Middle Grade
When You’re Brave Enough by Rebecca Bendheim
Before she moved from Austin to Rhode Island, everybody knew Lacey as one half of an inseparable duo: Lacey-and-Grace, best friends since they were toddlers. Grace and her moms were practically family. But at school, being lumped together with overeager, worm-obsessed, crushes-on-everyone Grace meant Lacey never quite fit in—and that’s why at her new middle school, Lacey plans to reinvent herself. This time, she’s going to be cool. She’s going to be normal.
At first, everything seems to go as planned. Lacey makes new friends right away, she finds a rabbi to help her prepare for the bat mitzvah that got deprioritized by her parents in the chaos of the move, and she even gets cast in the lead role of the eighth-grade musical. Which is when things start to get stressful, because it turns out the students at her new school have a long-standing, unofficial tradition: No matter what the show is, in the final performance, the leads always kiss for real.
Lacey’s never kissed anyone before—she’s not even sure she’s ever had a crush. And in Bye, Bye, Birdie, there are a few different co-lead kiss possibilities for Lacey to choose from. There’s confident, cocky Andre. There’s sweet, friendly Jaden. And then there’s the other new girl at school: dryly funny, impossibly cool Violet.
But while her new friends and older sister create whiteboard wall charts and botched field trip schemes to help her decide, suddenly Lacey can’t stop thinking about Grace, who she was so sure she wanted to leave behind. When Grace comes back into her life, Lacey needs to decide if she’s brave enough to be who she really is, in front of the person who matters most.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Black Pearl Books | Book People | Barnes & Noble
Young Adult
Leave it on the Track by Margot Fisher
Morgan “Moose” Shaker barely survived the fire that killed her fathers in their beloved roller rink in small-town Utah. Now she has to move to Portland, Oregon to live with her much older half sister, Eden. Eden’s doing her best, but she’s hardly ready to be a parent to a sixteen-year-old she hasn’t seen in years. Plus, barely-out-of-the-closet Moose worries that she’s not ready for super-affirming, rainbow-flags-everywhere Portland. Her anxiety and frustration are at peak levels.
Fortunately, Moose finds an outlet for her emotions and a surprising group of friends in roller derby. Her teammates help her grieve her dads and confront her queer imposter syndrome. And even though it’s against league rules, she might be falling for a teammate.
Heartfelt, funny, and romantic, this debut will make you want to lace up your skates, pull on your pads, and hit the track.
One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller
Grace Woodhouse has left a lot behind. She used to have a great friend group, an amazing girlfriend, and a right foot set to earn her a Division I football scholarship—before she came out as trans. As her senior year at Pageland High begins, Grace struggles to find her place in early transition, new social circles, and a life without football (especially since people keep telling her they can’t believe that she of all people is trans – whatever that means).
But when her skills as the best kicker in the state prove to be vital, her old teammates beg her to come out of retirement, dragging her back into a sport—into a way of life—she thought had turned its back on her forever. The thing is, there’s no playbook for girls like her in the world of football. And when a chance meeting cracks the door to college football back open, she has to decide how much of herself she’s willing to give up for the game she loves.
Charmed and Dangerous by Shelly Page
Magic lingers in the cozy town of Fair Glen, Illinois, and it’s up to the agents at the Bureau of Mystical Affairs to keep it in check. Monroe Bennett, a junior recruit at the Bureau, is ready to ace her first assignment: tracking down the source of a rogue love charm.
Protecting her charmed classmates, including the Bureau Director’s daughter Iris James, is top priority. But when Iris asks Monroe to fake date her to make her ex jealous, things get complicated.
Monroe believes in duty, not romance. Yet the more time she spends with Iris, the harder it is to ignore the very real sparks flying between them. Can Monroe protect herself from love long enough to solve this case, or will her growing feelings get in the way?
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy by Erin Edwards
Georgiana Darcy has only ever kissed one girl before, and the resulting blackmail almost ruined her reputation. Since then, she’s carefully calibrated her life to be as quiet as possible, focusing on books and music. She certainly isn’t planning on falling in love with another girl. But then she meets Kitty Bennet, and everything is thrown off kilter.
