Middle Grade
A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff
This is the paperback rerelease.
Covid lockdown is over, but A’s world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn’t exactly go well, and most days, he barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the house. But the low point of A’s life isn’t online school, missing his bar mitzvah, or the fact that his parents monitor his phone like hawks—it’s the weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings his parents all but drag him to.
At SOSAD, A and his friends Sal and Yarrow sit by while their parents deadname them and wring their hands over a nonexistent “transgender craze.” After all, sitting in suffocating silence has to be better than getting sent away for “advanced treatment,” never to be heard from again.
When Yarrow vanishes after a particularly confrontational meeting, A discovers that SOSAD doesn’t just feel soul-sucking…it’s run by an actual demon who feeds off the pain and misery of kids like him. And it’s not just SOSAD—the entire world is beset by demons dining on what seems like an endless buffet of pain and bigotry.
But how is one trans kid who hasn’t even chosen a name supposed to save his friend, let alone the world? And is a world that seems hellbent on rejecting him even worth saving at all?
Young Adult
Where You’ll Find Us by Jen St. Jude
Calla Quick has no future. At least, that’s how it feels. Her parents disowned her via text message, and now she can’t afford to go to an all-women’s college with her girlfriend Ramona like they planned. But Calla wonders if maybe that’s for the best-because even though Calla told Ramona her parents disowned her because they found out she’s gay, the truth is, Calla has been questioning whether she’s a girl at all.
Calla wishes she had more time to figure everything out, and one night, her wish is seemingly granted. When Calla and Ramona stumble upon a mysterious farmhouse the woods, they meet five teens who claim they’ve lived there for decades. The land, which they call Amaranth, acts as a safe haven for queer kids throughout history-a place free of hate, free of violence, free of time itself. Here, Calla can be Cal, and they feel instantly accepted. They don’t have to worry about the future because at Amaranth, it will never come-until one night when the clock strikes twelve. Now under a literal ticking clock, the housemates must find a way to stop time again or face going back to their harsh realities, but as Cal learns everyone’s story, they begin to wonder what queer people lose when their history is lost to time.
The Names We Buried by Mia Siegert
Jaden’s seventeenth birthday was meant to be monumental. As a surprise, his dad and Jaden’s boyfriend, Andy, arranged to take him to the courthouse to get his name changed to reflect his gender. But, horrifyingly, the clerk accuses Jaden’s dad of forging Jaden’s original birth certificate, and due to his criminal past, he’s arrested.
Heartbroken but also suspicious, Jaden secretly takes a DNA test and makes an even more shocking discovery: he’s not biologically related to his dad. Jaden can’t imagine his mother cheating, but the truth might be worse — further DNA testing also identifies Jaden as a perfect genetic match for a couple who have spent the last seventeen years searching for their kidnapped child.
Their kidnapped daughter.
After years of struggling to come to terms with his gender identity as well as his parents’ complicated pasts, Jaden is forced to re-evaluate everything. Who is he really? And where does he belong? With the dad who raised and loved him, and supported his transition without question? Or with the parents Jaden’s never met, who might never be able to accept Jaden as their son?
The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham
One hundred years have passed since the last heir of Gyldan fell into eternal slumber and doomed the once-mighty kingdom to poverty and invasion. At least, that’s what the fairy tales claim.
Corin is a jaded thief who doesn’t believe in fables, even when she searches Gyldan’s underground tunnels to find her younger sister, Elly, who ran away to find the sleeping princess in hopes of a better life. Corin’s conviction is challenged when she discovers the ruins of the ancient castle, maintained by beings from the kingdom’s golden age, who protect a hidden portal into Princess Amelia’s subconscious. Following Elly’s voice, Corin jumps in the portal and seals the entry behind her.
Inside the lush world of Amelia’s dreams, the sisters reunite for a new adventure as they meet Briar Rose, Amelia’s whimsical alter ego, and Malicine, a sharp-tongued demon with a gift for magic. But as they explore ice castles, sunflower mazes, and star-filled oceans, Corin suspects Briar Rose is hiding darker secrets behind her “perfect” paradise – and that there are some things her subconscious can’t bury forever.
