LGBTQIA+

Audiobook: Lady’s Knight

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Audiobok: The Honey Witch

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by Sydney J. Sheilds
Read by Mia Hutchinson Shaw
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a couple f-bombs, and some attempts at on-page sex (long story). It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Marigold Claude has never fit in in her early 19th-century upper class home. She doesn’t really have talents, she has no interest in marrying, and after a botched relationship with George, she’s convinced she’s never even going to fall in love. She’s convinced she has no purpose. That is, until her grandmother comes and tells her that she’s actually a Honey Witch and she’s destined to take over the isle of Innisfree. Once there, she re-meets her childhood friend, August, and his best friend, Lottie, whom she’s attracted to. Except there’s a problem: as the Honey Witch of Innisfree, she’s been cursed to never fall in love.

That’s basically a plot – I told someone earlier that it’s a sapphic love story where they’re battling against an evil witch (which they do, but not until the last 5 chapters of the book). There is no historical accuracy – if it’s not the magic that gives it away, no one seems to have any issue with queer romance and there’s even queer marriage. Go figure. That said, I really enjoyed this one. I think a lot of it was the narrator. Shaw was fantastic. I adored her accents, and she kept me interested and engaged the whole way through. I did feel that the end dragged out a bit, but other than that, it was good fun.

The Bones Beneath My Skin

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by TJ Klune
First sentence: “He sang along with the radio.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 4, 2025
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs; lots of violence; and on-screen sex. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

The thing I have come to believe, after having read 8 of the 11 books Klune has published (I didn’t finish the werewolf series), is that he is deeply interested in Humanity and how we express our humanness. In many cases he has hope: his characters are always flawed, but somehow they find their way to a Better World. Mostly that world is through found family because many of the humans in Klune’s books suck and are terrible people. But that’s the way of the world, isn’t it? We are lost souls, surrounded by people who want to stop us, hurt us, reject us, and yet we find our People and Make It Through and somehow find Happiness.

This one – even though it’s a republished book that Klune wrote in 2018 – is no different. The setting is different: It’s 1995 and Nate has just been fired from his job at the Washington Post. His parents have also died – it was a murder-suicide – and left him the family cabin in a remote part of Oregon. So, he heads out there and discovers two people – a man and a girl – in his cabin. He doesn’t kick them out., and that decision changes his life forever.

That’s the basic plot without giving too much away. (Saying it’s Stranger Things meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind but gay would be a decent elevator pitch.) It’s a good book – I think his later books are better, but that’s not to say this isn’t good – but it’s a weird one. I don’t think this one is going to be for everyone. It’s also coming on the heels of Somewhere Beyond the Sea, which is amazing, so there’s a lot to live up to. But if you’ve committed to reading everything Klune writes (and why haven’t you?) then it’s a good one. It’s more action-packed and less ruminative than his other books, but there are still quirky-charming characters and a love story at the center of it. It’s about finding family and home and happiness, and who doesn’t want to read about that?

So, while it’s not my favorite one of Klune’s books, it’s still a good one.

Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet

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by Samantha Allen
First sentence: “I’ve knocked on a thousand doors before, but this one is different.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: December 3, 2024
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, including many f-bombs. There is also talk of sex, and one description of a hate crime against an LGBTQ+ character. It will be in the Fiction section of the bookstore.

Adam is in a writing slump. He had one successful book – his tell-all memoir about leaving the Mormon Church when he came out as gay – but everything in the 15 years since then has fallen flat. He’s not even sure he can be a writer anymore. Then his agent lands him a cushy job: the Hollywood star Roland Rogers needs a ghostwriter right now and he wants Adam. Except Roland isn’t actually there. At least not physically – his body is buried under a mound of snow in Utah. However, his consciousness still exists and can inhabit the kitchen speaker, and so he can still talk to Adam. Once they get past the weirdness of the situation, they settle in to write. But it’s not going to be easy, on either of them. Between the two, there’s a lot of trauma to unpack – both religious and of the toxic masculinity varieites – and as they do, they end up growing closer.

In some ways, this is the straight up (if a little weird) romance the publishers are touting it as. They do develop a relationship. But, it’s so much more than that. In the end, I think the point of this one is to highlight the ways connection and vulnerability are important, how it’s possible to get by without them, but your life is so much richer with them. I didn’t end up cyring at the end, but I was moved by the decisions that Adam and Roland made, and the way their relationship turned out.

I’m not sure I would have ever picked this one up if I hadn’t been asked to read it by a well-meaning publicist, but I’m glad I did. It’s quite a delightful little book.

The Bloodless Prince

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by Charlotte Bond
First sentence: “When the universe was young and dark, light existed inside an egg.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: October 29, 2024
Others in the series: The Fireborne Blade
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is some violence. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for the first, obviously.

Maddileh and Saralene have won the blade, killed the dragon, cheated death, and have gone on with their lives. Saralene is High Mage with Maddileh as her Champion. Except all is not well: both Maddileh and Saralene keep having disturbing dreams and they are becoming increasingly intrusive. Also: maybe the dragon is not actually dead. And: maybe the Tales of Old are not just stories, but actually true, and they need to travel to the underworld to bargain with the Bloodless Princes for their lives.

Much like the first, this slim novel packs a punch. There is so much world-building in so few words, it’s breathtaking. I love the dragon in the book – it’s different from the first in this duology and it fits with what we already know and expands upon it. Bond is an incredibly talented writer, both with her plotting and characterizations. I liked how the romance was understated until it wasn’t, how Bond never let anything get overdone, and how both Maddileh and Saralene stand on their own and know how to work together. It’s quite a brilliant little book.

All this to say: I’m probably going to read whatever Bond decides to write.