jennireadsmaybe's Reviews (678)

Freydís Moon the person that you are!!!

Wolf, Willow, Witch takes Gideon and flips in on its head. Changes are amok when Tehlor stumbles upon Lincoln's dead body in the walls of her friend's house and chooses to raise him from the dead. So freaking powerful!! 

What I wouldn't give to be able to read this again for the first time. Moon's writing wrecked me in the best way. Tehlor and Lincoln's absolute disdain to reluctant allies to lovers arc is unmatched. Set all around the mystery of a powerful relic that a cult has found in their control. I absolutely love horror romance and it's all Freydís Moon's fault. 

Tehlor is a love letter to rage-filled women. Nobody can take my love for her away from me. My favorite example of supporting women's wrongs.  

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts. 

Add Playing for Keeps to the list of books that made me cry. It was such a beautiful and heart wrenching portrayal of grief and how grief affects our relationships with everyone around us. I was particularly drawn to June, our star baseball player, because of just how pressured she felt by everyone around her to be the best. 

June and Ivy’s romance was so sweet and heartfelt. I genuinely  felt their connection and how much they cared for each other. I felt like I was back in high school crushing on jocks and stressing over the future. It was truly the most adorable YA romance I’ve read in a very long time. 

The Witch King is such a strong start to a fantasy duology featuring a trans witch MMC, his fae childhood best friend and fated mate, his fat Indigenous new best friend, and so many more fun characters. H.E. Edgmon explores repression and indigenous in both the fae kingdom and the human world that Wyatt flees to prior to the start of the series. 

A queer normative fae world is the most powerful aspect of The Witch King, because so much of fae fantasy romance revolves around cishet fated mates. Wyatt is unapologetically trans and not falling for the pressure to become the baby-making mate the kingdom needs him to be. I loved everything about it!! 

I'm excited to see what's to come in the second book after where things left off. 

This book is perfect for anyone looking for queer fantasy, messy and chaotic trans/queer characters, and just a funny time. 

The way Lamya H masterfully weaves together stories from the Quran with her life makes Hijab Butch Blues one of my all time favorite memoirs. Honestly, I think all queer people should read this, as well as anyone interested in the intersection of faith and queerness. 

Cannibalism as a metaphor for love is truly my favorite thing about vampires and Morgan Dante certainly delivers on that!! Dark, gritty, and filled to the brim with women's wrongs Unholy with Eyes like Wolves is the gothic, vampire romance of my dreams. 

There's nothing like queer characters getting to be their messy, complicated selves. Morgan Dante explores themes of religion, purity, and societal pressure for women to be molded into the perfect wife and mother (especially at the time of history that this takes place in). 

I simply loved this. Period. 

Thank you to Morgan Dante for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review <3 

Latinx, queer + non-binary trans-masculine pirates? This was everything to me. As a pirate, sea adventure loving reader, I was so so excited to read this and it didn't disappoint! Mar's journey with his magic was one that I feel like is underrepresented in so much of fantasy today. The battle against this key part of them was heartwarming and beautiful. 

Throw in the deal with the devil aspect and I was fully invested from the start. Dami, the genderfluid demon that stole my heart, and Bas, fellow headstrong pirate extraordinaire, really brought everything together for me. I love the different relationships that Mar formed throughout the story. 

The representation in this book is so important. Pirate fantasy has long been a white cishet dominated subgenre when it's historically untrue. The additional exploration of spanish colonization and the drastic effect it had on Latin America was handled so well. Gabe Cole Novoa ends the book with an author's note that talks about bringing attention to an often overlooked part of history and it further shows just how important the representation in The Wicked Bargain is. 

There's nothing like discovering a new favorite author! While I've seen Heart, Haunt, Havoc all around the bookish community, I was always afraid to pick it up. I am the biggest scaredy cat and knowing it has horror elements... I was scared for my life. I decided to pick it up during the #TransRightsReadathon because I'm going out of my way this year to pick up books outside my comfort zone. I'm so so so glad I did!! Moon's exploration of grief and how it haunts us is painfully realistic. I was bowled over by Colin and Bishop's t4t romance in the midst of the horror/occult happenings. I can't wait to continue reading The Gideon Testaments.

Talk about a poetry collection that everyone should read!! Mx. Yaffa (They/She) tackles grief caused by the ongoing genocide in Palestine and looks to a future that will be free of settler colonialism. Pieces that stuck out to me in this collection are One Genocide, Every Fiber, Trans and Palestine, Count, Marginalized, and Land back.

Imagine my delight when I found out there was a trans + queer baseball romance coming out where the main character is the first trans man to play professional baseball. The Prospects is everything I love about romance and sports and queer/trans identity mixed into one totally delightful, heartwarming story. 

Gene is the kind of character that will stick with me for the rest of my life. He's an optimist, but he's so afraid to dream of more for himself. His romance with Luis is yearning personified. The former teammates turned rivals turned teammates want each other so badly that they don't quite know how to leave the other be. Truly, I would do anything to protect them from the world. 

K.T. Hoffman isn't afraid to acknowledge the tough conversations around just how white and cis-het baseball is. But, at its heart, The Prospects is a story of hope, friendship, community, romance, dreaming, and all the different forms love that we have for people. I can't wait to see what is to come for K.T. Hoffman!! 

Sparks Still Fly is another sweet and steamy romance from Cristina Santos, who fyi does a phenomenal job at capturing the feeling of loving someone when you don’t want to. This second chance, right person wrong time, married in Vegas meets marriage of convenience was magical and delightful. The mommy issues were real with this one… I felt seen to say the least. 

So many things in this worked so well for me. From the two different time periods (in different parts of the book), to the forced proximity, to the small town vibes, it just served. The small moments between Owen and Maeve are everything to me. They’ve loved each other since they met all those years ago. 

Also, can we take a moment to praise the cover gods for this absolutely stunning cover.

Thank you to Cristina Santos for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts <3