Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome back Shelly Jay Shore to reveal the cover of their upcoming Romance, Love Me Like a Rock Song, releasing August 25, 2026 from Dell! Here’s the story:
Delilah is a lyricist looking for a muse. Emmett is a golem ready to be unmade.
From the bestselling author of Rules for Ghostingcomes a soul-stirring, romantic novel about a jilted singer-songwriter, her unexpected hitchhiker, and the road trip of a lifetime.
When Delilah Cohen’s much more famous fiancée leaves her at the altar right before Delilah is supposed to start recording her first solo album, she finds herself with a notebook full of love songs that no longer make sense. Picking up a hitchhiker two hours into the road trip that was supposed to be her honeymoon seems as good a way as any to get her groove back. The last thing she expects is to start falling for her mysterious new passenger, but what’s more inspiring than a rebound with a built-in expiration date?
But there’s more to Emmett than meets the eye. Emmett is a golem, a human-ish being of Jewish mythology who was created from clay to serve a now-deceased master. No longer needed, their final task is to make their way back to the California cave where they were made in order to undo the magic that brought them to life in the first place. But the longer Emmett spends with Delilah—who has plenty of secrets and insecurities of her own—as they cross the country to visit historical queer locales from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the more their ending feels like something to fight, rather than something set in stone.
As the California coast brings Delilah’s writing deadline—and Emmett’s fate—closer with every passing mile, Delilah has to decide just what song it is she wants to write…and whether writing the album of a lifetime is worth losing a love she never expected to find.
Part road trip romcom, part epistolary exploration of America’s vibrant queer culture, and all a love letter to the phrase “it’s about the journey, not the destination,” Love Me Like a Rock Song is a glorious love story about discovering who we are and what we want, and what it means to be human.
And here’s the killer cover designed and illustrated by Amy Perez!
Shelly Jay Shore is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. She writes for anxious queer millennials, sufferers of Eldest Daughter Syndrome, recovering summer camp counselors, and anyone struggling with the enormity of being a person trying to make the world kinder, softer, and more tender. Her debut novel, Rules for Ghosting, was a national bestseller and was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s Best Romances of the Year.
Yesterday I had the privilege of releasing an anthology that’s been near and dear to my heart for years, and like all my anthologies, there are a whole bunch of queer stories! Read on for a peek into three of them, but first, here’s a little more about the collection, which released yesterday from Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins!
Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!
From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday.
With stories by:
Dahlia Adler, Sydney Taylor Honor winner of Going Bicoastal
Candace Buford, author of Good as Gold
A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy, authors of the Once & Future series
Preeti Chhibber, author of Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot
Natasha Díaz, award-winning author of Color Me In
Kelly Loy Gilbert, Stonewall Book Award winning author of Picture Us in the Light
Kosoko Jackson, USA Today bestselling author of The Forest Demands Its Due
Aditi Khorana, award-winning author of Mirror in the Sky
Katherine Locke, award-winning author of This Rebel Heart
Abdi Nazemian, Stonewall Book Award–winning author of Only This Beautiful Moment
Laura Pohl, New York Times bestselling author of The Grimrose Girls
Sonora Reyes, Pura Belpré Honor winner of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School
Karuna Riazi, contributor to The Grimoire of Grim Fates
Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Song of Spores by Bogi Takács, a nonbinary/genderfluid Space Opera releasing November 4, 2025 from Broken Eye Books! Here’s the story:
Hugo Award winner Bogi Takács spins a tale of adventure, mystery, and political intrigue in space. Plus sentient fungus!
Three experienced counterintelligence operatives from Alliance Treaty Enforcement are on a mission to find the source of shapeshifting infiltrators within Alliance space. Will the gruff Ereni commander, the Chasidic Jewish shapeshifter, and the cynical insectoid grandma be able to work together? Or will their differences drive them apart before they can reach their goal?
Not to mention dealing with the sentient spaceship and symbiotic pilot, who only signed on to provide transportation, not to be eaten by giant space fungus. Are they even on the right side of history when everything comes crashing down?
Can the galaxy possibly survive? This is weird space opera at its finest!
And here’s the intriguing cover, illustrated by Galen Dara and designed by Scott Gable!
Bogi Takács is a Hungarian Jewish agender trans person (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) and an immigrant to the US. Bogi lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with eir family and a congregation of books. Bogi writes, edits, and reviews speculative fiction and poetry. E is a winner of the Lambda Literary award for editing Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, the Hugo award for Best Fan Writer, and a finalist for the Ignyte award, the Locus award, and the Hexa award for advocates of Hungarian SFF. Bogi talks about books at www.bogireadstheworld.com, and you can also find em as @bogiperson on various social media websites.
