lexreadsdiversely · 6 months ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Sapphic Book Recs by/about People of Color, Part 1
These are some of the books I've read/are on my tbr. A mix of YA and Adult, across various genres.
Image 1:
Dulhaniyaa - Talia Bhatt
Monstrous - Jessica Lewis
This is how you lose the time war - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Light from Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki
Souls Aligned - Najee Jamerson
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them - Junauda Petrus
Once Ghosted, Twice Shy - Alyssa Cole
The Final Strife - Saara El-Arifi
Image 2:
The Fall that Saved Us - Tamara Jerée
Rosewater - Liv Little
A Báhn Mì for Two - Trinity Nguyen
The Taking - Celeste Castro
Outdrawn- Deanna Grey
The Sun and the Void - Gabriela Romero Lacruz
The Map That Led to You - Ella McLeod
The Gilda Stories - Jewelle Gomez
Escaping Mr. Rochester - L.L. McKinney
Image 3:
A Guide to the Dark - Meriam Metoui
And Don't Look Back - Rebecca Barrow
The Weight of the Stars - K. Ancrum
The Name-Bearer - Natalia Hernandez
Thirsty - Jas Hammonds
So Let Them Burn - Kamilah Cole
Where Sleeping Girls Lie - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson
The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School - Sonora Reyes
51 notes · View notes
alittlebitofwonk · 7 months ago
Text
@bonesandthebees has me thinking about book recs, so I’m posting some of my favorites in case anyone wants something new to read!
FANTASY
Priory of the Orange Tree: This is a BRICK of a book. The hardcover would make a good weapon. But it’s also an incredibly good read. A well built fantasy world, dragons, sapphic romance, and it centers WOC characters. The prequel, A Day of Fallen Night, is also amazing.
Legends and Lattes: This is such a cozy little book! It’s fantasy, sent in a DND inspired world where a retired orc mercenary opens a coffee shop. Also, sapphic romance side plot. It’s very cute.
A Thousand Steps Into Night: A Japanese folklore inspired novel where the protagonist must make bargains with spirits to avoid becoming a demon. I learned a lot about Japanese legends and folklore in this one, and the protagonist, Miuko, is just so earnest and lovable.
SCI-FI
Project Hail Mary: Andy Weir does it again. A fantastic novel featuring a struggle across the galaxy to save earth as we know it, the most endearing alien EVER, really cool futuristic science, and a reminder that humanity also instills in us all a sense of good.
The Kaiju Preservation Society: This book is so much fuuuun. It’s just a blast. Inter dimensional travel, giant monsters, conservation, and a protagonist that had me cackling with laughter the whole time.
MYSTERY/THRILLER
The Final Girl Support Group: When the survivors of several horror-movie esque massacres are all targeted by a new killer, how will they survive? A really awesome story about a bunch of badass middle aged women who kinda hate each other teaming up to identify their would-be killer… before it’s too late.
Gone Girl: Nick Dunne didn’t kill his wife. He has no idea where she is, or what happened, and he swears he didn’t hurt her… but no one really believes him. Meanwhile, the truth is far more interesting, and a testament to the phrase “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” This is THE female rage story.
59 notes · View notes
olderthannetfic · 1 year ago
Note
Don't just go "write YA". 1. most YA is shit that sells itself based on girlbosses or bad sapphic rep, it's basically telling someone "give up on writing anything of quality and make slop for pigs". 2. no one reads YA outside of BookTok and tumblr users who recommend books to you not based on plot or quality but on "WLW WOC rep omg" so this is basically telling someone to give up on writing for a wider audience and just settle for writing for 10-25 year olds whose every post is #whatever-core #winning #booktokchallenge and 3. YA is for romance and shmoopy fluff and overwrought angst, not writing in other genres or writing that isn't about brunette Not Like Other Girls protag #54 angsting about her relatably distant parents and hot poorly written love interest. Some people want to write shit with plot and depth and YA is no place for that.
--
You know, I don't like YA, but I think this is a tad uncharitable.
102 notes · View notes
mermaidsirennikita · 4 months ago
Note
What are your recs for woc in historical romance?
Ooh!
So, obviously there's Beverly Jenkins, who writes exclusively Black heroines (I believe all of her heroes are Black as well). My favorites of hers, both of which have great heroines, are Indigo and Forbidden. Sable (edit: it's Through the Storm, the heroine is named Sable) is also really good.
