A really excellent and comprehensive anthology focusing on queer men in London post war to the end of the 50s. Includes extracts from newspapers, lettA really excellent and comprehensive anthology focusing on queer men in London post war to the end of the 50s. Includes extracts from newspapers, letters, diaries, novels, plays, and quite a bit from the censors of plays. Many queer voices.
Obviously a lot of it is homophobic, and some of it really vile stuff. The last extract of the book is, jawdroppingly, a court report about a young man accused of sexual assaults on two women. The accused had had homosexual encounters before, and a psychologist literally described his attempted rapes *in court* as "a step in the right direction". I mean...fucking hell. Fuck.
A lot of this makes one feel, as one might feel now, that the British press en masse needs to be shot at dawn. However, there are also lots of non-awful pieces--loving, thoughtful, atmospheric, defiant, humane, and often very funny. I shall cherish Noel Coward's remark on seeing a poster of Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde in The Sea Shall Not Have Them: "Why not? Everybody else has."
Brief but very useful annotations from the anthologist. This includes, in the biographical notes, a comment that one individual's book Come Cruising "disappointingly turns out to be about yachting".
A fantastic bit of work bringing the queer London 1950s to life. Highly readable and invaluable. I shall get the 1960s volume....more
Oooh I have been looking forward to this for ages! Second in the series about the all girl rock band The Lillys, this time featuring drummer Kayla.
I Oooh I have been looking forward to this for ages! Second in the series about the all girl rock band The Lillys, this time featuring drummer Kayla.
I think it's fair to say this is at least as much about the Lillys as it is about the romance. Ty and Kayla are a sweet couple, very slow burn romance, and pretty much no conflict once they get together. They both have a lot going on in their lives with the rock band drama and Ty's wrongful conviction and family issues so there's plenty of events, but the romance is just one thread in the story. Which is absolutely fine, I just had other expectations going in so the pacing felt odd until I ajdusted my head.
A long book with a lot of detail, engaged me throughout in a satisfyingly soap operatic way. I really now very much want Jordan and ?Tiff's story please, and I'm guessing Lilly and Cindy??? Thoroughly enjoyable. ...more
A very sweet novella set in a folktale-adjacent magical world, with a hugely powerful magician at an angle to people, and a handsome prince. Very bi, A very sweet novella set in a folktale-adjacent magical world, with a hugely powerful magician at an angle to people, and a handsome prince. Very bi, very warm and loving, will honour, decency and kindness winning the day. There's more sex than I felt it needed, but others' mileage will undeniably vary on that, and the magic system is absolutely beautifully rendered and wonderfully imaginative. A pleasure....more
Second in the charming novella series. This is a sweet story of poetry geek and football star at high school, now grown up. Kai is happy as a welder, Second in the charming novella series. This is a sweet story of poetry geek and football star at high school, now grown up. Kai is happy as a welder, coming to terms with his bisexuality, recently lost a parent. Aiden is secure in his sexuality but his working life (poet/MFA) is a frustrating mess of uncertainty. Aiden is still carrying around some residual high school bitterness towards Kai for being popular, secure and sporty, whereas Kai is a big Dulux dog of a man who's realised he was kind of crushing on Aiden the whole time. Aiden is a tad of a jerk at points, but we believe he's learning and that's the important part. It's all very sweet and warm but with enough difficulty so it's never cloying....more
Okay, first will someone please tell Faber and Faber this is a romance novel and could have had a human face covRead during the #TransRightsReadathon.
Okay, first will someone please tell Faber and Faber this is a romance novel and could have had a human face cover like the US edition, you don't actually need to do this litfic thing.
A superbly written book (well obviously from this author), which takes some classic tropes (second time around/boyfriend's dad) and does absolute wonders with them. Feyi's grief for her husband, killed several years ago in a traumatic car crash, is real and powerful and shapes everything. We see how much she needs to start living fully, how hard it is to do so. There's a wonderful scene where she realises part of what attracts her to Alim is his grief for his own lost wife: they can be alone together, in a way that she can't be with someone who hasn't gone through a comparable experience. Their lost partners are palpable in the new relationship: not as ghosts or shadows to be shaken off, but as presences to be brought in and fully acknowledged. It's deeply moving and doesn't detract from the relationship at all.
