Spring is hopefully springing, and what better way to celebrate more daylight than with books? There are lots of highly anticipated queer reads publishing this month, so prepare your TBR pile for even more books!
Kicking us off on the 2nd is Alyson Root's paranormal lesbian romance, Fighting for Infinity.
Amelia and Erin thought they had it all figured out: defy fate and prove that love conquers all. But when it comes to vampires and humans, nothing is ever simple. As the Salvatore Regina and her warrior protector, they’re revered as the queens foretold in prophecy, destined to save the vampire world and bring peace to the Fallen and their human mates.
When Grand Master Mohan's bold plan to reveal the existence of vampires to the President of the United States goes catastrophically wrong, the response is swift and brutal. Humanity reacts to the unknown in a way that should have been predictable: with fear and fire. Ripped from their Hawaiian honeymoon, Amelia and Erin find themselves on the run for their lives, and for the fate of all vampire kind. With the world against them and a centuries-old prophecy weighing on their shoulders, they must decide if they’re willing to fulfill a destiny they never chose.
Is the prophecy their fate or their prison? Can they forge peace between humans and vampires? And what if, to do both, the price is everything—even each other?
In this adrenaline-packed conclusion to the trilogy, Amelia and Erin confront the limits of their love and their sanity. Racing across the globe, they leave behind a trail of danger, desire, and impossible decisions.
Somewhere along the way, they just might find that infinity isn’t merely something to fight for—it’s theirs to claim. Together.
And following on the 4th is Booker G. A. Feniks' The Windows to a Shapeshifter's Soul, an urban fantasy with a queer cast of characters.
Josef Brooke Ryan lands his dream job at the Facility for the Conservation of Magical Creatures. But when he meets a captive shapeshifter named Shark, he begins to question what other secrets the FCMC is hiding. Will Josef be able to stay true to himself, and get both him and Shark out alive?
Read Kirby's Lessons for Falling in Love by Laura Gao on the 4th, a YA graphic novel featuring a sapphic opposites attract romance.
Once dubbed the Queen of Balance as her school’s top rock climber, Kirby Tan suffers an injury that sidelines her for the rest of the season. Now she’s forced to join the newspaper club for some desperately needed extra credit. Worse, she’s recruited by crystal-wearing, tarot-reading Bex Santos for her astrology-based love advice column. As Kirby reluctantly agrees to orchestrate “matches made in heaven” with Bex, she begins to wonder if their own stars could be aligned. But loving who she wants isn’t so easy when her family and church community are on the line. Can Kirby pull off her greatest balancing act yet?
From Laura Gao, the acclaimed creator of Messy Roots, comes an authentic slow-burn romance and coming-of-age story perfect for fans of Heartstopper, lovers of astrology and tarot, and anyone looking for answers on the right way to fall (in love).
Also on the 4th comes Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven, a queer YA fantasy romance.
The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries.
They've loved each other in a thousand lifetimes. They've killed each other in every one.
Evelyn remembers all her past lives. She also remembers that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday by Arden, a supernatural being whose soul―and survival―is tethered to hers.
The problem is that she’s quite fond of the life she’s in now, and her little sister needs her for bone marrow transplants in order to stay alive. If Evelyn wants to save her sister, she’ll have to:
1. Find the centuries-old devil who hunts her through each life―before they find her first.
2. Figure out why she’s being hunted and finally break their curse.
3. Try not to fall in love.
Enjoy achillean sports romance The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid, also out on the 4th.
A sweet and sexy hockey romance about two ex-teammates and former best friends with benefits who are about to discover whether you can ever really have a second chance, from the USA TODAY bestselling author of Heated Rivalry and The Long Game.
After moving back to his hometown ten years ago, Riley Tuck thought he had left his major league hockey career—and his broken heart—far behind. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes, it brings ex-teammate and former best friend with benefits Adam Sheppard back into his life.
Coming to the small town of Avery River, Nova Scotia, might have been a mistake. Adam’s not sure he’ll ever win back Riley’s trust after the way they left things—and the attention he’s getting as a huge hockey star isn’t exactly helping. Yet the chemistry that crackles between them is undeniable, even now.
As Adam helps Riley navigate his grief, long-buried feelings start to resurface. But they’ll have to square off with their complicated past if they’re going to have a real shot at a new beginning.
Enjoy a sapphic shifter romance on the 5th with T.J. Dallas's The Last Spirit Bear, the second book in the Erudite Shifters series.