Like We Were in Paris by Stephan Lee
Teenager Ben Lee is excited for his French Club’s trip to the most romantic city in the world: Paris.
Ben is hoping this visit will help him feel connected to the memory of his late dad. Ben’s parents, after all, honeymooned in Paris, and maybe Ben can retrace some of their steps.
But things go wrong on the first night, when Ben forgets his curfew and finds himself locked out of his hostel…until morning.
Also locked out? Tyler Travers, the most popular and handsome boy in school.
Years ago, Ben and Tyler were actually best friends. But they lost touch when Tyler moved away. Now that Tyler is back, he doesn’t seem to remember Ben, and Ben has no patience for his golden-boy vibes.
Now that they’re thrown together, Ben and Tyler end up roaming around Paris at night to pass the time. They sneak into cafes, visit the Eiffel Tower, and have more misadventures.
As the night sparkles on, Ben fights his growing attraction to Tyler, who would never want to be with someone like Ben. Besides, Tyler doesn’t even remember him. Right?
Bad Queer by
I feel invincible.
Like I could run and run
and never stop for breath.
I feel a power in me
I didn’t know I had.
The power to speak,
to say what I need.
Surya knows exactly who they are. Coming out as non-binary to their queer parents and best friend? A total non-event. Catching feelings for Blessing – the boy in drama club whose smile makes their heart race? That’s trickier.
As their final year of school unfolds and the two of them grow closer, Surya starts to question: Does Blessing really see them? Or just a version of them that doesn’t exist? They’d ask their best friend for advice, but she’s busy falling in love too. . .
A Smile Like Yours by Emily Thomas
Rhys Moore is worried as he starts his first year of university. And not just about the usual things. Rhys has face blindness, which means he struggles to recognize and remember people’s faces. He has ways of coping, but they don’t always work, so he isn’t sure how to manage being around so many new people. There is one bright note, though. Malcolm. He’s caring and kind, and he’s empathetic when Rhys finally reveals his disability to him. Could Malcolm be just what Rhys needs to get through the year?
Emily Thomas’s debut graphic novel offers a delightfully fresh take on falling in love and learning how to truly see another person. It’s both a compelling queer romance and a pitch-perfect coming-of-age story that keenly captures the ups and downs of university life. Readers are sure to be swept up in the romance as Rhys navigates his new feelings and experiences. The book deftly explores themes of disability, friendship, love, mental health and queer identity. A note about prosopagnosia, known as face blindness, and an author’s note are included at the end.
The Hyacinth Labyrinth by Jamie Pacton
All Magic Begins in Stories. That’s what Fae princess Hyacinth has always been told. As the unmagical daughter of Queen Mab, Hyacinth has never fit in at her mother’s court. She hopes that if she can learn more about her father, who disappeared fifteen years ago, maybe she can finally learn more about herself, too.
When Hyacinth and her friend Chloe—a human stable hand trapped in Fae—sneak off to a riverside market, Hyacinth discovers a magical book sent to her by her father. Through the book, he reveals that he’s trapped inside a library at the heart of a treacherous labyrinth.
With the help of Chloe and a tiny dragon named Coffee, the two friends defy Queen Mab’s orders and set off into the wilds of the Moonshadow Kingdom. Along the way they face bandits, magical creatures, a centuries-old human who has traded all his stories to the Fae, as well as their own growing feelings for each other. Neither is prepared for what awaits at the center of the labyrinth, sweeping them into a story that’s more perilous than they ever imagined.
Every Exquisite Thing by Laura Steven
This is the US edition; it was previously published in the UK.
Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out . . .
Adult
Let’s Not Go Overboard Here by Erica Hendry
This is a story about a definitely dead girl, a possibly dead girl and a living dead girl. All aboard.
