In Hana & Hina After School, Morinaga returns to familiar ground, which is high school students into fashion, makeup, and other typical highly feminized activities. Hana and Hina love cute things and their shared passion makes for a story full of adorable art and outfits. Even though the bulk of the story takes place at the shop they both work at, their sweet tale of love hits all the typical high school romance notes. It's pure fun and fluff that had me rolling around on the floor in delight.

I especially enjoy that one of the characters already knew they are queer. It makes the story stand out against other high school yuri nicely, and it adds a layer of commentary about how every individual comes out at their own pace.

Check out Hana & Hina After School for a by-the-numbers lesbian high school romance with Morinaga's unique touch of authenticity.

A solid sci-fi adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest with a f/f romance to boot! Though sometimes it felt like Chiavari was challenging herself to cram a novel's worth of world-building into a novella, the hopeful, lovely ending and DRAGONS DRAGONS DRAGONS IN SPAAAAACE joy boosted my rating up to four stars. I definitely recommend it to sci-fi wlw fans, whether you're familiar with The Tempest or not!

Riding the high of Ocean's 8, I picked up Death Prefers Blondes to continue the party. Roehrig's rollicking queer heist book did that and more. It's not all thieving tech and swanky wigs. The characters are fully fleshed out and the story had surprising depth on subjects like drag, health, identity, class issues, and exploitation. The Hamlet twist is not a strict retelling, but it does deflate the mystery if you're familiar. Then again, I didn't care: I fell in love with the characters and their struggles. I finished the book and almost immediately wanted to re-read it. Death Prefers Blondes is a joyful blaze of glory in a bleak world.

After enjoying Moonshot, the indigenous comic anthology Hope Nicholson edited, I knew I had to read Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time. When my local library featured the collection as part of their Pride Month display, I snatched it up and read it in less than 24 hours.

The anthology is fantastic. As someone who is relatively new to two-spirit literature, I appreciated the introductory essays that provided context and the history of the term. Each story is a portal into the strange and familiar. I was impressed with the variety as well. Some were more hard science fiction and others were more fantasy. A few had a more realistic writing style while others were more of the "dreamy and weird" variety. There's a story for everyone here and a sense of justice done. I look forward to the next volume!

THIS WAS SO CUTE I WANT TO SCREAM. I also want it to be a movie. And the gender-swapped Dracula movie Twinkle makes to be a movie. Get on it, Netflix!!

Bruja Born continues where Labyrinth Lost left off, and, I didn't think this was possible, but Córdova's writing is even more awesome. All the strengths of the last novel--the characters, the fast paced plot, the thematic work, the world building--are dialed up another notch. Brooklyn Brujas is a truly great addition to the Young Adult urban fantasy genre and I cannot wait for book 3!

I've been meaning to read Daniel José Older's Shadowshaper series for long while, and between the looming stack of my TBR and how mega-popular it is at the library, I didn't have a chance until now. Once I started, I couldn't put it down and I ended up reading both Shadowshaper and Shadowhouse Fall in one fell swoop.

Older's musical prose, powerful characters, and much-loved setting make for a quick, engrossing read. Other reviewers were irritated by the slow pace at the beginning, and I can see where it comes from. However, the beauty of the writing, Sierra's absolutely fantastic feminist character, the thematic work concerning racism and misogynoir encouraged me to keep reading. Though my personal relationship with New York City and Brooklyn is a complicated one, I could feel Older's love of the place: what it has been and what it could continue to be if gentrification is fought off.

If you love New York City, if you want some justice, if you want some heckin' good art, if you want realistic characters that make you laugh: read this series.

Harry is back and better than ever! After loving Deadline, I had high hopes for Bloodbath and every hope was fulfilled. The snark, the heart, the kisses, the fun world and engaging mystery: all returned in full force for the first novel-length adventure. Ahn's work continues to be one of the best NA urban fantasy investigator series to date.

I've been excited to read The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali for awhile. Not only was I around for Book Twitter to celebrate it, but it's also never on the library shelf for more than a day before the novel's checked out again. When my turn finally came, I read it as fast as possible, since I know teens are waiting for this story.

One reviewer mentioned that this novel will break your heart and mend it again. They are 100% right. The gutting struggle against a homophobic family transported me back to my own coming out and other real stories I'd heard. The desperate hope that the family will come around, the search for allies, and the manipulation--it's all so familiar I cried. I especially liked Khan's deft handling how clueless the white and/or straight characters were. Speaking from a marginalized identity can be incredibly frustrating. Time and again, you try to explain your experience, and time and again, the non-marginalized person brushes it off, prioritizes their own feelings, and insists they know better.

Some reviewers have complained that Rukhsana is too quick to forgive her family and friends for their hurtful actions, and therefore the story "forgives" the family too easily. As an older adult, this storytelling decision spoke to me as a sign of Rukhsana's youth. An older Rukhsana, with her own career and social circle, might not have done this, but a teenager who needs a roof over their head, that still wants to be a part of the community she grew up in? Absolutely.

Besides the realistic depiction of LGBTQ issues, the plot is gripping, the descriptions downright magical, and the characters are so fleshed out I could picture them beside me. The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali is a tragic masterwork of queer YA fiction. I recommend it to everyone.