Okay, with the wise stuff out of the way let us proceed to the Messy Shit. This is totally a 'rock up with your boyfriend and sleep with his dad' book. Feyi knows exactly how messy this is, and it is explored in depth, and the damage it does is real, palpable, and not handwaved away. Brilliantly, the author shows us a whole lot of things being simultaneously true while mutually incompatible. Alim has the right to pursue his happiness (his children have already destroyed a previous relationship of his, forcing him to end it). Feyi is not obliged to keep dating Nasir and he has no rights over her. Nasir and Feyi are not formally in a relationship and have never had sex. And *even so* Feyi dropping Nasir for his father is a phenomenally hurtful thing to do and of course it blows everything up, because it's not as simple as "we weren't formally dating and your father and I are both free consenting adults".
Nasir is a wonderfully drawn character: a man who is almost but not quite a decent, caring, sensitive guy, because he's all those things until he's thwarted. And that's what this is: he says 'we can just be friends' but it's not what he ever meant, and once he realises he won't get his way, the underlying misogyny boils out. He's not even a bad person: he's a man living in a world that has taught him to believe, probably at an unacknowledged level, that women owe men sex if men pay them sufficient attention, and that a woman who is sexually available to other men must be sexually available to him. May I here add that the most satisfying moment in the entire book is when Nasir is going into Incel Rage mode and Feyi LOSES IT on him. Superb.
I also want to note that Nasir and his sister are both kind of biphobic at least as far as their father goes, and decidedly self-centred, and we can really see how they were shaped by their mother's sudden death. They aren't hateful so much as damaged and desperate to keep their remaining parent to themselves. Once again, hurt people hurt people.
This is all thinky stuff, which utterly underplays how much fun this book is. It is a terrific romance novel on its own terms, with a wonderfully sweary best friend, entertaining heroine, proper dilemmas and sacrifices for love, almost excessively cinnamon roll hero, and engulfing emotions splashed all over the pages. It's also as deeply thought and terrifically written as anything published as litfic [glares at Faber again], both in the emotions and in the lavish descriptions. Great stuff. ...more
Cosmic horror, capitalist satire, and a surprisingly tender and delicate f/f friends to lovers romance, in a blender.
Julie Crews, a name that has hadCosmic horror, capitalist satire, and a surprisingly tender and delicate f/f friends to lovers romance, in a blender.
Julie Crews, a name that has had me earwormed by the Twin Peaks theme tune all day, is a freelance exorcist sort of thing. She gets mixed up in the shenanigans of her ex Tyler, a corporate drone at a deeply evil law firm, and her old friend Sarah, escaping an abusive relationship. There is drink, drugs, mayhem, extreme violence, and cosmic horror to the eyeballs, which are numerous and rarely in the right place. It's fast paced and funny, with enough heart to balance all the splatter and a very endearing cast of goodies. I enjoyed it a lot. ...more
A Jewish Christmas f/f romance (where Judaism is a felt and practised faith and the Christmas element is basically trees and baubles). Miriam is a proA Jewish Christmas f/f romance (where Judaism is a felt and practised faith and the Christmas element is basically trees and baubles). Miriam is a profoundly traumatised artist who fled her family for the big city a decade ago and is now engaged to a society woman. Noelle (I see what you did there) is a recovering alcoholic with abandonment issues who works at Miriam's aunt's Christmas hotel/tree farm/business in a small cosy town where everyone knows each other. The will leaves equal shares to Miriam, Noelle, and two other cousins (the next book), in classic Elderly Lady Meddles from Beyond the Grave / Save The Farm style. Basically, this book is taking all the Hallmark movie tropes and gleefully rolling around in them, and why not.
For me, there was a bit of a disjunct between the fun with glittery decoupage Christmas trees and eccentrically named cats, and the issues of one woman who learned never to trust anyone to stay and love her, and another who was so emotionally abused by a monstrous father that she shut down for a decade. (I have never actually watched a Hallmark Christmas movie though, so possibly this is how they work.) The emotional issues are picked over carefully, if a bit overtly for me (but this seems to be how US whippersnappers talk these days) and the romance is very slow burn (and closed door) so we don't fall into any 'sex fixes everything' nonsense.
