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carolinag's review
4.0
I received an ARC from M. Hollis, one of the authors in this anthology.
You come for the queerness, you get the queerness.
This anthology has so much variety. Every story has a different genre. Every story has different kinds of queer characters that will resonate with you regardless of who you are. And if you came looking for queer representation, you'll probably find some here.
I loved these stories. I loved the well-rounded characters who feel like real people taking their lives into their own hands and facing their struggles. I loved the writing: always different but always beautiful. I loved the beautiful, character-driven plots. I loved everything.
You come for the queerness. You stay for the great stories.
You come for the queerness, you get the queerness.
This anthology has so much variety. Every story has a different genre. Every story has different kinds of queer characters that will resonate with you regardless of who you are. And if you came looking for queer representation, you'll probably find some here.
I loved these stories. I loved the well-rounded characters who feel like real people taking their lives into their own hands and facing their struggles. I loved the writing: always different but always beautiful. I loved the beautiful, character-driven plots. I loved everything.
You come for the queerness. You stay for the great stories.
moh's review
4.0
This is a very nice collection of queer short stories. The two stand-outs for me were “Tenderness” by Xan West, which is gorgeous, gentle, and hopeful in exactly the ways I needed, and “Gasping for Air” by Pascal J. Ellen, which perfectly captured so much love in those moments of staying out too late because everything feels exactly right.
simonlorden's review
4.0
Read on my blog.
Number of stories: 9
LGBQAI+: Every story has LGBTQAI+ main characters of various orientations, including trans women, gay trans men, aromantic partners, nonbinary characters, etc.
Sex on page: Yes, in certain stories
I knew this anthology couldn’t be bad when it started with Sacha Lamb, and I was right. I ended up loving every single story except one (more on that below) and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this anthology. I loved the diverse identities and even genres, and hey, there’s never enough happy queer stories.
miss me with that gay shit (please don’t) by sacha lamb: Jewish gay trans boys in love are apparently Sacha Lamb’s Thing, and I love it. Also featuring: great sibling relationship, a Muslim/Jewish lesbian side couple, and “Tumblr language” that is hilarious instead of forced. I would like to give this 10 stars out of 5.
gifts of spring by shira glassman: This story is about a trans woman mage in a fantasy world who meets a Jewish acrobat/performer. Most of the story is about them spending time together and helping out others in town. It was a lovely short story. (Note: there is on-page sex in this one.)
wishing on the perseid by kay c. sulli: For someone who really hates the outdoors, I love reading about outdoorsy people and romances. This one is a m/m romance between a park ranger and a visitor who go on hikes and wonder if the other one is interested or just being friendly. I loved both main characters and I loved the happy ending – maybe wishing on stars does work sometimes 😉 (Note: this one also has on-page sex.)
hunt and peck by teresa theophano: Absolutely wonderful story about two teenage girls (one of them butch) in the 1980s who meet during a typing competition and fall in love. It also has a lesbian couple with a child as side characters. This is one of my favourites in this collection. (tw for homomisic parents, though)
first light at dawn by nyri bakkalian: This story is written as an e-mail (letter?) from a trans woman who details being closeted trans in the army, living together with her girlfriend, and other things to a friend of hers. It has a lot of descriptions of trauma, PTSD and the army, but I still loved it.
dragons do not by evelyn deshane: Another one of my favourites. In this world, disabled people injured in accidents get dragons as service animals, but they are also separated from most people by the government who want to hide their failures (=the accidents that caused disabilities). The main character is a queer woman who comes to terms with losing her girlfriend and looks forward to getting to know another woman with a dragon. I really loved the “dragons as service animals” idea, and how it was gradually proven that the dragon rulebook given out by the government is bullshit.
planchette by carolyn gage: This might be cruel to say, but this story is single-handedly the reason why I didn’t rate this anthology 5 stars. It is written as a screenplay in the 1800s, which was actually interesting, and I enjoyed parts of it – but really hated others. I’m not even sure if Jude is supposed to be a trans man or a butch lesbian, but in either case this feels like messy representation. A lesbian side character is brutally murdered in front of her girlfriend, and even the ending is ambiguous at best, so I just… really don’t understand the inclusion of this story in an anthology that focuses on happy queer stories.
