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StoryGraph Amazon Kobo

Short answer: No

Slightly longer answer: It's... fine? It's... fine.

This book has a lot of plot elements and it struggles to tie them together. The main character, Yeeran, is a commander exiled from her home after a tactical blunder leaves most of her regiment dead. Her diviner sister and second-in-command follow her all the way into the hidden realm of the fae, after she is arrested for accidental murder. What follows is nominally a story about magic, war and a struggle for the throne, but practically mostly seems to be about the characters wearing fancy dresses and flirting.

Honestly, I don't object to that in and of itself - I have no problems with a story that focuses on relationships and describing beautiful people and places and just has some politics as the backdrop. But this book didn't do it well. The characters didn't seem to have any chemistry and their attraction was usually explained, rather than shown - honestly a problem with the book as a whole. It felt like the author wanted the military/political/magical plot to be the focus, but it didn't really hang together. The world felt strangely empty: full of cool things, but it didn't really feel like there was anything in between them.

In the author's defence, the world does seem cool. The magic system is interesting and the mythology is invente and I liked all the African influences. Honestly the plot itself wasn't even that bad: I enjoy military fantasy and it went in some interesting directions. It was just so incredibly unsophisticated in its writing that I couldn't latch onto it.

Final verdict: Faebound is readable!

[isthequeerbookgood]

good news: procrastinating on writing my dissertation means I have read a BUNCH of queer novels recently

bad news: working on my dissertation means no energy to actually write reviews

we'll uh. we'll get there! eventually.

[isthequeerbookgood]

where is the haterly review of legends and lattes i need to bask in its light

[isthequeerbookgood]

This was my attempt at a fair and balanced review.

My unfair and biased review is that I'm disappointed the book didn't seriously try to get us onboard with the whole human sacrifice thing. Aiden Thomas is a coward and this book should have had more ethics in it.

StoryGraph

Short answer: yes!

Slightly longer answer: … if you like YA

I'm gonna be honest, this book wasn't super my thing. The setting was interesting, the premise fun and the writing lively and engaging, but overall I found it overly simplistic and really, well… YA.

So I got my friend Cass, who does enjoy YA, to do a readalong with me and help me get a more balanced perspective. You can also check out her review here!

The story is best summed up as 'The Hunger Games meets Percy Jackson, with a Mexican mythology twist'. We follow Teo, the son of one of the lesser 'jade' gods as he is selected to compete in the Sunbearer Trials, usually only open to children of the more powerful 'gold' gods. The trials determine who will have the honour of being the Sunbearer - and who will be sacrificed to keep the sun burning for another 10 years.

Even though the focus is on Teo, the other characters are fun and engaging and Thomas does a good job keeping a large cast distinct and memorable. The cast is also very diverse. Kids have same sex parents, one of the competitors is deaf, and of course Teo himself is trans. The narrative contains quite a lot of explanation about Teo's gender journey, which I found a bit... grating? But could see the very clear and explicit rep being really meaningful for other people.

I really enjoyed the setting, even if the Mexican fantasy elements and the modern elements didn't always feel like they entirely meshed. It definitely isn't a hard setting, a lot of things seem to run on rule of cool - and I was okay with that! The action runs quickly from one place to another, and if it occaisonally stumbles it immediately gets back up again.

The fast pace meant it didn't really get the time to explore its more subtle themes, and, as I said above, the whole thing felt a bit young for my generl tastes. But I did enjoy reading it, and I found the ending compelling enough that I will probably read the sequel when it comes out the library gets it!

Final verdict: The Sunbearer Trials is good!

[isthequeerbookgood]

StoryGraph

Short answer: yes!

Slightly longer answer: … if you like YA

I'm gonna be honest, this book wasn't super my thing. The setting was interesting, the premise fun and the writing lively and engaging, but overall I found it overly simplistic and really, well… YA.

So I got my friend Cass, who does enjoy YA, to do a readalong with me and help me get a more balanced perspective. You can also check out her review here!

The story is best summed up as 'The Hunger Games meets Percy Jackson, with a Mexican mythology twist'. We follow Teo, the son of one of the lesser 'jade' gods as he is selected to compete in the Sunbearer Trials, usually only open to children of the more powerful 'gold' gods. The trials determine who will have the honour of being the Sunbearer - and who will be sacrificed to keep the sun burning for another 10 years.

