Siavahda's Blog, page 11
March 18, 2025
Mine Is Pounding: Point of Hearts by Melissa Scott
Point of Hearts: A Novel of Astreiant by Melissa Scott Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, bisexual MC, M/M, queernorm matriarchal setting
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; dual PoVs
Published on: 20th March 2025
ISBN: 9798991866804
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2025-03-18T13:17:34+00:00", "description": "Salt, sneaky nobles, and a most important wedding!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/mine-is-pounding-point-of-hearts-by-melissa-scott\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "Point of Hearts: A Novel of Astreiant", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Melissa Scott", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "9798991866804" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}Secrets and danger stalk the streets of Astreiant…Point of Hearts, Astreiant’s pleasure district, is being disrupted by an influx of scheming nobles who have descended upon the city for an aristocratic wedding. Mysterious carts smuggling something unknown through the night time streets and civil unrest are creating suspicion and turmoil. Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe and his lover, Philip Eslingen, captain in the City Guard, are keeping an eye on an aristocrat under self-imposed house arrest when Rathe is injured during a riot. Pursued by false accusations, Eslingen takes him on the run to Point of Knives while they try to unravel a plot against the queen and her government that could destroy the city they love. Can they count on alliances from their pasts to keep them safe long enough to solve the mystery?
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Highlights~a musical
~salt
~a truly impressive loophole
~a very important wedding
~time to go on the run!
Book six in the Astreiant series is here and my friends, IT WAS SO WORTH WAITING FOR!
In many – utterly delightful! – ways, Point of Hearts feels like a reward to long-term fans of the series, a gift to those of us who’ve been waiting since 2018 to return to Astreiant. The clearest example of this is the focus on Nico and Philip’s relationship; where in most of the Astreiant books it’s almost possible to forget that the two of them are romantically involved, in Point of Hearts Scott delves deeply into how their connection has (and hasn’t) developed over the years, into their dynamic, their differing (sometimes wildly differing) beliefs and opinions on a variety of important topics. Having followed these characters through a bunch of books at this point, and given that I was expecting Point of Hearts to be more focused on the case and the setting like most of the series, it was such a wonderful surprise to discover Philip and Nico’s relationship placed front-and-centre!
(Nico has still not shared his stars. Still, Nico?!)
There’s also a lot more space for both of them as individuals: it was especially interesting, and timely, to see Philip’s stance on the law explored. He’s still very new to the City Guard (which was only established in Point of Sighs, remember) and I think it’s quite fair to ask – how much does he care about the law for the law’s sake, and how much is just wanting to work with Nico? If he has to choose between them – Nico and the law – which matters more to him? And what does Nico think about Philip’s approach to all this? Point of Hearts puts Nico’s Leveller beliefs – that is, the belief that the nobility shouldn’t exist, among other things – in the spotlight, and it doesn’t make for a comfortable situation.
Which isn’t to say that the case gets neglected in favour of the characters: it very much does not! It’s even twistier than most of the other books: the ‘case’ in this one is several layers deep, with several investigative dead-ends that necessitate retreating and regrouping. (I get that this might be annoying for some readers, but personally I think it makes investigative storylines more believable.) And unlike instalments like Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams, where the tension only really ratchets up in the last handful of pages, Point of Hearts had me vibrating like a harp-string from around the halfway-point on!
I WAS SO ANXIOUS! It’s funny, because it’s not like we haven’t had high stakes in this series before: in Point of Dreams the queen’s life was on the line! But for once Scott makes things very personal, with the villains quickly deciding that Nico is too much of a threat – one that needs taking care of. Usually our boys aren’t in danger themselves, at least not until the final confrontation, and I think Nico’s freedom – and maybe even his life – being on the line for so much of the book is what gives Point of Hearts an intensity most of the series doesn’t have. I’m used to Astreiant being indulgent and languid! I was not expecting to spend so much of this book flailing and biting my nails!!!
Not that I’m complaining. At all.
And it’s not as if Scott has suddenly written us a Hollywood thriller: everything I love about this series is still here, from the gorgeous, honeyed prose to the rich setting. I have been pining to get a proper look at this part of Astreiant, Point of Hearts, since we first heard about it books and books ago, and it was fascinating to tease apart how the district works, who lives there and what kind of intrigue is bubbling away there beneath the surface. And there is a lot of intrigue: not just with the sex work, although we do get some insight into that, but if you’ve read the earlier books recently, you might remember that Point of Hearts is where a lot of the nobility like to stay when they’re visiting court, because it’s the ‘fun’ district. Expect nobles and their nonsense, basically!
(Nobles being involved raises the stakes too, of course. Even the still-new City Guard might struggle to arrest someone highborn enough…)
One of my favourite aspects of this series has always been the setting, and the way in which each instalment fleshes out Astreiant a little more. There’s a subplot of Point of Hearts revolving around an annual tradition of the city’s playwrights, and it’s just – one of those things that makes a setting BREATHE. This tradition in particular is such a gleeful, human thing that I’m grinning even now, thinking about it; it’s so easy to believe that people would do this! Scott has always been a genius at settings, at making cities and realms feel vividly, powerfully real, and I’ll never get over how opening the pages of a Point book feels like stepping into a real city. One that I’m only too happy to visit again and again.
Will we get to visit again? I have no idea; the ending of Point of Hearts is a pretty wonderful place to stop, if Scott never writes another Astreiant book – it’s certainly a little hard to imagine what Nico and Philip’s everyday lives would look like after the Very Big Deal of the final pages. I hope there’ll be more, but I’ll be very content if there isn’t. For me, it’s enough that Point of Hearts appeared like a gift seven years after the last book, long after I’d assumed the series was done! I couldn’t ask for more.
TL;DR: it was an absolute joy to return to Astreiant, and Point of Hearts is easily one of the best instalments in the series.
The post Mine Is Pounding: Point of Hearts by Melissa Scott appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 17, 2025
Must-Have Monday #228
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
ELEVEN books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Transmentation | Transience: Or, an Accession to the People's Council for Nine Thousand Worlds (The Formation Saga) by Darkly Lem Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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From bestselling authors Darkly Lem comes Transmentation | Transience, the first book in a sweeping multiverse of adventure and intrigue perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and The Expanse series.
Over thousands of years and thousands of worlds, universe-spanning societies of interdimensional travelers have arisen. Some seek to make the multiverse a better place, some seek power and glory, others knowledge, while still others simply want to write their own tale across the cosmos.
When a routine training mission goes very wrong, two competing societies are thrust into an unwanted confrontation. As intelligence officer Malculm Kilkeneade receives the blame within Burel Hird, Roamers of Tala Beinir and Shara find themselves inadvertently swept up in an assassination plot.
Meanwhile, factions within Burel Hird are vying for greater control over their society in a war of cutthroat machinations—at a heavy price. Elsewhere, two members of rival societies lay their own plans for insurrection—with ramifications that will ripple across the Many Worlds ...
Darkly Lem is the penname for several authors writing together, and Transmentation | Transience is a book that goes hard; there are multiple worlds/dimensions involved, all of which have their own cultures (as they should!), and the writing is of the keep-up-or-die approach – we hit the ground running and there is no telling-not-showing, you have to learn what everything is, what it means, and how it relates to everything else as you go. I wouldn’t call it beginner-friendly, but my gods is it impressive!
