• All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Enemies to Lovers (II)

    25 February, 2021

    Waaaay back when this blog was just a baby blog, I did a rec list of enemies to lovers (or otherwise hate to love) and that rec list has been probably one of the most viewed of all time. But then I went back and looked at it the other day, and was like… this is quite basic.

    And hence the idea for a second part was born.

    Before we begin, however, I would like to say yes I am aware that enemies to lovers and hate to love are not synonymous. No, I don’t really care, but if you want to be specific, this is more of a hate to love list.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: College-aged LGBT Protags

    23 February, 2021

    As requested by Lena on Twitter, here are ten books with “characters in college/university or that general age range”. A few are straight up taking place at uni, a few are just with protags roughly that age.

    I really wanted to include two more books, but I just featured them on my last rec list (Warm Hug LGBT Books), so I figured y’all need some more variety. Please know, though, Abroad by Liz Jacobs & Weak Heart by Ban Gilmartin also fit this theme perfectly.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Scribd, Intermediate Mode

    11 February, 2021

    So, you’ve opened up Scribd. The choices are overwhelming. You’ve read everything Anna suggested on their previous post. But where do you go from here?

    Not to worry because today it’s my turn to provide you with 50* books that you can read on Scribd! I’ve done the digging so you don’t have to! So whether you’re looking for YA or adult, classics or poetry, sapphic, achillean or trans/nonbinary rep, hopefully there’s something here for you.

    A little disclaimer first though: I myself haven’t read all of these books (some of what I initially included has been taken off since, thanks for that Scribd!), but they are all, if not read, then ones I want to read sometime soon.

    *You may not actually have access to all 50 of these books, since Scribd can vary in availability depending on country.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

    19 January, 2021

    In desperation, two days ago, I asked for a rec list theme. The response I got was the theme of pirates, or the sea in general. Now, I’ve not read that many pirate books (not that I would feel able to rec, at least), so I went with the latter.

    So, if you’ve been listening to sea shanties non-stop for however long, in this list you’ll be able to find yourself a book that they’re the perfect soundtrack to.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Warm LGBT Hug Books

    15 January, 2021

    We asked what rec lists you guys would like to see & got this gorgeous request that maybe, possibly we have almost fought over. Just maybe.

    So anyway, the request was: “wholesome books full of queer characters if possible, essentially just books that feel like a big queer warm hug because I cannot handle reading anything else”. You would fight to recommend people books like that, too, wouldn’t you? Enjoy then!

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  • Book of the Month,  Literature

    Book of the Month: Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow

    7 January, 2021

    Today’s post is our, slightly delayed, book of the month announcement! This time, we’ve chosen Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow, a children’s-slash-middle-grade book about a kid who just wants to make his dad happy, so he sets off to Pride in order to do that. If you want a book that will make you feel happy and full of love, this is the book for you.

    You can also check out my (Charlotte’s) review of it here!

    Related: Don’t forget all releases can be found in our monthly lists here.
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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: Ownvoices M/M books of July-December 2020

    27 December, 2020

    I already showed you all the M/M books written by achillean authors that were published in the first half of this year. Now it’s time for the second half!

    I use the “ownvoices” term from the title in a pretty loose sense. So you will find books here by gay authors featuring bi characters, and so on. But at the end of the day, all the authors in this post know first-hand what love between men looks like.

    Without a further ado, then!

    See also: ownvoices m/m books of January-June 2021 & of July-December 2021.
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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Gender in SFF

    24 December, 2020

    A while back, Anna asked for rec list suggestions and one of the ones that came up was nonbinary SFF. Now, they passed that onto me, since that’s not really their ballpark, and I sort of changed the rules ever so slightly. Instead of solely nonbinary rep (although most of the books here are still that), I’ve just gone for SFF that actually considers gender in its worldbuilding.

    It’s a smaller category than you might think, sadly. But because it’s Christmas (or another winter holiday of your choice), I’ve lengthened this post from the usual 10 books to include a couple more.

    So, enjoy!

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: YA Contemporary That Isn’t About Coming Out

    18 December, 2020

    Books which features coming out scenes are all very well and good — we do, after all, need to see a wide range of those and there are areas where that story still hasn’t been told — but sometimes you just want to read a book where the fact that the main character is gay is wholly incidental to the story. That is, not a coming out story, nor really a romance.

    So, here are 10 books which (hopefully) suit that remit. Yes, some do feature romances, but they aren’t romance books, in the sense that it’s central to the story. (Oh, and they’re all contemporary, because it doesn’t really make sense to make my task easier by including other genres, since obviously they wouldn’t have coming out scenes.)

    But anyway. On with the list.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: It’s About the Yearning

    26 November, 2020

    I had absolutely no idea what rec list to make for today so, in a sort of democracy I suppose, I got people on twitter to choose between this, butch lesbians and yes this book is gay. (Don’t worry, the latter two will be coming, although maybe not so soon.)

    We all know that yearning is a massive part of the best LGBT lit, at what we all yearn (lol) for. So, here are ten of my favourites that just hit that sweet spot.

    Yes, there are some upcoming books on this list, I can’t be held accountable for it though.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Bi MCs and M/F Romance (I)

    20 November, 2020

    Today’s list, brought to you late this evening, is one I touted doing a few months’ back, which got added to my (long) list of post ideas and which I am just now finally getting around to. So, here we are. Ten books featuring bi MCs in m/f romances. And, because when I started listing all the books I knew, the list got steadily longer and longer (if we include those I still need to read), this will have multiple parts to come.

    One little note before we start: this list includes bi MCs with POVs only. That is, a bi love interest, despite the fact they are a pretty major character, would not get included. For this list alone, obviously.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: LGBT Graphic Novels (II)

    15 November, 2020

    I’ve made a rec list for LGBT graphic novels before (funnily enough, it was on Christmas Eve two years ago) and you can check it out here. But the truth is, you can never have too many of those in your life! Which is why I decided that part two of that particular rec list is long overdue.

    So here we are! Ten more LGBT graphic novels, across a bunch of genres and for various target audiences. Hope you will find a new favourite here.

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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: Ownvoices M/M books of January-June 2020

    13 November, 2020

    It is a truth universally acknowledged, that more m/m books come out each year compared to f/f ones. This is not to say that there aren’t a lot of sapphic books, though! And if you think otherwise, take a look at Charlotte’s posts of this year releases: part one & part two. But this is not really my point.

    My point is that a vast majority of the m/m books are actually written by women. Very often straight women. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that, per se, those can still be good books. (They very often don’t offer good, respectful gay representation, but that’s a whole other conversation.)

    It got me thinking, though. How many books written by mlm authors were published this year? Turns out not that many… Which only means we should support them all the more.

    See also: ownvoices m/m books of July-December 2020, of January-June 2021 & of July-December 2021.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

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

    10 November, 2020

    It’s been a good few months since I did a post like this, and since I hit…uh…500 books so far this year, I figure I’ve read enough more books to do a second post. So, here we are! Once again, there is a wide range of books on this post, so hopefully you find something you’ll enjoy.

    If you want to know what I recced in the first post, take a peek here.

    And, once again, the books on this list, where possible, are not ones that only have fewer than 400* ratings by dint of being published recently (i.e. within the last month, I figure).

    *Although by some strange coincidence, none of these actually have over 204 ratings…

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