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    Book Recs: UKYA (and Ireland)

    15 August, 2019

    We all know how US-centric the book blogging community can sometimes (often, if we’re being less nice) get. Myself and Anna have probably fallen into that trap on this blog a few times as well. So, in the interests of expanding this blog, here are 20 UK (and Irish) YA books.

    First, a disclaimer: I haven’t read every single one of these books. And some of them aren’t even published yet (boo). But in the interests of raising awareness of LGBT lit out there that isn’t set in the USA*, I’m putting them all on here.

    * Loosely speaking. Two books on this list still are.

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    Book Recs: LGBT Retellings (Fairy Tales)

    11 July, 2019

    I mentioned on twitter the other day that I was thinking of making a post like this and everyone was very into the idea. I mean, what’s better than taking a classic story we all know & putting a gay spin on it, right?

    I put a parenthesis in the title of this rec list and there’s a very simple reason for it: there are going to be two more in the “series”! One for classic books (think Peter Pan or Sherlock Holmes) and one for mythologies (in a very broad meaning of the word). So look out for those!

    Before we start, let me make an honorary mention of Ash by Malinda Lo, the lesbian retelling of Cinderella. It’s not on the list itself because I can’t rec you a book you all already know, can I? But just in case you forgot for a second…

    And now, let’s go boldly into the world of LGBT fairy tales!

    See also: LGBT retellings of folklore, fairy tales, classic books & books about historical figures
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    Film and TV Recs: Pride Month Special

    12 June, 2019

    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: 🌷

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    Book Recs: Superheroes

    26 May, 2019

    Look me in the eyes and answer one single question: is there anything better than gay superheroes?

    No! The correct answer is no & I’m glad we all agree on that. It also means that I compiled a list of ten books with LGBT superheroes just for you guys. And a quick note – only two of those are comics! This is not to say that comics are anything less than, which is an absurd notion & one I absolutely do not want associated with me or this blog. But I wanted to showcase that superheroes are more than beautiful comics and can have their stories told through novels as well!

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    Book Recs: Adult Lit (II)

    12 May, 2019

    This is part two of that really long adult lit rec list I promised you. Part one can be found here, and all the parts will be in this tag (eventually).

    You might notice as this list goes on, some genres will have fewer recs. That’s just because there’s not a lot in those genres that I’ve been able to find (as of yet!).

    Key:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bisexual characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
    LGBT authors: 🌈

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    Book Recs: Adult Lit (I)

    4 May, 2019

    The other day I was scrolling through twitter and I saw someone make a comment that they didn’t see any rec lists of adult LGBT books. Which. Once you say it, becomes obvious, really. There are a lot of lists of YA LGBT books. In fact, those are the ones me and Anna find easiest to confirm the rep in for you. Adult books? That’s hard. Often, those are the ones where we find ourselves spending 10 minutes just trying to find a confirmation that it is LGBT, let alone how.

    So this is (probably only part one of) a list of all the adult LGBT lit we can find (read, unread, and pre-release). Where possible, we’ve added in rep as usual, but for that we’re mostly reliant on Goodreads reviewers (and you know how vague they can be). But. These are 50 confirmed LGBT novels. Sorted by genre (10 of each).

    Enjoy!

    Key:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bisexual characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
    LGBT authors: 🌈

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    Book Recs: Lesbian Authors

    26 April, 2019

    April 26th is the International Lesbian Visibility Day! And what’s a better way to celebrate that than having a lesbian talk about other lesbians? (Possibly getting said lesbian a girlfriend but shh…)

    I was actually talking with Charlotte about what we should post for this occasion and at first we just wanted to go with books with lesbian protags. But then we realised… As many sapphic books as we’re getting lately, still not a lot of them uses the word “lesbian” on page. And I’m not gonna lie, I would really love for us to finally get over that and stop treating lesbian as a dirty word or whatever is happening here.

    But yes, this is why y’all are getting a rec list of books written by lesbians. We gotta stick together, right? I’m also changing the format of our rec lists for this one, because I want to highlight authors more than anything else. I’ll be putting one book per a lesbian here, but that’s not to say I think it’s the only one you should read!

