thoughts on books

Category: LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈

  • like in love with you by emma alban

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    A steamy historical sapphic romance – in Jane Austen’s Northern England, Bridgerton, except gay. Rosalie and Catherine meet, knowing this season they are both prospects for the same eligible bachelor, Mr Dean. Their mothers used to be best friends before a falling out in their own season. Early on in the narrative the girls find attraction for each other, and set up events that ruin the prospective courtships.

    This is my third Emma Alban novel and I have really enjoyed them all. It is romance and a creative “what if” scenario so that we can thoroughly enjoy the nostalgia and romance of this time period in a way that allows for inclusion of everyone. This is an idealized 19th century England. So instead of queer people being closeted and mentally depressed their entire lives, there are pockets of people that do understand their queerness.

    Although it is lighthearted and very romantic, I think this theme is also a patient warning for us as to how easy it is to build cultural values. Both Rosalie and Catherine are great characters in their own right, the minor characters are nuanced and their parents in strong relationships.

    It’s a lovely universe to escape into!

    Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC. Book to be published 1/14/26

  • town and country by brian schaefer

    A sparkling, intensely readable debut novel about a small town’s gentrification, the politics involved in a congressional election, and families on the brink. There are many families who have always lived in the tight knit community, but recently the “duffels” have descended on the town with their money. Typically gentrification stories are about white people flush with cash coming into a poor community populated by people of color who soon find themselves unable to afford the communities they are from…. Harlem, Hawaii… but in this case, it is the “fancy gays” from the big city who come with a duffel bag for the weekend who decide to buy a second home or relocate to the small town to make their dollar more powerful.

    And hence comes the push and pull…. the bigoted folks, the hard workers, the closeted, the farmers, those who would take advantage, those caught in the opiod crisis….and all in all, the capitalists. There are no “white hats” vs. “black hats” in this story- no one is the evil villain. The book challenges the way we see the world today, the polarization of literally everything. It zooms in on the families of Chip and Paul who are running for congress- one a townie, one a duffel, one straight and one gay, one salt of the earth and the other born to a certain privilege. The scope of this novel is extremely ambitious, there are a lot of characters introduced quickly. It is shining a light on issues in a broader way. It is a character driven novel, rather than a twisty plot.

    That said, there are so many layers to uncover- each person is always a little more nuanced and each person is a bit more complicated than they seem. There is a heavy handed lesson in that for all of us.

    A high recommendation from me on this book.

    Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC. Book to be published November 4, 2025. Election Day.

  • this will be interesting by eb asher

    EB Asher fans, it is time to return to Mythria! and this time we get to adventure beyond its borders. Beatrice and Clare are minor characters in this one, but we dive deep on old and new characters alike.

    3 POV;
    Queen Thessia, recently married to Hugh. He likes her but doesn’t love her. Their honeymoon becomes a Quest.
    River; a hired assassin who is planning to kill Galwell.
    Galwell; back from the dead and 10 years younger than his former peers. Is he Galwell the great or Galwell the grateful?

    EB Asher has singlehandedly (triple handedly?, lol) created the cozy romantasy genre. This book is Pixar’s Onward meets The Count of Monte Cristo meets Pirates of the Caribbean. Expect laughter, a lot of camp, and a creative blending of feudal society and our modern culture. As someone who rarely reads fantasy, I can struggle with the world building and in being able to visualize and remember the creatures and characters. I find this book to be incredibly, even compulsively, readable. Low spice, high nostalgia, and all the fun.

    Do you need to read “This Will Be Fun” in order to enjoy this one? No. But it will spoil it for you, so I recommend reading it first. I found this second book to be more adventurous, more mysterious and even funnier. It is a found family adventure for reluctant coworkers to lovers. The anticipation is real!

    My Hollywood cast
    Elizabeth Olsen, as River
    Emma Watson, as Thessia
    Chris Hemsorth, as Hugh
    Noah Centineo, as Galwell
    Alexandra Daddario, as Celine

    thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC. Book to be published March 24, 2026.

  • you weren’t meant to be human by andrew joseph white

    This horror book is pretty out there, it does not hold back, it’s not for the pearl-clutchers, not for the faint of heart. Right from the first few pages you will find explicit sexual content and realize you will be reading a book about a pregnant transgender male who is a part of a hive.

