#roan parrish
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Happy to see these books in the library. I've read all of these writers for years and remember when their queer romances were relegated to small press ebooks and self-publishing only.
Which isn't a diss to any form of publishing—KJ Charles, Cat Sebastian, and Roan Parrish all still self-publish, too–but it is very cool to find quality paperbacks of their work in such an accessible place.
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Reading update!
So as you'll see below I've read a lot of books since the last time I did one of these. I'm not going to write a little blurb for all of them, only the ones I feel strongly about. But I'm going to start including my ratings.
Arctic Sun by Annabeth Albert. 4.25/5 stars
Where We Left Off by Roan Parrish. 5/5 stars
Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian. 5/5 stars
This book was just. So lovely. Short and fast-paced, but I loved Peter and Caleb so much. I love the time period too. I know this is me being toxic and problematic and showing my internalized homophobia or whatever but I actually really like books set in places and time periods where homophobia is a real and present danger. I think it's because I'm totally a Love Conquers All romantic, so the fact that people dgaf and make a go of being together anyway scratches that itch.
Anyway, good book. I picked up the other two in the series but haven't read them yet.
Let's Get Back to the Party by Zak Salih. 4/5 stars
Literature. Good but pretty sad.
No Gods For Drowning by Hailey Piper. 3/5 stars
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas. DNF
I got 50 pages in before I gave into my hate and DNFed this.
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley. 5/5 stars
I find it genuinely upsetting that Natasha Pulley isn't a household name, because she writes the most beautiful, gutting books that I have maybe ever read. I don't understand how she's able to write what is, on the surface, a completely mundane sentence, and yet there's this roiling sea of heartbreak underneath it.
This is the sequel to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, easily one of the best books I've ever read, and this one is at least as good.
Natural Enemies by Roan Parrish. 4/5 stars
Us by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. 3.75/5 stars
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. 5/5 stars
Lovely little novella that read like a fairy tale.
The Prince's Poisoned Vow by Hailey Turner. 4.25/5 stars
At first I despaired of ever learning who all the characters were in this book because the first like, 10 chapters were all from a different POV, but I got a handle on all of them and liked it a lot.
Spectred Isle by KJ Charles. 4.75/5 stars
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville. DNF
This is the book that made me realize I hate whimsical books.
Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins. 4/5 stars
The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune. 3/5 stars
I ranted about this one already but Jesus, Klune. This straight up reads like the kind of stuff I wrote when I was like, 14, and I don't mean that as a compliment to my 14 year old self.
Love, Hate & Clickbait by Liz Bowery. 5/5 stars
!!!!! This book was so good!!!! I picked it up way back when it came out but it only surfaced in the TBR pile in March, and it did not let me down. Thom and Clay are SO unlikable, but you start to like them in a way that's practically insidious because you don't see it coming. By the end, I was totally rooting for them and loved them both. And this is a romcom with a truly great villain, too, which definitely isn't standard in romances.
Red Skies Falling by Alex London. 5/5 stars
Second book in a series that revolves around a culture where falconry is hugely important. If you want fantasy that doesn't take place in fantasy England, check this series out. It has an A+ sibling relationship, a lovely romance, and high stakes. But this one was saaaaad ugh so sad.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer. 3.75/5 stars
I hated this book until about 80% through, and then it subverted all my expectations and I ended up liking it okay. I thought it was just about a pathetic middle aged gay white man (I know I know, that's my type, what's the problem?) feeling sorry for himself, but it was deeper than that. And it had a nice ending.
Invitation to the Blues by Roan Parrish. 4/5 stars
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. 5/5 stars (reread)
Bought this edition for the bonus chapter from Henry's POV and for @vkelleyart's end pages. Totally worth it. I love this book just as much as I did the first time.
Threshold by Jordan L Hawk. 4.25/5 stars
So this is a series with like, 11 books? I read the first one and was kind of eh on it. Good enough to buy the second, not enough to buy all 11 or whatever. But the second one was substantially better, so now I've acquired like 5 more of them. I continue to be a sucker for late 19th century/early 20th century settings.
