On my TBR I have their newest releases The Mirror Season about healing and trauma, Dark and Deepest Red about prejudice, and Miss Meteor, co-written with Tehlor Kay Mejia. Be romantic, platonic or familial, I can always count on Anna-Marie to make me feel uplifted, seen, validated and loved by an entire community of fictional characters.

This is why I keep coming back to these books all these stories are about companionship, loyalty and love. AMM stories are sprinkle with a little bit of magic and a lot of queerness, their characters may go through a lot of hardships, but they are never alone. In Blanca & Roja we follow two different sisters trying to break a curse and confronting their community colorism. The Weight of Feathers is their Romeo & Juliet retelling, a quite heartbreaking and romantic tale of two mortal enemies falling for each other. When the Moon Was Ours features a Mexican girl who grows roses from her wrist and a trans Pakistani boy who paints moons for her. Wild Beauty is my personal favorite, a story about bisexual cousins and a wonderful garden hiding a terrible past. Be their debut Romeo & Juliet retelling or their Red Shoes reimagining, Anna-Marie will give you messy characters, beautiful writing, the most romantic dialogue and the perfect ending. Their books are magical, lyrical and so full of hope. If you have followed me for a while, you know I stand by anything AMM has written/is planning to write. I could not start this recommendation list without one of my favorite authors. From magical realism to Persephone x Hades retelling, these creators are here delivering some wonderful stories. So today I bring you +10 books that should be on your TBR, some new releases, some books on my TBR and some of my favorite reads. I think it’s important to support all type of stories by Latinx authors. Little caveat, some of these books feature queer rep and some of these books are by queer authors. Considering so many LIs in white books are Mexican-American (I don’t really want to get into that, but definitely something to discuss), I think it’s fitting we actively read, recommend and love Mexican-American authors. So I may be taking things slowly, but I promise I’m here!Įvery pride month I get very uncomfortable by how quickly the community gets to support white queer authors writing love interests of color, but doesn’t offer the same support to the queer authors of color writing their stories. It makes me so sad, but I refused to give up in Cande Reads. And coming up with new blog posts? My brain has been drained. Maybe from last year, maybe the pandemic, maybe it was school, I have had a hard time with keeping up with reviews for a while. I do know why, I’ve been pretty burned out. It has been a while, I’m finally done with my school semester but for some reason, I haven’t been able to blog like I was hoping.

Drag Me Up by R.M. Virtues