Welcome to a new year and more Queer Lit Reviews! Each month, we review three queer titles covering a wide variety of genres for adults, teens, and kids. This month, we are also including introductions for each of our reviewers so this post will be a bit longer than usual. Let's get started!
Here's our slate of staff reviewers this year:
Jordan (she/they) – Central Library Staff
A Favorite Queer Book: Fadeout by Joseph Hansen (Brandstetter #1)
Why: Originally published in 1970, this is a mystery series that was way ahead of its time. The gay main character, Dave, is extremely likeable and competent as an insurance death claims investigator and the prose is crisp and fresh, even 50+ years later.
Looking Forward to Reading: The Mystery of Nevermore by C.S. Poe
Why: A lot of friends read and enjoyed this when it first came out. Fellow QLR reviewer, Logan, has recently gotten into C.S. Poe and has also recommended this title to me. I’m not sure why I’ve waited so long to dive into Poe’s novels, considering I’ve enjoyed her short stories and I love mystery/romance!
Laura (she/her) - Central Library Staff
A Favorite Queer Book: Don't Let It Break Your Heart by Maggie Horne
Why: It follows Alana, a high school student who has recently come out as a lesbian, resulting in the end of her romantic relationship with her BFF-turned-boyfriend. Alana makes a lot of mistakes as she tries to figure out her new normal, but you can't help but root for her. I really like coming of age stories that focus on how your identity and your friendships can change towards the end of high school, and this is a really great example of that type of story.
Looking Forward to Reading: Shoot Your Shot by Lexi LaFleur Brown, due out May 2025
Why: I'm a huge hockey fan and a huge romance reader, but it is tough to find a hockey romance that I enjoy because I get too hung up on inaccuracies. Luckily, former hockey player and NHL wife Lexi LaFleur Brown had that same frustration and has started writing her own hockey romances. Her debut follows a bisexual aspiring tattoo artist who finds herself in a situationship with a superstitious hockey player after he decides she's his good luck charm.
Tali (she/her) – Central Library Staff
A Favorite Queer Book: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, opens a new window by Andrea Lawlor
Why: This novel follows bisexual shapeshifter Paul as he journeys across America, changing his sex and gender expression at will to explore different experiences and queer scenes in the ’90s. This book was meticulously period-accurate yet wildly inventive, and I loved how it let Paul exist as a compelling, flawed, and sometimes aggravating protagonist without needing to teach him (or the reader) a lesson.
Looking Forward to Reading: In 2024, I got into manga for the first time, and of the series I read, the absolute standout was How Do We Relationship?, opens a new window by Tamifull. This romance/slice of life manga follows two lesbian college students through their on-again-off-again relationship, with lots of happinesses, miscommunications, and mistakes along the way. It felt relatable, nuanced, and authentic, and I’m very excited for the final volume of the series to come out in 2025.
Ana – Branch Staff
A favorite queer book: D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding, opens a new window by Chencia C. Higgins!
Why: I wasn’t expecting a book centered around a reality dating show to be so sweet, let alone believable. The titular characters work incredibly well together, from their undeniable chemistry to the mature ways they communicate. It’s so refreshing to read about people actually talking things through! Additionally, it’s just overflowing with joy, making it a story I seek out when I need a book that feels like a hug.
Looking forward to reading: Dream On, Ramona Riley by Ashley Herring Blake, due out May 2025
Why: This author really rose to fame from her Bright Falls series, and this book will kick off a brand-new one when it publishes in May! I adore the humor, romance, worldbuilding, and character development Blake tends to include in their books. Set in New Hampshire, Ramona Riley seems like it will be full of cozy New England vibes that will turn it into a comfort read.
Lo (They/Them) – Central Library Staff
A Favorite Queer Book: Choosing only one book is difficult, this past year I discovered that I thoroughly enjoy the combining of my two favorite genres; romance and mystery. However, it might be the time of year or my love of bad Hallmark movies but looking back at my ratings for the books I read this past year, multiple of my five star reads are written by Annabeth Albert. Namely, The Geek Who Saved Christmas, opens a new window.
Why: I love low-angst m/m holiday romances with guaranteed happy endings. The Geek Who Saved Christmas is a grumpy x sunshine, neighbors-to-lovers, found family tale that features two MCs in their forties figuring out that maybe their happily-ever-after was right next door the whole time.
