This week I’m all about the gay. A contemporary MM, To Take a Quiet Breath by Fearne Hill, a fantasy YA with a queer background romance (or is it NA? I’m never sure, I am neither and it was right in my ballpark, regardless) Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora and a fantasy MM with dragon shifters, The Dragon Hunter’s Son by Hanna Dare.
To Take a Quiet Breath by Fearne Hill
I have a secret yen for books with ex-cons-gone-straight MCs and this fulfilled it perfectly. Guillaume killed a man who was abusing his younger sister and has done his time. He is befriended by Marcel, a high-up in the government department responsible for prisons, when Marcel meets him on an information-gathering exercise. Marcel is a chronic asthmatic and this is so well represented in this book. Stories with good disabled rep are another not-so-secret yen of mine. Disabled people are entitled to happy endings too.
This is perfectly realised in this story–the author doesn’t paper over the difficulties and challenges Marcel faces, but they don’t rule out his desire for (and right to!) love and intimacy. It’s book three of a series and I haven’t read the others yet, but I’m going to. I really enjoyed this.
Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora
This is a YA dystopian. The main character is Nate, who is sixteen. He’s also genetically engineered and needs the eponymous ‘remedy’ at regular intervals to prevent his body breaking down. This is hard to get hold of, as he lives in the lawless slum he escaped to as a young child to avoid being harvested for his organs.
This has everything you want from your dystopian read. Brilliant characterisation, a gritty plot and an interesting social set-up. The cast is a racially diverse queer found family with good trans rep. It’s plot-heavy with a background romance that chugs along nicely. Highly recommend!
The Dragon Hunter’s Son by Hanna Dare
I’m a Hannah Dare fan from her Mind-Metal-Machine series, so I was predisposed to like this one from the start. It’s about Philip, who is the son of Jaxon the dragon hunter. Jaxon is, quite frankly, a jerk. I hated him. We’re supposed to hate him, so that’s okay–the author has done a brilliant job making that possible! Philip is kind and a bit bewildered by life, but toddles along behind his father because that’s what his dying mother asked him to do. He falls for Ejoler when they stop at a town Jaxon rid of a dragon decades ago. Ejoler is, of course, a dragon.
This was such a lovely take on the shifter trope. It’s a sweet low-heat romance and I thought Ejoler was wonderful, particularly his take on gathering jewels and precious things. It’s a lovely low-drama comfort read and I recommend it.
That’s the lot for this time!