Twisted Romance, Vol. 1

Twisted Romance #1-4

by Alex de Campi, Katie Skelly, Alejandra Gutiérrez

Four stories of love and lust from comics' coolest artists and writer ALEX DE CAMPI! First, a demon prowls the 1978 New York disco scene in Old Flames, drawn by KATIE SKELLY. Then, a curvy photographer's assistant falls in love with someone way out of her league in Twinkle & The Star, with ALEJANDRA GUTIÉRREZ. A spacefleet captain captures a most infuriating pirate in Invincible Heart, with CARLA SPEED MCNEIL. And a princess runs away with a dragon in Treasured, with TRUNGLES.

Plus steamy prose romance stories from awesome folks like Magen Cubed and Vita Ayala, and more comics shorts about love from Meredith McClaren, Sarah Horrocks, Margaret Trauth and Sarah Winifred Searle.

Collects Twisted Romance #1-4.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Romance, Short Stories, Fantasy, LGBT, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published June 19, 2018

About the author

Alex de Campi is a New York-based writer with an extensive backlist of critically-acclaimed graphic novels including Eisner-nominated heist noir Bad Girls (Simon & Schuster) and Twisted Romance (Image Comics). Her most recent book was her debut prose novel The Scottish Boy (Unbound). She lives with her daughter, their cat, and a Deafblind pit bull named Tango.

Reviews

[Acqua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird, wonderful, and very queer.
Twisted Romance is an anthology of comic shorts and prose short fiction, which is something I had never read before. Not everything worked for me, but most stories did, and I'm so glad I read it.
This is a really diverse anthology, with many queer main characters (all the stories with the 🏳️‍🌈 symbol have a queer mc or love interest, and it's most of them), mcs of color, fat mcs... Also, many of the authors are themselves queer, trans and/or authors of color.
This volume is made up of four issues, and every issue has two short comics and one short story.

Issue #1
Old Flames by Katie Skelly & Alex de Campi - ★★★½ 🏳️‍🌈
This was... an interesting start. It's the story of a bi/pan vampire-like creature (incubus/succubus might be more accurate terms, but as the main character says, they're too specific and he likes to switch) in New York during the 70s, and it involves a cheating husband, a deadly vampire-like woman, and a really disappointed wife.
I had some mixed feelings about this. While I loved how colorful and funny it was, the art didn't work for me. Also, graphic on-page death of queer women, casually? I know the main character himself is queer, but... not my thing.

Leather & Lace by Magen Cubed - ★★★★ 🏳️‍🌈
A vampire and a human hunt man-eating wendigos in Devereux City. Dorian, the vampire, has feelings for Cash, but Cash has a boyfriend, and this means Dorian's feelings are totally unrequited. But are they?
A fun m/m paranormal romance story with some interesting action scenes. (and no annoying cheating storylines, if you're worried about that!)

Red Medusa by Sarah Horrocks - ★ DNF
I didn't even get what this was about and I'm not sure I want to know it. Well, I'm pretty sure I don't want to know it, and even if I did, it was so (intentionally) hideous I didn't want to look at it. This is probably great if you're into this sort of thing, but I can't look at horror-like graphic stories.

Issue #2
Twinkle & the Star by Alejandra Gutiérrez & Alex de Campi - ★★★★½ 🏳️‍🌈
A story about a fat desi photographer's assistant falling in love with an asexual actor! I loved the art style in this one, it's just as cute as the story it's portraying and it's also very... contemporary-feeling? (Hi! I review prose! I know nothing about art!) Anyway, everything about this felt like a cute, diverse new adult contemporary romance novel, and it managed to say so many things in so little space - it talked about fatphobia, body image, misogyny, gender roles, allonormativity and slutshaming.
However, I didn't love how the love interest's sexuality was almost framed as a plot twist.

