It’s been a few days since I finished this book, and I’m still thinking about it. I look at food trucks differently, and I think about the language of food, how food is a way of care and of expression, and how good food can overcome so many barriers. I also find myself thinking about the painful emotional journey of one of the characters survives in the course of the story, and how much that … Continue reading American Dreamer by Adriana Herrera →
It has come to my attention that there is a romance series about a kraken shifter and a unicorn shifter. I feel it my responsibility to investigate these things and ask the required questions, such as, “But HOW, tho?” I do it it for you, Bitches, and for the sake of SCIENCE, which isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions. It turns out that this series, the Wriggle and Sparkle series, is extremely adorable. The … Continue reading Wriggle & Sparkle by Megan Derr →
It Takes Two To Tumble is a ridiculously adorable romance very loosely inspired by The Sound of Music. In this Regency m/m romance, a grumpy ship captain comes home as a new widower to find that the only person who can control his three unruly children is a very handsome vicar named Ben. This book is the first book in the Seducing the Sedgewicks Series and it’s a fine standalone as well. Naval Captain Philip Dacre’s wife … Continue reading It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian →
Perfect Day is a conemporary m/m romance billed as a retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. As a romance, it’s very good. As an adaptation of Persuasion, it drops most of the thematic points. I found the book to be enjoyable and comforting even though it didn’t quite succeed for me in the “adaptation of Persuasion” sense. One glorious summer, Joshua and Finn fell madly in love. They intended to be together forever. At the end of … Continue reading Perfect Day by Sally Malcolm →
I enjoyed this book so much! A Gentleman Never Keeps Score is a Regency m/m about a disgraced gentleman and a Black pub keeper. The book has a lovely romance as well as a theme of found family and recovery from trauma. TW/CW for discussion of sexual abuse. Hartley, who is White, grew up poor with two brothers, Will and Ben. In an effort to provide for them he began a relationship with Sir Humphrey Easterbrook … Continue reading A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian →
Fence is a manga-inspired comic about the fencing team of a high school boarding school. The story includes sexual and ethnic diversity, a secret half-brother, class division, and passionate rivalry between two teammates who loathe each other and are therefore, inevitably, randomly chosen to be roommates. The authors have promised romance, and while so far none has been forthcoming, if the roommates do not become lovers in the very near future I will be amazed. … Continue reading Fence Vol. 1 by C.S. Pacat →
The always-reliable K.J. Charles outdoes herself with The Henchmen of Zenda, a retelling of the 1894 pulp classic The Prisoner of Zenda from a secondary character’s point of view. It looks like a m/m romance, and to a certain degree it is, but it has a more unconventional ending than most romances (I’ll address that in more detail later). On the way to the ending there is swashbuckling, double and triple crossing, intrigue, a moat, a castle, … Continue reading The Henchmen of Zenda by K.J. Charles →
Widdershins should be my absolute catnip. It features a m/m romance in a fantasy Victorian setting between a private detective and a geeky, shy philologist. One of the supporting characters is a woman who struggles to be respected as an Egyptologist in a male-dominated field. Most of the action takes place in a giant museum, and I do love a good museum! There’s a mummy, and I do love a good mummy! Alas, the plot … Continue reading Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk →
Today, we have a guest review of The Ruin of a Rake by the much-recommended Cat Sebastian. This guest review comes from Heather Morris, who you may remember from her great guest write-up of the Hulu series Harlots. Heather Morris is a cyborg librarian living in North Carolina. Her work has appeared in Shimmer, Strange Horizons, and Daily Science Fiction, among other places. She’s on Twitter @NotThatHeatherM and she blogs sporadically at thebastardtitle.wordpress.com. … I discovered Cat Sebastian … Continue reading Guest Review: The Ruin of a Rake by Cat Sebastian →
I met Laura Stone at the 2017 RT convention after the book signing. She mentioned she had a podcast about her former faith, Mormonism, called “Oh My Heck.” I live near enough to the DC Mormon temple that Instagram keeps asking me to tag my pictures like I’m currently there. (I’m not, but there’s a pretty solid Pokestop in the parking lot.) So I was curious about her podcast, both because I have many Mormon neighbors, … Continue reading And It Came to Pass by Laura Stone →
Wanted: A Gentleman is a pure delight. It is a m/m Regency historical in which one of the two heroes is black and of the well-to-do merchant class, while the other hero is a white working class man – a lovely change from the Regency romance norm of rich white people. It manages to be realistic about the backgrounds and hardships of both men while still providing for a happy ending, or at least the … Continue reading Wanted: A Gentleman by K.J. Charles →
