• All Reviews,  Literature

    Blog Tour: Queen of Coin and Whispers

    4 July, 2020

    Something exciting for you today as we are part of the blog tour for Helen Corcoran’s Queen of Coin and Whispers which released last month. If you haven’t read it yet, and you’re looking for a sapphic royal fantasy with a slowburning romance and political machinations, this book is for you!

    For this tour stop, I figured I would make a mix for the book, complete with reasons why I added each song. Or at least, I tried to give reasons. Sometimes it’s just about how the song feels…

    Before we begin though, you can check out all of the other stops on the tour here and read my review of the book here.

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    ‘She loved me as I loved her, fierce as a bloodied blade.’

    When teenage queen Lia inherits her corrupt uncle’s bankrupt kingdom, she brings a new spymaster into the fold … Xania, who takes the job to avenge her murdered father.

    Faced with dangerous plots and hidden enemies, can Lia and Xania learn to rely on each another, as they discover that all is not fair in love and treason?

    In a world where the throne means both power and duty, they must decide what to sacrifice for their country – and for each other …

    Queen of Coin and Whispers

    Helen Corcoran

    Published: 1st June 2020
    Goodreads
    Rep: lesbian mcs

    Read More
  • All Reviews,  Literature

    Blog Tour: The Falling in Love Montage

    12 June, 2020

    Lesbians everywhere, hello, I have a gift for you! Well for other people, too, but lesbians specifically… I’m part of the blog tour for The Falling in Love Montage organised by Fantastic Flying Book Club! This means that not only do I have a review for y’all, but also a giveaway and a playlist!

    Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.

    But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.

    Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.

    The Falling in Love Montage

    Ciara Smyth

    Published: 9th June 2020
    Goodreads | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Book Depository | Kobo | Indiebound
    Rep: lesbian mc & li, lesbian side character

    Find the full schedule for the blog tour here!

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

    Film & TV Recs: LGBT Teen Shows

    25 May, 2020

    Even when you’re an adult, sometimes what you really wanna do is watch teens being dramatic. There’s something very soothing about it. And it’s great to see them finally figure their life out and be at peace, so you can feel like a proud parent for a moment.

    With that in mind, I compiled a list of ten TV shows about teenagers. There are quite a few genres here, so you should be able to choose something for yourself. Have fun!

    Read More
  • Other

    Misc Media Recs: Podcasts, Webseries & Webcomics (I)

    18 May, 2020

    At the beginning of the month, I got really into podcasts, because they gave me something to listen to while I was playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Or rather, one podcast. Because this list was initially supposed to be only podcasts, with a few webseries thrown in.

    Instead… Well, you can see what it is instead.

    But anyway. Sometimes you just need an easily and rapidly consumable shot of LGBT media, hence why on this post you can find recs for podcasts, webseries and webcomics. And this will be an ongoing series too.

    If you enjoyed any of these recs, please do support the creators however you can (Patreon, Tapas, etc — there should be links on websites, hopefully, or at least links to the creators’ pages).

    So, pick your content and let’s go!

    PODCASTS | WEBSERIES | WEBCOMICS

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Twitter’s Favourite Trans Books

    13 May, 2020

    The other day I asked people on Twitter to give me their 5 favourite trans books. Now, I’m using trans here as an umbrella term to include all non-cis identities, so you will find recs with nonbinary characters, genderqueer characters and more.

    And let me just say, the responses were great and I managed to compile a list of so many gems! And a lot of them seem to be rather overlooked, which is just another bonus & very good news to people starved for rep, who have already read all the popular titles.

    Of course, as always on this blog, books by LGBT authors are marked with a 🌈 emoji. Please let me know if I got something wrong, so I can correct it!

    See also: 100+ books by trans & nonbinary authors
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  • All Releases,  Book Releases,  Literature

    Book Releases: 2020 Sapphic Releases (January to June)

    8 May, 2020

    Not to be bringing any sort of bitterness to this blog or anything, but there’s only so many times you can see “there’s no (good) f/f” as a tweet before you snap. So in the interests of not snapping, I compiled a list of all the sapphic releases I know about this year.

    And I know a lot.

    So this list is actually going to be split into two. The first, this post, is going to take us from January to June. The second will come in a few months time and focus on July to December. Actually, the post is based on a thread I did on twitter, so if you’re impatient, go check that out (though dates aren’t always correct, and it’s not the most up to date).

    So do you want to read f/f books but you don’t want to look for them?

    Well it’s your lucky day. I did the looking for you!

    P.S. dates are correct to the best of my knowledge, but if I have missed a postponement somewhere, please let me know.

    Read More
  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Sapphic YA Contemporary (II)

    22 April, 2020

    It’s been a while since I last did one of these, and I have since read a fair few sapphic books. So, with the second resurgence of the f/f twitter discourse in a week, obviously my only recourse is to rec posts.

