Tag Archives: Jennifer Dugan

Fave Five: Queer Graphic Novels for Spooky Season

Artie and the Wolf Moon by Olivia Stephens (MG)

Bite Me by Jennifer Dugan and Kit Seaton (YA)

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu (YA)

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

Let Me Out by Emmett Nahil and George Williams

Happy Bi Visibility Day 2026!

Today’s post is sponsored by me and Going Bicoastal, available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio narrated by Mara Wilson!

“This is the most bisexually structured book I’ve ever read.”—Book Riot, “Our Queerest Shelves

Bookshop | Amazon | Libro.fm | The Well Red Damsel (signed paperback)

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Middle Grade

Not Just a Stage by Kelsey Toney (April 20, 2027)

Sunny Cavendish knows exactly who she is onstage.

Actually… she knows who she is on two stages. By day, Sunny is a musical theater powerhouse, fresh off her final middle school show and chasing a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to an elite summer workshop that could change her future forever. By night, she’s the lead singer of The Pulled Petals, an all-girl rock band on the verge of their biggest break yet.

The problem? Both dreams want everything. When Sunny’s band lands a career-making audition the exact same week she earns a callback for the workshop, Sunny decides to do the impossible: she won’t choose. She’ll juggle it all. Sneak between rehearsals. Say yes to every opportunity. Make everyone happy. What could go wrong?

As exhaustion mounts, lies pile up, friendships strain, and a crush on two very different people complicates everything, Sunny is forced to confront a truth she’s been avoiding: sometimes chasing every dream means risking the ones that matter most.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | PRH

Continue reading Happy Bi Visibility Day 2026! →

August 2026 Deal Announcements

Adult Fiction

Sunday Times-bestselling author Freya Marske‘s THE OFFSEASON, the author’s first contemporary queer sports romance, pitched as for fans of HEATED RIVALRY and YURI ON ICE, in which a former figure skater who walked away from the sport returns home, where reconnecting with his infuriatingly gorgeous childhood rival, now the current national champion, reignites his passion for the ice—and more, to Ruoxi Chen at Putnam, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2027, by Diana Fox at Fox Literary (NA).

Continue reading August 2026 Deal Announcements →

New Releases: August 2026

This post is sponsored by Dana Hawkins in honor of the release of Forced Proximity, a bi M/F Romance releasing on the 27th!

She’s hired to protect. Not to fall in love.

Buy it: Amazon

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Ghosts That We Knew by Amity Malcolm (3rd)

While still running from the ghosts of his past, a trans man reluctantly returns to his hometown and runs straight into the arms of a ghost who is about to change his future.

Hayes Hastings never expected to go back to Broomstick Bluff. Yet with a faltering family business and parents unwilling to step up, he returns to help his beloved grandmother with the ghost tour company that put his family on the map.

He’s determined to hate the small town suspended in an eternal autumn just as much as he’s dead set to leave on the first day of winter with as little contact with the town’s residents as possible.

But before he can even start his first day of work, his carefully planned world is knocked off its axis in the form of a beautiful employee dressed as a witch with wildfire hair, a familiar cinnamon scent he can’t place, and a carefree attitude unlike anything he could ever dream of possessing

What starts as the pair being pushed together as co-workers quickly escalates to spooky late nights and steamy afternoon apple orchard make-out sessions. Yet as they grow closer, both letting down unsuspecting walls, one secret stands to tear them apart forever.

And it just might be big enough to send Hayes Hastings packing for good.

Buy it: Scribbles Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: August 2026 →

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: July-December 2026

Hallie’s Rules for a Recovering Romantic by Jessica Lewis (July 7th)

Hallie loves romance, but it doesn’t seem to love her back. Her six-time broken heart can attest to that.

So when Hallie has the chance to attend a prestigious academic summer camp, she sees an opportunity not just to better herself, but to reinvent herself. Into a new Hallie who will succeed where the old one failed—in school, friends, and especially love.

