#read alexis hall & max turner

[up-in-flames-writing]

In lieu of Stuff Your Kindle day, can we talk about the issue of how the m/m genre of books, romance or not, is almost entirely dominated by women? Can we talk about how the most recognisable gay couples in media are written by women? Can we talk about how queer men can't even write about ourselves, how we are only allowed to exist when it's from the point of view of a straight woman sexualising us?

Can we talk about that? Or am I going to get called misogynistic for pointing out the disparity between who gets the writing deals, & who gets their books turned into movies, & whose shit gets popular versus whose doesn't? Can we talk about how m/m fiction is only allowed when it appeals to a cishet gaze, or is that too much for tumblr to take?

Can we also talk about how trans queer men are even more hated by publishing? Can we talk about how we get shit from both sides? Can we talk about how books about the experiences of being a queer man, written by queer men, never get the same recognition as books written by women on this subject (barring academia which has its own problems)?

Can we talk about that? Can we?

[ladylamrian-archive]

My Main-Blog: @ ladylamrian

Heaven's Secret 1 (Victoria Walker × Angel Dino)

Legend of the Willow (Mei Hattori × Kazu Naito)

Moonborn (Mia × Max Fall)

My Hollywood Story (Emma)

On Thin Ice (Catherine Hill × Brian Baker)

Shadows of Saintfour (Sarah O'Neill × Michael Turner)

Seduced by the Rythm (Michelle)

Sophie's 10 Wishes (Sophie Preston × Benedict Reed)

Queen in 30 Days (Jessica × Adam Huez)

Wave Patrol (Kim)

AVeryScandalousProposal (Claire Hall × Simon Montjoy)

Blades of Light & Shadow (Astrid Bloom × Mal / Aerin)

Bloodbound: The Siege (Amanda Crimson × ???)

Crimes of Passion (Lyra Rose × Prince Trystan Thorne)

Desire & Decorum (Clara Sinclaire × Ernest Sinclaire)

Distant Shores (Marina Sailor × Oliver Cochraine)

The Elementalists (Stella Solaris × Beckett Harrington)

The Freshman (Ellie Prescott × Chris Powell)

Guinevere (Guinevere × King Arthur Pendragon)

It Lives Within (Amber Burke × Abel Flint)

Nightbound (Alexis Clarissa Fontaine × Nik Ryder)

Perfect Match (Kimberly Park × Damian Nazario)

Veil of Secrets (Jessica Lane)

Wolf Bride (Selene Hunter × Bastian)

...

My Romance Club Profile (28th February 2024)

My Yearly Reads: Reading history 2022-2024

Last updated: 1st September 2024

[poemsforpersephone]

I’m on a quest friends! And this quest involves book recs, so I know y’all are gonna be happy haha. I’m still working on my 2019 book rec list, so hopefully this will put you on until then! 

So, this is part of The Hanged Man release promo I’m taking part in this month, and the aim of the game is to recommend books that a Tarot Sequence fan would enjoy, and in order to do that I’m dissecting The Last Sun into tropes and then basing book recs off of those tropes. I’m focusing on LGBT inclusive books too, so every book here has some aspect of that. 

Found Family/Soul bond: This is literally one of my favourite tropes of all time and it shines through (ha, sun puns) in The Last Sun. The connection between Rune and Brand is the best, as well as the one they share with Quinn, Max and Addam. The following two books excel at found family and the idea of people coming together.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I think almost everyone and their aunt has read this by now so i’ll make it snappy; Six of Crows is a great example of a group of people coming together for a reason and becoming an odd little family on the weirdest of terms. There’s also the magic element that I love in this duology, which is another reason I wanted to rec it, I think fans of the magic system in the Last Sun would potentially enjoy this too.

Crown of Feathers by Nicki PauPreto. I ALMOST put this under world building because i love the world that this book introduces. It’s very fantasy heavy and well crafted. “Crown of Feathers is an epic fantasy about love’s incredible power to save—or to destroy.” THERE ARE PHOENIXES PEOPLE. The soul bond here comes into effect between the main characters and their phoenixes who act as companions, hence the rec. 

