Category Archives: Books

Novellavember

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While I’ve been busy with NaNoWriMo, it has come to my attention that November is also novella reading month: “Novellavember.” The wonderful and awesome bookseller, Kel, who is a bit Twitter-famous and can be found at the handle @panediting, has put a lot of work into promoting a bunch of novellas in the bookstore where she works, and sharing photos.

I do not currently have a bookstore, but I thought I could share some novella suggestions of my own. A few are ones I have mentioned on the blog before, and some are new.

So! Novellas to read for Novellavember:

Alix E. Harrow’s fractured fairy tale duology, A Spindle Splintered and A Mirror Mended: these two novellas feature main character Zinnia Gray, a folklore major who is dying from a progressive disease, who comes to discover she is a variation on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale motif when she accidentally ends up in an alternate dimension with another Sleeping Beauty. In the second book, having survived the first incident, Zinnia begins trekking through fairy tales versions helping the characters fix their lives and save their happy endings until she is caught by the Evil Queen of one version of Snow White and must figure out how to save herself. Alix Harrow described these books as Into the SpiderVerse for fairy tale princesses, and that is a very accurate description. These books are an absolute delight, filled with sarcasm, sapphic women, and incisive commentary on the plight of women in fairy tales.

Lina Rather’s “nuns in space!” duology: Sisters of the Vast Black, and Sisters of the Forsaken Stars: I wrote a full review for the first novella in this duology back when it came out, which can be found here. These are slim, tightly-plotted, space operas in miniature, about nuns of the Order of Saint Rita, traveling around in their sentient spaceship saving lives and accidentally starting revolutions. These nuns are smart and complex, and their group includes a former war criminal, a lesbian engineer, and a lot of progressive liberals. The bits about the sentient spaceship are especially fascinating, and the political aspects are tense and horrifying. As a lapsed Catholic, whose patron saint is St. Rita, and loves space opera, these books were pretty much made for me. I adore them both!

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey: for something completely different, try this novella set in a dystopian America where technology has been outlawed or destroyed and society has reverted to a “wild west” style of living. To keep the isolated masses entertained and educated on government-controlled and highly censored reading materials, women librarians travel in horse-drawn carriages to various small towns in the west. Secretly-gay Esther stows away on such a carriage to escape her father when her lover is discovered and hanged. Once aboard, the other librarians train her, and reveal that they are not as “upright” and “government controlled” as the public might believe. This book was a joy! As one might guess, it is filled with gay and nonbinary women librarians who are secretly part of a rebellion against the oppressive government. And the righteous anger in every word is incendiary.

Servant Mage by Kate Elliott: This book is not really like Upright Women Wanted at all, but I think it has a similar tone/feel to it in that righteous anger drips from every word, and I love that about it. This novella is set in a world where magic exists, but in the years since an uprising destroyed the monarchist government, those who possess magic (once considered special and noble) are now taken from their families and made into slaves so that their magic may properly benefit all of society. Fellian is one such mage, however she is saved from her servitude by a group of monarchist rebels who need her magical abilities to help their cause. As Fellian works with this group, led by an exiled noble, she slowly realizes that the monarchists aren’t actually any better than the oppressive government they are fighting to overthrow. Kate Elliott is a master of the craft (see my review of her chonky space opera, Unconquerable Sun), and she proves to be as amazing in this short format as she is in her very expansive novels. The ending of this book is earned by every step of the narrative, and it is SO SATISFYING.

Trafik by Rikki Ducornet: Ok, this last one (for now) is a bit of a departure from the rest. It’s weird. If you don’t generally like more experimental literary fiction forms, you’re probably safe to skip this one. BUT if you are willing to go off the beaten path a bit, I highly recommend this one. For those not familiar with Rikki Ducornet, she is an avant-garde writer/poet, known for writing some very strange, dreamlike prose. One of her full novels, The Jade Cabinet, is a favorite of mine, and I’ve written a couple academic papers on it. Trafik is her most recent work (marketed as a novel, but as a teeny little book of about 120 pages, it’s definitely more in the novella category. It’s science fiction, of a sort, following a character named Quiver, a “mostly human” astronaut, and her neurotic robot Mic. When they accidentally destroy their cargo, they fear punishment from their employers and instead go rogue, making a run for the strange planet called Trafik. As I said, this is a WEIRD book, but it is weird in the best way possible – quirky, funny, hallucinatory. It functions as a nice, bite-sized introduction to Ducornet and her work.

Well, those should keep you busy for a bit at least! (And I just now noticed they are all women authors, so that’s fun). Time for me to dash back off to my Nano project (which is going pretty well for once… *knock on wood*). Catch you all later!

Book Review: Imperfect Illusions

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Title: Imperfect Illusions
Author: Vanora Lawless
Release Date: 4 October 2022
How I Got It: ARC from the author
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Let me start this review with a little backstory. I follow the fantasy romance author Allie Therin on Twitter, whose work I adore and have raved about to all and sundry. A few months ago she started talking about her next project (Liar City, coming out next year) which will feature an empath. Another indie romance author, Vanora Lawless commented that she was also writing a story that featured an empath. Her story was a historical fantasy romance, about an empath drafted to fight during WW1. At that, I piped up that I was ALSO working on a story that features an empath, who was ALSO a soldier during WW1, though my story takes place in the 20s after the MC has survived the war and come home with serious PTSD. The three of us made a lot of jokes about being the empath squad (and several other writers joined in the merriment).

