Hard Place by Gab Torr - Review

I can't remember where I heard of this book, I probably saw someone I follow on Instagram reading it. I requested it at the library and when it came in I took it away for the weekend with me. However it took me ages to read because it was SUCH a slog. I really didn't like it at all. 

Billy is a twenty something and she's a lesbian and she has been in a relationship with a girl called Rose, who breaks up with her on the beginning of the novel. Rose has sort of controlled Billy for years, leaving Billy to barely make a decision by herself. But now she has to move out and she doesn't have anywhere to go. She had an abusive childhood and her addict mother has died. Billy was mostly raised by her grandad, who still lives in his bungalow by the sea. She has a strained relationship with him although it's not exactly spelt out why. I think he finds her sexuality hard but the book doesn't really expound on it. Anyway Billy doesn't want to go back to her seaside childhood home so she has to trawl through roommate ads. 

She answers one placed by Sid, who is non binary, and Rhoda, a cis lesbian. They are loud and unapologetically queer and talk a lot about taking accountability and holding space for each other in their communal flat. Sid works in mental health care and Rhoda is kind of between jobs, propped up by her parents. Her parents also happen to own the flat that they all live in which is very yikes and which is never really unpacked. 

They have a ton of friends and they get Billy involved in their clique but she's just kind of - removed? Apathetic? From her own life and her new life. I just didn't get her at all. I didn't get the book. Maybe I am just too much of an older queer to understand what Gen Z are doing. But I DO have polyamorous friends, I do believe in accountability and making space for each other, but I don't think the book DID that. I think it skirted with the concepts but just didn't get there. Billy almost becomes self aware but then she doesn't. I found it just so annoying and sadly I can't recommend the book. I wouldn't read anything else by the same author unless someone REALLY sold it to me. I am giving the book two out of five. 

A Family Matter by Claire Lynch - Review

My friend Helen sent me this book as she had read it and thought I would like it. It was nice to get a little care package from her! 

I really love how this book looks really like the novellas I've read by other authors including Claire Keegan, they're really well designed little books and are so nice to read. I definitely keep my eyes out for these when I'm browing in bookshops, in Waterstones especially. I am grateful to whoever is publishing these! 

The book is about a woman, Maggie, and her mother, Dawn. In 2022, Maggie is an adult, forty something, with children of her own. She is dealing with her elderly father; there is a gap where her mother should be, where her mother has never been. He has got a medical diagnosis that he hasn't yet shared with her and he never speaks of her mother. Then Maggie discovers a letter which reveals a lot about her childhood and about what happened to Dawn. 

Dawn was a young mum in 1982 and not exactly happily married but really it seems like she is just bored. Maggie is a small child and her dad, whose name I forget, is just off to work every day and providing for the family. He doesn't have a lot of time for Dawn, for sure. Then Dawn meets Hazel and they start to fall in love. Dawn leaves the family but in 1980s Britain this meant that she no longer had access to her daughter. Lesbians were considered perverts and she wasn't awarded any custody of her daughter. Instead she had to disappear, although she did send letters to Maggie...

Apparently, the phrases used in the courtroom scenes in the book were taken from actual court proceedings that happened to women who were in relationships with other women and who were trying to fight for custody of their children. That shocked and appalled me because there are questions like 'Has your child seen you having sex with your girlfriend?' and 'What kind of sex toys have you used with your girlfriend?'. It is shocking! I'm so glad things have come on a long way in the forty years since this time. There are tons of families with two mums or two dads or whatever, and I'm glad that is becoming more and more acceptable. But I also like being taught things about queer history that I didn't know.

I liked Maggie as a character but I loved Dawn. It was so easy to understand her point of view; I really liked her. I would definitely read something else by Claire Lynch, and I am giving this four out of five. 

Heartstopper Vol 6 by Alice Oseman - Review

It's the end of Heartstopper! Waahhhh! I had forgotten it was coming out in July and then I was in Waterstones in Peterborough on holiday and I saw it. I still had vouchers so I bought three books and this was one of them. I have read a bunch of the others as library books but decided now that the series is over that I wanted to own them all. I ended up buying the first five books as a set on Vinted and I may have to do a reread soon!

I also wanted to read this book before I watched the Heartstopper film that was the finale to the TV show. It was on Netflix about the 17th of July or something. I had a procedure on the 21st of July and laid on the sofa for the whole entire day, so I planned to watch the film so knew I needed to read this first. So I did. And now it's ended. Wahhh! I thought the book ended in such a lovely way, I liked it a lot. 

We're back with Nick and Charlie as they work through being separated for the first time as Nick is heading off to uni. Nick struggles with not being 'perfect', something which goes back to his dad leaving the family. It was nice to see them supporting Nick through something rather than him being the strong silent type while Charlie's mental health suffered. Charlie's confidence grows and grows in this book which was amazing to see. I loved seeing Nick at uni - it was so reminiscent of my own time at uni. 

