Happy Latine Heritage Month 2025!

Happy Latine Heritage Month! We’re celebrating as we do with books by Latine authors, mostly starring Latine main characters, and if you want even more recs, check out past years’ posts!

Middle Grade

It’s All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango

All these months of staring at the wall?
All these months of feeling weak?
It’s ending—
I’m going back to fencing.
And then it’ll be
like nothing ever happened.

No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.

After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy Latine Heritage Month 2025!

Fave Five: Sapphic Historical Romances

For even more, check out F/F Regency Romances.

An Island Princess Stars a Scandal by Adriana Herrera

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend and Like in Love With You by Emma R. Alban

Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee

Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti

All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny

Bonus: These are all f/f, but for an f/x pairing, check out A Rare Find by Joanna Lowell

Fave Five: New Queer YA Dark Academia

These are 2024-25 releases. For older titles, click here.

With Love & Mischief by Derek Milman

We Are Villains by Kacen Callender 

Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin 

The Girl You Know by Elle Gonzalez Rose

The Tournament by Rebecca Barrow

Bonus: These are all prose novels, but for a graphic novel, check out This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux

New Releases: September 9, 2025

Middle Grade

Pasta Girls by Taylor Tracy

Hot-headed and energetic Romea Marino is starting ninth grade with a full plate. Between confusing social dynamics of high school and juggling extracurriculars, Ro can only find peace in the reliable comfort of her kitchen, where she’s able to follow in her dad’s culinary footsteps, whipping up Italian-fusion recipes.

Thoughtful and reserved Julianna Cangelosi is dying to help in her family’s restaurant, which serves traditional Italian dishes. But because Jules suffers from anxiety and struggles with overstimulation, her parents are wary of their daughter being in the chaos of a New York City kitchen.

When Ro and Jules meet on the first night of the San Gennaro Festival, sparks fly…until they learn that their fathers own dueling Italian restaurants across the street from each other. But the more the girls hang out—Ro teaching Jules how to cook; Jules taking Ro to her favorite spots around the city—the more their feelings grow. Can they rewrite the old tale of star-crossed kids from rival families and create a new recipe for love and friendship?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

Continue reading New Releases: September 9, 2025

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Thirty Love by Tom Vellner

Today on the site, I’m delighted to help reveal the cover of Thirty Love by Tom Vellner, a gay tennis romance releasing March 10, 2026 from Alcove Press! Here’s the story:

Things heat up on and off the court for two tennis rivals in this steamy debut gay sports romcom perfect for fans of TJ Alexander and Casey McQuiston.

American tennis star Leo Chambers is determined to win the US Open by 30, the age when many players feel retirement looming. He’s just a year away from that dreaded birthday, but he can’t find his focus—considering he hasn’t told anyone he’s gay, he’s clashing with his strict coach (who also happens to be his dad), and he still can’t figure out how to beat his longtime nemesis on tour, Gabe Montoya, who, well, hits different. Gabe is playing better than ever, and Leo can’t seem to escape him—and maybe he doesn’t want to escape him.

Leo’s other obstacle is Sascha Volkov, a Russian legend who has such a powerful influence on the tennis world, he would destroy Leo’s career if he found out that he’s gay.

No distractions, Leo reminds himself. But when Gabe makes a shocking announcement, Leo is thrown off his game—in more ways than one. Ready? Play.

And here’s the steamy cover by Débora Islas!

Two tennis players leaning against a net on a court

A note from author Tom Vellner:

Débora brought my boys to life in the most beautiful, tender, vibrant way for the cover of Thirty Love. They’re exactly how I’ve been picturing them since I first started dreaming them up almost three years ago, especially how gone Leo (left) is over Gabe. That yearning gaze says it all. I’m over the moon to have a cover that so proudly shows two men in love — as we face an alarming surge of book bans and efforts seeking to erase LGBTQ stories. I can’t wait for this cover to sit on shelves in all its queerness. I hope it brings some joy and comfort when it’s needed most.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | PRH

(c) Gabriela Barrantes

Tom Vellner is a writer, editor, and mediocre tennis player. A former staff writer at BuzzFeed, he has also contributed to VICE, Thrillist, ACLU Magazine, and more. This is his debut novel. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his husband and two dogs.

Happy National Translation Month 2025!

