nmcannon's reviews
1211 reviews

Lore & Lust: The Awakening by Karla Nikole

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

After enjoying the first two Lore and Lust books, I was very excited to read The Awakening. I’m happy to say it met my expectations!

While Haruka and Nino appear in brief scenes, The Awakening is Junichi and Jae’s story. A pureblood vampire who ran Haruka’s realm while he was MIA, Junichi is a fun-loving dapper gentleman who knows how he likes to walk around the block. Jae is a human doctor who specializes in vampiric medicine. He bridges the medical difference between the two species–and questions why vampires find his blood oh-so-tasty until they take a bite.

The mystery of Jae’s blood is the thrust of the novel, along with the burgeoning romance between our two leads. Both are stuck in their ways, and it was a toe-curling pleasure to watch them grow as individuals and as a couple. Nikole expands the lore of Lore and Lust quite nicely, especially The Great Vanishing. One ongoing quibble I had with the series is the overuse of the words “male” and “female” as nouns. I get Nikole used this narrative tic to connote how vampires are a different culture and species than human women and men, but I’m happy she uses it less and less each novel. Each installment has less talk of blood quantum too, which eases my anxiety. The Awakening takes it a step farther by Jae stating that any amount of vampire heritage makes a person a vampire. Very refreshing to hear.

Despite some bumps in the road, Lore and Lust continues to be a squee-ful series. If you want an achillean vampire/vampire romance with lots to say about cultural exchange and diversity, check it out!

My review of Book 1: Lore and Lust: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/4c6ba413-fdb2-4cb6-9062-c1162d57044b

My review of Book 2: The Vanishing: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c43e3737-e92a-4233-89e8-9865cb3f7a51

The Vanishing by Karla Nikole

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emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

After side-eyeing but ultimately enjoying Lore and Lust, I was eager to read the rest of the series. And I’m happy to report that The Vanishing polishes what was good in the first book and vastly improves the parts that made me uncomfortable.

After unexpectedly bonding, Nino and Haruka are taking strides to settle into a life together. Those great plans are rudely interrupted when a bigoted pureblood vampire visits and demands a copy of Haruka’s family research. Haruka and Nino refuse. That refusal shakes when Nino begins vanishing before their eyes. It’s time to call the calvary: Nino’s brother Giovanni and best friend Cellina, who will hopefully deal with their sexual tension in time to stage a rescue.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, what adorable romances! Haruka and Nino’s relationship picks up right where the last book left off, and the boys grow so wonderfully together. Cellina and Giovanni’s story follows a more traditional romance novel plot, and it is HOT. The dual plotlines are beautifully structured into five acts, and the climax had me laughing and punching the air. Excellent use of the lore and character. Unusually, each arc is given equal weight and page count, which worked well for the novel and its themes. Nikole’s focus on diversity, multiculturalism, and cultural blending are discussed with more maturity and nuance than the previous book. Elders’ blood purity takes a partial back seat to their cultural role in vampire society, thank goodness. Anti-colonialism messaging makes me smile every time. My one quibble is over the in-universe Lore and Lust book. Its assemblage featured so prominently previously, but in The Vanishing the research project is quietly sidelined and completed off screen. Haruka’s reluctance to publish is at odds with the emphasis on sharing knowledge and culture. Knowledge is power, ignorance kills, and letting people know about their bodies is a universal good.

The Awakening promises to focus on a third couple, and I’m about vibrating to see where this series goes.

My review of Book 1: Lore and Lust: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/4c6ba413-fdb2-4cb6-9062-c1162d57044b

My review of Book 3: The Awakening: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/de544367-cc2e-4ec5-a3f6-ca70b1b6b989

Lore and Lust by Karla Nikole

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emotional funny mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Multiple factors led me to Lore and Lust. First, the gorgeous cover stood out on the library shelves. After reading so many vampire/human romances, the vampire/vampire romance premise intrigued too. The final temptation was from Rainbow Crate. My partner and I signed up for this queer book box subscription service, and one box included a fridge magnet of Nino carrying Haruka. We needed to understand our newest, cutest fridge magnet, and one library trip and reading session later, I did!

The Masquerade is no more, and vampires live openly within human society, like any other minority group. That minority status is quite literal, as vampire populations dwindle due to lack of “pureblood” elders to fill essential cultural roles and continue precious vitae bloodlines. Haruka Hirano is one of these rare purebloods–one of two in the United Kingdom. When a British vampire couple asks Haruka to officiate their wedding, he feels too guilty to refuse, despite his preference for reclusive brooding in his crumbling manor with his mother hen butler (yes, really and I love it). Before the party, Haruka drops in on the island’s other pureblood, Nino, and ya know what they say about seeing the sun for the first time in a long time? Ja, that happens.

So much of Lore and Lust was my catnip. The characters and romance are A+++. For the first time in a long time, a character’s mysteriousness isn’t out of malice or emotional ineptitude. The gentle, polite Haruka is “mysterious” because his social skills are rusty, haha. Nino is an interesting mix of naive and cautious that I haven’t seen before. He’s not immature, whiny, or annoying, but he does know less about the world, is aware he does, and works to change that. I really appreciated how both Nino and Haruka are introverts, but the narrative doesn’t treat low social batteries as an undesirable trait. I can not like parties and still have a fulfilling social life and support my community. Plus! Queerness is indeed totally normalized, and that’s such an inviting narrative space for me.

