Episode 407 – Recommendations for your Seasonal Enjoyment

Dec 5, 2022

Jeff & Will offer up recommendations for watching and reading during the holiday season. Among the shows they discuss are The Big Brunch, Chucky, Ted Lasso, Spirited, and Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas? In addition they shout out the upcoming queer holiday rom-coms, The Holiday Sitter on Hallmark Channel and A Christmas to Treasure on Lifetime.

In books, Jeff talks about his recent Alice Oseman binge, and Will raves about his Annabeth Albert binge. Then it’s on to holiday reads with books by Lee Blair, Mia Monroe, Robin Knight, and Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone.

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Show Notes

Here are the things we talk about in this episode. Please note, these links include affiliate links for which we may make a small commission at no extra cost to you should you make a purchase. These links are current at the time the episode premieres, however links are subject to change.

Transcript 

This transcript was made possible by our community on Patreon. You can get information on how to join them at patreon.com/biggayfictionpodcast.

Intro

Jeff: Coming up on this episode, we’re going to tell you about what we’ve been reading and watching recently.

Will: Welcome to episode 407 of the Big Gay Fiction Podcast, the show for avid readers and passionate fans of queer romance fiction. I’m Will, and with me, as always, is my co-host and husband, Jeff.

Jeff: Hello, Rainbow Romance Reader. It’s great to have you back for another episode of the show.

As always, the podcast is brought to you in part by our remarkable community on Patreon. Thanks to Fiona for recently joining us. If you’d like more information about what we offer to patrons you can go over to patreon.com/biggayfictionpodcast.

TV Recommendations

Will: So to kick off this all review special, we’re going to very quickly tell you about some of the things that we’ve been watching and enjoying recently. Not in any great detail because if we do, we’ll be here for a couple of hours.

First off, if you love cooking competitions, please check out “The Big Brunch,” which is Dan Levy’s new cooking competition show on HBO Max. So you got cooking, you’ve got Dan Levy. Enough said.

Jeff: Yeah, that’s really all you need to know. But maybe eat before you get there cause oh my God, the food that gets made.

Will: The show is charming. It is fun. Positively jam packed with passionate chefs who managed to convey their passion without being pretentious about it, which I believe is the show’s greatest achievement.

Jeff: I would completely agree. It’s very kind. It’s in the “Great British Bake Off” vibe of comfort television. It’s just beautiful and they’re really doing some good work here to improve communities as well. It’s lovely. Give it a watch.

Will: I also wanna quickly mention the second season of “Chucky.” This year everybody’s favorite teenage love birds. Devon and Jake, along with their best friend Lexy, are sent off to Catholic reform School and terrorized by various versions of Chucky.

And in the mid-season, we actually got a Jennifer Tilly murder mystery episode featuring an all-star guest cast. And I really think they couldn’t top that. But then they wrapped up season two with a Christmas special, and it was insane and outrageous, very bloody, and very festive.

Jeff: Those two words don’t often go together.

Will: It was completely bonkers. And I can’t wait for season three.

Jeff: Yeah, me too. This show just continues to push so many boundaries of what you would expect from a horror franchise. Good on you Don Mancini cause these shows are fun and kooky. And yeah, can’t wait for season three. You can find “Chucky” on USA and SyFy on demand and it should be along anytime now on Peacock to stream season two, alongside season one.

Will: In the category of better late than never, Jeff and I binged… and I mean binged hard… over a Thanksgiving weekend, we finally got around to watching “Ted Lasso.” And you don’t need us to tell you it’s genius. It is just as perfect as everyone says it. So don’t be like us, go watch it right now.

Jeff: And if you’ve already watched it, tis the season to rewatch the animated Christmas short that they did, cause that was just a little extra bonus of genius to come across on the menu of Apple TV+.

Will: Speaking of Apple TV+, they recently premiered their big, glossy holiday film “Spirited,” which I’ve heard people describe online as a Broadway musical disguised as a movie, and I couldn’t agree more.

It’s a riff on the idea of three spirits of Christmas doing their job as they do every year. But this time when they encounter a heartless misanthrope, things go awry in the most festive way possible. It features Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. It’s all singing, all dancing, all 100% charming. Check it out immediately.

Jeff: I absolutely adored it. I figured I would from the first time I saw the tap dancing preview that was circulating around, but it just exceeded my expectations in every way. And it really takes the story of the three Christmas spirits in a way that you really haven’t seen it before. It was smart, and the singing and dancing was awesome. Oooh. I may have to watch it again before the season’s over.