We also saw the endings for all the people we've got really fond of over the years - Tara and Darcy and of course Elle and Tao. Elle is my favourite character - well except Mr Farouk because I am an old jaded queer as well. And I loved HIS ending too, but no spoilers! But Elle and Tao had a really realistic ending and it showed how grown up they could be. 

I liked the film as well, it stuck really close to the book which was good. I am sad to see it end, though. As I've said a million times, when I was younger we just didn't have this type of queer representation on the television so I'm happy it exists now and look forward to seeing more. I will read more of Alice's stuff soon and probably do some rereads too. In all I'm giving this four out of five. It's adorable. 

Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino - Review

I picked this up in Portal bookshop in York, which is a queer bookshop that also sells badges and fun stuff like that, and has a cafe upstairs and plenty of events happening - it's a really cool place to go. I visited in June with my friend Lucinda. I bought just this book, and picked it up soon after. I love Alex Gino and would love to have read everything they write, so I was glad to buy this. 

It's about a non binary kid called Sam who lives in New York with their mother and father I think. They are close friends with a queer family who live on a lower floor in their building - a woman, her non binary partner, and their baby. Sam also walks the dog of someone in the building, I don't remember her name but I loved her. From their bedroom window, Sam can see the Statue of Liberty and it's a statue that means a lot to them. Their best friend, TJ, is also non binary. They have a busy family that Sam is sometimes jealous of. 

At school, the kids get given an assignment to enter a competition. They have to write a report about who there should be a new statue of in their home borough of Staten Island. Some kids write about Henry Hudson - been done, coloniser, never even came to the area, Sam and TJ are bored of that one - and others write about Alexander Hamilton because one of them is vaguely related to him, which she shoehorns into every conversation haha. Sam and TJ don't know who to write about but eventually learn about Alice Austen, who was a photographer. She lived with a woman for decades and took quite frank photos of herself and her friends. I hadn't ever heard of her so it was interesting to learn more about her as Sam and TJ did too. 

I liked the book a lot and I think for a middle grade audience it was perfect. It explained a lot of things about queer identity and I liked how Sam came more to terms with themself and their place in the community. For me personally it was a bit so so, but I understand I am not the target audience and I think it would hit different with them. I will say that I didn't feel a particular emotional connection with Sam unlike in Melissa or Rick, which perhaps let it down a bit for me. But in all, a good book! 

As an aside but relevant to this post - I reviewed a queer picture book called Princess Pete for Global Comment, where I write occasionally. I wrote about why LGBTQIA+ books are essential for all kids, under the umbrella or not. You can read it here. 

The Heartstopper Yearbook by Alice Oseman - Review

I was passing through the library - fortunately Penistone Library is open again so my craft club can meet there again! - and noticed this book in the Young Adult section. I've read all the Heartstopper books and really enjoyed them, and I of course love the TV show so I picked this up. I read it very quickly but it isn't very long and quite a lot of it is drawings. But I loved it!

There are lots of words from Alice themself, including and introduction and including a lot of chat about their artistic process and their story planning. There's Nick and Charlie in their first incarnation, years and years ago, and loads of chat about how the artwork moved on to what we've seen in the comics and the books. 

There are also little snapshots about some of the secondary characters in the books, like Darcy and Tara, which I also thought were really cute. This was a cute little look into Alice's work and what goes on behind the scenes in making a story like Heartstopper. I'm giving it five out of five because it was just cute!

PS did you know that I have three Heartstopper leaves tattooed on my arm? One yellow, one green, and one blue. They're adorable. I hope one day I can show them to Alice at a convention! 

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - Review

This was the last book in my LGBTQ+ January reading, and it also segued well into February's theme - I decided to try to read all the books I was given for Christmas. It's past halfway through February now and I am not doing that great at this as I've just not been reading much/ February has been busy so far. But all the books I've read were gifts, so that's one thing! 

This was one of the books I got in the Book Flood swap that Gwen and Janet organise. My partner was Sarah Beth, who is already a friend of mine, so that was nice as we know each other fairly well and could choose books accordingly. I was intrigued by this one and am glad I picked it up, but it was a bit too long for me. 

I generally liked it and think there are flashes of brilliance in it, but overall it just didn't do it for me. My friend Chloe has it on her Goodreads wishlist so I'm going to pass it on to her and see what she thinks about it. I would try something else by the same author but this one just didn't quite do it for me. 

So the story is this: August is twenty- three and she moves to New York. She's from New Orleans (I think) originally and her life has been tainted by her mother. Her mother's brother, Augie, went missing as a teenager, way before August was born, and her mother has spent her life trying to find him. August has spent her life trailing round after her mum in records offices and so on. She's fed up of it, so she's moved. 

She gets a room in a flat with three roommates - Niko, who is psychic, Myla, an artist, and Wes, who is a trust fund kid who doesn't talk to his family. August is a lesbian and all her roommates are queer - I really liked how this came out bit by bit. She gets a job at Billy's Pancake House and she meets a drag queen who lives across the hall. I loved his side story too, I could have read more about that. 

