Blog Archives

Rainbow Snippets January 28-29

1/29/2023

It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

This month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. This is a sweet little moment between Edmund and Arden, a little break from the worrying and strategizing happening after their escape from the palace.

Edmund asked to see more of the house. It was probably just to distract them both, but Arden was happy to show him, both for the distraction and because he was proud of the house, even if it wasn’t quite completed. The structural work was long finished, the floors laid and polished, the walls painted and plastered.

“You have hardly any furniture,” Edmund said as they left an empty room Arden envisioned as a study.

“But I have books.” Arden gestured to the volumes lining the shelves as they stepped into the library.

“That you do.” Edmund stopped just inside and looked around. “I know where your priorities are.”

“Of course.”

“I like that you filled the library first, and made sure there are chairs to read in.” Edmund walked to the closest set of shelves, but he looked over his shoulder at Arden, eyes soft with affection. It warmed Arden through in a way he was utterly unused to—but he wanted to bask in that affection.

“Well.” He struggled for his wits and words. “You have to know what’s important.”

Edmund’s laughed tumbled out, threatening to drown him in warm sweetness.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Next week, I'm going to switch over to the second book in the Elemental Magicae series, A Harmony of Fire and Earth. Thanks for reading and I hope you're staying safe and well.

2 Comments

Rainbow Snippets January 21-22

1/22/2023

1 Comment

It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

This month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. After walking through the night, they arrive at a house where they can spend some time safely and get their bearings. But the lack of enough beds means sharing...

He could feel Edmund standing just inside the door, looming somehow larger behind Arden. They’d been alone before, but in the darkened bedchamber, it felt different, more intimate. He steadied his hands, which wanted to tremble, and got the fire going. Standing, he turned to face Edmund, who drooped with exhaustion but seemed frozen where he was. Suddenly, the odd awareness didn’t seem so important, or not as important as taking care of Edmund.

“The bathing room is through there.” Arden gestured at a door. “It’s probably warmer to change in here, though, for now. Are you sure this is all right?”

Edmund seemed to come out of whatever thoughts had held him, or perhaps he’d been asleep on his feet. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Did Edmund not feel what was between them? Arden warmed just thinking about their kiss, and not entirely from embarrassment that he had been so brazen. So inappropriate. But Edmund had kissed him back; he had to feel the same pull that Arden did.

Didn’t he?

You can find out more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're staying safe and well.

1 Comment

Rainbow Snippets January 14-15

1/15/2023

3 Comments

It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

This month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. I've skipped ahead just slightly for this snippet from last week's. They've gotten out of the dungeon and the castle and are on foot, trying to get away before they're discovered missing.

Their breath puffed in clouds, visible in the sharp cold air. Even with the steady pace they kept to, Edmund was still cold, and he was glad for the foresight of whoever had stuffed a pair of warm gloves in the pocket of his coat. The others had similarly drawn on gloves as they walked, and Arden pulled one of his scarves from a pocket and wound it around his neck. Unlike some of the delicate, beautiful creations he wore, this scarf seemed to be made for warmth before fashion.

After a while, the trees thinned again, depriving them of some of the cover they’d been using, but Ciaran and Arden kept them all walking just inside the edge of the forest. Loud barking suddenly split the silence of the night, and they froze. Edmund wanted to turn and run, but he had no idea which way to go. Arden wrapped a hand around his arm, holding him in place. He shook his head and held up his hand to them all, a signal to wait. Then he closed his eyes. A slight breeze stirred the air around Arden and ruffled Edmund’s hair. Edmund had to be crazy, because it felt as if the breeze twined and slid around them, tugging at hair and clothes and something more. Or maybe he wasn’t. Arden had to be pulling on some magic.

Edmund waited, frozen in place and barely daring to breathe. Had they been discovered missing already? Had Arden and Ciaran been wrong about the tunnel being forgotten? Were hunters’ dogs about to burst out of the trees and run them down? Peregrine’s eyes were wide and frightened; Edmund held his friend’s gaze as interminable minutes passed.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today and I hope you're staying safe and well.

3 Comments

Rainbow Snippets January 7-8

1/8/2023

0 Comments

It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

This month, I'm going to share some snippets from A Dance of Water and Air, the first book in my Elemental Magicae series. This book has a demisexual cis m/bisexual trans m pairing. Prince Edmund is informed that he must marry the queen of a neighboring country in an alliance marriage. When he arrives, the queen is distance, but Edmund grows close to and ends up falling in love with her brother, Arden. Then Edmund is accused of attempting to kill the queen, and he and Arden flee. They have to unravel a plot that endangers both of their countries, and find a way to be together too. I'm jumping in after Edmund has already been accused. He and his secretary Peregrine and guard Seren have been thrown in the dungeon. But Arden has been scheming to get them out (the kiss is unplanned!).

He had no idea how much time had passed when he heard the scrape of a key in the lock. Seren scrambled to her feet with less than her usual grace, but far more quickly than Edmund expected. Edmund was slower to move on legs gone stiff and cold. He squinted into the light as the door swung open. Seren tensed, as if ready to jump at whoever might come through, never mind how well that had worked before. Two figures crowded into the doorway; Edmund had just realized who they were when one of the men spoke.

“Edmund,” Arden gasped. “Are you all right?”

