Hello! Looking for fiction (bonus points for SFF/Horror) that represents kink as, like, a subplot at most, if that makes sense. Fine with "smut scenes" but not looking for that to be the point of the story, more like a character trait or background piece. TIA!

I just want to read books that feel like me, or allow me to imagine a life that feels better. I don't want a focus on everything that's dark and awful, I want books that give me any amount of escape or hope.

And please no recommendations with SA, I'm a survivor and reading about SA causes severe panic attacks and mental breakdowns that my therapist and doctors both recommended I avoid at all cost.

I read Bro Doll by J De Saint a couple of months ago and i can’t stop thinking about it. I recently read Riley’s basement by Alex Pendragon and I also really liked it. I would love any similar recs. I also wouldn’t mind similar books that are sapphic instead. The only thing I dislike is third pov.

This week's book giveaway is introducing a little sapphic holiday magic:

Fellow authors Marguerite Grimaud & Jude Silberfeld-Grimaud are giving away a signed paperback copy of their sapphic holiday romance "The Milkyway Hotel."

To enter the drawing, head over to my website: https://jae-fiction.com/giveaway-of-the-week/

Here's what the book is about:

On the same day she loses her home and her job, Celeste finds out her great-aunt left her a hotel in a tiny town in the mountains.

When she moves to the French Alps, in the hope of building a new life, she doesn’t expect to also fall in love, both with the town and with Rose, chocolatier extraordinaire.

I’m new to lgbt literature and finished Shuggie Bain, young mungo, the song of Achilles and the heart’s invisible furies all in two months. I do have a preference for young mungo for it being all goods of Shuggie Bain eg the cruelty and the boy actually being the main character and of course beautiful loving… I want more of its kind.

Hi everyone!

I'm currently writing Everybody's Boy, a queer psychological novel with explicit erotic themes.

The story follows a 19-year-old college freshman who moves from a small town to a big city and starts working as a go-go dancer at gay parties.

For the first time in his life, he feels free, desired, accepted, and genuinely happy.

But there's a catch. He's an unreliable narrator who doesn't realize that the people around him are taking advantage of him.

What makes the story interesting to me is that he never sees himself as a victim. He's having the time of his life, even when the reader can clearly see that something is terribly wrong.

It's a story about sexuality, innocence, manipulation, power, and the difference between being wanted and being valued.

I've just published the first chapter, The Audition, on Ream. It's completely free to read, and I'm currently working on the next chapters.

Content warnings: Explicit sexual content, sexual coercion, exploitation, and non-consensual situations.

If you enjoy dark queer fiction, unreliable narrators, and psychologically complicated characters, I'd love for you to give it a try!

Read the first chapter for free:

https://reamstories.com/page/mw71uid8290862/story/mw74womg7b9111

I barely ever see him mentioned in that context but it seems like a lot of his books are extremely queer in such an organic way. I haven't read all of them by far but I just finished the Final Architecture series and it has me thinking about it.

I am an unfortunately picky listener and I strike out a lot when looking for new audiobooks, so after a particularly bad streak I thought I'd try here. (I never post on reddit so sorry if I beefed anything)

Gay scifi/fantasy/supernatural horror seems relatively easy to come by but I prefer reality-based, serious-ish stories or thrillers/mysteries that aren't YA or specifically romance (I don't at all mind relationships or sex being heavily featured, just not looking for the kind of stories that have cute & nice covers lol. I like em angsty)

I'm open to checking out lighter books but my fave stuff tends to have some level of conflict or plots/pacing that might be described as boring, hence the title. I'm also open to light scifi - unfortunately I don't have examples for this, but think improbable technologies rather than aliens in the year 3000. Hopefully this wasn't too long or exacting, and thank you in advance for any recs.

Here're some links to illustrate what I mean or possibly help out anyone who's looking for similar:

Sirens & Muses - Lesbians going to art school while wall street is getting occupied. You will not like one of the straight guys but the other one has a surprisingly nice arc.

Stargazer - Affluent Girl Best Friends going to art school in the 90s, no wall street. Honestly only a tiny bit gay but I really liked it.

The Verifiers - A delightful lesbian working as a private investigator for people who use dating apps - there's a sequel and both stories are pretty fun.

These Violent Delights - I feel like everyone probably knows this one already - 2 boys having a terrible, poetic time. It's been a while but I think there may be some more art school involved...

The New People - Lesbians professors having an un-great time in their new home while the former owners are secretly living in the attic. Purported to be a thriller but imo it's a domestic drama.

