Today on the site, I’m delighted to welcome Karis Rogerson to reveal the cover of her debut f/f YA Romance, Nat & Cami’s Guide to Running an Undercover GSA, which releases June 23rd! Here’s the story:
Casey McQuiston meets Heartstopper in this sapphic young adult romance.
Cami is a 15-year-old lesbian, one of the few out queer students at her conservative boarding school for international students in Italy. She just wants to focus on getting her paintings in a student gallery and kickstarting a vaunted art career—but first, she’ll have to survive the next two-and-a-half years of bullying. Seeking respite from her roommate’s cruelty one night, she hides out in a bathroom—only she’s not the only one there.
Nat is a senior, closeted even from herself, whose homophobic, missionary parents are pressuring her to win valedictorian. A year younger than her peers at 16, she’s still the head of her class, the fastest runner on the cross country team, and the captain of the girls’ soccer team, but her depression and insomnia keep her up all night. She takes refuge in the ground-floor bathroom where Cami shows up one night.
As they spend time together over the following nights and Cami shows Nat how poorly the school treats queer people, the two girls concoct a mildly hare-brained scheme: to create an undercover Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) where queer students and allies can bond. They don’t expect so many kids to find a home with them.
And they certainly don’t expect to fall for each other.
And here’s the adorable cover, illustrated by Olya and designed by Ihor at GetCovers!
Buy it: Amazon
Add to TBR: Goodreads | Storygraph
Karis Rogerson (she/her) is a writer, reader, and podcaster who was born in the South Carolina Midlands, raised in Northeastern Italy, schooled in the German Black Forest and Kentucky Bluegrass, and now lives in Brooklyn, on Lenni Lenape land. She has an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from VCFA and is represented by Eric Smith at Neighborhood Literary. Karis writes queer romance for all ages, as well as poetry, personal essays, and select journalism. NAT & CAMI’S GUIDE TO RUNNING AN UNDERCOVER GSA, her debut novel, releases June 23, 2026. She’s a co-host of the podcast The Write Way of Life and host of Publishers Brunch (with Karis0, and you can find more at https://www.karisrogerson.com.
Born in sweltering Singapore, Celine Ong (she/they) was raised in mosh pits, and writes queer romance novels about chaos gremlins with bad manners, weird feelings, and big hearts. With a B.A. in Psychology, by day, she works with her local queer community. By night, she’s just a little court jester. Hold Me Like a Grudge is their debut novel.
Dana Hawkins is a caffeine-fueled writer of contemporary romance stories, including NOT IN THE PLAN, IN WALKED TROUBLE, and SO NOT MY TYPE. Her new series, “Meet Cute in Minnesota” first book, THE EX EFFECT, releases on August 19th, 2025. After living for twenty years in Seattle, she recently trekked back to her hometown in Minnesota. She is a huge romance-genre book nerd and borderline obsessed with happy-ever-afters. As a mom of three humans and one Saint Bernard, she spends her days chasing after kids and various animals, neglecting her last remaining bamboo plant, and searching for the perfect coffee mug. Find her on Instagram @d.hawkinsauthor
Lauren Fox is the bookkeeper for Cold World, a tourist destination that’s always a winter wonderland despite being located in humid Orlando, Florida. Sure, it’s ranked way below any of the trademarked amusement parks and maybe foot traffic could be better. But it’s a fun place to work, even if “fun” isn’t exactly Lauren’s middle name.