The more iffy parts of Lore and Lust concern the supernatural world-building. A bit of a spoiler, but Haruka and his family have a book on vampire mating rituals. A chunk of the plot is Nino helping Haruka make the book ready for publication. This premise felt very interesting and compelling to me, because I love big research projects and lusty lore is prime romance novel material. It wove so nicely into the themes of cultural difference and exchange. That part is all well and good. The problematic bits are how Nikole’s world-building lends itself to constant talk and preoccupation with blood quantum. How vampiric someone is VS how human they are determines their place in vampire society, which accords them certain benefits and reverence. That made my skin prickle with reminders of indigenous blood quantum politics in the USA. Haruka’s Japanese ethnicity was also contentious. While Nikole takes pains to say everyone’s overwhelming attraction to Haruka is due to his blood purity (a whole other yikes), their eroticism still felt racialized. There’s something uncomfortable about a room full of white British people cooing and sexualizing the lone men of color. Other reviewers have noted that certain Japanese cultural details are incorrect. My last quibble is about how characters speak in other languages. Overall, I really liked this motif, but some of the translations were a lot looser than I prefer.

Despite the causes for concern, I’m very invested in the story and characters. I want to follow their journey and see how Nikole matures in her craft. Onto The Vanishing!

My review of Book 2: The Vanishing: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c43e3737-e92a-4233-89e8-9865cb3f7a51

My review of Book 3: The Awakening: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/de544367-cc2e-4ec5-a3f6-ca70b1b6b989

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

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hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

When Angels Left the Old Country was a pick for our sapphic book club. After reading, I think it’s more than earned its many prizes.

The demonic Little Ash and angelic Uriel have been living and studying in the shtetl for time out of mind. Lately though, many of the shtetl’s youth have whispered of “America” and are leaving to seek their fortune. One young woman, Essie, has similarly left to help her family, but she hasn’t written lately. Eager for the adventure, Little Ash and the distractable Uriel follow Essie’s trail from Warsaw to Ellis Island, witnessing the travails of the early twentieth century immigration process. Arrival is only the beginning. The pair befriend Rose, a spurned lesbian Jewish woman tearfully starting again, and become embroiled in New York’s burgeoning labor movement. The world is a big place beyond their little shtetl!

Like I said, Sacha Lamb’s novel more than earns its Stonewall Book Award, AJL win, and Printz Award of Excellence. Especially for a historical fiction, this book’s themes felt incredibly immediate and relatable to the times we’re living now. Lamb unabashedly pens a queer Jewish story and puts up a mirror on the intertwining of these communities and identities. My Jewish friends felt very seen and appreciated that Lamb both celebrated Jewishness and hinted at blind spots within Jewish society. The in-text Yiddish words are a treat! Uriel’s gender journey was brilliant, and the angel-demon romance was adorable. Sadly, the USA’s immigration system’s xenophobia is alive and well, but the book left us energized to enact change. We were abuzz with the diverse beauty of the world, in all its forms and permutations. Together, in community, we can achieve anything.

When the Angels Left the Old Country is a classic in the making. The level of craft, the unforgettable characters, the realism of the immigrant experience–reading Lamb’s work is a mitzvah for yourself and those around you.

The Hourglass Throne by K.D. Edwards

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

After enjoying the first two books–hiccups and all–I was all abuzz to read The Hourglass Throne. My friend promised me it would hurt and what do you know: they! were! right!

Rune St. John has more on his plate than ever. He and Brand are de-oogly-boogly-ing the Sun estate. The children are numerous, thirsting to prove themselves, and very much attending school. As the Sun Arcana, petitioners queue outside to plead for his help, while Addam makes puppy-dog eyes about a wedding. To top it all off, someone has shut down the rejuvenation center with a barrier of forbidden time magic. Life is much more complicated in the king’s chair!

Edwards continues to expand his technical writing skills with this third entry in the series. If you, like me, raised an eyebrow at the inclusion of time in something called The Tarot Sequence, Time functions as a “lost” or fallen Arcana, whose exodus from the tarot deck is the stuff of legend (and nightmares). Edwards makes full, breath-taking use of this diversion from the traditional tarot motif. The Hourglass Throne has a very cool “backward” feeling: it begins with the happy ending/triumph and ends with an inciting incident, indicating major changes ahead. That’s incredibly fitting for a novel centered on time. And it works well for the end of the first trilogy and kickstart the second! That’s all in addition to the time-y wime-y nature of the adventure, so I was one very pleased reader.

In addition to the time shenanigan plot, the mystery of the Sun Throne’s fall gains traction, which had me bouncing in my seat with excitement. I also bounced, squealed, toe-curled etc over the Brand/Addam/Rune queerplatonic OT3. The book’s pacing is slower like in The Hanged Man–which worked well for the larger cast–but at points I missed the action of the first book, even if the page count was used instead for fluffy character interaction. Some day, balance will be achieved.

Overall, I continue to enjoy The Tarot Sequence. Even with its bumps in the road, it’s a queer fantastical romp that my friends have already gushed over for years. Here’s to whatever comes next!

My review of Book 1: The Last Sun: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c9c9d09c-86b0-441f-8c1f-352a444dbb20

My review of Book 2: The Hanged Man: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/0816d653-c36d-4dcf-b466-3454922ea850

Trans Wizard Harriet Porber And The Theater Of Love: An Adult Romance Novel by Chuck Tingle

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inspiring slow-paced