Opinions of a Wolf

Summary:
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.

Review:
When this was submitted to me as a possible review copy for 2016, I was immediately intrigued by a queer fantasy cozy. Often LGBTQ books can land too much in the “issues” genre or the romance genre. This is a place where indie books excel. Traditional publishing can be a bit hesitant to offer up any other genre with queer people at the center, but indie books know that there is a demand for this. LGBTQ people read all genres, why shouldn’t our books represent that? After I read this book I wanted to advertise it from the rooftops for precisely that audience — LGBTQ people who just want to see themselves represented in their favorite genre of literature.

If you’ve ever wanted a cozy fantasy series where the main characters just so happen to be queer, this is the series for you. And don’t worry about reading out of order if you happen to start with this one. In traditional cozy fashion, each tale is perfectly capable of standing on its own, and you can read them in whatever order you like.

The one thing I would say for cozy readers is while most of this book is traditionally cozy (not too violent of a mystery, a lovely town you’d love to visit) the sex in it is more explicit than what is traditionally found in a cozy. Rather than fading to black we get some light (very light) sex scenes. I enjoyed these scenes but readers who don’t expect that in a cozy should be aware.

In addition to there being multiple queer characters, not to just one, (lesbian, bisexual, gender nonconforming, trans), feminism is also a natural part of the read. Women are in positions of power without giving up their femininity or other life choices, such as having a baby. Sometimes Shulamit, the queen, can verge into a bit preachy, but I felt that was acceptable since she is a queen, after all, and rulers have a tendency to be preachy.

In addition to the diverse cast with a strong female presence, this fantasy land is centered around Judaism and what I believe to be a Middle Eastern inspired area. It’s a non-medieval Europe fantasy, and we all know how hard those are to find. While I am not Jewish myself, I have close friends who are, and I know how hard it can be for them at times to feel that their culture isn’t represented in fictional universes. I think having a kingdom that is undoubtedly Jewish would be something many of them would enjoy. A fantasy world where shops need to close up by sunset on Friday, for instance.

The mystery was probably my favorite part of the book. I truly wasn’t 100% certain who’d done it throughout the book, and I thought that it was both a crime of serious nature with an important time frame for solving it without being bloody.

While I enjoyed visiting the world Glassman has imagined what I thought most while reading this was how much I wanted to help get it out to the audience whose hearts would thrill to see themselves represented in the genres they enjoy most. If you’re a queer and/or Jewish reader who wants representation in fantasy and/or cozies, you must try out this series.

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4 out of 5 stars

Source: Kindle copy from author in exchange for my honest review

Length: 228 pages – average but on the shorter side

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Giveaway!

This giveaway is now over. Congrats to our winner!
There were 3 entries, 1 via twitter and 2 via comments. Twitter entries were collected into the sheet first, followed by blog comments, in order. Random.org selected entry 2 as the winner, and the second entry on the sheet was dialmformara. Congrats!

Thanks to the generosity of the author, one lucky Opinions of a Wolf reader can win a copy of this ebook.

How to Enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post stating what genre you would like to see more representation in of LGBTQ or other minority groups.
2. Copy/paste the following and tweet it from your public twitter. Retweets do not count:
   Enter to win A HARVEST OF RIPE FIGS by @ShiraGlassman, hosted by @McNeilAuthor http://buff.ly/2g09G9V #ff #cozy #giveaway #fantasy
3. Repost the Instagram giveaway announcement and tag my Instagram.
4. Tag three of your friends on the Instagram giveaway announcement.

Each options gets you one entry. Multiple tweets/Instagram posts do not count as multiple entries.

Who Can Enter: International

Contest Ends: December 11th at midnight

Disclaimer: The winner will have their book sent to them by the author.  The blogger is not responsible for sending the book.  Void where prohibited by law.