simonlorden's Reviews (1.38k)

This story was... a lot of things. And I loved most things about it - the main characters (one albino bisexual guy and one aromantic agender best friend), the use of the solar panels, and all of Seraphin's inner conflicts. That being said, the scene in the middle caught me off guard despite the blurb and shook me up, and while I understand it was necessary,

I still think Leanna dying on page like that was overkill

.

Still, this story definitely made me more excited about reading Viral Airwaves, so I hope I'll manage to pick it up soon. (And I hope VA has more Alex. Whom I'm adding to my growing list of "nonbinary characters called Alex that I love". It currently has three members.)

I loved this prequel novella with two siblings - Theodore is asexual and in a relationship with a guy, and Bridget is attracted to multiple genders (currently dating a woman but used to be in a relationship with a guy). Sibling relationships are my jam, and it's even better when everyone is queer. I also loved the story and the side characters, though the layout of the city was a little difficult.

This is a shortened version - read the full review on my blog.

LGBTQAI+: Sapphic main and side characters in a couple of stories, and a transgender man LI in one
Sex on page: No

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have so much love to give to this anthology.

At first glance, I loved the way the stories are in a chronological order, and the year + setting is clearly stated right before every story. Then I started reading, and I’m not kidding when I say that I fell in love with every single one of these heroines. The quality of writing in this anthology was through the roof – I was taken in by every single story. I also loved the author’s notes at the end of each story, which included many things: the real historical context, the research that went into the stories, how the experience of the characters relates to the authors’ experiences, and sometimes even recommended further reading.

As soon as I finished reading, I went on Goodreads to look up the other books by these authors and add most of them to my TBR.

While I kinda wish more of the stories had queer characters, I still didn’t mind in this case since the religious, racial and neurodivergent diversity was amazing. Many of the stories didn’t have romance at all, or there were hints of future romance, but the ambition of the girls took priority (for now). Still, there were some great male (future) love interests that I fell in love with.

(See my blog for individual short reviews of all 12 stories.)

Final rating: 📚📚📚📚📚/5

I have seen many people recommend this story, but what really made me pick it up was the end of RoAnna Sylver's review of it:

Ultimately this is a story about letting go of a clenched fist so your hand can be open for whatever goodness next comes to you. The same is true of hearts.

This story was exactly as good as everyone said it would be. It is a magical love story between two trans, bi protagonists in the 1800s, and also about holding on to and moving on from lost loved ones.

I really loved the writing in this story - I was captivated by the story, especially towards the end when everything started unraveling. I also loved the little details or choices, like Cecily making prosthetic limbs and the people loving and remembering her for it even years later.

I'm not very coherent with this review, but trust me when I say that I loved this and you should read it too. <3

This is a retelling of Rapunzel with two girls who fall in love. It was a lovely story that truly felt like a classic fairytale, except better because it had both main and side queer characters. It also touched on how important it is to see yourself in books and stories. I loved the side characters as well, and I was pleasantly surprised by Valentine's decision in the end, as well as the line of succession in Agnes's country.

Read on my blog.

Number of stories: 9
LGBQAI+: Every story has LGBTQAI+ main characters of various orientations, including trans women, gay trans men, aromantic partners, nonbinary characters, etc.
Sex on page: Yes, in certain stories

I knew this anthology couldn’t be bad when it started with Sacha Lamb, and I was right. I ended up loving every single story except one (more on that below) and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this anthology. I loved the diverse identities and even genres, and hey, there’s never enough happy queer stories.

miss me with that gay shit (please don’t) by sacha lamb: Jewish gay trans boys in love are apparently Sacha Lamb’s Thing, and I love it. Also featuring: great sibling relationship, a Muslim/Jewish lesbian side couple, and “Tumblr language” that is hilarious instead of forced. I would like to give this 10 stars out of 5.

gifts of spring by shira glassman: This story is about a trans woman mage in a fantasy world who meets a Jewish acrobat/performer. Most of the story is about them spending time together and helping out others in town. It was a lovely short story. (Note: there is on-page sex in this one.)

wishing on the perseid by kay c. sulli: For someone who really hates the outdoors, I love reading about outdoorsy people and romances. This one is a m/m romance between a park ranger and a visitor who go on hikes and wonder if the other one is interested or just being friendly. I loved both main characters and I loved the happy ending – maybe wishing on stars does work sometimes 😉 (Note: this one also has on-page sex.)

