Arrowmount Books series, books 1 & 2

I bought these ebooks during one of those free/on sale [genre] ebooks blowout sales that I hear about on bookstagram every so often. These two books are cozy fantasy stories set in a cute, closely-knit seaside town in a sort of D&D universe with lots of different fantasy races plus humans. They are both by J.A. Collignon.

A Second Story

After falling for one another as adventurers, Arileas Damaris and Finnean Goldmark begin a life together traveling around the realm. Almost a year later, they decide to take a vacation in a town called Arrowmount, where the sea and sun calls to them. Once there, they fall in love with the place and its people. Ari and Finn take a leap together and buy the local bookstore and start a life amidst the sun-soaked cobblestones. From water damage and renovations to Finn's old life haunting them, life in Arrowmount is not quite as calm as they thought. However, with some help from the locals, Ari and Finn might just find their place along the sea.

Michelle buys a book about a bookstore; water is wet. We get a bit of Arileas and Finn as adventurers, where they are in love with each other unknowingly but don't think the other person does/could ever love them. Then we skip ahead to when they are an established couple, enter Arrowmount and fall in love with the town and decide to buy the bookstore. The book is mainly them meeting the various townspeople and renovating the bookstore with local artisans/craftspeople's help. It's very slow-paced, and the only tension is the couple's fear that the king will realize Finn, his shadow assassin, faked his death and is still alive, plus an argument about adventuring vs. settling down. Finn and Arileas are cute together, but I couldn't help but wish we got more of their "getting together" story. Also, with how nice and sunny Finn is, I couldn't connect that with his previous life as an assassin for a corrupt king. Wouldn't that affect him, harden him? I felt that we swept past that and the method Finn used to fake his death (which affected Arileas) fairly quickly. That stuff didn't really mesh well with the otherwise cozy, nice story. Not being familiar with D&D and their fantasy races, I struggled to picture what some of the people in this book looked like. I liked this book, though, and would recommend it to people who like cozy books where not a whole lot happens. ★★★⯪ (3.5 stars)/🌶 (don't remember much if any spice)

 

A Little Luck

After the biggest job of her life goes sideways, magical artifact thief Lottie Luck is out of, well, luck. With no job on the horizon and only the clothes on her back, she makes a snap decision to head to Arrowmount, where her estranged sister lives, to regroup and figure out where she's going next.
Kirandir Dulra, a favored Arrowmount town bard, is happy enough with the way her life is. By day, she's a dishwasher for the local bar, and by night she performs for the regular townsfolk who frequent the Old 'n Narrow. The routine works, but she dreams of more: a life in arcane lights with crowds calling her name.
However, everything is turned upside down when these two strangers get thrown together to organize the entertainment for an upcoming festival as emergency replacements one month out.
As the two try and find a rhythm together, Lottie unearths truths about herself and Kir's dream starts to become more realistic. In a story full of chilly autumnal nights and the golden glow of lantern light, these two women might just find more in each other than they bargained for.

This one had that romantic "getting together" story that I like, plus much more action. Lottie and Kir are instantly attracted to each other, but Kir's shy and Lottie isn't planning on staying. She also has someone after her due to an artifact she stole, and she's not sure how she's going to wiggle out of that one. Kir's not sure how to tell her family she wants to leave and travel the world as a bard, and isn't sure if Lottie actually likes her or is just flirting. Lottie also has to find a way to make up with her sister after not talking to her for 10 years. Oh, and some old ladies corralled the two of them into being in charge of the autumn festival's entertainment, which means spending a lot of time together... This story was also soft and cozy even though way more happened. We see Arileas and Finn again, plus a lot of the townspeople from the first book (duh, same town). I enjoyed this one even though we barely saw the bookstore. ★★★⯪/🌶 (kissing and sex mentions)

Book Review: Breeze Spells & Bridegrooms by Sarah Wallace & S.O. Callahan

Fae and humans alike are returning to London for the Season, but the excitement is marred by the growing poverty rate among humans with low magical scores.

