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rainbowbrarian's Reviews (1.85k)
Leo is a tattooed strong guy who might look like someone you should avoid in a dark alley but he’s actually a quiet and gentle florist who loves his dog and has learned that not many people can look past the tattoos to see who he is.
Jacob is a shy awkward bookshop owner who has just come off a nasty breakup and doesn’t know if he can ever let himself be that open and vulnerable again. He’s also struggling to start his business and he’s worried he might be getting in over his head.
Leo and Jacob bond over flowers and book recommendations and their characters grow closer in the Dungeons and Dragons game that Jacob’s friend Edward hosts in the bookshop every week.
This story was sweet, I love the cast of supportive side characters with casual positive trans character rep. Emily and her husband are even trying to become parents. Sometimes it got a little tough to be in Jacob’s head as he pushed away the people who cared about him. A medium burn romance where they learn how best to support each other. Big bonus points for Leo being a good person and actually respecting Jacob’s request for space even if it was a bad idea on Jacob’s part.
I am a giant geek and I LOVED the cosplay and gaming and spaceship displays that wove through this story. You don’t have to worry if you’re not up on table top games though, you’re not going to be lost in mechanics or anything. Give this one a read for adorkable guys in love.
Jacob is a shy awkward bookshop owner who has just come off a nasty breakup and doesn’t know if he can ever let himself be that open and vulnerable again. He’s also struggling to start his business and he’s worried he might be getting in over his head.
Leo and Jacob bond over flowers and book recommendations and their characters grow closer in the Dungeons and Dragons game that Jacob’s friend Edward hosts in the bookshop every week.
This story was sweet, I love the cast of supportive side characters with casual positive trans character rep. Emily and her husband are even trying to become parents. Sometimes it got a little tough to be in Jacob’s head as he pushed away the people who cared about him. A medium burn romance where they learn how best to support each other. Big bonus points for Leo being a good person and actually respecting Jacob’s request for space even if it was a bad idea on Jacob’s part.
I am a giant geek and I LOVED the cosplay and gaming and spaceship displays that wove through this story. You don’t have to worry if you’re not up on table top games though, you’re not going to be lost in mechanics or anything. Give this one a read for adorkable guys in love.
I chose this book for the August selection of Reading Rainbow Queer Book Club. It’s an older book, published in 2014, so I wanted to see what the group would have to say about the differences between the trans experience almost ten years ago and the trans experience now.
And then I had a terrible cold on book group night so I missed our discussion entirely. So here are only my thoughts, also caveat, I am a white cisgender woman, hence there’s a lot of privilege I am coming from and trying to be mindful of.
By virtue of when this book was published Janet Mock was obligated to do a lot of ‘trans 101’ info dumping since this book was going to be received by a very cis audience. So the book was almost half memoir and half ‘educate yourself on what it means to be trans (and queer, and black, and poor). Janet did a fantastic job of discussing intersectionality and where she held privileges so that she was able to invite empathy and understanding.
She spent a lot of time moving around as a child, going between parents and between locations (Chicago to Texas to Hawaii). Her father tried to help her learn to exist in the world as a black man because that was the only way he knew to keep his child safe. In doing so he was causing harm, despite his best intentions. Janet’s mother was supportive in a different way, not policing gender, but at the same time being largely absent as she chased boyfriends.
It was well written and I’d love to read a book published more recently to see how the experiences change.
And then I had a terrible cold on book group night so I missed our discussion entirely. So here are only my thoughts, also caveat, I am a white cisgender woman, hence there’s a lot of privilege I am coming from and trying to be mindful of.
By virtue of when this book was published Janet Mock was obligated to do a lot of ‘trans 101’ info dumping since this book was going to be received by a very cis audience. So the book was almost half memoir and half ‘educate yourself on what it means to be trans (and queer, and black, and poor). Janet did a fantastic job of discussing intersectionality and where she held privileges so that she was able to invite empathy and understanding.
