Usually I have to take a few minutes – or days – to gather my thoughts for that artsy reader girl’s Top Ten Tuesday prompts. I mean my chosings gotta fit the theme and inspiration isn’t just waiting around the corner. It didn’t wait around the corner with this week’s prompt as well.

Instead it full on tackled me to the ground and wouldn’t let go off me as soon as I read the prompt. Which kinda fits with her Temper Series, that I love as well. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Her Temper Series

Like I said before, I absolutely love her Temper Series, of which I have read four books and I’m seriously excited for book 5. If you wanna hear me all but gushing over them, check out my reviews. In short, the setting is in Japan where Lila herself is currently living – that might be one of the reasons why the atmosphere is so authentic and captivating and why her characters are so real.

Her Diverse Characters

But apart from the at times clashing cultural – and let’s be honest, personality – differences there is more to her characters and it just makes them so loveable. Lovingly slapable at times, too. They just feel so real and everyone is just so fully fledged out; it doesn’t matter if it’s my queen Yuki or “mere” minor character Gabriella, they are more than simply threedimensional with their own quirks, wishes, and faults.

In queer literature – and let’s be honest, romance in general – there so often is a heavy focus on young characters who haven’t reached their midtwenties, it feels like. Not all of course, the first series that comes to mind is Jenn Burke’s Not Dead Yet (which I would have done this Top Ten Tuesday about if the idea of doing one about Lila Mina didn’t tackle me), but I can’t think of a book where there is an “older” female character let alone a love interest. Here? We get both and on top “older” minor characters as well.

Couple this with lovely queer characters (so far bi, polyam*, pan), healthy and sensible mental health rep, and a paranormal twist and you can bet your ass I am in love with the series. Did I mention the dark erotica part?

Her (online) personality

I don’t know her personally but I really enjoy our online interactions via email and social media. Having her reach out to me when the start of this year was one of the worst I’ve experienced – if not the worst – and send me good vibes? I can’t put into words how much I’ve appreciated and didn’t expect it.

But there’s way more to her online presence. How often do you get recs in an author’s own newsletter for books by other authors? And even apart from that, Lila is actively invovled in the indie scene, interacting, retweeting, and reccing authors and bloggers.

What about you?

I mean, I could go on and on, both about how much I love Temper and how much I enjoy Lila’s presence in my twitter feed, but it’s getting embarrassing. “Getting” I say, as if I haven’t moved into that area ages ago.

But what about you? Which author do you absolutely love and why?