Passing Through a Prairie Country by Dennis E. Staples Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Ojibwe MCs, gay MC
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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A darkly humorous thriller about the ghosts that haunt the temples of excess we call casinos, and the people caught in their high-stakes, low-odds web
For decades, a dark force has terrorized the Languille Lake reservation. Spoken of only in whispers as “the sandman,” he lurks in the Hidden Atlantis Lake Resort and Casino, the reservation’s main attraction and source of revenue, leeching its patrons’ dreams and preventing the ghosts that linger there from moving on. Fleeing a breakup, Marion Lafournier, a midtwenties Ojibwe, seeks solace in the slot machine’s siren song. Here he falls afoul of the sandman, an encounter he barely escapes through the timely intervention of his cousins Alana and Cherie, who both work at the casino and are intimately aware of the sandman’s power. Meanwhile, Glenn Nielan, recently out of the closet and an aspiring documentarian, hopes to capture the faces of the Ojibwe land while experiencing the casino’s thrills. But he will learn that all who choose to play the sandman’s games are in danger of falling into his grasp.
Marion and Alana are members of the Bullhead clan, a family with ties to a sacred past and a fierce determination to ensure their future. Alana, with her sevenfire sight, is the only person to fully understand the danger the sandman poses. Aware of Marion’s occasional ability to navigate the spirit world, she enlists his aid in defeating this wraith. But the power and reach of the sandman go far beyond Alana’s worst fears. Soon she and Marion find themselves in a battle for their lives and for the souls of the reservation’s residents, both the living and the dead.
I’ve been intrigued by the premise of this one since I first heard about it, and it definitely doesn’t hurt that most of the early reviews describe the writing as ‘fever dream’!
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Genres: Adult, Horror
Representation: Blackfeet MCs
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice.
A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.
I read horror very rarely, but how exactly am I supposed to resist that title or premise???
Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Chinese-Canadian sapphic MC, secondary Indigenous Canadian character, F/F
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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From debut author Emily Yu-Xuan Qin comes a snarky urban fantasy novel inspired by Chinese and First Nation mythology and bursting with wit, compelling characters, and LGBTQIA+ representation
Readers of Seanan McGuire, Ilona Andrews, and Ben Aaronovitch will devour this gory story—and the sweet-as-Canadian-maple-syrup sapphic romance at its monstrous heart
Tam hasn’t eaten anyone in years.
She is now Mama’s soft-spoken, vegan daughter — everything dangerous about her is cut out, repressed. Medicated.
But when Tam’s estranged Aunt Tigress is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits an undead fox in a shoebox and an ensemble of old enemies.
The demons, the ghosts, the gods running coffee shops by the river? Fine. The tentacled thing stalking Tam across the city? Absolutely not. And when Tam realizes the girl she’s falling in love with might be yet another loose end from her past? That’s just the brassy, beautiful cherry on top.
Because no matter how quietly she lives, Tam can’t hide from her voracious upbringing, nor the suffering she caused. As she navigates romance, redemption, and the end of the world, she can’t help but wonder…
Do monsters even deserve happy endings?
With worldbuilding inspired by Chinese folklore and the Siksiká Nation in Canada, LGBTQIA+ representation, and a sapphic romance, Aunt Tigress is at once familiar and breathtakingly innovative.
I did end up DNFing this one, but lots of other early readers have loved it, so it’s a very clear case of YMMV. I wouldn’t recommend this for fans of Ilona Andrews or Seanan McGuire, personally, whatever the blurb says, but if you’d like urban fantasy that draws from mythologies we don’t see very often, this might be for you!
Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1) by Olivia Waite Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Sapphic MC, secondary M/M, queernorm setting
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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A Memory Called Empire meets Miss Marple in this cozy, spaceborne mystery, helmed by a no-nonsense formidable auntie of a detective.
Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.
Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.
Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…
Immensely fun; I’m hoping for many, many sequels!
The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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A timely and timeless reimagining of the story of Dionysus, Greek God of ecstasy and madness, revelry and ruin, for readers of The Song of Achilles and Elektra.
Raised in a Greek legion, Phaidros has been taught to fight for the homeland he’s never seen and to follow his commander’s orders at all costs. But when he rescues a baby from a fire at Thebes’s palace, his commander’s orders cease to make sense: Phaidros is forced to abandon the blue-eyed boy at a temple, and to keep the baby’s existence a secret.
Years later, after a strange encounter that led to the death of his battalion, Phaidros has become a training master for young soldiers. He struggles with panic attacks and flashbacks, and he is not the only one: all around him, his fellow veterans are losing their minds.
Phaidros’s risk of madness is not his only problem: his life has become entangled with Thebes’s young crown prince, who wishes to escape the marriage his mother, the Queen, has chosen for him. When the prince vanishes, Phaidros is drawn into the search for him—a search that leads him to a blue-eyed witch named Dionysus, whose guidance is as wise as the events that surround him are strange. In Dionysus’s company, Phaidros witnesses sudden outbursts of riots and unrest, and everywhere Dionysus goes, rumors follow about a new god, one sired by Zeus but lost in a fire.
In The Hymn to Dionysus, bestselling author Natasha Pulley transports us to an ancient empire on the edge of ruin to tell an utterly captivating story about a man needing a god to remind him how to be a human.
Dionysus is a god whose mythology I find absolutely fascinating, so I’m crossing my fingers this’ll be great!
Beyond Personhood: An Essay in Trans Philosophy by Talia Mae Bettcher Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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A bold intervention in the philosophical concepts of gender, sex, and self
Beyond Personhood provides an entirely new philosophical approach to trans experience, trans oppression, gender dysphoria, and the relationship between gender and identity. Until now, trans experience has overwhelmingly been understood in terms of two reductive frameworks: trans people are either “trapped in the wrong body” or they are oppressed by the gender binary. Both accounts misgender large trans constituencies while distorting their experience, and neither can explain the presentation of trans people as make-believers and deceivers or the serious consequences thereof. In Beyond Personhood, Talia Mae Bettcher demonstrates how taking this phenomenon seriously affords a new perspective on trans oppression and trans dysphoria—one involving liminal states of “make-believe” that bear positive possibilities for self-recognition and resistance.
Undergirding this account is Bettcher’s groundbreaking theory of interpersonal spatiality—a theory of intimacy and distance that requires rejection of the philosophical concepts of person, self, and subject. She argues that only interpersonal spatiality theory can successfully explain trans oppression and gender dysphoria, thus creating new possibilities for thinking about connection and relatedness.
An essential contribution to the burgeoning field of trans philosophy, Beyond Personhood offers an intersectional trans feminism that illuminates transphobic, sexist, heterosexist, and racist oppressions, situating trans oppression and resistance within a much larger decolonial struggle. By refusing to separate theory from its application, Bettcher shows how a philosophy of depth can emerge from the everyday experiences of trans people, pointing the way to a reinvigoration of philosophy.
Queer philosophy is, maybe not that surprisingly, an interest of mine, and I’m very curious about Bettcher’s interpersonal spatiality theory!
Till Death (Fear) by Kellan McDaniel Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: M/M
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
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Two gay men—one young, one ageless—sink their teeth into reclaiming their lives and identities from those who would silence them in this insatiable romantic horror novel from Hugo and Nebula Award–nominated author Kellan McDaniel.
Howard is biding his time until he can finally leave for college, where he has been promised it gets better. The last thing he expected was to meet a boy. But George reminds Howard of the movie stars from the 1960s he’s obsessed with. Plus, George is endearingly formal and well-read, and his grandpa fashion is super authentic.
After over twenty years together, George is about to lose his life partner. He met James when they were teenagers then lost track of him until they reconnected in their early sixties. Now, James is going somewhere beyond George’s reach—because George is a vampire, forever trapped in the body of a nineteen-year-old.
As the two grow closer, George begins to see a future beyond losing his first love, and Howard stops imagining himself always being alone…even if companionship comes at the cost of his mortality. When the discrimination the men have suffered their whole lives rears its ugly head to take away their happy ending, they finally strike back at the world that’s done its best to subdue them their entire lives.
This sounds like it might have more teeth (pun absolutely intended) than most vampire stories, and I’m cautiously excited!
