en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 04:54:30 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 198563688 416 Sophie Kim 0593599667 Mira 2 dnf 4.05 2024
author: Sophie Kim
name: Mira
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> 209047274
Once every generation, the Major Gods hold a Celestial Banquet, inviting chefs from all over the Continent to prepare mouthwatering fantastical feasts. The winner is awarded the fabled Peaches of Immortality, along with a lifetime of fame and fortune. The losers perish per the whims of the fickle gods.

Hot-headed noodle chef Cai enters the competition with dreams of owning her own restaurant and supporting her impoverished Peninsula town. Along with the drunken Minor God Kama, her childhood crush-turned-friend Bo, and dreamy noble Seon, Cai must now compete against the Continent’s finest culinary masters in trials that range from hunting and serving up mystical sea serpents to preparing a magical omurice from the eggs of the legendary Jian bird.

Battling impossible odds and inconvenient feelings for both Bo and Seon, Cai is determined to prepare a feast fit for the gods—even if she loses her life. In this spectacular debut YA fantasy, Iron Chef meets The Hunger Games in a high-stakes cooking competition for the gods.]]> 320 Roselle Lim 1638931267 Mira 0 not-released-yet 4.17 2025
author: Roselle Lim
name: Mira
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: not-released-yet
review:

]]> 123268671
When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven lands, they are both forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. There they encounter the the fae court.

The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world �� torn between their loyalty to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts. . .]]> 400 Saara El-Arifi Mira 2 queer-dnf, dnf 3.69 2024
author: Saara El-Arifi
name: Mira
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: queer-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 123691960
But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons... Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. Inspiring zoo patrons? That's another story. Mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo's most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.

Especially when the hotshot griffin keeper in question just so happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and even more annoyingly insufferable know-it-all with the grace of a goblin and the face of a goddess who's convinced that Aila's beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit.

With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila's success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job...

She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species now rests on her shoulders.

There's just one thing she has to remember: she is also not alone.

Against an epic fantasy backdrop teeming with all your favourite mythical beasts from dragons and unicorns to kelpies and krakens, The Phoenix Keeper combines the visceral effervescence of cozy fantasy kings TJ Klune and Travis Baldree with the soul-restoring romance of queer icons Alice Oseman and Casey McQuiston.]]> 400 S.A. MacLean 1399616587 Mira 2 queer-dnf, dnf 3.99 2024
author: S.A. MacLean
name: Mira
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: queer-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 224003589 A divinely-blessed warrior bound to the last living goddess plots deicide to win her freedom in this propulsive epic fantasy for fans of Godkiller and Gideon the Ninth.

The Devoted Lands was once home to many gods: Salt, Stone, Storm, Green, Shadow. Now, after centuries of devastating wars, only Tempestra-Innara, the Eternal Flame, remains.

Conscripted as a child, Lys, potentiate of the Dawn Cloister, is outwardly a loyal servant to her goddess. If she harbors impossible dreams of deicide, that’s her business. But when a routine heretical execution erupts into a near-fatal assassination attempt on Tempestra-Innara, Lys sees a glimmer of hope for her freedom.

Lys is chosen to hunt down the heretics and find an ancient reliquary that holds the power to kill a god. Annoyingly, she’s not alone. Paired with Nolan, a potentiate from a rival cloister who is as pious as he is determined, Lys must feign devotion if she hopes to keep her own heretical thoughts hidden and god-killing ambitions within reach.

As they pursue a dangerous network of heretics linked to the assassination, Lys uncovers a world brimming with more possibility—and peril—than she ever anticipated.]]> 464 Lyndsay Ely 1668080311 Mira 0 not-released-yet 4.43 2025
author: Lyndsay Ely
name: Mira
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: not-released-yet
review:

]]> 196726166 The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.
��
Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
��
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.]]> 368 Sydney J. Shields 0316568864 Mira 2 queer-dnf, dnf 3.57 2024
author: Sydney J. Shields
name: Mira
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: queer-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 61273131 Two rival apprentice sorcerers must team up to save their teachers and protect their own magic in this lively young adult romantic adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of In Deeper Waters and So This Is Ever After.

Edison Rooker isn’t sure what to expect when he enters the office of Antonia Hex, the powerful sorceress who runs a call center for magical emergencies. He doesn’t have much experience with hexes or curses. Heck, he doesn’t even have magic. But he does have a plan—to regain the access to the magical world he lost when his grandmother passed.

Antonia is…intimidating, but she gives him a job and a new name—Rook—both of which he’s happy to accept. Now all Rook has to do is keep his Spell Binder, an illegal magical detection device, hidden from the Magical Consortium. And contend with Sun, the grumpy and annoyingly cute apprentice to Antonia’s rival colleague, Fable. But dealing with competition isn’t so bad; as Sun seems to pop up more and more, and Rook minds less and less.

But when the Consortium gets wind of Rook’s Spell Binder, they come for Antonia. All alone, Rook runs to the only other magical person he knows: Sun. Except Fable has also been attacked, and now Rook and Sun have no choice but to work together to get their mentors back…or face losing their magic forever.]]> 336 F.T. Lukens 1665916222 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.12 2023
author: F.T. Lukens
name: Mira
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: queer-tbr
review:

]]> 55545191 Carry On meets Arthurian legend in this funny, subversive young adult fantasy about what happens after the chosen one wins the kingdom and has to get married to keep it…and to stay alive.

Arek hadn’t thought much about what would happen after he completed the prophecy that said he was destined to save the Kingdom of Ere from its evil ruler. So now that he’s finally managed to (somewhat clumsily) behead the evil king (turns out magical swords yanked from bogs don’t come pre-sharpened), he and his rag-tag group of quest companions are at a bit of a loss for what to do next.

As a temporary safeguard, Arek’s best friend and mage, Matt, convinces him to assume the throne until the true heir can be rescued from her tower. Except that she’s dead. Now Arek is stuck as king, a role that comes with a magical catch: choose a spouse by your eighteenth birthday, or wither away into nothing.

With his eighteenth birthday only three months away, and only Matt in on the secret, Arek embarks on a desperate bid to find a spouse to save his life—starting with his quest companions. But his attempts at wooing his friends go painfully and hilariously wrong…until he discovers that love might have been in front of him all along.]]> 352 F.T. Lukens Mira 3 So This is Ever After или Пати Убила Темного Властелина и Теперь Не Знает, Что Делать Дальше.

�� в аннотации сравнивают с Carry On, но у Carry On явные родовые травмы фанфика. This Is Ever After пообтекаемее, это ни ретеллинг классической Артурианы, ни аушка на сериал "Мерлин" с измененными именами, а просто пародия на типичную ролевку, где персонажей с первого взгляда можно раскидать про классам - Бард, Палладин, Вор etc.

�� персонажи не выходят из ролей и проще картона, но автор выезжает на вайбах found family с тупыми шутками, так что я хихикала и умилялась на каждой главе. И это хорошо, потому что сюжета нет, лор какой лор...

�� к сожалению, This is Ever After - ромфант со всеми вытекающими. И автор не продал мне главный пейринг. Что, как вы понимаете, очень плохо для ромфанта.

Они друзья детства, но общаются так, будто знакомы месяц. Нет ни арки, ни осознания чувств, все четко и ясно. Почему же они не поцелуются в первой главе? Потому что тупые автор высасывает причины из ничего и со скрипом поворачивает героям головы в нужном для сюжета направлении.

И половину книги романтика меня ужасно бесила.

В обычном ромфанте, правда, меня бесит все, а не только половина. Поэтому 3,5�� я округлю до 4��. И посмотрю, чего у автора еще есть. Ну а вдруг.]]> 3.92 2022
author: F.T. Lukens
name: Mira
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/15
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: first-or-alone, humor, in-eng, magic, medieval, ya, queer-read, romantasy
review:
So This is Ever After или Пати Убила Темного Властелина и Теперь Не Знает, Что Делать Дальше.

�� в аннотации сравнивают с Carry On, но у Carry On явные родовые травмы фанфика. This Is Ever After пообтекаемее, это ни ретеллинг классической Артурианы, ни аушка на сериал "Мерлин" с измененными именами, а просто пародия на типичную ролевку, где персонажей с первого взгляда можно раскидать про классам - Бард, Палладин, Вор etc.

�� персонажи не выходят из ролей и проще картона, но автор выезжает на вайбах found family с тупыми шутками, так что я хихикала и умилялась на каждой главе. И это хорошо, потому что сюжета нет, лор какой лор...

�� к сожалению, This is Ever After - ромфант со всеми вытекающими. И автор не продал мне главный пейринг. Что, как вы понимаете, очень плохо для ромфанта.

Они друзья детства, но общаются так, будто знакомы месяц. Нет ни арки, ни осознания чувств, все четко и ясно. Почему же они не поцелуются в первой главе? Потому что тупые автор высасывает причины из ничего и со скрипом поворачивает героям головы в нужном для сюжета направлении.

И половину книги романтика меня ужасно бесила.

В обычном ромфанте, правда, меня бесит все, а не только половина. Поэтому 3,5�� я округлю до 4��. И посмотрю, чего у автора еще есть. Ну а вдруг.
]]> 222377141 A gorgeous, atmospheric debut fantasy that reimagines the Jewish myth of golem in a tale rooted in history, folklore, and sapphic romance—perfect for fans of Katherine Arden, Ava Reid, Hannah Whitten, and Naomi Novik.

The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark.

As the healer’s daughter, Malka has seen how the curse of the woods has plagued her village, but when the Ozmini Church comes to collect their tithes, they don’t listen to the warnings about a monster lurking in the trees. After a clergy girl wanders too close to the forest and Malka’s mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes a bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings him the monster, he will spare her mother from execution.

When she ventures into the blood-soaked woods, Malka finds a monster, though not the one she expects: an inscrutable, disgraced golem who agrees to implicate herself, but only after Malka helps her free the imprisoned rabbi who created her.

But a deal easily made is not easily kept. And as their bargain begins to unravel a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save—and face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear.]]> 352 Maddie Martinez 1250367751 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.86 2025
author: Maddie Martinez
name: Mira
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: queer-tbr
review:

]]> 211096516 EVERY ACT OF TRANSLATION REQUIRES SACRIFICE

Welcome to Bletchley Park�� with dragons.

London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivian Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war.

With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job��, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort �� if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die.

At first Viv believes that her challenge, of discovering the secrets of a hidden dragon language, is doable. But the more she learns, the more she realises that the bubble she’s grown up in isn’t as safe as she thought, and eventually Viv must What war is she really fighting?

An epic, sweeping fantasy with an incredible Dark Academia setting, a clandestine, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and an unputdownable story, filled with twists and turns, betrayals and secret identities, A Language of Dragons is the unmissable debut of 2025, from an extraordinary new voice.]]> 432 S.F. Williamson 0063353849 Mira 2 dnf
�� президент собирает детей врагов народа, чтобы эти малолетние пиздюки получили доступ к секретной информации и руководили войной. Никогда такого не было и вот опять. Привет, Четвертое Крыло.

�� героиня хитрожопая отличница, автор пишет темную академию про лингвистов и переводчиков. Вот только героиня тупая, как хлебушек, а у автора словарный запас из трех тысяч слов, причем одну половину она сломала, а вторую потеряла.

�� кудос за попытку в нормальную разбивку сцен и диалоги.

�� рецензии пишут, что середина провисает, а финал ээээ очень хочет вторую книгу. Я вторую книгу не хочу, так что пас.]]> 3.83 2025
author: S.F. Williamson
name: Mira
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: dnf
review:
DNF 15%

�� президент собирает детей врагов народа, чтобы эти малолетние пиздюки получили доступ к секретной информации и руководили войной. Никогда такого не было и вот опять. Привет, Четвертое Крыло.

�� героиня хитрожопая отличница, автор пишет темную академию про лингвистов и переводчиков. Вот только героиня тупая, как хлебушек, а у автора словарный запас из трех тысяч слов, причем одну половину она сломала, а вторую потеряла.

�� кудос за попытку в нормальную разбивку сцен и диалоги.

�� рецензии пишут, что середина провисает, а финал ээээ очень хочет вторую книгу. Я вторую книгу не хочу, так что пас.
]]> 218185743
These days nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt, who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival; not her weird colleagues; and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her door frame. After all, it can't be real—can it? After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.]]> 304 Kylie Lee Baker 0778368459 Mira 3 dnf
�� рецензия на спираченный arс, потому что жадность фраера сгубила. Возможно, финальный вариант лучше. Возможно, я сравню 14 главу черновика с финалом, впечатлюсь редактурой и разднфлю. Еще не вечер.

�� язык красивый, с образами у автора тоже отлично, читала бы и читала. Люблю, когда кишки атмосферно распидорасило.

�� героиня Кора Зенг аутентична в своих бесконечных несчастьях. Диплом по истории искусств никому не нужен в ковидном Нью Йорке, сестра умерла, папа свалил обратно в Китай, мама - в религиозный культ, и посторонние люди все время обзывают ее "пожирательницей летучих мышей", потому что расизм и от карантина сьезжает крыша.

Вдобавок у Коры птср, окр, социофобия, депрессия и возможный аутизм, и быть Корой Зенг в самый обычный солнечный денек - это жить в аду.

Решив, что хуже быть уже не может (ха!), а деньги все-таки нужны, Кора решает пустить свое окр в дело и нанимается оттирать кровь с мест преступлений в компании еще двух таких же лохов.

Тут бы мне написать эпическую фразу "и все заверте...", но, к сожалению, не заверте.

�� автор пытается выдать сразу две сюжетные линии. Одна про призраков, вылезших из могилы, а вторая про серийного маньяка, убивающего азиаток. Ни ужастики, ни детективы я особо не люблю, багаж прочитанного у меня практически на нуле, но даже мне видно, что написано на отьебись.

Автор живопишет стекающую по кафелю кровь на два абзаца, а потом такая "ну, из-под кровати высунулась черная рука... и поползла...". Как поползла? Крабиком? Прямо? Бросками? Где детали, автор? Зиро фантазии, просто зиро.

А детективная линия настолько хороша, что Кора раз за разом находит на местах преступлений важные улики и такая "не пойду в полицию, они все расисты. Пойду к журналистам... ой нет, они тоже все расисты. И думать над этим не буду, потому что зачем. Лучше встану на табуретку и зачитаю речь о том, как всем все равно на убийства азиаток, потому что расизм. Ой, на меня упала еще одна улика..."

�� ну, собственно, расизм. Судя по всему, то, ради чего писалась книга, то, что у автора болит.

В тексте много глубоких и депрессивных сцен, где Коре Зенг прилетает за то, что она полукровка. Китайцы не любят ее за то, что она выросла в Америке, американцы - за раскосые глаза. Тем более, что на дворе ковид, и не мне вам обьяснять, какая истерия тогда бушевала. Если бы в моем селе жили какие-нибудь несчастные китайцы, то "добрые христиане" им точно бы хату пару раз подожгли.

К сожалению, я не люблю misery porn. Если мне будет нужен бесконечный и бессмысленный цикл насилия (с расизмом или без), то я просто новости бесплатно посмотрю. В книгах я ищу нарратив, неоднозначные ответы или хотя бы поджигающие жопу вопросы (привет, Annie Bot).

Bat Eater Cora Zeng может предложить только аморфную массу белых, которые угнетают таких же аморфных азиатов потому что потому. А бороться с этим надо обвинительной речью на табуреточке и красивыми плакатами.

Спасибо, я не люблю Дисней.]]> 4.27 2025
author: Kylie Lee Baker
name: Mira
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: dnf
review:
DNF 50%

�� рецензия на спираченный arс, потому что жадность фраера сгубила. Возможно, финальный вариант лучше. Возможно, я сравню 14 главу черновика с финалом, впечатлюсь редактурой и разднфлю. Еще не вечер.

�� язык красивый, с образами у автора тоже отлично, читала бы и читала. Люблю, когда кишки атмосферно распидорасило.

�� героиня Кора Зенг аутентична в своих бесконечных несчастьях. Диплом по истории искусств никому не нужен в ковидном Нью Йорке, сестра умерла, папа свалил обратно в Китай, мама - в религиозный культ, и посторонние люди все время обзывают ее "пожирательницей летучих мышей", потому что расизм и от карантина сьезжает крыша.

Вдобавок у Коры птср, окр, социофобия, депрессия и возможный аутизм, и быть Корой Зенг в самый обычный солнечный денек - это жить в аду.

Решив, что хуже быть уже не может (ха!), а деньги все-таки нужны, Кора решает пустить свое окр в дело и нанимается оттирать кровь с мест преступлений в компании еще двух таких же лохов.

Тут бы мне написать эпическую фразу "и все заверте...", но, к сожалению, не заверте.

�� автор пытается выдать сразу две сюжетные линии. Одна про призраков, вылезших из могилы, а вторая про серийного маньяка, убивающего азиаток. Ни ужастики, ни детективы я особо не люблю, багаж прочитанного у меня практически на нуле, но даже мне видно, что написано на отьебись.

Автор живопишет стекающую по кафелю кровь на два абзаца, а потом такая "ну, из-под кровати высунулась черная рука... и поползла...". Как поползла? Крабиком? Прямо? Бросками? Где детали, автор? Зиро фантазии, просто зиро.

А детективная линия настолько хороша, что Кора раз за разом находит на местах преступлений важные улики и такая "не пойду в полицию, они все расисты. Пойду к журналистам... ой нет, они тоже все расисты. И думать над этим не буду, потому что зачем. Лучше встану на табуретку и зачитаю речь о том, как всем все равно на убийства азиаток, потому что расизм. Ой, на меня упала еще одна улика..."

�� ну, собственно, расизм. Судя по всему, то, ради чего писалась книга, то, что у автора болит.

В тексте много глубоких и депрессивных сцен, где Коре Зенг прилетает за то, что она полукровка. Китайцы не любят ее за то, что она выросла в Америке, американцы - за раскосые глаза. Тем более, что на дворе ковид, и не мне вам обьяснять, какая истерия тогда бушевала. Если бы в моем селе жили какие-нибудь несчастные китайцы, то "добрые христиане" им точно бы хату пару раз подожгли.

К сожалению, я не люблю misery porn. Если мне будет нужен бесконечный и бессмысленный цикл насилия (с расизмом или без), то я просто новости бесплатно посмотрю. В книгах я ищу нарратив, неоднозначные ответы или хотя бы поджигающие жопу вопросы (привет, Annie Bot).

Bat Eater Cora Zeng может предложить только аморфную массу белых, которые угнетают таких же аморфных азиатов потому что потому. А бороться с этим надо обвинительной речью на табуреточке и красивыми плакатами.

Спасибо, я не люблю Дисней.
]]> 116560 333 Diane Duane 0152049118 Mira 3 4.03 2002
author: Diane Duane
name: Mira
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: adhd-autism, contemporary, door, in-eng, magic, middle-grade, technomagic
review:

]]> 222376570 Sparks fly and lovers dance in this gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling from bestselling author Freya Marske—a queer Gothic romance perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher.

Ella is a haunting.

Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father's house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.

Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.

Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.

You think you know Ella's the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.

You're halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.

Rediscover a classic fairy tale in this debut novella from "the queen of romantic fantasy" (Polygon).

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 144 Freya Marske 125034171X Mira 0 queer-tbr 5.00 2025
author: Freya Marske
name: Mira
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: queer-tbr
review:

]]> 116561
But Nita's work is cut short by bad news: Her mother has cancer, and it looks incurable—by medical or magical means. Even wizardry is powerless against cancer.

The situation looks hopeless . . . until Nita enters a Faustian bargain with the Lone Power, the source of all death in the universe, the one evil that Nita has dedicated her life to fighting.]]> 432 Diane Duane 015205491X Mira 3
Возможно, все дело в моем "синдроме утенка" на первые три книги.

Возможно, все дело в том, что с четвертой автор хочет просто поговорить за жизнь, а не делать сюжет.

Перед А Wizards Abroad автор переехала в Ирландию, и в итоге 80% книги сделаны из экскурсии по местам Святого Патрика в стиле "что вижу, то и пою".

В The Wizards Dilemma автор так хочет поговорить про свой опыт переживания смерти близкого человека от рака (несомненно, очень травматичный и жизненный), что ломает лор, оосит персонажей и вспоминает про сюжет в последний момент. Да, финал здесь получше, чем в Wizards Abroad, но.

Я любила эту серию за магию, дружбу и приключения, и уже вторую книгу подряд тигру не докладывают мяса. Так что я пас.

Когда-нибудь я пойду перечитывать первую трилогию и бояться, что мое детское очарование развеется.

Но не сегодня.]]> 4.07 2001
author: Diane Duane
name: Mira
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/17
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: contemporary, crazy-gods, door, in-eng, magic, middle-grade, technomagic
review:
Я поставила The Wizards Dilemma 4��, но на самом деле я разочарована. И серию, скорей всего, дочитывать не буду.

Возможно, все дело в моем "синдроме утенка" на первые три книги.

Возможно, все дело в том, что с четвертой автор хочет просто поговорить за жизнь, а не делать сюжет.

Перед А Wizards Abroad автор переехала в Ирландию, и в итоге 80% книги сделаны из экскурсии по местам Святого Патрика в стиле "что вижу, то и пою".

В The Wizards Dilemma автор так хочет поговорить про свой опыт переживания смерти близкого человека от рака (несомненно, очень травматичный и жизненный), что ломает лор, оосит персонажей и вспоминает про сюжет в последний момент. Да, финал здесь получше, чем в Wizards Abroad, но.

Я любила эту серию за магию, дружбу и приключения, и уже вторую книгу подряд тигру не докладывают мяса. Так что я пас.

Когда-нибудь я пойду перечитывать первую трилогию и бояться, что мое детское очарование развеется.

Но не сегодня.
]]> 39691447

Thirteen-year-old Nita Callahan finally finds a way to get back at the notorious school bullies, Joanne and her gang, when she discovers a library book on the art of wizardry. She hardly dares to believe the book's claim that she too can become a wizard if she's willing to take the Wizard's Oath and undergo the danger of a wizard's initiation, the Ordeal. But to Nita's amazement and delight, her new Wizard's Manual is telling her the truth. While practicing her first spells, Nita meets Kit Rodriguez, another young wizard, and starts working with him to find a solution to her bullying problem...

What they get, though, doesn't look much like a solution. Kit and Nita suddenly find themselves dealing with a "white hole" named Fred, who's arrived on Earth with an urgent message regarding the mystical Book of Night with Moon. The Book is missing...and has to be found quickly if dire things aren't going to start happening to the Earth.

It's not long before the search for the bright Book leads Nita and Kit to a deadly alternate Manhattan, where they encounter man-eating helicopters, vicious packs of killer cabs, and the terrible wolflike perytons, which attack them at every turn. Despite the danger, Kit and Nita are determined to rescue the Book of Night with Moon from the lair of the dragon who presently possesses it. But can they keep the Book out of the clutches of the Lone Power, the ancient darkness cast out long ago from the heart of the worlds?...]]> 183 Diane Duane Mira 5
Young Wizards от Diane Duane. В серии десять книг, рецензия на первые четыре.

Вин:

�� мир и магия. Это городское фентези про детей из Нью Йорка 90х. Первая книга в параллельном мире с разумными автомобилями, вторая в подводном мире китов, а третья на другой планете.

Очень городское фентези, кхе-кхе.

В плане магии это такая дичайшая смесь науки и волшебства, где заклинания похожи на код, у камней есть разум и своя цивилизация, собираясь на Марс лучше брать с собой воздух, а миром правят тринадцать богов.

Автор задрот, но автор задрот с фантазией и поэтичной речью. Моментами описания магии можно зачитываться, а правила заклинаний достаточно логичны, чтобы в них можно было поверить, но недостаточно предсказуемы, чтобы не осталось места для чуда и волшебства.

�� у автора явно незакрытый гештальт смирения перед смертью, и в каждой книге так или иначе звучит эта тема: от неизбежной тепловой смерти вселенной до неожиданного ухода родителей или необходимостью принести себя в жертву ради добра со всеми вытекающими. В школу, например, больше не надо будет ходить.

Я старый солдат, но на второй книге меня каждый раз пробивает на слезу. Да, в этом мире есть прекрасное посмертие, но... Но.

�� в героях здесь мальчик и девочка, и они во-первых, адекватные подростки с прекрасными родителями, а во-вторых, настоящие бро без вот этого всего. Насколько я поняла по рецензиям, славатебехосподи, романтики не будет аж до финальных титров десятой книги.

Фейл:

�� серия писалась в девяностые, и на это надо делать скидку. Ни у кого нет телефонов, а компьютеры размером со шкаф и НЕВЕРОЯТНО КРУТЫ. Буллинг в школе. Расизм. Геев нет (но есть два мужика, которые абсолютно беспалевно живут в одном доме и все делят пополам, и я их шипперила в десять лет, и что вы мне сделаете).

�� в плане бытовой жизни автор теряет романтические метафоры и ударяется в простое перечисление поел-поспал-надел футболку-погулял с друзьями. Местами скучно.

�� четвертая книга. Выкиньте ее нахрен. После нее автор сделала перерыв в пару лет и только потом вернулась с новой (одобряю).

Я сейчас на середине пятой и скрестила пальцы на вин.

Официальный перевод: есть у первых четырех, хороший, "Как стать волшебником" Диана Дуэйн.]]> 4.35 1983
author: Diane Duane
name: Mira
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/20
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: first-or-alone, in-eng, in-audio, contemporary, book, favorite, magic, middle-grade, door, crazy-gods, heist, technomagic, adhd-autism
review:
Соу, продолжая мой старый гайд по любимым сериям для детишек (лежит здесь t.me/miramiobooks ).

Young Wizards от Diane Duane. В серии десять книг, рецензия на первые четыре.

Вин:

�� мир и магия. Это городское фентези про детей из Нью Йорка 90х. Первая книга в параллельном мире с разумными автомобилями, вторая в подводном мире китов, а третья на другой планете.

Очень городское фентези, кхе-кхе.

В плане магии это такая дичайшая смесь науки и волшебства, где заклинания похожи на код, у камней есть разум и своя цивилизация, собираясь на Марс лучше брать с собой воздух, а миром правят тринадцать богов.

Автор задрот, но автор задрот с фантазией и поэтичной речью. Моментами описания магии можно зачитываться, а правила заклинаний достаточно логичны, чтобы в них можно было поверить, но недостаточно предсказуемы, чтобы не осталось места для чуда и волшебства.

�� у автора явно незакрытый гештальт смирения перед смертью, и в каждой книге так или иначе звучит эта тема: от неизбежной тепловой смерти вселенной до неожиданного ухода родителей или необходимостью принести себя в жертву ради добра со всеми вытекающими. В школу, например, больше не надо будет ходить.

Я старый солдат, но на второй книге меня каждый раз пробивает на слезу. Да, в этом мире есть прекрасное посмертие, но... Но.

�� в героях здесь мальчик и девочка, и они во-первых, адекватные подростки с прекрасными родителями, а во-вторых, настоящие бро без вот этого всего. Насколько я поняла по рецензиям, славатебехосподи, романтики не будет аж до финальных титров десятой книги.

Фейл:

�� серия писалась в девяностые, и на это надо делать скидку. Ни у кого нет телефонов, а компьютеры размером со шкаф и НЕВЕРОЯТНО КРУТЫ. Буллинг в школе. Расизм. Геев нет (но есть два мужика, которые абсолютно беспалевно живут в одном доме и все делят пополам, и я их шипперила в десять лет, и что вы мне сделаете).

�� в плане бытовой жизни автор теряет романтические метафоры и ударяется в простое перечисление поел-поспал-надел футболку-погулял с друзьями. Местами скучно.

�� четвертая книга. Выкиньте ее нахрен. После нее автор сделала перерыв в пару лет и только потом вернулась с новой (одобряю).

Я сейчас на середине пятой и скрестила пальцы на вин.

Официальный перевод: есть у первых четырех, хороший, "Как стать волшебником" Диана Дуэйн.
]]> 41733219 Master storyteller Julie Kagawa concludes the enthralling journey into the heart of the fantastical Empire of Iwagoto in the third book of the Shadow of the Fox trilogy. As darkness rises and chaos reigns, a fierce kitsune and her shadowy protector will face down the greatest evil of all. A captivating fantasy for fans of Sabaa Tahir, Sarah J. Maas and Marie Lu.

Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has given up the final piece of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers in order to save everyone she loves from imminent death. Now she and her ragtag band of companions must journey to the wild sea cliffs of Iwagoto in a desperate last-chance effort to stop the Master of Demons from calling upon the Great Kami dragon and making the wish that will plunge the empire into destruction and darkness.

Shadow clan assassin Kage Tatsumi has regained control of his body and agreed to a true deal with the devil—the demon inside him, Hakaimono. They will share his body and work with Yumeko and their companions to stop a madman and separate Hakaimono from Tatsumi and the cursed sword that had trapped the demon for nearly a millennium.

But even with their combined skills and powers, this most unlikely team of heroes knows the forces of evil may be impossible to overcome. And there is another player in the battle for the scroll, a player who has been watching, waiting for the right moment to pull strings that no one even realized existed…until now.]]> 355 Julie Kagawa 1848457707 Mira 5 ОСТАВЬ НАДЕЖДУ ВСЯК СЮДА ВХОДЯЩИЙ
Я ПРЕДУПРЕДИЛА!

[spoilers removed]]]> 4.28 2020
author: Julie Kagawa
name: Mira
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: in-eng, ya, dragon, magic, medieval, road, oriental, crazy-gods, dystopian, sea, shapeshifter
review:
АДОВЫЕ СПОЙЛЕРЫ К ФИНАЛУ ТРЕТЬЕЙ ЧАСТИ
ОСТАВЬ НАДЕЖДУ ВСЯК СЮДА ВХОДЯЩИЙ
Я ПРЕДУПРЕДИЛА!

[spoilers removed]
]]> 215149209 From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realize she's the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined...]]> 368 Axie Oh 1250853087 Mira 0 not-released-yet 4.17 2025
author: Axie Oh
name: Mira
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: not-released-yet
review:

]]> 186872566 Once a young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife, she’ll have to fight to keep herself—and the woman she loves—safe in this stunning queer reimagining of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife.

When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, already drenched to the bone��in the freezing cold and barely able to speak a word of English.

Although Jean is the only midwife in the village and for miles around, she’s at a loss as to who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to grow. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?

Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life?]]> 352 Rose Sutherland 0593594592 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.84 2024
author: Rose Sutherland
name: Mira
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: queer-tbr
review:

]]> 61272184 In this delightful sequel novella to the New York Times bestselling Sorcery of Thorns, Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas must unravel the magical trap keeping them inside Thorn Manor in time for their Midwinter Ball!Elisabeth Scrivener is finally settling into her new life with sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn. Now that their demon companion Silas has returned, so has scrutiny from nosy reporters hungry for gossip about the city’s most powerful sorcerer and the librarian who stole his heart. But something strange is afoot at Thorn the estate’s wards, which are meant to keep their home safe, are acting up and forcibly trapping the Manor'�� occupants inside. Surely it must be a coincidence that this happened just as Nathaniel and Elisabeth started getting closer to one another�� With no access to the outside world, Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas—along with their new maid Mercy—will have to work together to discover the source of the magic behind the malfunctioning wards before they’re due to host the city’s Midwinter Ball. Not an easy task when the house is filled with unexpected secrets, and all Elisabeth can think about is kissing Nathaniel in peace. But when it becomes clear that the house, influenced by the magic of Nathaniel’s ancestors, requires a price for its obedience, Elisabeth and Nathaniel will have to lean on their connection like never before to set things right.]]> 192 Margaret Rogerson 1665935626 Mira 3 4.05 2023
author: Margaret Rogerson
name: Mira
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: in-eng, industrial, magic, romantasy, winter, ya, book
review:

]]> 127280349 Celebrated author Sofia Samatar presents a mystical, revolutionary space adventure for the exhausted dreamer in this brilliant science fiction novella tackling the carceral state and violence embedded in the ivory tower while embodying the legacy of Ursula K. Le Guin.

"Can the University be a place of both training and transformation?"

The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out amongst the stars.

His whole world changes―literally―when he is yanked "upstairs" to meet the woman he will come to call “professor.�� The boy is no longer one of the Chained, she tells him, and he has been gifted an opportunity to be educated at the ship’s university alongside the elite.

The woman has spent her career striving for acceptance and validation from her colleagues in the hopes of reaching a brighter future, only to fall short at every turn.

Together, the boy and the woman will learn from each other to grasp the design of the chains designed to fetter them both, and are the key to breaking free. They will embark on a transformation―and redesign the entire world.]]> 128 Sofia Samatar 1250881803 Mira 0 sci-fi-dnf, dnf 3.76 2024
author: Sofia Samatar
name: Mira
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: sci-fi-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 217388316
Together in one volume for the first time:

Emilie and the Hollow World
Running away from home, and stowing away on the wrong ship, Emilie embarks on a fantastic adventure.

Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use an experimental engine to journey to the interior of the planet, but when the ship becomes damaged on arrival, and evidence points to sabotage they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with a strange new race.

Can Emilie and her new-found friends possibly reach the surface world again?

Emilie and the Sky World
When Emilie arrives in Silk Harbor, Professor Abindon, an old colleague of her friend Lady Marlende, warns them of something strange and potentially deadly in the sky, a disruption in an upper air aether current. On further investigation they realize it’s a ship from another aetheric plane.

How to determine if it’s a friendly explorer, or something far more sinister�� Nothing less than a journey into the dangerous air currents will do.

Join Emilie and she navigates the strange landscapes of the upper air, and the deadly menace that inhabits the Sky World.]]> 416 Martha Wells 1250873142 Mira 0 not-released-yet 3.86 2025
author: Martha Wells
name: Mira
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: not-released-yet
review:

]]> 41733208 One thousand years ago, a wish was made to the Harbinger of Change and a sword of rage and lightning was forged. Kamigoroshi. The Godslayer. It had one task: to seal away the powerful demon Hakaimono.

Now he has broken free.

Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has one task: to take her piece of the ancient and powerful scroll to the Steel Feather temple in order to prevent the summoning of the Harbinger of Change, the great Kami Dragon who will grant one wish to whomever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. But she has a new enemy now. The demon Hakaimono, who for centuries was trapped in a cursed sword, has escaped and possessed the boy she thought would protect her, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan.

Hakaimono has done the unthinkable and joined forces with the Master of Demons in order to break the curse of the sword and set himself free. To overthrow the empire and cover the land in darkness, they need one thing: the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. As the paths of Yumeko and the possessed Tatsumi cross once again, the entire empire will be thrown into chaos.]]> 433 Julie Kagawa 1488038864 Mira 4 4.03 2019
author: Julie Kagawa
name: Mira
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: in-eng, ya, dragon, medieval, magic, road, oriental
review:

]]> 36672988 One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos.

Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn.

Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart.

With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.]]> 454 Julie Kagawa 1488097224 Mira 4 Гусары, малчать!

Shadow of the Fox - жемчужина своего жанра, звезда моего сердца. Вот только жанр не всем зайдет, так что я понимаю людей, поставивших ей одну звезду.

Если вы ищете серьезную историческую Японию, серых персонажей, быстрый и свежий сюжет, чернуху и расписанную романтику с опытной эротикой - идите, идите и не оглядывайтесь.
А если вы ищете наивное благородство, долгую дорогу с баянными классическими квестами, фентези со скачущими по елкам самураями и трагизм отношений "впервые подержались за ручки в третьем томе" - заходите на огонек. Сестры, на нашей улице перевернулся грузовик с печеньками!

Пять звезд, роняю скупую самурайскую слезу, руки сами тянутся к аниме и дорамам.

Похожее: "Рассвет Йоны" да, я знаю, что все японское фентези сравнивают с ней

P.S. Вспомнила еще больше похожее аниме - "Инуяша" же!]]> 4.00 2018
author: Julie Kagawa
name: Mira
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: in-eng, first-or-alone, ya, favorite, dragon, medieval, magic, road, oriental, crazy-gods, door, from-hate-to-love, shapeshifter
review:
Серьезная рецензия на всю трилогию. Без смехуечков. Гусары, малчать!

Shadow of the Fox - жемчужина своего жанра, звезда моего сердца. Вот только жанр не всем зайдет, так что я понимаю людей, поставивших ей одну звезду.

Если вы ищете серьезную историческую Японию, серых персонажей, быстрый и свежий сюжет, чернуху и расписанную романтику с опытной эротикой - идите, идите и не оглядывайтесь.
А если вы ищете наивное благородство, долгую дорогу с баянными классическими квестами, фентези со скачущими по елкам самураями и трагизм отношений "впервые подержались за ручки в третьем томе" - заходите на огонек. Сестры, на нашей улице перевернулся грузовик с печеньками!

Пять звезд, роняю скупую самурайскую слезу, руки сами тянутся к аниме и дорамам.

Похожее: "Рассвет Йоны" да, я знаю, что все японское фентези сравнивают с ней

P.S. Вспомнила еще больше похожее аниме - "Инуяша" же!
]]> 221795229
Mallory is a self-proclaimed expert on Count Bastien Saphir—otherwise known as Monsieur Le Bleu—who brutally killed three of his wives more than a century ago. But she never expected to meet Bastien's great-great grandson and heir to the Saphir estate. Armand is handsome, wealthy, and convinced that the Fontaine Sisters are as talented as they claim. The perfect mark. When he offers Mallory a large sum of money to rid his ancestral home of Le Bleu's ghost, she can’t resist. A paid vacation at Armand’s country manor? It’s practically a dream come true, never mind the ghosts of murdered wives and the monsters that are as common as household pests.

But when murder again comes to the House Saphir, Mallory finds herself at the center of the investigation—and she is almost certain the killer is mortal. If she has any hope of cashing in on the payment she was promised, she’ll have to solve the murder and banish the ghost, all while upholding the illusion of witchcraft.

But that all sounds relatively easy compared to her biggest learning to trust her heart. Especially when the person her heart wants the most might be a murderer himself.]]> Marissa Meyer 1250320968 Mira 0 not-released-yet 0.0 2025
author: Marissa Meyer
name: Mira
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: not-released-yet
review:

]]> 150247395
Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.]]> 410 Robert Jackson Bennett 1984820702 Mira 0 sci-fi-dnf, dnf 4.28 2024
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Mira
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: sci-fi-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 222376752 Holly Black meets Lex Croucher in this contemporary fantasy about a love story to raise the dead.

At Demdike College of Witchcraft, Orlando is an outcast. Not just for being the only shapeshifter in a college of witches. Not just for being a really bad shapeshifter, with no control over their magic or when their body switches between male and female forms. But because their girlfriend Elizabeth died - and it was Lando's fault.

Then charming new boy Bastian arrives with a proposition: he knows a spell that can raise Elizabeth from the dead. It's dangerous but Lando will try anything. But as Lando's attraction to Bastian grows, questions start to arise. Who is Bastian? What does he really want? And who will survive the resurrection spell?

For fans of V.E. Schwab and Rainbow Rowell, Emma Hinds' Witchlore is a spellbinding contemporary fantasy where the passion is as real as the magic.]]> 352 Emma Hinds 1250369495 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.36 2025
author: Emma Hinds
name: Mira
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: queer-tbr
review:

]]> 216825549 2025 on ŷ������ should make an interesting and varied catalogue of books to inspire other readers in 2026.

For those of you who don't like to add titles you haven't actually 'read', you can place 2025 on ŷ������ on an 'exclusive' shelf. Exclusive shelves don't have to be listed under 'to read', 'currently reading' or 'read'. To create one, go to 'edit bookshelves' on your 'My Books' page, create a shelf name such as 'review-of-the year' and tick the 'exclusive' box. Your previous and future 'reviews of the year' can be collected together on this dedicated shelf.

Concept created by Fionnuala Lirsdottir.
Description: Fionnuala Lirsdottir
Cover art: Paul Cézanne, Vase of Flowers and Apples, 1889-1890
Cover choice and graphics by Jayson]]> Various Mira 0 to-read 4.70 2025
author: Various
name: Mira
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 195342176 2024 on ŷ������ should make an interesting and varied catalogue of books to inspire other readers in 2025.

For those of you who don't like to add titles you haven't actually 'read', you can place 2024 on ŷ������ on an 'exclusive' shelf. Exclusive shelves don't have to be listed under 'to read', 'currently reading' or 'read'. To create one, go to 'edit bookshelves' on your 'My Books' page, create a shelf name such as 'review-of-the year' and tick the 'exclusive' box. Your previous and future 'reviews of the year' can be collected together on this dedicated shelf.

Concept created by Fionnuala Lirsdottir.
Description: Fionnuala Lirsdottir
Cover art: Paul Cézanne, The House with the Cracked Walls, 1892-1894
Cover choice and graphics by Jayson]]> Various Mira 3 year-on-goodreads 4.15 2024
author: Various
name: Mira
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: year-on-goodreads
review:

]]> 213075628 In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale.

Benigno “Benny�� Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River.

More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.

Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.]]> 464 Venessa Vida Kelley 1645661539 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.39 2025
author: Venessa Vida Kelley
name: Mira
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: queer-tbr
review:

]]> 199635056
Don't call this mermaid "little"—call her "captain," unless you want to walk the plank.

Mary is in love with the so-called prince of Charles Town, except he doesn't love her back. Which is inconvenient. Since she's a mermaid, being brokenhearted means she'll—poof!—turn into sea-foam.

But instead, Mary finds herself pulled out of the sea and up onto a pirate ship. To survive, she joins them. But Mary isn't willing to just sing the yo-ho-hos. She wants the pirate life, all of it, and she's ready to make a splash . . . by becoming captain. But when Blackbeard dies suddenly, Mary has a chance to become so much more: Pirate King . . . or Queen. She won't let anyone stop her—not Blackbeard's cute son, not her best friend from back under the sea who's having a bit too much fun with his new legs, and certainly not everyone who says she can't be a pirate just because she's a girl.

She may not be the best man for the job, but she'll definitely prove that she's worth her salt.]]> 448 Cynthia Hand 0062930109 Mira 4 3.93 2024
author: Cynthia Hand
name: Mira
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: favorite, first-or-alone, humor, in-eng, medieval, romantasy, sea, shapeshifter, ya, heist, road, magic, retelling
review:

]]> 173476065 When any biological matter can be used to create life, stolen celebrity DNA sells to the highest bidder—or the craziest stalker—in this propulsive thriller.

With a vivid imagining of the future, _Gattaca _meets Black Mirror in Kira Peikoff’s Baby X.

In the near-future United States, where advanced technology can create eggs or sperm from any person’s cells, celebrities face the alarming potential of meeting biological children they never conceived. Famous singer Trace Thorne is tired of being targeted by the Vault, a black market site devoted to stealing DNA. Sick of paying ransom money for his own cell matter, he hires bio-security guard Ember Ryan to ensure his biological safety.

Ember will do anything she can to protect her clients. She knows all the Vault’s tricks—discarded tissues, used straws, lipstick tubes—and has prevented countless DNA thefts. Working for Thorne, her focus becomes split when she begins to fall for him, but she knows she hasn’t let anything slip—love or not, his DNA is safe. But then she and Thorne are confronted by a pregnant woman, Quinn, who claims that Thorne is the father of her baby, and all bets are off.

Brilliantly plotted and terrifyingly prescient, Baby X is an unpredictable and relentless speculative thriller perfect for fans of Blake Crouch and John Marrs.]]> 326 Kira Peikoff 1639106332 Mira 2 sci-fi-dnf, dnf 3.82 2024
author: Kira Peikoff
name: Mira
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: sci-fi-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 196674793
But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child or risk it all for the chance of a real baby . . .

Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate 'tamagotchi' - a virtual baby.]]> 457 John Marrs 1035016974 Mira 2 sci-fi-dnf, dnf 4.18 2024
author: John Marrs
name: Mira
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: sci-fi-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 28143415 'Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go.'

When the Knight Bus crashes through the darkness and screeches to a halt in front of him, it's the start of another far from ordinary year at Hogwarts for Harry Potter. Sirius Black, escaped mass-murderer and follower of Lord Voldemort, is on the run - and they say he is coming after Harry. In his first ever Divination class, Professor Trelawney sees an omen of death in Harry's tea leaves... But perhaps most terrifying of all are the Dementors patrolling the school grounds, with their soul-sucking kiss...]]> 475 J.K. Rowling Mira 5 4.77 1999
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Mira
average rating: 4.77
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: contemporary, magic, middle-grade, shapeshifter, time-travel, ya, in-polska
review:

]]> 28141183 "'There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year.'"

Harry Potter's summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house-elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursleys by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors - and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone ... Dobby's sinister predictions seem to be coming true.]]> 360 J.K. Rowling Mira 5 4.69 1998
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Mira
average rating: 4.69
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: contemporary, door, in-translate, magic, middle-grade, technomagic, in-polska
review:

]]> 36679274
Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher—the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.

Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.

After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld. He offers them each what they want most; but as they descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces.

As long-kept secrets begin to unravel, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? Can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?]]> 624 Cassandra Clare 0525619992 Mira 3 dnf 3.79 2023
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Mira
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> 156023123
She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?]]> 231 Sierra Greer 0063312697 Mira 5 Даже роботы выбирают медведя (с)

Среди сюжетов есть такой поджанр.

Герой в тяжелой депрессии, он ненавидит весь мир и себя, он хронически одинок. Но вместо того, чтобы пойти к грамотному психологу (у которого есть навыки лечения болячки и силы противостоять периодической неадекватности), герой...

...подбирает собачку. Или ребенка. Или кошкорабыню (если мы про аниме). Главное, чтобы это было беззащитное и глупое существо, которое в ответ на заботу героя точно его полюбит. Потому что умные и сильные (или хотя бы равные) не полюбят никогда.

А любовь ведь творит чудеса, дорогие читатели. Любовь прощает все и заживляет любые раны.

Поэтому как только кошкособачка осваивается и влюбляется в героя, она немедленно забывает свое голодное одинокое детство под мостом и тут же отращивает навыки матерого психолога с пятидесятилетним стажем.

Она шалит лишь чтобы повеселить героя, а не расстроить. Она наивна и слаба там, где он чувствует от нее угрозу, мудра и сильна там, где надо решить его проблемы. Она спорит только ради его же пользы. Ее желания волшебным образом совпадают с его, она всю жизнь положит ради него, ведь именно это и есть любовь, неправда ли?

И герой расцветает. У него расправляется спина, он получает работу мечты, друзей и кубок по квиддичу. Ведь ему была нужна только капелька любви и уважения.

Да, сначала он стыдился своей подобрашки и даже иногда срывался от стресса, но со временем полюбил ее в ответ и даже признал равной себе. И теперь ее жизнь намного лучше, чем под мостом, ведь она почти как человек.

Хеппи енд.

Эту историю рассказывают в семейных комедиях и романтических сериалах. Она полна любви, милоты и уюта. Она почти всегда рассказана с точки зрения героя.

Annie Bot рассказана с точки зрения той самой подобрашки.

И это, как вы уже догадались, история про абьюз.]]> 3.81 2024
author: Sierra Greer
name: Mira
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: favorite, adhd-autism, ai, body-horror, contemporary, first-or-alone, in-eng, sci-fi-read, ya
review:
Даже роботы выбирают медведя (с)

Среди сюжетов есть такой поджанр.

Герой в тяжелой депрессии, он ненавидит весь мир и себя, он хронически одинок. Но вместо того, чтобы пойти к грамотному психологу (у которого есть навыки лечения болячки и силы противостоять периодической неадекватности), герой...

...подбирает собачку. Или ребенка. Или кошкорабыню (если мы про аниме). Главное, чтобы это было беззащитное и глупое существо, которое в ответ на заботу героя точно его полюбит. Потому что умные и сильные (или хотя бы равные) не полюбят никогда.

А любовь ведь творит чудеса, дорогие читатели. Любовь прощает все и заживляет любые раны.

Поэтому как только кошкособачка осваивается и влюбляется в героя, она немедленно забывает свое голодное одинокое детство под мостом и тут же отращивает навыки матерого психолога с пятидесятилетним стажем.

Она шалит лишь чтобы повеселить героя, а не расстроить. Она наивна и слаба там, где он чувствует от нее угрозу, мудра и сильна там, где надо решить его проблемы. Она спорит только ради его же пользы. Ее желания волшебным образом совпадают с его, она всю жизнь положит ради него, ведь именно это и есть любовь, неправда ли?

И герой расцветает. У него расправляется спина, он получает работу мечты, друзей и кубок по квиддичу. Ведь ему была нужна только капелька любви и уважения.

Да, сначала он стыдился своей подобрашки и даже иногда срывался от стресса, но со временем полюбил ее в ответ и даже признал равной себе. И теперь ее жизнь намного лучше, чем под мостом, ведь она почти как человек.

Хеппи енд.

Эту историю рассказывают в семейных комедиях и романтических сериалах. Она полна любви, милоты и уюта. Она почти всегда рассказана с точки зрения героя.

Annie Bot рассказана с точки зрения той самой подобрашки.

И это, как вы уже догадались, история про абьюз.
]]> 123136728 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Mira 0 sci-fi-dnf, dnf 3.56 2023
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Mira
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: sci-fi-dnf, dnf
review:

]]> 127282939 From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth.

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> 327 Marie-Helene Bertino 0374109281 Mira 0 dnf 4.08 2024
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Mira
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> 60784309 The Mimicking of Known Successes presents a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance, set on Jupiter, by Malka Older, author of the critically-acclaimed Centenal Cycle.

On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university—and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.

Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake—and, perhaps, their futures, together.]]> 169 Malka Ann Older 1250860504 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.57 2023
author: Malka Ann Older
name: Mira
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 62039307
Avery Byrne has secrets. She's queer; she's in love with her best friend, Cass; and she's suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.

Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.

If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is a celebration of queer love, a gripping speculative narrative, and an urgent, conversation-starting book about depression, mental health, and shame.]]> 416 Jen St. Jude 1547611367 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.17 2023
author: Jen St. Jude
name: Mira
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 195177497 This cozy debut science fiction novel tells a story of misfits, rebels, found family—and a mystery that spans the stars.

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. All year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury—and an absolute magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as: Why are there love poems in the lobby inbox? How many Imperial spies are currently on board? What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver's conference? And perhaps most pertinently��who is driving the ship?

Each guest has a secret, every member of staff a universe unto themselves. At the center of these interweaving lives and interlocking mysteries stands Carl, one time stowaway, longtime manager, devoted caretaker to the hotel. It's the love of his life and the only place he's ever called home. But as forces beyond Carl's comprehension converge on the Abeona, he has to face one final question: when is it time to let go?]]> 324 Grace Curtis 075641931X Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.65 2024
author: Grace Curtis
name: Mira
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 157020041 In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family.

Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.

Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians.

As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.]]> 467 Bethany Baptiste 1728251958 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.70 2024
author: Bethany Baptiste
name: Mira
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 61928018
Dekala’s Mark is strong, a Mark fit for the future queen of Somanchi, but it’s also unstable. She knows the only solution is to be bonded, but she also knows that this would mean relinquishing control over her throne and kingdom. So when she is witness to Ruti’s power, Dekala offers the witch a deal: She can be prosecuted for her crimes…or she can help Dekala ascend to the throne, unbonded.

Dekala is cold and brutal and cares only about getting her way. She is also determined, intelligent, and compassionate. Ruti is torn between wanting her to fail or to emerge victorious. But as the gods are defied, new alliances are forged, and unexpected feelings are unearthed, Ruti realizes the fate of the kingdom––and the survival of the Markless–�� lies in her unmarked hands.]]> 384 C.G. Malburi 164614399X Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.90 2024
author: C.G. Malburi
name: Mira
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 195886563
Wooing the standoffish Meredith isn’t going to be easy, however. With Aiden’s coaching, Cara slowly manages to win Meredith over―but finds herself accidentally falling for her in the process. Worse as Meredith gets happier and Aiden’s mission nears completion, his ghost begins to fade. Can Cara continue to date Meredith under false pretenses, especially if it means Aiden will vanish forever? Or should she tell Meredith the truth, and risk both of them hating her? And either way, will she lose her only shot at proving ghosts are real?]]> 336 James L. Sutter 1250869765 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.48 2024
author: James L. Sutter
name: Mira
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 59650738
But when Siyon accidentally commits a public act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight. Except the limelight is a bad place to be when the planes themselves start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send the rest of the city into the sea.

Now Siyon, a dockside brat who clawed his way up and proved himself on rooftops with saber in hand, might be Bezim’s only hope. Because if they don’t fix the cascading failures of magic in their plane, the Powers and their armies in the other three will do it for them.]]> 400 Davinia Evans Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.82 2022
author: Davinia Evans
name: Mira
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 127280776
There are only three real powers in the universe: the corporate power of the Trust versus the Union's labor's leverage. And between them, the Guild tries to keep everyone's hands above the table. It ain't easy.

Branded a Guild deserter, Jal "accidentally" lands a ride on a Guild ship. Helmed by an AI, with a ship's engineer/medic who doesn't see much of a difference between the two jobs, and a "don't make me shoot you" XO, the Guild crew of the Ambit is a little . . . different.

They're also in over their heads. Responding to a distress call from an abandoned planet, they find a mass grave, and a live programmer who knows how it happened. The Trust has plans. This isn't the first dead planet, and it's not going to be the last.

Unless the crew of the Ambit can stop it.]]> 407 L.M. Sagas 1250871255 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.83 2024
author: L.M. Sagas
name: Mira
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 122756967 The Pomegranate Gate is the lyrical first installment of the Mirror Realm Cycle, a vibrant and heartfelt Inquisition-era Jewish epic fantasy in the vein of Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, and Tasha Suri.

Toba Peres can speak, but not shout; she can walk, but not run. She can write with both hands, in different languages, but has not had a formal education. The only treasure Toba has dared to keep is a precious star sapphire, set in a necklace she must never take off.

Naftaly Cresques sees things that aren’t real, and dreams things that are. He is a well-trained tailor, but a middling one, and he is risking his life to smuggle a strange family heirloom: a centuries-old book he must never read, and must never lose.

The Queen of the Sefarad has ordered all Jews to convert, or be exiled with nothing. Toba, Naftaly, and thousands of others are forced to flee their homes. Toba, accidentally separated from their caravan of refugees, stumbles through a strange pomegranate grove into the magical realm of the Maziks: mythical, terrible beings with immense power. There, she discovers latent abilities that put her in the crosshairs of bloodthirsty immortals, but may be key to her survival. On the other side of the gate, Naftaly, intent on rescuing Toba, finds his new companions harbor dangerous secrets of their own.

Now, hunted by an Inquisition in both worlds, Toba and Naftaly must unravel ancient histories and ancient magics in order to understand the link between the two realms. More than their own lives might be at stake.

Brimming with folkloric wonder, The Pomegranate Gate weaves history, myth, and magic into an exquisite tale of fate, legacy, and friendship that will leave readers spellbound.]]> 545 Ariel Kaplan 1645660575 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.93 2023
author: Ariel Kaplan
name: Mira
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 199054495 The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, a queer sci-fi novel about an Earth refugee and a xenophobic Mars politician who fake marry to save their reputations—and their planet.

In the wake of environmental catastrophe, January, once a principal in London’s Royal Ballet, has become a refugee on Tharsis, the terraformed colony on Mars. In Tharsis, January’s life is dictated by his status as an Earthstronger—a person whose body is not adjusted to Mars’s lower gravity and so poses a danger to those born on, or naturalized to, Mars. January’s job choices, housing, and even transportation options are dictated by this second-class status, and now a xenophobic politician named Aubrey Gale is running on a platform that would make it all worse: Gale wants all Earthstrongers to be surgically naturalized, a process that can be anything from disabling to deadly.

When Gale chooses January for an on-the-spot press junket interview that goes horribly awry, January’s life is thrown into chaos, but Gale’s political fortunes are damaged, too. Gale proposes a solution to both their problems: a five-year made-for-the-press marriage that would secure January’s financial future without naturalization and ensure Gale’s political future. But when January accepts the offer, he discovers that Gale is not at all like they appear in the press. And worse, soon, January finds himself entangled in political and personal events well beyond his imagining. Gale has an enemy, someone willing to destroy all of Tharsis to make them pay—and January may be the only person standing in the way.]]> 469 Natasha Pulley 1399618539 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.12 2024
author: Natasha Pulley
name: Mira
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 178737876
On an Island where boys fly and fight pirates, but girls can only be mothers, Jordan's shaved head and false swagger are the only things keeping her adopted crew of Lost Boys from forcing her into a role she has never wanted. When she gets her first period, she's exposed and thrown back Outside—into a world where grown-ups die slowly in offices, flight is a fantasy, and withdrawal from the Island’s magical Dust slowly strips its afflicted of their dignity.

To Jordan, it’s a fate worse than death.

Nine years later, when the drug she has been using to medicate her withdrawal begins to show its fatal final symptoms, Jordan persuades her best friend and fellow ex-Lost Boy to return with her to the Island. With the help of a temperamental pilot and her long-estranged sister, she sets in motion a plan to oust Peter from his throne and seize control of the Island’s Dust supply.

But Peter isn't the only malevolent force moving against her. As Jordan confronts the nature of Dust, first love, and the violent legacy carved into the land itself, she realises the Island may have plans of its own...]]> 400 P.H. Low 1915998107 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.79 2024
author: P.H. Low
name: Mira
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 199531993
We’re two songs joined. And there’s a word for that. A harmony.

Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself—her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together.

Elsa’s world begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day and she doesn’t know where to turn until a girl appears before her. But the girl isn’t really there—her songlight has been drawn to Elsa’s frantic grief.

Elsa lives in a remote seaside village; Nightingale, her new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away with her father, a government official responsible for rooting out Unhumans. The two never expected to connect via songlight. But when they do, and when they realize the extent of their power, they’ll be thrust in the middle of a war that threatens their very existence.

From an award-winning screenwriter making her novel debut comes this powerful, page-turning trilogy perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir and Adrienne Young.]]> 384 Moira Buffini 0063358212 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.14 2024
author: Moira Buffini
name: Mira
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 199270889
Cassie is a seemingly typical high school student living in Florida, but every night, she visits a vivid dreamworld where she witnesses the life of Sophia, a seventeen-year-old living in 1920s Riga. Despite her attempts to make sense of her dreams, Cassie is unable to uncover the truth, and her dreams begin to invade her waking life.

When Sophia meets Daniil, her life takes a drastic turn and Cassie finds herself in the midst of a battle between reality and the dreamworld.

Will she be able to leave the dreams where they belong or will they haunt her forever?]]> 280 Laura May 1956183361 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.94
author: Laura May
name: Mira
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 123193444 Arden Brax Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.20
author: Arden Brax
name: Mira
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 205668510 In the gripping first novel in the Daughters of the Empty Throne trilogy, author Margaret Killjoy spins a tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention in an own-voices story of trans witchcraft.

Lorel has always dreamed of becoming a witch: learning magic, fighting monsters, and exploring the world beyond the small town where she and her mother run the stables. Even though a strange plague is killing the trees in the Kingdom of Cekon and witches are being blamed for it, Lorel wants nothing more than to join them. There’s only one problem: all witches are women, and she was born a boy.

When the coven comes to claim her best friend, Lorel disguises herself in a dress and joins in her friend’s place, leaving home and her old self behind. She soon discovers the dark powers threatening the kingdom: a magical blight scars the land, and the power-mad Duchess Helte is crushing everything between her and the crown. In spite of these dangers, Lorel makes friends and begins learning magic from the powerful witches in her coven. However, she fears that her new friends and mentors will find out her secret and kick her out of the coven, or worse.]]> 343 Margaret Killjoy 1558613315 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.03 2024
author: Margaret Killjoy
name: Mira
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 209956098
Blessed by a century-old enchantment, the local red wolves have escaped extinction by blending into the human world. But with the old witches�� blessing wearing thin, the wolves face an uncertain future.

An answer arrives in the form of an exiled blood witch whose magic is steeped in reckless grief. Kalta rides into town in her dead brother’s truck, prophecy following on her heels. Despite the danger Yasmine can smell swirling around the witch, a fated bond tangles their futures—and those of all the wolves.

After an accident threatens the wolves�� secret, Yasmine has no choice but to join Kalta on the road, carving a path through the South’s backroads and hoping the magic brewing between them is enough to overcome their bloody pasts.]]> 163 Tamara Jerée Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.80 2024
author: Tamara Jerée
name: Mira
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 111673263 Two girls reluctantly bound by fate must weather a dangerous courtship as a prophesied war grows ever closer in Jasmine Skye's high-stakes, queernormative dark fantasy debut, Daughter of the Bone Forest.

Rosy is a bone familiar, gifted with the power to shift into animals marked with exposed bone. She spends most of her days in the magical Bone Forest, caring for her feral grandmother and hiding her powers to avoid conscription by the Witch King’s army. Until the day that Princess Shaw, a witch known as Death’s Heir, visits the Forest. When Rosy saves Shaw’s life, the princess offers her the chance to attend the prestigious school, Witch Hall, as payment. Though Rosy is wary of Shaw’s intentions, she cannot pass up the opportunity to find the cure for her grandmother’s affliction.

But at Witch Hall, Rosy finds herself embroiled in political games she doesn't understand. Shaw wants Rosy for her entourage, a partner to help lead the coming war. All Rosy wants is to stay out of trouble until she can graduate and save her grandmother, but she can't deny her attraction to Shaw or the comfort Shaw’s magic gives her. Will Rosy give in to her destiny, or will the Bone Forest call her home once and for all?]]> 432 Jasmine Skye 1250872456 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.29 2024
author: Jasmine Skye
name: Mira
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 195790798 A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before.

When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.

Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.

The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for the world is about to change.]]> 373 Jared Pechaček 1250884837 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.89 2024
author: Jared Pechaček
name: Mira
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 180350511 Interstellar fugitive Idrian Delaciel will die by inches, and Remy Canta will laugh as he goes.

Five years ago, Idrian ordered a withering—a death curse—cast on Remy's brother that cost him his life, and Remy hasn't been the same since. Now Remy finally has the materials he needs to return the favour, but he has one major problem. When he casts the withering, it rebounds onto him.

The implications are unthinkable: Remy is fatebound to his brother's killer.

Even worse, the only way to slow the curse for long enough to find a cure is to join forces with Idrian and his criminal crew. But when he gets there, Remy discovers there are more than just their lives at stake.

Idrian is the sole provider of life-saving supplies to tens of thousands of innocents, and when he dies, they'll die with him. Caught up in perilous heists and a race against time, Remy finds himself truly living for the first time since his brother died.