Fast forward a couple months, and Vanora Lawless (who I have since followed on Twitter and chatted with here and there) asked if I would be interested in an e-arc of her empath book, Imperfect Illusions, which she would be releasing (self-pub) in October. Of course, I jumped at the chance! Historical romance fantasy is one of my main obsessions. And I wanted to see how she interpreted the “empath soldier” character (and feared mine, which is nowhere near ready for publication, would be too similar).

I’d meant to read Imperfect Illusions right after I finished Nona the Ninth. But then Nona the Ninth knocked me on my ass and I spent over two weeks in a total book hangover/coma (and I know I still owe you all a review of that one). So, I finally sat down to read Imperfect Illusions on Monday (a day before officially release, lol).

And, reader, I read the whole thing in one sitting on Monday night, finishing at about 1:30am. Lol.

Imperfect Illusions, as I mentioned, is a historical fantasy romance. Sully is an empath working as a private detective in Chicago, when he is forcefully recruited by the military to join a special group of “Skilled” (magical) soldiers to go fight in France during WW1. He is blackmailed into joining because the military knows he sleeps with men and has no compunction exposing him and causing scandal for his teenage cousin (that he is raising) and possible arrest. On his last night before leaving for training, he goes for a night on the town and picks up a handsome man in a club. Much to his surprise, the handsome man, Elliot, is also “skilled” and is also being blackmailed into military service.

The two men have a single beautiful, emotional night together, and then go their separate ways, believing they will never see each other again.

Fast-forward to the war: Elliot’s skill is that he can dream-walk into anyone’s mind with enough effort, but mostly with people he has an emotional connection with (such as family and lovers). He accidentally finds himself in Sully’s dreams, and ends up protecting Sully from debilitating nightmares caused by Sully’s inability to block out the pain and fear and trauma of every other soldier around him on the frontlines. The problem is, like many people, Sully doesn’t generally remember his dreams, and therefore has no conscious knowledge of the fact that he is spending months’ worth of nights keeping company with Elliot as the two fall in love.

When Elliot and Sully end up working together on a covert mission, these two incongruent versions of their relationship come head to head, and it all goes to hell from there.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. Both of the MCs are charming and complex and given lots of personality on the page. Elliot’s wealthy background made for an interesting contrast of personalities to Sully’s working-class orphan background. I was highly amused by the detail that Elliot majored in English and writes (self-professed bad) poetry. I know the feeling, Elliot. The magic system is interesting and entertaining. People with magic are called “skilled” and usually have one, or perhaps two related, magical abilities: Sully is an empath but can also create illusions to distract or deflect attention; Elliot is a dream-walker but also has the ability to push the sensation of elation or horror into a person he touches, etc. Going into the story, I wasn’t sure how much the magic would matter to the plot, outside the inciting issue of Elliot dream-walking without Sully’s knowledge. I was happy to see that, in fact, the magic (of the MCs and a number of supporting characters) was all highly important and effectively used to further the plot. Without giving too much away, let me just say: I was not prepared for the zombies!

Speaking of the plot, besides the romance plot, there is a rather intense plot centered around WW1 in general, and on a dangerous covert operation specifically. It was exciting, and creepy (see the aforementioned zombies), and well-executed.

The general setting of the war in France is painted with a light touch. Enough specificity and detail to ground the story, but not so much as to get lost in the historical weeds. Just on a subjective, personal taste level, I would appreciate a bit more attention to the historical setting. There were a few points where I was sitting there thinking: “I’m not entirely sure this is accurate…” or “this is kind of vague every-war-is-like-this stuff, rather than specific WW1 history.” But again, that is purely a matter of personal taste, because I am a history nerd, and I get caught up in my own historical research when I’m writing a lot (like, to the point of trying to find accurate tram service line maps for 1922 Cleveland, and making sure any song I mentioned was definitely already released on the radio before Sept 1922… I’m just like that). In any case, this was a very minor complaint. Not even really a complaint, actually. Just a noted difference in writing styles.

The book was highly entertaining. Both MCs were charming as fuck. The romance was beautiful and intense and entirely swoon-worthy (a handful of very steamy sex scenes). And the zombies were creepy. And I am absolutely delighted to know that a sequel is expected some time next year. Thank goodness!

As I mentioned, this book JUST released this week. I highly recommend it for any of my fellow historical romance fans. You can find links to any of your preferred book-buying locations on the Imperfect Illusions books2read page (by the by, books2read.com is my new favorite place for compiling of the book buying links).

Cozy Fantasy Recs for the Stressed and Anxious

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I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been hugely stressed out this entire year. As I mentioned in a previous post, a lot of that was job-related. But, of course, the general state of the world at large is definitely not helping matters. Due to the constant levels of stress and anxiety, I have been hugely dependent on very happy, upbeat, cozy, wholesome media to keep me going. I used to be able to handle more grim and gritty fiction/television at least some of the time, but lately… not so much.

I suspect a lot of other people feel similarly. To that end, I thought I would share some of the cozy fantasy I’ve been consuming lately to help keep me from going completely insane.

First up on the recommendations list is a book that has been getting a lot of traction on social media. In fact, it got SO MUCH traction on social media that this little self-published book has since been picked up by Tor Books for traditional publication. You can probably guess. Yep! I’m talking about Legends & Lattes by Travis Baltree. This book is like the definition of cozy low-stakes fantasy: set in an unabashedly D&D-inspired world, it features an orc warrior who has decided to hang up her axe, retire from adventuring, and open up the very first coffee shop in the land. In the course of trying to get her coffee shop up and running, she befriends several people around the city, accidentally gets on the wrong side of the local mob boss, and has to deal with an old travel companion-turned-rival. While there is conflict, and some danger involved, the book largely stays low-stakes and perfectly charming. You are assured of coziness galore, and a happy ending, as well as some sweet sapphic romance just to gild the lily. I guarantee you will not be able to stop smiling your whole way through the book. In addition, I will say that I have the audiobook, which is read by the author (who is also a professional audio narrator) his reading is delightful.