This Dark Heart by Zeena Gosrani Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Brown F/F
Published on: 18th March 2025
Goodreads
{ "@context":"https://schema.org", "@type":"Review", "datePublished": "2025-03-17T09:42:00+00:00", "description": "Multiverses, haunted casinos, and a Dionysius origin story!", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Every Book a Doorway" }, "url": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/must-have-monday-228\/", "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Book", "name": "This Dark Heart", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Zeena Gosrani", "sameAs": "" }, "isbn": "" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sia", "sameAs": "https:\/\/everybookadoorway.com\/" }, "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": false, "bestRating": "5" }}In a world where the shadow-like 'daayan' stalk the night, the mages of Agraal are the only ones able to defend the realm. So, when Princess Thiya discovers she has the extraordinary powers of a healing mage, she captures the attention of earth mage Isaac. In order to lure Thiya to the frontline to help defeat the daayan, Isaac does the unthinkable, he takes Thiya's true love Amara hostage.
I haven’t heard much about this one, but I’m hopeful!
Point of Hearts: A Novel of Astreiant by Melissa Scott Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, bisexual MC, M/M, queernorm matriarchal setting
Published on: 20th March 2025
Goodreads
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NEW ASTREIANT NEW ASTREIANT AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! This is SO GREAT: we get to see so much more of Rathe and Philip’s relationship than we have in other books, and the stakes end up very high indeed! SO WORTH WAITING FOR!
The Gift of Blood (Crimson Tears, #1) by Vaela Denarr, Micah Iannandrea Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 21st March 2022
Goodreads
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Hunger, yearning lesbians, and monstrous love.
Monsters are real, and Ryann is one of them. Chosen as a weapon in a war that is not her own, she finds an outlet for her anger in the fighting pits beneath Toronto, and on the hunt for the vampires that changed her. Whatever the cost, she’ll take back her life, her control—or make them fear the hunger they’ve roused in her.
Burdened by monstrosity, Meg, assassin of the Scorching Dawn, drowns her pain in the blood of her enemies. When the call comes to slay the monster whipping the city’s beasts into a frenzy, she welcomes the hunt. And in Ryann, she finds a violent thirst for blood—and the opportunity to feed her own.
Shadows surround the city. The beasts within cower as the foundations writhe. Drawn to one another by a mutual hunger, Ryann and Meg must learn to trust each other—or perish in the dark.
Yesss, give me all the badass lesbians and dark magic!
Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #228 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 12, 2025
I Can’t Wait For…Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson!
Hole in the Sky: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Representation: Native American cast
Published on: 7th October 2025
Goodreads
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A gripping sci-fi thriller—and Native American First Contact story—from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen and works as a threat forecaster for NASA.
Heliopause is a real place—the very outer edge of our solar system where the sun's solar winds are no longer strong enough to keep debris and intrusions from bombarding our system. It is the farthest edge of our protected boundary (it was recently crossed by Voyager), and the line beyond which space experts look for extraterrestrial presences. This is where Daniel Wilson's fascinating novel begins. Weaving together the story of Jim, a down-on-his-luck absentee father in the Osage territory of Oklahoma, and his daughter, Tawny, with those of a NASA engineer, a misfit anonymous genius who lives in military isolation analyzing a secret incoming "Pattern," and a CIA investigator tasked with tracking unexplained encounters, Hole in the Sky explores a Native American first contact that pulls all five characters into something never before seen or imagined.
First Contact always has the potential to be fascinating, but a Native American perspective isn’t one I’ve seen before!
I’m immensely curious about what exactly a Native American – presumably Cherokee? – perspective changes about the idea of First Contact. Does it make it even more terrifying, given how First Contact went so horrifically for indigenous peoples before? Or would people guided by Cherokee philosophy approach talking to aliens in a very different way than, say, Washington? (Maybe being less adversarial about it?) I’m vaguely aware that some of the Ancient Alien conspiracy theorists tie some Native American myths to aliens, but that probably isn’t where Wilson would take a story…?
I don’t know! But I’m looking forward to finding out come October!
The post I Can’t Wait For…Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 11, 2025
Velvet Gothic: What Manner of Man by St John Starling
What Manner of Man by St John Starling Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
PoV: First-person, past-tense
ISBN: B0DKL1DPW2
Goodreads
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What would tempt you to sin?
A sweet and naïve priest at war with his desires, tormented by nightly dreams of a wicked demon.
A vampire lord forced to do the unthinkable, battling needs he can scarcely control.
Father Ardelian has been summoned to a distant, secluded island to perform an exorcism. What will happen when he begins to suspect his host — the mysterious, nocturnal lord of the manor — of wanting him for another reason entirely? Will the piously celibate priest be able to resist his monstrous host’s diabolically seductive charms?
What Manner of Man is a blasphemous queer horror romance about a priest and a vampire, inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. A tale of forbidden love with themes of devil worship, demonic possession, and human sacrifice — this is the long-awaited completed version of the widely beloved story which rose to fame and fortune in the form of a newsletter!
~follow the spirals
~a deeply disturbing tapestry
~they’re lesbians, Harold
~bat wings > angel wings
~an ancient curse
~touch eternity
~a little kink, as a treat
I don’t read a lot of Gothic anything, but I enjoyed this one IMMENSELY!
What Manner of Man appeared on my radar as a queer Dracula retelling – and to be clear, it really isn’t that; the set-up is very different, and the word ‘vampire’ is never used at all (bizarre in context, honestly, I don’t know how our MMC didn’t ever wonder about vampires). Lord Dracula is unambiguously evil; Lord Vane, the ‘Dracula’ figure of WMoM, is not at all. Etc. So this is lacking a lot of what I’d expect from a Dracula retelling, but, I still think it’s fabulous and very worth reading. If you enjoyed Gaywyck by Vincent Virga, I think you’re likely to enjoy this as well; there’s a similar sort of defiant over-the-top-ness, the feeling of a story that is unashamed of itself, even if some people might think it’s ridiculous. (I believe this is a common signature in all things Gothic, tbh.) If you’re willing to embrace that, you’re going to have fun.
Victor, our priest, is kinda naive – but for me at least, it mostly came off as funny and sweet, and luckily you can see that naivete rubbing off chapter by chapter, so if it annoys you, it shouldn’t do so for long. The gradual evolution of his naivete into idealism was gorgeous to watch, and I liked how WMoM made me think about the relationship between those two things – naivete and idealism – in a way I don’t think I have before.
Anyway: Victor, being one of the few modern (it’s 1950) priests who knows how to perform an exorcism, is sent to a remote British island to assist a Lord Vane, who has begged the church for demon-related help. When Victor arrives (not before), Vane explains that his ancestral manor is possessed (it is a tenet of Catholicism that buildings can be possessed, as well as humans). Victor pretty quickly comes to believe that it is in fact Vane who is possessed, not the building, a conviction he makes sure to hide from his host. In the process of searching for more information about the possession, Victor starts to uncover the not-so-deeply-buried mysteries of the island – complete with secret passageways, underground cave networks, and ancient pagan altars – and what is actually going on with the lord he’s so hypnotised by.
And all of it is told in epistolary format (very Dracula-esque!), via Victor’s journal entries and letters written to his sister. I adore epistolary when it’s done well, and I thought it was done very well here; for one thing, Starling has clearly put a lot of thought into what someone would believably write down versus what they would not, and even if it was sometimes a bit frustrating to not always get every detail, I did appreciate that Victor’s writing always felt natural. There were never any instances of the forced, clunky moments where an author can’t figure out how else to give the reader the info, and thus has the character speak/write in a very nobody-speaks-like-this way. The strike-outs and outright illegible bits of Victor’s journal entries made him feel much more real to me; I could feel his confusion or embarrassment or horror in what he couldn’t bring himself to commit to paper, and I loved that.