Tenacious Roger Barnes proposes a new rubric for testing magic to the Council, hoping to resolve the predicament for his fellow humans. But when he is paired with Wyndham Wrenwhistle, a dashing fae who has disliked him since childhood, the project seems destined to fail. Even after reaching a tentative truce, their fragile partnership crumbles due to malicious lies.

Adding to the disarray, a popular gossip column unexpectedly announces that Roger and Wyn are engaged. Obliged to go along with the falsehood to save their families from scandal, they are forced to reconcile their differences for the sake of the rubric — and for their impending marriage. As the project bleeds into their wedding plans, the pressure to flawlessly execute both mounts even higher.

Together, they have the chance to solve a crisis decades in the making — but they'll need more than magic to succeed.

One of this book's co-authors wrote the Meddle & Mend series, which I adored, so I snapped this book up when it went on sale for 99 cents.  It's set in a similar universe as the Meddle & Mend series (Regency England but magical & queernorm as well as non-racist) but with the addition of a fae population probably around the same size as the human population. They coexist fairly well, but rarely intermarry. Magical ability is very important, and inheritance goes to the child with the highest magical score rather than going to the oldest son (oh yeah, the society is non-sexist too). Humans with low magical scores are usually ignored by suitors and passed over for jobs. Low-magic humans are sometimes kicked out to starve by their parents as soon as they reach adulthood. This is very sad and pretty jarring for an otherwise-cozy fantasy book. Roger is trying to change this by implementing a new scoring rubric so children are less likely to score low, but to me it's the society that needs to change. They should stop caring how people score on a hugely important magic test they take once at age twelve that determines the rest of their lives. Roger scored low because he was nervous, and to me the test and its grading are hugely unfair. It was kind of whiplash-y to read about such a prejudiced society and then have the rest of the book basically be like "anyhoo, on to the cute romance!!"

Roger is paired with former classmate Wyndham Wrenwhistle, a fae who also scored rather low on the fae magic test, which is supposed to be similar/analogous to the human test, hence why they have to work together. They don't like each other, mostly because Wyn is and has been a huge jerk to Roger, but Wyn's grandma (who is on the fae-human relations council with Roger's dad) makes him do it. It's obvious that she did that because she thinks Wyn's into Roger. They're trying to work on the rubric but keep clashing, and in their anger both write disparaging letters about the other to the gossip paper. The editor of the paper is like, you know what would be hilarious? and posts that the two are engaged. They of course visit the editor to demand they retract the engagement announcement, but they're like "no + deal with it + you two are cute together :)"

Since it's Regency England, the two dummies can't say they aren't engaged because Wyn made the huge mistake of gifting Roger a nice teapot since he only has one non-cracked one, and you can't bring gifts to boys you're not engaged to, the scandal!!! Also almost everyone is super into them being together because a fae-human marriage is So Good For Our Society since historically fae-human marriages were/kinda still are frowned upon. Imagine being forced to marry your childhood bully (sort of) because It Will Change Society For the Better. Yikes. Don't worry, they start falling in love for real! 

I dislike the "it's okay when people set you up/force you to spend time together with someone because they think you like each other/would be cute together and because they think it's in your best interest" sentiment of this book. It also showed up in Wallace's latest book The Spellmaster of Tutting-on-Cress, where everyone kept trying to set up the heroine with this guy she obviously liked even though she explicitly asked them all to not do that and respect her wishes re: not being set up because it's cringey and embarrassing. The whole "it's for your own good! otherwise you'd be single forever!" excuses being used to ignore said wishes just felt gross. It's the lack of respect and ignoring of consent for me. 😠 The lack of apology and/or realization that the setting-up was being pushed on people without their consent is very annoying to me. And the whole smug "see? I was right!" thing when the couples invariably ended up together used to justify it! Ugh. It's not cute or funny, and it smacks of amatonormativity. Not everyone needs to be paired up, and single people aren't tragic!

