Five for Friday: Romance

It's been a while (uni work is a bitch), but finally I'm back with a new Five for Friday! This week, I'm reccing romance books. Any romance - historical, contemporary, gay, straight, you name it. My top five (less well known ones of course). Just to warn you, I prefer my romances slowburn and with a little bit (I mean, quite a bit) of angst.

Unveiled by Courtney Milan

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Ash Turner has waited a lifetime to seek revenge on the man who ruined his family - and now the time for justice has arrived. At Parford Manor, he intends to take his place as the rightful heir to the dukedom and settle an old score with the current duke once and for all. But instead he finds himself drawn to a tempting beauty who has the power to undo all his dreams of vengeance….

Lady Margaret knows she should despise the man who's stolen her fortune and her father's legacy - the man she's been ordered to spy on in the guise of a nurse. Yet the more she learns about the new duke, the less she can resist his smoldering appeal. Soon Margaret and Ash find themselves torn between old loyalties - and the tantalizing promise of passion….

Comments: Courtney Milan is easily one of the best romance authors at the moment, and I think Unveiled has to be pretty much my favourite of hers I've read so far. It has the perfect amount of tension and angst, and I especially loved that she doesn't use miscommunication or the identity reveal as sources of angst in this one.

Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Megan Harper is about due for her next sweeping romance. It's inevitable—each of her relationships starts with the perfect guy and ends with him falling in love . . . with someone else. But instead of feeling sorry for herself, Megan focuses on pursuing her next fling, directing theater, and fulfilling her dream college's acting requirement in the smallest role possible.

So when she’s cast as Juliet (yes, that Juliet) in her high school’s production, it’s a complete nightmare. Megan’s not an actress, and she’s used to being upstaged—both in and out of the theater. In fact, with her mom off in Texas and her dad remarried and on to baby #2 with his new wife, Megan worries that, just like her exes, her family is moving on without her.

Then she meets Owen Okita, an aspiring playwright inspired by Rosaline from Shakespeare's R+J. A character who, like Megan, knows a thing or two about short-lived relationships. Megan agrees to help Owen with his play in exchange for help catching the eye of a sexy stagehand/potential new boyfriend. Yet Megan finds herself growing closer to Owen, and wonders if he could be the Romeo she never expected.

Comments: Sometimes the slowburn in YA romances can be the most rewarding, and this is one of those times. I loved all the characters, especially Megan, and it's just a very cute book, really.

A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: New York City socialite and perpetual hot mess Portia Hobbs is tired of disappointing her family, friends, and—most importantly—herself. An apprenticeship with a struggling swordmaker in Scotland is a chance to use her expertise and discover what she’s capable of. Turns out she excels at aggravating her gruff silver fox boss… when she’s not having inappropriate fantasies about his sexy Scottish burr.

Tavish McKenzie doesn’t need a rich, spoiled American telling him how to run his armory…even if she is infuriatingly good at it. Tav tries to rebuff his apprentice, and his attraction to her, but when Portia accidentally discovers that he’s the secret son of a duke, rough-around-the-edges Tav becomes her newest makeover project.

Forging metal into weapons and armor is one thing, but when desire burns out of control and the media spotlight gets too hot to bear, can a commoner turned duke and his posh apprentice find lasting love?

Comments: Is Alyssa Cole in my top 10, nay top 5, romance authors? Very definitely yes. And this one is probably my favourite of hers so far.

Far From Home by Lorelie Brown

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: eating disorder

Synopsis: My name is Rachel. I’m straight... I think. I also have a mountain of student loans and a smart mouth. I wasn’t serious when I told Pari Sadashiv I’d marry her. It was only party banter! Except Pari needs a green card, and she’s willing to give me a breather from drowning in debt.

My off-the-cuff idea might not be so terrible. We get along as friends. She’s really romantically cautious, which I find heartbreaking. She deserves someone to laugh with. She’s kind. And calm. And gorgeous. A couple of years with her actually sounds pretty good. If some of Pari’s kindness and calmness rubs off on me, that’d be a bonus, because I’m a mess - anorexia is not a pretty word - and my little ways of keeping control of myself, of the world, aren’t working anymore.

And, if I slip up, Pari will see my cracks. Then I’ll crack. Which means I gotta get out, quick, before I fall in love with my wife.

Comments: The likelihood of finding half-decent f/f NA romances is low. The likelihood of finding actually good ones is even lower. So this book is basically a miracle. And it's a miracle that doesn't use miscommunication to create angst.

Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown.

Comments: Yeah, I've recced this before and yes, I'll rec it again. Sometimes it's just most healing to see older gay characters get their happy ending.

Five for Friday: Short Story Collections

You know how sometimes, you don't have the energy to read a full length book, and you just want something shorter? Well, this rec list is for those times when you just want to dip into a collection of short stories, whether it's by the same author or a collection from different authors.

