Matthew reads, I guess...

So today I’m talking about Links by Natsuki Kizu. This is the same person who created the Given manga. Now, I haven’t read Given yet, but it’s one of those that I have on my list to read. Big fan that it’s a manga that, as far as I’m aware, has finished serialisation, but there are nine volumes, so I wanted to read this one first before to see whether I liked Kizu’s style before committing to Given . The blurb says that this is a collection of intertwining stories that follow four not-quite lovers as they find what links them together. Akiha plays the piano and ponders his relationship with Yahiko, a friend with benefits he can’t quite bring himself to call his lover regardless of how freely Yahiko cares for him. Despite their constant bickering, Sado and Nakajo appear close enough to be lovers. But Nakajo has convinced himself he can never have Sado, which leads him to seek out reasons to hate him even as he stays by his side. Shibata is an overly friendly older man who rather in...

  Now I don’t want to scare anyone with what I’m about to say… This book that I’m talking about today is not only part of a trilogy (I think), but it’s fantasy, and it’s not queer. I know, don’t throw tomatoes at me just yet. But I’m talking about Dragon Age Stolen Throne by David Gaider today which, I could not tell you when I got it, but I know I’ve owned this, and the two other David Gaider Dragon Age books for over a decade, and I’ve never read them. I know that I originally bought them after playing Dragon Age: Origins all the way back on my old Xbox 360 at the same sort of time I got some books based on the Fable games. The blurb says when his mother, the beloved Rebel Queen, is betrayed and brutally murdered before his eyes, young Maric becomes the leader of a rebel army, fighting for the freedom of his cruelly repressed nation. In a land controlled by fear, and struggling to command a formidable army, Maric’s only allies are the outlaw Loghain and Rowan, the beautiful...

  Now not to brag, but my copy of Rani Choudhry Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar that I’m talking about today is signed. I say that like I got it specially and that there weren’t just a few signed copies for sale in the shop I bought it from. I will also say, Adiba Jaigirdar is one of those authors that I think I just like the style of the writing. Because you know how books with sometimes have an “also by x author”? I’ve read all but one of Jaigirdar’s books according to that list. Anyway, the blurb says that Meghna and Rani used to be friends. Now they’re bitter rivals. Or are they? When Meghna fails to make it to the final round of a competition, but her boyfriend Zak and her rival Rani do, she thinks things can’t get much worse. Until she discovers Zak has been cheating on her. With Rani. Rani is bold and beautiful. Rani is scheming and evil. Rani MUST die. Except… maybe Rani is a victim too? Determined to expose Zak as the lying cheat he is, Meghna and Rani forge a reluctant tr...