profiterole-reads

[profiterole-reads]

I have Icarus on my TBR. Much love for Reforged and The Sunshine Court! <3

April was for the tragic gays. Picking a favorite is just about impossible but Icarus and Court of Wanderers are definitely up there.

[profiterole-reads]

[profiterole-reads]

April 2024 Deal Announcements

Featured Deal Levine Querido buys YA contemporary ONE OF THE BOYS in 24-hour pre-empt  In a 24-hour pre-empt, Irene Vázquez at Levine Querido has acquired Victoria Zeller’s debut novel One of the Boys. Jordan Hamessley at JABberwocky Literary Agency sold world English and world Spanish rights.  Continue reading April 2024 Deal Announcements

View On WordPress

[profiterole-reads]

Below Covent Garden lies the Untermarkt, where anything and everything has a price: a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, a wisp of fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the Market’s most powerful merchants. Now, after years of watchful servitude, Deri finally spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but also his place amongst the Market’s elite when he stumbles into the path of a runaway princess desperate to sell her royal destiny. But news of the missing princess and her wayward destiny spreads. Royal enforcers and Master Merchants alike are after it. Outmanoeuvring them all would all be hard enough had Deri not just also met the love of his life, a young man called Owain, whose employers are using the Market for their own nefarious schemes. Deri soon finds that the price of selling the royal destiny, making a name for himself, and saving the man he loves is dear. The cost of it all might just change the destiny of London forever.

"True Love? That’s worth far more".

Trip Galey's A Market of Dreams and Destiny is a fun adventure set in an alternative England where Henry VIII turned to druidry to achieve his divorce, and Elizabeth I made a pact with Titania; where magic permeates every dealing, and the goblin market is the place where one can find anything, ruled by its own fay rules, but also a place where great injustice abounds.

The setting is intriguing, and yet the execution feels a little lacking; much more could have been explored. We follow the lives of two indentured servants as they navigate the market and face new threats, attempt to buy back their contracts, fight against the system, and fall in insta-love. Their relationship isn't fully explored, and this takes away from the shock that the big resolution should provoke.

Deri is a great protagonist, mischievous and very smart, able to male do with less than nothing and find new ways out of trouble. A thorough planner, it's a joy to watch him outmaneuver almost everyone in his quest to find the best solution with the least loss, even though his more altruistic plans are almost an afterthought. His ability to hear words when the London bells ring makes for an interesting power that could have been explored further.

The prose is phenomenal, lyrical and vivid and filled with great imagery, clever turns of phrase, and memorable characters populating the goblin market, from Deri's master who can speak with gold, to the cat that decides to take an interest in Deri's affairs, and many others. The goblin and fae, being genderless, are referred to exclusively with a neutral pronoun of the author's design.

A Market of Dreams and Destiny is a book that's filled with wonder.

✨ 3.5 stars

.

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* Lava Red Feather Blue, by Molly Ringle

for: faerie, mischief

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[profiterole-reads]

[ x ]

[profiterole-reads]

The Enchanted Forest and Other Stories: Five Tales of Gender Magic by Zoe Storm

Four friends go hiking in the woods and take a wrong turn. Two girls meet in a nightclub in London. A boy goes to sleep after a horrible night out, and wakes up as a woman seventeen years later. The son of a clan’s chief is asked to act as a guide for their guest, a girl from the sea. At Christmas, a girl summons a spirit and makes a wish.

Five stories about people finding themselves, with the help of a bit of magic.

[profiterole-reads]

I guess I gotta tumblr my gay-ass smut books so goodreads will believe I'm a Real Author?

A SUPERNATURAL GAY EROTIC ROMANCE. The Omniscient God of Delmi asks little of His followers in return for His powerful blessings: just one young man to serve Him as his High Priest and lover. But when Blake Tremaine's younger brother Dominic is chosen, he finds his world turned upside-down - as well as his own romance with fellow religious student, Evan. Little do they know that dark powers are plotting against the Divine Himself, and Blake and Evan may be the only ones who can stop them....

"Forbidden Rapture: Bound to the Divine" is a 45,000 word erotic love story full of first times, sexual worship, sex so good it makes you immortal and finding the one you want to bang happily ever after.

[profiterole-reads]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Give in to temptation…sapphics of the Twilight renaissance will fall for Tamara Jeree’s lesbian supernatural forbidden romance “The Fall That Saved Us” 🏳️‍🌈 (cw: religious trauma, self-harm)

[profiterole-reads]

Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis

Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis was such a pleasant surprise for me! It's a mystery, historical fiction, and family drama with captivating characters and complex relationships.

The story is set in 1866 in France and is about two sisters, Sylvie and Charlotte, who formerly worked as fraudulent mediums and conned wealthy families out of money. The job was part of their family business built by their mother, who has since passed, and their father who is currently very ill. The father's illness reunites the sisters for one last con, but this new job sets off a string of events that leads to wide-ranging consequences.