Beverly's heroines tend to be on the quieter side--very rational and determined to NOT be swept off their feet....... and then they are lmao
Grace Callaway has a great book with a heroine who's of mixed Chinese descent (her paternal grandmother was Chinese). Glory and the Master of Shadows--the Opium Wars figure heavily into it, and Glory sort of struggles with her identity as a woman who is of Chinese descent but wasn't raised around the culture (her hero is Chinese). Grace also wrote a novella called Mrs. Peabody and the Unexpected Duke in which the heroine is mixed race (I believe her mother was Chinese).
Adriana Herrera's Las Leonas series (the last book comes out this year) stars Afro-Latina heroines from the Dominican Republic coming to France! The first book has the heroine with a Scottish noble, the second is a sapphic romance--the other heroine is Latina as well--and the third book is going to star a Latino hero in turn. They're so very good, and you can tell that Adriana researches the hell out of them while also making them suuuuper hot.
Jeannie Lin writes books set in Tang Dynasty China. My favorite so far is The Dragon and the Pearl (former emperor's concubine heroine gets kidnapped by villainous hero, cat and mouse dynamic ensues in which he's soooooo mad that , but Butterfly Swords is also really good. All of her heroines are Chinese, I believe; Butterfly Swords has a white hero, though I think that's the only hero in the series that isn't Chinese.
Liana de la Rosa writes books with Latina woc in her Luna Sisters series. They're a lighter touch, kind of fluffy but clever.
The Marleigh Sisters series by Amita Murray is good, and it features heroines whose father was white and whose mother was Indian. They both have a bit of mystery to 'em.
Lisa Rayne's Never Cross a Highlander is quite good--it's a Highlander romance (duh) with Black leads. The hero sort of accidentally kidnaps the heroine, which is hilarious.
One Season with the Duke by Addy Du Lac (she's on here too @thataddylady) is really good! It's a friends to lovers marriage of convenience book with a Scottish hero and a Black heroine. She's an heiress who's sort of being preyed upon by a guy who wants her to $$$, so naturally she just runs off to Scotland with her childhood friend who's hot now and NOBLY marries her and his secret love for her isn't a factor AT ALL.
12 notes · View notes
biandlesbianliterature · 1 year ago
Text
Kickstart This Sapphic Fairy Tale Fantasy Visual Novel!
Tumblr media
This is a sponsored post.
Red Rebellion is a sapphic fairy tale fantasy that follows Robin Hood and Red Riding Hood as they team up to save their village while navigating their growing feelings for each other. It combines magic and folklore with real history, and aims to accurately explore the lives of queer folk living in late Medieval England.
Tumblr media
You can check out the demo (PC/Mac/Linux) here, which contains the first chapter of the story: https://aikasacolle.itch.io/red-rebellion
And you can learn more about the characters and setting in our ongoing Kickstarter campaign: https://bit.ly/3Hcrwpl
Our first, completed project is also available on the Kickstarter at a steep discount for backers: Mizuchi, a sapphic retelling of the Legend of the White Snake.
Tumblr media
The group behind these projects is Aikasa Studio, a queer, WOC-lead team that loves fairy tale retellings, and is dedicated to the representation of minority voices in historical fiction.
We’re also passionate about interactive fiction. We love being able to explore the different ways a story could end. Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books from your childhood? We create stories with choices - and also with sound, visuals and animation.
Tumblr media
Thank you for checking out Red Rebellion. We hope you’ll join us in making this fairy tale a reality!
103 notes · View notes
dragynkeep · 1 year ago
Note
Excuse me but how did the show put the story of Laena and Rhaenyra as Alicent and Rhaenyra? We didn’t see Rhaenyra and Alicent sleeping with Daemon on the show and in the books the relationship between Laena and Rhaenyra was mentioned in what? 2 paragraphs? Barely anything substantial there… book purists love to say that Alicent stole that storyline from the books to put it on the show, as a reader I can even think that the polyamorous relationship between Rhaenyra/Laena/Daemon was just a device to later end as Rhaenyra and Daemon together 🤷🏻‍♀️ but that’s just my 2 cents
the book also had nothing for the relationship between rhaenyra & alicent beyond a vicious dislike that was then directly contrasted with her being "fond & more than fond" of her good sister laena. a word directly compounded with a sexual undertone as we had seen it in other sexual / romantic couplings within the universe.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
your idea of whether or not the poly relationship between laena/daemon/rhaenyra was only to lead to daemyra later does nothing to dispute the truth that they'd transplanted the relationship from rhaenyra & laena onto rhaenyra & alicent? in fact in confirms it because you admit there's a relationship there.
