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?
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.
When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.
As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.
The Merciless King of Moore High by Lily Sparks
When the adults of Brockton, Connecticut, morphed into gigantic, bloodthirsty monsters nine months ago, the students at Jefferson High barricaded themselves inside their school. Now eighteen-year-old Kay Kim is one of the Student Council members trying to keep her classmates from starving.
Kay has no poker face and can’t keep her mouth shut when she knows she’s right, so when she accidentally learns a secret that threatens the delicate power balance at Jefferson, she’s dragged out of the school in the dead of night and dumped in the middle of town in a secret assassination attempt.
But when a raiding party of cheerleaders from crosstown rival Moore High comes to her rescue, Kay finds herself among ruthless, hard-partying road warriors who have adopted the feudal trappings of a once-popular video game. Life at Moore is violent and cliquish, but everyone is thriving—everyone, that is, who survives the kingdom’s periodic monster hunts. For Moore’s beloved King Max demands only two things: absolute fealty and that everyone at Moore help kill the “dragons.”
If Kay wants to survive, she must be granted asylum at Moore—which means slaying dragons, not asking the wrong questions, and navigating the rival factions, love triangles, and political intrigues at court. But when Kay discovers a deadly secret that reaches all the way to Jefferson, her inability to hide the truth might spark the revolution that burns both schools to the ground.
Every Time You Hear That Song by Jenna Voris
They say to never meet your idols. But they never said anything about upending your life for a quest designed by one.
Seventeen-year-old aspiring journalist Darren Purchase has been a lifelong fan of country music legend Decklee Cassel, who’s as famous for her classic hits as she is for her partnership with songwriter Mickenlee Hooper. The same Mickenlee who mysteriously backed out of the limelight at the height of their careers, never to be heard from again. Now, Decklee’s televised funeral marks the unveiling of her long-awaited time capsule. But when it’s revealed to be empty, a long trail of scavenger hunt clues unfolds, leading to a whopping cash prize for whoever finds the real capsule. Darren knows there’s a story there—and she’s going to be the one to break it. Even if it means a spontaneous road trip with her coworker, Kendall.
Flashback to 1963, where a young, runaway Decklee has her sights set on fame and glory. As she claws her way to the top over the years that follow, it’s Mickenlee’s lyrics that help rocket her to stardom. But as their relationship evolves beyond the professional, it threatens everything Decklee has worked for. What else will she sacrifice to hold on to her dreams?
Told in alternating perspectives, Every Time You Hear That Song is a queer coming-of-age story celebrating country music, complicated women, and living authentically. There’s more to Decklee’s story than Darren ever could have guessed, but the real story she has to tell is her own.
Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson (June 4, 2024)
Olivia is an expert at falling in love . . . and at being dumped. But after the fallout from her last breakup has left her an outcast at school and at home, she’s determined to turn over a new leaf. A crush-free weekend at Farmland Music and Arts Festival with her best friend is just what she needs to get her mind off the senior year that awaits her.
Toni is one week away from starting college, and it’s the last place she wants to be. Unsure about who she wants to become and still reeling in the wake of the loss of her musician-turned-roadie father, she’s heading back to the music festival that changed his life in hopes that following in his footsteps will help her find her own way forward.
When the two arrive at Farmland, the last thing they expect is to realize that they’ll need to join forces in order to get what they’re searching for out of the weekend. As they work together, the festival becomes so much more complicated than they bargained for. Olivia and Toni will find that they need each other, and music, more than they ever could have imagined.
Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler (June 18, 2024)
Amber McCloud’s dream is to become cheer captain at the end of the year, but it’s an extra-tall order to be joyful and spirited when the quarterback of your team has been killed in a car accident. For both the team and the squad, watching Robbie get replaced by newcomer Jack Walsh is brutal. And when it turns out Jack is actually short for Jaclyn, all hell breaks loose.
The players refuse to be led by a girl, the cheerleaders are mad about the changes to their traditions, and the fact that Robbie’s been not only replaced but outshined by a QB who wears a sports bra has more than a few Atherton Alligators in a rage. Amber tries for some semblance of unity, but it quickly becomes clear that she’s only got a future on the squad and with her friends if she helps them take Jack down.
Just one problem: Amber and Jack are falling for each other, and if Amber can’t stand up for Jack and figure out how to get everyone to fall in line, her dream may come at the cost of her heart.
Time and Time Again by Chatham Greenfield (July 23, 2024)
Phoebe Mendel’s day is never ending–literally.
On August 6th, she woke up to find herself stuck in a time loop. And for nearly a month of August 6ths since, Phoebe has relived the same day: pancakes with Mom in the morning, Scrabble with Dad in the afternoon, and constant research into how to reach tomorrow and make it to her appointment with a doctor who may actually take her IBS seriously. Everything is exactly, agonizingly the same.
That is, until the most mundane car crash ever sends Phoebe’s childhood crush Jess crashing into the time loop.
Now also stuck, Jess convinces Phoebe to break out of her routine and take advantage of their consequence-free days to have fun. From splurging on concert tickets, to enacting (mostly) harmless revenge, to all-night road trips, Jess pulls Phoebe further and further out of her comfort zone–and deeper in love with them. But the more Phoebe falls for Jess, the more she worries about what’s on the other side of the time loop. What if Jess is only giving her the time of day because they’re trapped with no other options? What if Phoebe’s new doctor dismisses her chronic pain? And perhaps worst of all: What if she never gets the chance to find out?
Don’t Let It Break Your Heart by Maggie Horne (August 27, 2024)
You only get one soulmate, and I’m not throwing mine away.
Alana and Gray have been the perfect couple ever since they got together before high school – and neither of them think that should have to change just because Alana came out as a lesbian.
Sure, things are a little different now: their romantic relationship is over, but their best-friends-since-forever relationship is stronger than ever. And yeah, Alana sees the way her other friends now exclude her in tiny, almost unnoticeable ways, but she still has Gray, and that’s all that’s ever mattered to her. Really, the only difference is that instead of kissing Gray herself, Alana sets him up with other girls to do that.
But when new girl Tal arrives, she stops Alana and Gray in their tracks.
Suddenly, Gray’s all-in on his plan to get Tal to fall in love with him, and, for the first time, Alana’s reluctant to help. As Alana and Tal grow closer, and Alana begins to think Tal might share her feelings, she has to decide whether to embrace her queerness and risk losing the life she thought she was building, or continue to hide parts of herself and maintain the status quo.
Make My Wish Come True by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick (October 1, 2024)
Twelve days of fake dates. Two holidays. One chance to convince everyone they’re in love.