I didn’t always find Lord Vane as believable, but that may have been deliberate; he’s charismatic and charming, but sometimes the things he would say struck me less as the demon in this man is trying to scandalise a priest and more off-note, slightly awkward. I believed in Victor’s earnestness; Lord Vane made me roll my eyes a few times. But again, that might have been on purpose: it’s not impossible that Starling deliberately wanted this character to feel ‘off’, to drive home his strangeness, his otherness.
The Gothic vibes, though, were fantastic: the huge, deeply creepy house, complete with sexually-demonic furnishings; the abandoned cathedral; the sword-fights; the storming weather! The atmosphere was perfect, as was the way WMoM clearly revelled in its genre; it felt less like a story featuring the expected tropes than one honouring and delighting in its genre’s iconography. The Catholic aspect didn’t hurt at all; the suffering-as-piety, the sacrificial/Communion motif, the terrible conflict of a genuinely pious priest being Deeply Tempted, was all delicious.
I had become like an animal, and, as an animal, all that was left for me was to die. I had forfeit that divine spark that all man is heir to, and in exchange I had become capable of anything – everything.
My one critique, re the Catholocism, is a slight spoiler, so under a cut it goes: [View post to see spoiler]
Which leads us to the love/attraction itself. The chemistry is smouldering – again, not at all hurt by the threads of blasphemy underlying so much of it, plenty of which is reasonably kinky (ropes, human sacrifice, a little blood-drinking: much approved!) Victor is a sexual submissive and is Very Into his probably-possessed lord manhandling him (the scenes where he writes about ‘submitting to Jesus’ will clue readers into his preferences long before they become obvious to himself) and the mandhandling is, um. A+. Full marks to Lord Vane!
When he beckoned to me, I fell to my knees before him and kissed the hem of his white garment. In that moment, to me, he seemed like a vision of Christ. I knew deep in my heart that this was wrong, that the desire that drove me to do this was sinful, and yet in that I could find no defence against it. It was as if the wrongness were itself the spur that drove me on. He held his hand out to me and I kissed the ring there.
Victor, you kinky little bastard. (Good for you.)
I felt – oh, it was what drives better men to the whip and the thorn.
But like all the best Gothic heroines, Victor is not uselessly swooning; he’s an active character, determined to save Lord Vane, the rest of the islanders, and himself, in that order.
My heart is that of a wolf, not a lamb – a serpent, not a dove.
His idealism, his determination to be good – even as he comes to embrace a freer, wilder side of himself that he considers dark – is not frailty but arms and armour, and I can’t imagine any readers not growing to respect it – except for those uncynical enough to respect it right away.
What Manner of Man is a little rushed, and I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the explanation we got for Lord Vane and the rest of the supernatural goings-on – it felt kinda vague and handwavey to me, when I wanted a lot more detail and a clearer understanding of how a lot of it worked. (Did I miss anyone explaining the magic food prep???) Lord Vane is never very evil, and I wasn’t sure where Victor was getting the idea that he was. The blurb is fairly misleading; this is only barely a vampire story, and it’s not at all horror-y!
But it’s so much fun: a little pulpy, gleefully Gothic, very sexy, very self-aware and deliberate. Intense, and super readable; the prose just runs away with you, so that you’ve inhaled half the book in one sitting when you only meant to read a chapter! The imagery is glorious, the atmosphere perfect, and any ex-Catholic queers out there are sure to enjoy all the queering of the Church’s aesthetic. (I know I did.)
I guess it’s not quite for everyone, but it’s delicious, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
The post Velvet Gothic: What Manner of Man by St John Starling appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 10, 2025
Must-Have Monday #227
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
TEN books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
The Tomb of Dragons (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #3) by Katherine Addison Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC
Published on: 11th March 2025
Goodreads
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Thara Celehar has lost his ability to speak with the dead. When that title of Witness for the Dead is gone, what defines him?
While his title may be gone, his duties are not. Celehar contends with a municipal cemetery with fifty years of secrets, the damage of a revethavar he’s terrified to remember, and a group of miners who are more than willing to trade Celehar’s life for a chance at what they feel they’re owed.
Celehar does not have to face these impossible tasks alone. Joining him are his mentee Velhiro Tomasaran, still finding her footing with the investigative nature of their job; Iäna Pel-Thenhior, his beloved opera director friend and avid supporter; and the valiant guard captain Hanu Olgarezh.
Amidst the backdrop of a murder and a brewing political uprising, Celehar must seek justice for those who cannot find it themselves under a tense political system. The repercussions of his quest are never as simple they seem, and Celehar’s own life and happiness hang in the balance.
It’s the last Cemeteries of Amalo book!!! If you tell me you’re ready I will know that you lie. (I am not even close to ready!!!)
Go Luck Yourself (Royals and Romance, #2) by Sara Raasch Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, M/M
Published on: 11th March 2025
Goodreads
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It’s enemies to lovers in this sexy and delightful holiday mash up that pairs the spare prince of Christmas with the crown prince of St. Patrick’s Day!
Someone has been stealing Christmas’s joy, and there’s only one clue to the culprit—a single shamrock.
With Coal busy restructuring Christmas—and their dad now having a full midlife crisis in the Caribbean—Kris volunteers to investigate St. Patrick’s Day. His cover: an ambassador from Christmas to foster goodwill. What could go wrong?
Everything, it seems. Because Prince Lochlann Patrick, Crown Prince of St. Patrick’s Day, happens to be the mysterious student that Kris has been in a small war with at Cambridge. They attempt to play nice for the tabloids, but Kris can’t get through one conversation without wanting to smash Loch’s face in—he’s infuriating, stubborn, loud, obstinate, hot—
Wait—hot?
Kris might be in some trouble. Especially when it turns out that the mystery behind Christmas’s stolen magic isn’t as simple as an outright theft. But why would a Holiday that Christmas has never had contact with, one that’s always been the very basis of carefree, want to steal joy? Can a spare prince even hope to unravel all this, or will Kris lose something way more valuable than his Holiday’s resources—like his heart?
I loved the first book in this series, so of course I’m showing up for the sequel! I need Kris to get his happy ending.
Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton, Rebecca Podos Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MC, queer MC, NB/F
Published on: 11th March 2025
Goodreads
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A delightful queer romantic fantasy full of friends-to-lovers chemistry, found family, rival family drama, and cozy garden magic from two acclaimed YA authors making their debut in the adult space.
Yael Clauneck is the only scion of an obscenely wealthy banking family with its fingers in every pie in the realm. They’re on the precipice of a predetermined life when they flee their own graduation party, galloping away in search of…well, they’re not sure, but maybe the chance to feel like life can still be a grand adventure.
Margot Greenwillow—talented plant witch, tea lover, and greenhouse owner—has never felt further from adventure in her life. She’s been desperately trying to keep what remains of her family's magic remedies business afloat. So when her childhood friend and former crush, Yael, rides back into her life, she’s shocked. But perhaps this could be a good thing. After all, Margot could use an assistant in the greenhouses.
Yael has no experience or, honestly, practical skills, but they’re delighted to accept. They can lay low for a while, flirting with Margot while they figure out what to do next. Meanwhile, Margot has plans of her own—but plans are notoriously unreliable things, unlikely to survive a swiftly blooming mutual attraction, not to mention the machinations of parents determined to get their heir back . . . no matter the cost.
I adored this right up until it did used some of the tropes I most hate, but if you don’t mind those particular tropes then you HAVE to pounce on this!
The Sea Eternal (Empire Without End Book 2) by Emery Robin Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Bisexual MC
Published on: 11th March 2025
Goodreads
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"Wherever Emery Robin goes from here, I'm going to follow." —Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author
From one of the most original voices in science fiction comes the spectacular sequel to the epic, interstellar love story that began in The Stars Undying.
Goddess, tell me the story.
