Tag: queer fiction

Review – A Pirate’s Life for Tea

Posted April 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Pirate’s Life for Tea

A Pirate's Life for Tea

by Rebecca Thorne

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 384
Series: Tomes and Tea #2
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

While searching for stolen dragon eggs, newly engaged couple Kianthe and Reyna find themselves smack-dab in the middle of a swashbuckling love story.

On one side is Serina, a failed farmer turned river pirate. Her booty? Wheat, grains, and the occasional jar of imported tea leaves. It's quite the embarrassment to Diarn Arlon, the powerful lord of the Nacean River, and he'll conscript anyone to bring her to justice. Especially Kianthe, the elemental mage who just crashed his party, and her somewhat-scary fiancée.

Begrudgingly, the couple joins forces with Bobbie, one of Arlon's constables--who happens to be Serina's childhood friend. Bobbie is determined to capture the pirate before anyone else, but it would be a lot easier if Serina didn't absolutely loathe her now.

As Kianthe and Reyna watch this relation-shipwreck from afar, it quickly becomes apparent that these disaster lesbians need all the help they can get. Luckily, matchmaking is Reyna's favorite past time. The dragon eggs may have to wait.

A Pirate’s Life for Tea is the second in Rebecca Thorne’s series about Reyna and Kianthe, and… it might be the last one I read. I get how the adventure and romance of it will interest people, but something just isn’t clicking for me — it feels so terribly young, and I’m not saying that because I think it’s aimed at being cosy, but because the interactions between the characters don’t feel particularly grown up (even as they’re having sex).

The fantasy world it’s set in also fails to feel quite fleshed out: it felt a bit like in a video game, where as you progress, bits of the map get revealed — only I’m not sure the map’s there to be revealed until Kianthe and Reyna go there. (I don’t just mean the actual literal map, either, I mean the cultures and broad strokes of what’s out there for them to find.)

Maybe I’m wrong, and it’s all planned already, but I just didn’t feel it in reading the book.

Anyway, I can see how it would be a lot of fun for others, but it’s not my cup of tea (I don’t even like tea, so that’s not too surprising). I might read more in the future, maybe if I need something easy and morally simple to read, but not when I have so much else on my TBR that sounds tempting.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Volatile Memory

Posted March 21, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Volatile Memory

Volatile Memory

by Seth Haddon

Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 176
Synopsis:

With nothing but a limping ship and an outdated mask to her name, Wylla needs a big pay day. When the call goes out that a lucrative piece of tech is waiting on a nearby planet, she relies on all the swiftness of her prey animal instincts to beat other hunters to it.

What you found wasn’t your ticket out—it was my corpse wearing an AI mask. When you touched the mask, you heard my voice. A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized and realized: I was alive.

Masks aren't supposed to retain memory, much less identity, but the woman inside the MARK I HAWK is real, and she sees Wylla in a way no one ever has. Sees her, and doesn’t find her wanting or unwhole.

Armed with military-grade tech and a lifetime of staying one step ahead of the hunters, Wylla and HAWK set off to get answers from the man who discarded HAWK once before: her ex-husband.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I needed to sit with Seth Haddon’s Volatile Memory after I’d finished it, because it left me feeling surprisingly unsettled by its violence and vengeance, the dysphoria of the characters, the intensity of the situations they go through — the book never stops, lurching from one crisis to another, so that the shock of one event never fully catches up to the characters before the next hits them.

The characters are both queer and both messy and, I guess, “problematic”. Wylla isn’t the perfect transwoman, Sable’s not the perfect… well, let’s not get into spoilers. The point is that they turn to violence, they roil in fear and indecision, they rush into things, and you root for them anyway while knowing they are making some awful choices. (Knowing, too, that there aren’t any better choices, because that’s what their society does, the hands they’ve been dealt.)

I found the narration really well done: it begins as second person POV, addressed to Wylla, but the speaker also resolves into a character who starts talking about themself in the first person as well. Still, the tone is intimate — this story is being told to Wylla, in a sense. It makes it all feel very immediate. The story doesn’t try to explain itself too much: you have to get on board yourself and figure things out — and I found that it all fell into place beautifully, without too much of a pause for exposition.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

Posted March 10, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame

by Neon Yang

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 178
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Yeva was thirteen when she killed her first dragon.

With her gift revealed, she was shipped away to the imperial capital to train in the rare art of dragon slaying. Now a legendary guildknight, she has never truly felt at home ever since that fateful day all those years ago. But she doesn’t need a home when she has her sacred duty. She has devoted herself wholly to the cause—she never even removes her armor in public. Few remember the girl she once was. She rarely remembers herself.

Yeva must now go to Quanbao, a fiercely independent and reclusive kingdom. It is rumored that there, dragons are not feared as is right and proper—but instead loved and worshipped. It is rumored that there, they harbor a dragon behind their borders.