Will: And in the festive singing tradition of “Spirited,” might I suggest the newest Christmas special from Matt Rogers, which just premiered on Showtime. The host of the “Las Culturistas” podcast and one of the delightful co-stars of this summer’s Austen inspired gay rom-com “Fire Island,” has decided that the next ideal move for his career is to record a Christmas album. Nevermind that he’s not a pop star. He’s not going to let that stop him. And what follows is a Christmas special that’s intimate and festive, shot at Joe’s Pub in New York, packed with all of the bat-crap crazy Christmas songs that only Matt Rogers could come up with.

Jeff: They are so insane. The thing is, the songs are hilarious, but he has an amazing voice. He could be in a Broadway musical with that voice, so you’ve got crazy lyrics with this amazing voice. It was just brilliant.

Will: Here’s the thing, nobody loves the glitz and the earnest schmaltzy sincerity of Christmas more than me. And the only thing I love better is when someone can poke fun and parody that earnest, sincere schmaltz. And nobody does it quite like Matt Rogers. So if you have the opportunity, please check out his special, “Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas?” It is currently airing on Showtime and streaming on the network as well.

We also want to quickly mention things that we are looking forward to this Christmas season. We’ve got not one, but two cable TV, Christmas rom-coms to look forward to.

The first of which is “The Holiday Sitter,” which is airing on Hallmark. It premieres on December 11th. In this one, Sam played by Jonathan Bennett, he’s a workaholic bachelor who babysits his niece and nephew before the holidays when his sister and her husband have to go out of town. Completely out of his element, he recruits help from their handsome neighbor, Jason, and finds himself in an unexpected romance. All of the previews that I’ve seen so far look absolutely hilarious and utterly charming. I cannot wait for “The Holiday Sitter.”

Jeff: I’m so looking forward to this. Jonathan Bennett knows his way around a Hallmark movie. He’s also an executive producer on this film. I can’t wait. I’m gonna be sitting right in front of the TV with the popcorn ready to go.

Will: And premiering just a few days later on, December 16th, on lifetime is “A Christmas to Treasure.” In this one, the passing of beloved Ms. Marley reunites six estranged friends for one final hometown holiday treasure hunt. As the search unfolds and fond childhood memories are relived, sparks fly between Austin and his former best friend Everett. The gang find the hidden treasure before the city has the chance to turn the Marley house into a holiday resort, but the blossoming holiday romance between Austin and Everett may turn out to be the greatest Christmastime treasure of all.

This one also sounds utterly delightful. The two leads in this one are actually played by real life husbands, Taylor Frey and Kyle Dean Massey. And I can’t wait to watch this one either.

Jeff: Yeah. I’m a big fan of Kyle. We’ve seen him on stage in some Broadway musicals before. He also knows his way around a Christmas movie cause he’s done a couple on the Hallmark Channel. It looks at utter delight.

Please watch these movies. Watch them live if you can. Let that be known to the networks so that we can have more of these movies in years to come.

Will: “The Holiday Sitter” premieres on December 11th. “A Christmas to Treasure” premieres on December 16th. You can catch reruns through the rest of the season or stream them on their respective networks.

So that’s what we’ve been watching. How about we talk about some books now?

Book Reviews

Jeff: Yeah, let’s do that. You can be sure there’s some holiday reads to talk about, but before we get there, let’s talk about some non-holiday stuff.

Heartstopper Coloring Book, Heartstopper Yearbook, and I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman

Jeff: I went on a bit of an Alice Oseman binge recently. I snagged a couple of the “Heartstopper” books that have just come out. I’ve gotten so much joy from the “Heartstopper Coloring Book.” I really had no idea that I would find coloring so soothing. But I have loved coloring in Charlie, Nick, and the whole gang. And have been actually strangely mesmerized watching these images go from black and white into color. I don’t know what is happening in my brain, but I’ve so much enjoyed just watching that gradual transition. Now I have to admit that my color choices are not always great. Every now and then I show Will and go, “What did I do here? This is just not quite right.” But sometimes what I envision in my head just doesn’t quite work to plan. But I’ve still had such a good time and I’m looking forward to coloring my way through the entire book.

