• All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Books With Less Than 400 Goodreads Ratings (IV)

    29 January, 2022

    As ever, when I run out of rec list ideas, I turn back to this one. Books which I consider underrated (where “underrated” is specifically defined as “less than 400 ratings on Goodreads. Yeah, Goodreads is not the be all and end all, yeah, 400 is pretty harsh comparably, but it’ll do. At least until I run out of books and need to increase the number haha). I’ve done this 3 times already, so this rec list marks the 76th-100th books (round of applause please). Hopefully, there’s something here for everyone.

    And don’t forget, you can also check out the previous posts: find the first post here, the second one here and the third one here.

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  • Interviews

    Author Interview: Cait Nary

    26 January, 2022

    Today’s interview is an incredibly exciting one from our point of view. Cait Nary’s debut Season’s Change (out in just a few days’ time on 1st February) is hands-down one of our favourite romance novels ever (Anna even said it was probably their outright favourite). This is one that you absolutely do not want to miss out on. But while we’re waiting those interminable 6 days, take a read of our interview with Cait to get yourself all the more excited! (Also I think it should be noted that Cait supports categorically the best hockey team. Anna agrees.)

    And don’t forget to follow her on twitter!

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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: January-June 2022 Books With Bi Protagonists

    23 January, 2022

    January on Reads Rainbow means big releases posts (big as in long & time-consuming to draft; not big as in only about big books!). And today it’s time for books with bi and/or pan rep.m

    Those posts have been going for a few years, but just as a reminder: I only include books where there’s no doubt that a character actually is bisexual (or pansexual). That means the character either uses a label or the narrative makes it abundantly clear (especially in case of sff novels). Also, I include books with bi/pan main characters and love interests, and sometimes really major side characters.

    If you know any books I missed or mistakes I made, please let me know in the comment! And like always, the rainbow emoji means the author is LGBT. Happy reading!

    A lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)

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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: 2022 Books With Non-Cis Protagonists

    20 January, 2022

    It’s the fourth year in a row of me making a list of trans & nonbinary books, so I’m lowkey hopeful we all know the drill by now. The post itself is titled “non-cis books” to make sure it’s true for all the books included in it (especially novels with Indigenous gender identities, or simply sci-fi ones with no labels). And also because that’s what I used in my first post…

    This post only allows rep in the form of a main character, a love interest, or a truly major side character (usually a parent or someone like that). So you can be sure it’s not small or insignificant.

    If you know of any books I’ve missed or caught any mistakes I’ve made, please leave a comment! And as always, books by LGBT authors have a rainbow emoji next to the title.

    Also, a lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)

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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: 2022 Sapphic Releases (January to June)

    18 January, 2022

    It’s the moment you’ve all undoubtedly been waiting for, the first of our 2022 sapphic releases posts! This one is the biggest initial post so far, with over 300 releases that I know about as of this moment in time. Yeah, it’s a monster post, and I am somewhat exhausted just making it. There’s something for everyone here, so dive in!

    Update, 27/1/22: I’ve decided to add in rep again here, since sapphic is a blanket term and books here do include sapphic mcs in m/f relationships, as well as those in f/f relationships and, while I know which are which, and also that I mean it in this blanket sense, others may not. This will, of course, be updated as I read more of the books/it’s easier to find rep info.

    Looking for July to December? Find it here!

    And hey, a lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Indie, Small Press & Self Published Books

    16 January, 2022

    This is a post I’ve been meaning to do for a while. We all know about all of the Big 5 books, the ones that appear on most rec lists most often, that get more marketing (comparatively speaking) and which more people know about. So, today’s rec list is specifically the opposite of that. Today, I’m reccing you books by independent publishers, small presses, and self-published authors.

    For ease, the definition of indie here that I’m using is “not Big 5 or an imprint of Big 5”. That is, not Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, or Hachette. Since the indies range in size beyond that, I’ve split those into two sections: smaller and larger (generally decided by output).

    A little key before we start:

    💛 = sapphic
    💚 = achillean
    💙 = trans or nonbinary
    🌻 = contemporary
    🌿 = historical
    🐚 = fantasy
    🌺 = mystery/thriller
    🍂 = paranormal/horror
    🍃 = science fiction

    For this list, I stuck to a single book by each author (although there are many where I’d rec multiple books) because I figured, hey, this can be a series! So, check back later this year for more, I guess!

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  • All Reviews,  Literature

    ARC Review: The Bone Spindle

    11 January, 2022

    It’s the day you’ve all undoubtedly been waiting for! That is, it’s The Bone Spindle‘s book birthday! If you haven’t been excited about this one I am forced to assume you’ve been living under a rock. I mean, what could be better than Sleeping Beauty crossed with Indiana Jones? Nothing, I tell you. But if, for whatever ungodly reason, you’re still on the fence about this one, let me try convince you with this review!