Looking Forward to Reading: Murder in the Dressing Room, opens a new window by Holly Stars
Why: A murder mystery where our MC is a drag queen and, frustrated with inaction by the police, takes it upon herself to investigate the murder of her drag mother. Campy, mysterious, dramatic, and gay… SIGN ME UP!
Dani (they/them) - Branch Staff
A Favorite Queer Book: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Why: This is the start of an inventive, incisive sci-fi duology, and a book I find myself recommending over and over again for its exploration of literature and language as tools of colonization. The queer relationships are messy and unsettling, problematized along lines of power even while the characters have convincing chemistry. That complexity made it really stick with me.
Looking Forward to Reading: A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows
Why: I'm lucky to have a friend with similar reading tastes who gives me great queer sci-fi/fantasy recommendations (incidentally, they're also a librarian). This is the book they've been talking up to me lately, and the emphasis on political intrigue made it an easy sell. I'm looking forward to spending time with it — especially knowing I'll have someone to discuss it with once I do!
And now... on to the reviews! This month we have a Jewish woman building a new life for herself, a young girl being followed by a ghost getting help from her new queer friends, and a lesbian hockey romance between rivals.
These titles may be available in other formats or languages. Check our catalog for availability.
Happy Reading!
Book: Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Sara Glass
Reviewer: Tali
Summary: As she gradually leaves her Hasidic Jewish community, Sara Glass works to accept herself, come out of the closet, and build a safe and happy life for herself and her children.
Genre: Memoir
Book Format: Physical
Length: 304 pages
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Lesbian
Content Warnings: Homophobia (including internalized homophobia), religious trauma, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, mental illness and suicide
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well-written
Would I Recommend?: Yes
Personal Thoughts: Once I picked this book up, I couldn’t put it down and ended up finishing it on a single long plane ride. Glass’ writing is propulsive, compelling, and moving. Her descriptions of years spent suffering under compulsory heterosexuality were impossible not to empathize with, and I found myself feeling Glass’ feelings along with her on a physical, visceral level. I also appreciated that this memoir didn’t focus solely on Glass’ coming out of the closet, but also delved into her intellectual journey, her building a career as a psychotherapist, and her complicated relationships with her family. The section which Glass devotes to her sister Shani – their tumultuous but loving bond, and Shani’s struggle with mental illness – was a particular standout.
Kissing Girls on Shabbat is part of a larger genre of “off the derech” memoirs about Jews leaving Orthodoxy. (Some of these stories have even reached TV audiences, like the Emmy-nominated Netflix drama Unorthodox, loosely inspired by Deborah Feldman’s memoir of the same name.) For fans of this type of media, Kissing Girls on Shabbat will strike familiar chords in its depictions of the rigid strictures of Haredi Judaism and its tell-all openness in baring some of the darkest moments in the author’s life. Yet Glass also breaks the mold of the genre with her mix of self-awareness and self-denial (she was in a torrid secret relationship with another girl before marrying a man for the first time, and seemingly knew on some level that she was lesbian) and her account of her time spent on the fringes of the Orthodox community, spending years in a gray area between frum and off the derech rather than making a sudden and dramatic break from her former life.
All in all, this book is an excellent read for anyone who appreciates a moving, emotionally honest, and well-written memoir. It will especially resonate with readers who have struggled to be true to themselves or spent time in the closet due to religious trauma.
Title/Author: Jasmine Is Haunted by Mark Oshiro
Reviewer: Ana
Summary: In the past four years, Jasmine lost her dad, moved four times, and has been followed by a ghost. When a teacher at her new school invites her to a GSA meeting, Jasmine finds not only some potential friends, but people who believe in her haunting. But the more the group investigates, the more the supernatural escalates.
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre/Sub-Genre: Middle Grade Horror/Fantasy
Book Format: eBook
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Sapphic, with important genderqueer/nonbinary/gay/bi/queer side characters
Content Warnings: Grief, past parent/partner/sibling/child deaths, hospital flashback scene, not being believed, mentions of car accidents, brief mention of murder
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well-Written
Would I Recommend?: Very much so!
Personal thoughts: This is genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read. It made me laugh, it made me cry (multiple times), it made me unable to stop reading, and it made me extremely hungry with all the descriptions of food. I love how beautifully diverse it is; in addition to the various identities listed above, the main cast members are Mexican, Guatemalan, Black, and Taiwanese.
