July Reading Updates
READING UPDATES
I wanted to include reading updates in this blog to share with you about some of the queer books I’ve been reading as well as the Hope Ever After series. Many of these queer books (all but one—and I’ll say why below) have been added to the showcase pages on my website. With these books, I am now at 38 books read this year out of my goal of 50.
Hope Ever After
First, this series isn’t queer. Wanted to put that out there up front. It is a collection of fairy tale retellings with clean romance (no spice) written by twenty different authors. I happen to know one of the authors, which is why I heard about this series. I decided to read her book to support her and then decided to read all of the books as the proceeds of this set is donated to the O.U.R charity, which works against child trafficking. Now that I’ve read all twenty, here’s a graphic of my favorite ones (the ones I’ve rated as five out of five stars).
Master of One by Jaida Jones and Dani Bennett (My Review)
I absolutely love the Havemercy series by these authors so I was so excited to pick up this book. First, the title wasn’t for the reason I thought based on the description. Second, the book had a bit of a slow start for me (tomb raiding and heists aren’t really my thing), but soon, I found myself in love with the thief Rags and then his fae prince companion Shining Talon. The rest of the cast are highly diverse, with a crippled prince and a transgender actress. Not to mention the main very sloooooooooooooooooooow burn romance between Rags and Shining Talon. The magic they used in this book made me ache for more of the Havemercy series. At the same time, I need more of this story too. The ending resolved nothing and made it feel like a solid Book One. This book was added to my main Gay Showcase page.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (My Review)
This book is a novel that my book club wanted to read for July. It was funny, because I saw someone on the plane reading this book before my book club picked it. Anyway, it was a well written book that included a gay main character. However, the book was contemporary and felt very literary, so it was not written in a style that I enjoyed. I rated the book low due to my personal tastes, but I would still recommend reading it as it was well done. If you enjoy contemporary and literary (which I’m learning my book club tends to go for the more highbrow literature), you may really enjoy it. This book was added to my Other Gay Titles showcase page.
The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd (My Review)
This book is an older early 2010s era book and it shows. It takes place during the summer after high school and before college. The main character struggles with coming out as gay and has a not-boyfriend who seems to be questioning his own identity. There’s a lot of mundaneness to this book and the not-boyfriend has little involvement until the very end when the most major plot point occurs. It doesn’t feel…earned (odd wording, considering what happens). Without spoilers, what I mean is, that it feels like it was added to the story for shock value rather than any real depth or growth for the characters, particularly where the character the big thing happens to (the not-boyfriend) wasn’t shown in a significant way throughout the book. And the main character’s “growth” as a person around their relationship (or lack thereof) isn’t well developed. It seems he all of a sudden wakes up one day just fine. Anyway, I didn’t much care for this book, but it is an example of a queer book and a coming out story so I’ve added it to my Other Gay Titles showcase page.
And They Were Roommates by Page Powars (My Review)
This book was a fantastic read on a transboy who falls in love with his new male roommate even though that roommate broke his heart when he had been a girl. It has a lot of the elements I enjoy in a story, including a boarding school setting and an enemies to lovers romance. The main character’s experiences as trans also spoke deeply to my soul. I wish there had been more of that struggle shown within the story, but still. It was a great book overall, one of my favorites actually. I have added it to the Gay showcase page.
Sonata by Stella and Vincent Lunaire (My Review)
I had an early copy of this book. I found the writing to be beautiful and the characters to be deep. There are a lot of queer characters represented here and I wish the main romance was a gay one (between the prince and the queen’s servant assassin) or even a why choose poly situation between those two and the human woman. But alas, it is the way it is. One of the other prominent characters is nonbinary as well. I added this book to my Features Queer Identities showcase page as the queerness is not the main storyline.
Unrelenting by Marie Parks and Jessi Honard (My Review)
This was another title I read with my book club. I also met the author of this as part of a queer author panel for Pride Month I hosted at work. I honestly hadn’t been expecting to like this book as much as I did. It had an engaging story and, despite being on the thicker side, I was able to finish it really quickly. The main character is asexual and there are plenty of other queer side characters throughout. I added this book to my Queer Stories showcase page.
The Last Deployment by Bronson Lemer (My Review)
Another book I read with my book club and one whose author attended our panel event. I don’t usually read nonfiction and in fact had to add a Nonfiction page to my showcase section just to accommodate this book and others like it. I enjoyed reading this book though I wish there had been more discussed regarding the author’s struggles as a gay man in the military. There was commentary on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and how that affected the author but there was not commentary on how the author’s personal feelings affected his time in the military. I did enjoy the juxtaposition between his present and past that was portrayed throughout the book.
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (My Review)
I had heard about this book long before I set out to read it. I actually had never really intended on reading it—it was another book club pick—and to my surprise it is gay. This made me excited to read it…and then I actually started reading it. I ended up taking months and months to finish reading this book because I do not like the style that it was written in. And then, of course, the gay relationship (along with the best character) vanished halfway through the book. I didn’t rate this book very highly for those reasons, but I am told that this character comes back and that the other books in this massive series (written later in time as the original book was from the late 1970s and likely was too risky to be very gay) are much gayer. At any rate, this book earned a spot on my main Gay showcase page.
Undisclosed Title
I am listing this one as an undisclosed title because I didn’t want to have the name on my website. This is the one that was not added to the showcase pages. (I did review on Goodreads, so you can check there if you were curious to know.) It is a book about a bisexual king and a genderfluid princess, so I was really excited to have this book in my queer collection. After I bought and read this book, I decided to check the other reviews on Goodreads. And wow. Most of those reviews claim that the author of this book used AI to write this book.
I did some digging on my own and could not find the original posts from the author that would verify these claims (only a repost of the text from a screenshot—screenshot not included—from Reddit). That said, enough people are calling the book AI that I am not comfortable reading other books from this author or having the book on my website. I did leave my review at 3 stars (neutral) because I could not verify. But I wanted to let you all know here (again) that I do not support AI in creative industries. I never use AI in my own writing process and I discourage others from its use whenever I can.
Wrap Up
Sorry to end on a not so positive note but it was important information to put out there and share. I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into what I have been reading. It was long overdue for an update, so I apologize for the length of this as well! Again, stay safe and take care of yourself.
