Centered around three members of a boy band, years after their retirement, this series is funny, hot as hell, and super queer even though the main romances are m-f.
If you like romance, erotica or Christmas, read these fun books.
Murphy, Julie and Sierra Simone.
June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball
team—with an ego to match—and she's a shoo-in to be recruited at the college
level, like her parents have always envisioned. That is, if she can play
through an overuse injury that has recently gone from bad to worse.
Ivy isn't just reffing to pay off her athletic fees or make some extra
cash on the side. She wants to someday officiate at the professional
level, even if her parents would rather she go to college instead.
The first time they cross paths, Ivy throws June out of a game for
grandstanding. Still, they quickly grow from enemies to begrudging friends . .
. and then something more. But the rules state that players and umpires are
prohibited from dating.
As June's shoulder worsens, and a rival discovers the girls' secret and
threatens to expose them, everything the two have worked so hard for is at
risk. Now both must choose: follow their dreams . . . or follow their
hearts?
Dugan, Jennifer. (2024). Playing for Keeps. New York: Putnam.
Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador’s Amazon
rainforest—one of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the
1950s—Nemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing.
She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and
shamanism by her elders. At age fourteen, she left the forest for the
first time to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city.
Eventually, her ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her
to return and embrace her own culture. She listened.
Two decades later, Nemonte has emerged as one of the most forceful
voices in climate change activism. She has spearheaded the alliance of
indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a
landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting over a half million acres
of primary rainforest. Her message is as sharp as a spear—honed
by her experiences battling loggers, miners, oil companies and
missionaries.
In We Will Be Jaguars, she partners with her husband, Mitch
Anderson, founder of Amazon Frontlines, digging into generations of oral
history, uprooting centuries of conquest, hacking away at racist notions
of indigenous peoples, and ultimately revealing a life story as rich,
harsh, and vital as the Amazon rainforest herself. [from Abrams Press]
This is an amazing book.
Nenquimo, Nemonte. (2024) We Will Be Jaguars. New York: Abrams Press.
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a
general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of
his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage
aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots
start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the
captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the
Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man
brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who
went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the
Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme
politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life
between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature,
film, and the wars we fight today.
Molly McDaniel’s life is falling apart. Between her day job
as a barista, her night job at a call center, and her crushing student loans,
she’s barely getting by. And that dream she has of starting a wedding event
planning business? The dream that led to all those student loan in the first
place? She can feel it slipping farther and farther out of reach every day. So
the absolute last thing she needs is to discover she’s inherited a run-down,
struggling horse barn out of the blue, courtesy of her estranged late aunt.
Molly is so ill-equipped to run the barn, it’s laughable. She certainly doesn’t
have the money, time or knowledge needed to save it, no matter how much faith
everyone who loved her aunt has that she will. But the more Molly gets
involved, the more she starts to wonder: maybe the barn is a blessing in
disguise. If she can sell the land, the profits could be the small-business
seed money miracle she’s been waiting for. So what if she’s starting to love
everyone in the mismatched family she’s found here?
Well, everyone except Shani, the resident farrier and family friend who took
care of Molly’s aunt in her last days. Judgmental, grouchy Shani, who refuses
to give up on the barn; who walks around like she so much better than Molly;
who’s actually really good with the horses…and kind of thoughtful. And
obnoxiously hot. And unfailingly loyal.
Dugan has written another great lesbian romance. Her books are always enjoyable and worth a read.
Dugan, Jennifer. (2024). The Ride of Her Life. New York: Avon Books.
