It’d Been Years Since He’d Last Seen Him, But There Was No Mistaking That Crooked Nose Or The Mole

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I read this back in February and unfortunately didn't have time to review it until now. I absolutely loved it! The backgrounds of the characters are even more complex than books with linear timelines. The main character, Nix (I believe), was tempted by so many different things to try to save herself from an uncertain future or not even a future at all. Her problem solving was beyond something I've experienced in any other book. I highly recommend this book!

All of these books are queer, but they all have back blurbs that don’t say they’re queer. While this can be a pain if I’m scouting for queer SFF, it can come in handy for people in a situation where they don’t want to be reading queer books openly. 

Please do note that I don’t have hard copies of the books on hand so it’s possible that an author quote or something mentions one being queer (I feel like this isn’t super likely, but I don’t want to rule it out). Some might also have author biographies mentioning that the author is queer. Also, some may be shelved as LGBT on Goodreads or categorized as queer on Amazon. So if you’re planning on asking for any of these as holiday gifts, I would suggest going to the Amazon page or where ever your relative is likely to buy it from and double check that it’s something you’d be comfortable with sharing openly. 

I wish I had more pansexual books, but the ones I know of tend to mention queerness in the back description. 

With the exception of The Spy with the Red Balloon, these are all books I have read or are currently reading. If you want to recommend others, feel free to do so in the replies!

You can find my other queer book recommendations here.

Links to the queer books database (or Goodreads if the book hasn’t been added yet) are available below the cut. You can find information on content warnings there.

Keep reading

happy sts! how do you pick character names? is there any particular reason to why you picked certain names for you OCs?

Oh, I love this question! Thank you so much for asking!

As much as I’d love to say that all of my character names are carefully chosen for them, it actually depends entirely on my mood and if I’m currently really into a particular book/show/podcast/etc. The characters I’ve been working with most lately are Oliver, Juno, Shiloh, and Maggie. Oliver and Maggie essentially just got their names from random generators (and I just made sure the generated name seemed right for their personalities).

Juno, however, I actually named after Juno Steel from The Penumbra Podcast. I adore his character in the podcast and, while my Juno isn’t really that similar to him, I wanted to have that sort of personal connection. When I chose Shiloh’s name, I, again, pulled from a character I (at least used to) like. She’s actually named after Shiloh (an adorable beagle) from the children’s book Saving Shiloh, which I read a ton as a kid.

I know I have tons of other characters I didn’t mention here, but that’s generally how my name choosing works. It’s either almost entirely random or connected to something else I love. (And, in the case of a super old WIP, it’s just a self-insert.)

Thank you again, @feathered-inkling, for asking me this! I’d love to get more questions sent about my writing (especially as I slowly share more of it)! And if you have anything you want to add to this, I’d love to see how other writers go about naming their characters.

The Cellar by Natasha Preston ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book did a great job at keeping my attention all the way until the end but I can’t say that I like how the story itself flowed very well. I feel like the author rushed into the situations a bit early into the book and that there possibly could’ve been a bit more detail as to how the character was doing during the five month skip about half way through. All in all though, it was a pretty good book and I’m glad I read it. I totally recommend it to anyone who likes an intriguing story (of any kind).

7/7/7 Tag!

The wonderful @radley-writes​ tagged me for this (thank you!). You can read their post here! 

Rules: Seventh page, 7th line, 7 sentences. 

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As soon as she left, Charles slumped back in the seat, closing his eyes as the noise of the crowd washed over him. He’d have his dinner here and, with any luck, would get a room at another inn. That didn’t seem too bad. As long as he got a decent night of sleep, he’d be fine. 

With a deep breath, he opened his eyes again and looked out at the crowded dining room. More people had shown up since he sat down, mostly younger people like him, from what he could tell. A group pushed through the crowd and settled at the booth next to him, their loud conversation preceding them the whole way.

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There isn’t much for action or dialogue here, since this landed on a bit of a transition. It’s also from draft one of my current WIP, which hasn’t really been edited much yet, oops.

I don’t have anyone in particular to tag, but if you’d like to do this too, maybe tag me so that I can see your writing!

City of Bones

By Cassandra Clare (Sorry I forgot to take a picture before I returned it) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I absolutely loved this book and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. If you like demonology and paranormal stories I highly recommend this to you. It had a little bit of romance as well but if you’re not into that don’t worry; there’s a fun little plot twist. All in all this book was soooo fun to read and I highly recommend it to everyone.

COVID-19 Support

Hi, everyone! I try to keep this blog as on topic as possible but I wanted to talk a bit about the impact COVID-19 has had on a lot of us.

First, I want to express to anyone that may need to hear it that it’s completely valid and understandable to be scared right now. Many of our lives have been completely uprooted thanks to this pandemic. Many of us have lost our jobs, been abruptly sent home from school, worried about our health, and dealt with difficulties staying home and away from others.

As cheesy as it may sound, no one is alone in this. We all, technically, have easy access to our friends and family still thanks to social media/texting. It can be difficult to actually reach out to others, however, and to help out with that I’d like to offer my support to all of you that may need it.

I know that most—if not all—of you that read this are not at all close to me, nor have I previously spoken with almost any of you, but if you need someone to talk to right now—about anything, really—feel free to message me. As long as your message doesn’t strike me as odd or threatening, I’ll gladly reply. If you want to talk anonymously, feel free to send me anonymous asks and I’ll gladly respond to them. Keeping our community happy and healthy is one of the most important things we can do right now and I really hope you’re all doing okay right now.

Stay safe out there,

Sonja

The absolute joy of being booped on the nose by a cat's paw.

Ascendant by Kimberly Grey Review

Summary: For hundreds of years, war has raged across the realm of Guardian Angels. White-Wing against Black-Wing. Grace is the Saboteur, daughter of the White-Wing Spy Master, destined to end the war once and for all. But all of that is snatched away when she is captured by the Black-Wings. Trapped in their secret city, Grace finds herself questioning everything.

Going into this story, I already knew it was in my usual reading wheel-house. I’m always a sucker for fantasy stories, especially ones with complex conflict. This story was absolutely no exception.

I’ll admit that I became a touch worried at some points, having noticed some of the tell-tale signs of upcoming cliches that, while I always enjoy, I’ve seen written poorly too many times. Kimberly Grey pleasantly surprised me, however. Not only did Grey execute some of my beloved cliches, but they also lead some of them into outcomes I absolutely did not expect. And, let me tell you, I loved it.

Grace, as the main character, is a brilliant narrator to follow. Not only does she begin the story believing in her mission and the people alongside her, but the reader is given the opportunity to watch as her own understanding of the world, war, and everything around her actually develops. After all, Grace is still a child in this war, a child that has been misled and trained to be a soldier all her life. On top of that, she’s just an all-around lovable character and I really enjoyed my time with her.

On top of the complex conflict and lovable narrator and her development, I absolutely loved the focus on found-family in this story. It’s been a while since I had the opportunity to read a story with a well-written found-family element and, I must say, this was refreshing and incredibly satisfying. Grey could’ve easily written a romantic relationship between Grace and her new family member, but, again, pleasantly surprised me by creating a loving, sibling relationship. Thank you so much for that.

If this was already in Goodreads and Amazon, it would absolutely get a five-star rating from me (and it will receive those ratings as soon as possible). I highly recommend this book, and I’m excited to see this published so that more people can take in this story.

If you would like to learn more about this story, check out the “ascendant” tag on @authorkimberlygrey‘s page!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hope that you get to see your book at your favorite bookstore someday.