The dialogue is fun, and the characters strongly drawn, with entertaining minor characters keeping the fun going. Very relaxed depiction of Noelle as a fat butch that doesn't go overboard on the descriptions: it's matter of fact, who she is, rather than a big deal. Lovely strong sense of Miriam's Jewish faith and cultural background and the weirdness of this Jewish-run Christmas enterprise. Highly readable and leaning in to all kinds of tropes. A fun, warm, engaging read, and a good choice if you're after a winter/Christmas romance that isn't Christianormative. ...more
This is the second book I've read in a short time which is billed as a rom com but is not in fact a romance. It's about the MC's love life, but as we This is the second book I've read in a short time which is billed as a rom com but is not in fact a romance. It's about the MC's love life, but as we all (except the publishers) know, that is not the same thing as a romance. Just saying.
Interesting, the other not-romcom was also about an MC with Main Character syndrome, ie a conviction they are the centre of the universe and everyone else a bit player. Here Gina is becoming aware of her bisexuality, but chooses to handle the effects on her life by lying to absolutely everyone (deceiving her longterm boyfriend, manipulating him into an open relationship so she can screw her crush, lying to her new (lesbian) band about being a lesbian) in order to avoid having to make any firm life-altering decisions about where she stands, or indeed to lose her het privilege. This pretty much means she's living to the stereotype of the indecisive cheating bisexual, which the book fully acknowledges and discusses (it's own voices). Does the acknowledgement negate the stereotyping? I'm not a hundred percent sure about this--it's one of those things that might be layers of postmodern irony, or might be having your cake and eating it (another biphobic stereotype, ironically, oh god I'm drowning help).
The thing that slightly bugged me about this is that Gina's issues are all completely fair and valid ones that are chewy and difficult to handle--all of which is really well written and conveyed. It's just, she handles them in the worst possible ways--not just for herself but for other people. She does come to face up to that, but it's hard to feel she deserves the happy outcomes of retaining friends/family support/love affair when she's treated everyone in her life so consistently terribly so long for her own benefit. I suspect how much the reader enjoys this depends on whether you like embarrassment comedy and awful people learning to be less awful. Which many people do, whereas I tend to find eg The Office unwatchable because I sit there feeling dreadful for everyone involved, and yes I do realise that's entirely missing the point.
It's very well written with entertaining characters and some great jokes, and highly readable, but very much a book that will either land for you (if you lean into the irony and like a catastrophic screw up MC) or won't. There we go: quot homines tot sententiae. ...more
An opposites attract story. Mel is a stand-up comedian: loud, show-offy, class clown, wears ridiculous shirts. He's also blighted by anxiety and insomAn opposites attract story. Mel is a stand-up comedian: loud, show-offy, class clown, wears ridiculous shirts. He's also blighted by anxiety and insomnia and insecurity, and struggles with self esteem, but does his best not to dump those things on other people. Vivian is an uptight banker who doesn't laugh much and socialises less and wears blazers, and is still carrying profound damage from being parentified throughout her childhood.
It would be possible not to like these leads: the book doesn't shy away from helping us see how annoying Mel can be with the joking (he does the "pretend to have lost the rings at the rehearsal dinner" schtick oh god) and how Vivian pushes people away, sometimes literally and definitely hurtfully. But both of them are better than that and their relationship slowly develops, allowing Vivian to start to embrace life and open up, and Mel to be an actual solid, serious support to her. They are better together, in large part because Mel is a decent man who accepts Vivian's wants about, eg, not having children and living her life. Which ought not be a high bar to clear but you know, and is everything to Vivian, struggling under the twin weights of culture and upbringing. He's clearly very good for her. Vivian is...more difficult, because she's a lot less willing to give than Mel is. Having spent so much of her life being expected to give everything of herself, in an effort to course-correct she's veered too far the other way into something quite close to self-centredness, and the relationship is very much him making the running for a long time. We can absolutely see why, but it's tough on Mel. On the other hand, how often do you see a m/f romance where the man is doing 90% of the emotional labour?
Speaking of rarities in romance, both leads are bi, and Mel is a non-tall, non-lean, non-muscular romance hero. (He's Vivian's height and definitely chunky, both on page and, pleasingly, on the cover.)
