Posted April 14, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon
Genres: Manga,
Romance Pages: 170
Series: Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon #1 Rating: 
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
Tags: book reviews, books, manga, queer fiction, romance
Posted January 5, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots
Genres: Romance Pages: 244
Rating: 
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
Tags: book reviews, books, Cat Sebastian, queer fiction, romance
Posted December 18, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
The Magician's Angel
Genres: Historical Fiction,
Romance Pages: 108
Rating: 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
Tags: book reviews, books, historical fiction, Jordan L. Hawk, queer fiction, romance
Posted December 12, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Peter Cabot Gets Lost
Genres: Historical Fiction,
Romance Pages: 210
Series: The Cabots #1 Rating: 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
Tags: book reviews, books, Cat Sebastian, historical fiction, queer fiction, romance
Posted November 23, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
One Hundred Nights of Hero
Pages: 224
Rating: Synopsis: In the tradition of The Arabian Nights, a beautifully illustrated tapestry of folk tales and myths about the secret legacy of female storytellers in an imagined medieval world.
In the Empire of Migdal Bavel, Cherry is married to Jerome, a wicked man who makes a diabolical wager with his friend Manfred: if Manfred can seduce Cherry in one hundred nights, he can have his castle -- and Cherry.
But what Jerome doesn't know is that Cherry is in love with her maid Hero. The two women hatch a plan: Hero, a member of the League of Secret Story Tellers, will distract Manfred by regaling him with a mesmerizing tale each night for 100 nights, keeping him at bay. Those tales are beautifully depicted here, touching on themes of love and betrayal and loyalty and madness.
The One Hundred Nights of Hero is a fun take on the Scheherazade-type story, in graphic novel form. I quite enjoyed the art, though a few of the female characters who were mentioned very briefly aren’t very distinguishable from other female characters who are mentioned briefly (which is really kind of ironic, given the strong feminist bent of the story — though I’m not very good with noticing small details, so this is probably partly on me).
It’s not terribly original, but it works, and I enjoyed reading it. I did find the lettering and colouring a little distracting at times: it’s all very deliberately quirky and stylised, and sometimes it’s difficult for me then to know where I’m supposed to be following the panels, or to make out the text.
This feels like I’m damning it with faint praise, but I enjoyed myself reading it, and I’d happily give it as a gift or recommend it to people. It just didn’t completely blow me away the way it did some others.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, graphic novels, Isabel Greenberg, queer fiction, SF/F
Posted November 20, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Three Kings
Genres: Fantasy,
Romance Pages: 154
Rating: Synopsis: Ethan Shaw — lighthouse keeper and local witch — lives a charmed life in his chilly, coastal hometown. Blessed with a flourishing garden and a stable livelihood, Ethan can’t complain. But when his husband, Captain Peter Vásquez, brings home a wounded leopard seal after an impromptu storm, Ethan is faced with a curious situation: caring for a lost selkie named Nico Locke.
As Ethan struggles with the possibility of being infertile, insecurities surrounding his marriage, and a newly formed magical bond with a hostile, handsome selkie, his comfortable life begins to fracture. But could breakage lead to something better?
With autumn at their heels and winter on the horizon, Ethan, Peter, and Nico test the boundaries of a new relationship, shared intimacy, and the chance at a future together.
Freydís Moon’s Three Kings is a m/m/m romance where one of the protagonists (the character we follow most closely) is a trans man. Just to be clear up front since I think some people would find this difficult to read (for a bunch of reasons), the novella focuses partly on Ethan’s problems with conceiving, after months of trying to start a family with his husband Peter, and with his feelings of worthlessness as a result.
It also involves a selkie called Nico who is bad-tempered and distrustful, and can’t entirely be blamed for it, since he’s injured due to being caught in Peter’s nets. Ethan is a witch and uses his power to bring Nico back to life, forging a connection between the two of them — and over the following days, as Nico heals, another connection begins to grow. What’s enjoyable is that Peter and Ethan’s relationship is rock-solid, and they don’t bring in Nico as some kind of fix for their problems: they’ve got that covered, and this is just about their connection with Nico, as Nico, not as a stop-gap or a patch or anything like that.
It’s also worth noticing that there’s some dubious consent here — while everyone’s into one another and it seems inevitable that they’re going to explore it, they also accidentally take a magical aphrodisiac. They’re all happy about it and there are no regrets, but that’s an important theme here that I wouldn’t want someone to be startled by.
In any case, I found the book smuttier than I’d have liked, not because I’m being a prude, but because it feels like that slightly took the place of the three of them working through their awkwardnesses, getting to know each other, and forging something based on their personalities. There are hints that it can happen, that it will happen… but it doesn’t really happen here.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Freydís Moon, queer fiction, romance, SF/F
Posted February 14, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments
Hexmaker, Jordan L. Hawk
Back to Hexworld, and this second book is as fun as the first. I think I liked them a tiny bit less than Cicero and Tom from the first book, and I thought they needed to do a heck of a lot more communicating (including about their boundaries during sex, which they just kind of plunge into), but Malachi and Owen have a totally different and interesting dynamic, and it worked out well. The power differential between witches and familiars is present in all of these stories, but most of all here, where the personal relationship balances it.
I think overall I’d have liked a bit longer for Owen and Malachi’s relationship to develop; the compressed timescale didn’t quite work for me here, and I could’ve used seeing a little more trust starting to develop between them. The relationship crisis definitely echoed the one in the first book, but I’d felt more closely connected to the relationship in the first book.
