Tag Archives: Natalie C. Parker

TBRainbow Alert!

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

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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

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New Releases

New Releases: January 2025

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So Not My Type by Dana Hawkins (January 5th)

Sophie Black has clawed her way up from coffee runs to project manager at a top Seattle ad agency. She’s laser-focused on her career—until the CEO’s daughter, Ella Northwood, joins the team. Forced to work together on a high-stakes campaign, sparks fly as Sophie’s scrappy determination clashes with Ella’s polished privilege. But there’s more to both women than meets the eye, and, over late nights in the office, their assumptions about each other start to crumble.

When an impromptu hot tub session leads to a steamy night neither can forget, everything changes. The ice-cold chip on Sophie’s shoulder finally starts to melt, while Ella hopes that for the first time, someone might see beneath her trust-fund facade. But as the temperature in the office soars, a shocking revelation threatens to derail everything. Now Sophie and Ella must decide if their feelings are worth fighting for…

Buy it: Amazon

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TBRainbow Alert!

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2025

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Today’s post is sponsored in honor of the upcoming paperback release of Sydney Taylor Honor book Going Bicoastal, coming May 27th from Wednesday Books!

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The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold (January 7th)

The world is about to end. Again.

Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned bookstore in suburban New Jersey where she used to work, trading books for supplies with the few remaining survivors. It’s the one place left that feels safe to her.

Until she learns that another earth-shattering Storm is coming . . . and everything changes.

Enter Maeve, a prickly and potentially dangerous out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore looking for shelter one night. Though the two girls are immediately at odds, Maeve has what Liz needs—the skills to repair the dilapidated store before the next climate disaster strikes—and Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and undeniable feelings spring up between them, they realize that they face greater threats than the impending Storm. And when Maeve’s secrets and Liz’s inner demons come back to haunt them both, they find themselves fighting for their lives as their world crumbles around them.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2025 →

Fave Five

Fave Five: New Queer YA Horror, 2024 Edition

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Yeah, so there are eight; sue me. It’s a great year for queer YA Horror!

So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky

Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews

The Dark We Know by Wen-Yi Lee

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker

Trespass Against Us by Leon Kemp

They Thought They Buried Us by NoNieqa Ramos

What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould

Rest in Peaches by Alex Brown

New Releases

New Releases: August 27, 2024

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Young Adult

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches by Kayla Cottingham

Magic is in Delilah Bea’s blood. Her absentee father is the world’s most famous cursebreaker, while all the women in her family are fated to never find true love. So when Delilah graduates her magical training and must complete her Calling, she has the perfect task in mind—to break the Bea family curse.

But Delilah’s Calling is hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, a member of the wealthiest and most powerful family in the country, and breaking his curse suddenly becomes her official assignment. Every generation, a pair of Pelumbra twins are doomed, with one twin draining the other of their life and magic. Each day, Kieran grows weaker while his sister Briar gets closer to…something monstrous.

As Delilah and the twins set out on their quest, they quickly realize that breaking the Pelumbra curse isn’t going to be simple. For one, the Pelumbra family doesn’t actually want their curse broken—and they’ve sent hunters after them to ensure they fail. Secondly…it’s Briar. There’s just something about her that gets under Delilah’s skin and makes her want to kiss the perpetually grumpy look off her face. But with time running out for the twins and Delilah’s own curse getting in the way, they may not stand a chance of finding their Happily Ever After.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon 

Continue reading New Releases: August 27, 2024 →

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Assassin’s Guide to Babysitting by Natalie C. Parker

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Today on the site, I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Natalie C. Parker’s The Assassin’s Guide to Babysitting – a YA adventure billed as John Wick meets Adventures in Babysitting with superpowers, found family, and enemies-to-lovers sapphic romance – releasing January 7, 2025 from Candlewick! (Fun fact: Adventures in Babysitting is the first movie I ever saw in theaters, and Natalie C. Parker wrote one of my favorite books from my author debut class, so this is extra fun on multiple levels!) Here’s the story:

Tru has been hiding all her life. Her parents taught her to conceal her bastion Talent: indestructible skin, muscles, and bones. In a world where Talents are common and varied, no one trusts a bastion—they’re too powerful. Hiding failed to keep Tru’s parents alive, but moments before their murder, Tru’s mom pointed her to Logan Dire, a famed recluse assassin who adopted and trained orphaned Tru. At seventeen, she’s still hiding. Not even her closest friends know her true name or Talent, or that she’s balancing high school with knife and stealth training (while crushing on her BFF’s older sister). When assassins interrupt a mundane babysitting job booked through BountyApp—where lethal hunters find work and babysitters for their kids—Tru flees with a one-year-old strapped to her chest and spiraling questions: Who killed her parents? Whom can she trust? What does it mean to be a bastion? And is it ever OK to kiss a girl who’s trying to hunt you down? 

From an award-winning author comes a masterfully plotted thriller that holds character and relationship on a par with action and nail-biting suspense.

And here’s the electric cover, designed by Maria Middleton with art by Jonathan Bartlett!

A teenage girl climbs a fire escape with a baby in a sling on her back

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N | Books-A-Million | PRH

(c) Georgia Shae Photography

Natalie C. Parker is the author and editor of several books for young adults, among them the acclaimed Seafire trilogy. Her work has been included on the NPR Best Books list, the Indie Next List, the TAYSHAS Reading List, and Junior Library Guild selections. Natalie grew up in a Navy family, finding home in coastal cities from Virginia to Japan. Now she lives with her wife on the Kansas prairie. Find her at nataliecparker.com.

TBRainbow Alert!

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: July-December 2024

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A Darker Mischief by Derek Milman (July 2nd)

When Cal Ware wins a scholarship to an elite New England boarding school, he’s thrilled to leave his past behind. Back home in Mississippi, he was the poor, queer kid who never fit in. But at Essex Academy, he’ll be able to reinvent himself. Or so he hopes…

But at Essex, Cal’s classmates only see his cheap clothes and old iPhone. They mock his accent, and can’t believe he’s never left the country, or heard of The Hamptons. Cal, at his breaking point, is about to give up and return to Mississippi when he learns about a secret society on campus — the key to becoming Essex royalty.

Cal knows he’s not exactly secret society material, but to his surprise, he finds an unlikely champion in the handsome, charismatic, and slightly dangerous Luke Kim. As they get swept up in the mystery and glamour of the Rush process, Cal finds himself falling in love for the first time.

But as the initiation rituals grow riskier — and increasingly nefarious — Cal must decide how far he’s willing to go, and how much of himself he’s willing to sacrifice, to save everything and everyone he cherishes most. Because nothing at Essex — not even Cal’s first love — is quite what it seems.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

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Deal Announcements

November 2023 Deal Announcements

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Adult Fiction

Author of BEAST and TURDUCKEN Lindz McLeod‘s debut A FLORAL ARRANGEMENT, pitched as Jane Austen meets Bridgerton, a sapphic romance between Charlotte Lucas and Mary Bennet that begins four years after the end of Pride and Prejudice, to Stephanie Doig at Carina Adores, for publication in spring 2025, by Laura Zats at Headwater Literary Management (world English).

Continue reading November 2023 Deal Announcements →

TBRainbow Alert!

Most Anticipated Middle Grade: July-December 2023

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The Showdown by Jessica Burkhart (July 25th)

This is the second book in the Saddlehill Academy series

Now that Abby knows which of her so-called friends is the one behind the video of her talking “trash” on Emery, she’d love to do something with that information—if only her blackmailer didn’t know Abby’s one real secret, the one she can’t risk getting out. So, Abby’s stuck. And, to make matters worse, she’s so rattled by the drama that it’s affecting her performance on Beau. Abby wants to be as great a rider as Sasha Silver, but how can she do that when she’s making rookie mistakes?

When tensions come to a head, Abby’s score at the shows isn’t the only thing in jeopardy—so is her place on the team.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

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Fave Five

Fave Five: Middle Grade Adventure Series

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B.E.S.T. World by Cory McCarthy

Cameron Battle by Jamar J. Perry

The Devouring Wolf by Natalie C. Parker

Battle Dragons by Alex London

Sir Callie by Esme Symes-Smith

Bonus: These are all series where at least one book has been published, but keep an eye on the upcoming fantasy duology Lulu Sinagtala and the Tagalog Gods by Gail D. Villanueva