Tag: books

Indie books I read in 2025

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

I just can’t get into them. I find the characters hollow, the plots too focused on trauma, and I keep quitting them partway through.

I’m unfortunately talking about the last ten times I tried to read mainstream literary fiction.

I hope you didn’t think I was talking about indie i.e. self-published books. My favourites this year have all been indie published.

Here’s a list of what I read (with some very subjective commentary. There’s a reason I stay out of online review spaces and why I’m not tagging any of these authors in my post.)

The Flowered Blade – by Taylor Hubbard (trans hypertwink elf prince subverts his orc captor’s expectations and gets absolutely railed for his trouble. A queer fantasy fan favorite, but Taylor pls see me after class re: filter words)

Disasterology 101 – by Taylor Donovan (surprisingly strong, a powerful portrait of extreme OCD, though the ending felt abrupt)

Geist Fleish – by Christian Baines (A five-book series’ worth of horny supernatural story set in Weimar Germany and crushed into a novella. Insultingly short, I require another hundred thousand words pls)

What a Nobleman Needs – by Merry Farmer (Peak Merry Farmer, as Regency noblemen boink their way through a comedy of errors with a side of mortal peril)

The Full Moon Problem – by Kay Claire (Charming story about a shy werewolf and a trans herb witch. First person present tense is not my favorite POV)

A Boy Called Rainbow – by Robin Knight (I wanted more from this premise of a deaf artist and an uptight appraiser, but I ended up skimming the last 1/3 of the book)

Junker Seven – by Olive J. Kelley (top tier, excellent space-chase themed sci-fi with a heavy dose of trans politics)

Peter and the Wolves – by Merry Farmer (ABSOLUTE FILTH but, like, really good. Fantasy setting, endless gay sex, it may have reshaped my frontal cortex *PLEASE NOTE * does not contain wolves)

They Were Roommates – by D.C. Emerson (sweet trans guy 4bi guy slowwwwwburn omg just kiss you ding-dongs)

Nine-Tenths – by J.M. Frey (I never knew where this book was headed, every plot point was a heavy hitter. Out of these, this is one that I might read again. Especially when Book 2 comes out)

My first read of 2026 is a Sapphic rom com rewrite of Pride and Prejudice set at a romantasy cosplay event. Honestly, how could it be bad?

I’ll have lots of time to catch up on my TBRs (virtual and physical) next month while I’m recovering from a medical procedure which I am not talking about in detail (yet) though if I’m bringing it up here I’m clearly okay with discussing it. Later, because it’s going to be a long story. 2026 is literally the year that everything changes.

Neurodiversity in Queer Romance: the anthology

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

Let’s start the year with something exciting! Well, I find it exciting, but it’s rare to be asked to write a story where a character’s neurodiversity makes a difference. 🏳️‍🌈

The Neurodivergence in Queer Romance BookFunnel Promotion aims to increase accurate, authentic, compassionate, and respectful representation of the vast and varied neurodivergent experience.

Discover brand new novellas celebrating neurodivergence in queer romance, now available for free! All stories are by a queer neurodivergent author and feature various neurodiverse and queer representation. These are only available to download until January 31.

There’s something for everyone — authors you know and love, authors sharing their debuts, stories from many subgenres, and a range of angst and spice levels.

My book ‘The Worst Boss in the World’ is an enemies-to-employee-to-lovers romance about a strangely compassionate supervillain and the desperate, dangerous man he can’t resist.

Despised by his criminal family, rejected by the law-abiding, Leo Blofeld needs a break. Like a job as a wealthy supervillain’s personal assistant. Not just for the paycheck but for the chance to get his hands on Desmond Desolate’s assets, his wealth, his obliviousness. Just what Leo needs to show up his arrogant family while he puts his plans for vengeance into action.

New to the villainy game, Desmond didn’t realize when he hired an assistant that he was getting a nervy, angry, savage little narcissist with a hunger for submission and an overpowered vendetta. A hatred based on nothing, at least from Desmond’s point of view.

Someone broke Leo, made him hate the world. Made him distrust everyone. Even himself. Something’s making Desmond want to patch him back together.

🏳️‍🌈 Learn more about each book at https://tinyurl.com/ndiqr-info

🏳️‍🌈 Download all of January’s books at https://books.bookfunnel.com/neurodivergenceinqueerromance/f1vshns6ec

And look for another announcement in February for even more original books in Part 2 of this amazing event.

