A Taste of Agapi is a gay romance between two college students in Greece. Reading it felt like going on a summer abroad. It's a story filled with sweetness: Really wonderful, supportive friends! Comic book stores and superhero debates! So! Much! Coffee! (The Greeks all drink frappes all day every day, and hardly ever go to class. They spend alottt of time lounging around in cafes drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.) Really adorable welcoming-at-the-airport- Arrivals-gate scenes. Wonderful, loving, accepting responses to someone coming out (and no negative responses). Tent sex! (First time naked with another man, first time having sex at all tent sex!) Tired boys who haven't been sleeping finally getting rest together, and the sexual tension that ensues. There's also drinking games, drunken nights at a club, spin-the-bottle on a camping trip, and sooo much delicious Greek food!

Editor's Note:

Some of us are having a hard time reviewing lately, so when Andrea offered a post full of "cool jobs in romance novels," I was more than happy to post it. I think we're all looking for the book that lights that little spark in our reading brains and it's sometimes hard to find that book by genre or trope. Perhaps a cool job will help you find the book your heart needs right now!

~ Suzanne

 

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I read Unfit to Print in one sitting, on a day as grey as the days in the book. It's a romance between two men of colour (!!!) set in November 1875, around Holywell Street in London, where Gil and Vikram spend most of their time by the fireplace. There's a blowjob scene where some serious blanket maneuvering is required so as not to freeze in the cold room. There's a cat called Satan, who spends a lot of time on Vikram's lap, and plays a sort of   Breakfast at Tiffany's   "then I'll give the cat a name!" role in Gil's life. And in an extremely British iconic move: there's a scene where hot tea used as a weapon! 

Content Warnings - Questionable consent during sex, parental abandonment, depicts sex work and autism as shameful

YOU, ME & HER takes place over the course of a somewhat-unconventional, potentially-controversial theatre production of Othello. As he walks in to the table-read, Nate (a white man) discovers that his being cast as Othello was in fact   not  for lack of black actors available to the director. He finds himself in a room full of black men cast in other roles in the play, with a director who's committed to the 'I cast you for your talent not your skin colour' narrative. This 100% triggered my diversity-hire-drama alarms. But nevertheless, I persisted. And I am SO glad I did! Yes, there are a couple "Sorry,   what  did this white guy just say?!" moments in the beginning, but it quickly becomes clear that there's no racial prejudice behind it; Tanya Chris is just brilliant at capturing both the uncomfortable 'Am I part of the problem? Am I about to say the exact wrong thing right now?' reality of being the only white person in a space created for people of colour, and the good-natured teasing people of colour give right back.