167th read of 2025:

The Duke Gets Desperate (Sirens in Silk #1) by Diana Quincy

I love a heroine so competent that when she steps into the poorly run castle estate, you know that she's going to run the place.

Raya was a fantastically drawn character with the perfect business insights, hidden passion that came out with Strick, and enough misunderstanding about human inclinations to keep the plot cooking. I wish Strick had been drawn just as strongly.

4/5 stars

#Bookstodon #Romancelandia #RomanceBooks

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166th read of 2025:

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle

Lucky Day takes absurdity to its next level, but it is also the most intense of Tingle's horror novels. The violence is more blood-and-gore here, but also absurd; the absurdity comes from the fact that this story is an existential crisis. Why do we exist? If nothing we do matters, then what? What is luck?

5/5 stars

#Bookstodon #Horror #LGBTQBooks

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165th read of 2025:

A Thorn in the Saddle (Cowboys of California #3) by Rebekah Weatherspoon

I adored Jesse's and Lily-Grace's trajectories as much as I enjoyed their romance. Weatherspoon always writes a delightful book with well-rounded characters who work to become better versions of themselves. The ending was incredibly sappy, but I completely bought it.

4/5 stars

#Booksky #RomanceBooks #Romancelandia

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164th read of 2025:

There There by Tommy Orange

This sat on my TBR shelf for way too long. The story flow and conversational style of narration made the book easier to read, despite sometimes challenging topics and the ultimately upsetting ending. The writing was definitely layered, and the story took great care with characters who are minors and making poor choices or being victims compared to the adults.

4/5 stars

#Bookstodon #LitFic

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163rd read of 2025:

Emma Frost: The White Queen – All Hail the Queen by Amy Chu, Andrea Di Vito, Antonio Fabela, and Ariana Maher

Read in single issues. Overall, a pretty mediocre book.

Some questionable cringe moments when Emma Frost (white woman in white) was pitted against two Black women and one Chinese man. The outcome for one of the women was better and cleverer than expected, but my expectations fell flat by the last issue.

Also, don't tell me in the editorial commentary that Emma is a rich fashionista and then have basic Emma Frost costumes.

3/5 stars

#Bookstodon #MarvelComics #Superheroes

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162nd read of 2025:

Spent by Alison Bechdel

I laughed so hard during parts of this. The scene with the sauna and Goaty McGoatface had me in stitches.

Bechdel does autofiction absurdism where she and Holly have a goat rescue farm; she's trying to write this book; and their found family is the Dykes to Watch Out For cast.

I loved everything that poked around age and change. How Alison struggles to connect with younger people, or even with her fictional conservative sister. How Stuart and Sparrow take up polyamory, but cannot tell their adult nonbinary asexual kid, who has just been in a polycule breakup.

While I have read some of DTWOF, I think Bechdel does a great job at synthesizing these characters' long histories that doesn't hinder this book or readers unfamiliar with them.

The art was delightful. The goats were extremely adorable, the people appropriately middle-aged, and the background cats perfect demon angels.

4/5 stars

#Bookstodon #Comics #LGBTQBooks

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161st read of 2025:

Shifting Earth by Cecil Castellucci, Flavia Biondi, Fabiana Mascolo, and Steve Wands

I liked the big swings this book took with environmentalism and creating two parallel Earths with different struggles. One is an acceleration of our real world problem of climate change, largely due to fossil fuels and energy consumption, and the other is a lack of land due to tides and weather caused by the Earth having two moons.

3/5 stars

#Comics #Bookstodon #SciFi

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160th read of 2025:

Transfixed: A Trans and Genderqueer Erotic Fairy Tales Anthology, edited by Gina Biggs

Overall, a very strong collection of fantasy erotic comics featuring trans characters. Some stories are sweet, some adventurous, and even some villainous. While each story is by a different creator or creative team, all of them are in black and white.

My favorites were:

“The Maiden and the Beast” by G.C. Houle, “The Prince & the Peas” by S.W. Searle, and “The Tiger and the Tanner’s Son” by Ben Mehlos

4/5 stars

#Comics #TransBooks #FairyTales #Bookstodon

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159th read of 2025:

Oh Joy Sex Toy Vol. 4 by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan

Informative, fun, and cute!

4/5 stars

#Bookstodon #Comics #NonfictionBooks

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158th read of 2025:

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

Ember's family, friends, community, and relationship with Danuwoa outside of work were layered and interesting. It was fun, poignant, and at times, funny.

But the workplace, where Ember lied and lied, was either uncomfortable or a boring generic office that was out of time (between 2006-2016).

Ember's story certainly needed the pages to tell, but the romance was shorted by not having Danuwoa's point of view.

3/5 stars

#Bookstodon #Romance

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