Rewriting the rules of magic with Benjamin Twigg

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes you’re the Chosen One, and sometimes you’re the Chosen One’s dad…

You know me, I love any twist on a genre standard (like Magical Teen) so I’m glad to see books like this. More middle aged protagonists, please!

DAD MAGIC

Welcome to Spellford
A city where enchanted coffee shops serve lattes with a side of prophecy, and fried chicken is delivered to your door in mere seconds. Here, Brent Abernathy, an ordinary dad with a not-so-ordinary past, is about to have his world flipped upside down. His teenage daughter. Victoria. Is not just any teen: she is the key to an unimaginable power. And sinister forces have taken notice.
Armed with nothing but his wits, some dad jokes, and the help of his half-orc best friend. Paxton Grimtusk. A loveable geek with a heart of gold. Brent sets out on a spellbinding adventure.
As secrets unravel and betrayals sting like cursed nettles Brent finds himself tangled in an age-old conspiracy that threatens the balance of magic itself. To save Victoria, he will need more than just a dad bod and fire spells. He’ll have to face down ancient forces and do the impossible: rewrite the rules of magic.

Benjamin Twigg is a fantasy writer from Australia. As a queer author, Ben strives to write stories that have authentic representation, queer joy and a sense of wonder.
As a child, Ben dreamed of being a fantasy author and dived into those books, devouring the stories and world they created. As an adult, his love for fantasy world-building continued with role-playing video games, and he has racked up hundreds of hours of gameplay, immersing himself in character stories with amazing arcs.

Magical musical murder with A.C. Merkel

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

One of my favorite things about indie publishing is the diversity of storytelling! Not just DEI-style diversity where every voice is represented, but real diversity of stories, where we can tell any story we like. Today’s Spotlight is on A.C. Merkel, who blends fantasy with political consciousness and rock and roll to tell a story like no other!

HER NAME IS MURDER

“We can’t waltz forever, Grant.”
“We can damn well try.”

Magical musician Murder LaVoe is tired of running. She’s been running for almost 500 years. When you don’t age, people take it personally. She has returned 40 years later to her favorite borough in New York City.
Her hope?
To finally settle down and hide her secret by taking the identities of falsified heirs.
A public attempt on the life of her Rock-N-Roll alter ego, Lady Dreamscapes.
A chance meeting of subservient immortals in need.
threaten to take away the life she holds so dear. Can NYPD detective Grant Noble III solve her mysteries in time to save her?
Or is it him that needs saving?

A.C. Merkel is the author and creator of The Lady Dreamscapes series and Witch Vs. Witch, infusing magical tales with a musical heartbeat 💓 🎻 🎸 🌈

A maze of monsters with Sarah Cook

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to the next installment of the Indie Author Spotlight, my ongoing series highlighting the latest in independent storytelling. Today’s featured author is Sarah Cook.

Promotional graphic for Sarah Cook's book A Maze of Monsters of Men, showing the book's cover against a backdrop of stars.

Set in 1900, A Maze of Monsters & Men sees two rival archaeologists, and ex-lovers, leading opposing expeditions to Crete. However, whilst on the island, they are both called to labyrinth seated at the heart of the mountain… And a minotaur who is willing to love them both.

Sarah Cook is a historical fiction author who writes about the Victorians in all sorts of japes. Her debut novel Diary of Murders is a dark erotic murder mystery. She plans to finish the series whilst also releasing an upcoming Victorian sports romance and a dark fantasy.

“You open your safe and find ashes.”

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

As authors, we are constantly on the receiving end of all sorts of advice about how to promote our work, much of which rely on magical thinking and/or spending a lot of money (or both.) Selling books in person, selling books at a discount, selling yourself as a brand, but for pure return on your investment, nothing beats giving away free books.

I’m not handing out paperbacks on the street, but I’m not the only one who believes in the power of free. Attract abundance by being abundant. Give books to everyone who wants one: that’s how you win fans for life.

Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Readers win too, because *ahem* book tastes are subjective. I honestly don’t expect everyone in the world to enjoy what I write. I would rather you read my free stories and decide that my work isn’t to your liking than make you pay money for a book that you end up hating. Costco has it right: give away as many free samples as you can. Your fans will find their way to you.

