Books like All the Feels — picked by fans

It took me months to pick up Carry On after it initially caught my eye on the bookshelf. It was everything I could have wanted.

It is a less problematic Harry Potter, if Harry and Draco ended up getting together. It shows a really authentic representation of unrequited queer love and recognizing one’s own queer identity. It is character-driven, but also full of fun magic adventure. I love a book that knows how to give you exactly what you want.

Talia Hibbert’s characters have so much depth; this book is no exception. I saw myself in the curvy lead, Dani Brown, as she’s always looking for signs to lead her in the right direction.

It was great to see her warm relationship with her sisters, even though they are all so different. But I absolutely loved seeing her flirtatious friendship turned fake relationship with former rugby player Zafir Ansari grow into true love. Plus, the spice was top-notch!

Although heists and team-driven stories are difficult to mess up, I rarely find a gem with fun, snarky, and interesting characters like those delivered by Bardugo.

Clever banter effortlessly drives the storyline from beginning to end. When you start to feel the characters are proving to be one-dimensional and predictable, they begin to change and evolve (albeit a bit slowly for my tastes), which made for a surprisingly satisfying read (I’m including book two in this observation).

Worldbuilding is intelligent enough to keep you trusting the author when you grow concerned that the ending will be unrealistically implausible. Okay, maybe that last observation is my personal pet peeve with modern authors, but Six of Crows pulled off the credibility factor reasonably well.

This is my first ever Quozy, a sub-genre Rob Osler defines as a queer cozy mystery. For decades, cozy mysteries have brought to mind curious little old ladies or deeply thoughtful straight men with droopy mustaches. Devil’s Chew Toy spins that trope, giving us Hayden McCall, a guy who isn’t as interested in solving a mystery as he is in finding the dude he almost had a perfect date with. As for the strait-laced assistant…that person doesn’t exist here. Hayden teams up with the missing man’s dog plus his larger-larger-than-life lesbian BFFs, making the book hilarious, heart-warming, and profoundly satisfying. This is one of the finest-written books I’ve ever read, and it provides a bonus tour of Seattle’s greatest neighborhoods. I can’t wait for more Hayden and company.

Contains: LGBTQI+ main characters

I picked this book because what can be more subversive than a main character who wants to send a child to hell for Christmas? In Krampus and the Kolaches, JD Douwes sets Krampus in the middle of Seattle for a holiday singing contest that goes off the rails when he sets his sights on a rotten little boy and accidentally meets a far-from-typical love interest. Khalie is a snarky young woman who is somewhere short of bright and kind, but you find yourself rooting for her anyway. This book is just fun. I’ve rarely read two less likely main characters/love interests, yet I found it all worked so delightfully. I am a sucker for holiday romance, and this once checked all the boxes for me but did it in a way that was fresh and far different from the norm.

Contains: atypical main characters/Krampus

I loved how different this fantasy rom-com was from anything I had read before picking it up. From the meet-cute to the epilogue, I adored all of it. I was shocked at first by the contemporary language and the modern world-building within a traditional fantasy setting.

The MFC was relatable, reacting to the crazy world around her as I’d imagine I would if I were taken on a wild adventure with a dragon shape-shifter. Funny, witty, steamy, and exciting. This book had it all.

This book is one of the few slow burns I enjoyed, and the spice was worth waiting! Each scene between Noah, the grumpy single dad, and Shay, the plus-sized heroine, was laced with tension and attraction.

The characters were three-dimensional rather than merely archetypes, though I wasn’t too overwhelmed with backstory. This small-town romance was the epitome of sweetness.

I loved the Egyptian mythology featured in this book, and you could tell the author did her research. Detailed descriptions created a vibrant fantasy world where monsters are real and walk among us, sometimes as accountants.

This book was instalove at its finest with a swoonworthy, overprotective male lead. Even so, I loved that the plus-sized heroine was independent and capable throughout.

Olivia Dade is the queen of romcoms with twists, and this may be her best work, IMO! Marcus is so sexy and such a golden retriever MMC, and I loved April just as much. This is a perfect example of two main characters who are both great but somehow even better together.

And Olivia Dade is truly hilarious–I especially loved the interlude chapters with the awful scripts Marcus had encountered over the years. This is one of the easiest romances for me to recommend to people because there’s something for everybody!

If you’ve watched the recent Netflix series about Tembi Locke and her Sicilian chef husband, you only know half the story. Locke’s memoir, beautifully told, concentrates on (spoiler alert) her healing after her husband’s death. Recently widowed, she traveled to her husband’s tiny Sicilian village to inter his ashes. Although in many ways she dreaded going to Sicily (and her mother-in-law’s house) she is drawn to a simpler way of life from the one she has in Los Angeles. For several succeeding summers she and her daughter return to her husband’s hometown in which little has changed for centuries. Except for the local priest from Africa, they are the only people of color. Locke’s journey is one from despair and exasperation to healing and appreciation.