reviews, releases and recommendations of LGBT media
After a few days of unintentional downtime (can you tell neither me nor Anna has the slightest clue about self-hosting), we’re back with a rec list of standalone fantasy books. For those times when you don’t want to invest in reading an entire series, but you do want something fantastical.
I’m sure we can all relate.
But anyway. Enough waffling on, because it’s been days since we’ve been able to post. I’m sure you all just want to get straight into it (so to speak).
In keeping with the fact it’s Lesbian Visibility Week this week, today’s rec list is going to be one of solely lesbian adult fantasy recs (as requested by Anna). And I mean specifically lesbian, rather than sapphic in general (of which I have an old list here), so we’re talking characters who are attracted to women, but also are completely not attracted to men (simplistically put).
A couple of disclaimers: firstly, I’m fairly sure I’m right in reading these characters as lesbians. But obviously, since it’s fantasy, you don’t tend to get the word itself used, or even hedged around like in contemporary. As such, these are to-the-best-of-my-knowledge recs. Secondly, yeah, a lot of these are upcoming ones. Turns out I haven’t read all that many sapphic adult fantasies that you can pinpoint as lesbian. Something to work on.
All that aside, though, here are ten books you absolutely need to read. Call it lesbian canon, if you will.
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.)
Since writing this post, I’ve continued these recs as a series, so if you want to check out the other posts in that:
This is a rec list I keep promising and then never coming through on, but finally, finally, I’ve got my act together. If you’ve followed me on twitter, you’ll know I regularly complain about lesbians in (generally YA) lit never using the word lesbian about themselves. I even wrote a whole post about just that.
But I never offered you the books I know that do use the word lesbian (of which, I’m finding, I know depressingly few). So, these are they (with the exception of one, which I had to get Anna to tell me how to rec). If you’re looking for more, there are some in this thread.
Before we start, I just need to make clear how I’m deciding on these books. First and foremost, each book has to feature a lesbian character who claims the word lesbian for themselves. Not someone else calling them a lesbian, not random mentions of lesbianism but the mc never says “I’m a lesbian”. Yes, I’m being a bit strict in cases, but I want to offer you ten books where the mc claims the label in a positive context.
I have also tried to keep only to YA books, but I had to sneak one adult in there to make up numbers.
This month’s book of the month is one you have (hopefully) heard of, but there’s never any harm in just making sure, is there? Anyway, if you’re looking for a sweet summery romance, then Meet Cute Diary will be the book for you, trust me! It’s the fake-dating romcom you’ve always been craving, only it’s even better because it’s overflowing with trans joy.
So sit yourself down in a comfy chair, and check out why we think you should be excited about this one!
Let’s be honest, we all know that there is no trope better than found family. And actually, as long as we’re being honest with each other, found family as a concept is inherently gay. There’s just something about choosing your own family, that rings true to all LGBT people.
So yeah, here I am with ten LGBT stories featuring the found family trope. Only the best for you guys!
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.)
Hopefully, you’ve all heard of this book. Hopefully, you’re all as in love with the cover (and those arms! 😍) as we are. But if you haven’t heard of it, or have only been tangentially interested in it (as inexplicable as this seems to us), let us do our best to convince you that you need to get your hands on this book.
In a political fantasy unlike any other, debut author C. L. Clark spins an epic tale of rebellion, espionage, and military might on the far outreaches of a crumbling desert empire.
Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.
Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet’s edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.
Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren’t for sale.
C. L. Clark
Rep: Black lesbian mc, bi mc with physical disability due to injury, wlw side characters, mlm side character, nonbinary side character
CWs: violence, gore, past attempted rape, threats of rape, torture
Release: 23rd March 2021
This post being a day late (work has made a mess of my timing skills), I figured I would go with something easier. That is, part three of my list of books with less than 400 ratings on Goodreads.
Okay, it’s a mouthful. We’re working on it.
In the meantime, you can find the first post here and the second one here.
Sounds weird to use terms associated more with literature, but really, when I say “new adult characters” what I mean is characters in their early or mid 20s. Young people trying to figure adult life out.
I ended up with 11 titles, and because I cheated and am claiming the last one only half fits the theme & that’s why it can stay. I was also tempted to put And Then We Danced and God’s Own Country on here, but eventually figured you all must know about them already.
It’s been a while since I did my first high fantasy rec list on here, and I’ve read a lot more of it since so, it being Friday and I cannot come up with a more interesting theme for this list, I decided that it’s the perfect time for a sequel.
In the interests of making this list a little more, I don’t know, readable, I suppose, I’m going to only include books that are already out. So, yes, there are several upcoming I’ve read and loved, but they won’t be on here. Plenty of motivation to make a part three then though…
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.
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.
Today’s rec list is one which was requested sometime in December on Twitter (and yes, we’re just getting round to it. We are a slow-moving operation). But we’re finally here! In this post you will find 10 books, each featuring a BIPOC bi mc. So get yourself a cuppa and have a look see!
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.
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!
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!
