The Valiente Book Series
Courage and Consequences – Book 1
Ever since his beloved father’s unexpected death and his best friend’s suicide, high school athletic phenom Chente Jimenez has been shutting out his family and friends in an attempt to protect his shattered soul.
When Chente decides to take a midnight jog on a sleepless, snowy night, he never imagines that his surprising encounter with his first-year basketball coach at a city park will unleash a series of events that will test his fortitude, challenge his courage, and awaken feelings he has guarded and suppressed all his life. While immersed in the final semester of his senior year, Chente soon becomes overwhelmed by the pressures of being an all-American boy, choosing the right college, and hiding his emerging homoerotic feelings from family and friends. Now as the Avalon High School basketball team races toward their first state championship, their starting-point guard must battle locker room homophobia and cyberbullying while attempting to boldly embrace his truth and become, Valiente.
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Tattoos and Temptations – Book 2
Sometimes life’s most challenging lesson is finding the courage to love what is good for you.
Newly out-and-proud state basketball champion and high school senior, Chente Jimenez, is secretly nursing a broken heart. After recklessly pursuing his first love, he never imagined the intensity of the pain of rejection. Fortunately, he has his family and loyal friends to support him, including high school competitor, Henry Hamilton.
After Henry and his family unknowingly whisk Chente away from his pain by hosting him at their mountain cabin for spring break, Chente grows closer to Henry and receives unsettling news from a medicine woman that the angel of death may be following him. When the teens return to school, ESPN begins filming a documentary about homophobia in the locker room that also focuses on Chente’s coming-out story. While Chente chases a state champion tennis title and his forbidden love, Coach Aaron Doss, prepares to marry, high school life becomes a powder keg of stress. Between decisions about college scholarships, planning his father’s memorial service, and reconciling his feelings about Henry, Chente’s road to graduation places him on a collision course with danger, heartache, and how to honor his true identity and what he wants from life.
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Flames and Fury – Book 3
High school valedictorian and college-bound Chente Jimenez thinks he finally has his life together. But after he attends prom with his new boyfriend, Henry Hamilton, Chente returns home to find his first love, tennis coach Aaron Doss, in his mother’s kitchen.
Coach Doss has been playing follow the leader all his life—until now. After leaving his bride-to-be at the altar, it appears Doss has finally found his voice and the freedom to pursue Chente. But when he shares his news with Chente, the unexpected update unleashes a chain of events for the high school senior and his family and friends as the faceless menace that has surrounded Chente for months manifests into real danger. Before the dust settles on his high school days, hearts will be broken, secret conspiracies will be exposed, and death’s fingers will grip the small town of Avalon. While navigating the final chapter of his high school life, Chente is about to experience the undeniable definition of truth, honor, and finally love.
In this gripping novel, a bold voice and a fearless stance leads to explosive consequences for a high school senior and his loved ones.
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Sins and Secrets – Book 4
Sometimes, turning back the clock opens old wounds that can haunt you for a lifetime.
After completing his first semester at Stanford University, Chente Jimenez returns to Avalon a different young man with a fresh outlook on life. With the help of a new circle of college friends, Chente is ready to put the chaos of high school behind him and eager to begin his future with his first love, Aaron Doss.
That promising future collides with the unfortunate past as Chente recovers from a mysterious fever and transitions into a new chapter of his life. Things only get worse when an old family secret rises to the surface and threatens to tear the Jimenez family apart.
As the New Year bells ring, Chente and his family and friends embark on a dangerous journey, which leads them into the dark world of the supernatural, where sins are exposed and old vendettas are to be collected. Chente soon learns that it’s the ones you love most that can hurt you the deepest.
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Hearts and Heroes – Book 5
Sometimes, heroes must sacrifice the present for the future.
After transitioning into his ancestral spiritual life, Chente Jimenez is at a crossroad yet again. His newfound supernatural gifts have distanced him from his boyfriend, Aaron Doss, and, worse yet, unleashed the diabolical revenge of a demonic spirit from hell on the Jimenez family, leaving one close to death.
To further complicate matters, Chente’s best friend, Jimmy Davis, is found barely alive at a gay conversion camp in Kentucky, one run by the Ku Klux Klan. His condition is the direct result of the harsh brutality he endured at the hands of cult leader, the Reverend. Jimmy’s return to Avalon disrupts the small town’s social order as his unhinged and erratic behavior drives a deeper wedge between Chente and Aaron.
As Chente searches his heart for answers, he faces lingering doubts about his destiny, angry ghosts seeking retribution, and a hooded figure that threatens the happiness of his family and friends. His poignant journey will force him to surrender to the past, embrace the present and safeguard the future.
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