birthday landscapes by e. h. timms: Fantasy story about two aromantic people who decided to raise children together. One of them is also a famous adventurer with many songs written about him, that he doesn’t necessarily appreciate. I didn’t love this story as much as some of the others, but I still enjoyed it, and seeing aromantic people like this (happy, and with the word used on page) was great.
a gallant rescue by a. p. raymond: This story is about a spaceship crew rescuing their female friend’s girlfriend from an arranged marriage. It really is a rescue mission, with breaking in and sneaking out and everything. Other than the lesbian couple, it also has a polyamorous relationship with a woman and two nonbinary people, who both use different pronouns (they/them and ey/em, specifically). I absolutely loved this, and give me more nonbinary and polyam people in stories please.
For other opinions, check out this review
which I found pretty neat.
My rating: 🌈🌈🌈🌈/5.
Number of stories: 9
LGBQAI+: Every story has LGBTQAI+ main characters of various orientations, including trans women, gay trans men, aromantic partners, nonbinary characters, etc.
Sex on page: Yes, in certain stories
I knew this anthology couldn’t be bad when it started with Sacha Lamb, and I was right. I ended up loving every single story except one (more on that below) and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this anthology. I loved the diverse identities and even genres, and hey, there’s never enough happy queer stories.
miss me with that gay shit (please don’t) by sacha lamb: Jewish gay trans boys in love are apparently Sacha Lamb’s Thing, and I love it. Also featuring: great sibling relationship, a Muslim/Jewish lesbian side couple, and “Tumblr language” that is hilarious instead of forced. I would like to give this 10 stars out of 5.
gifts of spring by shira glassman: This story is about a trans woman mage in a fantasy world who meets a Jewish acrobat/performer. Most of the story is about them spending time together and helping out others in town. It was a lovely short story. (Note: there is on-page sex in this one.)
wishing on the perseid by kay c. sulli: For someone who really hates the outdoors, I love reading about outdoorsy people and romances. This one is a m/m romance between a park ranger and a visitor who go on hikes and wonder if the other one is interested or just being friendly. I loved both main characters and I loved the happy ending – maybe wishing on stars does work sometimes 😉 (Note: this one also has on-page sex.)
hunt and peck by teresa theophano: Absolutely wonderful story about two teenage girls (one of them butch) in the 1980s who meet during a typing competition and fall in love. It also has a lesbian couple with a child as side characters. This is one of my favourites in this collection. (tw for homomisic parents, though)
first light at dawn by nyri bakkalian: This story is written as an e-mail (letter?) from a trans woman who details being closeted trans in the army, living together with her girlfriend, and other things to a friend of hers. It has a lot of descriptions of trauma, PTSD and the army, but I still loved it.
dragons do not by evelyn deshane: Another one of my favourites. In this world, disabled people injured in accidents get dragons as service animals, but they are also separated from most people by the government who want to hide their failures (=the accidents that caused disabilities). The main character is a queer woman who comes to terms with losing her girlfriend and looks forward to getting to know another woman with a dragon. I really loved the “dragons as service animals” idea, and how it was gradually proven that the dragon rulebook given out by the government is bullshit.
planchette by carolyn gage: This might be cruel to say, but this story is single-handedly the reason why I didn’t rate this anthology 5 stars. It is written as a screenplay in the 1800s, which was actually interesting, and I enjoyed parts of it – but really hated others. I’m not even sure if Jude is supposed to be a trans man or a butch lesbian, but in either case this feels like messy representation. A lesbian side character is brutally murdered in front of her girlfriend, and even the ending is ambiguous at best, so I just… really don’t understand the inclusion of this story in an anthology that focuses on happy queer stories.
birthday landscapes by e. h. timms: Fantasy story about two aromantic people who decided to raise children together. One of them is also a famous adventurer with many songs written about him, that he doesn’t necessarily appreciate. I didn’t love this story as much as some of the others, but I still enjoyed it, and seeing aromantic people like this (happy, and with the word used on page) was great.
a gallant rescue by a. p. raymond: This story is about a spaceship crew rescuing their female friend’s girlfriend from an arranged marriage. It really is a rescue mission, with breaking in and sneaking out and everything. Other than the lesbian couple, it also has a polyamorous relationship with a woman and two nonbinary people, who both use different pronouns (they/them and ey/em, specifically). I absolutely loved this, and give me more nonbinary and polyam people in stories please.
