We here at the Hot Pink Palace of Bitchery are thrilled about yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling regarding marriage equality. The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.
In the words of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy:
No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.
If there’s anything we’ve learned from romance, it’s that everyone deserves a chance at love. You earn your right to be in a relationship not by having the proper genitalia, but by being honest, loyal, and supportive of your partner (and some hot chemistry never hurts). This is true if you are a pirate captain and your love interest is a virgin governess unaware of the beauty of her large, violet-colored eyes, and it’s still true if you are a billionaire named Bob and you are mad with love for Joe, a brilliant computer technician who artlessly brushes his chestnut hair out of his eyes as he gazes into your hard drive.
As the romance genre grew over the last few decades, it began to embrace gay, lesbian, and bisexual relationships. We asked The Bitches to recommend some LGBTQIA romances:
CarrieS:
I’m about halfway through The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles. So far, it’s an A+ book. The characters are rounded, layered, interesting people. Their romance feels real, not fetishistic (although it’s also very hot). There’s a great mix of historical, fantasy, horror and humor. I’ll be submitting a full review when I finish the book but as of now I adore it!
Another brilliant and unusual romance is Static, by LA Witt ( A ). This book goes beyond m/m/ and f/f/ romance to explore what gender and sexuality mean in the context of self-identity, love, and relationships by using a “five minutes in the future” sci fi concept. You can find my review here.
Also I love Cathy Pegau’s science fiction book Deep Deception ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) which involves a romance between two women. It’s sexy, emotional, and smart, and most importantly the characters and their relationship feel real to me. Here’s my review.
Elyse:
At the RT Blogger Symposium, Ariel from Dreamspinner Press commented that historical m/m romance may get less love from reviewers because they have a hard time suspending disbelief that gay men could find a happily ever after in a historical setting (lesbianism would be slightly different, historically speaking).
Personally, I suspend a lot of disbelief when reading historical romance. I mean I pretend that everyone has great dental hygiene, no one dies from having diarrhea, and people bathe frequently enough that their naughty bits don’t smell like cheese left in the sun for a few days.
If, like me, you dig the historicals, I recommend The Lion and the Crow by Eli Easton (medieval) ( A | BN | K), and The Crofton Chronicles by Rebecca Cohen: The Actor and the Earl, Duty to the Crown and Forever Hold His Peace (Elizabethan Era).
Sarah: I said on Twitter that seeing the whole country celebrate something at once is a rare and beautiful thing. We’re a large country with a lot of time zones and a LOT of people, and we don’t celebrate anything as a group – but watching people celebrate, seeing pictures of people getting married within an hour of the decision, that did my heart a lot of good. I think we have a long way to go in terms of equality, but seeing a big step forward was more than a little reassuring.
Recommendations ahoy! First, I did a podcast interview with Joyfully Jay, who reads m/m romance, and she listed a ton of recommendations. You can also check out her website for more reviews! Among my favorite m/m romance authors: Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton. They each write novels, but they also co-wrote a book that I picked for the book club: Family Man. Damon Suede is another good choice – many readers cite Hot Head as one of the first romances they read. CS Pacat is cited by many as seriously addictive – and she won the DABWAHA tournament, too, as did Abigail Roux. Her book, Caught Running, which was written with Madeline Urban, is one of my very favorites.
I’m also reading lesbian romances currently, but haven’t read enough to make solid recommendations – I’d be happy to hear your ideas!
I know you have suggestions, too. Your turn! If you feel like celebrating with your reading, what LGBTQIA romances do you recommend?
By a strange twist of fate I started Damon Suede’s Hot Head earlier this week and was BLOWN AWAY. I’ve been OMGing, squeeing, crying, sighing and fangirling all at once ever since. Literally the minute I finished this book I turned to the first page and reread the entire thing over again. Hands down one of my favorite romances…period. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I really enjoy Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English Mysteries series. It is five books long (finished). It features Adrien, a gay book store owner and mystery writer who keeps finding bodies. His love interest is the deeply (DEEPLY) closeted Jake Riordan who is a cop. The story is mostly mystery but it deals with Adrien being in love with a man who will not recognize the relationship outside of their private moments and continues to date women. I just finished book four and loved it.
Could someone (doesn’t have to be the Bitchery) recommend lesbian Regency or Georgian romances in the vein of Eloisa James? I’d love to read something like that.
I’ll also take gay romance, and I love menage as well.