Kick Ass/Powerful Protagonist: Rune is, above all, able to kick everyone’s butt to the sun and back (no, i’m not going to stop. get used to it!) So if that’s a quality you really wanna explore more of, start with these books. 

The Batwoman comic series is a great series. Lesbian badass main character and beautiful art work. I’m still new to the world of figuring out where to start with reading a series but a good place to begin with Batwoman, I’ve found, is with the new 52 run, or with the rebirth run. 

The Lightning Struck Heart by T.J. Klune. Fans of The Last Sun will definitely love this one. The writing has a similar kind of humour, there’s magic AND the main character is absolutely able to kick everyone’s butt.

Dreadnaught by April Daniels. Main character is transgender and very, very powerful. Danny basically inherits superheros powers when they die in front of her, and she has to figure out how to adapt to her new life as a cape wearing crime fighting master. 

Fantastic World Building: I mean, what more do I need to say? I can’t fit another pun in here though, it i-sun-t possible... >:D 

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon has literally one of the best cases of world building i’ve ever experienced? It isn’t urban fantasy but it IS fantasy and there ARE dragons and really what more could a person need. What? You DO want more? Well fine. There’s also some fantastic characterisation at play, and there’s some great representation! including two women who dig women (romantically... not with a shovel). 

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie. “Cas has fought pirates her entire life. But can she survive living among them?” This could have easily gone under Kick Ass Protag too, and also kind of soul bond/companion bond, but I chose to put it under here because I really liked the way the world building worked? It’s unique and interesting. 

Urban Magicy Vibe: Listen, it’s a title okay. It doesn’t always have to sound epic it just has to explain things. The books under this category are here because they have main characters who aren’t heterosexual and the vibes of the stories give me similar urban magicy vibes to The Last Sun. Also, in most of these cases the sense of humour matches up quite well to the one found in The Last Sun too, so I’ve just put the summary next to them instead of a full on explanation because I’d be saying the same thing over and over again haha. 

The Fever King by Victoria Lee. “In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath.” Need I say more? 

A Ferry of Bones and Gold by Hailey Turner. “Patrick Collins is three years into a career as a special agent for the Supernatural Operations Agency when the gods come calling to collect a soul debt he owes them.” (I really, really like the front cover on this one. I know that’s random, but it’s just so pretty??)

Dim Sum Asylum by Rhys Ford. “Welcome to Dim Sum Asylum: a San Francisco where it’s a ho-hum kind of case when a cop has to chase down an enchanted two-foot-tall shrine god statue with an impressive Fu Manchu mustache that's running around Chinatown, trolling sex magic and chaos in its wake.”

Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall. “My name’s Kate Kane, and when an eight-hundred-year-old vampire prince came to me with a case, I should have told her no. But I’ve always been a sucker for a femme fatale.” (This one is a particular favourite of mine!)

By Fairy Means or Foul by Meghan Maslow. “The last thing half-dragon, half-fairy private investigator Twig Starfig wants to do is retrieve a stolen enchanted horn from a treacherous fae, but there’s no denying the dazzlingly gorgeous unicorn who asks Twig to do just that.”

The Enchanter’s Flame by Michele Notaro. “Strange things are happening all around Brinnswick. Things that remind me of a piece of my past I’d rather forget. Girls are being killed, drained of blood, and left with strange markings on their bodies. When I finally connect the cases together, a specialist is called in—though, what he’s a specialist of is beyond me.”

Anhaga by Lisa Henry. “Aramin Decourcey—Min to his few friends—might be the best thief in Amberwich, and he might have a secret that helps him survive the cutthroat world of aristocratic families and their powerful magic users, but he does have one weakness: his affection for his adopted nephew, Harry.” Full disclosure, I haven’t read this one yet, but I’ve heard good things and it does sound like the kind of book that a Last Sun fan would enjoy (hence me wanting to read it in the first place haha).

So there we have it! I might make another of these if I can think of anything else that a fan of The Last Sun might enjoy (and for those of you who have read some of these books and enjoyed them but NOT read The Last Sun, you should do that! It’s fantastic!)