Category: Demisexual

The Olive Conspiracy (Mangoverse #4)

By Shira Glassman

In book four of the Mangoverse series, Mizrahi Jewish lesbian queen Shulamit defends one of her citizens, a trans woman, who is being blackmailed. She also revisits a childhood crush and engages with international politics and eco terrorism. There are subplots including lesbian farmers and a straight cis woman who crossdresses as a man to be a warrior.

Publisher’s Description:

A love story between women, between queen and country, and between farmers and their crops.

When Ezra tries to blackmail Chef Yael about her being trans, she throws him out of her restaurant and immediately reports him to the queen. But when police find Ezra stabbed to death, Queen Shulamit realizes he may have also tried to extort someone more dangerous than a feisty old lady.

The royal investigation leads straight to an international terrorist plot to destroy her country’s economy—and worse, her first love, Crown Princess Carolina of Imbrio, may be involved. Since she’s got a dragon-shifting wizard at her disposal, contacts with friendly foreign witches, and the support of her partner Aviva, Shulamit has hope. What she doesn’t have is time.

 

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Shulamit, Rivka, Aviva, Hadar, Halleli, Carolina
Cis boys: Isaac
Trans girls: Yael

Sexuality:
Lesbian: Shulamit, Hadar, Halleli
Bisexual: Aviva, Yael
Demisexual: Rivka
Heterosexual: Isaac, Carolina

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Shulamit
Biromantic: Aviva, Yael
Heteroromantic: Rivka, Isaac, Carolina

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Rivka, Isaac, Carolina
Middle Eastern/North African: Shulamit, Aviva, Yael, Hadar, Halleli

Religion:
Judaism: Shulamit, Aviva, Isaac

Disability:
Food allergies. Shulamit has gluten intolerance and is allergic to fowl.

Ownvoices: Ownvoices for bisexuality and food allergies.

 

A Harvest of Ripe Figs (Mangoverse #3)

By Shira Glassman

Publisher’s Description:

Esther of the Singing Hands is Perach’s Sweetheart, a young and beautiful musician with a Girl Next Door image. When her violin is stolen after a concert in the capital city, she doesn’t expect the queen herself to show up, intent upon solving the mystery.

But Queen Shulamit–lesbian, intellectual, and mother of the six month old crown princess–loves to play detective. With the help of her legendary bodyguard Rivka and her dragon, and with the support of her partner Aviva the Chef, Shulamit turns her mind toward the solution–which she quickly begins to suspect involves the use of illegal magic that could threaten the safety of her citizens.

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Shulamit, Rivka, Aviva, Esther
Cis boys: Isaac, Tzuriel
Trans boys: Micah

Sexuality:
Lesbian: Shulamit
Bisexual: Aviva
Demisexual: Rivka
Heterosexual: Isaac, Esther, Tzuriel

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Shulamit
Biromantic: Aviva
Heteroromantic: Rivka, Isaac, Esther, Tzuriel

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Rivka, Isaac
Multiracial: Tzuriel
Middle Eastern/North African: Shulamit, Aviva, Micah, Esther

Religion:
Judaism: Shulamit, Aviva, Isaac, Esther, Micah

Disability:
Food allergies: Shulamit has gluten intolerance and is allergic to fowl.
Physical disability: Isaac’s right hand can’t close.

Trigger Warnings:
Though the overall environment is accepting, Shulamit starts off ignorant about transgender people and makes some mistakes.

Ownvoices: Ownvoices for bisexuality and food allergies.

 

 

Climbing the Date Palm (Mangoverse #2)

By Shira Glassman

In the second book of the Mangoverse series, lesbian Jewish queen Shulamit and her bisexual girlfriend partner with bisexual prince Kaveh to rescue Kaveh’s boyfriend, an engineer who has been imprisoned for labor organizing.

