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New LGBTQ Fiction for Pride Month: Triple Sec and Mirrored Heaven

5 Jun

Triple Sec
by TJ Alexander
Triple Sec is TJ Alexander’s latest stand alone romance novel. Mel is a bartender at an upscale NYC lounge, the site of many marriage proposals despite her own failed love life. When cute curvy Bebe flirts with her at the bar, Mel is interested, but then she meets Bebe’s spouse, Kade. Mel’s never dated someone in an open relationship before, but Bebe seems worth the try and she soon discovers the quiet and quirky artist Kade also might have some hidden romantic depths she’d like to explore. Like all of Alexander’s excellent queer romances, this story expands not only Mel’s dating horizons, but also has her thinking more about her future, in this case of her career and letting go a past romantic failure. Bebe and Kade are also well developed characters. Kade is nonbinary and though not given a specific diagnosis reads as neurodivergent; both of which are handled in a nuanced way. When a cocktail contest that could fund Mel’s dream of owning her own bar comes up it could be her chance to make all her fantasies come true. This might be my favorite of Alexander’s yet!

Mirrored Heavens
by Rebecca Roanhorse
Mirrored Heavens is the third in Roanhorse’s Between Earth and Sky Trilogy. The books draw from a variety of pre-Columbian American influences and feature a variety of LGBTQ representation with one of the main characters Xiala being bisexual and several other characters are non-binary. I had highly enjoyed the first two books Black Sun and Fevered Star. I would recommend reading the books in order to best understand the story. This book does move back and forth through time uncovering some more details about the past that help illuminate what has happened so far and better explain various characters motivations. What I love about Roanhorse’s work is that she has complex characters who have different goals of their own or pressure from those whom they represent to act in a certain way sometimes against their own best interest rather than generally having “good guys” and “bad guys.” Even good characters do not always make the best decisions. It also looks at the weight that is put on a person who has been raised to become a god or favored by their god in the cases of Serapio and Xiala whose elemental romance provides the beating heart of the story.

Our Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club pick for June features a gender fluid love interest. Join us on Monday, June 24 at 6:00 PM in the small programming room at the Main Branch, when we will be discussing The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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A Fairy Tale Retold: Spitting Gold, The Blue Fairy Book, Once Upon a Toad, and Toads and Diamonds

22 May

Spitting Gold
by Camelia Lowkis
Set in 1866 Paris and described as for fans of Sarah Waters, I couldn’t resist checking out Camelia Lowkis’s adult novel debut, Spitting Gold. The story focuses on Baroness Sylvie Devereux and her sister Charlotte Mothe. Sylvie has obtained upper class respectability with a loving husband and a comfortable home. Her sister Charlotte, however, is still struggling, living with a dying father and trying to make a living as spirit medium, something her sister had given up in her social climbing. When Charlotte, pulls her sister in for one last scheme it could destroy both their lives. The story itself was enjoyable with lots of intrigue, gothic melodrama, and some Sapphic romance, but what to me was most interesting was the the way in which Lowkis give us first one sisters perspective and then the other of what unfolded with part one and part two covering much of the same time, but from totally different unique and equally compelling view points. Perrault’s French fairytale, “The Fairies” or better known in English as, “Diamonds and Toads” is referenced several times about a “good” sister who is rewarded with wealth by a fairy and a “bad” sister punished, but in the end for the novel it is much more murky who is the “good” and who is the “bad.”

The Blue Fairy Book
by Andrew Lang
For those curious to read the story by Perrault, “Diamonds and Toads” that inspired Camelia Lowkis you can view one of the more popular adaptations from Andrew Lang’s The Blue Fairy Book which was originally released in 1889. The Blue Fairy Book was the first of 12 volumes of fairy tales from around the world, collected by Lang, an author, poet, and folklorist whose work I’ve seen many author’s look back on as inspiring their passion for reading. Other popular fairy tales it includes are “Hansel and Gretel,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Snow-White and Rose-Red.” If you enjoy The Blue Fairy Book than you will want to check out other volumes, each volume is marked by a different color of fairy, ending with in 1910, The Lilac Fairy.

Once Upon a Toad
by Heather Vogel Fredrick
Once Upon a Toad is a child friendly update of the classic tale. In this juvenile fiction adaptation of the fairy tale, Cat Starr moves in with her dad and stepsister, Olivia, while her mother is on a NASA Mission in Space. After a visit from her Great Aunt Abyssinia, toads are appearing every time she speaks while her step sister gets diamonds and flowers. The story ups the zaniness with jewel thieves after Olivia and a government agency wanting to examine Cat.

Toads and Diamonds
by Heather Tomlinson
Heather Tomlinson’s young adult adaptation, Toads and Diamonds, takes inspiration from precolonial India for her retelling of the classic story. When Diribani goes to get water for her family, she meets a goddess and given the gift of flowers and precious jewels but her stepsister Tana instead finds herself speaking snakes and toads as a reward. But this story asks which is the gift and which is the curse, rather than simply setup the “good” vs “bad” sister dichotomy of the original tale.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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