I’m curious to see where the overarching plot is going, and I love the background of the world — Owen’s trans brother, because of course hexes can help with that; Egyptian archaeology being relevant for the history of hexes… It’s all pretty fascinating, and as always the book is pacy and fun.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: alternate history, book reviews, books, Jordan L. Hawk, queer fiction, romance, SF/F
Posted January 29, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
The Soldier’s Scoundrel, Cat Sebastian
Jack Turner is sort of a private detective, sort of an agent of poetic justice, handling messes that higher-class society folks want sweeping under the rug — an abusive husband, a case of blackmail, stolen items… He clashes with Oliver Rivington, a soldier in need of lawful stability after the war, after helping Oliver’s sister out with such a problem, and I honestly expected sparks to fly much more than they did. It’s such an easy source of conflict for a romantic relationship: their morals differ so much! They’re opposed on a fundamental level!
And indeed, it is part of the conflict — but part of the joy of the book is in fact that Oliver considers his errors, reconsiders his position, and unbends enough to listen to Jack’s point of view. It’s not his way or the highway; even when he briefly thinks it might has to be, he’s still open to communication.
Is their burgeoning relationship a heaven of perfect communication, the meeting of like minds? Nope. Oliver still balks at some of Jack’s opinions and methods, and Jack for his part has a lifetime of trauma that shapes how he sees Oliver’s thoughts and actions. Each has to bend a little, and make efforts, to make the thing work, but it all feels more gentle and more intimate because Oliver is prepared to bend, prepared to apologise, prepared to live at Jack’s level. I cared about their relationship all the more because the conflict wasn’t straight-forward, because Oliver wasn’t prepared to let it go too easily, and wasn’t too proud to apologise — and Jack wasn’t too proud to accept it.
Overall, I found this really enjoyable. Jack’s approach to justice isn’t mine, but it makes sense for his life, and Oliver’s acceptance of it makes sense as well, and their relationship genuinely feels built on more than just headlong attraction between two stubborn assholes who won’t talk to each other — which can be lacking in other romances, where I wonder how on earth they’ll get on in the long run given they spent a whole book refusing to bend only to have a dramatic rapprochement at the end.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Cat Sebastian, historical fiction, queer fiction, romance
Posted January 24, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments
Hexbreaker, Jordan L. Hawk
Tom is a copper, a decent one who doesn’t take bribes and keeps his neighbourhood safe. He’s hiding a past of violence and betrayal, something he walked away from for everyone’s safety. Cicero is a familiar, a shapeshifter, who works with the local magical police for protection, but hasn’t yet agreed to bond with a witch. They’re thrown together to solve two murders — which stir up horrifying echoes for both of them, of pasts they’ve tried to put behind them — and at first it seems like they’re oil and water. Cicero constantly makes assumptions about Tom based on his job and appearance, but slowly, of course, sparks start to fly.
There is of course a wrenching part of the romance (as so often) where the secrets Tom is keeping come back to haunt him, leaving Cicero feeling lied to and abandoned. Obviously there were so many opportunities to do better and to communicate with Cicero — but at least it seems to make sense that he doesn’t. He doesn’t realise his past is relevant to the case, and he’s committed to a better future, one with Cicero in it; the smart thing would be to ‘fess up, of course, but… that’s difficult, and didn’t seem important. It makes sense.
A lot of people mention not loving this book as much as the Widdershins books, but I disagree. That’s partly down to my pet peeves: Whyborne’s obsessive lack of self-esteem over the course of several books drives me nuts, and the lack of communication between him and Griffin comes back again and again and again. For that reason, this clicked better for me (which is not to say that I find nothing to enjoy in the Widdershins books).
There are some gruesome bits of this story, just as a warning. There’s also some period typical homophobia, though not amongst the main characters or anyone who matters. I’m looking forward to glimpsing Cicero and Tom in the stories of the others…
Rating: 4/5
Tags: book reviews, books, Jordan L. Hawk, mystery, queer fiction, romance, SF/F
Posted January 15, 2023 by Nicky in Reviews / 1 Comment
Blind Tiger, Jordan L. Hawk
Mild, naive Sam comes from a repressive family in the country. Hardened, hermit-like Alistair is hiding away from life after being very badly hurt by his time as a soldier and its aftermath. They’re brought together because Sam’s cousin — who took him in when he fled his family — has been murdered, and Sam needs help in navigating the gangs and other dangers of Prohibition Chicago.
Plus, Alistair is a familiar, a shapeshifter, and he’s realised that Sam is his witch, the one person in the world whose magic best works with Alistair’s — but he has his own reasons for refusing to bond.
Sam is a lovely character, well-meaning and brave, despite the emotional damage from his family who belittled him constantly. He’s naive, but not as judgemental as he could be: he accepts the Gattis and what they do, even as he steers his own path (not drinking, for example, and not being terribly willing to work with a gang boss). He seems a dangerous big cat shifter and thinks, “Hey, can I pet him?”
He’s the ideal person to bring Alistair back out of his shell, and we see that happening in and amongst the actual action of the book. The pace of their relationship worked quite well for me, and it was really sweet… though I’m sure they have a ways to go to a proper happy ending.
I haven’t actually read the other books in this world, but that was okay; this worked well for me as an introduction, it was very clear what the basics were. I’m sure there’s more to understand in the other books — and I’m eager to read those too — but it works perfectly well on its own.
Rating: 4/5
Tags: alternate history, book reviews, books, Jordan L. Hawk, queer fiction, romance, SF/F