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. 4.5/5 stars
Is gay noir a thing? Because that's what I'm calling this book. Gay noir. I loved the main character and I'm really excited this is going to be a series (I've already preordered the second one). The only reason I knocked off half a star is because some of the side characters were irritating. And as a mystery, it wasn't great, so I wouldn't read this one if you're looking for a really good mystery. It's definitely more about the character development and the relationships.
Though possibly one reason I didn't think the mystery was that good is because it got spoiled for me on tumblr by someone who imo had a pretty shallow read on the book. Honestly not sure if they actually read it or they just skimmed it.
Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly. 5/5 stars
AHHH. THIS BOOK!! This book was so good. So I've been making fun of it for a while because if you look at the cover, it looks like a Stucky AU. And you know what, maybe it was, but at least it didn't read that way, lol. It was really lovely and I'll be using it as a comp for the manuscript I finished last week.
The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley. 5/5 stars
I don't even have anything else to say except that you need to read Natasha Pulley's books. Please. If you're reading this post, go get her books. Buy them, take them out of the library, whatever. Do it.
Work for It by Talia Hibbert. 4.25/5 stars
A Tree of Bones by Gemma Files. 4.5/5 stars
Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles. 5/5 stars
Something happened in this book that made me close it and stare into the middle distance, then put it aside until I could process.
Anyway you should definitely read it.
Farview by Kim Fielding. 4/5 stars
Whistling in the Dark by Tamara Allen. 4.25/5 stars
Currently reading The Restless Dark by Erica Waters
Which I'm enjoying more than I thought I would!
#natasha pulley#the bedlam stacks#the lost future of pepperharrow#arctic sun#annabeth albert#where we left off#roan parrish#peter cabot gets lost#cat sebastian#something wild and wonderful#kj charles#let's get back to the party#zak salih#no gods for drowning#hailey piper#the sunbearer trials#aiden thomas#natural enemies#us#sarina bowen#elle kennedy#silver in the wood#emily tesh#the prince's poisoned vow#hailey turner#spectred isle#reading tag#un lun dun#china mieville#here the whole time
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Happy Pride my friends.
I want to highlight some of my favorite LGBTQ+ books.
One of my goals for this year is to read more diverse and I'm really happy about it, so far I have found beautiful stories 💕
I hope everyone have a great and safe Pride Month
#romancelandia#romance novel#book recommendation#book#adriana herrera#contemporary romance#lucy bexley#roan parrish#meryl wilsner#anna zabo#rebekah weatherspoon#alexis hall#lgbt+
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Better Than People by Roan Parrish
Simon Burke has always preferred animals to people. Meeting a grumpy children’s book illustrator who needs a dog walker isn’t easy for the man whose persistent anxiety has colored his whole life, but Jack Matheson’s menagerie is just what Simon needs.
Four dogs, three cats and counting. Jack’s pack of rescue pets is the only company he needs. But when a bad fall leaves him with a broken leg, Jack is forced to admit he needs help. That the help comes in the form of the most beautiful man he’s ever seen is a complicated, glorious surprise.
But making a real relationship work once Jack’s cast comes off will mean compromise, understanding and lots of love.
#anxiety#daily book#gay#MM romance#mental health rep#mlm#queer rep#adult books#animals#book series#dogs#lgbtqia#male protagonist#queer books#romance#Better Than People#Roan Parrish#bookblr
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its time for my (semi) annual re-read
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I forgot what I wanted to write as introduction (again), but who cares. To everyone’s surprise, I did read books in December!
Reverie (Ryan La Sala): To prepare for the end of the year I took a look at the TBR I posted in January and realised there's still quite a few books on it I did not touch this year, ahem. Reverie was one of them! It was an interesting read. Like not my favourite but damn, I am so starved for everything speculative fiction. So I ate it up. When I read in the author's bio at the end that Ryan La Sala watches anime and started out with Sailor Moon, suddenly a lot of the book made sense. The friends group with magical powers, the over-the-top battles, the flashy villain(ess). Very anime. But I like anime, so all is well.