Katy Hawkins is desperate to find her family. A bear shifter who grew up in the foster care system, she exhausts all known avenues at her disposal until she finally reaches out to Dr Devin Edwards, the world famous geneticist who helped bring the Caspian tigers back from the brink of extinction.
It's not a shock to Devin to learn about the existence of bear shifters, but the arrival of Katy at Tiger's Eye brings its own set of challenges. While she studies Katy's DNA in an effort to trace her ancestors, she's also balancing married life with Rex, their four children, and continuing her search for more Caspian tiger shifters.
When Katy returns home armed with knowledge and support from Devin and Rex, she and her partner, River, set out to track down a rare bear population on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia.
Can two people half a world apart find the same resolution through entirely different means? And what will the answers mean to Katy?
A sapphic shifter novel that takes ‘found family’ quite literally.
Jenna Jarvis's lesbian slice-of-life romance Ride it Out will be available in paperback on the 11th.
As a doctor, Mick McVey knows what a mental health crisis looks like. Her own still takes her by surprise. When she inherits a house from the grandfather she’s never met, she puts herself on sabbatical and travels to the small hometown of the mother who abandoned her. It’s a temporary solution.
Mick might not be grieving her grandfather, but to her new neighbor Katy, his death is one blow too many. Mick’s arrival feels like Katy’s chance to forget her ex and her struggling cinema and reinvent herself. She’ll finally get her hot rebound and make this year her year.
When the COVID-19 lockdown traps both women in situations they’d convinced themselves were temporary, they’re forced to face what they really want from their lives, and who they want to share them with.
And this isn't the only contemporary romance you can expect on the 11th, with Good Game by Suzanne Lenoir promising lesbian and bisexual rep.
Sam O’Brian might be blasting her way up the pro computer-gaming charts, but her dislike of the spotlight and her baggy clothes, undercut hair, and queer vibe make her a hard sell as a poster girl.
Enter polished marketing executive Lauren Johanssen—ambitious, driven, and a people pleaser. Her new company wants to recruit Sam for its local eSports gaming team to fix their boys’ club image. They also want Lauren to pretty up Sam’s look to appeal to the masses.
While Lauren’s up for a challenge, the more she’s pushed to change Sam, the more she likes her just as she is. She’s sworn never to date a professional gamer again, but she might be falling for the guarded, sweet gamer who still lives with her dad.
An opposites attract lesbian romance about defying expectations and being true to yourself.
And if you prefer your sports romances on ice, grab queer M/F hockey romance Shoot Your Shot by Lexi LaFleur Brown on the same day.
Don’t miss NHL insider and #BookTok influencer Lexi LaFleur Brown’s steamy and superstitious hockey rom-com debut!
When Jaylen Jones doesn’t secure an NHL contract at the end of training camp, he worries his hockey career is over. But after an anonymous one-night stand on his last night in town, his luck turns around and a last-minute roster spot opens up on the Seattle Rainiers. Connecting his fortune to the girl he spent the night with, superstitious Jaylen is suddenly desperate to keep her around.
Aspiring tattoo artist Lucy isn’t so sure about the proposition to remain Jaylen’s lucky charm—she’s been called a lot of things in her life, but good luck has never been one of them. But stuck in a career slump, Lucy has everything to gain. Hoping for an apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor hasn’t offered her much stability, and Jaylen is willing to pay any price to get Lucy to agree…so maybe sending him a routine text message before each game won’t be too hard.
What starts as an agreement to trade favors—a good luck text for an appearance at a charity event, or well wishes in exchange for prime game tickets—quickly turns into sizzling chemistry that’s too delicious not to give in to. But Lucy’s been in too many situationships to even think about getting attached again, and Jaylen is clearly only with Lucy as long as it’s helping his career…neither of them expecting getting lucky could be so complicated.
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters also drops on the 11th, featuring a collection of four literary trans stories.
In this collection of one novel and three novellas, the bestselling author of Detransition, Baby pushes trans-genre to its limits to explore who gets included—and excluded—from the possibilities of gender.
In Stag Dance, this collection’s titular novel, a Paul Bunyan-type lumberjack working an illegal winter logging outfit recounts how the lonely woodsmen entertain themselves with a dance at which some of the loggers must volunteer to attend as women. Obsession, repressed desires, and betrayal lead up to the big night, as The Lumberjack grows increasingly jealous of Lisen, the prettiest young man in camp, weaving a surreal tall tale that questions the nature of transition.
Three equally visionary novellas surround Stag Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones imagines a sci-fi future in which everyone must choose their own gender—the vengeful consequence of a rogue trio of charismatic trans women who destroy civilization as we know it. In The Chaser, a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last novella, The Masker, a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns horrific when a young crossdresser must choose between two a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.
