The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

THE LITTLE MERMAID RETELLING.
QUEER MERMAIDS.
NORSE MYTHOLOGY.

Ersel trying to figure out how Humans work is too cute
Loki The Trickster God is addressed with they/them pronouns and this pleases me greatly
Ersel is Ursula and not Ariel
FAT MC. FAT MC.

Ersel and Ragna hit each other [a huge no-no.] and even though Ragna is like “I shouldn’t have done that.” Ersel turns around and is like, “You punch better.” and i’m just sat here like YOU DO NOT HIT YOUR LOVE INTEREST, WTF.

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The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got a whole bunch of Memoirs of a Geisha vibes off this book, especially when Tea was “starting from the bottom and now we here” and also with the heavy emphasis of entertainment in teahouses. The book’s plot; while SUPER INTERESTING in the beginning because the pacing was excellent, left me confused AS FUCK as we started getting towards the end.

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Get It Together, Delilah! by Erin Gough
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I never knew this would be the Coffee Shop AU Fanfic come to life
This was originally titled The Flywheel, which is the place where Delilah works / manages for her father.
Delilah’s Dad is on a trip around the world working on getting over Del’s Mom, June having an affair.
Charlie (Delilah’s friend) is pretty cool. He’s like the wingman between Delilah and Rosa (Delilah’s interest.) He almost goes to jail for beating the shit out of a girlfriend’s father and ends up hiding out at Delilah’s flat for a while
Delilah tripping over herself whenever Rosa is around is so #relatable
DEL AND ROSA ARE HANGING OUT SCREEN PRINTING SHIRTS!!!
I can definitely feel Del’s frustration about dating someone in the closet.
Fuck Hamish. And not in the fun way.
I love when a book’s title is mentioned within the book somewhere.

I’m so so so SO happy that Delilah and Rosa worked things out and ended up together in the end!! *pops confetti*

While Get It Together, Delilah! was super sweet and fluffy at times, it wasn’t all that lasting impressive but I’m slightly forgiving as this was Erin Gough‘s first novel.

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The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I put the feelers out there that I was starting this book, I was met with nothing but praise about it! I initially picked it up as my next read because I discovered [via Tumblr] that it was becoming a feature film. I’m one of those snobs that like to read a book before seeing the movie or TV show it’s based on. [That doesn’t always happen though.]

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a Young Adult novel about a girl coming to terms with her queerness. It will make you laugh out loud, it will break your heart and you will throw things because who the fuck sends a person to gay conversion therapy? A fucking maniac, that’s who. [I’m looking at you, Aunt Ruth.]

Cameron is an extremely relatable character, because while I may not have been sent to Christian Conversion Therapy, I kept my queerness a secret for years until my Birthgiver figured it out when I was 20. I was so beginning to love Cam and Coley until Coley evidently spilled the beans about Cam’s sexuality. WHAT THE FUCK, COLEY? Not to mention, Cam never gets any closure about that.

There’s a bit of artwork in this book but the one that made me laugh the most was Lindsay’s postcard to Cam.

One thing I did find to be pretty drudge-y is the author’s seemingly DESPERATE NEED to talk about everything country and Montana while trying to tangle all this nostalgia into the plot.

Overall, this was a GREAT read if you can get through the drudge-y bits.

I also want to warn to some triggering bits with this, there’s a character that self-harms and it’s mentioned in detail. May also be a little graphic because it definitely made me cringe.

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Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up Wintersong because nothing gets me to pick up a book faster than “LABYRINTH RETELLING!”. Okay, might be stretching the truth a bit, but you catch my drift right? The original Labyrinth movie was a huge part of my childhood and the beginning of my life-long love of David Bowie. His music will never get old to me.

While a snail’s pace beginning, it starts to ramp up a bit going into the 100s pages. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold steady for very long and starts to fizzle out. I actually found myself becoming bored, up until the point where The Goblin King and Elisabeth were gonna get it on and he basically pulls a “Go home, Elisabeth. You’re drunk.” I actually then laughed out loud. Even if Elisabeth was pissed she wasn’t gonna get any pretty Goblin King dick.

You find yourself getting beaten over the head with this book’s emphasis on music, and when it’s FINALLY done doing that, you’ll get your heart ripped out during the ending. To be fair though, if you pay enough attention you’ll see this ending coming.

