Pride Month

and a transgender protagonist

I recently finished A Lady for a Duke. I didn’t know the protagonist was a transgender woman when I bought it. Upon second reading of the book blurb it was vague but I see what they did with it. “When Viola Carroll was presumed dead at Waterloo, she took the opportunity to live…” Hey, I watch Outlander. Claire’s on the front lines all the time. But Viola was Marleigh before the battle.

If it’d clearly stated transgender woman would I have still purchased it? I can’t say for sure. I didn’t cry “bait and switch!”; instead I told just about anybody who would listen how intriguing and unique the storyline was. Alexis Hall did a great job with exploring love at its core not at its body surface. Doesn’t everyone want to be seen & made love to for who they are, not how they look?

Sloan Spencer’s Structural Damage normalized Throuple relationships developing characters that truly care about each other. I like books that shake up my thinking and help me reframe some presumptions. Up next is Marshall Thorton’s The Pink. All his books are based on LGBTQ characters and in the mystery genre.

Me? I’ve dabbled with Bella and Portia in Whispers for Terra and in The Nickel Loop my absolute favorite character is Edmund, a gay man who travels from 1938 to current day to escape the limitations of the era. My current WIP is in discovery mode. I have an inkling Anne and Linda are starting up something in 1955 but they haven’t really shared it with me yet.

Do you have a favorite for Pride Month?