• All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Epic Fantasy

    Closing in on the end of March and, finally, our first rec list of the year! Completely by accident, this follows on from our last one of cosy fantasy with something that’s almost entirely the opposite. Epic fantasy, in my mind, is characterised by lots of POVs, a story that spans multiple continents or countries, and also just a feeling. The stories feel epic, like a saga. So, with luck, these 10 books fit that remit!

    A lot of these 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.)

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: High Fantasy (III)

    With no clue what new rec list to possibly do, I turned back to an old(er) one to refresh. I last did a high fantasy rec list back in March 2021, and before that, April 2019, both of them before a number of books I now consider favourites were even released. So, what better time to do an update than now? And here we are, with 10 high fantasy recs for your delectation and delight!

    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.)

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Friends to Lovers

    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!

  • All Reviews,  Literature

    Blog Tour: Up All Night

    Today’s our stop on the blog tour for Up All Night, a YA anthology where each story is set over the course of a single night. Obviously, we have been excited about this one since we first heard of it so, on the off chance that you’re not as excited as us, let us try convince you why you should be!

    And, as ever, there’s a mix to listen to at the end!

    When everyone else goes to bed, the ones who stay up feel like they’re the only people in the world. As the hours tick by deeper into the night, the familiar drops away and the unfamiliar beckons. Adults are asleep, and a hush falls over the hum of daily life. Anything is possible.

    It’s a time for romance and adventure. For prom night and ghost hunts. It’s a time for breaking up, for falling in love—for finding yourself.

    Stay up all night with these thirteen short stories from bestselling and award-winning YA authors like Karen McManus, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nina LaCour, and Brandy Colbert, as they take readers deep into these rarely seen, magical hours.

    Up All Night

    ed. by Laura Silverman

    Goodreads

    Rep: bi disabled mc, sapphic mc, nonbinary li, Jewish bi mc, Black gay mc, Indian American gay li, gay, lesbian, bi & nonbinary characters
    CWs: child sexual abuse, domestic abuse, infidelity, car crash, death of a parent, self harm
    Release: 13th July 2021

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    In the Intersection: Neurodiversity and Disability in LGBT Lit

    The final post in our intersection series is here! Today we’re looking at books which feature neurodiverse or disability rep. That does, of course, give us a vast array of stories to choose from, and we couldn’t represent every possible facet of it in a single post. As such, perhaps even more than the lists, this is very much a starter pack. And if you don’t see a more popular one on here, that you might have been expecting, that’s just because we wanted to highlight those which aren’t often recced.

    Everything else we’ve featured in this series can be found here: Black, African & Caribbean lit, East Asian lit, West Asian lit, South Asian lit, Southeast Asian lit, Indigenous lit, religion in lit.

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: High Fantasy (II)

    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…

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Enemies to Lovers (II)

    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.

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

    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.

  • All Recommended,  Film & TV Recs,  Film & TV Shows

    Film & TV Recs: Gay Comedies

    I don’t know about you guys, but most of the gay movies I end up watching are dramas and if there’s anything funny about them, it’s like one scene. So it got me thinking: where are the comedies? And I’m talking actually hilarious stuff. Not romcoms (that is going to be another rec list in the near future!), not slice-of-life with a few joke thrown in. Comedies.

    I put one TV show on this list, just for some variety. In all fairness, I was initially going to include Schitt’s Creek, but I figured everyone knows about that absolute gem so there’s really no point.

    And yes, I’m painfully aware there’s no trans rep on this list, hence the title, but finding good comedies with trans characters played by trans actors proved beyond my powers. If you know any, please let me know, so I can make a list just for them!

  • All Recommended,  Film & TV Recs,  Film & TV Shows

    Film and TV Recs: Pride Month Special

    Like we said at the start of the month, we’re making our Pride Month rec lists a little special. We’re adding quizzes to them! If you click the link below, the quiz will help you find a film or TV show that suits your needs. Alternatively, you can scroll through all our recs here.

    Take the quiz!

    Of course, you can be sure that these are all films and shows with happy endings for their LGBT characters (though, if we’re talking ones that haven’t finished yet, we obviously can’t confirm that). But trust us, even when it looks bad in some of them. Trust us. Also, because we haven’t watched all of them, we can’t be sure what content warnings there for them. If there is a * against one, that means we have watched it and there are some CWs, so just comment if you want to know more.

    Finally, the key:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bi or pan characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Books Set at Boarding Schools

    First rec list published at my new flat! Because oh yeah, by the way, guys! I moved last Saturday. I’m still settling in, which is most obvious by the state of my bookcase – I just put books on it to get them out of boxes, but order? Never heard of her.

    Anyway. Back to why we are actually here. Books set at boarding schools! I feel like it’s one of those Hot Tropes that y’all really like, so I hope my selection won’t disappoint. Frankly, though, I’m treating it a little bit loosely, by which I mean there are also books set at a university or books that take place at a boarding school only for a while. Generally speaking, there’s some kind of dorm situation in each book, though. So I think we’re good. Let’s go.

  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Books Taking Place in Space

    Not gonna lie, Charlotte was the one who came up with today’s theme. Bur surprisingly she only helped me choose I think one title? But yes, see, we work together to bring you only the best stuff!!

    Anyway, finding sci-fi books that specifically take place in space and not just in the future on a very different Earth… It’s not the easiest thing in the world. Especially, when one needs those books to have LGBT rep. Like one does. Always.

    But I hope I did a decent job and you will find something of interest here! Let’s dive in!