#demisexual rep

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨

Les Normaux by Janine Janssen and S Al Sabado

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

QOTD: What’s an underrated trope you love?

I love when they kiss/make out/hook up the first time they meet thinking it’s a one off then it turns out they live in the same building or work together or something. And then the mutual pining starts. I don’t know if there’s a specific name for this but I love it and this gorgeous graphic novel has it.

[instagram]

Thank you so much to Harper Collins for sending me an e-copy of this one in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely INHALED this! The art had me hooked from the start and the characters drew me in even further. Seriously, the artwork in this one is so stunning I want to hang it on my wall.

I love the way Sébastien and Elia meet and the subsequent mutual pining that goes on in this book. They’re so sweet together.

Sébastien’s backstory made my heart ache and I just wanted to hug him. He’s got a lot to work through but he has more support than he knows. I’d love to know more about Elia’s past and family.

I also loved all the side characters. There’s so much wonderful queer rep from aroace to pan and everything in between.

I NEED a second volume stat. This can’t be all I get of these wonderful characters.

[polycraftory]

Dragon Falls (How to Tame a Husband) by Davis Lavender

Reviewed by Meghan 💜

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5/5 | 🌶️🌶️ 2/5

GENRE: Cozy Portal Fantasy REP: mlm, achillean demi male mc, gay male mc, queer scs CW: mentions of cheating, manipulation, minor injuries LENGTH: 357 pgs

If you are looking for a sweet and funny gay romcom in a fantasy setting, I highly recommend this book! It manages to deliver an interesting isekai / transmigration narrative with a cast of incredibly lovable characters. This is exactly the sort of novel I had wanted when I was growing up looking for queer romance in a fantasy setting. Added to that just a little bit of spice and a whole lot of humor. It's technically an adult novel, but it's a lighthearted one that is also light on the smut. Also, I desperately want this to be a new au setting so fanfic writers please read this. Overall, this is a delightful indie book that I am very glad I got. I really love this Rainbow Crate @rainbowcrate edition from their Cozy Fantasy box.

Below the cut you can find my full review! You can find more reviews like this on my Storygraph or in our "meghan reviews" tag. Check out our pinned post for links!

If you want to avoid spoilers skip the section labeled "The End".

The Main Characters / Core Romance Feliks is an incredibly relatable and very sweet ADHD hot mess. He isn't explicitly neurodivergent, but the way he describes his "brain squirrels" and the everything else about him was deeply relatable to me (my whole household is some flavor of neurodivergent). He is an absolute ray of sunshine, and he gets isekai-ed into a dragon riding warlord with the Ruthless as his moniker. It is incredibly funny to watch him try to do damage control on all the awful things that the old Ryszard did. To differentiate them both in the narrative and for the reader, Feliks has people start to call him Rys. I found him absolutely charming, even though he so often speaks before thinking and puts his foot in his mouth. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him win over everyone, including his husband. Also! He's demisexual and demiromantic! I have literally never read a book before where I saw myself represented like that! It was honestly so wonderful and validating even though its inclusion is very subtle.

Marek is a classic and wonderful example of the grumpy half of the grumpy/sunshine dynamic. He has incredibly good reasons not to trust his husband, who reappeared after being presumed dead for two years. Yet, he can't resist Rys' charm no matter how much he doesn't trust his husband's new polar opposite personality. From his best friend Kasia to the denhands he teaches, I enjoyed how much he cares for everyone despite being so very grumpy. I feel like that personality type tends to be portrayed as a loner, but Marek is at the heart of his community and they all adore him. The relationship between him and his dragon is also incredible, and there is quite a lot of humor in how infuriated he is that his dragon suddenly adores his husband who used to treat them both horribly. Rys calls their dragon Honey Bunny despite there being a Whole Thing (TM) about Dragons not being owned and therefore not being named. It does not at all infuriate Marek that his dragon now only responds to Bunny! Don't be ridiculous!

Their dynamic is everything you'd expect from this sort of grumpy/sunshine pair up, especially with the added component of Rys often saying exactly the wrong thing to Marek since he doesn't know their theoretically "shared" history from before he transmigrated into the story. Rys has absolutely no knowledge of the plot or world he gets thrown into at all, so it leads to quite a lot of unintentional hurt. Still, they have an incredibly sweet romance and both work hard for their happily ever after. For me, this was a very low spice book but I didn't come here for that.

The Worldbuilding I had to give this it's own section because the worldbuilding is so fun and I want people to immediately adopt this as a new fun AU setting for fanfiction. Only nobility can become Dragon Riders. In order to be a Rider, you have to court and marry yourself a Dragon Tamer. Each Tamer has one Dragon that they tame and train. Tamers can be anyone who earns the position, and they often start out as Denhands (basically, like, squires; they help with upkeep around the Den and help care for your dragon). Denhands get adopted by a Tamer and a Rider, so their entire family structure is based around the dragon riding system and I just think that's such a fun build! Once a Tamer and Rider get married, the Rider starts to bond with their dragon and learns how to ride. Once you are done training as a Rider, you have your final test which is the Claiming Ceremony. You take a leap of faith off the cliff and if your dragon catches you, you are a fully fledged Rider. If they don't, well, you fall to your death. Womp womp. Until their Claiming Ceremony, Tamers must protect their Riders from all harm so you get an extra layer of bodyguard romance. Seriously, I need this as an AU setting for every ship I've ever seen immediately. The Plot Very straightforward! Rys thinks his only way back to his world is to survive till his claiming ceremony so he can reuse the whistle at the top of the Falls to reopen the portal. Most of the narrative is a combo of the training leading up to the ceremony, the building romance, and Rys figuring out how to be a good husband (and father lol they adopt a kid. Damon/Demon I adore you). You also see Rys unravel all the harm the character he took over did to all the people of this training camp and home city. It has plenty of found family vibes, and honestly I loved the whole main cast. Overall, this was a very lighthearted plot even though murder / being trapped in another world / falling to his death were all theoretically on the table. The humorous tone keeps the plot from getting dark or serious. It has a good pace and was exactly the right amount of plot based on what I was expecting, which is basically a romcom in a fantasy setting.

