Not that I completely forgot I had to do this post, but I maybe completely forgot I had to do this post. But no matter! I’m just in time.
The first part of January brought us an influx of amazing releases (check them out here), and the second part continues with that. I know I said that there were 45 books out this month, but I have since found several more and that number is closer to 70 now (and, of course, we missed the release date of a few, so get ready for a massive post at the end of the year again).
But anyway, take a peek at what’s in store!
And as ever, all our previous posts are here.
The Otto Digmore Decision
Brent Hartinger
Release date: 15th January
Goodreads
Rep: mlm relationship (ownvoices)
“If we get caught, they’ll throw us in jail. On the other hand, we’ll have been involved in one of the craziest Hollywood stories I’ve ever heard, and maybe someone will want to turn that into a movie!”
Otto Digmore is back, still trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood (despite his facial scars), but frustrated by all the schemers who’ll stab you in the back to get ahead. But then Otto’s good friend Russel Middlebrook sells a screenplay, a heist movie set in the Middle Ages — and Otto has been cast in an important supporting role! For twelve weeks, Otto and Russel will be on location together in England and Malta.
Problem is, once production is underway, it quickly becomes clear that the director is ruining Russel’s script. If the movie ends up being the bomb that both Otto and Russel expect it to be, it could ruin both their Hollywood careers forever.
But Otto and Russel aren’t willing to take that chance. Together, they hatch a crazy plan to make a good movie behind the director’s back. But how far are they willing to go to save their careers? Are they willing to become exactly the kind of scheming backstabbers they always said they hated? And what if Otto and Russel disagree?
Regardless of the answer, The Otto Digmore Decision proves the old adage about creative pursuits: that the most interesting drama always happens behind the scenes!
Vacation People
Cheri Ritz
Release date: 16th January
Goodreads
Rep: wlw relationship
Successful Chicago-based artist Lauren Hansen is on a layover in Las Vegas before heading to what was supposed to be the vacation of a lifetime with her partner. Until, that is, that partner became an ex.
Recovering from a nasty break-up herself, workaholic Penny Rothmor agrees to meet Lauren for dinner, but only out of a sense of obligation to her mother.
One thing leads to another, and soon Penny finds herself on a plane, jetting off to meet Lauren for a week on the beautiful island of Hawaii—but strictly as friends, of course.
As the bikini-clad duo relaxes and gets to know each other better, they begin to realize that there’s more to enjoy in Hawaii than just sun and sand—and that king-size bed is looking awfully inviting. What is it about the words “no strings attached” that are sure to create a tangled mess of desire, mind-blowing pleasure, and the pain of separation?
Dirt Nap
Carolyn Elizabeth
Release date: 16th January
Goodreads
Rep: wlw relationship
Though still suffering side effects from the injuries she sustained in a serious fall, Corey Curtis is off restricted duty and back at work in the morgue. Within hours of cutting the cast off her arm with a bone saw she’s asked by her former mentor to assist on a body recovery. Now she’s elbow deep in decomposing human remains and a suspicious death that hits far too close to home.
Just when her relationship with Dr. Thayer Reynolds has reached a new milestone, the new case tests Corey’s limits while Thayer struggles with a difficult situation at work. Corey’s impulsive nature has her hurtling down an all too familiar road with trouble around every corner.
The only thing keeping the wheels from totally coming off is Thayer’s unwavering love and support. But when the investigation comes full circle, everyone is caught off guard…threatening a most unhappy ending.
Picking up minutes from the end of Gallows Humor, Dirt Nap is the second Corey Curtis and Thayer Reynolds romantic thriller.
Guardian Angel
Becky Harmon
Release date: 16th January
Goodreads
Rep: wlw relationship
Newly appointed US Ambassador Elizabeth Turner is still getting used to her post in Mauritania, Africa. She has lots of plans for her time in office, but those plans are forgotten when a crowd of angry protesters start to gather outside the embassy—bringing both sporadic gunfire and concern for the ambassador’s safety.
Flagler security agent Angel McTaggart will never understand why an intelligent woman would choose to come to a country where women are devalued. Not that her opinion matters, she knows, because she’s here to do one job and one job only—keep the ambassador safe at all costs.
Angel needs to get the situation under control quickly before an attempt to storm the embassy becomes an option for the rioters. Elizabeth Turner isn’t uncooperative, she reasons, just headstrong and opinionated. Angel knows she’s worked with worse, but no one that’s had the effect on her that the ambassador seems to be having now.