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and found the romance to be very sweet. They're very gentle and kind to each other (even Wyn once he mellows out). Sarah Wallace is an insta-buy author for me, and I'll have to check out more of what S.O. Callahan has written. 

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 🌶🌶 out of 5 chilies
Read in: October 24-25
From: B&N Nook

Tropes: close proximity, betrothed against their will/we have to get engaged to avoid scandal, assigned engaged by gossip column (is that a trope?), fake dating (sort of), "we have to sell this relationship/act like we're in love", rivals to lovers, rivals to friends to lovers, childhood bully romance (sort of), opposites attract, everyone ships them, family/friends meddling, being meddled into a relationship, slow burn, height difference (smol & tol), I'll Take Care of You, socialite x academic, fashionista x academic, popular x nerd, flirty x flustered, whatever it's called when they knew each other since childhood and one or both of them kinda liked the other ever since then, the magic of love/love makes magic stronger or whatever

Representation: gay MMCs, demisexual MMC, nonbinary character who uses they/them pronouns, sapphic minor character, neurodivergent MC (both ADHD and autistic vibes imo), anxiety rep, Roger looks Hispanic to me but that might be due to his passing resemblance to Harvey Guillen, I think there's other side characters of color but the physical descriptions are a bit lacking, aesthetic attraction is mentioned

Trigger warnings: prejudice built into the unequal system that leads to othering & poverty, a prejudiced character is vocally negative about a human and fae marrying, mild stalking by an ex

August ebooks

It is bugging me, but I can never figure out how to capitalize ebook/s. Ebook looks too boomerish, and eBook seems pretentious. Ah well.

After that fantastic reading month, I naturally reverted back to my normal "not reading, and when I do, it's ebooks" status. 

Making Waves by Joane Rock (summary) ★★★  🌶🌶🌶/🌶

Has this happened to you? You download a free romance novel ebook that promises to be steamy, but instead you're forced to read about the two leads bickering and having relationship drama for basically the entire book. Typical dramatic lustiness, and the characters were little more than cardboard. They used to date when she was 20 and he was 25 or 26, which skeeved me out. Not only was everyone in their lives was okay with this, they all actively thought they were perfect together and should get married, but then he dumped her out of the blue without telling her why (it was to go into the army as it was the 2000s). There's one scene where they go at it in a first class airplane sleeper room which makes no sense to me because I think first-class sleeper sections of airplanes aren't enclosed? Like they're not sleeper cars in a train? I have no real idea; my only knowledge of flying first class is watching Crazy Rich Asians. The hero also has some sexist alpha-ness, which is typical for the genre (not as much as others though) and always annoying. Is anyone else sick of reading about contemporary romance novel heroines who are simultaneously virginal and sexy, girlish and a mature woman? I am. I think I need to stop reading contemporary het romances. Trigger warnings: trauma involving a family member kidnapped by terrorists in I think Afghanistan (past), army veteran hero, the aforementioned age gap, that's it I think

Cinder Ella by S.T Lynn (summary) ★★★.5 

I really enjoyed this author's The Little Mermaid retelling, so I was excited to buy this ebook on sale. Like that one, this retelling has a Black trans woman as the lead. There are some Brandy Cinderella vibes. The beginning is as usual, with the step-family's awfulness and abuse including transphobia towards Ella. The ball invite comes from the princess herself, who likes Ella's dog and chats with her for a while. It's very cute. The fairy godmother is a mysterious dress seller whose dress shop-carriage is bigger on the inside. For some reason there's no magic to make her unfamiliar to her step-family at the ball, and, enraged at "him" for "his" transgressions, they drag Ella out, kick her out of the house and drop her off at the farthest part of town. Why not encourage Ella's interest in the princess so they can be in-laws with the royal family? The step-family is so stupid. The whole "whichever woman can fit into this shoe" thing makes sense in this telling as the princess first met Ella when she was presenting as a man, and she was presenting as a woman at the ball. Ella grows roses, which is nice but also a bit out of the Cinderella lane; they are important to the plot. There's this whole thing about Ella working for/as a baker and making a life for herself that felt like it was starting to go somewhere, but then it didn't, which was, like, 'why, then?' to me. The ending is a bit rushed and fairy godmother ex machina, but it's a nice little retelling that I enjoyed. I'll probably end up buying the other book in this series later.  Trigger warnings: transphobia, transmisogyny, physical and verbal abuse, forced servitude/slavery as is usual in Cinderella