Publisher’s Description:

Prince Kaveh, the youngest son of the king of the City of Red Clay, is bisexual, and completely besotted with Farzin, the engineer his father hired to oversee the improvements to the city’s roads and bridges. However, the king doesn’t share his positive feelings. After Farzin ends up at the head of the protest that ensues when the workers are only paid a third of their promised wages, he’s thrown in prison and is scheduled to be executed.

Queen Shulamit, who rules over the neighboring nation of Perach, is eager to assist the desperate prince. She, too, loves justice and has a same-sex partner. She’s also hoping Kaveh, with his royal blood, is willing to give her and her sweetheart a legitimate heir in exchange. But can she find a peaceful solution that will pacify the king next door, get his workers fairly paid, and free Farzin? Or will she and her dragon-riding bodyguard Rivka have to go to war?

 

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Shulamit, Rivka, Aviva
Cis boys: Isaac, Kaveh, Farzin

Sexuality:
Gay: Farzin
Lesbian: Shulamit
Bisexual: Aviva, Kaveh
Demisexual: Rivka
Heterosexual: Isaac

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Shulamit, Farzin
Biromantic: Aviva, Kaveh
Heteroromantic: Rivka, Isaac

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Rivka, Isaac
Middle Eastern/North African: Shulamit, Aviva, Kaveh, Farzin

Religion:
Judaism: Shulamit, Aviva, Isaac

Disability:
Food allergies. Shulamit has gluten intolerance and is allergic to fowl.
Mental illness: Kaveh has anxiety.

Trigger Warnings: Homophobia/homomisia, Biphobia/bimisia

Ownvoices: Ownvoices for bisexuality and anxiety.

 

 

The Second Mango (Mangoverse #1)

By Shira Glassman

A fun, fluffy fantasy romance featuring a Jewish lesbian queen with food allergies who rides a shape shifting dragon, accompanied by a demisexual woman disguised as a man as her guard. They set off on an adventure to find Queen Shulamit a girlfriend, and end up on a mission to rescue her ex.

Publisher’s Description:

Queen Shulamit never expected to inherit the throne of the tropical land of Perach so young. At twenty, grief-stricken and fatherless, she’s also coping with being the only lesbian she knows after her sweetheart ran off for an unknown reason. Not to mention, she’s the victim of severe digestive problems that everybody thinks she’s faking. When she meets Rivka, an athletic and assertive warrior from the north who wears a mask and pretends to be a man, she finds the source of strength she needs so desperately.

Unfortunately for her, Rivka is straight, but that’s okay — Shulamit needs a surrogate big sister just as much as she needs a girlfriend. Especially if the warrior’s willing to take her around the kingdom on the back of her dragon in search of other women who might be open to same-sex romance. The real world outside the palace is full of adventure, however, and the search for a royal girlfriend quickly turns into a rescue mission when they discover a temple full of women turned to stone by an evil sorcerer.

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Shulamit, Rivka, Aviva
Cis boys: Isaac

Sexuality:
Lesbian: Shulamit
Bisexual: Aviva
Demisexual: Rivka
Heterosexual: Isaac

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Shulamit
Biromantic: Aviva
Heteroromantic: Rivka, Isaac

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Rivka, Isaac
Middle Eastern/North African: Shulamit, Aviva

Religion:
Judaism: Shulamit, Aviva, Isaac

Disability:
Food allergies. Shulamit has gluten intolerance and is allergic to fowl.

Ownvoices: Ownvoices for bisexuality and food allergies.

 

 

Afterworlds

By Scott Westerfeld

Seventeen year old Darcy’s paranormal romance (written during NaNoWriMo) just got a huge publishing deal. She moves to New York City and edits her novel while entering the world of publishing. The chapters alternate between the text of her book– a paranormal romance starring a Hindu psychopomp– and her own experience as she navigates NYC and falls for a fellow writer.

Publisher’s Description: 

“BELIEVING IS DANGEROUS…

Darcy Patel is afraid to believe all the hype. But it’s really happening – her teen novel is getting published. Instead of heading to college, she’s living in New York City, where she’s welcomed into the dazzling world of YA publishing. That means book tours, parties with her favorite authors, and finding a place to live that won’t leave her penniless. It means sleepless nights rewriting her first draft and struggling to find the perfect ending… all while dealing with the intoxicating, terrifying experience of falling in love – with another writer.

