Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Leslie Vedder to reveal the cover of her upcoming Sapphic YA Fantasy, The Siren’s Kiss, releasing September 1st from Amulet/Abrams! Here’s the story:
Perfect for fans of Daughter of the Pirate King and Our Flag Means Death comes a swashbuckling YA queer romantasy about a mermaid and a pirate who reluctantly join forces to find the Sea Witch.
Dead Shot Rayleigh has spent the last three years bound to a cursed ship after crossing the sea god Red-Handed Roger. Her only hope for freedom is to find his long-ago stolen heart—which means taking on his sworn enemy, the Sea Witch.
But Rayleigh’s not the only one with a score to settle… Fiery mermaid Maren is also searching for the Sea Witch, determined to bargain for the soul of her lost brother.
When Rayleigh and Maren’s separate missions bring them together, sparks fly, and all their plans go up in flames. Now they’ll have to join forces to survive.
Find the Sea Witch. Steal the heart. And don’t fall for your enemy, no matter how irresistible she is. How hard can it be?
And here’s the gorgeous cover, designed by Micah Fleming with art by Gilded Ruin!
Leslie Vedder (she/her) is a queer ace author who loves books with girl adventurers and heroes! She grew up on fantasy books, anime, fanfiction and the Lord of the Rings movies, and her debut YA The Bone Spindle was an indie bestseller. She lives in Colorado with her wife and her spoiled house cat Fox Mulder, who believes the treats are out there.
Today on the site, I’m delighted to welcome Karis Rogerson to reveal the cover of her debut f/f YA Romance, Nat & Cami’s Guide to Running an Undercover GSA, which releases June 23rd! Here’s the story:
Casey McQuiston meets Heartstopper in this sapphic young adult romance.
Cami is a 15-year-old lesbian, one of the few out queer students at her conservative boarding school for international students in Italy. She just wants to focus on getting her paintings in a student gallery and kickstarting a vaunted art career—but first, she’ll have to survive the next two-and-a-half years of bullying. Seeking respite from her roommate’s cruelty one night, she hides out in a bathroom—only she’s not the only one there.
Nat is a senior, closeted even from herself, whose homophobic, missionary parents are pressuring her to win valedictorian. A year younger than her peers at 16, she’s still the head of her class, the fastest runner on the cross country team, and the captain of the girls’ soccer team, but her depression and insomnia keep her up all night. She takes refuge in the ground-floor bathroom where Cami shows up one night.
As they spend time together over the following nights and Cami shows Nat how poorly the school treats queer people, the two girls concoct a mildly hare-brained scheme: to create an undercover Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) where queer students and allies can bond. They don’t expect so many kids to find a home with them.
And they certainly don’t expect to fall for each other.
And here’s the adorable cover, illustrated by Olya and designed by Ihor at GetCovers!
Karis Rogerson (she/her) is a writer, reader, and podcaster who was born in the South Carolina Midlands, raised in Northeastern Italy, schooled in the German Black Forest and Kentucky Bluegrass, and now lives in Brooklyn, on Lenni Lenape land. She has an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from VCFA and is represented by Eric Smith at Neighborhood Literary. Karis writes queer romance for all ages, as well as poetry, personal essays, and select journalism. NAT & CAMI’S GUIDE TO RUNNING AN UNDERCOVER GSA, her debut novel, releases June 23, 2026. She’s a co-host of the podcast The Write Way of Life and host of Publishers Brunch (with Karis0, and you can find more at https://www.karisrogerson.com.
Today on the site, I’m delighted to reveal the cover of Mars Lauderbaugh’s Hollow Magic, a queer YA Fantasy releasing August 11, 2026 from Feiwel & Friends! Here’s the story:
Seventeen-year-old Rosefinch has been traveling along the weather-beaten coast for two years on a quest to find a witch strong enough to help her control her magic. Her magic is volatile, hard to wield, and Rosefinch is tired of the pain of magical backlash. When she’s directed to the sea-side village of Harp, she discovers the ancient castle of a long-lost Witch Queen with the inhabitants long gone; the only remaining soul is a knight encased in solid ice guarding the door.