Flash reviews for books I read last month

Bookshop.org had a summer reading challenge where you could win a contest if you read for at least 28 days straight, so I read the unheard-of amount of 15 books!!!! Forget pre-pandemic reading levels, that is junior high reading behavior!!! Anyway, I don't really want to write out full reviews for all of them, so I'm just writing flash reviews. 

The Maid and the Mansion: A Mysterious Murder (book 1? of series) by Fiona Grace - ebook - another murder mystery where a maid does the investigating. Enjoyed this although I read "the men are coming back from war so there's no jobs for women" and assumed it was World War I and not II, leading me to be confused over several things including how she was able to run and fight in long skirts (nope, at/below the knee skirts). Trigger warning for sexual harassment from boss at work (he dies, yay!!) plus the usual stuff (murder, blood). 3.5 stars, would read the rest of the series if they're free

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly - ebook - absolutely amazing, one of my favorite reads this year. So sad and hard to read at times but so important, with the internal plot mirroring thoughts I've had re: coming out and balancing authenticity with safety, etc. Also there's cool book restoration/making stuff. Genderqueer, queer and lesbian rep. Lots of trigger warnings including homophobic hate crime attacks, transphobia (also internalized), homophobia (also internalized). 4 stars, 2 chili peppers

How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis - hardcover book - I follow her on IG and bought the book at McNally Jackson bookstore in NYC to support her and because I need it. This book is for people who struggle with keeping up with housework--ADHD havers, depressed people, chronically ill people, etc. The non-shaming gentle parenting around cleaning that I never got, and lots of useful tips. She gets us because she's one of us. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.

Recipe for Confidence by Samantha Picaro - ebook - I think I follow this author on IG as well. Her book was promoted by bookstagrammers I follow, and I bought it on sale because the main character is aroace. The teenage MC is autistic as well and feels like she always has to mask and act happy to please everyone around her. I'm afraid I did not enjoy this book; the writing wasn't very good and neither were the parents, and there was stuff that made me angry. I think I need to stop reading books about and for teenagers. 3.5 stars. 

The Meddle & Mend series by Sarah Wallace - ebooks - This is a cozy found family fantasy series set in a magical, queernorm Regency England where racial diversity is also the norm. I ADORED this series! I downloaded the first one because it was free and one of the bookstagrammers that I follow is always promoting the series, and it was so good I downloaded the next one to read immediately, doing that for each book. I inhaled the whole series in like a week. One of the books, The Education of Pip, is about a character who is groomed into an unequal relationship that turns into forced sex work, so trigger warnings for that (there is a happy ending for him).  DM me if you want more info. There is representation for just about every letter of the queer alphabet, plus anxiety and PTSD rep. There are also characters of color (the society is also non-racist). I highly recommend these books and cannot wait for the next one. 3.5 (affectionate)-4 stars varying, amount of spice varies by book but it's usually just kissing or off-page (some Pip stuff does bleed into other books)

A Charm of Magpies series by KJ Charles - ebooks - I loved this author's Will Darling Adventures trilogy and downloaded their other free ebooks a while back but never got around to reading them. These books are set in a magical gaslamp Victorian England and are about a tattooed duke with strong magical ancestry and a short magician who fall in love, fight magical crimes, and have extremely adult activities. They have to hide their relationship because it's illegal to be gay in Victorian England. The duke and his manservant lived most of their lives in China (which apparently was fine with gay people back then? That sounds wrong but I don't know enough to dispute it, plus KJC probably did their research).  The magical crimes (which are mostly grisly murders) make this series horror in my opinion; they were far too scary for me  but I couldn't stop reading them because they were so good. 3.5 stars (but a high 3.5) and probably 4.5 out of 5 chilis (very spicy).

