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Taking a brief break in between brackets, since I have a bunch of really busy weekends coming up and it would be tough to get a new bracket organized

But I'll be back in mid-September with a new submission form for older queer works!

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WINNER: Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket

Mrs. Victoria buys a Brothel by Talhí Briones

1865, United States— It took thirty years and a dislocated arm for Victoria to leave her abusive husband. Heartbroken, she has to choose her own life over the hope of ever seeing her son again. She escapes the manor in the dead of night, only bringing with her a white wedding dress.

She ends up in Swainsburg, a minuscule town in Wyoming, where she’s adopted by the local prostitutes. To save them from expulsion, she buys the building and learns that in these parts, entertainment is worth more than gold. It’s almost easy, even fun, to organize piano recitals and cancan shows for the cowboys of the area, but being a Madam comes with responsibilities and dangers she isn’t ready to face. Her husband, after all, has contacts everywhere.

It’s hard to navigate the delicate tensions between respectable ladies and whores, between white society and the ‘others.’ Her new friends are women who carved their place in this merciless life; people who, like her, ended up in Swainsburg when they got tired of running.

Victoria falls in love. She doesn’t notice, she can’t even imagine the possibility. The townfolk say the widow Díaz is strange. Natane is actually incredibly awkward, kind, and very lonely. Victoria has no name for this burning friendship, but the feeling grows and demands to be acknowledged.

This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband.

Setting: Western; 1865 Wyoming

Historical fiction, Western, 1860s, adult

Runners-up:

🥈 The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley Parker-Chan 🥉 The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White 🥉 The Color Purple by Alice Walker

View the spreadsheet of all books from this bracket here

View the full seeded matchup here

View the Storygraph challenge here

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ANNOUNCEMENT: SO I MADE A STORYGRAPH CHALLENGE

~Behold, a link

How it works:

Step 1. Join the challenge (you will need a Storygraph account)

Step 2. Read one book that was submitted to each of the six tournaments (with bonus winners category) anytime between September 7th, 2024 and [TBD one year from whenever we finish the last bracket of this cycle]

How to choose/add your books:

Option 1. I already added All Of The Books (including sequels) to the categories. You can scroll through the list and click the little + button to use a book to complete a category

Good if you're a visual person! But unfortunately books are in No Logical Order, despite my best efforts. Apparently Storygraph scrambles orders, alas

Option 2. Use the “add a book” option to enter the name of a book (please verify that it was actually part of that bracket, either via this blog or the handy dandy spreadsheet)

Please do not add additional books that weren't in a tournament, so we can keep the prompt lists the same as the bracket submissions

Other deets:

If you read a book anytime from September 7, 2024 onwards, you may use it to complete that category (unfortunately it doesn't detect eligible reads automatically; you'll still have to select the book to count it). Sept 7 is the day I posted the first queer fantasy poll, so I'm letting you retroactively count any reads you've done since the start of this blog

If you select a book you read prior to September 7, 2024, it does not count towards completing the category—let's read new things!

You can also select a book(s) that you intend to read in the future to fulfill that category, and it'll mark the category complete once you mark the book read

Some books were submitted to multiple brackets. In the interest of a CHALLENGE and READING MORE, let's aim to use a different book to fulfill each category!

Historical fiction, books from history, and nonfiction are obviously blank right now because we don't have submissions yet. I'll add those myself later; in the meantime, you can get started on the other categories

I don't have any prizes if you complete the challenge, but I will clap for you and bake you cookies on the astral plane, and you can feel awesome and hopefully enriched for having read some cool new books!

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24 hours left to vote!

FINAL: Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Radiant Emperor duology (She Who Became the Sun, He Who Drowned the World) by Shelley Parker-Chan

Endorsement from submitter #1: "extremely nuanced portrayals/discussions of gender and sexuality within the relative historical context; very primarily historical, secondary genre is arguably more magical realism than straightforward fantasy"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "A cast full of queer characters who do awful things to get the throne"

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother’s abandoned greatness.

Setting: 14th-century China (1345), Yuan and Ming Dynasties

Fantasy, historical fiction, alternate history, epic fantasy, 1340s, series, adult

Mrs. Victoria buys a Brothel by Talhí Briones

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A sapphic western where women help women (bury the body of your abusive husband.)"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband."

1865, United States— It took thirty years and a dislocated arm for Victoria to leave her abusive husband. Heartbroken, she has to choose her own life over the hope of ever seeing her son again. She escapes the manor in the dead of night, only bringing with her a white wedding dress.

She ends up in Swainsburg, a minuscule town in Wyoming, where she’s adopted by the local prostitutes. To save them from expulsion, she buys the building and learns that in these parts, entertainment is worth more than gold. It’s almost easy, even fun, to organize piano recitals and cancan shows for the cowboys of the area, but being a Madam comes with responsibilities and dangers she isn’t ready to face. Her husband, after all, has contacts everywhere.

