Tag Archives: Romance

TBRainbow Alert!

Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Romances: January-June 2026

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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 →

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Time-Tripping Over You by Brennon Lane

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Today on the site, I’m delighted to reveal the cover for Time-Tripping Over You by Brennon Lane, a queer, trans YA Romance with Sci-Fi elements and aroace rep releasing March 10, 2026 from Page Street YA! Here’s the story:

In this slow-burn queer trans romance, two college students team up to stop the time traveling episodes forcing them to relive their pasts

College freshman Silas Turner is a scientific anomaly. Thrown back in time uncontrollably, he’s forced into his pre-transition body for hours to days at a time, reliving random events in his past. Why? Every cell in his astrophysics major brain is straining to figure it out. But the “time trips” just keep on coming, disrupting Silas’s life, and he’s certain he’s a one-of-a-kind phenomenon—until brash, guitar-playing Jude Forrester barges into his life, exhibiting the same symptoms.

He claims a future version of Silas visited him, and that, according to future-Silas, they’re meant to help each other stop the time trips. If working together can really lead to finding a cure, Silas can handle Jude’s tortured-artist attitude; Jude can humor Silas’s nerdy obsession with the stars.

As they get closer to a solution, they grow closer to each other. But Jude is still grieving an old connection that broke his heart, and he can’t help but wonder if changing the past might save himself and Silas a lot of heartache. Amidst cataclysmic consequences, Silas and Jude must face the cosmic circumstances that brought them together if they hope to protect their timeline—and the future they seem destined to share.

And here’s the trippy cover by Emma Hardy!

A book cover for Time-Tripping Over You by Brennon Lane depicting the title on a white gridded background, surrounded by pen illustrations of outstretched hands, a time warp hole, formulas, hearts, stars, two characters lips about to touch, and a trans flag.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

Brennon Lane is a Black, queer, trans author who can’t seem to stop creating characters whose stories beg to be told. Writing exclusively in the LGBTQ+ genre, he hopes to offer the younger queer community the diverse representation in media that he always sought. Time-Tripping Over You is his debut novel.

Fave Five

Fave Five: Queer Adult Romance with Autumnal Vibes

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Love at First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi (bi4bi M/F)

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore (trans M/M)

Learning Curves by Rachel Lacey (F/F)

The (Most Unusual) Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish (M/X)

The Lone Wolf Cafe by Sydney Wilder (F/F)

Fave Five

Fave Five: LGBTQ Enemies-to-Lovers, a Guest Post from Try Your Worst author Chatham Greenfield

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Today on the site, I’m delighted to have a guest author writing the Fave Five: Chatham Greenfield, author of Try Your Worst, which comes out tomorrow! Before we get to Chatham’s recs of Fave Five: Queer Enemies-to-Lovers YA Books, here’s a note from the author:

I would say that there’s nothing I love more than enemies-to-lovers romances, but I would be lying. I love one thing more: queer enemies-to-lovers romances.

When I was writing Try Your Worst, I was fortunate to have so many amazing queer enemies-to-lovers YA novels to turn to. There’s just something special about seeing two people realize that the line between hatred and love is blurring, only for it to dissipate completely.

From sprawling soccer fields, to high school journalism programs, to sweaty summer camps, queer YA certainly brings the angst-turned-swooning. Here are just five of my recent favorites.

Wish You Weren’t Here by Erin Baldwin

This sapphic romance marries enemies-to-lovers with one of my other favorite tropes: forced proximity. Two rivals are forced to share a cabin at summer camp and the results are, like everything Baldwin writes, laugh out loud hilarious.

Canto Contigo by Jonny Garza Villa

I’m such a fan of the way Jonny Garza Villa balances pain with lightness, and this book is no exception. This rivalry-turned-romance is set on the backdrop of Mariachi competitions and it’s so satisfying to watch the love interests find their harmony.

We Got the Beat by Jenna Miller

In We Got the Beat, Miller takes enemies-to-lovers back a step and serves up a delicious friends-to-rivals-to-lovers romance. As a fat lesbian who was a journalism nerd in high school, I felt so seen by this sweet story.

Caught in a Bad Fauxmance by Elle Gonzalez Rose

It’s got fake dating, it’s got family hijinx, AND it has the signature Elle Gonzalez Rose heartfelt humor. Caught in a Bad Fauxmance is a delectable hat trick of an enemies-to-lovers romance that’s near impossible to put down.

You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie

No one writes teenage angst quite like Racquel Marie does. The banter and tender moments are plentiful in this one, and it’s fun to watch the characters come together on the backdrop of a heated soccer rivalry.

Chatham Greenfield is a young adult author born and raised in Florida, which is why their stories often take place in humid seaside towns. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, they were selected as a fellow in the inaugural class of LitUp by Reese’s Book Club. You can find them wherever there’s air conditioning, wrapped up in a blanket, reading a gay love story. Connect with Chatham @chatgreenfield on socials and at chatgreenfield.com.

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise

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Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover for Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise, a bi4bi Adult m/f Fantasy Romance releasing July 16, 2024! Here’s the story: 

A PROMISE SEALED IN FLESH AND BLOOD

Kin Jole is an indentured assassin, forced to serve those who ripped her soul from her body and stripped her of her conscience. When Kin is ordered to kill Verias Hartwell, a beaten-down sorcerer unwillingly bound to a war machine, she sees his power as an opportunity to do the one thing that will set her free—reclaim and destroy her own soul.

