Hurt/Comfort and Found Families of magical beings await behind the purple door.

Why did I start reading it?

The author appeared a few times on my TikTok, and the book seemed to tick a few boxes for me.

- urban fantasy

-LGBTQ+

I was defiantly interested to pick it up.

What is it?

Bianca is a werebird whose sister was killed by hunters. She takes refuge in the Purple Door District of Chicago, but the hunters do not give up. What do they want with her and how will her troubles shake the district?

What are the characters like?

Pretty cool. The world had a wonderful variety of werecreatures and more, though we only get to focus on a couple of groups, more are mentioned, and I really hope we get to see more in future books. I really feel like this first volume on scratches the surface.

What's the bad news?

For a book that markets itself with the LGBTQ+ tag it's not very LGBTQ+. There's one background lesbian couple then one shoved in at the end.

The one at the end made me sad. I could see it was going to happen and was looking forward to seeing the relationship develop thought book 2 but we instead got a jump cut to them already being in a relationship. I was happy they were together but sad I didn't get to see it, but I guess this isn't a romance series.

And the good news?

The plot was great! Written from different points of view helping us to get to know many characters and how they feel about the situation. Not everyone was gung-ho, help and save the protag some even shunned her because their own worries and issues, but they were not evil, and we had enough information as a reader to empathise with their reasoning. Wonderful well-rounded characters.

When it comes to racial diversity it's great. The author has done an excellent job of folding in distinct cultures and skin tones of the characters to make the human aspect as colourful as the non-human one.

Also, if the found family trope is your jam, then this really is the book for you. Almost every single character has come from some kind of broken home and now has a family of loving people who aren't related to them. It's very sweet and put this book in the same sort of area in my brain as hurt/comfort fanfics.

Would you recommend?

I 100% do if you like:

- found family

- Urban fantasy

- Werewolves, vampires, mages

- a hidden magical world but doesn't really focus much on the masquerade aspect.

- A diverse cast of sexualities and POC

Grab your copy here!