Young Adult
Love and Video Games by Zachary Sergi
In the real world, Keegan Thomas is a gay, eighteen-year-old mythology nerd with undiagnosed chronic pain. But in the myth-inspired, online video game world of Pantheonic, he is the glorious and powerful K.Odyssia, slaying legions of enemies and completing quests for honor and glory along with his team, the Epic Hearts. Despite his closeness to his gamer friends–and the secret crush he has on his teammate, Alix–no one knows that he is struggling with the sudden onset of chronic pain in his lower back and fears it will hinder his ability to move to NYU in the fall.
When a quest in Pantheonic turns out to be a secret invitation to an in-person tournament in New York City, Keegan has to battle his fears of concealing and managing his pain so that his team can attend this once-in-a-lifetime event. Competing against six other teams, members of the Epic Hearts must work together to outwit and outplay the others to win the tournament and the hefty cash prize. But can Keegan as K.Odyssia be one of the heroes that Pantheonic needs while he’s laser-focused on his own epic battle? Will he be able to level up his relationship with Alix and lead his team to victory? It’s time for the games to begin!
The Golden Boy’s Guide to Bipolar by Sonora Reyes
Seventeen-year-old Cesar Flores is finally ready to win back his ex-boyfriend. Since breaking up with Jamal in a last-ditch effort to stay in the closet, he’s come out to Mami, his sister, Yami, and their friends, taken his meds faithfully, and gotten his therapist’s blessing to reunite with Jamal.
Everything would be perfect if it weren’t for The Thoughts—the ones that won’t let all his Catholic guilt and internalizations stay buried where he wants them. The louder they become, the more Cesar is once again convinced that he doesn’t deserve someone like Jamal—or anyone really.
Cesar can hide a fair amount of shame behind jokes and his “gifted” reputation, but when a manic episode makes his inner turmoil impossible to hide, he’s faced with a stark choice: burn every bridge he has left or, worse—ask for help. But is the mortifying vulnerability of being loved by the people he’s hurt the most a risk he’s willing to take?
Fawn’s Blood by Hal Schrieve
Fawn and Silver share nearly everything: coming out together as trans in their small Maryland town, clocking a copious number of hours in detention, and spending their sleepovers secretly making out. They’re also uniquely obsessed with vampires, who are being hunted, imprisoned, and executed for the danger they allegedly pose to human life.
Rachel is a bisexual teen, who has secretly been turned vampire and who is contending with the fact that her mom is a notorious vampire slayer. When Silver disappears and Fawn goes west in search of him, her and Rachel’s fates converge, both falling into the hands of Cain, an edgelord vampire known for his proselytizing for the drinking of human blood.
But in discovering hidden tunnels and secret bars, youth shelters and punk shows and safe houses, Fawn find herself in the middle of a vampire underground in Seattle—an organized resistance keeping each other alive through a network of blood distribution and protection from slayers.
The Map That Led to You by Ella McLeod
A long time ago, a witch burst into flames. A pirate and a mermaid fell in love. A map was marked with a glowing X. And a republic was born.
Levi and Vega are the children of the fearsome pirate captain of The Sea Dragon. They have been raised on tales of daring feats and seafaring adventures, but there are stories they haven’t been told–stories about witches and mermaids and magical maps. When tragedy strikes, the siblings land on the Pirate Republic, a self-governed island of freedom and adventure. Levi uncovers the secrets of his past as he works with his sister, a sea nymph, the pirates, and witches to protect the island from the conquering Empire. But he must learn to accept himself before he can even begin to help his friends.
In the present day, two girls are given a history assignment: to try and piece together the rise and fall of the famous and corrupt Pirate Republic, which once formed their island home. As Reggie and Maeve’s tentative friendship deepens into something more, they realize that a magical world could be on their very doorstep–if only they can find the map.
The Dead of Summer by Ryan La Sala
Two Days Before
Ollie Veltman is finally coming home to the quaint island of Anchor’s Mercy after a year away while his mom battled cancer. It should be a celebration — his mom is cancer free, and she’s determined to have the best summer ever — but Ollie’s (now ex) best friends think he abandoned them, and he’s returning with a lot of questions. Because for a place that’s perfect on the surface, a secret rots below the waves. A secret that could explain his mom’s illness, and the illness of so many other locals.
Ollie’s desperate search for the truth turns life-or-death when a storm descends upon the island. In its wake, a long-sunken horror rises . . .
Three Weeks After
Ollie is being held in isolation aboard a military hospital ship in the harbor. They say he’s a survivor, but they only know half the story. The truth is more monstrous than Ollie ever believed, and he suspects his saviors aren’t here to save anyone. Only Ollie can stop what’s coming, but that means getting back to Anchor’s Mercy before it vanishes, taking with it everyone he has ever loved.