Too Like the Lightning (Travis Beaudois): For Christmas I wanted to give my friend a cheap little gay ebook as a bonus to the other gift. On her wishlist though was only some strange book, apparently written by a 12-year-old and unedited and maybe it's still good, but I felt I'd rather give my money to a person who actually has taken the time and effort to edit their book. A while ago I read a recommendation for Too Like the Lightning here, so I picked it up to check if it might be something my friend might like. It's a cute book. Nice characters, nice development, really feel-good atmosphere. I liked it! But I also know my friend reads for the porn und I honestly couldn't remember the smutty scenes afterwards. 8D I mean, there were some. And they weren't bad. My ace-brain just does not remember. Cute book, though.
In the Middle of Somewhere (Roan Parrish): I decided against Lightning for my friend and thought about what other book I could pick instead. A review of Lightning compared it to Roan Parrish which was one incentive for me to buy Lightning in the first place because I really liked the one Roan Parrish book I read before. But that was vol3. Gifting vol3 would be weird. I should go with vol1. So I borrowed it from the library to test-read. xD And damn, it was good. Definitely a lot more spicy and intense that Lightning, but also funny and real nice to read. Daniel was more interesting than he appeared to be in vol3. And aw, when Leo had his first appearance! And then Will, too! That was fun. While reading Lightning and Middle of Somewhere back to back I noticed how weird it is to have stories with just two characters interacting and no one else around. Consequently my favourite scene of the book was when Daniel, Rex, Leo and Will spent Halloween together.
Where we left off (Roan Parrish): Afterwards I told my other friend how I'm done with the dirty books for the year and of course I lied, because the next day I started rereading the 2nd sequel to Middle of Somewhere. What choice did I have? I just like Leo and Will! (as in together but also as separate characters) D: This is an interesting one though, because there's so much character work going on. Leo is thinking and reflecting and learning about all these things like physics and yoga to the point he's able to apply something he learned there to something else in his life. Good boy. Also he has an actual group of friends to balance out his obsession with Will.
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (India Holton): Well. I read this because of a recommendation. It was interesting and entertaining. For a while. I like how it just rolls with the absurd ideas and behaviours. But it also uses a lot of words and at some point I was like "There's still 150 pages left?!" I was getting very impatient. The romance didn't help. For the first 6 chapters I was so confused. There's a bunch of badass ladies around, why would she fall for a man? And then I remembered, that this isn't a queer book at all. uAu" Wasted opportunity. And I hated the smut scene! Why was it even necessary?! Changing the perspective three times? Ugh. So yeah, entertaining for a while, but ultimately not my cup of tea.
I’ll be home for Christmas (Mason Deaver): A bonus story to I Wish You all the Best, hardly qualifies as a real book. But. I bought this in summer after finishing the main story and put it off to read it in-season. And then I almost forgot. uAub It’s cute and short and a nice follow-up.
Mirrored in Evergreen (B. Pigeon): This one was a little odd. In the beginning I was slightly confused to the order of events and wtf is going on but it's a short book so with just a little patience things are set in order. I did like the characters. The way Rowan is so no-nonsense about everything was very unexpected and welcome. Rosemary was also nice. And I definitely liked the overall atmosphere. That sort of despair, melancholy, nostalgia. That's what it felt like for me anyways. I don't think I understood everything. I'm surely still blind to half of the characters’ motives, but overall I did enjoy reading the book. And because of that remaining sense of mystery I can totally see myself rereading it in the not-so-far future.
Howl (Shaun David Hutchinson): Earlier this month I started reading You've Reached Sam because I had a hot melancholic second where I felt like I could use a little bit of pain so we can suffer in sympathy. The next day I was already over it und shelved the book because I didn't want to deal with the suffering. And then I picked Howl for my last book of 2022 and guess what I got! It's SD Hutchinson so it's not as straightforward and also not about the romance so it's easier to read for me, but goddamn the SUFFERING! Why can people be so shitty? Ugh! I do like his stories though and the way he tells them.