Matheus Ceirran, commander of half the known world, is dead. For the past year, his loyal captain Anita has hunted down his assassins—that is, when she can pull herself from the bed of Altagracia Caviro Patramata, queen and oracle of the client planet of Szayet. But when Anita’s quest for revenge takes her across the borders of an enigmatic neighboring empire, she uncovers a dangerous secret that could upend the fragile balance of the galaxy.
Meanwhile, Ceirran’s heir apparent Otávio Julhan grows more and more powerful in the capital that Anita has left behind. Caught between home, Szayet, and a new and greater threat, Anita finds herself at the center of a war that threatens to collapse her world.
The fate of empires dances on the tip of a knife, and history will be written by the victors in this sweeping tale of myth, imperial legacy, and the love affair of a lifetime.
Praise for the Empire Without
"Dazzling, transportive, boundless, precise—and dares to ask, what if Mark Antony was the hottest butch girl in space?" —Casey McQuiston
"Gorgeously written, impeccably characterized, and profoundly aware of the way the ghosts of history linger." —Emily Tesh
"A glittering triumph of a book that weaves together history and tragedy into a star-spanning epic." —Everina Maxwell
I really enjoyed the first book of this duology, and I need to know how this sci fi Cleopatra retelling ends!
The Innkeeper's Song by Peter S. Beagle Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Brown MC
Published on: 11th March 2025
Goodreads
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This fantasy novel is the tale of three women of legendary skill on a quest to save the world’s most powerful wizard, and the innkeeper’s assistant whose heartbreak will bear witness, from the author of the bestselling The Last Unicorn.
On a night like any other, three mysterious women arrive to an inn separately, one with a fox that is more than it seems. Karsh, the innkeeper, has no choice but to let the tangled drama unfold beneath his roof. His stable boy, Rosseth, is so mesmerized by the three cloaked women, a warrior nun, a fabled adventurer, and a girl who was saved from drowning, that he soon uncovers a deep secret that was better off remaining hidden. And then there is Tikat, overwhelmed by tragedy, who continues his journey to the inn, refusing to let death bring an end his love.
Told in alternating points of view, fantasy master Peter S. Beagle has crafted an unforgettable novel of heartbreak and hope.
A new edition of a very strange fantasy! This is stylistically pretty odd, but in the way than I want would-be writers to study it, not in the way that hurts your brain.
The Knight and the Butcherbird by Alix E. Harrow Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC
Published on: 11th March 2025
Goodreads
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New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow weaves a dystopian fairy tale that follows the town storyteller as she struggles to protect a local demon from the knight hired to kill it.
In this gritty, haunting tale about doing whatever it takes for love, a small-town storyteller resolves to keep the local monster—and her own secrets—safe from a legendary knight.
Nestled deep in the steep hills, valleys, and surrounding woodlands lies Iron Hollow, a rural community beset by demons. Such horrors are common in the outlands, where most folks die young, if they don’t turn into monsters first. But what’s causing these transformations?
No one has the answer, not even the town’s oral historian, seventeen-year-old Shrike. And when a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest beast to haunt their woods, Shrike has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still human, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.
Determined to keep May safe, Shrike stalks the knight and his demon-hunting hawk through the recesses of the forest. But as they creep through toxic creeks and overgrown kudzu, Shrike realizes the knight has a secret of his own. And he’ll do anything to protect it.
This is a short story, but it’s an Alix E. Harrow short story, so. Enough said!
Vanya and the Wild Hunt by Sangu Mandanna Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, MG
Representation: British-Indian MC with ADHD
Published on: 11th March 2025
Goodreads
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Amari and the Night Brothers meets Nevermoor in this enchanting middle grade fantasy, inspired by Indian mythology and British folklore, about a neurodivergent heroine, a mysterious school, and a world of magical creatures.
Eleven-year-old Vanya Vallen has always felt like she doesn’t fit in. She’s British-Indian in a mostly white town in England, her parents won’t talk about their pasts, and she has ADHD.
Oh, and she talks to books. More importantly, the books talk back.
When her family is attacked by a monster she believed only existed in fairytales, Vanya discovers that her parents have secrets, and that there are a lot more monsters out there. Overnight, she’s whisked off to the enchanted library and school of Auramere, where she joins the ranks of archwitches and archivists.
Life at Auramere is unexpected, exciting and wonderful. But even here, there’s no escaping monsters. The mysterious, powerful Wild Hunt is on the prowl, and Vanya will need all her creativity and courage to unmask its leader and stop them before they destroy the only place she’s ever truly belonged.
From the critically-acclaimed author of the Kiki Kallira series and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches comes an action-packed and magical middle grade fantasy, perfect for fans of J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan.
Is that a peryton on the cover?! We never see those! Plus, she talks to books and is going to magic school? Count me in!
The Rise of the Sand Spirits (Paper Dragons #2) by Siobhan McDermott Genres: Fantasy, MG
Representation: Chinese MC
Goodreads
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The adventure continues in the thrilling book two of the Paper Dragons series! Zhi Ging must face sand spirits, unexpected dragons and hidden secrets to save the fallen Silhouettes.
Return to the underwater realm . . .
Following the infiltration of Hok Woh and possession of her friends, Zhi Ging sets out on a dangerous mission to find Reishi, the Silhouette Scout, whom she believes has been lured into a dangerous trap.
With her adorable now-phoenix Malo by her side, Zhi Ging must fight off dangerous sand spirits, power-hungry enemies and magnificent dragons if she is to save her friends and her new home in the world of the immortals.
But as secrets are uncovered and new enemies emerge, can Zhi Ging figure out who to trust? And, more importantly, how to survive?
I haven’t read the first book in this series yet, but I am VERY EXCITED TO DO SO and wanted to acknowledge the sequel!
The Dandelion Riots by Kim Smejkal Genres: Fantasy, YA
Published on: 13th March 2025
Goodreads
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A breathtaking new teen fantasy in which girls are cursed at birth with terrible powers.
‘Provocative and compassionate… compelling’ Patrice Lawrence, author of Orangeboy
The destruction I was destined to cause was unfathomable…
Cursed at birth, 16-year-old Drinn has been hidden away from the world – moved from house to house to ensure that she never finds love. But this year, she has decided to break free.
Fleeing, Drinn finds herself in Oblison, surrounded by others just like her – cursed girls whose lives are dangerous and wild. They vow to liberate themselves once and for all. But rebellion is dangerous, and if Drinn finds love before the curse can be broken, a terrible fate could befall them all…
Smejkal impressed me mightily with her Ink in the Blood duology, and I’m delighted to discover she has a new book! Only out in the UK this week, looks like the US has to wait till later this year…
Goldnight of Starfall by Beau Van Dalen Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 14th March 2025
Goodreads
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“Helge, my angel, my downfall….
You’ve promised me the world I so dearly wish for…
You claim I am your past lover incarnate—I can only hope you speak true.”
In a countryside still ravaged by magical war, Eris—a closeted trans man—finds a fallen angel amid a field of golden wheat. The angel, Helge, is searching for his partner, a King he loved hundreds of years ago, who was brutally assasinated by his own people.
And Helge is convinced he has just found his star-crossed lover in Eris, reincarnated.
But is Eris truly a King?
Or is that merely wishful thinking on Helge's behalf?
Regardless of the truth, Eris takes Helge as his lover to get away from the repression of his mundane life, where the two soon find themselves in a kindred symbiotic relationship. As their deepest desires merge then blend, they turn into a single wish of wanting to escape from this world that would never accept them—to carve a place for themselves, to find meaning in the meaningless, and love at the end of a rising dawn.
From award nominated and best-selling author Beau Van Dalen, Goldnight of Starfall is a dark fantastical erotic tale, featuring a trans man protagonist, weaved with themes of existentialism and hope hidden within despair.
It’s like the blurb was written to hook me specifically! *grabby hands*
Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!
The post Must-Have Monday #227 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 9, 2025
Sunday Soupçons #37
soupçon/ˈsuːpsɒn,ˈsuːpsɒ̃/ noun
1. a very small quantity of something; a slight trace, as of a particular taste or flavor
Sunday Soupçons is where I scribble mini-reviews for books I don’t have the brainspace/eloquence/smarts to write about in depth – or if I just don’t have anything interesting to say beyond I LIKED IT AND YOU SHOULD READ IT TOO!
Two books I had very different feelings about! But as they both feature alchemy of one kind or another, I figure they can go together.
A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC with dysgraphia, major neurodivergent character
PoV: First-person, past-tense
Published on: 1st April 2025
ISBN: 1399725424
Goodreads
The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.
To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.
Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.
Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.
Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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Unfortunately…I was really bored. I was interested initially – the first bit of the mystery, trying to find a man who has vanished, had me hooked, though in hindsight I wonder if most of that was just me being excited to return to this world. But I very quickly lost interest. Which is probably on me: I don’t tend to care about detective-y stories, which means this probably isn’t the series for me – but I loved book one so much I expected to enjoy Drop of Corruption too.
I mean, middle books in fantasy series always have this problem: in the first book, we’re learning about the world, which is entrancing with the right storyteller, but book two has to hold our interest without that. It probably doesn’t help that Drop of Corruption takes place outside the empire, in a nation that wasn’t interesting from a worldbuilding perspective (it’s not a Medieval Europe-lookalike or anything, but the trappings are pretty familiar, with nothing that stood out to me). After being hypnotised by the strangeness of this world in the previous book, that made Drop of Corruption a letdown.
An even bigger disappointment was the gradual realisation that no, this book has nothing at all to do with the previous one. This trilogy doesn’t have an overarching plot; Drop of Corruption is functionally a standalone. I know plenty of readers won’t mind this, but I want series that are tied together or standalones with a much bigger plot than this. (Exceptions exist, like the Cemeteries of Omalo trilogy, but that has a magic combination of prose, worldbuilding, and characters that can keep my interest despite the smaller-scale, unconnected plotlines. I don’t care enough about Ana and Din as people to want to read about them for their own sake, and Bennett’s prose is super readable, but not what I’d call beautiful.)
I really felt like the plotline of Din’s debts was a waste of time; it was barely an issue, and neither was Din’s desire to leave Ana’s service and go work on the Walls. (Ana promises at the start of the book that if Din hasn’t seen why what they do is important by the end of this job, she’ll help him go, and maybe I’m just being Very Autistic, but I didn’t feel that Din’s points were ever addressed properly – and therefore don’t understand what happened there.)
All that being said – most people who loved the first book are going to love this one too, I have no doubt. And I’m happy for them! Even I, who didn’t love it at all, feel obliged to give this four stars, because it being wrong for me doesn’t change that it’s (I think) a great example of what it wants to be.
But for me, Drop of Corruption lost or set aside most of what I loved about the first book, and I’m not sure that I’ll pick up book three.
The Oblivion Bride by Caitlin Starling Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: F/F
PoV: Third-person, past-tense; dual PoVs
Goodreads
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A deathly magic. An arranged marriage. A curse in the blood.
In the glittering city state of Volun, Lorelei Steddart never thought she'd be anything but an office drone-until her family all die under mysterious and likely magical circumstances, leaving her to inherit everything. To figure out what's happened, her uncle marries her off to the city state's top War Alchemist, Nephele Corisande, an intimidating older woman who might just be able to save her. But what starts as a marriage of pure convenience becomes something deeper. Soon Lorelei and Nephele must untangle a terrible magic that has metastasized into something new and unstable, born in Lorelei's blood.
Obviously I will pounce on anything Caitlin Starling writes, so when I heard she had a queer science fantasy out with Neon Hemlock? I couldn’t hit the buy button fast enough!
Nephele Corisande is an unstoppable force, a world-ending weapon, a calamity in the shape of a fiancée.
And I regret nothing. This is a gorgeous little novella, brimming over with aching emotion: Lorelei, last scion of a noble house she doesn’t want, exhausted and just wanting to be allowed to dye her hair pink again; and Nephele, the prince’s War Alchemist, severe and isolated and duty-bound to unravel the curse killing off Lorelei’s family. It’s amazing to me that Starling conveys the intensity of the incredible awkwardness between them at the beginning – the first scene with the fertility doctor is dehumanising and awful, and you can feel poor Lorelei’s humiliation at going through it with this terrifying stranger present – and so deftly transforms it, alchemist-like, into a growing love that’s so easy to believe in. In so few pages! Off the top of my head, I can’t think of another novella whose romance was so convincing and real to me.
She shifts, then, caging Lorelei in with her arms, gazing down at this girl who has been handed to her, who needs her, who is so fierce it makes the stars dull in shame beside her. From an obligation to a mystery to an obsession–Nephele can think of no finer path to adoration.
Starling has created an interesting setting, where mobile phones exist but magic has turned the world outside the cities into unstable chaos. There are remnants of ancient, powerful, long-lost civilisations, and railcars that run on magic; Lorelei undergoes fertility treatments while Nephele battles magical machines. The setting, and society, are familiar in so many ways, and then wildly not in others, in a way that delighted me.
But the characters are the best part. I loved seeing Lorelei grow in confidence, find her spine and her teeth; and I loved seeing the badass, cold Nephele soften and trip into Catching Feels. They’re both so incredibly human; Lorelei in particular makes some very stupid calls…but they’re so understandable in context, because she’s grieving and scared and tired. Nephele throwing herself into finding and removing the curse, first because it’s her job, then because she’s offended it’s eluding her, and finally because she’s frantic to save Lorelei… It’s wonderful, and convincing: you feel all of it with her. There’s little whispers of a Beauty and the Beast situation, kinda, in that Nephele is magically powerful and intimidating and scary-looking and Lorelei is just sort of given to her…and of course, that Lorelei is maybe the first person ever to really see Nephele as a person, not a useful weapon??? *chef’s kiss* Delicious. We love to see it!
I would happily read an entire novel of these characters and this setting, but Oblivion Bride is exactly the right length as it is: Starling knew exactly what story she wanted to tell and exactly how many words it needed, and gave it that, no more and no less. There’s always something so satisfying about a short story or novella that is exactly the right length, where the story has not been squashed down or stretched further than it should be, and Oblivion Bride hits the sweet spot.
The actual explanation for the curse felt very abrupt to me, and I didn’t like what I understood of the ending (and a fair bit of it left me confused), but this was a wonderful read that I need more people to know about!
Trigger Warnings: [View post to see spoiler]
The post Sunday Soupçons #37 appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 6, 2025
Soft and Sugary: Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos
Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton, Rebecca Podos Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MC, queer MC, NB/F, queernorm setting
PoV: Third-person, present-tense; dual PoVs
Published on: 11th March 2025
ISBN: 0593873661
Goodreads
A delightful queer romantic fantasy full of friends-to-lovers chemistry, found family, rival family drama, and cozy garden magic from two acclaimed YA authors making their debut in the adult space.
Yael Clauneck is the only scion of an obscenely wealthy banking family with its fingers in every pie in the realm. They’re on the precipice of a predetermined life when they flee their own graduation party, galloping away in search of…well, they’re not sure, but maybe the chance to feel like life can still be a grand adventure.
Margot Greenwillow—talented plant witch, tea lover, and greenhouse owner—has never felt further from adventure in her life. She’s been desperately trying to keep what remains of her family's magic remedies business afloat. So when her childhood friend and former crush, Yael, rides back into her life, she’s shocked. But perhaps this could be a good thing. After all, Margot could use an assistant in the greenhouses.
