Alexandra's Staff Picks

For my LGTBQ+ book lists, search "LGBTQ YA," "LGBTQ Children's," "Queer Nonfiction," and/or "Queer Books I Have Read."

Showing 1 - 16 of 16  There are a total of 147 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Babel"
Star rating for Babel
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious...
Book cover for "Beetle & the Hollowbones"
Star rating for Beetle & the Hollowbones
Author:
Series:
Beetle books volume 1.
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Twelve-year-old goblin and witch-in-training Beetle enlists her former best friend, Kat Hollowbones, to help stop Kat's sorceress aunt from demolishing the mall where Beetle's friend Blob Ghost is trapped.
Book cover for "Bog Myrtle"
Star rating for Bog Myrtle
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Two sisters, one stubbornly cheerful (Beatrice) and one relentlessly grumpy (Magnolia), live in a drafty old house with a family of helpful spiders. When Beatrice is gifted magic yarn from a giant forest spider obsessed with sustainability named Bog Myrtle, she and the spiders set to work knitting up a perfectly warm sweater. But greedy Magnolia sees only the opportunity for profit, and quickly converts the old house into a magic sweater factory....
Book cover for "Circe"
Star rating for Circe
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Follows Circe, the banished witch daughter of Helios, as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals.
Book cover for "A court of thorns and roses"
Star rating for A court of thorns and roses
Series:
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a fiery passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose Tamlin forever"--
Book cover for "The ex hex"
Star rating for The ex hex
Series:
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:

New York Times Bestseller

Erin Sterling casts a delightful spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

"A delightful and witty take on witchy mayhem." — Popsugar

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths...and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows

...
Book cover for "The house in the cerulean sea"
Star rating for The house in the cerulean sea
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel...
Book cover for "In deeper waters"
Star rating for In deeper waters
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Sixteen-year-old Prince Tal is on his long-awaited coming-of-age tour when he meets the intriguing and roguish Athlen, and when he is kidnapped by pirates, Athlen is his only hope of escape.
Book cover for "A marvellous light"
Star rating for A marvellous light
Series:
Last binding volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Red White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in debut author Freya Marske's A Marvellous Light, featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies. Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He's struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents' excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison...
Book cover for "Moonstruck"
Star rating for Moonstruck
Author:
Series:
Moonstruck volume 1.
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"Werewolf barista Julie and her new girlfriend go on a date to a close-up magic show, but all heck breaks loose when the magician casts a horrible spell on their friend Chet. Now it's up to the team of mythical pals to stop the illicit illusionist before it's too late." --
Book cover for "Payback's a witch"
Star rating for Payback's a witch
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"The witch is back and ready for revenge with a little help from her friends in this fresh, sizzling rom-com by Lana Harper. Emmy Harlow is a witch but not a very powerful one-in part because she hasn't been home to the magical town of Thistle Grove in years. Her self-imposed exile has a lot to do with a complicated family history and a desire to forge her own way in the world, and only the very tiniest bit to do with Gareth Blackmoor, heir to the...
Book cover for "Piranesi"
Star rating for Piranesi
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"From the ... author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality. Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi...
Book cover for "The river has roots"
Star rating for The river has roots
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic--none more devotedly than the family's latest daughters Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not...
Book cover for "Snapdragon"
Star rating for Snapdragon
Author:
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
"[This] is a magical realist graphic novel about a young girl who befriends her town's witch and discovers the strange magic within herself"--Provided by publisher.

15. Terrier

Book cover for "Terrier"
Star rating for Terrier
Series:
Beka Cooper volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
When sixteen-year-old Beka becomes "Puppy" to a pair of "Dogs," as the Provost's Guards are called, she uses her police training, natural abilities, and a touch of magic to help them solve the case of a murdered baby in Tortall's Lower City.
Book cover for "The well"
Star rating for The well
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Known to friends and family as Lizzy, she takes care of her grandfather and their goats, she flirts with the woman who helps row the ferry, and she stays away from the fog that comes in the night -- and the monsters hiding within it. But Lizzy's life comes apart when she steals a handful of coins from a sacred well to cover a debt. The well requires repayment, but it doesn't deal in coins. It needs wishes, and its minions will drown Lizzy in its...