Gay – Page 4 – Marked for Plot

The Long Past

Ginn Hale has been on my radar for a while. I hear a lot of praise for her Rifter series, and her new book (The Price of a Thousand Blessings) looks really interesting. However, when a wild west + dinosaurs book was pitched during an r/fantasy Pride Month post, I knew I had to give it a shot. I wasn’t blown away, but I see a lot of promise in Hale’s writing, and am interested to read some of her newer stuff.

Read if You Like: ranger archetypes, westerns, creepy twins, dinosaurs attacking airships, long-lost-loves

Avoid if Looking For: quick pacing, action-packed stories, deeply realized homophobic historical settings

Dudes Rock: A Celebration of Queer Masculinity in Speculative Fiction

I try to read a few anthologies each year, but it had been a while since I read one that wasn’t the collected works of a single author. Dudes Rock seemed promising, and I think the short story format has plenty of space to explore masculinity in bite sized chunks. I’d say that this was a pretty mixed bag in terms of anthologies. Some real bangers, but also a decent amount that I had little to no response to. But the stories that hit got me very interested in those authors’ other works.

Read if Looking For: short story collection featuring magic dildos, himbo cults, haunted houses, fairytale princes, and stories in the form of badly written job application essays

Avoid if Looking For: consistency in depths of theme and experimentation across stories

I’ll review each story in a bite sized chunk below (in publication order), but I want to flag my standout favorites of this collection were Rosa Cocdesin by Aubrey Shaw (gothic), The Depths of Friendship by Candy Tan (cheeky and fun) and Cigarette Smoke from the Fires of Hell by Jay Kang Romanus (intense characterization). In general, I thought the middle portion was stronger than the start or end of the collection.

Shoestring Theory

This is probably one of the maddest and rant-filled reviews I’ve written. Shoestring Theory had such potential to be a book I loved, and was headed in that direction. Having just finished the book, however, I can’t help but feel that a great book was sabotaged in the name of big reveals and a desire to capitalize on the cozy trend (to be clear, I love a cozy book, but I would not consider this a successful one). If you’re someone whom big fucking plot holes aren’t an issue, then I can heartily recommend this as a great read. I’m oftentimes that person myself, and I frequently read other people’s reviews for books I love thinking ‘that’s a great critique, but it worked for me’. I will highlight some of the things I liked about this book, but it’s going to be a lot of me venting about the direction it went.

Read if Looking For: big twists, toxic ex-husbands, bossy older sisters, quick pacing, good dialogue, tidy endings

Avoid if Looking For: intelligent or competent characters, logically consistent situations, healthy relationship dynamics

Red Dot

Sometimes, a single determined soul can hype a book so much that you reluctantly put it on your TBR. Usually, I end up never reading these books if they don’t keep popping up in various places. My reading list will already take 4 years to get through if I don’t add anything to it or read any sequels. In Red Dot’s case, the cover didn’t do it any favors. It isn’t particularly enticing (though in hindsight, I actually think it captures the book perfectly). For some reason, this was the month that Red Dot came off the bookshelf, and I found myself lost in the life of an artist with severe imposter syndrome. This is definitely a contender for my favorite book of the year so far, and I will proudly be the 24th person to rate this book on goodreads. It’s a hidden gem that I would love to see gain some new readers; it sucked me in and didn’t let go.

Read if Looking For: character-driven sci fi, utopian-adjacent climate change futures, accurate gay sex scenes

Avoid if Looking For: action focused stories, believable romance arcs, pessimistic views of the future

The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies #1)

This 2013 novel has been a recurring title that’s popped up in recommendation threads ever since I started looking intentionally for gay protagonists. I’ve read quite a few of Charles’ other works, primarily historical fiction romance instead of historical fantasy romance, and I think readers who enjoyed those will get a lot out of this book (and similarly, fans here should read later books; I generally think she’s improved as an author as time has gone on). The Magpie Lord is a romantasy from before the romantasy boom, and it doesn’t follow the same conventions as what’s being published now. While I’ve got some quibbles with this book, I’ll definitely be picking up the sequels sometime soon!

Read if Looking For: quick romance reads, assertive/submissive dynamics, sassy butlers, historical British settings

Avoid if Looking For: fleshed out mysteries, supernatural elements beyond magicians, queernormative worlds, slow burn romances

The Sunbearer Duology

As a middle and high school English teacher, I get a lot of book recommendations from kids. YA and Middle Great books are fantastic, though I don’t tend to read very many of them. When some books – especially the books my LGBTQ+ students are recommending – get student momentum behind them though, I’ll give them a try. Sunbearer Trials was pitched as a mashup of Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games with a trans lead, which was a pretty convincing pitch. Add in that Aiden Thomas wrote one of my favorite paranormal romances in Cemetary Boys, and I was happy to throw a few audiobook holds at the library. In the end, I don’t think this duology is as tightly written as Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, or Cemetary Boys, but it has a lot of heart and will land well for its target audience.

Read if Looking For: quality Trans-Masc representation, teenage angst, Aztec Mythology references, tournament arcs

Avoid if you’re Looking For: nuanced worldbuilding or themes, YA books that diverge from genre conventions

Heart of Stone

Vampire love stories are a dime a dozen. And while vampires can capture my attention, it’s pretty rare. I was part of the Twilight generation, and have gone full circle from ‘binge read all four’ to ‘these suck’ to ‘actually for YA they’re fine, and the first movie is delightful with a glass of wine’. Some other stories that lean more into the horror or gothic history of vampires, such as The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean, left me extremely impressed. Heart of Stone, however, is a pretty straightforward vampiric romance, and thus not something I was enthused to pick up. Enough people had praised it, however, that I decided to give it a shot. It was a pleasant surprise, and one of the better fantasy romances I’ve read, if nothing else than because it wasn’t trying to be like every other fantasy romance out there.

Read if you Like: contemplative and slow books, romances without hamfisted setups, extended conversations that exist without the need to push plot forwards

Avoid if you Dislike: characters who refuse to talk about their feelings, magic age gap romances, low spice books

Masks of the Miscam (Noss Saga #2)

I was so excited when I saw that Wolf of Withervale was a finalist for the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off! I left that book feeling a lot of joy at finding an old-school epic fantasy that leaned into queer identities and culture. It had its flaws (which largely continue in book 2) but I’m really enjoying this doorstopper series filled with ancient artifacts, massive armies, and a lot of gigantic animals. I was disappointed, but perhaps not surprised, at the lukewarm response it got compared to other finalists, and thrilled that this series is getting more eyes on it . This review won’t avoid spoilers for book 1, and you can see my review for that book here.

Read if Looking For: 90s style Epic Fantasy but Queer, Indulgent Worldbuilding, Tropes Played Straight

Avoid if You Don’t Like: Infodumps, Self-Insert Main Characters, Explicit Sex Scenes

Falconsaga

Falconsaga made it on my reading list as one of the rare books about queer men written by a queer man that I’ve found so far published this year. While I thought the representation did a great job of presenting gay men as humans independent of their romantic and sexual identities, I generally found the book to be on the disappointing side, especially after a few Urban Fantasy books that really blew me away. However, for those looking for something that dives into Icelandic folklore, I think it would be a great fit. I’m also very much in the minority so far based on other reviews, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.

Read if Looking For: prophecies, tragic backstories, sinister family members, Icelandic myth, grounded gay representation

Avoid if Looking For: tightly plotted books, subtle foreshadowing, page-turners, critical takes on magical age-gap relationships

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.

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