Yael has no experience or, honestly, practical skills, but they’re delighted to accept. They can lay low for a while, flirting with Margot while they figure out what to do next. Meanwhile, Margot has plans of her own—but plans are notoriously unreliable things, unlikely to survive a swiftly blooming mutual attraction, not to mention the machinations of parents determined to get their heir back . . . no matter the cost.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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~plot-relevant fashion shows
~a masquerade ball
~heartbreak-curing jam
~extremely contrived relationship drama
Homegrown Magic is every bit as sweet and cosy as the cover implies – I’d actually rank it above most of the cosy fantasy I’ve tried in a lot of ways. It’s soft, and sugary, and pretty delightful, and wonderfully easy to read.
That’s probably the book’s best quality: how fluffy it is for the brain. When I wasn’t up to handling anything complicated, I could pick up Homegrown Magic – and still enjoy myself. The prose is a level or two above what I’m used to from cosy fantasy; a little more descriptive, a little less simplistic, and I thought it elevated the book nicely. The worldbuilding reminded me a bit of Spellshop, not because the settings are similar (they’re not) but in aesthetic and vibe: pixies being chased by swallows, rainbow bees, enchanted pocket mirrors for talking to friends long-distance. It’s all very candy-flossy, but with enough depth to stop it from hurting your teeth: details like the gender-neutral term of address ‘sir’am’ delighted me, but also made the setting feel simultaneously more real and more unique, like a place with its own culture and history – and we have the Clauneks and their cut-throat business empire, and enough fantasy capitalism, to make it clear that not everything is pastel-perfect.
An apricot slice of early-morning light shines through the crack in a pair of thick, velvet drapes, beckoning to Margot.
The biggest fly in the ointment is poor Margot’s business worries. Her parents left her with a ton of debts, one of which means that if she can’t create an impossible potion by year’s end, the village-slash-commune built by her grandmother will be repossessed. This is, of course, something Margot has (inexplicably) kept to herself, rather than inform the villagers of the threat to their homes and give them the opportunity to help, and the fear and worry and dread form a strong undercurrent throughout most of the book. It doesn’t stop Homegrown Magic from being wonderful wish-fulfilment, but it does make it feel a bit more relatable, a bit less fairy-tale-perfect – and I thought that was a good thing! It adds a dash of – realism doesn’t seem like the right word? – that I haven’t seen in anything cosy before.
Mikhil has his wife on one arm, husband on the other
Yael is a cinnamon roll who doesn’t know what to do with themself, and through pure luck ends up on Margot’s doorstep, which turns out to be the best thing for them. Learning to be less of a brat, and how to use their connections to benefit others, allowed them a fair bit of growth, but they did still feel a little one-note to me: pure sunshine, most of the time, which fit the book’s vibe but did make them feel a bit less developed. That being said, I’m not sure that wasn’t on purpose: Yael runs away from their family because they don’t know who the hell they are underneath the role of heir, and their arc in Homegrown Magic is as much about figuring that out as it is anything else. So their feeling like an under-developed person may have been on purpose – they definitely felt more fleshed-out by the end of the book.
I liked the romance between Margot and Yale, and I appreciated that it took more than a week for the characters to get together – the story takes place over at least six months, and although that does necessitate a few time-skips, I didn’t find them jarring (high praise, given how much I typically hate time-skips!) The romance actually stood out a bit for me, because Homegrown Magic is the first cosy fantasy I’ve come across that isn’t fade-to-black: the sex scenes are on-page and explicit, and Margot and Yael are both allowed to be sexual beings who feel desire and enjoy having sex. It’s refreshing! (Although I remain surprised and kind of appalled that they repeatedly ruin incredibly expensive-and-beautiful dresses in the process!)
The wards can’t tell the difference between blood and family, after all.
Unfortunately, Pacton and Podos utilise some of my most-hated romance tropes towards the climax of the story – namely [View post to see spoiler] – which were not just stupid and unpleasant to read, but were also wildly unnecessary (things were already complicated and tragic enough, the extra drama added nothing, and the ‘injured party’ worked out it was fake in a couple minutes). I’m also not really a fan of keeping dumb secrets, and eventually Margot’s refusal to explain about the debts and mortgages started to annoy me. [View post to see spoiler] Pretty much the entire last quarter (or maybe fifth?) of the book drove me up the wall – I almost DNFed, but was genuinely curious about how The Debts and Family Responsibilities (Margot and Yael’s issues, respectively) were going to be resolved, and knew I could finish the rest in about an hour.
Well, it was a wasted hour: the resolution was rushed, easy, and all-too-simple for me. I was hoping for something clever, or for Margot and Yael to work out a brilliant compromise, or something; but no, it was practically hand-waved – and down to luck, basically, at that. It was such a let-down!
The sub-plots of the potion Margot was trying to create, and Yael’s relationship to the Claunek’s source of magic, also ended up being really underwhelming: I genuinely don’t know why we had either one, because they didn’t end up adding anything to the story. But mostly, it was the terrible romance tropes that ruined Homegrown Magic for me – all that nonsense felt incredibly out of character, wasn’t necessary, and was just lazy writing. Up until that, it was almost a five-star read, but wow did that leave a bad taste in my mouth. And then the extremely lame ending, like a souffle that failed to rise. Because someone put in MAYONNAISE instead of egg whites…!
Which leaves me…really unsure as to whether or not to recommend this. Or who to recommend it to. Most of the book was wonderful! I really, REALLY liked it! But the last chunk was a kick in the teeth, and why would you want to read that kind of disappointment?
If you don’t mind completely manufactured relationship drama, and convenient magic-wand endings, then Homegrown Magic is genuinely lovely! But if you do mind those things, then this is probably not the book for you.
The post Soft and Sugary: Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 5, 2025
I Can’t Wait For…Firstborn of the Sun by Marvellous Michael Anson
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Firstborn of the Sun by Marvellous Michael Anson!
Firstborn of the Sun by Marvellous Michael Anson Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Yoruba-inspired cast and setting
Published on: 23rd October 2025
Goodreads
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A HEART-POUNDING YORUBA INSPIRED FANTASY NOVEL SET IN AN EPIC WORLD OF COURTLY INTRIGUE AND FORBIDDEN POWER . . .
‘Absolutely Radiant’ BEA FITZGERALD
‘A Dazzling Debut’ ANDREA STEWART
‘Enthralling and epic’ ANNA DAY
‘Readers are going to LOVE THIS BOOK!’ ANGELA MONTOYA
In Oru L'ore has a secret. She is the only one without agbára – the ability to harness power from the sun. On pain of death she must conceal it from everyone. Including her best friend, Alawani.
But when the gods declare Alawani an Àlùfáà – a great honour where he will serve the gods and the Kingdom – he must be stripped of his power in a brutal trial likely to kill him. Unwilling to bear his death, L'ore vows to rescue him.
When she desperately attempts to channel agbára an icy shadow magic instead pours from her hands; a power she learns originated from a forbidden, secret land beyond the six rings of Oru.
One where she and Alawani must now seek sanctuary and discover a secret that could bring the Kingdom to its knees . . .
_____________
‘Absolutely radiant. Anson has created a captivating, intricate world with characters who will stay with me for a long time. A perfect balance of political machinations and aching romance, wrapped up in a fast-paced action packed adventure. I loved it!’ BEA FITZGERALD, author of Girl Goddess Queen
'A dazzling debut, with characters that leap off the page and burrow into your heart. Filled with love, betrayal, and questions of loyalty, the twists and turns this story takes will keep you reading late into the night' ANDREA STEWART, author of The Gods Below
‘Fierce, exciting and utterly original, Firstborn of the Sun is an enthralling and epic fantasy, with a beautiful and tender romance at its center’ ANNA DAY, author of The Girl who Grew Wings
‘A rich and confident fantasy with expansive world building and a magic system as vicious as it is unique. Filled with intricately woven twists and action from beginning to end, readers will have a hard time putting this book down. Readers are going to LOVE THIS BOOK!’ - ANGELA MONTOYA, author of Sinner’s Isle and A Cruel Thirst
We just got the cover for this one, so OBVIOUSLY I had to feature it!
Yoruba-inspired fantasy where everyone is supposed to have magic? To the point that it’s a DEATH SENTENCE if you don’t?! That is IMMEDIATELY fascinating; imagine what a culture like that must look like!
Sun-magic and a Yoruba-inspired setting just sounds SO COOL, like nothing else I’ve read, and it’s always exciting to see fantasy that isn’t fake!Medieval-Europe. Will the plot and prose pull from Yoruba storytelling traditions, in the way that Black Leopard, Red Wolf did? (Although as far as I know BLRW isn’t specifically Yoruba-inspired – I did try to look up specifics, but I only found it described as African, not a specific nation or people.)
And I’m so curious about where the shadow-magic is sourced from, if the usual magic is from the sun. The moon? That seems obvious, but if so how could it be linked to another nation? HMM!
Is this going on your tbr too? Let me know!
The post I Can’t Wait For…Firstborn of the Sun by Marvellous Michael Anson appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
March 1, 2025
Cover Reveal: Brimstone and Blades by Maria Alexander
Julie d’Aubigny, aka Mademoiselle Maupin, is a historical figure surrounded in extremely epic stories that have delighted me for years – which ensured a fantasy novel inspired by her life (and portraying her as bisexual) a guaranteed spot on my tbr!
And I’m excited to be helping reveal its cover today!
It’s 1689. Sixteen-year-old Julie de Maupin is on the run with her boyfriend, a young swordmaster named Sérannes. They perform sword fights and songs in taverns to survive. But when a diabolical creature kills Sérannes, it also injures Julie in the attack. Plunged into the dangerous world of French magic, Julie needs to return to Paris to find the great magician that can heal her devastating wound so she can avenge Sérannes’s death. On the way, she finds the creature is controlled by a necromantic coven called the Shadow Holders. Defeated during the Affair of the Poisons, they’ve returned but this time with traitors in the royal court to crush Louis XIV and terrorize France. With her found family of magical and moggie misfits, Julie must use her sword, wits, and gender-bending wiles to send the threat back to Hell. But will they be enough? Magic is illegal, and so is dueling. But that won’t stop La Maupin.
Amazon
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Goodreads
Maria Alexander is an Amazon #1 Bestseller of Young Adult Horror. Her short stories and nonfiction essays have appeared in numerous publications and acclaimed anthologies alongside living legends such as David Morrell and Heather Graham.
Her debut novel, MR. WICKER, won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her first YA novel, SNOWED, won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel, and was nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Children’s/YA Novel.
She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats, a Jewish Christmas caroler, and a purse called Trog.
Find Maria at
Her website
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Brimstone and Blades releases June 3rd!
The post Cover Reveal: Brimstone and Blades by Maria Alexander appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
February 28, 2025
In Short: February
February was a bit all-over-the-place: I got my surgery finally, and today the hubby had his (much bigger) operation as well. (He’s all good, I’ve talked to him, but they’re keeping him overnight so I get him back tomorrow!) I ran up against some really fucking awful ableism in the postal system, of all places, and after 6+ months deliberating the doctors have decided they can’t possibly diagnose me with ADHD without records from my primary schools, which – I went to 14 of them all over the planet, several of which I know don’t exist any more, others I don’t know the names of because I was so little. The parent who had guardianship of me then is dead, the other parent has no idea where I was going to school, and the family records turned to mush in an outdoor shipping container over a decade ago. So that is not happening.
(Don’t ask me why they can’t diagnose the patient who is standing in front of them by examining…the patient in front of them. I have no clue. No one can give me an answer beyond ‘protocol’. If I ever have private healthcare again I’ll do it that way (the fact that private specialists do not need that childhood documentation tells me it’s not! medically!! necessary!!!) or else I’ll wait till we move to a country less fucking dumb about this.)
On the flip side: our Chihuahua clearly senses Spring in the air because he has been so much happier and more playful lately (he has very obvious Seasonal Affective Disorder, poor babs); a woodpecker visited our yard (I’ve never seen one so close up before!!!); and two different animals believed extinct have proven not to be, the Omeltemi rabbit and the world’s smallest otter! So things are far from all bad.
ARCs Received
‘No more arcs’, she said. ‘I can’t use Netgalley anymore’, she said. ‘It’ll be good for me’, she said!!!
Yeah, well. That didn’t work out. Clearly!
I’m not sorry, ESPECIALLY because I did indeed get to nab an arc of The Mercy Makers, which is a spiritual successor to Kushiel’s Dart but whose world is nothing like any period of our world’s history; it’s so good I can only read a few pages at a time before I start hyperventilating!!!
Read
Fewer books read than last month – only 18, compared to 21 books in January. That’s not much of a drop, though, which pleases me.
CJ Cherryh’s Foreigner series continues to wow and delight me – I read five instalments of it this month! – and Stormsong is so very excellent that I’ve been kicking myself for taking so long to read it! The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society surprised me by being a five-star read (I suspect I read it at exactly the right time to most appreciate it); A Bloomy Head was a historical romance rec from Felicia Davin’s newsletter, and an even easier five-stars, but as a Davin recommendation that was much less surprising. The gay-and-Gothic What Manner of Man wasn’t quite perfect but was damn great nonetheless.
I MASSIVELY enjoyed rereading the Sharing Knife series – Dag and Fawn are still #LifeGoals – and Swordheart! I couldn’t read the latter in bed, because my giggles kept waking the hubby. Eee!
(I did not, as is obvious, get around to finishing any Middle Grade books after all. I did start several, though!)
Reviewed
Only two reviews this month, neither of which were anything special, really. I’m glad I finally managed to review Gilded Crown, though, on my second read of it!
DNF-ed
Four DNFs – a totally reasonable number! Still not sure what I was thinking with trying to read Grave Empire, though…
ARCs Outstanding
How does the number of Outstanding go up??? Through your own ridiculous efforts, Sia. And yet I do not regret there being 35 of these! I just feel a bit embarrassed for some reason.
Unmissable SFF UpdatesLots of gorgeous covers added to the Unmissable list this month – I’m very starry-eyed! – and even after removing two books (when we got confirmation that they’ve been pushed back to 2026) we’re up to 81 unmissables. Including our first December release!
How did my predictions/anticipated reads for February go? I declared five books Unmissable for this month, and–
one was a five-star read, albeit a reread (Swordheart)one was a three-and-a-half star read (The Desert Talon)two were DNFs (Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales and The Antlered King)one I haven’t finished yet but am enjoying (The Crimson Road)Clearly, I continue to be Not Great at predicting these! Ah well.
MiscI posted a list of no-romance recs for Valentine’s Day, because I am a contrary creature, and was delighted to learn it was of use right away!
In far less cool news, Amazon did in fact go ahead and remove the ability to download-and-transfer your ebooks on the 26th. (I know I mentioned the possibility a month or two back, but I was not expecting it to happen so soon!) You can still download books to your kindle via wi-fi, and if you know how to de-DRM (and use Windows) you can still download books to the Kindle For PC program and nab them that way. But it sucks. Luckily, I’d already started archiving my library and got it done before the deadline, but yet again: fuck Amazon.
In cool news again: I discovered that ! I may have squeed. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED, for sure!
Looking Forward
The SFF year truly begins in March! The River Has Roots and Tomb of Dragons surely need no introductions, and Go Luck Yourself is the sequel to Nightmare Before Kissmass, which I unexpectedly adored. I Am Made of Death features a heroine who has to speak in sign language while looking for a surgical exorcism; Every Dark Cloud is post-apocalyptic Eco-Weird; and Once Was Willem has promised me biblically accurate angels and I intend to collect!
May March be marvellous for us all!
The post In Short: February appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