There are a lot of things that pop culture aficionado Melanie Hoffman is great at: rattling off storylines from The Real Housewives, reciting the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen filmography from memory, and quoting Gossip Girl like it’s The Godfather, to name a few. And then there are the things she’s not good at: maintaining a healthy work-life balance, sleeping (in general), and being a functioning adult who isn’t completely destroyed by the death of her best friend, Ari. Mel has accepted that nothing will ever fill the crater-sized hole that Ari’s absence has left behind, and the cork on her grief is stopped tight. But then her company requires Mel to take a mandatory vacation. Cue the explosion.
Desperate to avoid two weeks alone with her thoughts, Mel joins her friend Vish on a yacht trip in Greece chartered by his tech company. It’s the Below Deck fantasy of Mel’s dreams, with built-in quasi-celebrities to fixate on in the form of the posh co-founders of Vish’s company. Mel has done enough social media stalking to immediately typecast the fabulous yet fragile Freya, her arrogant boyfriend Seb, and the hardworking and humble Ollie. A luxurious yacht chockful of hot, rich Brits? Mel couldn’t dream up a better distraction from her sorrow.
But Mel’s dream quickly plunges into nightmarish waters when a sinister conversation overheard in the dead of night convinces Mel that Freya is in danger. And when Freya turns up missing the next morning, Mel immediately clocks what happened with the skill of a rabid true crime fan: Freya was murdered, and Seb is the prime suspect.
But Freya’s disappearance doesn’t rock the boat in the way Mel is expecting. In fact, no one else onboard seems to think anything’s fishy. Mel’s concern for Freya grows into obsession, and she becomes dead set on saving Freya’s life like she couldn’t save Ari’s.
With her time left on the yacht quickly dwindling, Mel must uncover what happened to Freya before going under herself.
The Last Time We Drowned by Saratoga Schaefer
Six influencers. One luxury yacht. Nowhere to hide.
Charlie Engels is broke and desperate when her bookstagram account lands her the offer of a lifetime: join Empress, a state-of-the-art yacht houseboat off the Florida Keys turned influencer paradise. Lucrative brand deals and a ready-made “sisterhood” of internet stars―it may not be Charlie’s dream job, but she knows she’d be a fool to turn it down.
It’s also the perfect distraction; Charlie’s eager to outrun her past and a staggering betrayal by her former best friend. Now, aboard Empress, Charlie is surrounded by dazzling women with their own baggage: the magnetic but ruthless leader, the spiraling fashion queen, the inseparable twins, the peacemaker with cracks in her confidence, and the memory of the influencer who Charlie is replacing. The same influencer who Charlie keeps seeing on board, even though the others insist she quit.
But when a hurricane traps the group at sea with their billionaire boss, the dream turns claustrophobic. Communications cut. Supplies dwindling. Old betrayals bubbling to the surface. Then the first body drops.
As paranoia mounts and alliances splinter, Charlie realizes the real danger isn’t the storm outside―it’s the deadly games being played below deck. And if she can’t outwit a killer, her past won’t be the only ghost that comes back to drown her.
Mad Eden by Morgan Thomas
Ro and Liam live in a ramshackle cabin in a secluded stretch of Florida. Neither their home nor their sometimes-tumultuous relationship is what the world would call perfect, but to Ro―newly diagnosed with autism and working as a patient navigator for people seeking gender-affirming care―their life, despite the deeply inhospitable political climate, is a kind of paradise.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what shatters their peace. There’s Quentin, the unpredictable teenager for whom Liam and Ro are quasi-parents, who visits on his way to college, where he plans to finally start T. There’s the appearance of “Mad Eden,” an online fantasy serial about heroic dragon riders that increasingly becomes Ro’s obsession. And then there’s a seemingly innocuous patient video call that results in consequences both unexpected and grave. This triad of circumstances sends Liam’s and Ro’s world spinning toward disaster―unless Ro can become the real-life hero their situation demands without betraying who they are and who they love.
There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed Newson
Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood’s young Black stars taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios’s ambitious attempt to rival Sidney Poitier’s burgeoning success. His arrival into the industry is calculated, his charm is magnetic, and his seductive screen presence appeals to both audiences and celebrities across generations.