I really liked this story and both leads, in all their awkwardness and difficulty. Flawed characters finding a way to fit together is pretty much my jam, and Jackie Lau writes them very well indeed. ...more
Absolutely delightful SF. A crappy and chaotic set of space bums and escaping criminals on a junk ship in the middle of a terrible war find themselvesAbsolutely delightful SF. A crappy and chaotic set of space bums and escaping criminals on a junk ship in the middle of a terrible war find themselves a) in a weird rift out of time and space b) with another ship from 150 years in the future where c) they are the incredible heroes who ended the war. The story unfolds in both past and present with flashbacks (not in chronological order) filling in the backstories of the main characters from both timelines.
Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff can very easily be too clever for its own good, and exceedingly hard to follow. Not here. The world building is magnificently done, so that within the first three chapters you're completely clued in, and then you get the immense pleasure of watching the story spool out and a lot of very clever pieces snick perfectly into place and apparent plot flaws suddenly make perfect sense. A well-oiled machine of a plot is a rare pleasure, and this is one.
It's also a wonderfully human story. Characters are badly flawed, and have made terrible mistakes. People are mostly doing their best. Apparent villains are more complicated than that. This is very much a book about allowing people nuance and failings and redemption, and as such it's immensely loving. Plus diversity (racial and sexuality) is a given.
I enjoyed this enormously, and recommend it hugely if you need an absorbing, immersive read to give you hope about people. Which, let's face it, you do. ...more
A thoroughly lovely story of a single mum on an alt Great British Bake-Off, finding her confidence in life, romance, family, and cake as she goes.
It'A thoroughly lovely story of a single mum on an alt Great British Bake-Off, finding her confidence in life, romance, family, and cake as she goes.
It's rather unusual in romance terms, as Rosaline spends a lot of the book in a relationship with the wrong love interest, and we see as much of him on page as we do of the right guy. I'd sort of say it's between romance and women's fiction there. Alain is an incredibly well drawn character, hideously plausible, as is Rosaline's response to him, which makes for somewhat uncomfortable reading because wow do men like that suck. Fortunately Harry is an absolute joy, and I'm kind of sorry we didn't get lots more of him on page.
The cast of characters is massive but so well handled you don't even notice, and make for an absolutely delightful ensemble comedy with lovely dialogue. I particularly liked the incredibly foul-mouthed producer who you think might be villain or deus ex machina but in fact is just doing her job (and gets to deliver the single best murder-by-words insult I have ever read at just the right time. Oof, it's a killer. You'll know.).
A thoroughly engaging, enjoyable story of a woman finding her confidence to be herself. ...more
William Beckford was one of the richest men in Britain off the back of slavery. He had an obscene amount of money which he blew on self indulgence, idWilliam Beckford was one of the richest men in Britain off the back of slavery. He had an obscene amount of money which he blew on self indulgence, idle refusal to pay any attention to his 'business' and massive extravagant building works. He was also a chronic liar and rewriter of history, a piece of shit friend who repeatedly did things like ignore dying friends on their deathbeds, a massive hypocrite who wept about animal rights and the liberty of the individual while being a plantation owner, and--it really does feel like he was going for some sort of award here--a paedo. The author of this bio at one point uses the word 'psychopath' which seems fair.
Can I add that his most famous work Vathek is really quite unreadably bad, though obv in the context of "slave-owning nonce" literary failings are trivial. It is awful though.
This is a great bio with a lot of context and character that looks into the absolute calamity Beckford made of his life because he was, as the book notes, too rich to take criticism. (You really get the impression that the author came to dislike Beckford richly, as is only natural.) There is a lot of interest here--his bisexuality, his fascinating relationship with his wife, his architecture and artistic talent and political potential (all wasted). A strong book on a failure of a man....more
A f/f romance set in Manila, with a bi heroine / narrator navigating how and whether to turn a hookup into something more when the girl she likes provA f/f romance set in Manila, with a bi heroine / narrator navigating how and whether to turn a hookup into something more when the girl she likes proves to be thoughtlessly biphobic. Thoughtlessly as in, she has a bunch of unexamined assumptions and she doesn't deal with them well.
This is set in a very real-feeling milieu, rather than the fantasyland where everyone either is evil or holds correct and perfect opinions, no middle ground. Jackie is very far from perfect but she is also willing to rethink (or even just think about) her assumptions, and we see how they arise from a society that's not massively embracing of queerness, still less complexity of identity. AJ wisely takes her time deciding if it's worth pursuing the relationship, but she also recognises and has to work through her own internalised stuff before they're both ready to move from no-strings to relationship. (It isn't a love triangle btw, despite the cover.)