I wanted to love this book, I really did, but it just did not work out and that’s okay.

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Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Queens of Geek had me hooked instantly, like even before I was set to read it. I read the blurb about it and said to myself, “I HAVE GOT TO READ THIS.” so I was SUPER IMPATIENT waiting for it to be published. I did found out there was a Wattpad version, but seeing people wondering if there were differences made me shy away and just wait it out until publication day.

It features things close to my nerdy little heart: a) nerdy queer love b) nerdy queer love founded at a nerd convention.

For my new readers, I met my fiance over six years ago at a convention, and we started dating exactly a year later on the day we met. (we didn’t plan it that way, scout’s honor.) so Queens Of Geek was literally up my alley, even if when I got into it and it went up in smoke and I absolutely hated it. There was a book out there that I could relate to.

Taylor, Charlie and Jamie’s initial reaction to SupaCon was extremely identical to my own first-time congoer experience. That nervous excitement. That need to do ALL THE THINGS EVERYWHERE. [Con-going Spoiler Alert: you cannot do all the things at once. You will burn out.]

Taylor, being a person who suffers from anxiety has the most in common with me. Later on we discover she’s on the aspie spectrum. [a person with autism.] Reese can go eat a dick, I cannot stand him. I want Taylor and Jamie to date [SPOILER ALERT: They eventually do, or perhaps they’re ALREADY dating and I missed the ding dang memo. woops.] and Charlie’s an openly bisexual person of color? Asian in fact? *SQUEE*

Charlie’s blossoming relationship with Alyssa was super, super cute and I was rooting for them the whole way. I’m trying to keep this as spoiler-free as possible so I won’t go into detail as to where their relationship ends up going. There is an “OH, SHIT!” moment involving them though, and that’s all. I’ll budge on.

Overall, Queens of Geek was everything I wanted and more in a nerdy queer romance read and has rightfully earned a space on my “favorites” shelf.

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10 Things I Can See from Here by Carrie Mac
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ugly pink/orange highlighter flashy cover aside…

Maeve, a character that suffers from anxiety, and has a habit of Googling facts. One such instance being bus accidents and death, since she was traveling by bus to Vancouver to stay with her Dad for six months while her mom was in Haiti.

I actually learned something from this book, though! That the “Keep Calm And Carry On” posters you might’ve seen exploding around on the internet a few years ago were actually orignally propaganda from World War II with Hitler and stuff and that SERIOUSLY BLEW MY FREAKING MIND. Suddenly glad I didn’t really own anything with that written on it, anyway, carrying on… *ahem*

Maeve’s Dad is pretty messed up, alcoholic, drug user, and has even cheated on Maeve’s biological mother which caused the dissolve of their marriage.

While this book has many, many facts and statistics about death, it’s also pretty damn funny like the time Maeve caught her Mom’s boyfriend naked in the kitchen and went on about old man dick.

It’s a super cute book and Salix is absolutely wonderful to Maeve and understanding her condition but….

#needsbettercover.

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We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m going to be completely outright honest and say that you could probably skip the first 200 pages of this book and read the last 40 or so. That’s when the book is most likely to up and punch you straight in the feelings.

Nina’s writing is amazing though despite a slow plot. Why? Because it sucks you right into Marin’s self-imposed isolation, grief and depression. this book is about loss, and how a particular person handles that loss.

there’s a giant plot twist too that will absolutely make you go “HOLY SHIT.” At least, I did. I sat there in my bed with my mouth agape.

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The Right Way to be Crippled and Naked: The Fiction of Disability: An Anthology by Annabelle Hayse
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m going to be totally honest and say this: Reviewing anthologies are hard because it’s not one story by one author, it’s multiple stories by multiple authors and I feel that will just DRAG. ON. FOREVER. thus boring you, the reader of this review and myself, the writer.

This anthology though? Amazing. Why? Because you don’t see many stories from writers that are disabled, be it mentally, physically or emotionally. Disabled writers have a tendency to fall through the cracks, much like disabled people in general.

Some of the stories even feature disabled characters in which their disabilities are made clear and others where there disabilities are more invisible, or not even mentioned at all. There even was a story featuring characters that struggled with addiction and it made me so sad.

These stories are hard hitting, and they will give you a glimpse of what people like me struggle with day in and out in a world that isn’t none too kind to us.

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