This post is sponsored by R.R. Ferretti-Hoyle in honor of the release of Willfully, Dorothy (yes, THAT Dorothy), available now!
Buy it: Amazon
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Family Found: A Queer Friendsgiving Celebration by (1st)
When celebrants gather for their annual Friendsgiving—Thanksgiving with their chosen family—each has a unique story to tell as a child tries to piece together how it all began.
No one remembers how it started.
The Friendsgiving gathering is moving into high gear, and for one child in the group, it’s a good time to ask some questions about the event’s history. Great-Uncle Billy, while snapping some green beans for the meal, says he was the one who started the tradition, back when people had to speak in code to keep being gay a secret. Miss Mona thinks that she was the originator, after her car broke down one year and she had to make a change of plans. Grandma Jane and Nana Rose tell their version of the tale while the smell of cinnamon and apples fills the air. As more people (and dogs) arrive and the music is turned on, it grows clearer that the details may not matter; what counts is the love they all share. With warm, jubilant artwork and a welcoming text that introduces moments from LGBTQIA+ history, Family Found celebrates one family as they come together on a day of gratitude.
by Kai Cheng Thom (1st)
In every generation, a special few of Nor Numinem are born shapeshifters. Unfortunately, being one of the “special few” does not get you out of gym class.
Nor Numinem. A town of hope and beauty. A place where freedom for all blooms as abundantly as the flowering vines that cover the buildings on every street. Yet even in this beautiful town, a kid like Maia’s got problems.
Maia is a shapeshifter.
And worse, she’s starting middle school.
In every generation, a special few of Nor Numinem are born shapeshifters: children who develop the mysterious ability to transform into a part-animal shape. Unfortunately for Maia, her ability is merely this: to grow giant moth wings that grow uncontrollably out of her back whenever she’s excited, or upset, or for some reason, whenever her new classmate Luke looks at her in a particular way. Worse than worse? Maia’s wings are useless. Weak and fragile–unlike her talented friends.
But Maia’s problems are about get much harder than even she knows. A strange illness is spreading through the gardens of Nor Numinem. The very gardens that feed and sustain this once-perfect town. Worse still, some of the adults think the shapeshifter children are to blame. A rumors turn into hate, life gets tougher for those who aren’t seen as “normal”. Maia and her friends will soon discover that there is a dark rift in Nor Numinem, one that will take all their talents, known and unknown, to heal.
Straight to the Source by K-Ming Chang (1st)
Taiwanese American teen and aspiring journalist Wendy Lin wants nothing more than to witness the downfall of her personal nemesis, the annoyingly perfect high achiever Helen Ouyang.
Yep, Helen Ouyang. As in, Wendy’s childhood best friend. Now most-decidedly-ex-best-friend. Perhaps, maybe, still her unrequited-crush-friend. After a falling out that may or may not have involved some simmering romantic feelings, the two haven’t spoken in years, and Wendy has had to witness Helen’s meteoric rise to high school success from the sidelines.
But not for long.
Chasing up a lead for the school paper, Wendy soon turns up a major story with Helen at its center—one involving a mysterious fire that destroyed a building and tore apart an immigrant community a decade earlier. Wendy investigates, certain she finally has the dirt she needs to bring Helen down. But when the girls reconnect, old feelings come rushing to the surface…and with them, long-buried skeletons in both girls’ family closets.
Your Boyfriend Needs an Exorcist by Justine Pucella Winans (1st)
Jennifer’s Body meets The Weight of Blood in this horror-comedy about an evil spirit looking for a second chance at love and life.
Just because Schuyler is a bloodthirsty evil spirit doesn’t mean she can’t fall in love. Ever since Wren Castillo moved into the house Schuyler haunts, Schuyler has been crushing hard. But Wren has a boyfriend, Enzo, and he’s the worst. Schuyler has no choice but to watch as Enzo treats Wren terribly-until she accidentally possesses him.
With Enzo’s spirit nowhere to be found, Schuyler must pretend to be him until she can set things right. But Schuyler feels more at home in Enzo’s body than she ever did in her own, and as she grows closer to his family and friends-including Wren-she starts to wonder if this could all be for keeps.
Maintaining a possession is harder than Schuyler expected, though, and it might just take some spilled blood to keep her new body going strong. Worse, it turns out she’s not the only one interested in stealing Enzo’s body. When another evil spirit threatens everyone Schuyler now holds dear, she must decide just how far she’s willing to go to secure her second chance at love-and life.
Tom Burne Has Left the Chat by Seán Farrelly (1st)
This wasn’t my phone. This was real. Tom had died today, literally died, and here I was, picking through the digital carrion like some sort of virtual vulture.
What happens to your phone when you die? Who has access to your online legacy? When micro-influencer Tom Burne takes his own life, he leaves behind his phone, its password and a cryptic message that needs decoding.
Seventeen-year-old Jamie doesn’t intend to take the phone, but once he does, he knows it was meant for him. Fueled by his own sense of isolation and the recent passing of his father, Jamie loses himself in uncovering the truth. The more he investigates the digital fragments contained within the phone, the deeper into Tom’s dark world he falls.
As his own grief resurfaces and with his mother pushing for them to move to a different country for a fresh start, Jamie has very little time to find out the harsh reality that led to Tom’s tragic end.
Can he clear Tom’s name before it is too late?
Tell the Ghosts I’m Gone by Kalynn Bayron (1st)
From New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron comes a new horror novel about a group of teens with unique-and potentially deadly-gifts.
Moll, Redd, Agnes, and Ossie are powerful-and dangerous. But they don’t want people to fear them. They’ve spent their lives trying to understand and control their supernatural gifts, trying to help people instead of hurt them.
That’s why they offer paranormal investigative services to anyone who needs them. But when the case of a missing young woman brings them to an old (and potentially haunted) Victorian mansion, soon it’s the four teens who are in the greatest danger. The secrets they uncover about the paranormal forces inhabiting the house may shed light on the darkness that exists at the edge of their powers and finally help them gain control-if they can make it out alive.
The Ending You Deserve by Rebecca Stafford (1st)
Ava Quirk thought getting into Faraday, the fine arts private school of her dreams, could be a fresh start. Instead, her grades have tanked and her scholarship hangs by a thread.
Near failing out, Ava is presented with a deal. Her student advisor, local legend Peter Barden, agrees to pass her if she befriends Love Solt, a brilliant but guarded classmate. Barden says Love is troubled and could use some guidance. In turn, Ava can soak up Love’s academic prowess. If Ava does this—and gets him a copy of the top-secret novel Love’s writing—he’ll pass Ava. It’s an odd ask, but Ava’s desperate.
At first, friendship comes easy, trust is built, and she’s right where she needs to be to deliver on Barden’s ask. But as time goes by, she realizes she’s falling for Love, and the idea of betraying her is killing Ava. Then she reads Love’s novel…
If the devastating truth Love has penned gets out, many lives will be ruined. But if the secret stays hidden, many lives will be at risk. Ava faces an impossible choice: turn her back on what she’s found, or close the book on a sinister villain who has gone unchecked for far too long.
President of the Anime Club by Stephanie Evangelista Fukuda and Daigo Fukuda (1st)
It’s the first day of high school, and Cherie is unsure how to find her place. But then she meets Naomi, a fellow freshman and fan of Orange High School Bakery Club―Cherie’s favorite anime. Naomi’s warmth and confidence ignite confusing feelings in Cherie. Their duo becomes a trio when they befriend Miro, a boy in their class with an interest in learning about anime.
Enter Jenny: a charismatic upperclassman and president of the school’s anime club. When she invites the three friends to join, it creates tension between them. As Cherie, Naomi, and Miro deal with complicated feelings, can their special bond survive? And will their love of anime endure?
The Disappearers by Marlon James (1st)
In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. The men are strangers to one another and each has a different reason for being involved. But they all share one inescapable truth: All of them are gay―a “battyman” in Jamaican argot―and all of them must contend with the dangers that such a truth lays bare.
One night a mob savagely attacks them, killing one of the men. For the survivors, their recovery is as much emotional as it is physical. As their bodies heal, each man grapples with the violence, the hatred, and the rage that the attack made plain. Some try to ignore what the attack has unearthed, while others double down on retribution.
As the Snow Gathers by Mere Joyce (1st)
The forest doesn’t just take what it’s owed—it takes whatever it wants.
Dominic was born in Aplin Shade, a remote Canadian town built on the bones of another that vanished without a trace. Bookish and quiet, he never asked to lead his family, but after a carriage crash kills his father and leaves his sister forever changed, he has no choice.
The only person who truly sees him is Lex, a logger in the camp near town and the love Dominic must keep secret. Together they dream of escaping Aplin Shade, a place where isolation breeds judgment and every kindness hides a cost.