First rec: Tere Michaels’ “Faith, Love, and Devotion” series. Contemporary and amazing with 40-somethings Evan and Matt as protagonists. Gay-for-you catnip. Also rec “The Persian Boy” by Mary Renault, “And Call Me in the Morning” by Willa Okati, manga series “Yellow” and “Hate to Love You” by Makoto Attend, “Finder” by Ayano Yamane, “The Tyrant Falls In Love” by Hinako T akanaga, and “Embracing Love” by Youka Nitta. I also love the baseball and musical romance “Almost Like Being In Love” by Steve Kluger. Lesbian-wise, we have “Keeping You a Secret”, manga “Girlfriends” by Milk Morinaga, and h istoricals “The Dark Wife”, “Pembroke Park”, and “The Remarkable Journey of Miss Granby Quirke” and “Rebecca and the Highwayman”. ENJOY!
The last three I mentioned might work for your les fic request, Jamie, especially Pembroke Park.
*Makoto Tateno
For anybody looking for lesbian/queer ladies loving it up, may I suggest:
-The Spanish Pearl/The Crown of Valenicia by Catherine Friend – Time travel romance in Spain. LOVE THESE.
– Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear – Steampunk on the Pacific Coast. Fantastic book, lead character is a lesbian, she’s great with horses, she and her lady love battle a Kraken, it’s just great.
– Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour – YA about an aspiring set designer looking for love. Think Fangirl but happier.
– Sarah Waters, of course
– And definitely check out Bold Strokes Books Publishing – they publish mainly lesbian romances and! They’ve got a deal with Scribd, so, there are A LOT on there! Historical, Comtemporary, Paranormal, Romantic Suspense, you name it!
ALSO!
– Santa Olivia/Saints Astray by Jaqueline Carey – urban fantasy, lead characters are queer ladies in love. Some people didn’t like Saints Astray as much, but I loved it! Very James Bond. (Yes, the Kushiel’s Dart review did spur this memory, lol)
I just read a nice lesbian romance, “Treasure” by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Two African-American women in college (but they met at the strip club where Trisha works. This is not preseted as a problem). I especially liked Alexis, the shy woman overpressured by her hovering parents.
@ Jamie – Megan Mulry has a new novella, Bound With Love, in her Regency Reimagined series, with a F/F romance. Mulry can tell a story and Bound to be a Groom, about a polyamorous relationship, was one of my favorite reads last year.
Haha, I have so many recs! My favourite M/M romance is Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat. Actually it’s not just a romance, it’s in equal parts romance, fantasy, court intrigue, and AWESOME. Damen is a prince of a fantasy country who’s kidnapped and sold as a slave in an enemy country, to frosty and snarky prince Laurent. I picked it up as a lark because it seemed like a collection of lulzy tropes — prince in disguise! sold as a slave! there’s an Evil Regent! — and I was floored by just how well-written and compelling the story is. The third (and last) book has just been announced for next year and I can’t wait! 😀 😀 (Trigger warning though, for sexual slavery and rape and a lot more.)
Though, actually when I saw the post my first thought was to rec the Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L. Hawk. It’s set in America at the end of the 19th century and follows the adventures a shy scholar and a dashing detective as they investigate creepy supernatural incidents. It’s a solid series and Hawk does a good job of making the relationship evolve through the books. (As a reader of both M/M and M/F I’m baffled because in M/F every book in a series is about a different couple, while in M/M a series is all about the same couple which is a lot more interesting because you get to see what happens after they confess their twu wuv/get married/move in together/etc.)
I see now that C.S. Pacat was mentioned in the post. My rec still stands read her books they are the bestest. Also by Josh Lanyon who was mentioned by Tsuki — his newest book “Winter Kill” is contemporary romantic suspence and I found it gripping.
As far as F/F goes, I don’t read much of it (recs! recs! I need more recs!) but I recently came across “Dating Sarah Cooper” which was described to me as “Faking It done right” and it was very cute, it’s about two high school girls who pretend to be girlfriends and end up falling in love.
I love Amy Lane – Dex in Blue is one of my favorites. Mary Calmes writes all sorts of Genres – cop, shifter, contemporary. A regency Sci-fi (planets that idendenfiy themselves as regency – the twist with one is that it’s the young men whose virtue must be guarded. A fun take) by J.L. Langley. Josh Lanyon, Andrew Grey, Marie Sexton, L.A. Witt, Rhys Ford, Lisa Oliver all have great series and stand alone. Scribd has a large collection of m/m both new and old books from Dreamspinner Press and Samhain are all on scribd but you really need to search by author or book title vice publisher to find books – most of the authors mentioned so far have books on Scribd. It’s worth checking out if you aren’t certain about m/m.
My BFF absolutely adores the Captive Prince series!!!!
A brilliant author who is not as well know as she should be is Anne Brooke. She’s British and is with Amber Quill Publishing, a small publishing house. The first thing I read by her was “The Prayer Seeker” to which I gave my very first and so far only five star review. Then I read “A Dangerous Man” about two gay men. Powerful, complicated, compelling reading. She wrote a wonderful short story called the Paranormal Detective Agency and I have written her, begging her to turn this into a series about her gay paranormal detective. I have a lot of her stuff on my TBR list.