Join us in celebrating National Translation Month with these queer novels translated into English, organized by language of origin! Looking for translations of English-language works to other languages? Click here for MG/YA and here for Adult fiction.

Afrikaans

Fathers and Fugitives by S.J. Naudé, translated by Michiel Heyns

Daniel is a worldly and urbane journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meager. A young gay man with no relationships outside of sexual ones, he can seem at once callow and, at times, cold to the point of cruel with his lovers. Emotionally distant from his elderly, senile father, Daniel nonetheless returns to South Africa to care for him during his final months. Following his father’s death, Daniel learns of an unusual clause in the old man’s will: he will only inherit his half of his father’s considerable estate once he has spent time with Theon, a cousin whom he hasn’t seen since they were boys, who lives on the old family farm in the Free State. Once there, Daniel discovers that the young son of the woman Theon lives with is seriously ill. With the conditions bearing on Daniel’s inheritance shifting in real time, Theon and Daniel travel with the boy to Japan for an experimental cure and a voyage that will change their lives forever.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy National Translation Month 2025!

Inside an Anthology: For the Rest of Us ed. by Dahlia Adler

Yesterday I had the privilege of releasing an anthology that’s been near and dear to my heart for years, and like all my anthologies, there are a whole bunch of queer stories! Read on for a peek into three of them, but first, here’s a little more about the collection, which released yesterday from Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins!

Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!

From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday.

With stories by:

  • Dahlia Adler, Sydney Taylor Honor winner of Going Bicoastal
  • Candace Buford, author of Good as Gold
  • A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy, authors of the Once & Future series
  • Preeti Chhibber, author of Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot
  • Natasha Díaz, award-winning author of Color Me In
  • Kelly Loy Gilbert, Stonewall Book Award winning author of Picture Us in the Light
  • Kosoko Jackson, USA Today bestselling author of The Forest Demands Its Due
  • Aditi Khorana, award-winning author of Mirror in the Sky
  • Katherine Locke, award-winning author of This Rebel Heart
  • Abdi Nazemian, Stonewall Book Award–winning author of Only This Beautiful Moment
  • Laura Pohl, New York Times bestselling author of The Grimrose Girls
  • Sonora Reyes, Pura Belpré Honor winner of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School
  • Karuna Riazi, contributor to The Grimoire of Grim Fates

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

 

Continue reading Inside an Anthology: For the Rest of Us ed. by Dahlia Adler

New Releases: September 2, 2025

This week’s new releases post is sponsored by Mark Romero in honor of the upcoming crowdfunding launch for his Sapphic Fantasy Romance Comic, Bound By Words!

Click here for more information and/or to back Bound By Words!

Middle Grade

First Kiss With Fangs by Marker Snyder

Thirteen-year-old Ivan is a tender-hearted vampire who prefers a plant-based diet. In his daydreams, he rejects his destiny and hangs out in the human world forever! But would it be worth it if it means hiding his truest self?

Born into a family of vampires, cheerful Ivan is a black sheep: he loves sunshine, his best friends are human, and he can’t stomach the thought of eating meat.

So when Ivan’s vampire fangs come in on his first day of eighth grade, he’s determined to keep them a secret. He wants to stay in day school, with his sweet group of human BFFs, rather than transfer to night school with the rest of the teenage vampire crowd. Sure, that means he’ll have to lie to everyone, but how hard can it be? He will just act normal.

Keeping his secret gets much harder when Ivan is assigned a new lab partner: transfer student Damien. Around him, Ivan acts anything but normal. He’s fainting and fumbling and far from blending in. Ivan even finds himself thinking about blood and heartbeats and vampire kisses . . . All. Day. Long.

Is it safe to spend time with humans, or is Ivan turning into a bloodthirsty vampire against his wishes? He always thought he would do anything to stay in the human world, but maybe it’s too dangerous to keep pretending. . . .

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: September 2, 2025

August 2025 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction

Hurston/Wright fellow and Syracuse MFA graduate Erica Frederick‘s FIGHT IN THE NIGHT, a queer coming-of-age novel set during one endless, storm-filled summer that follows a teenage girl—the only daughter of Haitian immigrants—and her five older brothers as they barrel through the Florida suburbs, where she must learn to grow bigger in a world that insists on her smallness, to Emily Polson at Scribner, at auction, by Iwalani Kim at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates (NA).

Continue reading August 2025 Deal Announcements

Queering up your shelf, one rec at a time!