Today on the site, I’m delighted to help reveal the cover of The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy by Erin Edwards, a debut Sapphic YA Historical Romance releasing from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on April 7, 2026! Here’s the story:
Mr. Darcy got his happily ever after in Pride and Prejudice, and now it’s his sister’s turn in this swoony queer romance, perfect for fans of Bridgerton.
Georgiana Darcy has only ever kissed one girl before, and the resulting blackmail almost ruined her reputation. Since then, she’s carefully calibrated her life to be as quiet as possible, focusing on books and music. She certainly isn’t planning on falling in love with another girl. But then she meets Kitty Bennet, and everything is thrown off kilter.
After a moonlit kiss shifts their newfound friendship into something more, Georgiana follows Kitty to the Bennets’ home. The visit proves ill-timed when she encounters the one man who knows her secret and threatened her with it before. Terrified of testing the limits of her family’s love and of putting Kitty in danger, Georgiana doesn’t know if there’s any chance of a happy ending.
Every etiquette guide she’s ever read makes it clear that if she wants to protect her family name, Georgiana must pretend her heart follows society’s accepted rhythm. Unless, with a little help from those who understand how it feels, she can compose the future she and Kitty both deserve.
Here’s the swoontastic cover illustrated by Bijou Karman!
Erin Edwards is a lesbian with a love for all things literary, historical, and theatrical. By day, she can be found in an archive, attempting to decipher old handwriting and digging through boxes of hidden histories. By night, she’s probably in a theatre, waiting for the lights to go down and the magic to start. There is a fair chance she’s already seen the show before. Erin grew up struggling to find enough queer fiction to fill a single shelf and now she’s committed to the cause of helping to fill endless bookcases with queer stories. She lives in London with a cat that is at least 85% fluff. The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy is her debut novel.
Today on the site, I am so delighted to welcome back Anna-Marie McLemore to reveal the cover of their brand-new YA historical thriller, We Could Be Anyone, releasing May 26, 2026 from Feiwel & Friends! Here’s the story:
Lola and Lisandro are actors during Hollywood’s Golden Age, but you won’t see them on any silver screen. Instead, these siblings use their talents to scam the rich and famous out of their ill-begotten cash. They have their act down to a science: Lola plays the tragic ghost who haunts the mansions of the wealthy, and Lisandro plays the brave spiritualist who will help her soul find peace. For a small fee, of course.
The siblings have their sights set on their next target: The Coterie, the opulent estate of newspaper tycoon Bixby Fairfax and his famous mistress Blythe Bell. A score this big will allow them to move… well, anywhere but here. But this job requires them to do something they’ve never done before: switch roles. And as strange things keep happening at The Coterie… things that even Lola and Lisandro can’t explain.
As they are drawn deeper into The Coterie’s gleaming façade and tensions rise between brother and sister, one question looms over them. Will they be able to pull off their act? Or will this be their last performance?
And here’s the gorgeous cover, designed by L. Whitt with art by Andreea Dumuta!
Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) grew up hearing la llorona in the Santa Ana winds and now writes books as queer, Latine, and nonbinary as they are. They are the author of William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist The Weight of Feathers; Wild Beauty; Blanca & Roja, one of Time magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time; Dark and Deepest Red; Lambda Literary Award Finalist Lakelore; Flawless Girls; and National Book Award longlist selections When the Moon Was Ours, The Mirror Season, and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix. Find them online at annamariemclemore.com.
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Emilie Nantel to reveal the cover of her upcoming speculative bi f/f YA, Load Game, releasing September 18, 2025! Here’s the story:
Vera Young can time travel through her selfies.
For a disaster bi with a huge crush on her bestie Soph and an affinity for trouble, that new power is a cheat code for life. Consequences are a thing of the past.
Punched the sleazy quarterback and got suspended? Save game. Load game. Get out scot-free.
Want the satisfaction of getting revenge on the mean girls bullying you, but still want to be a good person? Humiliate them in front of everyone, rewind, and enjoy! It doesn’t count if it didn’t happen!
Whatever life throws at her, Vera’s got this.
But some things you can’t control, not even with all the time travel in the world: Riverview High’s rumor mill; a death that’s a fixed point in time; and the crumbling integrity of the space-time continuum, to name a few.
Turns out, there’s a lot of consequences to a no-consequences life.