Anyway August is riding the subway a lot to get to her classes. She's on the Q line and keeps seeing a girl who catches her eyes. This girl is a butch lesbian type, with  ripped jeans, red Converse, and a leather jacket. She is usually listening to a Walkman. August invites her to meet her for drinks, but Jane - because that's her name - doesn't turn up. But August keeps seeing her on the train. As it turns out, Jane is stuck there. She's actually from the mid 1970s and she's been stuck for years. Her memory is hazy and she's obviously confused when August tells her that it's actually the late 2010s, but August seems to have revived something in her. 

August and Jane do start a relationship and August then forgets her entire life for like a month by getting on the train all the time as she and Jane try to figure out how to free Jane. I found this bit annoying because there's no way August would have been able to call in sick so much and keep her job, or not be earning anything, and be able to keep her room in the apartment. I didn't entirely buy the relationship between the two, either. I guess I'm just not used to romance novels that much, and the instant love that abounds in them. I found Jane a bit passive in general - she does freak out at one point about her situation but it felt to me like it came way too late in the book. August is cute and I liked her mostly, but she makes some stupid decisions at times. 

I liked the queer community around August - this felt very natural and real. I loved how they came together at the end - no spoilers - and thought this worked well. But the book was just a bit too long for me, too. Cutting even fifty pages out could have made it way better for me. 

In all I'm giving it three out of five. I felt it dragged in parts and I didn't love the main relationship, so I can't score it higher. 

Boy Friends by Kai Spellmeier - Review

I got this book on Netgalley so thank you very much to Bloomsbury Publishing for granting me access to it. This book will be published in May 2026. I was given an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Okay so first of all I was really excited to read this book. I understand that it is the first book that Kai Spellmeier has written in English. Maybe that's why I just couldn't gel with it. My main issue with it is that I do not understand where it is set. It's set in a small town called Lombard which seems to be on an island... but where? I thought at first it was American, but no, Luca and Simo use a lot of British phrases. It's a cute seaside town, but I cannot get to grips with where in the world it's supposed to be located. It comes off to me like a Channel Island or something. I also felt like the town just wasn't rooted enough in reality. It wasn't described well enough. I found this issue was enough to stop me from loving the book. 

However, it does have its high points. Luca lives with his dad, who owns a bakery slash cafe, where Luca sometimes works. Luca is gay and so is his dad. Luca's mum is off doing some kind of scientific research like in a volcano or in Antartica or something, I'm not sure. She's not around, anyway. Luca has a huge crush on his best friend, Simo, and has done for years. 

The two boys are really close. They have sleepovers and trust each other implicitly. Simo lives with his parents. His older brother died a long time ago and Simo misses him, but no one in the family will really talk about him. Simo kind of has a crush on Luca, but not really? It's complicated. His parents are pretty homophobic so that puts him off talking about how he feels. 

Anyway there's this noticeboard in Lombard where every week something gets put up. Luca always rushes to see what it says so he can share the news with an elderly neighbour, but one week the noticeboard says "LUCA AND SIMO ARE IN LOVE". Both boys are absolutely shocked by this. Simo especially is just cringing - because it might be true but he doesn't want the whole world to know! Besides how would someone else know when they don't?!

But they do both want to be boyfriend not boy friends. I do think there are very sweet elements of the book - the way they fall in love is good. But I found it a bit ethereal and not really grounded enough for me. It ended on a cliffhanger so I kind of would be interested in the next part of the story - but the writing just didn't do it for me. I'm giving it three out of five. 

The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons - Review

 

I have absolutely no idea where I got this book. I don't remember buying it, but that doesn't mean I didn't. I don't remember someone giving me it, either. But it was on my shelves and I picked it up as part of my LGBTQ+ books only in January thing. I wanted to really like it, but unfortunately I just didn't. 

It's a book about Spencer, who is a trans boy. He is fifteen and he's just moved schools, for complex reasons that get forgotten later. His younger brother is autistic and struggles with school, which I felt was portrayed in quite a stereotypical way which I didn't like. Their parents are incredibly involved in their lives. Their dad is Black and their mum is white, I think, which is not entirely relevant to the plot but it is a nice little side plot. 

Spencer came out as trans as a kid as went on puberty blockers aged thirteen, and now uses testosterone gel. This isn't a huge part of the book either but it is relevant to Spencer's history. His parents are really supportive but due to what happened at his old school they don't want him to play soccer at his new school. But Spencer is a brilliant footballer and really wants to play, so he ends up going behind their back and tries out for the team anyway. He ends up getting selected, of course, and his team is happy to have him on board. But they don't know he's trans, and Spencer doesn't want to come out. His coach eventually - seriously, it takes forever to get to this point in the book - needs some ID for his permission stuff, and of course this means Spencer will be outed. He does eventually tells his parents but that takes forever too. A lot of the book goes really slow. 

Meanwhile, Spencer does join the Queer Straight Alliance. There's a non binary kid there called Riley, who fears using the boys toilets at another point in the book, and Spencer helps them. I did like this bit. Riley wants to push for gender neutral bathrooms but the leader of the QSA isn't too keen on this. Spencer knows he needs to step up for himself and others, but it's a whole thing that he can't.