Just bought this one yesterday for $.99 http://www.amazon.com/Bones-Summer-Maloney-Book-ebook/dp/B010E3EOYA/?tag=geolinker-20
Plus all of her gay stuff is 50% in honor of Love Wins at http://bit.ly/13Ow6EJ
Can you tell I really admire Anne Brooke’s work?
I second the recommendation for Rebekah Weatherspoon. Not only does she write F/F romance, she writes characters of every size, shape, and color. Very positive, inclusive stuff.
If anyone else is looking for F/F, I recommend Eliza Lentski and Harper Bliss. To be entirely honest, Eliza Lentski is very hit and miss for me, but she writes pretty decent lesbian contemporaries– including one with a differently abled love interest (I think it’s called Fragmented?). Harper Bliss also writes diverse F/F, and I like her stuff a bit better.
F/F – Modern Serpents Talk Things Through by Jamie Brindle. It’s very short but is a bit funny and very touching. A really sweet story.
Nobody seems to have mentioned Jordan Hawk? I adore Whyborne and Griffin with a passion, and I really like her SPECTR series, too.
I have also been looking for recommendations for good lesbian romances, so thank you to everyone for all of those!
For m/m some of my favourites are: Dance With Me by Heidi Cullinan; A Forbidden Rumspringa by Keira Andrews; and the novella Muscling Through by JL Merrow, which to me is basically perfect. I also recently read Fall Hard by Merrow which is set in Iceland AND features amnesia (or gaynesia, if you prefer).
For modern/slightly futuristic M/M I highly recommend the Psycop and Channelling Morpheus Series from Jordan Castillo Price. Historical M/M wise I really enjoyed The Gentleman and the Rogue by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon.
I’ve not read as much f/f as I’d like yet, but the best ones I’ve read so far were And Playing the Role of Herself by KE Lane and Razor Wire by Lauren Gallagher.
Favorite m/m authors that I haven’t seen listed here yet are Anne Tenino (Too Stupid to Live is great fun, with a hero who loves romance novels), Jordan Castillo Price, Josephine Myles, James Buchanan, Kim Dare, and Kaje Harper.
I have my books organized by pairing within the story, not sexual identity, so it’s harder for me to point to stories with bisexual characters. (I should probably fix that.) Butterfly Tattoo by Deidre Knight was the first romance I ever read with a bisexual hero. Josephine Myles, LA Witt, and Amy Jo Cousins are a few of the authors I’ve read recently with bisexual characters.
For trans* romances, a few of my favorites are Pearl by Kelly Rand, Circle of Change by Laney Cairo, and The Burnt Toast B&B by Heidi Belleau and Rachel Haimowitz.
And this isn’t quite a romance, but Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin is a wonderful and heartbreaking YA about a boy who is intersex.
I’ll second the suggestion of Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English series. Well, anything by Josh Lanyon, really. He’s quite a prolific writer of novels, novella and short stories. Some are romantic suspense and some are straight (well, er, gay) romances.
Also, in the romantic suspense/mystery genre I’ve enjoyed Neil Plakcy’s “Mahu” series about a Honolulu PD detective, and Anthony Bidulka’s well-written series featuring Saskatchewan PI Russell Quant.
Finally, Poppy Z. Brite wrote the “Liquor” series of novels about two chefs in New Orleans, beginning with “The Value of X” when the chefs were growing up together in the Ninth Ward. These are dark romantic comedies, not gothic/horror as are most of Brite’s other works.
I have nothing to add as far as recommended reading. I’m only posting to say how happy I am for the SCOTUS ruling and how watching all the celebrations on TV gave me chills (in a good way!) I have never been more proud to be an American than I was yesterday.
I have really enjoyed the Julian/Robin thread in Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series. It starts as a side plot in Hot Target, continues in Force of Nature and All Through the Night, and is further mentioned in Dark of Night. I love that whole series.
Also, if anyone is into Avengers fanfic, I recommend the Steve Rogers/Tony Stark fiction “Semaphore” by DevilDoll, found here:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/314102?view_adult=true&view_full_work=true
I think it is one of the best romances I’ve ever read in any medium.
This is a great, fairly comprehensive list for getting started with ff romance:https://storify.com/rebekahwsm/lesbian-romance-recs
I would also add Harper Bliss, Jae, and Robin Alexander.
So many great recommendations. I would add Kathe Koja’s Under the Poppy and its sequel The Mercury Waltz. They’re romantic historical lit fic, but they have happy endings. The writing is amazing. Here’s the link for the Under The Poppy book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNxktLLq6Hw
Perfect for those who enjoy some bawdy fun.
For m/m have to add Harper Fox, esp her Tyack & Frayne series.