It’s hard to navigate the delicate tensions between respectable ladies and whores, between white society and the ‘others.’ Her new friends are women who carved their place in this merciless life; people who, like her, ended up in Swainsburg when they got tired of running.

Victoria falls in love. She doesn’t notice, she can’t even imagine the possibility. The townfolk say the widow Díaz is strange. Natane is actually incredibly awkward, kind, and very lonely. Victoria has no name for this burning friendship, but the feeling grows and demands to be acknowledged.

This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband.

Setting: Western; 1865 Wyoming

Historical fiction, Western, 1860s, adult

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My love for queer historical fiction is limitless and exceptionally growing, especially those with an alternate universe or a magical setting.

I'm always looking for more, especially those of the indie sort, so let me know your favorites!

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FINAL: Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Radiant Emperor duology (She Who Became the Sun, He Who Drowned the World) by Shelley Parker-Chan

Endorsement from submitter #1: "extremely nuanced portrayals/discussions of gender and sexuality within the relative historical context; very primarily historical, secondary genre is arguably more magical realism than straightforward fantasy"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "A cast full of queer characters who do awful things to get the throne"

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother’s abandoned greatness.

Setting: 14th-century China (1345), Yuan and Ming Dynasties

Fantasy, historical fiction, alternate history, epic fantasy, 1340s, series, adult

Mrs. Victoria buys a Brothel by Talhí Briones

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A sapphic western where women help women (bury the body of your abusive husband.)"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband."

1865, United States— It took thirty years and a dislocated arm for Victoria to leave her abusive husband. Heartbroken, she has to choose her own life over the hope of ever seeing her son again. She escapes the manor in the dead of night, only bringing with her a white wedding dress.

She ends up in Swainsburg, a minuscule town in Wyoming, where she’s adopted by the local prostitutes. To save them from expulsion, she buys the building and learns that in these parts, entertainment is worth more than gold. It’s almost easy, even fun, to organize piano recitals and cancan shows for the cowboys of the area, but being a Madam comes with responsibilities and dangers she isn’t ready to face. Her husband, after all, has contacts everywhere.

It’s hard to navigate the delicate tensions between respectable ladies and whores, between white society and the ‘others.’ Her new friends are women who carved their place in this merciless life; people who, like her, ended up in Swainsburg when they got tired of running.

Victoria falls in love. She doesn’t notice, she can’t even imagine the possibility. The townfolk say the widow Díaz is strange. Natane is actually incredibly awkward, kind, and very lonely. Victoria has no name for this burning friendship, but the feeling grows and demands to be acknowledged.

This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband.

Setting: Western; 1865 Wyoming

Historical fiction, Western, 1860s, adult

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24 hours left to vote!

SEMIFINALS: Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Endorsement from submitter #1: "In an alternate London, boys born with violet eyes become Speakers, mediums who can communicate with the dead, and girls born with violet eyes become their wives. 16-year-old Silas Bell is desperate to avoid becoming another man's wife, but his attempts end with him institutionalised and diagnosed with 'Veil Sickness', a disorder turning violet-eyed girls mad. When the ghosts of former patients appear to beg him for help, he must solve the mystery of what, exactly, happens to everyone society throws away."

Endorsement from submitter #2: "T4T and autistic representation"

Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. According to Mother, he’ll be married by the end of the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s needed a decade of tutors to hide his autism; that he practices surgery on slaughtered pigs; that he is a boy, not the girl the world insists on seeing.

After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. The facility is cold, the instructors merciless, and the students either bloom into eligible wives or disappear. So when the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its rotten guts to the world—as long as the school doesn’t break him first.

Setting: Victorian London, 1883

Horror, historical fiction, gothic, fantasy, paranormal, Victorian, 1880s, young adult

Mrs. Victoria buys a Brothel by Talhí Briones

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A sapphic western where women help women (bury the body of your abusive husband.)"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband."

1865, United States— It took thirty years and a dislocated arm for Victoria to leave her abusive husband. Heartbroken, she has to choose her own life over the hope of ever seeing her son again. She escapes the manor in the dead of night, only bringing with her a white wedding dress.

She ends up in Swainsburg, a minuscule town in Wyoming, where she’s adopted by the local prostitutes. To save them from expulsion, she buys the building and learns that in these parts, entertainment is worth more than gold. It’s almost easy, even fun, to organize piano recitals and cancan shows for the cowboys of the area, but being a Madam comes with responsibilities and dangers she isn’t ready to face. Her husband, after all, has contacts everywhere.

It’s hard to navigate the delicate tensions between respectable ladies and whores, between white society and the ‘others.’ Her new friends are women who carved their place in this merciless life; people who, like her, ended up in Swainsburg when they got tired of running.

