Cool for the Summer and Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler
Wish You Weren’t Here by Erin Baldwin
The Summer of Jordi Perez and No Boy Summer by Amy Spalding
Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson
Hot Dog Girl and Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan
Tag Archives: Jennifer Dugan
Fave Five: Softball/Baseball Romances
Playing for Keeps by Jennifer Dugan (f/f YA)
The Prospects by KT Hoffman (m/m)
Unwritten Rules by KD Casey (m/m series)
Heart of the Game by Rachel Spangler (f/f)
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian (m/m Histrom)
Bonus: These are all prose novels, but for a graphic novel series, check out Grand Slam Romance by Ollie Hicks and Emma Oosterhouse (f/f)
Pride Month Spotlight: Graphic Novels
Early Reader
Batcat by Meggie Ramm
First in a full-color graphic novel series for emerging readers about accepting yourself and others from up-and-coming author-illustrator Meggie Ramm, creator of the comic strip The Littlest Dungeon Guard and cohost of the Pop! Whiz! Bang! comics podcast.
Batcat loves being all alone in their home on Spooky Island. Up in their tree house, they pass the time playing video games and watching TV. But when Batcat suddenly finds themself haunted by an annoying, ice cream–stealing ghost, they visit the local Island Witch for a spell to remove their ghastly guest permanently!
With their Ghost-B-Gone spell in hand, Batcat travels across Spooky Island to gather ingredients—to the Cavernous Caves where the bats tell them they’re too round to be a bat, and to the Whispering Cemetery where the cats will help only if they commit to being a true cat. But Batcat is neither and that’s what makes them special, right?
New Releases: May 28, 2024
Middle Grade
Noah Frye Gets Crushed by Maggie Horne
Noah Frye just had the Best Summer Ever. Not only did she have an epic time at science camp, but her new camp friend Jessa is going to Noah’s school in the fall. Noah can’t wait to introduce Jessa to her best friends Zoey and Luna when classes start. But when the friend group is reunited after their summer apart, something seems to have changed: Zoey and Luna have discovered boys, and now it’s all they want to obsess over.
Suddenly, it feels like Noah is the odd one out in their friend group, especially since Noah hasn’t ever even considered boys in that way. When Noah finds herself caught in a lie about having a boy crush of her own, she decides she’ll do anything to fit in with her friends again—even if that means using the scientific method. Noah’s crush experiment is simple: find a boy, fake a crush until it turns real, and get her friends back. But that might be easier said than done, especially when Noah can’t stop thinking about Jessa. What ensues is a hilarious and heartwarming turn of events in this queer contemporary middle grade story about friendship, first crushes, and self-discovery.
New Releases: April 30, 2024
Young Adult
Playing for Keeps by Jennifer Dugan
June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and she’s a shoo-in to be recruited at the college level, like her parents have always envisioned. That is, if she can play through an overuse injury that has recently gone from bad to worse.
Ivy isn’t just reffing to pay off her athletic fees or make some extra cash on the side. She wants to someday officiate at the professional level, even if her parents would rather she go to college instead.
The first time they cross paths, Ivy throws June out of a game for grandstanding. Still, they quickly grow from enemies to begrudging friends . . . and then something more. But the rules state that players and umpires are prohibited from dating.
As June’s shoulder worsens, and a rival discovers the girls’ secret and threatens to expose them, everything the two have worked so hard for is at risk. Now both must choose: follow their dreams . . . or follow their hearts?
Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Romances of 2024
Young Adult
Okay, Cupid by Mason Deaver (January 2nd)
![Okay, Cupid by [Mason Deaver]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GPGfGKQZL.jpg?resize=191%2C287&ssl=1)
As a cupid, Jude thinks they understand love a little bit more than the average human. It makes sense — Jude’s been studying love their whole teen life. And, yes, there have been some bumps in the road, and they’re currently on probation for doing something that they absolutely, definitely shouldn’t have done… but they’re ready to prove they can make matches without ever getting involved.
Only… Jude’s next assignment isn’t about setting up two adults. No, this time Jude has to go to high school, with kids their own age. And the assignment is a tough one: two best friends who are meant to be more than just best friends… but who aren’t currently speaking to each other after a huge falling out.
Jude thinks they’ve got this one all under control, and that they won’t get involved whatsoever.
Which proves that maybe Jude hasn’t learned the first lesson of humans and love … It’s complicated.
Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day 2024!
Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day! In celebration of this day, here are a whole bunch of books that center queer girls and women in sports! (For even more recs, check out 2022‘s post!)
Fiction
You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie
Valentina “Vale” Castillo-Green’s life revolves around soccer. Her friends, her future, and her father’s intense expectations are all wrapped up in the beautiful game. But after she incites a fight during playoffs with her long-time rival, Leticia Ortiz, everything she’s been working toward seems to disappear.
Embarrassed and desperate to be anywhere but home, Vale escapes to her beloved childhood soccer camp for a summer of relaxation and redemption…only to find out that she and the endlessly aggravating Leticia will be co-captaining a team that could play in front of college scouts. But the competition might be stiffer than expected, so unless they can get their rookie team’s act together, this second chance―and any hope of playing college soccer―will slip through Vale’s fingers. When the growing pressure, friendship friction, and her overbearing father push Vale to turn to Leticia for help, what starts off as a shaky alliance of necessity begins to blossom into something more through a shared love of soccer…and maybe each other.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound
Continue reading Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day 2024!
Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2024
Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia (January 2nd)
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?
Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2024
Most Anticipated Queer Adult Fiction: January-June 2024
Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban (January 9th)
Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.
It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here.
Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She figures she has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s gotten all her flair, fun, and less-than-proper party games.
“Let’s get them together,” she says.
It doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than surrender Beth to courtship, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly widowed mother. Let them get married instead.
“It’ll be easy” she says.
There’s just…one, teeny, tiny problem. Their parents kind of seem to hate each other.
But no worries. Beth and Gwen are more than up to the challenge of a little twenty-year-old heartbreak. How hard can parent-trapping widowed ex-lovers be?
Of course, just as their plan begins to unfold, a handsome, wealthy viscount starts calling on Beth, offering up the perfect, secure marriage.
Beth’s not mature enough for this…
Now Gwen must face the prospect of sharing Beth with someone else, forever. And Beth must reckon with the fact that she’s caught feelings, hard, and they’re definitely not for her potential fiancé.
That’s the trouble with matchmaking: sometimes you accidentally fall in love with your best friend in the process.
Continue reading Most Anticipated Queer Adult Fiction: January-June 2024
Fave Five: New Queer YA Horror with Female MCs
For queer YA horror recs from 2022, click here.
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham
The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall
Monstrous by Jessica Lewis
Bonus: For a whole anthology full, check out Night of the Living Queers ed. by Alex Brown and Shelly Page
Double Bonus: The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan is maybe more psych thriller than Horror, but check it out anyway