• ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    HEAT WAVE by TJ Klune | ARC Review

    20th August 2023
    Cover of Heat Wave (TJ Klune)

    HEAT WAVE (The Extraordinaries #3) by TJ Klune

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    I started reading Heat Wave some time last summer and got stuck about a third into the book when I ran into elements of mind control. This is primarily a personal preference, but I have to admit that mind control is one of the things I’d rather not read about.

    The first two books of The Extraordinaries trilogy (The Extraordinaries & Flash Fire) were such a fun and wild ride as we follow Nick, Seth, Gibby, and Jazz along their adventure. I love these precious babies! If you also love fierce, disaster queer teens, you’d especially love the epilogue of this series like I did.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    FLASH FIRE by TJ Klune | ARC Review

    13th August 2023
    Cover of Flash Fire (TJ Klune)

    FLASH FIRE (The Extraordinaries #2) by TJ Klune

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    This review contains MAJOR spoilers (in spoiler tags) for The Extraordinaries (book 1). There are no spoilers for this sequel.

    Cute Mutants meets One Last Stop (kind of) but achillean.

    First and foremost, I love how queer this book is! There are mentions of different gay cultures, discussions of safe sex, etc. It is written by a queer author for queer teens. Also, I love the friend group so much! The ever chaotic Nick (17, gay, ADHD), his hot boyfriend Seth (17, bisexual), Jazz (17), and Gibby (18, lesbian). I also love some new Extraordinaries, especially the drag queen Miss Conduct. She brings having super powers as an analogy for being queer to the next level.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by Shelley Parker-Chan | ARC Review

    19th January 2022
    Cover of She Who Became the Sun (Shelley Parker-Chan)

    SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN (The Radiant Emperor #1) by Shelley Parker-Chan

    The most amazing feat is that I felt like I was reading in Chinese. I especially adore all the cussing (yes), including “turtle egg,” “white-eyed idiot,” “water leaked into brain,” “fuck eighteen generations of that bastard’s dog ancestors,” and other non-vulgar phrases like “blowing up the cow skin” (boasting), “chicken-skin” (goosebumps), “eat tofu” (sexual harassment), etc. The language aspect of the book was wonderful.

    She Who Became the Sun is essentially the genderbent story of Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1662). The main character Zhu (sapphic), stole the identity of her dead brother Zhu Chongba (朱重八, Zhu “Double Eight”) who was promised a great future. She spent her childhood and early teens at a monastery and subsequently joins the Red Turbans, a band of rebels fighting against the ruling Mongols. One of the Mongols’ general is the eunuch Ouyang (achillean). Despite fighting for the Mongols, Ouyang holds a deep hatred again them because they were the reason his family was slaughtered and he castrated. The complicated relationship between Zhu and Ouyang continues to play out through the story.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    A Heart to Trust by A.L. Brooks | ARC Review

    30th November 2020
    Cover of A Heart to Trust (A.L. Brooks)

    A Heart to Trust by A.L. Brooks

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warning: mention of disowning, manipulation, divorce, inebriation

    While I loved Brooks’s previous book, Dare to Love (my review here), I only felt a fraction of that enjoyment for A Heart to Trust. That being said, I did enjoy all the interactions of the main characters with their respective friends but just not with each other.

    When C&V Inc acquires Jenny Quinn’s (29, gay) company, her job is in jeopardy. There are three PA openings for four candidates, so she has to prove her worth during the Project Catwalk collaboration with her friend Maxwell and two other PAs from C&V, Olivia Sinclair (lesbian) and Chrissy. Soon, there is evidence of sabotage but no one is sure what is going on. The only sure thing is the growing attraction between Jenny and Olivia, but Olivia is married to motor-racer Broderick Sinclair (31, ace/aro). What Jenny doesn’t know is that it is a fake marriage as Olivia struggles between her own sexual desires and previous arrangements with her close friend Broderick.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Wilder Girls by Rory Power

    30th November 2020
    Cover of Wilder Girls (Rory Power)

    Wilder Girls by Rory Power

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: body horror, blood, bones, gore, guns, death of prominent/secondary/minor characters, poisoning

    Fear like a veil, and everything looks like something else, like danger, like hurt.

    Hetty

    This is one of the very few horror books I have ever read, and as someone who was haunted by the supposedly cute animation Monster House, horror was never my first choice of genre. But October calls for spooky reads, and since Wilder Girls is sapphic, the scare would hopefully be worth it. And I was pleasantly surprised. The gore and horror, not entirely revolting, were almost poetic.

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