I reread Lady Susan because it was the Enchanted Book Club pick for July, enjoyed it per usual, and had a lot of fun discussing the book with other book club members over Zoom. I also rewatched Love & Friendship afterwards, naturally. 

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev - paperback book - I bought this ages ago (not sure from where) but didn't get around to reading it. This was a really interesting loose retelling of P&P (duh) where the heroine is an Indian American brain surgeon and the hero is a Somali-Indian British chef, and both leads took on different aspects of both Lizzy and Darcy. It was really good but really sad, with the Wickham-Georgiana storyline being really dark. To be honest, I didn't get why the hero would really come around to being in love with the heroine when she was kind of an awful mess. Understandable, though, when her family was so terrible to her. I do recommend this book even though it made me sad (and hungry, the food sounded so amazing). Trigger warnings for a character being drugged and raped (past), cancer/terminal illness, police racial profiling, racism, xenophobia, miscarriage (past), manipulation, classism. 3.5 stars, 2 chilis due to a rather unnecessary scene at the end

What an Heiress Wants by Gemma Blackwood - ebook - This is part of a Regency romance series, of which I read one previously and liked it. The heroine wants to get back at this guy who led her on, so she concocts a fake flirting/courtship/engagement with her best friend's brother. You already know where this is going. This book has low spice (only kissing and lustful thoughts) and I enjoyed it, even though it got a bit dramatic at the end. 3.5 stars, 0.5 chili

Whew. I truly cannot believe I read so much. So many great reads this month as well!

Book Reviews: The Flowers and Keyboards series by Emmy Engberts

I read the first and third books in the Flowers and Keyboards series by Emmy Engberts as my first two reads of June. I think I saw the free ebook (for Pride month) being advertised on bookstagram. Colour Her is the first one I read, and it turned out to be the third in the series, which is slightly annoying to me since I prefer to read series books in series order. The Flowers and Keyboards series is a trio of books about a neurodiverse and queer group of teen friends in the Netherlands who like makeup and/or gaming and/or cosplay. Each book in the series focuses on each couple in the friend group.

Colour Her is about two girls who meet in a makeup store and bond over a pride month collection from their favorite brand. Amber is a semi-famous makeup influencer YouTuber and Mya is a fan of hers, but she doesn't know how to tell Amber (who she has a crush on) that she watches her YouTube channel and sent her a gift of a big box of makeup because she doesn't want to come across as stalkerish. Amber agrees to tutor Mya (or maybe it's the other way around?) and they become close. The slight deception around the YouTube/fan thing is built up in the book summary as being a big thing that could keep them apart, but it's resolved pretty quickly. Amber is autistic and feels shame about this, not wanting anyone to know; Mya has ADHD, if I remember correctly, and her other friends are neurodiverse. Their main issues in the book is them struggling to let the other in while dealing with their neurodiversity; it's pretty internal. They don't deal with any homophobia, not even internal despite I think Amber not having dated a girl before. The author herself is Dutch, and while her English writing is very good, there's still some jerkiness/weirdness to the language/word usage that took me out of it throughout the book (probably due to mental translation of Dutch terms to English). For instance, a teen girl would never refer to a girl she liked as her lover (they had perhaps barely held hands at that point). In terms of pacing, there was almost no transition from both girls liking the other but not sure where she stood to them holding hands and making out. Each girl narrates alternating chapters (Amber/Mya/Amber/Mya etc.) but I found it almost impossible to distinguish which one was which; their voices were basically identical. I did find it interesting that each chapter started with a makeup item and its definition. Overall, however, I enjoyed this book and the neurodiverse rep. I think also one of them may have been on the ace spectrum? 3.5 stars. Trigger warnings for off-page ableism, internalized ableism, anxiety