there was more to rhaenyra & laena than them "sleeping with daemon", there had been a friendship & much more there between the two girls. there had been a sincere love that had brought rhaenyra to laena's side when she was troubled with her labours & had rhaenyra mourning laena when she died. meanwhile that was all erased in the show for a faux sapphic storyline by actors who can't keep their headcanons to themselves & eventually leads to some painfully out of character writing for rhaenyra who would never dream of allowing her children to be in danger even for a second to "reconcile" with someone who'd betrayed her so deeply.
maybe if the show had actually written a decent storyline & not sidelined a woc to do so, we wouldn't be having these discussions over & "book purists" wouldn't prefer it over some botched fanfiction. 🤷‍♀️
23 notes · View notes
queer-ragnelle · 2 years ago
Text
I know calling books “feminist” is a marketing ploy and not necessarily a reflection of the author’s intentions, particularly when applied to mythological retellings, but honest to god every book should be feminist automatically. Respecting women (on a subtextual level, at the minimum) is a given.
Considering a woman’s agency is in no way additional work and shouldn’t be unique in any way. This is especially important if the character is a minority of any variety—woc, disabled, trans, attracted to women, etc. It’s about dignity. Anything less than the utmost care is misogynistic.
If the women you write exist solely to tag #girlboss or #sapphic for sales, you have a problem. Reducing or even removing the male element doesn’t magically make you feminist. If you think the patriarchy is just the existence of men then you’re not a feminist you’re an idiot. Take a step back, stop writing, and read a multitude of fiction and nonfiction exclusively written by women. From all eras and parts of the world and genres, not just the current NYT bestseller list or current BookTok trend. Get some perspective before you come back or don’t come back at all.
4 notes · View notes
aandrewscotts · 9 months ago
Note
I have a question if youre okay with answering it? I saw there's a bi mc in crier's war and wanted to know if the book is all sapphic between the two mc's or if the bi mc gets involved with guys? (I'm looking for a purely sapphic book rn, and was curious to know before starting something 🫠) 🫶🏻
hiii! potential spoilers???? so i have only read the first book (there's two) and it is definitely a slow burn sapphic story - however that isn't solely the plot, the plot is heavily based on the world they're in and crier is engaged to a man - it's an arranged marriage and they don't have a whole lot of scenes together and they definitely don't have any sort of intimate scenes. she is in no means in love with him and he is 100% using her for the power she has. alya is bisexual but she doesn't have any romantic connections to any men in the book (none that i remember anyway?? like her story is so heavily based on the revenge and anger she feels until she meets crier) - i believe one of her best friends (who is a boy) is probably in love with her and there is one (1) kiss between them but it seems to be like a closure type kiss, if you get what i mean i honestly would recommend it if you're looking for a sapphic book. it's definitely a love story between two women, and two woc at that!! it's enemies to lovers, slow burn, angsty and beautiful tbh
1 note · View note
lexreadsdiversely · 5 months ago
Text
I have to edit that sapphic woc books post cuz I didn't realize macmillan was a part of SMP and I'm pretty sure there were a few in there. Years of academy training wasted!
