Phantom and Rook is a queer urban fantasy romance following a retired hedge witch and a mysterious immortal that is cursed to be forgotten by all those who know and love him.
We have found family, magical tattoos, starting over later in life, and lots of healing. It is the first in a series, a toe dip into the magical world of Levena and all of its mysteries.
Look at me, listening to new books! I even conquered a paperback that’s been on my shelf for awhile now.
The To Kill a King series was full of ups and downs, I wanted to smash most of their heads together and the second one is likely my favorite because eldest child syndrome intermixed with a dragon for the win.
And yeah … I finished the Big Bad Wolf series, again. Can’t get enough Dayton and his wolf.
I am nearly done with the Perilous Courts series by Tavia Lark, I realized partway through Bodyguard that I had in fact already listened to it but continued on anyways. Love these books, and Betrothed especially.
Sorcery and Small Magics was recommended to me by several people, and MY GOODNESS what a book. It is so well written, beautiful, and just a heck of a good time.
American Hippo is like if OFMD had a baby with a heist movie and was parented by an old western, and babysat by hippos.
Lastly, I couldn’t start the year off without the Doomsday fellas. Gareth and Jos are my favorite, but Luke and his grief gets me every time.
They are chaos incarnate, or chaos just happens to spring up whenever they are around. Because let’s face it, a new year is just a new opportunity to cause havoc.
We return to the magickal world of Levena this year with a sassy star and their grumpy vampire. You do not need to have read the first two books to read Mochizuki and Xlato as it focuses on a different couple, but it helps with the 🌜lore🌛
For reading this year, it’s almost indie all the way for me. There are quite a few I have been wanting to get to, and some that I’ve started and need to finish. Especially the ones already on my shelves.
Commence the 2025 Wrap Up! I published my first historical fiction and ran my first Kickstarter, and participated in an anthology with the Right Here Write Queer Podcast. I also was nominated in the Indie Ink Awards!
For reading, there was a lot of rereading (and rereading again in the case of the Big Bad Series) but I did discover a lot of new favorites and other stories I really enjoyed. There was only a few that I didn’t care for as much.
It is Indie Ink Awards season, and I had a hell of a time voting for my favorites. In doing so, I found a ton of new indies I want to read, and some old favorites.
My urban fantasy and historical fiction were nominated for the Indie Ink Awards!
Phantom and Rook, the first in my Levena series, made it as a finalist last year and it makes me so happy to see Matsdotter and Adrastus getting love and attention this year! And my beloved gay explorers, in a category that is so very fitting.
You can vote for your favorite indie books beginning on Monday, December 15th. Check out Indie Story Geek to learn more. 🎉✨️📚
November plays host to many reading challenges this month, and it’s National Native American Heritage month. I’ll do my best to fit in as many recs as possible !
This week, let’s take a look at some queer books with nonbinary characters, or written by nonbinary authors. I’ve read a few of these, but there are so many good ones here I’m looking forward to.
I have been collecting queer indie books for a bit now, and then I found a spectacular queer indies 2025 release list that filled this post out beautifully.