Her Elysium (the first book in this series) is about two girls who meet and start to fall for one another while playing a MMORPG (online video game where people play together). However, because Alex's name is gender neutral and her avatar is male and has a strong fighting role, Fleur thinks that her online friend is a boy. I found their conversations to be very perfunctory/basic and not at all flirty, so I couldn't really get why they were blushing and giggling about it when it was shit like this: A--thanks for healing us. F--sure, no problem. 🥱 When they meet at a local gamer meetup, Fleur is surprised and disappointed, and Alex is devastated that the girl she likes thought she was a boy. Luckily they get over this pretty quickly. Unlike Colour Her, Her Elysium has much stronger and external issues. Fleur's parents are classist and make her be friends with the daughters of their society friends because they're "the right kind of people", scolding her and giving her a hard time when she doesn't want to hang out with them. They hate that she plays video games and are also controlling because Fleur has ADHD. This made me angry, per usual. Alex (who also has ADHD) had an ex who denied being not-straight and was really homophobic to her, I think outing her to their classmates. Because of this, she has trauma and is terrified to be another straight girl's experiment and get her heart broken because of this again. Fleur hadn't fallen for a girl before, so Alex has to deal with that fear. Spoiler, highlight to read: Fleur tells her 'friends' that her parents make her hang out with about her new girlfriend, and despite being okay with it, one of them immediately blabs this to her parents, who unsurprisingly immediately call Fleur's and the other friend's parents about it. Fleur's parents are homophobic and freak out. Alex's mom is a child therapist and she reads them the riot act, thankfully. Alex breaks up with Fleur because she doesn't want to experience the heartbreak (obviously, heartbreak happens anyway for both of them because of this). Luckily all is resolved. This book had the same issues re: writing and word usage, but because of the more external and pressing issues, I was more invested. The girls also alternate chapter POVs, and each chapter starts with a video game concept definition which was interesting. 3.5 stars. Trigger warnings: homophobia, ableism, controlling parents, characters are outed, classism

The second book in the series is about the other couple in the group, a genderqueer boy and queer and/or neurodiverse girl who both do cosplay and also play the MMORPG, but since their ebook wasn't free, I didn't download it.

On another note, Blogger stopped letting me add photos via url for some stupid reason. Ugh. If you think I'm going to download online photos just to upload them for my blog posts, think again. Fix this, Google.

Book Review: Bookshop Cinderella by Laura Lee Guhrke

Evie Harlow runs a quaint little bookshop in London, which is the biggest adventure an unmarried woman with no prospects could hope for. Until Maximillian Shaw, Duke of Westbourne, saunters into her shop with a proposition: to win a bet with his friends, he’ll turn her into the diamond of the season. The duke might be devilishly attractive, but Evie has no intention of accepting his ludicrous offer. When disaster strikes her shop, however, she’s left with little choice but to let herself be whisked into his high-society world.
Always happy to help a lady in distress, Max thinks he’s saving Evie from her dull spinster’s life. He’ll help her find a husband and congratulate himself on a job well done. But as shy Evie becomes the shining star he always knew she could be, she somehow steals his heart. And when her reputation is threatened, can Max convince her to choose a glittering, aristocratic life with him over the cozy comfort of her bookshop?