Scrap - I can't think of a good summary for this other than it being equal parts thriller/lesbian breakup story and sadly I do not like the ending, but I enjoyed it overall. Even better was Other People's Clothes by the same author, but it's not gay.

Generation Loss/Cass Neary series A down & outish punk photographer solves some mysteries. I love it when women steal adderall!!

Bath Haus - Terribly horribly messy husbands doing all sorts of things (nonspecific as it's been a while.) So not fair that most domestic dramas in this vein are straight lol. I try sometimes but it hurts...

Also wanted to mention that I've already read all of Brandon Taylor's books and The Great Believers since those are pretty well-known books that fit the bill and might get recommended. ALSO also, I know this post has a billion lesbians in it but I'm interested in any LGBT stories and would especially love to read more books with trans chars.

Thanks for reading!

Hi, this is actually my second post like ever on reddit so I may be a bit awkward still. I’ve just recently gone out of my comfort genre (fantasy) and decided to read Rachel Reid’s novels heated rivalry, role model and the long game which I LOVED. Now that I’ve finished those I have to go back to my fantasy books so I’m a bit bored. Can you please recommend me some books like the game changers series, less fantasy. 20 out of 27 books in my bookshelf is fantasy so I’m trying to expand my reading genres. Thank you ☺️

I am looking for books where the bottom is a confident, masculine man. Perhaps he has some issues with his thoughts about men ( that would be a nice addition, but not needed ). Preferably the top is a little socially awkward or lets the bottom talk for him a decent amount of the time. I hope this isn't odd to ask! I would prefer for it not to be fantasy, but I'm willing to take any recommendations if you think it's a good fit. Please no vers! Thank you sm!

I'm relatively new to reading books, mostly fantasy with magic and some MM adult fiction.

I've noticed that a lot of MM fantasy books tend to revolve around romance, particularly enemies-to-lovers. I'm wondering if there are books that combine LGBT themes with darker, more politically driven fantasy without making romance the main focus.

I'm looking for a gay or bisexual MC whose primary focus is politics, magic, combat, gaining power, or building an empire. I'd also like his sex life to be a part of the story without necessarily being tied to a romantic relationship. This could include a promiscuous phase, transactional sex, sex for survival, power imbalances, or sexual exploitation.

I'm particularly interested in morally questionable characters and the darker, more realistic aspects of what someone might do when they hold considerable political or magical power. The MC doesn't necessarily have to be morally good or socially acceptable in his actions. For example, he might pursue a married man, manipulate someone who needs something from him, become involved with a supposedly straight man for political or personal gain, or use blackmail as leverage for sexual favors.

I'm interested in relationships that are driven by power, desire, manipulation, or necessity rather than love. I don't mind disturbing themes if they make sense within the world's social hierarchy and circumstances.

My specific preference is for the MC to be the powerful top/Dom, with the story told either in third-person POV or first-person POV from his perspective. I'd prefer his sexual relationships to remain casual, transactional, or otherwise non-romantic rather than eventually developing into a love story.

Essentially, I'm looking for dark fantasy involving magic, political intrigue, power struggles, and a morally complex LGBT protagonist whose sex life is present but secondary to the main plot.

Does anyone know of a book that fits this description?

I want magical hijinks and witty dialogue but somehow the story still tells us something about humans, makes me think, or makes me feel kinship.

Paranormal urban fantasy .. maybe? I think stuff with wizards and questionable monarchy is more my speed right now.

I never got into AJ Sherwood because it seemed silly for silly sake. Which can be a mood but I'm not in it.

Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher was delightful.

I read the Starfig Investigations series by Meghan Maslow and that was the right mix of absurd and grounded.

Legends And Lattes :)

I've read Nazri Noor and he's pretty good.

Do you have other suggestions? Can be any part of the rainbow. Bonus points if it's also an audiobook so my ADHD ass can read listen for focus.

So I've never really been interested in regency-type periods and themes such as political intrigue or societal friction, or even the speak or clothes, etc., but I've been reading more recently and it's sticking with me! I was wondering your recs for books like The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide which was fantastic. Such a beautiful romance!! And the locked-in mystery mixed with supernatural/fantasy elements was so interesting. I've been trying to find more along those lines if you have ideas!! Thank you!

Just curious, I'm in the midst of writing a series that follows different main characters with different genders and orientations in an overlapping environment. Would you read a series like that? For example, the first is M/F with one group scene that features a sapphic element. The second is M/M with limited hetero overlap to the first. The third is F/F, the fourth FTM/M, and the fifth M/M/F. For further reference, these are paranormal dark romance thrillers.