Second on my recommendations list is A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. I’ve discussed T. Kingfisher before, when I wrote a review of her book Nettle & Bone back in… March? That book is still currently top contender for my favorite new release book of the year (though I haven’t read Nona the Ninth yet as I write this, so that may change soon). [AN: I have read Nona since initially drafting this post. I haven’t quite decided yet, but they might be tied?] It was also the first book by T. Kingfisher I had read, but I loved it so much that I knew I was going to have to read the rest of her work as well. That’s where Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking comes in.

This book is categorized as young adult fantasy, but works just as well as middle grade fiction. It features a main character who is a fourteen year old girl — and the narration does a wonderful job of really staying in that teenage POV. On top of that, Kingfisher’s world-building continues to be top-notch. In this book, fourteen-year-old Mona is an apprentice baker in her aunt’s bakery. She possesses some minor magic to work with the dough, but nothing like what the real wizards in the city possess. But when magic-users all over the city begin to disappear, Mona accidentally comes across a plot to remove all magic from the city, including the powerful wizards that defend it from outside attack. Through luck and quick thinking, Mona escapes this fate, leaving her the only one left in the city with any hope of stopping an attack and protecting her queen.

While the stakes in this book are bigger and more dangerous — there is some violence and death — the overall tone remains so upbeat and snarky and fun as to keep it from being oppressive or overly dark. It helps that we are treated to things like walking gingerbread men wreaking havoc on the attacking army, and Mona’s continued irritation that she has been left to do the grown-ups’ jobs for them because they are all useless.

My third (and final, for now) recommendation is the first volume of a brand new literary magazine called Wyngraf — available in print and ebook through their website. This new magazine specifically features only cozy fantasy stories, in the wake of a growing call for that particular sub-genre. I got the first issue on ebook (though I may buy future volumes in print) to check out what kind of stories were being published. While the stories range in length and skill-level, they are all fairly charming. Nice, light, happy little reads to nibble on in between bigger reading goals. This first volume features such stories as “The Perils of Living With Your Human” — about a dragon who is having a rough day trying to help the human he is bonded with; “Your Own Beeswax” — a comedic little tale about a minstrel, in the vein of Jack Vance; and a few stories of what the editor calls “backpack fantasy” — fun little tales that feel a bit like the road travel montage of a larger fantasy epic. Some of the stories are weaker than others, but on the whole the collection works well together and is entertaining enough to read through in an evening or two. I look forward to what stories we might see in the next issue (which conveniently is out on Oct 1st!).

No doubt I will have more cozy fantasy recommendations in the future. But I hope these three are a good start for those who, like me, need some more warmth and joy in their lives to counterbalance the stress and anxiety of the world around us.

Status: still freaking out over Nona the Ninth

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Hey folks! So, I got my copy of Nona the Ninth on release date, Sept 13th. And then I finished the book early on Thursday the 15th. And now, nearly two weeks later I’m STILL stuck in a major book hangover.

I will eventually write a full review. For now the only reaction I can manage is mindless screaming (and retweeting fanart and shitposts on Twitter, lol!)…

This was me when I finished the book:

And nearly two weeks later, this is still me (keeping it contained, but still freaking out):

In other news, I’m having a bit of a rough week but I have a couple posts drafted already so I should still have something up on Friday as usual. Just wanted to share my Nona reactions with the void.

Quick Review: The City Inside

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Title: The City Inside
Author: Samit Basu
Release Date: 7 June 2022
How I Got It: borrowed from the library
Rating: 0 Stars, DNF

The City Inside by Samit Basu sounds like it should be made for me. Near-future scifi with a cyberpunk feel, set in a vaguely fascist India…? Totally up my alley! And yet, I have gotten through 3 hours of the 9 hour audio and I’m just bored. Generally speaking, I try to give books a good solid chance to pick up before I decide to DNF. Depending on the length of the book, somewhere around a quarter or a third or so. The City Inside is not a large book. It’s not that long. I’ve given it a full third to hold my interest, and yet!

The world-building and layering of details is impeccable. And I still think the general premise is intriguing. It focuses on an Indian woman named Joey in Delhi who is a “Reality Controller” — she creates and edits filmed streaming content. When Joey suddenly offers acquaintance Rudra, the outcast son of a wealthy family, a job to save him from an awkward situation, the two accidentally stumble across a tangled web of conspiracies that could destroy their lives. This is a great premise! This should work for me! (Also, the cover art is PHENOMENAL!)

But it feels like almost non-stop exposition. A full third of the way through the book and I feel like NOTHING has happened. Certainly nothing to keep my curiosity or interest in any real sense. And, frankly, very large portions of the book (premise, character, and plot) feel like knock-offs of large parts of Moxyland by Lauren Beukes, and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, with a bit of Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson thrown in for good measure.

This book might appeal to others. Maybe a gateway drug to more solid cyberpunk novels (like the three mentioned above). But honestly, my free time is at a premium and there are far too many books on my TBR pile to bother trying to slog through this one if it’s boring me this much. So, time to move on.

Verdict: DID NOT FINISH.