This is How We Roll, ed. by Rosiee Thor
Keep an eye out later today for a peek inside this anthology!
The magic of tabletop RPGs lives in the creativity of the players. Given the chance to explore gender, relationships, and queer existence across vast worlds with completely different sets of rules, queer players throughout the years have found acceptance, camaraderie, and joy by rolling the dice and kicking ass. This anthology celebrates that TTRPG rite of passage with a diverse lineup of queer authors who are just as mighty with their pens as with swords… and shields… and spells!
This collection of fourteen stories includes critically acclaimed authors such as New York Times Bestseller Marieke Nijkamp, New York Times Bestseller Andrew Joseph White, Pura Belpré Honor winner Jonny Garza Villa, LAMBDA Literary Award winner Rebecca Podos, LAMBDA Award finalist Linsey Miller, Indie Bestseller Margaret Owen, and Morris Award finalist Akemi Dawn Bowman.
Adult
Breakout Year by KD Casey
A newly traded, newly out third baseman on the cusp of his first major contract hires a fake boyfriend—not expecting him to be the former player who ghosted him years before. But as their star ascends in public, their feelings burn hot in private…threatening to expose what’s for the cameras—and what’s for real.
Eitan Rivkin is used to being first. First generation born to Russian immigrant parents, first overall pick in the draft, now the first ballplayer to come out… before his first big contract. It’s lonely being the first, and it’s especially lonely in the inescapable eye of New York sports media.
So when he wants to practice dating openly for the first time, he hires a boyfriend—only for the cameras of course. But he never expected that boyfriend to be Akiva Goldfarb, a once-promising player who disappeared after he and Eitan played together way back when.
Akiva is used to being first too. The first—and only—Orthodox Jewish player drafted to play professional ball. The first to quit when things got rough. The first named in the acknowledgements of the books he freelance edits, because, hey, the rent’s due on the first of the month. Being hired as someone’s (fake) boyfriend is just another gig, right? Even if Akiva left baseball—and baseball players—behind for a reason.
What starts out as a brief arrangement gradually transforms into something more. But being the first openly gay active player in professional baseball comes with a heavy personal cost, one Eitan is less and less certain he’s willing to pay. And when an on-field incident threatens to disrupt Eitan’s free agency plans, they’ll have to figure out if the truth is better than fiction.
Love at First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi
This is a bi4bi m/f romance.
Rosemary Shaw’s ability to see the dead has never scared her. In fact, it’s secretly inspired most of her horror novels. Now at twenty-nine, Rosemary is an acclaimed author, and her most successful book is about to be a blockbuster movie. The film set is in a beautiful manor house in the English countryside, and it’s no surprise there are ghosts hanging around. But ghosts are something Rosemary can handle; she’s not so sure how to deal with her infuriatingly handsome leading man, who is all wrong for the role.
Ellis Finch is a longtime Hollywood heartthrob with a secret of his own. He’s tired of playing the action movie hero and would much rather be gardening with his sweet dog, Fig. Frankly, he’s getting too old to maintain the industry’s standards of what a man should look like. Starring in a historical horror movie will be perfect for his new image, until he finds out that the author tried to get him kicked off the project, but Ellis won’t go down without a fight.
Amidst filming the movie and the chemistry-filled feuding between Rosemary and Ellis, Hallowvale manor comes alive, literally. Trying to balance the mayhem of her writing deadlines, an adorable ghostly dog, and a pair of Regency-era women who are definitely nothing more than friends, Rosemary is at risk of telling Ellis her secret, or worse—falling for him.
A Murderous Business by Cathy Pegau
There can be a blurry line between what is ethical and what is legal.
Margot Baxter Harriman took the reins of B&H Foods after her father passed. It’s not easy being a business woman in 1912, but she is determined to continue what her grandparents started decades ago, no matter what it takes.
So when Margot finds Mrs. Gilroy, her father’s former assistant, dead in the office with a half-finished note confessing to nebulous misdeeds at B&H, she seeks out help from a very discreet, private investigator to figure out what’s going on. Her company, and her good name, are at stake if scandal breaks…and she could lose everything, including her freedom.
Loretta “Rett” Mancini has run her father’s investigation operation since he started becoming increasingly forgetful. When Margot offers her the chance to look into the potential scandal with B&H, she jumps at it.
But the more the two dig in, the more it becomes clear that Margot’s company may be too far lost…and someone is willing to kill them both to keep things quiet.