Focusing on her job might be harder than she thinks…
Leaky Faucets
Jacob Lasher
Release date: 18th January
Goodreads
Rep: poetry
Fear of love, fear of goodbyes, fear of life…Enter the mind of someone struggling with anxiety and how it can affect relationships including the one with oneself. Poems of love and loss, Leaky Faucets expresses the vulnerability of mental illness and accepting love, but most importantly, loving yourself.
Haskell Himself
Gary Seigel
Release date: 19th January
Goodreads
Rep: gay mc
Meet Haskell Hodge. At sixteen, he’s already garnered some fame as a former child actor and star of a popular cereal commercial. But that doesn’t do much for him when he’s dumped at his aunt’s house in the suburbs of Los Angeles to face an assortment of neighborhood bullies.
He thinks he might be gay. In fact, he could be the only gay person in the valley, maybe on the entire planet. Even if he does manage to find a boyfriend, their relationship would have to be secret and invisible.
After all, it’s 1966. And though Time Magazine claims the sexual revolution is in full swing, the freedoms straight people are enjoying don’t seem to apply to everyone. And as much as Haskell attempts to hide his true self, carefully navigating the tricky and risky terrain of being queer, he’s still taunted and teased relentlessly.
Rather than give in to the irrationality of this hate, Haskell fights back, eventually finding an unlikely outlet to vent his frustration and angst–playing a bully in a screen test for a major motion picture. If he plays his cards right, it could catapult him into Hollywood stardom.
Of course, like most things in life, it comes with a heavy price Haskell’s not certain he’s willing to pay.
Devon’s Island
SI Clarke
Release date: 20th January
Goodreads
Rep: lgbt cast
Other stories will take you to Mars. This one will take you inside the boardroom, the pub, and the bedroom with the people planning the mission.
Gurdeep is an engineer and a soldier. Georgie, is a food scientist. Gurdeep is pragmatic with a tough outer shell. Georgie is an optimist, a person of ideas and compassion. Together, they’re humanity’s last hope for survival.
In the span of a single afternoon, the couple find themselves in charge of planning and establishing a self-sustained colony on Mars. They have 160 slots to fill with experts from all over the world as they set about designing an all-new society with its own government, economy, and culture – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
With 1,114 days until the launch, excitement and tensions run high. Earth’s second chance hangs in the balance. Between strict genetic requirements and the dangers of the dystopian almost-present, will everyone make it to the final countdown?
Sana Sana
Ariana Brown
Release date: 20th January
Goodreads
Rep: poetry
After ten years of performing her spoken word poetry, Ariana Brown gathers her favorite poems to return to in Sana Sana. With a tender and critical voice, she explores Black girlhood, the possibilities of queerness, finding your people, and trying to survive capitalism. All are explored as acts of different kinds of love—for self, for lovers, for family, for community. Brown’s collection refuses singularity, insisting on the specificity of her own life and studies. As she writes toward her own healing, Brown asks readers to participate in the ceremony by serving as witnesses. Sana Sana, colita de rana, si no sana hoy, sana en la mañana.
The Seep
Chana Porter
Release date: 21st January
Goodreads
Rep: trans wlw mc
A blend of searing social commentary and speculative fiction, Chana Porter’s fresh, pointed debut is perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Carmen Maria Machado.
Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle—but nonetheless world-changing—invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible.
Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep’s utopian influence—until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seeptech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated.
Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina follows a lost boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind. A strange new elegy of love and loss, The Seep explores grief, alienation, and the ache of moving on.
Spellhacker
M. K. England
Release date: 21st January
Goodreads
Rep: wlw mc, nb li
From the author of The Disasters, this genre-bending YA fantasy heist story is perfect for fans of Marie Lu and Amie Kaufman.
In Kyrkarta, magic—known as maz—was once a freely available natural resource. Then an earthquake released a magical plague, killing thousands and opening the door for a greedy corporation to make maz a commodity that’s tightly controlled—and, of course, outrageously expensive.
Which is why Diz and her three best friends run a highly lucrative, highly illegal maz siphoning gig on the side. Their next job is supposed to be their last heist ever.
But when their plan turns up a powerful new strain of maz that (literally) blows up in their faces, they’re driven to unravel a conspiracy at the very center of the spellplague—and possibly save the world.
No pressure.
Nottingham
Anna Burke
Release date: 21st January
Goodreads
Rep: wlw relationship (ownvoices), trans side character
Robyn Hood didn’t set out to rob the rich, but in Nottingham, nothing ever goes according to plan….