After a moonlit kiss shifts their newfound friendship into something more, Georgiana follows Kitty to the Bennets’ home. The visit proves ill-timed when she encounters the one man who knows her secret and threatened her with it before. Terrified of testing the limits of her family’s love and of putting Kitty in danger, Georgiana doesn’t know if there’s any chance of a happy ending.
Every etiquette guide she’s ever read makes it clear that if she wants to protect her family name, Georgiana must pretend her heart follows society’s accepted rhythm. Unless, with a little help from those who understand how it feels, she can compose the future she and Kitty both deserve.
Sweet Clarity by Rhiannon Richardson
Clarity Jones has her first kiss with Hannah Fitzpatrick while away at Christian summer camp. Though it wasn’t like her to be so impulsive, realizing she’s gay slid a missing piece of her identity into place and was the most freeing experience of her life. However, Clarity’s self-discovery turns to disaster when she and Hannah are found together—and she gets a glimpse of how the truth can turn her life upside down.
Now that she’s home, Clarity vows to do whatever it takes to keep her secret from her Baptist parents and not lose any more friends. Only this goal becomes increasingly complicated as Clarity must choose between who she been pretending to be and who she really is.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Smash or Pass by Birdie Schae (May 12, 2026)
For 16-year-old Ellie, beach volleyball camp is a disaster until she’s paired with Sierra, an athletic prodigy who teaches her that volleyball…and love are about taking the right shot in this sporty sapphic romance.
Ellie dates the Right Guy, says all the Right Things, and acts the Right Way to avoid being ridiculed for her autism. When that Right Guy unceremoniously dumps her right before they’re supposed to go to beach volleyball camp together, Ellie’s perfectly curated world comes crashing down and she’s labeled the boring, weird girl.
Desperate to regain her good reputation (and yeah, sure, the boy…), Ellie goes to Camp SMASH, which is nothing like she expected. There, she’s paired with Sierra, a mysterious, standoffish volleyball legacy who makes Ellie’s quest to get her boyfriend back even more complicated…
This Must Be the Place by Kelly Quindlen (May 26, 2026)
When eighteen-year-old Louisa Wade inherits a gay bar from her late great-uncle, she figures there’s been some kind of mistake. There’s no way Uncle George―football legend and hometown hero of Rustin, Alabama―could have secretly owned a queer bar… right?
But The Frisky Cricket is real, and so is the messy legacy Uncle George left behind―including his grumpy ex-partner, Hatch, who wants nothing more than to sell the bar. Louisa may have zero business experience, but she’s determined to keep it open for the vibrant queer community that calls it home.
As the summer heats up, Louisa’s crusade puts her on a collision course with Aubrey Calhoun: the pretty, popular, and sharp-tongued daughter of Rustin University’s newly crowned football coach. The girls start off on the wrong foot, but a tentative truce leads to late nights, shared secrets, and a growing spark.
But things threaten to sputter out when Coach Calhoun sets his sights on The Frisky Cricket, scheming to replace it with a new athletic facility―celebrating Uncle George’s football career while erasing his queerness. Now Louisa must decide if she can fight for Uncle George’s legacy without losing sight of herself in the process.
Nat & Cami’s Guide to Running an Undercover GSA by Karis Rogerson (June 23, 2026)
Cami is a 15-year-old lesbian, one of the few out queer students at her conservative boarding school for international students in Italy. She just wants to focus on getting her paintings in a student gallery and kickstarting a vaunted art career—but first, she’ll have to survive the next two-and-a-half years of bullying. Seeking respite from her roommate’s cruelty one night, she hides out in a bathroom—only she’s not the only one there.
Nat is a senior, closeted even from herself, whose homophobic, missionary parents are pressuring her to win valedictorian. A year younger than her peers at 16, she’s still the head of her class, the fastest runner on the cross country team, and the captain of the girls’ soccer team, but her depression and insomnia keep her up all night. She takes refuge in the ground-floor bathroom where Cami shows up one night.
As they spend time together over the following nights and Cami shows Nat how poorly the school treats queer people, the two girls concoct a mildly hare-brained scheme: to create an undercover Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) where queer students and allies can bond. They don’t expect so many kids to find a home with them.