While Yeva searches for the dreaded beast, she is welcomed into the palace by Quanbao’s monarch, Lady Sookhee. Though wary of each other, Yeva is shocked to find herself slowly opening up to the beautiful, mysterious queen.

Will Yeva forsake her sacred duty and let Lady Sookhee see the person behind the armor, or will she cling to the ideals that she has called home for so long?

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Neon Yang’s Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame is a book I’m definitely getting for my sister once it’s out — which, to those who know me/my sister tells you something right up front, but I’ll elaborate for the rest of the world! There are dragons, a female protagonist, and a lesbian relationship, which also meets her criteria that the lesbians don’t come to a tragic end.

It’s also a story of belonging, of dislocation from culture and finding your way back into it, which I’m sure will resonate for a lot of readers, even if the stakes aren’t as high as these for most people. Yeva is initially very divorced from her body and her “foreign” appearance, hiding it all to make her own place among the guildknights, but rest assured: that isn’t allowed to stand unchallenged (while at the same time she maintains some bond to her adopted home, in the form of her one friendship).

It’s a novella, so we don’t get large-scale worldbuilding or a very slow build relationship, but what we do get works well for me: Yeva’s fumbling attempts to fit into her new place, her confused loyalties, and her growing feelings for Lady Sookhee.

I predicted the twist of the story fairly swiftly, but it was still satisfying to see it play out. I’d have loved a little more play with the strangeness of… well, a certain character (not Yeva), but maybe that would’ve given the game away too much.

Overall, I really liked it.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Breaks, vol 1

Posted January 14, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Breaks, vol 1

Breaks

by Emma Vieceli, Malin Rydén

Genres: Graphic Novels
Pages: 152
Series: Breaks #1
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Cortland Hunt has made some dangerous mistakes. Now he's waiting quietly for those mistakes to catch up with him. Ian Tanner coasts through life denying the spark of anger beneath his laid back exterior. When school politics and personal lives become a battleground, the pair find that what they share may just be their only safe haven. Bringing the world of LGBT young adult fiction into the realm of comic books, and collecting the first arc of the acclaimed weekly web series (2014-2016), Breaks is the story of two young men discovering who they were, who they are, and who they will become. It's a love story...but a little broken.

Breaks (Emma Vieceli & Malin Rydén) is for some reason being marketed with comparisons to Heartstopper, and the similarities are basically: queer British boys in a Sixth Form setting, there’s some sport, there’s bullying, and someone’s got to come to terms with his sexuality. That’s it — and that might sound like a reasonable amount, actually, but it’s the tone that’s most important, and that’s worlds apart. Breaks is much grittier — even where Heartstopper deals with difficult topics, there’s a general sense that things are going to be okay, because they have each other and they’re both good boys.

Cort and Ian are not particularly great people (nor particularly likeable), there’s a good deal of violence, and we certainly don’t get to see them cuddling adorably. The art is also a touch closer to realism, which also reduces the cuteness factor.

It didn’t help the book at all that the reading experience via the Kindle version is bad, and while it’s also available free online, that also has its problems: the choice of background colour doesn’t provide a great contrast, and it’s difficult to know what part numbers correspond to which volumes. Really irritating.

That said, on its own merits it’s… alright? I think it’s ultimately not my thing, but I enjoyed the supporting characters like Amilah and Rennie, and I’m kind of curious about Harvey and where things are going between Cort and Ian.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Camp Spirit

Posted January 5, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Camp Spirit

Camp Spirit

by Axelle Lenoir

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Romance
Pages: 208
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Summer camp is supposed to be about finding nirvana in a rock garden... But Elodie prefers Nirvana and Soundgarden. Can she confront rambunctious kids, confusing feelings, and supernatural horrors all at once?

Summer 1994: with just two months left before college, Elodie is forced by her mother to take a job as a camp counselor. She doesn't know the first thing about nature, or sports, of kids for that matter, and isn't especially interested in learning... but now she's responsible for a foul-mouthed horde of red-headed girls who just might win her over, whether she likes it or not. Just as Elodie starts getting used to her new environment, though -- and close to one of the other counselors -- a dark mystery lurking around the camp begins to haunt her dreams.

Axelle Lenoir’s Camp Spirit felt a bit like there were two halves, not equally split, that it kept jumping between: a summer love story between two camp counselors, Elodie and Catherine… and a spooky/supernatural story that involved the camp leader, and only later connected at all with what was going on with Elodie and Catherine.

The romance is cute enough, but it feels like it might actually have been stronger if it’d stuck to the summer of self-discovery between Elodie and Catherine or the supernatural plot. As it was, the supernatural plot felt side-lined compared to the teenage woes of those two.