    In some places it is going to compare an unplanned pregnancy to a tapeworm- this is an outstanding metaphor. I think this book is highly highly symbolic…. And I think I’m missing a lot of the symbolism.

    The horror aspects are, well, horrifying, as is the concept that having an abortion is a murder charge in 10 states. The cerebral cortex is unambiguous- animals eat their young.

    The main character. Crane (a Crane flies away from its nest of origin) is a part of a mind hive with something to do with worms, hosts, bugs inside of you? Also Crane is autistic, late diagnosed. And pregnancy for trans men is a forced detransition, which most would prefer to be un-alive.

    I think it’s a powerfully personal book and it’s important to read stories by trans authors who are helping us to be more empathetic to how violent our off handed comments may be.

    For me this book was too raw and real but I absolutely can see it being a favorite for others. I will continue to test the limits of my capacity for the horror stories.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the ARC. Book to be published Sept 9, 2025.

  • is this a cry for help by emily austin

    The divine Emily Austin just does not miss. She is our generation’s voice of the weird lesbian. This book is part love letter to libraries, part deep character study on panic disorder, part narration of a local news station Facebook comment section. I feel like Emily Austin read an unfortunate Facebook comment section under an article about challenges in her local library and thought “what if this were a novel?”

    Darcy is back at work at the library after being off for 2 months due to a mental breakdown. Her ex-boyfriend Ben died and she doesn’t know how, and feels somewhat responsible. He never knew that they broke up because Darcy is gay. It’s years later and Darcy is happily married to Joy. But she is trying to understand her own growth from trying really hard to be liked to being a strong adult that is good with boundaries.

    I highly doubt I need to say this but don’t read it if you have radical right wing beliefs. It isn’t a testament to left wing beliefs or anything, but the small but loud radical right agenda is analyzed here, and found lacking. Also- this is way more character study than intricate plot, but it does have a strong arc for Darcy and background every day life reality.

    In the Hollywood version, Darcy will be played by Cara Delvigne. Joy will be played by Amanda Seyfried. The unfortunate Declan Turner will be played by Joseph Gordon Levitt.

    It isn’t as funny as “Everybody in this room will someday be dead” nor as irreverent as “Interesting Facts about Space,” but I really loved it. Emily Austin has matured in her writing and clearly has a knack for everyday heroes.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC. Book to be published January 12, 2026.

  • the dramatic life of jonah penrose by robyn green

    The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose is a British MTM gay romance that takes place in the West End theatre scene. Rivals-to-lovers is our trope, following Jonah, who is the most recent winner of the Olivier, which is like a British Tony award. The up and coming theatre actor is Dexter, who was just cast to a supporting role in Jonah’s hit play. However, soon his co-star and several other cast members become ill with the flu, so Dexter has to come on stage opposite Jonah in a romantic role. Sparks fly!

    A debut novel, this story shows a lot of promise. Jonah’s parents are strong supporting roles as is his friend in the show. There is a bit of homophobia that comes along from Dexter’s father, and a bit of miscommunication between the two leads. I felt that the pacing was a bit off, and I missed any humor. However, I thought that Robyn Green did a wonderful job of world building within the theatre community, and capturing the relationship between co-stars and actors and their agents. I also really enjoyed the conclusion and felt romance and good chemistry.

    Thank you to Harper Perennial for the free book! This book will be published November 2025. #harperperennialpartner

  • well actually by mazey eddings

    A fun enemies-to-lovers second chance romance. Eva is a journalist, her career isn’t the hard hitting journalism she expected, but she eats hot dogs with B list celebrities and social media content creators. She sees an ex boyfriend, Rylie, on TikTok and she stitches him to expose him as ghosting her when they were in college. Never expecting anyone to see it- she has only 200 followers. Only discovering the next morning it has blown up. Rylie has her on his podcast and seems to enjoy the attention, even though it isn’t great attention. He somehow convinces her to give him a second chance and go on a series of dates in order to redeem himself.