But the forest is no refuge. The Fanteur dwell there—shadowed beings who come at night to drain the dead of their blood and return them for burial by dawn.
They’ve never touched the living.
Until now.
As winter descends and the Fanteur strike back against the logging camp, Dominic and Lex must fight for their lives, their love, and a way out of the woods’ tightening grasp.
Because the forest doesn’t forgive, and it never forgets.
Vulture Gold: Stories by Micah Dean Hicks (1st)
Welcome to a dark country of sadness and wonder. Where a wedding dress turns a reluctant bride into a flock of birds, and families put on their wolf coats before devouring one another. These growling, prickly-feathered stories blur the lines between human and animal, living and dead. Teenage spirits are condemned to drive around their hometown forever. Five brothers learn that they were once crows. The bank hires a man to go into foreclosed houses and kill their monsters. Two sisters find an oven that can resurrect the dead. Plumbers kidnap mermaids trapped in a city sewer system. A mockingbird sings a woman’s sins. A boy with a single swan’s wing yearns to fly. And watching over all of them is the queen of the dead, who sends her vulture men to scavenge the bones. The characters in these modern fairy tales challenge expectations and norms in a dark and magical shared world.
Staying Still by Hieu Minh Nguyen (1st)
The highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning poetry collection Not Here, Hieu Minh Nguyen’s Staying Still centers on the question of how: How do our anxieties around the idea of belonging estrange us from the very world we seek to belong in? How impossible does it feel to stay still and face ourselves? From the intimate longing of queer boyhood to the collective expectations imposed upon children of refugees, these poems face head-on the rejections, grief, and violence we fear in fractured family dynamics, love, and desire as we search for our place in this world.
O Mother by Emerson Whitney (1st)
Emerson Whitney didn’t plan to go home. After a childhood shaped by their mother’s addiction and heartbreaks, keeping their distance felt safer. They built a life far away, working constantly and ignoring the searing pain of a chronic disorder. But their body had other plans. When exhaustion finally forced them to stop, Emerson turned east at last, toward home, toward their mom.
O Mother brings us back into Emerson Whitney’s generous, searching mind as they return to the rural Maine island of their childhood, of sea spray and lobster pots and ship-themed home decor. Visions of a different future begin to flood in, of them and their mom living side by side, peaceful at last, tending to chickens and watching reality TV.
But Emerson’s return does not go as planned. Despite being just a few miles away, their mother is distant, hard to pin down, and they struggle to connect. Emerson can tell something is off, but old patterns are hard to break. When Emerson receives the devastating news of their mother’s suicide, they begin to trace her story back, unraveling the hidden forces that conspired to make her life unlivable. What follows is an exploration into disability, diagnosis, and self-acceptance.
With a sensitive eye to the world, Emerson seeks to understand their mom’s complicated fate, and wonders what, if anything, it might teach them about their own future.
Big Man by Dean Atta (3rd)
BIG MAN follows the life of Big, a middle-aged, Black British gay man who lives a gentle life with his boyfriend, Little, in their home in East London. Big and Little enjoy evenings out and group holidays with friends, as much as practising yoga together at home, and running side by side along the Hackney canals.
Big came of age in the club scene under the watchful eye of Mother, an African American trans woman who made a home and a name for herself in London, her house a refuge for wayward queer youth like Big. When he finds out Mother is releasing a memoir, the two reconnect after decades of distance, and Big finds himself having to confront a long-repressed assault that opens old – and new – wounds.
Buy it: Blackwell’s | Cipher Press
Good Night, Break a Leg: Life with Broadway Dads by Bret Shuford and Elena Hager (8th)
Leap, soar, and dance into the joyous life of a little boy whose dads are dazzling Broadway performers in this lyrical, rhyming picture book from one of Instagram and TikTok’s Broadway Husbands.
Where do parents go when they walk out the door for work?
In this charming, vibrant picture book, a little boy’s dads have a very special job—they’re Broadway performers!
By day, these two are like any other parents. They do the dishes, help with chores, and give lots of hugs and kisses. But by night, they take to the stage, donning elaborate costumes and dancing for thousands of theatergoers.
From Bret Shuford, Broadway performer and cocreator of the social media sensation Broadway Husbands, this sweet story is a love letter to the theater and an ode to parents who do it all. Celebrate family, creativity, and unconditional love in this heartwarming book for theater-loving families, aspiring young performers, and anyone who believes in the magic of being yourself.
Wicked Endeavors by Kamilah Cole (8th)
Caya lived a charmed life under the protection of Coventry’s royal family … until the three witch Houses seized power and wiped them out.
Now eighteen, she’s ready to take revenge. With the help of a mysterious benefactor, Caya slips into the witches’ glittering world under a new identity: Marisol Vinyet, a disarmingly beautiful aristocrat. As Marisol, she’ll attend the annual Coronet, the witches’ cutthroat social season designed to strengthen their power. Even the prince of neighboring Domingo―Tomás Castellan―will attend, just in time for “Marisol” to kill him.
After all, his family set the witches upon Coventry in the first place.
But Tomás is more charming than Caya anticipated. Worse the prince is protected by her estranged childhood friend, Bas Arroyo, who stirs up frustrating feelings that waver between attraction and hatred.
To destroy the witches from within, Caya will have to keep her identity hidden, her heart in check, and her mission front and center. Because even though she’s made herself a weapon, she might be the one to bleed.
My Own Kind of Person by Tim Manley (8th)
In this heartfelt and hilarious coming-of-age romance, Sean discovers his bisexuality and his true voice while chasing his dream as a stand-up comedian.
Sean O’Brien copes with anxiety by being the funny guy—at school, in his relationships, and onstage at local open mics. But when his stand-up act starts feeling like a performance of someone he’s not, everything changes. As Sean struggles with awkward girlfriend encounters and rising panic, he meets Elijah, a new guy with quiet confidence and an honesty Sean has never allowed himself. Suddenly, Sean’s life, his comedy, and his self-awareness come into sharper focus.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Pining for You by Stef Ferrari (8th)
Bennie Bosley has Christmas spirit on lock. Her borderline magical ability to give the perfect gift, encyclopedic knowledge of holiday movies, and skill as a baker working at a literal Christmas tree farm mean she’s the authority on all things merry. So, when Bennie sees sparkles after bumping into the most stunning girl she’s ever seen in her small Connecticut town, her friends are all shocked that Bennie doesn’t seem to realize what this is: real holiday magic at work…and the perfect opportunity for her much-needed first kiss.
There’s just one problem: her mystery girl, Eve, lives in Brooklyn and Bennie never got her number or her last name. But showing up unexpectedly to make a big romantic gesture is a classic holiday trope for a reason, right? And her friends aren’t about to miss the fireworks.
But what was supposed to be a quick Christmas adventure turns into a scramble across Brooklyn when the biggest snowstorm of the decade hits. Will Bennie and crew be able to track Eve down for a merrily ever after and still make it back for their last Cooper Farm Christmas Eve party, or is their holiday movie moment destined for the cutting room floor?
Adam, Mine by K. Ancrum (8th)
Victor Frankenstein is a young, wealthy, and brilliant prodigy who wants nothing more than to prove himself and change the world. His plan to right what he feels is wrong with the world? Reanimation of the sick and dying, bringing them back to life. But no one will give him the chance to prove his genius. However, one drunken night a bet is made, one that will cause Victor to do the unspeakable: take a teen boy from a small, neighboring village, and experiment on him under the dark of night. Elias Hilfiker. The boy who would become his monster. His curse. When Elias awakens, his voice is gone, his skin is stitched, scarred, and branded with strange symbols, and he’s abandoned by his loved ones. Meanwhile, Victor embarks on a journey to discover how to reverse the horror he’s unleashed, visiting dark alchemists in lands far and wide, gripped by fear and guilt.
But Victor’s act of resurrection creates a tether to Elias, leaving them feeling each other’s pain, joy, and regret, as the two each seek a way to end the other. As the two bound boys continue to search for answers and forgiveness, vengeance and mercy, the boundaries between what makes a man and what makes a monster will only get more blurred.
Our Last Fall by Lyvia Martinez (8th)
She stole her brother’s ashes.
Now she has six hours to say goodbye.
It’s been a month since Javi died, and fourteen-year-old Eva is done pretending a dusty urn is enough. On the last night of the Los Angeles County Fair, she steals his ashes and drags their old friend group back to the place he loved most.
The plan? Ride everything. Eat everything. Scatter him everywhere.
But grief doesn’t disappear at the top of a rollercoaster.
As security starts closing in and secrets crack the group wide open, Eva has to face the guilt she’s been dodging—and the girl she never stopped loving: Clare, Javi’s best friend.