Victoria falls in love. She doesn’t notice, she can’t even imagine the possibility. The townfolk say the widow Díaz is strange. Natane is actually incredibly awkward, kind, and very lonely. Victoria has no name for this burning friendship, but the feeling grows and demands to be acknowledged.

This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband.

Setting: Western; 1865 Wyoming

Historical fiction, Western, 1860s, adult

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24 hours left to vote!

SEMIFINALS: Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Life wasn't easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive, needing little to get by.

Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.

Setting: 1910–1940

Classics, literary fiction, historical fiction, epistolary, adult

The Radiant Emperor duology (She Who Became the Sun, He Who Drowned the World) by Shelley Parker-Chan

Endorsement from submitter #1: "extremely nuanced portrayals/discussions of gender and sexuality within the relative historical context; very primarily historical, secondary genre is arguably more magical realism than straightforward fantasy"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "A cast full of queer characters who do awful things to get the throne"

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother’s abandoned greatness.

Setting: 14th-century China (1345), Yuan and Ming Dynasties

Fantasy, historical fiction, alternate history, epic fantasy, 1340s, series, adult

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Books for International Nonbinary Peoples' Day 💜

What's your favorite book featuring a nonbinary character?

💛 Vesuvius - Cass Biehn 🤍 Ander & Santi Were Here - Jonny Garza Villa 💜 Mooncakes - Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu 🖤 Felix Ever After - Kacen Callender ✨ Ollie in Between - Jess Callans 🖤 Hammajang Luck - Makana Yamamoto 💜 Love & Other Disasters - Anita Kelly 🤍 Firebird - Sunmi 💛 Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid - Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert

💛 Stars in Their Eyes - Jessica Walton & Aśka 🤍 Paper Planes - Jennie Wood & Dozerdraws 💜 Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything - Justine Pucella Winans 🖤 I Wish You All the Best - Mason Deaver ✨ Donut Summer - Anita Kelly 🖤 Lunar Boy - Jacinta Wibowo 💜 The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester - Maya MacGregor 🤍 Love at Second Sight - F.T. Lukens 💛 These Vengeful Gods - Gabe Cole Novoa

💛 The Sunbearer Trials - Aiden Thomas 🤍 Lakelore - Anna-Marie McLemore 💜 The Wicked Bargain - Gabe Cole Novoa 🖤 Spell Bound - F.T. Lukens ✨ This Feast of a Life - Cynthia So 🖤 Okay, Cupid - Mason Deaver 💜 A Gentleman's Gentleman - T.J. Alexander 🤍 Mallory in Full Color - Elisa Stone Leahy 💛 Triple Sec - TJ Alexander

💛 They Bloom at Night - Trang Thanh Tran 🤍 Single Player - Tara Tai 💜 Love, Misha - Askel Aden 🖤 Homegrown Magic - Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos ✨ Murder in the Dressing Room - Holly Stars 🖤 Costumes for Time Travelers - A.R. Capetta 💜 Godly Heathens - H.E. Edgmon 🤍 My Best Friend's Honeymoon - Meryl Wilsner 💛 How to Survive a Slasher - Justine Pucella Winans

💛 A Single Brutal Fate - Lee Paige O'Brien 🤍 Roll for Love - M.K. England 💜 Let Them Stare - Jonathan Van Ness & Julie Murphy 🖤 We Are Villains - Kacen Callender ✨ Chaos King - Kacen Callender 🖤 The Trial Period - Auburn Morrow

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Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Semifinal polls now posted!

Congratulations to the Top 4 semifinalists!

Vote in current polls here

All 110 of the titles submitted for this bracket are listed in the INDEX OF BOOKS spreadsheet

You can also view the full seeded queer historical fiction bracket here

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SEMIFINALS: Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Endorsement from submitter #1: "In an alternate London, boys born with violet eyes become Speakers, mediums who can communicate with the dead, and girls born with violet eyes become their wives. 16-year-old Silas Bell is desperate to avoid becoming another man's wife, but his attempts end with him institutionalised and diagnosed with 'Veil Sickness', a disorder turning violet-eyed girls mad. When the ghosts of former patients appear to beg him for help, he must solve the mystery of what, exactly, happens to everyone society throws away."

Endorsement from submitter #2: "T4T and autistic representation"

Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. According to Mother, he’ll be married by the end of the year. It doesn’t matter that he’s needed a decade of tutors to hide his autism; that he practices surgery on slaughtered pigs; that he is a boy, not the girl the world insists on seeing.

After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School. The facility is cold, the instructors merciless, and the students either bloom into eligible wives or disappear. So when the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its rotten guts to the world—as long as the school doesn’t break him first.