Even though the focus is on Teo, the other characters are fun and engaging and Thomas does a good job keeping a large cast distinct and memorable. The cast is also very diverse. Kids have same sex parents, one of the competitors is deaf, and of course Teo himself is trans. The narrative contains quite a lot of explanation about Teo's gender journey, which I found a bit... grating? But could see the very clear and explicit rep being really meaningful for other people.

I really enjoyed the setting, even if the Mexican fantasy elements and the modern elements didn't always feel like they entirely meshed. It definitely isn't a hard setting, a lot of things seem to run on rule of cool - and I was okay with that! The action runs quickly from one place to another, and if it occaisonally stumbles it immediately gets back up again.

The fast pace meant it didn't really get the time to explore its more subtle themes, and, as I said above, the whole thing felt a bit young for my generl tastes. But I did enjoy reading it, and I found the ending compelling enough that I will probably read the sequel when it comes out the library gets it!

Final verdict: The Sunbearer Trials is good!

[isthequeerbookgood]

ah. yet another romance novel falls victim to the classic blunder* of having a completely out-of-left-field scene where its characters abruptly abort their lovemaking so they can have a clinical conversation about consent and kinks and boundaries, all the while using terminology that's completely out of whack with both the tone of the story and the world that the author has constructed. many such cases i fear

*"blunder", a word here meaning "thing i do not personally like, or find distasteful"; should be considered in a similar category to "bugbear" or "pet peeve"

[isthequeerbookgood]

cackling with power, finally the reading book poll blog for me

Please check the list of queued and polled books before submitting a title.

We're keeping this simple—have you read this queer book, yes or no? Choose whatever you feel best reflects whether you read the book or not.

More have you... poll blogs:

@haveyoureadthisscifibook @haveyoureadthisfantasybook @haveyoureadthisbook-poll @haveyoureadthismgyabook @haveyouseenthisqueerfilm

[isthequeerbookgood]

🌈 What's COMING OUT (pun intended) this March? Which books are you excited for? Which books are you adding to your TBR? Any other queer releases you know of?

Note: Some dates may have changed. We haven’t read all of these books, so please check reviews for more details on queer identities represented and check StoryGraph for content warnings!

Books listed above their respective graphic and linked to a page with more information about them. Typically goodreads link but a couple are direct to author site pages.

ID: A post of ten slides. Background is made up of a diagonal oriented 6-stripe rainbow for each slide. Slide one has a white square which reads "132 queer books coming out in March!". The 132 is in matching horizontal rainbow stripes and March is in green. Text between the number and month are all caps black font. Slides 2-8 feature a white grid outline with a column on the left that has the release date in white over a green rectangle and book covers in three rows of 4 book covers each. Slides 9-10 feature a white grid outline with a column on the left that has the release date in white over a green rectangle and book covers in four rows of 6 book covers each. End ID.

🌈 March 1st

Road Song: Step One by Samuel Lediard

Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions by Penny Guisinger

Tempting Olivia by Clare Ashton

🌈 March 3rd

Guillaume by Aurora Dimitre

🌈 March 4th

Wizard’s Debt by Niranjan

Monilinia: A Dark MM Horror Romance (Hounding Prey Book 1) by Free Mints

🌈 March 5th

The Marble Queen by Anna Kopp & Gabrielle Kari

One Last Breath by Ginny Myers Sain

The Baker & the Bard: A Cozy Fantasy Adventure by Fern Haught

Rainbow! Vol. 1 by Sunny & Gloom

Change by Édouard LouisMona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

Pelican Girls by Julia Malye

Nothing Special, Vol. 1: Through the Elder Woods by Katie Cook

The Tower by Flora Carr

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk

Ellipses by Vanessa Lawrence

I Feel Awful, Thanks by Lara Pickle

The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste

Heirs of Bone and Sea by Kay Adams

A Different Kind of Brave by Lee Wind

Be the Sea by Clara Ward

The Safe Zone by Amy Marsden

Remnants of Filth: Yuwu (#3) by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou

Cirque du Slay by Rob Osler

What Grows in the Dark by Jaq Evans

Knife Skills (Shadows of Chicago #1) by Wendy Church

Saint, Sorrow, Sinner (The Gideon Testaments #3) by Freydís Moon

The Duke’s Cowboy (Cowboy Nobility #1) by Andrew Grey

Blood & Brujas (Fate of the Acna #1) by Mikayla D. Hornedo

Broken Parts Included by Alyson Root

🌈 March 6th

Enemy Colours (The Devil & the Dark #3) by R.M. Olson

The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir by RuPaulThe Secret Something by Emily Wright