Guardian Angels and Other Monsters by Daniel H. Wilson

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: In "All Kinds of Proof," a down-and-out drunk makes the unlikeliest of friends when he is hired to train a mail-carrying robot; in "Blood Memory," a mother confronts the dangerous reality that her daughter will never assimilate in this world after she was the first child born through a teleportation device; in "The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever," a physicist rushes home to be with his daughter after he hears reports of an atmospheric anomaly which he knows to be a sign of the end of the earth; in "Miss Gloria," a robot comes back to life in many different forms in a quest to save a young girl. Guardian Angels and Other Monsters displays the depth and breadth of Daniel H. Wilson's vision and examines how artificial intelligence both saves and destroys humanity.

Comments: Daniel H. Wilson writes the best kind of robot dystopia fiction, so I knew I would like this collection even before I started reading it. I was not disappointed at all.

Invisible Planets by Hannu Rajaniemi

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Inside the firewall, the city is alive. Buildings breathe, cars attack, angels patrol, hyperintelligent pets rebel.

This much-anticipated first collection from one of the world's hottest SF authors contains seventeen stories, a neurofiction experiment, and a selection of his Twitter microfiction.

How will human nature evolve when the only limit to desire is creativity? What happens when the distinction between humans and gods is as small as nanomachines or as large as the universe? Journeying deep into inner and outer space the stories collected here explore the future in all its complexity.

Comments: Some of these stories are just plain weird, but somehow they all work really well. If you like kind of strange science fiction and dystopia, then this collection will be for you.

Star-Touched Stories by Roshani Chokshi

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Death and Night

He was Lord of Death, cursed never to love. She was Night incarnate, destined to stay alone. After a chance meeting, they wonder if, perhaps, they could be meant for more. But danger crouches in their paths, and the choices they make will set them on a journey that will span lifetimes.

Poison and Gold

Now that her wish for a choice has come true, Aasha struggles to control her powers. But when an opportunity to help Queen Gauri and King Vikram's new reign presents itself, she is thrown into the path of the fearsome yet enchanting Spy Mistress. To help her friends, Aasha will have to battle her insecurities and perhaps, along the way, find love.

Rose and Sword

There is a tale whispered in the dark of the Empire of Bharat-Jain. A tale of a bride who loses her bridegroom on the eve of her wedding. But is it a tale or a truth?

Comments: OK, so maybe you kind of need to have read the whole duology first, to know who the characters are at the very least, so this is a bit of a cheat, but it was still a really good collection of short stories. And you should definitely read the duology.

Just Between Us edited by Maya Linden

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:Empathetic, supportive and respectful...
Or competitive, manipulative and downright bitchy?
Or somewhere in between?

In Just Between Us , a host of Australia's best-loved female writers bare all on this age-old quandary: Are female friendships all-natural and nurturing? Or are some more damaging than delightful? And most of all, what happens when female relationships go off the rails? And who is to blame? While falling in and out of romantic love is a well-documented experience, losing a friend rarely gets discussed. Which doesn't mean the pain is less – quite the opposite, as we discover in this extraordinary collection of heartfelt fiction and non-fiction works that put female friendship in the spotlight.

Nikki Gemmell looks at the hardwiring that keeps us bonded in tightly knit packs, but makes us feel oh-so-claustrophic in mothers' groups and at the school gate. Melina Marchetta reveals the peculiar shame of being overlooked for the high-status netball positions of Centre and Goal Attack. Liz Byrski conducts a forensic examination of her own friendship history, and finds some uncomfortable patterns. And Merridy Eastman pens a letter from Helena to Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream , which shines the light on one of literature's most famously dysfunctional female friendships.

Comments: I might be a bit biased, because this collection contains a short story by Melina Marchetta, and I would read Marchetta's goddamn shopping list, but it's still an excellent collection - not only of fiction, but also essays. And it's all about female friendships too.

Invisible Planets edited by Ken Liu

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Award-winning translator and author Ken Liu presents a collection of short speculative fiction from China. Some stories have won awards; some have been included in various 'Year's Best' anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken's personal favorites. Many of the authors collected here (with the obvious exception of Liu Cixin) belong to the younger generation of 'rising stars'.

In addition, three essays at the end of the book explore Chinese science fiction. Liu Cixin's essay, The Worst of All Possible Universes and The Best of All Possible Earths, gives a historical overview of SF in China and situates his own rise to prominence as the premier Chinese author within that context. Chen Qiufan's The Torn Generation gives the view of a younger generation of authors trying to come to terms with the tumultuous transformations around them. Finally, Xia Jia, who holds the first Ph.D. issued for the study of Chinese SF, asks What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?.

Comments: This is probably the most consistently good anthology by various authors that I've ever read. And there's also going to be a second one published next year, that'll hopefully be just as good.

