Where I talk about the books I read last month, which may or may not be F/F. But don’t worry, I’ll let you know, and I usually read something gay each month.
Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Latte #0)
I enjoyed reading Legends & Lattes when it came out in 2022, and—if I remember correctly—its breakout success was a genesis moment for cozy fantasy breaking into Western mainstream publishing. If you liked Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust is more of the same.
I took my time getting into Bookshops & Bonedust because I loathe prequels, but I ended up pleasantly surprised by how Baldree leans into the fact that we know Viv must eventually leave Murk to craft an insightful theme around arriving too early to be the right person at the right time.
If there’s one gripe I have with both entries in the series, it’s that I think Baldree struggles with writing memorable romances outside of established tropes and story beats. I always come out of Viv’s relationships feeling that they were “okay” if not strangely risk-averse and…not much else.
Which is weird, because a hot 7-foot (or so) orc should elicit some feelings in me, right??
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3.5/5)
If You Don’t Work Hard, Then You Must Go Back and Inherit Heaven[1]
I expected to fall in love with If You Don’t Work Hard, Then You Must Go Back and Inherit Heaven (being written by Re Dao Hun Jue), and I was surprised when I didn’t. Instead, I came out of the novel feeling that it really struggled to balance its weighty premise alongside the burgeoning romance between Guan Nianwei and her boss-slash-second-generation goddess Dongyu.
There were moments in the story when Guan Nianwei and Dongyu’s relationship would come to a screeching halt for chapters at a time in order to introduce a new pair of one-off characters for Guan Nianwei’s company to sell insurance to (read: protect), and also moments where Dongyu’s overwhelming strength undercut the tension our protagonist is supposed to be feeling when she’s in dangerous situations.
The novel characterizes Guan Nianwei as a motivated protagonist from a single-mother household fighting gender and class discrimination, and Dongyu as her comforting ideal: A capable high-ranking female boss who has never experienced gender discrimination at home or at work, and who neither tolerates it from her subordinates nor from strangers.
There could have been something interesting there, but If You Don’t Work Hard, Then You Must Go Back and Inherit Heaven doesn’t capitalize on it. By the end of the novel, these themes have largely faded into the background in favor of Guan Nianwei and Dongyu’s “fated” love and the need to wrap up several loose threads from the supernatural B-plot.
Or is it the A-plot? The novel can’t seem to decide.
⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
Side F/F
Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds #2)
Micaiah Johnson
Brilliant, furious, and vehement, Those Beyond the Wall is Mad Max: Fury Road meets biting social commentary.
The Space Between Worlds was one of my favorite novels of 2020, and I knew I needed to return to Micaiah Johnson’s all-too-real dystopian future of artificial walls and sun-soaked deserts as soon as I saw Those Beyond the Wall’s release date in March.
Where The Space Between Worlds leans heavily into metaphysical questions about the multiverse and the people we could be, Those Beyond the Wall explores the entrenched existence of its protagonist in a single world ravaged by unjust systems.
In Ashtown, gender fluidity and polyamory are celebrated in ways they’re restricted under the authoritative conformity of the wealthier, walled off Wiley City. Scales might not end up in a long-term relationship with another woman, but her romances are breathtakingly unfiltered in their disregard for gender norms.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5/5)
Other
The Mountain in the Sea
Ray Naylor
The Mountain in the Sea is about sentient octopus (octupuses? octupi?). But it’s also about so much more than sentient octopus. At its heart, The Mountain in the Sea is climate fiction—the novel is set in a dystopian near-future where 90% of the ocean has been overfished and humanity is run by conglomerates and mega-corporations.
But Naylor’s literary debut resembles our world just enough that it feels more prescient than anything else I’ve read this year. The Mountain in the Sea asks an existential question: What is the nature of consciousness? And it gift-wraps that question with a bundle of others concerning morality, human relationships, and legacy.
For all its bleak forecasts, The Mountain in the Sea is ultimately a novel about hope. Hope that humanity—or something beyond humanity—might just be empathetic enough to right our legacy. The novel doesn’t shy away from queer representation either. Queer relationships are normalized, and a major character adopts they/them pronouns early on in the story.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
[1] As of May 2024, there is no fan translation of If You Don’t Work Hard, Then You Must Go Back and Inherit Heaven. I’ve just been going through Re Dao Hun Jue’s untranslated catalog in Chinese because I can’t help myself. 😭
Not sure if you get the same feeling but I often get a little bored when I try cozy fantasy? I feel like if theres not enough drama or romance I can’t really get into it.
Oh, I do remember enjoying “Cant spell treason without tea” though, not sure why that one specifically worked for me
I loved Can’t Spell Treason without Tea! I definitely prefer it to the Legends & Lattes series. I honestly think it’s because the romance is much better done, and the characters had so much more personality and chemistry with each other (what with the most powerful mage alive x ex-evil queen’s guard). Eventually, I just kind of gave up on Legends & Lattes for the romance and read it as a low-stakes wish-fulfillment fantasy pallet cleanser after some more intense stuff.