I also got the “Heartstopper Yearbook,” which is such a wonderful time capsule of all things “Heartstopper” so far. Now I’m a bit of a late comer to “Heartstopper,” only getting on the bandwagon with the Netflix series, but in that time I’ve caught up having read the four books that are out so far. And the “Yearbook” was a wonderful kind of, bringing it all together because it has details on Nick and Charlie’s origin and how Alice started to draw them and how they’ve evolved.

There’s even alternative universe art, holiday art, additional short stories. I delighted in this book so much, I basically read it in an afternoon. And I was excited to see just this past week that “Heartstopper” season two has wrapped production, which means that it’s that much closer to coming back to our TV screens on Netflix.

I’ve also read Alice’s new novel. “I Was Born for This.” This is the story of Angel Rahimi, who is a mega fan of the Boy Band, The ArK. She’s off to London, skipping what would be the equivalent of high school graduation to meet up with Juliet, a friend that she knows from the online fandom so that they can attend a meet and greet and see the band’s concert at the O2 Arena

Angel’s Muslim parents don’t understand the allure of the band or making this trip, but Angel goes even while they wish that she would not. They’re supportive, but concerned about her obsession with the band. It’s not all perfect when she meets up with Juliet either who has actually invited someone else to hang out with them.

The book is also about Jimmy Kaga-Ricci, The Ark’s front man. He’s been in that position since he and his friends joined together, played in his grandfather’s garage, and made YouTube videos. For all the success though, being in the band, and especially as their fame grows, isn’t good for his anxiety. And while the fans are accepting of Jimmy being trans, they ship him and band mate Rowan. Now Jimmy and Rowan are best friends, but they don’t love each other like that. Rowan actually has a girlfriend that he can’t let the fans know about.

Over a few fateful days, Angel and Jimmy’s world collide as she helps him out when the meet and greet goes quite wrong. I really love what Alice did with this story. Taking a look at fandom and stardom and the tolls it can take. Angel is so deep in the fandom, she doesn’t see what she’s missing with her family and her friends—especially Juliet, who has had so much going on and desperately wants to talk about it, but she feels that Angel only wants to talk about The Ark.

And then there’s Jimmy who loves making music, but the demand of the fans and how that prevents him from even being able to go outside alone without the risk of being mobbed or hurt, along with being trolled on social media is so intense that he considers quitting the band to get some privacy and peace back.

Now, this story was made all the more powerful due to the real world news that came out as I was reading it when Kit Connor, who plays Nick on “Heartstopper,” was forced to come out as bi. No one, public figure or not, should be forced to publicly label themselves or give more of themselves to the public than they are comfortable with. We see this demand made of actors, musicians, authors, and other so-called public figures and it’s really gross. And I hope that those who read “I Was Born for This” can see the unhealthy ways our society participates in stardom and fandom sometimes.

I very much enjoyed this book, including all the difficult and emotional parts. Angel and Jimmy were terrific characters, approaching the band from very different angles. And in the long run they each learned so much about themselves and how they approached the media property that is The Ark, and how they can both do that in a much healthier way. I can’t praise Alice Oseman enough for a compelling and very timely book.

So that’s my Alice Osman binge that I’ve been on, and I can’t recommend all three of those books enough.

Sailor Proof and Sink or Swim by Annabeth Albert

Will: Speaking of binges, I wanna talk about two Annabeth Albert books I read recently, the first of which is “Sailor Proof.”

In this one, Naval chief Derrick would like to make his ex jealous, so his best friend’s brother volunteers to be his fake boyfriend.

My favorite thing ever.

The welcome home kiss between Derrick and Arthur goes viral and their fake relationship is put to the test when Derrick accompanies Arthur to a large-scale family reunion that takes over an entire campground. But between canoeing and organizing a kid’s talent show, their fake relationship begins to feel very real.

Oh, I just adored Annabeth Albert’s take on a classic romance trope. It’s trope on top of trope and I was here for it. The chemistry between the main characters is fun and it’s flirty, something that I tough was really highlighted by the charming audiobook narration from Greg Boudreaux and Joel Leslie, which they continue in the next book in this loosely connected duology, “Sink or Swim” which is about Navy guy Calder who thinks he’s won a mountain cabin in a poker game when, in reality, it belongs to Dr. Felix and his two nieces. With Calder’s sprained ankle, and a snowstorm that has closed the main road, it’s a case of very cozy forced proximity as the two heroes get to know each other while taking care of Madeline and Charlotte.