Both sisters are complex characters and have complicated feelings towards each other. The story references Charles Perrault's The Fairies throughout. The Fairies tells the story of one good sister and one bad sister. Spitting Gold argues that the story would be far more nuanced than that. All stories have more than one side. Sylvie and Charlotte are both the good sisters and the bad sisters. They love each other dearly but also harbor anger and resentment. They both make decisions that both hurt and help the other. They are both doing their best in the world they are living in. This complexity makes for such a riveting story!

While the sisters and their relationship is the star of Spitting Gold, I also loved the mystery plot and the cast of side characters. There's also a sweet Sapphic love story entwined (and a few other delightful queer characters too).

I highly recommend Spitting Gold to anyone who loves gothic mysteries and stories about thorny family relationships. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and it's a story that will stick with me for a long time!

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tropes/Tags: mystery, historical, gothic, Sapphic, queer

If you liked this I think you will like Spitting Gold: The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner

Links: Storygraph | GoodReads

Spitting Gold will be released on May 14, 2024, and is available for pre-order!

This book was made available to me in advance thanks to NetGalley! I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for this review. The above are my honest feelings on the provided book.

[profiterole-reads]

Kadou and Evemer from A Taste of Gold and Iron

Reading this so shortly after Paladin's Faith and The Goblin Emperor was just the most perfect timing imaginable. Give me all the slow-paced-slice-of-life fantasy novels!!!

[profiterole-reads]

2024 reads / storygraph

Dear Wendy

YA contemporary

two first year students who become friends, bonding over their shared aroace identity and starting a club for aspec students

while unknowingly engaging in a petty war with their anonymous relationship advice instagrams

friendship, navigating potential futures and entering adult life, and exploring QPOC experiences

[profiterole-reads]

*I received an eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. Image & summary from Goodreads*

Desperate to escape a messy romance, Florian Mulberry flees tipsy, panicked, and without a plan. It’s while hiding in a rural garden shed that he meets Kells, a potion witch, who agrees to shelter him in exchange for manual labor until he gets his life together. Leaving his pampered London existence to work on a secluded cottage farm is a shock, but Florian throws himself into it with passionate determination.And it’s not just gardening he's passionate about. In no time, Florian falls head over heels for his skillful, hardworking mentor.There’s just one problem. Florian is only disguised as a boy, and the enchantment hiding his real body is going to wear off. Florian’s main concern is how to explain himself when it happens. He's definitely not a girl, but he's not entirely a boy, either. With all the magic in Kells’ garden, there must be a way to achieve his ideal androgyny.However he looks, Florian will have to face his past if he wants a future with Kells. Even if he avoids London forever, eventually his past is going to come looking for the girl he used to be. The Potion Gardener is a low-stakes, low-angst cozy fantasy novella in the Flos Magicae series, a collection of queer romances set in an alternate 1920s world with magic. Featuring a trans, nonbinary lead, a butch cis lesbian love interest, a scruffy terrier with anxiety, and a great deal of gardening. All the Flos Magicae stories are standalones, and can be read in any order.

Cozy, sweet, and filled with magic and gender euphoria -- The Potion Gardener hit all of the right notes for me! Honestly, who wouldn't want to end up working for a potion witch and cultivating a quiet yet wondrous life together? I love that Kells is no nonsense, speaks directly, and takes everything with Florian in stride. Meanwhile Florian, who is often flighty and adverse to tough conversations, finds stability and acceptance with Kells. They both have their talents and quirks, and work well together. While I'm endlessly enamored by the magical cottagecore vibes, I was especially thrilled by the Florian's journey in learning about themself. I feel like I had a very similar experience (at least with thought processes, trying different gender presentations, etc - not so much with magical rings and potions!) and it was fun to read passages and think "yes! exactly!!" If you're looking for something with gentle vibes, a friends to lovers romance, and botanical magic, please read this novella!

Pub date May 1, 2024

[profiterole-reads]

Dark fantasy, gay romance, an ending that will tear your emotions to tiny, tiny pieces

Check out my pinned post for more

[profiterole-reads]

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant, Zara Hossain, has been leading a fairly typical life in Corpus Christi, Texas, since her family moved there for her father to work as a pediatrician. While dealing with the Islamophobia that she faces at school, Zara has to lay low, trying not to stir up any trouble and jeopardize their family's dependent visa status while they await their green card approval, which has been in process for almost nine years. But one day her tormentor, star football player Tyler Benson, takes things too far, leaving a threatening note in her locker, and gets suspended. As an act of revenge against her for speaking out, Tyler and his friends vandalize Zara's house with racist graffiti, leading to a violent crime that puts Zara's entire future at risk. Now she must pay the ultimate price and choose between fighting to stay in the only place she's ever called home or losing the life she loves and everyone in it.

CW/TW: Racism, Islamophobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Biphobia, Hate crime, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs

[profiterole-reads]

"Black queer women have shaped American culture since long before the era of gay liberation. Decades prior to the Stonewall Uprising, in the 1920s and 1930s, Black "lady lovers"—as women who loved women were then called—crafted a queer world. In the cabarets, rent parties, speakeasies, literary salons, and universities of the Jazz Age and Great Depression, communities of Black lady lovers grew, and queer flirtations flourished. Cookie Woolner here uncovers the intimate lives of performers, writers, and educators such as Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Gladys Bentley, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Lucy Diggs Slowe, along with the many everyday women she encountered in the archives.

