LGBTQI | Self-Publishing Review

Review: An Eighth Grade Gay Straight Alliance by Daniel Micko

Hard-hitting in its honesty and authentic narrative voice, An Eighth Grade Gay Straight Alliance by Daniel Micko shines a light on the societal forces and peer pressures that shape growing up today.

When the enigmatic Brooklyn Jennings starts her own Gay-Straight Alliance at her middle school in Modesto, California, she makes her intentions clear: no adults, no teachers, and a vision to “shake things up.” Sydney Troller may be smitten by Brooklyn’s devil-may-care vibes, but she also doesn’t want to get involved in anything that could land her in trouble – or even jail. Testing the lines of privilege, purpose, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-12-15T15:11:56+02:00December 3rd, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Daniel Micko, LGBTQI, Young Adult|

Review: The Utterly Sublime Adventures of Ava Roberts by Lisa Frederickson

Vibrantly written and irresistibly funny, The Utterly Sublime Adventures of Ava Roberts by Lisa Frederickson is a novel about love and the healing powers of traveling. From Goa to Sydney, Thailand to South Africa, 29-year-old Ava learns that stepping out of her comfort zone is the best thing she could ever do.

Reading like Eat, Pray, Love with a funnier narrative voice and an LGBT focus, this book is a must-read for those who love adventurous travel writing, spiritual memoirs, and love stories. Thanks to the novel taking the form of fiction, diary, and blog, the narrative has an engaging […]

Marina Dora Martino2023-11-22T18:38:08+02:00November 22nd, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQI|

Review: Across the Divide by Elizabeth Bernays

A charming memoir by entomologist and writer Elizabeth Bernays, Across the Divide: The Strangest Love Affair explores new forms of love later in life. Joyful, but also profound and reflective, the book is an enchanting and memorable read that mixes levity with deep emotion.

With eloquent and engaging prose, Bernays tells of her complex and beautiful relationship with a married woman in her 50s. Linda and Elizabeth fell in love despite their differences, after both had been married to men. Both of them led successful careers and had experienced loving marriages, but they couldn’t be more different as people, and […]

Marina Dora Martino2023-08-24T13:31:57+02:00June 29th, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: LGBTQI, Memoir|

Review: Sometimes You Just Know by Bill VanPatten

Sometimes You Just Know by Bill VanPatten is a tender, warmhearted work of LGBT romance that is unafraid to tackle challenging questions or pack emotional punches. With its closely observed realism, sensitively drawn characters, and highly believable dialogue, this is a beautifully naturalistic story of love and loss, which is in turns funny, surprising, and heartrending.

As the title suggests, the big theme of the novel is that of intuition, the strange way one can know something without consciously knowing the reason why. The novel is a careful examination of this idea in respect to love, death, and family – […]

Marina Dora Martino2023-05-11T12:34:12+02:00April 5th, 2023|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Bill VanPatten, LGBTQI, Romance|

Review: A Little Rain by Bill VanPatten

A young gay man participates in a court hearing for a mysterious crime in Bill VanPatten’s emotional and reflective novel A Little Rain, an engrossing work about how the impact of generational trauma and the strain of keeping secrets can break a family apart.

When Alex Chance is sixteen years old, he attempts suicide shortly before landing in front of the judge who will determine his fate. By the time he arrives in the courtroom, he’s in a dissociative fugue, clutching a paperback copy of Stephen King’s Misery and barely speaking. So what happened to lead Alex to this fraught […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-05-12T08:21:51+02:00April 8th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Bill VanPatten, Contemporary Fiction, LGBTQI|

Review: Birch: A Witch Tree by Jennifer Hotes

An introspective, supernatural narrative about coping with grief and loss, Jennifer Hotes’ Birch: A Witch Tree is the dramatic first title in a planned series about helping suspected witches achieve salvation after death.

Megan Ann Davenport is an up-and-coming painter living in Seattle, right on the brink of huge success and recognition for her prodigious talents. Not everything in her life is great, however: Megan left home at age seventeen to escape her conservative family, who don’t know that she’s a lesbian with a girlfriend named Charlie. When Megan’s preacher father unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, she’ll finally have […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-04-01T04:39:52+02:00March 9th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: LGBTQI, Paranormal|

Review: Looks Are Deceiving by Bill VanPatten

The tight-knit small town of Mañana, CA is turned upside down by a cruel hate crime in Bill VanPatten’s Looks Are Deceiving, a mystery novel featuring an endearing amateur sleuth and timely conversations about racism and homophobia in contemporary America.

Will Christian is a 49-year-old aspiring writer and gay Latino man who moved to Mañana to live closer to his sister. Everything is going swimmingly until he sets out for a bike ride in late June and makes a grim discovery: the body of a young man, subject to severe blunt force head trauma, a 22-year-old who also happens to […]

Michelle Hogmire2022-04-07T03:00:16+02:00February 24th, 2022|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Bill VanPatten, LGBTQI, Mystery|

Can’t Think Straight by Isabel Scheck

A gentle, melancholic collection of poetry about longing and love, Isabel Scheck’s Can’t Think Straight makes a profound and heartfelt emotional impact through simplicity and symbolism.

This short, easily readable book contains 35 poems, all focused on similar themes of wishing for companionship. The female-coded narrator expresses her desire for a girlfriend and imagines what they could do together: activities like going to the fair, having a picnic, making art, watching movies, baking cupcakes, stargazing, and attending Pride.

Scheck’s tight focus on simple activities – as opposed to over-the-top romantic gestures – effectively highlights the intensity of longing for basic […]

Michelle Hogmire2021-11-03T07:26:24+02:00November 3rd, 2021|Categories: New Releases|Tags: LGBTQI, Poetry|