Too bad for Remy—the only way to stop a withering is to kill the witherer.

Winter's Orbit meets The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet in this story of loss, power, and privilege with a queerplatonic hate to love story at its heart. ]]> 371 Jules Arbeaux 1399724967 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.15 2024
author: Jules Arbeaux
name: Mira
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 123284957
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.

Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.]]> 448 Laura R. Samotin 1039007562 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.80 2024
author: Laura R. Samotin
name: Mira
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 150277121
Only an elite few are legally permitted to study the science of magic―so when Ash is rejected by the Lancaster Mage’s College, he takes a job as the school’s groundskeeper instead, forced to learn alchemy in secret.

When he’s discovered by the condescending and brilliant apprentice Ramsay Thorne, Ash is sure he's about to be arrested―but instead of calling the reds, Ramsay surprises Ash by making him an offer: Ramsay will keep Ash's secret if he helps her find the legendary Book of Source, a sacred text that gives its reader extraordinary power.

As Ash and Ramsay work together and their feelings for each other grow, Ash discovers their mission is more dangerous than he imagined, pitting them against influential and powerful alchemists―Ash’s estranged father included. Ash’s journey takes him through the cities and wilds across New Anglia, forcing him to discover his own definition of true power and how far he and other alchemists will go to seize it.

Featuring trans, queer, and polyamorous characters of color, Infinity Alchemist is the hugely anticipated young adult fantasy debut from the extraordinary author of Felix Ever After, King and the Dragonflies, Queen of the Conquered and more.]]> 400 Kacen Callender 125089025X Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.47 2024
author: Kacen Callender
name: Mira
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 127823698 The Witch’s Heart meets The Foxglove King in this debut novel about a woman who can bring people back from the dead, and the princess �� and only heir to the throne �� that she must protect, no matter the cost.

The first time Hellevir visited Death, she was ten years old��

Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects.

Such a gift can rarely remain a secret. When Princess Sullivain, sole heir to the kingdom’s throne, is assassinated, the Queen summons Hellevir to demand she bring her granddaughter back to life. But once is not enough; the killers might strike again. The Princess�� death would cause a civil war, so the Queen commands that Hellevir remain by her side.

But Sullivain is no easy woman to be bound to, even as Hellevir begins to fall in love with her. With the threat of war looming, Hellevir must trade more and more of herself to keep the princess alive.

But Death will always take what he is owed.]]> 384 Marianne Gordon 006324876X Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.79 2023
author: Marianne Gordon
name: Mira
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 122731864 A snake spirit transforms into a boy and must hide his true identity after falling for a headstrong prince in this lush, romantic retelling of the traditional Chinese folktale.

When Prince Xian was a boy, a white snake bit his mother and condemned her to a slow, painful death. The only known cure is an elusive spirit pearl—or an antidote created from the rare white snake itself. Desperate and determined, Xian travels to the city of Changle, where an oracle predicted he would find and capture a white snake.

Seven years ago, Zhen, a white snake in the West Lake, consumed a coveted spirit pearl, which gave him special powers—including the ability to change into human form.

In Changle, Xian encounters an enigmatic but beautiful stable boy named Zhen. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but Zhen soon realizes that he is the white snake Xian is hunting. As their feelings grow deeper, will the truth about Zhen’s identity tear them apart?


Coming October 15, 2024 from Quill Tree/HarperCollins (US) and Macmillan (UK)]]> 352 Sher Lee 0063327198 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.94 2024
author: Sher Lee
name: Mira
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 57385927 A century-spanning space fantasy novel that will take you on a whirlwind adventure, from a Regency Era love affair between a time-traveller and the prince waiting for him in the past, to a rescue mission in the 60th century, where a girl desperately races against time as she searches for the sister the emperor stole.

6066: In Emperor Thracin’s brave new galaxy, humans are not citizens. Instead, they are indentured labourers, working to repay the debt they unwittingly incurred when they settled on Gahraan - a desert planet already owned by the emperor himself. Asha Akindele knows she’s just another voiceless cog working the assembly lines that fuel his vast imperial war machine. Her only rebellion: studying stolen aeronautics manuals in the dead of night. But then a cloaked stranger arrives to deliver an impossible message, and her life changes in an instant.

1812: Obi Amadi is done with time-travelling. Never mind the fact he doesn’t know how to cure himself of the temporal sickness he caught whilst anchoring his soul to Regency London, the one that unmakes him further with every jump. Or if the prince he loves will ever love him back. Or why his father disappeared. He is done. Until he hears about the ghost of a girl in the British Museum. A girl from another time.

When Obi’s path tangles with Asha’s and a prophecy awakens in the cold darkness of space, they must voyage through the stars, racing against time, tyranny, and the legacy of three heroes from an ancient religion who may be awakening, reincarnated in ways beyond comprehension.]]> 432 Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson 1473234220 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.64 2024
author: Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson
name: Mira
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 205762592 For fans of�� The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody�� lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change �� and simmering class warfare.

Ichorite is progress. More durable and malleable than steel, ichorite is the lifeblood of a dawning industrial revolution. Yann I. Chauncey owns the sole means of manufacturing this valuable metal, but his workers, who risk their health and safety daily, are on strike. They demand Chauncey research the hallucinatory illness befalling them, a condition they call “being lustertouched.�� Marney Honeycutt, a lustertouched child worker, stands proud at the picket line with her best friend and family. That’s when Chauncey sends in the guns. Only Marney survives the massacre. She vows bloody vengeance. A decade later, Marney is the nation’s most notorious highwayman, and Chauncey’s daughter seeks an opportune marriage. Marney’s rage and the ghosts of her past will drive her to masquerade as an aristocrat, outmaneuver powerful suitors, and win the heart of his daughter, so Marney can finally corner Chauncey and satisfy her need for revenge. But war ferments in the north, and deeper grudges are surfacing. . .

H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal from Heaven is a punk-rock murder ballad tackling labor issues and radical empowerment against the relentless grind of capitalism.]]> 448 August Clarke 1645660982 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.91 2024
author: August Clarke
name: Mira
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 201090979 In this darkly magical, romantic YA fantasy debut, a closeted teenage psychic in small-town Washington foresees the death of his sworn enemy, and is forced to work with him to save his life. Sparks fly, but the dead are restless, and some ghosts don't want to stay buried...

Perfect for fans of The Raven Cycle, Cemetery Boys and Sixteen Souls.

Sixteen-year-old Miles Warren hails from a long line of psychics. Resigned to a life in the (not especially profitable) family business, Miles is perfectly happy, thank you very much―except for the part where he's constantly exhausted from long nights digging up graves, hiding his sexuality from his family, and unable to fulfil his dream of going to art school one day. Perfectly happy.

But Miles' comfortable routine is interrupted when has a premonition of a violent supernatural murder. He soon discovers that the victim is none other than Gabriel Hawthorne, whose family have a mysterious, decades-long feud with Miles' own. Gabriel is everything Miles expects from a Hawthorne―rude, snobbish, and irritatingly good-looking―but Miles isn't just going to stand by and let someone murder him. The two form an uneasy alliance, trying to solve Gabriel's murder and prevent it from taking place.

The odds are against them; death premonitions are notoriously hard to alter. As they uncover secrets about their families' feud and dark magic swirls around the pair, Miles is horrified to realize that he doesn't hate Gabriel as much as he's supposed to. He might even like him.

Too bad Gabriel is almost certainly going to die.]]> 384 Camilla Raines 1803369981 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.38 2024
author: Camilla Raines
name: Mira
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 200174131 The first book in a decadent fantasy duology set in Jazz Age Harlem, where at night the dance halls come to life—and death waits in the dark.

It's 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family's thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise's mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.

Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she'll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.

But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can't refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city's underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.]]> 457 Hayley Dennings 1728297869 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.43 2024
author: Hayley Dennings
name: Mira
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 209486684 He accidentally cursed himself...

When the consequences get him exiled to the land he helped terrorize, can this evil wizard find redemption... and love?

Orpheus can't believe it's come to this. After helping his childhood friend conquer the realm by raising an army of hell-beasts, the befuddled dark sorcerer finds himself banished when the price of his magic endangers the palace. Isolated and betrayed, the feared spellcaster isn't exactly thrilled when his irritating and handsome rival keeps stepping between him and certain doom.

Ill at ease in the barren wasteland his powers created, Orpheus slowly warms to the charismatic ex-general's relentless overtures. But as his feelings grow more intense, the former villain struggles with an inconvenient calling towards heroism.

Will dabbling in good deeds get him killed or open the doors to happily ever after?

The Crack at the Heart of Everything is the charmingly swoon-worthy first book in an epic LGBTQ+ fantasy series. If you like character-driven stories, snarky humor, and well-earned redemption arcs, then you'll adore Fiona Fenn's unexpected hero's journey.]]> 336 Fiona Fenn 1946501719 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.88 2024
author: Fiona Fenn
name: Mira
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 133939055 A deliciously dreamy urban fairytale about a dryad who risks immortality for love, from debut author Devin Greenlee

All seventeen-year-old Quill wants is a break from the family business. Flowers, plants, the generations-old garden. What he wouldn’t give for a taste of the outside world. Normalcy. But his mom won’t let him out of the house, telling him he’s just not ready��

All because he’s a dryad. Well, not just any dryad, but a male dryad—the first ever. And unlike everyone else in his family, he hasn’t a lick of magic. Just a shock of green hair, matching green eyes, and a growing frustration that there’s an entire world out there waiting to be discovered. Until the night when the outside world—specifically his new neighbor—discovers him.

Liam Watson lives in a culture filled with electronics, mobile devices, and social media—where there is no magic or even the belief in it. And as much as Quill finds Liam irritating (he’s so cute it’s annoying), he can’t help himself.

Now Quill’s getting a taste of the outside world and of Liam…and he wants more. But all is not well in this magical, urban garden, and someone—or something—is changing the very essence of it.

And wherever Quill goes, the danger grows…]]> 400 Devin Greenlee 1649375379 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.66 2024
author: Devin Greenlee
name: Mira
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 200982373 Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him.

Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality―Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won't say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork―whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew's wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what's wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster―Thomas's drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator...]]> 336 C.G. Drews 1250895669 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.11 2024
author: C.G. Drews
name: Mira
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 127823335 A swoon-worthy debut queer Victorian romance in which two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, and instead find their perfect match in each other—the lesbian Bridgerton/Parent Trap you never knew you needed!

Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.

It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here.

Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She figures she has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s gotten all her flair, fun, and less-than-proper party games.

“Let’s get them together,�� she says.

It doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than surrender Beth to courtship, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly widowed mother. Let them get married instead.

“It’ll be easy�� she says.

There’s just…one, teeny, tiny problem. Their parents kind of seem to hate each other.

But no worries. Beth and Gwen are more than up to the challenge of a little twenty-year-old heartbreak. How hard can parent-trapping widowed ex-lovers be?

Of course, just as their plan begins to unfold, a handsome, wealthy viscount starts calling on Beth, offering up the perfect, secure marriage.

Beth’s not mature enough for this��

Now Gwen must face the prospect of sharing Beth with someone else, forever. And Beth must reckon with the fact that she’s caught feelings, hard, and they’re definitely not for her potential fiancé.

That’s the trouble with matchmaking: sometimes you accidentally fall in love with your best friend in the process.]]> 368 Emma R. Alban 006331200X Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.76 2024
author: Emma R. Alban
name: Mira
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 176443221
Korinna has simple stay on the Navitas , stay out of trouble, and stay alive. She may be a Redseer, a blind priestess with the power to manipulate space-time, but she is the weakest in her Order. Useless and outcast. Or so she has been raised to believe.

As she takes her place as a navigator on an Imperium ship, Korinna’s full destiny is revealed to blood brimming with magic, she is meant to become a weapon of the Imperium, and pawn for the Order that raised her. But when the ship is attacked by the notorious pirate Aster Haran, Korinna’s world is ripped apart.

Aster has a vendetta against the Imperium, and an all-consuming, dark power that drives her to destroy everything in her path. She understands the world in a way Korinna has never imagined, and Korinna is drawn to her against her better judgment.

With the Imperium and the justice-seeking warrior Sahar hot on her heels, Korinna must choose her side, seize her power and fulfil her destiny--or risk imperiling the future of the galaxy, and destroying the fabric of space-time itself.]]> 400 Meredith Mooring 1786189380 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.48 2024
author: Meredith Mooring
name: Mira
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 69363969 Dark secrets and unnatural magic abound when a twelve-year-old girl ventures into a bog full of monsters to break a mysterious curse.