Back At Your Door by Vita Ayala - ★★★★★ 🏳️‍🌈
One of my two favorites from this anthology! This is a contemporary story about an f/f/f love triangle - about polyamorous lesbians in college - with a latinx main character. It talks about how messy it can be to figure out your sexuality, about how sometimes questioning teens unintentionally hurt other people in the process, about how sometimes queer women are really oblivious when a girl is flirting with them. And the ending is one of the cutest things I've ever read.

Would You Even Know It? by Meredith McClaren - ★★★★½
A story about a girl who may or may not be falling in love with an AI. I usually don't like AI romances, but this one didn't go into the "romantic love makes you human" territory I was expecting (...dreading) and instead questioned what it means to be in love, and the definition of romantic love. As an aromantic who kind of doesn't get it, I really appreciate these discussions. It was a bit too short, but I liked the art style. Really cute.

Issue #3
Invincible Heart by Carla Speed McNeil & Alex de Campi - ★★★½ 🏳️‍🌈
An m/m romance in space! Gruff spaceship captain meets flirty privateer, gratuitously shirtless most of the time! Not exactly my kind of thing as it had no worldbuilding and most of the plot points didn't have much impact because of that (also, the world ended up feeling generic) but it was a fun story.

The Last Minute by Jess Bradley - ★★½
This was just ok - my lest favorite of the prose short stories. It's about a man and a woman who survived an alien invasion and are trying to save Earth. Just like Invincible Heart, it had very generic worldbuilding and didn't stand out to me because of that, even though I appreciated that it was about men taking no for an answer.

Olivia Lies, Pierced by Margaret Trauth - ★★★★
Anthropomorphic animals (a mouse prince and a cat with a prosthetic arm) connecting - and then falling in love - because of a vidshow! It was a bit confusing at first because the main character is a liar, but it's also very cute and colorful.

Issue #4
Treasured by Trungles - ★★★★½
A subversive fairytale about an "average-looking princess" escaping the palace with the help of a snake-dragon... who has not the best intentions. To me, it felt like a metaphor for an abusive relationship: people who feel/are lonely are more vulnerable to abusers, snake-dragons or not, and then blame themselves for what happened to them; abusers can be really charming at the beginning, even when they are snake dragons; but unlike the usual captive princesses, the main character here can't be rescued by a knight - she has to save herself.
It was a lovely story, the art style was my kind of thing (I loved the details here!) and I also really liked the fairytale ending. The main character deserved it.

Unbound by Naomi Salman - ★★★★★ 🏳️‍🌈
A lonely latinx mechanic moves into a new apartment... but, apparently, there's a sex club downstairs. This m/m story was one of my favorites in this anthology, and it's exactly what I mean when I say that I love adult contemporary romance when it's short. Novels never seem to work for me as much as I want them to, but this? wow.
It's the only story with an actual sex scene and it involves bondage. Also, Asian love interest!

Legacies by Sarah Winifred Searle - ★★★★ 🏳️‍🌈
Another f/f/f love triangle! This was a bit confusing because of its length and I had to read it twice to understand what had happened, but it was really cute and sweet. It's about doing better in the future to make up for the mistakes of the past... and of your past selves. Also, the main character is fat and I love casual diversity.

Average rating: 3.84 stars; I'm raising the rating to 5 because it's been years and I still think about this several times a year. After all, an anthology is more than a sum of its parts.

[Ariadna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty cool AND hella queer collection that runs the gamut from sci-fi to creepy/horror. Out of the 12 stories in this volume, I liked all 7 of the comic stories and was less enthused with the remaining 5 short stories.

In a way, I can see what the people involved in the project were aiming for. It is also true that the bulk of the short stories had M/M and F/F/F ships in them.

HOWEVER, enjoying 3 comics in a row and then having to switch my brain into reading prose annoyed the heck out of me.

TW: one story deals with gaslighting as well as emotional & psychological abuse. It's powerful because of the way it's depicted.

TL;DR: A solid anthology featuring a lot of queer romances. I do wish that the short stories had been replaced with more comic stories because it'd have added a lot more cohesiveness to the entire project. I borrowed this from my library and would deffo be up for reading the next volume (whenever it gets published.)