And they certainly don’t expect to fall for each other.
Buy it: Amazon
We Were Never Here by Sophia Hannan (July 28, 2026)
In July, Georgia Perry and Jules Park—secret girlfriends, covert art thieves, and cohosts of a popular YouTube ghost hunting show—step into a haunted house to steal a priceless painting. A few short hours later, there’s a knife in Jules’s chest and Georgia is waking up in a pool of blood with no memory of how she got there.
Now it’s October, and Georgia is underwater. She hasn’t been to class in weeks, she’s avoiding her old crew and only friends like the plague. But when the three remaining thieves get a call from the man who paid a hefty sum to keep them out of jail, demanding that they return to finish the job, Georgia has no choice but to return to her old life.
As the estranged friends scramble to steal the painting with no cover story and no leader, they quickly realize that something is very, very wrong, and it’s not just the suffocating memory of Jules or the prying eyes of their viewers. Between the strange shadows that begin to trail them and the nightmares plaguing Georgia’s sleep, only one thing is certain: Something followed them home from De Lys manor, and it will do anything to keep them from going back.
Buy it: Bookshop | B&N | Amazon | Indigo | S&S
The Three Beasts by Grovey Pascasio, lettered by Buddy Beaudoin (August 25, 2026)
Ten years ago, the Great Tamers saved the people of Punong Panday from a giant hydra, turning the once savage beast into a peace-keeper. Now, these three men are known across the land as legends. But for Dima, Espie, and Keris, the Great Tamers are more than legends… they’re their fathers. And to become worthy successors, the young friends must each prove themselves in a physical contest against the hydra, Matutum.
Dima is too meek and untalented, especially compared to the short-tempered Espie. Even their cool mentor Keris never stood a chance at winning. When their dreams become a deadly game of pride, they have to find a way out together—with their blades drawn, and their fathers’ legacies burnt to ashes.
The Siren’s Kiss by Leslie Vedder (September 1, 2026)
Dead Shot Rayleigh has spent the last three years bound to a cursed ship after crossing the sea god Red-Handed Roger. Her only hope for freedom is to find his long-ago stolen heart—which means taking on his sworn enemy, the Sea Witch.
But Rayleigh’s not the only one with a score to settle… Fiery mermaid Maren is also searching for the Sea Witch, determined to bargain for the soul of her lost brother.
When Rayleigh and Maren’s separate missions bring them together, sparks fly, and all their plans go up in flames. Now they’ll have to join forces to survive.
Find the Sea Witch. Steal the heart. And don’t fall for your enemy, no matter how irresistible she is. How hard can it be?
Until the Last Light Goes Out by Courtney Gould (October 13, 2026)
Flickering neon lights and hot Miami nights turn deadly in this gothic horror about a daughter investigating her best friend’s disappearance at an abandoned island resort.
You may not escape, but the truth will.
Twenty-five years ago, the Ripley Memorial High School senior class entered the luxurious Kaleidoscope Key resort deep in the remote Florida Keys. Despite international intrigue and years of investigation, no one truly knows how the 183 students died. And they never will, since the five survivors of the massacre have never spoken a word about what happened to them that night.
Paige Keller, daughter of one of the Kaleidoscope Key Massacre’s infamous survivors, has grown up determined to steer her life away from the resort and the unsolved mysteries her ex-best friend, KJ, can’t leave alone. But when she’s called home on the 25th anniversary of the massacre, she finds that KJ has gone missing.
Paige knows there’s only one place KJ could be: her obsession, the now-abandoned resort. When Paige and the remaining survivors’ kids go in after her, they’re forced to confront their—and their parents—pasts once and for all.
Kaleidoscope Key is waiting, and it’s starving. Once they find their way inside, there may not be a way out. And one way or another, the truth of the massacre will come to light.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Adult
Robbie McNeil’s Hit List by Brianna Heath
For this hitwoman, curiosity may be killer.
Contract killer Robbie McNeil never asks questions. Her mission is simple. Do the job. Get paid. Get back to running the karaoke bar she co-owns with her queerplatonic partner and fellow contract killer, Dee. And it works… Until their ambitious new theatrical venture breaks the bank.
