#xan west

[transbookoftheday]

Books To Read For Genderfluid Visibility Week

Happy Genderfluid Visibility Week! Here are some books with genderfluid main characters you should read and/or preorder:

Book titles:

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Dragonfall by L.R. Lam

Something Spectacular by Alexis Hall

Salt the Water by Candice Iloh

Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore

Valerin the Fair by Rien Gray

Nine of Swords, Reversed by Xan West

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

The Manor House Governess by C.A. Castle (comes out November 7, 2023)

A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford (comes out December 5, 2023)

[renthony]

🏳️‍🌈

(Drop a 🏳️‍🌈 in my inbox and I’ll respond with a queer media recommendation!)

It's not currently the season for it, but I'm gonna recommend a holiday-themed erotica anyway. Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West z”l is a Chanukah-themed f/f BDSM romance between a 51-year-old gray ace femme submissive named Leah, and a newly-divorced 49-year-old stone butch dom named Jordan.

Here's the official plot summary:

Sometimes the perfect Chanukah gift can change everything. Newly divorced stone butch Jordan moves into her friend Leah’s spare room, ready, at 49, to take on a new job and finally explore kink and polyamory. But moving to NYC during the holidays sends grief crashing through her, and Jordan realizes that when she isn’t solely focused on caring for others, her own feelings are unavoidable. Including her feelings for Leah. 51 year old queer femme Leah, an experienced submissive kink educator who owns a sex shop, has recently come to terms with being gray ace and is trying to rework her life and relationships to honor that. Leah has a brainstorm to help them both: she offers Jordan eight kink lessons, one for each night of Chanukah, to help Jordan find her feet as a novice dominant, and to create a structured space where Leah can work on more deeply honoring her own consent, now that she knows she’s gray ace. She’d planned to keep it casual, but instead the experience opens cracks in the armor Leah’s been using to keep people at a distance and keep herself safe. Now she needs to grapple with the trauma that’s been impacting her life for years. Can these two autistic queers find ways to cope with the changes they are making in their lives and support each other, as they build something new they hadn’t thought was possible? This kinky polyamorous Chanukah f/f romance includes a friends to lovers, roommates to lovers, kink lessons, seasoned romance and getting your groove back tropes, and polyamorous, gray ace, pansexual, Jewish, fat, autistic, disabled, arthritis, PTSD and depression representation.

I adore this book. I was actually a sensitivity reader for this one, helping give feedback on the aspec representation. I'm mentioned in the acknowledgments and am so, so happy to have gotten my hands on a paperback copy. I miss Xan dearly. Their Twitter account is forever marked as "on hiatus," and when we lost them, we lost the best damn kink-positive writer I've ever met. May their memory be a blessing, and may their writing find its way to everyone who needs it. <3

Ask For a Rec | Other Media Recommendations | Support Links

[lgbtqreads]

Do you know any books with autism and bdsm/kink or asexuality and bdsm/kink? Sorry if you don’t want this kind of adult content on your blog feel free to ignore me

We talk content for all ages here! And I will also take any opportunity to talk about Xan West, may their memory be a blessing, who wrote exactly this and was such a fantastic advocate for all things. I did cover reveals for two of their books that are perfect fits:

Exclusive Cover + Excerpt Reveal: Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West!

Exclusive Cover + Excerpt Reveal: Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West

They very sadly passed in 2020, but their blog is still around, and can probably lead you to more work of interest: https://xanwest.wordpress.com/about/

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[luvly-dreams]

The negative images of stoneness impact how we are treated in our communities and our intimate relationships, as well as how we see ourselves. Stone folks and our partners are often treated badly for being stone. People sometimes partner with us hoping to melt our stone or “cure” us of being stone. We often internalize the idea that our stoneness is a problem, needs a cure, means something is deeply wrong with us. We sometimes start thinking of our sexual boundaries as illegitimate or hurtful to others. In my classes on stone sexuality, I concentrate on the idea of stone as a sexual orientation where pleasure/desire is centered on another person’s body and experience.

