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Yours Celestially by Al Hess

After divorce, death, and having his reformatted soul uploaded into a new body, Sasha expected resurrection to be a fresh start. His time spent in digital Limbo with the program's cheeky AI guardian angel, Metatron, was cathartic, but what good is a second life when he only sees his daughter on the weekends, he has all the same problems he had before he died, and he can't seem to shake the ache for the married life he lost? If that weren't frustrating enough, a glitch in the program has given Sasha the ability to sense Metatron even outside of Limbo. And Metatron is in love. The angel's sickly-sweet yearning for one of the souls still in Limbo has turned Sasha's stomach into caramelized lead. It's hard enough to move on without someone else's feelings making the emptiness in his own life even more acute. He didn't have playing wingman to an actual winged being on his bingo card, but he's determined to help Metatron make a move on their crush so he ca...
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A Necessary Chaos by Brent Lambert

Vade is an anarchist, a Phantom Dragon. Althus is a Touchstone--an Imperial agent.

Their love was never meant to survive.

In a world of magical empires and the anarchists that would tear them down, A Necessary Chaos is the story of Althus and Vade, assigned to spy on the other by opposing sides. But now that they've both caught feelings, where will their loyalties fall? They must each decide if they'll follow orders or find a way to make their romance thrive beyond the lies.

Part of the Neon Hemlock Novella Series.

PUBLISHER: Neon Hemlock Press
YEAR: 2023
LENGTH: 156 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: No

Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s).

I keep seeing A NECESSARY CHAOS recommended as an Achillean version of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR, and while there are some parallels in terms of general setup (spies on different sides of a conflict) the style, tone, and actual plot are so different that I would just say it’s another entry in the long-standing sub-genre of spy stories where two spies find themselves ordered to kill the rival spy they’ve fallen in love with. 

The worldbuilding style is very explanatory, with many info-dumps. All the way to the end, things were explained and given background details in a way that made me grateful this was a novella and not a longer book, since this is the opposite of the worldbuilding I most enjoy. There are details about various powers and their costs, leading me to expect those costs to be paid during the actual story, but that’s not how it plays out. 

Their traumatic backstories needed either more room to breathe or less detail, I’m not sure which. Towards the end it felt like a tally of which side had done the worst things, and somehow they both agreed that it was a particular side without nearly enough on-page discussion. One side had child soldiers but it’s just obviously worse to put demons in people, I guess? Look, if that’s their conclusion then fine, I just was expecting more discussion. Yes, the colonizing/empire side makes sense to be framed as ultimately worse than the rebels, but when that wasn’t why this consensus was reached it seemed weird.

My general feeling is that the story is fine, I constantly felt off-balance with the pacing, and while I understand why this is so popular, it’s not going to be one of my favorites. 

Moderate CW for sexual content, alcohol, drug use, blood, gore, violence, child abuse, war, murder, death.

Minor CW for ableist language, vomit, injury detail, violence, trafficking, slavery.

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Two dark-skinned men with dark beards stare at each other as sparks float around them. One is upside down, forming the suggestion of a spiral with their bodies.


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