When a mysterious new client hires Robbie for a hit, she takes the job, even though it’s sketchy as hell he won’t tell her anything but the target’s name. But hey, she didn’t build her reputation by being curious, and she desperately needs the cash.
Except something about this new target doesn’t add up. When he disappears with no record he ever existed, she chucks her no-questions-asked policy out the window, determined to figure out who this target really is. But the price for asking questions is high and might just cost Robbie everything she holds dear.
The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen
Sometimes, true love is not the answer.
A decade after the Second War, Aixauhan Alchemist Ying Cai-Li seeks to rekindle her relationship with her ex-lover, the Inabrian Oracle Anne Barberry.
However, the war changed them both. Estranged by their losses, Cai-Li has gained a notorious reputation as the dark magic-wielding Blood Hawk and Anne barricades herself in a castle on a hill where her family’s dark secrets lie. Rumors in the village say Anne is a monster, responsible for the disappearance of innocent visitors.
But when the two witches reunite and begin unraveling the mysteries of the village, it becomes clear that scars left by the war do not easily fade. Things are not as they seem. Old ghosts come back to haunt them. Past truths are revealed. Can the witches be each other’s salvations or are they doomed to repeat the past that tore them apart?
The Ex Effect by Dana Hawkins
Morgan Rose has always been the girl with the plan. Color-coded calendars, backup plans for her backup plans, and a wedding business that’s her entire world. Only one woman ever managed to derail Morgan’s organized life and shatter her heart in the process. But Morgan doesn’t think about Frankie Lee anymore.
Until Morgan meets the photographer hand-picked by her latest clients and discovers that Frankie is not miles away in New York like she thought. She’s back in Spring Harbors, looking infuriatingly good, and Morgan’s carefully ordered world descends into chaos.
Morgan has just 87 days to pull off the wedding of her career and she’s not going to let Frankie derail this opportunity. She will not be distracted by Frankie’s new haircut or the shadowy dips between her shoulders and biceps. And she won’t care about Frankie’s unfairly salty attitude when she left Morgan.
But some sparks never die, and as the wedding approaches and the tension between Morgan and Frankie grows, can they face up to the mistakes that pulled them apart, or risk it happening all over again?
Buy it: Amazon
A Girl in Red by Galleria Smoak
Francesca Grey is a womanizer. She’s never been one to settle down because she has never met a woman worthy of settling for. Not to mention that being the leader of the third largest American cattive, The Northern Dragons, doesn’t leave much room for relationships—least of all marriage. That is, until her estranged parents tell her that she has five months to get married or she loses her cattive and it goes to her rival Scotty Fraiser, the leader of the Scar Bloods. Now, Francesca has no choice but to find a wife to marry before her twenty-fifth birthday.
Then, like fate, Alana Salvatore, her girl in red, steps into her life like an angel sent from the heavens. Immediately, Francesca is smitten with the mysterious woman that she deems untouchable—perfect. Their connection is intoxicating, the two of them drawn together by some invisible force. When she sets her eyes on Alana, Francesca is infatuated instantaneously; it is almost as easy as breathing. In more ways than one Alana feels the exact same way, but she can’t fight the hate that bubbles under her skin. When together, the two can’t help but disappear into a cloud of lust and intense desire.
With the arrival of Alana, the past that Francesca has tried so long to forget about threatens to destroy everything she has been building. Now, it is no longer the Scar Bloods breathing down her neck; it is an old friend drenched in darkness that is dead-set on making Francesca suffer.
Unbeknownst to them, Francesca and Alana find themselves trapped in a game of love and hate, one that goes beyond even them.
Buy it: Amazon
The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder by Kiri Callaghan
“For all intents and purposes, we are still blissfully separated from the mortals, but there have been…complications.”
When a rise in London’s supernatural crime puts Fey society at risk of discovery, the Winter Council turns to an unlikely solution: Avery Hemlock, the changeling they sentenced to 500 Years of Nightmares. Inherently lacking social grace and missing approximately two centuries of world knowledge, Avery must find a way to acclimate and solve the case or lose her probationary freedom.
