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2 weeks ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
Admittedly, I picked this up based on the title alone. This is the same editor team who did Peach Pit: Sixteen Stories of Unsavory Women, and I would imagine that most of the stories included in Be Gay, Do Crime would fit easily into that collection as well. (Most of these stories are about queer women.
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2 weeks ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
Some of my favourite books can be accurately described as “slow.” In fact, I so enjoy a character-based story that when I hear “nothing happens in this book,” it bumps it up my TBR. So, it was a surprise to me to find myself slogging through Housemates feeling like nothing was happening. If it wasn’t something I was reading for book club, I would have DNFed by the first extremely descriptive chapter. It is worth saying, though, that plenty of readers in book club disagreed with me.
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4 weeks ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
This is a collection of stories about queer Black women that is going to live in my head for a long time. The opening story is about a young woman who has been raised on stories about violence and murder of Black girls like her at the hands of men. She’s consumed by this narrative, hypervigilant about her safety: “Her body no longer feels like hers. She is fat bright bait pierced against a hook, bobbing in the water, waiting for the inevitable.
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4 weeks ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
Angela Gutierrez is 27 years old and has never dated or kissed anyone. Part of the reason for that was her long journey to discovering her identity as an asexual lesbian, but now she’s embraced it, and she’s ready to experience some firsts. But she doesn’t just want to swipe through dating apps.
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2 months ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
When Cassie was in elementary school, she made friends with Ben, a ballet dancer who seemed unrestrained by gender norms. They quickly became inseparable, and in the world they created together at the creek, Cassie began to face her own queerness—until they were caught by judgmental classmates, and Cassie betrayed Ben. He left for another school, and they didn’t speak again… until he joins St. Luke’s high school in Cassie’s junior year.
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2 months ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
When Lilith, Sash, and Abraxa were teenagers in the late 90s, they ran a video game corporation together. They never actually sold a video game, but they worked on an incredibly ambitious text-based (ASCII) game together. Sash was the leader, the idea person who held everyone else to exacting standards. Lilith struggled to design game levels that lived up to her expectations. And Abraxa was the creative who did everything else. When they were young, this game was everything to them.
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2 months ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
If you’re looking for a fun one-sitting read, why not pick up this trans lesbian “mech rom-com graphic novel,” as the blurb describes it? I feel like you’re already sold, but I’ll keep going anyway. LSBN is a project to develop a mech suit to battle the giant, monstrous aliens that have descended to Earth. But just as it’s ready to launch in earnest, the war ends: Arrival-style, someone has learned how to communicate with the aliens and negotiated peace.
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2 months ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
Tea You at the Altar is the third book in the Tomes & Tea cozy fantasy series, and it follows Kianthe and Reyna as they plan their wedding… and possibly a coup. (This review contains spoilers for books one and two.)I really enjoyed Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, but I thought the second book faltered. While the first book was mostly cozy with a few dramatic scenes, A Pirate’s Life for Tea felt like a series of slow speed boat chases—neither cozy nor exciting.
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2 months ago | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
This is a book I respect, and it’s one I struggled to get through. The subject matter is difficult—not only is it set in a near-future dystopia where prisoners fight each other to the death for a chance at freedom, but it also includes footnotes about the real-life atrocities of the prison-industrial complex. I can understand why it is so acclaimed, but even about a week after finishing it, I still haven’t completely sorted out my thoughts about it.
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Feb 28, 2025 | 
lesbrary.com | Danika Ellis
First of all, this is of my all-time favourite YA covers. It’s so adorable. And I’m happy to say that the story delivered. We’re following Lynda, a teenager who is devoted to getting into her dream art school. Unfortunately, her father just remarried and she now has to share a room with her stepsister, Josie. What’s worse is that her father and stepmother are willing to invest heavily in Josie’s violin lessons and education, but not in Lynda’s passion.