After a fateful hunting accident sends her on the run from the law, Robyn finds herself deep in the heart of Sherwood Forest. All she really wants to do is provide for her family and stay out of trouble, but when the Sheriff of Nottingham levies the largest tax in the history of England, she’s forced to take matters into her own hands. Relying on the help of her band of merry women and the Sheriff’s intriguing—and off limits—daughter, Marian, Robyn must find a way to pull off the biggest heist Sherwood has ever seen.
With both heart and freedom at stake, just how much will she risk to ensure the safety of the ones she loves?
Merchants of Milan
Edale Lane
Release date: 21st January
Goodreads
Rep: wlw relationship
Three powerful merchants, two independent women in love, one masked vigilante.
Florentina, set on revenge for her father’s murder, creates an alter-ego known as the Night Flyer. Madelena, whose husband was also murdered, hires Florentina as a tutor for her children and love blossoms between them. However, Florentina’s vendetta is fraught with danger, and surprising developments threaten both women’s lives. Merchants of Milan is the first book in Edale Lane’s Night Flyer Trilogy, a tale of power, passion, and payback in Renaissance Italy.
Moonsick
Korbin Jones
Release date: 24th January
Goodreads
Rep: poetry
“Korbin Jones’ chapbook, MOONSICK, is an exploration of personal mythology. Using themes of escapism and portal fantasy, Jones has created a queer Alice in Wonderland: ‘[I] Climbed down the manhole / that was tucked neatly in the dark…When I stopped falling, / I landed on bottles.’ This narrative examines sexuality in a world that feels almost like a laboratory. Here, the body is on the table, and the speaker pokes and prods it, peeling away the skin to find what lies beneath. Here, the body both does and doesn’t exist. A harrying compilation, this long poem pulls the reader from one edge to another, leaving them wondering how they can slough away their own skin and become something new.”
–Hannah V Warren, [re]construction of the necromancer
“MOONSICK is an epic poem which shows us the illumination of the protagonist’s first queer experience. This first experience unsheathes the narrator from his skin, exposing him to the rhythms of a queer world. Jones’s blending of elements both natural and fantastical creates an interesting yet consistent image, such as that of voyeurs gazing through an ethereal wall, fertilizing the soil that is the skin. Through such events, the reader becomes wary that they’ve also become voyeurs, as the narrator reveals all of himself to us.”
–Jeremy Mifsud, From the Backseat of a Bus
Action = Vie: A History of AIDS Activism and Gay Politics in France
Christophe Broqua
Release date: 24th January
Goodreads
Rep: nonfiction
Act Up-Paris became one of the most notable protest groups in France in the mid-1990s. Founded in 1989, and following the New York model, it became a confrontational voice representing the interests of those affected by HIV through openly political activism. Action=Vie, the English-language translation of Christophe Broqua’s study of the grassroots activist branch, explains the reasons for the group’s success and sheds light on Act Up’s defining features—such as its unique articulation between AIDS and gay activism.
Featuring numerous accounts by witnesses and participants, Broqua traces the history of Act Up-Paris and shows how thousands of gay men and women confronted the AIDS epidemic by mobilizing with public actions. Act Up-Paris helped shape the social definition not only of HIV-positive persons but also of sexual minorities. Broqua analyzes the changes brought about by the group, from the emergence of new treatments for HIV infection to normalizing homosexuality and a controversy involving HIV-positive writers’ remarks about unprotected sex. This rousing history ends in the mid-2000s before marriage equality and antiretroviral treatments caused Act Up-Paris to decline.
The Story of Abrielle Foster
Christian M. Franklin
Release date: 24th January
Goodreads
Rep: Black wlw mc
The word love used loosely…
The Story of Abrielle Foster tells of Abrielle’s life through a series of events happening from childhood, young adult years, and adulthood. We learn early on that Abrielle’s relationship with the curious Marley Graves will last forever, as the two start a secrete love affair. While maintaining this secrete, Abrielle is faced with two choices when Marley brings another woman home to meet the family. The new relationship brings Abrielle great stress- to the point she decides to sleep with the girlfriend and tear Marley’s relationship apart. “I just- it felt right,” says Abrielle, as an excuse for her actions. But, Marley is not satisfied- she is hurt. Life with the Graves family shows Abrielle a new way of living, one she is not familiar too. Upon accepting the family as her own, she learns in truth- she is not ready for the love of anyone, but herself.