But years later, after Xavier dies at the height of his fame, Aaron Touissant—Skyline’s designated backlot fixer who helps the studio’s stars stay as deep in the closet as humanly possible—is finally ready to expose the powerful culprits responsible for his untimely death.
Puck by Samantha Allen
Meet Puck: the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind Homewreckers, a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell—with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own and their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex’s best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime-boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon (who lovesick Lena has always pined after), Mia’s news leaves her friend group reeling—and Puck’s mind whirling.
When they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian forest, Puck immediately sees that Mia’s marriage will lead to misery, and takes it upon themself to save their friends by rearranging the couples—without anyone finding out. But as Puck comes up against a type-A maid of honor hell-bent on making this wedding happen, it becomes clear that they will have to deliver the greatest stunt of their career. If only they can take their eyes off the bridesmaid. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth…
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The Disaster Gay Detective Club by Lev A.C. Rosen
Brandon is a hopeless romantic. So when a handsome stranger named Jon checks in at the hotel he works at and invites Brandon to his room, Brandon ignores the advice of his crew―a group of loveable and messy queer twenty-somethings―and accepts. What follows is a tale as old as time: they hook up, Jon promises to text, Brandon falls in love, and Jon ghosts. Case closed―or is it?
When Jon checks out early, leaving behind a bag of belongings and his cellphone, Brandon takes the phone and sets out to find him, thinking that this must at last be his Cinderella story.
But he gets more than he bargained for when he witnesses a murder―and sees Jon fleeing the scene.
Determined (and not in over their heads whatsoever), Brandon, Ollie, Nicole, and Ian decide to solve the mystery of the murder and uncover Jon’s true identity…they just have to figure it out before a target falls on their own backs.
The Open Era by Edward Schmit
Recently-turned-pro tennis player Austin Hardy has been out since high school and it’s never been a big deal. That is, until he becomes the first openly gay man to compete in a Grand Slam tournament. Suddenly, being gay is a huge deal, with headlines to prove it.
Unprepared for this new spotlight, Austin’s anxiety disorder hits a breaking point, and he trips and falls at practice. Right next to the very attractive, very talented, and probably straight Diego Cruz, ranked second in the world.
The two professional rivals start a friendship off the court. But between their flirty banter, mixed signals, and looming showdown, Austin is thrown further off his game by Diego.
With the eyes of the world on Austin, the weight of history on his shoulders, and Diego across the net, he must decide whether love means nothing or if it means everything as he battles for the trophy during an electric two weeks at the US Open.
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For the Bride by Becca Grischow
From the author of I’ll Get Back To You, a sapphic enemies-to-lovers romance that follows a Type-A maid of honor setting out to do the most and a Type-B bridesmaid with her life only just put-together, who must put aside their animosity to plan the wedding of the summer
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.
They All Fall in Love at the End by Haili Blassingame
It’s the fall of 2024, and twenty-four-year-old Cat isn’t asking for too much: all she wants is three boyfriends, to write her little novels, and to survive another chaotic presidential election. She’s in an open relationship with her college sweetheart Jay, but nonmonogamy isn’t just a hot trend she’s trying. It’s her sliver of freedom in a world eager to wrestle it from her for being a Black woman going after what she wants with reckless abandon.
While political tensions roil the campus where Cat is slowly earning her creative writing degree, she finds herself drawn to Jay’s best friend, Tristan, who’s smart, super hot, and…in a monogamous relationship. And then she meets Tristan’s girlfriend, Nia, a captivating art student with her own gravitational pull.
Friends and family urge her to just be happy with Jay, but Cat is determined to have it all—or blow up her life trying. As she falls for all the wrong people, racking up lies, betrayals, and terrible drafts of her novel, she tries to write her way to a happy ending. But in art, politics, and love, true liberation may take more than rewriting the old scripts. It may mean inventing something entirely new.
The Guest Book by Mae Marvel
The whole world believes Cosima Frank’s life has been a fairytale. Now she’s trying to live up to the overwhelming legacy left to her by her late mother, the Queen of Hollywood. As the pressure begins to build, Cosima does the only thing she can think of: run straight to the inn where her parents met and fell in love, intent on finishing her mother’s bucket list.
