Book Review – The Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault

Goodreads Synopsis:

Adèle has only one goal: catch the purple-haired thief who broke into her home and stole her exocore, thus proving herself to her new police team. Little does she know, her thief is also the local baker. 

Claire owns the Croissant-toi, but while her days are filled with pastries and customers, her nights are dedicated to stealing exocores. These new red gems are heralded as the energy of the future, but she knows the truth: they are made of witches’ souls. 

When her twin—a powerful witch and prime exocore material—disappears, Claire redoubles in her efforts to investigate. She keeps running into Adèle, however, and whether or not she can save her sister might depend on their conflicted, unstable, but deepening relationship. 

Review:

So because I can never stick to my “to read” plans, I deviated from the list I made at the start of the month and chose this book as it meant I was still sticking with my “Queer books for Pride” theme. I picked this up a while ago because I will almost auto-buy any SFF with Asexual characters (Adèle is Biromantic Demisexual) and was super excited to read it. Also, the cover is just absolutely beautiful – I probably would have bought it for that alone if I didn’t know about the awesome representation in the book.

The main character of the book is Claire, also known as Claude, is a genderfluid aromantic baker. Adèle is a police officer who has just moved to the city after having to leave her last team for investigating things people wanted to stay secret. The book starts with Claire breaking into Adèle’s new home to steal her exocore and from there the plot focuses on Claire’s attempts at discovering who is behind the exocores while Adèle focuses on hunting down the mysterious thief.

The best part of this book is definitely the characters, both Adèle and Claire are very well written and you could put them in any situation and I’d enjoy reading about it – the fact that they tend to end up in pretty interesting ones is just a bonus. The side characters are also all very well written and I loved them all (at least, the good ones).

This is set in a very obviously French setting, and the characters themselves speak French (written in English for us readers, but there’s little snippets of French in there such as the cute phrase Adèle and Claire say to each other). The author is from Québec and as I’ve never been, I’m unsure how much is based on there but I personally got a very strong Parisian vibe from it, especially the bridge which reminded me a lot of the many beautiful bridges across the Seine.

I was originally going to describe this as a perfect short read, but turns out it’s actually 400 pages! I was reading it on my Kindle and was so engrossed I didn’t notice the length of it.

This is a book I would highly recommend, especially if you’re looking to read more Queer books for Pride month. Be warned though, it will give you huge cravings for delicious French pastries!

Book Review – Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Goodreads Synopsis:

Frances Janvier spends most of her time studying.

Everyone knows Aled Last as that quiet boy who gets straight As.

You probably think that they are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and she is a girl.

They don’t. They make a podcast.

In a world determined to shut them up, knock them down, and set them on a cookie cutter life path, Frances and Aled struggle to find their voices over the course of one life-changing year. Will they have the courage to show everyone who they really are? Or will they be met with radio silence? 

Review:

I picked this up from a list of books with Aro/Ace characters as it happened to be one of the few on the list that I could get from the library. I knew nothing about it until I collected it and despite not usually being a fan of YA Contemporary, I was immediately intrigued by the fact that it’s made clear straight away that Francis and Aled are not going to fall in love.

Now, I would disagree with that. They’re definitely in love with each other but a platonic friendship love rather than romantic. Indeed their growing friendship was the highlight for me as it was so nice to see such a nice, comfy friendship grow as I loved both of them and was just so happy seeing them happy. At it’s core, this is a book about friendship and growth and dealing with that awkward “What am I going to do now?” phase at the end of High School.

Reading this, with all the references to things like social media, reminded me so much of when I was a teenager on Tumblr and made me think of how much I would have loved friends like Francis and Aled at that age. I found them both very relatable, particularly Francis with her self-doubt and fear of not being good enough. I loved the idea of the Podcast and really enjoyed the snippets of it we saw throughout the novel.