Examining blues songs, Black newspapers, vice reports, memoirs, sexology case studies, and more, Woolner illuminates the unconventional lives Black lady lovers formed to suit their desires. In the urban North, as the Great Migration gave rise to increasingly racially mixed cities, Black lady lovers fashioned and participated in emerging sexual subcultures. During this time, Black queer women came to represent anxieties about the deterioration of the heteronormative family. Negotiating shifting notions of sexuality and respectability, Black lady lovers strategically established queer networks, built careers, created families, and were vital cultural contributors to the US interwar era."

[profiterole-reads]

About 70% of my brain is totally dedicated to thinking about Hozier, so here are some Hozier book recs!

Self Titled:

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

• The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

• Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew

Nina Cried Power:

• No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

• Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

• Soulswift by Megan Bannen

Wasteland, Baby:

• They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

• Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes

• The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Unheard, Unearth:

• Icarus by K Ancrum

• Death's Country by R. M. Romero

Summer in the City of Roses by Michelle Ruiz Keil

[profiterole-reads]

🌈 Introducing our indie BOTM for May! 🎉

We are so excited to feature this adult love story that tries – and fails – to leave the water crisis behind! Welcome to Earthflown by Frances Wren (@francesthewren) and Illustrated by Litarnes (@litarnes)!

FEATURING:

- Big Pharma Water Crisis!

- Exhausted x Sunshine Couple!

- Medicine & Magic!

RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVES:

- All-new Dust Jacket illustrated by @francesthewren, with spot gloss + foiling!

- Cover typography and layout by @FrancesTheWren!

- Cloth-bound Hardcase with Foil-stamped illustration by @Rosdottir!

- Illustrated & Foiled Endpages (different front / back) by @FrancesTheWren!

- Designed foil-stamped edges by @Litarnes & @rosdottir!

- Bonus Colored Illustrations bound-in by @Litarnes & @FrancesTheWren

- Bound-In Author Letter!

- Sewn-in Ribbon Bookmark!

- Two Signed Bookplates, Designed by @Litarnes!

- Collectible monthly bookmark (back side) by @ace-artemis-fanartist!

SUMMARY: When Ethan saves the life of a firestarter, it's nothing unusual. He's the only healer on call at the hospital – and that gunshot wound isn't going to regenerate itself. But his patient turns out to be Corinna Arden, heiress to a pharmaceutical empire controlling Britain's water supply. Her twin, Javier, is a man who (a) starts sending Ethan flowers at work, (b) seems terrified of a secret, and (c) has the cheekbones and earnestness to make up for both.

Ethan indulges in (what he thinks will be) a brief, harmless romance – but is swept up in a deadly collusion over Project Earthflown: the largest reconstruction tender since London clawed its way out of the rising sea.

Determined to follow the money, Ollie is a journalist who finds a corpse at the end of a too-convenient tip. The fate of water – and who profits – might depend on the perennial question: has Ethan lost his mind, or is he just an idiot?

REP: (from the author) “Both Litarnes and I are queer creators of colour, and many aspects of the rep is lived experience.”

Gay male mc w/depression and lower melanin, Ace-spectrum male mc w/lower melanin, Maori male mc w/high melanin, South-east Asian male sc w/moderate melanin, Bisexual & sapphic, scs (including South-east Asian) w/moderate + lower melanin

CWs: Mental illness, externalized and internalized prejudice, eugenics, violence, abuse, medical procedures, gaslighting, violence, minor character death, emotional manipulation, depression, non-consensual drug administration, blackmail, filial domestic abuse, panic attacks, references to infidelity, maternal mortality, gun use, concussions, rescue breathing, respiratory failure, references to substance abuse. 

🌈 Subscription spots are OPEN for purchase on 1, 3 or 6 month plans! These will start with the April crate! Use RAINBOW10 to save on your first month; subscribe here!

ID: A graphic that reads “May Indie Spotlight” along the top with a Rainbow logo to the left of it. Underneath it is a search bar with a mic icon that says “Rainbow Crate’s edition of Earthflown by Frances Wre…” Underneath it is a 3D book with the cover displayed. To the right it has the Featuring section of the caption displayed with the following text underneath:

EXCLUSIVES:

“- Completely Redesigned

Cover (Not Shown) with

Silver + Pink Foil & Spot Gloss

- Cloth-Bound Hardcase 

w/ Black, Silver & Gold Foil

- Foiled Art Endpages

- Gold Foil Design on Endpages

- Bound-In Author Letter

- Bonus Full Color Art Pages

- Signed Art Bookplates (Two)

- Collectible May

Bookmark (Back Side)”

At the top and bottom of the text area are pale teal arrows with grey outlines pointing towards the book. Surrounding the graphic is a yellow-blue ombre striped border. End ID.