Five for Friday: Mystery (I)

I can't believe it's taken me this long to get to my favourite goddamn genre, but here we are. Once again, I'm splitting my recs into adult and young adult mysteries. Because otherwise I won't be able to keep to only five. These are mostly historical mysteries, but only because that's clearly the best sort.

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: child deaths, violence

Synopsis: 1845. New York City forms its first police force. The great potato famine hits Ireland. These two seemingly disparate events will change New York City. Forever.

Timothy Wilde tends bar near the Exchange, fantasizing about the day he has enough money to win the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams literally incinerate in a fire devastating downtown Manhattan, he finds himself disfigured, unemployed, and homeless. His older brother obtains Timothy a job in the newly minted NYPD, but he is highly skeptical of this new "police force." And he is less than thrilled that his new beat is the notoriously down-and-out Sixth Ward - at the border of Five Points, the world's most notorious slum.

One night while making his rounds, Wilde literally runs into a little slip of a girl - a girl not more than ten years old - dashing through the dark in her nightshirt... covered head to toe in blood.

Timothy knows he should take the girl to the House of Refuge, yet he can't bring himself to abandon her. Instead, he takes her home, where she spins wild stories, claiming that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of 23rd Street. Timothy isn't sure whether to believe her or not, but, as the truth unfolds, the reluctant copper star finds himself engaged in a battle for justice that nearly costs him his brother, his romantic obsession, and his own life.

Comments: This has to be one of my favourite books ever, favourite series ever too, because it's so well-written and the characters are so good. And the relationship between the Wilde brothers will absolutely wreck you.

A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: period typical racism, violence, drug abuse

Synopsis: India, 1919. Desperate for a fresh start, Captain Sam Wyndham arrives to take up an important post in Calcutta's police force.

He is soon called to the scene of a horrifying murder. The victim was a senior official, and a note in his mouth warns the British to leave India – or else.

With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them...

Comments: Maybe I have a weakness for the Sam Wyndham type of character, because honestly he was my favourite aspect of this book. Sure the mystery was good, but Sam! I even wasn't too bothered by the wishy-washy ending.

My Name is N by Robert Karjel

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: torture, racism, violence

Synopsis: A Swedish security agent is summoned to interrogate a terror suspect held by the FBI — but the prisoner isn't the only one with something to hide.

At a remote military base in the Indian Ocean, the FBI is trying to get a prisoner to confess. But the detainee, a suspect in an Islamist-inspired terror attack in the United States, refuses to talk.

Ernst Grip, a Swedish security officer, has no idea why he's been dispatched to New York City. The FBI agent he meets on arrival, Shauna Friedman, seems to know a little too much about him. And when he arrives at his real destination, the American authorities have just one question: Is their terror suspect a Swedish citizen?

In the process of uncovering the prisoner's true identity, Grip discovers the man's ties to a group of other suspects — a ruthless American arms dealer, a Czech hit man, a mysterious nurse from Kansas, and a heartbreakingly naive Pakistani. The closer Grip gets to the truth, the more complicated the deception becomes. Who is real and who is leading a double life?

Comments: If I tell you that this one pissed off a whole lotta men when it came out, just because the main character is bi, and the author wrote a whole "fuck you" article in The Guardian, will that convince you to read it?

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: period typical homophobia, violence, gore

Synopsis: The year is 1831.

Down the murky alleyways of London, acts of unspeakable wickedness are taking place and no one is willing to speak out on behalf of the city's vulnerable poor as they disappear from the streets.

Out of these shadows comes Hester White, a bright young woman who is desperate to escape the slums by any means possible.

When Hester is thrust into the world of the aristocratic Brock family, she leaps at the chance to improve her station in life under the tutelage of the fiercely intelligent and mysterious Rebekah Brock. But whispers from her past slowly begin to poison her new life and both she and Rebekah are lured into the most sinister of investigations.

Hester and Rebekah find themselves crossing every boundary they've ever known in pursuit of truth, redemption and passion. But their trust in each other will be tested as a web of deceit begins to unspool, dragging them into the blackest heart of a city where something more depraved than either of them could ever imagine is lurking...

