Top Ten Tuesday: Spooky LGBTQIA+ Books

TTT was created by The Broke and Bookish and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl (click here for upcoming TTT topics!).

Today’s Topic is: : Halloween Freebie (This time I decided to go for a focus on spooky LGBTQIA+ books because there are many and I’m having a lot of fun with the readathon I’m currently hosting #Rainboween so I figured why not give a couple more recs?! Some of them aren’t all too spooky but others well, they are. *lol*)

1.) „Into the Drowning Deep“ by Mira Grant

I just finished reading this book and boy did it have me at the edge of my seat! There are flesh eating sirens in this book and they are creepy af! *lol* Also they are very interesting because the ship that wants to find them is full of scientists and I really liked that science aspect during the book. =) If they’d really be real I wouldn’t want to meet them though. And yes there is a f/f relationship in this too so it definitely has a LGBTQIA+ rep.

2.) „Lore & Lust“ by Karla Nikole

This was the first book I read for #Rainboween and I loved it so much! It’s about two male vampires named Haruka and Nino who meet through an ancient vampire ritual they are kinda forced to supervise/witness. They are both very curious about each other and eventually become friends. This is a slow burn, people, but it really was such a lovely and nice one and I can totally recommend reading the book if you love vampires and m/m books.

3.) „Summer Sons“ by Lee Mandelo

Okay, I haven’t read that one yet but it sounds very promising and I definitely want to get a copy into my greedy hands! The plot sounds super mysterious because it’s about two best friends that wanted to go to college (at least I think it’s college?!) together. Eddie goes there first though and shortly before Andrew can join him Eddie dies. Apparently it was suicide, at least that’s what everyone thinks. Well, and then the shit hits the fan because Andrew finds out a lot of dark secrets about his bestie and begins to wonder if he ever knew him. Oh yeah and he’s haunted by a phantom too. *lol* Honestly, I want to read this so bad.

4.) „The Darkest Part of the Forest“ by Holly Black

I read this a while ago but I still remember it vividly because it was my first Holly Black book ever and it totally got me hooked on her books. ❤ „The Darkest Part of the Forest“ is about two siblings named Holly and Ben that live in a town named Fairfold that basically lives next to the faerie world. And right smack in the forest there is a glass coffin that holds a mysterious sleeping faerie prince. Both siblings are in love with him until one day he wakes up and turns their world upside down. ;-P

5.) „Wolfsong“ by TJ Klune

I loved all of TJ Klune’s books I read so far and I’m convinced I’ll love this one too. It’s about werewolves and the love between two boys named Ox and Joe that meet on a road when they are young. Apparently they grow older as the book progresses but find each other again? There isn’t a lot said about the plot but listening to everyone and their grandma raving about this series made me more than just curious. *lol* I am ready!!

6.) „Malice“ by Heather Walter

Honestly this story had me at f/f „Sleeping Beauty“ retelling because YES! This is what I’m here for! XD Apparently gentle Aurora falls in love with the witch in this one and this idea has me super intrigued! I love fairy tales with a spin and this one sounds amazing! I’m sure I’ll get to this one sooner or later. Well, hopefully rather sooner! It just sounds so good. 😉

7.) „The Sacrifice“ by Rin Chupeco

I’ve never read a single book by Rin Chupeco but I’ve heard of them and they all have me intrigued so I guess it’s finally time to pick one up?! „The Sacrifice“ sounds absolutely awesome! I mean an island in the middle of the Philippines that is cursed? And a local guide that is supposed to help a Hollywood film crew? Sounds like my kinda cup of tea! *lol* Also I heard that there is a non-binary rep in here and quite honestly that makes this book even more tempting! =)

8.) „Sawkill Girls“ by Claire Legrand

I absolutely loved this book when I read it last year! Again we have an island setting and some sort of monster that lives on it and abducts young girls. What for? Well, you’ll find out if you read the book! *lol* Not gonna spoil anything here! All I’m going to say is that this book had me hooked and I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy it so much! It was a total surprise! There’s a sapphic rep in there too, but that’s all I’m going to say! ;-P

9.) „The Ghost of Buxton Manor“ by Jonathan L. Ferrara

I’m not gonna lie, by the end of this book I cried buckets of tears! Seriously, I was ugly crying and I still have no idea how a book about a boy that falls in love with a ghost boy that haunts his new home caused me to end up like that. There’s just something about Jonathan L. Ferrara’s writing style that hits you right smack in the feels! ❤  I was a mess after this book! Slightly spooky and creepy at times but so, so sad and charming at the same time. I highly recommend to read this one!