It is, of course, also a very teenage book, given that a large part of what’s going on involves Elodie and Catherine developing feelings for each other.

I quite liked the art, and overall, I did have fun reading it, but it felt strangely slow — especially the first half or so.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Bloom into You, vol 1

Posted October 4, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Bloom into You, vol 1

Bloom into You

by Nakatani Nio

Genres: Manga, Romance
Pages: 188
Series: Bloom into You #1
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Yuu has always loved shoujo manga and awaits the day she gets a love confession that sends her heart aflutter with bubbles and hearts, and yet when a junior high classmate confesses his feelings to her…she feels nothing. Disappointed and confused, Yuu enters high school still unsure how to respond. That’s when Yuu sees the beautiful student council president Nanami turn down a suitor with such maturity that she’s inspired to ask her for help. But when the next person to confess to Yuu is Nanami herself, has her shoujo romance finally begun?

I picked up the first volume of Nakatani Nio’s Bloom Into You because my sister had asked me to try to find copies for her, and I was curious. It’s an f/f manga, in which a 2nd year student (Nanami) falls in love (almost instantly) with a 1st year student (Yuu), and tries to get her involved in her election campaign to be school president.

The art is cute enough, fairly typical really. I thought that Yuu’s initial interest in talking to Nanami and understanding her all made sense, but Nanami’s quick response of falling in love with her just felt too fast, and I feel like Nanami was a bit manipulative trying to get her way and keep Yuu close by. The kiss is completely out of the blue as well.

I can see how they could form rather a cute relationship, as Yuu tries to be supportive of Nanami, and doesn’t mind when she’s not the perfect girl others seem to see. It’ll need some serious development right now, though, as Yuu seems to be completely uninterested in anyone (asexual and/or aromantic). I’m not sure if I’ll read more.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, volume 1

Posted April 14, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, volume 1

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon

by Shio Usui

Genres: Manga, Romance
Pages: 170
Series: Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Uno Hinako throws herself into makeup, fashion, and falling in love, hoping that will make her seem normal to the other people at her job. But no matter how hard she tries, she's a self-doubting mess inside, and her attempts at normal romance with men just keep failing. When she starts to think she might be alone forever, a new normal presents itself in the form of her relationship with Asahi Sato, a level-headed woman who works at her company, which starts as respect until it becomes far more intimate.

Shio Usui’s Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon is a cute story about two coworkers who appear not to have much in common, who start to find they have more in common than they thought, and that they enjoy one another’s company. It’s obviously heading toward romantic territory, but the author doesn’t rush the gate and have them jumping there: in this first volume, they’re just becoming friends, and starting to see that they’re not alone.

The main character, Hinako, is trying hard to be the perfect woman: approachable, pretty, accommodating, and willing to try dating just about anyone her friends suggest in the desperate effort to find a man she can fall in love with. Her insecurity and confusion is obvious and painful as she tries to figure out why she doesn’t want what she thinks she “ought” to want — and what she might want instead.

We see less of Sato’s point of view, but she’s a slightly older woman who seems pretty secure in herself and confident, despite having chosen the things that Hinako thinks will have her rejected by people. She and her sister have an enjoyable relationship too: it’s not just about Sato and Hinako, but also about the people around them.

Vibes-wise, this feels like an f/f version of A Side Character’s Love Story, in many ways — which is a series that I adore. I was keen to pick up a bit more of this at least and see where it goes; that said, having done so, I should point out that the lesbians are both explicitly asexual, and there’s a certain amount of horror and self-loathing along the way. It’s fairly light as things go, but it’s worth knowing, and though it is ace rep, there’s of course always the problem that sometimes that’s just to render it more acceptable socially (or because of censorship).

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots

Posted January 5, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots

by Cat Sebastian

Genres: Romance
Pages: 244
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Daniel Cabot doesn’t really know what he’s doing with his life. He’s lost faith in himself, his future, and maybe the world. The only things he knows that he cares about are the garden in the empty lot next to his crumbling East Village apartment building and his best friend.

Alex Savchenko has always known that he’s…difficult. Prickly, maybe, if you’re feeling generous. But maybe that’s the kind of personality it takes to start a low-income pediatrics clinic in one of Manhattan’s most troubled neighborhoods. When Daniel stumbles into his life, Alex doesn’t expect him to stay—most people don’t. And when Alex develops useless, inconvenient feelings for his new friend, he does what he’s always done, and tells himself that he isn’t feeling anything at all.

Daniel, though, has always worn his heart on his sleeve, and he isn’t stopping now.
Sometimes when things seem to be falling apart, it means there’s room for something incredible to grow.

Cat Sebastian’s Cabot books have proved a favourite lately, but I think Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots might be my favourite of the bunch.

