Today is Intersex Awareness Day, and we’re celebrating as we do with books that have intersex rep! All of these titles either have intersex MCs, or have intersex secondary characters but are also by intersex authors.
In the town of Howler’s Hollow, conjuring magic is strictly off-limits. Only nothing makes Delpha McGill’s skin crawl more than rules. So when she finds her family’s secret book of hexes, she’s itching to use it to banish her mama’s money troubles. She just has to keep it quieter than a church mouse — not exactly Delpha’s specialty.
Trouble is, Katybird Hearn is hankering to get her hands on the spell book, too. The daughter of a rival witching family, Katy has reasons of her own for wanting to learn forbidden magic, and she’s not going to let an age-old feud or Delpha’s contrary ways stop her. But their quarrel accidentally unleashes a hex so heinous it resurrects a graveyard full of angry Hearn and McGill ancestors bent on total destruction. If Delpha and Katy want to reverse the spell in time to save everyone in the Hollow from rampaging zombies, they’ll need to mend fences and work together.
Today on the site I’m thrilled to welcome Emery Lee to reveal the cover of eir upcoming speculative trans YA, Maybe This is Moving On, releasing February 9, 2027 from Tiny Ghost Press! Here’s the story:
For seventeen-year-old Ness, walking with the dead is a sacred family gift.
After someone dies, Ness is able to travel twenty-four hours into the past, to help them meet their end without regrets.
But there are rules:
Never tell the dead that they’re dead.
Never reveal himself to himself.
And never ever alter history.
If Ness breaks the rules, he loses his ability. Simple.
Until his ex-boyfriend, Jaime, dies in a tragic car accident.
Sent back five months before the crash destined to take Jaime’s life, Ness’s only mission is to ensure Jaime doesn’t die carrying a heavy heart. After all, changing fate would break cosmic law.
But five months is a long time to spend with the boy who once held his heart, especially when it means reliving the bittersweet heights of first love and the sharp agony of their messy breakup. As secrets unfold and old feelings resurface, Ness finds that healing Jaime’s regrets before the clock runs out means diving headfirst into the worst of his own.
With his heart, his powers, and his obligations to the universe on the line, can he do what needs to be done to help Jaime move on?
Emery Lee is an award-winning author and the founder of #Transbooks365, a community hashtag made to celebrate books by and about trans people. Coming from a university background of creative writing, e’s gone on to write entertainment news, edit literary magazines, and work as a trade book reviewer. Outside of novels, e’s written interactive fiction, short stories, and webcomics. Eir books have received starred reviews, been featured in ALA’s rainbow booklist, and been translated into multiple languages. In 2025, MEET CUTE DIARY was exhibited in the Museum of Transology, the UK’s most significant collection of objects representing trans, nonbinary, and intersex people’s lives. When away from writing, e can be found reading webcomics, listening to music, or snuggling cute dogs.
Derrick Chan is shooting for a once-in-a-lifetime high-school basketball scholarship with his childhood best friend, JJ, by his side. But Derrick’s life is about more than just free throws since embracing his queer identity and love for drag (even if he’s not ready to share either with the whole world quite yet)!
Right now, he’s just trying to take his dad’s advice: don’t sweat the small stuff. This weekend, however, Derrick’s two worlds are colliding in a big way. At a career-defining basketball tournament, where scouts from elite schools are watching his every move, Derrick secretly plans to meet his drag idol, the magnificent Juana Fanta, at the Comic Con held in the very same hotel.
As the stakes skyrocket, team tensions bubble to the surface, including Derrick’s own growing feelings for JJ. But when Juana Fanta disappears from the con, Derrick and JJ must team up to find her before she misses her show-stopping live performance.
Can Derrick find a community that celebrates slam dunks on the court and dazzling drag in the spotlight? Can he really save Juana Fanta’s future—and his own—in one weekend?
Today on the site I am thrilled to welcome back Elle Grenier to reveal the cover of a book I have been waiting on foreverrrr, a contemporary YA called Bottle Blonde releasing May 18, 2027 from HarperCollins! Here’s the story:
Amelia knows she was born to be a leading lady. But there’s just one thing: only one other person knows she’s a girl.
With only three and a half months until graduation, Amelia is determined to make her senior year dreams come true. And the key to living out her picture-perfect high school fantasy is landing the part of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical. It would give Amelia the chance to play opposite her longtime crush—sensitive, mega-talented basketball star, Travis dos Santos. Travis, who always laughs at her jokes and makes space for her thoughts. Travis, who has started to look at her a bit differently.
But if she wants a real shot at her dream role, she has to come out as a trans girl.
Amelia is closer than ever to turning her main-character daydreams into reality, if only she could prove herself to the rest of the school. But finding her happily-ever-after might be more complicated than she thought—and her vibrant imagination might just carry her away this time.
Here’s the gorgeous cover designed by David DeWitt with art by Betsy Cola!
Elle Grenier is a queer and trans author from Southern Ontario currently residing in British Columbia with her partner and their three cats. Elle has a BA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, and is the author of This Wretched Beauty (A Dorian Gray Remix) as well as their upcoming YA coming-of-age rom com, Bottle Blonde.
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Mia V. Moss, author of epic fantasy The Heresy of Thieves, and Justine Lombardi, author of dark fantasy No Man’s Daughter. They’re here to discuss their new books and their shared themes of the dark side of feminine power, righteous revenge, and queer relationships. Both authors are debuts, so congratulations to them on their first books, and let’s learn a little more about them!