Radical, witty, and gripping, these four narratives coalesce to form a portrait of identity-in-crisis that unsettles and delights.
Trans regency romance? Yes, please! T.J. Alexander's A Gentleman's Gentleman releases on the 11th.
From the acclaimed author of Chef's Kiss, a groundbreaking trans Regency romance that's both delightfully witty and refreshingly iconoclastic.
The notoriously eccentric Lord Christopher Eden is a “man of unusual make” and even more unusual habits: he prefers to live as far from the prying eyes and ears of the ton as possible, and would rather have the comfortable company of his childhood cook and his aged butler, Plinkton, than the swarm of servants and hangers-on befitting a man of his station.
But Christopher's pleasant, if occasionally lonely life is upended when he receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father’s will, he must find a wife by the end of the Season if he intends to keep his family's fortune and the Eden's End estate. Christopher cannot imagine a worse fate: as he isn't attracted to women, his chances of making a wife happy are slim. Furthermore, if his quest to marry has any hope of succeeding, he must move to London posthaste and acquire some more suitable staff.
Enter James Harding, Christopher's new, distractingly handsome—if rigidly traditional—valet. After a rocky start, the two strike up a fragile friendship amid the throes of the London Season . . . a friendship that threatens to shatter under the looming shadow of Christopher’s impending nuptials—and the secrets both men are keeping.
With its heady combination of dry wit, slow-burn romance, and a nuanced, complex portrait of trans identity and relationships that’s as relevant now as it was during the Regency era, A Gentleman's Gentleman stands to transform the historical romance genre as we know it.
Or race back to modern day with achillean motorsport romance, Pole Position by Rebecca J. Caffery, also out on the 11th.
Red, White and Royal Blue meets Formula 1!
Kian Walker has always been the golden boy of motor sport. The four-time Championship winner has racing in his DNA – his father was a legend on the track, just don’t let him catch you comparing the two. As reckless and unreliable at home as he was behind the wheel, there’s nothing Kian wants less than to be just like his dad.
Enter Harper James. This year’s rookie called up to compete with the big boys – and Kian’s new teammate. Cocky, hot-headed and with a reputation for breaking as many hearts as he does new track records, Harper’s the opposite of Kian in every way. But when the season starts, there’s no getting away from him.
This might be one of the most dangerous sports in the world, so why then does Kian’s heart feel safer flying around the track at 220mph than when he's anywhere near his teammate?
Celebrate St. Paddy's Day early with Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch, the second book in the Royals Romance series.
It’s enemies to lovers in this sexy and delightful holiday mash up that pairs the spare prince of Christmas with the crown prince of St. Patrick’s Day!
Someone has been stealing Christmas’s joy, and there’s only one clue to the culprit—a single shamrock.
With Coal busy restructuring Christmas—and their dad now having a full midlife crisis in the Caribbean—Kris volunteers to investigate St. Patrick’s Day. His cover: an ambassador from Christmas to foster goodwill. What could go wrong?
Everything, it seems. Because Prince Lochlann Patrick, Crown Prince of St. Patrick’s Day, happens to be the mysterious student that Kris has been in a small war with at Cambridge. They attempt to play nice for the tabloids, but Kris can’t get through one conversation without wanting to smash Loch’s face in—he’s infuriating, stubborn, loud, obstinate, hot—
Wait—hot?
Kris might be in some trouble. Especially when it turns out that the mystery behind Christmas’s stolen magic isn’t as simple as an outright theft. But why would a Holiday that Christmas has never had contact with, one that’s always been the very basis of carefree, want to steal joy? Can a spare prince even hope to unravel all this, or will Kris lose something way more valuable than his Holiday’s resources—like his heart?
On the 12th, sapphic romcom author Emily Wright is back with The Heartbreak Hotel.
Ella has officially hit rock bottom.
After getting dumped by her girlfriend and soon-to-be ex-boss, Ella’s thirties have her feeling lost. In an attempt to cheer her up, her best friend colludes with her mother to send her to Sandy Springs, a wellness retreat on a remote Portuguese island. Ella can’t deny that sun, sand, and sea sound like the perfect combination to drown her sorrows.
But Sandy Springs is not a holiday.
It’s an alcohol-free, signal-less hellhole with an interfering cockerel called Bernardo. Forced to confront her life without any distractions, Ella’s urge to give up and float out to sea is stronger than ever. That is, until she meets Riley, the attractive yoga instructor, and things on the island start to shift.