I know, I know – we do not do blog tour stops at LGBTQReads, and that’s still true. But as a 2024 Sydney Taylor Honor Book awardee, I was asked to be a host for this year’s tour, and when I found out I would be featuring a queer book I happen to have absolutely loved, and processed the fact that we both got our Sidney Taylor stickers on queer books, I decided I get to break the rules, just this once. And so, I’m thrilled to be talking to A.R. Vishny today about Night Owls, Sydney Taylor Book Award and National Jewish Book Award winner for Young Adult. (Also, full disclosure: I judged this year’s NJBA for YA, so if you’re wondering how much I loved it, the answer is “Enough to help it when the top prize and then write the blurb for it.”)
Before we get into it with the author, though, here’s a bit more on the book:
Night Owls by A.R. Vishny
Clara loves rules. Rules are what have kept her and her sister, Molly, alive—or, rather, undead—for over a century. Work their historic movie theater by day. Shift into an owl under the cover of night. Feed on men in secret. And never fall in love.
Molly is in love. And she’s tired of keeping her girlfriend, Anat, a secret. If Clara won’t agree to bend their rules a little, then she will bend them herself.
Boaz is cursed. He can’t walk two city blocks without being cornered by something undead. At least at work at the theater, he gets to flirt with Clara, wishing she would like him back.
When Anat vanishes and New York’s monstrous underworld emerges from the shadows, Clara suspects Boaz, their annoyingly cute box office attendant, might be behind it all.
But if they are to find Anat, they will need to work together to face demons and the hungers they would sooner bury. Clara will have to break all her rules—of love, of life, and of death itself—before her rules break everyone she loves.
Today on the site I’m thrilled to welcome back Laura R. Samotin to reveal the cover of The Lure of Their Graves, the sequel to the Jewish Historical Fantasy The Sins on Their Bones, which releases June 3, 2025 from Random House Canada! Here’s the story:
In the heart-wrenching sequel to The Sins on Their Bones, The Lure of Their Graves forces Dimitri and Vasily to confront old ghosts and a new threat: political enemies-turned-suitors, all coveting Dimitri’s throne and his hand in marriage.
Dimitri Abramovich may have won back the throne of Novo-Svitsevo, but even after defeating his former husband, the usurper Alexey Balakin, he seems no closer to securing lasting peace for his people. Enemies are closing in on all sides, and pressure is mounting for Dimitri to play the one card he has left in a bid for stability—offering his hand in marriage for a second time.
But Dimitri is still healing from the tragedies of the war, his return to the throne, and Alexey’s years of torment. Vasily Sokolov is the only person with whom he feels safe, and giving up the comfort of their budding relationship feels unfathomable, even if it’s the only way to sever the alliances being formed among the countries surrounding Novo-Svitsevo. So as Dimitri and Vasily reckon with political treachery, the lasting consequences of Dimitri’s resurrection, and the sinister legacy of Alexey’s use of the Holy Science, they must also work to understand what it means to love each other even as they prepare to let each other go—which might prove the most difficult of all.
And here’s the gorgeous cover, designed by Talia Abramson!
LAURA R. SAMOTIN and her spouse live with two enormously large felines. When she’s not pursuing her academic research on military tactics, power politics, and leadership, she relishes her role as a full-time cat servant.
Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore, a trans and Jewish m/m contemporary releasing August 20, 2024 from Dell/PRH! Here’s the story:
To save his family’s failing funeral home—and his own chance at a queer love story—a reluctant clairvoyant must embrace the gift he long ignored in this poignant and tender debut, for fans of the swoonworthy romance and queer community of One Last Stop and the macabre humor and family dysfunction of Mostly Dead Things.
Rule #1: They can’t speak.
Rule #2: They can’t move.
Rule #3: They can’t hurt you.
Ezra Friedman sees ghosts—which made growing up in a funeral home absolutely miserable. It might have been better if his grandfather’s ghost didn’t give him stabbing looks of disapproval as he went through a second, HRT-induced puberty, or if he didn’t have the pressure of all those relatives—living and dead—judging every choice he makes. It’s no wonder that Ezra runs as far away from the family business as humanly possible.
But when the ceiling of his dream job caves in and his mother uses the family Passover seder to tell the family that she’s running away with the rabbi’s wife, Ezra finds himself back in the thick of it. With his parents’ marriage imploding and the Friedman Family Memorial Chapel on the brink of financial ruin, Ezra agrees to step into his mother’s shoes and help out . . . which means long days surrounded by ghosts that no one else can see.
And then there’s his unfortunate crush on Jonathan, the handsome funeral home volunteer who just happens to live downstairs from Ezra’s new apartment . . . and the appearance of the ghost of Jonathan’s gone-too-soon husband, Ben, who is breaking every spectral rule Ezra knows.
Because Ben can speak. He can move. And as Ezra tries to keep his family together and his heart from getting broken, he quickly realizes that there’s more than one way to be haunted—and more than one way to become a ghost.
And here’s the gorgeous cover, illustrated by Amy Perez!