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy’s novel, the thrilling story of Lizzie, who wills her way into the afterworld to survive a deadly terrorist attack. With survival comes the responsibility to guide the restless spirits that walk our world, including one ghost with whom she shares a surprising personal connection. But Lizzie’s not alone in her new calling – she has counsel from a fellow spirit guide, a very desirable one, who is torn between wanting Lizzie and warning her that…

BELIEVING IS DANGEROUS.

In a brilliant high-wire act of weaving two epic narratives – and two unforgettable heroines – into one novel, Scott Westerfeld’s latest work is a triumph of storytelling.”

Genre: Science Fiction

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Darcy

Sexual and Romantic Orientation:
Darcy is demisexual and queer

Romantic Orientation:
Darcy is demiromantic and homoromantic.

Race/Ethnicity:
Darcy is Indian-American

Additional Notes:
Darcy is never labelled as demisexual on the page but Scott Westerfeld confirmed it in a tweet.

Stranger (The Change #1)

By Rachel Manija Brown

The earth is changed, and so are the people. Sun flares caused mutations and powers in individuals, and Ross Juarez travels through Las Anclas holding a powerful artifact. People are coming for it, and it’s time to run.

 

That Inevitable Victorian Thing

By E.K. Johnston

In another future, colonialism didn’t happen, multi-cultural diversity was revered, and Queen Victoria I had an heir in the form of her daughter. Now Victoria-Margaret is Crown Princess, spending her last season as Margaret Sandwich, where she meets two women she bonds with forever.

Publisher’s Description:

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendent of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history. The imperial tradition of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage. But before she does her duty, she’ll have one summer of freedom and privacy in a far corner of empire. Posing as a commoner in Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire’s greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an extraordinary bond and maybe a one-in-a-million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process.

Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved not by the cost of blood and theft but by the effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a surprising, romantic, and thought-provoking story of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.

Genre: Science Fiction

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Margaret, August
Intersex: Helena

Sexual Orientation:
Bisexual but leaning toward Pansexual: Helena
Heterosexual but still new at this: August
Queer and Demisexual: Margaret

Romantic Orientation:
Biromantic but leaning toward Panromantic: Helena
Heteromantic: August
Queer and Demiromantic: Margaret

Race/Ethnicity:
Helena is white.  Margaret is multi-racial. August is Chinese-Irish.

Other notes:
At the end of the novel Margaret, August and Helena are in a polyamourous relationship as confirmed by the author on Goodreads.  Author confirmed character representation.

 

 

Daughter of the Burning City

By Amanda Foody

When Sorina’s starts getting murdered, she wants to know who’s behind the killings and why. In the course of her investigation she’ll learn more about the world than her sheltered upbringing ever showed her and she may, perhaps, even find someone to be her prince or princess in the fairy tale ending she dreams of in a story that seeks to explore what it means to be human.

Publisher’s Description:

A darkly irresistible new fantasy set in the infamous Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery that caters to the strangest of dreams and desires

Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.

But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.

Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca. Their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all her loved ones disappear.

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Sorina, Nicoleta, Venera, Hawk
Cis boys: Luca, Unu, Du, Crown, Blister

Sexuality:
Lesbian: Nicoleta
Bisexual: Sorina
Demisexual: Luca
Heterosexual: Venera, Hawk, Unu, Du, Crown, Blister

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Nicoleta
Biromantic: Sorina
Heteroromantic: Venera, Hawk, Unu, Du, Crown, Blister
Demiromantic: Luca

Race/Ethnicity:
Not mentioned.

Religion:
Atheism: Sorina

Disability:
Sorina has no eyes and thus faces microaggressions based on her appearance.

Trigger Warnings:
Murder
Aphobia/Amisia
Self-harm

Additional Notes:
One of the plot twists may be harmful to readers on the asexual spectrum.