Arden James is Hollywood’s hottest teen actor. Infamously reckless, she’s a constant in the tabloids. But when her messy reputation costs her an audition for her dream role, Arden and her publicist make up a lie to flip the script. Only, for the lie to work, she’ll have to head home for the holidays for the first time in four years.
Caroline Beckett has spent those last four years shining up a stellar portfolio that will get her into a top journalism program and convincing herself she could not be less interested in what her former best friend and first crush has been up to since she left without a word. But when Arden suddenly shows up at her doorstep with the promise of a real byline in Cosmopolitan in exchange for a write up on their “secret romance” and twelve snow-covered holidates in their Christmas-obsessed hometown, Caroline can’t help but be tempted into playing along.
It should be easy enough to stand each other for twelve days to make their dreams come true, right? But when old feelings start to bubble up, so do new holiday wishes that might just have Arden and Caroline falling faster than that Christmas Eve snow…
The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb (October 1, 2024)
Dybbuks.
Illegal printing.
A genderqueer lesbian with a knife.
On the night before her wedding, 17-year-old Sorel leaps from a window and runs away from her life. To keep from being discovered, she takes on the male identity of Isser Jacobs — but it soon becomes clear that there is a real Isser Jacobs, and people want him dead. Her mistaken identity takes Sorel into the dark underworld of her small city in the Pale of Settlement, where smugglers, forgers, and wicked angels fight for control of the Jewish community. In order to make it out, Sorel must discover who Isser Jacobs really is — and who she wants to be.
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude (November 5, 2024)
Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.
What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould (December 10, 2024)
Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction―one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they’ve all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways―and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness―they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.
Devin is immediately determined to escape. She’s also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there’s something strange about these woods―inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn’t be there flashing in the leaves―and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other―and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.
Pride or Die by CL Montblanc (April 15, 2025)
It’s kind of hard to graduate high school when you’re the prime suspect in an attempted murder.
Seventeen-year-old Eleanora Finkel just wants to finish her senior year and get the hell out of Texas. But when her club meeting inconveniently coincides with an attack on the school’s head cheerleader, she and her friends find themselves in the hot seat.
In order to clear their names and ensure the survival of their club for future queer teens, they’ll have to track down the real culprit themselves. But Eleanora is far from a professional detective; she’s riddled with anxiety, annoyingly attracted to the case’s cute victim, and her trusty crochet hook feels insufficient for fighting off a murderer. Can this ragtag group of unlikely sleuths find their way out of an entire freaking murder mystery before one of them is next?
Adult Fiction
A Good Happy Girl by Marissa Higgins
Helen, a jittery attorney with a self-destructive streak, is secretly reeling from a disturbing crime of neglect that her parents recently committed. Historically happy to compartmentalize— distracting herself by hooking up with lesbian couples, doting on her grandmother, and flirting with a young administrative assistant—Helen finally meets her match with Catherine and Katrina, a married couple who startle and intrigue her with their ever-increasing sexual and emotional intensity.
Perceptive and attentive, Catherine and Katrina prod at Helen’s life, revealing a childhood tragedy she’s been repressing. When her father begs her yet again for help getting parole, she realizes that she has a bargaining chip to get answers to her past.
In her exploration of queer domesticity, effects of incarceration on family, and intergenerational poverty, Marissa Higgins offers empathy to characters who don’t often receive it, with unsettling results.
Thick as Thieves by Cara Malone & Anna Cove
Keep your lover close and your enemy closer… especially if they’re the same person.
Madison Blackstone is a lone wolf thief on a mission to win back the only family she has left. When a rare book surfaces on the black market, it’s just the thing to buy her brother’s love. The only thing is, she has to quit the heist lifestyle to earn his trust. Madison has planned her final job meticulously, but even in her wildest dreams she could never anticipate a rival like Cass.
Cass Hartley is fallen swindler royalty… fallen ever since her foolish heart got her legendary parents caught and jailed. A rare book with a hefty reward to pay back old debts should go a long way to clearing her conscience, and it should be an easy job – if Cass was the only one going after it.
When Cass and Madison meet, it’s inside a bank vault at midnight and they’re both reaching for the same safe deposit locker. Things go sideways fast as crew rivalries, double-crosses and vicious guard poodles foil their plans.
And then there’s the undeniable attraction building between them in tight spaces, dark rooms and adrenaline-fueled adventures. It has Madison questioning her choice to go clean, Cass wondering if she’s falling into the same old traps, and their crews wondering what the heck got into them.
Working together is the only way to get the book, but can they trust each other with the most precious treasure of all – their hearts?
Buy it: Amazon
These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere
Bessem notices Fatima for the first time on the soccer field—muscular and focused, she’s the only woman playing and seems completely at ease. When Fatima chases a rogue ball in her direction, Bessem freezes, mesmerized by the athlete’s charm and beauty. One playful wink from Fatima, and Bessem knows her life will never be the same.
In Cameroon, a country where same-sex relationships are punishable by law, the odds are stacked against Bessem and Fatima from the start. And when Fatima’s older brother, a staunch Muslim, finds out about their affair, he intervenes by physically assaulting them, an incident that precedes a police raid at the only gay bar in town. After spending days in jail, Fatima goes missing without a trace, and Bessem is left with only rumors of her whereabouts. Has Fatima been sentenced to an unknown prison? Has she been banished from her community, or married off, as some have suggested? Or something even more sinister?
Thirteen years later, Bessem is now a university professor leading a relatively quiet life, occasionally and secretly dating other women. However, she has never forgotten Fatima. After spotting a mutual friend for the first time in years—the last person who may have seen Fatima—Bessem embarks on a winding search for her lost love.
Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun
A long time ago, Logan Maletis and Rosemary Hale used to be friends. They spent their childhood summers running through the woods, rebelling against their conservative small town, and dreaming of escaping. But then an incident the summer before high school turned them into bitter rivals. After graduation, they went ten years without speaking.
Now in their thirties, Logan and Rosemary find they aren’t quite living the lives of adventure they imagined for themselves. Still in their small town and working as teachers at their alma mater, they’re both stuck in old patterns. Uptight Rosemary chooses security and stability over all else, working constantly, and her most stable relationship is with her label maker. Chaotic and impulsive Logan has a long list of misguided ex-lovers and an apathetic shrug she uses to protect herself from anything real. And as hard as they try to avoid each other—and their complicated past—they keep crashing into each other. Including with their cars.
