LGBTQIA+

We Burned So Bright

Leave a comment

by TJ Klune
First sentence: “Don switched off the television.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: April 28, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs. There is also discussion of suicide, murder, and violence. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy bookstore.

The world is ending. A black hole is coming, and there is no way to stop it. So, it’s just acceptance. Except everyone is facing it differently. For Don and Rodney, this means driving from Maine to the Pacific Coast to fulfill their obligations. Along the way, they meet a myriad of people, all dealing with the end of the world in their own way.

This was such a depressing book, especially for Klune. I suppose it’s because I’m used to end-of-the-world stories where humanity has hope of surviving. But, when faced with a black hole? Nothing. It’s nihilistic, in many ways. And yet, because it’s Klune, this was hopeful and touching, Don and Rodney had a beautiful life together, despite the challenges they faced being gay. They loved each other, supported each other and they were ready to face the end together. And Klune is a very astute observer of humanity, and every character, no matter how long we interacted with them, felt real.

So, no, it won’t be my favorite Klune book, but it’s absolutely worth reading.

First-Time Caller

Leave a comment

by B. K .Borison
First sentence: “Love is a lie.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and some on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Aiden is the host of a local call-in Romance advice show in Baltimore, but he’s lost his way. He’s gotten snippy with the callers, lost his will to care about their problems, and – possibly worst of all – has lost his faith in love.

Lucie is a single mom who’s not unhappy with her life. She’s co-parenting with her child’s dad and his husband, she’s got a good job as a mechanic. Except her 12-year-old daughter thinks differently. So, when her daughter calls in to Aiden’s show asking for help with her mom’s love life, he’s intrigued. And, after getting annoyed/upset/frustrated, Lucie is also intrigued. And what if, in the middle of trying to find someone for Lucie, they discover that maybe they don’t want to find someone else?

I haven’t read Borison’s work before, but I loved the cover of this one (yes, I do judge a book by it’s cover sometimes), and so I picked it up when it was on sale at the store. And I wasn’t disappointed! It’s such a delightful romance, with everything I want: fun characters, snappy dialogue, and a romance worth having (plus some spicy scenes!). It’s a good thing I liked this, because I have her other two books on my pile to read as well!

Audiobook: Every Step She Takes

Leave a comment

by Alison Cochran
Read by: Cindy Kay & Jeremy Carlisle Parker
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Sadie Wells needs a change. She’s been running her grandmother’s antique store (which was left to her when grandma died) since she was 21, and at 35, she feels stuck. So, when her travel-influencer younger sister gets a broken foot, Sadie jumps at the chance to take her place walking Portugal’s Camino de Santiago as part of a tour.

Mal, who had a falling out with her father 20 years ago, is back in Portugal on the heels of a breakup with her girlfriend, and is avoiding the aftermath of her father’s death (and his leaving his wine company to her). She has sworn off falling for yet another girl, and yet there is Sadie, who is having a gay awakening, and Mal can’t seem to resist the pull.

Can Sadie find herself and maybe help Mal make a change along the way?

I have decided that it really doesn’t matter what Cochran writes. I will read it. This was delightful – found family, discovering oneself, and travel in a gorgeous country, coupled with Cochran’s trademark wit and depth. I adored everything about this, from the delightful narrators to the story. Here’s to late bloomers and people discovering their authentic selves.

I loved it.

Joy to the Girls

Leave a comment

by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
First sentence: “I push through the heavy wooden doors out of the Cathedral of Learning, my last exam of the term finally complete.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: Sept 30, 2025
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and some fade-to-black sex. It’s in the YA Romance/Holiday section of the bookstore.

Alex and Molly are nearly done with college, and they both have plans for the future. The problem is that neither one of them has talked to the other about said plans. Alex wants to move in together; Molly wants to go to King’s College in London for an MFA. On top of that, it’s winter holiday, and their friend May has invited them and their other mutual friend, Cora (who has a crush on May), to her hometown, which happens to be all-in on Christmas. Can Alex and Molly make it through the trip with their secrets and their relationship intact (while also setting Cora and May up).

I’ll admit up front that I haven’t read the book that this novella is a spin-off of, and so maybe I’m missing something when it comes to character development. Because while this was cute, it was lacking. I was constantly annoyed that Alex and Molly just DIDN’T TALK TO EACH OTHER, and I felt not quite enough was spent on Cora and May getting together. (Also, there was a definite lack of figure skating.) It was cute, but not cute enough to make me really love it. Maybe if I were the intended audience (read: a fan of the first book) it would have sat differently.

Audiobook: Lady’s Knight

Leave a comment

by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Read by Helen Keeley & Barbara Rosenblat
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some violence – jousting and dragon-killing and the like; and two f-bombs. It’s in the YA Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Gwen has dreams. She is the blacksmith’s daughter, and is running the forge herself pretty much these days, but she has designed her own armor, and wants to try her hand at jousting. And one day, she earns enough money and enters the qualifying rounds of the tournament… and wins. She thinks it’s a one-off, but then Lady Isobelle finds her and convinces her to continue. It seems that Lady Isobelle is the prize for winning the tournament, and she doesn’t really want to marry any of the other knights. She convinces Gwen to be her champion in the tournament.

Gwen reluctantly agrees, follows Isobelle to the castle, where she pretends to be “Sir Gawain’s” sister, and… well, falls in love with Isobelle. There’s more to the plot – including terribly chauvinistic knights and a lady’s maid who might be an assassin – but that’s the basic premise.

Oh, this one was a delight. The back blurb (do audiobooks have a back blurb?) mentioned The Knight’s Tale as a comp, and I think that’s spot on. It’s Knight’s Tale but with lesbian girls, and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more. It’s laugh-aloud funny at parts (LOVE the narrator who breaks the fourth wall), and yet had me ugly crying and the show of unity among women at the end. It’s fierce, it’s sweet, it’s a joy to read (and to listen to!). I can’t recommend this silly, sweet, fun book enough.

