Queer Windows - Cay Fletcher

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Author: Cay Fletcher

Genre: Fantasy Anthology, LGBTQ+
Rating: 3 stars.

A collection of four stories with certain themes in common – love, queer protagonists, fantasy, and spring. 

Let me tackle these one by one:

👉 Love: Mea culpa - I assumed “love” meant “romance”. But the book isn’t romance, at least not in the traditional sense of the genre. As the blurb itself says (which I simply forgot), “Love comes in all forms, from enduring friendships, the classic love at first sight, and misunderstandings that unfurl into blooming romance.” As per my current reading preferences, I don’t like traditional romances or love-at-first-sight, so this collection was good at least on that count.

👉 Queer protagonists: Well, yeah. All the stories have same-sex character interactions. A couple use the old trope of enemy-to-friend while another is about mysterious interactions with strangers. But something fell short in making the protagonists memorable. I am not sure what.

👉 Fantasy: Three of the stories have very strong elements of fantasy. The remaining tale felt more historical than fantastical.

👉 Spring: Ditto feedback as above. The author seems to have a fondness for gardens, plants and nature. The three stories that incorporate these ideas work far better than the one that doesn’t.

The book is about 120 pages long, and each story gets almost equal space. The writing is simple and sweet. The author shines in her descriptions of nature. The tales are somewhat slow, but two of them kept me interested from start to end.

THE FOUR STORIES:
🌺 The Wizard's Garden
Magical plants and a wizard and pipe dragons and a plant lover. Not romance. More like falling in friendship than falling in love. But that always works better for me. My favourite story of the book. Perfectly developed, intriguing characters, sweet ending.
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

🌺 Rosemary for Remembrance
Again set around a garden. Started off wonderfully but soon the flow became jumpy. The ending felt incomplete. Would have loved it to have smoother continuity and a better ending.
🌟🌟🌟

🌺 Kingdom Fall
Didn’t like this at all. Lots of rambling, either through inner monologues or between the two protagonists. Seems more like a play than a story what with everything happening only in one extended scene. Was bored and had to force myself to complete it.
🌟

🌺 Lady of Spring
A-coming-of-age story that was good but could have been far better. Too many characters for such a short story. Enjoyed the magical elements in this one.
🌟🌟🌟💫


3 stars based on the average of my ratings for the four stories.

Recommended to those who want to read an unusual #OwnVoices anthology with a touch of magic.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author through ‘Lucy Talks Books’ on Twitter, and these are my honest thoughts about it.


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