- Xan West

[girljpg]

somebody for real is talking about metamours in the class forum this week. of course they do not explain what this is

[queerliblib]

Any book recs featuring characters with chronic pain and/or hypermobility? Thanks for all your hard work!

absolutely <3

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner (chronic pain)

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl (fibromyalgia)

Nine of Swords, Reversed by Xan West (arthritis pain)

Time and Time Again by Chatham Greenfield (chronic pain)

okay and this one is a bit outside the box (it’s also just in our wishlist, we haven’t been able to purchase yet) but Contingent Figure: Chronic pain and queer embodiment by Michael D. Snediker if you want some theory to go with that fiction. Also Hurting Like Hell, Living With Gusto is a memoir by a queer author Victoria Stopp.

& a few more fiction we don’t have (yet):

Even if We Break by Marieke Nijkamp (chronic pain)

Fight + Flight by Jules Machias (okay this one is middle grade HOWEVER it does have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos rep)

Take All of Us by Natalie Leif (chronic migranes)

Anatomical Venus by Courtney Bates-Hardy (chronic pain)

[read-alert]

Happy Jewish American Heritage Month! Full titles under the cut!

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Just Shy of Ordinary by AJ Sass

Teacher of the Year by MA Wardell

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Ring of Solomon by Adrian Polydoros

Two Tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen

Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

[duckprintspress]

9 Queer Reads We Love for the Holidays!

The holiday season is upon us! No matter what you celebrate at this time (if anything at all), what better way is there to spend those long, cold evenings—or hot, summer afternoons—than curled up with a great book? That’s why we compiled a list of 9 of our favorite queer, holiday-themed books, including works about the Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Hanukkah, and some with just general winter vibes (our reccers didn’t know any Kwanzaa books, sorry!). Grab a cup of tea and enjoy! The contributors to this list are: Nina Waters, polls, Shannon, Rhosyn Goodfellow, E. C., Mikki Madison and an anonymous contributor.

To Drive the Hundred Miles by Alec J. Marsh

Serendipity, WA is filled with Christmas cheer, beautiful mountain views, and trans man Will’s feminist Wiccan family. Home for the holidays, he avoids their clumsy attempts at support by hiding in the local coffee shop and flirting with Bea, a friend from high school.

The beautiful landscapes can’t make up for the the realities of being queer in a small town, and Bea wants out. Will grabs for a prosperity spell, and finds a new way to connect to the magic he’s become estranged from. New romance and optimism get them through the holidays, ready to face their next problems.

-

Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money.

Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Christmas Eve the year before. Now, Ellie must choose between the safety of a fake relationship and the risk of something real.

-

How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru.

Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her month-long paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break.

It could be going better.

But when a dog-walking gig puts her back in May’s path, the fossils she’s meant to be diligently studying are pushed to the side—along with the breakup.

Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing back. Is she ready to try a committed relationship again, or is she okay with this just being a passing winter fling?

-

Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West

Newly divorced stone butch Jordan moves into her friend Leah’s spare room, ready, at 49, to take on a new job and finally explore kink and polyamory. But moving to NYC during the holidays sends grief crashing through her, and Jordan realizes that when she isn’t solely focused on caring for others, her own feelings are unavoidable. Including her feelings for Leah.

-

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch

Nicholas “Coal” Claus used to love Christmas. Until his father, the reigning Santa, turned the holiday into a PR façade. Coal will do anything to escape the spectacle, including getting tangled in a drunken, supremely hot make- out session with a beautiful man behind a seedy bar one night. But the heir to Christmas is soon commanded to do his duty: he will marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess and his brother’s not-so-secret crush. A situation that has disaster written all over it.

Things go from bad to worse when a rival arrives to challenge Coal for the princess’s hand…and Coal comes face-to-face with his mysterious behind-the-bar hottie: Hex, the Prince of Halloween.

-

Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera

Kiskeya Burgos left the tropical beaches of the Dominican Republic with a lot to prove. As a pastry chef on the come up, when she arrives in Scotland, she has one goal in mind: win the Holiday Baking Challenge. Winning is her opportunity to prove to her family, her former boss, and most importantly herself, she can make it in the culinary world. Kiskeya will stop at nothing to win , that is, if she can keep her eyes on the prize and off her infuriating teammate’s perfect lips.