I bought this book very obviously for the title from Something Novel Booksellers. I find it kind of on the nose (they couldn't come up with something more creative?) but it worked on me, so. After reading this book, however, I regret to inform you that the title is a lie. This book is almost nothing like Cinderella and much more like My Fair Lady, only with the h0rny straight duke instead of two gay guys. With historical romance novels you kind of always know how it's going to go; for instance, if a guy is to help a girl find a husband, you just know they're going to fall in love. Also, he has to give her dancing lessons so she can fit into society 👀 This book, despite the duke's lusting, has more plot than spice. I liked how Evie is no-nonsense and sensible and has no patience for annoying men.

Overall I enjoyed this, although the bookshop didn't come into the story much and a huge jerk who does an awful thing towards the end doesn't get a comeuppance. In my head Evie told the duke about it and he forks the jerk up. I leave you with this meme I made to share when talking about the book on my IG:

Score: ★★★½ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 🌶🌶🌶🌶 out of 5 chilies (spicy)
Read in: May 31
From: Something Novel Booksellers 

Trigger warnings: period-typical misogyny/sexism and classism, jerk seduces a young woman & uses her to get information etc., sex shaming, sex negativity (also period-typical)

short book reviews for ebooks I read in May

The Case of Barton Manor by Emily Queen, read on May 9

This is a murder mystery set in England in the 1920s. Rosemary Lilywhite used to help her late husband run his private investigator business, but she decides to put that all behind her now that he's gone. However, an old classmate comes to her for help after her father receives a death threat. In order to help her, Rosemary must reenter society, putting up with her mostly annoying family and everyone's scrutinizing eyes. She has help from her best friend, a scandalous flapper, and the detective in charge of the investigation for the murders, a friend of Rosemary's and her late husband's who is secretly in love with her. Additional motivation to solve the murders comes in the form of Rosemary's brother being the main suspect! I enjoyed this freebook (free ebook) and it really helped pass the time at the reference desk. I liked Rosemary and her flapper bestie and found the 1920s high society stuff interesting, but the author would jump from Rosemary's POV into a side character's head in order to tell us what they were thinking in a jarring way that is telling rather than showing. I would read the rest of the books in this series if the ebooks are free. 3.5 out of 5 stars. Trigger warnings for murder, blood, violence, attempted kidnapping, guns, sexism, alcohol and drunkenness/blacking out, classism

 

Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin by Tabitha O'Connell, read on May 28

This novella is a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a nonbinary protagonist. The storyline closely follows the first half of the Disney Beauty and the Beast movie, except that "Belle" is dating "Gaston", and the inventor father is now the inventor mother. You can read the book summary here. The castle from the story is now the fabled castle of mythic mages, who are still talked about in fables told to children. No one even knew the castle existed. Worried about eir mother being trapped there with an injury, Heron leaves to go to her. The castle is just as cool and mysterious as other tellings' castles have been. Instead of the original (?) invisible servants or their floating hands (or Disney's anthropomorphized furnishings), there are automaton servants built by the mages. The "Beast" is the mysterious Theomer, who is not a beast or a mage but a quiet man hiding behind a cape and a wild mane of hair. The curse is hinted at in the title. Heron gets a job at the castle working as a gardener so ey can make some money to help eir mom and have time and space to think about what to do about eir partner Thiel, who keeps pushing em to move in with him. However, Heron and Theomer grow closer, and Theomer draws em in more than Thiel ever did... Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, but it left me wanting more. I wish the author had written a full-length novel instead of a novella so the relationship between Heron and Theomer as well as the curse could be fleshed out and dwelled on more. I highly recommend this book! 4 out of 5 stars; 1 chili pepper 🌶 for spice simply because there are off-page sex mentions and some kissing. Nonbinary (with neopronouns), queer, and gay representation. Trigger warnings for body horror, blood, uneven/controlling relationship dynamics, characters refusing to have adult conversations and running away from their problems

Book Review: Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa

Oliver Bennet feels trapped. Not just by the endless corsets, petticoats and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations. The world—and the vast majority of his family and friends—think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone's wife.

