#Jes Battis

[lgbtqreads]

February 2025 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction Bram Stoker Award-longlisted author of MY DARLING DREADFUL THING Johanna van Veen‘s SAINT, SINNER, SKULL, a sapphic folk horror novel with a fantastical twist following a nun and an orphaned peasant on their harrowing journey across a war-torn countryside to reunite the gilded skull of a saint to her body – but soon it becomes clear darker are forces at play, pitched as Robert…

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[aurorawest]

Reading update

The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights - 5/5 stars

Again, bought this solely for Natasha Pulley's story, The Eel Singers, which is about Thaniel and Mori from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. It's set between Watchmaker and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow. I loved it, obviously. The rest of the stories were also really good—a few of them were genuinely really disturbing.

Teacher of the Year by MA Wardell - 3.75/5 stars

This is the first book in Wardell's Teachers in Love series (the second being Mistletoe & Mishigas, which I read last week). I didn't like this one as much, though tbh I'm chalking that up to the fact that it's Wardell's first novel. He uses some very strange descriptors sometimes that really throw me off ('matte' was used once to describe dialogue, which I still can't really make sense of). I also got kind of frustrated with Marvin's freakouts over Olan's alcoholism—not really the fact that they happened, but just like...the pacing of them, I guess? After it happened once, it didn't really feel like there was any escalation of that conflict, just sort of the same conflict happening repeatedly.

That said, I did like the book! The characters are all great, and I really loved how Marvin has to take responsibility for how he can't move on from how his mother's alcoholism affected him, and how he's actually quite unfair to his mother and Olan when they both take recovery incredibly seriously. There was a nuance to that that felt really refreshing.

Fallow by Jordan L Hawk - 4.5/5 stars

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton - 3.5/5 stars

Only the Brightest Stars by Andrew Grey - 3.25/5 stars

Beautiful Undone by Melissa Polk - 3.5/5 stars

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee - 5/5 stars

Adorable book and read it made me so hungry. I need to try a mooncake next fall.

Keeping Christmas: Yuletide Traditions in Norway and the New Land by Kathleen Stokker - 5/5 stars

I've had this sitting around for a few years now and figured I should read it around Christmas. It was super interesting—not only did I learn a lot about Norwegian Christmas traditions, I actually learned a lot about American Christmas traditions. Also it gave me an idea for a Christmas ghost story/romance.

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis - 5/5 stars

This book had a dreamy quality to it that was perfect for the subject matter. This is a murder mystery and kinda/sorta a retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight...I think? It's been way too many years since I've read Gawain and the Green Knight. The premise is that all the characters of Camelot are reincarnated over and over and stuck living out their myth cycles.

Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold - 5/5 stars

Soooo much yearning. Two school friends reconnect over a murder case. Both of them think they're the only one in love with the other. If you're a Freya Marske or KJ Charles fan, this is very much up your alley.

Doc by Mary Doria Russell - 4.25/5 stars

The King's Delight by Sarah Honey - DNF at pg 72

[the-winter-sings]

"Knights were myths stuck on repeat--a battle song that just kept streaming. Stories that kept being told in different times and bodies. Valkyries had a wild family tree, stretching back to the time when this whole place was covered in boreal forest. People loved reading stories about King Arthur and Morgan le Fay, but the reality was a lot more complicated. Arthur was in prison, Morgan was a university dean, and Hildie spent most of her time untangling blood feuds and breaking up fights on the beach. When a knight died under suspicious circumstances, it was her job to separate the facts from the stories. And every one had a long story."

-- The Winter Knight by Jes Battis

[reviewsthatburn]

THE WINTER KNIGHT is an Arthurian murder mystery told through several narrators, primarily through a Valkyrie (Hildie) and the current incarnation of Sir Gawain (Wayne). One of my favorite things about Arthurian retellings is that due to the elasticity of their cannon, they absorb and except the existence of other entries in a way that retellings of other stories often would be harder pressed to do. One such case is Vera’s identity as a professor who discusses, among other things, Guinevere's place in the Arthurian cannon, all whilst her students are unaware that she is the current incarnation of that queen.

Full review at link.

[queer-ragnelle]

camp damascus by chuck tingle is really good

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🖤🩶🤍💜 Happy Ace Week, Bookish Bats!

❓ What was the last book you read that featured asexual characters? If it's been a while, here are a few to consider adding to your TBR!