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    Film Recs: Short Gay Features

    16 April, 2019

    Sometimes you just don’t have a lot of time, but you still want to Feel something, to make your gay heart beat faster. That’s when short movies come into play! Packing an emotional punch into a fifteen minutes long story? That’s art. And everyone can spare a quarter of an hour to watch a tiny little thing like that, right?

    I’m starting the list with a title you all hopefully already know, but it’s always good to bring back our faves! And then it’s just a little bit of everything, to be honest.

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    Book Recs: High Fantasy

    4 April, 2019

    Have you ever noticed how a lot of fantasy with LGBT characters tends to be urban fantasy? Obviously, that’s no bad thing, but sometimes you just want to read about LGBT characters in high fantasy settings. (Or, let’s be real, you want to read high fantasy settings without the casual homophobia, but apparently that’s too hard for some people to write. Not that I’m bitter, but.) Because it’s fantasy, so why shouldn’t we be there too?

    So here are ten high fantasy books with LGBT mains. Brief disclaimer before I begin: there are three books on here I haven’t read, but people I trust have reviewed them highly (and also I plan to read them asap).

    Related: LGBT High Fantasy, part two
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    Book Recs: Books Taking Place in Space

    4 March, 2019

    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!

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    Book Recs: Quietly Magical Books

    20 February, 2019

    I am, as ever, looking for ways to procrastinate doing work (usually reading professional practice articles, because Christ how dry can you make an already really dry subject, but anyway). So I figured I’d make a rec thread of quietly magical and gay books. Because I didn’t think I had that enough to turn into a rec list. But! Lo and behold, I did. So. That’s what you’re going to get. Books which are quietly magical (and gay, because this is a LGBT only site. No straights allowed here). (And also, this is a genre that there seem to be a lot of books where you go, hey I didn’t realise that was gay. Just trying to raise awareness here.)

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    Book Recs: Enemies to Lovers

    4 February, 2019

    We all know how good a trope enemies (or rivals) to lovers can be when it’s done right. It has that perfect intensity and tension, and the point where they realise that actually they don’t hate each other any more and you get pining? Absolutely brilliant. So, of course, I had to do a rec list (and also, this was what was voted for on Twitter). There’s actually a lot of overlap between this list and some other ones, mostly because when a book has one of my favourite tropes it tends to hit a few more at the same time. And also. Because it’s a favourite trope, if the book is good it normally rockets onto my favourites shelf.

    So, without further ado, the list.

    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 hey, there’s now a second part to this, with ten more books!

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    Book Recs: Novellas

    26 January, 2019

    We all have those days where you have an oh shit moment and realise you’re behind on your Goodreads challenge and what are you going to do??? Well. I have for you here a guaranteed way of boosting your numbers. Read loads of novellas! (Although, to be honest, I don’t really know what constitutes a “novella” and what’s a short story or even a novelette, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.) Anyway, these are some of the best ones I’ve read (and they’re all gay, of course).

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    Book Recs: The Great Big LGBT Rec List (IV)

    10 January, 2019

    Today is the day (for better or for worse). We’ve reached the last part of our recs list (sad face). You can find the rest of the list here. I’m really not sure what to say here, because it’s all been said, and I just feel like saying more would mean talking out my arse, so like. On to the books!

    A brief reminder of the key:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bisexual characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
    LGBT authors: 🌈
    poetry: 🌉

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    Book Recs: The Great Big LGBT Rec List (III)

    7 January, 2019

    I really hope I can say “here comes the post you’ve all been waiting for!!” and be right… Well, the post does come, so I’m already halfway there… In any case! Like the title says, this is part 3 of our very big and very great, and very much made up of books by & for the LGBT community recommendations list!

    Today I give you books number 51 all the way to 75. There’s only one post in this series left! (So far. Charlotte & I hope you guys would be interested in more posts like this when we hit our next followers milestone!)

    Question we already asked on twitter (here): would you be interested in a Q&A, to get to know Charlotte and me better? Let us know in the comments!

    Before you dive in, make sure you read part one and part two of our Great Big LGBT Rec List! And take one more look at how we mark the rep in this series:

    lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
    gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
    bisexual characters: 💎
    trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
    LGBT authors: 🌈
    poetry: 🌉

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