Bisexual – Page 5 – Marked for Plot

Dad Magic

I picked up this book excited for an urban fantasy with a middle-aged gay parent as a protagonist. It’s about everything you could expect from a book called Dad Magic, and features a lot of elements I don’t normally see in fantasy (urban or not). Ultimately, I didn’t like this book terribly much, and wish that I had DNF’d it. I think there’s a lot of readers who would like it though, especially if they can get into the dad-bod jokes that exemplify the tone of this story.

The Premise:
Brent is a retired adventurer, now insurance claims worker. He sells products in case his clients get blown up by their own cauldrons or get run over by a drunk driver on a broom. He lives with his 17 year old daughter who wants to work with dragons (not Brent’s favorite idea in the world) and his best friend who eats way too much chicken cooked with time magic. After the pair of friends are forced to defend a city block from a violent behemoth, they get roped into working for the mage’s guild to investigate strange events in the city. At the same time, his daughter is coming to terms with her unique powers, a man who looks just like his ex-husband shows up, and people start hunting down Victoria for reasons yet-unknown.

Read If Looking For: platonic bromances, father/daughter bickering, corny jokes and names

Avoid if You Dislike: different names for everything, suspending disbelief for plot and romance, shallow characters

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

One of the things I love about fiction (and fantasy in particular) is that writers can operate within a shared bank of references, playing with old ideas and twisting them into new shapes. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is just that. It takes a deal with a devil, the moral ‘be careful what you wish for’ and spins out an engaging tale from it. This was a pick for an in-person book club, and I very much enjoyed my time with it, even if I thought it missed some golden opportunities.

The Premise:
Addie LaRue made a deal with the devil, if he really is a devil, to avoid being forced into marriage. She’s spent the last 300 years with immortal life and freedom, with a catch. She cannot leave an imprint on the world: people forget her as soon as she’s out of sight, she loses all belongings, and she can’t even break a window without it fixing itself. She is a ghost. That is, until she meets Henry in 2013, who can somehow remember her. Her life changes forever.

Read if Looking For: resourceful women, hot demons, leads going from overwhelmed to hyper competent

Avoid if You Dislike: constant flashbacks

A Strange & Stubborn Endurance (Tithenai Chronicles #1)

A recent friend of mine works at a local romance-focused bookstore. When I asked about great gay romantasy books, this was one of the first titles to come to her mind. And while I don’t think this touches on some of my all time favorites, there’s a lot of good things happening in A Strange and Stubborn Endurance that you don’t find in many other romance/fantasy hybrids. I’m curious to see what the sequel brings to the table, as it felt fairly resolved in book 1, but I’m definitely going to read it.

The Premise
Velasin is an unimportant child of a minor(ish) noble, and never expected to play any sort of significant role in his country’s politics. However, when he ends up engaged to a noblewoman from a neighboring country in an attempt to broker peace, he doesn’t know what to do. Homosexuality is taboo in his country, so he can’t even protest his father. When the ambassador who arrives to collect him sees Velasin being raped by his ex-partner, she mistakenly assumes a consensual act, and shifts Velasin’s betrothal to a nobleman: Caethari, the athletic scion of a noble house with little interest in ruling. However, their betrothal, marriage, and falling in love (in that order) is marred by a serious of brutal attacks that seek to either kill one of them, or to wreck the marriage (and the new alliance) before it can ever start.

Read if Looking For: Romantasy, traditional romance tropes and plotlines, serious considerations of sexual assault, wholesome leads

Avoid if Looking For: lots of magic, political intrigue, characters that aren’t pure good/evil

Swordspoint (Riverside #1)

In terms of queer Fantasy, Swordspoint is one of those titles that gets thrown out a lot in terms of early representation. It’s also a seminal work in the Fantasy of Manners genre, and has a sequel following different characters decades later which I adored (you absolutely can read Privilege of the Sword first, though I anticipate most readers would prefer to start here). In the end I had more reservations about Swordspoint than Privilege, but I’m happy I read it and think there’s a lot to love here.

The Premise
Richard and Alex live in Riverside, a den of thieves and vice. Alex’s past is a mystery, but the former university student has a particular talent for cutting comments. Richard is a duelist, the best in town at the moment, hired by nobles to settle disputes and defend honor. They end up dragged into the plots of nobility, each of whom has an agenda of their own to try and gather as much possible without caring much who gets hurt.

Read If Looking For: dining room intrigue scenes, strict codes of honor, queer rep from the 80s,

Avoid if Looking For: lead characters with agency, conversations where the subtext is explained, romance plot structures

Sorcery and Small Magics

In my constant hunt for the perfect romance and the perfect Gay Fantasy book, I’ve read a lot of good books and a small mountain of bad ones. I’d initially brushed off Sorcery and Small magics based on the pitch, but after a series of glowing reviews, I decided to give it a try. And what I found was an enjoyable (if not revolutionary) story that was a great book to listen to while packing up boxes for my upcoming move.

The Premise
Leo is in school to develop his skills as a Scriver, someone who writes magic for Sorcerers to cast. Only he doesn’t want to be a magician, or at school, or paired up with his arch-nemiss Grimm, a prodigal talent who matches Leo’s personality about as well as personal responsibility does. When a magical control spell gets cast accidentally on Leo, however, he finds himself unable tied to Grimm far more tightly than he ever wanted to be.

