alpha/luna books are my favorite penny romances. you know the kind, the ones you see ads for networks of on mobile games, where it costs more to buy their points and pay-by-chapter than it would to just buy the book on amazon. especially the ones where the fmc comes from an abusive pack, and the mmc takes her away from them and he and his pack love her and help her grow in a way she never thought was possible. they hit very close to home. something-something ’escapist fantasy’- i would call it a guilty pleasure if i felt guilt about it at all.
a few days ago, i read one called Learning to Love: Shade by M. L. Knight that had something that surprised me, not about the story, but the characters- one of the side characters, Oliver, is gay. it’s just kind of accepted, too, completely nonchalantly, which is wild to me. considering the whole destined lover patriarchal alpha/luna relationship thing, i thought that werewolf culture was just heteronormative and didn’t question it that much- but i guess our real life culture is too!
so now i’m wondering, are there any of these stories where the lead couple is gay? i don’t have a preference between m/m or f/f, although female alphas in this subgenre are rare enough as-is. escaping an abusive family is a bonus, but if the abuse is homophobia that feels cringe (ironically, compared to everything else about the subgenre) unless done spectacularly well.
feel free to send me more of the base subgenre stuff on the side too, lord knows i go through them like crazy and it’s probably my healthiest coping mechanism.
by acrylicash