Setting: Victorian London, 1883

Horror, historical fiction, gothic, fantasy, paranormal, Victorian, 1880s, young adult

Mrs. Victoria buys a Brothel by Talhí Briones

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A sapphic western where women help women (bury the body of your abusive husband.)"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband."

1865, United States— It took thirty years and a dislocated arm for Victoria to leave her abusive husband. Heartbroken, she has to choose her own life over the hope of ever seeing her son again. She escapes the manor in the dead of night, only bringing with her a white wedding dress.

She ends up in Swainsburg, a minuscule town in Wyoming, where she’s adopted by the local prostitutes. To save them from expulsion, she buys the building and learns that in these parts, entertainment is worth more than gold. It’s almost easy, even fun, to organize piano recitals and cancan shows for the cowboys of the area, but being a Madam comes with responsibilities and dangers she isn’t ready to face. Her husband, after all, has contacts everywhere.

It’s hard to navigate the delicate tensions between respectable ladies and whores, between white society and the ‘others.’ Her new friends are women who carved their place in this merciless life; people who, like her, ended up in Swainsburg when they got tired of running.

Victoria falls in love. She doesn’t notice, she can��t even imagine the possibility. The townfolk say the widow Díaz is strange. Natane is actually incredibly awkward, kind, and very lonely. Victoria has no name for this burning friendship, but the feeling grows and demands to be acknowledged.

This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband.

Setting: Western; 1865 Wyoming

Historical fiction, Western, 1860s, adult

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SEMIFINALS: Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Life wasn't easy for Celie. But she knew how to survive, needing little to get by.

Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.

Setting: 1910–1940

Classics, literary fiction, historical fiction, epistolary, adult

The Radiant Emperor duology (She Who Became the Sun, He Who Drowned the World) by Shelley Parker-Chan

Endorsement from submitter #1: "extremely nuanced portrayals/discussions of gender and sexuality within the relative historical context; very primarily historical, secondary genre is arguably more magical realism than straightforward fantasy"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "A cast full of queer characters who do awful things to get the throne"

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother’s abandoned greatness.

Setting: 14th-century China (1345), Yuan and Ming Dynasties

Fantasy, historical fiction, alternate history, epic fantasy, 1340s, series, adult

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24 hours left to vote!

Queer Historical Fiction Book Bracket: Round 5

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

Dark Rise series (Dark Rise, Dark Heir) by C.S. Pacat

Endorsement from submitter: "YA historical fantasy, featuring a baby bisexual trying to figure out his life, while dark forces threaten to destroy the world. Or do they? Things are much more complicated than they seem…"

The ancient world of magic is no more. Its heroes are dead, its halls are ruins, and its great battles between Light and Dark are forgotten. Only the Stewards remember, and they keep their centuries-long vigil, sworn to protect humanity if the Dark King ever returns.

Sixteen-year-old dock boy Will is on the run, pursued by the men who killed his mother. When an old servant tells him of his destiny to fight beside the Stewards, Will is ushered into a world of magic, where he must train to play a vital role in the oncoming battle against the Dark.

As London is threatened by the Dark King’s return, the reborn heroes and villains of a long-forgotten war begin to draw battle lines. But as the young descendants of Light and Dark step into their destined roles, old allegiances, old enmities and old flames are awakened. Will must stand with the last heroes of the Light to prevent the fate that destroyed their world from returning to destroy his own.

Setting: 1821 England

Fantasy, historical fiction, 1820s, series, young adult

Mrs. Victoria buys a Brothel by Talhí Briones

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A sapphic western where women help women (bury the body of your abusive husband.)"

Endorsement from submitter #2: "This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband."

1865, United States— It took thirty years and a dislocated arm for Victoria to leave her abusive husband. Heartbroken, she has to choose her own life over the hope of ever seeing her son again. She escapes the manor in the dead of night, only bringing with her a white wedding dress.

She ends up in Swainsburg, a minuscule town in Wyoming, where she’s adopted by the local prostitutes. To save them from expulsion, she buys the building and learns that in these parts, entertainment is worth more than gold. It’s almost easy, even fun, to organize piano recitals and cancan shows for the cowboys of the area, but being a Madam comes with responsibilities and dangers she isn’t ready to face. Her husband, after all, has contacts everywhere.

It’s hard to navigate the delicate tensions between respectable ladies and whores, between white society and the ‘others.’ Her new friends are women who carved their place in this merciless life; people who, like her, ended up in Swainsburg when they got tired of running.

Victoria falls in love. She doesn’t notice, she can’t even imagine the possibility. The townfolk say the widow Díaz is strange. Natane is actually incredibly awkward, kind, and very lonely. Victoria has no name for this burning friendship, but the feeling grows and demands to be acknowledged.

This is a story about women who age, gossip, drink, love, and help you hide the body of your dead husband.

Setting: Western; 1865 Wyoming

Historical fiction, Western, 1860s, adult