Dreamover by Dani Diaz
Dreamover by Dani Diaz was another book won in a galley grab I entered. I had seen a few things about it, but wasn’t really sure what it was about. It sounded a little more realistic than it turned out to be. But I guess you cannot have a “Dream World” where you don’t have at least a little fantasy to it. When all was said and read, this was a coming of age story where “true love” finds you, but the dream starts becoming […]
A Song for You and I by K. O'Neill
I always enjoy K. O’Neill’s writing, however, I found A Song for You and I a smidgen not as strong as usual. I think the issue was I was reading via an online reader copy and there were black and white images and not the full color illustrations of the final product. And since the book relies on the illustrations for most of the story, it was not what I needed. However, the story of being “other” and the fear and confusion that produces is […]
Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa
Is that not a gorgeous cover? This was a sweet, queer, YA retelling of Pride and Prejudice, though as a straight, cis woman, it’s easy for me to call it sweet. I imagine it would be much heavier emotionally for members of the LGBTQ+ community, especially those who are trans or nonbinary. Instead of Elizabeth Bennet, we have Oliver Bennet. Only a handful of people know that he is trans, which means most family members, friends, and acquaintances are constantly deadnaming him and referring to […]
The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
Set in West Virginia (everyone’s favorite state for backwoods traditions, it seems), The Bog Wife details a tradition held by the Haddesley family through generations. It goes something like this: when the family patriarch is dying, he must be sacrificed to the bog. His entire family must carry him to the bog on a wood plank and leave him. After his body is subsumed by the bog, the eldest son must return naked and use a dowsing rod to summon a bog wife. This bog […]
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
I don’t track my reading by diversity the way some do, though I am curious what the stats would be. I definitely have a few auto buy authors that are also men, like John Scalzi, but my reading heavily skews towards women … YA fantasy and romance will do that. Still I ended up picking up some fantasy novels by men last year, and figured it was time to finally read a few of them, starting with this first book in a now completed series. […]
It Started With a Secret by Tif Marcelo
When Jared goes to the town of Peak in search of answers about his father’s family, the last thing he expects is to spend a night with Matilda, the prickly manager of their B&B. There is a lot of story packed into this fairly short book – Reconnecting with your roots! Family drama! Age gap! Forbidden workplace romance! – but author Marcelo does a decent job of giving all of it plenty of page time, even if it means some of them are a bit […]