“Arden—”

Arden rushed forward and pulled Edmund into a kiss, a kiss that tasted of fear and desperation and a brilliant sweetness underneath the rest. The suddenness of it, the impulsivity of Arden’s kissing him in front of others—in a dungeon of all places—froze Edmund for half a second, but then he was kissing Arden back, and he never wanted to stop. Edmund brought his hands up and held on to Arden’s arms with chilled fingers, anchoring Arden’s slim, strong body to his. The feel of it went a long way toward warming Edmund through.

You can find more about A Dance of Water and Air here. Thanks for reading today and I hope you're staying safe and well.

0 Comments

My December Reading

1/4/2023

0 Comments

I can't believe December is over already (and we're in 2023!)—time is still working in strange ways, at least in my brain. I already put out a list of some of my favorite reads of 2022, but I wanted to close out the year with some books I read for the first time in December. I didn't read as much—or all the books I wanted to—in December (I love holiday romances and I love to binge them at the end of the year), which was indicative of the year as a whole. I'm hoping to get back on track with reading (and writing!) in this new year. For now, here's December's reading:

Pack of Lies by Charlie Adhara: Pack of Lies starts a new series that spins off from Adhara's Big Bad Wolf paranormal romantic suspense series. We get more of the paranormal and more mystery suspense in this book, but with a new romantic pairing. Eli was a supporting character in the original series, and I will admit to having mixed feelings about him. After this book, I really do love him. I also enjoyed his love interest, and I'm interested to see how the relationship develops, as this wasn't much more than the barest beginnings for them, amid the mystery and murder and suspense of the plot. This book probably stands alone, but I would say to read the original series for more context—and also because it is really good.

Masters in the Hall by KJ Charles: I was so excited to hear this surprise new KJ Charles book! And it did not disappoint. It's a part of the Lilywhite Boys series, though sufficiently separate from the earlier books that you could probably read it on its own (again, though, you'd miss out on an excellent historical romance series if you did...). In this book, we have a disgraced hotel detective and the man who caused him to be disgraced at a Christmas house party during which the detective intends to expose this man as a criminal. What actually happens is a lovely second-chance romance and a ridiculously fun plot to expose the real villain.

The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish: If you've seen the movie The Holiday, the premise of this novel (house swap!) will be familiar. Greta needs to escape her overbearing, boundary-ignoring family, and Truman has just had his heart broken by his awful boyfriend, so a mutual friend suggests they switch houses for the month of December. Greta heads to New Orleans where she falls in love with the city and Carys. Truman flies up to small-town Maine where he falls for florist Ash and finds that his favorite author—whose books he's been reading forever and got him through everything—may have lived in that very same house. Of the two romances, Truman and Ash's was my favorite. It was just so lovely. And I adored his quest to find more about his favorite author. While Greta's romance didn't resonate as much with me, I loved other parts of her journey to find out who she is outside her family and build the life she wanted.

A Little Blessing by R Cooper: A new Familiar Spirits book! Yay! I can just say that, right? Sigh, okay. This series is filled with lovely, cozy, witchy stories, and I adore them all. This one brings us back to town around Yule and introduces us to Robin Blessing, who was raised by older relatives and then spent years caring for them. Now alone, he's running the family business and not taking care of himself—and he collapses at the feet of Lucas, the teenage crush he never got over (though that's understating a complicated relationship). What develops between them as Lucas and his family move in to Robin's home and life to nurse him through both the flu and his grief is warm and cozy and beautiful and develops in the perfect organic way. The only problem is that I need more—there are some interesting things set up here and I want to know what happens next for the Coven. I immediately went back and reread Holly and Oak, the book in the series most related to this one, after I finished (and loved it again). I also need to learn how to knit.

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas: This is book one of a Young Adult fantasy duology—be warned that book two isn't out yet (I will be waiting impatiently!). I'd heard this described as Percy Jackson meets the Hunger Games, and it definitely has elements of that. Every ten years, some of the half-human children of the gods are chosen to compete in a series of trials. The winner becomes the next Sunbearer; the loser is sacrificed to replenish the Sun's power and keep the evil Obsidian gods locked away. Teo is son of the Jade goddess of birds is only worried about the trials in relation to his best friend Niya, daughter of a Gold. Only Gods are ever chosen for the trials (and therefore both prepared for it and given far more privilege), until this year when Teo and another Jade are chosen. The world building, based on Mexican mythology, is fantastic, and so is the LGBTQ rep. I loved so many of the characters and their journeys. And the twist at the end! Definitely looking forward to what happens next.

Hen Fever by Olivia Waite: This f/f Victorian Christmas novella was just delightful. A romance full of depth and feeling between Lydia, a spinster trying to always be on her best behavior (because she knows she is a disappointment to her parents), and Harriet, a soldier's widow trying to get over the absolute worst years of her life with her friends, who have inherited a manor house on the edge of Lydia's village. The lovely romance is contrasted with the approach of the village poultry show, a cutthroat competition that causes both hilarity and conflict. Short, but absolutely satisfying with beautiful writing...and a fantastic cover!

What have you read and loved lately?

0 Comments

Rainbow Snippets January 28-29

Rainbow Snippets January 21-22

Rainbow Snippets January 14-15

Rainbow Snippets January 7-8

My December Reading

Author

Archives

Categories