Little bit's sick so I'm on rocking duty and starting this new book I've been excited about

June Wrap-up 🌈

Books: 17
Pages: 4,883
Longest: A Lady for a Duke (480)
Shortest: Rosebud (96)
LGBTQ books: 14
BIPOC authors: 8
Women / nonbinary authors: 11
Favorite(s): Boyfriend Material and Nuclear Family

I really wanted to love this one. I mean, sapphic vampires at a prestigious vampire boarding school? Sign me up! But it fell a little flat for me. Some of the characters were annoyingly obtuse and I thought some of the really interesting worldbuilding wasn't fully done justice.

A dancing plague, a pregnant beekeeper who's lost twelve babies, and a woman returned from six years penance for unknown sins are at the heart of this gorgeous historical fiction novel from the author of The Mercies. The dancing plague is more of a background set dressing than a feature. The real crux is the complicated relationships between the women in the novel who are surviving in a difficult century. Great read for historical fiction fans.

Finished work so I'm doing some evening reading outside since it's like 15° cooler today that it has been

First the good: this was a really cute YA novel with a twist on the typical superhero story, an adorably ridiculouss, slightly self-centered, and sweet protagonist with ADHD, and an adorable m/m love story. Now the not so good: there was a lot of police glorification that felt pretty uncomfortable, not to mention mentions of an instance of police misconduct / abuse that was very flippantly handled.

1. Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall plus all of my current reads 😂

2. Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe

3. Susie Dumond! She's an old musical theater friend and a coworker at Book Riot. Her debut, Queerly Beloved, just came out.

#SundayFunday @ozma.of.oz

1. The Dance Tree, The Extraordinaries, and Youngblood

2. Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

3. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

#WeekendReads

I can't believe it took me this long to read this adorable m/m romance about the son of two famous former musicians who needs a fake boyfriend to refurbish his image. The story was sweet and not too steamy, and just an all-around excellent comfort read. Exactly what I needed right now.

Treated myself to four books after my doctor's appointment this morning. Anyone else do this to reward yourself after doing something stressful? 😂

What a line!

"The cre of the Rosebud are, currently-- and by force of law--a balloon, a goth, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm I'd insects."

I absolutely adored this middle grade fantasy novel full of Chinese history and mythology. After the First Emperor of China possesses his VR headset, Zach sets out on a quest that will take halfway around the world to save his mother and all of China.Almost 5 stars but the ending could've been fleshed out a bit more in my opinion. Definitely the start of a series though, and I'm excited for more!

4.5 stars / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A gorgeous dark magical historical fiction novel. The movie studios of 1930s Hollywood are controlled by monstrous humans and monsters posing as human. For aspiring actresses like Luli, sacrifices must be made in order to achieve their dreams. But Luli has no interest in becoming some fainting leading lady, and when she's cast as a siren, she realized being a monster is the best way for her to succeed.

ARC book mail

More fodder for your TBR!

bookriot.com/queer-sff-june-2022/

1. The Dance Tree, Served Hot, and The Family

2. Cinder by Malinda Lo

3. D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

#WeekendReads

What a cute, low drama romance novel! DVaughn hopes being on the newest season of Instant I Do will help her finally come out to her religious family while Kris is looking for the love of her life. All they have to do is convince their families that they're getting married in 6 weeks. If they make it down aisle without anyone guessing this is all for TV they get to choose between $200,000 or getting the all-expense paid wedding of their dreams.

I thoroughly enjoyed this follow up to Finna which follows another LitenVärld employee named Dereck. He's a model employee but when he's faced with four doppelgangers during an after hours inventory, everything he thought he knew about himself and LitenVärld is turned on its head. It's another madcap adventure and I loved it.

Queer historical romance, just in time for Pride!

bookriot.com/queer-historical-romances/

Woke up early with this gorgeous view to do a little reading

What a sweet historical romance! I loved this friends to lovers story featuring two former soldiers, one of whom was believed to have died at Waterloo but actually saw the battle as an opportunity to finally live as herself. Despite gender and trans identity being important to the story, Hall managed to create plenty of internal and external conflict that had nothing to do with either which was so refreshing. Highly recommend.

Some of the many LGBTQ books on my TBR list this Pride Month!

Life has been so wild this week that I didn't manage to post my May wrap-up yesterday. But better late than never! Not a bad month for reading.

Books: 16
Pages: 4,293
Longest: Ten Steps to Nanette (400)
Shortest: Eat the Rich (128)
Women & NB authors: 15
BiPOC authors: 1 (oof not great)
LGBTQ books: 8
Fav(s): Salt to the Sea and Love on the Brain

Last day of May reads!