Six hours. One reckless goodbye. No coming back the same.
Cemetery Boys:
Julian used to be a ghost and now he can’t stop seeing them.
Ever since being sacrificed as part of a forbidden ritual, Julian has been able to see and communicate with the spirits of passed brujx. And that would be okay, if it allowed him to be part of his new boyfriend’s community. But Julian’s also seeing other things: shadows in the corner of his eyes, glowing eyes in the dark, and “dark spots” on people – gaping, black gashes that are somehow wrong. He did ask his new magical boyfriend about it, but Yadriel has never heard of anything like it either, and he’s so busy with his new Brujx responsibilities, trying to figure out where all the new malingos are coming from, that Julian hates for his problems to ruin what little time together they have.
Then, a strange new brujx shows up. Ángel, as a nonbinary brujx, can heal the living and release the dead, but more than that, they can also see the same dark spots as Julian. Despite Yadriel’s reservations, Julian eagerly accepts their help. But, Ángel’s ruthless methods feel wrong to Julian, who wants to move away from hurting others.
With the shadows growing darker, and the discovery of a gaping dark spot on his friend Luca, Julian has to decide who he wants to put his trust in, and just how far he’s willing to go to save what is his.
With All My Haunted Heart by Isabel Sterling (8th)
Steadily losing clients to the new DIY-magic shop on the other side of town, Pippa Ainsley is getting desperate. Instead of hiring the witch to correct their magical maladies, local mundanes have been taking their chances with the cheaper—and unpredictable—crystals and herb blends. So when Pippa’s best friend hires her to inspect his newly acquired bed-and-breakfast for ghosts, she doesn’t think twice about it.
That is, until she learns that his unfairly attractive co-owner, Elle Thompson, doesn’t want Pippa to rid their business of spirits. She wants Pippa to give them an edge over the competition by haunting their B&B.
It’s the perfect challenge for Pippa’s experimental magic, but just because she could figure it out, doesn’t mean it’s a smart or safe idea. But Elle is persistent, and the financial boost could save her own business if Pippa succeeds. Soon, Pippa finds herself testing the limits of her magic… and her ability to stop the growing attraction she feels toward Elle, a woman with a painful secret of her own.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Penguin Random House
A Beautiful Lie by Tanya Grant (8th)
Every one of my home organizing clients is a fabulous liar.
They tell themselves they need to keep clutter in their lives for rainy days or just-in-cases. They hold onto things too tightly. Most people don’t know how to cut to the heart of what’s important and purge everything that’s not.
That’s where I come in. I can look into my client’s lives and see exactly what’s weighing them down, and I get rid of it for them.
It sounds easy, but I’ll let you in on a secret: I have trouble letting go of things, too.
When Cap slides into my life with her neon signs and velvet hair bows and magnetic energy, I know I can’t just let her walk away. Because one of the first rules of home organizing is that like belongs with like. And Cap and me? We’re destined to be together.
She may not know it yet, but that’s okay. I’d be lying if I didn’t say the challenge is part of the thrill. And luckily for Cap, I’m not afraid of a little hard work.
A Snake Among Swans by Hannah Kaner (8th)
“Death is come to take you home, death of blood and thorn and bone…”
Tilde has always heard the whispers of the kithwood, the voices of her ancestors speaking through the mysterious forest of her homeland. But now both the kithwood and her kingdom are in danger, for Tilde is the only surviving heir of a conquered land. To stop the bloodshed, she must marry the aging Swan King, Liran, and bear him a son.
But the king’s court is dangerous. Liran’s older sons will do whatever it takes to remove Tilde. And her presence stirs conflict in the heart of Liran’s daughter, the princess Elise, who has only ever known loyalty to her family.
Yet none of them know that Tilde is a snake in their midst, with allies on her side and dark, forbidden power of her own. She wants her kingdom back, and she will sacrifice everything to claim it.
For the queen to rise, the swans must fall.
Strange Lights by Mira
Parenting is never easy, but it’s a hell of a lot harder when your toddler is a chupacabra.
Paranormal investigator and cryptozoologist Reggie has embraced her fate as parent to an adopted toddler, Eldi—a bloodsucking chupacabra with a fondness for goats. Reggie wants nothing more than to put her complicated past in the rearview mirror and fade into as much obscurity as her toddler will allow. But a rash of UFOs in the night sky and a couple of crop-circle-carving Roombas force Reggie into an investigation that attracts the attention of an old enemy, an anti-supernatural agency hunting for creatures like Eldi. To outwit them, Reggie must team up with Calvin, a podcaster-turned-werewolf whose charm is a real threat to Reggie’s rule against romantic attachments.
With Reggie’s history quickly catching up to her and Eldi in the agency’s crosshairs, any shred of normalcy evaporates. Reggie must decide: Can she confront her dark past to save Eldi—and an entire alien species—from getting wiped out of the universe?
She’s a Doll by Barbara Truelove (8th)
Lucy isn’t a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She’s a doll on a mission—to find the man who killed her and return the favor.
Lucy McQuinn has been murdered, but she’s not about to go quietly.
If she doesn’t get to keep breathing, then neither does Kyle, her killer. Possessing the body of an antique doll, she sets out on a quest for revenge. But it’s hard when you’re eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain.
For help, she turns to Nicola, a human and fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle. But in their small idyllic town, no one wants to hear the truth, especially not about such a promising young man. If they can’t expose his crimes, Lucy will have to roll up her lacy little sleeves and teach him a lesson the old-fashioned way—as slowly and painfully as possible.
The Living Realm by Jordan Tannahill (8th)
While cruising one evening by Teufelssee, a small glacial lake in the Grunewald forest on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to his former lover. Only, Lukas died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas he saw. As the man spends a long, hot summer by the lake, he continues to encounter Lukas, and then other lost lovers as well. As he attempts to make sense of the strange occurrences and learns more of Teufelssee, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the forest, leading him to question not just his sanity but the nature of time itself.
Spoilt Creatures by Amy Twigg (8th)
This is the US release of the 2024 UK title.
They thought they knew everything about us. The kind of women we were.
When Iris—newly single and living at home with her mother—meets the mysterious and beguiling Hazel, who lives in a women’s commune, she finds herself drawn into the possibility of a new start away from the world of men who have only let her down. Here, at Breach House, the women can be loud and dirty, live and eat abundantly, all while under the leadership of their gargantuan matriarch, Blythe.
But is Breach House truly the haven it seems? And just how much can Iris trust her new family? When an unforgivable transgression threatens the commune’s existence, Iris and the other women find themselves hurtling towards an act of devastating violence.
Cutting Edge: Hockey as Queer Culture by Daniel Gawthorp (8th)
Heated Rivalry for realz: a fascinating and timely examination of ice hockey through a queer lens
Conversations around the phenomenal success of the TV series Heated Rivalry have put a spotlight on LGBTQ+ hockey players at a cultural moment when queer and trans folk in sports are being bullied and scapegoated. When author Daniel Gawthrop laced on his first pair of skates as a twelve-year-old Peewee house league player in 1975, he never imagined he would grow up to start a gay men’s hockey club. Nor that his mainstream media musings about the beauty of “Russian Rocket” Pavel Bure would prompt “straight” commentary by everyone from Don Cherry to The Village Voice. These stories and more form the heart of Cutting Edge, a fascinating probe into the role of gender, masculinity, and sexuality in defining—and too often demeaning—Canada’s national sport.
Examining the game through a queer lens, Gawthrop reveals how hockey has evolved from the bastion of straight white male machismo it used to be into a sport where women and players of all ethnicities are welcome and where gender-diverse people now have safe places to play. At the same time, hockey’s powers that be—from scandal-ridden Hockey Canada to the overly cautious NHL—have been reluctant to embrace change, especially in light of the growing social pushback against queers in sport.
And then there’s Heated Rivalry, whose unexpected mainstream success has led to questions about whether it will encourage queer professional players to finally come out, all while introducing the sport to new generations of fans. With great insight and verve, Cutting Edge explores this phenomenon and more, pointing the way to a better, more modern, and more inclusive kind of hockey.
The Burn Beast by Mary Averling (15th)
As the daughter of private detectives, Pira is used to moving around a lot. So when her mothers’ newest case brings them to the small town of Eyrewood, she expects to find a town just like all the other ones she’s left behind.
But Eyrewood is nothing like she expects. Ash is always falling from the skies, the local wildlife is nowhere to be found, and it’s impossible to light a fire anywhere inside the town limits. And worst of all, there are monsters in the woods—monsters that none of the adults believe in.
