Tag Archives: bisexual

TBRainbow Alert!

TBRainbow Alert #2

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For those of you who feel like you’ve already read every LGBTQIAP+ book in existence, not to worry – there’s plenty still to come! Every TBRainbow Alert will have a mix of five LGBTQIAP+ titles to make sure are on your radar, along with three reasons why you should know them. If you missed the first alert, you can check out those titles here. And now, a few more coming up in 2016!

Title: Fast Connection (July 11)
Authors: Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell
Genre/Category: Contemporary Romance
Rainbow details: m/m, both bi
Why put it on your radar?
1. This is the follow-up to Strong Signal, which was so hot my brain combusts just thinking about it.
2. Bi rep! In m/m!
3. Megan Erickson. Santino Hassell. Writing together. I mean, hi.

Title: Of Fire and Stars (November 22)
Author: Audrey Coulthurst
Genre/Category: YA Fantasy
Rainbow details: f/f – one lesbian, one bi
Why put it on your radar?
1. f/f Fantasy is one of the rarest things in YA, and if you’ve been desperately waiting for the answer to “What do I read after Ash?” Ta da!
2. Horses! If you are a horse person (as I know the author is), this book is seriously gonna be your jam.
3. Cute, hot, sexy…Coulthurst gets in all of it between Mare and Denna, and the thought of teen girls finally getting a romance this sweet between princess made me hug this book when I was done.

Title: A Darkly Beating Heart (October 4)
Author: Lindsay Smith
Genre/Category: YA Time-Travel Fantasy
Rainbow details: bi female MC
Why put it on your radar?
1. The code phrase for this book before it had an official title was “Angry Bisexual Japanese Revenge Fantasy.” If that’s not the best “Describe your book in 5 words” you’ve ever heard…
2. This is Smith’s first novel with a queer main character, but you may already know/love her from “City of Angels,” her contribution to A Tyranny of Petticoats, which featured a Native lesbian MC.
3. It’s so. Freaking. Good. Dark and brutal and raw and honest and compelling and page-turning and awesomely infused with Japanese culture/food/setting.

Title: Girl Mans Up (September 6)
Author: M-E Girard
Genre/Category: Contemporary YA
Rainbow details: butch lesbian MC
Why put it on your radar?
1. I honestly didn’t register how unheard this POV was in YA until I read the book, and I suspect it’ll be one lots will be grateful to finally see.
2. Gamer girls! Both the MC and LI!
3. I think this may also be the first Portuguese MC I’ve read in YA, and the book is heavily infused with culture and language.

Title: Not Your Sidekick (September 6)
Author: C.B. Lee
Genre/Category: YA Sci-Fi
Rainbow details: bi female MC
Why put it on your radar?
1. The main character is an intern. To a super villain. Like. Come on.
2. Queer girl of color by queer author of color! Queer girl of color by queer author of color!
3. I’ll just direct you back to that premise. I cannot imagine what else is needed here.

New Releases

New Releases: June 14, 2016

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HIIIIIIIIIII I (the mysterious person who runs this site) HAVE A NEW BOOK OUT TODAY AND IT’S F/F NA WITH A PANSEXUAL MC AND LESBIAN LI AND IT IS SUPER FLUFFY AND YOU MIGHT LIKE IT. And good news! There’s also a new f/f YA out today, perfect for theater nerds and questioning teens! PSA: if you like tattooed girls who like more than one gender, this is a good book day for you!

Out on Good Behavior by Dahlia Adler

OutonGoodBehavior72dpi(1)Frankie Bellisario knows she can get anyone she sets her sights on, but just because she can doesn’t mean she should—not when the person she’s eyeing is Samara Kazarian, the daughter of a southern Republican mayor. No matter how badly Frankie wants to test her powers of persuasion, even she recognizes some lines aren’t meant to be crossed.

But when Frankie learns she’s been on Samara’s mind too, the idea of hooking up with her grows too strong to resist. Only Sam’s not looking for a hookup; she wants—needs—the real thing, and she’s afraid she’ll never find it as long as Frankie’s in her head.

Forced to choose between her first relationship and losing the girl who’s been clawing her way under her skin, Frankie opts to try monogamy…under her own condition: 30 days of keeping things on the down low and remaining abstinent. If she fails as hard at girlfriending as she’s afraid she might, she doesn’t want to throw Samara’s life into upheaval for nothing. But when neither the month nor Frankie’s heart go according to plan, she may be the one stuck fighting for the happily ever after she never knew she wanted.

Buy: Amazon US| B&N | iBooks | Smashwords |  Kobo

Look Both Ways by Alison Cherry

21825761A summer away from the city is the beginning of everything for Brooklyn Shepard. Her theater apprenticeship at Allerdale is a chance to prove that she can carve out a niche all her own, surrounded by people who don’t know anything about her or her family of superstar performers.

Brooklyn immediately hits it off with her roommate, Zoe, and soon their friendship turns into something more. Brooklyn wants to see herself as someone who’s open to everything and everyone, but as her feelings for Zoe intensify, so do her doubts. She’s happier than she’s ever been—but is it because of her new relationship? Or is it because she’s finally discovering who she wants to be?

Buy: B&N | IndieBound

And mark your calendars, because this next one releases in 3 days!

A Love That Disturbs by Medeia Sharif

29425846Maysa Mazari is alarmed by her mother’s talk about arranged marriage. Meanwhile, as a hijab-wearing Pakistani-American, she wants to find love on her own. Her judgmental Muslim clique has protected her from racist taunts, although the leader, Aamal, is turning on her as Maysa strays from the group because of her attraction to Haydee.

Haydee Gomez is a former gang member and juvenile detention student. Now living with a clean-cut aunt, she wants to turn her life around, even though one person will never let her forget her roots—Rafe, her abusive pimp. Haydee attempts to pull away from a life of prostitution when she develops feelings for Maysa, although Rafe isn’t willing to give her up too easily.

Finding themselves in danger from Maysa’s friends and Haydee’s pimp, it’s apparent their love disturbs everyone around them as they fight to stay together.

Finally, not a new release, but make sure you check out Heroes and Heartbreakers today for the cover reveal of Fast Connection by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell, the second book in their m/m Cyberlove series—this one features two bi guys!

Cover Reveal

Cover Reveal: Order in the Court by Casey Lawrence!

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Hello and welcome to the cover reveal of Order in the Court by Casey Lawrence, sequel to Out of Order! For reference, here’s the story behind the first book, which was a Bisexual Book Award finalist:

25446187Corinna “Corey” Nguyen’s life seems perfectly average for a closeted bisexual whiz kid with her eyes on college and a budding romance with her friend Kate. Sixteen and navigating senior year with her tight-knit group of best friends through crushes, breakups, and pregnancy scares, Corey mistakenly believes that running for valedictorian and choosing the right college are the worst of her worries. That is, until prom night, when she’s left alone and in shock, hiding inside a diner restroom, the only witness to a multiple homicide.

With graduation looming, the pressure is on for Corey to identify the killer and ensure that the crime that has changed her life forever will not go unpunished.

And now, here’s what you can expect in Order in the Court:

After witnessing the murders of her three best friends and having their killer arrested, seventeen-year-old Corey Nguyen is having trouble adjusting to life after high school. As a freshman in college, all she wants is to put her dark past behind her, make some new friends, and keep her head down.

Her new world comes crashing down when the killer changes his plea to not guilty, claiming he was coerced into a confession. Corey must now testify in a murder trial, making the panic attacks and flashbacks to the night of the murders intensify. To top it all off, she’s pretty sure her mother is having an affair with the prosecuting attorney. To Corey’s dismay, the story clearly doesn’t end with the murder of her friends.

Finally…here’s the cover you’ve been waiting for!

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You can preorder Order in the Court, which releases August 4, here!

Uncategorized

Bisexuality, Intersectionality and Me: a Guest Post by Carrie Pack

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Please welcome Carrie Pack to LGBTQ Reads! I met Carrie at RT in Las Vegas, when I was dancing around to every rainbow-flagged table in the room and froze at the sight of her beautiful cover, and now her book is out, you can buy the cover for yourself, and you can read this guest post!

Interlude Press * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Apple iBookstore *
All Romance eBooks * Smashwords * Book Depository * Indiebound

When I started writing In the Present Tense, I knew I wanted an intersectionally diverse cast of characters. I was already writing LGBTQ characters, so that part was a no-brainer. But this time, I wanted more racial diversity. And not because I wanted to check boxes or fill a quota, but because I’m sick of the whitewashing of the entire entertainment industry. I’m appalled that when I read a book I default to imagining the characters as white. I’m angry that American media have conditioned me this way, and I’m bored with this homogenized view of the world. There are so many stories to tell that aren’t about white, cisgender, heterosexual people and they can and should be told.

But simply put, there are certain stories that I can’t write because they’re not mine to tell. I am not the person to tell the story of what it’s like to live as a person of color because I am white. But I can make sure that my characters aren’t “white by default.” So I wrote a bisexual bi-racial man whose mother is black and father is white. I wrote a first-generation Colombian woman. I wrote a gay Korean adoptee. However, I did not write about their struggles or challenges as those identities.

Instead, I wrote about something I know: mental illness and the effect it has on the people we love. (I have depression and anxiety.) But what I didn’t realize at the time was that I was also writing about my sexuality. What I didn’t realize until it was all written was that I am bisexual.

Even now it’s tough for me to say it. To claim it outright. To not feel the need to excuse it or qualify it.

In fact, just a few months ago I wrote this in a blog post:

Ultimately, I don’t identify as bisexual… I have exclusively been in relationships with men my entire life. And since I’m happily married, I don’t see that changing any time soon. Even though I am occasionally attracted to women, my sexual feelings toward women are far less pronounced than the attraction I experience toward men… [Bisexual is] just not my label.

But the truth is, it is my label. I can claim it because it’s my identity. I am bisexual. There is no test to qualify. No requisite number of female partners. I am attracted physically and romantically to women. I am married to a man. These things can be true all at once.

I always leave little hints of myself and my loved ones in my characters. Little tiny Easter eggs that my friend and family may never find. So when I wrote Miles, the aforementioned bisexual man, I unknowingly left a little part of myself in his back story. Miles says that in high school, he thought he was only attracted to guys. He built his life around it. It wasn’t until much later he realized that girls were pretty great too. This was so similar to my experience that I can’t even believe I didn’t notice it before. I denied attraction to women because I had always been interested in men. Straight and gay were my only options, obviously. Isn’t that what the media tells us?

I think one of the reasons I never considered bisexuality when I was younger—despite several same sex attractions—was that I didn’t know it was an option. Fictional characters are always identified by the sex of their current partners. If a man who has always dated women is now dating a man, he’s suddenly gay. There is no room for fluidity.

It took me writing a book about a bisexual character for me to figure this out. I had to actually create the story in order for me to see myself reflected. It sounds almost rote at this point to say it, but I think it can’t be emphasized enough. Representation matters. It matters because there are still people out there who need to see themselves reflected in media. They need it because they need to be seen and they need to see possibility.

My name is Carrie, and I am bisexual.

———————————-

carrie-packCarrie is the author of two novels—Designs On You and In the Present Tense—and a part-time college professor. She recently left her job in marketing to actively pursue her writing career. Her early career focused on advertising, journalism, and public relations while she also did freelance writing for businesses in the nonprofit sector. Carrie lives in Florida, which she fondly calls America’s Wang, with her husband and four cats. Visit her website at carriepack.com or follow her on twitter @carriepack.

Fave Five

Fave Five: LGBTQ YA Retellings of Classics

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Using “classics” fairly loosely here, but whatevs!

Great by Sara J. Benincasa (Contemporary The Great Gatsby)

As I Descended by Robin Talley (Paranormal Macbeth)

Marian by Ella Lyons (Fantasy Robin Hood)

Beast by Brie Spangler (Contemporary Beauty and the Beast)

Ash by Malinda Lo (Fantasy Cinderella)

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Uncategorized

Under the Gaydar: YA Fantasy Worlds

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While most of books you’ll see on this site are strictly LGBTQIAP+ MC, I’m going a little outside that box for this post. (Not to worry; there’ll be plenty of posts on that too.) Most of these books do have at least one queer primary character too, but this is sort of a bigger-picture look, because these are the series that wouldn’t necessarily come up if you searched for LGBTQIAP+ YA fantasy, and, well, this is Under the Gaydar; what else do you think we do here but build your TBR list with stuff you didn’t know was actually bleeding rainbows?

(N.B.: every book listed is the first in the series, but that’s not necessarily the book with the greatest amount of Rainbow Rep.)

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The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine – Not only is the premise of this book, about a girl who’s supposed to become a queen with massive powers and then just kinda…doesn’t, pretty epic on its own, but the main character is also quite besotted with her handmaiden. As per usual in Fantasy, the word “bisexual” isn’t used, but the differentiation of her feelings from simply being friendly is done clearly, and the guy she ends up with never feels like a romance she settled for. Next year will bring the sequel, The Cursed Queen, which according to the author similarly has a bi MC, this time with f/f endgame.

And I Darken by Kiersten White – This historical fantasy is one of my biggest obsessions of the year, and features two narrators: a bloodthirsty girl named Lada and her brother, a softer, more beautiful boy named Radu. Oh, and both are in love with Mehmed, the son of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire in which they’re effectively being held captive.

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey – The voice in this one alone could kill me, but one of the best things outside of the main character, macaron references, and NYC love is the amazing haters-to-lovers banter between Jasper and Dorian, two of the guys in her gang, who bring yet more wittiness to the series, along with some gayness and pansexuality.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu – One of my favorite fantasy series so far (two books down, one to come this fall) is all about villainy origins, but I’ll take a spin off on the queer romance that edges in through the cracks any day.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman – I have to cop to that this is the one series on the list I haven’t started yet, but the absolutely glowing comments on varied representation in Shadow Scale, the second book in the duology, won’t allow me to leave it off the list until I do, especially since it’s the only mainstream-published fantasy I know of with trans representation.

Fave Five

Fave Five: Contemp f/f NA

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Black Iris and Cam Girl by Elliot Wake w/a Leah Raeder

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

The Good Girls by Teresa Mummert

Take Them by Storm by Marie Landry

Out on Good Behavior and Under the Lights (YA/NA) by Dahlia Adler

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TBRainbow Alert!

TBRainbow Alert #1

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For those of you who feel like you’ve already read every LGBTQIAP+ book in existence, not to worry – there’s plenty still to come! Every TBRainbow Alert will have a mix of five LGBTQIAP+ titles to make sure are on your radar, along with three reasons why you should know them. Here are a few coming up in 2016! (Title links to Goodreads; Author links to book pages for preorder.)

Title: Roller Girl (July 25)
Author: Vanessa North
Genre/Category: Contemporary Romance
Rainbow details: f/f, trans woman and cis woman
Why put it on your radar?
1. Ummm roller derby? Did you not catch that?
2. This is actually gonna be my first Vanessa North read, but far as I can tell she’s pretty great!
3. Mainstream f/f Romance is still reasonably rare, and including at least one trans woman even more so.

Title: Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit (August 30)
Author: Jaye Robin Brown
Genre/Category: Contemporary YA
Rainbow details: f/f, both MC and LI are lesbian and cis
Why put it on your radar?
1. Super fun, cute, and hot f/f YA with an HEA; all the things I almost never find together in one space.
2. Really great exploration of the intersection between queerness and religion.
3. It’s set in the south, where queer teens could especially stand to see their stories in happy contexts right now.

Title: As I Descended (September 6)
Author: Robin Talley
Genre/Category: Paranormal YA
Rainbow details: f/f, bi MC
Why put it on your radar?
1. This is a freaking Macbeth retelling. In boarding school. With ghosts. I MEAN.
2. I haven’t read this one yet but I’ve heard rumblings of a much A+ representation in this book, in addition to queerness.
3. Robin Talley is maybe the author most frequently and consistently publishing LGBTQ YA with a big house right now, and always does so with an eye on intersectionality; she’s just generally a fabulous person to support.

Title: Last Seen Leaving (October 4)
Author: Caleb Roehrig
Genre/Category: YA Thriller
Rainbow details: Questioning/Gay boy
Why put it on your radar?      1. Thrillers are my crack. Willing to bet I’m not alone there.
2. Debut author! Love getting in on the ground floor of a potential great new voice in LGBTQIAP+ YA, and all signs (and reviews)(and, if I’m being honest, his tweets) point to him being someone to watch
3. It’s just so…interesting. And resonant. And the representation is every bit as beautiful as the writing.

Title: When the Moon Was Ours (October 4)
Author: Anna-Marie McLemore
Genre/Category: Magical Realism YA
Rainbow details: m/f, queer cis girl and straight trans boy
Why put it on your radar?
1. The writing is melt-your-brain beautiful.
2. QPoC are incredibly rare in YA, as are romances between PoC (and especially interracial romances between PoC), and this is between a Latina girl and a Desi boy.
3. It’s just so…interesting. And resonant. And the representation is every bit as beautiful as the writing.

Stay tuned for the next TBR Alert, coming soon; in the meantime, please spread the word about these!

Fave Five

Fave Five: Mental Health LGBTQ YAs

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In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, check out these excellent LGBTQ YAs featuring main characters dealing with mental health issues:

Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz (B, Eating Disorder)

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley (G, Agoraphobia)

History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera (G, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin (GF, Anxiety)

Scars by Cheryl Rainfield (L, Depression w/suicidal ideation and self-harm)

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Better Know an Author

Better Know an Author: Rebekah Weatherspoon

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A002_C005_0514C7.0001771FIf you read f/f NA/Romance, it’s pretty impossible not to know Rebekah Weatherspoon, but how well do you really know Rebekah Weatherspoon? (Also, not to brag, but I just got to see her on several panels at RT and she was freaking fantastic; if you ever get the opportunity to hear her panel somewhere, DO IT.) How could I not beg to pick the brain behind not only a seriously epic collection of diverse romance, but the entire #WoCInRomance site? (PS she also had a new release just this past weekend: check out So Right, the sequel to So Sweet, which share a bi heroine in an m/f relationship!)

I usually avoid asking authors about their inspiration because I know it gets asked to death, but you have a paranormal lesbian sorority series, and I’m sorry but I must know where the idea for that came from. Must. 

Ha! I don’t know where the idea came from, I remember exactly where I was when the idea came to me. I was driving down Wilshire Blvd and I hit the intersection at New Hampshire Ave (I’m from New Hampshire, you see). The idea popped into my head and I remember thinking this is so ridiculous and over the top I’ll be kicking myself if I don’t run with it. So I did.

You’re one of very few writers of f/f NA, and bless you for it. What have been the biggest challenges and awesome moments of publishing it?

Honestly, I don’t see any challenges. I think a lot of my work is outside of the mainstream. I write a lot of women of color and being a woman of color I face the same challenges walking down the street or going to the bank. It’s just another day.

What’s a particularly conscious choice you’ve made in your representation?

I’ve made the choice to write women of color, particularly young black women. I feel like young women of color (tween-25) almost NEVER seen themselves on screen or in literature. And if they are screen they are sometimes played by an adult. I love Arden Cho something fierce, but she was like 28 when she started playing a 17-year-old on Teen Wolf. I know that sort of thing messes with the teen mind. In writing NA, I wanted to give younger women a most realistic portrayal of themselves. Even if there are vampires involved.

What’s the first queer representation you saw in any medium that really stuck with you, for better or for worse?

Oh man, I really have to think. When I was growing up none of the LGBTQ terms were in my vocabulary. My parents just had friends that were married to other women, but they didn’t tell me they were lesbians so I didn’t have the words for it. BUT I think Ricky on My So-Called Life stuck with me. Ricky was gay and out and Latino and living in a mostly white town, but he was also so cool. I remember really wishing that Ricky could find his own happiness outside of Angela and her family. I’m sure he’d have it by now.

What’s something you’ve seen in LGBTQIAP+ lit that’s really stuck with you, for better or for worse?

Uh, there’s a lot of racism. That kinda sucks. Also a lot of different flavors of misogyny and transmisogny and transphobia that sneak in. When I came out I remember being really excited and then extra bummed that a lot of what I was seeing in the straight/cis community was presenting in every aspect of the LGBTQIAP+  community as well including our literature.

Which of your books has queer representation?

Main characters? So Sweet, So Right, The Fling, Treasure, SATED, At Her Feet, Better Off Red, Blacker Than Blue, and Soul to Keep. 

What’s your favorite of your covers, and why?

You can’t make me choose. I won’t choose. (Blogger’s note: This is legit; her covers are fanfreakingtastic. You can scroll through them all here.)

What are some of your favorite queer-centric things on the Internet?

Tumblr. Aint nothing queerer than my tumblr feed.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

Watching TV. I’m super boring, but I’m also kind of obsessed with consuming media. To be a writer or to work in entertainment you have to know what’s going on. I watch a ton of TV and a lot of movies.

What are your favorite LGBTQIAP+ reads?

What would you still love to see in LGBTQIAP+ lit?

A lot less of the crud I mentioned before with the bigotry, etc. and I NEED more queer New Adult reads, and I would sell my grandma for more erotic queer lit of every kind. Queer erotic fairy tales, queer erotic sports romances, queer erotic romantic comedies. Make ’em queer, and sweet, and extra porny.

What’s up next for you?

Self-pub wise, after I wrap up the Sugar Baby series in the fall I’ll be working on some space lesbian erotic romance. There’s not enough erotic romance in space, featuring lesbians.

Ain’t that the truth. You can buy any and all (preferably all) of Rebekah’s books here! (If you’re a Kindle person like I am, I’ll make that even easier here.)