Runs in the Blood by Matthew J. Trafford
A lesbian mother feels out of place taking her daughter to a princess party; a gay couple turns to unconventional means to create their baby; a grieving man winds up on a date with a centaur; an agoraphobic must make an impossible choice before time runs out. This is the unnerving world of Runs in the Blood, Matthew J. Trafford’s sophomore story collection, and it pulses with humour, anxiety, and profound disquiet.
Darkly satirical and unflinchingly human, the stories of Runs in the Blood unsettle our notions of family, whether biological or chosen. Careening through the space beyond nature versus nurture, its characters – betrayed, wounded, unequipped – wrangle with their own worst instincts and the grotesqueries of the modern world, attempting to create families worth holding on to and to protect the children they love.
With Stars in Her Eyes by Andie Burke
Seconds from a meteoric career launch, cellist Courtney Starling suffers a frightening migraine attack during a key performance. While harmful rumors fly, she escapes to her happy place―her best friend’s Kansas bookshop. Courtney’s working incognito when a scream sends her leaping off a shelving ladder to find the woman who screamed cowering near the register.
When Thea Quinn dropped in for a misdelivered package, she did not expect a mortifying encounter with a bearded dragon in front of an inconveniently attractive bookseller. Clutching an upcoming book club flyer and the tattered shreds of her dignity, she heads back to her new piercing job at the tattoo shop next door. She moved to this quirky place for a fresh start. But maybe the meet-disaster was a sign? Maybe Thea needs to branch out beyond her photography hobby and connect with new people…like at a historical romance book club run by a particularly mysterious and sexy bookseller with a pixie cut?
Friendly lunches become stolen moments between the bookshelves. Courtney and Thea’s old problems feel ages away. But just as their chemistry heats to a combustion point, consequences from Courtney’s past arrive literally on her doorstep at exactly the wrong moment. New revelations and surprising connections take the pair from feeling joyfully lovestruck to confusingly star-crossed. Both women must decide what they’re willing to give up for happily ever after.
A Ruin, Great and Free by Cadwell Turnbull
This is the third book in the Convergence Saga
It has been nearly two years since the anti-monster riots. The inhabitants of Moon have been very fortunate in the intervening months. Inside their hidden monster settlement, they’ve found peace, even as the world outside slips into increasing unrest. Monsters are being hunted everywhere, forced back into the shadows they once tried to escape from. Other secret settlements have offered a place to hide, but how long can this half-measure against fear and hatred last?
Over the course of three days, the inhabitants of Moon are tested. The Black Hand continues to search for them and the Cult of the Zsouvox wants to make Moon the last stand in their war against the Order of Asha. This is more than enough to reckon with, but the gods have also placed their sights on Moon–and they bring with them a conflict that may either save or unravel the universe itself.
Non-fiction
Absolute Pleasure: Queer Perspectives on Rocky Horror ed. by Margot Atwell
Queer writers reflect on the complicated legacy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Since its earliest midnight showings at the Waverly Theater in New York City, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been an underground sensation. For five decades, people around the world have dressed up and gathered in dark theaters to dance, yell, mime obscene acts, and forge connections with other queer people and weirdos.
The film shattered expectations and social norms at the time of its release. But how does its presentation of queerness—not to mention its portrayals of murder, manipulation, consent violation, and cannibalism—hold up today? The essays in Absolute Pleasure—by queer writers including Sarah Gailey, Grace Lavery, and Magdalene Visaggio—explore the film’s complicated legacy, along with queer and trans joy, sexuality, family, generational understandings of queerness, and what we do with our problematic faves.
Be Gay, Do Crime: Everyday Acts of Queer Resistance and Rebellion ed. by Zane McNeill, Riley Clare Valentine, and Blu Buchanan
Sometimes it pays to be gay and do crime.
As communities are boldly rising to challenge capitalism, white supremacy, and authoritarianism, Be Gay, Do Crime: Everyday Acts of Queer Resistance and Rebellion is your ultimate guide to LGBTQ+ resilience and rebellion. Packed with daily snapshots of radical queer history, this book celebrates the bold, the brave, and the beautifully defiant moments that have shaped the fight for justice.
Ever wonder why the Stonewall protests became an uprising or what the earliest acts of queer resistance looked like? How about the ways queer communities have organized against oppression across the globe? Be Gay, Do Crime dives into these stories and so many more—from fierce acts of resistance to joyful victories—bringing to life the rich, diverse history of LGBTQ+ liberation.
By situating readers within a larger pattern of struggle, these everyday acts counter the erasure of queer people from history and serve as a reminder that our struggles are part of a broader fight against systemic violence and dehumanization.
But, this isn’t just a history book; it’s a rallying cry. Flip to any page, soak up some inspiration, and join the legacy of resistance.