Shelly Jay Shore (she/they) is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. Her writing on queer Jewish identity has been published by Autostraddle, Hey Alma, and the Bisexual Resource Center. She lives with her partner in New York, where she attempts to wrangle two large dogs and two small children while single-handedly sustaining her local Dunkin’ Donuts with year-round iced coffee orders. Rules for Ghosting is her debut novel.
Today on the site, I’m delighted to reveal the cover of The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin, a dark historical fantasy releasing from Random House Canada on May 7, 2024! Here’s the story:
Set in a Jewish folklore-inspired reimagining of 19th century Eastern Europe, this queer dark fantasy debut pits two estranged husbands and a daring spymaster on opposite sides of a civil war. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, C.S. Pacat, Ava Reid, and Katherine Arden.
Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.
Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.
And here’s the gorgeous cover, designed by Talia Abramson!
LAURA R. SAMOTIN and her spouse live with two enormously large felines. When she’s not pursuing her academic research on military tactics, power politics, and leadership, she relishes her role as a full-time cat servant.
The little beachside town of San Pancras is not known for anything exciting, but when Zach Darlington buys a mysterious ring at the local flea market, his quiet little hometown is turned topsy-turvy by monsters straight from Jewish folklore and a nefarious secret society focused on upholding an apocalyptic prophecy.
Zach discovers that the ring grants him strange powers, and he’s intrigued; maybe he can use the ring’s strengths to halt the slew of anti-Semitic and homophobic bullying he’s experiencing at school. But soon the ring brings unexpected visitors—Ashmedai, King of Demons, in the guise of a preteen boy named Ash, and the local chapter of the Knights of the Apocalypse, a secret society intent on completing a creepy prophecy that will bring three monsters to Earth to start the events of the end of times.
Now responsible for the ring and its consequences, will Zach and his friends, with the help of Ash, be able to stop the Apocalypse and save the world?
Today on the site, we’re revealing the cover of In the Ring by Sierra Isley, a YA contemporary about a bi Jewish girl named Rose who starts boxing to cope with her anxiety. In the Ring releases September 15, 2023 from Little Press, and here’s the story:
Rose Berman is losing her mind. At least, that’s what everyone at school seems to think. Plagued by panic attacks that started after her mother’s death, Rose is the target of frequent teasing and rumors. But when the star quarterback takes a joke too far, the school’s tattooed, cigarette-smoking time bomb — Elliott King — steps in and punches him in the face. Rose’s therapist recommends she try out a sport to manage her anxiety. She can’t help but think of Elliott – maybe if she could punch like him, she’d feel safer and stronger.
She sticks out like a sore thumb at the boxing gym, but she soon finds power in the sport and a reprieve from her panic attacks. As their worlds intertwine, Rose and Elliott are forced to face their most daunting opponent outside the Ring: their growing feelings for each other.
But Midtown Ring isn’t just a gym. As Rose falls deeper into the world of boxing, she learns Midtown is a front for a late-night, underground fight club where Elliott King is the headliner. Surrounded by violence and destruction, Rose’s anxiety begins to spiral. She starts hallucinating, just like her mother did before her death, leaving her to wonder if everyone at school might be right. If her newfound physical strength can’t keep her grounded in reality, she may be doomed to walk the same path as her mom.
And here’s the cover, illustrated by David Habben!
Sierra Isley is a young adult author originally from Atlanta, Georgia, but currently based in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated from Florida State University in 2021 with a degree in Editing, Writing and Media. Outside of writing, her passions include filmmaking, social media communications and drinking chai lattes. IN THE RING is her debut novel. You can visit her website: sierraisley.com for more information.
Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!
Bogi Takács is a Hungarian Jewish agender trans person (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) and an immigrant to the US. Bogi lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with eir family and a congregation of books. Bogi writes, edits, and reviews speculative fiction and poetry. E is a winner of the Lambda Literary award for editing Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, the Hugo award for Best Fan Writer, and a finalist for the Ignyte award, the Locus award, and the Hexa award for advocates of Hungarian SFF. Bogi talks about books at 
Clara
Shelly Jay Shore (she/they) is a writer, digital strategist, and nonprofit fundraiser. Her writing on queer Jewish identity has been published by Autostraddle, Hey Alma, and the Bisexual Resource Center. She lives with her partner in New York, where she attempts to wrangle two large dogs and two small children while single-handedly sustaining her local Dunkin’ Donuts with year-round iced coffee orders. Rules for Ghosting is her debut novel.
The little beachside town of San Pancras is not known for anything exciting, but when Zach Darlington buys a mysterious ring at the local flea market, his quiet little hometown is turned topsy-turvy by monsters straight from Jewish folklore and a nefarious secret society focused on upholding an apocalyptic prophecy.
Sierra Isley is a young adult author originally from Atlanta, Georgia, but currently based in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated from Florida State University in 2021 with a degree in Editing, Writing and Media. Outside of writing, her passions include filmmaking, social media communications and drinking chai lattes. IN THE RING is her debut novel. You can visit her website: