Happy June — and more importantly, Happy Pride Month! We're so excited to not only be celebrating Pride, but also our anniversary, so we've set up a month-long event titled Pride-iversary that will spotlight a range of queer authors and feature giveaways, interviews, and guest pieces. Be sure to follow us on all our socials so you don't miss out!
For now, though it's business as usual — let's talk about our most anticipated LGBTQ+ releases coming this month!
June 1st is not only the beginning of Pride Month, but also International Children's Day, and Lizzie Huxley-Jones is kicking it off with a middle-grade queer fantasy featuring autistic rep: Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend.
The lake has been calling to twelve-year-old Vivi Conway. On the day she and her Mams will move from Wales to London, she sneaks out to investigate what is calling her there. Instead of a quiet swim, she finds Excalibur (much smaller than she expected), a ferocious monster (much scarier in real life than in her mythology books), a new friend (which she doesn’t want at all) called Dara and a ghostly dog named Gelert (who can talk).
Gelert insists that Vivi is part of a magical group of children who share the souls of witches from legend and must protect the world from being taken over by the evil King Arawn of the Otherworld. Oh, and now she can magically control water. With a little extra help from spiky Stevie and sweet-hearted Chia, Vivi must come to terms with her magical destiny and be brave enough to embrace true friendship.
The first book in a fantastical series that combines a quest for magic and friendship with Welsh mythology and a pinch of science, all within a contemporary setting.
Also on June 1st, Halli Starling returns with The Way We Wind, a closed-door, cosy and short romance.
Twins Bren and Clark have been holding each other up since their mother passed away. It hasn’t been easy. But Bren is running the family greenhouse and Clark has a good job at the local library. Life is quiet, just as Bren likes it. But Clark feels like he’s stagnating.
Bren isn’t looking for love when a greenhouse customer dumps water all over her. But Elodie’s cute and bouncy and, it turns out, a folklorist at the local college and has a special interest in plants and their stories. It seems like a perfect match.
Clark might have a tiny crush on a patron at the library, but he’s never going to say anything. But when Jasper, that very patron, asks for Clark’s assistance on a research project, Clark can’t say no. To Jasper or the project; Jasper’s researching local “ghost trails”. And Clark is a bit of a believer.
But trauma and grief are slippery things, and getting through it isn’t simple or easy. Maybe love needs to find a way to help them both heal.
On the 3rd, you can grab Of Books and Paper Dragons by writing duo Vaela Denarr and Micah Iannandrea. Or you can grab it for free by subscribing to their newsletter!
How to run a successful bookshop: Change careers at thirty-eight, suffer from anxiety, make friends with the local artists, and don’t get eaten by the draconic overlord.
In the Lightless Sea, the Black Sands Desert that can only be traversed beneath the stars, scavenging the wrecks of ancient starships is the most prestigious and exciting profession available. And for Voa, who has spent the last twenty years amassing knowledge for the hoard of a great and terrible dragon ruling over their city, it is now a thing of the past. Scavenging has lost its luster, and a new life, the calm and comfortable existence of a bookseller, calls to them. But a lifetime of delving into the bowels of metal behemoths has left Voa ill-prepared for the social anxiety and laws found in a dragon’s city.
Jet, a local artist in a similar position of changing careers, takes pity on Voa. What begins as an act of kindness quickly becomes a personal battle as she and Voa grow closer. Voa has the resources, and Jet has the people skills. All they need now is to convince Keeper Yirrin, Lord of the Archives, to support their budding passion project
But the somewhat enigmatic and introverted dragon may just have their own designs for the little bookshop, and for the orc running it…
Of Books and Paper Dragons is a cozy, low-stakes fantasy about ordinary people leading ordinary lives, selling books, doing their taxes, and battling social anxiety in the quiet safety of their book collections.
Fancy a steamy, sapphic, second-chance romance? We do, too! Make sure to have June 6th marked in your calendars, as Tallie Rose's Romancing the Gorgon is out.
