Tag Archives: Under the Lights

Fave Five: Sapphic Hollywood Romance

Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler (YA)

For Her Consideration by Amy Spalding

The Hollywood Series by Jae

Sizzle Reel by Carlyn Greenwald

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner

Happy National Coming Out Day!

Happy National Coming Out Day! And what better way to celebrate than with featuring some Coming Out books?

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

Flynn’s girlfriend has disappeared. How can he uncover her secrets without revealing his own?

Flynn’s girlfriend, January, is missing. The cops are asking questions he can’t answer, and her friends are telling stories that don’t add up. All eyes are on Flynn—as January’s boyfriend, he must know something.

But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January’s disappearance, he must also face the truth about himself.

Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

George by Alex Gino

When people look at George, they see a boy. But George knows she’s a girl.

George thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part … because she’s a boy.

With the help of her best friend Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte – but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

George is a candid, genuine, and heartwarming middle grade about a transgender  girl who is, to use Charlotte’s word, R-A-D-I-A-N-T!

Buy it: Laurel Bookstore * Powell’s * Books Inc * Oblong Books & Music * Indie Bound * iBooks * Google Play * Kobo * Barnes & Noble * Amazon

Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents’ wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls…opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he’s trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he’s in the spotlight—under everyone’s terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents’ disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she’s painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her best friend, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van’s life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she’ll have to choose between the one thing she’s always loved…and the person she never imagined she could.

Buy it: Amazon | B & N | The Book Depository | The Ripped Bodice

True Letters From a Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan

If you asked anyone in his small Vermont town, they’d tell you the facts: James Liddell, star athlete, decent student and sort-of boyfriend to cute, peppy Theresa, is a happy, funny, carefree guy.

But whenever James sits down at his desk to write, he tells a different story. As he fills his drawers with letters to the people in his world—letters he never intends to send—he spills the truth: he’s trying hard, but he just isn’t into Theresa. It’s a boy who lingers in his thoughts.

He feels trapped by his parents, his teammates, and the lies they’ve helped him tell, and he has no idea how to escape. Is he destined to live a life of fiction

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * IndieBound * Books-A-Million

Style by Chelsea Cameron

Kyle Blake likes plans. So far, they’re pretty simple: Finish her senior year of high school, head off to a good college, find a cute boyfriend, graduate, get a good job, get married, the whole heterosexual shebang. Nothing is going to stand in the way of that plan. Not even Stella Lewis.

Stella Lewis also has a plan: Finish her senior year as cheer captain, go to college, finally let herself flirt with (and maybe even date) a girl for the first time and go from there.

Fate has other plans for Kyle and Stella when they’re paired up in their AP English class and something between them ignites. It’s confusing and overwhelming and neither of them know what to do about it. One thing they do know is that their connection can’t be ignored. The timing just isn’t right.

But is there ever a good time for falling in love?

Buy it: Amazon

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Buy it: Amazon * B&N * BAM!

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva

Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek’s parents announce that he’ll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshman year of high school. He never could’ve predicted that he’d meet someone like Ethan.

Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. He can’t believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never thought about having a boyfriend—he’s barely ever had a girlfriend—but maybe it’s time to think again.

Buy it: Amazon

 

Fave Five: F/F YA to Read if You Loved Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan

A&B by JC Lillis

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in LA) by Amy Spalding

Bonus: Seemed a little obvious to include in the five, but: Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Double Bonus: This is literally just more recommendations; so sue me: Dating Sarah Cooper by Siera Maley, Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler, Style by Chelsea M. Cameron, and Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley.

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LGBThanksgiving!

I asked people to tell me the LGBTQIAP+ books they’re most thankful for, in honor of American Thanksgiving coming up this week, and here’s what they had to say! (And if these happen to encourage you to do some holiday shopping, all the better!)

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Fave Five: Queer BFF YAs

These are all dual-POV books in which at least one POV belongs to a queer character and the other belongs to a close friend, not a love interest.

Run by Kody Keplinger

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler

Meg & Linus by Hanna Nowinski

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

Bonus: Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa is tri-POV, and two of those POVs belong to BFFs who are a gay guy and a straight girl;

Bonus #2: Radio Silence by Alice Oseman is single POV, but the BFFship is the core relationship of the story, and both BFFs are queer (bi and demi, respectively)

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Fave Five: Contemporary f/f YA with Sex on the Page

Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Style by Chelsea M. Cameron

Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler

Cherry by Lindsey Rosin

Her Name in the Sky by Kelly Quindlen

Bonus: Coming in 2017, Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley and How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake

Fave Five: LGBTQ YA with East Asian Female MCs

Huntress by Malinda Lo (B, Chinese)

Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler (L, Korean)

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace (B, Chinese)

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie (L, Chinese)

A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith (B, Japanese)

Bonus: out in 2017 – It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura (L, Japanese)

Double bonus: graphic novel – Skim by Mariko Tamaki (Q, Japanese)

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Fave Five: Contemp f/f NA

Black Iris and Cam Girl by Elliot Wake w/a Leah Raeder

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

The Good Girls by Teresa Mummert

Take Them by Storm by Marie Landry

Out on Good Behavior and Under the Lights (YA/NA) by Dahlia Adler

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