Edie Whitelock isn’t like anyone Cosima has ever met. She’s persistent enough to march up to Cosima’s door and provoke her to get out of bed and follow the disarming woman through the charming English village. Edie’s also on the run from her past, but she finds that she relishes bickering with the pretty Los Angeles princess a whole lot more than she expected. The two women couldn’t be more different, but they find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other.
Trapped indoors by thunderstorms, Cosima and Edie discover the inn’s guest book, whose entries date back more than fifty years―and inside it, a romantic treasure hunt left behind by a long-ago guest whose clues unexpectedly send them across England, Spain, and France on an adventure they hope will change both of their lives.
But sometimes the treasure you seek isn’t the one you find.
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Girl’s Girl by Sonia Feldman
Fifteen-year-old Mina’s whole world is her two best friends, but after an unexpected kiss, the established dynamics of their trio quickly unravel. Everything that was once shared openly, from clothes to secrets, now feels impossibly fragile. Loyalties shift and tensions simmer across the long days of this pivotal summer, where the girls have nowhere new to go and everything new to feel.
Looking back, an adult Mina traces the undercurrents of longing that shaped her first experience of desire. The rituals of girlhood—gossip, selfies, sleepovers, and videogames—become threads in a delicate, volatile web of intimacy, in which everything feels achingly fleeting and permanently etched. Loving one person, Mina learns, can change the way we love everyone else—including ourselves.
The Disco at the End of the World by Nathan Tavares
In 1977—a world where America launched its space program shortly after WWII—Mitch Ward is a grunt in the US Spaceguard. Stationed in a backwater base on the Moon, his only friends are Gloria, who performs “Lady Stardust” for fellow soldiers, and Flynn.
Following a visit from an unseen, terrifying but also maybe euphoric being, they find themselves quickly discharged from the army, and sent back to earth. Moving to Los Angeles to chase their dreams, Mitch and Gloria scrape by, finding their joy at the discos in the city.
But when Flynn crashes back into their lives, claiming to be the host for a traveler and emissary of a utopian civilization, he comes with an offer for Mitch – to join him, ad claim power so that he, and his friends across the queer community, never have to live in the shadows or face oppression again.
As the forces of prejudice and oppression seek to push their community back into hiding, keeping them out of sight and oppressed, it’s down to this community of disco-loving outcasts to stand up for what is beautiful and right.
Peter in Progress by Andy Barrow
When COVID hits, Peter Hughes finds himself unemployed, out of shape, and living in his mother’s basement. Not where he thought he’d be in his mid-thirties.
Then he discovers Ryan’s Fabulous Fitness, a gay-forward online workout program. Peter can’t look away, and before long, he’s not only transforming his body: he’s reckoning with his sexuality, too.
Peter emerges from the pandemic newly out and totally unprepared. Nevertheless, he dives headfirst into gay life, stumbling through app-fueled hookups, steamy underwear parties, and New York’s chaotic dating scene. His renewed rite of passage gets even more complicated when romantic tensions pit Peter’s loyal college roommate against the charming fitness coach who changed everything. If he can’t choose between them, he might lose them both.
The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang
A marine biologist makes the discovery of a lifetime when called to rescue the inhabitants of a small Maine island being menaced by a giant, glowing jellyfish in this richly imagined, wholly original debut.
Dr. Jo Ness prefers jellyfish to people. Her best friend, Aldo, was the exception, but he died seven months ago. So she spends her days hidden away at an underfunded aquarium with her specimens and a draft of the jellyfish guide she and Aldo had been working on together. His voice is alive in the notes in the margins, and it’s enough. Almost.
Until she receives a call from Nadia, one of the few other humans she’s loved but whom she hasn’t heard from in years, asking for her help. Nadia tells her a grand tale of a giant jellyfish terrorizing her tiny island off the coast of Maine and sends a grainy video of the creature. Frankly, the footage looks fake, but Jo drops everything to fly across the country to see Nadia again, and to find this supposed sea beast. She couldn’t save Aldo, but perhaps she can help Nadia.