Book Review: Dust & Grim by Chuck Wendig

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Title: Dust & Grim
Author: Chuck Wendig
Release Date: 5 October 2021
How I Got It: borrowed from the library
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My close friends know this about me, but I suppose it’s probably not common knowledge on my social media accounts: I love middle grade fiction. I’ve raved on this blog before about Artemis Fowl (which I adore with my whole heart) but it doesn’t stop there. I love a lot of middle grade fiction. I used to read a lot of it when I was in my undergrad, and working at a Borders Bookstore as the children’s and YA expert. I’ve fallen a bit out of touch with some of the current releases though, so I decided I needed to change that. 

To start with, I picked up Chuck Wendig’s first foray into middle grade: Dust & Grim. I love Chuck Wendig’s adult fantasy and horror, and I’ve been following him on Twitter since 2010, where is a delightfully hilarious (and staunchly progressive) oddball. I trust him and his work well enough to go into Dust & Grim blind, so I picked it up at the library without looking at reviews and dove in.

And what a delight!

Here’s the basic premise: Molly Grim is a 13-year-old girl with a problem — her penniless, worthless, neglectful father has just died leaving her with nothing. But! There’s a bright side, turns out that the mother she has never known (also deceased) owned a funeral home which is half Molly’s by rights, and which is currently being run by the 18-year-old brother she has never met. Molly and her brother Dustin never knew the other sibling existed until the day Molly shows up at the funeral home with her lawyer uncle demanding that Dustin either sell the funeral home and give her half, or buy her out of the property. She’s not exactly nice about it, because she’s lost and snarky and feeling defensive. Dustin is not exactly nice about it either, because he’s got bigger things to worry about. Turns out, the funeral home is not your normal run-of-the-mill kind. It’s a funeral home for monsters, and Dustin is still trying to prove to the monster community that he can handle his mother’s old job, young though he is.

As you might imagine, things get messy quickly. Molly, while staying in the residential section of the funeral home with her brother, deals with ghosts, terrifying spectral wolves in a forest that is far larger than it should be, and her uncle pressing her to find dirt on her brother so they can strong-arm him into giving her the money she is owed.

I don’t want to say too much more for fear of giving some things away. But the book features a charming fay, a wizard who is also a chef, and the most normal/boring vampire ever seen. The book is the perfect balance of suspense and horror, with Chuck Wendig’s signature brand of snarky humor and pop culture references, all appropriate for a middle grade book but still absolutely enjoyable for an adult. One thing I particularly loved was Molly’s love for cosplay. Her big plan in life is to go to an art school that specializes in fashion and costume design. She spends the whole book devising various cosplay outfits that help her to face whatever new obstacle comes her way. She also makes lots of pop culture references — some real references like Star Wars and some that are made-up but obviously veiled references to things like Sailor Moon (I assume this was a matter of getting the rights to use the actual brand names). I giggled my way through most of it, and found a few descriptive sections genuinely creepy.

I will warn that, while the first chapter was sufficiently intriguing to start with, the next few chapters were a tad slow to get the action moving. There were a few points early on where Molly seemed slow to connect the dots and I wanted the book to just get on with it. But once things pick up, they really pick up, and the last third of the book especially is fast-paced and highly entertaining. The ending, while having a perfectly satisfying conclusion, leaves room for the possibility of further installments. I really hope the book does well enough that the publisher will pick up a sequel or two. I’d love to see more of Molly and Dustin. I think this could make for another really fun middle grade series like Artemis Fowl or the Percy Jackson books. I have my fingers crossed!

PS: in the spirit of getting back into current middle grade fiction, I also picked up Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao (which looks AMAZING) and hope to have time to read that one and review it as well soon!

Queer Romances Redux: Whyborne & Griffin Series

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Back at the beginning of June, I planned on doing several posts about queer romances I loved in the spirit of Pride Month. I made one post on the topic, and then (in typical Amanda fashion) disappeared again. I won’t spend several posts on the subject now, so far after the fact, but I wanted to at least talk about the one really big romance series that I’ve been obsessing over. I’ve mentioned in a couple previous posts, but wanted to dedicate a full post to it here.

I’m talking about the Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk.

Jordan L. Hawk is a transmasc author with a long resume of writing queer romances, of which the Whyborne & Griffin series is just one option. While I plan to read his other books eventually, this series will probably remain my favorite. I love these books so much. I picked up the first book on Dec 23rd 2021. I remember the date specifically because I had spent days finishing a huge house-cleaning sweep in preparation for my grandmother coming to visit for the holidays. I finished cleaning on the afternoon of the 23rd, and my grandmother would be arriving in the evening, so I might a cup of hot tea and downloaded the first book, Widdershins.

I finished that first book that night. And downloaded the rest of the ENTIRE ELEVEN BOOK SERIES immediately. And proceeded to read the first five books in five days, while playing host to my grandmother over Christmas. The reading slowed down a bit after that because I had to go back to work, but I had still managed to finish reading the whole series by the end of January. I devoured them.

Then, I decided I wanted print copies, not just ebooks, so I bought a couple at a time and did a re-read as they arrived, finishing the series for a second time at the end of June. And now I’m already thinking about re-reading the first few again. That’s how much I love this series.