When Pira joins up with a group of kids intent on fighting the beasts, she discovers that the monsters may be linked to a series of missing kids going back decades—including the older sister of her new friend Jackie. As Pira and Jackie work with their friends to solve the mystery of the disappearances, they’ll have to confront the secrets at the heart of Eyrewood and the danger lurking in every corner.
Spells to Mend Broken Hearts by Marissa Macy (15th)
Alex is pretty sure the universe is conspiring against her. Friendless in a new town, with her parents constantly fighting, Alex spends her birthday unpacking alone when she comes across her grandmother’s book of small magic. Alex doesn’t believe in that stuff, but she has nothing to lose. So, she does the ritual from On Small Magics titled To Attract A Friend.
It’s just a coincidence that Tess happens to crash into her life the very next day…right? Their friendship forms fast and strong and the way Tess makes Alex’s heart flutter definitely feels like some kind of magic. Together, they make their way through the spell book healing Tess’s recently broken heart, trying to mend Alex’s broken family.
But soon the book starts to turn on Alex when her parents file for divorce. Then Tess decides to use On Small Magics try to win back her ex-boyfriend, and Alex is forced to face a truth she had not considered. Maybe the magic she felt with Tess was more than friendship . . .
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | BookPeople
So Superb it’s Killing Me by Zachary Sergi (15th)
Sam built his magic from nothing. Now it may cost him everything.
At Superb Prep East, a prestigious school where gifted students cultivate personal magic, Sam is determined to win the Superb Battle League championship and launch his career as an arena legend.
But as the competition builds, he’s haunted by his brother’s disappearance, tangled up in messy queer romances and heated rivalries, and pressured to keep his evolving identity frozen in time.
To claim the title, he must choose: the persona he perfected for the arena, or the new magical self he’s only just beginning to understand.
But in a world where burning out means defeat, strength is key.
If Sam embraces his truest self, will his magic transform him—or unmake him?
Spikes, Dice & Other Variables by Harper Kinsley (15th)
Life is over for Riley McMahon.
Well, it isn’t really, but when you’re the star setter of the volleyball team and on the brink of academic ineligibility, the actual end of Everything™ feels closer than you think. Terrified of failing math and losing her spot on the team, she’s desperate to do anything to save her grades.
Which is why when Simon, the shy, fat boy in her math class offers to help Riley out, she’s quick to say yes. But Simon’s a nerd. And Riley’s a jock. And she’s certain that he’ll stop tutoring her as soon as he realizes how much of a lost cause she really is.
So, naturally, she’ll join the school TTRPG club to impress him, show him she’s cool, and make him like her enough to stick around.
But as they spend time together, Riley realizes she might feel something… different towards Simon. Something other than friendship. Riley’s been avoiding relationships her whole life, and as her friends start to notice her not-so-platonic feelings for Simon, she’s forced to admit why: she’s uncomfortable with the idea of sex, which seems to be all anyone can think about in relationships. Balancing her own fears against society’s expectations, Riley must figure out what matters most to her, and how to let everyone else’s expectations go.
Buy it: Inked in Gray Press
False Face by Josh Galarza (15th)
Rusty is positive Todd with two D’s is a figment of his troubled mind. That’s the only reason he breaks into musical numbers and lurks in the school bleachers so he can stare unabashedly at Burt, the cutest guy in school. But when Todd’s antics go a little too far, Rusty quickly finds himself in a dangerous situation. Little does Rusty know, the boy he’s head over heels for just might be the one to save his life.
By day, Burt Espinoza is the only out kid in school who’s ever maintained his social status. But by night, he is a real hero: a secret agent rescuing vulnerable queer kids in danger. His handlers (also his adoptive moms) are concerned he’s pushing himself too hard to be the man he thinks he needs to be. Now Burt has to prove that he’s ready for his biggest mission yet: saving the only boy he’s ever hurt.
The End Crowns All by Bea Fitzgerald (15th)
Love caused this war. At least, that’s what the stories will say.
When Princess Cassandra’s patron god, Apollo, offers her the gift of prophecy―and all the power that comes with it―she jumps at the opportunity. But when she fails to uphold her end of the agreement, her prophecy becomes doomed. No one believes her visions of an alluring, lonely girl who is going to start a war.
Helen fled Sparta in pursuit of love, though it’s proving more elusive than she’d hoped. Far from home and surrounded by strangers, Helen’s beauty and intelligence are no match for the politics of the Trojan court, especially when one princess with fiery amber eyes is determined to be rid of her.
When war finally strikes, fate brings Cassandra and Helen together in ways not even the gods could have foretold. Together they will change their destinies or be the ruin of all that they love.
But how can they change their futures when following their hearts means defying the gods themselves?
Winterveil by Ava Reid (15th)
It’s a game—until it’s war.
- A disgraced politician from a powerful American dynasty.
- A coldly brilliant strategist who will sacrifice anything to win.
- A former pageant queen with a talent that could change the world.
- An expert female soldier with an enigmatic past—and a dangerous secret.
In an alternate future where the Cold War still rages, four precocious teenage criminals with dark skills and darker secrets are offered a fresh start at a secret military academy. But instead of training to end the war, they find themselves on a mysterious mission that will test loyalties, forge romances, and maybe end the world as they know it.
Thoughts Be Bloody by Auden Patrick (15th)
The summer before his sophomore year, Horatio Bithersea walks into the university library to find Carson Hamlett, resident golden boy and master magician, cradling his father’s dead body. Life at Elsinore, one of the most prestigious universities in the secretive magical world, simply goes on when the professor’s death is ruled an accident—despite the mysterious circumstances and the bloody scene.
A year later, Horatio is keeping his head down, attempting to graduate without his out-of-control magic harming his classmates. That changes when the ghost of Hamlett’s father appears and places a curse on Horatio and Hamlett: avenge his death by destroying Elsinore and its heart, lest the ghost robs them of their minds, memories, and their very souls.
Elsinore has given Horatio everything—knowledge of his magical ability, an escape from his abusive family, and freedom to pursue his life as a transgender man—and now he’s to be its doom. As the two uncover more of Elsinore’s secrets Horatio finds himself becoming more and more ensnared in Hamlett’s dark but charismatic web.
The question is not if Horatio will manage to destroy Elsinore. The question is if Hamlett will destroy him first.
A Thousand Monstrous Forms by Saratoga Schaefer (15th)
Bluebeard gets a gothic horror and sapphic romance twist in this fairytale retelling from the author of Serial Killer Support Group and Trad Wife.
A young ceramic artist moves into her new wife’s isolated manor and gets drawn into dark discoveries that stain her marriage—and her very soul.
Artist Poppy Reed doesn’t care if others think her marriage to Celia Marie Fox, a wealthy art dealer, is impulsive. Sure, they’ve only known each other for six months, and Celia has an infamous romantic reputation, but Poppy is brimming with excitement when she moves across the country to Celia’s home: a formidable, isolated, and art-filled manor called Busirane.
As Poppy tries to celebrate her first weeks of marriage and enjoy her new home, Busirane seems intent on rebuffing her every attempt to settle in. Strange noises and confounding occurrences lead Poppy to believe the house is haunted, a suspicion worsened by Celia’s insistence that Poppy avoid the locked basement.
When Celia leaves for a work trip, Poppy is left alone in the house, then finds herself snowed in. Surrounded by secrets, stalked by faceless statues, and beset by bodiless whispers, she struggles to trust her wife—and her own mind. When Poppy is eventually drawn to the forbidden basement, dark truths shatter everything she thought she knew, throwing her into a desperate bid for survival.
Drenched in dread, this contemporary gothic folktale retelling will have you checking all the locks. Twice.
A Spell of Heart & Havoc by Kristen Vale (15th)
Maerryl Kirim, a surly half-dwarf with the world on her shoulders, will do anything to save her deathly ill brother. Joining a guild of thieves to gather enough coin for his cure, she agrees to infiltrate a noble family. But acting as bodyguard for their haughty, spoiled daughter is no walk in the enchanted forest.
Dove Wistrallo yearns for independence, not a babysitter. As the uncouth Maerryl loves to remind her, she lives a charmed life … though few know of the risky magical ability that Dove hides. Spending every moment together is infuriating―at first. But before long, the friction between the rogue and the lady becomes a spark they can’t ignore.
Yet the clock is ticking for Maerryl to secure the family’s riches. Does their growing love stand a chance against Maerryl’s ruse, Dove’s secrets, and a den of thieves?
This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want by Hailey Piper (15th)
In November 1994, three girls visit their local movie theater to see an obscure film. Only one of them is ever seen again.
Thirty years later, Val McQueen has never forgotten the day she lost her little sister and best friend, but she’s closed the curtain on it, certain she’s moved on despite her parents’ resentment and hounding by true crime enthusiasts.
