ARC, Books

Book 897: If You Love Something – Jayce Ellis

I came across this while perusing NetGalley looking for new MM Romance authors to expand my repertoire and diversity reading.*

Not going to lie though, I mostly chose this one because of the illustrated cover’s whimsical balloon and because I thought the author was a man! I’ve only read a few MM Romances by men, but when I finished the novel I found out Jayce was a woman, which didn’t affect my opinions but was like DAMN.

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Book 871: Just Ash – Sol Santana

When I stumbled across this on NetGalley I knew I wanted to read it.* That book cover has Boston (including where I actually live) on it, it’s an own voices LGBTQIA story, and it happens to be released in October and set in Salem, I mean COME ON how could I NOT request it. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my hopes for it. Maybe they were too high to start because the book started out strong but puttered out by the end.

Just Ash is the story of Ash who has spent their entire life as a boy who happened to have both male and female parts, but in the opening scene gets his period and a series of horrible events follow as he is forced to pretend to be a girl by his parents for some time until he finally sets his foot down.

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Book 860: Obie is Man Enough – Schuyler Bailar

When I saw this on NetGalley I knew I was going to request it.* I remember the news stories of Bailar joining the Harvard University swim team and being the first trans athlete to compete on any NCAA D1 Men’s team and when I saw he wrote this I knew I wanted to read it.

The bulk of my LGBT reading is either MM Romance of some sort or nonfiction history/politics. There are a few Sapphic romances and a few with trans characters mixed in, but for the most part it’s not very diverse when it comes to reading the entire rainbow so I was super happy when the publisher approved my request!

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Books

Book 835: Legendborn (Legendborn Cycle #1) – Tracy Deonn

I was on hold at the library for months to get this one! I vaguely remember it being released, but didn’t realize it’s connection to UNC Chapel Hill (my undergrad) until I saw the cover and Deonn in one of the alumni newsletters and then of course immediately had to read it, but was stifled by the long hold times :’-(

I wasn’t only drawn to it because of the UNC connection, but also because of the modern retelling of Arthurian legends. I knew this was going to be a fascinating take on them with a Black protagonist, southern history, secret societies, and the first public university in the country, how couldn’t it be!

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Books

Book 832: Jay’s Gay Agenda – Jason June

This book was 100% written to be adapted into a movie or tv show. It even had locations and some stage direction already included. Maybe it’s from June’s background, I’m not sure, but as I was reading it definitely felt like a teen RomCom from the early 2000s.

I grabbed this from the library after seeing it on someone’s Insta (sorry don’t remember who, but might’ve actually been June doing a takeover somewhere) and thinking what a great name for a book without knowing anything other than the name and basic premise.

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