And that’s it! Stay tuned for my Best-of that I still have to compose (effort) and TBR (too easy)!
#yaku reads#december wrap up#books#booklr#queer books#queer lit#lgbtq books#reverie#in the middle of somewhere#where we left off#roan parrish#too like the lightning#the wisteria society of lady scoundrels#i'll be home for christmas#howl#shaun david hutchinson#mirrored in evergreen
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The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book is long, but I really like how it felt like a slice of life. The major conflicts in the book are normal parts of human interaction, miscommunication, and other matters that I deal with too, which made the characters feel very relatable. I enjoyed the diversity of characters, especially the beautiful nonbinary representation. I tend to read a lot of plot-heavy novels, but it was a nice break to read a character-driven one. I loved the authors writing style and how descriptive she writes. Truly one of the best holiday books I've ever read.
#book blogger#book recommendations#booklr#reading#romance books#the holiday trap#holiday books#roan parrish#cozy reads#lgbtqia#lgbtqia books#gay books#lesbian books#lgbtq representation
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I've been listening to "invitation to the blues" by Roan Parrish and there it's so beautifully written and Greg Boudreaux reads it
It deals with being in a romantic relationship with depression and anxiety
I just love it so much
#its part of a world and I love all the different characters#ginger is my favorite but that's bc i relate to her the hardest#or Colin but thats for more sad reasons#the world starts with the book called in the middle of somewhere#and there's 2 books you read and then it's ginger in small change#and then its this book#Roan Parrish is becoming one of my favorite authors#just so good#but they're hurt/comfort not fluff#i cry so much#but i love it?#personal#reading#books#booklr#readblr#invitation to the blues#Roan Parrish
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Review: The Lights on Knockbridge Lane, by @RoanParrish
Review: The Lights on Knockbridge Lane, by @RoanParrish
Title: The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (Garnet Run #3)
Author:Roan Parrish
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Can one man’s crowded, messy life fill another man’s empty heart?
Raising a family was always Adam Mills’ dream, although solo parenting and moving back to tiny Garnet Run certainly were not. After a messy breakup, Adam is doing his best to give his young daughter the life she deserves—including accepting…
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#garnet run#Gay Romance#holiday romance#LGBT#mm romance#Review#roan parrish#Romance#the lights on knockbridge lane
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Books from November
2 Agatha Christies: The Moving Finger and Sleeping Murder. Sleeping Murder had too many coincidences for me to really enjoy it.
A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh. Mystery in the same fashion as Agatha Christie's work. This is the first in a series of like 30 books so not sure i'll do all of them but i've liked the 2 i read so far.
2 Charlotte Stein rereads: Never Sweeter and Beyond Repair. Never Sweeter is a college enemies to lovers romance, while Beyond Repair is a celebrity romance but so intense and close up. Very good.
2 Roan Parrish reads: Riven and Rend. Both music-related romances. I think i preferred Riven but both were awesome.
Haven by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Another reread. Doing that a lot recently.
My Hero Academia Team Up Missions #4. It was fine. Wish there was more Hawks as he was on the cover. The Eri story was pretty cute though.
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Reading update:
AHH. So good. I read Timothy Janovsky’s first book in this series, Never Been Kissed, and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it. I loved this one. It’s about a spoiled rich boy (the titular Matthew Prince), who gets sent away to the small town where his mother was raised. There, he meets Hector, who also turns out to be his roommate (Hector is staying with Matthew’s grandparents because he can’t afford housing at the university in town). Obviously, Matthew learns to be less selfish and entitled, and he falls in love with Hector, and everything is adorable and wonderful. 5 stars.
This one was...alright. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Barista and rock star fall in love, overcome obstacles to be together, the standard. The barista is interesting because he’s at university but has a very young daughter with his best friend, because they got drunk and slept together, despite him being fully aware he’s gay. So he’s laser focused on school and work so he can send money back to them and also finish uni on time, so the friend can take her turn with her education. The MC’s posh family is also homophobic, and I always enjoy a good putting-the-homophobic-family-in-their-place scene. The main problem with this book is that it needed better editing. It just could have been a lot tighter. And some of the jokes fell flat, like...I felt like I was kind of missing something? It was probably funnier in Hayden Stone’s head.
