Liar City should have had the perfect ingredients to make this an excellent book for me. It’s a thriller with a queer male lead, with romantic tension that doesn’t dominate the story. Unfortunately, I found this book to be rather underwhelming. I don’t regret reading it, and think it will be a great fit for some, but it isn’t going to stick with me for any appreciable length of time.
Read if Looking For: brooding men with southern accents, unethical corporate machinations, running jokes about texting while driving, extremely slow burn romance series
Avoid if Looking For: adrenaline inducing reads, romances resolved in a single book, deeply realized characters
The ghost of a dead dragon; a tragic backstabbing in an opera; a man finally beginning to summon the will to move past condemning his own love to death. The Tomb of Dragons finishes the trilogy that Witness for the Dead started. In the end, I thought this was the weakest entry of the series, but it was well worth the read, and Addison continues to stand out as an author who staunchly refuses to adhere to modern conventions of how fantasy books ‘should’ read.
Read If Looking For: slice of life following a death priest with depression, comically evil corporations, gay leads in non-romance books
Avoid if Looking For: books without cross-series references, mysteries, fast pacing
Lev Grossman hasn’t been my favorite author. The Magicians Trilogy didn’t resonate with me, and I found myself in a constant cycle of interest in the ideas he pursues but finding myself disengaged while reading. The Bright Sword generally continues that trend, where I can recognize that there’s lots to love in this interesting take on Arthurian myth, but one that I found myself skimming through. Full disclosure however, I read this book in the middle of packing to move, and probably would have benefitted from something lighter/more popcorny at that point in my life.
Read if Looking For: queer(ish) Arthurian tales, self-insert protagonists, sassy muslim immigrants, unknowable magic
Avoid if Looking For: consistent prose style, historically consistent worldbuilding, Arthurian writing featuring the classic characters
If I had to pick a single book from last year that I fell in love with, it would be Welcome to Forever, by Nathan Tavares. It was ambitious, unabashedly queer, and wasn’t afraid to have characters make toxic (but realistic) decisions. A Fractured Infinity is Tavares’ only other published long form work (though I highly recommend his short story Missed Calls if you want to spend some time crying into the night). I saved this book specifically for my first read of r/Fantasy’s 2025 bingo challenge, and it was a great start. This book didn’t place Tavares as my all-time favorite author, but he has made the ‘must read’ list.
Read if You’re Looking For: captivating and unlikable protagonists, blunt depictions of queerness, android drag queens
Avoid if you’re Looking For: grounded Sci Fi, traditional romance tropes
The Journals of Evander Tailor series has been a guilty pleasure favorite of mine for a while. It’s the type of fantasy I wish I would have had as a kid: fun fight scenes with a nerdy gay lead. Life has been pretty hectic recently, so I went in on the audiobooks to listen to as I rip up carpets and contemplate whether I have the skill to try and refinish the floors with my pitiful DIY skills (the answer is definitely not, at least right now).
Read if Looking For: fun enchanting, asshat nobility, drama-free relationships
Avoid if Looking For: careful prose, confident characters, books free from tropes
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.
Read if Looking For: wholesome and casual writing, casual bickering, violins
Avoid if Looking For: traditional Romantasy, books that develop theme rigorously
The Paranormal Romance trend of the mid 2010s may have died down, but it never quite went away. Cemetery Boys was a delightful recent addition to the genre, eschewing many of the more stickier parts of the subgenre in favor of something refreshing and heartfelt, instead of being another drop of water in the vast ocean of edgy immortal love interests.
Alexandra Rowland is one of my favorite authors, and I adore romances, so this book was an easy choice to pick up. I will say Rowland’s past romance (A Taste of Gold and Iron) was a great book, but probably my least favorite thing they’ve put out. Considering that their worst book is one that I’d happily reread, Alexandra Rowland is definitely an author who is right up my alley.
Read If Looking For: trope-filled Romances, meddling gods, melodramatic descriptions of penises
Avoid if Looking For: healthy relationship dynamics, sophistication in any sense of the word
This book has been pitched as a mashup between Mexican Gothic, Frankenstein, written through the lens of Oscar Wilde. I don’t think that’s a perfect description, but it (and some phenomenal cover art) put this book on my list as I tried to tackle the new releases of 2024. Gothic fiction may not be my favorite genre, but there was a lot to love in this debut novel, even if there were places it was rough around the edges.
Like most Queer kids raised Christian, I have a complicated relationship with religion. I grew up going to church in Topeka, Kansas, a city known for being utterly boring and home to the Westboro Baptist Church. Childhood was a state of constant tension. The church my parents attended was having gay marriages decades before it was legal, and one of my Confirmation mentors was an open Lesbian woman. Yet often we would see ‘God Hates Fags’ signs protesting our church, or once at my school thirty minutes outside of town after a local father murdered his children before committing suicide. The kids at my school were not from a progressive congregation in any sense of the word, and routinely lectured me on how God put animals on this earth for humans to hunt, amongst a wide variety of other topics.
All this to say, that a gay retelling of the fall of Lucifer was something that immediately caught my eye. Christian Fantasy (or religious fantasy more broadly) isn’t something that always interests me, but when queerness is layered in, I grow much more attentive. This book definitely wasn’t the ‘happy ending romance’ story I expected (or craved if I’m being totally honest), but it won me over with its willingness to be dark, deranged, and fascinating.
Read If Looking For: gay rage, villain stories that avoid cliches, critiques of Christianity
Avoid if Looking For: capital R Romances, books free from disturbing imagery or sexual assault
Marked for Plot 