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good for an anthology. Well worth a look.

There are a couple stories that don't do much for me, but the majority are fine. Be warned, there are four eight-page text-only stories mixed in with the comics. I'm not a fan of such mixing, but a couple of the prose bits were among my favorite parts of the book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the Comics went right over my head, some I really enjoyed. I thoroughly LOVED the short stories, though!

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't say any of the stories in Twisted Romance are all that twisted - if you're looking for horror-tinged romance, there's only one story here that would qualify. But the majority of the stories in Twisted Romance are not your typical guy/girl meet-cute, which is refreshing. There's a lot of queer love, a lot of interspecies love (in a non-bestiality way), a lot of sci-fi/fantasy love. It's all pretty good-natured and enjoyable, if not mind-blowing or surprising. The art varies from excellent to ugly, but that's to be expected in this kind of collection. Works authored by Alex de Campi are the clear standouts. I should admit that I didn't read any of the text-only stories - the formatting was too distractingly gross for me to become invested in those stories. Apologies to those authors, I'm sure their stuff was fine.

[Steph's Romance Book Talk · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars / 1 Steam Fan

I want my time back from reading this graphic novel anthology. This is twelve stories by twelve authors. They truly do range from an asexual story to a space cop to a story about the devil. Many of the stories drop you in to a moment and then just leaves you hanging. This book was read for #contemporaryathon - Read a book in a different format (graphic novel).

This specific video review will be included in the February 2019 wrap-up.

For other video book reviews check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Romance Book Talk.

[Wesley Pasheco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incrivel!!!
Quatro historias sobre como funciona o amor e como aprendemos com ele.
Mds são MAGNIFICOS de LINDOS

1 - Uma historia sobre traição ronda os pensamentos de uma garota que faz de tudo ao saber que o namorado dela está saindo com outra pessoa. (combina bastante com "Why Don't You Love Me" da Beyoncé)
2 - Uma garota negra e gorda, trabalha num estúdio de fotografia e se sente insegura com o próprio corpo, até que ela começa a desenvolver um relacionamento que seria dos sonhos
3 - Num estilo NOIR, conta a historia de um prisoneiro que é resgatado em nave espacial e acaba atraindo o coração do próprio policial
4 - Num conto de fadas diferente, mostra como é viver num relacionamento abusivo. Onde o monstro muitas das vezes pode virar uma simples criatura quando a gente se livra dele.

[Shruti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisted Romance was a delightful read I highly recommend to anyone who loves romance, anthologies, and comics.

I did DNF one story, but the remaining ones were SO good, I felt disappointed when the book ended. Give me more romance anthology graphic novels!

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a sweet collection of creative romance stories. I enjoyed the mix of comics and short stories, with several of the prose pieces being standouts of the collection.

If you grew up on (or, uh, still read a lot of) fan fiction, a lot of these stories will delight because of their inherent queerness and vignette nature. If you're a fan of Starfighter, I would highly recommend this book.

There were no tragic stories, in my opinion, although "The Last Minute" is the last few minutes of the character's lives. There was a short story about a lesbian love triangle that did upset me, because the main character truly went through relatable angst—two people you have a crush on start dating each other? you're in college and you have no friends and you just stay in the library? you're depressed and lost a friend and can't eat anymore? despite your friends noticing you withdraw they don't check on you? your high school crush comes back to wreck your life? Okay not all of these are relatable situations per se but they all strike very real feelings, and the solution did not make up for the horrible emotional pain the protagonist went through. /endrant

My favorite story was "Leather & Lace," which is about two gay monster hunters searching for wendigos and stumbling around feelings for each other. It was well-written and so sweet. I love my gay vampire boys.

Highly recommend, and I'm excited that Goodreads has this as volume 1!

[V Mignon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5.

