The cover of GIFTED & TALENTED, featuring three figures fractured by a golden swirl design
A photo of author Olivie Blake
@Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 31: For all you recovering capitalists
GIFTED & TALENTED by the incomparable Olivie Blake (@olivieblake.bsky.social). In a world of magical biotech, capitalists are still fucking assholes. Blake sets up her family-driven novel with gorgeous care--and then sets it on fire
A photo of author Elizabeth Stephens
The cover of ALL SUPERHEROES NEED PR, with Pyro leaning into Vanessa, while their pink silhouettes loom large against a peach and pink background
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 30: For anyone who swoons for a bad boy with a heart of gold(ish)
ALL SUPERHEROES NEED PR, a fizzy, funny romance by Elizabeth Stephens. PR director Vanessa gets a big challenge: redeeming supervillain hottie Pyro's image, so he can be a good guy. Fake-dating commence!
The cover of THE STARDUST GRAIL, featuring red clouds and blue tentacles against a starfield
A photo of author Yume Kitasei
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 29: For your exhausted friend who specializes in impossible quests
THE STARDUST GRAIL, Yume Kitasei's (@yumewrites.bsky.social) brilliant, anti-colonialist space heist. Maya Hoshimoto, art thief and anthropologist, thinks she's settled down into a quiet academic life...
A photo of poet Nikita Gill
The cover of HEKATE, featuring Hekate in the Greek style, with a toga and torch, in shades of white and gray against a black background with golden designs
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 28: For all of us who want to reclaim our own bildungsroman from the heroine's-journey-as-side-quest trap
HEKATE, the novel-in-verse debut of legendary poet Nikita Gill (@nikitagill.bsky.social), in which Hekate, relegated to the Underworld, grows into a mfing goddess
The cover of SPREAD ME, featuring a mysterious semicircular building with an aperture in the center, and tentacles growing out of the bottom, against an ombre red-gold background
A photo of author Sarah Gailey
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 27: Ain't nobody judging your monster porn, fam
SPREAD ME, Sarah Gailey's (@sarahgailey.bsky.social) slick, smutty, endlessly clever first-encounter SF. Gailey effortlessly balances tantalization with squick, shame with desire, creeping terror with breathless anticipation
A photo of author Samantha Sotto Yambao
The cover of WATER MOON, with the top half featuring buildings in the cloud, with a full moon behind, and the bottom half feature an upside down city of skyscrapers. In the foreground, someone rides in a boat made of an origami hat
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 26: For anyone who needs some whimsy and delight
WATER MOON, Samantha Sotto Yambao's wondrous, fabulist tale in which Hana inherits a pawn shop where you can barter your regrets. But in a world where night markets are made of clouds, journeys can be enchanting and dangerous
The cover of THIS PRINCESS KILLS MONSTERS, featuring a silhouetted figure on a bridge over a river, with a palace on a hill and a dragon in the sky in the background, all in rainbow colors
A photo of author Ry Herman
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 25: For PAPER BAG PRINCESS fans
THIS PRINCESS KILLS MONSTERS, a whimsical, queer, fairy tale misadventure by Ry Herman (@ryherman.bsky.social). Melilot is a stepsister, a murder target, and a bit of a mess, but nevertheless, the hero of this hilarious romp with so much heart!
A photo of author V. Castro
The cover of THE HAUNTING OF ALEJANDRA, featuring the head and shoulders of a woman, almost completely covered in stylized flowers, except for a portion of her face, against a marigold background
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 24: For birthing parents up for a horror novel
THE HAUNTING OF ALEJANDRA, V. Castro's (@vlatinalondon.bsky.social) searing horror novel. With La Llorona and a mother's haunting, Castro's anticolonial work deftly deconstructs systemic oppression and the violence of motherhood
The cover of A TEMPEST OF TEA, showing a character holding a cup of tea -- or perhaps blood - with a city super-imposed on their silhouette
A photo of author Hafsah Faizal
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 23: For your criminal friends, obvs
A TEMPEST OF TEA, a delicious tale of a criminal mastermind by Hafsah Faizal. Arthie runs a posh tearoom--during the day. At night, she runs a vampire bloodhouse. But then a threat, a heist, a conspiracy--and if you're lucky, some revenge!
A photo of author Park Seolyeon
The cover of A MAGICAL GIRL RETIRES, featuring a woman holding a compass and a card with a rose on it
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 22: For all of us, drowning in cortisol, just trying to make everything work
A MAGICAL GIRL RETIRES, a beautiful, illustrated work by Park Seolyeon (trans. Anton Hur). A depressed woman learns she might be the most magical girl of all time, but that seems like an awful lot...