Nothing about Kess Pedrock’s life is normal. Not her home (she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum), not her interests (hunting for megafauna fossils and skeletons), and not her best friend (a talking demon’s head in a jar named Shrunken Jim).

But things get even stranger than usual when Kess meets Lilou Starling, the new girl in town. Lilou comes to Kess for help breaking a mysterious curse—and the only clue she has leads straight into the center of Eelgrass Bog.

Everyone knows the bog is full of witches, demons, and possibly worse, but Kess and Lilou are determined not to let that stop them. As they investigate the mystery and uncover long-buried secrets, Kess begins to realize that the curse might hit closer to home than she’d ever expected, and she’ll have to summon all her courage to find a way to break it before it’s too late..]]> Mary Averling Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.47 2024
author: Mary Averling
name: Mira
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 199898107 An electrifying, gritty fantasy from debut author Hana Lee that takes a royal messenger on a high-speed chase across a climate-ravaged wasteland, featuring motorcycles, monsters, and magic.

Jin-Lu has the most dangerous job in the wasteland. She’s a magebike courier, one of the few who venture outside the domed cities on motorcycles powered by magic. Every day, she braves the wasteland’s dangers—deadly storms, roving marauders, and territorial beasts—to deliver her wares.

Her most valuable cargo? A prince’s love letters addressed to Yi-Nereen, a princess desperate to escape the clutches of her abusive family and soon-to-be husband. Jin, desperately in love with both her and the prince, can’t refuse Yi-Nereen’s plea for help. The two of them flee across the wastes, pursued by Yi-Nereen’s furious father, her scheming betrothed, and a bounty hunter with mysterious powers.

A storm to end all storms is brewing and dark secrets about the heritability of magic are coming to light. Jin’s heart has led her into peril before, but this time she may not find her way back.]]> 366 Hana Lee Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.96 2024
author: Hana Lee
name: Mira
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 61219118
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.

When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.

As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.

"By turns hopeful and devastating, So Let Them Burn is a masterful debut with a blazing heart. I was captivated from beginning to end by Cole’s sharp, clever prose and by her protagonists—two remarkable sisters with an unforgettable bond." �� Chelsea Abdullah, author of The Stardust Thief]]> 400 Kamilah Cole Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.83 2024
author: Kamilah Cole
name: Mira
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 217388285 The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J. R. Dawson is a powerful and poignant contemporary queer fantasy. Perfect for fans of Hadestown and Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune.

Love doesn’t die, people do . . .

At the edge of Chicago, nestled on the shores of Lake Michigan, there is a waystation for the dead. Every night, the newly-departed travel through the city to the Station, guided by its lighthouse. There, they reckon with their lives, before stepping aboard a boat to go beyond.

Nera has spent decades watching her father �� the ferryman of the dead �� sail across the lake, each night just like the last.

But tonight, something is wrong.

The Station's lighthouse has started to flicker out. The terrifying, ghostly Haunts have multiplied in the city. And now a person �� a living person has found her way onto the boat.

Her name is Charlie. She followed a song. And she is searching for someone she lost.

From the author of The First Bright Thing, The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World is a moving and emotional story of magic, family and those who leave us alone - but who might not remain lost.]]> 336 J.R. Dawson 1250805589 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.40 2025
author: J.R. Dawson
name: Mira
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 217432802 An undeniably fierce, unforgettably funny, unapologetically queer feminist romp through the England of medieval legend. Bestselling and acclaimed authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner bring readers along on an epic quest for valor, freedom, and, above all, love. A Knight’s Tale meets the Lady Jane series, with a dash of The Great!

Gwen is sick of hiding—hiding the fact that she’s taken over her father’s blacksmithing duties, hiding her attraction to girls, hiding her yearning for glory as a knight.

Meanwhile, Lady Isobelle of Avington, queen bee of the castle, has never once considered hiding who she is—until now. She’s been chosen as the grand prize in the Tournament of Dragonslayers, to be given to whichever knight can claim her hand. And for the first time in her life, she can’t talk her way out of trouble.

When Isobelle discovers Gwen’s knightly ambitions, they hatch a scheme together—Gwen will joust in the tournament, disguised as Sir Gawain. Winning means freedom for Isobelle, and glory for Gwen. Losing means�� well, let’s not go there.

One thing’s for sure: falling in love was never the plan.

But the best laid plans…are often trampled all over by dragons.

"A sapphic delight, full of jousts, jaunts, and courtly love.��Lady's Knight��sparkles with wit and charm and has lady knights to swoon over. Kaufman and Spooner will leave you breathless." —C. S. Pacat,��New York Times��bestselling author of��Dark Rise]]> 432 Amie Kaufman 0062893394 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.20 2025
author: Amie Kaufman
name: Mira
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 220458626 The occasionally magic, always superstitious town of Prior’s End is famous for three

Whimsical charm at the annual Fall Festival.
The legend of the wishing well hidden in a forest bristling with secrets.
And Nova Marwood’s missing hiker father.

Every year without him, it gets easier to pretend Nova doesn’t believe in myth and magic. Easier to pretend she’s doing okay. Easier to pretend she doesn’t have a secret crush on the girl she fake-hates.

Kiara Mistry is the luckiest girl in town and the thief of every crush Nova had her heart set on first. In theory, Nova should resent Kiara. But it’s getting harder to deny her feelings.

When Nova lays an unintended hex on Kiara at the Fall Festival, and one misfortune after another swiftly follows, soon Kiara’s very survival at stake. To reverse the bad luck, Kiara’s exes turned BFFs commence a quest for the miraculous wishing well. There’s only one person who can get them there . . . Nova.

But to save Kiara—and maybe find her dad, too—she’ll have to believe in something much stronger than magic. Nova will need to believe in herself.]]> 400 Lillie Vale 0593623916 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.81
author: Lillie Vale
name: Mira
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 215961165
So it is that practical, sceptical Ellen moves into the gloomy East Melbourne mansion where Caroline, along with her enigmatic daughter Grace, has assembled a motley court of the bereaved. Ellen’s intention is to expose the simple trickery—the hidden cabinets and rigged seances, the levers and wires—that must surely lie behind these visits from the departed.

What she discovers is altogether more complicated.

Tara Calaby weaves a compelling and richly detailed narrative around the romance of old Melbourne in this intriguing, possibly supernatural, historical mystery.

Tara Calaby lives in Gippsland with her wife and far too many books. She is currently a PhD candidate at La Trobe University, researching the social worlds of women in Victorian lunatic asylums. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games, attempting to learn Danish, and patting other people’s dogs.

'A moving historical feminist and sapphic narrative that illuminates the shadowy corners of 19th-century colonial culture��' Age on House of Longing

'House of Longing is a beautiful romance that will break your heart, and set it soaring again, this time with hope.' Weekend Australian on House of Longing]]> 383 Tara Calaby 1923059173 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.51
author: Tara Calaby
name: Mira
average rating: 3.51
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 218460366 A multiverse novel about��two women who fall in love despite living in worlds that are five months apart, as they try to find a timeline that doesn’t end in disaster, in this debut novel by Annie Mare.

Tressa Fay Robeson has never been shy, which is how she’s made a name for herself as an in-demand hairstylist and social media star. So she can admit that spending her days at her hair salon and her nights with her tight-knit group of friends (and one grumpy cat) is not the kind of exciting life she’d hoped for.

When a misdirected text from a stranger leads to a flirty exchange, she surprises herself by suggesting an impulsive meetup. But the woman, Meryl, never shows. Tressa Fay brushes it off—until Meryl’s sister and friend show up at the salon demanding to know what’s going on. Because, you see, there’s no way Meryl could have texted her. Meryl has been missing for a month.

Tressa Fay and her tight-knit group of friends soon discover they aren’t dealing with a catfish, but a temporal paradox. As they come to terms with the idea of parallel universes, they realize how many times their paths have crossed like this before. But even as they understand the multiverse more and more, nothing keeps Meryl from vanishing.

As it draws closer to the moment of Meryl’s disappearance, there’s only one question Have they done enough to change the outcome, or have they done so much that none of them will make it past that fateful day in September?]]> Annie Mare 0593817494 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.67 2025
author: Annie Mare
name: Mira
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 59052320 400 Victoria Lee 1789099781 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.38 2025
author: Victoria Lee
name: Mira
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 203578766 The dark and thrillingly romantic debut vampire fantasy that questions what it truly means to sacrifice for love.

You have no idea what I’ve done for love. Just as you have no idea what you may one day do.

Once long ago, a girl named Favre sacrificed her wings for love. Thana, the young goddess she so willingly gave them up for, sacrificed that same love for power. But everything has a cost.

Favre never got over the loss of her wings. And Thana’s choices led to a life of eternal night, and later, their destruction. Favre has bided her time ever since, waiting for the chance to resurrect the girl she loves who turned her into the creature she hates.

Now, a thousand years later, Leyla, the crown princess of the malichora—an ancient race that survives on human blood —must travel to the Island of the Dead when her best friend is captured during an attack on her nation’s capital. Along with Najja, a fierce, beautiful seer, and the last person she expected to help her, Leyla forges down a dangerous path, intent on saving her friend. But nothing is as it seems. The closer she gets to her goal, the more she risks awakening an ancient evil and destroying everything she holds dear.

Set in the aftermath of a war between vampires, humans, and the gods that created them, Patrice Caldwell’s devastatingly romantic fantasy debut, Where Shadows Meet, centers the heart-wrenching pain of loss and the struggle of self-discovery to ask: do we choose our fates, or do our fates choose us?]]> 320 Patrice Caldwell 1250815347 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.32 2025
author: Patrice Caldwell
name: Mira
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 207298559 Red, White & Royal Blue meets A Darker Shade of Magic in this swoony debut young adult romantic fantasy following a magical young prince and a noble seer who fall in love in the midst of war and intrigue.

Shy Prince Edmund will be a great king one it has been Seen again and again. With rare magic giving him dominion over the nation’s plants and weather, Edmund feels a great deal of pressure to live up to his nation’s many expectations, including making a perfect diplomatic alliance through marriage. That is, until he meets Lord Aubrey Ainsley.

Charming, romantic, and politically insignificant, Aubrey is a Seer, but not even he could have predicted catching the eye of Edmund, the Prince of Fortune—nor that the anxious prince who talks to plants more than people could feel so right for him. Aubrey’s dream-visions have been full of battle, not love, but to say that Prince Edmund has captured his fancy would be a grand understatement.

As the two become more and more intertwined, the nation of Saben falls under attack. War and dark sorcery loom on the horizon. To save their homeland, Edmund and Aubrey must resist the outside forces seeking to drive them apart and find the power within themselves to create a future for Saben—and each other—they never could have imagined.]]> 416 Lisa Tirreno 1665957786 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.97 2024
author: Lisa Tirreno
name: Mira
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 211124539 This searing YA debut follows two teen girls as they fall in love and fight for survival in an abandoned bookstore, just weeks before another cataclysmic storm threatens to bring about the end of the world. Perfect for fans of Station Eleven and The Last of Us!

The world is about to end. Again.

Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned bookstore in suburban New Jersey where she used to work, trading books for supplies with the few remaining survivors. It’s the one place left that feels safe to her.

Until she learns that another earth-shattering Storm is coming . . . and everything changes.

Enter Maeve, a prickly and potentially dangerous out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore looking for shelter one night. Though the two girls are immediately at odds, Maeve has what Liz needs—the skills to repair the dilapidated store before the next climate disaster strikes—and Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and undeniable feelings spring up between them, they realize that they face greater threats than the impending Storm. And when Maeve’s secrets and Liz’s inner demons come back to haunt them both, they find themselves fighting for their lives as their world crumbles around them.]]> 320 Lily Braun-Arnold 0241701562 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.50 2025
author: Lily Braun-Arnold
name: Mira
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 211157322 In this charming fantasy with a swoony friends-to-lovers romance, two soldiers must decide the futures they want in the wake of a last-chance hook-up on the night before the world was supposed to end.

On the eve of the battle that will decide the realm of Telrus’s fate, Katrien takes a hard look at her prospects. A mere legionnaire, she and her spear will be at the fore in the morning, facing off against the Demon Lord and his wretched army, and it’s all but certain she’ll perish in the fight. But if the end of the world is mere hours away, there’s no reason not to hook up with her handsome, dedicated battle partner Emory—despite any anti-fraternization policies their centurion may have in place.

Only, the world doesn’t end the next day. Instead, an insufferable prince raised in hiding comes out of nowhere with a plucky band of heroes, defeats the Demon Lord, and seals the rift to the hellish plane. The realm is saved. The war is over. And Kat suddenly has a lot more future than she knows what to do with. It’s a future that could include Emory . . . if only he weren’t so set on staying enlisted with the very army Kat was unwillingly drafted into.