I was really expecting a lot out of this collection. I read it for one reason and one reason alone - Katie Skelly's Old Flames. I adore Katie Skelly's work. I loved My Pretty Vampire. And the theme of "twisted love" really comes through in her story. It's a stand-out piece that shows you don't have to create a story out of a full graphic-novel to make an impact.

The rest . . . hmm. I guess I have a problem with a majority of the stories being about people among the spectrum of sexuality being treated as a twisted form of love. Why can't it just be considered normal love? Most of the stories are pretty forgettable. I was very sad that I didn't care for Magen Cubed's Leather and Lace, as I enjoyed her novel Flesh Trap.

I loved Red Medusa on the Road to Hell for the artwork alone. Would You Even Know It? intrigued me greatly. I think if it were expanded, I would like it even more. At first, I wasn't into The Last Minute, but the more I read, the more engrossed I became. It's my favorite prose story out of this collection. Treasured is the only graphic portion of this collection that comes even closes to Old Flames. The artwork is to die for.

Some of the other stories suffered from being too short. There were a few that I thought would work better as longer stories. But I think the real reason why I was so unsatisfied with many of these stories is that I'm not a big fan of happy endings. And . . . I'm not really into romance, which is probably why Katie Skelly's work appealed to me the most.

That being said, I would buy this collection for Skelly's Old Flames alone.

[thi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

- anthologies from many different authors and, in this case, art styles, almost guarantees and mixed bag of impressions
- not just short comics but short stories alternating, which I didn’t really enjoy; when in certain moods I’m usually looking for one format over the other not both, which lead me to repeatedly dropping and coming back to this
- of the 12 stories, I’d say I only really liked maybe a 1/4 of them
- an interesting idea of composition; weird queer stories by various authors
- May pick up the next volume ... not sure

[Jenbebookish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read 12/31/2018

This was weird. Two stars for pretty artwork with pretty colors, but otherwise...meh.

[Alex Sarll]

Perfectly timed for the current revival of interest in romance comics, an Alex de Campi-convened anthology which seems determined to live up to that title, ditch any expectations of gentle domestic boy meets girl stories, and go strange. I mean, regardless of the genders of those involved, there's frequently at least one death or explosion, and I think about the closest piece to a standard heterosexual human love story is the one which takes place in the shadow of something not unlike a Tyranid invasion. And even that one is more about how real men graciously take no for an answer. Elsewhere the lovers are computers or monsters, or at the very least they don't come in pairs. For some reason I hadn't expected each issue to be two comics shorts and one prose piece, but it works nicely, makes a single issue feel more like a magazine and - in a time when comics prices are starting to feel a bit much sometimes - really feels like you're getting a decent bang for your buck (pun somewhat intended).

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5? Stories I’d rate 2-4.5, went into a bit more detail on reviews for each issue. Pick it up for the strongest stories but give yourself permission to skip ones that don’t work for you. I found the first issue (stories 1-3 in this combined volume of all 12 stories) the weakest chunk of the series, but not representative of the whole collection.

Favorites:

Loved “Treasured,” Trung Le Nguyen has such a unique style and it was a delightful surprise to get to see their work in this sort of adult fairytale story. Highly recommend “The Magic Fish” by them as well.

I really enjoyed “Unbound” by Naomi Salman, a gentle, intimate, and enthusiastically consensual connection between neighbors that leads to a session of rope play and after care. I only saw one other story by her on goodreads and it’s not the same genre but I’ve added it my list to read.

Also liked “Twinkle and the Star” and “The Last Minute” quite a bit.

[Rach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really did like this anthology, and I’ll keep my eye out for volume 2! The LGBTQ+ representation was overflowing and beautiful. However, though there were some stories I really adored (“Twinkle & The Star” and “Treasured” were fantastic) some of these stories/comics didn’t do it for me. That’s to be expected from every anthology, so definitely still pick it up if you’re interested!

