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Review: Darkling by Brooklyn Ray (2018)
“I don’t know what to do. One day I’m doing a reading with Liam, the next he’s going down on me on the hood of a car and I’m sucking his soul out of his body. What the fuck, Jordan? What do I do?”
– Darkling, Brooklyn Ray
Rating: ★★★½
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Categories: M/M, Trans, Witches, DemonsContent Warnings (highlight to read): Scenes of bloodletting and death (and resurrection) of an MC.
Description: A paranormal romance set in a small town where most of the characters are queer, witches, or (more often) both. In this world, there are clearly-delineated “types” of magic and the witches who practice them; the main character, Ryder, learns that he’s a necromancer, and has to tackle what that means for him and his circle-mate and best friend who is also all caught up in this strange magic with him.
Ryder is a witch with two secrets—one about his blood and the other about his heart. Keeping the secrets hasn’t been a problem, until a tarot reading with his best friend, Liam Montgomery, who happens to be one of his secrets, starts a chain of events that can’t be undone.
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Review: Possibilities (A King’s Council #1) by Nicole Field (2018)
Rating: ★★★½
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Categories: Non-binary (genderfluid), Trans, Royalty & Nobility, Arranged Marriage
Content Warnings: N/A
Buy it at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Less Than Three PressDescription: When Prince Ernest unexpectedly becomes King Ernest, he quickly finds that it’s lonely at the top — until the appointment of his new court jester, Drel, gives him some company. But he quickly finds himself deeply attracted to them. Would an affair with the Court Jester weaken his reign? Or can they find a way to make it strengthen it instead?
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Review: Anchor Points (Hawkeye: Kate Bishop #1) by Kelly Thompson (2017)
Rating: ★★★½
Genre: Graphic Novel, Contemporary
Categories: Questioning, Superheroes
Content Warnings: N/A
Buy it at: Amazon | Barnes & NobleDescription: Kate Bishop (ex-Young Avenger and Hawkeye 2, after training under Clint Barton) has struck out on her own, moving out to Venice, California while trying to find where her rich father has vanished to. She’s started her own detective agency, which would probably be more legit if she, you know, had $245 to spend on a license. But even without one, Venice has a lot to throw at Kate, from mind control cults to rampaging dragons. Kate is on the case!
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Review: The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (Danielle Cain #1) by Margaret Killjoy (2017)
Rating: ★★★★
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Horror, Eldritch, Paranormal
Categories: F/F, Queer, Ghosts/Spirits, Demons
Content Warnings: (Highlight to read) References to a character’s previous suicide (off-screen).
Buy it at: Amazon | Barnes & NobleDescription: Itinerant traveler Danielle Cain arrives at the “ghost town” of Freedom, Iowa, a haven for squatters and anarchists living off the grid. She’s looking for an explanation for why an old friend of hers died after living here; what she finds is a guardian god who was summoned a year ago, and a town split in two between whether or not they should overthrow their oppressors via this summoned god which has begun to turn on them, or whether they should try to get rid of it entirely and live on their own.
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Review: Threshold (Whyborne & Griffin #2) by Jordan L. Hawk (2013)
Rating: ★★★★½
Genre: Paranormal, Horror, Romance
Categories: M/M, mystery, eldritch
Content Warnings: N/A
Buy it at: Amazon | Barnes & NobleDescription: Having survived one eldritch horror already, philologist Percival Endicott Whyborne and his lover and partner, private detective Griffin Flaherty, are two of the few people able to answer his father’s request to investigate paranormal happenings in a mine in Threshold, West Virginia. But what they find in the mine is much older, and much more horrific, than simple tommyknockers or other such mine superstitions.