(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Bookchat: Rediscovering Romance [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-26 Casey McQuiston. Each of her novels has a wonderfully over-the-top premise, a bisexual main character, at least one trans or nonbinary side character, and a lot of hilarious banter. My favorite, Red, White, and Royal Blue, is supposed to come out as a movie this year. In an alternate 2020 with no TFG and no COVID, Alex, the son of the first female president, falls for Henry, a closeted British prince. The story is funny, touching, witty, well plotted, and extremely horny. One Last Stop is a lesbian romance about an accidental time traveler from the 70’s who’s stuck on the subway in NYC. No, seriously, and it totally works. Jane has also lost most of her memory, so August tries to bring it back with familiar music, smells and tastes, etc. And kissing — for, you know, research. I Kissed Shara Wheeler is a young adult book set at a Christian school where Chloe (from a two-mom family) feels out of place. Shara, the principal’s daughter, is her picture-perfect rival for valedictorian. Shara kisses two guys and Chloe within 24 hours, then disappears, leaving a series of mysterious notes as clues to find her. Courtney Milan is a fantastic Twitter follow: funny, thoughtful, and knowledgeable. Under her real name, Heidi Bond, she was an attorney who brought down a powerful judge in a harassment scandal. From there she took up writing romances because, she said, she needed stories about women winning. Trade Me has an appealing premise. Tina, the daughter of struggling Chinese immigrants, is annoyed by an insensitive remark from her wealthy classmate, Blake. She tells him he wouldn’t last a day in her shoes — so he offers to trade homes and lives for a month. Hold Me uses the “You’ve Got Mail” trope: Maria and Jay are falling for each other online, not realizing they’ve met in person and it didn’t go well. The twist: Maria is transgender, but refreshingly, that’s not the conflict between them — Jay is bi/pan and it’s not an issue to him, though it’s relevant in other parts of Maria’s life. Talia Hibbert writes Black British heroines and relatable issues. She’s pretty prolific, but so far I’ve only read Get a Life, Chloe Brown. Chloe is a web designer creating a website for Red, an aspiring artist. The setup is familiar: they don’t get along at first, then playful insults turn into friendship and then more. Chloe’s been isolated by her struggle with chronic pain, and has trouble trusting that anyone will be there for her. Red has his own trust issues, having gotten out of a relationship with a woman who abused him (mostly emotionally, but at least once physically as well). Chloe’s sisters Dani and Eve appear in this book, and presumably Chloe returns the favor in their books. Alexis Hall has written a lot of queer romances, and so far I’ve only gotten to one, Boyfriend Material. Luc, the son of a notorious rock star, has the tabloids trying to make a scandal out of anything he does. With his job threatened, he needs a fake boyfriend to make him look stable. Oliver, a respectable barrister, needs a fake boyfriend for his parents’ anniversary party (and I was suspicious of this detail long before Luc was). But will they fake break up before then? What are y’all reading? READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/26/2160602/-Bookchat-Rediscovering-Romance Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/