After being left at the altar and dropping out of medical school, Saga Trygg attempts to rekindle her faith in life, humanity, and witchcraft. But when her new neighbor, Avery, accidentally reveals the Fey that have been living among humanity all along, Saga realizes magic is far more than prayers, intention, and candles.
Each faced with navigating an unfamiliar world, the two form an unexpected partnership―but shortly into Avery’s investigation, they discover the threat might be closer to Saga than either of them imagined, and Avery will do anything to protect the first friend she’s had in more than two hundred years.
Track Four is Not About You by L.M. Bennett
Bishop left without a word. Shiloh never knew why. Four years later, neither of them has recovered.
Now Bishop’s album is falling apart, and the only producer who understands her sound is the ex she ghosted. Shiloh doesn’t do chaos, second chances, or Bishop. But when she hears that dying demo, something cracks. Because the raw honesty on that track? That’s theirs. That’s what they used to make together. Before the fame. Before the silence.
Four months. One studio. Two people who used to be everything to each other, now barely able to share air.
The music is pulling them closer. The past is daring them to run.
And if track four isn’t about her…why does it sound like an apology?
Buy it: Amazon
This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne
Sergeant Nix Marr is a damn good soldier, but she’s desperate to leave her haunted past in the bioluminescent ocean, buried alongside old friends…and old flames. Unfortunately, even the icy ocean can’t extinguish some fires. When Kessandra, everyone’s favorite princess―and Nix’s loathed ex―requests Nix’s help investigating a massacre in the abyssal city of Fall, Nix refuses. Vehemently.
But Kessandra always gets what she wants.
Consigned as Kessandra’s bodyguard, Nix grudgingly boards a luxurious submersible that offers the only transportation to Fall. It’s frustrating, irritating, how quickly Nix and Kess fall back in sync―much as she tries to fight, Nix can’t deny their spark. But Kessandra wasn’t truthful―surprise, surprise―and Nix quickly realizes their “investigation” isn’t about the massacre, but rather what caused it: an illness that incites its victims into a violent craze.
When another royal is brutally murdered, it becomes apparent the disease has spread―and no one on the submersible is safe. Suddenly, survival hinges on trusting each other, which would be a hell of a lot easier if Kessandra didn’t keep lying. Injured, fighting for their lives, Nix has to decide if she can trust Kessandra again…and what she’ll lose this time.
Beings by Ilana Masad
In 1961, an interracial couple drove through the dark mountains of New Hampshire when a mysterious light began to follow them. Years later, through hypnosis, they recalled an unbelievable brush with extraterrestrial life. Unintentionally, a genre was born: the alien abduction narrative.
In Ilana Masad’s Beings, the couple’s experience serves as one part of a trio of intertwined threads: Known only by their roles as husband and wife, Masad explores the pair’s trauma and its aftermath and questions what it means to accept the impossible. In the second thread, letters penned by a budding science-fiction writer, Phyllis, to her beloved, Rosa, expose the raw ache of queer yearning, loneliness, and alienation in the repressive 1960s-as well as the joy of finding community. In the present day, a reclusive and chronically ill Archivist attempts to understand a strange forgotten childhood encounter while descending into obsession over both Phyllis’s letters and the testimony of the first alien abductees.
Over the course of a decade, Phyllis wrestles with her desires and ambitions as a lesbian writer, while the abducted couple grapple with how to maintain control of their narrative. All the while, the archive shatters and reforms, redefining fact and fiction via the stories left behind by the abductees, Phyllis, and the Archivist themself. Masad makes human what is alien and makes tangible what is hidden – sometimes by chance and sometimes intentionally – in the archive.
Sparks by Jae
What seems broken might just need a reboot in this slow-burn, lesbian romance.
New admin Willow Greene has the worst luck with electronics. Computers crash, printers jam, and even coffee machines refuse to cooperate when she’s around.
Like her devices, her relationships never seem to last, so she has given up on dating. That’s why she’s seriously unprepared for the IT department’s easygoing, always smiling Scottie Prescott, who has far too much charm to be safe.