It Rhymes With Takei

Leave a comment

by George Takei, Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is homophobia and mention of gay sex. It’s in the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

In his previous memoir, They Called Us Enemy, Takei wrote about his time in the internment camps during World War II, but didn’t really elaborate on the rest of his life. In this book, Takei does just that. It picks up when he first realizes that he was gay, when he was about 10 years old, and works his way through the years until the present day. There is a lot about his activism, and the guilt and shame he felt staying in the closet for so long. But, he feared being too different – his family was already put in a camp for being different once – and it was a different time. He was just doing the best he could with what he knew at the time. He made good friends on Star Trek, people who stood beside him later in life, and he eventually became more comfortable with his identity as he got older. The most truly heartbreaking thing was that his brother shunned him when he finally came out to them, but he still has a relationship with his brother’s kids.

It’s a good book – Takei has a good team for this (it’s the same team that did They Called Us Enemy) – one that captures the conflicted and complicated life of one man. It’s perfect for those who are fans of Takei, but it also puts the whole LGBTQ movement in the context of one person’s life.

I really enjoyed it.

Faithbreaker

Leave a comment

by Hannah Kaner
First sentence: “Hestra, god of hearths, felt the flame of Hseth’s coming.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Godkiller, Sunbringer
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, off-screen sex, and lots and lots of violence. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for the other two, obviously.

Things aren’t going well for Middren – the rebellion against the king failed (he’s not quite as bad though), and the neighboring country of Talicia is using their newfound power through the god Hseth to conquer (though it’s more like, burn, kill, rape, and pillage) their way through MIddren. The only thing Middren can do is rally its forces – King Aren convinces Elo to be the head of the army and Aren’s right-hand man – and ask for aid from neighboring countries, and possibly the gods themselves. Kissen, Inara, and Inara’s mother are sent off to do that. Of course, if that were all, the book would be 75 pages and we’d be done.

But, Kaner is a better writer than that. She takes us on a journey, both in terms of distance and politics, as well as personally. There is so much growth in this book, it’s incredible. Kaner’s playing with ideas of religion, of forgiveness and reconciliation, of faith and what that can mean. It’s incredible.

I do have to admit that it took me a while to get into this one, mostly because it has been a year since I read Sunbringer and I needed to adjust myself back to Kaner’s writing and her world. But the trilogy is all out, so you can just plow through them one right after another, which is how this world should be experienced, I think.

Such a good series.

Tig

Leave a comment

by Heather Smith
First sentence: “We’re different now, me and Peter.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is abandonment by a parent, and destructive behavior by a child. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Tig and her older brother Peter have been living in their abandoned house – their mother up and left with her boyfriend – for four months before their Uncle Scott and his partner Monty find out and take them in. The thing is, though, Tig feels like they would be better off on their own. She hates the new house, the new town, and the new rules. She fights back at every opportunity. But, when things get a little out of hand, Tig is forced to realize that maybe the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

I wanted to like this book more than I actually liked it. It’s a tough pill to swallow, from the mom’s abandonment (four months! FOUR months!) to Tig acting up and being cruel to the people who took her in. Maybe it’s a bit of PTSD from when we ended up taking in a friend of our daughters, and the stress and trauma that brought into our house (and 7 years later, we’re still trying to unpack). But, I just couldn’t with this book. I finished it, but I didn’t like it.

A Song for You and I

Leave a comment

by K. O’Neill
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: March 4, 2025
Content: There’s a storm that is pretty scary. Otherwise, it’s tame. It will be in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

Rose is a Novice ranger, and it’s their last post before the Name Carving. Rose gets an easy one: mostly just tend to the field where the shepherd Leone plays and the sheep wander. When a storm comes, and Leone is stranded in the field without much protection, Rose rushes to the rescue, at the expense of their pegasus. As a result, they’re grounded while their pegasus heals, and they accompany Leone as protection while delivering wool.

Not much happens in this slight graphic novel – except Rose realizes that they don’t want to be called Rose anymore, and they develop a respect not only for being a ranger, but for the slow, meditative times. Things don’t always have to be action-fast-dangerous to be important and worthwhile. And that’s the most important thing in this slim book: you can find out who you are not through daring deeds and accomplishing something great, but by being quiet and listening to yourself.

Which is, perhaps, the most important thing of all.

Audio Book: The Broposal

Leave a comment

by Sonora Reyes
Read by André Santana & Alejandro Antonio Ruiz
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is domestic abuse, swearing (including multiple f-bombs), threats of ICE reads, talk of drug abuse, and on-page sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Alejandro – Han for short – and Kenny have been best friends since second grade. Han’s an undocumented immigrant, and Kenny has been in a long-term on-and-off again relationship. When Kenny breaks up with his girlfriend (she was making him choose between her and Han) and then witnesses some of the discrimination and uncertainty that Han goes through as an undocumented person, he gets this idea: why don’t he and Han get married? It’ll help Han get his green card and head toward citizenship, and no one ever needs to know it’s fake, right?

Except, as they get more into it, they discover that they have deeper feelings than “just” best friends. But a conniving boss and a desperate ex-girlfriend threaten to throw a huge wrench in their plan. Will they be able to get to their wedding day with their relationship still intact?

I liked this one a lot. I liked how Reyes tackled tough subjects like abuse and discrimination against undocumented people. I liked the support of both Han’s and Kenny’s families. I liked that these men were 23 and still trying to figure everything out. I really liked the narrators; they probably made the book for me. It was sweet and charming, hitting the tropes without being overly fluffy, which I also appreciated.

Definitely a good one to pick up.