But when their beloved former English teacher and lifelong mentor tells them he has only a few months to live, they’re forced together once and for all to fulfill his last wish: a cross-country road trip. Stuffed into the gayest van west of the Mississippi, the three embark on a life-changing summer trip—from Washington state to the Grand Canyon, from the Gulf Coast to coastal Maine—that will chart a new future and perhaps lead them back to one another.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter
Muffin maker Olivia Roberts has had it with her awful exes taking advantage of her good nature. The theft of her nana’s beloved stuffed penguin is the absolute last straw.
She puts up an ad at her local crime bookstore for a henchperson to help her enact a little mild revenge. To her astonishment, Margaret Blackwood, the mysterious, icy, and annoyingly opinionated bookstore owner, applies.
For two clever, capable women, they turn out to be woeful at vengeance. But much to their dismay, they discover they’re pretty good at falling in love!
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Ylva
Not Just Gal Pals by Elizabeth Luly
Jenny Lynton never planned to be an influencer. It just sort of…happened. When an unfortunate post results in Jenny being “almost canceled,” she extends her stay in her hometown, Sapphire Springs, New York, to wait out the storm. Jenny’s agent suggests a fling with a flannel-wearing lumberjack might be just the thing to distract her. But after a string of disastrous dates, Jenny has sworn off flings. And lumberjacks are in short supply in Sapphire Springs. Lumberjanes, on the other hand…
Blake Mitchell is Sapphire Spring’s only doctor. She’s also had a crush on Jenny since high school. A crush that makes her a socially awkward mess whenever she’s around Jenny. Blake moved back home to avoid being hurt by another relationship–there’s not exactly a lot of dating options for lesbians in Sapphire Springs–but Blake can’t stop thinking about Jenny now she’s back in town.
When Jenny and Blake are forced to work together to save a friend’s bachelorette party, sparks fly. But with Jenny’s return to LA a ticking time-bomb, is it wise for them to explore their feelings for each other, or do they risk being hurt yet again?
Buy it: Amazon
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
Once a young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife, she’ll have to fight to keep herself—and the woman she loves—safe in this queer reimagining of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife.
When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, already drenched to the bone in the freezing cold and barely able to speak a word of English.
Although Jean is the only midwife in the village and for miles around, she’s at a loss as to who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to grow. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?
Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life?
A Lesbian’s Guide to Women by Erica Lee
Annalise Finch is content – she has a job she enjoys, lives close to her family and friends, and spends most Wednesday nights drinking wine with her grandma. According to her grandma, though, she has lost her sparkle, and the only solution is to join a site to hook up with other women. The only problem (aside from a meddling grandma with a dirty mind) is Annalise doesn’t like women. At least, that’s what she always thought, but when she meets Brinley Adams, she starts to question everything.
Brinley Adams loves women, but not commitment. She is more than happy picking up ladies at the bar she works at to have a little fun. When a hot blonde walks into her bar and completely fails to go home with the woman she came with, what choice does Brinley have but to take her under her wings?
Their arrangement is perfect – Brinley will teach Annalise everything she knows about pleasing a woman, and in turn, Brinley gets to have a little fun herself. Since neither of them are interested in any sort of commitment, what could possibly go wrong? It’s not like this is a romantic comedy.
Buy it: Amazon
Greasepaint by Hannah Levene
Set against a backdrop of 1950s New York, this experimental novel follows an ensemble cast of all-singing, all-dancing butch dykes and Yiddish anarchists through eternal Friday nights, around the table, and at the bar.
In one of many bars, Frankie Gold sings while Sammy Silver plays piano after a day job at the anarchist newspaper. The Butch Piano Players Union meets in the corner next to the jukebox. Laur smokes on the back steps, sweaty thigh to thigh with Vic. Frankie’s childhood sweetheart, Lily, turns up at yet another bar to see a second Sammy play every Friday night. And before all that, there’s always dinner at Marg’s. Fabulated out of oral histories, anthologies, as well as the fiction of the butch-femme bar scene and Yiddish anarchist tradition, Greasepaint is a rollicking whirlwind of music and politics―the currents of community embodied and held inside the bar.
Buy it: Amazon
Bachelorette Number Twelve by Jae
Ellie Fisher loves most things about being a nurse in the emergency department…just not working with Regina Novak, an icy attending physician who acts as if she’s God’s gift to medicine.
The dislike is completely mutual. Regina thinks Ellie is a starry-eyed romantic with a sentimental attitude that has no place at work.
When Regina gets talked into volunteering at a singles auction, Ellie accidentally bids on her—and ends up winning. Oops!
Since the money raised is for a good cause, they reluctantly decide to go through with the dates.
Thanks to a baking class that turns into a competition and a hot-as-hell road trip snack incident, the ice between them starts to thaw. Is it possible the ER isn’t the most unromantic place on earth after all?
Buy it: Amazon
Lost in Paradise by Rachel Lacey
When a Manhattan businesswoman and a reclusive French artist are stranded together on a deserted island, opposites attract…and sparks fly. But with love on the horizon, will they survive to claim their happy ending?
Nicole Morella boards a private Mediterranean cruise with one goal: to reclaim herself after her divorce. When she sits next to a beautiful blonde in the ship’s lounge, she’s knocked off balance by the immediate attraction between them, and it’s not just because Nicole hasn’t found her sea legs yet. Fiona stirs things in Nicole that haven’t been stirred in a long time, but a fiery kiss turns dangerous when the ship is hijacked. The women launch a daring escape, leaving them adrift in an empty lifeboat.
Fiona Boone has been adrift most of her life, but never in such a literal sense. She’s a survivor, though, so when they land on a deserted island, Fiona’s ready to do whatever it takes to stay alive until they’re rescued. In the meantime, she can’t get enough of the feisty woman she’s stranded with, despite her usual fiercely independent nature. Although they’re lost, Fiona finds something unexpected in the comfort of Nicole’s touch. But when an injury puts her life in jeopardy, they begin to worry help won’t arrive in time. If she survives their ordeal, Fiona might just face her biggest challenge yet: falling in love.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon
Not in the Plan by Dana Hawkins
Free-spirited coffee shop owner meets uptight coffee addict. Is an opposites-attract match brewing… or burning?
Crushed under the weight of writer’s block and a looming deadline, Mack escapes from New York to Seattle. She meets Charlie, a beautiful, generous, nearly bankrupt coffee shop owner recovering from heartbreak. For the first time, Mack has a muse. And then Mack starts using Charlie’s private stories in her novel…
When a storm traps Mack and Charlie in the coffee shop, they share a mind-bending, knee-shaking kiss. But Charlie is an eternal optimist who sleeps with fairy-lights on, while Mack is an ironing-at-5am worrier who sleeps with… everyone. They could never turn this chemistry into something real, right?