She spent a lot of time moving around as a child, going between parents and between locations (Chicago to Texas to Hawaii). Her father tried to help her learn to exist in the world as a black man because that was the only way he knew to keep his child safe. In doing so he was causing harm, despite his best intentions. Janet’s mother was supportive in a different way, not policing gender, but at the same time being largely absent as she chased boyfriends.
It was well written and I’d love to read a book published more recently to see how the experiences change.
CW: on page rape, self harm, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, PTSD, please read with care for your self.
Okay, I loved this one. Great story, slow burn, strangers to lovers, arranged marriage. They handled the sexual assault with care and compassion. Loved the inclusion of characters communicating in sign language. Political intrigue and cross cultural interactions, huzzah for a queernorm culture.
Very well developed romance that progressed naturally and organically within a difficult arranged marriage.
Hard to put down. I read it great big chunks at a time.
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When I read the description of this book I was immediately intrigued by the idea of a man being in an arranged marriage to another man. I checked it out right when it was released and then had to return it for a few months as other things jumped the queue for me to read, then I picked it up a week or so ago and I was HOOKED. I almost couldn’t put it down.
Please be aware that this book deals with some very dark content and the author has provided a CW at the start of the book, please read safely. CW: on page rape/sexual assault, suicidal actions and thoughts, fear of sexual violence, animal death, on page violence.
After being betrayed by his lover Velasin ends up in an arranged marriage to one of the heirs to a neighboring country in a political match. When the match maker discovers Velasin’s preference for men, he is set up to marry the king’s son instead of his daughter.
When Velasin arrives in Tithena an unknown force immediately seeks to kill him and disrupt the alliance between the two countries.
Caethari, the Tithenai heir, expected Velasin would marry his sister and when he suddenly ends up with a fiance and a male one at that, he doesn’t expect a sudden romance, just hopes that they can learn to coexist as friends.
The political story is well plotted and satisfying, and the relationship between Velasin and Caethari is well done, especially given the intense trauma that Velasin has been through. I read this 500+ page book in an astonishingly short amount of time. And I will absolutely be getting the sequel once it comes out.
Okay, I loved this one. Great story, slow burn, strangers to lovers, arranged marriage. They handled the sexual assault with care and compassion. Loved the inclusion of characters communicating in sign language. Political intrigue and cross cultural interactions, huzzah for a queernorm culture.
Very well developed romance that progressed naturally and organically within a difficult arranged marriage.
Hard to put down. I read it great big chunks at a time.
----
When I read the description of this book I was immediately intrigued by the idea of a man being in an arranged marriage to another man. I checked it out right when it was released and then had to return it for a few months as other things jumped the queue for me to read, then I picked it up a week or so ago and I was HOOKED. I almost couldn’t put it down.
Please be aware that this book deals with some very dark content and the author has provided a CW at the start of the book, please read safely. CW: on page rape/sexual assault, suicidal actions and thoughts, fear of sexual violence, animal death, on page violence.
After being betrayed by his lover Velasin ends up in an arranged marriage to one of the heirs to a neighboring country in a political match. When the match maker discovers Velasin’s preference for men, he is set up to marry the king’s son instead of his daughter.
When Velasin arrives in Tithena an unknown force immediately seeks to kill him and disrupt the alliance between the two countries.
Caethari, the Tithenai heir, expected Velasin would marry his sister and when he suddenly ends up with a fiance and a male one at that, he doesn’t expect a sudden romance, just hopes that they can learn to coexist as friends.
The political story is well plotted and satisfying, and the relationship between Velasin and Caethari is well done, especially given the intense trauma that Velasin has been through. I read this 500+ page book in an astonishingly short amount of time. And I will absolutely be getting the sequel once it comes out.
I might be the last person on earth to read this, so you might all already know this story. BUT JUST IN CASE! This book was delightful.