    And don’t forget to follow Leslie on twitter too!

    Related: check out our interview with Leslie.

    Fi is a bookish treasure hunter with a knack for ruins and riddles, who definitely doesn’t believe in true love.

    Shane is a tough-as-dirt girl warrior from the north who likes cracking skulls, pretty girls, and doing things her own way.

    Briar Rose is a prince under a sleeping curse, who’s been waiting a hundred years for the kiss that will wake him.

    Cursed princes are nothing but ancient history to Fi–until she pricks her finger on a bone spindle while exploring a long-lost ruin. Now she’s stuck with the spirit of Briar Rose until she and Shane can break the century-old curse on his kingdom.

    Dark magic, Witch Hunters, and bad exes all stand in her way–not to mention a mysterious witch who might wind up stealing Shane’s heart, along with whatever else she’s after. But nothing scares Fi more than the possibility of falling in love with Briar Rose.

    The Bone Spindle

    Leslie Vedder

    Goodreads

    Rep: lesbian mc, sapphic li
    Release: 11th January 2022

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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: LGBT YA Books of January-June 2022

    9 January, 2022

    YA lovers, rejoice! Here’s the compilation post you’ve been looking for: all (hopefully) LGBT YA books of this half of 2022. It’s over 150 books long, and I probably still missed a few!

    It’s not easy to be very specific with the LGBT rep without having read all the books myself, but I tried my best. If there are any mistakes or something could be more detailed, feel free to let me know in the comments. And like always, books by LGBT authors are marked with a rainbow emoji.

    Enjoy and preorder! And hey, a lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)

    See also: 2019-2022 releases by rep and genre
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  • Wrap Ups

    Wrap-up: December 2021

    3 January, 2022

    After giving you a couple of entire year wrap ups in the form of best of posts (books and tv/film), we’re taking a quick step back with our final wrap up post of 2021, before we continue forward into January’s post. So, if you’re interested in what we read, watched and listened to in December, take a look!

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  • All Recommended,  Film & TV Recs,  Film & TV Shows,  Most Anticipated & Best

    Film, TV & Other Media Recs: Best of 2021

    2 January, 2022

    In a shocking turn of events, both of us are reccing the same number of titles this year! And there was only one movie among Charlotte’s choices, that we actually both wanted to include. I hope we’re all proud of Charlotte for watching so much gay shit!

    If you want to see what we loved in 2020, here’s that post. Otherwise, enjoy!

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature,  Most Anticipated & Best

    Book Recs: Best of 2021

    1 January, 2022

    It’s 1st January, which means, firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Secondly, here’s our best of summary of 2021, in typical expanding fashion (alright, so maybe a few books shorter than last year). If you want to have a look at the last few years of lists, you can find them here: from 2018, from 2019, and from 2020.

    Once again, we have divided our list into 3 categories: backlist books, books released in 2021 & books to be released in 2022 (that we read ARCs of). Books of 2021 has a further category of ones we both loved (upped to six this year simply because we couldn’t keep it to five). However, on the whole we’ve tried to do that (except where Anna only read a handful of backlist books, so filled up their 10 with 7 releases from this year).

    Before we start, though, I (Charlotte) would just like to note I found it incredibly hard to pick only 5 backlist books because there were so many I loved. So while this is technically our “best of” post, there’s still a lot that only just didn’t make it.

    But anyway. Here’s our list of our favourite 36 books of the year!

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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: Contemporary (January to June 2022)

    31 December, 2021

    It’s a new year and, since the number of book releases we know about per month is just tipping into unwieldy (June alone last year had 150 books to add to the post, not to mention the 50+ more we found later), we’ve decided to change up the way we’re doing releases posts. We started organising releases posts by genre around halfway through last year, so we’re sticking with that here. The major difference? Each genre gets its own post, which will eventually cover a period of 6 months. So, like with our various other releases posts (although those go up all at once, whereas here we’ll add each month), these are more easily edited and added to! Which means, even if we miss a book, we can better come back and add it to the post. A win for everyone!

    In this post, you’ll find the collection of contemporary books that we know about from January to June of 2022!

    Looking for the other posts?

    Fantasy | Historical | Mystery/Thriller | Nonfiction | Paranormal/Horror | Poetry | Science Fiction

    Looking for July to December?

    Contemporary | Fantasy | Historical | Mystery/Thriller | Nonfiction | Paranormal/Horror | Poetry | Science Fiction

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