Kin offers Verias a trade. She’ll spare his life in exchange for his help stealing her soul.

To retrieve it, Verias must join the very guild of sorcerers that turned Kin into a killer. With the fate of her soul in his hands, Kin must now protect Verias from enemies new and old, including a former friend with a bitter grudge.

But the closer Verias gets to Kin’s soul, the closer he gets to her darkest secrets. And if the enemies closing in on all sides don’t destroy them, those secrets just might.

And here’s the cover, designed by the author themself!

Buy it: Amazon

(c) Darzy

A.Z. Louise is an author, poet, and artistic nuisance living in a cheese lover’s paradise. In their spare time, they are a collector of fountain pens, impractical hobbies, and useless facts, all of which they are guilty of inserting into their written works. Links to those works can be found at azlouise.com

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: A Different Kind of Brave by Lee Wind

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Today on the site, I’m delighted to welcome author and gay blogging pioneer Lee Wind to the site to reveal the cover of A Different Kind of Brave, a romantic YA adventure releasing March 5, 2024 from Duet Books! Here’s the story:

Nicolas “Nico” Hall is sixteen when he escapes from Dr. H’s religious gay reprogramming institute in California. On his own, he assumes one identity after another to avoid recapture as he flees south to Peru, and then Mexico.

Seven days younger than Nico, Samuel “Sam” Jonas Solomon is a privileged Upper West Side only child who idolizes James Bond. When his heart is broken, he vows that, like Bond, he’s never going to trust in love again. Then he meets Nico, and his heart won’t listen to any logic.

Nico’s survived by living only for himself—until his love for Sam has him risking his freedom for others. And as much as Sam wants to be like 007, he discovers that James Bond is a terrible role model.
Together, Nico and Sam set out to free the other teens trapped in Dr. H’s Institute, plunging readers into a globe-trotting, high stakes adventure with the heroic courage of the James Bond movies and the ongoing romance (and queer group of friends) of Heartstopper.

And here’s the inspiring cover by Choi Messer!

Buy it: Amazon

Lee Wind is not currently a spy, but he did spend fourteen years undercover (what most people call “in the closet”). Today he writes the books that would have changed his life as a young gay kid. He is the author of the nonfiction Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection No Way, They Were Gay? and the novel Publisher’s Weekly named a Top Five Independently Published Young Adult Book of 2018, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill. He also runs the popular blog I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?—words his teenage self only dreamed of saying. Lee lives in Los Angeles with his husband of more than twenty-five years, and they have a grown daughter. Visit Lee online at leewind.org.

Fave Five

Fave Five: Adult M/F Romance Starring Trans Women

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For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes (Contemp)

The Calyx Charm by May Peterson (Fantasy)

Through the Inferno by Jessi Noelle (Contemp)

A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall (Historical)

Caroline’s Heart by Austin Chant (Fantasy)

Bonus: For an all-trans F/F/M Romance, check out The Companion by EE Ottoman (Historical)

Book Spotlight

Agender Pride Day Book Spotlight: The Heartbreak Bakery by AR Capetta

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Happy Agender Pride Day! In its honor, may I shove your face in the general direction one of the most delightful YAs of all time, which happens to contain magic and baking a queer found family and an agender baker with a massive crush on a demisexual transmasc bike messenger? Treat yourself to The Heartbreak Bakery by AR Capetta!

Syd (no pronouns, please) has always dealt with big, hard-to-talk-about things by baking. Being dumped is no different, except now Syd is baking at the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd’s breakup brownies . . . breaks up. Even Vin and Alec, who own the Proud Muffin. And their breakup might take the bakery down with it. Being dumped is one thing; causing ripples of queer heartbreak through the community is another. But the cute bike delivery person, Harley (he or they, check the pronoun pin, it’s probably on the messenger bag), believes Syd about the magic baking. And Harley believes Syd’s magical baking can fix things, too—one recipe at a time.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | IndieBound

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: Chef’s Kiss by TJ Alexander

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Foodie romances are one of my absolute favorite subgenres, so I’m extra delighted to be revealing the cover today of Chef’s Kiss by TJ Alexander, an f/nb rom-com releasing from Atria/Emily Bestler Books on May 3, 2022! Here’s the story:

Simone Larkspur is a perfectionist pastry expert with a dream job at The Discerning Chef, a venerable cookbook publisher in New York City. All she wants to do is create the perfect loaf of sourdough and develop recipes, but when The Discerning Chef decides to bring their brand into the 21st century by pivoting to video, Simone is thrust into the spotlight and finds herself failing at something for the first time in her life.

To make matters worse, Simone has to deal with Ray Lyton, the new test kitchen manager, whose obnoxious cheer and outgoing personality are like oil to Simone’s water. When Ray accidentally becomes a viral YouTube sensation with a series of homebrewing videos, their eccentric editor in chief forces Simone to work alongside the chipper upstart or else risk her beloved job. But the more they work together, the more Simone realizes her heart may be softening like butter for Ray. Things get even more complicated when Ray comes out at work as nonbinary to mixed reactions—and Simone must choose between the career she fought so hard for and the person who just might take the cake (and her heart).

And here’s the delicious cover, illustrated and designed by Colleen Reinhart!

Buy it: Amazon | B&N | IndieBound

(c) Demi Y. Guo

TJ Alexander is an amateur baker and author who writes about queer love. Originally from Florida, they received their MA in writing and publishing from Emerson College in Boston. They live in New York City with their wife and various houseplants.