🖤 Aces Wild - Amanda Dewitt 🩶 Loveless - Alice Oseman 🤍 That Kind of Guy - Stephanie Archer 💜 We Awaken - Calista Lynne 🖤 The Kindred - Alechia Dow 🩶 Scavenge the Stars - Tara Sim 🤍 Fire Becomes Her - Rosiee Thor 💜 A Snake Falls to the Earth - Darcie Little Badger 🖤 Forward March - Skye Quinlan 🩶 The Romantic Agenda - Claire Kann 🤍 The Reckless Kind - Carly Heath 💜 Summer Bird Blue - Akemi Dawn Bowman

🖤 The Charm Offensive - Alison Cochrun 🩶 Meet Cute Diary - Emery Lee 🤍 Cupid Calling - Viano Oniomoh 💜 The Bruising of Qilwa - Naseem Jamnia 🖤 The Loudest Silence - Sydney Langford 🩶 Kiss Her Once for Me - Alison Cochrun 🤍 So Let Them Burn - Kamilah Cole 💜 Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao 🖤 Exes & Foes - Amanda Woody 🩶 The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray - Christine Calella 🤍 Firebreak - Nicole Kornher-Stace 💜 Never Been Kissed - Timothy Janovsky

🖤 Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle 🩶 Baker Thief - Claudie Arseneault 🤍 The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester - Maya MacGregor 💜 The Story of the Hundred Promises - Neil Cochrane 🖤 Adrift Starlight - Mindi Briar 🩶 Help Wanted - J. Emery 🤍 If You Still Recognize Me - Cynthia So 💜 Bad At Love - Gabriela Martins 🖤 The End Crowns All - Bea Fitzgerald 🩶 The Winter Knight - Jes Battis 🤍 The Meister of Decimen City - Brenna Raney 💜 It Sounds Like This - Anna Meriano

🖤 Fallen Thorns - Harvey Oliver Baxter 🩶 Don't Let the Forest In - C.G. Drews 🤍 Just Lizzie - Karen Wilfrid 💜 The Siren the Song and the Spy - Maggie Tokuda-Hall 🖤 Wren Martin Ruins It All - Amanda Dewitt 🩶 She Who Became the Sun - Shelley Parker-Chan 🤍 Poisoned Primrose - Dahlia Donovan 💜 How You Get the Girl - Anita Kelly 🖤 Lord of the Empty Isles by Jules Arbeaux 🩶 Moth to a Flame - Finn Longman 🤍 Little Thieves - Margaret Owen 💜 Someone You Can Build a Nest In - John Wiswell

[marwyn]

From Mastering the Game of Thrones: Essays on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (eds. Jes Battis and Susan Johnston)

[rosie-drums]

@batty-barty

just really quick..

could i keep my shirt on? it's just-

je suis gros

[inmydefenestration]

For the end-of-year book ask meme: 3, 17, and 24! (If you don't mind me asking multiple ones, lol)

I don’t mind at all, thank you so much!! 💖 I hope you don’t mind me rambling about books a lot lol

3. What were your top five books of the year?

1. Cascade Failure & Gravity Lost by L.M. Sagas

Okay I cheated a little, but I love this new series so much!!! Space adventures! Found family! Imminent peril!! I’ve been out of the sci-fi genre for years, this was a wonderful way back in.

2. The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa

Oooh, baby, let’s talk about a dystopian classic for a new generation. Fahrenheit 451, please take a seat, Book Censor’s Library is here.

3. All the Sinner’s Bleed by S.A. Cosby

I’d say I’m still new to the mystery genre, but this author is a master, and the audiobook narrator really brought everything to life.

4. A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter

A gorgeously interwoven tale about five generations of Métis women. Slower-paced, but excellent reading during the cold winter months.

5. Moonbound by Robin Sloan

Let’s go 13,000 years into the future. Dragons live on the moon and also they ate part of it. That’s the first chapter, friends, and it just gets more wild from there.

Honorable mention to the 1981 BBC radio production of LOTR I found on Libby, but that doesn’t exactly qualify as books lol

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

This was a slow start for me. The author does not wait for the readers, just drops you right into the world he created with a lot of new vocabulary and complicated societal structures right off the bat. But it works, because if you stick with it, the mystery that unfolds is full of exciting twists and turns.

