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wendypalmer

@[email protected]

I write fantasy ebooks & family-friendly puzzle walk trails while enjoying farm life with goats, alpacas & bees in the South West Boojarah region of Western Australia.

I follow & boost writing, reading, books, knitting, science, history, linguistics, environment, art & Stoicism.

She/her. Avatar AltText: silhouette of a woman in profile, with glasses & bobbed hair; header is my book covers (alt texts on website).

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wendypalmer , to bookstodon group
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Ink Blood Sister Scribe is on sale at Kobo AU right now and might also be on sale at your favourite provider. This has been one of my favourite fantasy reads so far this year.

https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/ink-blood-sister-scribe

@bookstodon

wendypalmer , to Romancelandia group
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Queer Romance Club book choice for July

I’ve got the tiebreaker, so let’s go for the indie author, AJ Demas.

The official pick is Sword Dance.

Technically the first in a trilogy, but stand-alone with a HFN ending. Damiskos is an absolute cinnamon roll of a lead character, and the book itself is down the cosy end of the spectrum (with more plot than some cosies I’ve encountered 😊), though there is discussion of severe injuries including castration (Varazda is a eunuch).

However, Honey and Pepper is currently free on various sites, and The House of the Red Balconies just released a few days ago.

So, officially we’re chatting about Sword Dance in July, but perhaps we can also have a general AJ Demas appreciation month, whichever of her books you happen to pick up. They’re all set in the same fictional classical Mediterranean-inspired ancient world (which does include era-appropriate slavery), and they all feature rather sweet and comforting relationships. You’ll find them on Kobo Plus, your library if it’s better than mine (mine only has Sword Dance), or they’re all reasonably priced.

https://www.kobo.com/au/en/search?query=aj+demas

QRC is open to all, read at your own pace over the month and post about it under and @queerromanceclub — CW for spoilers if you’re posting early and going into details. No rules: let’s hear reactions, theories, reviews, favourite quotes etc.

Follow the hashtag , add @queerromanceclub to a list/notifications.

@romancelandia @gayromance

herhandsmyhands ,
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club avatar

@wendypalmer

::squeeing incoherently over what an excellent author this is:: And boy, oh boy, Damiskos! Varazda! ::happy sigh::

The treatment of consent in all the novels is just...oh man. So good.

@queerromanceclub @romancelandia @gayromance @bookstodon

wendypalmer OP ,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@herhandsmyhands @queerromanceclub @romancelandia @gayromance @bookstodon Sword Dance is one of my very favourite comfort re-reads 😊

wendypalmer , to bookstodon group
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It’s a sad affair when the no-doubt-AI-generated summary of a book has a higher rating than the actual book.

The book itself, A Very Agreeable Murder, is a very fluffy mash-up of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, pure escapist fun…I can’t see what the point of reading a summary of it would be. You either want the experience of fluffy escapist fun, or you just don’t read it all, surely 🤷‍♀️

@bookstodon

SkipHuffman ,
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@wendypalmer @bookstodon notice that the summary only has two ratings. The actual book has 17,000

KRHolton ,
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@wendypalmer @bookstodon is there a way to report these to Goodreads? I've seen so much bs on there. They make reporting comments really easy, but I don't know if there's a way to report a book?

wendypalmer , to bookstodon group
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This series keeps catching my eye because they’ve done well with the evocative matching titles…but for the life of me I could not work why they’d messed up one.

A Court This Cruel and Lovely
A Crown This Cold and Heavy
A Queen This Fierce and Deadly

But, what, stuck in the middle there, A Kingdom This Empty and Cursed. Sounds so wrong! All they had to do was A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty and it would have matched!

Then I finally looked at the cover.

@bookstodon

willaful ,
@willaful@romancelandia.club avatar

@wendypalmer How annoying for the author. @bookstodon

wendypalmer , to bookstodon group
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Queer Romance Club June pick: A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #1)

(QRC is open to all, read the pick at your own pace over the month and post about it under and @queerromanceclub — CW for spoilers if you’re going into details)

I particularly enjoyed this book (and the whole trilogy) the first time I read it (it’s another of my favourite queer romance historical/fantasy trilogies, more here: https://wendypalmer.au/2024/02/11/books-favourite-queer-romance-trilogies/), so I’m happy for chance to re-read. And I’m looking forward to a new Marske book coming out later this year.