Read if Looking For: wholesome and casual writing, casual bickering, violins

Avoid if Looking For: traditional Romantasy, books that develop theme rigorously

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon

Speaking generally, I think comparisons to other books does a disservice to individual books. In official publishing industry pitches, this is especially egregious, where every book is _____ meets _____. While Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon absolutely stands on its own merit, it shares a lot of DNA with American Gods, and, considering that many readers are no longer interested in giving Neil Gaiman their money anymore, Shigidi is a phenomenal take on gods and modernity.

The Premise:
Shigidi is a nightmare god. Well, a retired nightmare god who escaped the Spirit Corporation grind and now works freelance to try and gain the prayers and souls needed to sustain him. He and Nnemona, his succubus partner, are offered a final job to clear their debts away and open an opportunity for a life in their homeland. But it means breaking into the London Museum through their tight security. This book drifts between years, exploring the current and past dilemmas facing Shigidi and Nnemona, culminating with their final caper.

Read if Looking For: modern interpretations of myth, three dimensional characters, bisexuals everywhere

Avoid if Looking For: tightly focused ‘heist’ books, fast pacing

Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Progression Fantasy is a subgenre that happily draws on video games, anime, and tabletop RPGs as inspiration points. Sufficiently Advanced Magic happily wears its influences on its sleeves. It’s a big magic school story with lots of cool fights, badass moments, without a whole lot mental load required of the reader. And while I think I ultimately prefer Journals of Evander Tailor for my ‘queer kid enchants items in a big magic school’ read, this is a phenomenal option, and definitely the more widely popular one.

The Premise:
Corin enters the Spire hoping for many things: an attunement to grant him magic, clues about the fate of his brother, who vanished years ago in his own Spire trial, and maybe a fun magic weapon or two. He comes out with all three things (though perhaps none as intended), the attention of one of the immortal Visages who can destroy countries with a thought, and a pissed off abusive father who can’t stand his son got an enchanting attunement instead of one designed for combat. Corin heads to school, hoping to develop his abilities to eventually be able to find his brother and gain independence.

Read If Looking For: anime vibes, overly analytical characters, dungeon crawling

Avoid if Looking For: books without filler, mystic magic, healthy parent/child relationships

The Darkness Outside Us

I intended for this book to be a light, fluffy read. Picked up in an airport bookshop as something to occupy me as I headed out to a summer teaching gig in Boston, I thought I was going to read a cute (and possibly spicy) romance set in a spaceship. I did not expect the emotional rollercoaster of stress, excitement, and sheer existential dread this book would pull out of me. It’s stood the test of time and is just as good on a reread as that first experience.

The Premise:
Ambrose is an astronaut from ‘not UN’ and Kodiak is from ‘not Russia’. The two countries, in a long cold war, have sent the two young spacefarers on a rescue mission. They aren’t supposed to interact at all with each other unless absolutely necessary, but Ambrose is curious about his hot neighbor, and who else is he supposed to talk to on this ship? But there are also some unexplained oddities that are nagging at him.

Read If Looking For: space thrillers, emotional romantic connections, looming dread

Avoid if Looking For: straightforward romances, thorough worldbuilding

Evocation

Evocation immediately caught my eye with its cover. While I’m not a someone who subscribes to Tarot in my personal life, I greatly enjoy how it can be used as a symbolic component in stories, especially fantasy ones where its easy for me to suspend disbelief and enjoy fortune telling. That, plus a queer cast made it an easy choice for me to read.

The Premise:
David is one of a long line of Occultists, the family line said to have traded something away to a demon for power and wealth. Central to David’s life is Rhys, his ex who is currently married to a formidable witch named Moira. Overworked and seeking to take over the occult society, David begins to experience magical episodes that leave him fearful that he’s victim to something sinister, forcing him to turn to his ex for aid, and shifting the relationship of all three forever.

Read If Looking For: poly romance, dynamic narration, occultism

Avoid if Looking For: flesheshed out magic systems, mystery/thriller plotlines that satisfy

Mistress of Lies

One of this year’s bingo squares is ‘Judge a Book by It’s Cover’ which challenges you to read a book without knowing anything other than what’s on the front cover. Mistress of Lies was my pick for my ‘published in 2024’ themed card. I thought the art was wonderfully evocative, and also visually distinct from a lot of cover art trends I’m seeing these days. Ella Garrett (designer) and Felix Abel Klaer (illustrator) did a phenomenal job.

The Premise:
In a country ruled by an upper class of blood mages and led by a deathless king, a young noblewoman kills her father. She wants to change society for the betterment of her brother, who is Bloodless, and relies on scheming and plots to do so. Meanwhile, a Bloodless commoner stumbles upon a murder victim that has been causing discontentment amongst the Bloodless people, fostered by whispers of rebellion. He finds himself dragged into noble society against his will. And lingering around it all is the Royal Bloodworker, forming a trilogy of attraction as the three struggle to find an equilibrium in the newly unsettled Blood Worker Society.

Read If Looking For: romantic tension, polyamorous storylines, moral ambiguity

Avoid if Looking For: political intrigue, books free of YA/New Adult vibes