Tag Archives: LGBTQIA+

Review: Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,
Lady's Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Lady’s Knight
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Storytide
Published June 3, 2025

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About Lady’s Knight

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.

My Review

It’s been a minute since I’ve read anything by this duo, but I remember that I enjoyed the last book by Kaufman and Spooner that I read. This novel is a lot of fun, as one familiar with the authors would expect. The characters have serious moments, but they’re often punctuated by asides that highlight the irony of a situation or point out a paradox in the culture of the time.

The characters speak to one another in fairly modern language, which might be challenging for die-hard historical fiction fans, but will make the story more accessible for readers who generally read contemporary fiction.

The romance between Gwen and Isobelle is so sweet. They have very different personalities, and that made watching them fall in love such a joy. Isobelle is the kind of character that might be easy to write off as too silly or shallow at first, but as you get to know her, you see how she uses humor or frivolity to mask her true self. It’s not safe for her to be any other way.

The pragmatic and serious Gwen challenges Isobelle to speak up more, and in return, Isobelle challenges Gwen to believe in herself and take risks. They make a fabulous couple. I loved some of the side characters, especially Olivia, Isobelle’s maid (with a much more exciting history) and Madame DuPont, the swordswoman who helps Gwen prepare for the tournament.

The author acknowledgements say this is the first book in a series, and I say, bring it! I’m absolutely here for more adventures in this story world.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are hedge witches, who use healing herbs to help sick or wounded people and uplift women and marginalized people.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Some scenes show knights competing at jousting, which can be deadly. Some participants injure their opponents.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol and play a drinking game (a medieval version of Never Have I Ever).

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

These Vengeful Gods
Gabe Cole Novoa
Random House Children’s
Published May 27, 2025

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About These Vengeful Gods

ALL GODS MUST DIE in this searingly relevant YA from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Bargain and Most Ardently. In a world bound by violence, a teen descended from the god of Death must keep their true identity a secret as they fight their way through a gladiator-style competition towards victory and rebellion against the gods who murdered their family.

Years ago, the descendants of the god of Death were murdered. The few that remain are in hiding, including Crow, a teen who survived the genocide and hides their magic to stay alive. After fleeing their village, Crow now lives with their uncles in the lowest part of the the Shallows.

Life in the Shallows is tough, but Crow’s even tougher. Hiding their magic has made Crow resourceful, cunning, and unbeatable — which comes in handy as a fighter in the city’s lucrative underground fighting ring.

Then, Crow’s uncles are arrested for harboring Deathchildren.  

With fists tightly clenched, Crow vows to set their uncles free. But to do that, they’re going to need to enter a world that threatens Crow’s very existence. Carefully navigating the politics of the wealthy and powerful, they enter the Tournament of the Gods — a gladiator-style competition where the winner is granted a favor. As they battle their way towards the winner’s circle, Crow plans to ask the gods for their uncles’ freedom as their reward.

But in a city of gods and magic, you don’t ask for what you want.

You take it.

My Review

I absolutely devoured this book. When I first opened it, I wanted to read the opening line, and I think I literally didn’t look up from the pages until twelve chapters later. So, yeah, this one is pretty immediately engrossing.

The story world is rich. A class system divides the people in Crow’s world, with levels ranging from literal gods to the poor barely scraping by in the Shallows. Crow’s one chance to escape the Shallows and rescue his family from prison comes in the form of a game in which competitors battle, often to the death. This part has a little bit of a Hunger Games vibe. Crow and the other fighters are signed up to compete in this tournament, and there’s all this pageantry surrounding them. And yet, essentially, their potential deaths are part of the entertainment.

Crow becomes part of a team who help each other within the competition. I enjoyed the way those relationships developed and the balance it brought to the story. Crow is the kind of character that gets pretty lost in his own head, so it worked well for there to be allies that drew him out.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, tournament-focused fantasy novel, I highly recommend this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. In one scene, a couple fall into bed kissing.

Spiritual Content
Some characters are literal gods with certain kinds of magic. Runemagic also allows people to cast spells.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to genocide. Battle scenes. Also, spiders appear in multiple scenes.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Time After Time by Mikki Daughtry

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Historical, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Time After Time
Mikki Daughtry
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

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About Time After Time

From the screenwriter and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel and film Five Feet Apart comes an epic YA sapphic romance, unfolding over two sets of lives, one hundred years apart.

Nineteen-year-old Libby has always been inexplicably drawn to the old Victorian house on Mulberry Lane. So much so that when she sees a For Sale sign go up in the front yard, Libby uses all the money her grandmother left her to pay for college to buy the house instead, determined to fix it up herself—even though she knows her parents will be furious. Soon after moving in, she discovers a journal written by a young woman, Elizabeth Post, who lived in the house nearly a century earlier. It doesn’t take long for the journal to reveal that Elizabeth was madly in love with her personal maid, Patricia. A love that was forbidden and dangerous, especially at that time.