I like the Edwardian setting: this feels like a relatively under-used era in (queer) fantasy, compared to Regency and Victorian eras. Off the top of my head, only CL Polk’s Witchmark uses the Edwardian (I’m sure there’s plenty more!). Every other early 20th example that occurred to me was actually between the wars (prohibition, bright young things)…This setting gets to maintain the 19th century formality of relations, class disparities and sexism that makes for good plot and character tension, but also use our knowledge of the coming Great War to cast a long shadow.

The opening chapters do a great job laying out the era, magical system, and opening dilemma, and introducing the two MCs and their problems and backgrounds.

Also:
Robin, about Edwin: he has a eminently punchable face
Edwin, about Robin: he’s half-witted and incurious, not enough wit, not enough sense
😊 It’s basically a nerd-jock dynamic, let’s face it.

I’ll post a bit more on the book in coming days (under spoiler warnings from here on in), but I have the audiobook reserved for later in the month, so I’m looking forward to reading it in a different way to see what strikes me differently.

@queerromanceclub @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon

wendypalmer OP ,
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@Kay @queerromanceclub @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon oh yes of course, the Think of England pair 🤦‍♀️ I knew I missing something obvious (too busy trying to think of magic examples)

Kay ,
@Kay@mastodon.nz avatar

@wendypalmer @queerromanceclub @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon For magic examples,The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by KJ Charles also fits, with journalist Robert Caldwell and ghost-hunter Simon Feximal.

wendypalmer , to lgbtqbookstodon group
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As usual, my light fantasy romance books (LGBTQ+ characters, positive rep) are on sale for all of June at Smashwords. DRM-free, and I’m happy to virtually assist with sideloading to your ereader if you need it.

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wendylpalmer

And as usual, I will donate ALL my June royalties, not just from Smashwords sales, to an Australian LGBTQ+ charity (at the moment I favour the Equality Project, but am open to suggestions).

The Uses of Illicit Art (m/m romance) is my most popular book but I’d like to put in a good word for Fair Haven (m/nb romance) and Domesticated Magic (transm/m romance).

@lgbtqbookstodon

dowitcher ,
@dowitcher@poa.st avatar

@wendypalmer @lgbtqbookstodon Gross.

Stop being a weird faggot.

You don't have to perpetuate the cycle of abuse.

Get help.

VIcFury ,
@VIcFury@poa.st avatar

you can get any AI to make faggot prop... "learn how the LGBT community helped" then any thing you want prop about. as an example, "learn how the LGBT community helped form the furry fandom to attract children.” :nyancat_rain:

wendypalmer , to bookstodon group
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My favourite reads for May on the Everand subscription service (plus a few comments on the subscription service itself).

ETA I've updated my May list because I managed to squeeze in the DELIGHTFUL Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis. Thoroughly recommend this comedic fantasy.

@bookstodon
http://wendypalmer.au/2024/05/28/books-may-everand-reads/

wendypalmer , to bookstodon group
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For fans of AJ Demas, she has a new book on preorder! It has felt so long since the last one, I was beginning to get worried about her 😊

https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/the-house-of-the-red-balconies

@bookstodon

wendypalmer , to lgbtqbookstodon group
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May the Fourth is also my latest book's birthday 🎉

Domesticated Magic is a romantic fantasy towards the cosy end of the spectrum, with The Feels, and a grumpy-sunshine-type m/m pairing.

Mateo and his family fled when their people turned to sorcery. Mateo’s own magic is tame but it’s still banned in their new home...yet they use it every day. But the sorcery seems to have followed them. They already lost their world once. Mateo can’t let them lose again.

Read more plus find buy links here (also on and Everand):
https://wendypalmer.au/books/#domestic

@lgbtqbookstodon

Animated version of the cover of Domesticated Magic. The cover, blue border (half Greek-style tiles, half Viking-style runes), title and author name are split in two by a black lightning bolt. On one side is the outline of a bull's face made of curly floral-like lines. It glides in from the left, wearing a rather insouciant expression as it stares at the viewer. A green butterfly perches on one horn, gently pulses. It stands out against the cream background, black lines, and blue border and text. On the other side of the cataclysmic split is the helm of awe, a snake-like dragon biting its own tail to form a circle around magic runes. The dragon rolls in from the right to stare at the bull, and does not look impressed.

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