by Emily Poirier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 10, 2018
A colorful fantasy setting, strong female protagonists, same-sex romance, and explicit but tender sexual content.
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A princess finds unexpected love on her dangerous quest to right a wrong in this queer new-adult fantasy.
After rejecting seven matrimonial prospects, Princess Helena decides to make a match with pleasing No. 8—Prince Branson of the kingdom of Osdeth. Helena delays the engagement when her parents reveal that they are cursed and dying, the consequences of their involvement in a slaughter of witches and a child given up long ago. Appalled at the injustice her parents perpetrated before she was born, Helena embarks on a secret quest to find the child, now an adult, and bring her home to her rightful place in the kingdom. Her only companion: Dresden, a high-ranking female officer in the Royal Guard who is secretly in love with the princess, whom she is honor-bound to protect. Much of this well-crafted novel focuses on the tender bond that develops between Helena and Dresden during their hazardous journey (intermittent bloodshed, an attack by a ferocious denizen of a dark forest, a raid on a witches’ camp). On their long trek, the barrier between royal and commoner falls away, and Helena realizes she has romantic feelings for Dresden. Poirier couches the book’s limited but explicit sexual content in terms of love and mutual respect. Here, same-sex relationships are authentically part of the fabric of the world the author has created; royals are expected to produce heirs, but lovers of either sex outside of marriage are accepted. In the book’s vivid fantasy twist, central to the plot, color is synonymous with life force. (“In the beginning, all was a colorless void. Then God, the Artist, saw fit to paint the universe in color...and that divine color resided in every living person.”) The colors of nature, of décor, of clothes, of hair and eyes are noted throughout; the absence of color is anathema. Female strength and integrity are the admirable cores of the book save for a few out-of-character, stereotypical “smirks” and “pouts.” The saga continues in Book 2, The Color Plague (2019).
A colorful fantasy setting, strong female protagonists, same-sex romance, and explicit but tender sexual content.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-983300-27-1
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
FANTASY | ROMANCE | EPIC FANTASY | FANTASY | LBGTQ
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by Casey McQuiston ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 4, 2019
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.
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The much-loved royal romance genre gets a fun and refreshing update in McQuiston’s debut.
Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the American President Ellen Claremont, knows one thing for sure: He hates Henry, the British prince to whom he is always compared. He lives for their verbal sparring matches, but when one of their fights at a royal wedding goes a bit too far, they end up falling into a wedding cake and making tabloid headlines. An international scandal could ruin Alex’s mother’s chances for re-election, so it’s time for damage control. The plan? Alex and Henry must pretend to be best friends, giving the tabloids pictures of their bromance and neutralizing the threat to Ellen's presidency. But after a few photo ops with Henry, Alex starts to realize that the passionate anger he feels toward him might be a cover for regular old passion. There are, naturally, a million roadblocks between their first kiss and their happily-ever-after—how can American political royalty and actual British royalty ever be together? How can they navigate being open about their sexualities (Alex is bisexual; Henry is gay) in their very public and very scrutinized roles? Alex and Henry must decide if they’ll risk their futures, their families, and their careers to take a chance on happiness. Although the story’s premise might be a fantasy—it takes place in a world in which a divorced-mom Texan Democrat won the 2016 election—the emotions are all real. The love affair between Alex and Henry is intense and romantic, made all the more so by the inclusion of their poetic emails that manage to be both funny and steamy. McQuiston’s strength is in dialogue; her characters speak in hilarious rapid-fire bursts with plenty of “likes,” “ums,” creative punctuation, and pop-culture references, sounding like smarter, funnier versions of real people. Although Alex and Henry’s relationship is the heart of the story, their friends and family members are all rich, well-drawn characters, and their respective worlds feel both realistic and larger-than-life.
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31677-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Kimberly Lemming ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 2024
A quirky, steamy fantasy that’s just what the romance genre needs.
A trader is swept up into an epic adventure after she inadvertently saves a demon’s life.
Cinnamon Hotpepper has only ever known a quiet, unassuming life on her family’s spice farm, and she doesn’t expect that to change. When it comes time for their village’s deity—the goddess Myva—to choose her new patrons, Cinnamon’s plan is to keep her head down and avoid getting involved with anything too far outside her comfort zone. Staggering home after one too many mugs of wine that same night, though, she inadvertently crosses paths with a demon, someone who should terrify her, and narrowly escapes with her life. The next morning, who should knock on the farm’s front door but the demon himself? Something about Cinnamon has given Fallon Ozul the ability to break out of the spell that has kept him in a monstrous frame of mind. Now he wants her help in seeking out the witch responsible for keeping his kind enslaved and telling everyone they’re evil, putting an end to her once and for all. And who is that witch? None other than Myva, who isn’t actually a goddess. Cinnamon knows she’s not cut out for an adventure like this, but she can’t deny her growing attraction to Fallon, so maybe she won’t try that hard to resist his efforts to persuade her to join him. In the process of destroying Myva’s hold on the demons, they might succeed at changing their world for the better. While the contemporary-feeling dialogue and characterization might clash with the setting and worldbuilding for some readers, and the book’s evolving romance could have benefited from more room to spread out, the story is a charming addition to the fantasy-romance realm.
A quirky, steamy fantasy that’s just what the romance genre needs.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780316570275
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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