And if Charlie finds out what Mack has been doing, turning Charlie’s most intimate secrets into a juicy page-turner, will they even have a chance to try?
Buy it: Amazon
The Loudest Silence by Olivia Janae
Rising star cellist Kate Flynn is new to Chicago and her job at the Windy City Chamber Ensemble. On day one, she is surprised by the board’s intriguing president, Vivian Kensington. Not only does the woman come with a formidable reputation, but she’s also Deaf.
However, between a familiar face Kate isn’t ready to see again and the difficulties of being a single mom, she isn’t sure Chicago is the right place for her.
When tendrils of friendship develop with Vivian, Kate finds beneath her prickly ice queen persona unexpected kindness and warmth. Is the promise of more enough to make her stay? Can two such different women, one from a world of sound and one a world of silence, truly understand one another?
Switcheroo by Cheyenne Blue
New Yorker Hayley Reed is so over life, her crappy apartment, and her two jobs as a cook and bartender. When she wins a contest to swap lives with someone for a year, all expenses paid, she’s ecstatic. That is until she finds herself on a remote Australian cattle station with basic food, empty views, and an attractive butch station hand who clearly dislikes her.
Jenna Dwyer wouldn’t live anywhere except Ghost Gum Station. It’d be bliss except now she’s stuck mentoring a clueless American city slicker who’s the worst jillaroo ever to straddle a horse. But staying aloof from Hayley is difficult when she’s obviously trying so hard…and is just so annoyingly cute.
Under the long, endless skies and despite a simmering attraction, can two such opposite women ever find a way to connect?
Buy it: Amazon
Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
Winning the lottery has ruined Opal Devlin’s life. After quitting her dead-end job where she’d earned minimum wage and even less respect, she’s bombarded by people knocking at her door for a handout the second they found out her bank account was overflowing with cash. And Opal can’t seem to stop saying yes.
With her tender heart thoroughly abused, Opal decides to protect herself by any means necessary, which to her translates to putting almost all her new money to buying a failing flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina to let the flowers live out their plant destiny while she uses the cabin on the property to start her painting business.
But her plans for isolation and self-preservation go hopelessly awry when an angry (albeit gorgeous) Pepper Boden is waiting for her at her new farm. Pepper states she’s the rightful owner of Thistle and Bloom Farms, and isn’t moving out. The unlikely pair strike up an agreement of co-habitation, and butt heads at every turn. Can these opposites both live out their dreams and plant roots? Or will their combustible arguing (and growing attraction) burn the whole place down?
Say Cheese by TB Markinson and Miranda MacLeod
A spicy age gap romance where one night of passion could lead to a lifetime of love.
In a small town teetering on the brink of collapse, will one woman’s arrival seal a factory’s fate or open the floodgate for love and redemption?
Elle Robinson’s world is literally swept away when a raging flood sends her car careening toward certain doom, only to be rescued by Angela Lane – a spirited, self-reliant, and unexpected savior who pulls Elle back from the edge of calamity.
In the aftermath of their brush with mortality, passions ignite between the two women, mirroring the uncontrollable rise of the floodwaters. However, fate has a wicked sense of humor.
As the storm of their one-night stand recedes, a startling revelation emerges. Angie learns that Elle is the ambitious young business consultant whose arrival could signal the demise of Angie’s cherished family cheesemaking business. Will this city girl bring more destruction than the flood? Or could she evolve into the improbable business partner Angie has been waiting for?
Buy it: Amazon
How it Works Out by Myriam LaCroix (May 14, 2024)
What if you had the chance to rewrite the course of your relationship, again and again, in the hopes that it would work out?
When Myriam and Allison fall in love at a show in a run-down punk house, their relationship begins to unfold through a series of hypotheticals. What if they became mothers by finding a baby in an alley? What if the only cure for Myriam’s depression was Allison’s flesh? What if they were B-list celebrities, famous for writing a book about building healthy lesbian relationships? How much darker—or sexier—would their dynamic be if one were a power-hungry CEO, and the other her lowly employee? From the fantasies of early romance to the slow encroaching of violence that unravels the fantasy, each reality builds to complete a brilliant, painfully funny portrait of love’s many promises and perils.
Second Night Stand by Karelia and Fay Stetz-Waters (May 21, 2024)
Izzy Wells—aka burlesque superstar Blue Lenox—doesn’t have time for anything more than a hookup. She has a theater to renovate, and turning it into a safe space for queer performers costs money. Money she doesn’t have. With the mortgage overdue, the only way she’ll save the theater is to win the prize money from the Great American Talent show. And if that means forgetting about the beautiful Black ballerina she spent one night with in order to focus on the competition, so be it.
Lillian Jackson has sacrificed everything for ballet, including a personal life. She has one goal now: win the ridiculous Great American Talent show or have the all-Black ballet company she heads shut down forever. It should be easy to focus, except Blue, the first woman to leave Lillian wanting more, is on the show too.
The chemistry between them is hot, and they agree that after the show, they’ll enjoy one more night together. A second-night stand. But that promise only lasts three challenges. Even more distracting than sleeping together again, are the feelings they’re starting to develop. There’s no way Lillian can fit Izzy into her life, and Izzy knows better than to fall for another star. But if they can make it through the show with their hearts and dreams intact, will winning take on a whole new meaning?
A Little Kissing Between Friends by Chencia C. Higgins (May 28, 2024)
Music producer on the rise Cyn Tha Starr knows what she likes, from her sickening beats in the studio to the flirty femmes she fools around with. Her ever-rotating roster has never been a problem until her latest fling clashes with Jucee, her best friend and the most popular dancer at strip club Sanity.
It makes Cyn see Jucee in a different light. One with far fewer boundaries and a lot more kissing.
Juleesa Jones makes great money dancing the early shift and spends most evenings with her son, her Sanity family or at Cyn’s house. Relationships are not high on the priority list—until she’s forced to admit that maybe friendship isn’t the only thing she wants from her bestie.
But hooking up with your ride-or-die is risky. Jucee isn’t just Cyn’s best friend—Jucee is her muse. When Cyn lays down her beats, it’s Jucee she imagines in the club throwing it back to every note. If they aren’t careful, this could crash and burn…but isn’t real love worth it?
A Bluestocking’s Guide to Decadence by Jess Everlee (June 4, 2024)
Love can make even the most buttoned-up bluestocking come undone…
London, 1885
A lesbian in a lavender marriage, Jo Smith cuts a dashing figure in pin-striped trousers, working in her bookshop and keeping impolite company. But her hard-earned stability is about to be upended thanks to her husband’s pregnant paramour, who needs medical attention that no reputable doctor will provide.
