Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly blog meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week’s theme is books from my favorite genre, but in honor of June being PRIDE MONTH here in the US, I wanted to talk about some of my favorite queer reads! If you didn’t know, I’m a queer woman (who is also married to a queer person), so you could say LGBTQ+ rep is pretty well-loved in our household. ????
1. Over and Over Again
rep: m/m romance between a gay man + a gay demi Romani man; demi+bi+grey-ace+trans multiracial author (Cole’s twitter bio says “Native AmeriBlAsian”)
2. Red, White & Royal Blue
rep: m/m romance between a bisexual biracial (Latinx/white) man + a gay man; queer author
3. Prince’s Gambit (& entire Captive Prince trilogy)
rep: m/m romance between a bisexual man + a gay man
4. Down Among the Sticks and Bones (& entire Wayward Children series)
rep: f/f romance between a pan ace woman (w/ OCD) + a plus-size queer woman; queer plus-size author w/ OCD
5. That Kind of Guy
rep: m/f romance between a black woman + a demisexual white man; black author (I don’t know if Talia is queer or just the best ally I’ve ever met)
6. Reign of the Fallen (& sequel)
rep: f/f romance between a bi woman + a queer (lesbian?) woman; bisexual author
7. Summer Bird Blue
rep: ace aro multiracial (Japanese/Hawaiian/white) main character, multiple side characters of color (Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, Samona, Filipino, black); queer/ace bi/multiracial author (Akemi’s father is Hawaiian but I’m uncertain otherwise!)
8. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
rep: f/f romance between bisexual biracial (Cuban/white) woman + a lesbian woman
9. Blanca & Roja
rep: f/nb romance between a queer Latinx girl + a trans/nonbinary person; queer Latinx author (who’s also married to a trans person & takes inspo from them)
10. Sawkill Girls
rep: f/f romance between a plus-size bi girl + a queer girl; another protagonist is black and ace
Bailey
June 4, 2019I love Red, White and Royal Blue! A recent favorite of mine was American Hippo by Sarah Gailey- the old west, but replace horses with hippos and replace cishet men with queer people!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Ahhh, that sounds freaking awesome! 😀 Thank you for the recommendation!
ChrissiReads
June 4, 2019Excellent list! Such a great month for it to fall on too. I loved Evelyn Hugo! <3
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Thank you! I’m so glad you loved Evelyn Hugo, too <3
Annemieke
June 4, 2019Reign of the Fallen was great <3 And the Wayward Children series is amazing!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Yes and yes! Two forever fave series right there 🙂
thecritiquesofafangirl
June 4, 2019Wow! These are some awesome recommendations and I’m so glad that you liked red, white and royal blue I’ve been dying to read it but it’s expensive as hell ??
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Oh noooo! I hope you’re able to read it soon if you haven’t in the time since this comment 🙁
thecritiquesofafangirl
August 25, 2019Thankfully the piece dropped on Kindle so I bought the book, I’m currently reading it
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 26, 2019Yay! 😀
Ellyn
June 4, 2019I’m hoping to pick up Red, White & Royal Blue later this month, ?? fingers crossed I love it!
Jess @ Jessticulates
June 4, 2019Love your list! Red, White & Royal Blue, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Sawkill Girls, Blanca & Roja and Reign of the Fallen are all on my TBR. 😀
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Thank you! 😀 Oooh, such a good TBR ahead of you. I hope you love them all! Have you gotten to pick any of those titles up yet?
thebookwormofnotredame
June 4, 2019Red, White and Royal Blue is going to be my next read and I cant wait! I just finished reading Going Off Script which has a f/f romance and I adored it!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Going Off Script is high on my TBR, so I’m glad to hear you loved it so much! Did you enjoy RW&RB? 🙂
Avery @ RedRocketPanda
June 4, 2019Oooh, I love the look of the Cole McCade book and also the sound of the author?? I feel like there are some really interesting books out there that are dismissed bc they are “romance books” that have incredible diverse casts and authors that we should be paying more attention to.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Cole is an absolute gem~! Cole and Talia Hibbert are the two authors that made me become vehemently, fiercely defensive of the romance genre, because like you said, there are some amazingly diverse books and authors being overlooked just because of their genre and it’s downright infuriating. I don’t see nearly as much diversity in most other genres as I see in romance nowadays (whether it’s in indie romance or trad-pub!).
anovelglimpse
June 4, 2019Great list! I especially love seeing Evelyn Hugo on it. I would have that on my list along with Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019I haven’t read Him, I’ll have to look it up! 😀 Thank you!
anovelglimpse
August 26, 2019It’s an NA book. Bowen also has a good one called The Understatement of the Year.
Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense
June 4, 2019I love Blanca y Roja and I’m so glad it made your list this week. I am dying to read Summer Bird Blue and Sawkill Girls. Great list!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Thank you, Alicia! I hope you get to pick up Summer Bird Blue and Sawkill Girls soon if you haven’t since making this comment. They’re both soooo good (though so different from one another haha! Sawkill Girls would be a perfect creepy fall read since it has a little bit of spooky factor!).
Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads
June 4, 2019I swear all of your lists keep adding to my TBR pile! Thanks so much for this. Summer Bird Blue is going to be near and dear to my heart because Hawaii and just all that representation that encompasses me and what I grew up around. <3
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019YASSSS, that’s what I’m here for boo!! Haha! <3 Awwww yes, I can imagine! Have you gotten to read it yet? If you have (or whenever you do), I would love to hear your thoughts on the rep. I know Akemi based a lot of it on her childhood and her dad being born-and-raised in Hawaii so I'm hoping that means it's going to be something you can just really relate to and soak in. I know that must mean so much, especially since I don't feel like Hawaii is used as a book's setting very often unless it's like a "tourist" story!
Chana @ Paper Procrastinators
June 4, 2019I reallyyy loved RW&RB, but another one of my favorite LGBTQ+ books has got to be The Song of Achilles. That book was SO GOOD, I can’t help but recommend it to everyone.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Ooof, I HAVE to finish The Song of Achilles some time soon! Yell at me if I don’t pick that back up by the end of the year lol! I loved the first half but it was so sad and heavy on my heart (knowing how it would end) that I had to put it down to try again later. 🙁
Deanna
June 5, 2019This is a great list. I’m dying to read that book by Talia, but I have some ARCs I need to read first.
X. Marduk
June 5, 2019Really loving these recommendations.
tasya @ the literary huntress
June 5, 2019I’m currently reading Red, White, & Royal Blue and while I enjoyed the romance, sass, and banter, I find it to be very long :/ I can see the appeal for other people though! 😀
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
August 25, 2019Oh no, I’m sorry RW&RB felt so long to you! As much as I adored it, I can honestly 100% see how many readers might feel that way about it. It’s funny how there are some books we can love SO MUCH while still thinking while reading it, “Yeah, I can see this definitely not working for everyone” haha!
jamsu
June 11, 2019I know I need to read a lot more lgbtq+ books but Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is definitely my favorite.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
June 12, 2019I still need to read that one! I liked Fangirl a lot but didn’t love the snippets of her fanfic in that. Do you think I’d like Carry On better?
jamsu
June 13, 2019Yes! I didn’t like the snippets in Fangirl either but loved the book,