration of his family. Their lives intersect with the three young adults readers have come to know: Joanie, with her insatiable curiosity and passion for the truth; Randy and the troubled history of his parents; and of course Jake, still exploring the difference between lust and love. Is the explosive sex he has with Frank based on deep feelings, or is Beau's more heart-centered approach what he really needs? Complicating things, issues and characters from the town's past return, bringing The Croy Cycle back to where it began: the completion of Croy's Memorial Library and the conflicted personalities who started then abandoned it.