If you are also chronically online and follow lots of book people, you probably have heard the Saga of Bigolas Dickolas, a name that will live in infamy.
For context, this tweet went viral and subsequently made This is How You Lose the Time War a bestseller!!
If you're anything like me and absolutely FERAL for sapphic speculative fiction, you've come to the right place. Here are ten books to read after you devour Time War.
What would you sacrifice for your own ambition? Through dual POV narratives, this book tells the stories of Zhu and Ouyang, two survivors who suffered tragic losses and ruthlessly clawed their way into positions of power through manipulation and bloodshed. When they are set against each other as generals of rival armies, the threads of fate that bind them are set ablaze with their burning for power and their lives will never be the same.
This enthralling epic fantasy that swept me from burning monastery to burning battlefield crushed my open heart in its brutal searing palms and I felt blessed to be present for the entire journey. Heartbreaking, lovely, bloody, and burns with a radiance of ten thousand suns. An unmissable historical fantasy debut!
This quirky, unconventional, but mind-blowing debut from Tamsyn Muir is one you won't want to miss. Gideon Nav is a breath of fresh air, a straight shooter, and a badass swordsmaster whose only dream is to leave the miserable existence of indentured servitude to the Ninth House, a planet of dusty skeletons and humorless necromancers. When Gideon is given a chance to earn her freedom by posing as the Reverend Daughter's cavalier in a necromancer competition at First House, she leaps at the opportunity. Harrowhark and Gideon's witty and vulgar banter MADE this book. GIDEON THE NINTH surprised me, made me laugh, shocked me, and broke my heart, leaving me as crushed as a pile of old bones. I'm already looking forward to the next installment.
This is a book about the trauma that women endure in patriarchal systems, the societal pressures that crush women, the masks women wear to be palatable, and about how women who have ambitions of their own are viewed as monstrous by society. I loved EVERY second of it.
After trying to overthrow her brother the tyrannical emperor and refusing to be burned on a pyre, Princess Malini is imprisoned in isolation. But she isn't alone for long when she witnesses Priya, one of the maids, commit a murder.
Priya and Malini grow close while the fires of rebellion spark around them, but when an ancient power stirs within Priya, Malini and Priya struggle to find their place in the rebellion.
The second installment of the Last Binding Trilogy managed to keep me just as captivated as A Marvellous Light!
With complex but lovable characters, steamy romance, and plenty of suspense, I loved embarking on Maud's voyage of self-discovery as she also solved a murder and prevented powerful magic from falling into the wrong hands.
I eagerly await the conclusion of this series!
The romance, political intrigue, and complex interpersonal relationships was magnified in the second volume of this series. I need more queer sapphic polycules in my life, thank you so so much. Touraine and Luca navigate warring desires as new threats to Luca's throne emerge, and no one knows who they can truly trust.
Reading this book was like kissing lips dripping with honey and finding out they were coated with venom instead.
This is the story of the rise of the Siren Queen, but this is also about selling pieces of yourself for immortality, fame, success, and worship. With intoxicating and cutting prose, Nghi Vo dragged me to a dangerously seductive Hollywood underworld ripe with magic, where men in power make deals with demons and become monsters, where sacrificing yourself is a small price to pay for fame, and where rising stars either fall and fuel the magic, or become monstrous themselves. It left me gasping for air.
For her whole life, August has never let herself grow attached to any place or anyone, preferring to study people rather than actually getting to know them. Until she meets Jane, an impossibly perfect girl on the subway who she's inexplicably drawn to. A girl who inspires her to let people in again and cracks her wide open. There’s just one problem: Jane is from a different time.
With subway parties, drag shows, and a band of hilarious and sweet queer friends I would love to be adopted by, One Last Stop manages to provide laughs, queer history and love, a heist, time travel, and a feeling of belonging that is impossible to get from most other books. This book really describes the feeling of being afraid to let people know you, but also the feeling of relief when you decide to be your unapologetic self and are embraced by a community. It cured my pandemic loneliness, and filled me with bubbling laughter and heart squeezing happiness. Like August, I felt myself open up to the impossible magic that is love. This book was a love letter to the magic of New York City and the heart that its people have. And also to the queer community. This book is one that is tattooed permanently on my heart.
If someone told me this book had queer women in suits, a murder mystery in steampunk Cairo, and LOTS of women fighters with swords, I would have broken down the Tor door for a chance to read it AGES AGO.
Fatma is an investigator of supernatural crimes, and is investigating a mass murder when she uncovers a heist, a person who can control all djinn, and powerful memory magic. This story took me in all sorts of unexpected twists and turns and always kept me on my toes. I loved Clark’s immersive writing, and his characters were funny and relatable.