hunt and peck by teresa theophano: Absolutely wonderful story about two teenage girls (one of them butch) in the 1980s who meet during a typing competition and fall in love. It also has a lesbian couple with a child as side characters. This is one of my favourites in this collection. (tw for homomisic parents, though)

first light at dawn by nyri bakkalian: This story is written as an e-mail (letter?) from a trans woman who details being closeted trans in the army, living together with her girlfriend, and other things to a friend of hers. It has a lot of descriptions of trauma, PTSD and the army, but I still loved it.

dragons do not by evelyn deshane: Another one of my favourites. In this world, disabled people injured in accidents get dragons as service animals, but they are also separated from most people by the government who want to hide their failures (=the accidents that caused disabilities). The main character is a queer woman who comes to terms with losing her girlfriend and looks forward to getting to know another woman with a dragon. I really loved the “dragons as service animals” idea, and how it was gradually proven that the dragon rulebook given out by the government is bullshit.

planchette by carolyn gage: This might be cruel to say, but this story is single-handedly the reason why I didn’t rate this anthology 5 stars. It is written as a screenplay in the 1800s, which was actually interesting, and I enjoyed parts of it – but really hated others. I’m not even sure if Jude is supposed to be a trans man or a butch lesbian, but in either case this feels like messy representation. A lesbian side character is brutally murdered in front of her girlfriend, and even the ending is ambiguous at best, so I just… really don’t understand the inclusion of this story in an anthology that focuses on happy queer stories.

birthday landscapes by e. h. timms: Fantasy story about two aromantic people who decided to raise children together. One of them is also a famous adventurer with many songs written about him, that he doesn’t necessarily appreciate. I didn’t love this story as much as some of the others, but I still enjoyed it, and seeing aromantic people like this (happy, and with the word used on page) was great.

a gallant rescue by a. p. raymond: This story is about a spaceship crew rescuing their female friend’s girlfriend from an arranged marriage. It really is a rescue mission, with breaking in and sneaking out and everything. Other than the lesbian couple, it also has a polyamorous relationship with a woman and two nonbinary people, who both use different pronouns (they/them and ey/em, specifically). I absolutely loved this, and give me more nonbinary and polyam people in stories please.

For other opinions, check out this review
which I found pretty neat.

My rating: 🌈🌈🌈🌈/5.

Read full review on my blog.

I received a copy from the editor, Bogi Takács in exchange for an honest review.

Number of stories: 16
LGBTQAI+: Every story in this anthology has trans and other queer characters with various identities.
Sex on page: No

First of all, it was wonderful to see so many trans characters with various identities and experiences, including but far from being limited to various pronouns. There were characters with singular they, characters switching between he and she, and characters using several different sets of neopronouns.

That being said, this anthology was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some stories that I really enjoyed, but a disappointing number of them just didn’t really work for me for reasons that are difficult to verbalise.

Perhaps I should start by mentioning that this anthology had a short story by one of my favourite authors, RoAnna Sylver. I’ve read Happy REGARDS before in the Life Within Parole collection, and I adored – I still adore – it. Still, I was surprised and a little conflicted that it was included in this anthology, for one simple reason: I am not sure it can stand on its own. It has a wonderful cast of characters, but they exist within a world full of many stories – and when you read only one of those stories, things can get hectic and even confusing.

On a smaller scale, I felt this way about several of the other stories – like I was only getting part of the picture. Of course, there is nothing wrong with leaving things up to the reader’s interpretation, but in this anthology, a little too many stories left me baffled or yearning for a little more clarification. This might just be a personal preference, though.

What I really would have appreciated at the beginning is a list of trigger or content warnings for each story, since many of them deal with heavy topics like suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression, bullying… And probably others I either missed or suddenly can’t remember. A few of these are mentioned in the introduction, but I feel like a comprehensive list could have been useful.

I wanted to get those thoughts out of the way, but I also want to talk about the parts that I genuinely enjoyed, so here are a few words about my favourite stories:

Because Change Was The Ocean And We Lived By Her Mercy: My favourite story in this collection, honestly. (Other than Happy REGARDS, of course, but that should go without saying at this point.) Because Change Was The Ocean is a solarpunk-ish story about community and belonging and I would gladly give it five out of five stars. Or more.

Skerry-Bride: This was one of the shortest stories I think, but it had wonderful descriptions about the POV character’s shapechanging lover. There are also many Norse mythology elements.

