The day before moving into her new dorm, college freshman, Maya Lilac, has a haunting dream that ends with her coming face-to-face with a second version of herself. After being haunted by the dream during move-in day, she finally comes in contact with her double, nicknamed “Lucent”, and learns that she actually has powers and can—among other things—make her dreams come true.
Maya’s heritage, however, runs deeper when she discovers that she’s the True Dreamer, a person reaching back as far as Joan of Arc that’s tasked with protecting her species, as well as the world, from any and all threats… including her seemingly-peaceful and non-combative double. But, not everyone shares Maya’s vision that her clone isn’t out to harm anybody, especially her mother. As Maya and her mother fight over whether Lucent is a legitimate threat, Maya trains in her now-active powers to fulfill her destiny of protecting the world, whether she has to take care of Lucent or not.
Representation Includes
- Bisexual protagonist
- Lesbian supporting character
Content Warnings
Help grow this entry by commenting below or emailing queersffbooks@theillustratedpage.net.Reviews
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Details
- Published March 19th 2019 by Ja-Mel Vinson
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ISBN: 9781732858
Dragons. Art. Revolution.
Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint.
One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers.
But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics.
What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight…
Representation Includes
- A non-binary protagonist from a Korean-inspired fantasy country
Content Warnings
War, death, violence, torture, imprisonment, earthquake, bombing, some characters discuss eating a cat but the cat livesReviews
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Raised on the high seas as an avaricious corsair, Aela Crane has turned her back on her roots, but she can’t seem to stem the ancient magic that courses through her. Del is a soft-spoken soldier who seems to know more about Aela’s inherited powers that she does. Brynne’s the crofter’s daughter who’s reluctantly learning to become a princess, if she could just get a certain swashbuckling someone off her mind.
Originally hired on (okay, blackmailed) by the King of the island nation of Thandepar, Aela’s light monster extermination gig takes a fast turn into kidnapping-for-profit. Del tries to ignore family issues by searching for a long lost friend, and ends up getting both for the price of one. Brynne’s prepared to give up her heart for her country until her own personal heartbreaker shows up with the most terrible timing.
As the three of them become more entwined in their own political predicaments, and each other’s lives, they may discover that the legacies their parents have left them aren’t as solid as they seemed. In fact, they may just slip through their fingers, leaving all three fumbling to forge their own future, before the kingdom comes crashing down around them.
Representation Includes
- Bisexual/pansexual female protagonists
Content Warnings
Content warnings provided by author: parental death, parental abuse, brief mention of suicide, abductionReviews
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Kris Starr used to be famous. Rock and roll. Sold-out shows. Literal magic. Empathic talents and screaming fans.
But he has a problem or two. He’s having a hard time writing new music. It’s Midwinter, which means he’s surrounded by depressing holiday cheer. And he’s in love with Justin, his manager, who has a talent for rescuing almost- or once-famous bands … and who’s hiding secrets of his own.
Justin Moore, on the other hand, is very good at keeping those secrets — he’s had to be for years. One secret involves a demonic inheritance that would make him a target of suspicion. Another involves his past.
And the third involves Justin’s feelings for Kris Starr, rock and roll icon and now his client … and a powerful empath of his own.
Representation Includes
- Both male protagonists are bi/pan.
- Justin’s human heritage is Filipino-American.
Content Warnings
Fictional prejudice (anti-demon), offscreen violence (in context of domestic relationship), “outing” of demon hertiageReviews
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Peachy is on a mission: steal a priceless family heirloom. All is going according to plan until she finds herself teetering on the edge of death. She wakes up in a bizarre world and under the care of a strange woman who can communicate without spoken words. Little does Peachy know that by taking the amulet, she’s enacted a powerful chain of events and roused a deranged being who will stop at nothing to find her and retrieve the amulet.Noomi is Fae—a Seer and Shifter—who shares a unique bond with her sister, a two-hundred-pound mountain cat. Their days revolve around creating art, making maps, and enjoying pipeweed. Until the day that Peachy enters their world and plunges it into chaos.
The Taking is a tale of a powerful amulet—a gateway from one world to another. With Noomi’s help, Peachy must combat the forces working against them…forces that will stop at nothing to kill them both.
