This one is a gothic fantasy horror reimagining of the goblin market. Not only do we get a badass ace MC who saves the day, we also get another timeliThis one is a gothic fantasy horror reimagining of the goblin market. Not only do we get a badass ace MC who saves the day, we also get another timeline with sapphic witch and goblin star crossed lovers. I mean, come on. This one was fascinating. It took me a minute to get into it but after about a 1/4 of the way through I was hooked. I really love seeing on page asexual representation that is more than just hints but not so much that it takes over the entire story. Dont get me wrong, I live for ace coming of age stories, but here, Lou is just asexual and trying to survive in the goblin market and save her family of witches.
I especially liked the alternate timeline with Lou's aunt May and the goblin sapphic love story. It's interspersed throughout Lou's adventure and really keeps you invested in the story.
I loved the ending and just how freaking cool Lou is. Ace heroines for the win ...more
I have been trying to listen to this book for months now and I kept forgetting about it and so by the time I actually started I had foOriginal review:
I have been trying to listen to this book for months now and I kept forgetting about it and so by the time I actually started I had forgotten the entire summary, the representation, anything that I had kind of known about the book, out the window. So I basically went in blind. Holy freaking nuts I loved this.
I listened to the whole thing this morning and it took me a minute to get invested in the letters only idea but once I figured out who the characters were I was here for it.
There's something really impressive about telling a story only through letters and especially a historical romance done this way was really exceptional.
So this book is about Gavin who basically gets sent to London so that he doesn't get bullied by his older brother when his older brother comes home. Gavin is very shy, very introverted, would much rather spend time in a library than socialize and damm if that isn't relatable, but he ends up getting drawn into London's society by Charles. Gavin meets Charles at this club after a night of unusual gambling and quickly grows to appreciate Charles' presence and friendship.
So the majority of these letters are sent back and forth between Gavin and his sister and those are my favorite letters. Like I really liked the ones between Gavin and Charles but the ones where Gavin gets kind of like soft and sweet while recounting all of his London experiences to his sister was so heartwarming. I don't know it just felt like a nice little hug.
I really enjoyed the queer normativity of this and also the small amounts of magic. So like magic is just a thing in this world and okay, absolutely. And then everything is so queer normative, like it doesn't matter. There's some historical fiction books that will kind of spin this tail and allow queer people to exist but in this story it is so normal that people don't have any sort of expectation on which gender you end up with, there's options of having a career versus a spouse, there is a non-binary Duchex (not sure of spelling since I listened to audio but it's a cross between Duke and Duchess) who uses they/them pronouns and everyone uses they/them pronouns for them. It was wonderfully normative and I want to live in a world like that.
I highly recommend this book. We've got a demisexual autistic-coded main character, a bi love interest, non-binary and sapphic secondary characters, and some very lovely letters.
Reread November 2022 This is such a soft read. I love Gavin and Charles so much and can't wait to dive right into One Good Turn....more
This was super cute and I really liked seeing Lucas story. This is technically a prequel to the series and I don't know if it would work as a prequel.This was super cute and I really liked seeing Lucas story. This is technically a prequel to the series and I don't know if it would work as a prequel. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense but I don't know that there was enough information on the Foxxxy club to really like get people interested in it and it worked because I've already read the other two books. So while this technically takes place before the two books in the series I would recommend reading it after.
So it pretty much reads like every single book about a character who gets lost in a snowstorm and ends up at a hunky lumberjacks cabin in the woods vibe. They're snowed in and they can't go anywhere because the tow trucks aren't coming and blah blah blah but it was still really good and I did like it.
This series is full of solid books. They are engaging and interesting that you like reading but not something that's super duper memorable. This one fThis series is full of solid books. They are engaging and interesting that you like reading but not something that's super duper memorable. This one features Toby who is in his twenties and has emotionally abusive gaslighting parents who told him he's a failure. He's got some serious self esteem issues and is trying to get out of their control.
Samuel is Toby's best friend Melissa's, dad. When Samuel and Toby meet they couldn't imagine what would come.
This is a daddy kink (no age play) with a big age gap, a hyperactive neurodivergent chef boy and a toddy bear construction daddy.
Well this punched me right in the gut. I knew that there was depression representation but I was not prepared for how deeply and intensely I was goingWell this punched me right in the gut. I knew that there was depression representation but I was not prepared for how deeply and intensely I was going to feel seen with Tyson.