Enter Dr. Emily Clarke, a tantalizing bluestocking working at a quaint village hospital outside the city. Emily has reservations about getting mixed up in Jo’s scandalous arrangement, but her flustered, heart-racing response to Jo has her agreeing to help despite herself.
There’s a world of difference between Jo’s community of underground clubs and sapphic societies and Emily’s respectable suburbs. Perhaps it’s a gap that even fervent desire can’t bridge.
But for those bold enough to take the risk, who knows what delicious adventures might be in store…
Experienced by Kate Young (June 4, 2024)
Bette’s 30th year brought with it an unexpected realization: the reason her dating life had been lackluster was simple. She’s attracted to women. And then she fell for Mei, who’s entirely perfect. Until, out of the blue, Mei suggests they take a break. She wants Bette to do all the exploring she missed out on in her twenties–to plunge into the queer dating scene and return clearer about their future, her desires, and herself.
So, reluctantly, Bette sets out on a mission: date hot women and have hot casual sex, before returning to her loving girlfriend. Put that way, maybe it doesn’t sound so bad…
Bette’s dating odyssey takes her to unexpected places, some cringingly disastrous, some heady and thrilling. And with her new friend, the gorgeous and self-assured Ruth, as a queer dating guide, Bette can’t possibly fail. Right?
Buy it: Amazon
Through the Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe (August 13, 2024)
The Finch sisters once spent long, hot summers exploring the dozens of abandoned properties littering their dying town―until they found an impossible home with an endless hall of doors…and three keys left waiting for them. Curious, fearless, they stepped inside their chosen rooms, and experienced horrors they never dared speak of again.
Now, years later, youngest sister Claire has been discovered dead in that old, desiccated house. Haunted by their sister’s suicide and the memories of a past they’ve struggled to forget, Meg and Esther find themselves at bitter odds. As they navigate the tensions of their brittle relationship, they draw unsettling lines between Claire’s death, their own haunted memories, and a long-ago loss no one in their family has ever been able to face. With the house once again pulling them ever-closer, Meg and Esther must find the connection between their sister’s death and the shadow that has chased them across the years…before the darkness claims them, too.
Hers For the Weekend by Helena Greer (August 27, 2024)
No-nonsense lawyer Tara Sloane Chadwick is perfectly fine with going to her ex’s wedding—the break-up was congenial, and Tara is nothing if not well-mannered. But after one too many reminders of her dismal dating track, Tara panics when asked if she’ll need a plus-one and declares she’s bringing her new girlfriend. One issue: Tara is seriously single. Thankfully, Holly, the waitress she’s been crushing on, happily offers to be her fake date . . .
Only Holly’s offer isn’t quite selfless—she’s been lusting over Tara for ages, but Tara only dates women she can marry. And Holly has no interest in settling down with anyone or in any one place. A temporary arrangement is the perfect solution: Holly and Tara can enjoy a no-strings fling for the wedding and part ways after. However, between sharing kisses and hotel beds and cuddling under the mistletoe, Tara begins to dream of a life with Holly in Charleston . . . just as Holly starts wishing she could travel with Tara by her side. Soon, neither can see a future without the other, but can they find a path forward where they both can thrive?
Long Time Gone by Hannah Martian (October 15, 2024)
In the small town of Wonderland, Wyoming, the truth is whatever the Coldwater family says it is. When their prodigal daughter Jessica was murdered forty years ago, their truth was that Holly Prine killed her–regardless of Holly’s innocence.
But the Coldwaters aren’t the only reason private investigator Quinn Cuthridge hasn’t set foot in the town in nearly a decade. After her aunt sent her away when she was a teen, Quinn swore she’d never return. When she gets an unexpected call from her aunt’s ranch hand, Hunter, Quinn learns that her aunt has gone missing. Reluctantly, she returns to Wyoming to investigate and soon realizes that her aunt was getting dangerously close to long-buried Wonderland secrets, including who really murdered Jessica Coldwater.
As Hunter and Quinn dig into what lies in the Wyoming backcountry, attraction flares between the two women, complicating their investigation–and Quinn’s steadfast refusal to have any ties to Wonderland. With someone threatening Quinn and her own dark past echoing in the present, Quinn must struggle against her hometown and herself to find the truth.
Metal From Heaven by August Clarke (October 22, 2024)
He who controls ichorite controls the world.
A malleable metal more durable than steel, ichorite is a toxic natural resource fueling national growth, and ambitious industrialist Yann Chauncey helms production of this miraculous ore. Working his foundry is an underclass of destitute workers, struggling to get better wages and proper medical treatment for those exposed to ichorite’s debilitating effects since birth.
One of those luster-touched victims, the child worker Marney Honeycutt, is picketing with her family and best friend when a bloody tragedy unfolds. Chauncey’s strikebreakers open fire.
Only Marney survives.
A decade later, as Yann Chauncey searches for a suitable political marriage for his ward, Marney sees the perfect opportunity for revenge. With the help of radical bandits and their stolen wealth, she must masquerade as an aristocrat to win over the calculating Gossamer Chauncey and kill the man who slaughtered her family and friends. But she is not the only suitor after Lady Gossamer’s hand, leading her to play twisted elitist games of intrigue. And Marney’s luster-touched connection to the mysterious resource and its foundry might put her in grave danger – or save her from it.
Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto (December 12, 2024)
An ex-con is recruited for one last job by their ex-partner-in-crime, the one who betrayed them and sent them to prison in the first place, in this explosive cyberpunk adventure…
Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person – costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most.
And it’s all Angel’s fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station – of home – to spend the best part of a decade alone.
But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find none other than Angel waiting – and she has an offer.
One last job. One last deal. One last target. The trillionaire tech god they failed to bring down last time.
There’s just one thing Edie needs to do. Trust Angel again.
Buy it: Blackwells
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (February 4, 2025)
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon
To Add to Your TBR
- If We Survive This by Racquel Marie (YA)
- The Three Beasts by Gillian Pascasio (GN)
- This Must Be the Place by Kelly Quindlen (YA)
It’s a few months before senior year and Claire Kemp, a closeted bisexual, is finally starting to admit she might be falling in love with her best friend, Sophia, who she’s known since they were four.
Beck Birsching has been adrift since the death of her mother, a brilliant but troubled investigative reporter. She finds herself unable to stop herself from slipping into memories of happier days, clamoring for a time when things were normal. So when a mysterious letter in her mother’s handwriting arrives in the mail with the words Come and find me, pointing to a town called Backravel, Beck hopes that it may hold the answers.
Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.
To say sixteen-year-old Audre doesn’t fit in would be the understatement of the century. She’s a city kid who’s found herself in a rural town. The only girl at school who’d rather kiss a girl than a boy. Not to mention that the whole town believes there’s a secret Satanic cult conducting rituals in the nearby woods–and Audre is a born skeptic.
Sam “Shorty” Daniels has a plan for her senior year, but her romantic life being a hot mess was not part of the agenda. Shorty quickly discovers she’s not attracted to her newest boyfriend and fellow marching band member Zack, despite her many hours of daydreaming of what it would be like to date him. Their previous flirting had been so intense that those feelings have to come back again, right?
Peek through the leaves, beyond the clouded mountains, and you will find a garden with a strange attendant and an even stranger purpose. A young mage, asleep in a meadow, wakes to delights and fanciful spells that open a door to unknown wonder. Then, they eagerly step through to find only horror and death. There is no swashbuckling adventure in store; this world means them cold and deadly harm, and they’ll need all their resilience, wit, and magic to push it back.
Savannah “Sav” Henry is almost the person she wants to be, or at least she’s getting closer. It’s the second semester of her sophomore year. She’s finally come out as bisexual, is making friends with the other queers in her dorm, and has just about recovered from her disastrous first queer “situationship.” She is cautiously optimistic that her life is about to begin.
Kelly Doyle’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare: She’s friendless and jobless, and the lockdown has her trapped in a tiny apartment with the man she gave up everything for, who’s just called off their wedding. The only bright spot in her life is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend, Sabrina—now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband.
Peaches Monroe and Jamie Hunt are core members of their Texas friend squad and have so much in common. They’re successful at their careers in personal care. They take Austin’s “Keep It Weird” vibe to heart, each leaning into their own unique talents and sense of style. And they’re both ready to go on to even bigger things. Is pushing past the boundaries of friendship into something deeper one of them? The red-hot fantasy is there…but so is real life.
Niamh Kelly is dead. Her troubled twin, Ciara, now masquerades as the benevolent witch as Her Majesty’s Royal Coven prepares to crown her High Preistess.
To save the future, she must return to the beginning
After a recent string of disappearances in a small Connecticut town, a grieving widower with a grim secret is drawn into a dangerous ritual of dark magic by a powerful and mysterious older gentleman named Heart Crowley. Meanwhile, a member of local law enforcement tasked with uncovering the culprit responsible for the bizarre disappearances soon begins to learn of a current of unbridled hatred simmering beneath the guise of the town’s idyllic community—a hatred that will eventually burst and forever change the lives of those who once found peace in the quiet town of Henley’s Edge.
We never remember the dead girls. We never forget the killers.
Being queer in a small town? Bad. Your employer believing you stole ten thousand dollars? Worse.
It’s the spring of 1877 and sixteen-year-old Bridget is already disillusioned. She’s exhausted from caring for her ne’er-do-well alcoholic father, but when he’s killed by a snakebite as they cross the Kansas prairie, she knows she has only her wits to keep her alive. She arrives penniless in Dodge City, and, thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, is soon recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow “sporting women.”
In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a butch antipodean outsider arrives to take up the antiquated role of “matron.” Within this landscape of immense privilege, where difference is met with hostility, the matron finds herself unsure of her role, her accent and her body.
“I’ve lived a completely ordinary life, so much that I don’t know how to write a transgender or queer or Appalachian story, because I don’t feel like I’ve lived one. … Though, in searching for ways to write myself in my stories, maybe I can find power in this ordinariness.”
If you asked seventeen-year-old Cass Williams to describe herself, she’d happily tell you she’s fat, queer, and obsessed with the Tide Wars books. What she won’t tell you—or anyone in her life—is that she’s part of an online Tide Wars roleplay community. Sure, it’s nerdy as hell, but when she’s behind the screen writing scenes as Captain Aresha, she doesn’t have to think about her mother who walked out or how unexpectedly stressful it is dating resident cool girl Taylor Cooper.
Taylor Parker has always been a funny girl―but when she is accepted as a finalist for a diverse writers’ internship at Saturday Night Live, it turns her life upside down. If she wants a shot at winning in a little more than a month, Taylor will have to come out about both of her secrets: She wants to be a comedian . . . and she’s a lesbian.
What would you do if you forgot the love of your life ever even existed?
Sixteen-year-old Bianca Torre is an avid birder undergoing a gender identity crisis and grappling with an ever-growing list of fears.
Setting the stage for her appearance in ![A Life Worth Living by [Monica McCallan]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41igO7D6YZL.jpg?resize=190%2C281&ssl=1)
Nora Gallagher can begrudgingly admit that she and Gray Ferris are both stellar Philadelphia real estate agents, but that’s the beginning and the end of the similarities between them.
In her debut novel, Dreaming in Color, Uvile Ximba explores with subtlety, humor, and probing insight the connections between the joyful reclaiming of pleasure and the healing of buried traumas.![Can't Spell Treason Without Tea: A Cozy Fantasy Steeped with Love (Tomes & Tea Cozy Fantasies Book 1) by [Rebecca Thorne]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mKrRLMcRL.jpg?resize=197%2C301&ssl=1)
All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters… all complemented by love and good company. Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.
When your parents name you and your three siblings after flowers, the world is stacked against you. At least, that’s how Aster Lavender feels. The youngest daughter, Aster always keeps her head down and lets her siblings stand in the spotlight. She sells her gourmet doughnuts from Hole in One, the small drive-through stand in sleepy Homer’s Bluff, Kansas, and daydreams about seeing the big beautiful world. Love is never going to happen, especially when the only other lesbians in town are already married to each other.![Rooting for You (Clover Hill Romance Book 3) by [Roz Alexander]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XQuX6E9aL.jpg?resize=203%2C325&ssl=1)
Botanist Fisch’s life in Clover Hill is small. Getting physical distance from her tense relationship with her mother was supposed to give her room to breathe. Instead, she’s created a new cage for herself, spending most of her time isolated and working on other people’s projects instead of her own dreams. Admitting she’s lonely is the first step. Doing something about it seems much harder.
Gilda, a twenty-something, atheist, animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Desperate for relief from her panicky mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.![Barring Complications (The Love and Law Series Book 1) by [Blythe Rippon]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415F0a+h62L.jpg?resize=198%2C317&ssl=1)
It’s an open secret that the newest justice on the Supreme Court is a lesbian. So when the Court decides to hear a case about gay marriage, Justice Victoria Willoughby must navigate the press, sway at least one of her conservative colleagues, and confront her own fraught feelings about coming out. 
