A Merry Little Meet Cute

A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone was a cute, steamy Christmas-themed, fat-positive and sex-positive, M-F romance. Bee Hobbes is a twentysomething fat adult film star who is cast in a squeaky-clean holiday movie (think the Hallmark Channel) opposite her teenage boy band crush, Nolan Shaw, who has taken the roleContinue reading “A Merry Little Meet Cute”

Ship Wrecked

Ship Wrecked (2022) by Olivia Dade, is the third and final book in the series that began with Spoiler Alert (2020) and All the Feels (2021), with characters drawn from the fictional television series Gods of the Gates. It is undeniably and deliciously fat positive! Unusual for most romance novels, Dade begins mid-intercourse between theContinue reading “Ship Wrecked”

The Once and Future Witches

I absolutely loved The Once and Future Witches (2020) by Alix E. Harrow! From very near the first page, I was enthralled, I marked my first quote on page 12. (Marking a quote early on is usually a very good sign.) Juniper, Agnes, and Bella are three sisters separated for many years, but they nowContinue reading “The Once and Future Witches”

Like a Love Story

Like a Love Story (2019) by Abdi Nazemian is the historical queer coming-of-age story I never knew that I needed to read. It was a 2020 Stonewall Honor book and chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best YA books of all time, both designations well-deserved. It’s 1987, and Reza has just movedContinue reading “Like a Love Story”

The Book of Etta

The Book of Etta (2017) by Meg Elison is the second book in The Road to Nowhere series, which begins with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. We meet Etta/ Eddy, a daughter of Nowhere, the town the Unnamed had come to after her long journey. Etta goes by Eddy when she is out raiding,Continue reading “The Book of Etta”

If the Shoe Fits

If the Shoe Fits (2021) by Julie Murphy is her unique, fat-positive, contemporary retelling of the Cinderella story. Cindy, a shoe designer, returns to the LA area to live with her producer-stepmother, 2 stepsisters, and 2 preschool-aged twin siblings after finishing design school in New York, Erica, her stepmother, produces the hottest reality dating showContinue reading “If the Shoe Fits”

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (2022) by Ashley Herring Blake, is a delightful queer sapphic romance that features a couple of my favorite romance tropes: Forced Proximity and Coming Home/High School Crush. Blake has written several YA and middle-grade novels, including the 2018 Stonewall Honor Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, but this is her firstContinue reading “Delilah Green Doesn’t Care”

Right Where I Left You

Right Where I Left You (2022) by Julian Winters, is a super-cute, queer teen romance filled both with queer characters of color, and comic book and video game fan references. Isaac Martin has just graduated high school and is enjoying his summer before heading off to college in the fall. Despite his sometimes-crippling anxiety, hisContinue reading “Right Where I Left You”

A Dark and Starless Forest

In A Dark and Starless Forest (2021), Sarah Hollowell has written a rare gift–a fat-positive YA fantasy that has something for everyone, except perhaps for cis white middle-aged men. It’s written from Derry’s perspective–she is a fat, white teenager, one of nine multiracial siblings in an adoptive family headed by Frank, their guardian, Each ofContinue reading “A Dark and Starless Forest”

The Cherry Robbers

I highly anticipated reading The Cherry Robbers (publishing today, May 17, 2022) by Sarai Walker, author of Dietland, and I was not disappointed. Walker’s second book is different in tone and subject matter, but it is just as transgressive as Dietland was. There are two storylines: The first is set in the very recent pastContinue reading “The Cherry Robbers”