• All Reviews,  Literature

    ARC Review: Night Tide

    24 January, 2021
    49245102

    Tides change, but some feelings can’t be washed away.

    Lillian Lee doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Hate is a different story—and one she is intimately familiar with. Luckily, she hasn’t seen her arch-nemesis, Ivy Holden, since graduating from veterinary school five years ago. Since then, while her life isn’t going exactly according to plan, she’s happy. She has great friends, a job she loves, and the best pets in the world. Most importantly, her life is stable.

    Seal Cove, Maine, is the last place Ivy Holden anticipated ending up. But when an unexpected medical condition forces her to relocate to be closer to family, she can’t turn down the opportunity. Her new job at Seal Cove Veterinary Clinic has everything she needs: flexibility, proximity to her family’s summer home, and the chance to do the work she loves. Unfortunately, it also has Lillian Lee.

    Thrown back into each other’s orbits, Lillian and Ivy must find a way to work together, despite the treacherous emotions threatening to drown them both.

    Night Tide

    Anna Burke

    Published: 26th January 2021
    Goodreads
    Rep: bi mc, bi mc with MS, lesbian & bi side characters
    CWs: internalised ableism

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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 Reviews,  Literature

    Book Reviews: Lesbian Books for the Soul

    12 December, 2020

    In case you haven’t heard of Bywater Books before now, they are an independent publishing company that only publishes lesbian fiction. So obviously, they’re one of our favourites. And we are very lucky to be able to review three of their books today!

    So, if you’re looking for a contemporary romance, or a mystery, check out these books!

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  • Book of the Month,  Literature

    Book of the Month: Wolf Moon: The Invasion of the Dolls

    6 December, 2020

    If you want something a little more light-hearted to read this or next month, perhaps some middle grade lit, perhaps featuring a trans mc, then look no further than our December book of the month! And to make it even better, the book featured here is a sequel, so you can get on the first book right away, just in time for the next one in January. And you can support a self-published author.

    It’s wins all round.

    Related: Don’t forget all releases can be found in our monthly lists here.
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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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