Two magical ex-lovers, one inn, and a second chance to capture a heart of stone. Witch Lettie Katz’s life plans always included running the inn her grandmother co-owned in their hometown of Lilac Lake. But after her grandmother died, with no mention of bequeathing her half to anyone Lettie was left floundering. Months later, when she’s called to visit the town lawyer’s office she’s shocked to find her gorgon ex-girlfriend Chandler Hart waiting.
Lettie hasn’t seen Chandler in years and that’s just fine by both of them. In fact, Chandler is the reason Lettie no longer uses her magic. Their explosive teenage relationship broke Lettie’s heart, blew up town square—literally—and sent Chandler running. But Chandler is back, and worst of all her grandmother, the inn’s other owner, has left them both half, with one stipulation—neither woman can sell their portion for at least six months.
As old feelings resurface, can they find a way to work together or will the Stone and Sorcery Lodge be ruined before the next tourist season?
Also on June 6th, Melissa See's Love Letters for Joy brings you a YA romance story featuring asexual, panromantic, and disability rep!
Less than a year away from graduation, seventeen-year-old Joy is too busy overachieving to be worried about relationships. She’s determined to be Caldwell Prep’s first disabled valedictorian. And she only has one person to beat, her academic rival Nathaniel.
But it’s senior year and everyone seems to be obsessed with pairing up. One of her best friends may be developing feelings for her and the other uses Caldwell’s anonymous love-letter writer to snag the girl of her dreams. Joy starts to wonder if she has missed out on a quintessential high school experience. She is asexual, but that’s no reason she can’t experience first love, right?
She writes to Caldwell Cupid to help her sort out these new feelings and, over time, finds herself falling for the mysterious voice behind the letters. But falling in love might mean risking what she wants most, especially when the letter-writer turns out to be the last person she would ever expect.
Looking for some science fiction/fantasy? Kritika H. Rao's debut, The Surviving Sky, is out on the 13th!
This Hindu philosophy-inspired debut science fantasy follows a husband and wife racing to save their living city—and their troubled marriage—high above a jungle world besieged by cataclysmic storms.
High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.
Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she desperately seeks change.
Their marriage is already thorny—then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya's discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization.
Margherita Scialla's queerplatonic short story, By Your Side, is also coming out on June 13th.
Emma's relationship ends abruptly when she comes across her boyfriend cheating on her at a party. Yet another failed relationship brings her repressed platonic feelings for one of her best friends to the surface once more.
Emma’s scared to voice her worries and desires, but even if she manages to bring up how she feels, how will Noah react to such a revelation?
Rita A. Rubin's Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love is an achillean adult fantasy romance perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes, and you can get it on June 29th.
Jayce has little memory of life before entering servitude to the Dark Lord, and no hope of ever escaping. Until he meets Alexius, the knight with a heart of gold. He offers Jayce, his enemy, a chance to break free of the Dark Lord's clutches, and Jayce is not about to let such an opportunity pass.
When the war comes to an end, Jayce finds himself finally free, with Alexius's help, and surrounded by a new world of opportunity. And the prospect of a new love. The more time Jayce spends with Alexius, the more he finds himself falling for this knight in shining armour.
Some more note-worthy titles we're excited about:
Follow the Gill family to India with Ritu Bhathal's Straight as A Jalebi on the 1st.
Also on the 1st, J.J. Hale's Truly Enough brings a sapphic romance that we couldn't be more excited about.
Junker Seven by Olive J. Kelly, coming out on June 13th.
The hardcover of Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic releases on the 22nd, editing by g. haron davis and featuring stories from the likes of AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy, g. haron davis, Mason Deaver, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Emery Lee, Saundra Mitchell, Cam Montgomery, Ash Nouveau, Sonora Reyes, Renee Reynolds, Dove Salvatierra, Ayida Shonibar, Francesca Tacchi, and Nik Traxler.
On the 23rd, grab A Perfect Place to Cry by sapphic romance author S-Jay Hart.
And some more (M/M) romance for you on the 25th with Ashish Rastogi's The 5 Day Plan!
His Unwavering, a paranormal romance, by Bailey Elizabeth releases on the 30th.
Also on the 30th comes Dan Fitzgerald's Unpainted, featuring an arranged marriage between aspec and bi characters!
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