• Literature,  Most Anticipated & Best

    Most Anticipated 2022 Releases: January to June

    30 December, 2021

    It’s that horrible, horrible time of year again, when we look at what’s going to get published next year and make ourselves choose one (1) LGBT book per month that we’re most excited about. It’s not easy, it’s not pretty; sometimes we fight over books, sometimes we cry a little because we can’t decide on just one…

    To make things marginally more manageable, like in previous years, we’re sticking only to books we haven’t read ARCs of yet. (So if there’s something huge and obvious missing here, that’s probably why!) Enjoy!

    Related: Twitter’s anticipated releases in 2022.
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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: All The 2021 Releases We Heard About Too Late

    28 December, 2021

    Every time we make a releases post, we know that we’ll find yet more books for it the moment we hit publish. Hence, this post! This is a collection of all the books we didn’t know about in time to put on our posts (for various reasons, like, simply, we didn’t hear about it, we didn’t realise it was gay until later because reviews mentioned nothing, or because a date change took it into an earlier month). There is a lot here: there are 499 501 books on this list alone, representing just under a third of all the books we knew about (1,715 1,717 at last count), in all genres and age groups.

    This will be the final post of its kind though because, as of January, we’re going about our releases posts in a slightly different way (that’ll hopefully make it easier to update the posts themselves instead of a massive, and not very readable, post of everything we missed from the year).

    But before we start, here’s a link to our list of 2021 releases:

    ALL THE LGBT RELEASES (THAT WE KNEW ABOUT) FROM 2021

    P.S. a little note: where we write something like “bi mc, m/f” or “pan mc, f/m”, what we’re trying to get across is that the mc note refers to the first letter of that. So, in this case, the bi mc is a man and the pan mc is a woman. Similarly for trans mcs, or when one of the mc’s is nonbinary. I realised that, while this is clear to me, it’s not as clear to everyone else so. A little explanation!

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  • All Reviews,  Literature

    ARC Review: The Midnight Girls

    21 December, 2021

    The last Tuesday of the year brings us some of the best gifts, actually. And by that we obviously mean what is probably one of the best books to read during those long winter evenings. To achieve the maximum of a Polish experience, maybe try some mead with it or at least mulled wine (not that we encourage drinking, of course!).

    Anyway, lets us give you all the reasons why you should absolutely read The Midnight Girls, enjoy the playlist for it, full of Polish songs, and don’t forget to follow Alicia on twitter, if you’re not already!

    It’s Karnawał season in the snow-cloaked Kingdom of Lechija, and from now until midnight when the church bells ring an end to Devil’s Tuesday time will be marked with wintry balls and glittery disguises, cavalcades of nightly torch-lit “kuligi” sleigh-parties.

    Unbeknownst to the oblivious merrymakers, two monsters join the fun, descending upon the royal city of Warszów in the guise of two innocent girls. Newfound friends and polar opposites, Zosia and Marynka seem destined to have a friendship that’s stronger even than magic. But that’s put to the test when they realize they both have their sights set on Lechija’s pure-hearted prince. A pure heart contains immeasurable power and Marynka plans to bring the prince’s back to her grandmother in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own.

    When neither will sacrifice their ambitions for the other, the festivities spiral into a wild contest with both girls vying to keep the hapless prince out of the other’s wicked grasp. But this isn’t some remote forest village, where a hint of stray magic might go unnoticed, Warszów is the icy capital of a kingdom that enjoys watching monsters burn, and if Zosia and Marynka’s innocent disguises continue to slip, their escalating rivalry might cost them not just the love they might have for each other, but both their lives.

    The Midnight Girls

    Alicia Jasinska

    Goodreads

    Rep: Polish-coded cast & setting, lesbian mc, bi mc, lesbian character, gay character, bi male character
    CWs: child abuse, blood, body horror (brief), death, murder
    Release: 28th December 2021

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Friends to Lovers

    19 December, 2021

    In the three and a bit years this blog has been up, I’ve made two enemies to lovers rec lists and always intended to make a friends to lovers list too, but somehow never got round to it. Well, today, I have finally got my act together! If you love the friends to lovers trope, the pining, the yearning, the belief that it’s unrequited—this rec list is for you! (And if it’s not your favourite, then I live in hope these books will convert you.) So, let’s go!

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  • All Reviews,  Literature

    Book Review: The Harbinger of Freedom

    14 December, 2021
    43294395

    In the millenary world of Taenand, the continent of Empiria is oppressed by a fifty year lasting military dictatorship perpetrated by the Army of the Harpy, the leader of which is the young General of aristocratic descent Ludwig Maximilian Eckhale who inherited the throne and became the second Emperor of his Era.

    In these challenging times, Valerius Raleigh, a young noble as the Emperor himself, takes on the mission to inspire his country to break its chains and free itself from the ever more raging tyranny, first becoming a symbol and a messenger of freedom, then building an army whose purpose is to take down the reign of terror and injustice which threatens to spread all over Taenand due to the ruthless ruler’s strategic mindset and powerful alliances.