10.) „The Luminous Dead“ by Caitlin Starling

A psychological horror thriller about a woman who goes to a foreign planet in order to map a cave system but then ends up stuck in it with a guide she can’t fully trust? And something that might lurk in the dark and is following her? Is it imagination or is it real? Well, I’m definitely going to find out when I start to read this book! 😉

So what about you? Which freebie topic would you have chosen for this Top Ten Tuesday? Did you like my LGBTQIA+ take on it and if yes have you read any of the books I mentioned? Do you have some recommendations for me too? Any good and spooky LGBTQIA+ books I should add to my ever growing TBR?

Talk to me and let me know!

And as always take care and stay healthy and safe! 

*hugs’n’kisses*

The Sassy Library Fox

SASSY Saturday

Hey there my lovelies!

Welcome back to another round of my montly blog meme „SASSY Saturday“!

How does it work? Well, that’s easy! 😉

All you have to do is to follow those three golden rules:

1. Credit the creator of this tag (The Sassy Library Fox) and link back. (so I can see all your amazing answers!)
2. Answer the 5 questions below!
3. AND enjoy doing the blog meme! 😛 

„SASSY Saturday“ is planned to be a monthly meme but if you want to do it more often feel free to go for it! This meme was created to get to know other bloggers, their new obsessions and to reflect on your own last month! Above all it was created to have fun though! 😉 If you want you can also use the banner I created! This said let’s head to the good part:

S – Series you loved this month

Crash Landing On You: So this k-drama was recommended to me by my Yoongi’s mom and let me tell you this: Her mom has impeccable taste in k-dramas! *lol* ❤ I love this so much and since every episode takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes I’m still not done with the series. As for what it is about: Se-Ri is among the rich and the famous of Seouls upper class and has her own company. One day she tests a new product of her company, a parachute but on that day there is a sudden tornado and before she even knows it she’s in North Korea and desperately tries to get back to Seoul. And of course there is a handsome and kind-hearted captain named Ri Jeong-hyeok and his funny side-kicks that try to help her get back to South Korea. If you haven’t watched this yet: Do it! It’s soo good! Very heart-breaking but also super funny and ahhh this just hits you in the feels! T_T

A – Author you discovered

Claire Legrand – Sawkill Girls

I never expected to enjoy this book so much but wow Claire Legrand totally persuaded me of her writing style! This was great and would have been a perfect Halloween read for me. XD Also it tackles a lot of important topics like misogyny, feminism and abuse. I’ll watch out for her next book now. =)

S – Song you couldn’t get enough of

TXT – 0X1 = LOVESONG

I got soo hooked on this song! *lol* TXT recently released a new song and had their comeback, but I’m still vibing to this one. (Not that I’m not also vibing to their new one. XD) Anyway! I really love their music and it’s very catchy. Plus the members are all so adorable! They feel like my little brothers and TXT needs to be protected at all costs.  ❤

S – Surprise – Something that totally caught you off guard

Apparently I have … fans?! Which totally caught me off guard because I never expected to have actual fans that would love my BookTube videos and watch all of them. *lol* I know you’d think that’s kind of the intention when you start a BookTube channel but I actually started it for fun and to try something new in order to help other people to find the perfect book. So yeah, I really appreciate that there are people out there who love my content. XD If you read this: Thank you so much for your continued support and all the lovely words! ❤ It means the world to me that you’re following my bookish journey!l I don’t think I deserve to have such amazing fans but I’ll try my best to keep things interesting for you! ❤ ❤

Y – Your fave blog post of another blogger

Wait… You Haven’t Actually Read That Already? by Tova @ Petyr Baeish Books

This was super relatable because we all have books we haven’t read yet even though everybody and their grandma already read them. *lol* Also I still love the name of Tova’s blog! XD It’s great! And @ Tova: Sorry I didn’t write the entire title of the blog post. It was just too long. Haha! I hope you can forgive me? 😉

What do you think about „SASSY Saturday“? Would you like to join the fun? Are you a fan of TXT too? Did you read „Sawkill Girls“ yet? Was there something that surprised you last month and which books everyone else already read are still on your TBR?

Talk to me and let me know! 😉

*hugs’n’kisses*

August Wrap-Up

Can someone please tell me where August went? Over here the weather is already bad and rainy so it’s like autumn came in the blink of an eye and decided to stay. Which isn’t nice! I mean I love autumn and spring but I want at least a couple of nice days before it gets all wet and rainy. *lol* Anyway! Let’s get back on track!

So the good news is that my physical therapy is over now, the bad news is that I’m afraid it won’t last for all too long. I’m trying my best to do the excercises they showed me and I’m careful with my body but even this morning I woke up with pain so yeah… it won’t be easy to maintain an excercise routine without the pressure of doing so. Put work, my family and my kid into the mix and you have the … well salad. *lol* As for my reading. I was very ambitious and hoped that I’d read more in August but in the end I was too busy with other things and once again only managed to read 4 books.

The fact I have to get up at 5 a.m in order to get to work cretainly didn’t help to motivate me to read at night. XD Truth be told, I was glad when I managed to watch TV and didn’t fall asleep. Haha! For some reason reading makes me more tired than watching a k-drama with English subtitles. I still don’t get why my brain has no trouble to follow k-dramas but just can’t seem to manage to read a couple of sentences without getting tired. If you know why I’m like that please TELL ME, because I have no explanation for it. *lol* But enough of k-dramas and back to the books I read! ;-P

Books read: 4 (4 books & 0 webcomic, Still not overwhelming but better than nothing. September will be my reading month! I know it. *lol*)

Pages read: 1.639 (The four books I read had plenty of pages so I’m okay with this.)

Average rating: 4,13 (Not bad, considering I totally read out of my comfort zone.  )

Books that were on my reading list: 0 ( 0 from 2019, 0 from 2020 and 1 from 2021. Well, at least one of them was from my TBR! XD)

August Reads:

       

Sawkill Girls:

This book came as a total surprise! I rarely read in the genre of horror but „Sawkill Girls“  was all over my feed and I got super curious about it. Looking at it in retrospective I’m so glad I picked this up because this book doesn’t only have strong friendships and even stronger girls but also challenges misogyny. Plus the icing on the cake: It was diverse and had good LGBTQ+ reps! Considering all this „Sawkill Girls“ had me hooked and I paged through it in no time. 😉 (This said, please read the trigger warnings in my review first before you decide to pick it up.)

The Raven King:

And here comes another book I loved to bits and pieces! I have no idea what it is about this series but whenever I start one of its books I just can’t stop to read it. It’s like some sort of addiction and I live and breathe for Neil Josten and Andrew Minyard! ❤ Those two boys will be the death of me! I swear! Especially with all the things that happened in this book! This book broke and killed me and urgh! T_T I just want my babies to be happy! *sniff*

One of Us Is Next:

It was so good to see Bronwyn, Cooper, Nate and Ash again! Of course they aren’t the MCs in here but they are side-characters and this made the entire book even more enjoyable! XD Plus Maeve, Knox and Phoebe were pretty cool MCs as well! I really loved to guess the culprit and I got about 50% right. The other 50% I would have never been able to discover so yeah. *lol* This was fun and I’ll definitely watch out for McManus’s next book.

The Eleven: ,5

I got a review copy from Paul Gaskill himself and wanted to read this for ages but never got to it. (I’m a horrible person and book reviewer and I promise improvement! XD) This time I was finally able to tackle it though and „The Eleven“ turned out to be a great dark fantasy book. Be aware of the trigger warnings though, some scenes were pretty graphic and hard to stomach. At least for me they were. I’ll make sure to write a proper review about this soon so that you know what you’re getting yourself into. 😉

How was your August? Was it over way too fast too? How is the weather over at your place? (Hopefully better than over here…) Did you read many books in August and if yes, which ones? And the most important question: Does any of you know why I have no problem to follow k-dramas with English subtitles but can’t even focus on reading a single sentence at night? *lol* The struggle is real, my friends!!! T_T So yep!

Talk to me and let me know! 

And as always take care and stay healthy and safe!

*hugs’n’kisses*

The Sassy Library Fox

Review: Sawkill Girls (Claire Legrand)

Rating:

”Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep.
He’ll follow you home and won’t let you sleep.”

This sounds like the perfect horror book, right? Well, yes and no. “Sawkill Girls” is one of those books that have a rather deceiving blurb and when I read the summary I thought that I’d be in for a very creepy read. I mean yes, this book was creepy at times but it was also so much more than that. Quite honestly I never expected to get so invested and to love it that much when I picked it up. I thought it would be one of those books you read in between when you want something different but in the end it was the book that had all my attention. And this is no easy feat. 😉

”There was a magnetism to the Mortimer women, and they knew it, and they used it. It was their right, this witchery; they’d given up their souls for it.”

The sheer amount of topics that was tackled in here had my head spinning and I totally loved all the characters. Those three girls were amazing and even though they were all so different and didn’t always get along this was one of the things that really made me want to continue to read the book. There were a lot of moments when I couldn’t predict the story line and to say this was super intriguing would be putting it mildly! I love when an author manages to surprise me and Claire Legrand certainly did. Truth be told, this book is actually pretty dark at times and there were some scenes that creeped me out big time.

The three main characters were all very interesting as well and I loved how Legrand managed to make me pull for them even though they all had their flaws and were pretty morally grey. Especially Valerie and Zoey were two MCs that weren’t all too likable, yet I still loved them for just being who they were.

”Val swayed where she stood, her eyes falling shut. A fierce warmth expanded in her chest and slid down her belly, her thighs, her legs. Her traitorous body – groomed to serve him, birthed to anchor him – responded gleefully to his approval.”

Another thing that totally caught me off guard was the fact that “Sawkill Girls” was super diverse and even had LGBTQ+ reps. I mean we have Zoey who is black and asexual, Marion who is bisexual and has curves and Val who is pan or bi (at least I got the impression that she is). As someone who’s always watching out for LGBTQ+ books I was very surprised when I figured that this book actually has decent LGBTQ+ reps. I never read this in any of the other reviews so I decided to mention it in mine. 😉

Zoey’s laugh was bitter. “Oh, and we poor delicate girls are vulnerable and desperate, is that what you’re saying?”
“What I’m saying,” Marion said, now looking right at Zoey, her gray eyes bright, “is that girls hunger. And we’re taught, from the moment our brains can take it, that there isn’t enough food for us all.”

And this automatically brings me to all the other important topics that were addressed in here. I loved how the topic of misogyny wasn’t only addressed but also challenged. No matter if it’s Val, Marion or Zoey, they all have a “no bullshit” attitude when it comes to men telling women what to do. *lol* I totally loved that about them and I was so happy when they put those misogynistic men in their place and gave them a piece of their mind. It’s surprising how well it all fit with the horror element of the Collector abusing, violating and suppressing the Mortimer women for so many years and feasting on the pure souls of innocent girls. You really gotta give Legrand kudos for inventing such a multi-layered story around the initial horror element that started it all.

Also can we appreciate the fierce friendships in this book! I loved the strong friendship between Zoey and Marion and the closeness between Zoey and Greyson. Those characters would have done everything for each other and this even though they weren’t always on speaking terms. Still, true friends will stick with you no matter what and this was exactly the kind of message this book spread. =)

”Come for a while, reads the sign at Sawkill’s ferry dock, and stay forever.”

All told I really loved this and enjoyed the story immensely! I was pleasantly surprised by how attached I got to these characters and by how strongly I pulled for them. If you’re looking for a moderately creepy Halloween read, if you love books with strong female characters and decent LGBTQ+ reps, if you like atmospheric books, well I guess then you’ll enjoy this one as well. =)

Trigger warnings:

emotional and physical abuse by a parent/ child abuse, aphobia, grief, racism, murder, violence, abuse, blood, gore, the death of an animal, self-harm, loss and trauma