So here’s the basic premise: the series is set in late-Victorian New England, in a city called Widdershins. But this is not our New England, because this series is deeply rooted in the Lovecraftian universe. You do not have to be familiar with Lovecraft Lore to understand and enjoy the series (all the creeps and ghouls and eldritch gods are fully explained and fleshed out with the context of the series), but if you are already familiar with Lovecraft it is endlessly amusing to suddenly recognize a name or reference from the Lovecraft mythos. The main setting of the series, Widdershins, is a city of Hawk’s devising, but with references to Lovecraft lore. And in keeping with that mythos, the main character, Dr. Percival Whyborne (who goes only be Whyborne thank you very much), is a linguistics scholar who works at a museum and went to college at Miskatonic University.

Whyborne is a tall, perpetually-awkward, shy and repressed scholarly man who works in the basement of the museum. He comes from a wealthy family but despises his father and has renounced his claim to the family money or power. He is routinely harassed and bullied by other scholars at the museum, and has a single friend: archeologist Dr. Christine Putnam (who, being the only woman in a field of men, is likewise often harassed and bullied, but unlike timid Whyborne, has a mouth that NEVER STOPS SNARKING. And god I love her for it.) Whyborne is also gay, but he has never allowed himself to act on that knowledge.

Enter Mr. Griffin Flaherty: an ex-Pinkerton, turned private detective, and the most attractive man Whyborne has ever seen. Griffin is on a case to solve the mysterious death of a rich man’s son, and needs the assistance of a linguist to decipher a coded journal that belonged to the dead man. He also has several secrets to keep under wraps, not the least of which is that he has recently been released from an asylum.

Whyborne reluctantly agrees to help the enormously charming Griffin, and before long the two are on a fast-track to becoming friends and quite possibly more. Along the way, they discover that magic is real. In fact, it’s not only real, it’s deadly and it’s coming for the city.

I’m trying my best here not to give too much away, which leaves me speaking in vague phrases and doing lots of hand-waving. There is dark magic, eldritch terrors, necromancy, angst, and romantic drama. And that’s just the first book!

Each book ratchets up the drama, the dark magic, the danger, and the deadly horrors, building toward an overarching plot that is intricate and enormously satisfying. There’s also some of the best, steamiest sex scenes ever put to paper. And a few love confessions/speeches to make even the most hard-hearted swoon.

Perhaps what I love most about these books is that they deeply explore what it means to be an outsider, from many different perspectives. As a queer man, as a woman, as a person of color, as well as from the more genre-specific angles of being magical or non-human, perhaps even a “monster.” And that take on the monstrous is another thing I love about these books. Hawk’s takes the horrors of Lovecraft lore and examines them, dissects them, reimagines them until the characters and the readers are forced to reconsider what makes someone or something a “monster,” or whether the word has any real meaning at all.

These are also books about acceptance and love and family. Found family, mostly, which is one of my all-time favorite tropes. The characters throughout the series are often rejected by their actual families, their “people,” and so they come together in beautiful ways to make their own family (a family I would give my right arm to be a part of, lol).

The whole series is, to me, the perfect blend of queer erotic romance and dark paranormal fantasy adventure. I know some readers prefer more of one or the other, but I love the balancing act between the two genres played out here. It’s a style of writing and plot that would probably not have sold well twenty or thirty years ago, but in recent decades this kind of cross-genre/genre-bending work has become more and more popular (thanks at least in part to the post fanfic-internet-world, lol). And I, for one, am very grateful for it.

I guarantee you will love these characters — Whyborne and Griffin and Christine and the whole cast of people that come as the story progresses. You might even see yourself in one or more of them (I am entirely too much like Whyborne, it’s slightly embarrassing actually). If you love romance novels but are squeamish about some pretty gross-out-worthy horror elements; or, if you love dark fantasy/horror novels but are squeamish about some pretty graphic sex scenes, than these are NOT for you. But if you enjoy the mix of both in any capacity, I pretty much guarantee you will love these books!

Here’s a link to the first book on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AHH0YF2?tag=jolha-20

Here’s a link to Jordan L. Hawk’s author page: http://www.jordanlhawk.com

If you’ve read these before and love them, sound off in the comments below! If you pick them up later, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well!

Queer Romances for Pride (Pt 1)

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“chaotic” pride flags courtesy of @WhyTheEnn on Twitter

Happy Pride Month, friends!

We have now entered June, a month in which the queer community defiantly celebrates our joy and diversity while corporations that ignore us the rest of the year (or actively legislate against us) try to throw a bunch of tasteless tone-deaf pride merch at us in an effort to grab that sweet, sweet queer cash. Yay!  (For the record, I am bisexual – disaster bi for life, fam!).

It is strangely fitting that last week I wrote a post about my current obsession with (mostly queer) romance novels, so I thought in honor of Pride Month I would share a few of my favorite queer romances. Every single one of these romances features queer MCs, but I cannot promise that every single author is themselves queer.

I do look for and read novels from out-queer authors, but it is a recorded fact that an outsized percentage of queer romances are written by straight cis woman. Or at least women who by all accounts seem to be straight and cis. Part of the confusion is that some of these romance writers maybe bi or nonbinary, but most do not divulge their orientations or identities at all. (There are a couple authors I am specifically thinking of that I pretty much assume are bi/pan but have not explicitly said so in their bios or social media, so… who knows?) Partly this is because it is safer marketing-wise not to divulge, but mostly this is because authors have every right to keep that information private if they so desire. So, to be clear, I am not out here demanding to know the sexual orientation of every romance novelist I read. Authors do not automatically owe us that (this is part of a larger issue with the Own Voices movement, which was well-intentioned when started but became weaponized very quickly and is now losing favor).

