The Isle in the Silver Sea is my second Tasha Suri novel. I read The Jasmine Throne in 2024 and found myself impressed with the world building. Whilst its sequel still sits on my ever-growing TBR pile, I knew I couldn’t pass up the chance to read this new release when I saw it advertised—partially because lady knights!Read More
Love Across Lifetimes: The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri Review
On the Lesbrary’s list of favorite 2025 releases, I named The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri as both my most anticipated 2025 release and my favorite sapphic read of the year. As said in that post, the author’s clear yet lyrical writing delivers an aching star-crossed romance, a high-stakes adventure, and ever-relevant anti-colonial commentary. InRead More
A Sapphic Dragon-Slaying Knight: Brighter Than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang Review
In Brighter Than Scale, Swifter than Flame, Neon Yang gives us a bright, fast-paced novella about dragons and knights and clandestine feelings. I have to admit, I was initially drawn in by the luscious cover art by Tran Nguyen, featuring a tough woman in beautiful armor with a second gorgeous, tattooed woman draped over her back asRead More
A Knight, A Princess, and Sapphic Soulmates: The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tashi Suri Review
The Isle in the Silver Sea (out October 21, 2025) by Tashi Suri is a story about stories, set in an alternate version of England, called the Isle. In it, we follow two incarnates—people who are reincarnated to follow the path of a written tale, like The Merciless Maiden, or in this case, The Knight and the Witch.Read More
Faeries, Dragons, and Space Monsters, Oh My: Three Sapphic SFF Novellas
I first want to give a shout-out to the Asian Readathon, which Cindy Pham (@WithCindy on Youtube) hosts during May. While we’re near the end of the month, the associated Directory of Asian Books is an incredible resource year-round, and both it and this year’s challenge contain an LGBT category. With that in mind, I’veRead More
A Beguiling and Mysterious Fantasy: Where Shadows Bloom by Catherine Bakewell Review
Where Shadows Bloom by Catherine Bakewell describes itself thus: A mesmerizing daydream with a subtle edge of darkness that will leave you utterly unable to put it down, Where Shadows Bloom pits terrifying monsters, chilling secrets, capricious gods, immortal kings, and death itself against the unstoppable love between two girls. Sadly, I found this set my expectations tooRead More
Dragon-Slaying Knights and Devotion: Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame by Neon Yang Review
I love stories about knights, especially gay knights, and especially repressed knights. Something about the parallels of wearing full armour to protect yourself and keeping all emotional walls up is something I find extremely compelling to read. So Neon Yang’s novella Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame (out May 6th, 2025), about a stoic knight who never removes herRead More
Finally, the Canonically Queer Lady Knight We Deserve in The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond
Charlotte Bond’s dark fantasy novella, The Fireborne Blade, is a beautifully straightforward dungeon crawler until it isn’t. Protagonist Sir Maddileh is a rarity as a knighted woman and she’s in dire need of a truly spectacular feat to reclaim her honor and restore her standing at court. Enter her current foolhardy quest to retrieve the Fireborne Blade. The onlyRead More
Kids Can Fight Injustice Too: Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston by Esme Symes-Smith
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link “My name is Callie, and I’m not a girl. I am here as Papa’s squire, and I want to train as a knight.” Content warnings: verbal and physical abuse from parental figures; internalized homophobia/transphobia; deadnaming; bullying; queer-coded distrust of magic; parental figure with implied depression; implied suicide of SC; death of siblingRead More
Danika reviews Spear by Nicola Griffith
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link The first book I read by Nicola Griffith was Hild, a 560 page (for the first book in the trilogy) meticulously-researched historical fiction title that left me feeling like I was wandering through a dense fog of unfamiliar names and terms–and yet, it was so engaging that IRead More