Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Scarlet is a black lesbian, living with her wife and her daughter. But for a while now she felt haunted by some weird presence. When therapy and pills don't help her and the presence gets more and more terrifying, she turns to her last refuge. An exorcism led by a catholic priest. A race against time begins as Scarlet and Father Angelo try to figure out how to save Scarlet and her family.
I enjoyed Scarlet's character most of the time, she was wonderfully flawed but I couldn't help but root for her. We can see how she struggles with the stress the impending demon possession puts her trough, which at times causes her to lash out at her wife and her daughter. It was also amazing to read a book featuring an older character.

Angelo was also an interesting character, he is haunted by his past in which he did dark and terrible things. To be able to help Scarlet he has to deal with it. His story takes a long time to unravel, but I found it definitely refreshing to read about a non-homophobic catholic priest, who is still faithful.

I adored Zoe. In her chapters I felt that the writing was particularly strong and she is definitely a character you just have to feel sorry for. She is probably my favorite character. Her characters were really dark and twisted, I loved it.

The writing was pretty good and I got sucked straight into the story. I was incredible happy how diverse the story was too. Sadly I think some of the subplots could have been done away with, they just felt stretched out for too long (like the homophobic exorcist helper at church)

The ending was truly disappointing for me. I won't spoiler it here, but it definitely let me down a lot and so the story only gets three stars. It just felt like a great disservice to some characters.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The two main characters of this story are Charley, a pansexual, polyamorous transman, and his girlfriend Electra, a dominatrix. Charley has been sent to Paris on a mission. A group of Neo Nazis apparently plan to plant bombs all over the city, but so far not enough proof has been found. In between all of this Charley also has to deal with trouble in paradise. After he suggests a polyamorous relationship, Electra completely shuts him out. To her it sounds like she is not good enough for him and she can't deal with that. Separated like this the two now try to figure out what is going on and how to find the bombs.
We are also immediately introduced to Dickie, a rich old british lady, who hates what became of her beautiful France. Overrun by immigrants as it is, she wants to free it. Cask, a Neo-Nazi, with a thirst for publicity will plant the bombs for her. Their chapters are incredible interesting to read and like the other characters both of them have a unique personality and are multi-dimensional, which definitely enriched the story, even though I enjoyed Dickie's plot a little bit more. And then there is Odile, a lesbian hat-maker and she is definitely one of my favorite characters. She is a good friend with Dickie, but disagrees heavily with her stance on immigrants. When she figures out that Dickie wants to harm people to get what she wants, she immediately steps up to stop her and this definitely made me like her a lot. She's also a really interesting and funny character to read about.
The writing of this book was really nice, the descriptions of Paris amazing and the story line interesting. The book kept me enraptured from the first to the last page and I liked it. Once again Electra and Charley had to overcome certain obstacles and deal with their relationship problems. They are definitely one of my favorite couples. All in all it was once again a lovely detective novel, with a wonderful diverse cast of characters and an amazing storyline. I hope we get to see more of Electra and Charley in the future.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Electra, formerly Pamela, is a 52-year-old woman, who just went trough a nasty divorce. She's also a Dominatrix, which was made public during the divorce, and despite fleeing New York to avoid the talk it followed her to San Francisco. When she meets Charley things seem to look up though.

Charley is a pansexual trans man. He is also a CIA informant and one of the best in his unit. But when he forgets to pay his taxes, he gets suspended. And his former girlfriend just left him as she realized she couldn't deal with a partner who didn't have a penis any longer. Then he meets Electra and feels immediately drawn to her. When they get to know each other better, he realizes that he really likes her. But not only the fact that he's trans hinders them from getting together. The stalker Electra attracted becomes more and more dangerous everyday.

I absolutely loved Charley, he is an amazing character and while I would have loved some more insight in his life as a trans man (except for how it interferes with his love life) it was still nice to read. At times Electra was a bit extra and I didn't always like her. While I understand that she was under a lot of pressure, at times she just acted really rude and it made me dislike her a bit. But she also had some really awesome scenes, and I adored that she was so open about her sex life. Both of them felt really real though. I also really liked Frankie, even though her part was not as big as Charley's and Electra's, she definitely made a nice addition to the trio. I would have loved some more mentions of the fact that she's a lesbian though, but it was still very nice.