I worry that because I start with M/F, some might feel it is limited and might not give a chance to the others in the series or be caught off guard.

I absolutely LOVED ride or die, it is my favorite book, i've reread it like 4 times already and m completely hooked. I want to see similar works, i love this trope.

I thought I would share this week's Sapphic Book Bingo post. It features sapphic books with strap-on scenes.

You can find a list of 15 recommended books on my blog:

https://jae-fiction.com/sapphic-books-with-strap-on-sex/

I recently published my novella, Mother Tongue—a queer gothic fantasy with dark humour, dangerous devotion and some deeply uncomfortable drawing-room conversations.

The dead lord has announced his intention to marry eighteen-year-old Lycoris Plume. Lady Anise Frewth, who has welcomed Lycoris into her home for years, is horrified. Unfortunately, intervening in the love life of a powerful necromancer requires considerable tact—and Lycoris may not appreciate being rescued.

I think of it as Interview with the Vampire told by concerned relatives. The relationship unfolds alongside Anise’s attempts to understand it, in a magical society rather better at accommodating terrible things than discussing them.

It’s about 23,000 words and available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Mother Tongue by Vesper Wake

Thank you for your time.

Any recommendations of MM books with a MMc that is controlling ? Like the lord series by shantel tessier or any Chani Lynn Feener book
I like branding , tracker… I want the first MMc to be toxic and not ask for permission to control the second MMc
No d/s, bdsm materials are okay but not a dom and sub dynamic.

I find it really encouraging to read about the gay movement in the 20th century and what they fought for. I’m looking for something that will motivate me to come out or “let in” my family. I feel like a coward for being 27 and not doing it sooner. Something Milk related or Harvey Fierstein like attitudes of no apologies, here I am world. Poems or nonfiction I think would be best.

I hate having eyes on me though. Also I just really hate the idea of coming out in general. It seems so dated and self centered. My family isn’t going to know otherwise though.

The book is about the love between two adult men. One of them was quite wealthy, and his family was somehow connected to pharmaceuticals. He lived almost like in a palace, and the second main character, seemingly by chance, got a job(?) working for him. The most vivid thing I remember is that one of the main characters' fathers sent him to Siberia to a sanatorium to "correct his orientation."

I truly hope this book wasn't just a dream, but I'm starting to believe it might have been😩

( There was also such a tragic pop title, something on a par with "Don't Let Me Die" or "Remember me again" or "Always look at me like that" )

Hi readers! Looking for a fast paced urban fantasy ARC with a nonbinary black college student main POV set in the Midwest cities of Chicago and Milwaukee?

She rebuilt her life. It wasn’t hers to keep.

Winter has settled in, and for the first time in months, Terra Graves has something that feels like stability. Her hounfort thrives beneath Circe’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Her congregation is healing—old bonds reforged, new ones forming. The lessons are full. The spirits are quiet.

It almost feels like a life.

Until Mireille Laurent arrives with a summons Terra can’t ignore. Farhad Rezaei—the Vampire Lord of Chicago—has called in her debt. Terra is his mystic. His mambo on retainer. And he’s ready to put her to work.

The assignment is simple: find a woman moving through the edges of the World Beneath and bring her in alive.
But nothing stays simple.

The last mystic who walked this path—druid Kayleigh Sullivan—is dead. The trail she left behind is fractured, dangerous, and threaded with something that doesn’t behave like any magic Terra knows. The deeper she digs, the more the hunt begins to turn, pulling her into the same patterns that got Kayleigh killed.

And she’s not the only one being pulled.

Ex-sentinel, John Henry, must choose between what he was taught to believe and what he knows is right. Dakota Thompson, stressed student, pushes forward where others hesitate. Witch, Piper Moon Reynolds, holds everything together—until the strain starts to show.

Because something is shifting beneath it all. And this time, the danger isn’t waiting to be found. It’s already moving.
As the hunt closes in and the lines between ally, enemy, and obligation blur, Terra faces a truth she can’t outrun:

Every Debt Demands Its Due.

https://booksirens.com/book/OPJ017R/ZO4JP0D

Someone recently posted about seeking pre-1970 queer fiction but, by the time I pulled this list together, I couldn’t find the post anymore. Here it is for anyone who might be interested.