That is until a stranger’s murder brings it all screaming back—a terror she’s tried to tell herself is only a movie. Enlisting the help of cinephile and former classmate Roxie de la Fontaine to find the film, Val soon realizes that hers is not the only pursuit. Someone, or something involved with the movie is on the hunt, too…
… For the girl who got away all those years ago.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Blackwell’s
In these Gilded, Ghostly Hearts by Gwendolyn Kiste (15th)
In 1955, Daisy Buchanan is found dead in an abandoned West Egg mansion, but her daughter Mel knows she’s really been gone for years. No one knows whether Daisy was murdered, or if it was a simpler, slower death: her yearslong spiral of alcohol, abuse, and helplessness. But when Mel enters the estate, she finds Daisy’s ghost, somehow frozen at twenty-three, and a charming, bleeding phantom that used to be Jay Gatsby.
To free her mother, Mel must carve a path through family secrets and decaying revelers: deep into Gatsby’s starving house as it gorges itself on unfulfilled love and grows stronger every night.
The Lonely Girl’s Vegetable Patch by Genevieve Plunkett (15th)
It’s 2005: Cell phones are dumb, dick pics are email attachments, and twenty-one-year-old Drew is aimlessly circling in a small Vermont town. Taking a job at a horse stable, Drew is drawn to her seemingly decent but heartbroken manager, Tristan, but finds herself even more entranced by his stories of Cleo, his older, elusive ex.
When Cleo reemerges to open a coffee shop, Drew bolts over to work there instead. Soon the women are an exhilarating conspiracy of two, serving and snarking on regular locals and tourists while drawing closer to each other. Then, in the wake of a personal tragedy, Cleo embarks on an affair with a newcomer. As their intimacy shifts and slips, Drew begins to lose herself—but how much of herself did she have in the first place?
Genevieve Plunkett’s latest is an offbeat ode to bisexual desire, identity, and how far a person will go to avoid feeling lonely.
Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske (15th)
At the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr, every mage with the healer’s gift has five years to master their power and to prepare for the infamous Grand Exam―a five-day trial whose results will determine their entire future.
The list of exam rules includes:
• You will perform five practical cases.
• Your exam group is chosen at random.
• You pass together, or fail together.
It does not include:
• On the first day, your exam group will find a classmate’s dead body in the exam hall.
And as they will soon discover, this particular group all have something to hide… and all have a connection with the dead girl, a brilliant scholar who would have been first in their class.
Five scholars. Five secrets. Five days in which to solve a murder, pass the most important exam of their lives, and uncover a secret larger than all of their own combined. One with the potential to change the world.
Are you ready?
Let’s begin.
Locusta by Emily Dexter (15th)
Born in the ancient region of Gaul, Locusta is the last of her kind—a Druid whose communion with the spirit world grants her the dangerous gift of identifying and wielding deadly substances. When Roman soldiers attack her home and slaughter her mother, Locusta is captured and enslaved, taken to the heart of the empire where political plots abound and death commands a high price. Guided by Arawn, the god of death, she must learn to survive within the brutal, glittering world of ancient Rome.
Her strange talents soon catch the attention of the Roman elite, and she becomes ensnared in a double life—poisoner by night for the cunning Antonia Augusta, and lady-in-waiting by day to Livia, the Emperor’s ambitious cousin. As Locusta plants the seeds of revenge against those who destroyed her home, her connection with Livia deepens into a passionate, forbidden romance that threatens them both. Surrounded by danger and deceit, Locusta’s poisons become their only protection against the increasingly unstable Emperor Caligula and the enemies lurking in every shadow.
Half Light by Mahesh Rao (15th)
High up in the misty mountains of Darjeeling, a landslide cuts off a crumbling hillside hotel from the outside world. Trapped together with other guests and staff, 2 men begin to exchange lingering glances. For Neville, a charismatic student, such encounters are nothing new—urgent kisses in stairwells, fleeting encounters in parked cars. But for Pavan, a shy hotel employee accustomed to hiding in plain sight, their growing connection threatens to upend the careful life he has built in secrecy.
Years later, the men meet again by chance, this time surrounded by the towering skyscrapers and ghostly smog of Mumbai. Neville is now a restless graduate, trying to find his footing in the city. Pavan has long since fled the hills and begun a new life for himself working in a luxurious city hotel. As their renewed flirtation quickly turns fraught, long-buried secrets from their shared past threaten to tumble into the light.
A Deadly Entanglement by Cathy Pegau (15th)
This is the second book in the Harriman & Mancini Mysteries
The truth isn’t always easy…
Margot Baxter Harriman has just survived her deadliest scandal as President of B&H Foods, and now there’s nowhere to go but up. Which is why she’s organizing a fundraiser for the crowded, overworked city charity hospital, where she hopes to do good and give back–until a body falls past a second-floor window.
The nurse’s death is quickly ruled a suicide, but fellow nurse CeeCee Foxmoor, Margot’s friend and the live-in partner of investigator Rett Mancini, isn’t so sure: this isn’t the hospital’s first suspicious death. CeeCee’s concerns draw both Margot and Rett into an undercover scheme to untangle the threads behind the deaths everyone else is ready to overlook.
Then another death catches their attention: Margot’s old classmate checked into the Caspian, a luxury clinic catering to the New York elite, but never checked out. And the circumstances surrounding her death feel eerily familiar…
As both the secrets and bodies pile up, Rett and Margot realize that while money can buy anything, behind ward doors, everyone pays a price. This time, their search for the truth might cost the people they love.
Main, Middle & Gay by Patrick O’Connell (15th)
The chef and founder of the Michelin-starred restaurant The Inn at Little Washington gives us an inside look at the tumultuous joys and struggles that have brought him to his special place at the intersection of Main, Middle, and Gay.
World-renowned chef Patrick O’Connell has been recognized as a pioneer of American cuisine; his internationally acclaimed restaurant in the Virginia countryside, the Inn at Little Washington, is Michelin-starred and a Relais & Châteaux hotel. Named for the three historic streets in the little town where O’Connell’s life and career have taken root, Main, Middle & Gay chronicles O’Connell’s winding journey through the rough-and-tumble restaurant world.
Growing up gay in the 1950s and working as a paperboy and a cook at a hamburger joint, O’Connell found his place with other misfits in the addictive restaurant scene, where he learned to be nimble and grew up fast while working long hours and late nights with colorful characters. He lived free-spirited on farms with friends and traveled Europe, teaching himself to cook along the way. When he opened his restaurant in an old abandoned garage, he had no idea it would grow to the heights it has achieved today.
In his first-ever memoir, O’Connell shows us the evolution that has led the Inn at Little Washington to become a global destination for foodies and travelers alike.
What Tried to Kill Me Had Many Times by Marc Gauss (15th)
What Tried to Kill Me Had Many Names is a fearless memoir of spirit, sex, and survival. Raised in a strict Christian home where every desire was measured against sin, Marc Gauss grew up believing that love-especially the kind he felt for other men-was something that had to be hidden, prayed away, or punished. As he moves from small-town boyhood to college campuses, locker rooms, churches, and the neon freedom of gay nightlife, Gauss confronts the contradictions between the life he was taught to live and the truth of who he is. Along the way he encounters cruelty, rejection, ecstatic freedom, and moments of devastating despair-including the kind of spiritual shame that nearly costs him his life. Told with disarming candor, humor, desire, and vulnerability, What Tried to Kill Me Had Many Names is the story of a man who survived religious judgment, sexual awakening, and the many identities others tried to force upon him. It is a memoir about reclaiming joy, owning one’s body, and learning-finally-to live without apology.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Sibling Rivalry Press
To Our Untamed Core by Sonido Reyes (22nd)
Centuries after the conquistadors claimed the Afueras for their own, Temo spends his life obeying the Holy Order’s decree, undergoing their sacraments to tame his supposedly violent nature.
The only rule he breaks: hiding that he’s trans. If that fact is discovered, Temo will face El Torneo, a brutal, fight-to-the-death game pitting the untamed against one another. No Afuereño who enters El Torneo ever escapes with their life.
But when Temo’s boyfriend is unexpectedly arrested and thrown into the deadly tournament, he’ll do anything to rescue Ollin from his gruesome fate, even if it means entering El Torneo himself.
Only there’s far more to this tournament than meets the eye—survival is just the beginning. When the cost of saving the one he loves the most might be higher than he ever imagined, is Temo willing to pay it?
Death in Verse by Julie Lew (22nd)
The first ferry of the new term arrives in six days. Let us hope it finds you alive and well.
When Bronte Cade’s mother vanishes, the only clue she leaves behind is an invitation to a retreat for magical poets. Determined to find answers, Bronte attends in her mother’s place by masquerading as the esteemed Dr. Sappho Cade.