I admit that I do wish the publishing community in general would prioritize more genuinely queer authors writing these kinds of stories. However, that is NOT to say that I believe straight women (or straight men for that matter) are not allowed to write these, nor that a straight person is incapable of writing a very good, very well-researched, sensitive, and absolutely enjoyable queer romance. Some of my faves have come from KJ Charles, for instance, who is a straight woman and acknowledges the amount of research and sensitivity that is required when she writes queer characters.

In any case, let’s talk books!

For queer romance novels by queer writers, my brain does (of course) immediately jump to T.J. Klune, who I’ve mentioned before, as I wrote a review of his novel House in the Cerulean Sea last year. Klune has, in fact, written quite a large number of absolutely excellent fantasy romances. Two of his standalone novels, House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door are my personal favorites. But he has also written two YA novels about teenage superheroes in which much hilarity ensues amidst the romance called The Extraordinaries and Flash Fire (the third book, Heat Wave, is coming soon). And he’s written many many others, including his Green Creek series (Werewolf romance) and his immensely popular Verania series (high fantasy with all the gayness and drama). I haven’t read these yet, though they are definitely on my list of books to get to. But his beautiful, gentle, hopeful novel House in the Cerulean Sea will almost certainly remain my eternal favorite. I could rhapsodize about that book for ages, but it would probably be easier to just link to my original review here.

Cat Sebastian, author of many many queer (mostly m/m) romances is an out bi woman. She has a new release, The Perfect Crime of Marion Hayes, featuring an f/m pairing in which both characters are bi. I love that because bi men and women are so often accused of not being queer enough, and of no longer “counting” if they end up a relationship with a person of the opposite (or seemingly-opposite) gender. So I really appreciate that both characters are portrayed as still retaining their identities, as still bi, no matter who they end up with. 

As I said, Cat Sebastian has a very long (frankly intimidating) bibliography, and I have only just started to tackle her backlist, but I absolutely adored a pair of novels about a doctor and a spy in post-WW2 England: Hither, Page and The Missing Page. Hither, Page opens with a doctor, James Sommers who has moved back to his small English village following WW2. He was a promising surgeon, but the war left him scarred and suffering from PTSD he can no longer handle the sight of blood and death. When a house-cleaner, known for snooping on people, dies under suspicious circumstances, spy Leo Page is sent in to find out what really happened. James and Leo end up working together to solve the murder, as they grow increasingly attracted to each. But as Leo starts to put all the pieces together, he fears that solving the murder will destroy any chance of he has of being with James.

This book was both a great murder mystery and an absolutely charming romance, with two main characters with complicated pasts and motivations, a whole cast of fascinating eccentric villagers, and loads of sexual tension. The conclusion is earned and satisfying. And the sequel, The Missing Page adds so much to the characters and their relationship (and another fantastic murder mystery). I’m really hoping Cat Sebastian writes another one, but I’m not holding my breath. It looks like she’s moved on to other projects now. Alas.

A few other queer authors of queer romance include (but is certainly not limited to):

Casey McQuiston: the non-binary writer of the extremely popular Red, White, and Royal Blue (m/m) and One Last Stop (f/f)

E.E. Ottoman: transmasc author of several romances including The Doctor’s Discretion (m/m, also featuring trans characters), The Companion (f/f/m poly romance), and A Matter of Disagreement (m/m)

Alexis Hall: queer (unspecified but definitely queer) male author of quite a few great queer books including Boyfriend Material (m/m), Something Fabulous (m/m), and most recently A Lady for a Duke (transfemme/cis-man) which I haven’t read yet but I’m really hyped for!

One of my current faves is Jordan L. Hawk, author of the Whyborne & Griffin series (and others), but he gets his own post later so I can rant and rave properly!

Let’s Talk About Romance Novels

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this: let’s talk about romance novels.

I owe you all a bunch of book reviews for new and upcoming releases, and I’m sorry the posting is getting a tad erratic the last few weeks. I am still doing my best to get a post out each week, but I’m not guaranteeing what day anything is going to post on… The fact of the matter is I’m having a rough time of it right now. I’m not going to get into details — I’ve talked about my cats situation (see several posts back), and of course the general state of the dumpster fire that is our world is adding to the stress, but there’s also lots of other, more personal kinds of issues going on, and suffice to say, I’m having…difficulties. I am frazzled and exhausted and stressed out and weepy and I would really like to just crawl under my bed and hide for a month or two.

“But Amanda, what does that have to do with talking about romance novels?”

I am so glad you’ve asked that.

This is about romance novels, because romance novels have been routinely saving my sanity and my life for about the last year or so.

I didn’t read much romance as a teen or college student. It wasn’t so much that I was uninterested, but I was reading a lot of massive epic fantasies and then reading a lot of classic literature and “literary” fiction as a grad student, and just never got around to it. I read plenty of fiction that was sort of romance-adjacent — urban fantasy with large romance subplots, some old-school romantic suspense (like Mary Stewart), mystery novels that always have a little time to thread a bit of romance in amongst all the murder-solving, etc. But I didn’t really read anything that was categorically romance, really, until 2021.

So what changed? Well, a few things sort of converged into a perfect storm to form a new obsession. First of all, between the pandemic, work stress, and my own brain-chemistry-fuckery, I have been increasingly unable to stand anything too dark and gritty (I am so SO sick of grimdark, but that’s a separate post), so I was actively searching for things that would be less emotionally oppressive. I could handle drama and angst so long as I felt certain there would be a happy ending, but really I just wanted soft, warm, fluff. Second, I picked up the audiobook of Charlie Homburg’s fantasy novel The Paper Magician. The Paper Magician (first of a trilogy) was technically classified as fantasy when I picked it, but it is very clear in that crossover genre sometimes affectionately called “romantasy.” And I really loved it. So I read/listened to the whole trilogy. There was drama, there was danger, there was an evil murderer to be fought and defeated, but at its heart, it was a really sweet love story.