Enter Tish, a brash, broke fellow college student, who passes by the house one day and is mysteriously compelled to knock on the door. Soon Libby offers Tish a room in exchange for her help in fixing up the old house, and the two young women quickly find themselves falling for each other. But as Elizabeth’s journal entries delve deeper into her secret love affair with Patricia, uncanny similarities between that young couple and Libby and Tish are revealed, and it becomes clear that this may not be their first time in this house, or in this love. Is this their chance to get it right?

My Review

Sometimes when I read a book, the premise strikes me as something so clever or unusual that I wonder if that’s what brought the book to publication. This is one of those books.

The narrative has a lot of moving parts. We have chapters set in 1925, from the perspective of a young woman whose family lived in the Victorian house. We also follow two points of view from the present day. First, there’s Libby, a girl who just bought the house, and Tish, a girl she meets in her college classes and who offers to help her fix up the house.

As we get to know each narrator, we notice some striking similarities between Elizabeth from 1925 and Libby from 2025. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that those similarities are more than simple coincidences.

One of the story’s strengths is in its minor characters. I enjoyed the banter between Tish and Joe, the junkyard owner who helps her fix up her scooter, and Tish and her best friend Bari. Libby’s relationship with her mom was also fascinating.

I think readers interested in LGBTQIA+ stories in a historical setting will like getting to see the 1925 timeline in this novel. If your taste for romance leans a little more in the Hallmark movie vein, I can see this being a great pick. It feels a little more like a book to curl up with under a warm blanket, so maybe save it for a stormy summer afternoon.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Two characters wake up in bed together.

Spiritual Content
Some references to reincarnation.

Violent Content
Brief prejudiced statements against an Irish woman. A man becomes violent in a confrontation. Someone sustains injuries in an accident.

Drug Content
References to teens drinking wine together.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Summer Girls
Jennifer Dugan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Published May 27, 2025

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Summer Girls

From the author of Some Girls Do comes a YA sapphic romance about two girls from different sides of the tracks.

Cass has a rule about dating summer girls—just say no. Every year the idyllic beach town Cass’s working-class family calls home is flooded with summer girls, the obnoxious daughters of the rich, who stay in their families’ summer homes, sail their yachts, and generally make things unbearable for townies like Cass.

Birdie is the ultimate summer girl. She’s the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer dad and a social media influencer mom, and this summer Birdie happens to be in big trouble for accidentally crashing her boyfriend’s very expensive car.

As punishment, Birdie must spend the summer with her father at the beach—but it won’t be a vacation. He’s enlisted the help of Cass, whose dad works for him, to keep Birdie on the straight and narrow, including getting her a job as a beach parking lot attendant.

As the summer heats up, Cass realizes some rules are made to be broken, and Birdie just might be different from other summer girls. Soon they can’t help falling for one another . . . But will the love the two girls have discovered be strong enough to overcome their differences?

My Review

Summer Girls is the first book by Jennifer Dugan that I’ve read. I’d heard great things about her other books, especially Hot Dog Girl or Melt with You. So, she’s been on my list of authors to check out for a while. Now that I’ve read one of her books, I only want to read more.

I’ve read more than one book lately that shines light on the harmful effects of gentrification on neighborhoods and communities. Summer Girls shows the classism at the root and offers a version of a “Prince and Pauper” kind of romance.

I like that in Dugan’s world, people are more than one thing. The characters continually wrestle with the moral weight of their choices, and struggle to evaluate the decisions others make on a moral scale. For example, Birdie’s dad makes a lot of money buying up foreclosure properties and flipping them as vacation rentals, something which exacerbates the housing crisis for local residents. Yet, he appears to be a big supporter of Cass’s dad’s community organization which helps homeowners retain their property. So, is he a good guy or bad guy? Is he taking advantage of a system and pretending friendship with Cass’s dad to keep his enemies close, or is his support genuine? I liked that the story explored this question.

The romance between Cass and Birdie is also very sweet. It’s got an estranged friends to lovers vibe that was a lot of fun. Birdie is also bisexual and wrestles with some biphobia. I like that Dugan brought this to the page, too.

All in all, I think this is a lovely summer romance, especially perfect for a beach or vacation read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used periodically.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Someone posts a photo of a boy cheating on his girlfriend with another girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
One scene includes a car accident with minor injuries.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
First Second
Published May 7, 2019

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About Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me

Author Mariko Tamaki and illustrator Rosemary Valero-O’Connell bring to life a sweet and spirited tale of young love in Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, a graphic novel that asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the healthy ones we need.

Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley’s dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There’s just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.

Reeling from her latest break up, Freddy’s best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it’s really Laura Dean that’s the problem. Maybe it’s Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever.

Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love.

My Review

I think I first heard about this book on the 100 Best YA Books of all Time list by Time Magazine. I’ve currently only read 49 out of the 100 books, but I’m trying to add a few to my reading list each year.

I liked a lot of things about this book. For one thing, each character had a well-defined emotional feel to them. It’s definitely one of those graphic novels in which the sum is greater than its parts, because there is something about the combination of spare text and the characters’ expressions or position within the panels that makes each one feel like a real person. Laura Dean? Yeah, I know some people who act like her. I feel like I’d recognize her on the street. And Freddy? I wanted to hug her. Doodle, too. I loved how much of the story happened in the expressions on the characters’ faces, too. I felt like whole conversations happened just in Doodle’s expressions in particular.

The story takes us on a roller coaster ride through Freddy and Laura’s relationship. At one point, Doodle takes Freddy to see a psychic, and I love how the woman sums up the problem in their relationship, comparing it to being caught in the middle of a square dance step (the two met while square dancing at school). Having been caught in a toxic relationship before, I thought that was a powerful metaphor for the way that it feels. The lack of closure and how you can’t get your feet under you because you got dropped mid-step. That made perfect sense to me. It also signaled to Freddy that she needed to take ownership of her feelings and the relationship narrative rather than feeling one step behind, following Laura’s lead.

Conclusion

All in all, I think Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is really well done. Freddy’s emails to the advice columnist frame things nicely and show her grappling with questions for which she doesn’t have answers. I think anyone who’s survived a toxic relationship will find some things that resonate with them in this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
A few F-bombs and other swearing used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. References to sex. One character has an abortion. (Off-scene.)

Spiritual Content
Freddy and a friend go to see a psychic who gives Freddy advice on how to stop feeling miserable.

Violent Content
Freddy kisses someone without consent after seeing Laura with someone else.

Drug Content
Freddy gets drunk at a dance after spotting Laura making out with someone else. She throws up on the counter at a bakery and feels super embarrassed about it afterward.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.

Review: This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

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This Book is Gay
Juno Dawson
Hot Key Books
Published September 4, 2014

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About This Book is Gay

Lesbian. Bisexual. Queer. Transgender. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who’s ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU.

There’s a long-running joke that, after “coming out,” a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. THIS IS THAT INSTRUCTION MANUAL. You’re welcome.

Inside you’ll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask: from sex to politics, hooking up to stereotypes, coming out and more. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it’s like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations.

You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don’t) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book.

My Review

The conversational style of this book and the inclusion of testimonies from people with a spectrum of identities and genders make This Book is Gay a valuable resource for people beginning to pursue romantic and/or sexual relationships.

With books like this, I often find myself hoping there was a little more attention to asexual people or the ace spectrum. There are some mentions, but a lot of the book focuses on romantic relationships, with a fair amount of pages spent talking about sex. I would have liked to see a little more acknowledgment of ace identity and some exploration about how to find or craft the kinds of relationships that one would find satisfying.

Each section of the book features real stories by people reflecting on their relationships and experiences as LGBTQIA+ people. Some stories talk about coming out and what that was like for them. Others offer relationship advice or views on a particular issue. These stories reinforce the idea that relationships and identity are governed by individuals. How you identify is up to you. What kinds of relationships you pursue is up to you. Being gay doesn’t look the same for everyone.

Dawson writes in an upbeat, celebratory way that invites readers to have confidence in who they are and go forth into the world to find people who appreciate and respect them as well. The backmatter has a super fun section listing and defining gay icons that is a lot of fun to read, too.

This Book is Gay was One of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2023

This Book is Gay was one of the top ten most challenged books of 2023. Among the reasons I saw cited for the challenges and book bans were that it contains testimonies of LGBTQIA+ people, information about sex education, and sexually explicit content.

The book does have some information on sex between partners with a focus on safety. Obviously, it also contains information about partnerships between LGBTQIA+ people.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Some swearing is used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
One chapter offers tips for engaging in sexual intimacy. Dawson includes information such as how to have safe sex and the risks of sexually transmitted infections.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to homophobia or transphobia, for example, in a family member’s response to someone coming out.

Drug Content
Brief, candid discussion about going to clubs or bars to meet people and use drugs or alcohol. Dawson acknowledges that this is something some adults prefer to do and offers tips on how to stay safe.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. All opinions are my own.