    The Harbinger of Freedom is the first act of the Falling Feathers Series, a crazy mix of blood, sex, drugs, hacking, cybernetic augmentations, shamanism, fantasy creatures, artificial life and an overall retrofuturistic and cyberpunkish aesthetic. In this vast, complex world, liberty and self-determination play a pivotal role in the search for balance and justice for all, while the diverse characters are pawns in a gritty game of power, intrigues and violence in which there is no place for surrender or subjugation.

    The Harbinger of Freedom

    Freddie A. Clark

    Published: 30th August 2021
    Goodreads
    Rep: bi mc, gay li, achillean & sapphic side characters, nonbinary side characters
    CWs: gore, violence, implied child sexual abuse, past child abuse (for more detail, see author’s website)

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Reads Rainbow Awards 2021: The Results

    8 December, 2021

    As you may have noticed, we ran the awards a little differently this year, allowing for a week’s worth of nominations in all categories, before taking those nominated more than once, adding a few more to reach 20 per category (although 15 in two, and 30 in debut), and then opening up voting for 3 and a half weeks. In selecting nominees, we tried out best to ensure different books were nominated in each category (debut and romance aside) and that, within each category, an author appeared only once.

    But enough of that. The results of that vote, with 2320 ballots cast, are now here and I’m sure you’re all excited to see who won! First though, if you’re interested in just who made the cut in this year’s awards, below you can:

    see the list of nominees!

    Otherwise, happy scrolling!

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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: December 2021

    30 November, 2021

    Last thirty one days of the year! Who can even believe that? But also, statistically speaking, it’s basically 2 LGBT books coming out on each of those days!

    No spoilers, but this is the last time we will do the releases post like this. Starting January we will be using a different method, and hopefully y’all will find it even easier to navigate!

    If any books are wrongly categorised, just let me know & I can fix it. As per usual, you can find all our previous releases posts here & the rainbow emoji indicates an author who id’s as LGBT.

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  • All Reviews,  Literature

    ARC Review: Fools in Love

    28 November, 2021

    Frankly, if Fools in Love hasn’t been a book you’ve been anticipating all year, then I do not know what to say. It’s pretty much the perfect cosy read to curl up with this winter (or, equally, the perfect beach read, if December happens to fall in the summer months for you). Trust us when we say you don’t want to miss out on this one!

    And, of course, don’t forget to follow Ashley Herring Blake and Rebecca Podos on twitter (along with all the other contributors)!

    Fake relationships. Enemies to lovers. Love triangles and best friends, mistaken identities and missed connections. This collection of genre-bending and original stories celebrates how love always finds a way, featuring powerful flora, a superhero and his nemesis, a fantastical sled race through snow-capped mountains, a golf tournament, the wrong ride-share, and even the end of the world.

    With stories written by Rebecca Barrow, Ashley Herring Blake, Gloria Chao, Mason Deaver, Sara Farizan, Claire Kann, Malinda Lo, Hannah Moskowitz, Natasha Ngan, Rebecca Podos, Lilliam Rivera, Laura Silverman, Amy Spalding, Rebecca Kim Wells, and Julian Winters this collection is sure to sweep you off your feet.

    Fools in Love

    ed. by Ashley Herring Blake & Rebecca Podos

    Goodreads

    Rep: sapphic mcs, achillean mcs, trans mc
    Release: 7th December 2021

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: LGBT Fake Dating

    21 November, 2021

    Wouldn’t be much of a stretch, would it, to say that the fake dating trope is quintessential for LGBT lit somehow. Which is why it was only a matter of time for a fake dating rec list to be posted on the blog.

    At the end of this post you will find a few upcoming titles that I haven’t been fortunate enough to read an ARC of yet, but absolutely want y’all to be aware of. And if, like me, you’re constantly on the lookout for fake dating books with trans rep, we’ve been told you should keep an eye out for TJ Alexander’s projects (and follow them on Twitter).

    And hey, quite a few 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: Trans & Nonbinary Adult Fantasy

    19 November, 2021

    The final part of my impromptu adult fantasy rec list series is upon us! This one was, compared to the rest, pretty difficult to put together, if only because I hamstrung myself by doing almost this same rec list earlier in the year, and didn’t want to copy too many from that to here (that post was gender in SFF). You can see where I succeeded and failed in that, but I still hope I’ve given you enough different recs here that you’ll find something new and exciting.

    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.)

    And if you want to check out the other posts in this series, you can find them below:

    Lesbian | Gay | Bi/Pan

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Messy LGBT Teens

    15 November, 2021

    The “messy” in the title is to be understood in a few different ways. You will find here teens who make mistakes, teens who do (& don’t regret) things society thinks they shouldn’t, teens who make questionable choices… Which is to say: teens who are only human.

    So for everyone who is tired of books trying to portray teenagers as perfect (since no one in the world is), enjoy! And don’t judge.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Bi/Pan Adult Fantasy

    13 November, 2021

    The other day, I did part two of this adult fantasy series, with books featuring gay mcs. Today, I’m back for part three: bi/pan mcs. I say bi/pan, because often it’s hard to tell, since this is fantasy and mostly labels are not in use. But these are ten recs for you, in which the mc is definitively attracted to more than one gender.

    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.)

    And if you want to check out the other posts in this series, you can find them below:

    Lesbian | Gay | Trans

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