For other opinions, check out this review
which I found pretty neat.
My rating: 🌈🌈🌈🌈/5.
taylor627's review
5.0
Overall Rating: 4.5 but I refuse to round down to 4.
Why does this not have more attention?? It is so amazing! There are 9 stories in this anthology which are all chocked full of queer rep, as well as POC, and disability rep! Anyone reading this will definitely find at least one short story to their taste! I'll give a brief review of each story below!
Miss Me with That Gay Shit (Please Don’t) – 2/5
This story is so sweet and has a “does he like me or not?” scenario going on for the gay trans boy MC. The only problem I had with this one is the following quote:
The first problem I have with this is that grey and purple are the colours for asexuality, not aromanticism, and while this in itself is only a mild mistake, the two identities are often conflated and just a little search could have fixed this. The bigger problem I had with this quote is that the joke implies that aromantic people should have to identify themselves as such so as to not waste the time of allomantic people, and that just rubs me the wrong way.
Gifts of Spring – 3/5
This story has a trans woman as the MC, who is on the run from the king and meets a handsome stranger. It has magic and acrobatics and cute encounters with some of the residents of the city. I didn’t enjoy this story as much, but it was still well written and enjoyable.
Wishing on the Perseid – 5/5
This is such an adorable story about two men who are camping between semesters at college. The MC is gay and there is a m/m relationship.
Hunt and Peck – 5/5
I loved this story so much. There is a relationship between the bisexual MC and Bri, who is a tomboy that the MC initially mistakes as a boy. While it has a happy relationship, it also has moments of homomisia from Bri’s mother that show the reality of some teenagers.
First Light at Dawn – 4.5/5
This story is told in letter format, where the MC writes a letter to an old friend and tells them about their PTSD, and their relationship. It’s such a good story and it made me cry a bit.
Dragons Do Not – 5/5
I would love if this story became part of a novel. Dragons who help people with disabilities seems like such an amazing idea. I also love that there were a couple points throughout which show that you should always ask about pronouns rather than assume because you could be wrong.
Planchette – 3/5
I don’t really like the style of this one. It is told like a play with actions and emotions in parentheses and I don’t know, maybe I would like it better in a physical copy, but not in ebook form. Style aside, the story was alright. Not my favourite, but, it was good.
Birthday Landscapes – 6/5
The word aromantic on a page! Two aromantic characters! In a happy platonic relationship with each other! This makes me so happy! Val and Rose also made a contract about having children and now have the twins Emlan and Lusi, and this story is just so sweet and I love it.
A Gallant Rescue – 5/5
A heist story where a crew must rescue one of their own from the clutches of her father who is forcing her to marry a man when she is already in a f/f relationship with Ally. There was a bunch of different pronouns to learn which was awesome. My only complaint for this story is that it wasn’t long enough. I want this as a novel!
Why does this not have more attention?? It is so amazing! There are 9 stories in this anthology which are all chocked full of queer rep, as well as POC, and disability rep! Anyone reading this will definitely find at least one short story to their taste! I'll give a brief review of each story below!
Miss Me with That Gay Shit (Please Don’t) – 2/5
This story is so sweet and has a “does he like me or not?” scenario going on for the gay trans boy MC. The only problem I had with this one is the following quote:
“Maybe I was barking up the wrong tree entirely and he was aromantic. If so, he could have at least done me the courtesy of wearing grey-and-purple socks or something.”
The first problem I have with this is that grey and purple are the colours for asexuality, not aromanticism, and while this in itself is only a mild mistake, the two identities are often conflated and just a little search could have fixed this. The bigger problem I had with this quote is that the joke implies that aromantic people should have to identify themselves as such so as to not waste the time of allomantic people, and that just rubs me the wrong way.