    Eva and Rylie have incredible chemistry! Great banter and if you like enemies-to-lovers- this is not one to miss. For me, way too many spicy scenes, but this is a preference and not indicative of the material. I see a lot of reviews talking about how much they loved Rylie, for me, it took me awhile to warm up to him. 30% of the way in, I really disliked him. That says a lot about the enemies-to-lovers trope… we need that moment in which we see the “why” behind their behavior.

    Recently we have more and more stories about bisexual people in a heteronormative relationship and this one was done very well and respectfully. There is some internalized biphobia but the characters are aware of it and learn and grown through their issues.

    My first Mazey Eddings title and definitely not my last!

    Audiobook- well acted, one female narrator who does a good male voice without sounding mocking. 5 star performance! Easy to follow on audio due to the great pacing.

    Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ALC. Book to be published 8/5/25.

  • boom town by nic stone

    Friends, this book was not for me. This is a novel about a group of exotic dancers at a club in Atlanta called Boom Town. I really appreciate that the author wanted to tell the story of women who go missing that are the ones no one talks about. Women of color, exotic dancers, sex workers. However, I had a hard time following this one.

    The main reason why is because I had a tough time keeping the character straight. All of the women dancers have a given name, as well as a stage name, and sometimes also a nickname. I could really remember their storylines and kept having to go back and re-read. The narrative also jumps back-and-forth between the present time and a year ago, and reading on Kindle. It was easy to get mixed up in what time period i was reading. I also Didn’t really visualize the age differences appropriately, which made the ending a little more confusing.

    The characters in general just didn’t seem well developed to me, and I did find the nature of the book to be a bit disturbing.

    So while this story wasn’t my favorite, I could see others enjoying it due to the provocative, gritty setting.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC. Book to be published 10/14/25

  • ps you’re the worst by chloe seager

    “Life is hard so I started lying to people’s faces. Hiding my feelings. Avoiding conflict. Going along with things. Taking the “easy” route. But nothing about where I’ve ended up as easy.”

    Becky is a non-confrontational people pleaser. And you know what they say about people pleasers? Never pleased a person in their life. At 29, she lives with her mom (for free) but resents her mom’s rules. She hates her job. She is irritated with her friend for planning her wedding and is jealous. She hates her other friend’s boyfriend and thinks he is a cheater. She feels abandoned by her father, whom she hasn’t seen in 20 years. And Becky still carries a torch for her ex, Max.

    One day she goes to a tarot card reader and misinterpreted the cards thinking she is about to die. So she sends off six letters that are pretty mean and telling all of the people in her life what she really thinks. Soon she realizes that she has made a huge mistake and tries to deal with the aftermath of finally telling the truth.

    Becky is a bit of a mess, she is whiny and kind of unlikable at the beginning, but ultimately this is a “growing up” story. This is really a great story and I love how it turned out, differs than I expected. Becky really does get better than she deserves by the ending. The minor characters are well drawn and easy to keep straight and understand.

    The moral of the story is really to not be stagnant in your life and to be honest with yourself so you can be honest with others. This was an easy and pretty heartwarming story.

    Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. Book to be published 11/18/2025.

  • lucky day by chuck tingle

    Chuck Tingle makes me question all of my literary preferences; his stories are so absurd and fascinating. Lucky Day is no exception, I think I like all of his books more and more.

    Vera is a professor in Chicago, she is engaged to Annie. She tells her mother she is bisexual and introduces her to Annie, her mother spews a bunch of biphobic nonsense; and in the middle of her diatribe, the weirdest shit ever happens. I don’t even want to give anything away, this is where my reading pace slowed down as my inner dialogue went “wait, what?”

    Vera runs away from her life, and four years later there is a government entity created to determine how and why 8 million people (including Vera’s mother) all died simultaneously. It definitely has Final Destination vibes, and Vera being a statistics professor we learn different odds of all sorts of things. So the perfect setting is a big casino in Las Vegas.

    The book breaks the 4th wall somewhat, and I was hooked from the very beginning. Chuck Tingle is definitely solidified in the Horror genre.

    Audiobook review; Mara Wilson was a great narrator. It was well paced and well acted. This book is easy to follow on audio and Wilson turned in a solid performance.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ALC. Book to be published August 12, 2025.