We meet Linus, a downtrodden social work caseworker who investigates orphanages where magical children are housed. He does care about the children he’s sent to look after, but the system is set up to remove him from what happens to the children that he removes from these homes. And he’s learned to be complacent about that. Until he is sent to Marsyas, a strange orphanage far from home where he meets Arthur Parnassus and his oddly charming bunch of wards.
It’s so heartwarming to see Linus starting to come to life at Marsyas where he learns to let go of the nigh holy RULES AND REGULATIONS which he has used to govern his life up till this point. The children need a champion to help them and Linus, who considers himself to be a fat, unremarkable, middle aged nobody, finds himself stepping into that role for the children and for their enigmatic father figure Arthur.
I fell in love with Lucy who has spiders in his brain, and Talia who threatens to murder people with her shovel, and Chauncey, the tentacled jellyfish like little boy who wants to be a bellhop. If you haven’t yet read this one, give it a try. It’ll make you feel good and give you hope for the world.
We meet Linus, a downtrodden social work caseworker who investigates orphanages where magical children are housed. He does care about the children he’s sent to look after, but the system is set up to remove him from what happens to the children that he removes from these homes. And he’s learned to be complacent about that. Until he is sent to Marsyas, a strange orphanage far from home where he meets Arthur Parnassus and his oddly charming bunch of wards.
It’s so heartwarming to see Linus starting to come to life at Marsyas where he learns to let go of the nigh holy RULES AND REGULATIONS which he has used to govern his life up till this point. The children need a champion to help them and Linus, who considers himself to be a fat, unremarkable, middle aged nobody, finds himself stepping into that role for the children and for their enigmatic father figure Arthur.
I fell in love with Lucy who has spiders in his brain, and Talia who threatens to murder people with her shovel, and Chauncey, the tentacled jellyfish like little boy who wants to be a bellhop. If you haven’t yet read this one, give it a try. It’ll make you feel good and give you hope for the world.
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Yuriko and Gakurouta are newlyweds, but not like you’d expect. Gakurouta is gay and has been in love with his best friend since childhood and Yuriko is aromantic and asexual. She only feels those things when reading about her favorite m/m couples in novels and manga. They decide to get married because of social pressure from their families. They set up home together and look like a typical hetero couple from the outside but at home they have separate bedrooms and interests.
It kind of sounds a little lonely and sad, but the relationship between them is surprisingly loving and sweet. Yuriko goes out of her way to support Gakurouta as he struggles with his unreturned feelings that he can’t quite seem to get over, and he devotes himself to trying to share her interests and being a good husband in all other ways. He wants to pick her up when she’s gone out drinking with her friends and they both try to cook for each other with amusingly disastrous results. He wants to read her gay stories and she’s hilariously embarrassed about it.
I did not expect this little story to be this good. There’s some honest talk about relationships and how they work and don’t work in Japan. I am looking forward to a second volume!
A middle aged white guy who is able to manage a round the world tour trip just to avoid an uncomfortable social engagement who then proceeds to be miserable the entire time.
Less is unlikeable, whiny, and honestly I just wanted to shake him and tell him to get over himself. I mean really, you can just go on this amazing trip without having to worry about paying for most of it, you live in a house you inherited from your ex-lover, you've made your living writing a few books that your famous lover's influence definitely helped, talk about privilege.
And then he has the gall to just moan the whole time.
I DNFed this at 35% ish. Not for me. If I want entitled cis white guy whining I get enough of that in every day life. No, Thank you.
Less is unlikeable, whiny, and honestly I just wanted to shake him and tell him to get over himself. I mean really, you can just go on this amazing trip without having to worry about paying for most of it, you live in a house you inherited from your ex-lover, you've made your living writing a few books that your famous lover's influence definitely helped, talk about privilege.
And then he has the gall to just moan the whole time.
I DNFed this at 35% ish. Not for me. If I want entitled cis white guy whining I get enough of that in every day life. No, Thank you.
