loading . . . Books: September 2025 Kobo Plus Reads My favourite reads for September. All these books are available to read with a Kobo Plus subscription; however, unlike Kindle Unlimited ebooks, they’ll also be available widely, from your chosen retailer or library, and often on Hoopla too. Heavy on the queer romance this month, but there’s some more general genre reads in there, too (no non-fiction this month).
## Mr Collins in Love by Lee Welch
The title is pretty much what we get: Mr Collins, before and after his on-page appearances at Longbourne, falling in love. A lowkey story with a lot of charm; I am impressed with how Welch takes a character who is unremittingly unpleasant in canon and makes him sympathetic and even likeable (right down to believably justifying why he might have, with pure good intentions, sent a “it would have been better if Lydia had JUST DIED” letter after the P&P elopement).
## Marsh and Moor by Annick Trent
Unwilling seaman Jed makes an escape from a Navy ship and immediately (aka first page, love it) meets Solomon. They team up to travel across the titular in safety, but Jed’s trauma and Solomon’s secrets may destroy a growing love affair. I’ve enjoyed previous queer romance works by Trent; it’s lovely to read well-written historical romance about the everyday person of this era. This one is set amid the social upheaval caused by the press gangs (legally allowed to kidnap people on the flimsiest of pretences; hmmm, nothing like that would ever happen now) during the Napoleonic Wars. Coincidentally _Mr Collins in Love_ also references this practice.
## Imperfect Illusions by Vanora Lawless
Continuing with the historical m/m romance, this one with a fantasy/paranormal twist and a WWI setting. Drafted by blackmail, Elliot and Sully (Warren) share a one-night stand before deploying. Both have powers known as skills, which results in Elliot, a dreamwalker, aiding Sully, an empath (and you know how awful that would be in war), in his dreams every night. The problem: daytime Sully doesn’t remember this at all, leading to one of my favourite situations, also apparent in cases of time travel and amnesia: asymmetrical emotional intimacy. It’s a little slow for my tastes in the first half (a few too many repetitive training/dreaming scenes) but the second half ramps up and I intend to roll on into the second book, _Twisted Tome_.
## The Knight and the Necromancer trilogy by A.H. Lee
Moving along the spectrum of fantasy, this next m/m indie romance follows Roland and Sairis, knight and necromancer respectively. After some anonymous flirting in a tavern, they’re both surprised the following morning to come face to face at a contentious meeting deciding the fate of nations. Cue battles and betrayals while they struggle with mutual attraction and distrust. It’s a pacy read with some darkness (as you would expect with raising the dead) and an eventual HEA. I quite like the knight/necromancer (or pure soul/touch-starved misunderstood goblin) pairing – another favourite example is Tavia Lark’s _The Necromancer’s Light_ (only on KU, but the audiobook is on Hoopla) (and actually, T Kingfisher’s _Paladin’s Hope_ isn’t far off it as well, absent the literal raising from the dead component).
## The Changling by Juniper Butterworth
I whipped through a few of Butterworth’s works over the month of my subscription, including two of the three in the Goblins and Cheese books (_The Changeling_ being the first), and a Sea Goblin book. They are quirky and funny and have a very distinct style (slightly reminiscent of T Kingfisher); I’ll definitely go back for more when I next re-up on K+. Goblins, misbehaving livestock who might be minor gods, cheese and cheese-based magic, and polyamory are the order of the day. (Note this is the same author as J Winifred Butterworth, whose cheese-flavoured queer historical I so enjoyed earlier this year.)
## Darlings of New Midnight by Andrea Speed
One of my rarer genres, a urban fantasy (but still with plenty of queerness). We start straight in the middle of the action, with a group of misfit mythical superheroes (plus token human) trying to avert the apocalypse. They are an “over-powered and yet somehow still-doomed troupe” because they’re up against the full forces of Heaven and Hell. An assist from a tentacled elder god might help. Sassy, fast-paced and satisfying, and I love the cover!
## Of Deeds Most Valiant by Sarah K.L. Wilson
Just when you thought it was going to be an all-queer month, here’s a fantasy with a slow burn m/f romance. A group of paladins are drawn into a Cube-like situation1; murder ensues. Not sure how I ended up reading another knight/paladin book (not actually my favourite archetype) this month but the blurb and first few pages really grabbed me. Admittedly, the style of writing is not entirely to my tastes (it’s undeniably good, but is long-winded, and heavy on the angst and what I will call interiority2, aka near every line of dialogue or action is accompanied by detailed and repetitive internal thoughts/emotions, which slows the pace). However, the characters were excellent (though the angst and stupid decisions towards the end were a bit much, that’s paladins for you) and I really wanted to find out what happened. It says it’s a Book 1 but is a complete stand-alone story (there’s just others set in the same world).
## Black Silk by Judith Ivory
And now we’re subtracting both queerness and fantasy and leaving just the slow (oh my god _slow_) burn m/f romance. A widow and an ex-ward circle each other while working their way out from the long shadow of a dead man. Now, fair warning, this book is 35 years old. It is _beautifully_ written, no mistake: there’s a line about FMC Submit’s (yes, I know) clothes that reads “neat, clean, no foolishness; substantive” which exactly encapsulates it. Ironically, it has a similar sort of slow interiority of _Of Deeds Most Valiant_ above, but is so precise and well-written I was glued to it. The MMC Graham3 is a realistic rake (has a bad reputation that causes him and others real problems) rather than it being shorthand for sexy. He basically has an on-going mid-life crisis and also chucks a very unattractive (if minor) tantrum when Submit won’t adhere to nominative determinism…and does not redeem himself like a modern lead is constrained to do, he just kind of shows up and demands she give in. Personally, I’d’ve accepted a tragic ending – and look, yes, if they hadn’t ended up together it would have been tragic, so there, effective romance! – and called it literary fiction (though let’s face it, it’d get handballed into “women’s fiction”). It’s very YMMV, but gosh, the writing’s so lovely!
## The House of the Rain King by Will Greatwich
Saving the best for last – my absolute favourite of the month, a unique stand-alone fantasy best read to the sound of non-stop rain. Novice Emwort is in the middle of taking his Monk Exam (it’s not actually called that) when his god-figure the Rain King arrives, heralding the irregular-but-always-destructive floodwaters and changing this small world forever. All-round fantastic: great writing, characters (good, bad, and grey), world-building, mythology, build-up, climax. If this doesn’t at least get shortlisted for an Aurealis (the Australian Hugo/Nebula), it’s because the indie author forgot to enter it.
## And…
I have books on Kobo Plus in the fairly niche cosy-adjacent stand-alone gay/queer romantic fantasy genre (plus a YA fairytale-based trilogy).
Find out more about them here, and check the content warnings here (cosy-_adjacent_ , not cosy).
## Writing News
Second draft done! Cover done! Blurb – oh god, don’t even start. That, and the final draft plus the endless rounds of revisions that will make me DESPISE this book before we’re through, is October’s project4.
Looking at publishing late November, maybe early December. Which is a shame, because it’s partly a ghost story, which seems to be mandated to appear in October 🙂
1. Does anyone else remember this movie? Just me? Here’s its wikipedia page ↩︎
2. Hey, there’s a reason these are capsule reviews basically saying what I liked about it, not actual critical analyses… ↩︎
3. Submit’s name is at least acknowledged as stupid in-world. Rakes named after grandfathers DON’T WORK ↩︎
4. Note how, in my head, writing the blurb is an equal endeavour to the entire editing process. Yes. This is true. ↩︎
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### _Related_ https://wendypalmer.au/2025/09/28/books-september-2025-kobo-plus-reads/