Then there's Justice. He's also on the soccer team and he rides a motorbike and Spencer immediately has a crush. He and Justice have Music Appreciation class together and end up playing soccer together too, so they get really close. Justice's family is Christian evangelists and they won't accept Justice's sexuality, and Spencer knows they won't accept him either. A lot of the romance between the two is really cute, but again, it drags. 

I also feel like the book skews a lot younger than if it was written for fifteen year olds. Spencer and Justice often come off more like twelve or thirteen and a lot of the whole thing comes off like Middle  Grade. A lot of how the teens talk to each other just doesn't ring true at all. There are no girls in the book, which annoyed me, and the ones who briefly appear are portrayed as silly and too 'girly'. There are flashes of loveliness - like the Homecoming Dance - but in general it just didn't ring true for me. The whole thing was a bit like an After School Special. I'm giving it two out of five. 

Boy Queen by George Lester - Review

I bought this book at Northern YA Lit Fest a few years ago. George was there talking about the book, so I bought it and got him to sign it. I was so glad to get to read it. George himself is a drag queen and from what I gather an editor or someone else in publishing suggested he wrote a book about it, and this is what he came up with. That's an interesting way for it to happen, but I don't think it's to the book's detriment!

Robin Cooper is in his last year of sixth form and he's really into performing arts. He really wants to go to a performing arts school in London, that he has auditioned for. The dream is that he will go there and his best friend, Natalie, will go to university nearby, and they will live together and have a fabulous time. Robin spends a lot of his time rehearsing and dancing. He has a secret boyfriend, Connor, who doesn't want anyone to know they're together, and who does not deserve Robin in any way. He and Natalie hang out with a lad called Greg who is their token straight friend; Greg is incredibly sweet and would do anything for his friends. Robin is also friends with a girl called Priya who goes to dancing with him. I love a set of supportive friends and these are fab! He also lives with just his mum and I loved her too - she's funny and sassy and loves him deeply. After Robin got beaten up and bullied for being gay the previous summer, his mum worries about him and doesn't want him to put himself out there too much. This is relevant later. 

Anyway, the future looks set - but then Robin doesn't get into the school of his dreams. He is crushed. His friends are of course crushed for him. He literally has no idea what he wants to do next. I loved the depiction of that - when you're eighteen and about to leave school or sixth form and you're all on that precipice and you're not going to be together anymore. It's scary! George put it across so well. 

To cheer Robin up his friends take him to a drag show in a queer pub in the next town over. They have a great time and little by little, Robin gets involved in drag. He has a drag mother whose name I forget but who is a great character. At college, there's a new boy called Seth who has a dangerous reputation, and he starts driving Robin back and forward to the queer pub. He and Robin get close - I liked Seth and I loved his back story when it came out. Robin's drag coming out is done in such a fantastic way, but I also really liked everything going on under that.

Robin and Natalie's relationship starts to fall apart, and there's just a lot of rubbish going through the friendship group which I thought was dealt with really well. I feel like I could read books and books of George writing about friendship groups and what being seventeen/eighteen is really like. I'm giving this four out of five, and I'll definitely read something else by George in the future. 

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M Johnson - Review

I bought this last year I think, when I visited a children's bookshop in Retford. It's a memoir and seemed my kind of thing, so I picked it up. I read it as part of my reading only queer books in January plan, and I'm really glad I got to it. I don't really have tons to say about it because it's a memoir, so it's the true story of someone's life, so it's not like I'm going to criticise it, is it!

George M Johnson is queer and non binary and Black, and grew up in a loving household in New Jersey. This book is mostly linear, ranging from their early years being looked after by their grandmother, with a ton of cousins running around, to their experiences as a teenager. The book is aimed towards young adults and does feature some resources for others who feel similar. It tells the stories of other queer people in their family, which I really liked. 

I found George's writing engaging. There are a couple of incidences of sexual assault, and I felt like they wrote about them in really powerful ways. I would heartily recommend the book but take care of yourself, of course. I'm giving it four stars. 

West Yorkshire Queer Stories - Review

First of all let me share a couple of photos of books! Doesn't everyone love a book haul? Then I'll get into this review.  

First of all these are the books I got for Christmas. The top three were from a swap I did run by Gwen and Janet, I've joined in with this swap a zillion times and always enjoy it. This year my swapper turned out to by my friend Sarah Beth, so I had fun choosing some books that I thought they would like and vice versa. Shy Radicals is totally me, I'm looking forward to this. My friend Stacey says What you are looking for is in the library is great, so I'm looking forward to that, too. The third one is a queer romance which isn't always my thing, but I'm willing to take Sarah Beth's word that it is good!  

Lee bought me We Fell Apart and Bog Queen because I asked for both of them. We Fell Apart is the third in this series and I can't wait to read it. I can't remember why I chose Bog Queen but it sounds great. Girls to the Front was from my Secret Santa in Lee's family, which turns out to be my sister in law Libby. She's also really into books and this sounds really up my street. 

