Welcome back, everyone!
Big shocker – it’s an all fiction edition! Three out of the four titles also feature queer romances. The final rec is a horror novella that is designed to really mess you up.
What recommendations do you want to pass along? Drop them in the comments!
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A Short Stay in Hell
This is the only non-romance title here and I cannot stress how NOT A FEEL GOOD STORY this is. It’s an existential horror novella. I’ve been procrastinating on reading this one, because everyone I know who has read this one has said it’s memorable but it kind of fucked them up.
An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he’ll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life.
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.
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The Divine Gardener’s Handbook
The subtitle got me on this one, and the world building sounds super interesting. I also think I saw a couple of you mention this in our new release posts for this month.
WARNING: MAY CAUSE REBELLION, RADICAL GARDENING, AND ROMANCE.
“Pure chaotic good.”
—Julie Leong, USA Today bestselling author of The Teller of Small FortunesThe Divine Gardener’s Handbook is a sapphic dystopian fantasy of botanical sabotage, a questionable god named Saul, and a woman falling for the person most likely to ruin her life.
In a Jenga-stacked megacity where glowing blue flowers hum in the dark and palace doors open into secret worlds, getting a job in the Divine Gardens is almost impossible—like being plucked from obscurity by a carnival claw machine. But Cyprin has spent her whole life trying.
Her only chance is winning the annual flower pageant, dominated for five years by Purcell: brilliant head gardener, unbearable rival, and the one person Cyprin can’t stop thinking about. When Cyprin cheats her way to victory, she’s thrust into a world of sentient plants, ancient secrets, and a God who turns out to be just some exhausted man with a very good garden.
What begins as rivalry, heated glaring, and increasingly personal acts of warfare spirals into something much more dangerous. As rebellion spreads through the city and the truth beneath the Gardens begins to unravel, Cyprin and Purcell find themselves caught between ambition, obsession, and the terrifying possibility of understanding each other completely.
Even if they burn the whole world down in the process.
The Divine Gardener’s Handbook is perfect for readers who like their fantasy weird, heartfelt, and a little unhinged.
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The Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps
A cozy, f/f fantasy romance! There are small town and grumpy/sunshine vibes. I also think this one is currently on sale; keeping my fingers crossed that it’s still $2.99 digitally at the time of this going live.
When a burn nurse with a fear of dragon fire meets a gorgeous but reckless dragon wrangler, things burn hot enough to light their small mountain town on fire.
Burn nurse Eden has accepted a job from her old mentor at the Infirmary for Dragon Burns and Midair Mishaps, hoping for peace and quiet in Ember Ridge — a charming mountain town famous for singed tourists and reckless dragon riders. Instead, she arrives to find the infirmary in chaos.
Her mentor is stranded out of town, wild dragons are causing havoc and Eden is left running the infirmary on her first day. Worse, she keeps crossing paths with Vaela, the town’s dragon wrangler, whose talent for surviving impossible situations is matched only by a talent for getting under Eden’s skin.
Vaela is everything Eden hates: brooding, reckless and arrogant.
But when local dragons begin acting strangely and the kingsguard descends on Ember Ridge, whispers spread of the Wretch — the most feared dragon in the realm. Eden and Vaela are forced into an uneasy partnership to save the town, but every argument between them sparks into something hotter and far more dangerous than they expected.
Because falling for a dragon wrangler was never part of Eden’s plan. But neither is watching Ember Ridge — and her guarded heart — go up in flames.
Filled with cozy taverns, chaotic dragons and a fiercely lovable found family, this cozy romantasy is the perfect escape for readers who like their fantasy warm, whimsical and fiery.
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The Wolf and His King
The comparisons to Madeline Miller and Naomi Novik may make many of you perk up. The yearning is at an all time high here.
Madeline Miller meets Angela Carter in this spellbinding queer retelling of the 12th – century tale of Bisclavret the werewolf — unmissable for fans of Uprooted by Naomi Novik, Swordcrossed by Freya Marske, and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.
A noble knight hiding the beast inside. A lonely king isolated by his courtiers. Between them an impossible gulf surmountable only by the twists and turns of relentless destiny in this spellbinding retelling of Marie de France’s classic 12th-century tale of romance and adventure.
The wolf-sickness strikes always without warning, stealing Bisclavret’s body and confusing his mind. Since boyhood, he hasn’t dared leave his isolated holdings—not to beg the return of his father’s lost estate, not to seek brotherhood among the court, not even to win the knighthood he yearns for. But when a new king ascends, Bisclavret must deliver his kiss of fealty or answer for the failure.
Half an exile himself, the young king is intrigued by this uneasy, rough-hewn nobleman. Bisclavret seems a perfect bold, strong, and merciful. But he keeps his secrets close, and the king’s longings are not for counsel alone. As his fascination grows, the barriers between them multiply, until one day Bisclavret vanishes beyond reach. Battling desperation and grief, the king stands alone to face the greatest threats to his kingdom, with only duty to his people between him and ruin—duty, and the steadfast loyalty of the strangest wolf . . .
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman
More books for ny library list! I’m especially intrigued by The wolf and His King, with its medieval roots.
For those intrigued by ‘the wolf and his king’ may I recommend ‘Bisclavret’ by K.L. Noone? Same source, earlier publication, similar (from the sound of it) treatment, available at JMS Books LLC.
Cozy small town with dragons, yes please
Echoing chacha1, ‘Bisclavret’ by K.L. Noone is lovely.