Visit my Free Reads page for bonus material from my series and some standalone shorts. I’ll be adding to the page in the next few months as I build up to the release of a series I’ve been working on for ten years. Mary Mac and her band of merry perverts have some deep lore, y’all. I have stories for years.

The Indie Author Spotlight – a brief introduction

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

One of the best things about independent AKA self-publishing is the variety of stories we are telling. Publishing companies are under pressure to sign *profitable* authors, but when has the profit motive ever produced the best art?

The best stories are happening underground. Indie publishing is all about helping each other. My book might not be your next favorite, but I bet you’ll love something by one of my friends. I have been profiling fellow authors on my newsletter for a few years now, and thought this blog would be a good platform to expand the reach of this feature. Anything to get me off ordinary social media…

I’ll be back in a few days with the first installment of this new series. Or join my readers club if you want to find out more about my books: http://willforrest.com/newsletter/

Why choose?

~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

Reverse Harem and the (r)evolution of Romance writing

If you aren’t an avid ebook reader, it’s likely you’ve never heard of the genre, which has begun to call itself “why choose” because algorithms are prurient snitches. Yet it’s the strongest trend in self published romance, with no signs of slowing down.

It is also an astonishing indicator of where culture is headed. Because two out of every five ebooks sold are romance, and reverse harem tropes are EVERYWHERE.

So what the heck is it? Nothing more or less than a romance story where the heroine gets ALL the boys. Without having to choose between them, favoring one and only one. Without lying or cheating, with the consent of all the men, which is perhaps the most fantastical aspect of the genre, that three or more cis-het guys could get over their egos enough to get along with their partner’s metamour.

OK so what the heck is a metamour?

It’s the point at which the Why Choose genre gets really interesting. Because, pardon me if I’m wrong, but this is polyamory. A metamour is your lover’s lover. Not your competition, just “the other person who loves the same person as me.”

Meaning the strongest trend in romance writing is a vigorous, fun-loving, open-hearted repudiation of the nuclear family. One of the lynchpins of Western society, blamed repeatedly (and quite sensibly) for maintaining women’s inferior status. Less than half a decade ago, women in the US were being arrested for wearing pants. A wife needed her husband’s permission to open her own bank account. The assumption was nearly universal that all women wanted was safety. That women weren’t sexual, weren’t interested in freedom in being their own person, in existing for any reason besides replicating DNA aka having babies.

Oh, my sweet summer child…

That has never been enough. And hear me out, this is not some Sandberg gaslighting about how every woman miraculously can have it all aka a high paying high pressure job as well as a functional marriage, happy children, and time enough to seek personal meaning. Such women usually have nannies. And they are frequently miserable. The women, not the nannies, though I reckon a fair few of them are less than thrilled with what often functions like a sort of indentured servitude.

This is of course not universal. But that’s the point. Women want different things. Women can finally have what they want. And yes, RH is a book trend. It isn’t a sign of the death of marriage. But it is certainly a sign that the Overton window has shifted hugely in the direction of even more freedom for women. And for men, who must bear the brunt of being denied softness, emotionality, compassion. Who are taught they must defend their tiny tribe against an entire world which wants them dead. Truth is, the world usually isn’t paying attention. Truth is, modern marriage isn’t a siege state. Wives are not chattel, nor are they princesses, to be kept in a tower and denied the world.

Women are raw, and horny, and also nice and pretty and kind, but still red-blooded, salivating, alive. And we are tired of being told what to do.

There is a world filled with possibilities. Even it’s only words on a page or a screen. A world where women get exactly what they want, and men are happy for it to happen. So come on over! Sometimes the grass really is greener even once you’ve hopped the fence.

What I read on vacation

against the backdrop of a bright blue ocean, someone lays on the pale sandy beach reading a paperback bookbeach
~ Will Forrest ~ Leave a comment

I went on a trip the end of April with the serious intent of reading some light fiction. I write it, so keeping up with what other writers are doing is kind of a job requirement, but I sometimes just don’t read at all.   Unfortunate but you know how it goes, *insert modern life* and all your plans are suddenly negotiable.  Regardless, I did do a fair bit of reading while away.  I’m not including buy links, just look ‘em up yourself. You got the internet on that thing, right?