But when Jo arrives on Shattering Point, Nadia is nowhere to be found, and the islanders she meets each have something different to say about the creature they’ve dubbed Clementine . . . a jellyfish who changes all who see it.
The Seduction by Sara Torres
Unspoken tensions simmer between two women under the heat of a Catalan summer in this internationally bestselling, erotic, and quietly radical portrait of queer desire.
In a sun-drenched house on the Catalan coast, a young, queer photographer arrives to capture the portrait of a celebrated writer. But what begins as a professional collaboration slowly unravels into something more intimate and unsettling—a charged exchange of glances, silence, and shifting emotional boundaries.
The photographer, unnamed and quietly observant, is drawn to the writer’s enigmatic presence, her self-possession, her power. Over shared meals and quiet routines, the difficulty of understanding the desire of the other begins to obsess the narrator. As the summer heat thickens, so too does the unspoken tension between them, heightening the photographer’s insecurities and her perception of her own flaws. When a third woman arrives, an old friend with blurred boundaries, the fragile connection begins to unravel. Is this seduction, or projection? Intimacy, or illusion?
Among the Wildflowers by Anita Kelly
This is the second book in the Greyfin Bay series
Owning a farm is Emerson King’s lifelong dream come true—even if achieving it has cost him his marriage.
Now, a year after his divorce, Short King Farms is in dire financial straits. One bright spot on the horizon? Money from his friends Ben and Alexei, who are renting out the farm for their wedding. But even that might be in jeopardy: the farm is a mess, not at all ready for a hundred person wedding. Emerson needs help, desperately—if only he could afford it.
Luca Yaeger has spent his life as a fisherman with only one problem: he’s never actually wanted to be one. What he truly wants to do is write, but all that’s brought him is pain. When he receives his hundredth rejection for his novel, he decides it’s time to give up the ghost for good. But first, he heads to the local brewery for a small pity party.
There he finds a sad farmer—and an opportunity for a new life.
In exchange for room and board, Luca offers to work at Short King Farms for free so Emerson can better prepare for the wedding. The farm is beautiful, the fresh start Luca has been looking for—even if his growing feelings for his new boss are useless, being that Emerson is definitely still in love with his ex.
But when it comes to all the stress Emerson is still under—maybe Luca could help with that in other ways, too…
As the wedding approaches, Luca and Emerson grow more and more attached. But when the past comes calling, Luca and Emerson must decide what the future holds—for the farm and for themselves—after the final wedding bells toll.
Buy it: Amazon
Missing in SoHo by Holly Stars
This is the second book in the Misty Divine Mystery series
A missing photographer. A megalomaniacal millionaire. A drag queen hellbent on saving her club. The latest glittering mystery from the author of Murder in the Dressing Room…
Misty Divine is bold, beautiful and back in action. She’s barely settled into her new role as the glamorous hostess of Lady’s Bar when a private detective arrives out of the blue. He’s been stabbed. With what might be his final breath he whispers a cryptic message. “You’re in danger, Misty… you must find Jeremy.”
As Misty dives wig first into the investigation, she gets up close and personal with a number of shady characters, including a notorious televangelist, a group of mysterious financiers, and a bunch of drunken bachelorettes at a drag brunch. And when it becomes clear that Misty’s beloved Lady’s Bar is under threat, she’ll have to seek help in the unlikeliest of allies to solve the case, save the bar, and find Jeremy before he disappears for good.
Can Misty find Jeremy and save Lady’s Bar? And what, or who, might she lose in the process? Her club, her career, her relationship… everything’s at stake. No-one is safe and there’s a young photographer Missing in Soho.
Father Material by Alexis Hall
This is the third book in the London Calling series
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes…what was that, exactly?
Luc and Oliver have been through it all: fake dating to save Luc’s career, I-guess-this-is-actually-for-real dating when all of that blew up spectacularly, (briefly) breaking up over irreconcilable differences, (definitively) getting back together over perfectly reconcilable everything else, (almost) getting married, (finally) moving in together, and ultimately celebrating years of perfect domestic bliss.
