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tjalexandernyc's reviews
71 reviews
Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun
You might not think two people taking care of a beloved mentor with a terminal illness could be the start of a love story, but you'd be wrong. This book is a beautiful study of life, death, pain, and joy. It's funny and it's devastating. I'm so glad that Alison is pushing the boundaries of what a romance can be.
The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo
dark
mysterious
5.0
First of all, Lee Mandelo's sentences are some of the most beautiful fucking things you'll ever see, so jot that down. A person with that much control and dexterity on the atomic level should, by rights, be weaker in the bigger picture ways, but that's not the case. Absolutely maddening. This novella will give you such delicious unease and terrible, fleshy delight. I loved it to death.
The Scandalous Letters of V and J by Felicia Davin
5.0
Extremely horny and delightfully French! In this mostly epistolary adventure, you get magic, mystery, some violence, swords, post-Revolution historical swag, art, smutty books, and TWO nonbinary/genderfuckery MC's. I'm going to recommend this to all my queer friends who love Les Miz.
The Prospects by KT Hoffman
Hell yes!!!!!! Hell y e s
Listen, I don't know a damn thing about baseball but that didn't stop me from diving into this book. The DRAMA of it all. Sports is high camp!! I get it now. Or I at least get that I was charmed by Gene and Luis. Their love story was tender and sexy. The writing is tight. And the trans character's arc was wonderfully fleshed out while at the same time (drumroll) not! A! BUMMER!
Yes, it's a sports romance but the sport is really another variation on the theme of growing up, learning how to live in your skin, and dealing with the hard things. Big recommend from me! These gays are trying to kill me (affectionate).
Listen, I don't know a damn thing about baseball but that didn't stop me from diving into this book. The DRAMA of it all. Sports is high camp!! I get it now. Or I at least get that I was charmed by Gene and Luis. Their love story was tender and sexy. The writing is tight. And the trans character's arc was wonderfully fleshed out while at the same time (drumroll) not! A! BUMMER!
Yes, it's a sports romance but the sport is really another variation on the theme of growing up, learning how to live in your skin, and dealing with the hard things. Big recommend from me! These gays are trying to kill me (affectionate).
Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydís Moon
tense
First read for this year's trans rights readathon.
This story is like Supernatural, but good!
Extremely freaky for me, a complete scaredy cat, but so compelling I couldn't put it down. Appreciated the Catholic mythology and also the rather beautiful, grief-steeped love story. Very excited to see there's more in this series.
Edited to add: recent extensive evidence has been posted publicly that shows the author of this book seems to have been lying about being Latinx. This is hugely disappointing and baffling. I don't want to delete this review and pretend I never read this book, and I am appending this note so readers can be made aware. Personally I won't be reading any more work by this author.
This story is like Supernatural, but good!
Extremely freaky for me, a complete scaredy cat, but so compelling I couldn't put it down. Appreciated the Catholic mythology and also the rather beautiful, grief-steeped love story. Very excited to see there's more in this series.
Edited to add: recent extensive evidence has been posted publicly that shows the author of this book seems to have been lying about being Latinx. This is hugely disappointing and baffling. I don't want to delete this review and pretend I never read this book, and I am appending this note so readers can be made aware. Personally I won't be reading any more work by this author.
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
A twisty thriller on a BOAT, which is my favorite place for stressful things to happen! I would say this is a good creepy read for wintertime, as our travel journalist heroine is on a luxury cruise in Scandinavia. She witnesses someone go overboard but is told at every turn that what she saw, and the girl in the cabin next door, didn't happen and was never there. It's a little slow-paced at points to add to the drama, which is fine, and there's a satisfying coda to the whole mess.
Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto by Legacy Russell
A short manifesto arranged around different facets of a furthering of cyberfeminism. This came out in 2020 and I'd be interested in seeing the author's thoughts on what's happened in social media since then. If you're interested in gender, the body, and art as influenced by the internet, this is a good way to get the juices flowing.
The Things We Didn't Know by Elba Iris Pérez
A really gripping debut that follows a Puerto Rican girl from her childhood into adulthood. Sweeping is a good word, it's a sweeping kind of story, spanning 1950s PR and Massachusetts all the way up to the 1990s. The bulk of the story, though, takes place in Andreas's youth and deals with family dynamics, divorce, abandonment, racism and colorism--a lot packed into this one!
The Boyfriend Subscription by Steven Salvatore
A clever NYC-centric retelling of Pretty Woman where the Richard Gere character's super lucrative big-shot business is, itself, sex work. Cole (our Richard Gere) is the CEO and public face of an OnlyFans/hookup app mashup while Teddy (our Julia Roberts) is a divorced guy whose beloved houseplant business has just bit the dust. Our heroes start fake dating and fall in love in the process. There's a fashion montage, obviously. Fake dating as a form of sex work is something I've touched on before in my own work, and it was fun to see that concept turned around and examined from another angle. SUPER high heat, flirting with kinky. Would recommend for fans of online drama, haute couture, and classic romcom reinventions.
Meegan by Rebekah Weatherspoon
A super steamy D/s love story and a great excuse to revisit the Weatherspoon multiverse. Plus a cute dog!