Tag Archives: Anna-Marie McLemore

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: Historical M/M Romance, Part II

For part I, click here.

Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore (YA)

Teach the Torches to Burn by Caleb Roehrig (YA)

A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander

Midcentury NYC by Cat Sebastian

Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall

Exclusive Cover Reveal We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore

Today on the site, I am so delighted to welcome back Anna-Marie McLemore to reveal the cover of their brand-new YA historical thriller, We Could Be Anyone, releasing May 26, 2026 from Feiwel & Friends! Here’s the story:

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?

And here’s the gorgeous cover, designed by L. Whitt with art by Andreea Dumuta!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

(c) Elliott McLemore

Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) grew up hearing la llorona in the Santa Ana winds and now writes books as queer, Latine, and nonbinary as they are. They are the author of William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist The Weight of Feathers; Wild Beauty; Blanca & Roja, one of Time magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time; Dark and Deepest Red; Lambda Literary Award Finalist Lakelore; Flawless Girls; and National Book Award longlist selections When the Moon Was Ours, The Mirror Season, and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix. Find them online at annamariemclemore.com.

Fave Five: YA Fantasy with Nonbinary MCs

For Middle Grade, click here.

Costumes for Time Travelers by A.R. Capetta

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore

Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens

Bonus: Coming in 2026, The Bloody and the Damned by Rebecca Coffindaffer

New Releases: April 2025

Unboxing Libby by Steph Cherrywell (1st)

AI meets American Girl Dolls in this quirky novel about a group of preteen androids who have been cast aside and have to make their own way in the world.

Max isn’t always sweet and bubbly. That wouldn’t be an issue except for the fact that she’s programmed to be. “Max” isn’t even her real name. She’s a Libby– one of the most popular A.I.Cademy Girl social robots, which top the sales charts for girls ages eight to twelve. They look almost human and there’s a companion to fit every personality. Wendys are smart. Robins are sporty. Noras are artistic. And Libbys? As the box they come in says: Always chipper, cheerful, and sweet, Libby(TM) makes the perfect friend.

But despite her packaging and her programmed memories, Max is feeling the opposite of perfect. The only thing she wants to know is why. But this question uncovers bigger answers than she bargained for – like the shocking fate of the other A.I.Cademy Girls, and what the founders of their idyllic community are really hiding. Max may not be the perfect Libby, but she’ll have to embrace what makes her uniquely Max to save herself and her friends before they’re all sent to the junkyard.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: April 2025

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Adult Fiction: January-June 2025

Due to the delightfully large volume of titles, Romances will be getting their own post later this week!

Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett (January 7th)

At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter’s numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.

Ann, his mother, who runs a women’s retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is wounded by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago banished from her mind the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter’s case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life forever, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Adult Fiction: January-June 2025

Happy Latinx Heritage Month 2024!

Happy Latine Heritage Month! We’re celebrating as we always do, with fantastic reads by Latine authors and starring Latine main characters, so treat yourself to a great book or twelve from the below and join us! (And for even more recs, make sure to check out past years’ posts!)

Young Adult

Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldívar

As the contentious 2017 presidential election looms and protests rage across every corner of the city, life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras churns louder and faster. For her part, high school senior Libertad (Libi) Morazán takes heart in writing political poetry for her anonymous Instagram account and a budding romance someone new. But things come to a head when Mami sees texts on her phone mentioning a kiss with a girl and Libi discovers her beloved older brother, Maynor, playing a major role in the protests. As Libertad faces the political and social corruption around her, stifling homophobia at home and school, and ramped up threats to her poetry online, she begins dreaming of a future in which she doesn’t have to hide who she is or worry about someone she loves losing their life just for speaking up. Then the ultimate tragedy strikes, and leaving her family and friends—plus the only home she’s ever known—might be her only option.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon 

Continue reading Happy Latinx Heritage Month 2024!

New Releases: May 28, 2024

Middle Grade

Noah Frye Gets Crushed by Maggie Horne

Noah Frye just had the Best Summer Ever. Not only did she have an epic time at science camp, but her new camp friend Jessa is going to Noah’s school in the fall. Noah can’t wait to introduce Jessa to her best friends Zoey and Luna when classes start. But when the friend group is reunited after their summer apart, something seems to have changed: Zoey and Luna have discovered boys, and now it’s all they want to obsess over.

Suddenly, it feels like Noah is the odd one out in their friend group, especially since Noah hasn’t ever even considered boys in that way. When Noah finds herself caught in a lie about having a boy crush of her own, she decides she’ll do anything to fit in with her friends again—even if that means using the scientific method. Noah’s crush experiment is simple: find a boy, fake a crush until it turns real, and get her friends back. But that might be easier said than done, especially when Noah can’t stop thinking about Jessa. What ensues is a hilarious and heartwarming turn of events in this queer contemporary middle grade story about friendship, first crushes, and self-discovery.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: May 28, 2024

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2024

Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia (January 2nd)

Tara just wants to be treated like any other girl at Ainsley Academy.

That is, judged on her merits—not on her transness. But there’s no road map for being the first trans girl at an all-girls school. And when she tries to join the Sibyls, an old-fashioned Ainsley sisterhood complete with code names and special privileges, she’s thrust into the center of a larger argument about what girlhood means and whether the club should exist at all.

Being the figurehead of a movement isn’t something Tara’s interested in. She’d rather read old speeches and hang out with the Sibyls who are on her side—especially Felicity, a new friend she thinks could turn into something more. Then the club’s sponsor, a famous alumna, attacks her in the media and turns the selection process into a spectacle.

Tara’s always found comfort in the power of other peoples’ words. But when it comes time to fight for herself, will she be able to find her own voice?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2024