When I finished the trilogy, Audible in its infinite wisdom said: “well hey! If you liked those, you might like these.” And it handed my The Charm of Magpies trilogy by KJ Charles on a silver platter.

The Paper Magician cracked the door open. The Magpie Lord (first of the Charm of Magpies trilogy) tackled me, threw me over its shoulder, and dragged me heart and soul into a full-blown romance obsession.

The Charm of Magpies trilogy is Victorian England-set historical fantasy romance (the absolute perfect mash-up of genres for me), and features all the magic, murderers, and mayhem you could want, but at its core it is a very steamy romance. While The Paper Magician was sweet and a very non-explicit 1 on the “spice scale,” The Charm of Magpies is a very-explicit 5. With BDSM (and no, this did not faze me, I read fanfic). And holy wow did I love these books.

I read the trilogy for the first time in mid-2021. Since then I have re-read the whole thing 4 or 5 times. I have also now read 13 books written by KJ Charles (out of the 29 She has written!). She tends to write in trilogies (though not always). My other favorite trilogy for KJ Charles is her Will Darling Adventures (1920s historical romance feature spies — another perfect storm of elements for me).

Having read a lot (though nowhere near all) of KJ Charles’ books, I moved on to a bunch of others. These have included a handful of Cat Sebastian books (she has written so many that it’s pretty intimidating, but I will no doubt pick up more of hers eventually), and Olivia Waite’s 3 lesbian historical romances: The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, and Hellion’s Waltz.

Then, last August when I was re-reading Charm of Magpies for the 2nd or 3rd time, Audible algorithms recommended that I might also like a book called Spellbound by Allie Therin. I routinely thank Christ for Audible’s recommendation algorithms; they have not often done me wrong. Spellbound, first of the Magic in Manhattan trilogy by Allie Therin, is now one of my all-time favorite books. The Magic in Manhattan trilogy is a 1920s historical fantasy romance, featuring magic, speakeasies, and a couple of the most charming MCs you have ever seen. Like Charm of Magpies, I have re-read this trilogy 5 or 6 times. In fact, I just finished a re-read this week. The trilogy has quickly become a very important weapon in my arsenal of “my brain is trying to murder me, help!” Weapons. When the depression and anxiety get really really bad (as they have been the last few weeks) I pick them up again and inhale them.

My other major favorite I have now is also thanks to KJ Charles, tangentially. I watched a zoom talk she did last year, in November I think, and one thing she did was recommend some other romance novels that she loved. The one that stuck out to me the most was a series called Whyborne & Griffin, by transmasc author Jordan L. Hawk. On  the strength of KJ Charles’ word, I ordered the first book as a Christmas present for myself. And read it in a single sitting. And then I couldn’t wait long enough for the next one to order the print copy, so I bought and downloaded the whole series in ebook-format in one go. I read the first five books in five days over Christmas break. And I had read all 11 books in the series by the end of January.

I am currently working my way through the series a second time, ordering the print copies of each book as I go. I’m on book five again.

One thing you will notice if you look up most of these titles is that quite a lot of these (most I think) are indie/self-published romance, not coming from the big publishers. The other thing you’ll notice is that almost all of them are queer romances. And the one kind of stems from the other. I mostly want queer romance, and most queer romance is indie/self-published, so… *shrug* I haven’t done an exact count but I would guess probably 90% of the romance novels I have read have all been queer romance — m/m, f/f, trans and nonbinary, etc. I have nothing against het-romance, but for the most part I’ve decided they just aren’t for me. Give me all the sweet, charming, sappy queer romances you can possibly find!

I really don’t think it is an overstatement to say these books have been keeping me sane about the last year or so. Between my own brain-fuckery, and the state of the world at large, I just can’t handle any more doom and gloom. I need happily-ever-afters. And, damn it, there is no shame in that.

Some people complain about romance tropes, and claim that romance novels are all the same, or they’re badly written, or they’re all carbon copies of each other. But here’s the thing. There are badly written romances, just like there are badly written books in any genre. And yes, they often share a collection of tropes and similar plot lines and such. But that is part of the appeal. That is part of what makes them so comforting and so popular. We know exactly what we signed up for, and that is what we want. That said, people who have not read or written a bunch of romance have no idea how much effort and skill it takes to work within a somewhat-narrow set of audience expectations and parameters and still make every story different and entertaining, every character interesting and charming. Romance authors are the kings and queens of building tension and suspense – of taking a plot where we all know going in that the MCs will end up together and still making us believe that the obstacles are difficult, the tensions are genuine.

Many romance novels are a masterclass in character motivations, relationship development, and tension. A good romance novel makes us BELIEVE. And that takes enormous skill.

And on the plus side: you get charming MCs, swoon-worthy love confessions, and (with certain writers) some really REALLY good sex scenes. What’s not to love, seriously? So I might be a fairly recent convert, but you can pry my romance novels from my cold dead hands. I dare you. 

I’m going to try to pull together some reviews of some of my favorites, but I doubt I will have the time or energy to write in-depth about all of the romance novels I’ve read. At the very least, I think I’ll try to pull together a full list of all the ones I’ve read so far (if I can remember them all) and share that, with relevant info such as sub-genre, main relationship (m/m, f/m, f/f, etc), and “spice” level. So you can look forward to that in the coming week or two (aren’t you all so lucky! lol), and in the meantime, yes I owe you folks so more new release reviews. Sorry!