Next is this pile of books which I got at the beginning of January from Waterstones. My friend Jac gave me a gift voucher so when my mum and I went to Meadowhall I went and browsed. I love Lucy Foley so picked that one up as I've been seeing reviews of it. I had seen someone rave about All Fours so I thought I would give that a go. This Val McDermid is non fiction so that'll be interesting, and the other two just looked interesting (and were on the buy one get one half price which is always good). 

I DO have a lot of books, yep. I love them. 

And now to my review. I've had this book absolutely forever. I'm from West Yorkshire so I was obviously intrigued by this. I think I backed it or something, like the crowdfunding? I really can't remember, but I've had it a while. And I finally got round to it! It's joyful to read. There was a whole project to capture the stories of tons of queer people living in the region. This book is colourful and pretty but also has some really deep stories in it, from elders who have lived through decades of queer history, to people newly out. I loved it, I'm giving it five out of five and I would recommend it if you need a bit of queer joy. 

Weird Girl and What's His Name by Meagan Brothers - Review

Hello! Welcome to a new year of blogging for me! I'm finally on to books I've read in 2026. You may notice that I usually write a round up of the books I read in the previous year. Well, the journal that I was using for the beginning of 2025 has been packed away into the loft, and I can't be bothered finding it in order to do the survey. So that post won't exist in 2026 unless I end up in the loft for something else and find my journal! Oh well. 

I have started using Storygraph in 2026, as well as Goodreads, so that will be interesting to see at the end of 2026 as they have lots of different graphs about format of books read, and so on. 

I also decided that in January 2026 I would only read books under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. This idea partly came about because I have a new desk at home for doing actual work on (as opposed to this desk, which is in my craft room) and it's right in front of the LGBTQIA+ books. I kept looking at them while working and thinking, ooh I'd like to read X, I'd like to read Y. So I thought for the month I would only read queer books. It is nearly the end of January now and it's been an absolute joy to read queer books all month. 

However, I didn't love this book. But I am glad I read it because I've been looking at it for ages! The book is about two best friends, Lula and Rory. Lula lives with her grandparents, who are pretty strict with her, because her mum walked out when Lula was only little. She was a teen mum and couldn't cope. Lula's grandad has never forgiven his daughter for leaving, so the family never mentions her. Lula still has some of her mother's posessions though, including a bunch of her books. 

Rory lives with his mum, who is an alcoholic, and who is chaotic. Rory doesn't have a very happy home life. Lula kind of does - her grandparents adore her - but she's stuck too. They're kind of outcasts at school. They spend every Friday night watching old episodes of The X Files and uploading to their blog about the TV show. The book is set in 2008 so it was a bit past the prime of the series, so their classmates just think they're weird. 

Rory came out as gay to Lula ages ago, but he hasn't told her that he is having an affair with his boss, who is like nearly three times his age, and who is divorced and has two daughters who are not that much younger than Rory. Rory seems to think that the two of them will be out and proud together eventually, and that they have a future together. It is obvious as an adult reading that they do not, but I liked the way it was portrayed. Rory also tries out for the high school football team, but doesn't tell Lula that either because he knows she'll scoff about it. I did think the book was quite fatphobic in the way that it talked about Rory's body, which I didn't like at all. He's big and tall and therefore an asset to a football team, sure, but it was quite shame-y in the way it talked about his body. 

Anyway, Lula then goes missing. She has been reading her mother's books and goes off to New York to try to find her mum. The first part of the book is from Rory's point of view and the second part is from Lula's. I don't think either part really worked for me. I can't decide what I just didn't like about the book but I didn't. I am giving it three out of five; I liked the stories mostly, but the writing, not overly. 

The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish - Review

I bought this book some time in 2025, I don't remember exactly when. I thought it looked like a cute romance book to read around Christmas, so that's exactly what I did. But it took me ages to read and while that always happens in December just because I get busy, it's also because I just didn't get on with the book too much. I can't fully explain why, but maybe it'll be clearer as I write this review. 

So Greta is one of the protagonists. She is from a tiny island in Maine, I guess a bit like Martha's Vineyard, where everyone knows each other. She is one of five sisters and they're are a close knit Jewish family. She is a lesbian. She went to university in Portland, Maine, which did give her some freedom, but she's now back on the island. She's at a festival type thing when her eldest sister Sadie - who is mean and rude throughout the book - puts her up for a dating auction thing, meaning she would be auctioned off for a date with a man. Greta is obviously upset about this because she is gay - and she's mad with her sister and with the rest of the family (her mum is a bit of a nightmare too). She desperately wants to escape Maine for a few weeks over Hannukah and the winter, and ends up looking for a house swap thing. 

Meanwhile, Truman lives in New Orleans. He is gay and he's in a relationship with a man whose name I forget but it doesn't matter as he's not relevant. But it turns out he is married and has a small child, meaning Truman has been the bit on the side all along. Truman is obviously heartbroken and wants to escape New Orleans. 