Gifts of Spring – 3/5
This story has a trans woman as the MC, who is on the run from the king and meets a handsome stranger. It has magic and acrobatics and cute encounters with some of the residents of the city. I didn’t enjoy this story as much, but it was still well written and enjoyable.
Wishing on the Perseid – 5/5
This is such an adorable story about two men who are camping between semesters at college. The MC is gay and there is a m/m relationship.
Hunt and Peck – 5/5
I loved this story so much. There is a relationship between the bisexual MC and Bri, who is a tomboy that the MC initially mistakes as a boy. While it has a happy relationship, it also has moments of homomisia from Bri’s mother that show the reality of some teenagers.
First Light at Dawn – 4.5/5
This story is told in letter format, where the MC writes a letter to an old friend and tells them about their PTSD, and their relationship. It’s such a good story and it made me cry a bit.
Dragons Do Not – 5/5
I would love if this story became part of a novel. Dragons who help people with disabilities seems like such an amazing idea. I also love that there were a couple points throughout which show that you should always ask about pronouns rather than assume because you could be wrong.
Planchette – 3/5
I don’t really like the style of this one. It is told like a play with actions and emotions in parentheses and I don’t know, maybe I would like it better in a physical copy, but not in ebook form. Style aside, the story was alright. Not my favourite, but, it was good.
Birthday Landscapes – 6/5
The word aromantic on a page! Two aromantic characters! In a happy platonic relationship with each other! This makes me so happy! Val and Rose also made a contract about having children and now have the twins Emlan and Lusi, and this story is just so sweet and I love it.
A Gallant Rescue – 5/5
A heist story where a crew must rescue one of their own from the clutches of her father who is forcing her to marry a man when she is already in a f/f relationship with Ally. There was a bunch of different pronouns to learn which was awesome. My only complaint for this story is that it wasn’t long enough. I want this as a novel!
sashastorylover's review
3.0
mathematically calculated rating: 3.66
This was a good anthology, featuring great variety of different genres and different characters. I appreciated that so many stories had trans characters, there are aromantic characters and polyamorous characters. In my experience, too many queer/lgbtq+ anthologies tend to center around cis white gay men, so the variety is much appreciated.
However, I made a mistake of picking this book to read at the end of the year. I feel this restlessness every time in late December so I wasn’t in the best headspace to read the book.
All in all, I do recommend to read Queerly Loving. Lots of unique and interesting stories, I believe all of them are ownvoices.
Mini-reviews of each story:
Miss Me With The Gay Shit (Please Don’t) by Sacha Lamb - 5 stars! So cute and fun! About Elijah who’s Jewish trans boy and him developing a crush on newly-hot Jewish teen Nick. Also featuring lesbian twin sister Aviva, her Muslim girlfriend and lots of awkward teen shenanigans.
Gifts of Spring by Shira Glassman - 3 stars. It was alright but I didn’t really care about this story.
Wishing on the Perseid by Kay C. Sulli - 4 stars. A lovely story about camper Zach and ranger Ryan.
Hunt and Peck by Teresa Theophano - 3 stars. A rather lovely sapphic story about two girls meeting on a typing contest. I think the story takes place in the 80-90s, USA.
First Light at Dawn by Nyri Bakkalian -5 stars! Amazing story! It’s written in a form of a letter from one friend reconnecting with the other. Kate Davis is writing about her life, her PTSD and her military service in Iraq as a pilot. She is telling about her transitioning. Kate is trans lesbian army vet who’s dating bisexual librarian Bree. The way Kate has told about her girlfriend was so sweet. Kate is very open with life and experiences serving in the military and her life after. It’s such a strong and impactful story, the email format adds authenticity and genuinity to the narration.
“There are good days too. We just have to wait for the dawn.”
Dragons Do Not by Evelyn Deshane - 4 stars! Cute and bittersweet story about Juneau who lost hearing in the mining accident, the government provided her with a dragon helper. Now a year later Juneau and her dragon are figuring things out. Juneau is lesbian, she meets Anna, a trans woman, who walks with braces and who also has a dragon helper. I would very much like to learn more about these characters and this fantasy world.