But as all their very grown-up-now friends begin reaching new life milestones, advancing careers and having babies, Luc and Oliver decide it’s time to open their hearts and lives to something new: a tiny, squirming, adorable bundle of furry joy named Spud.
And maybe now that hearts-and-lives are already open, there’s room for someone else. Something more. Something that may require them to find in themselves a little father material.
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Non-Fiction
Fair Play: Trans Athletes and the Fight for Fairness by Katie Barnes
For decades women have been playing competitive sports, thanks in large part to the protective cover of Title IX. Since the passage of that law, the number of women participating in sports and the level of competition in high school and college and professionally, has risen dramatically. In Fair Play, award-winning journalist Katie Barnes traces the evolution of women’s sports as a pastime and a political arena where equality and fairness have been fought over for generations.
As attitudes toward gender have shifted to embrace more fluidity in recent decades, sex continues to be viewed as a static binary that is easily determined: male or female. It is on the very idea of static sex that we have built an entire sporting apparatus. Now that foundation is being hotly debated as a result of intense culture wars. Many transgender and intersex athletes, including a South African runner, a wrestler in Texas, a Connecticut track star, and a swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, have captured the attention of law and policymakers who want to decide how and when they compete. Women’s sports, since their inception, have been seen as a separate class of competition that requires protection and rules for entry. But what are those rules and who gets to make them? Fair Play looks at all sides of the issue and presents a reasoned and much-needed solution that seeks to preserve opportunities for all going forward.
Queer Saints: A Radical Guide to Magic, Miracles, and Modern Intercession by Antonio Pagliarulo
Everyone has patron saints, even the marginalized who may feel abandoned and removed from the tradition of saint veneration. Antonio Pagliarulo, author of The Evil Eye, grew up among Italian immigrants, practitioners of folk magic and saint veneration. A lifelong lover of saints, he seeks to bring their blessings to those who have long felt cut off from these traditions. Queer Saints is not only a compendium of queer people who have lived extraordinary lives, accomplished extraordinary feats, and who now dwell comfortably in the spirit realm; it is also a spiritual gateway that invites you to explore more deeply the power of folk magic and its practices, of co-creation, allyship, and mystical solidarity.
Saints derive from many spiritual and religious traditions, not just Roman Catholicism. No canonization process is required for folk saints, also known as unofficial saints. Pagliarulo offers readers a wide range of saints that includes the traditional, such as Mary Magdalene, Francis of Assisi, and Hildegard of Bingen, as well as re-envisioned saints specifically for a queer constituency. These include Saint David Bowie, Saint Freddie Mercury, Saint Alexander McQueen, Saint Moms Mabley, and Saint André Leon Talley. Pagliarulo offers practical information on how to venerate them―from building altars to making offerings. Whether queer themselves, or people whose allyship or achievements are embraced by the queer community, queer saints are a new and needed paradigm for those seeking new paths to meaning.
Both a primer on magical practice and a guide to radical transcendence and transformation, Queer Saints makes change and self-empowerment accessible to readers of all faiths and belief systems by spotlighting the transformative impact queer saints have had on our world and their burgeoning influence on our spiritual future.
Big Baby by Kevin James Thornton
Growing up in the 90s in a small town in Indiana, Kevin James Thornton had little notion he would one day make a career as a comedian. Like most kids in his deeply Christian town, his free time revolved around his church community—drinking Messiah Macchiatos at the youth group cafe, bedazzling his jacket with the words “Jesus Is Lord,” and evangelizing in the streets of Spanish Harlem dressed as a sin‑themed clown. But when he started to question his sexuality, life became complicated. Kevin began to realize that the community that raised him might never truly accept him.
What follows is a winding story of self‑discovery, following Thornton from a revelatory summer in New York City to the transformative years of college—where he finds like‑minded people, a knack for performance, and first loves—all the way to adulthood, where he navigates complicated relationships, finds his way into the comedy scene, and forms a special bond with a black cat named Comet (who might just have the power to travel between dimensions). Through it all, he redefines himself again and again, realizing that few things go as planned, and that “driving off into the sunset” is never really the end of the story.