Enter their mutual friend, Ramona, who suggests they swap homes for a bit. Greta has a zillion houseplants that need babying, so she can't just leave them, and Truman has a dog that he can't leave by himself either. So they swap. Greta meets Carys, who leads ghost walks in New Orleans, on like her first day in New Orleans and they begin a relationship. I found Carys a bit of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl - she's just TOO perfect, including her lovely found family which Greta gets involved with too, and including the way she calls Greta out over one thing in a way that really irritated me - and I didn't love their relationship. Their sex scenese were hot, though, so that's one thing. I actually thought that Greta's relationship with an older lady who introduces her to a bunch of gardeners was more interesting and which brought Greta out of herself in a better way than Carys did I think. 

I did really like the depiction of Greta's family and of New Orleans (a place I would love to go!) but her story arc overall left me a bit cold. 

Truman ends up meeting Greta's friend Ash, who owns the local flower shop (so many tropes). Ash is depressed and struggling to care for his mother, who has dementia. Truman turns up with a bit of colour and a whole load of ideas to improve the flower shop and while it's obviously really sweet, it puts Ash off. I thought this was a much more realistic relationship and they ebb and flow towards each other. Truman learns how to trust himself I think, he's a lot more introspective by the end of the book. Ash is really lovely and I liked how he was brought out of himself too.

But the book dragged a lot for me; I felt it was at least fifty pages too long. I am giving it three out of five and I wouldn't rush to read this author again.  

Tart by Becki Jayne Crossley - Review

I got this book on Netgalley because I liked the sound of it, so thank you very much to Bloomsbury Publishing for granting me access to it. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwised compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

It felt like a really long time since I had read a good YA book, especially one set in the UK, so I was keen to get stuck into this. It is set in a small town in the UK and I could picture it perfectly. 

Libby is in her first year of sixth form when a video of her kissing another boy goes viral amongst her school friends. This would be bad enough, but it happens on the same night that her boyfriend Dan gets knocked down by a car  and is in a coma. He is yet to wake up weeks, months later, and no one knows what will happen to him. Libby is ostracised and left friendless. But there's a new girl in the area - Neha. She is from a bigger area and she's proudly out and queer; she has a gaggle of queer friends that she misses dreadfully now she's had to move. She and Libby get close and Libby begins to question her feelings for Neha - but of course there is the question of Dan still. But there are a lot of secrets and explanations rattling around this book, which I felt were revealed really well. 

I really liked the book and would definitely read something else by the same author. I liked the queer representations and the queer joy that was really gentle - like Libby and her new friends visiting a cafe that they liked. I'm giving this four out of five. 

This book is out now for purchase. 

Double Booked by Lily Lindon - Review

 

I picked this book up earlier in the year somewhere or other, because I was really intrigued by the blurb and thought it sounded great. I took it away on holiday to Greece with me thinking it would be perfect holiday reading. I ended up really not liking it. I made my way through it and then left it on the bookshelf in the hotel because I knew I wouldn't read it again. I saw a woman I had spoken to briefly had picked it up and I wanted to say 'This isn't representative of what I usually read! It isn't very good!' but I didn't. I can't really say why it wasn't my thing. I do think it skews a lot younger than it is. Georgina is 26 but it reads more like Young Adult than fiction for adults. 

Anyway yes the protagonist is Georgina, known as Gina to her friends. She lives with her boyfriend, Doug, who she met at university seven years ago and started a relationship with. They have a boring, uber scheduled life. This is partly due to Gina's past because of some trauma she lived through, which she got through by setting strict routines. But it's also partly because Doug is just really extremely boring. Gina's best friend Soph is a vlogger and influencer who is Black and a lesbian. She drags Gina out to a gay bar one night where Gina meets Kit, who is in a really cool band called Phase. Gina ends up joining the band as their drummer. The others just assume that she is gay like them and she just doesn't .......bother telling them otherwise? It's really annoying because if she just spoke up it would be fine. But I guess part of the problem is that Gina realises she has a crush on Kit. She starts to unpack her bisexuality. I absolutely didn't have a problem with this - it happens to tons of people and I did quite like the way she did this.

But, what I didn't like was the way that George - as the band calls her - starts to change herself to make herself seem queerer and to 'fit in' more. She cuts her hair, she starts to wear flannel shirts and Doc Marten boots and like, I get that, I'm here for people exploring themselves, but it just seemed so trite? It really annoyed me. Plus Gina is lying to her boyfriend which annoyed me, and people should just sit down and talk to each other. 

I also really didn't like how Soph reacted to her friend coming out. They needed a better chat about it at the end of the book but again that didn't happen. I understood why Sophie felt a bit threatened and a bit annoyed but again like - don't we welcome people into the queer community? I would if it was a friend of mine. 

I'm apparently still angry about this book even though it's two months since I read it by the time I'm writing this! I'm giving this two out of five and I definitely wouldn't read anything else by the author. I really hope that the woman who picked this up enjoyed it more than I did! 

Ryan and Avery by David Levithan - Review

If you've read this blog for any amount of time you might know that I blow hot and cold on David Levithan. I maintain that Every Day is one of the worst books I've ever read, but I liked Two Boys Kissing. When I saw this in a children's and young adult bookshop in Retford when I was there with friends over Easter, and my friend Lucinda recommended it so I picked it up. After I'd slogged through the end of The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater I picked this up. It's funny because Lee's stepdad put one of our bookshelves back together on the second day after our move, and unpacked a box of books that were nearby. He said, "These are all gay books!" which yes, was true, because it was a box marked LGBT. So yes, they were. He also told me I didn't need any more books which obviously isn't true!

Anyway, that meant this was ready available for I picked it up. I needed something cute and easy to read and this ticked all the boxes for me. It was so cute and just what I needed. I feel like David has come on a lot in ten years and is mroe accurately reflecting the teen queer community than he maybe did in the past. 

Ryan and Avery live in towns some two hours apart in the middle of nowhere in America, you know how it goes. This is the story of their first ten dates together. It goes backwards in time as well as forwards so we know that they're pretty serious about each other at the beginning of the book, and we get to see how they got to that point. They met at a queer prom in Ryan's town and now have to drive hours (for a Brit this is loopy!) to see each other. 

Ryan is gay and lives with his parents, who are not accepting of him and who try to stop him seeing Avery. He is close to his aunt, whose name I forget, and he is totally falling in love with Avery and it's adorable. He has some friends and is out at school, but his home life is pretty rotten and I felt sorry for him. 

Avery is trans, and gay, and lives with his parents. They have always been accepting of his transness and his queerness - in fact sometimes they're a bit TOO accepting and do his head in - and so they accept Ryan very quickly too. 

Their dates are so cute. The whole book is cute but also has real depth and drama. I would recommend it to any romance fan, and I'm giving it five out of five. 

The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes - Review

I bought this book back in April when I visited a children's and YA book shop in Retford when I was in the area with friends. My friend Sam had given us all a £10 book token so we all bought books, which was actually delightful. I got three books in total, I have already red Trigger by C G Moore but haven't read the third one yet. That's by Rainbow Rowell, I haven't read anything by her in forever!

I didn't like this book as much as I was hoping to, which was a shame. Maybe it just wasn't for me. That's fine! The main character is Yamilet, Yami to her friends, who lives in Arizona with her mum and her younger brother Cesar. Cesar is in the same school year as Yami, although he's a little bit younger. Their dad lives in Mexico - he was deported like six years ago and can't come back to the United States. Yami talks to him often but she misses him a lot. 

Yami is gay and used to have a crush on her best friend, Bianca. However, when she came out to Bianca, Bianca reacted badly and outed her to a couple of mutual friends. Meanwhile, Cesar was getting into lots of fights in school so he is moving to a Catholic school a longer drive away, on a scholarship. Yami also decides to go, mostly because then she can hide her sexuality, but also to keep an eye on her brother. She has to find a job in order to help pay for her tuition and help her mother out. She eventually starts to sell her mother's Mexican beaded jewellery and makes it herself, which I did think was a good storyline. 

At school she firstly meets three girls who turn out to be proper mean girls, and she soon distances herself from them. She is one of the only students of colour at the school, and she is much poorer than most of the other students. She meets Bo, who is Chinese, adopted by a white couple, and who is one of the only outwardly queer students at the school too. Yami soon develops a crush on her, but she is trying so hard to be straight at her new school! 

She thinks her religious mother won't accept her if she comes out, so she's determined to not let her mum know. But this drives a massive wedge between them, of course. Cesar gets detention straight away at the new school so Yami has to worry about him, too. She has a lot going on, and I did feel really sorry for her. But I also felt like Yami was a bit of a passive player in her own life. She lets other people ride over her wishes too much which annoyed me. I can't fully empathise with her plight around coming out to her parents, but I did like mostly what happened here. Cesar is a really interesting character and I would have liked more of his story but I also don't want to give spoilers as I'm really glad I didn't have any when I went into it. 

Overall, I'm giving this three out of five because I liked it well enough but I thought it had problems in parts, and I didn't love it. I would definitely read something else by the same author though. 

Sorry I haven't published anything her for ages, I was away on holiday and was a little bit behind in blogging before I went. I will catch up! 

Trigger by C G Moore - Review

Trigger warning for this book! It's about rape! Specificially male rape. It is a little graphic. 

I bought this book in a children's and YA bookshop in Retford at Easter. I was visiting the area with friends and read about this bookshop, so a few of us went along. I bought three books because I had a voucher, and this was one of them. I picked it up in mid May when I was feeling a bit down, and it turned out to be just what I needed. Sometimes books happen like that and I always love it when they do.

So, this is a book told in verse, like Sarah Crossan's books, which I didn't know when I picked it up actually, but it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I think some of the poems worked better than others, and I would have liked a little bit more depth on some. But they did generally work really well. 

