Fiction:
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher was short but a lot of fun! Fourteen year old Mona lives in Riverbraid, which has a number of wizards with odd small talents; Mona’s magic works best with dough and baked goods. She is learning her trade in her Aunt Tabitha’s bakery, where she unexpectedly finds a dead body, which leads to a much larger and more frightening mystery: who is after the wizards of Riverbraid? And what can be done about it, if you have no power? Together with Spindle, a boy who grew up on the street and whose sister was a victim of the murder, Mona reluctantly is thrust into finding out what can be done, and what she herself will have to do, to save the city. Though her aunt and uncle provide support both physical and emotional, at times she’s separated from them and realizes it’s not always the person who should be doing things who actually does them, and that anyone can step up if the need is dire.
A Power Unbound by Freya Marske finally came through on my library hold, and I really enjoyed it! The class difference between the two protagonists, Jack Alston and Alanzo Rossi, is foregrounded throughout and I was pleased to see that it wasn’t tidily resolved at the end. I also enjoyed the way Jack and Alan found in each other a partner for treasured fantasies that added extra spice to their relationship. As this book is third in the “Last Binding” series, as you might expect the characters from the previous two books return and the plot resolves the whole trilogy with some new and intriguing twists in the worldbuilding.
Fanfiction:
a kind of dwell and welcome by leupagus is a male/male romance between Ted Lasso, American football coach, and Trent Crimm, a journalist and author. I’ve only seen a few episodes of Ted Lasso, but I was able to follow and really enjoyed this, especially its exploration of a middle-aged man feeling intense sexual attraction for the first time, and for the first time being attracted to a man, and figuring out what it is and what he wants to do about it, and how their families will adjust to these post-divorce relationships. From what I’ve seen on the show all the characterizations felt spot-on, and though it’s a lowkey story overall, I was engrossed by the subtle maturation of the romance.
If You Give a Bat a Burger by Cielle_Noire crosses over Batman and the Batfam (Robin, Red Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, Oracle, Spoiler, Batgirl, and Signal) with Danny Phantom, a cartoon series I have not seen but figured out from the supplied context, and guest-starring John Constantine (Hellblazer). This epic is over 300,000 words, but I kept going for the intriguing worldbuilding relating to ghosts in Gotham and how that might relate to the Lazarus Pits and various other DC comics lore. Danny is a refugee from his home town, fleeing a government agency that would make him and his ghostly powers into an experimental subject. In Gotham, he finds more ghosts than there should be, and that they’re up to something…but he also has to go to high school, feed himself, and keep the ghosts in check, leaving little time for mysteries. It’s a good thing he eventually has help.