Riley’s career is her solace, but even now she can't escape the memories that haunt her. When she comes across the fiery Ella, she realises just how much she’s been holding herself back.
As their feelings for each other grow, the two of them must make a decision: continue down a path of self-destruction or face some difficult truths. Can they resist temptation or will they risk everything for love in paradise?
After all, what harm could a holiday romance really do?
Grab the paperback of lesbian romance The Great Orchid Heist by Eleanor Vendrell on the 13th.
Phil, never Philippa, is getting to breaking point with her dad and their mounting debts from his gambling problem. But when best friend and bad-influence Chaz offers a brazen solution – a heist of a rare orchid due to bloom for the first time in captivity – she obviously thinks he’s joking.
Phil’s mission is clear: infiltrate the renowned Felborough Botanic Gardens as a volunteer, befriend the employees for intel, and on the big day make it out with the orchid.
But falling head over heels for Lily, the grumpy head gardener’s assistant, was not part of the plan, and as the heist approaches, Phil is faced with a dilemma: steal the orchid and break Lily’s heart or risk losing everything . . .
THE FIRST RULE OF THE HEIST . . . DON’T FALL IN LOVE
Beau Van Dalen's dark, steamy novella Goldnight of Starfall releases on the 14th and features a trans MMC.
“Helge, my angel, my downfall….
You’ve promised me the world I so dearly wish for…
You claim I am your past lover incarnate—I can only hope you speak true.”
In a countryside still ravaged by magical war, Eris—a closeted trans man—finds a fallen angel amid a field of golden wheat. The angel, Helge, is searching for his partner, a King he loved hundreds of years ago, who was brutally assasinated by his own people.
And Helge is convinced he has just found his star-crossed lover in Eris, reincarnated.
But is Eris truly a King?
Or is that merely wishful thinking on Helge's behalf?
Regardless of the truth, Eris takes Helge as his lover to get away from the repression of his mundane life, where the two soon find themselves in a kindred symbiotic relationship. As their deepest desires merge then blend, they turn into a single wish of wanting to escape from this world that would never accept them—to carve a place for themselves, to find meaning in the meaningless, and love at the end of a rising dawn.
From award nominated and best-selling author Beau Van Dalen, Goldnight of Starfall is a dark fantastical erotic tale, featuring a trans man protagonist, weaved with themes of existentialism and hope hidden within despair.
Still haven't gotten your fill of contemporary romance? Us, neither! Pip Dolyn's The Dandelion & The Thistle is out on the 18th and features an achillean romance with a trans character, plus anxiety and PTSD rep.
Welcome to the Makers Market, your stop for high-quality, local, handcrafted art. Meet the artists as you browse. You never know what you'll find.
Addison Baird has been a staple figure at the Makers Market. Known as the (un)official mayor of the market, he's who everyone goes to when they have a problem, but when he experiences a disaster of his own, who does he turn to?
Colin Jameson is new to the Makers Market this year and has aspirations to take his ceramic art to a new level, but he's dealing with a creative block. When a frazzled vendor comes up to his booth with a problem he is uniquely qualified to solve, Colin wonders if he's finally found his muse.
Throughout the summer, Colin and Addison grow closer as they navigate the art world and face the pasts that haunt them. Will their budding relationship be uprooted or will they find healing and truly begin to blossom?
We're excited for another sapphic romance on the 18th, with T.J. O'Shea's Sweet Home Alabarden Park releasing.
Fiona Turner wonders which impossible task will be the death of her: renovating a massive, deteriorating, centuries-old English mansion and making it worthy of the Queen of England, or turning an American farmer into a proper English duchess.
Fresh off a painful divorce, Fiona seizes the opportunity to restore Alabarden Park and assist the house’s new duchess, an effervescent American named Alice Stewart. Openly smitten, Alice’s affection for her challenges Fiona’s commitment to a professional distance and self-imposed ban on relationships.
Fiona Turner wonders which impossible task will be the death of her: letting Alice into her battered, broken heart, or keeping her out.
The Gift of Blood by Vaela Denarr & Micah Iannandrea is re-released on Itch on the 21st. This dark urban fantasy includes a range of diverse characters of colour, including lesbian and trans rep.
“When everything you are is stripped away, all that remains is hunger and teeth.”
Monsters are real, and Ryann is one of them. Chosen as a weapon in a war that is not her own, she finds an outlet for her anger in the fighting pits beneath Toronto, and on the hunt for the vampires that changed her. Whatever the cost, she’ll take back her life, her control—or make them fear the hunger they’ve roused in her.