Comments: Black Sails invented unbury your gays, and this book continued in that tradition. Sorry, my expectations for historical gay characters are now too high - nothing can ever beat this.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: child deaths, anti-Semitism

Synopsis: In medieval Cambridge, England, four children have been murdered. The crimes are immediately blamed on the town's Jewish community, taken as evidence that Jews sacrifice Christian children in blasphemous ceremonies. To save them from the rioting mob, the king places the Cambridge Jews under his protection and hides them in a castle fortress. King Henry II is no friend of the Jews - or anyone, really - but he is invested in their fate. Without the taxes received from Jewish merchants, his treasuries would go bankrupt. Hoping scientific investigation will exonerate the Jews, Henry calls on his cousin the King of Sicily - whose subjects include the best medical experts in Europe - and asks for his finest "master of the art of death," an early version of the medical examiner. The Italian doctor chosen for the task is a young prodigy from the University of Salerno. But her name is Adelia - the king has been sent a "mistress" of the art of death. Adelia and her companions - Simon, a Jew, and Mansur, a Moor - travel to England to unravel the mystery of the Cambridge murders, which turn out to be the work of a serial killer, most likely one who has been on Crusade with the king. In a backward and superstitious country like England, Adelia must conceal her true identity as a doctor in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. Along the way, she is assisted by Sir Rowley Picot, one of the king's tax collectors, a man with a personal stake in the investigation. Rowley may be a needed friend, or the fiend for whom they are searching. As Adelia's investigation takes her into Cambridge's shadowy river paths and behind the closed doors of its churches and nunneries, the hunt intensifies and the killer prepares to strike again...

Comments: I really love this series, mostly because of its period in history, but also because it's about a female doctor and anatomist in a time when that was pretty much unheard of (in England, at least). And it's set near where I live so.

Five for Friday: M/M Romance

Given that I made a post of f/f romance recs, it's only right that I also rec some m/m romances. I've made a point of only including ownvoices books here, because I don't really trust straight women to write LGBT characters, as much as I might enjoy some of them. Ownvoices m/m romances will always be somewhat better than non-ownvoices for that reason only. And it means I'm not always on edge expecting something iffy. So here are five of my favourite ownvoices m/m romances.

Release by Patrick Ness

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: homophobia, sexual harrassment

Synopsis: Inspired by Mrs Dalloway and Judy Blume's Forever, Release is one day in the life of Adam Thorn, 17. It's a big day. Things go wrong. It's intense, and all the while, weirdness approaches...

Adam Thorn is having what will turn out to be the most unsettling, difficult day of his life, with relationships fracturing, a harrowing incident at work, and a showdown between this gay teen and his preacher father that changes everything. It's a day of confrontation, running, sex, love, heartbreak, and maybe, just maybe, hope. He won't come out of it unchanged. And all the while, lurking at the edges of the story, something extraordinary and unsettling is on a collision course.

Comments: OK, so this is a little bit of a cheat, because it's not really a romance. But I really loved it, and you know how there are some books which really make you appreciate how different ownvoices is from non-ownvoices? This is one of those ones for me.

Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown.

Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.

Comments: Don't you just love second chance romances? This one is about two boys who fall in love aged 18 and then slowly drift apart, before one realises that the only person he's ever loved is his childhood best friend. It's also really cute, and I did love how, at the end, the awful thing that could have happened didn't (I have low standards for these things, okay).

Coffee Boy by Austin Chant

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: After graduation, Kieran expected to go straight into a career of flipping burgers — only to be offered the internship of his dreams at a political campaign. But the pressure of being an out trans man in the workplace quickly sucks the joy out of things, as does Seth, the humorless campaign strategist who watches his every move.

Soon, the only upside to the job is that Seth has a painful crush on their painfully straight boss, and Kieran has a front row seat to the drama. But when Seth proves to be as respectful and supportive as he is prickly, Kieran develops an awkward crush of his own — one which Seth is far too prim and proper to ever reciprocate.

Comments: A cute NA romance, with a trans mc (also ownvoices rep), between an intern and his not-quite boss who has a crush on their real (straight) boss. It's one of those I keep going back to read over and over.

Avi Cantor has Six Months to Live by Sacha Lamb

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Avi Cantor Has Six Months To Live

Avi comes across these foreboding words scrawled on the bathroom mirror, but what do they mean? Is this a curse, a prediction, or a threat from Avi's emboldened bullies? And how to they know his real name when he hasn't even told his mother yet?

Then there is Ian — the cool new guy at school, who is suddenly paying attention to Avi. Ian is just like Avi, but he is also all sunshine, optimism, and magic. All the things that Avi doesn't know how to deal with... yet.

Comments: Another short story, with a cute relationship, and also a bit of witchcraft thrown in there.

Running With Lions by Julian Winters

Rating: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings: body image issues

Synopsis: Bloomington High School Lions' star goalie, Sebastian Hughes, should be excited about his senior year: His teammates are amazing and he's got a coach who doesn't ask anyone to hide their sexuality. But when his estranged childhood best friend Emir Shah shows up to summer training camp, Sebastian realizes the team's success may end up in the hands of the one guy who hates him. Determined to reconnect with Emir for the sake of the Lions, he sets out to regain Emir's trust. But to Sebastian's surprise, sweaty days on the pitch, wandering the town's streets, and bonding on the weekends sparks more than just friendship between them.