Jasmine is such a fantastic character. From the jokes she shares with her mom and aunt, to her desperation for friends, to the kindness she shows toward everyone, she’s an all-around delight. It takes real talent to write believable middle-grade characters, let alone ones who are charming and funny, but Mark Oshiro does it with ease. And their depictions of the various ways grief can look? I was teary for the entire last quarter of the book. This story is going to be one I think about for years to come.
Title/Author: Wake Up, Nat and Darcy by Kate Cochrane
Reviewer: Laura
Summary: Natalie and Darcy were on the verge of a relationship while playing for the same college hockey team, but poor communication led them to become rivals instead, especially once they became international rivals. After their hockey careers end, they are asked to do Olympic coverage together to highlight the USA/Canada rivalry, and drama ensues.
Series/Standalone: Planned series
Genre/Sub-Genre: Sports romance
Book Format: Physical book
Length: 345 pages
LGBTQ+ Orientation: WLW
HEA/HFN: HEA
Content Warnings: N/A
Ratio of Sex/Plot: 90% plot, 10% sex
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Could have used an editor on the plot, but the book isn’t poorly written on a technical level.
Would I Recommend it?: Sure. It isn’t the best hockey romance out there, but if you’re looking for a sapphic hockey romance there aren’t really any better options as of now.
Personal Thoughts: This book was initially one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, but then the reader reviews started coming out and they were mediocre. So, by the time I started this book, I had much lower expectations and I think that allowed me to have a better time reading it than I otherwise would have (even though I ended up thinking it was just okay).
The premise of this book is great, but unfortunately there was a lot going on that kept it from being a great book. I found the characters to be very immature for being in their mid-30s; they were both terrible at communicating, Natalie interpreted every little thing as a slight, and Darcy was extremely fixated on not being a nepo baby even though there was no evidence of her dad affecting her life beyond comments about them being related here and there. There were several college flashbacks early in the book, and neither Nat nor Darcy seemed any more mature in the present than they did in those flashbacks. I also didn’t feel that the flashbacks added much to the story, particularly considering they stopped partway through the book.
Speaking of college flashbacks, Nat and Darcy refer to themselves as exes and the story acts like they had a big illicit relationship and tragic breakup in college, but then you find out that what really happened was they were attracted to each other, hooked up a few times, Darcy decided they should take a pause because she was the captain and she didn’t want to mess up team dynamics, and then they had a huge fight when Darcy didn’t immediately want to come out to their team as being girlfriends hours after they won the NCAA Championship...despite the fact that they hadn’t even dated at that point. This whole situation, and the fact that Nat has been fixated on it and has barely dated because of it for over a decade, also makes Nat seem very immature.
In addition to finding the characters immature, I also thought their characterizations were inconsistent at times. For example, at one point in the book, Nat shares that she thinks she wants to be a coach instead of working in television. But a few chapters later, she has a meltdown because Darcy (who has been working for the channel for years instead of Nat’s weeks, and who actually dreams of being on screen) is offered an expanded role. It is later suggested that Nat was actually mad that Darcy taking the job meant bailing on a fancy date, but it still felt like Nat was also mad that she wasn’t offered the job.
My final big complaint was that there really were no characters that I loved. As you can probably guess from my review so far, I was not particularly endeared to either Nat or Darcy. And they were really the only characters in the book. I think that the best romance novels have lovable side characters, both to keep the story interesting and to get the reader excited for future books that might focus on those characters. The side characters in this book were completely one-dimensional. I couldn’t tell you a single thing about any of them besides their jobs and/or their relationships to Nat and Darcy. I think giving a couple side characters real personalities and bigger roles in the story would have done a lot to improve the reading experience.
This review makes it sound like I hated this book, and I really didn’t! I just think it is a debut that needed a lot more character and relationship development work before it was ready to publish. I have a lot of criticisms about it, but there wasn’t anything that I hated or found offensive. On the plus side, while there wasn’t much hockey in the book since Nat and Darcy are both retired, I didn’t notice any major hockey inaccuracies, which is rare in a hockey romance! I think whether I read the second book in the series depends on if it gets better reader reviews than this one did.
DISCLAIMER: We do not review books by author request.
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