A thing I really love about this is the lack of shaming. Hookups are fine, and so is the MC going out and getting absolutely shitfaced with her friends. It is still a relatively rare thing to see a romance where a young woman can get metaphorically slaughtered without risking the literal version, which probably reflects the strong strand of US puritanism in the genre: usually a sloppy drunk woman leads to some traumatic plot-altering event instead of, in this case, a headache and some embarrassment about saying something stupid. I swear, #romanceclass books are about the only place you can reliably see heroines drink without punishment. Refreshing....more
A wildly enjoyable contemporary romance with a delightful 'marriage of convenience for the inheritance' plot and absolutely yummy characters. MOC plotA wildly enjoyable contemporary romance with a delightful 'marriage of convenience for the inheritance' plot and absolutely yummy characters. MOC plots often involve people hating or resenting or mistrusting each other, whereas here we have two people trapped in this absurd situation who take a sensible, generous approach, build an alliance, talk to each other, behave supportively, and generally are *exactly* the people you'd want to be forced to marry by the terms of your aunt's will.
Mason is both bi and fat, which is absurdly rare for a male hero in m/f romance, Xeni has a great line in humour, the dialogue crackles, and it's all immense heart-lifting fun with enough serious subjects to give it emotional weight. Lovely. ...more
This was absolutely delightful. Set in an alt-Mediterranean sort of world, with a Germanicish tribe at war with Greekish colonisers. Rus, a fighting pThis was absolutely delightful. Set in an alt-Mediterranean sort of world, with a Germanicish tribe at war with Greekish colonisers. Rus, a fighting priest, digs out a trapped fallen soldier from the aftermath of a battle, without realising the warrior he's saving is the enemy. Adares, who is more an administrator, then saves Rus from his poisoned arrow wound, and the two hole up in a temple to recuperate, falling in love on the way.
It's beautifully written (and very well edited, which makes a glorious change), with fascinating worldbuilding that supports the characters, a lovely romance that manages to be both moving and unsentimental, and lots of chewy and intriguing thoughts. Plus, it pulls off the rare trick of making you feel better about people. There's no villain per se: the problem is human stupidity and obduracy, but this is one of those books that believes people can learn and do better, and makes the reader believe it too.
I read it in a sitting and enjoyed every minute. And how nice to have a historical set in the long past, too. Highly recommended, off to get more by this author. ...more
A very sweet novella about a trans man working as a silversmith in 19th century New York, and his gentle courtship of an independent and determined quA very sweet novella about a trans man working as a silversmith in 19th century New York, and his gentle courtship of an independent and determined quilt maker. It's got a lot to say in its few pages about the struggles of women in work, the lack of recognition, the complexity of a trans child growing up with a parent whose love doesn't stretch to understanding. Great historical detail, too, and the crafts have some serious metaphorical resonance for the story. And it's hopeful, too, about people's ability to accept, learn, and grow.
Can I also add how nice it is to see a woman in histrom with strong political opinions who isn't also portrayed as being bull-headed/extremist and putting her foot in it. I didn't realise how prevalent that is until I read this and realised I was waiting for the heroine to quixotically torpedo her career. Like...women can possess strong opinions and it doesn't have to make them socially inept or lead them on a direct road to martyrdom, it might just mean quietly changing the world around them!...more
I adored #1 in this series so snapped this concluding half of the story up immediately after. It wasn't quite as much to my taste as the first half puI adored #1 in this series so snapped this concluding half of the story up immediately after. It wasn't quite as much to my taste as the first half purely because I'm not much for ultra rich people in romance (because it always feels like they're playing on easy to me) and somehow the wealth of the characters, without having changed from book 1, felt more obvious in how it eased their path here. That said, if you like mill/billionaires you'll love this, and in any case the writing is skilled, fluent, witty and engaging and very sexy. Duo highly recommended for contemp-lovers, with bonus for inclusion of multiple kinds including a completely chill bi hero. ...more
An absolute stormer of a sexy romance. Hard working doctor and daughter of a dodgy Republican scumbag politician Darby meets supersexy high flying arcAn absolute stormer of a sexy romance. Hard working doctor and daughter of a dodgy Republican scumbag politician Darby meets supersexy high flying architect Michael and they agree on a no-strings no-stress sexual relationship. Obviously this is a romance so strings happen. Michael is a total cinnamon roll as sexy romance millionaires go: he's emotionally supportive and kind, sends Darby lunches when she's busy, watches her favourite movies with her, hires PIs to grind her enemies into dust--you know, those little things that make a difference in a relationship. Only this isn't a relationship because her horrible father is on a collision course with Michael's firm, and he's about to be transferred to the other side of the world, and they've both agreed to terminate things without argument just by saying 'snapdragon'.
It's well written, at points very funny, hot, lot of dark undercurrents without plunging into excessive angst (although I suspect book 2 will be angstier). Both characters are bi, a fact with which neither has a problem, and there's a nicely diverse cast. What it *doesn't* have is a HEA because this is Part One of a duo--the next book Chrysalis is Michael POV and is going to tell the actual romance to which this is an origin story (according to the author's note). So think of it as a two-parter, but don't miss this one for heaven's sake. ...more
Good Lord I loved this. Talia Hibbert knocks it out of the park again.
Hannah is a brilliant heroine, of the kind that I just know is going to get calGood Lord I loved this. Talia Hibbert knocks it out of the park again.
Hannah is a brilliant heroine, of the kind that I just know is going to get called unlikeable despite the fact that she's as relatable a character as I have ever encountered. She's ferociously hard-working, independent, protective, self reliant. She is also depressive, has anxiety, and is holding it together thanks to good medication, and she's also bloody angry--at the crap small town and its small minded inhabitants, at her father, at being disqualified from the job she loves because of a criminal record. The combination of all that plus (I think) being on the spectrum or at least off the beaten track means she's put up walls she can't see past.
Nate is guilt ridden, and not in the usual romance hero way. He's guilty about not having been there for his ill mother and brother, and about not doing enough for his kids, but refreshingly, not over his wife's death because it wasn't his fault. And when he employs Hannah as live in nanny he gets super guilt-ridden over his attraction to her, AS WELL HE SHOULD. Generally the 'live in nanny' plot is just the set up for a romance, not the conflict. But it bloody should be the conflict because soliciting sex from someone who is dependent on you for work, income, and housing is a shitty thing to do, and this is one of very few books with this set-up to treat it as the #MeToo situation it actually is.
Obviously, it's also not that because Hannah is intensely attracted to Nate, but her lack of people skills and deep but unacknowledged insecurities interact terribly with his determination to not be abusive scum, so neither of them is prepared to admit first that they're attracted, and then that they're falling in love. This is definitely one of those stories where 'everything could have been resolved early on with a conversation' but the whole point here is that the conversation was literally impossible--Hannah can't make herself vulnerable, and Nate won't make her vulnerable. (Because Nate is able to understand that Hannah can be a competent badass and a genuinely scary and ferocious woman, without becoming magically invulnerable. She's still physically small and financially dependent on him (view spoiler)[she isn't but he doesn't know that (hide spoiler)] no matter how much of a strong woman she is.)
All the above plus a plotline around misdiagnosed cancer might seem a bit gloomy and serious but in fact it's a wickedly funny book. It reminded me of Glitterland in a way--the near hysterical humour of people on the edge of coping, which is intensely true to life. And the supporting cast is a joy, especially two of the most realistic kids I have ever read and magnificent appearances by sister Ruth and their mum.
Loved it. Love the cover with the big gorgeous woman. Please please PLEASE can Zach get his story next and if his heroine is Rae I will be dancing....more
Pure joy. I read this in a single sitting, blissfully. Aria is brilliant, a heroine with twofold intimacy problems but who knows herself. She's determPure joy. I read this in a single sitting, blissfully. Aria is brilliant, a heroine with twofold intimacy problems but who knows herself. She's determined, practical, and absolutely hilarious--this is one of the funniest books I've read in ages and her death glares are a thing of beauty. Nik is also a delight--amiable, none too bright, looks like the typical romance alpha male but is in fact a puppydog of epic proportions.
He is also cheerfully and positively bi! And the football WAGs he hangs out with are mostly thoroughly nice people! And the world is diverse and Aria is a big woman and much lovely variety of human nature is here because this author actually writes inclusion and HEAs for everyone, which is rarer than you might think in a genre that's supposed to offer love and hope but all too often has "for conventionally attractive white people" in the small print.
A marvellous read, highly recommended, and glom the entire backlist while you're at it....more
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