Happy Pride Month 2022
Welcome. everyone!
Today I’ll be showing some love and support to all my LGBT friends, family, and bloggers with a book tag I created last year.
Whether you’re a part of the alphabet soup of the LGBTQ+ community or not
We should all take moment to show some acceptance and consideration for others differences.
We have all been judged and we all know how it feels.
Skin color. Nationality. Religious beliefs.
There will always be something that sets us apart, that someone will find issue with, or that some just don’t want to understand..
So this is for you.
The you who is unique. Misunderstood. A little lost. And utterly magnificent.
The Rules:
- Link back to the creator(that’s me), Sheri @ ReadBetwixtWords
- If you don’t know an LGBTQ book or character that fits, choose any you feel is suitable to the question.
- Tag some friends!
- And just have fun!
(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Any purchases made through my links may earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you.)
A character that grows to accept themselves:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig‘
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
A book with one of your favorite LGBTQ characters:
Grell Sutcliff
Black Butler by Yana Toboso
Just a stone’s throw from London lies the manor house of the illustrious Phantomhive earldom and its master, one Ciel Phantomhive. Earl Phantomhive is a giant in the world of commerce, Queen Victoria’s faithful servant…and a slip of a twelve-year-old boy. Fortunately, his loyal butler, Sebastian, is ever at his side, ready to carry out the young master’s wishes. And whether Sebastian is called to save a dinner party gone awry or probe the dark secrets of London’s underbelly, there apparently is nothing Sebastian cannot do. In fact, one might even say Sebastian is too good to be true…or at least, too good to be human…
An LGBTQ character who’s loud and proud:
Devinshea Quinn
Steal the Light by Lexi Blake
When dealing with demons, the devil’s in the details…
Stealing mystical and arcane artifacts is a dangerous business, especially for a human, but Zoey Wharton is an exceptional thief. The trick to staying alive is having friends in all the wrong places. While having a witch and a werewolf on the payroll helps, being partners with a vampire really opens doors.
Zoey and Daniel were childhood sweethearts until a violent car crash took his life and left her shattered. When Daniel returned from the grave as a vampire, his only interest in Zoey was in keeping her safely apart from the secrets of his dark world. He has vowed to protect her, but his heart seems as cold as the night he calls home.
Five years later, a mysterious new client named Lucas Halfer offers Zoey a fortune to steal the Light of Alhorra. The search for the Light leads Zoey into the arms of an earthbound faery prince. Devinshea Quinn sweeps her off her feet, showing her everything the supernatural world has to offer, but Daniel still calls to her heart.
As the true nature of the Light is revealed, Zoey discovers Halfer is a demon and much more than money is at stake. Per her contract, she must give him the Light or spend an eternity in Hell. What’s a girl to do except fight for her soul…and her heart.
A book/character that doesn’t judge:
Laurel K Hamilton’s books are always the first I think of for when it comes to diversity in characters. Merry Gentry being one of the least judgmental and most understanding characters I’ve come across still. No matter your skin color, sexuality, or race.. Hamilton has a way of accepting you as you are.
Yes, the books have a few (a lot) of sexual scenes and situations. Graphic ones. But that’s part of their charm.
A Kiss of Shadows by Laurel K Hamilton
Three years ago, Princess Meredith fled the court of her cruel Aunt Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness, leaving that garden of decadent delights and backstabbing intrigues for the comparative calm of Los Angeles. Using her magic to pass for human, Meredith began a new life as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now Doyle, the Queen’s chief bodyguard and assassin, has been dispatched to fetch her back–whether she likes it or not.
The product of a marriage designed to cement peace between the rival Seelie and Unseelie courts, Meredith has always been scorned by both factions in spite of her royal blood. But that blood is behind the Unseelie Queen’s surprisingly urgent summons.
