stargazer3845's reviews
48 reviews

Pieces of Us by T.B. Markinson, Miranda MacLeod

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 27%.
Too much trauma 
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A Lesbian's Guide to Women by Erica Lee

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funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Really spicy, really sweet sapphic romance. I loved getting to know the characters and their lives. Very low angst, too. Just a really fun read, already re-reading it.
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Off the Rails by Rachel Lacey

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A lovely short sapphic romance novel. I really enjoyed it.
No Rings Attached by Rachel Lacey

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emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A lovely sapphic romance novel, with pretty typical spice levels and pacing. However,
the third-act breakup, etc. is devastating
and more emotional than I was expecting. I had failed to notice that this author
is quite fond of that pattern
, and this was the most intensely emotional of hers I've read. But, I trusted her to stick to the implicit guarantees of the sapphic romance genre and the subset of that genre I read: satisfying spice, not worrying about men, adults at least eventually making mature decisions for a healthy relationship, and a happily-ever-after. And she kept her side of the bargain. I love the characters, I just didn't expect to spill so many tears.
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Temptation at Randy's by Emily Alter

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lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The author handled the trans rep in this book wonderfully, it had me (as a trans woman) feeling very comfortable, which was nice. There was more focus on dysphoria than I expected given the CW at the start, but it wasn't too painful for me personally. There was also more focus on D/s dynamics and kink than I expected, but it was OK with me. (Frankly it was quite hot, and also sweet.) The word "sapphic" was used in some blurbs and in the text, but it didn't feel super sapphic to me, perhaps just generally queer. The spicy scenes were hot, though not what I'm used to as someone who recently started reading sapphic romance novels. It definitely didn't feel straight, though, thank goodness.

I only really have two main disappointments. The first is that the exposition was very timid and therefore confusing. I feel like I lacked some prerequisite knowledge or missed something, like why is a meetup at a diner called a "munch" and inherently kink adjacent? (Am I not queer enough or cool enough to fit in with or understand this crowd?) How does Claude present, carry themself, etc? Frankly, how does Arlene? Not a lot in terms of "painting a picture with words," sadly. Also, I can understand why Claude
might not want to describe 'that video' in detail
but why didn't Arlene tell us more about this important underlying issue, given that it is alternating PoV? That was the kind of questions that I felt while reading. I felt like I didn't really understand the characters very well or get close to them for this reason.

My other disappointment is that it ended rather abruptly and unexpectedly, without a lot of feeling of closure or conflict resolution. I was literally stunned when I turned the page and it said "Epilogue". I would have liked to have the epilogue plus a little more closure in the body of the novel, then a more conventional epilogue with a longer-term flash-forward. I was hoping for a more conventional romance novel "tie up loose ends in a neat bow" ending than I got.
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Compiling to Assembly from Scratch by Vladimir Keleshev

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informative fast-paced

4.5

Interesting book, helped me learn parser combinators better as well as ARM assembly, neither of which I expected. (And it even had info about garbage collection and type checking.) Now to help me keep up with my compiler friends, the author needs to write one about SSA (static single assignment) intermediate representations and optimization passes  :-).

I read the free online version of this on the author's web site.
Girl on Geek by Hayden Archer, Mia Archer

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.
Seemed repetitive (I think it was initially serialized). I could sense the direction and likely
forced outing
and I didn't like it. Also terribly unrealistic and awkward writing style (
nipples do not strain towards anything
). It just felt "off".

Also, the association with
futanari
lit (that I only noticed after I started reading) made me very uncomfortable, as a trans woman, even as it made me more forgiving of the writing quirks and the apparently
so-called "cross gender"
pen name of the author, based on the Amazon blurb.
Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

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emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a 🌶️ one! At least twice the number of sexy scenes as I'm used to, and it's a "one-night-to-forever" trope (loosely - as well as age gap) so it starts off with a bang...

This one was probably a little too tense for me at this point in my life: unlike most sapphic romances I've read, this one has people making a lot of unwise decisions. (Not a spoiler because it's literally in the title.) But things do get resolved, as you would hope. That said, it was definitely the least formulaic of the romances I've read so far (I think this is #5 for me), which some readers might really appreciate. 

I got very invested in the characters and really enjoyed the book, even if it made me anxious until I finished it. 😅
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The AM Show by T.B. Markinson, Miranda MacLeod

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emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Another charming and witty sapphic romance from this pair. I really enjoyed this one, a good palate cleanser after a few DNF. Relatively light-hearted despite the turmoil the main characters find themselves in.
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Cover Story by Rachel Lacey

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emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An enjoyable read, though tense given the subject matter.
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