The term “cozy mystery” first registered with me shortly after finishing Real Murders, the first book in the Aurora Teagarden series, written by Charlaine Harris. It probably goes without saying, but I’ve read that series and just about all the other books she’s written, including the Southern Vampire Mysteries. You know, the Sookie Stackhouse books. I’mRead More
Even Vampires Hate High School: The Coldest Touch by Isabel Sterling
I’ve had The Coldest Touch by Isabel Sterling on my bookshelf for a couple of years—a victim of the neverending TBR list. I would say that any vampire love story is perfect for me, but the sparkly baseball family forced me to have to qualify that statement long ago. The Coldest Touch has none of the problems of thatRead More
A Small-Town Coming Out Story: Cash Delgado Is Living the Dream by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! [A quick note on spoilers: If you want to get very technical, this entire review is a spoiler. Seriously, if the mere mention of the word “spoilers” makes your skin crawl, here’s the short version of this review: Go read Cash Delgado Is Living theRead More
A Lavender Haze Love Story: Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! “I wish I could say it gets better, but it only gets worse.” “Nothing says love like Taylor Swift.” There is a lot to like about Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings, but these two lines are what made the book stand out for me. In context,Read More
Falling in Love at the Food Packing Convention: Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Voskuni
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I enjoyed Sorry, Bro, Taleen Voskuni’s first novel: the main character breaks up with a non-Armenian tech bro, falls in love with an Armenian woman, and struggles with her identity as a bisexual woman. What’s not to like? I also appreciated the opportunity to learnRead More
Grumpy/Sunshine Behind the Bar: In Walked Trouble by Dana Hawkins
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! In Walked Trouble, Dana Hawkins’s newest novel, takes us away from the coffee shop of Not in the Plan and into Nueve’s, a Puerto Rican bar and restaurant that should totally exist. (Has anyone else noticed just how many great concepts for restaurants, bars, coffee shops,Read More
Awards Season, a Fake Relationship, and Healing from Trauma in Cover Story by Rachel Lacey
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! What does Rachel Lacey’s new novel Cover Story have in common with the second-highest grossing film of 1992, The Bodyguard? A lot. Or nothing at all. If you’ve seen The Bodyguard, Cover Story will definitely feel familiar. There really are only so many ways that a celebrity/bodyguard romance can go,Read More
All the Monsters in Kai Cheng Thom’s Falling Back in Love with Being Human
Editor’s note: This is one of the rare Lesbrary reviews of a book that doesn’t have sapphic content. Kai Cheng Thom dedicates Falling Back in Love with Being Human to “all the monsters who are still waiting to be loved.” Fun fact: In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the being that Victor creates is referred to as a “creature” far moreRead More
An Epic, Slow Burn F/F Romance: The Senator’s Wife by Jen Lyon
Amazon Affiliate Link Since reading The Senator’s Wife, I’ve been thinking about what exactly my criteria is for rating a book with five stars. Anne of Green Gables is the first five-star book I ever read; Anne of Avonlea was, unsurprisingly, the second. The three books by Jeanette Winterson that were the subject of my undergraduate thesis—The Passion, Written on theRead More
Censorship, Expression, and Signaling in Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Malinda Lo’s novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021) has won multiple awards and has been reviewed multiple times at the Lesbrary already, so let’s start this review somewhere different: Last Night at the Telegraph Club has been banned and/or challenged at least 34 times in 14 states. HavingRead More