For ever since the fey’s exile from Europe to America, their power and purity have been fading. Desperate to renew her race, Queen Andais now pins her hopes on a contest between Meredith and her own son, the sadistic Prince Cel. The first to produce a child will win the throne.
The loser’s reward will be death . . .
A book with lovable LGBTQ characters:
Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori
The uproarious comedy about a girl enlisted to work in a lavish host club!
In this screwball romantic comedy, Haruhi, a poor girl at a rich kids’ school, is forced to repay an $80,000 debt by working for the school’s swankiest, all-male club—as a boy! There, she discovers just how wealthy the six members are and how different the rich are from everybody else…
A book with plenty of diversity:
Born of Embers by Quinn Arthurs and Harper Wylde
I always knew I was different.
I’d thought it had to be hidden – to stay a secret.
I didn’t know my secret would become the key to my survival.
Turning eighteen and getting accepted into college brings me everything I need to escape from the nightmares of my past but I never could have imagined my nightmares – and dreams – were just beginning. Finding myself thrown into a world of fantasy, politics, friendships, and rules that are nearly impossible to understand, I feel like I’m drowning in a world of shifters I never knew existed. As I struggle to find my place and prevent my nightmares from tearing me apart, I find myself surrounded by an unusual group of sexy men. With Hiro, Killian, Theo, Damien, and Ryder I’m trying to become the woman I’ve always wanted to be, if my past, and my future, will let me.
An LGBTQ book you have no interest in reading:
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.
When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle….
But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.
An LGBTQ book on your tbr:
Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist
Med school dropout Lena is desperate for a job, any job, to help her parents, who are approaching bankruptcy after her father was injured and laid off nearly simultaneously. So when she is offered a position, against all odds, working for one of Boston’s most elite families, the illustrious and secretive Verdeaus, she knows she must accept it—no matter how bizarre the interview or how vague the job description.
By day, she is assistant to the family doctor and his charge, Jonathan, the sickly, poetic, drunken heir to the family empire, who is as difficult as his illness is mysterious. By night, Lena discovers the more sinister side of the family, as she works overtime at their lavish parties, helping to hide their self-destructive tendencies . . . and trying not to fall for Jonathan’s alluring sister, Audrey. But when she stumbles upon the knowledge that the Verdeau patriarch is the one responsible for the ruin of her own family, Lena vows to get revenge—a poison-filled quest that leads her further into this hedonistic world than she ever bargained for, forcing her to decide how much—and who—she’s willing to sacrifice for payback.
A book that welcomes all kinds:
Introductions: The Ghost Bird Series by C. L. Stone
With an agoraphobic mother and a barely-there father, Sang abhors the isolation keeping her in the shadows. The only thing Sang craves is a fresh start and to be accepted as ordinary by her peers, because for her being different meant being cast out alone.
When her family moves to a new school district, Sang infiltrates a group of boys nearly perfect in every way. Grateful for an influence outside of her parents’ negativity, she quickly bonds with the boys, hoping to blend in and learn from them what it means to have a natural relationship with friends.
Only the boys have secrets of their own and they’ll do anything to keep her safe from the knowledge of the mysterious Academy that they’ve sworn allegiance to. Bit by bit, Sang discovers that her friends are far from the normalcy she expected. Will her loyalty change when she’s forced to remain in the dark, or will she accept that she’s traded one house of secrets for another?
Meet Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North in a story about differences and loyalty, truth and mystery, friendships and heart-throbbing intimacy.
The Academy, ever vigilant.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my tag!
Be sure to have a wonderful Pride Month, stay safe, and remember always..
You are beautiful.
What is your favorite book/manga/or graphic novel with an LGBT character?
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Great tag! The Midnight Library has been on my TBR for so long, hopefully I’ll get to read it this year!
Thank you!
I ended up finally reading The Midnight Library as part of a reading challenge and I’m actually pretty glad I did. It’s intriguing and heartbreaking and definitely worth checking out.
I hope that you do get a chance and that you enjoy it!