I identify as a member of the GLBTQ+ community. My husband and I had a church wedding. I have written several stories that have GLBTQ+ representation and are love stories. I have also read and familiarized myself with many GLBTQ+ children’s books.
I highly recommend this book because it is a great history lesson about the first gay marriage in 1971 when Jack Baker and Michael McConnell struggled to get a marriage license in Minnesota. They appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the case was dismissed. It wasn’t until 2013, when Minnesota made it legal for gay marriage that Jack and Michael’s marriage was finally publicly acknowledged. Two years later, in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality.
This story resonates with me personally because my husband and I live in Minnesota,where we were married in 2014.
"Sanders tells the tale in easy-to-understand language, sweet as the frosting on the cake. . . . As beautiful as it is informative about this little-known battle in the fight for equality." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
"Their heartwarming story-accessible to young readers-demonstrates that the essential ingredient in a cake and a marriage is love. Cathro's affectionate illustrations-with vintage 1970s' colors and vibes-not only expand the text but also capture its sweet spirit exactly." -Booklist
This is the story of Jack Baker and Michael McConnell and their inspiring story becoming the first married gay couple…
Weddings are stressful for even the most functional of families. I should know—it took me nearly two years to plan my own! The process of manufacturing the big day, and attending to all the trappings of the wedding industrial complex, really brings out our best and our worst. In my most recent novel, I found that a big, splashy wedding provided such a fun and fascinating way to explore the tensions and enduring love within families, friends, and couples. If done right, plots involving weddings can smash tired “bridezilla” and “monster-in-law” tropes. As we enter the summer wedding season, I hope this list of books keeps you laughing and loving!
Just like the title suggests, this novel is not all fragrant flower bouquets and three-tiered sweetness.
Thank goodness—we get enough of that on Instagram! But if you’re down for a rowdy romp that is both cynical and tender, do come along with Ginder to London, to a wedding filled with alcohol, sex, and catastrophe.
I love how Ginder crafts such compelling portraits of people who we might otherwise dismiss as shallow or unlikeable.
Paul and Alice's half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at "it" restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins. They couldn't hate it more.
The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a more than dysfunctional family as they reunite for the wedding of their oldest daughter. As the bride's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, the possibilities of friendship, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most…
I have been a mystery fan all my life and an avid reader of Regency fiction—from the mystery authors I’ve recommended to early Regency romance writers, including Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. When I visited England a few years ago, I dragged my travel companion to all the Regency landmarks left standing and nearly missed a tour bus because I just had to see a Regency assembly room where their dances were held! When I switched from writing fantasy (under the pen name Ally Shields) to writing historical mysteries in 2019, I spent hundreds of hours devouring non-fiction books on this fascinating period of Prince George’s regency (1811-1820).
Kate Ross's books are unique in her choice of protagonist—outwardly a self-obsessed dandy rather than a hero—and in her deftness at creating the classic whodunit.
Although Julian Kestrel's ancestry is a bit vague, he clearly moves among the upper class with ease. After rescuing a young lord from a gaming hell, he is invited to a country house party. Unfortunately, he wakes up next to the body of a beautiful but very dead woman.
The only thing disappointing about this series is its shortness. The author passed away prematurely after writing only four books.
England in the 1820s is the setting for this period mystery, which introduces the detective, Julian Kestrel. He finds the corpse of an attractive woman in his bed during an elegant country weekend at a friend's estate. He sets out to discover which of his hosts is a killer.
I love to laugh. Quite often it’s at inappropriate times or at someone else’s expense, but either way, it’s a huge part of who I am. Second only to prayer, I find laughter to be the best remedy for a difficult situation. It’s hard to be sad when you’re laughing, and as a writer who puts characters into very challenging positions, that’s always at the forefront of my mind. While readers may not always relate to the exact circumstance my characters are in, they may very well find common ground in the levity they seek when trying to survive it.
This book has all my very favorite things: irreverent humor, wedding drama, crass women in action (think Bridesmaids), and some hot and spicy lovin’ with a very sexy young man. (Relax, he’s legal…but just barely). Considering this author co-wrote two of my favorite movies: 10 Things I Hate About You, andLegally Blonde, it’s no surprise that this book tops my list.