I found the mixed media format (switching between comics and 8-page prose stories) really neat and refreshing. They blended well because of the overall theme of Twisted Romance making it more cohesive. I think my favorite of just the prose sections was “Back At Your Door” which was cute and wholesome! It also had neat themes of coming to terms with one’s self.

There’s a large amount of variety within the 12 tales found in here, so you’re bound to find something you like! ✨

[BookCupid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed Trungles, and Would you even know it, more than all the others. Covet narcisists are purely evil, and it's a plus to see authors warn readers about these people.

I'm still not sure how I felt to see so many prose stories mixed in with the graphics stories. It pulled me away from the genre, forcing my head to go visual to text immersion and then back to visual... I think it ruined my experience.

[Genesee Rickel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read the two stories that weren't illustrated because I was in the mood for an illustrated comic. I loved some of the stories, especially the one featuring the woman in the center of the cover. Others I either didn't enjoy or got a little lost in. This was okay, but I won't read it again and it isn't one I'd buy.

[Anton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hatte irgendwie gedacht, dass es besser ist. War super gehyped drauf und wollte das seit Jahren lesen, aber tatsächlich ist es halt eine gute Anthologie. 2-3 Geschichten sind wirklich, wirklich gut, der Rest ist halt okay.
Am besten sind die Geschichten, die einfach nur gute Romanzen sind, ohne große Twists oder Verbitterung.

[Amy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an anthology of mostly comic and a few prose romance stories. I really enjoyed most of the stories in here, even the prose ones, which required so much more *effort* to read that I wish they weren't there. A couple of the stories were ... not for me, but mostly this was really enjoyable.

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisted and captivating. A multifaceted jewel box of love.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed 7 out of 12 of the stories! Definitely worth picking up as a fun title.

[Caitlyn Barker]

DNF @ 40%

Of the 4 stories I read 2 were 1 star and 2 were 2 stars.
Not wasting my time with the rest.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology is quite good looking, and caught my eye at the store when I decided to spend my Barnes and Noble gift cards this year on something *other* than e-books. I'm not a big comics reader, but I'm glad I dipped into something different to kick off the new year.

Overall, there's some great art in here, and a few good stories. Recommend for those interested in short comics and stories that are cute, romantic, and diverse. However, be warned some of these (all of Alex de Campi's, for example) are written like the creator has an agenda and is ticking off all the boxes, and it's not very cleverly or deeply done.

Ripping from the format of the top comment here, my entry by entry review:

Issue #1
Old Flames by Katie Skelly & Alex de Campi - ★★★
I liked the art in this one, and thought the bold, violent comic was a strong kickoff for the volume. However, the story came across to me as fairly basic - a recurring problem throughout the book.

Leather & Lace by Magen Cubed - ★★
Ok this one was too funny, but not intentionally. Read it out loud to my boyfriend and we laughed at the clunky dialogue the whole way through. Read like Supernatural fanfic. Not that I've ever seen any of that...

Red Medusa by Sarah Horrocks - ★
I liked the scary art, but it wasn't evocative enough to fill the gaps left by a story that made no sense at all, even after a second read through.

Issue #2
Twinkle & the Star by Alejandra Gutiérrez & Alex de Campi - ★★★
Okay the art in this one was *super* cute and I liked the flow of the comic - easy to follow! But the story was so unrealistic that I was left flummoxed.

Back At Your Door by Vita Ayala - ★★★
One of the better prose entries in the volume, this piece did a great job at capturing the insecurity and blunders people make when they're figuring out this whole love thing. I was surprised by the ending, but the writer had built up to that point nicely and it felt deserved.

Would You Even Know It? by Meredith McClaren - ★★
Really cute art, lackluster story and missed opportunity. Also, I think this could have been written entirely in prose /dialogue and wouldn't have lost much.

Issue #3
Invincible Heart by Carla Speed McNeil & Alex de Campi - ★★★
This one was fun, with a more "classic" style (I'm super not qualified to make those kind of judgements, but that was my feeling), though the setting and worldbuilding felt very generic.