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Editor: Ann Roberts
Cover Designer: Sandy Knowles
Representation Includes
- Peachy is a lesbian, she is LatinX and black
- Noomi is a lesbian, she is Fae
- Minette is a lesbian, she is white
Content Warnings
Submitted by Author: The opening scene describes the main character Peachy being beaten.Descriptions of how another character has killed someone else and how she’d like to kill other people.
Reviews
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Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.
In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.
Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.
Representation Includes
- Aromantic asexual protagonist
- Non-binary and gay supporting characters, including m/m couple side romance plot
Content Warnings
Internalized ace- and aro-phobia; references to slavery and torture; battle scenes and violence; loss of parents (in the past)Reviews
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Details
- Published February 2nd 2021 by Inkyard Press
- Hardcover ISBN13: 9781335080271
Fortune favors the bold. Magic favors the liars.
Ren is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadežra with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.
But as she’s drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the City of Dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled…with Ren at their heart.
The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a dazzling and darkly magical fantasy adventure by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, writing together as M. A. Carrick.
Representation Includes
- Bisexual aromantic main protagonist (Vargo)
- Bisexual minor protagonist (Giuna)
- Lesbian side character; trans side character
Notes on relationship status' at end of book
Vargo has a sexual but not romantic relationship with Iascat that is not officially over at the end of the book1 romantic relationship (cis female/trans-male) break up at the end: Tess/Pavlin
1 romantic relationship (cis female/cis female) remain together at end: Giuna/Sibiliat
Content Warnings
death, physical and psychological child abuse, drug use (including forced drug use), kidnapping, mental illness (caused by severe insomnia), fear of sexual violence (no incidents), police violenceReviews
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Mary never knew her father until he died and brought his enemies to her doorstep. Searching his house for answers, she unearths an ancient nightmare and is drawn into a world of corporate magicians, subterranean kingdoms and living architecture, all of whom have history with the Stickman – and their own sinister agendas for his daughter.
As a secret war breaks out across London with her at the centre, Mary finds fragments of her own past resurfacing, and has to understand the true nature of her legacy before it’s too late…
THE STICKMAN’S LEGACY is a dark fairy-tale about the stories we tell ourselves.
Representation Includes
- Sapphic protagonist
Content Warnings
Non-sexual child abuse, fantasy violenceReviews
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Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved, not by the cost of blood and theft but by effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.
Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendant of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history two centuries earlier. The imperial practice of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage like her mother before her, but before she does her duty, she’ll have one summer incognito in a far corner of empire. In Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire’s greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir apparent to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an unusual bond and maybe a one in a million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process —just like the first Queen Victoria.
Representation Includes
- WLW, mixed-race main character
- Bisexual, intersex main character
- Chinese-Canadian main character
Content Warnings
Clumsy handling of race and eugenics; major character who is initially shocked at learning she’s intersex; cheating in romantic relationshipEnding notes
Ending with f/f/m polyamoryReviews
- Lambda Literary’s review
- Acqua’s review
- Utopia State of Mind’s review
- Danika at the Lesbrary’s review
- Gretchen’s review
- Delucienne Maekerr’s review
- Elise’s review
- Kend’s review
- クリ’s review
- Reviews from intersex and First Nations reviewers needed
Where to Find
Details
- Published October 3rd 2017 by Dutton Books for Young Readers
- ISBN13: 9781101994979
Combining the social commentary of The Handmaid’s Tale with the white-knuckled thrills of Red Rising, this epic space opera follows a comfort woman as she claims her agency, a soldier questioning his allegiances, and a non-binary hero out to save the solar system.
First Sister has no name and no voice. As a priestess of the Sisterhood, she travels the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars—the same ones who own the rights to her body and soul. When her former captain abandons her, First Sister’s hopes for freedom are dashed when she is forced to stay on her ship with no friends, no power, and a new captain—Saito Ren—whom she knows nothing about. She is commanded to spy on Captain Ren by the Sisterhood, but soon discovers that working for the war effort is so much harder to do when you’re falling in love.
Lito val Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus, but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But when he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.
A stunning and sweeping debut novel that explores the power of technology, colonization, race, and gender, The First Sister is perfect for fans of James S.A. Corey, Chuck Wendig, and Margaret Atwood.
Representation Includes
- A bisexual protagonist (The First Sister)
- A Japanese nonbinary protagonist (Hiro)
- A Hispanic panromantic asexual protagonist (Lito)