The characters in this are also all very diverse – not only are the majority of the main and side characters Queer, but several of them are also varying ethnicities (Francis is half Ethiopian, Raine is Indian and Daniel is South Korean). It’s always great to see more intersectionality in representations of Queer characters.

If you are looking for a great book to read for Pride month then I highly recommend this. It’s an absolutely fantastic book and I just want to hug every single character in it.

My Pride Reading List

Happy Pride everybody!

Now, I don’t often make reading list posts because I inevitably get distracted by something else and then I don’t get around to reading them and feel bad. However, I realised that even if I don’t necessarily read them all, chances are that others that read this might find some new books that interest them – especially as these ones are all Queer ones.

I’ve tried to keep this short, at just 5 books, in the hope it might make it easier to finish (especially as I also have a pile of library books waiting to be read and returned that will definitely distract me).

Anyway, in no particular order, the books I hope to read are:

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I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman

I read Radio Silence by her last month which I absolutely adored and since my library also have this book of hers, I had to grab it. This is definitely one book I’m guaranteed to read this month as I need to get it back to the library! It’s YA contemporary and the main characters are a Muslim girl and a Trans boy so for those looking to diversify their reading, this looks like an excellent choice.

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Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn (Book 1 of the Chronicles of Tornor)

I just recently learnt about the fact that this author was one of the first to include Queer characters in her books. I’ve chosen this one for now (as I love fantasy trilogies) however I may end up changing my mind as she also has a SF book and a short story collection that look interesting.

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Werecockroach by Polenth Blake

I’m not going to lie, I chose this entirely based on the name. However, I did also choose it because the main character is Asexual (also Agender and Aromantic) as books with Asexual main characters automatically jump to the top of my TBR list. It’s also a short novella which is only 99p on Amazon so at that price, I couldn’t resist! This will probably be my first read as it’ll be nice to get one out of the way early.

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The King’s Peace by Jo Walton

I’m a huge fan of Jo Walton, having read many of her other books, however my library didn’t have this series when I went on my “Read everything she’s ever written” binge so I totally overlooked it until recently when I discovered the main character is Asexual.

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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

This has been a very popular book and I’ve seen lots of people talking about it on Twitter and well, it has a dragon on the cover so of course my dragon-loving self is going to want to read it. I’m super lucky though as my library request finally came in and as it’s so in demand, I’m not able to renew it which means I only have until the 8th of June to read it. I didn’t actually know it had Queer characters in it until I was creating this list and I’ve not looked further to find out their orientations as it’s already a “must-read” due to the library deadline.

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Moonshire by Jasmine Gower

I lied, this is book number 6. I’ve included this one as it’s one I got last year as an ARC that I never got around to reading. It was on a list of Ace/Aro books (one of the characters is Aromantic) and I realised that it’s one of my pile of shame (overdue ARCs) so if I have the time, I definitely want to try squeeze this in.

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So here we have the 6 books (10 if you count the other books in the two trilogies I’ve listed) I plan to read this month. Have you read any of these? Any others you would recommend? Let me know!

Book Review – Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Goodreads Synopsis:

Alice had her whole summer planned. Nonstop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting—working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she’s asexual). Alice is done with dating—no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.

But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).

When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library-employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

Review:

This has been on my to-read list for a while and after seeing a post on twitter about #AroAceApril I got it out from the library as knew that would motivate me to read it. I’m not normally a YA Romance person but I absolutely adored the last Romance I read featuring an asexual character so thought I’d give this a go.

As expected, the majority of the story follows the romance between Alice and Takumi and dealing with her struggles of identity and figuring out her future. The romance parts were very sweet but I feel like I would have enjoyed it to be a bit slower with more build up. Takumi is adorable but at the same time, doesn’t seem to have that much depth – you don’t really learn that much about him as a person beyond a few interesting traits.

What I really loved about this though was that it was fantastic for representation – I loved that Alice was a Biromantic Asexual and, as you can tell from the cover, she’s also Black and Takumi (as you can guess from the name) is Japanese so both leads in this as POC which is rather rare.