Comments: The softest found family and childhood best friends to enemies (ish) to lovers I have ever read. I loved every single one of the characters, and especially the romance.

Five for Friday: Poetry

I'm taking a brief break from reccing fiction this week and instead I'm going to do poetry collections. I really did try hard to keep to five actual recs here, but there are so so many other poetry collections I could have included (and, in fact, I cheated again, right at the end). So, in trying to keep to only five, these recs are five of the less popular (by Goodreads ratings) choices (about 150-200 ratings or less).

Thief in the Interior by Phillip B. Williams

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of racism, homophobia, addiction

Synopsis: Phillip B. Williams investigates the dangers of desire, balancing narratives of addiction, murders, and hate crimes with passionate, uncompromising depth. Formal poems entrenched in urban landscapes crack open dialogues of racism and homophobia rampant in our culture. Multitudinous voices explore one's ability to harm and be harmed, which uniquely juxtaposes the capacity to revel in both experiences.

Comments: I don't know how to comment on poetry, especially when it's so subjective, so I'm just going to suggest a few of my favourite ones to give you a taste. Like Witness and Epithalamium.

Over the Anvil We Stretch by Anis Mojgani

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Over The Anvil We Stretch contains swampy, powerful poems that are as exciting as the pocket knife you got for your birthday, the three legged frog on the lawn and the jar of marbles your mother kept in the kitchen. Mojgani's poems are the sound of the river and the stars burning above. He manages to capture the axe in the stump with blood still on the handle. Anis Mojgani has drawn a map of the country in the shape of his wild dreams. These are memories of a life, captured through the blue green filter of the bayou. Mojgani's latest poems are tinged with the sound of crickets spying on us in the darkness. They move forward honestly, brutally and sweetly. The reader will be led into briar patches as well as the moonlight just on the other side.

Comments: Four Stars and Sharpen Your Lances.

Kumakanda by Kayombo Chingonyi

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of racism

Synopsis: Translating as ‘initiation’, kumukanda is the name given to the rites a young boy from the Luvale tribe must pass through before he is considered a man. The poems of Kayo Chingonyi’s remarkable debut explore this passage: between two worlds, ancestral and contemporary; between the living and the dead; between the gulf of who he is and how he is perceived.

Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once.

Comments: Alternate Take.

Wanting in Arabic by Trish Salah

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of homophobia, transphobia, racism

Synopsis: "Wanting in Arabic" is a refusal of convenient silences, convenient stories. The author dwells on the contradictions of a transsexual poetics, in its attendant disfigurations of lyric, ghazal, l'ecriture feminine, and, in particular, her own sexed voice. Without a memory of her father's language, the questions her poems ask are those for a home known through photographs, for a language lost with childhood.

Braiding theoretical concerns with the ambivalences of sexed and raced identity, with profound romanticism, "Wanting in Arabic" attempts to traverse the fantasies of foundational loss and aggressive nostalgia in order to further a poetics of a conscious partiality of being, of generous struggle and comic rather than tragic misrecognition.

Comments: Land Day (March 30, 1976).

This Way to the Sugar by Hieu Minh Nguyen

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: discussions of racism, homophobia

Synopsis: A Midwest Asian-American poet beautifully captures the queer American experience. This bruising collection of poems puts a blade and a microscope to nostalgia, tradition, race, apology, and sexuality, in order to find beauty in a flawed world. His work has been described as an astounding testament to the power and necessity of confession.

Comments: I've only ever found one of my favourites by Hieu Minh Nguyen online, which is 2006. But there's also Outbound and Type II.

And, finally, because I can't resist, and I did have to leave out some faves in this list, special mention goes to: Live for a Living by Buddy Wakefield, Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, Counting Descent by Clint Smith, Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith, Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar, and Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns by Andrea Gibson.

Five for Friday: Steampunk

Look! Four weeks in a row! I'm getting the hang of this book blogging malarkey (finally). This week's five recs are all steampunk books (or rather, mostly short stories). I don't read a huge amount of steampunk - I probably have more on my to-read shelf than my read shelf - but these are the best of the ones I have read.

The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Elizabeth Barnabus lives a double life — as herself and as her brother, the private detective. She is trying to solve the mystery of a disappearing aristocrat and a hoard of arcane machines. In her way stand the rogues, freaks and self-proclaimed alchemists of a travelling circus. But when she comes up against an agent of the all-powerful Patent Office, her life and the course of history will begin to change. And not necessarily for the better…

Comments: I love mystery stories. If there's one genre I'll always go back to, it's mysteries. So this one was right up my alley. And it has the perfect slowburn enemies to friends?/lovers? potential relationship. It's also pretty much the only full-length audiobook I have ever really liked.

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Instead, she wants to soar, and her sights are set on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann-Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper keeps another secret close to heart - Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie…

Comments: Probably one of the best short stories I've ever read. It's got great world-building and a proper amount of plot - not too much for a short story, but also not too little.