The cover of a body more tolerable, with two illustrated wolves locked in combat against a red background
A photo of author jaye simpson
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 21: For everyone who needs to cry or scream or howl
a body more tolerable, a searing collection by writer, activist, and drag queen jaye simpson (@jayesimpson.bsky.social). Told through faerie tales, simpson's poetry keens: with grief, with rage, with tenderness, with love
A photo of author Rivers Solomon
The cover of MODEL HOME, featuring a generic two-story suburban house, but with a mysterious eye in a window, a spider, a snake, and a fire, against a lurid green background
#SIrens26 #Bookmas Day 20: For anyone who loved SING, UNBURIED, SING
MODEL HOME, Rivers Solomon's (@riverssolomon.bsky.social) blazing exploration of segregation and racism through the haunting of the only Black family in a Texas suburb. Years later, after mysterious deaths, the kids return...
The cover of the book HAMMAJANG LUCK, showing a figure against the backdrop of a futuristic city
A photo of author Makana Yamamoto
@Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 19: For all your 2025-era Star Wars friends
HAMMAJANG LUCK by Makana Yamamoto (@makana-yama.bsky.social), a swashbuckling, space opera heist novel that's compulsively readable. It's anticapitalist, it's queer af, it's hilarious, and it's unmistakably a love letter to Hawai'i
A photo of author Amal El-Mohtar
The cover of THE RIVER HAS ROOTS, featuring orange and pink flowers
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 18: For your poetry-loving friends looking for something equally lyrical in prose
THE RIVER HAS ROOTS, by Amal El-Mohtar's (@amalelmohtar.com). Cherished sisters, closer than death, tend the enchanted willows. But when one of them takes a lover, their lives are torn asunder
The cover of THE BOOKSHOP BELOW, featuring a stylized design of a book, flowers, an arch, and waves, in shades of red, blue and purple
A photo of author Georgia Summers
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 17: For that friend who is trying to get you to run a bookstore as vacation
THE BOOKSHOP BELOW, in which Georgia Summers (@georgiasummers.bsky.social), who writes likes she loves words, conjures a beguiling, dangerous world of magical words and the bookstores that hold them
A photo of author H.E. Edgmon
The cover of GODLY HEATHENS, featuring the head and torso of a person, surrounded by vines and feathers, against a green background
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 16: For your friend who loves a messy, desperate, maybe-villain
GODLY HEATHENS: Gem feels like they're a hot, anxious mess, but maybe that's just what it's like to be a god in a human body. H.E. Edgmon's prose captivates: anxious, raw, gloriously human, gorgeously divine
The cover of QUEEN AND CONQUEROR, featuring an armored dress on a mannequin, backlit in red, surrounded by stylized gold filigree
A photo of author Isabelle Olmo
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 15: For your political friends who like to watch women shape the future
QUEEN AND CONQUEROR, Isabelle Olmo's (@isabelleolmo.bsky.social) chess match of a political fantasy. Almira was raised to be cunning--and to rule. Here's her story as she plays the game of a lifetime
A photo of author Rebecca Fraimrow
The cover of LADY EVE'S LAST CON, featuring Roaring '20s graphics, figures in a flapper dress and a suit, and a spaceship
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 14: For anyone who just wants something fun that won't cause any more anxiety
LADY EVE'S LAST CON, Rebecca Fraimrow's romp of a romcom set in a version of the Roaring '20s...in space. Ruth wants to scam the man who broke her sister's heart. But then she meets his sister...
The cover of THE POISONS WE DRINK, featuring pink-haired Venus against pink swirling clouds and a Washington, D.C. background
A photo of author Bethany Baptiste
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 13: For anyone looking for a light of resistance in our current dark
THE POISONS WE DRINK, a brilliantly political urban fantasy by Bethany Baptiste (@storysorcery.bsky.social). When her mother is killed, brewer Venus has the chance to overthrow an oppressive government...
A photo of author Nghi Vo
The cover of THE CITY IN GLASS, featuring a mint green arch, columns, and statues framing a burning city against a dark purplish star field
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 12: For anyone who revels in inimitably exquisite prose
THE CITY IN GLASS, a dazzling fantasy in which Nghi Vo (@nghivo.bsky.social) turns her peerless craft to a city, a history, a love story. Azril is Vitrine's city--until the angels come and leave her with ashes...