For teen readers at an age of firsts of all kinds, where mistakes, what-ifs, grief and guilt are so challenging to cope with. Load Game deals with the hardships of youth in an honest, yet optimistic and lighthearted way.
Emilie Nantel is the author of OPEN: A Tale of Love, Mermaids, Bassists, & Creepy Dudes, a queer polyamorous romcom for adults.
She honed her casual, witty voice through years writing fanfiction, and now brings her friends-to-lovers expertise to original stories of queer joy.
When she’s not writing, you can usually find her at home in Montreal, trying every art medium she can get her hands on, playing The Sims 4, or bringing various hot mess characters to life in tabletop roleplaying games.
Load Game is her first foray into Young Adult fiction.
Today on the site, I’m delighted to welcomeback Avi Silver to reveal the cover of One Morning Sun, the final book in the polyamorous and aroace YA fantasy Sãoni Cycle trilogy, releasing September 23, 2025! Here’s the story:
Sohmeng Parminhal is ready to face the unknown.
The mountain community of Ateng is safe at last, but Sohmeng and her partners have a new challenge ahead: defending Gãepongwei from the invading Qiao Sidhur Empire. While Soh is convinced that open conversation can turn her adversaries into allies, Prince Ahnschen isn’t so sure. His older sister, the charming and ruthless General Ólawen, has never been one to concede defeat.
With the future of the rainforest at stake, the hmun are uniting for the first time in living memory—and the animal kingdom has its part to play. But as self-appointed guardian of Eiji, Hei questions if the relationship between humans and sãoni is indeed symbiotic as they walk the line between skin and scales.
The dark of Minhal is coming. Inside that darkness, infinite possibility. In the final heartfelt chapter of the Sãoni Cycle, Hei, Ahn, and Sohmeng must decide their place in the perfect system, and become who the world needs each of them to be.
In celebration of the Sãoni Cycle’s conclusion, The Shale Project is holding a giveaway on The StoryGraph! Enter to win one of 50 digital copies of Two Dark Moons, the first volume in the trilogy. Giveaway closes July 18, 2025.
New to the series? Recommended to anyone who needs a little more hope in their storytelling. Set in a queernormative, gender-diverse world (and with a fantasy astrology system to match!), Two Dark Moons is about environmental stewardship, unconventional relationships, and capable teens changing their world. Plus, giant lizards.
Avi Silver is a speculative author, poet, editor, and co-founder of The Shale Project. One Morning Sun, the finale of their Sãoni Cycle trilogy is forthcoming September 2025. They are also author of the 2023 Aurora Award-nominated novella, Pluralities. Their poetry has been published in Strange Horizons and Uncanny Magazine, and received an honorable mention in the 2022 Rhysling Awards. Find their short fiction in Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology and Nothing Without Us Too. Avi currently lives in St. Thomas, ON with creative and life partner Sienna Tristen.
Today on the site I’m delighted to present a conversation between two YA debuts, Pride or Die author CL Montblanc and The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood and Boyfriends author Jamie D’Amato! Pride or Die just released on April 15th (though as you’ll see, this conversation took place beforehand, and I opted out of editing that), while Vampire is still to come at the end of August, but you can get hyped for both right now!
CW from authors: Discussion of mental health topics/suicidal ideation.
JD: Hey there! First of all, I always love chatting with you, but I’m especially excited to be talking with you for LGBTQ Reads, which I’ve always admired as a resource, and which feels more important than ever in today’s climate.
CLM: Agreed. More so than anywhere else right now, this feels like the safest space for us to be talking about our two queer books. Promoting an LGBTQ title has been really challenging so far—I’ve already had pushback elsewhere for simply “having pronouns” while trying to talk about writing craft.
Today on the site, I’m delighted to help reveal the cover of Edelweiss by Lloyd Hall, an f/f YA Romance releasing February 14th, 2026! Here’s the story:
Centuries after the earth is destroyed by an apocalyptic flood, life is cozy and peaceful in the snowy town of June. But that quiet life is about to be disturbed by June’s newest resident, Olivia.
After starting high school, Olivia becomes enamored with her classmate, Ava, who introduces Olivia to life in June. As their adventures unveil underground tunnels, lost tech, and a conspiracy involving the city’s androids, the girls realize they may be in over their heads.