But when Bronte arrives at the Radley School of Poetry, she finds the island abandoned—save for six other confused poets, one line of an unfinished poem, and an anonymous host who issues a chilling ultimatum through an enchanted gramophone: complete the spell, and they may return home on the next ferry. Fail, and they die.
There’s another problem: Bronte isn’t magical.
With escape impossible, the body count rising, and her mother still missing, Bronte forms a wary alliance with the infuriating yet brilliant Marlowe Fang. Together, they race to unmask their host before Bronte is exposed—or worse, the next victim.
But beneath the host’s sinister scheme lies an even more insidious plot, one decades in the making. It bleeds beyond the shores of Radley like an ink stain, and no one’s hands are clean. Least of all the people Bronte trusts most.
Hearts on the Table by Susan Metallo (22nd)
As World War I rages, a seventeen-year-old English feminist with a penchant for thrashing men at cards finds herself stranded on an enemy-controlled island and tangled in the last mess she’d ever expect: love.
Violet is used to winning—with her mathematical mind, no one stands a chance of beating her at cards, or much of anything else. So, when her wrathful father threatens to marry her and her trans twin brother Seb to the highest bidders, she’s certain they can escape England, even with a war on. But before they reach safety in Italy, a U-boat sinks their ship, and Violet washes up on a small island, on the wrong side of enemy lines, desperate to find her missing twin.
To earn passage to the mainland, where she hopes Seb has landed, Violet disguises herself as a man and accepts a job delivering love poetry for melancholy pacifist Teo, the island’s irritating golden boy. The object of his affection, fair Olivia, is less than enchanted, but she is intrigued by the handsome delivery boy—Violet in disguise. While Violet struggles to sidestep Olivia’s attentions, she’s vexed by her own inconvenient but undeniable attraction to Teo.
Add a mysterious newcomer, who converts the love triangle into a square, and Olivia’s autistic sister, who’s concocting a devilish revenge against the island’s biggest bully, and odds are things will only get messier.
Fortunately, playing the odds is Violet’s specialty.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Foreigners by E.L. Shen (22nd)
For centuries, the Chin family has kept its secrets.
In 1878, Duanfang knows he’s destined for greatness. He’ll do anything to uphold and protect the legacy of his Manchu family—even if it means hiding his past.
In 1965, Zheng Yi flies from Taiwan to New York City to have a shot at attending an American college. Thrown into a world of parties, prejudice, and a tumultuous romance, Yi worries that New York may be more than she can handle. But just as she is beginning to adjust, she must make a shocking decision that will irrevocably change her life and her future forever.
Today, Dawn Chin’s family is opaque at best, with heavy expectations and heavier silences. But an assignment to interview her grandmother is about to crack open her real family history: a legacy hundreds of years old, and a lie decades in the making . . .
All the Way Home by Alex Ritany (22nd)
’Twas the flight before Christmas. . . .
Zach is heading home from his first semester at college with presents for his family, a voicemail from his ex, and about as much travel anxiety as can fit within the confines of the human body. After a series of humiliating events, including having his bags stolen, he meets the captivating, beautiful Kieran, who’s dreading his return home for Christmas and traveling with his sister, Rena, and her boyfriend, Lucas―who are dealing with some baggage of their own.
As the snow falls and sparks fly, Zach and Kieran must learn to trust in themselves and in each other if their love is ever going to leave the ground, while Rena and Lucas must decide if their turbulent relationship can withstand another storm.
A Dangerous Bargain by Erin Cotter (22nd)
It’s the height of the Italian Renaissance. In the golden city of Florence, art is equal to holiness—and angels walk among us, bestowing their talents…for a price.
Seventeen-year-old artist Virgil is in trouble. To support his family, he’s bargained most of his life away to an angel—only to discover that his missing brother is in danger, and nothing but magic can rescue him. Now, with just a few months left to live, Virgil is desperate enough to try the one thing he swore he would never, ever do—team up with the infuriating, annoyingly talented, and most notorious playboy in all of Florence, the charming Leonardo da Vinci.
As the two journey through Florence’s gilded streets, luxurious cathedrals, and glorious Medici palaces, they unearth dark truths beneath the city’s facade.
Those in power will do anything to keep their deadly secrets safe, but with his feelings for Leonardo giving him new life, Virgil is determined to expose their lies before he runs out of time.
Even if it might cost him his soul.
Dead Girls by Beck Kubrick (22nd)
In the cozy town of Clossdale, a serial killer rampages! Five girls missing in as many weeks! Bodies turning up on the forest floor! And all fingers point to one vile fiend: Ash Hargreeves.
Except Ash didn’t do it. She may be the daughter of the infamous Clossdale Killer, and these copycat killings aren’t exactly convincing proof of her innocence—and okay, she’s kind of a weirdo who has two friends total, but when the murders strike a little too close to home, Ash decides to take a stand.
With the help of her besties, Ash is going to hunt down the killer, clear her mother’s name, and stop there from being any more dead girls—now and forever. After all, WWJLD: what would Jamie Lee do?
The Fractured Life of Lucy Hughes by Annie Morgan (22nd)
After a surprise proposal fractures her life into two parallel timelines, a speech pathologist must learn to trust her own inner voice in this hopeful and inspiring story about identity and belonging.
Lucy Hughes has never loved being the center of attention, so she’s shocked when her boyfriend proposes via jumbotron. Frozen under the stadium lights, Lucy’s hesitation fractures her future into parallel lives:
No. A video of Lucy’s refusal goes viral, and the backlash is swift and brutal. Unemployed and sleeping in her best friend’s guest room, she slowly rebuilds her life. She’s barely back on her feet when she’s asked to advocate for victims of online harassment. But it would mean finding the courage to step back into the spotlight.
Yes. Lucy, who grew up in foster care, adores Matthew’s large, loving family. But burying her troubled childhood and her bisexuality to better fit into their Southern political dynasty is causing her to lose her grip on her own identity.
To create a future where she can be her authentic self, both versions of Lucy must confront the childhood trauma that shaped her adult relationships and find her own voice.
Witches of the Wheel by Lindsay Merbaum (22nd)
Gold grows up knowing only a few things about herself: something lets her see ghosts and read her neighbors’ secrets, and her mother seems to hate her. But when she strikes out on her own, she stumbles into a job at The Wheel, a literally-underground lesbian bar where a coven gathers every Thursday and each entrance requires a painful sacrifice. It feels like the first place she’s belonged.
But the bar, its patrons, and its history are more complicated, and more dangerous, than Gold ever realized. As she entangles herself in her new community, she learns more about herself than she wanted to know―and attracts an ancient goddess’s deadly attention.
So It Grows by Andie Burke (22nd)
Felicity Gallagher thought inheriting her aunt’s plant shop would be the fresh start she needed. She never expected that the trendy, mac and cheese themed restaurant next door–and its inconveniently hot chef–might be her downfall.
Nicolas Holm-Bozic is arrogant and presumptuous and just flat-out gets under her skin. Felicity has made ignoring him an art form―until the exploding popularity of his restaurant leads to renewed interest in Felicity’s quirky corner of Kansas. Now, a greedy developer is threatening both their businesses with a towering parking garage that could steal the sunlight from her plants. With her shop’s future in jeopardy, Felicity must join forces with her least favorite neighbor.
As the pair fight back, Nic and Felicity’s formerly contentious relationship blooms into something new, but hidden battle scars, old secrets, and a devastating storm threaten everything they’ve built. Will they choose to cut and run, or are they finally ready to put down permanent roots?
Isn’t He Romantic? by Adib Khorram (22nd)
Arya’s always been a “one-and-done” man when it comes to romance—but with his friends all pairing up and the big 4-0 creeping ever closer, he’s starting to question his life choices. Especially when he discovers his latest hookup is the new committee chair for the charity ball Arya’s company is planning.
Ben’s plan to start over in Kansas City isn’t going so great. And having to spend lots of time with the one-night stand who ghosted him isn’t helping. Worse yet, when his ex-boyfriend shows up looking for a reunion, a panicked Ben claims he’s already moved on—with Arya.
Torn between staying professional and helping the man he can’t forget, Arya agrees to give Ben a hand, in exchange for Ben’s help landing a big client. But when the lines start to blur, they’ll have to decide if it’s time to change their tunes about love.
Damned if I Do by Alexandria Bellefleur (22nd)
(This is a Bi4Bi Romance.)
The devil’s right-hand woman must convince her long-lost husband to renounce their vows so she can wed a prince from Hell.