The cover of A GAME OF HEARTS AND HEISTS, featuring dusty pink flowers and vines against a black background
A photo of author Ruby Roe
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 11: For literally everyone because WHO DOES NOT WANT A SAPPHIC, COMPETING-ASSASSIN, ENEMIES-TO-LOVERS, ONLY-ONE-BED, SPICY AF HEIST NOVEL?!?!?!
A GAME OF HEARTS AND HEISTS, the deliciously steamy romantasy by Ruby Roe (@rubyroeauthor.bsky.social). This book is EVERYTHING.
A photo of author A.E. Osworth
The cover of AWAKENED, featuring a mobile phone covered in green slime, surrounded by candles, cards, and a black and white bird
#SIrens26 #Bookmas Day 10: For, per the author, "everyone who feels betrayed by J.K. Rowling"
AWAKENED, a hilarious, joy-filled urban fantasy full of trans witches battling a villainous AI. Author A.E. Osworth's (@aeosworth.bsky.social) magnificent work sings with community, caretaking, and charm
The cover of THE SALT GROWS HEAVY, featuring a stylized plague doctor and mermaid, back-to-back, with a pile of stylized skulls, against a red background
A photo of author Cassandra Khaw
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 9: For anyone who wants to watch an absolute master work
THE SALT GROWS HEAVY, Cassandra Khaw's (@casskhaw.bsky.social) splatterpunk fairy tale. A land-bound mermaid and a plague doctor flee her kingdom, laid waste by her children, and only their cruelty will keep them alive
A photo of author Lilliam Rivera
The cover of TINY THREADS, in red and black, with scissors about to slice a bloody dressmaker's mannequin in half
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 8: For everyone who knows that PROJECT RUNWAY is a predatory capitalist horror show
TINY THREADS, Lilliam Rivera's (@lilliamr.bsky.social) glitzy, haute couture novel wrapped in gorgeous, slow-burn Gothic terror. Samara's getting everything she's dreamed--but at what cost?
The cover of THE INCANDESCENT, featuring a line drawing of a bird in flight, in shades of gold, against a black background
A photo of author Emily Tesh
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 7: For your teachers, librarians, and competency nerds of all sorts
THE INCANDESCENT, Emily Tesh's masterful, queer, dark academia, recced by our teachers! Dr. Walden, administrator and magician, has days full of meetings, teaching, and securing her school against demons...
A photo of author Sascha Stronach
The cover of THE DAWNHOUNDS, which shows futuristic, biotech houses in the foreground and a sailing ship in the background
#SIrens26 #Bookmas Day 6: For your read-it-in-one-gulp fam
THE DAWNHOUNDS, a queer af, Māori-inspired, biotech thriller (with bonus magic!) by Sascha Stronach (@understatesmen.bsky.social). After being murdered and dumped in the harbor, Yat doesn't stay dead. But that isn't even the worst of it...
The cover of MATE, featuring a woman in a green checked flannel shirt looking at a werewolf silhouetted against the full moon in the distance
A photo of author Ali Hazelwood
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 5: For all those Belles who liked him better as a beast
MATE, Ali Hazelwood's latest, with a bossy Alpha and a Were-Human hybrid who needs protecting. It's steamy, it's angsty, it's gonna get some fur caught in your teeth--and we thought it was the best romantasy of the year
A photo of author Naseem Jamnia
The cover of THE BRUISING OF QILWA, featuring a hand dripping blood onto the title and a smaller, tiered city underneath
#Sirens26 #Bookmas Day 4: For all of us, refugees of an unforgiving system, searching for found family
THE BRUISING OF QILWA, Naseem Jamnia's (@jamsternazzy.bsky.social) powerful, queernormative novella. A new illness plagues Qilwa, blamed on forbidden blood magic, and healers must race for a cure
We lezen een klassieker vandaag die in het cadeau van petekind 1 zal belanden. Ook buiten BlueSky doen we van #bookmas!
Bijzonder mooi en fantasierijk verhaal!
A stack of books on a striped ottoman in front of a Christmas tree. The books are, from top to bottom: Heart the Lover by Lily King, Fearless & Free by Josephine Baker, Enlightenment by Sarah Perry, and The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel
Another fine stack for my 2025 #bookmas! Two new novels from two of my favorite contemporary authors, Lily King and Sarah Perry, plus Josephine Baker’s newly-translated memoir and the art history book I’ve been DYING to read for ages.
Gotta get back on track with my reading in 2026!
#booksky #tbr