Scottie can’t help noticing introverted, mysterious Willow, but she’s still healing from a bad breakup. The last thing she needs is more chaos, given she’s supposed to fix problems, not get tangled up in them.
But when they get stuck in an elevator together, the sparks between them become impossible to ignore. Can they risk their carefully protected hearts getting burned?
Veal by Mackenzie Nolan
Delores “Lawrence” Franklin is a failed capitalist and a runaway headcase. Following a corporate meltdown, she decides to start fresh in Mistaken Point, a small town known for two things — Mistaken Point University, where she and her best friend, Anastasia Lanes, are now enrolled, and the grisly murders of countless young women.
At her new part-time arcade job, Lawrence meets Francesca “Franky” Delores — gritty, off-putting, and chronically serious, as opposite to Lawrence as her name would suggest. Soon, Lawrence discovers Franky is convinced there is a monster on the loose, a patchwork creature born of hatred and responsible for the supposedly solved string of violence haunting the town.
Against the advice of Franky’s closest friend, Pippa, Lawrence, and Stasia join Franky in a sticky, summertime search for a yellow-eyed monster between classes, shifts at the arcade, and eating popsicles by the pool. Motivated mostly by her unquenchable attraction to Franky, Lawrence allows herself to be pulled in strange directions, trying to appease Franky’s mania. Through the trials of hunting a monster only some of them believe in, Pippa, Lawrence, Stasia, and Franky discover truths about womanhood, relationships, and the reliability of urban legends.
Toni and Addie Go Viral by Melissa Marr
Hot new author and her lead actress stun fans in a secret wedding―is it all a publicity stunt? Or something more…
On a whim―and hoping to pay off the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt her grifter father left behind―Victorian history professor Toni Darbyshire sells her lesbian detective novel in a massive deal. Suddenly thrust into the overwhelming new world of publishing, plus a television adaptation, Toni’s life gets even more complicated when her one-night stand turned pen pal (and the namesake for her main character) shows up in person for casting of the show.
Aspiring actress Addie’s had a crush on the professor ever since she watched her lectures on the Victorian era to prep for a stage role. Now, getting cast in Toni’s TV series could be her big break. But Addie’s in over her head when promo pictures of their fake Victorian wedding go viral. She could lose more than just her heart … and her historically accurate underthings.
For the Bride by Becca Grischow (June 2, 2026)
On the surface, Alice has her life together. She’s got a job in music she loves; she’s firmly sober; and she’s grateful to be back in the good graces of her ex-girlfriend-once-best-friend-now-literal-only-friend Gin. Just in time, too, because Gin’s getting married this summer! And Alice gets to be a bridesmaid.
If only the maid-of-honor wasn’t Renee Roberts: Type-A, the opposite of her in every way, and a long-time Alice-hater who’s clung to her animosity like a leech. Every second Alice spends around Renee makes her feel like who she used to be, rather than the person she’s spent years trying to make herself into—and she doesn’t want to be reminded of her younger self any more than she wants to be thinking, more constantly than she wants to admit, about Renee: her hair, her lips, her wit…. No, Alice has her own stuff to figure out. She still loves music, but her career feels directionless. She’s grieving the loss of her father just a year ago, to alcohol. And then she finds out that her mother’s started to date her father’s ex-bandmate, which sends her reeling…and with the wedding just around the corner, she doesn’t want to bother Gin about any of it.
It’s pure chance that Renee runs into Alice, just when she needs someone the most—and suddenly, everything shifts. Neither of them are what they assumed the other to be. Over the days and nights they’re spending helping Gin throw a DIY summer wedding of epic proportions, Alice and Renee discover that though they have nothing in common—that might be precisely what each of them need.
The New People by Andrea Uptmor (July 21, 2026)
Months after the housing bubble bursts, newlywed Chicagoans Emma and Rachel move into a charming little house in a conservative Indiana college town, hoping for a fresh start after a painful miscarriage. As Rachel immerses herself in her new role as a tenure-track professor and bestselling novelist, adjunct Emma struggles in the shadow of her wife’s success. Desperate to build something of her own, Emma secretly pursues IVF, even as Rachel insists they wait to have children. The house, initially a symbol of new beginnings, becomes a refuge for Emma from the town she’s convinced is set against her—until strange occurrences make her question whether she and her wife are truly alone.