The Persephone Star by Jamie Sullivan

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: homophobia

Synopsis: As Post Mistress of Fortuna, Penelope Moser knows just about everything about everyone. It's a job she takes seriously, no matter who comes to pry for gossip, or how unsettling the messages are — but even she is more than a little frightened by rumors that The Persephone Star has been spotted nearby. That means Mirage Currier is out of prison and coming to settle up with the man who put her in jail: Cullen Wiley, Sheriff of Fortuna and Penelope's fiancé.

The worst comes to pass when Penelope is kidnapped — or so she thinks. But the simple truth she thought she knew starts to unravel, leaving her to choose between the man she promised to marry or the woman destined for the gallows.

Comments: You know you want to read about a band of Robin Hood style lady outlaws running around the country in an airship, stealing from rich ugly men. Especially when you get an f/f relationship into the bargain.

Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus

Rating: 3 stars
Content Warnings: racism

Synopsis: Having stumbled onto a plot within his homeland of Jamaica, former espionage agent, Desmond Coke, finds himself caught between warring religious and political factions, all vying for control of a mysterious boy named Lij Tafari.

Wanting the boy to have a chance to live a free life, Desmond assumes responsibility for him and they flee. But a dogged enemy agent remains ever on their heels, desperate to obtain the secrets held within Lij for her employer alone.

Assassins, intrigue, and steammen stand between Desmond and Lij as they search for a place to call home in a North America that could have been.

Comments: This one I found a little confusing to get into, because the author trusts you to just pick up the world as you go along, as opposed to fully explaining it but by the end it's very good. It's kind of a sci-fi/steampunk mix, and a great quick read.

Timekeeper by Tara Sim

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: I was in an accident. I got out. I’m safe now.

An alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, where a damaged clock can fracture time — and a destroyed one can stop it completely.

A prodigy mechanic who can repair not only clockwork but time itself, determined to rescue his father from a Stopped town.

A series of mysterious bombings that could jeopardize all of England.

A boy who would give anything to relive his past, and one who would give anything to live at all.

A romance that will shake the very foundations of time.

Comments: An alternative Victorian era, where clocks are alive, and have spirits - one of whom befriends Danny, a clock mechanic. There's also a mystery going on as well, as the mechanics try to unstop a Stopped town. And it's an alternative Victorian era without any homophobia.

Five for Friday: Fantasy (IV)

Look at me, writing these posts weeks in advance and scheduling them. It's almost like (*gasp*) I'm being organised. Anyhow, today is part four (of four) of my fantasy recs. This final part is going to be YA urban fantasy. As ever, I've ignored a number of other books I would rec in favour of these five so. They're good, folks.

Iron Cast by Destiny Soria

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: period typical racism, torture, violence

Synopsis: In 1919, Ada Navarra—the intrepid daughter of immigrants—and Corinne Wells—a spunky, devil-may-care heiress—make an unlikely pair. But at the Cast Iron nightclub in Boston, anything and everything is possible. At night, on stage together, the two best friends, whose “afflicted” blood gives them the ability to create illusions through art, weave magic under the employ of Johnny Dervish, the club’s owner and a notorious gangster. By day, Ada and Corinne use these same skills to con the city’s elite in an attempt to keep the club afloat.

When a “job” goes awry and Ada is imprisoned, she realizes they’re on the precipice of danger. Only Corinne—her partner in crime—can break her out of Haversham Asylum. But once Ada is out, they face betrayal at every turn.

Comments: Think 1910s X-Men with heists and murder mysteries. Think really really good friendships, and angsty relationships. Now think about reading it. (And then do read it.)

Shadowshaper by D J Older

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra's near-comatose abuelo begins to say "Lo siento" over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep.... Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.

Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order's secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper by killing all the others, one by one. With the help of her friends and the hot graffiti artist Robbie, Sierra must dodge Wick's supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities, and save her family's past, present, and future.

Comments: To be honest, I don't remember enough of this to tell you why you should read it specifically but. You should read it. Trust past me who rated it 4 stars.

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?

Comments: OK, so yes, I have a bit of a thing for urban fantasy but in historical settings, alright? It's just. Some real good shit. And also lets you have a disgustingly tense slowburn romance. Just what I like.

Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: violence, death

Synopsis: He always knew he was different.
First there were the dreams.
Then the deaths began.


When Matt Freeman gets into trouble with the police, he's sent to be fostered in Yorkshire. It's not long before he senses there's something wrong with his guardian: with the whole village.

Then Matt learns about the Old Ones and begins to understand just how he is different. But no one will believe him; no one can help.

There is no proof. There is no logic. There is just the Gate.

Comments: This has been one of my favourite series for years. I love all the characters and the world, and the ending will never fail to make me tear up just thinking about it.

Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Aidan Lockwood feels like he’s been sleepwalking through life, each day as hazy and unremarkable as the one before it. But when his former best friend, Jarrod, suddenly moves back to town, the veil that has clouded Aidan’s mind begins to lift. Yet what Aidan discovers is that his world is haunted by stories of the past; stories that he has somehow been prevented from remembering.

But visions from the past come to him unbidden, starting with an old apple tree—a gnarled, dead thing—that haunts Aidan’s sleep, and seems to beckon to him from across his family’s orchard. And then there are the dreams that show him people and places he’s only heard of in family stories: a great-grandfather on the field of battle; his own father, stumbling upon an unspeakable tragedy; and a mysterious young boy whose whispered words may be at the heart of the curse that now holds Aidan’s family in its grip.

But there’s another presence lurking within this invisible world—someone who has been waiting to collect on a debt set into motion generations ago. As the lines between the past and the present, stories and truths, friends and lovers begin to blur, Aidan will be forced to spin a story of his own to protect those he loves, and keep the invisible world at bay.

Comments: Think The Raven Cycle but actually good gay rep and you've got something along the lines of this book. It's fantasy and psychics, plus best friends to lovers. What's not to like?

Five for Friday: Pirates

Going for a bit of a different direction this week. Instead of a genre, or trope, I'm going to rec books by a theme. And that theme is going to be pirates (blame Black Sails, ok?).

Compass Rose by Anna Burke

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: violence, death

Synopsis: Rose was born facing due north, with an inherent perception of cardinal points flowing through her veins. Her uncanny sense of direction earns her a coveted place among the Archipelago Fleet elite, but it also attracts the attention of Admiral Comita, who sends her on a secret mission deep into pirate territory. Accompanied by a ragtag crew of mercenaries and under the command of Miranda, a captain as bloodthirsty as she is alluring, Rose discovers the hard way that even the best sense of direction won’t be enough to keep her alive if she can’t learn to navigate something far more dangerous than the turbulent seas. Aboard the mercenary ship, Man o’ War, Rose learns quickly that trusting the wrong person can get you killed — and Miranda’s crew have no intention of making things easy for her — especially the Captain’s trusted first mate, Orca, who is as stubborn as she is brutal.

Comments: Futuristic pirates! Lesbian pirates! Hate to love relationship pirates! What more do you want from these pirates! (No, but seriously. Do yourself a favour and read this.)

The Princess and the Captain by Anne-Laure Bondoux

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis: Malva is the princess of Galnicia, destined to marry the Prince of Andemark, or so her parents think. On the eve of her wedding, she escapes at dead of night, little realising that she is letting herself in for a life of peril and adventure, including being shipwrecked in a huge storm and being captured as part of a harem.

Comments: I first read this book over six years ago. I'm not sure quite when because I think I've repressed all knowledge of it given how much it hurt me. One day, I'll work up the courage to reread it, but that's not going to be anytime soon.

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: torture

Synopsis: Adeluna is a soldier. Five years ago, she helped the magic-rich island of Grace Loray overthrow its oppressor, Argrid, a country ruled by religion. But adjusting to postwar life has not been easy. When an Argridian delegate vanishes during peace talks with Grace Loray’s new Council, Argrid demands brutal justice — but Lu suspects something more dangerous is at work.

Devereux is a pirate. As one of the outlaws called stream raiders who run rampant on Grace Loray, he pirates the island’s magic plants and sells them on the black market. But after Argrid accuses raiders of the diplomat’s abduction, Vex becomes a target. An expert navigator, he agrees to help Lu find the Argridian — but the truth they uncover could be deadlier than any war.

Benat is a heretic. The crown prince of Argrid, he harbors a secret obsession with Grace Loray’s forbidden magic. When Ben’s father, the king, gives him the shocking task of reversing Argrid’s fear of magic, Ben has to decide if one prince can change a devout country — or if he’s building his own pyre.

As conspiracies arise, Lu, Vex, and Ben will have to decide who they really are... and what they are willing to become for peace.

Comments: Yeah, this might be a little bit of a cheat, because the whole piracy thing isn't that much of a plotpoint, but whatever. My recs, my rules. And I really loved this one, so I'm reccing it. It's probably one of the first fantasy books I've read that manages to create a whole fantasy world without homophobia too (even while having a society set up around a church that considers magic heresy and things like extramarital sex a sin).

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: some transphobia

Synopsis: Ten years ago, Peter Pan left Neverland to grow up, leaving behind his adolescent dreams of boyhood and resigning himself to life as Wendy Darling. Growing up, however, has only made him realize how inescapable his identity as a man is.