Colstead & Andie by Olivia Janae

🌈 March 7th

Promised to the Queen by Barbara Winkes

A Conclave of Crimson: A Queer Vampire Romance by Nicole Eigener & Beverley Lee

Play It Again, Ma’am (Whitebridge #3) by Sienna Waters

🌈 March 8th

How Not to Date an Angel (Cautionary Tales #4) by Lana Kole

Love Is…? by K.J. Wrights

🌈 March 12th

Infinity Kings (Infinity Cycle #3) by Adam Silvera

Some Strange Music Draws Me In by Griffin Hansbury

Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares

New Release from Wednesday Books

Really Cute People by Markus Harwood-Jones

A Hunt of Blood and Iron by Cara Nox

The Fealty of Monsters Vol 1 by Ladz, Illustrated by Häxan

Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari

How You Were Born by Kate Cayley

Ariel Crashes a Train by Olivia A. Cole

The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel

These Bodies Between Us by Sarah Van Name

Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds #2) by Micaiah Johnson

Monster Crush by Erin Ellie Franey

These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere

Blessed Water (A Sister Holiday Mystery #2) by Margot Douaihy

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein

Truly Home by J.J. Hale

Monster Mixer Vol. 1 by Robin Jo Margaret

Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #2) by Rawnie Sabor

Belega by Dianne Hartsock

Sunbringer (Fallen Gods #2) by Hannah Kaner

All This Time by Sage Donnell

Evacuation to Love by C.A. Popovich

Dancing Toward Stardust by Julia Underwood

Crossing Bridges by Chelsey Lynford

Lean in to Love by Catherine Lane

The Romance Lovers Book Club by MA Binfield

Searching for Someday by Renee Roman

View from the Top by Morgan Adams

[isthequeerbookgood]

Not to bias the results but I was worried I might be being too mean and having too many negative reviews and. I am reassured that this is apparently not the case 😂

hello friends, I'm taking a little break from reading trashy romance to read things for my ✨degree✨ so there won't be any more full reviews for a while, but I was wondering if people would be interested in some like... mini reviews? or possibly some short rec lists? of books I've already read? Let me know!

[isthequeerbookgood]

hello friends, I'm taking a little break from reading trashy romance to read things for my ✨degree✨ so there won't be any more full reviews for a while, but I was wondering if people would be interested in some like... mini reviews? or possibly some short rec lists? of books I've already read? Let me know!

[isthequeerbookgood]

Storygraph Kobo Amazon

Short answer: Somehow yes

Slightly longer answer: It wasn't high literature, but I had fun reading it

Furniture maker Ella hires lumberjack (and bear shifter!) Darcy to cut down a tree for her latest project. Although the two don't get on initially, some forced proximity and a couple of heart-to-hearts later their attraction is undeniable.

Honestly there wasn't anything particularly groundbreaking or radical about this novella, but it was... sweet. The characters are likeable, their romance believable. Darcy makes terrible bear puns. A major feature of the setting is that shifters have 'fated mates' destined to be with them forever, and I was pleasantly surprised by thre fact the characters actually had an honest conversation about what that would mean.

There's definitely flaws. The pacing was incredibly fast and I wish we'd had a bit more chance to breathe. I wish it had been a little less 'f/f' and a bit more queer. It was nominally set in England, but felt very American at times. Darcy and her family apparently just had a several-centuries oak tree available that they could cut down for Ella and only charged her £550 for it. I have a lot of questions about the forest management situation in this setting.

Final verdict: I'm gonna give this one a good on the grounds that I did genuinely enjoy reading it.

[isthequeerbookgood]

The reason categorizing fanfiction by tropes works is because there's already an established setting, cast of characters, and theme in the original work, so when people write fanfics they're building sand castles in pre-existing beaches, but when you advertise your book as "sci-fi enemies to lovers where there's only one bed and also they're gay" it says nothing about what the premise is, who the characters are, or what the book is actually trying to say. That's not to say that books containing stuff like "sci-fi enemies to lovers where there's only one bed and also they're gay" can't be absolutely fantastic books, but if you only advertise by listing off tropes that are inherently cookie-cutter then you're implying (whether intentionally or not) that there's nothing interesting or memorable about the book besides smashing tropes together like you're playing with action figures.