Fugitive Kára, the bastard daughter of a legendary hero, builds a new life on the mountain frontier, until bounty hunters find her, shattering her family’s cherished peace. To earn a pardon, she joins a hunting party sent to retrieve a wampus cat’s hide for the High King. It’s a perilous task, as the cat stalks the domain of the fierce and immortal Jotun. To survive, Kára plunders her father’s tomb, tearing Tyrfing, the last arcane weapon, from his undead hands. The rifle can slay any monster, but such strength comes at a terrible price: bloodlust and an unquenchable thirst for power. Immersive, propulsive, and compelling, No Man’s Daughter combines Norse paganism with Appalachian folklore in a darkly magical nineteenth-century world, focusing on a woman’s fight to return to her family.
Vael stole magic from the gods for Her people and put an end to centuries of unrest. Now magic is gone, and the battle for the Witchlands’s soul begins
After a millennium of prosperity and magic, one catastrophic night undoes the realm of Yvaelen. Magic has fallen, and prayers to Vael the Giver go unanswered.
Jal Riago knows when it’s time to move on from a con. She can’t maintain her false refugee heiress story forever, and her benefactors grow weary of playing host. Just when she’s about to confess and cut ties, a deadly raid sets Jal’s life on a collision course with a powerful entity reckoning with its own madness.
The young, steadfast King Thealys Vorrine inherited the throne of Dynestra after her parents’ deaths at Spellfall. But sparks of unrest flare all too quickly into the unpredictable wildfire of rebellion, and King Vorrine must forge headlong into unknown territory.
Royal knight and notorious rake Ember Carrado is trying his best to get fired. Instead, when he’s paired with a judgmental paladin and sent on a mission to hunt down a rampaging mythical beast, he finds himself face-to-face with the past he’s been running from since Spellfall.
Beacon Wylda Lorcanthas wields a sharp tongue and the second-highest office in the Church of Vael. When the head of the Faith dies, Wylda must seek out a biddable successor. Unfortunately, the clergy’s clear favorite is a charismatic priest who promises the restoration of magic-for those willing to partake of a bloody cost.
The dark betrayal behind Spellfall, and the very fabric of Yvaelen’s faith, will be hidden no longer. What began with a thief’s touch will end with a reckoning. And salvation for some may be a waking nightmare for others.
Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Hearts Against the Machines by James L. Sutter, a gay Post-apocalyptic Romance novel releasing May 18, 2027 from Alcove Press! Here’s the story:
For fans of The Last of Us and This Is How You Lose the Time War comes a queer, shockingly joyful post-apocalyptic romance about two soldiers who must choose between their convictions and each other.
Seven years after AI destroyed civilization, field medic Amir has made peace with the truth: the human Resistance will lose. All he can do is patch up the wounded and harden his heart. Yet when a furious, newly paralyzed soldier named Javier gets dragged onto Amir’s table, a clash of wills becomes a romance neither of them planned for.
Wracked by survivor’s guilt, Javier is hell-bent on dying for the cause, forcing Amir to confront his own demons and decide what he stands for—and whether a future without Javier is even worth fighting for.
Tender and shot through with wit, Hearts Against the Machines asks whether hope is still an act of courage when the war is already lost.
James L. Sutter is a co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games. Along with Hearts Against the Machines, he’s the author of the queer young adult romance novels Darkhearts and The Ghost of Us, as well as the adult fantasy novels Death’s Heretic and The Redemption Engine. His short stories have appeared in Nightmare, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and more. In addition, he’s written comic books, a wealth of tabletop gaming material for brands like Dungeons & Dragons, and video games. James lives in Seattle, where he’s performed with musical acts ranging from metalcore to musical theater. You can find links to all his work and social media at jameslsutter.com.
Today’s post is sponsored by Robert W. Adams in honor of the release of Tabitha Unleashed, a queer YA speculative novel about sisterhood, first love, identity, and surviving long enough to believe you deserve to be saved.
Tabitha Griffin is a suicide-attempt survivor hiding a secret: she can move objects with her mind.
When her twin sister’s cancer returns, Tabitha enters the country’s biggest televised talent competition for one reason: the prize money could pay for the only treatment that might save Kayla’s life.
Her act? Using her telekinetic power disguised as stage illusion.
With every round, the internet wants to learn more about this mysterious girl.
But the competition is changing Tabitha, too. She finds unexpected friendships, falls for a girl who gives her another reason to keep fighting, and discovers that being seen isn’t always something to fear.
Then a presidential candidate’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric puts a target on her back, turning the girl who never wanted the spotlight into an unwilling symbol of resistance.
Winning means keeping her secret. And keeping secrets is killing her.
In a fantastical version of the United States filled to the brim with magic and dragons, the tween prince of Texas must compete in a notoriously dangerous scavenger hunt.
Rowdy Buckner, the twelve-year-old prince of Texas, has a problem. More than anything, he wants access to the transfiguration tonics that will transform him from head to toe into the prince he is, in a body that feels more his down. His parents are skeptical–not because they aren’t supportive, but because they don’t believe that self-absorbed, spoiled Rowdy is responsible enough to be trusted with such powerful magic just yet.
In order prove himself, Rowdy signs up to compete in Realmsweep, a notoriously dangerous scavenger hunt held across the Allied Lands every five years, and sends his personal guard to assemble a team. The resulting ragtag crew of preteens isn’t exactly impressive at first glance, but they’re all Rowdy has. With them, he’ll face off against everything from monstrous creatures to the monstrosity of humans, and maybe, if he’s lucky, become the person he so desperately wants to be.