Cho Norie, twenty-seven and originally from Taiwan, is working an office job in Tokyo. While her colleagues worry about the economy, life-insurance policies, marriage, and children, she is forced to keep her unconventional life hidden―including her sexuality and the violent attack that prompted her move to Japan. There is also her unusual fascination with death: she knows from personal experience how devastating death can be, but for her it is also creative fuel.
Two enemies, one goal: steal each other’s hearts.![Capturing Tess by [Anna Stone]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rFZIXpmQL.jpg?resize=213%2C320&ssl=1)
Tess Bennett has never dared to dream of a better life. With no family and working a dead-end diner job to make ends meet, she’s just another twenty-something struggling to get by.![Wrong Number, Right Woman (Unexpected Love Book 3) by [Jae]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xdIRa7YNL.jpg?resize=223%2C356&ssl=1)
A single text message can change everything!
Talented A-lister Cate Whitney is the gorgeous middle-aged movie star almost every lesbian has a crush on.
Prelude delineates the gay female experience through a poetic reconstruction of the girlhood of Catherine of Siena, a Catholic saint who lived in 1300s Italy and disobeyed her parents by refusing marriage to devote her life to God. Through a historical lens, Brynne Rebele-Henry examines the erasure of gay women’s lives and offers a perspective of medieval queer girlhood while considering themes such as violence, desire, and the lesbian body.![Changing Spaces (Clover Hill Romance Book 8) by [Karmen Lee]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mfPX+DmsL.jpg?resize=209%2C345&ssl=1)
Star has spent the past five years making Clover Hill’s Anisse & Clover Diner her home away from home. She’s turned her job there into a fulfilling career and has never felt more content. If her dating life is a little lackluster, well, that’s just how it’ll have to be. But when ownership of the diner changes hands from mother to daughter, Star finds herself scrambling to keep up…and to keep far away from the attractive woman who’s now at the helm.
Mickey Hayward dreams of writing stories that matter. She has a flashy media job that makes her feel successful and a devoted girlfriend who takes care of her when she comes home exhausted and demoralized. It’s not all A-list parties and steamy romance, but Mickey’s on her way, and it’s far from the messy life she left behind in Maryland. Despite being overlooked and mistreated at work, it seems like she might finally get the chance to prove herself–until she finds out she’s being replaced.
Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.
As an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City, Waverly is used to masking to fit in—in more ways than one. While her classmates are the children of the one percent, Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the generosity of the school’s charming and enigmatic dean. So when her tutoring student and resident “it girl” asks Waverly to attend the school’s annual fundraising Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance—especially once she finds out that Ash, the dean’s daughter and her secret ex-girlfriend, will be there.
Lady Camembert wants to live life on her own terms, without marriage. Well, without marrying a man, that is. But the law of the land is that women cannot inherit. So when her father passes away, she does the only thing she can: She disguises herself as a man and moves to the capital city of the Kingdom of Fromage to start over as 
Jillian and Henry are the kind of couple who do 
At four months old, Olivia Dahl was almost murdered. Driven by haunting visions, her mother became obsessed with the idea that Olivia was a changeling, and that the only way to get her real baby back was to make a trade with the “dead women” living at the bottom of the well. Now Olivia is ready to give birth to a daughter of her own…and for the first time, she hears the women whispering.
Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians—prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda—invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple—Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy—whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.
In her coming-of-age memoir, refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee.
When Amelia Possanza moved to Brooklyn to build a life of her own, she found herself surrounded by queer stories: she read them on landmark placards, overheard them on the pool deck when she joined the world’s largest LGBTQ swim team, and even watched them on TV in her cockroach-infested apartment. These stories inspired her to seek out lesbians throughout history who could become her role models, in romance and in life.
The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor’s surrender means little to a lowly scribe like Enitan. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital. There, she will learn just how far she is willing to go to exact vengeance, free her sibling, and perhaps even secure her homeland’s freedom.
From one of Russia’s most exciting new voices, 
Wealthy nightclub owner Erica turns undercover bartender on a mission to catch a thief. The ridiculous idea seemed comical when her brother proposed it. After all, Erica has never worked a day in her life. But when her pushy mother plays matchmaker with yet another woman Erica isn’t interested in, she escapes on a train to London, to a club she hasn’t set foot in since inheriting it. There she meets no strings, no commitments Charlie, who couldn’t be further from Erica’s type. Erica has never met anyone who gets under her skin so much, and that’s surely a bad thing, right?
Melissa Hart is a shy, mousy introvert, afraid to step out of her comfort zone until she dons a mask and leather as the dominatrix persona Mistress Heart. Living a double life, she develops an intimate relationship with a mysterious client who chips away the wall separating Ms. Hart from Mistress Heart to show Melissa the woman she really is.![Ugly Sweater Christmas: A Lesbian Friends to Lovers Holiday Rom-Com (The Holidays with You) by [Shannon O'Connor]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411AKdWXRnL.jpg?resize=202%2C303&ssl=1)
Emma and Jess have been best friends forever, despite how different they are. This year Jess’ life starts falling apart, starting with losing her job, her apartment and her girlfriend. But leave it to Emma to make this the best Christmas ever. Starting with an ugly sweater Christmas party. But when they both end up under the mistletoe, dared to kiss, and sparks begin to fly, who knows what will happen?
Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt, either.
Tiny McAllister never thought she’d get married. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t think girls from Connecticut married other girls. Yet here she is with Caroline, the love of her life, at their destination wedding on the Bermuda coast. In attendance―their respective families and a few choice friends. The conflict-phobic Tiny hopes for a beautiful weekend with her bride-to-be. But as the weekend unfolds, it starts to feel like there’s a skeleton in every closet of the resort.
After Alex’s mother dies of an accidental overdose, Alex takes leave from her job as a writer for a lifestyle magazine to return home to Maryland and join her brother Owen, a study in failure to launch, in sorting out their mother’s whimsical, often self-destructive, life. While home, Alex plans to profile Juliette Sprigg, an Eastern Shore restaurant owner and celebrity chef in the making who Alex secretly dated in high school. And when Alex enlists the help of Carolyn, the editor of the local newspaper, in finding a photographer for the article’s photo shoot, Alex struggles with the deepening, tender relationship that blossoms between them as well. To complicate matters, Alex and Owen’s “Aunt” Johanna, who has transitioned to a woman, offers to come from Seattle to help with arrangements, and all hell breaks loose when she announces she is actually Alex and Owen’s long-estranged father. Can Alex accept her mother and father for who they are, rather than who she hoped they would be? And can Alex apply the same philosophy to herself?