But Oliver can't bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family's home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It's during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to "Elizabeth" at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart. And not to mention incredibly attractive.

As Oliver is able to spend more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares begin to hope that his dream of love and life as a man could be possible. But suitors are growing bolder—and even threatening—and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he's not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly, honestly his own.

 You already know Jane Austen adaptations and remakes are my jam, especially if they're LGBTQ+. That the author is latino is also a bonus. I bought the ebook when it went on sale, and read it on my Europe trip a few weeks ago. I really liked this book. I liked all the OG P&P references, but Novoa played around with them in a way that felt interesting and fresh; I didn't always know what was going to happen, in other words. For some reason the characters are all aged down; Oliver is 17 instead of 20, so his sisters are all aged down the same amount. I'm not sure why; maybe it's to appeal more to teenagers? (This book is YA.) This makes marriage less urgent for the Bennet girls, although Mrs. Bennet is just as frantic, if not more, about getting the girls married as she is in the original book for some reason. I think Darcy is 17 or 18. Oliver is only out to Jane and Charlotte Lucas, who is a lesbian and has a girlfriend!!! Said girlfriend (an original character) is married for the stability and because people are less focused on/more trusting of married women; this theme of marriage = necessary stability for queer people is one that Charlotte believes in and lectures Oliver about. Obviously Oliver hates the idea of being a wife, because he is not a woman. He's not sure the stability of that life would be worth it.

There are many, many instances of Oliver feeling dysphoric and triggered by wearing female clothing and people treating him and talking about/to him like he's a girl. It makes sense that this would happen, as he has to live like his assigned gender at birth 99% of the time. Charlotte has his boy clothes stashed at her house, so he says he's going to hang out with Charlotte, walks to her house, changes into his male clothes, and spends time as his real self. He becomes friends with Bingley and Darcy as his real self, and of course clashes with Darcy as a "girl". There's one scene where Bingley & Darcy invite Oliver into a gentlemen's club (think Holmes and Wooster, not today's meaning) and I was so concerned for him because he just had his long hair tucked into a top hat so he wouldn't be able to take it off without outing himself, but apparently this was not an issue? I didn't think gentlemen were allowed to just wear top hats indoors. I like how Oliver and Darcy bond over books. There was an interesting element in the concept of molly houses (which I knew to be brothels with male sex workers) as gay clubs?? Not sure if this is true, but it makes sense queer people would hang out there to be safe/gay with each other. 

SPOILERS thoughts, highlight to read: Wickham would so totally out Darcy for being gay. Because all the characters are aged down, Wickham doesn't groom Lydia into running off with him (although he does try it with Georgiana, who is the same age as in the book.) He sets his sights on Oliver instead. I thought it was kind of weird that Darcy is gay, Wickham and Oliver know he's gay, and Darcy likes reading books by/about gay men and hangs out at molly houses to do so, yet has a closeted gay freakout when he and Oliver kiss?? That makes little sense. I don't think Mr. Collins would actually think a trans son would be a legal threat to his inheritance. Oliver comes out to his dad and he's super accepting, which made me so happy :')  The rest of his family accepts him too!

In all, I really liked this P&P retelling, and will have to read more from this author. I recommend it to people who like their classics retellings queer and to Austen fans who don't mind reading retellings that deviate from the original. 

Score: ★★★★½ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 1 out of 5 chilies (kissing, sex mentions)
Read in: May 6
From: Barnes & Noble/Nook

Representation: gay trans man main character, cis gay man character, cis lesbian side characters

Trigger warnings: transphobia, dysphoria, homophobia, a character outs a queer character (to, unbeknownst to him, another queer character, but still), closeted trans and queer characters (period-typical), misgendering (usually unintentionally), lesbian characters in heterosexual marriages, an attempt is made to force a trans man character to marry and live as a woman, period-typical sexism, blackmail in the form of threatened outing. Gabe Cole Novoa has a list of trigger warnings in the beginning of the book