The thing that spoilt this book for me was Feenie, Alice’s best friend, who just comes across as a horrible person and I don’t understand why Alice stays friends with her once she gets more confidence. She and Alice have a big falling out which is entirely due to Feenie’s selfishness and well, I could rant about her for ages but that would give away spoilers. Suffice to say, I do not like Feenie and I don’t feel she added much value to the story as a character.

If you enjoy YA Romance novels then I highly recommend this as it’s very sweet and it’s also nicer to see the focus on older characters who are at University instead of High School but I feel that if that’s not a genre you like, you probably won’t enjoy it.

Book Review – The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan

Goodreads Synopsis:

Set in a Scottish caravan park during a freak winter – it is snowing in Jerusalem, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to arrive off the coast of Scotland – THE SUNLIGHT PILGRIMS tells the story of a small Scottish community living through what people have begun to think is the end of times. Bodies are found frozen in the street with their eyes open, euthanasia has become an acceptable response to economic collapse, schooling and health care are run primarily on a voluntary basis. But daily life carries on: Dylan, a refugee from panic-stricken London who is grieving for his mother and his grandmother, arrives in the caravan park in the middle of the night – to begin his life anew.

Review:

One of my personal goals this year is to read more Scottish literature and when I saw this book on the list, I fell in love with the cover. It’s so beautiful I want to buy my own copy of it (and it was good enough that I’d happily have a copy to lend to people).

Before her death, Dylan’s mother travelled to a small fictional community in Scotland, called Clachan Fells, and bought a caravan in cash knowing that the family business was deep in debt and this way Dylan would have somewhere to live after his home was repossessed. He moves into the caravan and soon falls for his neighbour Constance. Constance has a young daughter called Stella and the story focuses primarily on the three of them and how they cope with the winter as it gradually gets colder and colder.

The characters are all really interesting and I loved how unashamed Constance was about being polyamorous and how accepting she was of her daughter when she came out as trans. The setting of the slow encroach of winter was fantastic and evocative and although Clachan Fells is a fictional setting, it was really brought to life and felt like a real place somewhere not far from Edinburgh.

Overall, I’m really glad I picked this as my choice for reading more Scottish literature and I really loved this novel. I would definitely recommend it as the writing is beautiful and the setting and story are fascinating and it’s a chilling look at what global warming could potentially cause without ever feeling like it was trying to be preachy.

Book Review – The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Goodreads Synopsis:

THE BONE PEOPLE is a love story. It begins when a mute six-year-old, full of blasting hurt and strange charm, wanders off the beach and into a home of a despairing artist. Kerewin has given up everything but drinking, thinking and fishing, but the arrival of the boy Simon and, later on, of his Maori foster-father Joe, drags all three into the gyre of possibilities. Cruel, funny, ardent and beautiful, THE BONE PEOPLE is a powerful and visionary New Zealand fable.

Review:

It’d been a while since I’d read a book for my Around the World challenge and so I decided that I’d pick New Zealand next as I saw mentions of this book online due to the fact that the author is Aro-Ace. She’s also part Maori and both of these aspects of her identity are represented in the novel. The main character, Kerewin, is asexual and part Maori (she may also be Aromantic but I don’t remember if it’s ever explicitly stated) and there are plenty of other Maori characters, who also speak Maori to each other. There’s a small glossary at the back of the book to explain all the terms used, and I felt it really helped with immersion into the novel and the setting.

The synopsis describes this as a love story, but to me it’s more a journey of healing. At the start of the novel all three characters are rather broken. Kerewin spends most of her time drinking, Simon is mute and acts out a lot while Joe beats Simon as he doesn’t know how else to control him. Kerewin and Simon bond and he behaves really well with her as she learns how to communicate with him and recognises that his behaviour is due to frustration at not being understood. The way Simon is written, it’s highly likely he is autistic and I really appreciated the fact that Kerewin just accepts this as how he is and works to ensure they can communicate.