This is the second in the Logan, Minnesota series. This one takes place a year after the first and focused on one of the side characters from the first, Arthur. I was...concerned, because it’s made abundantly clear in Let it Snow (the first book) that Arthur is very into BDSM. Since that can be one of my squicks, I was iffy on this book. Also Arthur was obnoxious in the first book. I ended up liking it a lot. Arthur, unsurprisingly, is less obnoxious in his own book, and I really liked Gabriel, the town library who he falls in love with. There are some BDSM elements but quite mild, so it didn’t squick me.
This was more of a novella, about a guy trying to get home for Christmas. A winter storm shuts down flights all across the country, and by the time it occurs to him to rent a car, all the rental cars are gone too...but then the person who got the very last rental car walks up to the desk and it turns out...the main character knows him! They went to high school together, and they clearly have History. A road trip ensues and of course they get together. Considering how short this book was, there was a lot of sex. Which was fine lol. You know, good for them. Again, fine, but not amazing.
Oh, and honestly, I’m pretty sure it’s the same person kissing himself on the cover?? I’ve spent too long staring at it at this point.
Roan Parrish is really turning into one of my favorite authors. I’m asking you to ignore the incredibly cheesy cover and that tagline on it. This book is about a man, Adam, who adopted his sister’s child, and eventually his partner (it’s unclear if they were married) is like, nah, I’m not interested in this. So Adam and his daughter, Gus, return to the town Adam is from—Garnet Run, WY (this is the third in the Garnet Run series). Their neighbor is this weirdo, Wes, who only comes out at night and never talks to anyone. Gus breaks into his house because she sees something interesting and is extremely taken with all his pets, especially his tarantula (Bettie). Adam is obviously horrified by his daughter’s behavior, but Gus can’t take a hint, and she keeps bugging Wes. Adam and Wes obviously end up falling in love.
The ostensible plot of this book is that because Gus is sad about her other dad abandoning her (and he legit does), Adam asks her what she wants for Christmas, and she says for their house to have the most Christmas lights ever. And it’s fine, it works, it causes the wedge between Adam and Wes before their inevitable HEA—but the characters in this book were just, ahhhh. Lovely. I loved them. We got to see Charlie and Rye from the previous book, which was fun, and River, who is Adam’s sibling, had a pretty decent role. Wes’s background and the reason he’s the way he is is pretty sad, but it worked really well, and I loved how enthusiastic and sensitive Adam was. I even loved Gus! A child character! So yeah, I recommend this one. 5 stars.
The third in the Logan, Minnesota series. This one focuses on the third friend in the trio from the first book, Paul. What we mainly know about Paul going into this book is that he was friends with benefits with Arthur, but really, he wanted a relationship—and when it became clear he wasn’t going to get one with Arthur, he moved out of their shared cabin. Turns out Paul is very shy and desperately loves Hallmark holiday movies, because everything turns out okay in the end, and that’s what he wants. He can’t find a man who wants to settle down and also his family is completely horrible and thinks him being gay is a phase (he’s 38).
His love interest is Kyle, who is 25 and has had a crush on Paul since middle school. I love an age gap romance so right away this one kind of became my favorite in the series. There’s a lot of angsting about the age gap at first (by Paul). What I liked a lot about this one was that these two guys really really want to be with someone, and they’re looking for a partner to settle down with. It was a change from the first two books.
Another Roan Parrish novel. This one has actually been in my TBR pile for months, and I didn’t realize it was a holiday book until recently. It’s very different from what she usually writes, but was absolutely gorgeous. Really lyrical and magical. It’s about Alex, a baker, and Corbin, a very strange man who lives in Alex’s Michigan hometown. Corbin is intensely, heartbreakingly lonely, because he’s been told all his life that his family is cursed, and that anyone they fall in love with will die within a year. So he doesn’t let himself get close to anyone.
