Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.
Today we’re hosting a list of recommended queer books by enthusiastic reader Masterpiece of Turkey Cleverness.
These are all fantasy books that I have read and loved that are both indie and queer. They lean toward romantasy, since I enjoy that genre, and some of them are downright spicy and/or dark, so mind their content warnings. A few of them might be better categorized as horror; I’ve marked those with an asterisk.
Disclaimer: I’m a cishet agender asexual individual, so I’m not in a position to judge the accuracy of this representation. All I can say is that I read these books and enjoyed them, and one or both of the MCs falls under the heading listed above the recommendations.
Sapphic
Jagged Shard by Dani Finn (spicy)
To the Depths and beyond.
Laanda’s led her weary people across endless mountains in search of a new home. Jagged Shard has everything they need: deep mountain tunnels, ready-made infrastructure, and a wealth of hotiron that will secure her clan’s future. It must be theirs.
Skiti’s seen her Queen like this before. Obsessed. Desperate. Willing to risk everything for her people. But Jagged Shard was abandoned for a reason. If Skiti can’t protect Laanda from herself, she risks losing her forever.
Their bonds tighten as they delve side by side into the many dangers and wonders of this forgotten place. Only together can they solve the puzzle of Jagged Shard and of their own reticent hearts.
Jagged Shard is a high-octane, high-steam lesbian dungeon crawler romance with a butch 4 butch pairing and a BFFs-with-occasional-benefits-to-lovers arc.
This book is intended for adult audiences. It contains numerous scenes of violence and consensual sex scenes.
They Who Bring the Light by Jessica (now Abra) Conwell*
Come and See
For one bright moment, Lyra Morne had a family.
And then it was gone.
Now, haunted by their failures at Rook Lake, Lyra lives on the streets of an unfamiliar city, lost in a cold and bitter world. But when a chance encounter leads to them investigating the disappearances of several residents at a queer youth shelter, Lyra finds themself desperately trying to protect a new group of friends from becoming the next to vanish without a trace at the hands of a charismatic pastor whose welcoming smile hides sinister secrets.
But there is more at play than even Lyra can see. As they race against the clock to save the people most precious to them, a mysterious woman emerges who knows far too much about what happened at Rook Lake, and the past that Lyra thought they’d finally escaped may end up once again costing them the life—and the love—they always wanted.
A mix of urban fantasy, mystery, and supernatural horror that picks up where the events of Ghost Flower left off, They Who Bring the Light is a tale of finding hope and love in the darkest of times, discovering your place in a world that was never made for you, and why, sometimes, doing battle with monsters is worth becoming one yourself.
(Content Religious abuse, homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexual abuse)
Achillean
The Shabti by Megaera Lorenz*
Can you flimflam a ghost?
It’s 1934. Former medium Dashiel Quicke travels the country debunking spiritualism and false mediums while struggling to stay ahead of his ex-business partner and lover who wants him back at any cost. During a demonstration at a college campus, Dashiel meets Hermann Goschalk, an Egyptologist who’s convinced that he has a genuine haunted artifact on his hands. Certain there is a rational explanation for whatever is going on with Hermann’s relics, Dashiel would rather skip town, but soon finds himself falling for Hermann. He agrees to take a look after all and learns that something is haunting Hermann’s office indeed.
Faced with a real ghost Dashiel is terrified, but when the haunting takes a dangerous turn, he must use the tools of the shady trade he left behind to communicate with this otherworldly spirit before his past closes in.
For readers who enjoy A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske, The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, and Malice by Heather Walter.
How to Flaunt your Chains and Surrender your Veins by D. N. Bryn (spicy)
“What else is this shed for, if not torturing unsuspecting vampires?”
Rahil Zaman has good reason to keep his distance from the world—and his fangs are only part of that. He hides in his crumbling home, acquiring blood through the risky one-night stands he finds on hunter-infested hookup apps. After one such fling turns sour, Rahil ends up trapped in the work shed of the one match he wishes would respond to his flirtations.