Sully Morales, home cooking hustler, and self-proclaimed baking brujita lands in Scotland on a quest to find her purpose after spending years as her family’s caregiver. But now, with her home life back on track, it’s time for Sully to get reacquainted with her greatest love, baking. Winning the Holiday Baking Challenge is a no brainer if she can convince her grumpy AF baking partner that they make a great team both in and out of the kitchen before an unexpected betrayal ends their chance to attain culinary competition glory.

-

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love — and the inevitable heartbreak — is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass.

Elle Jones, one of the astrologers behind the popular Twitter account Oh My Stars, dreams of finding her soul mate. But she knows it is most assuredly not Darcy: a no-nonsense stick-in-the-mud, who is way too analytical, punctual, and skeptical for someone like Elle. When Darcy’s brother — and Elle’s new business partner — expresses how happy he is that they hit it off, Elle is baffled. Was Darcy on the same date? Because… awkward.

Darcy begs Elle to play along and she reluctantly agrees to pretend they’re dating. But with a few conditions: Darcy must help Elle navigate her own overbearing family during the holidays, and their arrangement expires on New Year’s Eve. The last thing they expect is to develop real feelings during a faux relationship. But maybe opposites can attract when true love is written in the stars?

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Make the Yuletide Gay by Ivy L. James

Junior editor Grace Taylor is doubling as the temporary assistant to senior editor Nicola Valentine…and harboring a secret crush on her. Grace is devastated when a work conference forces her to miss her big family Christmas. However, she gets a gift she doesn’t expect when a snowstorm strands her and Nicola at a small B&B.

Nicola has no idea how to handle sharing a room with her gorgeous, vibrant assistant. As she learns to share her heart as well, her fear threatens the blossoming relationship. Can she let Grace in, or will Nicola’s past sabotage her chance at happiness?

-

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other. And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. 

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

What are YOUR favorite queer holiday books? Maybe you know a Kwanzaa one we could check out?

See something you’d love to buy? Check out our queer book lists on Bookshop.org and pick your new favorite book through the Duck Prints Press affiliate shop!

You can also access this list as a shelf on Goodreads.

Come chat with us about your favorite holiday books in our public Book Lover’s Discord server!

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

🩷💛💙 PAN PRIDE DAY 💙💛🩷

QOTD: What’s a book you’ve enjoyed with a pan main character?

Happy Pansexual Pride Day to all my pan pals!

I still feel pansexuality is severely under represented in fiction (and when it’s there it’s often alluded to through wording rather than specifically differentiated from bisexual), but I’ve definitely come across way more (some intentionally and some by pure happy accident) since making my first ever pan post with only 5 books in it, some of the rep in that first post not even being main characters.

So here are some recs and some still on my tbr for you to add to yours if you’re looking for some pan rep to brighten your shelves!

[instagram]

Fantasy

- Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love by Rita A Rubin

- A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson

- The Sound of Storms by Anya Keeler

- Evergreen by Devin Greenlee

- A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shittleworth

- Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

Romance

- How to Bang a Billionaire by Alexis Hall

- Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan

- Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

- Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

- Get it Right by Skye Kilaen

- Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West

Other

- Who Could Love You, Astor Price? by Amy Jane Lehan

- The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

- We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis

TBR

- We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchison

- We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds

- In the Ravenous Dark by AM Strickland

- Summer at the Scottish Castle by Rachel Bowdler

- Beating Heart Baby by Lio Min

- For Never & Always by Helena Greer

- Once & Future by AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy

- Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey

- A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow

[transbookoftheday]

♾️🌈 Trans Books To Read For Neurodivergent Pride Day 🌈♾️

("The Spirit Bares Its Teeth" isn't out yet, but you can preorder it or request an ARC on NetGalley.)