Planchette by Carolyne Cage - 3 stars. Painful and sad historical short story set in the east coast of US,19th century. The ending is somewhat hopeful, though. The story is told in a form of a play script, I liked it.
Birthday Landscapes by E H Timms - 3 stars. In this story two aromantic people decide on having kids. The man is often away on his warrior-hero things, but he comes back to the twins birthday and they have lovely time all four of them. The warrior is disabled, he walks with braces and crutches, he has PTSD from the wars. I love how self-contained the story was; it’s a good fantasy short.
A Gallant Rescue by A.P. Raymond - 3 stars. Sci-fi short story about rescuing girl from arranged marriage. The main character is Robin and their two lovers Johnny (trans woman) and Mattie (uses ey/ eir pronouns). Robin’s grandfather is cool.
This was a good anthology, featuring great variety of different genres and different characters. I appreciated that so many stories had trans characters, there are aromantic characters and polyamorous characters. In my experience, too many queer/lgbtq+ anthologies tend to center around cis white gay men, so the variety is much appreciated.
However, I made a mistake of picking this book to read at the end of the year. I feel this restlessness every time in late December so I wasn’t in the best headspace to read the book.
All in all, I do recommend to read Queerly Loving. Lots of unique and interesting stories, I believe all of them are ownvoices.
Mini-reviews of each story:
Miss Me With The Gay Shit (Please Don’t) by Sacha Lamb - 5 stars! So cute and fun! About Elijah who’s Jewish trans boy and him developing a crush on newly-hot Jewish teen Nick. Also featuring lesbian twin sister Aviva, her Muslim girlfriend and lots of awkward teen shenanigans.
Gifts of Spring by Shira Glassman - 3 stars. It was alright but I didn’t really care about this story.
Wishing on the Perseid by Kay C. Sulli - 4 stars. A lovely story about camper Zach and ranger Ryan.
Hunt and Peck by Teresa Theophano - 3 stars. A rather lovely sapphic story about two girls meeting on a typing contest. I think the story takes place in the 80-90s, USA.
First Light at Dawn by Nyri Bakkalian -5 stars! Amazing story! It’s written in a form of a letter from one friend reconnecting with the other. Kate Davis is writing about her life, her PTSD and her military service in Iraq as a pilot. She is telling about her transitioning. Kate is trans lesbian army vet who’s dating bisexual librarian Bree. The way Kate has told about her girlfriend was so sweet. Kate is very open with life and experiences serving in the military and her life after. It’s such a strong and impactful story, the email format adds authenticity and genuinity to the narration.
“There are good days too. We just have to wait for the dawn.”
Dragons Do Not by Evelyn Deshane - 4 stars! Cute and bittersweet story about Juneau who lost hearing in the mining accident, the government provided her with a dragon helper. Now a year later Juneau and her dragon are figuring things out. Juneau is lesbian, she meets Anna, a trans woman, who walks with braces and who also has a dragon helper. I would very much like to learn more about these characters and this fantasy world.
Planchette by Carolyne Cage - 3 stars. Painful and sad historical short story set in the east coast of US,19th century. The ending is somewhat hopeful, though. The story is told in a form of a play script, I liked it.
Birthday Landscapes by E H Timms - 3 stars. In this story two aromantic people decide on having kids. The man is often away on his warrior-hero things, but he comes back to the twins birthday and they have lovely time all four of them. The warrior is disabled, he walks with braces and crutches, he has PTSD from the wars. I love how self-contained the story was; it’s a good fantasy short.
A Gallant Rescue by A.P. Raymond - 3 stars. Sci-fi short story about rescuing girl from arranged marriage. The main character is Robin and their two lovers Johnny (trans woman) and Mattie (uses ey/ eir pronouns). Robin’s grandfather is cool.
jdbracknell's review
4.0
Cute collection of queer HEAs with something for everyone - there’s an 80s typing contest romance, a dragons as support animals fantasy, and an aromatic older couple raising kids in a land of war and magic. Would be a great addition for anyone’s shelf but especially librarians or book shop buyers wanting to stock genre defying queer stories.
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