Finding the hot twink he’d been ghosting inside his work shed was not on Mercer Bloncourt’s agenda. Between his work as a craftsman and his tumultuous relationship with his chronically-ill daughter, he doesn’t have the time or heart for a relationship. But Rahil is not the only intruding presence in Mercer’s life. A hostile hunter and a manipulative research scientist both insist—on threat of his daughter’s life—that he recreate versions of his ‘holy silver’: a vampire-killing metal forged in the wake of his wife’s murder, bound up in all the grief and destruction he’s striven for years to overcome.
To complicate matters, Rahil is the rare vampire who’s immune to the deadly silver, providing Mercer the perfect lab rat to test a kinder vampire-affecting metal.
As Rahil and Mercer rush to the forge, they must face their past wrongs once more, and in time, discover that no mistake is worth the sentence of eternal loneliness.
Flaunt Your Chains is the fourth novel in a loosely connected series of standalone slowburn mm romance books. It features high thirst with one extensive spice scene toward the third act involving bondage, praise, and sensory play, and a happy ending for the main couple. Content of this book includes migraine, insomnia, and chronic illness rep, a human and a pet experiencing seizures, and grief over the traumatic deaths of family members.
The Traitor’s Mercy by Iris Foxglove (spicy)
In the court of Staria, mercy is rarely a blessing…
Sabre de Valois is the last of his line. Saved from the gallows while his family hangs for treason, Sabre is given the chance to pay off their debt and clear his family name. To do so, he must serve as a courtesan in the pleasure district, but the only House willing to take him in and risk the disfavor of the king is the House of Onyx, which caters to the darker desires of the Starian noble elite. There, he finds his masochism is an asset, the courtesans are kinder than the nobles of the Starian court, and that he cannot help but be inexorably drawn to the owner of the House of Onyx, Laurent de Rue.
Lord Laurent de Rue knows that love is dangerous. Abandoned in the pleasure district with no memory of his past, Laurent clawed his way to notoriety and earned his title through cunning and skill. He has seen love ruin the lives and ambitions of those he passed on his way to the top, and he has no intention of letting himself fall prey to the same mistakes. Yet he can’t stop himself from growing closer to Sabre de Valois, who loves so earnestly and so completely that even Laurent’s steel will is starting to break.
But Sabre has secrets of his own, and when the machinations of the court threaten to put Sabre in danger, Laurent will have to decide whether he will risk it all for love, or let Sabre de Valois slip through his fingers.
(Please note: The Traitor’s Mercy is an m/m dark fantasy novel, set in a fictional world where the kink aspect is not intended as a representation of real-life BDSM practices or dynamics.
Please be advised that while this title features a happy ending, it contains darker elements that some readers may find uncomfortable. It is intended for adult, mature readers only. )
Mercy by Ian Haramaki (spicy)
A PRIEST AND HIS ANGEL…
Father Ilya Pavlovich Sokolovis a lonely priest and pariah of his small town. Tasked with killing an injured monster in the woods, Ilya is certain of his death. Instead, he heals the monster’s injury and lifts its curse, revealing a handsome, memory-less man.
Cocksure Danya is a man lost in an unfamiliar world. He struggles to recall his past life, flashes returning as he and Ilya grow closer. Soon, his appearance begins to change once more, but not into a beast — instead, Danya grows into something just like the Sun that Ilya has worshiped all his life.
With complicated pasts between them, the two must work together to deal with the corruption of Ilya’s own church, as well as their blooming feelings for one another.
The Reanimator’s Heart by Kara Jorgensen (spicy)
A reluctant necromancer, a man killed before his time, and the crime that brings them together.
Felipe Galvan’s life as an investigator for the Paranormal Society has been spent running into danger. Returning home from his latest case, Felipe struggles with the sudden quiet of his life until a mysterious death puts him in the path of the enigmatic Oliver Barlow.
Oliver has two secrets. One, he has been in love with the charming Felipe Galvan for years. Two, he is a necromancer, but to keep the sensible life he’s built as a medical examiner, he must hide his powers. That is until Oliver finds Felipe murdered and accidentally brings him back from the dead.