Effie MacLeod is no stranger to making desperate decisions, but making a deal with Lucifer himself—sacrificing her soul to save a loved one—has got to be her most monumental. Several hundred years into her tenure as a demon, Effie’s found herself engaged to Belphegor, a handsome, seductive, and successful Prince of Hell. It’s not a love match, but it’ll do. There’s just one teensy-tiny little problem: She’s still bound to her sixteenth-century Scottish husband. While Effie has completely cast her human life aside, Finn has been reincarnated through several lifetimes.
Effie must convince Finn to renounce their age-old vows in order get the Office of Infernal Internal Affairs off her back. The kicker? When she finds him in this lifetime, Finn doesn’t remember anything, but he refuses her request for a divorce.
Annoyed to be stuck with him in small-town Georgia until she can persuade Finn to abandon their marriage, Effie must convince him that yes, she does want to get on with her devilish shenanigans despite the physical pull she feels toward him. As they get closer in hopes of recovering his lost memories, Effie can’t help but notice murmurings of her deeply buried feelings resurfacing. But while all’s fair in love and war, that’s not the case in Hell—and Lucifer may have his own reasons for wanting to keep Finn and Effie apart for the rest of eternity.
Eden at Dawn by Karim Kattan (22nd)
In a land forgotten by time, swept by sandstorms, and burdened by occupation, two young Palestinian men fall in love.
In the labyrinthine city of Jerusalem, where poets woo their lovers with tales of jinns, lions, and warriors, Isaac and Gabriel pass in the streets, unaware of one another until epic Egyptian winds bring enough sand to blot out the heavens. From their first meeting, desire blooms, hesitates, withdraws, and returns in a heady romance recounted by the sky itself, who cranes past rooftops and through windows to glimpse the pair. Defying checkpoints and desert squalls, Gabriel and Isaac embark on a road trip through Jericho and past the Dead Sea to a storied village in the West Bank—a daring act in a divided country.
Just the Good Parts by Robbie Couch (29th)
Caspen Coolsby’s dad is missing. But even though it’s only been a few months, everyone has given up on finding him. Except for Caspen.
He finally gets a break in the case when he meets his new upstairs neighbors and discovers he can somehow transport himself into each of the college students’ memories using candle scents that remind them of important moments. No one loved candles more than his dad, so Caspen is sure there must be clues pointing toward where to find him hidden in the memories.
His thinking hits a snag, though, when a handsome boy named Lars keeps popping up in memories where he also doesn’t belong. As the lines between memory and reality begin to blur, Caspen can’t help but fall for the mysterious boy who keeps chipping away at the rose-colored lens he’s always seen life through. But will Caspen be able to find his dad and his crush outside of these stolen moments if it means reliving the hard truths of his past and not just the good parts?
Don’t Print This by Monica Chin (29th)
“You need to stop whatever it is that you’re doing and get as far from this case as you can.”
“Why?”
“Because a woman disappeared.”
Freshman year, Ace Li kissed his best friend, Akash Patel. The next day, Akash moved away without a word ― and Ace was so brokenhearted he stopped eating.
It took years for Ace to recover, but he’s finally stable again. Ace drinks his protein shakes, swims every morning, and might even win the debate competition this year. He’s good. He’s forgotten that kiss―at least, that’s what he tells himself. Then Ace hears the news: Akash is back.
Akash has returned because his mother, the world-famous investigative journalist Radhika Malhotra, is missing, and she was last seen in this town. Ace tries to stay away, but the second he sees Akash, the feelings he’s suppressed bubble back to the surface. Then Ace happens upon some notes―notes about what Akash’s mother was investigating. If he retraces her steps, he might be able to find her. And if he does, maybe Akash will give him another chance.
As Ace follows Radhika’s trail, his stable life begins to crumble. He stops eating, and he starts receiving threatening, anonymous messages. If he goes public with what happened to Radhika and why, his entire town will have to pay the consequences. Winning Akash’s heart might cost Ace everything, but maybe that’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
When the World was Happy by Benjamin Alire Saenz (29th)
CheChe knows that he and his twin sister Emma lead an unusual life. They enjoy spending time with their parents and grandparents, love to read, and don’t have a huge circle of friends—and they’re happy. Then, just a few months after they turn seventeen, three gunmen show up one morning at their El Paso, Texas, high school, and everything changes.
CheChe loses a leg, and both he and Emma have friends who die. Suddenly, the world feels like a very different place. But what they find hasn’t changed—or has only gotten deeper—is their love for their family, their close friends, and one another, and as they begin to heal, they create their own little community, one that wields the power of humor, kindness, and hope.
CheChe finds himself doing all kinds of things he never expected from his junior year: relearning to walk, falling in love with the boy he’s nursed a longtime crush on, making friends with a kid he always found intimidating. By the end of this life-changing school year, none of them will be the same, and many of them will have found their voices in ways they never imagined.
The Bone Brides by Marley Rose-Teter (29th)
Nola James can handle it. She can handle that her father is dead. She can handle that her friends, bored with her grief, left her behind. Nola James can handle it because she has to. Lumi―the love of her life and a faery changeling―is in danger. Not only is Lumi’s human mother trying to kill her, but she’s being hunted by veiled monsters that want to return her to the fae. Hiding out together in an abandoned cabin with only a skeleton rabbit for company is miserable, but Nola can handle that too. And she does.
Until Lumi is abducted.
In order to save her, Nola must enter the faery realm: a world at the bottom of a lake in which eyeless horses parade as brides, ghost-bees produce transformative honey, and skeletons dance in skin-colored cloaks. Aided by a witch-girl with uncertain motives, Nola uncovers the realm’s terrifying power over changelings. Unless Nola can outplay an abyssal faery queen and find the courage to let the world see her own pain, Lumi will be trapped in faeryland forever.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Exchanged by Dan Perucco (29th)
Enzo Rossi knows that Irontown, Michigan―the small declining mining town he calls home―isn’t exactly a study-abroad dream destination. So when his family is chosen to host an exchange student, he welcomes the opportunity to spend his senior year with a fellow music nerd from the outside world.
But when the Rossis arrive at the airport expecting Davit from Tbilisi, Georgia (the country), they’re greeted instead by Garrett Andersen, a handsome football jock from Atlanta, Georgia (the state). Apparently something got lost in translation.
Living across the hall from someone so cool, so hot, and so obviously straight is not what Enzo signed up for. He can’t stop putting his foot in his mouth, and Garrett―infuriatingly―always has a comeback ready. Enzo dismisses Garrett as a spoiled, cocky city boy, and Garrett writes off Enzo as too stuck up for his own hometown.
While Garrett dazzles the rest of Irontown with his Southern charm, Enzo starts stumbling over his feelings. The more time Enzo and Garrett spend together, the harder it is for both boys to keep their guard up . . . and the closer they come to finally seeing each other clearly.
Too Hot to Tango by E.E. Salo and Megan Kearney (29th)
High School Musical meets Dirty Dancing in this feel-good queer romance with high stakes, hot tango, and camp hijinks delivered by two-time Emmy-nominated writer E.E. Salo and acclaimed cartoonist Megan Kearney
This summer, soccer superstar Honey is the coach at an elite sports camp. Soccer is Honey’s whole world―after all, it got her a full ride to Stanford. Life is a game, that game is about winning, and Honey knows the rules by heart―that is, until she meets Teddi, the brusque Australian dance coach at the arts camp across the lake. Suddenly, Honey’s heart has her forgetting all the rules . . .
When an inter-camp competition gone awry accidentally lands Teddi’s dance partner with a broken arm, Honey volunteers to step in. With a crucial audition coming up, Teddi has no choice but to accept the offer.
As Teddi teaches Honey the steps, they start to match each other’s rhythm on and off the dance floor . . . but do these opposites have what it takes to tango their way to the top? With steamy routines, camp shenanigans, and a high-stakes competition coming up fast, these girls will have to show the whole world just how in step with each other they really are.
Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez (29th)
This is a special 25th anniversary edition
This reissue has a brand-new look, a note from the author, and an introduction by Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer.
Jason Carillo is a jock with a steady girlfriend. He’s on track to play ball, marry his high school sweetheart, and get as far away from his abusive dad as possible—but that’s if he can get into college with his shaky math grades…and if he can stop dreaming about having sex with guys.
Kyle Meeks is definitely gay, but he’s not planning on telling anyone, least of all his parents. All he wants is to keep his head down and get through high school without incident—until Jason asks him for help in math and all of a sudden, Kyle is spending long hours with a boy he’s always found cute and it’s getting harder and harder to keep his feelings under wraps.
Nelson Glassman is out and loud about it, but being proud of who you are doesn’t mean things don’t get lonely. He’s got a target on his back for the school bullies to kick, and while his mom supports him, she doesn’t entirely understand him. To make things worse, he and his best friend—and longtime crush—Kyle have been spending more and more time apart, and he doesn’t know how to deal.
