New Releases: May 7, 2024

Picture Books

It’s Pride, Baby! by Allen R. Wells (text) and Dia Valle (illustration)

Lift your soul to the sky.
Like summer sunbeams―
Don’t live behind clouds.
You shine!

It’s Black Gay Pride Day in Washington, DC, and two gay parents are getting their child ready for a day at the National Mall. From cheerful neighbors to colorful outfits to fireworks, the vast LGBTQIA+ community is represented here in body, spirit, and pride flags galore!

Allen R. Wells’s poetic text perfectly captures the expansiveness of a parent’s love, while Dia Valle’s joyful art bursts off the page. Here are words that children in every family—no matter its color, size, or shape—need to hear.

We are so proud of you!

Buy it: Bookshop | B&N | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: May 7, 2024

Happy Jewish American Heritage Month 2024!

Happy Jewish American Heritage Month! As always, we’re celebrating with books! For even more recs, check out previous years’ posts!

Middle Grade

Just Shy of Ordinary by A.J. Sass

Thirteen-year-old Shai is an expert problem-solver. There’s never been something they couldn’t research and figure out on their own. But there’s one thing Shai hasn’t been able to logic their way through: picking at the hair on their arms.

Ever since their mom lost her job, the two had to move in with family friends, and the world went into pandemic lockdown, Shai’s been unable to control their picking. Now, as the difficult times recede and everyone begins to discover their “new normal,” Shai’s hoping the stress that caused their picking will end, too.

After reading that a routine can reduce anxiety, Shai makes a plan to create a brand new normal for themself that includes going to public school. But when their academic evaluation places them into 9th grade instead of 8th, it sets off a chain of events that veer off the path Shai had prepared for, encouraging Shai to learn how to accept life’s twists and turns, especially when you can’t plan for them.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy Jewish American Heritage Month 2024!

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2024!

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2024! And if you’re Canadian, Happy Asian Heritage Month! Come celebrate with all the books! (And get even more recs from past years’ posts!)

(Note: not all of the Asian authors or characters in these titles are specifically American. I thought it was worth highlighting more books than that specific title allowed.)

Picture Books

I Am a Rainbow! by Mark Kanemura (text) and Richard Merritt (illustration)

Mark loves putting on shows, dressing up, and dancing! But what makes him happy at home gets him teased at school. To remind Mark that his unique light makes the world a brighter place, his parents surprise him with a beautiful, flowing cape. Wearing it, he feels invincible and free to shine all over Honolulu! It even gives him the courage to befriend some kids who are just as colorful as he is. When the cape goes missing, Mark loses his new confidence. How will he ever shine again?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2024!

New Releases: April 30, 2024

Young Adult

Playing for Keeps by Jennifer Dugan

June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and she’s a shoo-in to be recruited at the college level, like her parents have always envisioned. That is, if she can play through an overuse injury that has recently gone from bad to worse.

Ivy isn’t just reffing to pay off her athletic fees or make some extra cash on the side. She wants to someday officiate at the professional level, even if her parents would rather she go to college instead.

The first time they cross paths, Ivy throws June out of a game for grandstanding. Still, they quickly grow from enemies to begrudging friends . . . and then something more. But the rules state that players and umpires are prohibited from dating.

As June’s shoulder worsens, and a rival discovers the girls’ secret and threatens to expose them, everything the two have worked so hard for is at risk. Now both must choose: follow their dreams . . . or follow their hearts?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: April 30, 2024

April 2024 Deal Announcements

Featured Deal

Levine Querido buys YA contemporary ONE OF THE BOYS in 24-hour pre-empt 

In a 24-hour pre-empt, Irene Vázquez at Levine Querido has acquired Victoria Zeller’s debut novel One of the Boys. Jordan Hamessley at JABberwocky Literary Agency sold world English and world Spanish rights. 

Continue reading April 2024 Deal Announcements

Happy Lesbian Visibility Day 2024!

Happy Lesbian Visibility Day 2024! We’re celebrating with these lesbian protagonists, and you can too! For more recs, check out past years’ posts! 

Young Adult

We Got the Beat by Jenna Miller

Jordan Elliott is a fat, nerdy lesbian, and the first junior to be named editor in chief of the school newspaper. Okay, that last part hasn’t happened yet, but it will. It’s positive thinking that has gotten Jordan this far. Ever since Mackenzie West, her friend-turned-enemy, humiliated her at the start of freshman year, Jordan has thrown herself into journalism and kept her eyes trained on the future.

So it’s a total blow when Jordan discovers that she not only didn’t get the editor in chief spot, but she’s been assigned the volleyball beat instead. And who is the star and newly crowned captain of the volleyball team? Mackenzie West. But words are Jordan’s weapon, and she has some ideas about how to exact a long-awaited revenge on her nemesis. Then things get murky when forced time together has Mack and Jordan falling back into their friendship, and into something more. And when Mack confesses the real reason she turned on Jordan freshman year, it has Jordan questioning everything—past, present, and future.

If Jordan lets her guard down and Mack in, will she get everything she wants, or will she be humiliated all over again?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy Lesbian Visibility Day 2024!

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise

Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover for Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise, a bi4bi Adult m/f Fantasy Romance releasing July 16, 2024! Here’s the story: 

A PROMISE SEALED IN FLESH AND BLOOD

Kin Jole is an indentured assassin, forced to serve those who ripped her soul from her body and stripped her of her conscience. When Kin is ordered to kill Verias Hartwell, a beaten-down sorcerer unwillingly bound to a war machine, she sees his power as an opportunity to do the one thing that will set her free—reclaim and destroy her own soul.

Kin offers Verias a trade. She’ll spare his life in exchange for his help stealing her soul.

To retrieve it, Verias must join the very guild of sorcerers that turned Kin into a killer. With the fate of her soul in his hands, Kin must now protect Verias from enemies new and old, including a former friend with a bitter grudge.

But the closer Verias gets to Kin’s soul, the closer he gets to her darkest secrets. And if the enemies closing in on all sides don’t destroy them, those secrets just might.

And here’s the cover, designed by the author themself!

Buy it: Amazon

(c) Darzy

A.Z. Louise is an author, poet, and artistic nuisance living in a cheese lover’s paradise. In their spare time, they are a collector of fountain pens, impractical hobbies, and useless facts, all of which they are guilty of inserting into their written works. Links to those works can be found at azlouise.com

New Releases: April 23, 2024

Young Adult

Harley Quinn: Redemption by Rachael Allen

This is the final book in the Harley Quinn trilogy

Harley Quinn and Ivy can’t wait to cross off the final items on their summer bucket list. They still need to:

  • Go to Pride
  • Get mani/pedis
  • Figure out how they can kiss without Ivy’s toxic lips killing Harley. (Every relationship has its challenges!)

But their to-do list gets more dangerous when young girls vanish from the streets of Gotham City. The only clues left behind are the dolls on Harley’s doorstep from a mysterious sender known as the Dollmaker. The message is clear: come find me…if you dare.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: April 23, 2024

Fave Five: Victorian F/F Romance

A Bluestocking’s Guide to Decadence by Jess Everlee

A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger (PNR)

Hen Fever by Olivia Waite

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban

Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan

Bonus: While not technically Victorian itself, An Island Princess Stars a Scandal by Adriana Herrera is set in Paris during that era

Queering up your shelf, one rec at a time!