But Felipe refuses to die again until he and Oliver catch his killer. Together, Felipe and Oliver embark on an investigation to uncover a plot centuries in the making. As they close in on his killer, one thing is certain: if they don’t stop them, Felipe won’t be the last to die.
Featuring Trans Women
The World Within by Dani Finn (spicy)
Lila’s life is almost perfect.
She’s finally opened her luxury sex shop and wellness center in a rehabilitated ancient temple. The painted faces are lining up to buy the new alchemical vibrators and unwind in the spa and baths. And she gets to work with her two best friends every day.
So why is there an empty place in her chest?
Enter Avisse, the delivery woman, a single mom with a quick smile and eyes that flash from hard to soft in an instant. There’s a spark, and a kiss, and a promise of dinner next time Avisse is in town.
Until then, Lila’s got her hands full with the shop, not to mention the mystic portal she’s discovered in the temple basement. What lies beyond will turn their lives—and the World Within—inside out.
This steamy sapphic fantasy romance stars a transfeminine heroine and includes meditation magic, alchemical trans healthcare, and family lost & found.
The World Within is intended for an adult audience. Content warnings include explicit, consensual sex scenes, societal transphobia, and child peril.
It’s set in the Weirdwater universe and includes some characters from The Living Waters and Unpainted but is meant as a standalone.
Ghost Flower by Jessica (now Abra) Conwell*
Come and see.
Elodie Morne lives two lives.
In one, she’s an eighteen-year-old high school student about to graduate, secretly in love with her best friend, Ezri, and unusual only by the standards of a banal world. In the other, she is the scion of the Outer Darkness, born of Cennend, the sentient nothingness from which all reality sprung. Determined to live as nothing more than an ordinary human, Elodie has done everything in her power to keep the two worlds apart.
But forces from both conspire against her. When she discovers a secret society of elites attempting to break the bonds that have kept her “parent” imprisoned for millennia, Elodie is forced to commit an unspeakable act to save all of creation from the wrath of the darkness that birthed her.
Now the consequences of her actions have ignited the dark heart of her town, turning the sleepy tourist community of Rook Lake into a war zone. Pursued by adversaries both mortal and immortal, Elodie and Ezri risk everything to save reality itself from being unmade. But their enemies are ruthless and desperate, and the coming battle may cost Elodie her ordinary life, her greatest love, and even her own humanity.
Part supernatural fantasy, part coming of age romance, Ghost Flower is a journey through the darkness and the light, a tale of love, loss, and what it means to be who you truly are.
(Content Child abuse, homophobia, police brutality, death)
Beneath Strange Lights by Vivian Moira Valentine*
Amelia Temple always knew she was different. Other. But that never stopped her from wanting more-especially her freedom. The Bureau of Extranormal Investigations, the shadowy government agency that has controlled her since birth, is finally allowing Amelia a pass to explore the small surrounding town where she is housed. It’s 1954, and she quickly makes friends and begins to learn the rules of this strange society. Apparently, race matters. And girls aren’t supposed to date girls. Yet the government looks the other way when it comes to locking kids up from birth and performing experiments on them because they have extra powers-kids like Amelia. Amelia and her new friends soon discover a conspiracy of so-called scientists running a bizarre experiment that threatens to unleash something terrible on her adopted hometown. As they begin to investigate, it becomes clear they must somehow stop the experiment before people die. But to do so, Amelia is forced to rely on what makes her different and decide just how human she wants to be.
Featuring Trans Men
Knight of Staria by Iris Foxglove (spicy)
A Starian folktale comes to life…
Eli was hanged as a traitor and buried in a pauper’s field, only to be brought back to life by the king of the Wild Hunt. Placed under a curse until he recovers the king’s missing sword, Eli wanders the countryside alone. When he finds the man who stole the sword—a shapeshifting trickster named Rey—Eli is thrust back into the world he left behind. Eli and Rey return to Duciel, where Eli was hanged five years before, to find the only man who can retrieve the sword and break Eli’s curse: Eli’s brother, Sabre de Valois.