    And here I am.

    I also figured I’d go back to YA contemporary because, duh, I know more of them. But to mix things up a little, I’ll add a couple of upcoming ones you can support!

    As ever, all the previous posts are here. The previous contemporary rec list can be found here.

    Also as ever, it’s actually f/f or otherwise sapphic books.

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

    Film & TV Recs: LGBT Period Dramas (II)

    18 April, 2020

    A long promised continuation to my first rec list of LGBT period dramas. Definitely check out that post for more recommendations!

    Like in that previous post, I’d like to say that I’m aware there are barely any movies with trans rep on the list. I did my best. All the other period dramas featuring trans characters that I know of, gave those roles to cis actors & I’m not about to recommend that here.

    I accidentally made about half of this rec list about titles based on real stories & people, it wasn’t a conscious choice. But it does mean that not all of the movies listed are exactly super happy & gracious to the LGBT characters.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Scribd LGBT Starter Pack

    13 April, 2020

    It’s quarantine day 2839394, you already baked your sourdough bread, learned how to embroider, cleaned all the grout in your flat, and – in a ideal world – finished all the books on your bookshelves. What to do now, you ask? Read more, of course!

    Because we’re all tight on funds right about now, I would like to remind you that Scribd is offering a 30 days free trial on their whole library. If you’re not familiar with the website, this post would be a good place for you to get going. I tried to include a variety of genres in this list, but like it says in the title, it literally is just a starter pack.

    (And if you’ll use my invite link, you will actually get two months off and I will get one, too. It’s a win-win situation.)

    Final note: I very much encourage you to leave reviews of the books you’ll read on amazon and/or goodreads, and buying your own copies, if you can afford it. Or requesting them at your local library once it’s open again!

    Read More
  • Book of the Month,  Literature

    Book of the Month: Clap When You Land

    8 April, 2020

    Big news this month, as we’ve decided to scrap the book club (which, really, was just a series of failed buddy reads), and replace it with something new. A Book of the Month feature!

    This, honestly, is in part because of how uncertain everything is right now. We want to use this middling-size platform we have to highlight some upcoming (or backlist at times) books that have, perhaps, gone under the radar (or, simply, people don’t realise are gay).

    So, here’s how it’ll go. Each month we’ll post here and on twitter with information about the book, and order links. And hopefully raise your awareness of another amazing book!

    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: Twitter’s Favourite Sapphic Romances

    5 April, 2020

    The other day I asked people on book twitter to list 5* of their favourite books with best sapphic romance and this is what happened. I got so many great responses, I couldn’t just leave it as a tweet and let it disappear forever! Which is why I decided to turn all those recs into a post.

    *Yes, Charlotte was allowed ten books because she’s my co-blogger and gets special treatment.

    Some books appear multiple times on this list, yes, I know! But that only shows the bookish community loves them a lot. And I mean, a lot. And if they shower those books with love like that, then you definitely want to read them as well!

    (As always on this blog, ownvoices books are marked with a 🌈 emoji.)

    Read More
  • Book Club,  Literature

    Book Club: April Read

    29 March, 2020

    It’s obviously a very uncertain time at the moment, and all you really want to do is lose yourself in a good book. And what better genre to do that than romance? So this month, we picked what will hopefully be an excellent choice for escapism.

    Check it out below.

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  • All Recommended,  Book Recs,  Literature

    Book Recs: Mysteries

    20 March, 2020

    I’m a simple reader: give me a good mystery and I will be satisfied. Make it gay and I will be over the freaking moon. And I’ve finally read enough excellent mysteries that I can make a rec list of them!

    I have fairly high standards for mysteries, I’ll admit. I mean, I want something where I could potentially guess the culprit myself for a start. But not too easily. Basically I have to be able to follow along but also have some element of actual mysteriousness. I told you it was high standards.

    But that, of course, means that all the books on this list are especially excellent (not that they wouldn’t be otherwise but. Stringent criteria and all).

    So, onwards.

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  • All Reviews,  Literature

    ARC Review: Queen of Coin and Whispers

    15 March, 2020
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    ‘She loved me as I loved her, fierce as a bloodied blade.’

    When teenage queen Lia inherits her corrupt uncle’s bankrupt kingdom, she brings a new spymaster into the fold … Xania, who takes the job to avenge her murdered father.

    Faced with dangerous plots and hidden enemies, can Lia and Xania learn to rely on each another, as they discover that all is not fair in love and treason?

    In a world where the throne means both power and duty, they must decide what to sacrifice for their country – and for each other …

    Queen of Coin and Whispers

    Helen Corcoran

    Published: 23rd April 2020
    Goodreads
    Rep: lesbian mcs, lesbian, gay & bi side characters

    Read More