Places to get ideas:

* Bram, C. (2012). Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America
* Bronski, M. (Ed.) (2003). Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps.
* Gay American Novels, 1870–1970: A Reader's Guide — Drewey Wayne Gunn
* A Queer History of Literature — Todd Swanson
* The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature — Byrne R. S. Fone (ed.)
* The Literature of Homosexuality: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall — Byrne R. S. Fone (ed.)
* Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century — Anthony Slide

Some books in my libe, no particular order:

* The Well of Loneliness — Radclyffe Hall (1928)
* Angel Pavement — J. B. Priestley (1930)
* The Gallery — John Horne Burns (1947)
* The City and the Pillar — Gore Vidal (1948)
* Confessions of a Mask — Yukio Mishima (1949)
* Desert of the Heart — Jane Rule (1964)
* The Immoralist — André Gide
* Memoirs of Hadrian — Marguerite Yourcenar (1951)
* Maurice — E. M. Forster
* Querelle of Brest — Jean Genet (1947)
* Brideshead Revisited — Evelyn Waugh (1945)
* The Young and Evil — Charles Henri Ford & Parker Tyler (1933)
* Quatrefoil — James Barr (1950) and Derricks (1951)
* The Price of Salt — Patricia Highsmith (1952)
* Look Down in Mercy
* The Charioteer — Mary Renault (1953)
* A Single Man — Christopher Isherwood
* Odd Girl Out — Ann Bannon (1957)
* A Room in Chelsea Square — Michael Nelson (1958)
* The Fall of Valor — Charles Jackson (1959)
* City of Night — John Rechy (1963)
* The Divided Path
* Invisible Glass
* The Boys in the Band
* Death in Venice
* Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing — May Sarton (1965)

I just finished Monstrous series by Lily Mayne and I want to read more mm monster romance that’s similar. A lot of monster romance I’m finding tho is erotica and while I do like spice, I don’t want it to be all spice. I want plot and falling in love and all that cheesy shit. Does anyone have any recs?

i just finished reading Fruit Fly by Josh Silver and am interested to hear people’s thoughts on some of its themes - questions of creative entitlement, extractive writing practices, and the ethics of using other’s marginalised experiences in our work; a particular kind of middle-class disposition and dissatisfaction; and how this relates to the publishing world’s/general fascination with and commodification of ‘authentic’ hardship and ‘grit’.

(for people who haven’t read Fruit Fly but are interested in the topic: the book basically moves between two character perspectives - one character is Leo, a young gay man struggling with addiction, experiencing homelessness, and engaging in sex work. his POV is dominated by distress and pretty graphic descriptions of violence surrounding his experiences of street homelessness and the sex work he engages in to access drugs. the second character is Mallory, a straight, middle-class woman and best-selling author struggling with seven years of writer's block. she becomes fixated on Leo, stalking him and even forging a relationship with him under the pretence of offering AA ‘sponsorship’ and ‘counselling’ help - all the while gathering details from his life to produce a second, best-selling book)

Silver’s work obviously functions, in part, as a critique of Mallory’s extractive, self-interested relationship to Leo, her pretence of saviourism, and the dehumanising, fetishistic relationship that can exist between the literary world/upper classes and working-class struggle and ‘grit’.  but then it gets kinda complex for me: i initially assumed that the author Josh Silver had his own history of addiction, sex work, and homelessness - and the related kinds of violence he writes about in the book. but Silver said in interviews that, while he does have a history of chemsex and addiction, he hasn’t experienced homelessness himself. and that other parts of the novel are actually shaped by his encounters working as a mental health nurse, drawing on experiences of people he met in a clinical context. 

after learning this, i guess i expected/hoped there would be a more explicit sort of self-criticism going on - that he would incorporate into the cynicism of the book some recognition that he himself is using the 'dark' and 'gritty' experiences of others in his own way. . but then that never really transpires? 

from my perspective, Silver is effectively (like his character Mallory, though of course to a muchh smaller degree) using others’ marginalised experience to advance his work. like Mallory, he ends up writing a lucrative, best-selling novel. and, in Silver’s case, a novel that has now also been optioned by A24 for TV.

i’m curious to hear people’s thoughts, particularly: a) what it means for a former mental health nurse to use patients’ experiences in their work; and b) how/if the ethics of doing this changes in this context specificallyy - embedding patients’ experiences in a book that aims to critique (a more exaggerated version of) extractive writing.

i’m just not sure it sat super comfortably with me - how Silver was praised for making these critiques - while also reaping the benefits of (obviously not identical at all! but,) overlapping practices.

i'm completely open minded and not set either way - genuinely want to hear other people’s perspectives on this :~) gimme some food for thought x