#Rosiee Thor

[lgbtqreads]

Inside an Anthology: The House Where Death Lives ed. by Alex Brown

Today on the site we’re taking a peek inside The House Where Death Lives ed. by Alex Brown, a Speculative YA Fiction anthology that just released yesterday from Page Street! Here’s the gist:  A dance to the death. A girl who’s just as monstrous as H.H. Holmes. A hallway that’s constantly changing―and hungry. All of these stories exist in the same place―within the frame of a particular house that…

[arojenniferwalters]

Canon AroAces 285/?: Charlotte Terry in Rosiee Thor's Fire Becomes Her (2022) 2/ 5

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[aroacespaces]

My thoughts on the different stories within the first half of the Being Ace anthology!

[the-final-sentence]

And like with all things, this path they’ll walk together.

Rosiee Thor, from “Well Suited”

[melanielocke]

Book recommendations - a-spec characters

I don't have a lot of books that fit this category unfortunately, but I've read a couple of good ones recently so I figured I might as well make list for a-spec books. I'll list the specific representation for each book as well. These books are all YA fantasy but still very different types of books, so I hope there's something here for everyone looking for more a-spec characters.

I'll start with Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor

This is a stand alone fantasy set in a 1920s jazz age inspired world. This world has magic in the form of flare, a hot magic substance that can be mined and is used in various ways, including heating and electricity, but also mixed in drinks for rich people, or to give you temporary fire/heat magic. The premise is largely based around huge flare inequality, with poor people not having enough to heat their homes whereas rich people are sitting on vast amounts of flare they're either not using or using for useless things like putting it in drinks. Ingrid was born very poor, but has been given the chance to move up in society by attending a school for rich kids on a scholarship and dating Linden Holt, the son of a senator and one of the richest men in the land. When Linden's father, goes to run for president, Ingrid is hired as a campaign assistant for her internship before she graduates school, but the senator is running against a leftist woman who wants flare to be accessible to all and Ingrid has to decide if she wants to stay with Linden and his family to make sure she has enough, or fight for everyone else' flare as well.

This is a very political book, with the main focus being the presidential race, and there are very clear parallels to real life (American) politics. For example, Linden's father proposes a plan called "trickle down flare".

Rep: most major characters are queer, the main character is bi and demiromantic

Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland is next

This is a fantasy in a world where some people can soulwalk. They can enter their own and other people's souls as long as the other person is close enough. Kamai and her mother are both soulwalkers, and her mother is a courtesan and spy who walks through the souls of her clients to find out their secrets. For Kamai to put her abilities to use, becoming a courtesan would be the ideal option since it allows her to easily get close to people, but Kamai is asexual. She has no interest in having sex with people.

Kamai cannot enter her own soul, no one can. Some people believe she doesn't have one, others that it has been hidden away. But no matter whose soul she enters, she sees a black door. Her mother warned her to stay away from that door. But when tragedy strikes, Kamai, desperate, opens the door.

This is a dark fantasy story with some conspiracy, spying and a focus on this world's religion and mythology.

Rep: main character is biromantic asexual, and her being asexual is a big part of the story, some side characters are also queer including asexual

Also by this author: In the Ravenous Dark, which is another dark fantasy I'm about to start reading with a pan mc and poly relationship

Then I have Silver in the Mist by Emily Victoria

This story is set on an island divided into two kingdoms, Aris and Cerena. The continent is in danger from a mist with deadly phantoms within it, and right now the problem is a lot worse in Aris than in Cerena. Only casters can use magic to hold back the mist.

Dev is a spy. Eight years ago, her father died and her mother became very distant as the whisperer, the head spy, of Aris. Now her mother is more of a commander than family and Dev will try anything for her approval.

On her next mission, she's sent to Cerena to go undercover in their court and kidnap Alyse, Cerena's most powerful caster, in the hopes that bringing her to Aris could turn the tides on the mist. But on the way she learns that not everything she thought of Cerena is true and that Alyse might have a better way to stop the mist.

This is a spy story, but also a story of family. Dev has a difficult relationship with her mother, who is very distant, and keeps seeking her approval, but there is development and nuance in their relationship. I also loved the strong bond Dev forms with Alyse.

Rep: it was not explicit in the book, but Dev is asexual and possibly also aromantic. She shows no romantic or sexual interest in anyone, and the author is also ace-aro, so I'm sure she's supposed to be aspec but not sure what. Dev's best friend Lochlan is non binary.

Last up is Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

Artemisia is a nun training to cleanse the bodies of the deceased so they don't turn into evil spirits and eat people and/or possess people. She was possessed by a spirit as a child and as a result she's very sensitive to spirits.

When the convent is attacked by possessed people, Artemisia saves herself and the other nuns by binding herself to a revenant, the most dangerous type of spirit that was locked up in a saint's relic. The dead are rising, and if only a vespertine, a priestess wielding the power of a revenant can stop it, but all knowledge on how this works is lost to time so Artemisia has no choice but to learn from the revenant itself, someone she can't trust.

This story is dark and has a very gritty medieval feel, and I think while the world is made up it captures medieval europe better than most medieval europe fantasy stories. Artemisia is someone who prefers to be around dead people than living, generally she dislikes people and doesn't care to form close bonds with them. While she isn't explicitly ace/aro in the book, I'd read her as such based on her lack of interest in romantic and/or sexual relationships, and she can also be read as autistic.