The crime plot was nice thought out and you really can't help but feel some form of twisted sympathy with Randy Tytus, son of a homophobic preacher (known for his "Kill the Fags" campaign), who just wants to make his father proud... by killing as many "perverts" as he can. He is still very human, which definitely also made his parts very interesting to read.

Sadly the beginning drags a bit and some of the things are repetitive, so it took me a while to get into it, but after that the book was amazing and I really fell straight into the story. All in all it's a really nice crime/love story with an incredibly diverse and interesting set of characters.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a lovely short story with a bisexual main character. And yes, the B word is used! A lot! It's awesome. Justin has joined the track team after being dumped by his girlfriend. He's surprisingly good at it and decides to keep going and attempt the try-outs. When his mother than gives away his old lucky sneakers, he cases the charity truck to get them back. But instead of his lucky worn out shoes he finds an identical pair, except it fits better and feels much nicer. But if he wears them for too long anger threatens to take over. To break the curse he has to trust Vipin, a mysterious stranger.

Sadly as the novella is only 78 pages long it doesn't really give us much time to get to know the characters. I do like Justin and he seems nice enough, we get to see some exploration of his past and present, but I would have loved more exploration of how the sneakers affect his emotional well being, especially during the try outs for the track team, which are not at all described, except that he did well. Vipin also sounds like a good guy and you can see why Justin likes him, but again the story just doesn't give us as readers enough time to really connect with the characters.

I am however definitely looking forward to the second (maybe more?) books in "the Sole Experiment" series (there are some great, cheesy shoe puns! It's very nice) and I hope we will get to know the characters more there. (and maybe find out about the other shoes?)

All in all it is a super interesting idea but it's too short and ends to quickly, so I can't say I felt really connected to the characters. I also really enjoyed the attempt to see the positive sides that anger can have, so that was definitely refreshing.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sixteen-year-old Zel (short for Zelda, and no she's not named after the video game, but after Zelda Fitzgerald) has just moved once again, this time to Sydney, leaving her life behind her. Despite her cousin immediately introducing her to his Drama Group, she still struggles to really connect with any of them. She is very much caught up in her past and she misses New York and Prim, her best friend and crush. However their parting was pretty difficult and now Prim refuses to talk to her.

Parts of the story are told trough Past Tense flash-backs which are wonderfully woven in with the story in the present. Often Zel remembers these moments while she's choosing which pictures she wants to use for her Art Project. Then there's also the aloof dancer Stella, who intrigues her more and more while she gets to know her better during their shared Drama Project.

The character's are incredibly great and I really loved them. Emily O'Beirne writes very consistent and real characters. Zel is rather level-headed for a teenager, despite all the turmoil she is going trough and at times feels much older than she is, but it somehow fits her. She enjoys photography, but she is rather shy and uncomfortable when performing in front of large groups. She also has a great relationship with her parents and faces no difficulties for being a lesbian (except for figuring out which girls will return her crushes everything is going smoothly for her) which was really nice to read. Prim is a soon-to-be model, who hates most people, except her brothers, her cat and Zel. She is very closed off, but despite her difficult character Zelda can't help but fall for her. Then there's also awesome side characters, like Antony, Zel's cousin, who despite not fitting in the stereotype is amazing in drama, or the mysterious Stella, who often comes to late. She is definitely another one of my favorite characters, her background story is quite interesting and behind her aloofness she hides a incredibly caring soul.

I definitely enjoyed this book. As I said the characters are consistent and amazing, the story line is interesting and I liked reading about Zelda trying to figure out what she wanted to do after moving halfway around the world (again). I loved the idea they had for the Drama Project, trying to figure out what home means to people and the social aspect of the refugee crises that was woven into it. I also liked how it related to Zelda and her recent move.

I also adored the descriptions of the places, both of New York and Australia, it was wonderfully fleshed out and it felt very real. What I didn't quite like was the fact that Zelda sometimes directly talked to the reader, which kind off threw me out of the story.

But otherwise the story absolutely sucked me in and if I had had the time I would have finished it in one setting (instead it was stretched out to two). It is definitely an incredible sweet coming-of-age story and if you like reading such things, this is definitely a book for you.