Odder Still by D. N. Bryn (spicy)
Rubem of No-Man’s Land was content keeping to his wine, his pets, and his extensive collection of fishnets.
But since a sentient, fuel-producing parasite bonded to his brainstem, every morally-depraved scientist and hardcore rebel for a hundred miles wants to ruthlessly dissect him. The parasite itself is no better, influencing his emotions and sassing him with his own memories as it slowly takes over his body.
The only person offering Rubem help is Tavish K. Findlay, a dashing and manipulative philanthropist whose mother’s fuel company monopolizes their corrupt underwater city with an iron claw. She desperately wants to tear Rubem apart for the parasite before those who oppose her can do the same. Her son is irresistibly charismatic though, and after a lifetime of being kicked out and disavowed, Rubem is desperate to believe in the friendship Tavish offers.
With revolutionary plots and political schemes tangling his every choice, Rubem must soon decide whether or not to trust Tavish in his fight against the parasite’s growing control.
Odder Still is a M/M fantasy novel with a class-crossing slow burn romance, murderous intrigue, and a Marvel’s Venom-style parasite-human friendship in an underwater steampunk city. This book exist in the wider These Treacherous Tides universe, coming chronologically after Once Stolen, but it is the first book in the No-Man’s Lander series and is an easy entry point into the world. Each No-Man’s Lander book has a romantically fulfilling ending and a final HEA, with steamy thoughts and foreplay but no explicit sex. (For more information on reading order, please visit D.N. Bryn’s website.)
Content warnings include alcohol consumption and animal death.
Featuring Bisexual MCs
The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
When the saints fail, the sinners step up.
Cruel gods rule the steam-powered city of Chime, demanding worship and tribute from their mortal subjects. Kayl lost her faith in them long ago, and now seeks to protect vulnerable and downtrodden mortals from their gods’ whims. But when Kayl discovers powers that she didn’t know she had—and destroys a mortal’s soul by accident—she becomes Chime’s most wanted.
Quen’s job was to pursue sinners, until the visions started. Haunted by foreboding images of his beloved city’s destruction, Quen hunts soul-sucking creatures made of aether who prey on its citizens—and Kayl is his number one target.
To ensure Chime’s future, Kayl and Quen must discover the truth of Kayl’s divine abilities before the gods take matters into their own hands.
For a city that bows to cruel gods, it’ll take godless heathens to save it.
The Thirteenth Hour is the first book in The Cruel Gods series—a gaslamp fantasy featuring magical portals, gothic cosmic deities, quaint Britishisms, and steampunk vibes. This is an adult book containing strong language and mature themes that some readers may find disturbing. For a full list of content warnings, visit Trudie Skies’s website.
Splinter by Jasper Hyde*
This Is The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Reborn…
In a small town hidden behind the hills of New York, things are far from ordinary. As Sleepy Hollow’s youngest Medical Examiner, the pressure intensifies for Dr. Drusilla Van Tassel when the headless bodies of her sister Katrina’s friends start surfacing. Meanwhile, Drusilla’s ex-lover Ichabod Crane returns to town, dredging up feelings better left buried.
Things take a turn for the worst when Drusilla comes face-to-face with the Headless Horseman, who is back to settle old scores – and she and her sister are the perfect targets. Drusilla can repel the horseman with an unknown power, but her sister isn’t so lucky, and she goes missing.
However, when Drusilla discovers Ichabod is a monster hunter, she has no other choice but to turn to him for help. Even if that means working with a man she feels an inexplicable attraction to. Will they find Katrina and banish the headless horseman once and for all?
Jack of Thorns by AK Faulkner
Laurence Riley might be able to see the future, but he can’t see a way to fix his messed-up life. He can’t control anything—not his supernatural talents, not his drug addiction, and not his violent ex-boyfriend. Laurence needs help and he knows it. A lifelong pagan, he turns to his god… and he gets Jack. Jack can help Laurence tame his powers and take control of his life. But it comes at a price: Laurence will need to keep him fed with regular offerings of sex. For the old Laurence, that would’ve been a pleasure. Problem is, Laurence has met Quentin.