Clementine is a seventy-two year-old reformed con artist with a penchant for impeccably tailored suits. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down in 1930 and opens a shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets.
Working as a political activist in the early days of the Obama presidency, Seema still struggles with her father’s long-ago decision to exile her from the family after she came out as lesbian, forcing her to construct a new life in the West. Now, nine months pregnant and estranged from the father of her unborn son, Seema seeks reconciliation with the family that once renounced her: her ailing mother, Nafeesa, traveling alone to California from Chennai, and her devoutly religious sister, Tahera, an OB-GYN living in Texas with her husband and children.
Courtney Gould’s thrilling debut The Dead and the Dark is about the things that lurk in dark corners, the parts of you that can’t remain hidden, and about finding home in places―and people―you didn’t expect.
Noa Birnbaum has just gotten a job as a makeup assistant on a movie, thanks to her roommate. She’s thrilled when she learns that Lilah Silver will be the star—she’s had a crush on the leading lady for a while. But when she meets Lilah at the studio, Noa is unimpressed – Lilah is distant and shallow, and Noa isn’t in any hurry to get to know her.
After getting kicked off the basketball team for a fight that was absolutely totally not her fault (okay maybe a little her fault), Mara is dying to find a new sport to play to prove to her coach that she can be a team player. A lifelong football fan, Mara decides to hit the gridiron with her brother, Noah, and best friend, Quinn-and she turns out to be a natural. But joining the team sets off a chain of events in her small Oregon town-and within her family-that she never could have predicted.
Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sharp emotional depth, Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family.
Felicity Morrow is back at Dalloway School.
A hilarious and vulnerable coming-of-age story about the thrilling new experiences––and missteps––of a girl’s freshman year of college
Kylie and Regan have been best friends since kindergarten, supporting each other through thick and thin.![Fake It by [Lily Seabrooke]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-OQ-I4wJS.jpg?resize=177%2C266&ssl=1)
Avery Lindt finally opened her dream restaurant—and there’s no customers. She’s staying optimistic, though: she’s confident she can fake it till she makes it, roll with the punches, and find a way to save her luxury restaurant, Paramour.
Meet Ben Dane: brilliant, devastating, devoted, honest to a fault (truly, a fault). His Broadway theater baron father is dead–but by purpose or accident? The question rips him apart.
Annie is a smart, antisocial lesbian starting her senior year of high school who’s under pressure to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications. Her former friend BeeBee is a people-pleaser—a trans girl who must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life to keep their support of her transition. Through the rigors of squad training and amped up social pressures (not to mention micro aggressions and other queer youth problems), the two girls rekindle a friendship they thought they’d lost and discover there may be other, sweeter feelings springing up between them.
The reality of Alden…
The eclectic stories in this collection are bound by the threads of desire in its many forms, above all, the desire for love and a place of safety in a world where being Black and gay can thwart the fulfillment of that longing. The characters are complex, driven, difficult, and even, at times, unsympathetic, but always compelling. In other words: fully rounded human beings living complicated lives.
Sixteen-year-old shy, socially awkward trans teen Bass reluctantly skips school and goes on a boat trip with his adventure-seeking girlfriend, Rosie. When a sudden storm smashes their boat on a rocky shore off a deserted island, Bass and Rosie struggle to make it to safety. Bruised and battling hypothermia, the pair have to seek shelter and work together to survive until they can be rescued. After a horrible night, Rosie, an experienced climber, decides to scale a steep cliff to find help. She falls and injures herself badly. Now Bass has to find the strength and courage to swim around a dangerous headland and make his way back to civilization before it’s too late.
Simply the Best… Giselle Otero needs a win in her life, and being personal assistant to Helene Jolie, the socialite founder of SimplytheBest.com, is finally it. The hours are long, and keeping Helene happy is more than a full-time job. That Helene seems to find Giselle’s company pleasing in ways beyond work is dizzying.
Dragons were fire and terror to the Western world, but in the East they brought life-giving rain… 
Seventeen-year-old Joshua Gaines is the orphaned foster son of a failed doctor on the run from his father’s debt. In 1849, he travels to Independence, Missouri and falls in with the mysterious, four-fingered Renard, and his companion, formerly-enslaved Free Ray. Joshua offers his medical expertise to their party, and together they embark on the fifteen-hundred mile overland journey to Gold Rush California.
There’s only one thing standing between Finch Kelly and a full-blown case of high school senioritis: the National Speech & Debate Tournament. Taking home the gold would not only be the pinnacle of Finch’s debating career, but the perfect way to launch himself into his next chapter: college in Washington, DC, and a history-making career as the first trans congressman. What could possibly go wrong?
Astrid has reclaimed her name and her voice, and now seeks to bring down the Sisterhood from within. Throwing herself into the lioness’ den, Astrid must confront and challenge the Aunts who run the Gean religious institution, but she quickly discovers that the business of politics is far deadlier than she ever expected.
It’s been one year since Edie’s mother died. But her ghost has never left.
When tragedy strikes, Cassidy, a cam girl living in Southern California, must return to the small West Virginia town she left behind. Cassidy likes her job getting naked for men on camera, though she prefers sex with women. She never came out to her family or friends back in her home state―not about her sexuality and certainly not about her sex work. Now, she must figure out how to hold on to the life she’s built for herself while picking up the pieces of her fractured family.![Sips of Her (Coffee Shops of Love Book 2) by [Karmen Lee]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UHqK9EtpS.jpg?resize=189%2C295&ssl=1)
Julie Kim’s life was supposed to be simple. Falling for the gorgeous barista with the enigmatic smile was not part of the plan.
The city of Ora is watching.
April French doesn’t do relationships and she never asks for more.
Men are disappearing from Toronto’s gay village. They’re the marginalized, the vulnerable. One by one, stalked and vanished, they leave behind small circles of baffled, frightened friends. Against the shifting backdrop of homophobia throughout the decades, from the HIV/AIDS crisis and riots against raids to gentrification and police brutality, the survivors face inaction from the law and disinterest from society at large. But as the missing grow in number, those left behind begin to realize that whoever or whatever is taking these men has been doing so for longer than is humanly possible.
On what should be the biggest night of her life, everything suddenly goes horribly wrong. First, her king denies her the promotion she rightfully earned, as well as the knighthood that goes along with it. And then, when Scratch is wallowing somewhere near the fetid rock bottom, she and her best friend, the flamboyant and carefree Sergeant James Ursus, are arrested for orchestrating the abduction of Princess Frances and sentenced to death. On the whole, things could be better.