Lesbian fiction is rich with amazing authors . If you enjoy contemporary romance look for Melissa Brayden, KG MacGregor, Karin Kallmaker, Jae and of course Radclyffe. For lesbian thrillers try RE Bradshaw or Cari Hunter.
If your thing is lesbian erotica then Meghan O’Brien and Harper Bliss are must reads.
There is an excellent site with many reviews of the best in lesbian fiction today called C-Spot Reviews with the link; reviews.c-spot.net.
Happy f/f reading.
Abigail Roux’s Cut & Run series is my crack. And Mary Calmes’ book Acrobat is comfort food for my brain.
Since I’m so timely, I just happen to have a survey up about LGBTQ romance recs. The preliminary results are up on my blog now (which I linked my name to, so maybe if you click there?), and the survey is still live, here (if I can post a link here, successfully): https://docs.google.com/a/annetenino.com/forms/d/189OFWbBpL5FyVuZj8o5B0c9kTZhy5J1n9QNYZ7A1Upg/viewform
I really, really need recs for books that *aren’t* male-male. I would love it if readers could give me some strong lesbian romance candidates, not to mention anything else from the spectrum, including asexual. The entire top ten list is currently all gay men romance:
The results
As of June 23, 2015
The Top Ten (ish)
1. Cut and Run by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban (34 votes)
2. Hot Head by Damon Suede (11)
3. Promises by Marie Sexton (10)
4. Tie (8 votes):
Bear, Otter and the Kid by TJ Klune
Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels
The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles
7. Hell and High Water by Charlie Cochet (7)
8. Tie (6 votes):
Tell Me it’s Real by TJ Klune
Too Stupid to Live by Anne Tenino
10. Tie (5 votes):
Frat Boy and Toppy by Anne Tenino
Perfect Imperfections by Cardeno C
Widdershins by Jordan Hawk
Top Five (ish) Authors
By number of different titles recommended, 1 vote per title.
1. Amy Lane, with 15 separate recommendations.
2. Tie, 6 titles:
Heidi Cullinan
Josh Lanyon
4. Tie, 5 titles:
Mary Calmes
Abigail Roux
@garlicknitter: I have no idea if I’m interested in Avengers’ fanfic or any fanfic, for that matter. But that recommendation is too good to ignore. Thanks!
@Becky – side question – how angsty/difficult was Razor Wire? (I know that’s impossibly subjective). It’s been on my radar for awhile – I’m a big LA Witt fan,and I was ecstatic that she’d written an ff, but I’m not sure about the subject matter.
@Vasha – I liked Treasure a lot!
Recommendations (not already mentioned) –
Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller – lesbian historical set in 19th Connecticut and upstate NY (loosely based on a irl couple). So good, and with my all time favorite twist on the chick-in-pants trope.
Aleksandr Voinov is a really interesting mm author with a tremendous range – some of my faves are If it Flies (bdsm rom between a rent boy and a lawyer, co-authored with LA Witt), Lion of Kent (with Kate Catoner – medieval set rom between a squire and a knight) and Incursion (space opera).
Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy (mm – Australian jock / art-nerd pairing)
Astrid Amara’s another mm author with a big range. I like her holiday rom coms like Carol of the Bellskis and I really liked her sf Song of the Navigator.
And I’m not sure if anyone’s recommended KA Mitchell yet. Collision Course is my fave.
EE Ottoman writes steampunk-ish trans romance.
Bi romances – The Dom Project by Heloise Belleau and Solace Ames (mf, bdsm), Conduct Unbecoming by LA Witt (mm, military), Superheroes Union; Dynama (ff, PNR).
What a great post! 🙂 I am just popping in with a link to some pride dragons, as I know certain people around here like dragons:
http://kaenith.tumblr.com/tagged/pride%20dragons
@cleo Weeeeell… there was some angst, but not Amy Lane levels of angst. The ending was extremely satisfying (although perhaps unlikely, based on what we hear in the news about rape in the military).
I love the Kate Kane series. It’s like the Dresden Files, but with lots more lesbian sex. Also by Alexis Hall, I liked “There will be Phlogiston”. It’s an MMF regency steampunk romance with a gay man, a bi/pansexual man and a straight woman. I love her reactions when she experiences the things she’s been sheltered from.
I liked “Game On” by Olley White about a pair of gamers who meet in person only for both of them to discover the other is a man.
“Checking Him Out” by Debbie McGowan about a hetero-married gay man is awesome and made me cry. (There’s a little bit of ghost-talking, for people who dislike that sort of thing).
i have really enjoyed the mend of smithfield series by l.b. gregg…sweet and funny. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2833117.L_B_Gregg
Thanks to LauraL and the others who recc’d books! I grabbed a bunch off Amazon and I’m super excited to start reading them.
@Lucylegs:
DRAGONS! DRAGONS! I LOVE THESE. Thank you for the link!!