When she attempts to lift the curse, she frees Thierry, a human with no memory of who they are, wrapped in cursed magic so strong that they cannot leave the castle. Thierry is soft spoken, strong, and in possession of a fey sword that should be impossible for them to have. But they have secrets of their own, as do other members of the Harp family still hidden within the walls.
Harp castle was left in ruins for a reason, and Rosefinch must find a way to cure the curse or lose Thierry—and the chance to learn the truth about the Witch Queen—forever.
And here’s the stunning cover, done by the incredibly talented author/artist themself!
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome back queer YA icon Lee Wind to reveal the cover of his upcoming YA, A Different Kind of Enemy, which releases May 19th from Interlude Press/Duet Books! Here’s the story:
Perfect for YA fans of Heartstopper and Red, White & Royal Blue, A Different Kind of Enemy is the sequel to the Gay teen globe-trotting adventure Kirkus Reviews called “Thrilling. Positively thrilling.”
An anomaly in space has stopped in Earth’s path in a way not accounted for by astronomical physics. Is it aliens? With only six days before inevitable contact, newly married teen spies Nicolas “Nico” Hall and Samuel “Sam” Solomon are enlisted to investigate—each young man sworn to secrecy even from the other.
Nico is in the field looking for answers and tracking a mysterious Person of Interest. Sam is working first contact scenarios on the thirteenth floor of a Manhattan building that doesn’t officially have a thirteenth floor. And they’re both wondering if the rules of love change if it’s the end of the world.
As humanity slips into the grip of alien invasion panic, Nico and Sam realize they’re going to have to work together to save the world—and their marriage.
And here’s the gorgeously bold cover by CB Messer!
LEEWIND is not currently a spy. Mind you, he never was a spy. But he did spend fourteen years undercover (what most people call “in the closet”). So now he writes the books that would have changed his life as a Gay Jewish kid and teen. Lee is the award-winning author of nonfiction for ages eleven and up (No Way, They Were Gay? and The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie ), picture books (including Like That Eleanor and Love of the Half-Eaten Peach ), and YA novels (Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill and A Different Kind of Brave ). To help go on the offense against book banning, Lee cocreated the national campaign We Are Stronger than Censorship, which buys and donates two books to offset every one book challenge. 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. Visit Lee online at leewind.org.
Double Bonus: These are all prose novels, but for a graphic novel, check outFlamerby Mike Curato, and for short stories, check out “Murders at the Rue Apartelle, Boracay” by Rin Chupeco in His Hideous Heart, “Whatever She Wants” by Kess Costales inKeep Faith, and “Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane” by Maya Gittelman in Night of the Living Queers
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome back Marieke Nijkamp, Dutch author of so many books but most notably, today, of This is Where it Ends, an uber-bestselling YA thriller whose 10th anniversary edition just released yesterday. As it happens, Marieke is one of my best friends dating back to before either of us were published, so it’s been a particular joy to be on board for this journey! Before we get to our chat, here’s the gist of This is Where it Ends: 10th Anniversary Edition:
The tenth anniversary edition of the #1 New York Times bestseller about a high school held hostage, and four teens―each with their own reason to fear the boy with the gun. Featuring printed edges, updated author’s note, and exclusive material.
10:00am: The principal of Opportunity, Alabama’s High School finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02am: The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03am: The auditorium doors won’t open.
10:05am: Someone starts shooting.
Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Sophia Hannan to reveal the cover of her debut, We Were Never Here, a lesbian YA Horror releasing July 28, 2026 from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers! Here’s the story:
In July, Georgia Perry and Jules Park—secret girlfriends, covert art thieves, and cohosts of a popular YouTube ghost hunting show—step into a haunted house to steal a priceless painting. A few short hours later, there’s a knife in Jules’s chest and Georgia is waking up in a pool of blood with no memory of how she got there.