The Last Minute by Jess Bradley - ★★★★
Anyone else imagining daleks streaming out of the portal? Just me? Anyway, this was one of the standouts for me. I liked that it takes the trope of people professing their love at the height of peril, cranks it 90 degrees to the left, and then asks 'what now?'. It was also the story that got my imagination going more than any others, building on the barely touched on details of what happened before, and what would happen after.

Olivia Lies, Pierced by Margaret Trauth - ★★★★
Ok this one was just cute, and one of the more unique and imaginative of the bunch. I also really liked how the comic was organized, with the different color dialogue boxes keeping us in touch with the story outside of the story.

Issue #4
Treasured by Trungles and Alex de Campi - ★★★
Another super pretty comic. But the thinly veiled allegory for domestic violence felt too transparent to me. There's some odd choices in here too... like basically everything that happens after she gets free.

Unbound by Naomi Salman - ★★★★★
This was the most explicit, and the best of the bunch. The writer did a great job fleshing out these characters in very little space, and putting us inside the head of the main dude. Just a good, character-driven story, and one of the few in this book with no fantasy elements. (Well ok, depends on your type of fantasy.)

Legacies by Sarah Winifred Searle - ★★★
This was a weird little story that was honestly hard to follow at the beginning, and I had to go back and reread it. But the ending was cute, and there was an inexplicable owl screaming "DESTINY!" so, bonus points.

[Stephanie (My Book Throne) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun read! There were definitely some hits and misses but overall, I enjoyed most of the stories told in this volume.

My favourite has to be the first one, with the vampire heartbreaker in Old Flames. The illustration quality was the perfect style and the writing was fast-paced. I want to know more about these characters please! Did she get the nightclub? How did he turn into a vampire? Are there any more like them?

I also enjoyed Twinkle and the Star, that put a unique spin on the romance genre that we often don't get to see represented.

I didn't enjoy a few of the other comics but that was down to personal taste.

Overall, a great little collection of stories that will stay with you for hours after you've finished!

3 of out 5 stars.

[A Fan of Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology for everyone!

Twisted romance is a graphic novel filled with various love stories told in various fashions. Some are in comic form, some are just written story, all of them are pretty great! There's some scary stories, some queer stories, and even a few about loving yourself. My favorite two were the vampire tale and modeling story. Felt super cute reading this in issues, really wish it was a full on girly magazine. But I'd totally settle for a volume two too.

[Ademption · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read and rated only the Katie Skelly centerpiece story.

[Rose Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I got this as part of a larger Humble Bundle, but this book was one of the reasons I got it. I started the first part a long time ago then finished it later.

I think the first thing that would be praised would be the sheer variety of relationships, both queer and not. It also views queer romances in ways that are more multifaceted than the classic "coming out/first relationship story." Each story feels extremely distinct, and while not every story was a winner, there were certainly a couple that really hit close to home.

The anthology does something interesting here where it switches between short comic stories and prose. I feel pretty ambiguous about it, because I found some of the prose stories to be very effective, and I'm happy I read them, but it does break flow. I don't know about you, but I almost feel like I have a "comic-reading brain" and a "prose-reading brain," and switching between them gave me a feeling of narrative seasickness.

I don't think it would be useful or fun to just go through every story, but I would say that looking back, about half of the stories stuck with me, and half didn't. None of the stories were offensively bad. I think the biggest crimes of the not-great stories were either not emotionally resonant, rushed, or a little boring. I struggle here between a 3 and a 4. Anthologies tend to have this issue where you want to give the book a 4 based off of what it did well, but you remind yourself of how many other stories you read to just to get to that great story. I will settle on a 3 here and deliver a spiritual 3.5 star rating. If you are really starving for some romance, especially of the queer kind, then this does deserve to be checked out. It does a great job of creating all sorts of scenarios and relationships that it certainly is a good anthology, but I don't think it was amazing as a whole.