Tyson is estranged from his parents and being estranged from your parents is already a really difficult thing and it becomes a little bit more complicated when your reasons for that estrangement aren't obvious to everyone else. When youre estranged for emotional abuse or apathetic behavior it's hard to explain to people who have healthy relationships with their parents, why you don't talk to your parents anymore. As someone who is estranged from a parent for reasons a lot of people don't understand, I felt like Tyson's experience was coming out of my own head. His fear of being seen as a villain so he just doesn't explain why he's estranged and how easy it is for him to get stuck in his own head about the situation because of all the years of apathetic words and emotional abuse and gaslighting. It's fucking hard. It's one of those situations where if you haven't experienced it you don't get to talk about it and you don't get to have opinions on it. I was a little bit raw reading this after having just had an encounter with one of my parents and it not going very well and then jumping into the story was a lot for me. But I don't regret it.
I love that we get Tyson's POV. As much as I really like Phil I wanted to deep dive into mental health and really get more of a perspective from Tyson. This book is heavy especially if you live with depression or estranged from a family member or a parent, but it's worth it. If you can make it through the CW's, I highly recommend it. Please read the first one first obviously this is a series and it's why I'm not really talking about the plot, but I loved these two dorks and their grumpy sunshine dynamic....more
May-December romance with the grumpy sunshine trope and mental health representation with both MCs in the hospitality industry. I loved it. So so muchMay-December romance with the grumpy sunshine trope and mental health representation with both MCs in the hospitality industry. I loved it. So so much.
Phil is 55 and owns a fancy burger and bourbon restaurant and is a little bit snooty but he actually cares deeply for those he cares about but isn't always the best at showing it. One day he comes across a newbie on his FPS game and gets roped into showing him the ropes.
A friendship blooms between the two and when Phil finally learns that Tyson is only in his late twenties and lives across the country, he starts to think that nothing else could come of it.
Tyson is a ball of fat sunshine and I loved him. It's not super explored in this book but it is explored in the second book that Tyson lives with depression and he is still a super sunshiny person through all of it and that he and feel really compliment each other. Tyson needs Phil's steadfastness and security and Phil needs Tyson's energy and bubbliness.
This book is super cute and could have easily been a favorite but they kind of cut out after the like kind of dramatic moment jumps to the epilogue and I wanted some of that resolution and probably over after on page and not just in the epilogue. I know that there's a second book but the second book takes place almost 3 years later and I would have loved to have some of that new development in their relationship energy.
Um okay like ow? Big ouchie? Wow why does this hurt so much? Yeah those are my thoughts when I finished this one. Big freaking cry.
So I'm really gratUm okay like ow? Big ouchie? Wow why does this hurt so much? Yeah those are my thoughts when I finished this one. Big freaking cry.
So I'm really grateful that I was able to listen to this one immediately after finishing the first because by some weird stroke of luck I started the first one right when the second one was being released without even knowing it. I am super glad because I think that these two books need to go together in order to really get invested. Now is that a detriment to a series? Maybe. It shouldn't take two books to get people totally sucked in. There is a lot of world building and magic systems and character arcs to follow with the series and it took me pretty much 3/4 of the way through the first one to really get hooked but once I was there I was there. This second one immediately draws you in and if you liked the first one at all please read this one.
The best part about this book for me was Celadon's perspective because I love him and I don't know. He is also asexual and non-cis (maybe gender queer, he doesn't know yet) and I want him to be so happy.
I also really appreciated the grumpy sunshine trope between Nausicaa and Arlo. Like Nausicaa is so grouchy and I love it. She is really just a cinnamon roll but I kind of love how much she hates people and obviously she's got some trauma but between her and then Arlo's like super sunshine vibes they're hilarious together and I love it.
I don't want to talk about the plot too much because I did say that in my review for the first one that I was going to put on my thoughts here and I'm trying not to be too spoilery. Just know that if you like high fantasy and you like an all queer cast then this is a book to check out. I really liked the audiobooks and the multiple narrators they had. Get ready for some suffering and some angst because it is here in spades and I need the third book immediately.
Pansexual MC, lesbian MC, bisexual MC, asexual non cis MC, gay MC, loads of queer and trans secondary characters. Set in Canada and Nevada (US)...more
I think that this might have been my least favorite of this series. Don't get me wrong it's still a really good story but I wanted more on the personaI think that this might have been my least favorite of this series. Don't get me wrong it's still a really good story but I wanted more on the personal conversation side instead of more sex. This one is about a professional sub name Cielo who is interested in a serious relationship but worries that they won't be able to find a daddy/pup handler for them and it will end in heartbreak.