[lgbtqreads]

I’m interested in if you have any recs for books with kinky characters that aren’t necessarily straightforward erotica — stories where kinky people get to have full lives where kink is just a part of them. I’d love to see characters talking about how kink affects their lives and relationships, how they realized they were kinky, etc. Bonus points if it’s not about BDSM, because I feel like I see that much more commonly represented than other kink communities.

R.O. Kwon's a great place to start - check out her most recent novel, Exhibit, and the anthology she coedited with Garth Greenwell, Kink. Also check out Xan West's Eight Kinky Nights, and Reese Morrison has a whole Romance series on Daddies. And if you're interested in nonfic, check out Tina Horn's Why Are People Into That?

(Also, not queer, but a Romance I always think is great for this is Hold Me Down by Sara Taylor Woods.)

[qbdatabase]

Hiii, do you know of any books with chronically physically disabled main characters? And books with housebound disabled characters?

For the previous ask, I would prefer if the disabled characters were also bi but it's fine if there aren't any books like that. I'm fine with queer in general too

--

I'm not sure what you personally would consider *chronically* disabled (arthritis? amputee? deaf? HIV+?) but the QBDatabase actually has 411 books with disabled Main Characters or Love Interests! To try to narrow it down, I filtered for either chronic pain or chronic illness + bisexual (or pan / queer)

Full Disclosure by Garrett, Camryn: HIV+ black bisexual female

Sick Kids in Love by Moskowitz, Hannah: female MC with arthritis x bisexual male LI with Gaucher disease

Architects of Memory by Osborne, Karen: terminally ill bisexual female MC

Two Rogues Make a Right by Sebasian Cat: chronically ill demisexual male x bisexual male

Sorrowland by Solomon, Rivers: black albino bisexual intersex MC who is partially blind and has chronic pain

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Sebastian, Cat: mga disabled male with chronic pain who uses a cane x gay male

City of Shattered Light by Winn, Claire: chronically ill bisexual female MC

Tripping Arcadia by Mayquist, Kit: chronically ill bisexual male prominent SC

Fight + Flight by Machias, Jules: pansexual female MC with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

The Unbroken by Clark, C. L.: bisexual female MC who uses a cane and has chronic pain in her legs

Cruel Seduction by Robert, Katee: polyamorous bisexual male MC with chronic pain from a knee injury (FFMM bi4bi poly-pairing)

Eight Kinky Nights by West, Xan: FF pairing, pansexual x greysexual, one has arthritis but I don't know which one

The Friendship Study by Barrett, Ruby: bisexual male MC with chronic pain who uses a cane

If there's any other type of disability you're looking for, you can filter by 20 physical disabilities while also filtering for mga (bi, pan, omni, etc) identities!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Books for Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

🦇 It's Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (February 18th-24th)! In an effort to #ReadQueerAllYear, here are a few books featuring aromantic characters you can add to your TBR!

💚 Little Thieves by Margaret Owen 🤍 The Bone Season - Samanta Shannon 🤍 Hullmetal Girls - Emily Skrutskie 🖤 Tarnished Are the Stars - Rosiee Thor 💚 Kaikeyi - Vaishnavi Patel 🤍 The Reckless Kind - Carly Heath 🤍 First Test - Tamora Pierce 🖤 No More Heroes - Loren Rhoads 💚 This Golden Flame - Emily Victoria 🤍 Baker Thief - Claudie Arseneault 🤍 Immoral Code - Lillian Clark 🖤 Loveless - Alice Oseman 💚 The Last 8 - Laura Pohl 🤍 The Midnight Bargain - C.L. Polk 🤍 The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy - Mackenzi Lee 🖤 Common Bonds - Claudie Arseneault, C.T. Callahan, B.R. Sanders, and RoAnna Sylver 💚 The Black Veins - Ashia Monet 🤍 Liar’s Guide to the Night Sky by Brianna Shrum 🤍 The Crow Rider - Kalyn Josephson 🖤 Summer Bird Blue - Akemi Dawn Bowman 💚 Hazel's Theory of Evolution - Lisa Jenn Bigelow 🤍 Summer of Salt - Katrina Leno ��� The Poppy War - R.F. Kuang 🖤 Not Even Bones - Rebecca Schaeffer 💚 Elatsoe - Darcie Little Badger 🤍 Rick - Alex Gino 🤍 Switchback by Danika Stone 🖤 Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe - Carlos Alberto Hernandez 💚 Gender Queer - Maia Kobabe 🤍 Their Troublesome Crush - Xan West 🤍 Every Bird a Prince - Jenn Reese 🖤 The Butterfly Assassin - Finn Longman 💚 Red Skies Falling - Alex London 🤍 When Villains Rise - Rebecca Schaeffer 🤍 The Bruising of Qilwa - Naseem Jamnia 🖤 Funeral Girl - Emma K. Ohland 💚 The Kindred - Alechia Dow 🤍 The Summer of Bitter and Sweet - Jen Ferguson 🤍 Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao 🖤 Tell Me How It Ends by Quinton Li 💚 This Dark Descent - Kalyn Josephson 🤍 Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault 🤍 Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White 🖤 Other People’s Butterflies by Cora Ruskin