Death By Misadventure by Jane Bitomsky (29th)
April 29, 1585. Coroner John Derrick is summoned to the cozy village of Bramley to investigate a naked dead man found beneath a waterwheel. An unfortunate drowning, by all indications. But upon closer inspection, the case takes a macabre turn: The deceased is missing a certain piece of his anatomy.
Impelled by the grisly discovery to uncover the culprit, John must contend with bumbling villagers in his quest for the truth. Only sixteen-year-old maid Rebecca Laurence seems to offer any help.
In Elizabethan England, servants rarely get a second glance. Rebecca prefers it that way, moving quietly through her world, picking up secrets like dirty clothing. Knowledge is power at a time when women are afforded little, and she deftly wields hers to protect her own clandestine affairs.
As John wades through the evidence, Rebecca treads into dangerous waters. And if she’s not careful, she could find herself in over her head.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon
From Beijing, With Love by Bei Lin (29th)
Daniel Wu’s life in Amsterdam is far from spontaneous. When his boyfriend dumps him on the same day a work mishap lands him on leave, he breaks all his rules by impulsively escaping to Beijing to visit his best friend Poppy.
There’s just one hitch—Poppy isn’t there.
Alone in the foreign city his late father grew up in, Daniel wants nothing more than to fly home early. After all, running away is what he does best. But then Poppy signs him up for a tour of the Great Wall.
Enter Yang Li, the PhD student moonlighting as a tour guide. A transplant to Beijing, Yang has never felt at home in the bustling capital—or with himself. Cynical and disciplined, he isn’t the least impressed when Daniel shows up to their tour hours late. The tour is painful in more ways than one, but at least it’s a one-time ordeal.
Then life pushes them together again and again, until time spent together over stunning sights and mind-blowing eats feels less like vacation and more like finally finding home.
From Beijing, to Xi’an, to Tokyo, will they confront their own ghosts—past and present—to find their happily-ever-after?
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | PRH
The Darkness Bites Back by Ben Alderson and Laura R. Samotin (29th)
Centuries ago, Tobias Osian had his mortality stolen from him when he was unwillingly turned into a vampire. Ever since, he’s been consumed by the need for revenge against the monster who took his humanity – Vladimir Damianos, the head of Britain’s most powerful vampire clan.
Now, Tobias is finally ready to enact his plan for vengeance, using Vladimir’s son Alexander to infiltrate the family and bring down the entire clan. But what he doesn’t expect is that Alexander has rebelled against his bloodthirsty father by protecting mortals instead of hunting them. When the two meet, Alexander is instantly enamoured with Tobias. And as a string of attacks rocks the city of Oxford, Alexander proves himself committed to protecting Tobias, unaware that Tobias is just as much of a monster as he is.
With his attraction to Alexander growing, Tobias must decide what means more to him: vengeance, or a love growing from the most unexpected of places.
The Invisible Roommate by Timothy Janovsky (29th)
Gerard Wells loves music but hates fame ―not ideal when he’s the youngest member of the chart-topping band of brothers, We the Wells. Cracking under the spotlight, Gerard runs away to a small, remote island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. There, he goes by “James” and takes up residence in a crumbling Victorian house on the island’s shrinking shoreline. Little does he know, he’s not the studio apartment’s only inhabitant…
Mysterious and moody Emory Griffin never planned to be a test subject for his own groundbreaking invisibility research. He also never planned on sharing a room with a world-famous pop star, but needs must when you’re an unemployed graduate school drop-out who’s wanted by the local police.
With nowhere else to turn, the unlikely pair agree to be temporary roommates. Their forced proximity and vulnerability lead to an unexpected romantic spark. As Halloween approaches, their secrets and feelings grow harder to keep hidden, testing the strength of their newfound bond. Could this be a love that neither of them saw coming or an experiment set to go horribly wrong?
Happily Ever Afterlife by Emma R. Alban (29th)
Frannie’s awful boss, celebrated literary novelist Henry L. Olsen, just told her that her latest manuscript is a dud—again. Frustrated and lonely, Frannie stomps around the ninth floor of the famously haunted Dakota Building in Manhattan, desperate for something to change. And then, something does.
Bridgette, the ghost of a little girl from 1889, appears out of nowhere and asks Frannie to play catch. Shocked and wildly curious, Frannie says yes to the ghostly invitation and soon meets Bridgette’s ghost brother, Michael . . . and the children’s exceedingly attractive and aloof 1960s ghost mom, Elsa.
Fascinated, and more than a little flustered, Frannie starts secretly writing a book about Elsa (a.k.a. Hot Ghost Mom). And while her boss is on book tour, through a mutual affection for musicals, banter, and the ghost children, Frannie and Elsa slowly become friends, until Frannie finds herself tumbling head over heels in love with a ghost tied to a building she couldn’t afford to live in over four lifetimes.
Now Frannie has to either give up her ambitions of becoming a novelist to remain Henry’s assistant in the Dakota forever or somehow free her ghost family from their immortal home. With her career, future, and heart on the line, can Frannie find a way to write them all a happily ever after . . . life?
Take a Chance, Sasha Sinclair by Ashley Herring Blake (29th)
Sasha Sinclair is used to being alone. Her parents, successful documentary filmmakers, died in a car accident three years ago, leaving her with a legacy she’s been unable to live up to. Instead, she spends her time with casual hookups and odd jobs as she travels around the country. But she can’t stop thinking about her parents’ dream project and is determined to make it a reality: the story of Alice Bishop in Clare Mountain, North Carolina.
Margot Bishop is not a witch, contrary to the town’s century-long suspicion about her family. When her ancestor Alice Bishop showed up to Clare Mountain in 1901 and opened Thornrose Apothecary, the town was flummoxed by this strange enigma of a woman, calling her the Rose Witch. Now, the Bishops also run Ghostlight, an occult-themed amusement park that fully leans into the rumors.
Despite the draw of the Rose Witch and the haunted Thornrose Woods where Alice had lived, however, the Bishops’ businesses aren’t doing well. When Margot’s mother comes up with a solution—a documentary film about their family—Margot can’t get on board, not when her family’s legacy is at stake. Even worse, she’s deemed the point person for Sasha, the charming, peppy wannabe-filmmaker. But as they spend more time together, diving deeper into the true story of Alice Bishop, the ice slowly melts and their relationship turns into a heart-fluttering rollercoaster ride, one they aren’t sure they want to get off.
Bastards by Nate Lippens (29th)
The conclusion to Nate Lippens’ Wisconsin trilogy: a book of losses, memories, and survival.
A full-on breakdown, wouldn’t that be fabulously dramatic? Instead, I ended up in green gripper socks, sweatpants, and a T-shirt, a look like a California cult member or a suburban schlub (same thing) on a seventy-two-hour hold—a crack-up fortnight—until I started acting like myself. Well, not myself, because how would they know who that is? A facsimile of normal. I mimed coherence, the continuity of a person moving from room to room. I performed my sadness convincingly, pimped memories of Rudy, flensed my crazy down to thimbles of death, an understandable loss.
You win. I say it all the time to people. You win. You won. You’re the winner. Congratulations. I said it when a boyfriend told me he didn’t love me. I said it on the ward. I said it when I got evicted. You win. Good for you.
Recently sprung from a stint on a psychiatric ward, the narrator of Bastards works hard to perform at being a person while questioning the concept of identity and what it means to be an aging working-class gay man when the word queer has become so elastic and gentrified it’s used to conservative ends. Struggling to survive, pay rent, and navigate a hostile world, he takes solace in art and his friends and measures what makes a life.
Bark of Millions: Queer Songs for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme by Taylor Mac and Matt Ray (29th)
The rock opera Bark of Millions is an incomparable celebration of queerness, and here from its award-winning creators Taylor Mac and Matt Ray is the experience in book form, including lyrics and music for 50 of the show’s songs
Bark of Millions the show is an electrifying collision of performance, live music, and drag spectacle in a four-hour rock opera celebration of queerness. The show features 55 original songs by theater masterminds Taylor Mac, a MacArthur Fellow, Ibsen Award winner, and Pulitzer Prize finalist, and Matt Ray, Obie Award-winning composer. “Why 55? It’s one for every year following Stonewall.” The songs are performed by a powerhouse collective of 23 international artists. With the fierce elation of a pride parade, Bark of Millions is a luxuriant, provocative spectacle unlike any other.
Bark of Millions the book is an expression and extension of this transportive experience. It’s for the queer community and for theater obsessives and musicians and performers. Included in the box set are a book of lyrics and a book of music lead sheets for 50 of the songs.