The story is about Jay. He wakes up in a park one morning, beaten, bruised, and bloodied. His phone is smashed. He realises he has been sexually assaulted. He goes to his friend Lau, and Lau takes him to the hospital where they take samples and all of that. Jay later realises he was raped, but what exactly happened is a mystery. He remembers being in a club with his boyfriend Jackson, but nothing else. 

Jackson won't speak to him, doesn't come over or any of that. He messages to say he needs some space. Jay has supportive parents, and Lau, and he later goes to a support group where he meets someone called Rain. He goes back to school, but there, everyone knows about the rape, which is awful. 

There's a lot in this about how survivors of rape and sexual assault rarely get justice through the legal system - rapists are rarely prosecuted and even when they are, they are rarely found guilty. That is all true and it adds to Jay's trauma and feelings of shame and worthlessness. 

Jay realises that Jackson may have been involved in what happened to him, which is another massive betrayal. 

It's a sad book but I loved Jay and his character, his spirit. I am giving this four out of five. 

The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King by Harry Trevaldwyn - Review

I saw this book on Netgalley and had to request it immediately because it seemed really up my street. Thank you very much to Macmillan for granting me access to it. I was provided with an electronic copy of the book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

This book is very much in the vein of Simon James Green which I really liked. It reminded me of Noah Can't Even. I loved it, I loved Patch and found the storyline both funny and sweet. That's my favourite kind of YA fiction. 

So Patch is just going into the sixth form. He is called Patrick but he's trying Patch out now as a cool new thing. He lives with his mum and older sister, Kath, who he bickers with constantly. His best friend is Jean. They are kind of outcasts at school and are in the drama club. Patch is gay and Jean is a firm ally. Patch is determined to get a boyfriend by Prom, at the end of term. 

They go to drama club in preparation for the new play, and two very exciting things happen. Firstly, Tessa comes. She uses to be friends with Patch and Jean, but then she started hanging out with the popular crew and they haven't spoken since. So why is she back?! But more excitingly there are two new boys. Peter and Sam. Peter is American and living with Sam's family for a bit due to some family stuff going on. Patch is entirely certain one of them will be his new boyfriend. 

There are many shenanigans and so on, and it's fun and funny, but there are points of pathos too. I liked the growth that nearly everyone showed in the book. I would have liked a little bit more of Patch's mum and sister, but generally I just can't really complain. I'm giving this four out of five as I just really liked it. 

A Little London Scandal by Miranda Emmerson - Review

 

I picked this book up in The Bookish Type in Leeds and I really liked the sound of it so I bought it. I have been trying to read all new books that come into the house, so I started it. 

And then, good lord, it took me a week to read. Now that was partly because I was away for the weekend with friends so that didn't leave me a lot of time to read, but also because it just entirely bored me. I had such high hopes for it, too, but I would not rush to read anything else by Miranda Emmerson. Apparently this is the second in the series, featuring two of the same characters, but I wouldn't rush to read the other one of these, either. 

I am sorry because I really wanted to like this. I liked the setting in swinging London in the 1960s, before homosexuality was decriminalised. I'm not quite sure that the language for the time was exactly right, but I could give it a pass if I wasn't just so bored. 

Anyway, the plot. Anna Treadway is the dresser at a theatre. I was confused about exactly who worked in the theatre or was in the play, or both or neither, but there is a man called Bertie who is getting fatter and Anna feels bad about suggesting he needs to get his costumes altered. She has a boyfriend called Aloysius who is with his dying mother in the Caribbean so they're writing letters backward and forward. This is entirely not relevant so I'm not sure why it was included OR why some of the letters are included. Anna lives above a Turkish cafe and in there she sometimes meet Nik. 

Nik is from a Greek family and grew up near Blackpool. He was kicked out of the house when he was fifteen and made his way to London. He is now nineteen. He is a rent boy. He is gay. It isn't clear if he was kicked out of his house because he was gay or not, and I would have liked more clarity there. I did enjoy the parts about Nik growing up. 

He is working one Saturday evening and it is all a bit complicated. He goes hither and thither and it is just way too more involved than it needed to be. He is hired by the lead singer of a band and in trying to leave the recording studio he arouses the anger of the whole band and they set upon him, beating him up badly. I really do not know why this happened. Nik heads to close to Picadilly Circus, where there's a police raid on rent boys in the area. He ends up near the garden belonging to a swanky gentlemen's club. Later there, a rent boy called Charlie is found murdered. Nik is arrested for the murder and Anna is certain that he can't have done it, so she starts to do her own investigation. 

She is helped on her way by a police officer called Hayes, who she met in the first book. He used to work on murders but now he's in Vice. He starts asking questions too which puts a lot of people's noses out of joint. 

Additionally - which is ridiculous given that the book is only like 270 pages in total - there is an MP called Richard Wallis. He is married to Merrian and they have two children, but he hires rent boys and he has a bunch of secrets which threaten to come out at any given point. Merrian is a likeable character - if a little clueless - but she spends far too long fannying around over her husband. I thought there was going to be an actual pay off to this, but no. 

In all I'm giving this two out of five. I just can't, and don't recommend it.