[Raelene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m glad that I picked this up during pride month since multiple stories are fitting for that, but unfortunately I didn’t care for really any of the stories. But I did write tiny reviews for every story, so here they are:

Old Flames by Katie Skelly & Alex de Campi - Well. Yeah, this definitely fits the ‘twisted’ theme of this anthology. It was okay.

Leather & Lace by Magen Cubed - I didn’t care for the writing style of this, so I DNF’ed it.

Red Medusa by Sarah Horrocks - …I don’t even know what to say. I don’t get it. I didn’t like the art style. Soo let’s just say this wasn’t for me, I guess.

Twinkle & the Star by Alejandra Gutiérrez & Alex de Campi - I didn’t care for the story, but the art style really was nice.

Back At Your Door by Vita Ayala - I liked the ending, but there were some frustrating parts to get to that point.

Would You Even Know It? by Meredith McClaren - I loved the colouring of this story. But the actual story came off quite rushed to me.

Invincible Heart by Carla Speed McNeil & Alex de Campi - This was cute! Both the story and the art style.

The Last Minute by Jess Bradley - I’m not connecting with these stories the way I wish I would. This was fine, I guess.

Olivia Lies, Pierced by Margaret Trauth - DNF. The way this was drawn made it hard to follow, in my opinion.

Treasured by Trungles - I really liked this! The story was cute and it had a wonderful art style, with a lovely ending.

Unbound by Naomi Salman - I feel like this story should have intrigued me more than it did. I was just kinda bored tbh.

Legacies by Sarah Winifred Searle - I picked this anthology up because I like SWS, but this story didn’t make sense to me. So unfortunately this wasn’t my favourite way for the book to end.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to thank Edelweiss+ again for providing me with this book.

This is actually a collection of short stories as well as comics, all of which are separate from one another. I won't go through every story, but I will talk about a few.

The art of each comic is very different from the last, as is each plot. As the title suggests, every story is a romance of sorts - but not the conventional, boy-meets-girl kind. A majority of the relationships in this are same-sex, and there is even a polyamorous relationship in one. Bondage is discussed - and described - and my favourite story involved a young princess being held prisoner by a dragon, only to be freed by a spider.

Most of the stories had some sort of fantasy or paranormal element, but not all. There were tragic stories, happy stories; all sorts. As can be expected, there were some I liked more than others. Because of this, it is hard to review the book as a whole. For the most part the writing was really good, and most graphics were lovely. (There were a few I wasn't so partial to, but that's just personal preference.) Romances are generally not my favourite genre of stories so I wasn't that enthralled by this, but I do appreciate the uniqueness of this collection and the quality of the stories. Some were really fantastic, and I really enjoyed having so many different things included. 3.5 stars.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just read the comics and not the short stories. "Treasured" by Trungles and "Twinkle and the Star" by by Alejandra Gutierrez and Alex de Campi are 5 star excellent. "Treasured" is a detailed fantasy of a busived and isolated princess. The limited color pallette of pink, yellow, red, purple, and pale blue made the emotion even more visceral. "Twinkle and the Star" provides the cover art. It plays with text, panel layout and color in a contemporary style influenced by art design and fashion illustration. It's playful and complements a story that covers a lot of issue that a plump South Asian fashion assistant dates and newly famous actor. The other two great comics were written by Alex de Campi. "Old Flames" drawn by Katie Skelly is her usual gory, horny horror stories set between an incubus and a succubus. It was fun and thrilling. "Invincible Heart" is drawn by Carla Speed McNeil is a space opera story of a pirate and a spaceship captain. The art is black and white and detailed realism. It's a joy for the eyes.
"Legacies" by Sarah Winifred Searle is her usually delicate lovely style, but the story is almost media res of a fantasy story.
"Olivia Lies, Pierced" is a fantasy story of anthropomorphic animal in a space fantasy setting. The art was sharp and a contrast of the black space setting and the contrasting purples, pinks, and yellows. I didn't quite follow that one.