Now it’s October, and Georgia is underwater. She hasn’t been to class in weeks, she’s avoiding her old crew and only friends like the plague. But when the three remaining thieves get a call from the man who paid a hefty sum to keep them out of jail, demanding that they return to finish the job, Georgia has no choice but to return to her old life.
As the estranged friends scramble to steal the painting with no cover story and no leader, they quickly realize that something is very, very wrong, and it’s not just the suffocating memory of Jules or the prying eyes of their viewers. Between the strange shadows that begin to trail them and the nightmares plaguing Georgia’s sleep, only one thing is certain: Something followed them home from De Lys manor, and it will do anything to keep them from going back.
And here’s the gorgeously chilling cover, designed by Laura Eckes with art by Elizabeth Wakou!
Sophia Hannan is a Canadian author of YA fiction. When she’s not writing about ghosts and the girls they haunt, she can be found studying English literature and forcing her friends to watch horror movies with her. We Were Never Here is her debut novel.
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome back Kit Rosewater to reveal the cover of her second YA novel, Buried Feelings, releasing July 7, 2026 from Delacorte Romance! Here’s the story:
Cam was the one who discovered the hunt…
He brought it to Ivy like an offering, took her hand as they combed through San Francisco, searching for treasure and conspiring against the heteronormative agenda. But that was back then. Now juniors, they’re both out and proud—Cam as a trans man and Ivy as gay—but their friendship isn’t as assured. Problem is, Ivy can’t reveal Cam’s past betrayal without airing closely guarded secrets of her own.
…But Ivy will be the one to finish it.
As Ivy comes across the missing link in the treasure hunt from their childhood, she’s certain she can put the clues together and finally come out on top in the cat-and-mouse game Cam’s been playing with her ever since their friendship ended. Once Cam gets wind of Ivy’s renewed interest in the hunt, the ex-best friends go head-to-head in their search for gold. But as they get digging, they uncover more things buried between them than they bargained for.
And here’s the delightful cover designed by Carol Ly and illustrated by Sarah Maxwell!
Kit Rosewater lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her partner and two small children who are bent on destroying the universe. She is the author of the YA sapphic romance All’s Fair in Love and Field Hockey, as well as Books 1-3 of TheDerby Daredevils, a middle grade series illustrated by Sophie Escabasse. Kit has been a theater and English teacher, a bookseller, a children’s literature academic, and a certified ‘boots-on-the-ground’ treasure hunter. Her sophomore romance, Buried Feelings, is forthcoming from Delacorte Romance in July 2026.
Leslie Vedder (she/her) is a queer ace author who loves books with girl adventurers and heroes! She grew up on fantasy books, anime, fanfiction and the Lord of the Rings movies, and her debut YA The Bone Spindle was an indie bestseller. She lives in Colorado with her wife and her spoiled house cat Fox Mulder, who believes the treats are out there.
LEE WIND is not currently a spy. Mind you, he never was a spy. But he did spend fourteen years undercover (what most people call “in the closet”). So now he writes the books that would have changed his life as a Gay Jewish kid and teen. Lee is the award-winning author of nonfiction for ages eleven and up (No Way, They Were Gay? and The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie ), picture books (including Like That Eleanor and Love of the Half-Eaten Peach ), and YA novels (Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill and A Different Kind of Brave ). To help go on the offense against book banning, Lee cocreated the national campaign We Are Stronger than Censorship, which buys and donates two books to offset every one book challenge. 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. Visit Lee online at leewind.org.
Kit Rosewater lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her partner and two small children who are bent on destroying the universe. She is the author of the YA sapphic romance All’s Fair in Love and Field Hockey, as well as Books 1-3 of The Derby Daredevils, a middle grade series illustrated by Sophie Escabasse. Kit has been a theater and English teacher, a bookseller, a children’s literature academic, and a certified ‘boots-on-the-ground’ treasure hunter. Her sophomore romance, Buried Feelings, is forthcoming from Delacorte Romance in July 2026.