Burdened by monstrosity, Meg, assassin of the Scorching Dawn, drowns her pain in the blood of her enemies. When the call comes to slay the monster whipping the city’s beasts into a frenzy, she welcomes the hunt. And in Ryann, she finds a violent thirst for blood—and the opportunity to feed her own.
Expect more achillean romance on the 21st with Building Home by J. Mackenzie, which features a Chinese American MC and ethical non-monogamy.
This house isn’t the only one in need of a fresh start
Spencer Lim has a good life—a decent apartment, a job renovating houses with his best friend, and a dog who’s the goodest boy on the planet. So what if he hasn’t slept with the same guy twice since he moved to Pittsfield? It’s not like he’s looking for a relationship, anyway.
Then he gets a call from Ian Collier, who has a wreck of a house and no idea what to do with it. This should be just like any other job. Except that Ian is quiet and serious and looks at Spencer in a way that intrigues him like nothing has in a long time. There’s a reason Spencer doesn’t do repeats, but it’s getting harder and harder to remember the more time he spends with Ian.
When Spencer volunteers to help Ian clean out the house’s basement, he starts to understand why dealing with the place has been so hard for Ian, and he’s tempted to share in return. Will opening up to Ian be a mistake? Or is Spencer finally ready to put himself out there again?
Looking for a sapphic celebrity romance? Cover Story by Celia Laskey releases on the 25th.
A hilarious, emotional love story about an extremely anxious publicist who's tasked with keeping an extremely gay starlet in the closet—but who ends up falling for her instead.
It's 2005, and Ali is a publicist for Hollywood's biggest stars. Part of her job entails keeping gay celebrities in the closet—which is pretty ironic, since she's a lesbian herself. When Ali is assigned a new gay client, Cara Bisset, who's breaking onto the scene with a (hetero) romantic blockbuster, keeping Cara's sexuality under wraps becomes Ali's biggest challenge yet.
Cara is unruly and unpredictable and hates that she has to hide such an integral aspect of her identity. After a series of increasingly close calls, Ali is sent on the worldwide promotional tour for the movie to help keep Cara in line. Instead, she finds herself drawn to Cara's confidence and bravery. For the past year, Ali has been mired in grief after losing her partner in a freak accident. But with Cara, Ali's fears about the world subside, and she begins to question the Hollywood closeting system she’s helped perpetuate.
As Cara's fame continues to rise, both Ali and Cara have to decide which is more maintaining the status quo or risking it all for another chance at love.
On the same day comes Something Cheeky by Thien-Kim Lam, a romance with an Asian cast, a plus-size MC, and demisexual rep.
A steamy new rom-com from the popular author of Happy Endings and Full Exposure, where two friends get the opportunity to work together on their dream project—a Cinderella rock musical with an all-Asian cast—and discover that falling in love was the easy part…
Zoe Tran is living her best life, designing plus-size lingerie at her own award-winning clothing boutique, when suddenly her college best friend reenters her life. Derek Bui is offering a tantalizing chance to recapture a forgotten designing costumes for the musical they created together years ago.
Derek has loved Zoe since freshman year but never had the guts to confess his true feelings. Now he’s directing the Vietnamese Cinderella rock musical they dreamed up in college. The stakes are it’s the first production with an all-Asian cast and creative team at Washington, D.C.’s largest theatre and if they can make it work, they’ll head to Broadway. But his real get Zoe back in his life.
A proud demisexual, Zoe only ever saw Derek as her best friend, but working on their dream production together brings them closer than ever. Sparks ignite under the hot spotlights. But when the theatre’s artistic director pressures Derek to make the musical “less Asian,” he and Zoe clash on whether to stay true to their vision or compromise to keep the production alive.
End the month with a sapphic fae romance by Ali Williams. Never Nix Up is the second book in the Arun Nixes series and releases on the 31st.
Being a Nix is bad enough, what with water pollution and the world's aversion to river demons, but when the River Arun's Goddess turns matchmaker, nothing will be the same again.
Hazel
Art is my passion, my escape from the future my parents carved out for me. I paint her river, and the river goddess Trisantona keeps me free of local Nix politics. I am hers to command...aside from the half hour every day that I spend in Finn's vegan bakery, eating pastries so flaky I could swoon. How can I hide my love for a human from my family when Tristantona is so determined to force me into a Happy Ever After?
Welcome to the Godstouched Universe, where the Gods interfere in the lives of mortals, magic leaks back into our world, and love conquers all.
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