They aren’t.
Charlotte and Dirk, the former homeowners, are secretly living in the attic above Emma and Rachel’s attached garage. Dispossessed by the recession and anxious about her husband’s declining health, Charlotte listens to the interlopers below, and her resentment steadily grows. What starts as small acts of defiance—missing food, flipped breakers in the fuse box, subtle scratches in the furniture—soon becomes sabotage. But when her campaign to drive out the couple goes too far, Charlotte’s and Emma’s stories converge in an explosive climax that will reveal the lengths people will go to reclaim what they’ve lost.
Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe (October 20, 2026)
Something ravenous lurks below the marble floors of Preston University…
Marcella might be a monster, but she’s careful. After getting hired at Preston University, she intends to lay low and keep her meals discreet.
Trapped in the rat race of academia, all Lacie wants is to make tenure. This will be her year, and nothing is going to stand in her way.
That is, until bodies start dropping.
Marcella swears it isn’t her doing―as if she’d be that sloppy. Whatever’s killing their coworkers is older, and far less restrained. Lacie doesn’t know who to trust, but better the monster you know…
The deeper they dig, the more they’re drawn to each other… and the more something else is drawn to them.
After all, desire has teeth of its own.
Two Can Play That Game by Zakiya N. Jamal (November 17th)
Chelsea has never cared about sports. But when she’s invited to sit courtside at a New York Rebels game, she welcomes the break from her usual routine. What she doesn’t expect is a basketball nearly colliding with her face—or the six-foot-four hottie who jogs over, flashing a heart-stopping grin, to retrieve it.
Adrienne “AD” Daniels is a player on and off the court, notorious for their inability to stay in a relationship. Still, something about Chelsea sticks with them—even though their instant connection can’t bring AD to offer more than one night.
But AD’s agent makes a pitch: Chelsea should pretend to be AD’s girlfriend. It’s a strategic move. AD, hoping to retire after this season, needs to lock down some brand deals—but their identity as a Black, nonbinary lesbian with a messy dating history makes sponsors wary. Chelsea, a sex-positive influencer, is ready to take her platform to a new level, and this feels like the perfect next step. With Chelsea’s network and AD’s star power, they could both strengthen their public images. Once the season ends, they’ll go their separate ways.
As the ruse starts to work and their connection deepens, Chelsea finds herself on unsteady ground. Falling for AD wasn’t part of the plan, and if she follows through, she just might lose her heart and the future she’s finally starting to build.
Non-Fiction
Adulting for Amateurs by Jess H. Gutierrez
In Adulting for Amateurs, Jess H. Gutierrez marvels at how—we can’t avoid the fact anymore—her cohort, the millennials, are approaching middle age. While 1998 seems like just yesterday, we are now grown-ups who feel like we’re still growing up. And at forty-two, Jess has quite a trove of stories to tell.
Jess is leaning into her geriatric millennial years and reflects on how growing up does not necessarily bestow one with maturity. When the dinner covers were lifted to reveal vertically posed sausages, hundreds of the fanciest wedding guests, including the mayor, were treated to a demure and refined Jess’s explosive guffaws. While Jess’s brothers now have wholesome families and responsible jobs, she can’t stop one-upping them, even if it gets her brother nearly fired by a potty-brained prank right before he scrubs into surgery. When Jess and her wife booked their first grown-up vacation, they discovered too late that their Hawaiian trip was to a Mormon resort and therefore completely alcohol free. So Jess and her wife bravely put on their big-girl panties—and slunk off in a makeshift escape from this cheerful teetotaler paradise.
Turns out, even as a responsible homeowner with a mortgage, three kids, and a yard of chickens, Jess might not have matured much beyond her twenties. She’s still the woman who in an earlier era survived queer-dating fails and aughts-era pop culture moments—ultimately discovering that an illegal rave cannot heal a broken heart and that vampire-romance franchises are terrible dating manuals for a budding trailer park lesbian.