0 notes
library-love-affair · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
“What song makes a lonely creature step closer? … My question to all the lonely creatures out there is: who is your siren? Who is your fellow lonely creature who sees into the very core of you and knows which song to sing? What song do they sing for you and do you follow? What would happen if you did? We are all lonely creatures in a way…”
- Morgan Rogers (Honey Girl)
6 notes · View notes
floraphilautia · 4 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
“A thought came to her: a story of its own, one that had only just begun writing itself in her mind: a story of two women, one human, one Made, who told ancient faerie stories to each other. Who splashed each other at the edge of the water. Who whispered the beauty of snow and the fear of death into the darkness of a late autumn evening.” —Crier’s War, by Nina Varela
70 notes · View notes
romanticmoonchild · 5 years ago
Text
Cute, gay romcoms with black women *please reblog*
Tumblr media
39 notes · View notes
the-sappho-of-lesbos · 5 years ago
Text
Lesbians And Gays Of The Past #5: Book Review of Sword Of The Guardian by Merry Shannon
Tumblr media
Favourite Quote:
Tumblr media
Sword Of The Guardian is a fantastic fantasy and slow burn romance novel. It has a little something for everyone. It has your friends to lovers trope, it has your “I think my feelings are unrequited but actually we are both idiots and don’t know that we both like each other” trope, it has your strong woman and weak woman that learns to be strong trope. And of course that beautiful slow burn romance that just leaves you itching for the two characters to get together, which in my humble opinion is not nearly as common in lesbian literature as it should be.
Our story starts at the circus where Talon, who has had to disguise herself as a boy to protect herself and her younger sisters after their village was attacked, is performing in front of the royal family. While she is there an attack happens against the young prince, Deric, and his twin sister, Shasta. The prince sadly loses his life, but while trying to protect her sister, Talon ends up saving the young princess as well. After this the king finds out about Talon actually being a woman and offers her a job to be his daughters personal guard. Knowing it would provide protection for her sisters Talon accepts. To start off with Shasta is a naive and childlike sixteen year old, who is mourning the lose of her brother. But as time goes on she becomes close friends with Talon and Talon genuinely wants to protect the princess.
Throughout the story Talon has to keep her true identity a secret from Shasta, and while doing so she starts to explore her sexuality with one of the servants of the castle. The slow and tantalising friendship and romance that slowly blooms between Talon and Shasta is so beautiful to witness and it feels very genuine. They start off on unequal terms but slowly become equal to each other.
This book also explores themes such as political intrigue and war. The fight scenes were written so vividly that you often feel like you are there in them. I would truly recommend this book to anyone who is look for a good and strong romance between two wonderful women.
Also, as a side note, on the cover Talon appears to be white woman, but in the book she is described in a way that truly made me feel like she is a WOC. In the story her ethnicity is noticeably different, so much so that people can tell at one look where she was born, and there was a lot of emphasis on her dark olive skin, in a way that it came across as more then just a light tan. So I’m not really sure what to make of that, I don’t know if there was miscommunication between the artist of the cover and the publishing company, or if the author described Talon in a way she didn’t mean to. But I saw her as a WOC, so if you are looking for a story with more rep in that department I would definitely recommend this book for that too!
Trigger Warning: Racsim, homophobia, war, death, sexual assault, mentions of rape, physical abuse, murder, domestic abuse, mentions (not in graphic detail) of underage s**
Spoilers: Has a HEA ending for the couple
399 notes · View notes
biandlesbianliterature · 6 years ago
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
21 Queer Women of Color Books You Have To Read!
[image description: 3 graphics with the title “21 Queer Women of Color Books You Have To Read!” The title is against a rainbow with black and brown stripes. The books are:
Fiction:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Painting Their Portraits in Winter by Myriam Gurba
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert (YA)
Fabulism & Magical Realism:
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie
Poetry:
Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Historical/Alternate History:
The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
Prairie Ostrich by Tamai Kobayashi
Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy
Everfair by Nisi Shawl
Werebears:
Bearly a Lady by Cassandra Khaw
Vampires:
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
Sci-Fi:
Adaptation and Inheritance by Malinda Lo (YA)
Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi
Fantasy:
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova (YA)
When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai
Comics:
Supermutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
Memoirs:
When We Were Outlaws by Jeanne Cordova
Hunger by Roxane Gay
Before the Rain: A Memoir of Love & Revolution by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa]
21 Queer Women of Color Books You Have To Read!
707 notes · View notes
lgbt-aesthetics · 6 years ago
Photo
Tumblr media
💚Sapphic + WOC, Books & Green Aesthetic💚
~Requested by Anonymous~
81 notes · View notes
flodaya · 2 years ago
Text
so druck officially has 4 sapphic characters (6 if we count the previous generation) and 3 of them are woc, and i can’t even be happy about it because this stupid show is fighting for their life trying to pass off a white girl destroying books as important and meaningful activism, the duality of it all amazes me to no end
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
anyway still grateful for #them
145 notes · View notes