Book Review: Last Call at the Nightingale

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(Apologies for the delay!)

I think I’ve said this before, but Katharine Schellman is an absolute delight on social media. She is so kind and generous with her fans. There is, of course, a certain amount of patience and politeness expected from authors when they interact with fans on social media, but that’s not what I mean. I mean she is genuine and kind and friendly and generous with her time. I have had a couple “conversations” with her on twitter, which mostly consisted of me raving about how much I loved her three Lily Adler books (reviews of which can be found here), and her telling me how much she appreciated the support.

Well, during one of these conversations she asked me if I would be interested in an ARC of her next new release book, Last Call at the Nightingale, which is not part of her Lily Adler series but the start of a new mystery series set in the 1920s. Reader, I’m sure you can imagine what my response was!

Of course I jumped at the chance! Mostly because I love absolutely everything she has written so far, and also because I am actually obsessed with the 1920s and love historical fiction set in the 20s. She asked for my mailing address, and I gave it to her, and then a couple weeks ago the ARC arrived in the mail. She even sent a nice little note with it, which I will treasure.

It took some effort to get the quiet time and space needed to sit down and read it. I knew I was going to need a whole free evening because, based on previous experience, a Katharine Schellman novel is a read-in-one-sitting novel. I did that with both books 2 and 3 of the Lily Adler series, and it is clearly going to be the standard for these. Finally, I did find the time, and true to my prediction, I read the entire book in one sitting.

So, here’s my review, lol!

Title: Last Call at the Nightingale
Author: Katharine Schellman
Release Date: 7 June 2022
How I Got It: gift from the author
Rating: 5 out of 5!

Last Call at the Nightingale is a new mystery set in New York in 1924, and follows the misadventures of Vivian Kelly as she stumbles into a murder mystery, gets in over her head, and flirts her way both in and out of trouble. Vivian Kelly and her older, prim-and-proper sister Florence, are both Irish-descent and orphans, and therefore poor, disdained, and in desperate need of any respectability they can muster. But Florence has enough respectability for the both of them, and Vivian much prefers to be the wild child quietly working as a seamstress during the day, while spending her nights dancing with abandon at the Nightingale, the speakeasy that feels more like her home than any other place she has ever been. During one of her many late nights at the Nightingale, Vivian and her best friend Bea, a waitress at the speakeasy, accidentally stumble across a dead body. And not just any dead body – judging from his expensive clothes and the secrecy around his death, this dead body was someone important.

At first, Vivian intends to stay well clear of the trouble. Then, she gets caught up in a raid at the speakeasy. Poor and unwilling to call her sister for help, she is bailed out by the owner of the Nightingale herself: the dangerously alluring Honor Huxley. Honor has a deal for Vivian: in exchange for the bail money, Honor would like Vivian to snoop for her, get in close with anyone who might know about the dead man, and find out who killed him. This will be especially easy for Vivian, Honor claims, because Vivian likes to make friends and knows everyone who frequents the speakeasy, and because Vivian was just that night dancing with one of the men Honor suspects was involved – the charming Leo Green, newly arrived from Chicago.

And so Vivian finds herself questioning maids, sneaking into the offices of wealthy women, being attacked and threatened by brutes, and flirting with the increasingly attractive Leo, all in the name of finding a killer and paying off a debt.

This book was SO MUCH FUN. The 20s New York setting is well executed and believable, details and ambience applied with a deft touch. The smoky speakeasy, the crooked cops, the realities of living as a poor woman in the middle of the glitz and glamor of the Jazz Age. The characters themselves were absolutely the highlight. I adored Vivian – the absolute definition of disaster bi who is constantly being pulled in different directions by her attractions to both Honor and Leo (you and me both, girl!), and her smart mouth that got her in and out of trouble on quite a few occasions. Vivian’s best friend, Bea, was also a highlight – a well-educated black woman working at a speakeasy to support her mother and keep her siblings in school. There was also Danny Chen, a Chinese immigrant who works as Honor’s bartender and second-in-command at the speakeasy.

And then, of course, there were Honor and Leo, the two equally attractive people pulling Vivian in different directions. Honor is dangerous and intelligent and more than a little manipulative and absolutely SEXY. Leo is gentle and charming and honorable, with an aura of safety about it. Like Vivian, I was pretty in love with them both by the end.

I was kind of in love with all of the characters actually. I was live-tweeting a bit while I read the book, and I think some of these tweets are pretty indicative:

On top of all that was the mystery itself. And BOY was it twisty! I thought I had it figured out about halfway through, but I realized I was wrong at about the ¾ mark. Then at about the 80% mark the CHARACTERS think they have it solved, but I KNEW they were wrong – both because it didn’t feel right, and because there were (of course) like 30 or 40 pages left… (lol). When the final pieces came together and Vivian had it all figured out I was shocked. Did not see it coming at all.

Here, my tweets are pretty good gauge there as well:

This novel was HIGHLY enjoyable. I really loved all the principal characters. And I really hope the book does well enough to guarantee a second installment (and hopefully many more of that *fingers crossed*). The book releases on June 7th. The supply chain being what it is, I highly recommend pre-ordering, but alas, I know that is not always possible. In any case, if you enjoy a good twisty mystery novel and historical fiction set in the Jazz Age, you should definitely pick this one up!