Tag Archives: Benedict Nguyen

New Releases: July 2025

After We Burned by Marieke Nijkamp (1st)

A terrible accident. A horrible loss. A regrettable tragedy. That’s all anyone in Fenix can talk about when a fire consumes the local high school, taking the life of a student. The town mourns, except who really knew―let alone cared about―Eden when she was alive? And why was she in the building that night?

Five teens each hold a piece of the truth about what happened. They also have their own secrets, secrets they will fight to protect with the same fury as the blaze that killed Eden. But silence is meant to be broken, and this story can’t be extinguished…

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: July 2025

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Adult Fiction: July-December 2025

Once again, Romance will have its own post later this week!

Today’s post is sponsored by Janelle Cressida and her brand-new m/m fantasy romance, Son of the Moon, on sale now for $2.99!

Some acts of kindness change more than just one life…

Buy it: Amazon

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Hot Girls With Balls by Benedict Nguyen (July 1st)

Six is 6′7″, scheming to rejoin the starting lineup, and barely checks her phone. Green is 6′1″, always building her brand, and secretly jealous of her more famous girlfriend. Together, they’re going where no Asian American trans woman has gone before: the men’s pro indoor volleyball league. Our hot girls with balls just thought playing with the boys would spare them some controversy . . . haha.

In between their rival teams’ away games across the globe, Six and Green stay connected on SpaceTime and selflessly broadcast their romance to fans on their weekly Instagraph live show. After a long season, they’ll finally reunite for the championship tournament, the first to accommodate in-person fans since the COVIS pandemic struck the world a year ago. Just as they enter an airtight bro bubble of the world’s best, they’re faced with a crisis that demands an indisputably humiliating task: make a public statement online.

Can Green stock up enough clout for her post-ball future? Can Six girlboss her team’s seniority politics? Can they both take a time-out to just grieve? Their rabid fans and horny haters await their next move. We’re all just desperate for a whiff of the sweaty feminine energy that makes that ball thwack with such spectacular force.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Adult Fiction: July-December 2025

Happy AAPI Heritage Month 2025!

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month! We’re celebrating, as we do, with a whole bunch of wonderful books written by authors and starring characters of Asian and/or Pacific Islander descent. For even more recs, check out last year’s post!

Middle Grade

The Queen Bees of Tybee County by Kyle Casey Chu

After making the buzzer-beating shot at the Georgia basketball state championships, Derrick Chan becomes the star of Bayard Middle School, and Derrick’s single dad could not be prouder. But there are parts of Derrick that no one knows about, like the toenail polish he wears under his basketball sneakers, his secret lip-sync performances in the bathroom mirror, and the feelings he’s developing for his best friend and teammate, JJ.

As the school year comes to a close, Derrick’s dad takes an out-of-town job and ships Derrick off to spend the summer with his estranged, eccentric grandmother, Claudia. Soon, Claudia introduces Derrick to the world of small-town southern beauty pageants, and Derrick suddenly feels he’s found where he belongs. But when the opportunity arises to compete in the town pageant, Derrick is forced to decide just how much of himself he’s ready to show the world.

Can he learn to love and accept the most unique parts of himself? And what will happen if others—like his father and JJ—can’t do the same?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy AAPI Heritage Month 2025!

Happy Trans Day of Visibility 2025!

Children’s

Just Like Queen Esther by Ari Moffic and Kerry Olitzky (text) and Rena Yehuda Newman (illustration)

Atara loves to wear her crown – to the library, to the dentist, even to her swim lessons. It gives her confidence, and shows the world that she is a girl, not a boy, like everyone thought at first. But when Atara reads the story of Queen Esther, on the Jewish holiday of Purim – she realises that you don’t need a costume to express who you really are…

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Happy Trans Day of Visibility 2025!

Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day 2025!

Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day! In celebration, here are a whole bunch of books that center queer girls and women in sports! (For even more recs, check out these past 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 National Girls and Women in Sports Day 2025!