Daniel and Alex are both far from perfect humans, and their friendship might not always make sense to outsiders — Daniel spends a lot of time handling Alex, reading his mood and figuring out what he needs, whether it’s space for himself or a steady routine or a little extra companionship. That’s part of why their friendship works: Alex isn’t neurotypical, and a lot of things don’t make sense to him, and he finds most people impossible, but Daniel’s found a way to work with that, and the love between them is always there, even before they start moving toward a romantic relationship. Everyone takes them for a couple, and they more or less are.

The book follows their step-by-step evolution toward being the kind of couple who have sex, the kind of couple who plan based on knowing the other is there and is always going to be there, and that’s a huge deal for both of them. There’s lots of communication and an acknowledgement that their relationship doesn’t have to look like that of other people in order to be valid and important and absolutely central to them.

If I have one criticism, it’s that we spend an awful lot of the book on Alex’s needs. Here and there we see acknowledgements of Daniel’s needs, but it’s not so explicitly stated, and that can leave it feeling a touch imbalanced. It’s plain that Daniel doesn’t mind and he considers his needs to be met, but it still left me wondering a little.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Magician’s Angel

Posted December 18, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Magician’s Angel

The Magician's Angel

by Jordan L. Hawk

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 108
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Vaudeville stage magician Christopher Fiend lives for the spotlight. His chance at big time stardom awaits him in Chicago, the next stop on the circuit after the little town of Twelfth Junction.

Edward Smith wants nothing to do with his family's theater. Until Christopher catches his eye on opening night, then treats him to a very special performance during intermission.

When a dead body turns up in the middle of Christopher’s act, suspicion immediately falls on him. If Christopher and Edward can’t work together to clear his name, Christopher won’t make it to Chicago in time. Edward knows he shouldn’t get attached to a man who will be gone in two days, but his heart—and a very special angel—have other ideas.

This Christmas-themed novella by Jordan L. Hawk features two people who’ve encountered setbacks and bitterness, and who team up to become more than the sum of their parts, finding an ease and comfort with each other that shocks them. It’s a little bit insta-love, since they don’t spend much time together, but I did believe that a quick and strong connection formed between them, given the circumstances and their pasts, and I could believe that they’d manage to form something stronger and less ephemeral.

I suppose the part I found least convincing was the race to the departing train at the end, such a typical Hallmark type moment — but it’s still a relief to meet the happy ending at the station, even if it’s predictable and melodramatic.

The mystery itself wasn’t too surprising or in-depth, given the length of the novella, but it worked to give the characters time and space to talk and show us who they are. I enjoyed it as a whole package, romance and mystery and a little bit of Christmas magic and all.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Peter Cabot Gets Lost

Posted December 12, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Peter Cabot Gets Lost

Peter Cabot Gets Lost

by Cat Sebastian

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 210
Series: The Cabots #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Summer 1960:

After years of scraping by, Caleb Murphy has graduated from college and is finally getting to start a new life. Except he suddenly has no way to get from Boston to Los Angeles. Then, to add to his misery, there's perfect, privileged Peter Cabot offering to drive him. Caleb can't refuse, even though the idea of spending a week in the car with a man whose luggage probably costs more than everything Caleb owns makes him want to scream.

Peter Cabot would do pretty much anything to skip out on his father's presidential campaign, including driving across the country with a classmate who can't stand him. After all, he's had plenty of practice with people not liking him much—his own family, for example. The farther Peter gets from his family's expectations, the more he starts to think about what he really wants, and the more certain he becomes that what he wants is more time with prickly, grumpy Caleb Murphy.

As they put more miles between themselves and their pasts, they both start to imagine a future where they can have things they never thought possible.

Cat Sebastian’s Cabot books are proving to hit the spot every time for me. In this one, two idiot guys drive across the US with limited contact with their families beyond a couple of calls from payphones and a few postcards. At the start of the drive, they barely know each other, and they definitely don’t like each other, but gradually Caleb realises Peter’s not actually a bad guy, and Peter figures out what makes Caleb prickly and manages not to step on his toes… and of course, they fall in love. Or at least get very infatuated, and throw themselves eagerly into exploring their physical attraction.

I love that it doesn’t go with the very familiar mid-book miscommunication followed by reconcilation during the climax. It’s gentler and quieter than that, and Peter and Caleb do their best to communicate what they’re thinking and feeling, and figure out how to forge a relationship in their particular circumstances.

I have a lot of favourite moments, but there’s a special place for the moment where Caleb overhears Peter talking to his family, and ends up saying that he can’t believe he’ll have to vote for Peter’s dad (and we hear that Tommy, a main character from another book and Peter’s uncle, will be hitting the bar before and after voting for his brother). It just tickled me and felt so realistic.

For those who love their tropes, I have to point out as well that this is pretty much a grumpy/sunshine pair-up…

Rating: 4/5

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