Happy Aromantic Visibility Day 2026!

Young Adult

Shapes of Love by L.V. Peñalba

When nineteen-year-old Sasha’s first album throws her into stardom, her fans become obsessed with discovering who inspired her love songs. Except, Sasha is aroace-spec (aromantic, asexual), and she’s not interested in romance (unless it comes in the shape of a slowburn enemies-to-lovers book or a star-crossed-lovers manga). Her music is all about her favorite love stories, not her own.

After running into Kai, her estranged best friend who she hasn’t seen in two years, pictures of them together leak, and everyone assumes he’s Sasha’s muse, the “boyfriend” who broke her heart. Pressured by her label and fearing fan backlash, Sasha agrees to a PR relationship with Kai for six months – but her sense of self is put to the ultimate test. Where does she fit in a society that equates happiness with romantic love? One where even her closest friends prioritize their partners over her?

Under the guise of their faux romance, Sasha and Kai get a chance to rebuild their platonic bond and heal the wounds of their past. But when actor Asher Grish enters the scene, threatening to shake the foundation of Sasha’s PR relationship, she finds herself at a crossroads. Either she loses herself, or her career.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy Aromantic Visibility Day 2026!

Fave Five: New Queer YA Summer Romances, 2025-26 Edition

For older Sapphic summer Romances, click here.

Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan (F/F)

Donut Summer by Anita Kelly (F/X)

Everything About You by Robby Weber (M/M)

Hallie’s Rules for a Recovering Romantic by Jessica Lewis (F/F)

Summer Official by Rebekah Weatherspoon (F/F)

New Releases: June 2, 2026

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?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: June 2, 2026

Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month 2026!

Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month! This year, we’re celebrating with books by Caribbean American authors and/or starring Caribbean characters! For even more recs, check out last year’s post.

Young Adult Fiction

The Lovers, the Liars, and Me by DeAndra Writes

Jaliya Powell has never had a real adventure, a real boyfriend, or spoken up for herself. She’s never even been kissed. Despite being valedictorian of her high school class, Jaliya is used to fading into the background.

But this summer will be different.

This summer, Jaliya is visiting her uncle and his family in Jamaica. Under the guise of one last vacation before college, she plans to find out more about her estranged mother, whose absence has remained an unspoken mystery. But things have changed in the seven years since Jaliya last visited. Her cousin has his own life and is reluctant to let Jaliya in, her childhood crush has only gotten hotter and more unavailable, and her aunt and uncle aren’t everything she remembered, either. Then she meets India, who’s vibrant, gorgeous, and free-spirited. And who makes Jaliya feel something she’s never felt before.

While searching for traces of her mother across the island, Jaliya finds herself entangled in complicated relationships, tricky secrets, and a passionate new love. As she navigates this perfectly complicated summer, Jaliya must choose between who she has always been or who she hopes to become.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month 2026!

May 2026 Deal Announcements

Adult

Jessica Plummer‘s THE CONMAN’S GUIDE TO DRAGON SLAYING, pitched as an adult HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON meets HEATED RIVALRY, in which an ambitious young dragon fighter has to team up with a powerless wizard to fake everything, including magic, for a shot at riches, respect, and a better life in the kingdom’s annual dragon games, to John Morgan at Grand Central, at auction, for publication in spring 2028, by Eric Smith at Neighborhood Literary (world).

Continue reading May 2026 Deal Announcements

Fave Five: “Be Gay, Do Crime” Fiction

For more recs in YA, click here.
For more queer heist novels, click here.

No Body, No Crime by Tess Sharpe

Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch

The Obake Code by Makana Yamamoto

The Long Con by Jenna Voris

Be Gay, Do Crimes ed. by Molly Llewellen and Kristel Buckley

Bonus: These are all Adult, but in YA, check out the Trust Me series by Mary Elizabeth Summer

Inside an Anthology: Being Aro ed. by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor

Today on the site I’m delighted to give a peek into Being Aro, the brand-new YA anthology edited by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor containing stories featuring aromantic rep across a variety of genres! Here’s the gist:

Explore expansive aromantic love and connection in stories across genres

These twelve stories showcase aromantic people breaking generational curses, finding acceptance, and protecting the vulnerable while highlighting the infinite ways people find connection and love without romance.

A high school matchmaker learns a lesson about love. A rebellious spaceship pilot defies his culture’s compulsory coupling. A boy magically transforms banned romance novels into living dragons. A teen immune to romance, and the zombie virus, fights to survive the apocalypse. Being Aro is full of stories throughout real and imagined worlds that cross genres and disrupt the status quo.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

And here’s some insight into some of the stories, given by the authors themselves!

Continue reading Inside an Anthology: Being Aro ed. by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor

New Releases: May 26, 2026

Young Adult

We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore

Lola and Lisandro are actors during Hollywood’s Golden Age, but you won’t see them on any silver screen. Instead, these siblings use their talents to scam the rich and famous out of their ill-begotten cash. They have their act down to a science: Lola plays the tragic ghost who haunts the mansions of the wealthy, and Lisandro plays the brave spiritualist who will help her soul find peace. For a small fee, of course.

The siblings have their sights set on their next target: The Coterie, the opulent estate of newspaper tycoon Bixby Fairfax and his famous mistress Blythe Bell. A score this big will allow them to move… well, anywhere but here. But this job requires them to do something they’ve never done before: switch roles. And as strange things keep happening at The Coterie… things that even Lola and Lisandro can’t explain.

As they are drawn deeper into The Coterie’s gleaming façade and tensions rise between brother and sister, one question looms over them. Will they be able to pull off their act? Or will this be their last performance?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

Continue reading New Releases: May 26, 2026

Fave Five: Queer Foodie Romances, Part III

For Part II (which contains a link to Part I), click here.

Taste the Love by Karelia & Fay Stetz-Waters (f/f)

A Dash of Salt and Pepper by Kosoko Jackson (m/m)

Can’t Stand the Heat (m/m) and Avery Daniels is Off Limits (f/f) by Season Vining

Love at 350 by Lisa Peers (f/f)

The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett (f/f)

Bonus: These are all Adult, but for a YA graphic novel, check out Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione (f/f)

Happy (Upcoming) Pan Visibility Day 2026!

Pan Visibility Day is coming up on May 24th, and we’re celebrating as we do with books starring pan protagonists! For even more recs, check out past years’ posts

Young Adult

Moth Dark by Kika Hatzopoulou

Sascia has always loved the Dark. Six years ago, when the world she knew collided with the world of the Dark, she found it thrilling rather than terrifying. Now, she spends her days studying Darkcreatures or seeking them out in the shadows where they thrive.

Then, one day, she—impossibly—pulls a person from the Dark. A person who shouldn’t exist. And they’re here to kill her. Nugau, the heir to the Darkworld, claims to be delivering a sentence for Sascia’s betrayal in a battle she’s never heard of, in a war that hasn’t happened.

Sascia escapes with her life—barely. But tensions are brewing between her world and the Dark, and it’s not long before she discovers that she and Nugau are bound together by forces they don’t understand. As they grow closer, crossing worlds and timelines, they must find a way to fight for peace—and for each other.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy (Upcoming) Pan Visibility Day 2026!

Queering up your shelf, one rec at a time!