First, a fresh start—which means no romance, all summer. If Hallie’s fortitude is immediately tested by Julia, her gorgeous camp roommate with an uncrackable icy shell, then all the better! Reinvention is never easy!

Yet as Hallie and Julia get closer, Hallie’s heart is in more danger than ever. With the prospect of real love on the line, can Hallie trust that New Hallie won’t make the mistakes that she did? Or is Julia looking for someone else—the unfiltered, unaltered, real Hallie?

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: July-December 2026 →

Fave Five: New Queer YA Summer Romances, 2025-26 Edition

For older Sapphic summer Romances, click here.

Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan (F/F)

Donut Summer by Anita Kelly (F/X)

Everything About You by Robby Weber (M/M)

Hallie’s Rules for a Recovering Romantic by Jessica Lewis (F/F)

Summer Official by Rebekah Weatherspoon (F/F)

New Releases: May 5, 2026

Children’s

Willi Ninja: Vogue Legend by Joy Michael Ellison and Nabi H. Ali

Kicking off a picture book series of LGBTQ+ biographies is this inspiring story of the incomparable dancer Willi Ninja, Grandfather of Vogue and star of the film Paris Is Burning.

When little Willi Leake watched karate movies with his mother in their cozy Queens apartment, he’d slice the air with his arms like swords. He’d swish his hips like the models he saw in magazines and copy ancient pharaohs’ poses from Egyptian hieroglyphs. Bursting with energy, Willi would strut his way down the street, and his mother would tell him not to mind the puzzled looks he’d get. When she took him to the Apollo Theater to watch ballerinas twirling, Willi allowed himself to dream—and the more he dreamed, the more he danced. With an accessible text and dynamic illustrations, Joy Michael Ellison and Nabi H. Ali trace Willi’s path against the odds as he brings his signature moves to the dance style known as vogue and finds his spotlight at the Harlem drag balls where a performer known as Willi Ninja is born. Providing context, community, and comprehension of queer and trans culture for young history buffs, the lively narrative is followed by back matter delving into more details about Willi Ninja and what life was like during his time.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: May 5, 2026 →

New Releases: March 2026

This post is sponsored by Dana Hawkins and the release of My Girlfriend is Not the Father on March 25th!

A funny, steamy, heart-warming story about navigating whatever plan life may throw at you—regardless of the timing.

Buy it: Amazon

Continue reading New Releases: March 2026 →

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Romances: January-June 2026

Pumped by K.M. Neuhold (January 2nd)

I’m just a nerd, standing in front of a bench press, asking it not to humiliate me in front of my gym crush

I’ve never walked into a gym on purpose in my life, and I’m not sure which part is more shocking, the massive beefcake who immediately challenges me to arm wrestle or the fact that I kind of want to come back.

I spent years of my life refusing to lift anything heavier than a textbook, and it shows. I never expected that coming to the gym and bulking up would give me more gender euphoria than all the T shots in the world.

The crush I’m developing on my Golden Retriever of a personal trainer, Butch, though? Yeah, I should have seen that one coming.

Butch is a guy’s guy. Jockstraps, armpit licking, Sweat enthusiast… what could he possibly find exciting about a scrawny, book-ish nerd like me?

I’m just going to try not to drool on him too hard while he helps me get pumped. And I’m for sure not going to do anything stupid like falling in love with him…

Buy it: Amazon

Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Romances: January-June 2026 →

Gift Guide: Gifts for TV Lovers

Find the perfect book for the TV lover in your life based on their faves! 

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For students of TV Culture, check out:

Hi Honey, I’m Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture by Matt Baume

Hi Honey, I"m Homo! A new book about LGBTQ+ sitcom history.From flamboyant relatives on Bewitched to closely-guarded secrets on All in the Family, from network-censor fights over Soap to behind-the-scenes activism on the set of The Golden Girls, from Ellen’s culture clash to Modern Family’s primetime power-couple, Hi Honey, I’m Homo! is the story not only of how subversive queer comedy transformed the American sitcom from its inception through today, but how our favorite sitcoms transformed, and continue to transform, America.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Gift Guide: Gifts for TV Lovers →