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

I have such a hard time DNF-ing, even when I really should. I should’ve DNF-d The Winter Knight by Jes Battis, it took me over a month to read. A queer retelling of King Arthur sounds like it should be right up my alley, but I just never fully connected with it and it was sheer force of will to get through to the end of it.

[libraryleopard]

October reads

= reread

Saint Juniper’s Folly by Alex Crespo

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay

Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote

Always the Almost by Edward Underhill

Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States by Samantha Allen

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll*

And Don’t Look Back by Rebecca Barrow

A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas 

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian

A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

The September House by Carissa Orlando

Deephaven by Ethan M. Aldridge

Firebird by Sunmi 

Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand*

Moby Dyke by Krista Burton

The Scratch Daughters by H.A. Clarke

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis

The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist by Sophie Gonzales

The Devouring Wolf by Natalie C. Parker

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane

Against Heaven by Kemi Alabi

Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd

Water and Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

Your New Feeling is the Artifact of a Bygone Era by Chad Bennett

[lgbtqreads]

Do you have any recs for queer medieval-esque royalty/knight romance books? No gender preference for the pairing! Recently read All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny and really loved it. Thank you!

Try The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond, Her Pretty Knight by Mariah Rae Birch, The Winter Knight by Jes Battis, and the upcoming A Hex for Hunger by Alistair Reeves. (You can read the first book in the series, A Spell for Heartsickness, while you wait.) Also, while it’s not quite this, try Lex Croucher’s medieval YA Romances, Gwen and Art are Not in Love and Not for the Faint of Heart anyway.

[magictavern]

3 and 16 for the book ask

3. What were your top five books of the year?

ooooh a good question! also this is less like... books i enjoyed the most, and more books i ended up thinking about the most over the year, in no particular order: winter knight by jes battis, unauthorized fan treaty by lauren james, the shadow of the torturer by gene wolfe, people collide by isle mcelroy, and postcapitalist desire by mark fisher

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

lies we sing to the sea lol. like overhyped in both directions in terms of some people loving it and some people going "how dare you write something based on odyssey without reading it" because it was genuinely just a.... fine ya book slash one that i would not write home about. it was just a book that i had fun with in the moment and immediately forgot about. so! not a nightmare but also. not great also i started fourth wing and never finished it lmao

[dreamertrilogys]

have u heard of the book the winter knight by jes battis? it seems up ur alley bc its based on arthuriana and i'm curious what u think about it

i haven’t BUT it seems very cool i’ll def check it out when i can :)

[fullibooked]

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis is part murder mystery, part reincarnation story, and part rom-com. And all very queer!

The Arthurian knights keep coming back. In new bodies, with new lives, but mostly the same old stories. This time, it's Vancouver, modern day. And at what was supposed to be a party, one of the most famous of the old storied knights winds up dead. So dead that he's headless.

Hildie is a Valkyrie. It's her job to keep the peace, or at least bring about justice. But she's just trying to sort her own shit out. She has a very short list of suspects who all have very long histories.

Wayne is a college student, trying desperately not to make his neurodivergence a whole thing that he needs to explain to Literally Everyone, but now he's an actual suspect in an actual murder, and so is the cute dean's assistant he's crushing on.

There's truth to uncover, and stories to unravel. With magical autopsies, spears that exist in liminal spaces, suspiciously behaving former queens, Wyrd sisters, runes written in code (the computer kind), and hungry beasts lurking within dreams and shadows.

Happy Rainbow June y'all. This is an absolutely perfect book for the month. Sweet and heartfelt, funny, and stuffed with myths. I thoroughly recommend. Even if you don't have a sword to bring with you. You can always borrow mine!

[queer-ragnelle]

I recently finished reading *Prose Lancelot* and was completely captivated by the relationship between Galehaut and Lancelot. Could you recommend novels that feature both characters or give Galehaut more narrative focus?

Oh wow did you love it!?? Truly they are so fascinating I definitely see why you'd be enamored with them.

Unfortunately they don't show up together in very much. They're both in The Winter Knight by Jes Battis, which I don't recommend, personally. Gawain is the main character, so Lancelot and Galehaut are very distant side characters, and the writing just isn't very good.

However I do recommend Sword Stone Table edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington which includes a story about them!!!

This definitely highlights a deficit in the Lancelot/Galehaut niche. I include them in my own books, but those aren't out yet.

Sorry I couldn't give you any more to go on. If you end up finding more on your own, I'd love to know about it so I can read it too! Take care. :^)