No I personally think that you should read the other books in the series first before starting this one because there are a lot of cameos from the previous characters and it can get overwhelming really fast if you don't know who they are.
Q and A are the owners of the BDSM club and they are a Dom Daddy and Switch Handler respectively. They are married but in a open relationship where they both have boys and pups of their own and our poly. When the both of them start to think about trying to find someone who could maybe be a little bit more permanent they both begin to think of Cielo.
As with all books in the series there is a suspense element and this one does feature some racist homophobic transphobic bully basically threatening Cielo and Q and A but the suspense element was as dramatic as past books because you kind of know who it is right at the beginning. I am really excited to see officer Maxx make a reappearance and maybe he and Ant have something going forward as the epilogue suggests. I look forward to that one!
Oh anyway but basically the three of them end up getting together when q&A comforts Cielo after some of the harassment starts coming in and the three of them realize that maybe they can have the perfect combination of daddy and boy and handler and pup and dom and sub and switch etc.
Nonbinary asian american MC, midsize gay MC, bi MC.
CW: homophobia, harassment, transphobic comments, racism, explicit sex and kinky sex...more
This is such a great duology. I may or may not have been trying to read this book for 8 months or so. Basically, I'm an audiobook person and when I fiThis is such a great duology. I may or may not have been trying to read this book for 8 months or so. Basically, I'm an audiobook person and when I finished The Grimrose Girls, The Wicked Remain wasn't yet out, so I tried to read my arc of it instead as an ebook. I didn't do very well. I made it about 30% before I just kind of fizzled off. This is nothing to do with the story itself just my lack of ability to remain focused on non-contemporary ebooks. So it's however many months later when I finally grabbed the audiobook and I did have to go back a couple times just to jog my memory, but I think this book does a good job at continuously telling a story. I love the fairy tale element and the curse etc. I love the variety of representation as well. I know that I have them listed in my grimrose girls review but off the top of my head there's disability rep, anxiety rep, neurodivergent, POC, fat, bisexual, pansexual, aroace, lesbian, and trans rep + more.
I definitely recommend checking out this duology if you're into dark academia type stories. It's also going to be a favorite for you if you love books that incorporate fairy tales into modern settings. I really enjoyed them and definitely think that a reread will be in order in the future. My only small critique is just how everything wrapped up at the end. I felt it was a little bit confusing and we don't quite get all of the explanations that I wanted, but overall, I really enjoyed them....more
So I basically listened to this one and the second one right after the other and because I didn't stop to review this one before I started the second So I basically listened to this one and the second one right after the other and because I didn't stop to review this one before I started the second one I'm going to put all my thoughts into my review for the second book. In general I really like the two books and I'm here for sword wielding lesbian furies....more
Queer fairy tale retelling dark academia. Yes. This was so good and I'm really happy that I've read this and I have an arc for the second book so I'm Queer fairy tale retelling dark academia. Yes. This was so good and I'm really happy that I've read this and I have an arc for the second book so I'm diving right into that. This book is set at a like prestigious boarding school in Switzerland and essentially this group of four girls has to figure out what the heck is going on when one of their friends dies and they find a mysterious book of dark fairy tales where they are the princesses fated to die. It's wild and I did really enjoy it, highly recommend.
Fat pan MC, aroace asian MC, lesbian MC, trans secondary. (Oh man I hope this is right. It's been over a week since I finished and am just now writing the review ...more
Oh man I really liked this one too! I can't say much without spoiling the first but it does a really great job of providing a continuance from the firOh man I really liked this one too! I can't say much without spoiling the first but it does a really great job of providing a continuance from the first book. my one qualm was that the big drama happens near the end and then it all just gets summarized as to how things unfold afterward. It felt a but like cheating tbh but I still enjoyed and will read the next book....more
don't mind me writing this review through tears. Oh gosh I can't handle how raw this book is. It's heavy but also so so so damn sweet.
Simon is a midsdon't mind me writing this review through tears. Oh gosh I can't handle how raw this book is. It's heavy but also so so so damn sweet.
Simon is a midsize bisexual guy with depression just trying to stay alive, literally. He lives with depression and suicidal ideation (plus a suicide attempt briefly discussed in the past) and when he and his best friend hook up, things go downhill fast.
See, Ziah has been ousted from the Mormon community for being gay and is in love with his best friend Simon, except communication isn't either of their strong suits and their hookup was casual for Simon and life changing for Ziah.