After being left at the altar by her soap star fiance, Los Angeles high school teacher Zadie Roberts wants nothing more to do with love and romance. With the help of her best buddy Grey and several bottles of wine, she just might survive the trauma of the wedding that wasn't. Unexpectedly, Grey gets engaged to Zadie's prim and proper cousin Helen, and suddenly Zadie is dragged back into wedding festivity hell. The coup de grace is Helen's bachelorette party, thrown by her clique of prissy friends and certain to be a day of torture. But when the Pinot Grigio…
Another unputdownable book! This was my first Abby Jimenez story, and I was hooked from pretty much the first page. There’s so much sass!
The main characters Josh and Kristen get stuck together planning their best friends’ wedding. The Friend Zone is filled with hilarity, witty band references, and sexy banter, but there are also deep emotional issues. My editor recommended this book to me. He must know me well because I fell in love and will read anything Ms. Jimenez writes forevermore!
The second book in the Friend Zone series, The Happy Ever After Playlist was just as good, and I’m about to crack open book 3.
Fall in love with this hilarious and heartwarming USA Today bestselling romantic comedy that LJ Shen calls "an absolute treat."
Kristen Peterson doesn't do drama, will fight to the death for her friends, and has no room in her life for guys who just don't get her. She's also keeping a big secret: facing a medically necessary procedure that will make it impossible for her to have children.
Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen -- especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always…
Weddings are stressful for even the most functional of families. I should know—it took me nearly two years to plan my own! The process of manufacturing the big day, and attending to all the trappings of the wedding industrial complex, really brings out our best and our worst. In my most recent novel, I found that a big, splashy wedding provided such a fun and fascinating way to explore the tensions and enduring love within families, friends, and couples. If done right, plots involving weddings can smash tired “bridezilla” and “monster-in-law” tropes. As we enter the summer wedding season, I hope this list of books keeps you laughing and loving!
I read this novel while I was in my twenties—during a time I called The Age of Everyone Getting Married.
It absolutely captures that whirlwind of bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and wedding registries, but also the love, jealousy, and heartbreak of being young and just figuring life out in New York City. Close writes beautifully about real women doing the best they can with their bad choices.
Ever feel like everyone but you has their life under control?
Isabella, Mary and Lauren feel like everyone they know has a plan, a good job, and a nice boyfriend.
Isabella, on the other hand, thinks she might hate her own boyfriend, Mary is working so hard she's hoping to get hit by a car just so she can have some time off work and Lauren is dating a man who can't spell her first name.
All three of them have been friends since college, and now - more than ever - they need each other, as they struggle through…
I love novels that bring people together who would otherwise never meet each other. I will never forget the connection between Ponyboy and Cherry in The Outsidersor between Bryon and Cathy in That Was Then, This Is Now.Sometimes it’s undeniably romantic, and sometimes it isn’t as clear. The first time I ever missed a character was when I got to the end of those books. I remember thinking, I want to create a world that people will miss when the story is over. I also remember thinking, I will never stop reading books like this. Here are a few that I’ve found along the way.
I had to pick this book because it is air travel that brings Hadley and Oliver together. In this case, they are on a flight together to London where Hadley’s father is getting married after a difficult divorce from her mother. Hadley believes she is dealing with the worst possible thing, but she later learns what brings Oliver to London which is something far more difficult. It is the time on the plane when everything else fades away that draws me to this book. If they hadn’t ended up on the same flight, they never would have met.
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?
Imagine if she hadn't fogotten the book. Or if there hadn't been traffic on the expressway. Or if she hadn't fumbled the coins for the toll. What if she'd run just that little bit faster and caught the flight she was supposed to be on. Would it have been something else - the weather over the atlantic or a fault with the plane?
Hadley isn't sure if she believes in destiny or fate but, on what is potentially the worst day of each of their lives, it's the quirks of…
When writing about friendships, it was important for me to highlight the highs and the lows of friendships. This approach takes the reader on a journey with the main character as she remembers the good times while she navigates through the tough times. By sprinkling in humor, a story that could sway to the serious side and stay there is suddenly entertaining and balanced, giving the main character’s plight depth and the reader an engrossing experience.
