really gay* books and more

come for the books, stay for the cats 32 | aroace spec enby | mood reading & reviewing queer & diverse books. you can expect: romance & fantasy, hockey romance, indie books, HEA only, spicy & nonspicy romance, and nothing too angsty

[bookswithpurride]

intro post

howdy! I'm a nonbinary aroace spec reader (& writer). I have four cats (technically six at the moment for a few months)!

long time tumblr user (though it's been a few years) with a new blog here. I have loved being a part of bookstagram but 1) want to use meta apps less and/or not at all eventually and 2) miss the freedom of tumblr, so here I am. I am initially cross-posting a lot of my content from Instagram but will also share new stuff here as I make it! my instagram is still live & under the same username.

the bulk of what you'll find here:

gay* shit. like, lots of gay* shit.

my book reviews, themed lists, and fan posts

book genres: romance is honestly like 80% of what I read. the rest is a mixture of fantasy, cozy books, scifi, & mystery. I don't really vibe with horror books I've learned & I'm trying to read more nonfic!

if I talk about a book, you can assume it's queer (literally not sure the last time I read a book that isn't queer). I try to list representation though so people can find specific identities if they want to!

I read a lot of romance with spice & make some posts that highlight, quote, or discuss that spice

memes, especially of the writing, reading, and political variety

leftist politics & information free palestine & fuck the american government.

cats

queer fanart/edits/fic

reading + life resources

what you won't find here:

hate speech, bigoted beliefs, etc

idk probably a lot of other things but I wanted to make it clear that this isn't a place for being mean.

[bookswithpurride]

I’m so excited (and nervous!) to officially announce the launch of my editing business, Edit With Purride! This is a goal — a dream — I’ve been working towards for over a year.

I know authors have a lot of choices when it comes to editors and understand the vulnerability of having someone else touch your work. I hope to honor that, to respect the hard work authors put into their manuscripts, and to help authors polish their words so their stories shine. I appreciate everyone who has helped me thus far and will be so grateful for any shares, recommendations, or referrals anyone is willing to provide.

(As a bonus, working with me will directly help me, a trans person, leave 🇺🇸)

[twirlymarimo]

ILYA ROZANOV HEATED RIVALRY TRAILER

[heatedrivalrysource]

Credit to user Heavy-Ad1227 on Reddit for putting in the work to match up all of these trailer stills with Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry source material.

Part 2/14 of the collection

[cannibalings]

why are all the actual real human jobs like baker and florist and childcare worker barely paying livable wages but the fake jobs like ai specialist boot licker or marketing campaign dick sucker making six figures

[what-even-is-thiss]

Me when someone else has a heavy accent when speaking English: That accent is charming and I can tell they put in a lot of effort to learn English.

Me when I have a heavy accent speaking another language: They are going to shoot me the second I open my mouth aren’t they

[busket]

sometimes I think about how rattlesnakes are starting to adapt to bite immediately instead of using their rattle as a warning, because this defense mechanism that says "im here! im frightened! don't come close or ill bite you" has instead ilicited a reaction of "oh fuck a rattlesnake, i should kill it"

so of course every snake that has the instinct to warn humans of its presence gets killed, and only the snakes that bite first and dont make themselves known get to survive. a human who's been bitten is too worried about his swelling ankle to decapitate a snake with a shovel.

it's a good example of how humans make the world more dangerous for ourselves by believing that we have mastery and ownership of it. we think we have the power and importance to control the life around us down to the snakes and insects, but every animal fights for life. and no animal thinks that any human is more important than it's own life.

[yaoiblackmold]

Nothing more embarrassing than accidentally using a big word wrong because now I'm simultaneously both stupid and pretentious, the worst combination of all time

[homunculus-argument]

Nothing slapped my shit back into place like someone pointing out that the "genius gifted child with so much potential who got burnout and mental illness" is just the nerd equivalent to the jock "could have been a pro at sportsball if it wasn't for the injury".