When bigger tragedy strikes, the two have to find ways to cope together and apart.
At it's heart, this book is about loving people the way they need to be loved and not the way that makes you feel better. It's about maybe sacrificing some things and accepting that HEA isn't always an easy straightforward path.
There is a lot of religious trauma and some conversations about bierasure all tackled on to big deep discussions about depression and major mood disorders.
I really really loved this book. I loved that there is tons and tons of queer rep and yes! There's both ace and aro rep as well. Just casually thrown in and it made me irrationally happy. I adored both Simon and Ziah and my heart hurt for them and their journeys.
My one itty bitty complaint is that there is a big time jump from the ending to the epilogue and I wished we got that on page. It could've benefitted the book to have an extra 50-100 pages and I would've cried through them all.
I'm still putting this on my favorites list though for this year because any book that ends with me crying while writing a review deserves it....more
Marian! Oh my freaking gosh I love this book so much. So one of my like small complaints about Kit Webb was that the ending felt unfinished and I am sMarian! Oh my freaking gosh I love this book so much. So one of my like small complaints about Kit Webb was that the ending felt unfinished and I am so thrilled that this became a series because this book fills in all of those little gaps and gives us even more of a wonderful story.
So this book takes place on the same timeline as Kit Webb and that was fascinating for me. It's like similar story but different characters but also a completely different story. Wow that sentence didn't make any sense. Same blackmailing scheme different character dealing with it. Same robbery different character dealing with it. That makes more sense okay moving on.
So basically we get Marian's point of view and why she married the Duke and everything that happened there and then we get Rob's point of view and why he chose to blackmail Marian and their subsequent adventure together.
One of my favorite parts of this whole book is that Marian is not interested in penetrative sex and that is never pushed. It's never questioned it's never seen as a negative etc. It just is and that is that. I also read Marian as arospec and honestly almost just flat out aromantic but I don't feel like she had her aromanticism fixed by the end of the book when she's in a relationship. I feel like it was done really respectfully and Marian isn't a different person just because she chooses to engage in a romantic relationship. She's still the same person and even if she never necessarily felt romantically attracted to Rob, doesn't mean that you can't engage in a romantic relationship. It's a really nuanced point of view and one that I'm sure people will disagree with me on but that was how I read it and I really liked it.
Anyway, go forth and read. I do highly recommend that you read Kit Webb first. I'm sure there are folks out there that say you can read this as a standalone but I don't think that you can. Good thing that Kit Webb is an awesome book and you should totally read it. Enjoy!
Queer aromantic female single mother MC, queer bi/pan male MC. M/f queer romance...more
Well this was really really freaking good. It took me quite a while to read this just because I've had a super busy week and I was going through more Well this was really really freaking good. It took me quite a while to read this just because I've had a super busy week and I was going through more audiobooks and ebooks, but I really genuinely enjoyed it. It is set in this small town and there's two single dads as our MC's. One, Jake, has two teenagers and his wife died a handful of years back. He is a mechanic and just trying to figure out how to be the best dad he can be. When he comes across a broken down car on side of the road one day he offers the very handsome driver a ride on his motorcycle to get to work. Handsome driver is Micah. Micah is a high school pottery teacher and artist and also a dad. He is gay but helped his sister and her wife have a child. Micah was also a professional Dom in his early twenties to get through college.
Pretty soon Jake and Micah realized that they have some mutual attraction and some mutual kinks lining up. I expected this book to be a little bit heavier on the sexual aspect but pleasantly it was not. I know that this is probably a downfall for some people but I really enjoy actual plot and I liked seeing both guys be dads and deal with their kids.
Another thing that I really enjoy about this book is that Jake has always been bisexual and it was very clear about that. I feel like there's a subgenre of MM novels where a character comes out later in life and basically trashes women and all of their attraction to women in the past. And thankfully this was not the case here. Jake loved his wife and talked about her all the time. He celebrates her and his kids celebrate her and his love for her is never diminished by his growing attraction and love for Micah. He is always been bisexual and his parents knew he was bisexual his wife knew he was bi etc. Technically his kids did not know but they were young at the time of his wife's death.
Then there is the aspect of Jake and Micah's sons also being on the queer spectrum. And that was such a sweet comforting joyful experience.
As for the kink, there is sexual BDSM and impact play. There's only one fully explicit penetrative sex scene and a handful of impact play scenes. For such a long book there is only a small percentage of explicit content.