[isthequeerbookgood]

Have you read The Sunbearer Trials or Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas? Would you recommend them?

I'm afraid I haven't read either - I don't tend to read YA!

However, my library apparently has the Sunbearer Trials so... I'll get back to you once my hold comes through 😉

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AND ANOTHER THING that I am intentionally leaving out of the main review because it's entirely about me, rather than the quality of the book.

The author has decided to base their 'ancient' tongue and the names of most of their magical creatures off Hebrew. In theory, this is fine, great, love to see a bit of variation from the usual Latin and Greek.

In practice, my other current reading material is Thomas O. Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew and it is an absolute mindfuck to keep coming across Hebrew words that have slightly different meanings to their actual meanings, or are declined slightly weirdly. also if anyone knows if khawbar (כובּר??) means anything please tell me, otherwise I'm going to have to ask my Hebrew teacher and I don't know how I'm going to tell him where I found it.

Storygraph Kobo Amazon

Short Answer: Maybe?

Slightly longer answer: Really great concepts but I struggled with the execution

I really wanted to love this book. It follows Arlo Rook, a hedge witch with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and Thatch Phantom, a yearning immortal with severely limited free will, as they spend a week in the vibrant modern-fantasy city of Levena. Cosy vibes, colourful magic, tragic backstories and buckets of yearning - sign me up! And true to promise, the book is full of amazing ideas, exciting locations and inventive characters...

Too many, in fact. The book reads like the author is just so excited to tell you about their awesome ideas that they just trip over themself. New characters show up every other page, all some kind of magical creature, associated with a new location. The narration is chaotic and it often feels like the author just... forgets to tell you how things connect, or leaves out a crucial detail.

It honestly felt like reading fanfiction for a fandom I'm not in. Characters show up as if we should know them already; items and events are treated as though they have great significance when they've only just shown up. Honestly, it's a great fanfic, I just wish I could read the source and get some context!

Final verdict: Phantom and Rook is Readable. Great vibes, really needs a thorough edit

[isthequeerbookgood]

Storygraph Kobo Amazon

Short Answer: Maybe?

Slightly longer answer: Really great concepts but I struggled with the execution

I really wanted to love this book. It follows Arlo Rook, a hedge witch with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and Thatch Phantom, a yearning immortal with severely limited free will, as they spend a week in the vibrant modern-fantasy city of Levena. Cosy vibes, colourful magic, tragic backstories and buckets of yearning - sign me up! And true to promise, the book is full of amazing ideas, exciting locations and inventive characters...

Too many, in fact. The book reads like the author is just so excited to tell you about their awesome ideas that they just trip over themself. New characters show up every other page, all some kind of magical creature, associated with a new location. The narration is chaotic and it often feels like the author just... forgets to tell you how things connect, or leaves out a crucial detail.

It honestly felt like reading fanfiction for a fandom I'm not in. Characters show up as if we should know them already; items and events are treated as though they have great significance when they've only just shown up. Honestly, it's a great fanfic, I just wish I could read the source and get some context!

Final verdict: Phantom and Rook is Readable. Great vibes, really needs a thorough edit

[isthequeerbookgood]

Is it okay to recommend slightly older books? I thought Dragon's Winter (Elizabeth Lynn) was pretty neat.

ABSOLUTELY! I hadn't heard of Dragon's Winter before but I have a real soft spot for nineties epic fantasy so it's definitely going on my list, thank you!

[isthequeerbookgood]

Heyo, have you read the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers? I don't know what your metric for books to review on this blog is. The books are undeniably queer, but the queerness isn't the focus of the stories, it's just part of the world (galaxy) so they might not qualify. They are sci-fi rather than fantasy, but they're wonderful for character driven stories, diverse and well constructed alien cultures, and interesting cultural crossover conversations as a result. Even without reviewing, I highly recommend them!

LOVE the Wayfarers series! I think they're some of the few books i've read that feel genuinely cosy while still having real substance to them. I like that Chambers isn't afraid to let really bad things happen (Record of a Spaceborn Few hit me hard), but I feel you can trust that it's going to be ultimately a story about community.

My 'metric' is mostly to focus of books that aren't so well-known, but I'll probably throw up a review when I do an inevitable reread just because I love them! I definitely second anon's recommendation.