Highly highly recommend this one. Definitely a 5 star read.
More Fence. Nothing really to say about it, it’s a bunch of pretty, gay boys fencing.
I’m just going to copy my review from Storygraph here, and it does contain spoilers, so if you want to read this book (please don’t, it was so bad), I guess don’t read my review:
Where to begin with this book. I'm a fan of Simmons' work—Hyperion is possibly my favorite book ever, and I really enjoyed the much-maligned The Terror. First off, I actually liked the mountain-climbing detail. Yes, it was long and technical, but that was the strongest part of the book. I probably would have given it a 3.5 star rating if not for the final section.
I guess Simmons wanted to write a WWII book and a Mount Everest book, and for some reason he thought it would be a good idea to make them into the same book.
The big twist is that a whole bunch of people died (and climbed Mt Everest) for photographic evidence that Hitler had sex with young boys—and we find out in the epilogue that the threat of this getting out stops Hitler from invading the UK in 1941. Absurd. Absolutely absurd. I was actually laughing. This book was written pre-2016, so I guess it wasn't as painfully obvious that people can do horrible things and still rise to and stay in power, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief.
Also, Winston Churchill is in it, because of course he is. And Lawrence of Arabia and Charlie Chaplin show up. Why? Who knows! Why not.
Literally the only reason I'm giving this book 1 star instead of like, 0.25 stars is because Yetis may have saved the main character from the Nazis.
And this was not in my Storygraph review but I keep thinking about it—if Hitler didn’t want these photos getting out so badly, couldn’t Churchill have, idk, stopped the whole war? And the Holocaust? As my wife put it, Mr Simmons, I am vexed by the gaping plot hole in your novel.
UGH
Current read/palate cleanser:
This is another one set in Logan, MN, but is part of a new series. I haven’t actually started reading it yet but just looking at it is soothing me after reading the trash fire that was The Abominable.
#you're a mean one matthew prince#timothy janovsky#when london snow falls#hayden stone#sleigh ride#heidi cullinan#if only in my dreams#keira andrews#the lights on knockbridge lane#roan parrish#winter wonderland#the remaking of corbin wale#fence#cs pacat#the abominable#dan simmons#the christmas fling#reading tag
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💗💗 February Wrap up 💗💗
It was a really good month! I participated in a Bingo and I'm happy to share that I had fun and I didn't feel pressured, which is good.
One of my new goals is to read more by Stacy Reid, her books are amazing!
The highlights of my month were:
🐺 The Wolf and the Wallflower by Stacy Reid
🏙 Going Down by Cat Wynn
🎧 Can I tell You Something by Holly June Smith
🎿 Come as you are by Jess K Hardy
#february wrap up#romance novel#book recommendation#historical romance#contemporary romance#roan parrish#molly o'keefe#stacy reid#cassie mint#claire kent#cat wynn#naima simone#jess k hardy#aster glen gray
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Today's post is a throwback interview with one of my favorite queer romance writers, Roan Parrish. Lots of writing advice I've valued for a long time
#roan parrish#romance#romance writing#invitation to the blues#lgbt#writeblr#writing advice#mm romance#readblr#bookblr#booklr
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Quote:
"It was the difference between strawberry jam and a perfect, sun-ripe strawberry. Other people he’d desired had been jam. He’d seen them, liked them, saw potential in them, thought of what he might do with them, how they’d combine. Corbin was a strawberry. If you had any sense at all, you took it as it was and you never questioned it. You didn’t add sugar and you didn’t add heat. You didn’t put it in a sandwich or use it in a cake. You didn’t do anything to it because it was already as absolutely, perfectly a strawberry as it would ever be. You recognized it, and were grateful for it. And, if you were lucky, you savored it." - Roan Parrish "The Remaking of Corbin Wale"
❤️🧡💛💚💜💙
#roan parrish#the remaking of corbin wale#extremly beautiful book#extraordinary characters#wendy's favorite quotes
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