1. The Dance Tree and A Lady for a Duke

2. True Biz and Salt to the Sea

3. Read as many LGBTQ books as possible!

#WeekendReads

My new favorite Ali Hazelwood novel! A neuroscientist joins a NASA project only to discover her co-leader is the grad school student who absolutely hated her. Or did he? So cute and fun. The last 10% did get really stressful out of the blue and take a year off my life, but otherwise a fun, predictable read.I'll admit I was hoping for some more ace / demi rep but no such luck. Still a really fun romance.

I loved this queer YA romance about an aspiring cheer captain and the new quarterback who turns the school upside down when she turns out to be a girl. Some of the drama between Jack and Amber felt a bit forced, but I couldn't put it down and thoroughly enjoyed it.

When three students go missing from a deaf school, Sara Novic takes us back in time to see what led up to this moment. The book is primarily told through the eyes of the school's headmsitress, a girl who's parents gave her a cochlear implant as a child and is only just learning ASL for the first time as a teenager, and a boy falling for her who is fourth generation Deaf. I loved the explorations of Deaf culture in this book and learned so much.

New books, new books!

Starting the day with this new graphic novel from one of my favorite authors.

Lived this nonfiction book about two powerful Merovingian (early Frankish) queens who outlived their husbands, ruled as regents for their sons, and oversaw a civil war lasting decades. Like so many women who've made a mark on history, their stories were sidelined and all but erased by those that came after them. But Puhak resurrects their story as iy took place at the dawn of the Medieval Ages, just after the fall of Rome.

Another cute Ali Hazelwood novella. I think this one might be my second favorite after Under One Roof. Engineer Sadie finds herself stuck in the elevator with her hot one night stand who screwed over her career--or did he? This suffers a bit for length and lack of development as with most of these novellas, but they're cute and fun so I'm going with that rather than over analyzing them.

New book I've been looking forward to on a coffee shop outing to do some writing and reading!

Reading about medieval queens and warring Franks while this precious boy sleeps. Being an aunt is the best!

Once again learning about aspects of WWII I knew nothing about from Ruta Sepetys. This time, the deportation, imprisonment, and extermination of people from Baltic nations (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) by Stalin. When the NKVD come to their house in the middle of the night, Lina and her mother and brother are whisked away to Siberia where they are branded as criminals and forced to work under deplorable conditions. A heartbreaking read.

1. The Dark Queens, Between Shades of Gray, and True Biz

2. Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

3. It's been a while since the weather has been nice enough, but if I had to hazard a guess maybe The Secret Life of Fungi. Looking forward to more now that the weather is nicer.

"They took me in my nightgown."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwls

Immediately downloaded another Ruta Sepetys book after finishing Salt to the Sea. Also put another one on hold 😂

I had never heard of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, one of the worst maritime disasters in history with far greater loss of life than the Titanic, until reading this book. Almost 9,000 people, mostly civilians, died when a Russian sub torpedoed the German vessel. This novel follows a group of young people each hiding dangerous secrets who hope to reach safety in Germany. Told in short alternating POV chapters and impossible to put down.

YA historical fiction! I'm planning to do a round-up of must-read middle grade historical fiction later this year too.

https://bookriot.com/must-read-ya-historical-fiction-novels/

I've got some recs for some of the best sci-fi novellas over on Book Riot:

bookriot.com/short-sci-fi-novellas/

My precious little nephew loves rhymes, but I must admit this one almost did me in 😅 He's not even two months yet but we're not wasting any time getting started reading to him.

1. The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak -- I know, just one book; who am I?

2. Hydrangeas and sunflowers

3. Not much. Gonna try to get ahead on work and maybe go to the plant store, because you can never have too many plants of books right?

#WeekendReads

Another rainy day which is not what I was hoping for afters days of storms, but I am loving this nonfiction biography of two rival Merovingian queens.

Look at these gorgeous new releases 😍

"When Princess Brunhild was led into the great hall, the assembled men jockeying for a glimpse of her, craning their necks or standing on tiptoe."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

My first bingo for #LGBTQBookBingo @Kenyazero

Book mail 😍

Another cute romance novella in the STEMinist series. I loved how grumpy Hannah was even if her reasons for being closed off were sad (if not terribly well explained). The story moved back and forth in time which also really added to the tension and excitement. And Mara and Sadie showed up! Great fun.

This memoir from Hannah Gadbsy traces the course of her life from growing up in small town Tasmania where homosexuality was illegal until the mid-1990s to her journey toward comedy. She's overcome so much to create this life for herself and it was really remarkable--and heartbreaking-- to read about. I felt it could've been tightened up a bit, but it's a great piece of nonfiction nonetheless. Even inspired me to rewatch Nanette last night.