Mariposas & Marigolds
Mari Lima
Release date: 24th January
Goodreads
Rep: poetry
‘Mariposas & Marigolds’ is a documentation of the Brazilian writer Matilda and her adventures, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two. She’s had a different social experience than most kids due to a crippling shyness and living in a not so friendly environment, unable to express herself, since a very young age, and that deeply affected her views on the world and how she interacted with the people in it. Matilda created a whole other universe inside her head in order to cope with the difficult times in life and out of that blackhole came a collection of poems about complicated relationships as well as good ones, loving art and nature, heartbreaks and fighting for social justice as a LGBT woman. The book is written under a pseudonym with its own story and has a theatrical approach that will leave you in awe of how literature can be a powerful. You may not remember the exact words here written in the future but you’ll sure remember how they made you feel.
A Beautiful Crime
Christopher Bollen
Release date: 28th January
Goodreads
Rep: mlm relationship
From the author of The Destroyers comes another “delicious literary thriller” (People)—a twisty story of deception, set in contemporary Venice and featuring a young American couple who have set their sights on a high-stakes con.
When Nick Brink and his boyfriend Clay Guillory meet up on the Grand Canal in Venice, they have a plan in mind—and it doesn’t involve a vacation. Nick and Clay are running away from their turbulent lives in New York City, each desperate for a happier, freer future someplace else. Their method of escape? Selling a collection of counterfeit antiques to a brash, unsuspecting American living out his retirement years in a grand palazzo. With Clay’s smarts and Nick’s charm, their scheme is sure to succeed.
As it turns out, tricking a millionaire out of money isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when Clay and Nick let greed get the best of them. As Nick falls under the spell of the city’s decrepit magic, Clay comes to terms with personal loss and the price of letting go of the past. Their future awaits, but it is built on disastrous deceits, and more than one life stands in the way of their dreams.
A Beautiful Crime is a twisty grifter novel with a thriller running through its veins. But it is also a meditation on love, class, race, sexuality, and the legacy of bohemian culture. Tacking between Venice’s soaring aesthetic beauty and its imminent tourist-riddled collapse, Bollen delivers another “seductive and richly atmospheric literary thriller” (New York Times Book Review).
Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son
Richie Jackson
Release date: 28th January
Goodreads
Rep: memoir
In this poignant and urgent love letter to his son, award-winning Broadway, TV and film producer Richie Jackson reflects on his experiences as a gay man in America and the progress and setbacks of the LGBTQ community over the last 50 years.
“My son is kind, responsible, and hardworking. He is ready for college. He is not ready to be a gay man living in America.”
When Jackson’s 18-year-old son born through surrogacy came out to him, the successful producer, now in his 50s, was compelled to reflect on his experiences and share his wisdom on life for LGBTQ Americans over the past half-century.
Gay Like Me is a celebration of gay identity and parenting, and a powerful warning for his son, other gay men and the world. Jackson looks back at his own journey as a gay man coming of age through decades of political and cultural turmoil.
Jackson’s son lives in a seemingly more liberated America, and Jackson beautifully lays out how far we’ve come since Stonewall — the increased visibility of gay people in society, the legal right to marry, and the existence of a drug to prevent HIV. But bigotry is on the rise, ignited by a president who has declared war on the gay community and fanned the flames of homophobia. A newly constituted Supreme Court with a conservative tilt is poised to overturn equality laws and set the clock back decades. Being gay is a gift, Jackson writes, but with their gains in jeopardy the gay community must not be complacent.
As Ta-Nehisi Coates awakened us to the continued pervasiveness of racism in America in Between the World and Me, Jackson’s rallying cry in Gay Like Me is an eye-opening indictment to straight-lash in America. This book is an intimate, personal exploration of our uncertain times and most troubling questions and profound concerns about issues as fundamental as dignity, equality, and justice.
Gay Like Me is a blueprint for our time that bridges the knowledge gap of what it’s like to be gay in America. This is a cultural manifesto that will stand the test of time. Angry, proud, fierce, tender, it is powerful letter of love from a father to a son that holds lasting insight for us all.
Blood Countess
Lana Popović
Release date: 28th January
Goodreads
Rep: wlw relationship
A historical YA horror novel based on the infamous real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula
In 16th century Hungary, Anna Darvulia has just begun working as a scullery maid for the young and glamorous Countess Elizabeth Báthory. When Elizabeth takes a liking to Anna, she’s vaulted to the dream role of chambermaid, a far cry from the filthy servants’ quarters below. She receives wages generous enough to provide for her family, and the Countess begins to groom Anna as her friend and confidante. It’s not long before Anna falls completely under the Countess’s spell—and the Countess takes full advantage. Isolated from her former friends, family, and fiancé, Anna realizes she’s not a friend but a prisoner of the increasingly cruel Elizabeth. Then come the murders, and Anna knows it’s only a matter of time before the Blood Countess turns on her, too.