Olivia must now uncover what’s really happening in June, all while navigating the ups and downs of her first relationship, unaware that solving these mysteries could put the entire city in danger.
And here’s the enchanting cover, designed by Abigail Spence!
Lloyd Hall (he/him) is an indie author and bookbinder born and raised in the coastal Connecticut town of Short Beach. He’s known for his Young Adult Sci-Fi books, The Wardenclyffe Series which has won various awards including the Eric Hoffer Award for his first book, Wardenclyffe, and the Reader’s Favorite award for his second book, Mercury. While not working on his novels, Lloyd is also the editor for an independent literary journal.
Before working as an author, Lloyd was an accomplished fashion designer, costume designer, and milliner, designing custom hats for opera and Broadway shows. After hanging up his literal and metaphorical hats, he channeled his love of storytelling into his first book, Wardenclyffe. He now lives a cozy life in California where he’s busy working on the last book in his series.
Not to play favorites, but I have been waiting for this book since the dawn of time, so I am wildly excited to be revealing the cover today of This Wretched Beauty by Elle Grenier, a transfeminine YA remix of The Picture of Dorian Gray releasing from Feiwel & Friends in their Remixed Classics series on February 17, 2026! Here’s the story:
Happiness needs to be earned in the face of impossible odds, or there’s no beauty in it.
London, 1867. Dorian Gray is the heir to a title and their family’s estate, but they’ve never been given the chance to decide whether that’s actually what they want out of life. Forcibly estranged from their father by their manipulative grandfather, Dorian feels trapped in the life that has been decided for them.
Then one night they sneak out of their grandfather’s house, they meet a sweet and talented young painter named Basil, who immediately recognizes Dorian as his new muse. They agree to sit for Basil for a portrait, and Dorian is struck by the beauty and depth that Basil paints into their likeness—and they dare to begin hoping there might be more to life than being their grandfather’s perfect, empty-headed heir.
Dorian is further elated when Basil introduces them to the world of molly houses and drag performers—they’ve never seen such joyful variety of humanity and gender expression. But, as the barrier between the London she knows and the one she’s discovering begins to crumble, Dorian must face the fact that freedom and safety do not always come hand in hand.
The aftermath of this realization pulls Dorian into a terrible downward spiral, torn between guilt over their own actions and hatred for the suffocating expectations of society, prompting them to push away those closest to them, surrounding themself instead with vapid courtiers and decadent socialites. And as Dorian’s spiral of self-loathing deepens, something strange happens—Basil’s portrait of them begins to change. Their smile becomes a little sharper, the glint in their eyes a little colder.
Dorian will have to choose—embrace the wickedness within and allow themself to become what they were always meant to be, or dare to try for something far more fragile and dangerous: a life of their own making
And here’s the positively glowing cover, designed by L. Whitt with art by Syd Mills!
Elle Grenier is a YA author, bookseller, and former theatre kid who lives in British Columbia on traditional Pocumtuc land with their fiancee and their three cats. They started writing at eight years old and never stopped, now striving to write the books they would’ve wanted to see in their teenage years. Elle studied English Literature at the University of Toronto and started their Masters before deciding to focus their attention on writing instead. When they aren’t writing, you can probably find Elle rewatching the same three shows online, playing around with Taylor Swift covers on their lyre, or lying by the nearest body of water. When they are writing, you’ll likely see them downing several cups of coffee next to a Shakespeare plush for motivation. This Wretched Beauty: A Dorian Gray Remix is their debut novel.
Avi Silver is a speculative author, poet, editor, and co-founder of The Shale Project. One Morning Sun, the finale of their Sãoni Cycle trilogy is forthcoming September 2025. They are also author of the 2023 Aurora Award-nominated novella, Pluralities. Their poetry has been published in Strange Horizons and Uncanny Magazine, and received an honorable mention in the 2022 Rhysling Awards. Find their short fiction in Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology and Nothing Without Us Too. Avi currently lives in St. Thomas, ON with creative and life partner Sienna Tristen.
Lloyd Hall (he/him) is an indie author and bookbinder born and raised in the coastal Connecticut town of Short Beach. He’s known for his Young Adult Sci-Fi books, The Wardenclyffe Series which has won various awards including the Eric Hoffer Award for his first book, Wardenclyffe, and the Reader’s Favorite award for his second book, Mercury. While not working on his novels, Lloyd is also the editor for an independent literary journal.
