Catherine Lee | LGBTQ Reads

Today on the site I am so excited to reveal the cover of Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia, which releases January 2, 2024 from HarperTeen! I know readers have been dying for more trans girl YA, so I’m thrilled to be able to share more about this one!

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?

And here’s the gorgeous cover, photographed by Liam Woods and designed by Catherine Lee!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

This is Naomi Kanakia’s third young adult novel. She also has some forthcoming books for adults, and her essays, short stories, and poetry have appeared all over the place. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and she currently lives in San Francisco with her wife and daughter.

Whether or not you’ve already read and loved The Falling in Love Montage as much as I did, I know you need Ciara Smyth’s sophomore novel, Not My Problem, about an “angry teenage lesbian Olivia Pope” who falls in unexpected love while running a fixer business. Sounds to me like The Fixer meets Amelia Westlake and truly, what could be more epic?? It releases from HarperTeen on May 25, 2021, and we’ve got the cover! But first, the story:

Aideen has plenty of problems she can’t fix. Her best (and only) friend is pulling away. Her mother’s drinking problem is a constant concern. She’s even running out of outlandish diseases to fake so she can skip PE.

But when Aideen stumbles on her nemesis, overachiever Meabh Kowalski, in the midst of a full-blown meltdown, she sees a problem that—unlike her own disaster of a life—seems refreshingly easy to solve. Meabh is desperate to escape her crushing pile of extracurriculars. Aideen volunteers to help. By pushing Meabh down the stairs.

Problem? Solved. Meabh’s sprained ankle is the perfect excuse to ditch her overwhelming schedule. But when another student learns about their little scheme and brings Aideen another “client” who needs her “help,” it kicks off a semester of traded favors, ill-advised hijinks, and an unexpected chance at love. Fixing other people’s problems won’t fix her own, but it might be the push she needs to start.

And here’s the perfectly attitude-laced cover, with art by Spiros Halaris and designed by Catherine Lee and Jenna Stempel-Lobell!