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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ARC Review: Red, White & Royal Blue
A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends…
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.
The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. Alex is busy enough handling his mother’s bloodthirsty opponents and his own political ambitions without an uptight royal slowing him down. But beneath Henry’s Prince Charming veneer, there’s a soft-hearted eccentric with a dry sense of humor and more than one ghost haunting him.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. And Henry throws everything into question for Alex, an impulsive, charming guy who thought he knew everything: What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?
Red, White & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
Rating: 4.5/5 🌈
Published: 14th May 2019
Goodreads
Rep: Mexican-American bi mc, gay li with depression, female bi side characters, non-white side characters, trans lesbian side characterGive yourself away sometimes, sweetheart. There’s so much of you.
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Book Recs: The Great Big LGBT Rec List (IV)
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: 🌉 -
Book Recs: The Great Big LGBT Rec List (III)
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: 🌉 -
Book Recs: The Great Big LGBT Rec List (II)
It’s Friday, which means (you guessed it!) Anna is finally letting me post the second part of the Great Big Rec List! (I’m kidding, kind of. Anna keeps the posts on this blog regular.) Anna posted her first 25 here, and you can find all of the parts of this list here or by the link in the menu up top.
So, here is a list of 25 of my favourite LGBT books. I say of my favourite because, not unexpectedly, when I tried to write down only 50 books, the list kept spilling over (so did Anna’s, which is good news for you guys because it means there might be more than 4 parts to this series). The books on here are all ones I’ve loved, and they’re also all ones which end on a, if not always outright happy, then hopeful note. (You can always trust me and Anna not to rec you tragic gay stories, or ones which end up burying their gays, just fyi.) There are some books that need trigger warnings on this list, so if you’re wondering, just drop us a comment and we can answer any questions!
Once again, the key to the rep is:
lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
bisexual characters: 💎
trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
LGBT authors: 🌈
poetry: 🌉 -
Book Recs: The Great Big LGBT Rec List (I)
We talked about this giant rec list on twitter before & if anyone thought we’re only joking… well, you guys just don’t know how serious we are about LGBT literature yet.
100 LGBT books. Fifty from me & fifty from Charlotte. Our favourite titles that we think everyone should read. Posted in four neat parts over the first two weeks of the year, so we can start off 2019 properly.
Of course, for this list to make sense, you have to know what rep you can expect from each book. And this time, to make things obvious right away (and also to make everything cuter), we chose to use various emojis. And so it goes:
lesbians & wlw relationships: ☀️
gays & mlm relationships: 🌿
bisexual characters: 💎
trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gnc characters: 🌷
LGBT authors: 🌈And because most of the list is composed of novels and short stories, we decided to mark poetry as well: 🌉
Let’s go!
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Book Recs: Graphic Novels
Let’s be real, what’s better than some graphic novels. I mean, you get a great story and great artwork! (Also, you get a nice boost to your reading challenge, if you’re a bit behind at times like me…)
So today I’m here with ten titles, all of them featuring LGBT leads, most of them actually having way more than one character who’s not cishet. A Christmas gift for you all, if you will. :>>
Enjoy!
And if you need more, here’s a post about LGBT graphic novels, part II.
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Book Recs: NA Romances
If you’re like me, then you’ll understand that sometimes, you really have to read a romance novel. And, of course, 99% of the time, you just can’t find a decent LGBT one – it’s all either sex-filled and lacking tension, or straight-up awful. So, the point of this list is to rec you ten of the best LGBT NA romances I’ve read (hopefully, to be the first part of many).
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Book Review: Alice Payne Arrives
A disillusioned major, a highwaywoman, and a war raging across time.
It’s 1788 and Alice Payne is the notorious highway robber, the Holy Ghost. Aided by her trusty automaton, Laverna, the Holy Ghost is feared by all who own a heavy purse.
It’s 1889 and Major Prudence Zuniga is once again attempting to change history―to save history―but seventy attempts later she’s still no closer to her goal.
It’s 2016 and… well, the less said about 2016 the better!
But in 2020 the Farmers and the Guides are locked in battle; time is their battleground, and the world is their prize. Only something new can change the course of the war. Or someone new.
Little did they know, but they’ve all been waiting until Alice Payne arrives.
Alice Payne Arrives
Kate Heartfield
Rating: 4/5 🌈
Published: 6th November 2018
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian mc, lesbian li, black mcs (not ownvoices), possibly autistic liKiss me, and then take my hand, because I don’t know what happens next.
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ARC Review: Girls of Paper and Fire
Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for… and the most cruel.
But this year, there’s a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.
In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards still haunts her. Now, the guards are back, and this time it’s Lei they’re after – the girl whose golden eyes have piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but stifling palace, Lei and eight other girls learn the skills and charm that befit being a king’s consort. But Lei isn’t content to watch her fate consume her. Instead, she does the unthinkable – she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the very foundation of Ikhara, and Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide just how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
Girls of Paper and Fire
Natasha Ngan
Rating: 5/5 🌈
Published: 6th November 2018
Goodreads
Rep: wlw mcs (ownvoices), South-east/East Asian characters (ownvoices)I know it now with a certainty that has fitted into the lost core at the heart of me, as hard and angular as my hope was soft and shimmering. The King will not have me.
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ARC Review: In The Vanishers’ Palace
In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land…
A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.
A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.
When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.
But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets…
In The Vanishers’ Palace
Aliette de Bodard
Rating: 4/5 🌈
Published: 16th October 2018
Goodreads
Rep: Vietnamese mcs (ownvoices), bi mc (fairly sure ownvoices), lesbian mc, non-binary side characters (not ownvoices)And then she’d wake up, gasping, trying to breathe, raising her hands to her face, remembering Vu Côn’s touch on her skin, as wet and as cold as the oily river.
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ARC Review: What If It’s Us
Arthur is only in New York for the summer, but if Broadway has taught him anything, it’s that the universe can deliver a showstopping romance when you least expect it.
Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things.
But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them?
Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated.
Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited.
But what if they can’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third?
What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough?
What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play?
But what if it is?
What If It’s Us
Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Rating: 1/5 🌈
Published: 9th October 2018
Goodreads
Rep: gay mcs (one ownvoices, one not), Puerto Rican mc (ownvoices), Jewish mc (ownvoices), mc with ADHD, side character with anxiety, side non-white charactersI don’t know if we’re in a love story or a story about love.
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ARC Review: Love Like This
Sometimes the most imperfect match is the most perfect surprise.
Hadley Cooper believes in happily-ever-afters with her whole heart. Described by her friends as a wide-eyed, eternal optimist, she looks for the bright side in most any situation. However, when her job as the assistant manager of Silhouette, a posh boutique on Rodeo Drive, is on the line, she realizes it’s time to pull her head out of the clouds and find a way to turn business around, and that just might mean partnering with the most stubborn up-and-coming fashion designer she’s ever encountered.
Spencer Adair has a passion for fashion, but hates the fact that it rhymes. She’s serious about her designs, fiercely protective of her work, and is waiting patiently for her big break. What she didn’t plan on, however, was the unsolicited opinions of that overly friendly blond boutique manager. Or the way her heart beats faster every time she’s around.
Love Like This
Melissa Brayden
Rating: 2/5 🌈
Published: 16th October 2018
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian mc and li (ownvoices), Latina(?) li (not ownvoices, also never specified)Her soul soared, her heart sang, and her life could go in so many different directions.