The End Spoilers time! It almost goes without saying, but this is a nice, easy, unequivocal happily ever after. I was pleased that there was still plenty of book left after the climax. We got a really nice falling action with the main characters getting together and figuring out how to stay together. Also, this nicely side-stepped any of the usual portal fantasy or transmigration angst from having to choose between returning to their world and staying with their love interest. Feliks/Rys gets to have the best of both worlds since he has a portal he can open and close with the whistle reforged. I do wish we got to see Marek meet his brother and mother, I am dying to know how that went. Also, my edition had a nice little bonus story, The Trouble With Tybald, about two of the side characters getting together as well as a closer peek at the side romance between Demon (Rys and Marek's son) and the son of the bartender. It was a fun little surprise snack at the end, even though the bonus content wasn't for the main couple!

[the-bi-library]

Bi books out in July!

We have 15 books out this month!

Preorders help the authors greatly, so make sure to preorder any book(s) that catch your interest.

Here is the goodreads list of these books.

Books listed:

💕 A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui 💕 In the Case of Heartbreak (Fern Falls, #2) by Courtney Kae 💕 Role Playing by Cathy Yardley 💕 The Afterlife of the Party by Darcy Marks 💕 More to Love by Georgina Kiersten 💕 Digging for Heaven by Jenna Jarvis 💕 The Guilty Twin by Holly Riordan 💕 Wanderlust by Elle Everhart 💕 Three Meant To Be by M.N. Bennet 💕 Case Sensitive by A.K. Turner 💕 I, Caravaggio by Eugenio Volpe 💕 Black Sails to Sunward by Sheila Jenné 💕 Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 💕 Here in the Night by Rebecca Turkewitz 💕Trouble by Lex Croucher

Make sure to check the TWs and PG ratings for all the books if necessary.

[coal15]

Am I the only one who wants Imogen to be demisexual?

[elapach24]

Demisexual representation

I’m not sure if I’m doing this as a “tips to write good demisexual representation” post or “I haven’t found good demisexual representation and that's driving me crazy” post.

So I was really excited to read Radio Silence by Alice Oseman, but I did my best waiting and reading their other books in chronically order, before starting with Radio Silence, what I finally did five days ago. I was literally screaming when I started with it.

Why? Because I thought that I would finally find good demisexual representation. Key word: thought.

(Hold on the hate, let me get to the point, thanks)

I have read loads of books (on Wattpad) that promise demisexual characters. But half the time they didn’t use the label inside the book, or just on (in, at???? Please correct any grammar mistake) the epilogue. The others were one hundred percent as demiromantic as demisexual characters but they NEVER labelled the demiromantic part of the character’s experience.

So did Alice in Radio Silence. And I’m really disappointed.

Not because a character (as any people) cannot be demi in both types of attraction. Anyone can be both, anyone can experience sexual and romantic attraction in the same way.

But when talking about representation of an oppressed group, when our oppression is determined by how well allopeople can understand our experiences, it’s transcendental how well labelled are characters sold as ace/aro representation.

It's not that the demisexual part is bad written in Radio Silence, but it's not the only part written, just the only one mentioned.

So yes, if you want to write a character that is demisexual and demiromantic, that’s amazing, only if you name both labels.

So yes, Aled Last is both demisexual and demiromantic. And I know that he doesn’t care about labels, but he’s a character, not a person. He is a symbol for and of our communities. So both spectrums need to be named.

So yes, I’m tired of people who mix up sexual and romantic attraction. And still I rated Radio Silence with 5 stars ‘cause that’s my only critic, and I don’t know why these lines are constructed like this, but that’s the only part that bothers me completely about the book and how it's written.

Demisexual people do have crushes on any kind of people.

Commonly, it’s not that obvious that we don’t feel certain things, till you start noticing that you’re missing part of the experiences everyone else seems to have. But the romantic attraction (if you are just demisexual and not in the aromantic spectrum) is as everyone else’s and, since what I’ve talked with other demisexual people, commonly even more intense.

We just notice that how we have those crushes is different. Usually we don't understand how is different till we read about the split attraction model (SAM).

Fun fact (no that fun): Some demisexual people develop sexual attraction towards people for whom they don’t feel romantic attraction, too. And this part of our experience needs to be represented as well.

[bookcub]

spoilers for little thieves ahead

i would like to say i love little thieves and chef's kiss on the demisexual rep but ngl it is sooooo funny to me that their sex drives kicked in after like a week and a half. obviously there is a lot of variety in demi expenses and vanja and emeric certainly develop a close enough relationship that i absolutely buy the progression of their relationship.

but regardless, the time line is funny cause in a lot of ya fantasy there is a lot of slow burn (or there were when i was reading more of it) so it's funny to me that my demi characters hook up so quickly.

again not a critique, just a funny observation for me

[magpie-to-the-morning]

You guys the book I just started has a demisexual bi mc!!!! 😍😭

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

Stella Storm from Walking in the Dark is demisexual!