They go sledding, play cards, make pancakes, and when the girls are preoccupied, manage to steal a kiss or two, and maybe a little bit more. The storm eventually clears, and everyone heads home where Calder and Felix find time for a real-life grown-up date night out. A weekend return to the cabin has Calder rethinking the no relationship/just for fun policy that they have.

They easily slip into spending pleasantly domestic time together—dance recitals, cooking together, even weekends spent organizing and rebuilding Felix’s pantry.

But the thing is, Felix’s painful divorce has him stubbornly refuse to call what they have just about anything other than a relationship.

Oh, these loveable dummies. They’re so perfect for each other, they’re perfect at taking care of the girls together—it’s just so meant to be. Which they do eventually realize, and we end the story with the two of them attending Derrick and Arthur’s wedding together, because nothing says ‘serious boyfriend’ quite like being someone’s plus one at a big family wedding.

Both of these stories feature main characters who really vibe with one another—it really comes across on page. They might have tumbled into each other’s lives, but in both cases its quickly obvious that they’re meant to be.

Both stories I would classify as low angst. Thank you Annabeth, it’s exactly what I needed. But that doesn’t mean that these characters don’t have stuff to figure out relationship-wise. When it comes down to it, both Derrick and Arthur, and Calder and Felix sit down to hash out the issues and have difficult big boy conversations.

So, we’ve got sexy trope filled romance with emotionally intelligent conversations… I mean, hello, ding, ding, that’s two winners in my opinion. So please check out “Sailor Proof” and “Sink or Swim” if you haven’t already.

Jeff: It’s so nice when you can find something to binge. I had my binge. You had your binge, and we were all very happy.

Will: Very, very happy.

Jeff: So let’s talk about some holiday reads now.

24 Dares of Christmas by Lee Blair

Jeff: If you listened to my interview with Lee Blair that was in episode 406 from last week, you know I’ve become a big fan and that I was in the middle of reading “24 Dares of Christmas” when we were chatting. I’ve since finished it, and it’s probably not a surprise that I was absolutely delighted with this return to Lee’s Dahlia Springs universe, and this time for a wonderful holiday story.

Reed’s come back to Dahlia Springs for the first time in years. He’s got a month off before he relocates to Seattle. He’s got a promotion that will let him get out of the Portland office where his ex-girlfriend also still works. His Aunt Katherine asks him to watch her two dogs while she heads to Europe for the holidays. And Reed figures he’s going to stay in, eat junk food, and watch a lot of TV. He’s not really into the holidays, so this works for him.

When he arrives though, he finds Warren in the house hanging out with the dogs waiting for him. He also discovers that Aunt Katherine left him an advent calendar like the ones he created when he was a kid–it’s full of dares. Warren and Reed pretty immediately start to click and want to hang out together. And Katherine’s dares meanwhile are designed to draw Reed out of his shell, getting him to do holiday things. He’d been a fan of the holidays when he was a kid, and at some point he lost that. And getting him to do holiday things also leads him to getting more involved in the town. It’s a cleverly designed tactic by someone who clearly loves Reed and wants him to remember the joys of life and the season.

It doesn’t hurt that it was also designed to help him make friends in town, and that included Warren who happens to live in the small guest house in Katherine’s backyard. Reed and Warren end up doing many of the dares together and that brings them closer, and Reed realizes that he’s getting feels for Warren, and that leads to his own bi awakening too.

Now Warren’s got his own struggles. His photography business tanked and it’s left him in debt and back in Dahlia Springs, and he works multiple jobs to try and dig out of this hole. And, while his family is supportive of him being back, they really don’t realize how much he’s hiding from them because he’s so ashamed.

One of the things Warren and Reed end up working on, which started as part of the dares, is documenting Dahlia Springs’s Christmas festival because the town is part of a contest, and if they win they’ll get funds to improve a park. Reed and Warren work so well together, and they have fun with the events too. It also opens a door for Warren who misses photography, but is afraid to come back to it, and it shows Reed another option than moving to Seattle.

I absolutely fell in love with Reed and Warren. Lee brings them together in such a great way, becoming friends as they work together, and then becoming even more as the Christmas magic works on them—the extra glances, the desire to be around each other more and more, and each guy finding more happiness than they’d had in some time. It was such a swoony good romance, that was in the low angst style that Lee writes so well and that I love so much.