Told in his unique brand of brash but emotionally honest humor, and filled with 90s nostalgia, Big Baby is a coming-of-age tale that speaks to anyone who feels like they don’t fit in.
The Double Dutch Fuss by Phill Branch
Long before every moment of our lives was tracked by technology, Phill Branch was under surveillance. His father was a football-playing, weed-smoking, Army vet—the guy men wanted to be around, and women loved. Phill was different. His father treated him as if he were defective and continually searched for proof to support this belief. Phill paid greatly for his failures at boyhood, especially when he was caught playing jump rope with girls. This taught him there were standards to be met, codes that were not to be violated, and strict punishment for any deviation from a Black man’s assigned position in the world.
In this poignant, illuminating personal narrative, Branch reckons with the patriarchy and tradition of these social structures in Black America, their legacy, and how they molded and silenced him. Taking us from Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles, California, Branch writes unflinchingly about growing up as the queer black son of a complicated and often absent father with rigid ideas of masculinity. From early inappropriate relationships with men twice his age, to his successful rebranding at Hampton University, to the dichotomy of Hollywood—living in a world of wealthy celebrities while struggling to survive as a writer—Branch navigates his complex emotions surrounding success, perceptions of manhood, and ultimately his father.
The Double Dutch Fuss recounts growing up under the heavy burden of expectation—to be a boy, to be Black, and to be queer in ways that conform to rigid, often unforgiving norms. It is about the knotted path of becoming, while navigating the always-present fear of emotional and physical violence, and the threat of isolation for simply being who you are. Branch explores the cosmic pull between fathers and sons, and how healing wounds can open a pathway toward freedom and wholeness. His is an insightful and surprisingly humorous reflection on identity, masculinity, and the quiet, radical act of choosing to exist on your own terms.
The LGBTQ+ Mental Health Workbook by Kiki Fehling, PhD
If you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer, and you are also struggling with a mental health issue such as trauma, depression, or anxiety, you are not alone. LGBTQ+ folks are at a greater risk for mental health challenges―often as a result of discrimination, harassment, violence, and other forms of bigotry. This workbook offers powerful and compassionate tools you can use to improve your well-being, find emotional balance, connect with a vibrant and joyful community, and thrive.
Written by a queer therapist, this evidence-based workbook outlines the core skills of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)―mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness―to improve your mental health and help you embrace who you are. You’ll learn to manage intense emotions, overcome fear and anxiety, and cultivate resilience and self-compassion. And finally, you’ll discover strategies to help you cope with stigma, challenge negative self-talk, and live a full and meaningful life as your authentic self.
This empowering workbook will help you:
- Work through difficult thoughts and feelings
- Overcome stigma, fear, and shame
- Cultivate self-acceptance and build self-worth
- Build or connect with a community
- Celebrate who you are!
Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table by Brendan Robertson
This is the paperback rerelease
Celebrate queer faith and take your rightful place at God’s table with Brandan Robertson, the “TikTok Pastor,” Biblical scholar, and social activist
For too long, the Bible has been weaponized to exclude LGBTQ+ individuals, despite Jesus’ radical message of inclusion. In Queer & Christian, Brandan Robertson envisions a faith where all are unequivocally embraced.
Ostracized at school, Brandan thought he had finally found his community when he joined the local church. But he soon realized that they were as intolerant as his peers at school had been―if not more so. After agonizing years of repressing his true identity, he discovered that God’s table had always had a place for him. Jesus’ love knows no bounds, embracing everyone unconditionally.
Queer & Christian is a joyful celebration of queer faith and an unyielding reclamation of the Bible. Dive into pages that offer:
-Compelling, evidence-based counterarguments to the “clobber verses” often used to condemn queerness
-Celebrations of queer saints within the Bible―more numerous than you might believe!
-Responses to commonly asked questions by queer folks and allies who’re feeling lost within the Christian faith
Brandan Robertson stands as a beacon of love, hope, and unwavering support for anyone ready to reclaim their faith from the clutches of intolerance.
