Tag: LBGTQ+

Court – By: Tracy Wolff – Review.

On By PixieIn ReviewLeave a comment

The Book:

No one survived the last battle unscathed. Flint is angry at the world, Jaxon is turning into something I don’t recognize, and Hudson has put up a wall I’m not sure I’ll ever break through.

Now war is coming, and we’re not ready. We’re going to need an army to have any hope of winning. But first, there are questions about my ancestors that need answers. Answers that might just reveal who the realmonster is among us.

And that’s saying something in a world filled with bloodthirsty vampires, immortal gargoyles, and an ancient battle between two gods.

There’s no guarantee that anyone will be left standing when the dust settles, but if we want to save this world, I have no choice. I’ll have to embrace every part of me…even the parts I fear the most.

Don’t miss a single book in the series that spawned a phenomenon! The Crave series is best enjoyed in order:
Crave
Crush
Covet
Court
Charm
Cherish

The Author

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Tracy Wolff wrote her first short story―something with a rainbow and a prince―in second grade. By ten, she’d read everything in the young adult and classics sections of her local bookstore. A one-time English professor with more than fifty novels to her name, she now devotes most of her time to writing and dreaming up heroes. She also writes under the name Tracy Deebs and lives in Austin, Texas, with her family. Visit her online at tracywolffbooks.com.

Source: Amazon

Little late on this review as I wanted to reread this entire series before I got to court. This is one of my favorite guilty pleasure, feel good reads. I enjoy all the characters and banter they bring. I love all the different students and supernatural creatures that go to the Academy.

Now, Court was amazing. We finally got some answers to questions that were brought up in book 1!! Not only are questions finally being answered, but we get to meet a group of new people that I absolutely adore, and old friends from previous books we haven’t seen in a bit. The characters in court are well written and fleshed out decently.

The plot of these books hook me. There is always this one thing the kids are trying to achieve, and it leads them in separate quests to get there. I am a big fan of quest based plots so these really work for me. I love how it all makes sense as well, nothing is just thrown in for fluff.

This book also introduces our first non binary character, and I love them. They are like a big mystery rolled into one. Always surprising the group with skills they weren’t aware they had.

Anyway, I feel like I could talk about this series forever. Is it amazingly written…. No, but is it my favorite feel good read…. Absolutely. I can not wait until Charm and to see what happens next.

5 Stars!

With Love,

Pixie

Summer Sons – By: Lee Mandelo – Review

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The Book:

Lee Mandelo’s debut Summer Sons is a sweltering, queer Southern Gothic that crosses Appalachian street racing with academic intrigue, all haunted by a hungry ghost.

Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him.

As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble.

And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall.

The Author:

LEE MANDELO is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. They have been a past nominee for various awards including the Nebula, Lambda, and Hugo; their work can be found in magazines such as Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, and Nightmare. Aside from a brief stint overseas learning to speak Scouse, Lee has spent their life ranging across Kentucky, currently living in Lexington and pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky.

Sources: Amazon

I went into this book knowing very little. I knew there were friends, one dies, the other tries to figure out why and what happened. I thought it would be an interesting read on just those facts alone, but there was so much more! The plot is interesting, the characters are well developed, and I just thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

It started off a little slow going, and took me about 50 or so pages to really get interested. Once I was into the thick of it though, I couldn’t put it down. We start off with Andrew getting ready to start in school, where he and Eddie should have been together. We follow our main character travel this journey alone, and although the schooling wasn’t a big point in the novel, I was just really bored of it. That, and the fact that I feel like this could have been 100 pages less had Andrew just been more upfront about what was going on and talk about things, but I respect the journey of trust and loyalty all the same. Had those two things not been such a turn off for me this would have been a 5 star read 100%.

Things I absolutely adored about this book far outweigh the annoyance at said previously mentioned issues I had. I LOVE a good found family trope, and this has that in spades! Again coming back on the earlier trust and loyalty issues, would it have been as good if those weren’t involved? I can’t be sure. Did one dislike improve the love I have for this family? Can’t answer it, so roll with it! Another thing I loved about this is the slow burn romance we get to see work it’s way out through a jumble of confusion and messy feelings Andrew had for Eddie. All of that plus all the amazing rep that was in here, poly relationships, trans, allies, and it was done in a way that wasn’t in your face.

Anyway, kind of rambling on this, but it was a lot to unpack, haha.

4 Stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

With Love,

Pixie

October – TBR (To be read)

On By PixieIn TBRLeave a comment

I know, I know it’s like almost two weeks into October, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do this. I am just going to keep it simple because fact is, I am a mood reader. I read what I am in mood for when it strikes. Today I am going to share three books that I really really want to get to for the month of October.

Book One – Summer Sons, By Lee Mandelo

Lee Mandelo’s debut Summer Sons is a sweltering, queer Southern Gothic that crosses Appalachian street racing with academic intrigue, all haunted by a hungry ghost.

Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him.

As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble.

And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall.

Source: Amazon

Book 2 – A Good Girls Guide to Murder, By Holly Jackson

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES • Everyone is talking about this addictive must-read mystery with shades of Serial and Making a Murderer about an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you’ll never expect.

Everyone in Fairview knows the story. 

Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town. 

But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer? 

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn’t want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.

Source: Amazon

Book 3 – Wilder Girls, By Rory Power

From the author of Burn Our Bodies Down, a feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you’ve read before.

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine. Since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her. 

It started slow. First the teachers died one by one. Then it began to infect the students, turning their bodies strange and foreign. Now, cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure they were promised as the Tox seeps into everything. 

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond the fence. And when she does, Hetty learns that there’s more to their story, to their life at Raxter, than she could have ever thought true.

Source: Amazon

I am so excited to get to these books! Although I will read way more then what is posted, these three will for sure have reviews up this month.

Hope you see something you might enjoy and pick it up for yourself!

With Love,

Pixie

Red, White, and Royal Blue – By: Cassie McQuiston – Review

On By PixieIn ReviewLeave a comment

The Book

What happens when America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?

When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. 

Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic.

The Author

Casey McQuiston is the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue, as well as a pie enthusiast. She writes books about smart people with bad manners falling in love. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, she now lives in New York City with her poodle mix and personal assistant, Pepper.

Source: Amazon

Reading other reviews on this book I can see most loved it, but those who didn’t – really disliked it! So I was a little nervous going in. Fortunately enough for me, I either don’t know much about the topics in this book, or the book was so well done any small discrepancies in it just didn’t matter.

I LOVED this book! I couldn’t put it down. I seriously read this in one night because I was so hooked. I enjoyed all the characters so much. The diversity, the inclusion of all the LGBTQ+ people, their personalities, their humor I seriously loved it all. I think Alex and Henry are the most adorable couple ever, the journey they took to be together is hard and stressful, but will their love be enough to fight through it?

I lost track of how many times I laughed out loud while reading this, or I would physically punch the air because I was so excited. Yea I got that into it haha! My family probably thought I was insane.

It’s also so much fun being “in” the White House and just seeing that even the president is just human, she likes to eat pizza, and curses like a sailor and I loved it. The friendships and relationships In this book will put a smile on my face every time I think about them, I’m honestly thinking about picking it up for a reread immediately!

—Pixie