Quentin is devastatingly handsome, way out of Laurence’s league (like British nobility levels of out-of-his-league), and unbearably chaste. If that weren’t enough to keep Laurence away, Quentin’s wild telekinesis is even more uncontrollable than Laurence’s precognition. But Laurence doesn’t want anyone else, and Jack is getting hungry.
Then Laurence foresees a glimpse of Jack’s true plan. It will leave a trail of death across San Diego–and Laurence has been helping him do it. The past has taught him that the future can’t be changed. But if Laurence and Quentin can’t stop Jack, there won’t be any future at all.
Jack of Thorns is the first book in a dark urban fantasy series where X-Men meets The Magicians.
Featuring Asexual MCs
Saltbrook by Dee Arbacauskas*
The Valley, The Thief, and The Hunter
It was supposed to be a simple contract. Pursuit and capture of a thief, recovery of stolen goods. Only for Alicia, it was rapidly becoming anything but simple. The Institute that had contracted her was acting suspicious, and the man she was following hadn’t stopped to rest in days somehow. And now? Now he’d disappeared into Saltbrook valley, where a town full of secrets had been abandoned and drowned a century ago.
Now Alicia’s going to have to put every bit of her skill as a bounty hunter, investigator, and survivalist to work in the ruins that awaited her, and the even darker and colder secrets lying below those buildings in order to survive. Because Saltbrook’s dead haven’t let go of their former home, and a misplaced step could send her into their ice-cold grasp.
Binding of Bloom Mountain by Vesper Doom
ADVENTURER WANTED FOR OVERNIGHT HIKE
After losing her job with the US Forestry Service, Celeste Foster makes a desperate gamble. She answers an ad for a job in rural Virginia, but doesn’t anticipate sliding into an alternate version of the Appalachian mountains.
Before Celeste understands what’s happening, she’s agreed to hike up a cursed mountain to save a town from complete annihilation. And in the days leading up to the ritual, she learns that gods and monsters live alongside humans in the Valley. Here magic runs in every family and her connection to the Valley runs deep.
Armed with a bag of ritual items, a recording, and the hopes of the pretty barista who helped her, Celeste starts up Bloom Mountain. The ritual will test Celeste to her core, and push her autistic boundaries to their fullest.
The Binding of Bloom Mountain is an adult cozy fantasy/folk horror book with mild horror sequences and a soft sapphic romance subplot. Content warnings available inside and on the authors website.
Featuring a Genderfluid Individual:
Zel by Amanda Meuwissen
An assassin in disguise is not meant to fall for their target… but Rapunzel’s life has never gone as planned.
Twenty winters ago, before the Great Famine, Zel’s parents were caught stealing the fabled sorcerer’s rapunzel, the magical lettuce that grows around the base of his tall tower in the wood. He released them under the condition that when their yet unborn babe reaches adulthood, she will stay with him for one month before becoming his bride.
Then Zel was born a boy.
Only Zel’s parents know the truth, but while he was raised to pretend to be a girl, he will be no monster’s bride. He will use his month in the tower to unravel the mystery of the sorcerer’s immortality, so he might slay his would-be bridegroom and claim the tower and its treasures for the Thieves Guild.
What Zel does not know is that the sorcerer, Ulrich, has his own deceptions planned, and their journey of secrets, seduction, and identity might lead to revelations neither expect.
Each book set in the GriMM fairytale world can be read as a standalone and contains its own Happily Ever After story. Though you will definitely want to read each one, as the tales are connected to each other in multiple magical ways, this story features possessive mutual pining from enemies to lovers, secret motives, crossdressing that becomes gender identity discovery, and a guaranteed happy for now ending.
*This book may be better qualified as ‘horror’ instead of ‘fantasy,’ so check the content warnings before you read them if you don’t like reading horror.
About Masterpiece of Turkey Cleverness
An ace, agender, autistic fren-shaped person. Owned by three cats.