As the novel progresses, they slowly get to know each other and start to heal both mentally and physically due to the influences on each other. This is a very slow book, focusing on the journey made by each of the three characters and on the relationship between the three of them. As this is the central focus of the story, I won’t say too much on the characters or the plot, suffice to say that it was an enchanting journey and I didn’t want to put it down as I kept wanting to find out what happens to them.

The settings described in the novel are fantastic, with evocative imagery and lots of attention given to the biology of the locations allowing you a very clear mental image of what the various settings are like. My favourite setting was that of Kerewin’s tower, partially due to the fact that I always wished I could have a tower when I was younger.

This novel won the Man Booker prize in 1985 and is also an excellent novel focusing on New Zealand which I would highly recommend. It’s ideal if you’re also doing a read around the world challenge, and I also recommend it to those who not only want to see representations of asexual characters but also want to support an author who is asexual and aromantic.

Book Review – The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster

Goodreads Synopsis:

When the Dragon Ships began to tear through the trade lanes and ravage coastal towns, the hopes of the archipelago turned to the Windspeakers on Tash. The solemn weather-shapers with their eyes of stone can steal the breeze from raiders’ sails and save the islands from their wrath. But the Windspeakers’ magic has been stolen, and only their young apprentice Shina can bring their power back and save her people.

Tazir has seen more than her share of storms and pirates in her many years as captain, and she’s not much interested in getting involved in the affairs of Windspeakers and Dragon Ships. Shina’s caught her eye, but that might not be enough to convince the grizzled sailor to risk her ship, her crew, and her neck.

Review:

This was a book that was recommended to me by a friend and as soon as I saw the cover, I couldn’t not buy it! It’s just such a stunning cover and it’s so rare to have a Fantasy cover that features a black woman. I’m also a huge fan of books involving weather magic and so I dove in as soon as I got it.

My biggest issue with this book is that as it’s just a novella, it ended far too soon. We got such tantalising glimpses of fantastic worldbuilding and characters that I didn’t want it to end. The magic system is one I really enjoyed reading about and I found the fact that the apprentices have to lose their eyes and have them replaced by stones was incredibly memorable and gave me such a vivid glimpse of their society.

The characters were fantastic and I particularly enjoyed the fact that the majority were female, along with the fact that several of the characters are queer and are not white. If you’re looking for more diverse reads, this novella is ideal!

I adored this book and strongly recommend it, if you’re doing the Fantasy Bingo then it’s also ideal as it can be used for the seafaring square.

Book Review – Sea Foam and Silence by Lynn E O’Connacht

Goodreads Synopsis:

Be careful what you wish for…

She warned of the pain. She did.
But no warning can prepare you.
Nothing can.

How could I have known
What it is like on the dry sand?
We just watched.

It’s hard, not being able to ask
Questions, though I have learned some speech
With my hands. ˆ_ˆ

I miss my sisters.

I have made friends here.
I have laughed with them,
Learned with them, played with them.
I love them.

She said I would die if he loves someone else.
Will I die? At the beginning I wanted to. It hurts
So much. Life isn’t easy, will never be easy, but…
I don’t want to become sea foam.

Review:

This is another book I read thanks to the fantastic Ace Book Club on Twitter and when they announced it I thought it sounded amazing! A little mermaid re-telling in verse with an asexual character? Wow! Unfortunately, this book was just not for me, however, the reasons I didn’t love it were all personal to me and so other people will likely love it for the exact reasons I didn’t enjoy it.

First I’ll start with the writing itself. It’s written in verse and I’m a huge fan of verse novels. Unfortunately, this is in free verse and so to me and my background in very strict forms it was something I struggled with a lot. However, to people that aren’t used to verse novels then free verse is the perfect way to introduce them to the concept because it’s much easier to read. It’s also written in first person and I’m also not a big fan of that. There are also a lot of emoticons used in the text and again, that’s just my personal preference but all these things combined to make me really dislike the way it was written but since it was so short, I kept reading the entire thing. What I’d say is that the extract from Goodreads is a perfect example and if you enjoy that, you’re likely to enjoy it all.

Now that we’ve got the parts I didn’t like out of the way, let’s focus on the amazing parts. For example, the world building in this is really, really good. Unfortunately, we’re restricted a lot in what we see due to the first-person narrative and so just get wonderful glimpses of mermaid society. I also really enjoyed the characters and their interactions and although the main character seemed incredibly naive at points which is something I usually dislike, it makes total sense for somebody not used to human society to appear very naive. I shouldn’t really need to mention it given that it was for Ace Book Club so seems self explanatory but obviously the fact that there are asexual characters was another fantastic inclusion and I really enjoyed that interpretation (Not only is the main character asexual, she also definitely seems aromantic too)

Despite personally not being a fan, I would definitely still recommend this to others because it was just my own personal preferences that stopped me from enjoying it and there was nothing objectively bad about it – I’m just super picky in my verse narratives and found it difficult to get over that. However, for those that enjoy free verse (or have never read any verse narratives) then you should definitely read it as the world and the characters are just enchanting and you’ll be left wanting to know so much more and wishing you could spend more time with them in the fantastic world that has been created.

Book Review – The Second Mango by Shira Glassman

Goodreads Synopsis:

Queen Shulamit never expected to inherit the throne of the tropical land of Perach so young. At twenty, grief-stricken and fatherless, she’s also coping with being the only lesbian she knows after her sweetheart ran off for an unknown reason. Not to mention, she’s the victim of severe digestive problems that everybody thinks she’s faking. When she meets Rivka, an athletic and assertive warrior from the north who wears a mask and pretends to be a man, she finds the source of strength she needs so desperately.

Unfortunately for her, Rivka is straight, but that’s okay — Shulamit needs a surrogate big sister just as much as she needs a girlfriend. Especially if the warrior’s willing to take her around the kingdom on the back of her dragon in search of other women who might be open to same-sex romance. The real world outside the palace is full of adventure, however, and the search for a royal girlfriend quickly turns into a rescue mission when they discover a temple full of women turned to stone by an evil sorcerer.

Review:

I bought Tales from Perach yesterday which made me realise that as much as I enjoyed the series, I hadn’t reviewed any of the Mangoverse books so time to fix that now because I highly recommend them!

Now, I’m a huge fan of books with dragons and while having a browse for more, I discovered this book and to be honest, I wanted to read it just for that cover alone! I mean who doesn’t want to read a book with a cover featuring two woman on a dragon?

Everything about this book is just great. The worldbuilding, the characters, the diversity – I loved it all. It’s super sweet and my only complaint is that it was so short and that I finished it too quickly! Indeed, as soon as I finished the first book I went straight away to get the second as I wanted more! It’s just such an enjoyable, fun read.

Although this is a fantasy setting, Perach is a Jewish land and all the characters from there follow Jewish traditions which is incorporated really nicely. For example, Shulamit can’t take part in some due to her digestive issues.

The characters are just fantastic. I think this is definitely one of the first times I’ve seen a character with digestive issues in a book, especially in a Fantasy one! Shulamit is delightful and I really liked her, and I just adore Rivka and I really enjoyed reading a book that focuses on female friendship as the first part of the book focuses on them travelling around trying to find anybody interested in girls, like Shulamit is. The characters are all very diverse and reading it just gives you such a happy feeling as you’re so happy when the characters are happy. I felt like the end was a bit rushed, and I would have liked to have had more time for things to develop but at the same time, it was such a nice ending that stretching it out might have made it less enjoyable.

This is a book that I’d definitely recommend, as the whole series is just fantastic and I can’t wait to read the collection of short stories! It’s also one I’d warn not starting too late, because I read it in one sitting as I just didn’t want to put it down.

Book Review – Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver

Goodreads Synopsis:

The city of Parole is burning. Like Venice slips into the sea, Parole crumbles into fire.

The entire population inside has been quarantined, cut off from the rest of the world, and left to die – directly over the open flame. Eye in the Sky, a deadly and merciless police force ensures no one escapes. Ever. All that’s keeping Parole alive is faith in the midst of horrors and death, trust in the face of desperation… and their fantastic, terrifying, and beautiful superhuman abilities.

Regan, stealth and reconnaissance expert with a lizard’s scales and snake’s eyes, is haunted by ten years of anxiety, trauma and terror, and he’s finally reached his limit. His ability to disappear into thin air isn’t enough: he needs an escape, and he’ll do anything for a chance. Unluckily for him, Hans, a ghostly boy with a chilling smile, knows just the thing to get one. It starts with a little murder.

But instead of ending a man’s life, Regan starts a new one of his own. He turns away from that twisted path, and runs into Evelyn, fearless force on stage and sonic-superheroic revolutionary on the streets. Now Regan has a choice – and a chance to not only escape from Parole, but unravel the mystery deep in its burning heart. And most of all, discover the truth about their own entwining pasts.

They join forces with Evelyn’s family: the virtuosic but volatile Danae, who breathes life into machines, and her wife Rose, whose compassionate nature and power over healing vines and defensive thorns will both be vital to survive this nightmare. Then there’s Zilch, a cool and level-headed person made of other dead people, and Finn, one of Parole’s few remaining taxi drivers, who causes explosions whenever he feels anything but happy.

Separately they’d never survive, much less uncover the secret of Parole’s eternally-burning fire. Together, they have a chance. Unfortunately, Hans isn’t above playing dirty, lying, cheating, manipulating… and holding Regan’s memories hostage until he gets his way.

Parole’s a rough place to live. But they’re not dead yet. If they can survive the imminent cataclysmic disaster, they might just stay that way…

Review:

Gosh, I’m not quite sure where to start with this novel because I just adored it so much. Seriously, it’s probably going to be one of my top novels of the year because it’s just amazing in so many different ways.

First off, I got a free review copy of this through AceBookClub on Twitter which is a fantastic book club and I’d definitely recommend it. It’s so nice and refreshing to read stories that don’t focus on romance. They’re ace. Literally.

So, the summary from Goodreads is comprehensive enough that I don’t really need to discuss much in terms of the plot and instead I’m going to focus on the amazing characters. They’re all just so wonderful with a range of interesting powers such as Rose, one of my favourites, whose power revolves around plants. Also, three of the characters are in a healthy polyamorous relationship with a child that’s been established before the novel starts and so it’s just full of lovely love for each other and their child. Rose has a prosthetic leg (made by one of her wives), Regan suffers from anxiety and Evelyn is trans and there is a small section focusing on the importance of using the correct pronouns when referring to her. And of course, because this was for AceBookClub there are of course asexual characters. As you can see from the book cover, the characters are also from a range of ethnicities with a large variety of skin colours.

While reading this book, I was constantly delighted to discover more and more diversity while also enjoying a fantastic plot. It was super enjoyable to read and I just fell in love with all the characters and I was so happy to see parts of my identity represented in a really amazing setting and in characters with lots of fantastic powers. The entire book was just a delight and I ended up finishing it way before AceBookClub which is why this review is so late as I wanted to wait until they’d finished before posting it and then it was February and I was only posting reviews of black authors.

I highly, highly recommend this book and I’ll probably be constantly recommending it all the time because it’s just that great. I also have a review of one of the short stories, Runtime, which is a prequel and serves as a great and cheap introduction to the world of Parole if you’re not sure about making the commitment to buying the book.