We’re nearing the end of the month, but definitely not nearing the end of my Pride book recommendations. It was hard to narrow it down to 30. Here are five more recommended reads!
Pride Books Day 21 – The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
I first discovered this series in 2015 or 16. Everyone seemed to be talking about Maggie Stiefvater. The first book of hers that I read was The Scorpio Races when it appeared on a list of recommended books for fans of The Hunger Games. The two books couldn’t be more different, so I have no idea why it was on the list, but I’m glad that I discovered her. The Shiver trilogy is her most popular series, and it’s a paranormal YA that involves werewolves, which is not really my jam. But I absolutely love the Raven Cycle series!
The Raven Cycle is four books long. There’s a spinoff trilogy that I couldn’t really get into, but a lot of fans seem to love it. The first book in the series is The Raven Boys and it’s about a girl named Blue with a psychic family who is told that if she kisses her true love, she’ll kill him. She crosses paths with four boys from the local Aglionby Academy – Gansey, who is my fave because he’s a passionate yet anxious golden boy; Ronan, a snarky “bad boy” with a soft spot and a pet raven named Chainsaw; Noah, who has a very cool secret; and Adam, who comes from an abusive family and is a scholarship student and an absolute sweetheart. Gansey is on a quest to find a mythical Welsh king named Glendower. Blue is the key to finding him.
This series has a few LGBTQ+ characters, which is why I’ve included it for Pride month, but it’s definitely not the focus of the story. The romances play a small part in the series. I absolutely love the characters and the plot of trying to find something that may or may not exist. This is actually the series that got me into tarot! Maggie Stiefvater is ridiculously talented and is an artist in addition to an author. She illustrated a tarot deck called the Raven’s Prophecy that was one of my first tarot decks. You can see her artwork in this picture. It’s the @owlcrate special edition of The Raven Boys featuring her art on the back of the dust jacket. Seriously so talented.
Have you read any of Maggie Stiefvater’s books? How about this series?
Pride Books Day 22 – The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
The Roots of Chaos series by Samantha Shannon is a real gem of a fantasy series. Fingers crossed there will be more books in the future. She says that each one takes her about three years to write, and she definitely has ideas for more books in the series, so I really hope there will be more.
The Priory of the Orange Tree was the first book published. A Day of Fallen Night was the second book published, but it’s a prequel to Priory. I would still recommend reading Priory first because I think it’s a little easier to get into. Fallen Night was a bit more political and I liked Priory a smidge more – but both are masterpieces.
I’ll just copy the book description here because they do a much better job at describing it than I can.
“A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.”
My favorite part of the series is Sabran and Ead. They are such well-rounded, realistic, wonderful characters. I like Sabran so much that I named my pet jumping spider after her. 🙂
This is one of my top ten favorite books of all time. That’s how much I love it. I’ve read hundreds, probably thousands, of books in my life, and this one is genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Pride Books Day 23 – In the Dark of the Grove by Jon Wesley Huff
Here’s a horror novel to mix things up a bit! I loved this book by Jon Wesley Huff, a fellow Gurt Dog Press author. Since GDP closed down, a lot of authors have been republishing their books, and this one will be re-released soon in a new edition. But I love this edition because it features the author’s art on the cover and the inside. You all know how I feel about authors who are also artists. Ridiculously talented!
There are some strange happenings in Essen, Indiana, and reading this book just reminded me… this, my friends, is exactly why I left the Midwest and never looked back.
A truly gripping and well-written mystery that has a really creepy and sinister twist at the end. All of the characters are fully fleshed-out and I liked every single one of them…or I liked hating them. There is a truly nasty teacher that you will loathe. And a very cute and funny love interest.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy or sci-fi book with a gay man as the main character before now, and I’m so glad that changed with this book.
Also, my hometown even shows up real small on the map on the cover (of the first edition).
A really amazing read that will give you the heebie-jeebies. (See, don’t I have a way with words?)
Pride Books Day 24 – Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
Here’s a book with an absolutely adorable cover! This is a very sweet story about two girls who fake-date each other but end up falling in love…as is usually the case with these fake-dating stories. Except this one is sapphic!
Here’s the blurb from Goodreads:
“Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.
Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.”
I’m way more of an Ishu than a Hani, but I also relate to putting up with nonsense in the past from friends like Hani does. I think we’ve all been there, where we’ve let someone treat us badly just to avoid rocking the boat. But “friends” who do that aren’t worth calling friends. It’s a tough lesson to learn, but it’s important. I think the author does a good job showing Hani’s character growth.
I also enjoyed Adiba Jaigirdar’s first book, The Henna Wars. She has another one out now that I want to check out. I recommend her work!
Pride Books Day 25 – Heartstopper
If you are unfamiliar with the Heartstopper webcomic by Alice Oseman, please do yourself a favor and go read it. I devoured the entire thing in about 2 days. (Since then, more of the webcomic has been released, but now I’m waiting to read it in physical book form, because I find that more enjoyable.)
Plus, whenever I enjoy a digital version of a book, I try to get the print copy because 1) it looks good on my shelf, 2) it’s better for pictures, and 3) I’m paranoid that my digital copy will get deleted somehow and then I won’t have access to it. Anybody else share that fear? (Especially with small presses and indie authors, because stuff can go out of print more easily.)
The blurb: “Charlie, a highly-strung, openly gay over-thinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, meet at a British all-boys grammar school. Friendship blooms quickly, but could there be something more…?”
Nick and Charlie are absolutely relationship goals. They have fun together, can talk to each other about anything, share hobbies, and are good communicators. Charlie has some mental health issues (especially in the later volumes) but Nick is loving and supportive. Truly a wonderful relationship model for kids and teens to see.
The series on Netflix is a lot of fun too. I’m looking forward to seeing Season 2 when it comes out next month.
I can’t say enough good things about Heartstopper. Alice Oseman’s other books are great too! Solitaire is about Charlie’s sister Tori, and there are two novellas that feature Nick and Charlie. I think my favorite of her books is Loveless, which is about an asexual girl starting college. She’s very talented and I will read everything she writes.