eloise_bradbooks's reviews
780 reviews

 Girl raised in an ultra-conservative Christian group comes of age, has a queer awakening and an anti-religion awakening after she meets a cute girl and picks up One Last Stop.

For some people this will probably be a loved book, as it is a very positive look on getting out of a cult.
For me, it was way too "easy".

Valerie has grown up in this cult, she's been surrounded by ideas, raised in a family and a community with these ideas, but it rarely ever comes out in her own view of the world.. She is so progressive / liberal in her opinions, you'd never know she was raised in a cult that has the opposite views than hers...
She's never heard of being queer, but she sees the word "bisexual" in a book and she knows she desperately wants to pick it up?
We're told in one phrase she goes to the library and from the following line she now knows everything about queer culture?
I just couldn't seem to get behind the story.

Also, the romance was very quick to blossom, it's love at first sight, saying I love you after very little interactions...

Anyways, probably a good plaster for people who need a positive queer book about escaping a cult, but I still think it deserved much more depth. 

 Blessings follows two POVs: Obiefuna's, a gay teenager coming of age in Nigeria, where queer relationships are on the verge of being criminalised, and his mother's, who has to deal with her son being sent away to boarding school after his father catches him with another man.
Blessings can be a very tough read, but it also feels essential that it is told and read. It is also comforting in a way, to see Obiefuna find his place with people he can trust. 

 "If joy is / revolutionary / how much ecstasy / do I need / to free Palestine?" 

 It is a difficult task to write a sequel to a book which was probably only meant to be a stand-alone. And yet Erik J. Brown delivered.
All That's Left In The World is one of my favourite books of the last few years. Going into The Only Light Left Burning, I already cared so much about these boys and their relationship, but I soon discovered that there was even more love for me to have for them and the little found family they were building...
The "post-apocalyptic" part is there but probably not as "apocalyptic" as some may imagine. It's more about making it through the travels, finding people who will care for you like you will care for them, and also just living your teenage / young adult life ...
A+ ! 

 Grumpy duke discovers that he can actually fall in love, but maybe women aren't the ones he should be thinking about, when he goes on an adventure with a sunshine of a man he's ignored for some time...
It's fun, it's silly, it's wholesome. Good book. 

Dear Wendy is the queer platonic love story we’ve been waiting for. It’s contemporary, fun, cosy and a hug / love letter to aroace people.
It showcases so well the different nuances of aspec identities, how two people with the same identity can feel and want different things, all while finding comfort in all their similarities.

On a personal level, I would have liked a lit less online banter and (even more) real-life bonding between Jo and Sophie. I felt like it needed more time to be developed to truly understand the idea of them heading towards "a queer platonic love story". 

The Prospects is a very sweet enjoyable achillean romance between two baseball players, including the first trans professional baseball player.
I'd heard so much about this book in the last few weeks. It seemed like the new favourite book on the queer side of bookstagram, so I had high hopes. Especially as it was marketed as a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers achillean romance.
I think that description and the hype lead me to have TOO high expectations, wrong expectations, and with a feeling of disappointment.
I think this is a really sweet romance, with little drama, pretty comforting, great trans rep and great discussions around mental health, intimacy, race and being queer in the public eye. I don't think it's particularly slow burn or even enemies-to-lovers though, which is what I was expecting and looking for... 

The Chronicles of Nerezia is a series of cosy fantasy novellas that is focused on aspec characters in a queer normative world where platonic bonds are at the centre of the story.
Flooded Secrets is the second book after Awakenings which I also really enjoyed.
I already love and care about these characters, I can't even begin to imagine how I'm going to feel after even more books...
BRING. IT. ON.