[shanehollanderhockeyplayer]

Ilya, after spilling his guts out to Shane in Russian:

[iammistressofmyfate]

And @cecikiwi has done it yet again!! Another incredible commissioned piece from her!! I am OBSESSED!!!

Everything about this piece is just so perfect to me and I adore it!!! 😍😍😍

[iammistressofmyfate]

Here is the most beautiful Hollanov art from the incredible @cecikiwi 😍 I cannot be more amazed by their talent and how amazing they are!!

[fucxingcuties]

[youre-only-gay-once]

"you can use ai to improve spelling and grammar"

[purgaytorysupremacy]

if you’re wondering why spellcheck and grammar check is worse now, it’s because they replaced it with AI! 🥰

now, instead of maintaining a comprehensive, nuanced, and human-maintained encyclopedia by which to check your document, they have switched to an AI that just compares what you’ve written to what other people write in, say, Google Docs, and use the most commonly used iteration.

ever have it change something like “all intents and purposes” to “all intensive purposes” or “should’ve” to “should of”? that’s why!

people make the same spelling and grammar mistakes so often, AI thinks that’s the way you say it because it is a PATTERN DETECTOR and cannot THINK let alone use language.

[youre-only-gay-once]

"you can use ai to improve spelling and grammar"

[sunnybearvampire]

Role Model & The Long Game Tandem Read

I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to put together a tandem read chapter list for these two amazing books. I haven't actually done this yet but maybe when I finally get my hands on the physical copies of these books? (the new covers are great and i can't wait!!)

0. Halloween with Ilya (posted here on Rachel Reid's website, a short and sweet story taking place before the start of The Long Game)

1. TLG ch. 1-16 & first half of chapter 17 (ends at "At least this day wouldn't be total garbage.")

2. RM ch. 1 & 2

3. TLG the rest of chapter 17

4. RM ch. 3 & 4

5. TLG ch. 18

6. RM ch. 5 (here we have the first really overlaping scene described in both POVs) & ch. 6-7

7. TLG ch. 19 & 20 (This is also a good place to read the short story Countdown, available here. Too much stuff happens later on to fit this anywhere else.)

8. RM ch. 8 & 9

9. TLG first half of chapter 21 (ends at "Coach laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Yeah, but not in Ottawa."")

10. RM ch. 10 & 11

11. TLG rest of chapter 21

12. RM ch. 12

13. TLG ch. 22 & 23

14. RM first half of ch. 13 (ends at ""Yeah, I can't bring myself to care about that right now."" - We're getting into the plane part of the storyline, which is pretty crucial for both books, so this is gonna be a bit difficult, but stay with me. I figured the description of events in Role Model took precedence since it came out first and this is all the fans knew before The Long Game came out.)

15. TLG ch. 24

16. RM rest of ch. 13

17. TLG first part of chapter 25 (ends at "impossible wait" - That's not strictly chronological, but it felt like the best place to interrupt this Role Model bit.)

18. RM ch. 14-15 and first part of ch. 16 (ends at "Happiness, he supposed. "Me too."")

19. TLG rest of ch. 25

20. RM next part of chapter 16 (ends at ""I like those show-off goals of yours a lot more when we're on the same team."" - I know it's getting even more complicated! Stay with me! Hold my hand!)

21. TLG ch. 26

22. RM rest of ch. 16 (finally done!) & ch. 17-21

23. TLG ch. 27-28

24. RM ch. 22-23

25. TLG first part of ch. 29 (ends at ""And we will make sure to embarrass your old team that night."")

26. RM ch. 24

27. TLG rest of ch. 29

28. RM ch. 25 & 26

29. TLG ch. 30-39 + Epilogue

If you have any suggestions on how to make this better, definitely add them! I can't wait to actually do this tandem read!!

[boycritter]

maybe i like my tech a little bit inconvenient

[boycritter]

maybe i like pulling out my debit card instead of using apple pay. maybe i like untangling my wired headphones. maybe i like typing something into the search bar instead of using siri or whatever. maybe i like curating my own social media feeds over an algorithm. i just don’t think everything has to be perfectly streamlined and efficient i like it when things feel tethered to the real world.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]