Transitions: This story was interesting because it started out as a completely ordinary, present-day story about transition, and by that I mean lacking any speculative elements – then some aspects of Indigenous culture were worked into the story and it fit together beautifully.

and, of course, Happy REGARDS: If you follow me on any kind of social media, you have probably seen me scream about Chameleon Moon and RoAnna’s other works before. Happy REGARDS is a wonderful short story that focuses on Evelyn, Danae and Rose’s family, including some siblings, in-laws, and found/chosen family as well.

My rating: ☄☄☄☄/5

Read on my blog.

I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.

#IndieAthon is off to a great start, because wow, this book was amazing.

It’s not often that you find videogames, customer service, Black Friday sales and real, actual dragons in the same story, but Smoke Signals certainly ticks all those boxes. There’s also an adorable romance, cultural differences that lead to awkwardness, dragon lore incorporated into modern human culture, communication about boundaries, knitting and cooking shows…

Honestly, I adored this story from the beginning to the end. First, I related to Mike’s customer service job and his difficult customers, and later I was pulled in by the gradually developing relationship between him and Zali’thurg. I also spent most of it grinning ear-to-ear – there are quite a few humorous parts or comments, and some really sweet gestures coming from both love interests.

While there is a quite explicit sex scene, even that is intriguing in terms of cultural differences, and Zali’thurg’s, well, dragonness. While he has a pseudohuman form that he often uses around Mike, I appreciated that this form wasn’t fully human and Zali’thurg still retained several characteristics of his species.

I understand that romance with a non-human character may not be for everyone, but personally, Smoke Signal was one of my favourite reads of the year.

My rating: 🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉/5

I received a free ARC from the author in a giveaway. This did not affect my review in any way.

Read on my blog.

Can you believe I actually read this book in one day? I can't.

Long Steady Distance was pretty out of my comfort zone with the sports and religious themes, but I ended up liking it much more than I expected. Both the main character, Emily, and the love interest, Sophie (who is biracial with a black father and white mother) felt like real people with real personalities and interests. I admit that a lot of the track terminology was frustrating at first, but I got used to it after a while and it was interesting to follow these girls to their competitions.

I especially liked Emily's personality and her motivations and interests when it came to running-but-not-competing, and some other things. I also loved the side characters (bless Rhys, honestly. also Sophia's brother) and I loved that there was a supportive teacher figure who was always on the side of his students.

I must say that the plot felt a little predictable at times - when the two girls started dating somewhere halfway through the book, I was constantly waiting for something to wrong, and eventually it did, in a very similar way to what I expected. Still, there were some positive surprises towards the end, and this is where I'm going to include a spoiler-y paragraph.

This book also nicely illustrated the fact that overprotective parents who leave their kids little freedom are unfortunately very likely to end up with their kids lying to them. Watching Emily's lies pile up was sort of like a trainwreck, but she and her mother were both at fault for how the situation turned out.

I was really hoping for a twist where either Emily comes clean to her mom before Beth can do her damage, or maybe when Beth outs her, her mom stands up for her/tells Beth off for very clearly blackmailing Emily? I mean, she pulled Emily's personal stuff out of her bag, so I feel like the adults could have been more concerned with that. Still, Emily's mother ended up positively surprising me when she stood up to the pastor, and it turned out that she was actually mad about the lying, not really about her daughter being gay.

I felt like the book wrapped up nicely - in the last few pages, the resolution of several conflicts was neatly shown at once without it being forced (e.g. the mobile phone and the driving). I was a little sad about

Emily still having to change schools

, but it felt more realistic that she had to compromise and didn't win every battle. (Or at least not at once - I really hope she further gets to explore her faith without parental pressure in the future.)

Also, little sisters are great. Sometimes.

tw: religious homophobia in a few (not many) scenes, main character gets outed against her will, couple of uses of the word homosexual

This book was February's Sapphic Book Club read hosted by @sapphicliterature.



I... read this entire book and I honestly don't have much to say about it?

I enjoyed the relationship between the three protagonists (Aela and Brynne, who are two women in a sort-of-romantic relationship, and Del, who becomes friends with both of them). Looking back, the overall plot was also interesting - and yet, the execution felt lacking. I felt myself skimming through pages of descriptions instead of reading them. I can't really put my finger on it, but somehow the writing couldn't hold my attention despite the fact that I liked the characters and the plot.

Hence why it's a 3-star read - it didn't leave a lasting impression in either a positive or a negative direction.