Lee mentioned in our interview that this was her version of a Hallmark Christmas movie, and it definitely is, and one I would watch again and again. Reed and Warren both have wants in the professional realm that are able to talk about together, and help each other out to see more of what’s possible. There’s also a tremendous family for both of them. We see a lot of Warren’s energetically awesome bunch, and while we only see a little bit of Reed’s, other than Aunt Katherine, there are some really touching moments for Reed in there as well.

As holiday reading season continues, I highly recommend Lee Blair’s “24 Dares of Christmas.” It was perfect Christmas joy.

A Kiss for Santa by Mia Monroe and Santa’s Big Secret by Robin Knight

And I’ve also read two, so Swoony wonderful books that have very different takes on Santa finding his Mr. Claus with Mia Monroe’s “A Kiss for Santa” and Robin Knight’s “Santa’s Big Secret.”

In “A Kiss for Santa,” Mia’s Santa is named Magnus, and he is the latest to carry the title of Santa Claus. Magnus, his family, and the elves, and the people who make Christmas happen live in a hidden village in Denmark. As per tradition, Magnus must take a mate by a certain time or he will have to pass on the title of Santa to the next in line in the family. Magnus, however, doesn’t want to be married to the person he’s been set up with, the rather bitter and power hungry Lauge. Instead, Magnus has his heart set on Luca, someone he’s watched grow from a child filled with wonder and joy to a man who has recently lost his Christmas spirit.

Luca has loved Christmas and everything that comes with it. It’s a joy that he got from his mom. He’s also been visited by Santa, and seen Santa at various time through the years. There’s even a certain spark between them even though they may only see each other for a few minutes only once a year. In the present day, however, Luca, as I mentioned, has started to lose the joy because his career is beating him down. Not only does this worry Magnus, because he sees the sadness that’s come over Luca, he also knows his time is running out to see if Luca would join him and be his mate.

“A Kiss for Santa” is filled with so much magic and joy. The world Mia’s created where Santa comes from this village, and how Santa continues over the years really warmed my heart. The behind the scenes in the village as they get ready for Christmas was so wonderful and Mia wrote it in a way that it really sparked my imagination in creating what all of this could’ve looked like. There’s even some Christmas sabotage that was really interesting to see because there’s an interesting mix of magic and real-world technology that keeps everything running smoothly for the holidays.

And the romance between Magnus and Luca was so good. They’ve had what essentially amounts to a crush on each other for years, so this didn’t even read as instalove to me, even though there is a tight time clock on having to make the commitment to each other before Christmas happens. Magnus’s courting of Luca is so sweet, and so magical and the important conversations they have about what it would mean for Luca to move to the village brought the appropriate amount of weight to the decisions that had to be made, while Luca also gets to have some really magical moments as he meets the reindeer and hangs out with Magnus in the village.

Mia packed a lot of terrific romance and such a wonderfully different take on Santa with “A Kiss for Santa.”

Now, in “Santa’s Big Secret,” Robin Knight kept a little more of what I would call a traditional Santa mythology, though not completely because there is no Mrs. Claus here either. As is pointed out relatively early in the book, Mrs. Claus is merely a construct of the media. Santa, who goes by the more traditional Nick here, however is lonely, and his elves encourage him to get on a dating app so he can hopefully find Mr. Right. The elves also put Nick through a bit of a makeover as they say, to let the daddy inside him shine.

And the dates that Robin sends Nick on… oh my goodness. As you might expect, some of them are some real clunkers and they’re really amusing to watch play out as Nick is a little bit on the naive side as he kind of gets into the dating pool. So there’s some really fin stuff that goes on there. Luckily, Nick has the ability to swiftly leave those dates through a bit of magic.

Everything changes though when he meets Billy and finds the guy who just might just be his perfect Mr. Claus. First though, Billy needs some proof that Nick’s telling him the truth, is he really Santa? I loved how Robin did this through a mix of Nick telling Billy some of the gifts he’d received as a child, but then also took Billy to the North Pole to show him around, and take him for a ride in the sleigh.

There’s an element of coming out in this story too as Nick faces the fact that he probably shouldn’t just keep Billy a secret. As with any public figure, coming out in the current media landscape can be fraught and I like how Robin portrayed this with the struggle that Nick had with this, and the support that he got from Billy and the elves, as well as the ultimately support that he got from the world as he made his holiday deliveries. It was truly special. Most of all, I liked the important talks that Billy and Nick had as they sorted out what the worldwide attention would mean for them.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t call out one of the super fun elements of this story: all of the elf names. I have to imagine that Robin had a great time coming up with them. Those names just added to the holiday fun of the story.