I really really like this book but I wanted a little bit more at the ending. I wanted a little bit more of their life together being happy, hell even an epilogue would have sufficed. I feel like there wasn't as much actual on-page discussions about them growing closer and also their kink as I would have liked. It's a little bit more of telling versus showing but as a whole it was a solid book. I will definitely be searching out this author for more books. I also really really appreciate books that they use the entire queer spectrum when talking about queer people and it's such a small thing to do, but all too often it is left out especially in MM romance books....more
Well this was just delightful. I can't even express how much I adore seeing ADHD representation and women in a main character and I didn't realize howWell this was just delightful. I can't even express how much I adore seeing ADHD representation and women in a main character and I didn't realize how badly I needed that representation as well. This one is an enemies to lovers with a pansexual heroine with ADHD and the love interest is non-binary and mid-size.
So Hillary failed her pottery class and when she tries to reach out to the instructor to retake it they tell her that she can't that summer. So Hillary's forced to reconfigure her schedule to retake the class in the fall with a different instructor. Except when fall comes around, it's the same old instructor up front. Glenn Rasmussen. Glenn is Hillary's nemesis. They rejected her in her eyes by not letting her take the summer course and it's messing with her brain. When Glenn suggests to Hillary that she might have ADHD, Hillary takes it as a personal front and is forced to confront a lot of her behavior that fits in with a neuro divergent brain.
It's fairly rare for me to find characters who represent my own experience so well, but if Hillary was asexual and introverted, we could be the same person. This book is told from Hillary's POV and so you really get a look into what a neurodivergent brain looks like. Her thoughts are jumbled and all over the place. She's forgetful and needs lots of reminders and craves perfection. She is sensitive to rejection and takes things very personally. She is a perfectionist and very academically smart but has to force herself through a lot of mental gymnastics in order to fit the mold she expects of herself. Having her worldview so harshly confronted by the fact that she might have ADHD threw everything for loop.
I love Hillary and I also loved Glenn. Glenn is midsize and covered in tattoos and has a very attractive beard from Hillary's POV ...more
So I have sat with his book for a few days after finishing it and I've come to the conclusion that I feel pretty ambivalent about it. I have read reviSo I have sat with his book for a few days after finishing it and I've come to the conclusion that I feel pretty ambivalent about it. I have read reviews that harshly criticized it and I read reviews that were super glowing and I fall somewhere in the middle. I didn't dislike this book but I don't know that it's one that I'll come back to. It is fine for what it is but it isn't my favorite. I had a few issues with the pacing and also some unresolved topics that just weren't ever dealt with.
Not going to lie I also think the fact that I had just read Code Blue by NR Walker threw me off. Code Blue is another boy band queer romance book and I felt so much more connected to that band in that cast of characters that I couldn't find the same emotional attachment for If This Gets Out.
It's probably not very fair to compare the two books because they are very different. The ones by NR Walker are adult romance and if this gets out is a young adult / new adult romance. Obviously the themes are going to be different and the characters are going to be different but unfortunately I feel like I'm just going to forget about this one.
I really wish there had been more time spent on the issues addressed in the second half of this book instead of kind of dragging the first half. I needed there to be more discussions around the gas lighting and manipulation and emotional abuse and eating disorders etc. As a whole it was just a little bit too underdeveloped for me
This will be one that I recommend to select groups of people. There is definitely an audience for this book and I think that it has a lot of good things happening as well, but for me, I didn't get too attached to it.
For as much as I really really loved Code Red, I loved Code Blue just a smidgen more. I can't really explain it to be honest. I think I'm just a suckeFor as much as I really really loved Code Red, I loved Code Blue just a smidgen more. I can't really explain it to be honest. I think I'm just a sucker for tough gruff grumpy cinnamon rolls and that's exactly who Steve is. Steve is the head of security for the band and I would recommend reading Code Red first. It's not essential I guess, but it is highly recommended. Anyway, when a security threat comes in aimed right for Jeremy, Steve goes on around the clock protection and Jeremy has a sexual awakening but there's still a lot of drama but not between the guys themselves. The relationships between the bandmates and security and the managers are all as close-knit and found familyesque as always, but there's outside drama and thriller elements.
It's always a struggle to write reviews for sequels because it's almost impossible not to be spoilery, and so I'm just going to stop my review here, but if you have read Code Red, you absolutely need to pick this up and if you haven't read Code Red, you should start there and then find your way here.
Gay MC, questioning bi MC with hypoglycemia
CW: violence, stalking, fighting, hate crime, hospital stays, attempted murder, security threats, presence of fbi and police...more
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