Assorted Objects

so aiming for plottier and more serious without tipping into lesbian space atrocities:

Backwards to Oregon: historical romance set on the oregon trail between a woman passing as a man and the prostitute she married to improve her cover. This one is fun because the setting/concept means that there are really high stakes to the romance-typical secrets and misunderstandings: Luke has no reason to think Nora would accept her gender and is very aware of the potential consequences, while Nora can't understand her husband's motivations and is understandably afraid Luke will abandon her and her daughter.

Daughter of Mystery: historical fantasy romance set in renaissance-ish not!Liechtenstein. When an eccentric nobleman dies he unexpectedly leaves his entire fortune to a goddaughter he barely new - including his indentured female duelist. I really love the worldbuilding here, all the characters feel plausibly of their time and the magic system is deeply entertwined with religion (instead of religion just being glossed over).

Feast While You Can: horror novel set in rural Italy with a strong central romance plotline. Girl who is deeply attached to her shithole small town, and determined to use her position as the mythologized only daughter of a prominent family to live happily there as a queer brown woman. The only thing that throws her off her game is when her brother's butch ex (and her own queer awakening) returns, and The Thing In The Pit wakes up. Deeply scary (to me), tightly themed, and very hot.

The Duke, Anna Cowan. In the words of the immortal CL Clark, "The duke is mean and hot and her thighs! in her buckskin breeches! and she's mean! and butch! and hot!". Classical Regency except almost all of the cast is women. Has a good touch for intensity and chemistry compared to the usual run of f/f.

Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot, Alexis Hall. This might run a bit more romcom than what you're looking for. It's about a journalist cast on a Great British Baking Show sort of entity who forms a contentious relationship with the show's producer. Points for making the producer genuinely very abrasive (she was the antagonist in the last two books) and for being very cynical about show business.

The Starving Saints, Caitlin Starling. Messy cannibalism siege horror gore. Not a romance, but a good call if they like the lesbian space atrocities.

The Memory Hunters, Mia Tsai. Futuristic fantasy with mushroom-based memory powers. Main relationship is a spoiled rich girl working as a historian and her prickly and complicated bodyguard.

💕💕Song Ren 💕💕

Tristan, Angharad, Ishanvi cluster

Maryam

Cat, I guess

Pretty much anything by Julia Ecklar is top tier. My favourite albums from her are probably Space Heroes & Other Fools, and The Horse-Tamer's Daughter. Walkabout also has some bangers.

If your government currently sucks and you're in a revolutionary mood, you'll want some Leslie Fish, although she's very revenge-fantasy focused and does not like drug addicts. Firestorm is her best album in my opinion.

Yes I'm familiar, I love some good filk.

Songs from the Stars has the whole album, for anyone looking for these songs. They also have a whole bunch of other old filk albums. A lot of early filk was recorded and sold on tapes, which is not a great long-term preservation medium; my understanding is that Songs from the Stars is attempting to preserve as much of it as possible via digital uploads.

Time to Orbit: Unknown specifically was heavily inspired by Pushin' the Speed of Light:

And The Phoenix:

Me, at the opening of this half: I don't want to press too much onto the text if it isn't there, but I think homosexuality MAY be part of the equation this story is working off.

The show: Here's a boy and a monster having abstract gay sex in a gym class closet.

Please do not spoil me! I am watching as i liveblog, I have no knowledge of what is to come! Please please please do not confirm, deny, hint, supply outside information like interviews, or anything like that!

I laughed ALOUD at "this ain't good."

Because while that's perhaps understating the problem a little bit, also: Yes, absolutely this ain't good. I have said this so many times I'm like a broken record, but there is this real tension of Yoshiki getting everything he wanted out of original recipe Hikaru all of a sudden. The closeness of him. Hikaru, saying "All I want is to be with you" and you know it ISN'T Hikaru, but when you feel his head on your chest, hear him begging to stay with you, how hard is that to really square with? Impossible. How could anyone deal with it, even seeing the way they are sliding into all of it?

Please do not spoil me! I am watching as i liveblog, I have no knowledge of what is to come! Please please please do not confirm, deny, hint, supply outside information like interviews, or anything like that!

I was about to say I don't know if I believe Yoshiki that no one else would notice that HIkaru is not really himself anymore, but I mean, I guess within the world of this anime, that's absolutely true.

And isn't THAT a horror story in itself? That you can die, that a creature can take over your body, and so long as it has all your memories, no one would notice that it isn't you? Not your mother? Not your friends? That they know you so little that a creature who does not even know how to be human could take your place. Is that not terrifying? To think your essential soul matters so little?

Please do not spoil me! I am watching as i liveblog, I have no knowledge of what is to come! Please please please do not confirm, deny, hint, supply outside information like interviews, or anything like that!