So if you’re looking for some great holiday short stories, and what those couple different takes on Santa falling in love, you can’t go wrong with both “A Kiss for Santa” from Mia Monroe and “Santa’s Big Secret” from Robin Knight.

A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy & Sierra Simone

Jeff: And there’s one more that we wanna mention that we have both read and absolutely delighted in. I had no idea that the combination of Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone could produce a book as absolutely wonderful as “A Merry Little Meet Cute.” Oh my gosh.

Will: I would describe it as sublime.

Jeff: Yes. That’s a great word for it.

Will: It’s so charming and so funny. This story is about a plus sized OnlyFans model named Bee, and you know, because of romance reasons, she ends up being cast in this very wholesome Christmas movie. And her co-star happens to be Nolan, a former boy band member who’s trying to leave his bad boy days behind him.

And for both of them filming this schmaltzy Christmas movie is a big deal. Bee is of course not ashamed of her adults-only work, but sees this project as a stepping stone to more, you know, quote unquote legitimate acting projects. Meanwhile, Nolan has his family to take care of and is trying to rehab his bad boy image. What may have been cute in your twenties, you know, ain’t so funny anymore when you’re reaching 30.

So both of them have a lot riding on this movie. And what’s really hilarious is like from the moment they meet, there’s instant chemistry. Nolan actually just happens to be Bee’s biggest fan. She, on the other hand, had posters of him hanging up in her childhood bedroom. So they’re hot for it from the get go, which makes their story funny and remarkably horny. That’s how I would describe this book because it describes the like sexiness of a contemporary with the humor of a romcom.

Both Bee and Nolan are self-described bisexual disasters, and obviously their attempts not to fall in love while making this movie don’t go very well. And trying to hide their blossoming relationship from all the secondary characters, of course, doesn’t go well either.

I dunno, I just can’t recommend this book enough. If you look up hilarious holiday romp in the dictionary, I think you’d find “A Merry Little Meet Cute.”

Jeff: I think you just might They also make one of my favorite type of holiday movies. It’s got some time travel in it, for reasons. It’s got a princely character meeting, the very much not royalty. So it hit that aspect of it. And then trying to figure out how to film this movie in the usual, you know, super short holiday movie filming window. And there’s so much going on behind the scenes that is so hilarious.

And Julie and Sierra have really created some amazingly complex and wonderful characters. You so badly want Nolan and Bee to get everything that they want, to get the romance, to get that happily ever after. Not make their lives perfect, but to take care of their responsibilities to their families and to their future projects and to being together. And it’s all wrapped up in that horny, funny package.

It’s just… it’s pretty much one of the most perfect Christmas stories and perfect romances that I think I’ve ever read. So yeah, if you haven’t picked up “A Merry Little Meet Cute” yet, because it’s actually been out for a little bit, you really have to add this to your holiday reading list cause it’s just perfect.

Wrap-Up

Will: So we’ve reached the point in the show where I mentioned that this episode’s transcript has been brought to you by our community on Patreon. If you like to read our conversation for yourself, simply head on over to the show notes page for this episode at biggayfictionpodcast.com. The show notes page has links to everything, and I mean everything, that we have talked about in this episode.

Jeff: And with the holiday shopping season underway, we’d like to remind you to shop your local book sellers as much as possible. They definitely need your support. And if your book shopping online, we highly recommend bookshop.org for paperbacks and hardbacks and libro.fm for audiobooks. Both of these sites allow you to select a local bookstore to support with your purchases. In our show notes, anytime we can link to libro.fm or bookshop.org we’ll do so and you’ll find their links alongside the other purchase options. We hope that you’ll support your local shops this December and always.

Will: All right, I think that’ll do it for now. Coming up next in episode 408, we’re going to be talking about some of our favorite YA reads from 2022.

Jeff: That’s right. It’s time to start the year in review. Next week we’ll talk specifically about young adult books, and let me tell you, it was so difficult to narrow that list down because there’s been so much awesome in 2022. This episode’s gonna be a little bit different too, so you’ll have to tune in to see what’s up.

Will: On behalf of Jeff and myself, we want to thank you so much for listening, and we hope that you’ll join us again soon for more discussions about the kinds of stories we all love, the big gay fiction kind. Until then, keep turning those pages and keep reading.

Big Gay Fiction Podcast is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more shows you’ll love at frolic.media/podcasts. Original theme music by Daryl Banner.

 

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