For the Love of Friends is a fun and humorous book that delves into friendships and how the dynamics shift when friends become bridesmaids.
Throughout the years, I’ve been a bridesmaid in numerous weddings and this story rang true for me, especially trying not to get caught up in any drama. I remember some friends of the brides taking strides to prove who is the better friend.
I couldn’t put this book down with all the jaw-dropping scenes, snark, and the lengths friends will go for love.
A sharp and hilariously relatable novel about the business of weddings, the toll they can take, and the lengths one exasperated bridesmaid will go to for the love of friends.
Lily Weiss is her mother's worst nightmare: thirty-two and single-the horror! She's also a talented writer but hides behind a boring job at a science foundation. To her friends, she's reliable and selfless, which is how she winds up a bridesmaid in five weddings in six weeks. Anything for her three best friends and two (younger) siblings, right? Even if her own love life is...well, she'd rather not talk about…
My love of British crime fiction began when, as a young teen, I discovered Agatha Christie on the shelves of my local library. With Scottish grandparents, I was already well indoctrinated in the “everything British is best” theory, but it was as a student at St. Clare’s College, Oxford, that I fell totally under the spell of the British Isles. No surprise, then, that my Kate Hamilton Mystery series is set in the UK and features an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. I love to read the classic mysteries of the Golden Age as well as authors today who follow that tradition.
“‘Well, my dear,’ said Miss Marple, ‘human nature is much the same everywhere, and, of course, one has opportunities of observing it at closer quarters in a village.'” (The Thumb Mark of St. Peter) An Irish village is the setting for Gordon’s fourth Gethsemene Brown mystery. When African-American violinist Gethsemane Brown takes a job leading the orchestra at a boys’ school in the village of Dunmullach, she has no idea her cliffside cottage comes complete with a resident ghost, Eamon McCarthy. Nor does she imagine she’ll become the village’s amateur sleuth—with a little help from Eamon, of course. When a wedding party descends on the village, Gethsemane learns the groom-to-be once jilted her friend Frankie’s new girlfriend, Verna. When the groom turns up dead, Verna is the logical suspect.
Romance is in the air. Or on the ’Gram, anyway. When an influencer-turned-bridezilla shows up at the lighthouse to capture Insta-perfect wedding photos designed to entice sponsors to fund her lavish wedding, Gethsemane has her hands full trying to keep Eamon from blasting the entire wedding party over the edge of the cliff. Wedding bells become funeral bells when members of the bride’s entourage start turning up dead. Frankie’s girlfriend, Verna, is pegged as maid-of-honor on the suspect list when the Garda discover the not-so-dearly departed groom was her ex and Gethsemane catches her standing over a body. Gethsemane uncovers…
Soon after 9/11, I had dinner with several American scientists worried about how new security measures would affect international collaborations and foreign-born colleagues. Since science rarely if ever comes up in discourse about the War on Terror, that set me off. I’m always drawn to whatever gets overlooked. I was born in one international city – New York – and have lived in another – Los Angeles – for over 20 years. I’ve spent time on four continents and assisted survivors of violent persecution as they seek asylum – which may explain why I feel compelled to include viewpoints from outside the US and fill in the gaps when different cultural perspectives go missing.
I couldn’t possibly leave out Danielle Evans’ story collection when the title novella portrays just the kind of cultural erasure and recuperation I’ve been blathering on about. The protagonist, Cassie, is an obscure federal employee charged with correcting historical inaccuracies and omissions in public places and textbooks. Her mission intersects in Wisconsin with that of an old frenemy as both investigate an arson murder from 1937. Throughout the collection, these stories delight me line by line, with beautifully wrought prose, insight, and wit. Evans tackles fake news and current controversies about race, including fissures within the Black community, while always focusing on the personal dilemmas of her vividly alive characters. I am in awe of her talent.
'Sublime short stories of race, grief, and belonging . . . an extraordinary new collection' New Yorker
'Evans's new stories present rich plots reflecting on race relations, grief, and love' New York Times, Editor's Choice
'Brilliant . . . These stories are sly and prescient, a nuanced reflection of the world we are living in' Roxane Gay
Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters' lives in a way that allows them to speak…
