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Showing posts with the label LGBTQA

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

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  "He's always wanted to be a person with a legacy in this world. Henry is undoutedly, determinedly that. It's a little intoxicating." Alex Claremont-Diaz, First Son of the United States, hates Prince Henry. Henry is a cold, stuck up robot according to Alex who is passionate, flirtatious, and ambitious. After Alex and Henry get in a shoving match at Prince Philip's Royal Wedding, they are forced by their families to spend time together, to convince the paparazzi that they are actually best friends. It's a story of love at first fight. This is a first for me... I've read romantasy because I like fantasy, but I've never read a novel that was intended to be romance and romance only. I picked this book up from the library after seeing the trailer for the movie. I figured if it was a movie it had to be good, right? I was surprised to find I wasn't disappointed. This book was cute.  Told from Alex's point of view it opens with a fair amount of animus...

Carving Shadows into Gold by Brigid Kemmerer

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The story of Tycho and Jax continues with their journey to Emberfall, during which there's a vicious attack by scravers. With scravers terrorizing the countryside, Tycho worries about the consequences of his promise to Nakiis. Prince Rhen orders Tycho away to warn the King and once again he finds himself riding away from Jax. Callyn's story opens with her chasing the princess through the palace, part of her new job as Sinna's lady in waiting. Soon it becomes her responsibility to figure out why the Queen was attacked, trapping her in a game of politics that may turn deadly. I'm going to start by saying, Jax and Tycho are sooooo sweet. They're sweet together and sweet to each other. If you are looking for a lighthearted romantasy that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, this book's opening salvo fits the bill. But as wonderful as it is it can't stay that way for long. Their relationship becomes strained by the necessity of finding balance between the...

Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer

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"Fate has already drawn a path beyond this moment..." Brigid Kemmerer can always be trusted when your definition of "light reading" is a page turning fairytale that keeps you up all night long. Welcome back to the lands of Syhl Shallow and Emberfall, where Cursebreakers  trilogy took place. Years after the events of the Cursebreakers, the kingdom that Grey and Lia Mara hoped would unite is falling apart under the threat and fear of the magic that has returned to the land...But this is not their story. This is the story of Callyn, a baker, brave and bold as any soldier, whose distrust of magesmiths and all forms of magic leaves her equally distrustful of strangers. It's the story of Jax, a crippled blacksmith, convinced his fate lies in the forge, under his father's abusive care. And it's the story of Tycho, the King's Courier, who stops at the small town of Briarlock when his horse throws a shoe, in desperate need of a blacksmith. The first thing tha...

Q = Queen (The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire)

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  “He had thought love as a policy made a lot of sense for those who could manage it, and anyone who could manage it belonged in religious life. The rest of us have to struggle with more ordinary love, the common or garden variety: love as a crippling condition. Love as a syndrome.” ― Gregory Maguire, The Next Queen of Heaven So my Q entry is a bit of a stretch, but I hadn't read a book that starts with Q and I settled for a title with a Q in it. Today's review is short and to the point. What do I think about this book? I think anyone who gave it a rating of two stars or less, doesn't understand satire or is too deeply devout to laugh at themselves. I thought it was fantastic to use humor to bring a bit of reality to light; the constant press for moral conformity from religious groups and the conflicts with the flawed individuals who attend. I also thought the parallels between Jeremy's long failed relationship with Willem and Tabitha's recently failed relationship ...

P = Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth

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  “That version, as with so many of the stories we tell about our history, erased a woman- a plain, bad heroine- in favor of a less messy and more palatable yarn about two feuding brothers from New England.” ― Emily M. Danforth, Plain Bad Heroines Plain Bad Heroines is a book with two settings; the story begins in 1902 Rhode Island, at Brookhants School for Girls. The girls at the school become infatuated with each other, and obsessed with a memoir by teen author, Mary MacLane. They start a society that worships the book and, eventually, die tragically with the book in their company. Libbie Brookhants and her long time girlfriend, Alexandra Trills are trying to unravel the mystery before they themselves become unraveled. The second setting is in modern day Hollywood, where actresses Harper Harper and Audrey Wells have been cast to play leading roles in an upcoming horror movie titled: Happenings at Brookhants , based on the novel written by teen writer Merritt Emmons who will be c...

Good Omens... by Terry Pratchett , Neil Gaiman

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  Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch   by Terry Pratchett ,  Neil Gaiman “Hell may have all the best composers, but heaven has all the best choreographers.” The end is here...or nearing here. Heaven and Hell are quite excited about the apocalypse but they're the only ones. Demon Crowly and Angel Aziraphale have been sent to Earth to meddle in the affairs of humans for thousands of years...and they don't want the world to end... We have crapes, Queen, and books. The Antichrist is here to bring in the end of times but where exactly is here? Charged with watching over him, Crowly and Aziraphale are left panicked when they realize they lost the Antichrist. And a witch named Anathema Device teams up with luckless witch hunter Newton Pulsifer to find him. So this is to date, one of the funniest books I've ever read, which maybe isn't saying too much because I don't read a lot of comedies. But I laughed so hard I nearly wet myself. I feel l...

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

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“That version, as with so many of the stories we tell about our history, erased a woman- a plain, bad heroine- in favor of a less messy and more palatable yarn about two feuding brothers from New England.” ― Emily M. Danforth, Plain Bad Heroines Plain Bad Heroines is a book with two settings; the story begins in 1902 Rhode Island, at Brookhants School for Girls. The girls at the school become infatuated with each other, and obsessed with a memoir by teen author, Mary MacLane. They start a society that worships the book and, eventually, die tragically with the book in their company. Libbie Brookhants and her long time girlfriend, Alexandra Trills are trying to unravel the mystery before they themselves become unraveled. The second setting is in modern day Hollywood, where actresses Harper Harper and Audrey Wells have been cast to play leading roles in an upcoming horror movie titled: Happenings at Brookhants , based on the novel written by teen writer Merritt Emmons who will be consulti...