Blood Sport
Tash McAdam
Release date: 28th January
Goodreads
Rep: trans mc
Jason is sure his sister, Becca, was murdered, but he’s the only one who thinks so. After finding a photograph Becca kept hidden, he decides to infiltrate a boxing gym to prove that she didn’t die accidentally. As a transgender kid, Jason’s been fighting for as long as he can remember, and those skills are going to come in handy as he investigates. Quickly invited into the inner circle, Jason must balance newfound friendships with the burning hate that drives him. Jason soon feels torn between two worlds, determined to discover what happened to his sister but struggling with the fact that this is the first time he’s ever felt like he belonged somewhere.
Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition
P. Carl
Release date: 28th January
Goodreads
Rep: memoir
“A memoir that is jolting, honest, passionate, and beautifully written” (Claudia Rankine), Becoming a Man explores one man’s gender transition amid a pivotal political moment in America.
Becoming a Man is the striking memoir of P. Carl’s journey to become the man he always knew himself to be. For fifty years, he lived as a girl and a queer woman, building a career, a life, and a loving marriage, yet still waiting to realize himself in full. As Carl embarks on his gender transition, he takes us inside the complex shifts and questions that arise throughout—the alternating moments of arrival and estrangement. He writes intimately about how transitioning reconfigures both his own inner experience and his closest bonds—his twenty-year relationship with his wife, Lynette; his already tumultuous relationships with his parents; and seemingly solid friendships that are subtly altered, often painfully and wordlessly.
Carl blends the remarkable story of his own personal journey with incisive cultural commentary, writing brilliantly about gender, power, and inequality in America. His transition occurs amid the rise of the Trump administration and the #MeToo movement—a transition point in America’s own story, when transphobia and toxic masculinity are under fire even as they thrive in the highest halls of power. Carl’s quest to become himself and to reckon with his masculinity mirrors, in many ways, the challenge before the country as a whole, to imagine a society where every member can have a vibrant, livable life. Here, through this brave and deeply personal work, Carl brings an unparalleled new voice to this conversation.
Police Brutality
Gregory Ashe
Release date: 31st January
Goodreads
Rep: mlm relationship (ownvoices)
For the first time in a long while, Emery Hazard’s life is good. His new business as a private detective is taking off. Things are good at home. He loves his boyfriend, John-Henry Somerset; he loves their daughter. He might even love the new friends they’ve found. There’s only one problem: Somers has been talking about marriage.
When a former colleague, Walter Hoffmeister, comes to Hazard and hires him to look into a series of anonymous death threats, Hazard eagerly jumps on the distraction. Hoffmeister might be a jerk, but he’s a paying jerk, and Hazard isn’t convinced the threats are serious.
Until, that is, Hoffmeister is almost gunned down on Hazard’s doorstep. As Hazard investigates more deeply, he learns that more than one person in Wahredua has a reason to wish Hoffmeister dead. His search takes him to the Ozark Volunteers, reincarnated as the Bright Lights movement, but it also leads him into a sanctuary of radical Christianity. Meanwhile, an antifa activist has arrived in town, calling for Hoffmeister’s death and threatening total war with the Bright Lights.
As Hazard continues to look for answers, he becomes a target too—and not just because he’s helping Hoffmeister. The Keeper of Bees is still at large, and the killer hasn’t lost interest in Emery Hazard. Not yet. Not, Hazard begins to suspect, until the Keeper has taken everything Hazard holds dear.
Murder at Pirate’s Cove
Josh Lanyon
Release date: 31st January
Goodreads
Rep: mlm relationship
Ellery Page, aspiring screenwriter, Scrabble champion and guy-with-worst-luck-in-the-world-when-it-comes-to-dating, is ready to make a change. So when he learns he’s inherited both a failing bookstore and a falling-down mansion in the quaint seaside village of Pirate’s Cove on Buck Island, Rhode Island, it’s full steam ahead!
Sure enough, the village is charming, its residents amusingly eccentric, and widowed police chief Jack Carson is decidedly yummy (though probably as straight as he is stern). However, the bookstore is failing, the mansion is falling down, and there’s that little drawback of finding rival bookseller–and head of the unwelcoming-committee–Trevor Maples dead during the annual Buccaneer Days celebration.
Still, it could be worse. And once Police Chief Carson learns Trevor was killed with the cutlass hanging over the door of Ellery’s bookstore, it is.
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