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

A nice book about how to die well.  I contemplate own mortality with more frequency than most people (don’t applaud, it’s maybe a bad thing) so nothing in here stunned me, but its gentle solace is a perfect fit for these grieving times.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Did Not Finish at 40%.  I might have finished it if it was the only book at a beach cottage when the weather was bad.  I’m not big on murder mysteries and we’ll leave it at that, because I have Many Feelings about this book, its plot, its characters, and other books like it which I don’t want to voice. Inevitably, there’s a movie now.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

A brave little novel that tries really hard to not be a Cancer Story by being a book about books, yet is still inescapably a Cancer Story. But good, though I found the dialogue a bit forced. Yes, the characters are well-read for their age, but my own 19th Century aristocrats barely talk that high falutin’.  The author character was a nice touch, but again, another book I only read because it was on the shelf at the vacation rental.

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

I have no logical response to Alexis Hall ‘s romance novels. They’re all amazing IF you like his style, which is exuberant and passionate and unapologetically queer and very “head-space” with lots of ruminations by the main character. I will resist the urge to discourse on the historical antecedents of this sort of novel, but rest assured Hall does it on purpose.

What we end up with is a scorching POV of a man with serious mental illness and his star-crossed lover from Essex which is evidently the UK equivalent of the Jersey Shore. I told Hall himself that I hadn’t read a finer regional accent in prose since Irvine Welsh, and I now call everyone a ‘donut’ when they mess up but adorably. Ten million stars. It’s about to get reissued with (ahhh!!!!) bonus content and for the first time ever I am going to buy a book I already own.

His Lordship’s Secret by Samantha SoRelle

Born in poverty, ascended to wealth, Alfie hires his long lost friend Domenic to protect him from whomever is trying to kill him.  Events Ensue in a twisty and quite macabre Regency-era plot with interesting class commentary and solid period detail. I love a “dress you up” trope, which I didn’t expect to encounter but which aligned perfectly with our historical fashion-themed vacation. All in all, a nifty self-published novel in the growing canon of Queer Historical Romance

The Middle of Somewhere by Roan Parrish

Barely news (there’s a pun in there) to anyone who reads MM Contemporary Romance, but I am a decade behind thanks to an extended reading drought. Aaaaaaaanyway, I don’t typically like present tense in novels, but I grit my teeth and kept on with this one, because what else do you do on the plane? I was rewarded with good, gritty characters and a strong love story that hits a lot of comforting tropes without being too stereotypical. And the sex scenes are lit.

Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater

An author who is finally getting the acclaim she deserves. Like her prior Regency fairy tale Half A Soul, this was a joy to read, with wonderful, complex female leads and a heart-breaking yet ultimately redeeming love story driven by genuine personal growth on everyone’s part. I adore her rendering of the realm of Faerie, 10/10 would visit but very cautiously. This story also aligned with our fashion-themed vacation, being mainly to do with magical embroidery e.g. the ten thousand stitches of the title.  Bravo Ms Atwater!

WHAT RUINED ME Episode 1: ‘Orlando’ by Virginia Woolf

~ Will Forrest ~ 1 Comment

I was perhaps nine when I read Orlando. My mother was a literature major, and our house was chockers with Penguin Classics with their orange and black and pale green spines. I’m confident that in letting me read whatever books I liked, she did not intend to implant in me the idea that one could just…become another gender.

Becoming ‘other’ was already a given in my mythology. Animals become heroes.  Ordinary children become mighty kings and queens. Wardrobes become portals, and the very best parties turn into treasure hunts.  As long as you know where your towel is, the rest will work itself out, more or less. I was thus very comfortable with the idea of waking up one day as someone else and it all being perfectly manageable and not at all like hell (Kafka aside).

The matter-of-factness in Orlando is one of its strengths. Though the book is about gender, it is not really about trans identity, which at the time of its writing was certainly extant but not under such terms as we know it today. Orlando doesn’t consciously surrender their gender. It is instead taken away by unspecified means, which are beside the point as Orlando goes on to navigate their new gender while retaining the perceptual filters of their first.

Can I confess to remembering very little otherwise? Adult attempts at reading Woolf have been troublesome. Her style of writing is an effort to read, and I am generally disinterested in domestic dramas, so there go most of her plots. This book is however iconoclastic, and is up there with Voltaire’s Candide and Orwell’s Animal Farm as a literary classic worth trying to get people to read when they’re far too young.

Can’t be arsed reading? There’s a film… https://www.indiewire.com/2012/09/heroines-of-cinema-tilda-swinton-and-sally-potters-orlando-44615/