Per @aroaessidhe: Little Thieves, The Kindred, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, Gender Queer, (and I think The Bone Season?) have ace or demisexual MCs, not aromantic. also, a lot of the rest are side characters, not main characters.

Thank you, genuinely, so much, for this correction. I'm very sorry for the mistake. I create these guides between work assignments (I work from home, around the clock, trying to make ends meet in this mess of an economy) and didn't do my due diligence in double-checking every book. I think this started as an aro/ace list I was compiling and I tried to separate it into two guides. I apologize for the discrepancy vehemently and will strive to do better in the future. Thank you for catching my error.

[hearthown]

The Middle Names

In this post, I explore why TTH gave the brothers their specific middle names. (Yes, I know it was for the game but there were 4 to choose from and as we know, there's a reason behind everything he does)

[These are my own interpretations!]

Davenport

Davenport was given to Grayson. In the game, the Davenport was a desk. Desks are all about seriousness because we use them to study and work. Everyone knows that seriousness is one of the prominent traits that Gray has and not only that, the Davenport desk has a secret larger compartment. Maybe TTH thought that Gray should have Davenport as his middle name bc he associated it with studiousness, seriousness, and bc he knew that Gray would always have to keep his deepest emotions, thoughts and weaknesses to himself (thus circling back to the secret compartment).

Winchester

Winchester was given to Jameson. In the game, the clue was found on a Winchester rifle. I personally associate rifles (and anything involving gunfire) with risks, adrenaline, spontaneity and thrill (sound familiar?). Jameson is all about taking risks and going out there and being adventurous. Also, TTH was a weapons collector (rifles, guns) and that can be considered as a favourite activity. It was mentioned several times that Jamie was his favourite grandson as he reminded him of Toby. Also, the whole family grew up shooting and something tells me that Jamie was one hell of a shot just like TTH.

Westbrook

Westbrook was Nash's. In the game, his middle name literally means west of a brook. Eventually, brooks flow out into oceans and oceans are vast and open. Nash is a free spirit with his nomadic lifestyle and his "don't care" attitude. I think TTH chose this one for him to represent the fact that you can never hold Nash back if he wants to be free. If Nash wants to go, nothing can stop him, but at the end of the day, he'll always return. (Like how seawater eventually becomes drinking water iygwim)

Blackwood

And finally, Xander's. In the game, his middle name represents The Black Wood which is the forest on the north side of the estate. Forests are filled with trees and where there are trees, there is knowledge. Xander is arguably the most intelligent Hawthorne (what with his ability to just CREATE contraptions, the number of patents he has and just XANDER in general). So as a summary, TTH chose Blackwood for Xander bc he might've heavily related it to knowledge and even growth. As a kid, Xan never really showed interest in the games but maybe TTH knew he would grow to love a good game and to love winning just like his brothers.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

recommendations for trans romance: Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson, The Love Study by Kris Ripper, The Craft of Love by EE Ottoman, Sing Anyway by Anita Kelly, For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes, Their Troublesome Crush by Xan West, Hold Me by Courtney Milan, Roller Girl by Vanessa North.

👍