But when he returns to Neverland, everything has changed: the Lost Boys have become men, and the war games they once played are now real and deadly. Even more shocking is the attraction Peter never knew he could feel for his old rival, Captain Hook — and the realization that he no longer knows which of them is the real villain.

Comments: You know you always wanted to read a story where Peter Pan was a trans man and had a relationship with Captain Hook. Don't try fool me. But even if you didn't, I bet you're now curious about it at least.

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard

Rating: 4 stars
Content Warnings: lots of violence

Synopsis: In the early eighteenth century a number of the great pirate captains, including Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and "Black Sam" Bellamy, joined forces. This infamous "Flying Gang" was more than simply a thieving band of brothers. Many of its members had come to piracy as a revolt against conditions in the merchant fleet and in the cities and plantations in the Old and New Worlds. Inspired by notions of self-government, they established a crude but distinctive form of democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which indentured servants were released and leaders chosen or deposed by a vote. They were ultimately overcome by their archnemesis, Captain Woodes Rogers — a merchant fleet owner and former privateer — and the brief though glorious moment of the Republic of Pirates came to an end. In this unique and fascinating book, Colin Woodard brings to life this virtually unexplored chapter in the Golden Age of Piracy.

Comments: Yeah, so this is a non-fiction book, but it's a really good account of the pirates of Bahamas. If you're interested in finding out more about the Golden Age of Piracy, you should read this (or watch Black Sails. Do that too).

Five for Friday: Historical (I)

After yet another accidental 4 or 5 week hiatus, I'm back with more recs! This week, I'm reccing historical fiction, namely adult fiction (young adult will come later, as may new adult). Some of these books may crossover with other genres (one of my favourite genres has to be historical mysteries), but they're all historical.

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: child deaths, child prostitution, death, violence

Synopsis: 1845. New York City forms its first police force. The great potato famine hits Ireland. These two seemingly disparate events will change New York City. Forever.

Timothy Wilde tends bar near the Exchange, fantasizing about the day he has enough money to win the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams literally incinerate in a fire devastating downtown Manhattan, he finds himself disfigured, unemployed, and homeless. His older brother obtains Timothy a job in the newly minted NYPD, but he is highly skeptical of this new "police force." And he is less than thrilled that his new beat is the notoriously down-and-out Sixth Ward - at the border of Five Points, the world's most notorious slum.

One night while making his rounds, Wilde literally runs into a little slip of a girl - a girl not more than ten years old - dashing through the dark in her nightshirt... covered head to toe in blood.

Timothy knows he should take the girl to the House of Refuge, yet he can't bring himself to abandon her. Instead, he takes her home, where she spins wild stories, claiming that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of 23rd Street. Timothy isn't sure whether to believe her or not, but, as the truth unfolds, the reluctant copper star finds himself engaged in a battle for justice that nearly costs him his brother, his romantic obsession, and his own life.

Comments: Do you like angsty familial relationships? Then this is a book for you. Quite honestly, the Wilde brothers are one of my favourite families, and also one of the families that causes me the most pain. And the historical setting is amazing too.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: racism, death

Synopsis: Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.

So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.

Comments: 1970s counts as historical, right? But anyway, this is one of my favourite books ever by one of my favourite authors. I initially rated it only 4 stars, but then I realised I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks after so upped the rating. I would also rec Celeste Ng's second book about as much.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Rating: 5 stars
Content Warnings: murder, mentions of rape

Synopsis: Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

Comments: Burial Rites is another one of those ones I read and was left thinking about for weeks. It's gorgeously written and properly evocative.

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: Creeper, a scrappy young teen, is done living on the streets of New Orleans. Instead, she wants to soar, and her sights are set on securing passage aboard the smuggler airship Midnight Robber. Her ticket: earning Captain Ann-Marie’s trust using a secret about a kidnapped Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper keeps another secret close to heart--Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, who speaks inside her head and grants her divine powers. And Oya has her own priorities concerning Creeper and Ann-Marie…

Comments: OK, this is a bit of a cheat because it's more like an alternative steampunk history, but it's so good I had to rec it. It's a really really good novella too (and basically a guide on how to write a good novella).

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

Rating: 3.5 stars
Content Warnings: death, violence, some gore

Synopsis: Jack Sheppard - a transgender carpenter's apprentice - has fled his master's house to become a notorious prison break artist, and Bess Munshi has escaped the draining of the fenlands to become a revolutionary mastermind. Together, they find themselves at the center of a web of corruption leading back to the dreaded Thief-Catcher General...

... Or so we are told in a mysterious manuscript unearthed by one Professor R. Voth. Voth traces the origins and authenticity of the manuscript as Jack and Bess trace the connections between the bowels of Newgate Prison and the dissection chambers of the Royal College, in a bawdy collision of a novel about gender, love, and liberation.

Comments: If you want to read a historical book with a trans main character (written by a trans author), where there's a happy ending, then this one's for you.