Also by this author: sorcery of thorns, which has a bi love interest and asexual major side character

Previously covered books with a-spec characters

Dread Nation duology by Justina Ireland - ace/aro side character who is also a POV character in book 2

Black Wings Beating trilogy by Alex London - one of the two mc's is ace/aro

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @bottomdelioncourt @ikissedsmithparker

[stardustandrockets]

What was your favorite read from October?

I spent the month completing the #OwnedOctober challenge @treereads hosted. I managed to fill my bingo board.

Books read:

• Happy Place by Emily Henry

• You Feel it Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson

• Ander & Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa

• Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor

• A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins

• Flip the Script by Lyla Lee

• 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

• A Shot in the Dark by Victoria Lee

I think my favorites were Ander & Santi and 10 Things That Never Happened. Though, the latter I checked out from the library to decide if I wanted to buy it or not. I absolutely adored Sam and Jonathan's dynamic. I thought the amnesia plot was going to be weird, but it wasn't. Not sure what I'm going to start next, but I'm happy to have my tbr a little more under control.

[judeinthestars]

New sapphic book review: Lofty Mountains, Eleven Stories of Cloudy Peaks, Airship Adventure, and Sapphic Experiences

[qbdatabase]

Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor A secret beats inside Anna Thatcher's chest: an illegal clockwork heart. Anna works cog by cog -- donning the moniker Technician -- to supply black market medical technology to the sick and injured, against the Commissioner's tyrannical laws. View the full summary and rep info on wordpress!

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: Tarnished are the Stars

Author: Rosiee Thor

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2019

Genres: fiction, science fiction, LGBT+, fantasy, romance

Blurb: A secret beats inside Anna Thatcher’s chest: an illegal clockwork heart. Anna works cog by cog - donning the moniker Technician - to supply black market medical technology to the sick and injured, against the Commissioner’s tyrannical laws. Nathaniel Fremont, the Commissioner’s son, has never had to fear the law. Determined to earn his father’s respect, Nathaniel sets out to capture the Technician...but the more he learns about the outlaw, the more he questions whether his father’s elusive affection is worth chasing at all. Their game of cat and mouse takes an abrupt turn when Eliza, a skilled assassin and spy, arrives. Her mission is to learn the Commissioner’s secrets at any cost...even if it means betraying her own heart. When these uneasy allies discover the most dangerous secret of all, they must work together despite their differences and put an end to a deadly epidemic before the Commissioner ends them first.

[lgbtqreads]

September 2024 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction Author of WAKE UP, NAT & DARCY Kate Cochrane‘s YOURS FOR THE SEASON, a sapphic romance in which a former Olympic hockey player who has reluctantly returned to her home town for Christmas teams up with her childhood crush to win their town’s annual holiday contest and a fancy romantic prize, despite telling everyone “we’re just friends,” to Errin Toma at Carina Adores, for…

[arojenniferwalters]

Canon AroAces 285/?: Charlotte Terry in Rosiee Thor's Fire Becomes Her (2022) 1/ 5

[bug-ina-rug]

Aspec representation is important because

"For as long as I can remember, there has been something in me that's been livid and sick and at odds with the world around me."

. . .

"It's an obsession, an interest I've never understood, even when I was still skinny and gangly and was told to have some fun with the other kids" . . . " I thought we'd brave the old tunnels or go out to the fields proper to catch swamp eels and frogs like I was used to with Maiko. Their idea of fun was not that. I left barley having told my name to anybody" (Moonspirited, Anju Imura).

Aspec representation is important because

"And the question is so absurd, it makes Brindle burst into laughter. It is all people seem to care about- single or taken, both words somehow a violence. But there is a space outside those words where Brindle and Fig reside, and it is a part of what makes them so well suited for each other. They are not single, floating through life independently and alone. They are not taken, like a victim of some theft. Perhaps what they are is given, honestly and hopefully, to one another in equal partnership" (Well Suited, Rosiee Thor).

Aspec representation is important because

"and i collect the soul of the doctor who insists he is so worried about my asexuality and Dales asexuality when he puts asexuality in finger quote marks like its a bad thing a not-real thing a thing that's catching a thing that's just to be expected when we are malnourished" (Nylon Bed Socks, Madeline Dyer).

Aspec representation is important because I would put every word of this book on this tumblr post if I could, because there is more in this book that tore me apart and there is more in this book that is still yet to tear me apart.

ALL OF THESE QUOTES WERE TAKEN FROM THE BOOK Being Ace WRITTEN BY MANY AUTHORS AND EDITED BY MADELINE DYER, YOU SHOULD READ IT IT'S A REALLY GOOD BOOK.

ASPEC.

REPRESENTATION.

IS.

IMPORTANT.

Aspec representation is important because kids are still told in health class that everyone feels attraction

Aspec representation is important because somewhere in the world there’s a 12 year old crying because they feel broken

Aspec representation is important because I still get told “that’s not real” when I come out

Aspec representation is important because people still think the A in LGBTQIA+ stands for ally

Aspec representation is important because everyone deserves to see someone like them on screen

Aspec representation is important because people still think that asexual and aromantic are the same thing

Aspec representation is important

[wahlpaper]

Pride Book Quiz!

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Tarnished Are The Stars | Author: Rosiee Thor | Publisher: Scholastic (2019)

[rosieethor]

And we’ll keep on winning 💜💚

I just read this in a book and... when I tell you I teared up, I teared up. They even used the actual words. 😭 We won today. Representation matters. 🥺💚💜

Book: Tarnished are the Stars by Rosiee Thor.