And while the Demon Lord has been destroyed, peace is still a long march away. When Kat inadvertently draws the eye of the prince, she, Emory, and the rest of their motley unit are pulled to the fore of the formation—and the heart of the danger—as the army embarks on one last campaign. The mission: laying a road as a foundation for the prince’s future rule. The real mission: scouring the last of the Demon Lord’s servants from the material plane.

As Kat and Emory work to secure a lasting peace, they’ll have to decide what they want their futures to look like—and if there’s room for love at the end of the road.]]> Emily Skrutskie Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.25 2025
author: Emily Skrutskie
name: Mira
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 109244120 Cory McCarthy Mira 0 queer-tbr 5.00 2025
author: Cory McCarthy
name: Mira
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 214540663 An epic sapphic fantasy roadtrip inspired by the fall of Rome, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Frontier and Floating Hotel

On one side of the world, Aleya Ana-Ulai is desperate for a chance. Her family have written her off as a mistake, but she's determined to prove every last one of them wrong.

On the other, Kirby of Wall's End is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she'll have to leave everything behind.

Fate sets them both on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Now the gates are closed and the old magic slumbers. Dead �� or waiting for a spark to light it anew��

A character-driven science-fantasy road trip book with sword fights and a slowburn romance, Idolfire delves into the vastness of history and the terrifying power of organized faith.]]> 480 Grace Curtis 0756419808 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.85 2025
author: Grace Curtis
name: Mira
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 211003894
Now, Noon is stuck navigating the submerged town with her mom, who believes their dead family has reincarnated as sea creatures. Alone with the pain of what happened that night at the cove, Noon buries the truth: she is not the right shape.

When Mercy’s predatory leader demands Noon and her mom capture the creature drowning residents, she reluctantly finds an ally in his deadly hunter of a daughter and friends old and new. As the next storm approaches, Noon must confront the past and decide if it’s time to answer the monster itching at her skin.]]> 272 Trang Thanh Tran 1547611111 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.61 2025
author: Trang Thanh Tran
name: Mira
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 217896248 From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters�� or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.]]> 352 Caitlin Starling 0063418819 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.05 2025
author: Caitlin Starling
name: Mira
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 210692270 Tess Sharpe Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.40 2025
author: Tess Sharpe
name: Mira
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 212620270
Inspired by RPGs and set in scenic autumn, it has the world-building of Dragon Age (and spicy sapphic romance) and sprinkles of slice-of-life from Legends and Lattes.

Divine, a 25-year-old former healer of the Goddess of Souls is chasing her talisman, the key to accessing her magic well, which was stolen by a servant of the Goddess of Condemnation and an enemy. In Iramont, Divine meets Saph. The flirty tavern owner and axe wielder with an eyepatch has a proposition: Saph will help Divine locate her talisman if Divine helps her complete a mysterious quest in a chest.]]> Kristina W. Kelly Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.67
author: Kristina W. Kelly
name: Mira
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 211003939 In this sapphic Snow White retelling, if Snow is to save her kingdom from being ravaged by the Blight, she’ll have to kill the Evil Queen’s daughter…if she doesn’t fall in love with her first.

When her glass coffin unexpectedly shatters, Snow White awakens to anything but a dream. The land is rotting. The animals have mutated. In the twenty years that have passed since Snow bit into the poisoned apple, the kingdom of Roanfrost has transformed from a luscious wild land to a blight-ravaged nightmare. In search of answers and a way to restore her kingdom to its former glory, Snow sets out on a dangerous journey that will test the strength she never knew she had.

Friends will become foes.

New alliances will form.

The Queen with the blood red lips will stop at nothing to seize her power as well as her heart.

If Snow has any chance to survive and restore not only her kingdom, but all of Garedenne, her only option is to become the Seasonkeeper and access the life-giving magic that will heal the plague. But the path to becoming the Seasonkeeper is more treacherous than she could ever imagine—because the wild things have awakened and Snow’s darker impulses yearn to set them free.]]> 320 Andrea Hannah 1250884497 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.43 2025
author: Andrea Hannah
name: Mira
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 201776555 The galaxy is a dark and deadly place, run by vicious corporate empires.

Only Central, a nation that rose three hundred years ago after violent insurrection, remains as a beacon of hope and equity to all who reside in their borders.

Dia, a young mech pilot from Central, has infiltrated the upper echelons of the Fomorian Armory, an empire that prides themselves on their exceptional pilots and otherworldly weapons. It's a dangerous game she must play—bringing down an empire—especially after becoming an unlikely ally with the imperial princess, a woman hellbent on gaining her own freedom.

Fates will intertwine in this fast-paced mecha romance!]]> 276 Fae Rynn Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.44 2024
author: Fae Rynn
name: Mira
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 198971683 Jasmine Smith Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.00
author: Jasmine Smith
name: Mira
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 123361591 Rachel Hartman's Seraphina meets The Priory of the Orange Tree in Lady Dragon, a sapphic YA romantasy from A.M. Strickland.

The age of queens is over . . . unless they can save it..

Since the last war between humans and dragons left the leaders of both species slain—the last human king of Andrath and the legendary dragon queen—both queendoms have been living under a tentative truce: only women will sit on the throne of Andrath, the dragons will have free passage through the human lands . . . and if men ever try to retake the throne, the draconic realm will retaliate.

Samansa and Kirek are two new leaders coming of age in war-scarred lands—Samansa a reluctant human princess and Kirek the favored contender for the draconic queenship. Per tradition, Kirek must undergo the distasteful task of using a mysterious gem called the Heartstone to shift into human form and maintain the strained ties between the species . . . and study human weaknesses, a new and secret task she’s been given by her queen. As the princess and the dragon girl grow closer, they are sent to investigate a potential breach of the treaty and encounter a plot that could reignite an even bloodier war. While fighting to maintain the peace their ancestors fought for and uncovering centuries-old secrets, Samansa and Kirek must grapple with betraying their clashing nations . . . or their unexpected feelings for each other.]]> A.M. Strickland Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.42 2025
author: A.M. Strickland
name: Mira
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 62806108
Eira Isolde is one of the nine fae heiresses of The New Reign, burdened by a constant fear of their own inexplicable powers. But when she’s sent to live in a mortal kingdom because of it, it seems that The Fates have a different plan for her in mind—one that involves fellow heiress Meilin Azelie, a dagger-wielding pianist with whom she is suddenly, and indescribably, consumed by.

When a nefarious king reveals the dark web of deceit he has Eira and Meilin ensnared in, the pair find themselves stripped of their powers, forced to become pawns in the Demir Trials; a twisted game pinning them against the rest of The New Reign. The price of victory is a heavy thing, and with nine heiresses fighting for survival, the path to conquest is one carved out in blood. In the midst of it all, with their thrones and lives on the line, Eira and Meilin know that one wrong move could see everything they know and love reduced to ash—including one another.]]> Kayla Morton Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.75 2025
author: Kayla Morton
name: Mira
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 75709098 Heartstopper meets Buffy in this queer paranormal rom-com where a college freshman must navigate suddenly becoming a vampire, the underground society he's now part of, and the cute boy who discovers his secret.

It’s only natural nineteen-year-old Brennan’s life would be upended by something as ridiculous and unexpected as turning into a vampire. But if there’s one thing Brennan can do, it’s pretend everything’s fine when he’s close to losing his mind. Brennan is nineteen and just clawed his way back to Sturbridge University after recovering from a suicide attempt, and this is not the new life he was hoping for.

Brennan’s newly bloodthirsty existence gets way more complicated when Cole, the super cute librarian and everyone’s campus crush, stumbles on Brennan drinking from a stolen blood bag. Luckily, adorable Cole is happy to keep Brennan’s secret, and even seems to maybe like him? Navigating a new relationship is hard enough without the added struggles of vampire puberty, an eclectic clan of self-proclaimed “good�� vampires, and growing feelings for the one person who makes Brennan feel normal. With swirling rumors of a missing student and a rise in strange “animal attacks�� near campus, Brennan must uncover the secrets of the clan and figure out how to balance vampirism and humanity, or risk losing the first real friends he’s ever had.

Filled with humor and heart, The Good Vampire's Guide to Blood and Boyfriends has a gentle bite.]]> Jamie D'Amato Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.67 2025
author: Jamie D'Amato
name: Mira
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 211434035 A gorgeous, atmospheric debut fantasy that reimagines the Jewish myth of golem in a tale rooted in history, folklore, and sapphic romance—perfect for fans of Katherine Arden, Ava Reid, Hannah Whitten, and Naomi Novik.

The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark.

As the healer’s daughter, Malka has seen how the curse of the woods has plagued her village, but when the Ozmini Church comes to collect their tithes, they don’t listen to the warnings about a monster lurking in the trees. After a clergy girl wanders too close to the forest and Malka’s mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes a bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings him the monster, he will spare her mother from execution.

When she ventures into the blood-soaked woods, Malka finds a monster, though not the one she expects: an inscrutable, disgraced golem who agrees to implicate herself, but only after Malka helps her free the imprisoned rabbi who created her.

But a deal easily made is not easily kept. And as their bargain begins to unravel a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save—and face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear.]]> 400 Maddie Martinez 1035048795 Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.25 2025
author: Maddie Martinez
name: Mira
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 210209019 Ex Machina meets This is How You Lose the Time War: Seth Haddon's science fiction debut, Volatile Memory, is a heart-filled, vengeful sapphic sci-fi action adventure novella.

With nothing but a limping ship and an outdated mask to her name, Wylla needs a big pay day. When the call goes out that a lucrative piece of tech is waiting on a nearby planet, she relies on all the swiftness of her prey animal instincts to beat other hunters to it.

What you found wasn’t your ticket out—it was my corpse wearing an AI mask. When you touched the mask, you heard my voice. A consciousness spinning through metal and circuits, a bodiless mind, spun to life in the HAWK’s temporary storage. I crystallized, and I was alive.

Masks aren't supposed to retain memory, much less identity, but the woman inside the MARK I HAWK is real, and she sees Wylla in a way no one ever has. Sees her, and doesn’t find her wanting or unwhole.

Armed with military-grade tech and a lifetime of staying one step ahead of the hunters, Wylla and HAWK set off to get answers from the man who discarded HAWK once her ex-husband.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 5 Seth Haddon Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.21 2025
author: Seth Haddon
name: Mira
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 178251418 A modern-day dark academia speculative fantasy with a twist, perfect for fans of Babel and A Deadly Education.

Warren University has long stood amongst the ivy elite, built on the bones―and forbidden magic―of its most prized BIPOC students…hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright, no matter the cost to those lost along the way.]]> 400 Kamilah Cole Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.73 2026
author: Kamilah Cole
name: Mira
average rating: 4.73
book published: 2026
rating: 0
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]]> 217643704 An enthralling sapphic retelling of Swan Lake, for fans of Allison Saft and V.E Schwab.

Magic has long been outlawed in Auréal . Odile has always known she’d be the one to restore it.

Raised by a sorcerer, Odile has spent years preparing for the heist of a lifetime. It’s perfectly simple. Impersonate a princess, infiltrate the palace, steal the king's enchanted crown and restore magic to the kingdom.

But when the King is unexpectedly murdered, she’s forced to recruit the help of Marie d'Odette, the real princess, and the two begin to unravel a web of lies and deceit that leaves Odile uncertain of who to trust.

Soon though Odile must decide �� her mission or the girl she’s falling for?

The fate of the Kingdom depends on her making the right choice. . .]]> 352 A.B. Poranek Mira 0 queer-tbr 4.20 2025
author: A.B. Poranek
name: Mira
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
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]]> 208893688 From author Elisa A. Bonnin comes Lovely Dark and Deep, a YA dark academia novel exploring magic, loneliness, and the power of found family.

Hidden off the coast of Washington, veiled in mist, there is an island that does not appear on any map. And on that island is Ellery West.

Ellery West has always been home for Faith. After an international move and a childhood spent adjusting to a new culture and a new language, the acclaimed school for magic feels like the only place she can be herself. That is, until Faith and another student walk into the forest, and only Faith walks out.

Marked with the red stripe across her uniform that designates all students deemed too dangerous to attend regular classes, Faith becomes a social pariah, an exile of Ellery West. But all she has to do is keep her head down for one more year to graduate, and she gets to keep her magic. Because when students fail out of Ellery West, they have their magic taken away. Forever. And Faith can't let that happen.

Except terrifying things are still happening to students, and the dark magic that was unleashed in the forest still seems to be at work. To stop it, Faith and the other Red Stripes will have to work together, risking expulsion from the magical world altogether.]]> 400 Elisa A. Bonnin 1250888573 Mira 0 queer-tbr 3.92 2025
author: Elisa A. Bonnin
name: Mira
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: queer-tbr
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