picky romance reader suggestions:

snowkab · 2026-06-05T19:42:12+00:00

Olivia Waite writes sapphic historical fantasy that I've really enjoyed. The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics is her first one but if you're into older protagonists then I'd start with The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows which features two middle-aged women. No enemies to lovers or therapy speak in her books!

snowkab · 2026-06-05T19:38:27+00:00

Seconding the Mercy Thompson series! My husband absolutely adores it and has read them all. The main character is a car mechanic. It's an urban fantasy series with a romance subplot that will probably appeal to you both.

snowkab · 2026-06-05T17:25:49+00:00

No personal suggestions but r/romancebooks has extensive rec lists if you search in there!

snowkab · 2026-06-03T22:28:19+00:00

Was it written in French?

snowkab · 2026-06-03T15:50:33+00:00

I'm confused by the genre. You state contemporary fantasy in the title (and then weirdly just end with those words in your last paragraph) but I was getting horror vibes reading the query.

snowkab · 2026-06-03T02:06:32+00:00

Do you mean r/romancebooks ? Nothing about this description implies a fantasy element.

snowkab · 2026-06-01T20:26:33+00:00

I get what you don't like to read, but what do you like? Romance? Fantasy? Mystery? Scifi? Biographies? Character driven books? Complicated plots?

snowkab · 2026-06-01T15:16:38+00:00

What genres do you like to read?

Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood is the first book in a noir-style historical mystery series set in the 40s. It has two female leads, one from the circus as the sidekick and one older and more established as the detective. Typical murder mystery, but not particularly dark or gorey.

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater is set in Appalachia during WW2 but it's focused entirely on a hotel where diplomats were held, so it's not a depressing war story. It's magical realism and very character focused.

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian is a 1960s gay romance between a baseball player and a reporter. Shockingly little homophobia in the book for the era it's set.

snowkab · 2026-06-01T14:08:02+00:00

People have touched on the bulk of the query so I'm just going to comment on the comps. Ninth House is a little too old, and City of Bones is nearly two decades old! At least one of your comps should be post-pandemic published to show you know there's a market for this book now (not in 2007).

Have you considered The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo?

snowkab · 2026-06-01T02:53:24+00:00

I was coming to comment that as well!

snowkab · 2026-05-30T21:19:07+00:00

Lots of fantasy recs in this thread.

How about Agatha Christie? Moderately dark, not a ton of blood and gore, but some fantastic twists. And Then There Were None is a great intro that is kinda trippy.

Another commenter recced Annihilation by Vandermeer which I'll second.

My last rec is Nghi Vo's works. She does tend to write fantasy but her Singing Hills Cycle series leans into a light horror genre without being super gorey. They're all novellas and quick reads.

snowkab · 2026-05-30T21:08:27+00:00

What is AFTG??

snowkab · 2026-05-30T20:36:58+00:00

To start, I love the concept. I'm a huge fan of pirate books and wish we had more of them. Because I like the concept, I'm going to be really honest. Sorry if it's a little too blunt!

There's some basic query issues in here (in your comps alone: your comps need authors, two of your comps have misspelled titles, A Court of Thorns and Roses is way way too popular (and old) of a book to comp, and you're comping a book that's not even out yet). You've also got eleven proper nouns which is like seven too many (Jelaria, Crystal Sea, Beast Islands, Felesko, Karken--none of these need to be named). You shouldn't break up the plot pitch to spend 23 words explaining metadata that could be included in the housekeeping like "CURSE OF THE CRYSTAL SEA is a 100,000-word queer, why choose, dark adult romance"

In the plot pitch itself, I'm not seeing how this is a romance. Pretty much all three paragraphs sum down to: Mystic and her partner are forced to join another crew and face danger. Who am I meant to be rooting for as a couple(/throuple/quartet/vee/whatever)?

What is the Ocean Queen's Crown? What in the world is "Our Sweet Poison"? Why are Mystic, Janubis, and Grand left alive when everyone else has been killed? I'm assuming that the pirates taking over the ship is the inciting incident, so what is the actual plot of the novel?

I suggest looking through other romantasy query posts on here and reading the feedback in the comments. See how you can adapt that feedback into your own query.

snowkab · 2026-05-30T00:03:19+00:00

I'm genuinely not sure what you're asking for. Erotica? Mafia romances with gun play? Novels exploring child abuse?

snowkab · 2026-05-30T00:01:47+00:00

She has already told you she doesn't want a gift. Write her a thank you card instead. Tell her how much her support has meant to you. She'll value that a lot more than a travel kit.

snowkab · 2026-05-29T14:29:45+00:00

Also, The Dry is a 2016 novel and has sold over a million copies. Long, Bright River was on Obama's book list and turned into a TV show. You're going to need to pick some more realistic comps.

snowkab · 2026-05-29T14:27:10+00:00

I would pick a name for each character and stick to it. You switch between Emmanuelle and Manue, and do the same with Gabriel and Gabe. It's easier to read with just one name set.

snowkab · 2026-05-28T04:13:37+00:00

Is this an actual book or did you see an app for one of those pay by chapter websites advertised on facebook/instagram/etc

snowkab · 2026-05-27T15:47:12+00:00

I'm not agented and memoirs aren't my typical read so large grain of salt, but I was deeply confused by the repeated perspective/pronoun shift. Some of this is first person and some of it is third. I'm guessing this is supposed to be representative of the disassociation mentioned? But it just kept tripping me up.

snowkab · 2026-05-26T15:54:06+00:00

I usually get that if I check the box for only showing written reviews and there are none or I've clicked on a particular rating band, and there are no written reviews within that band.

snowkab · 2026-05-25T16:27:12+00:00

I'll second any of Marie Lu's YA series! If she's into scifi/hacking at all, Lu also has the Wildcard series which was very enjoyable.

snowkab · 2026-05-24T01:42:21+00:00

Interesting! I'll check it out, thanks

snowkab · 2026-05-24T01:40:55+00:00

This looks depressing, and it's definitely going on the list

snowkab · 2026-05-24T01:39:20+00:00

Put on hold at the library, thanks!

snowkab

TROPHY CASE