As summer falls into autumn, we love nothing more than to curl under a blanket and catch up on some cosy reading — and with lots of new queer books on the horizon, we may never leave our reading caves again! Check out our most anticipated stories coming this September.
Kicking us off on the 3rd of September, Pick Your Potion by Ephiny Gale offers a mix of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror with lots of sapphic stories!
Magic, mystery, and the macabre collide in Pick Your Potion, a mesmerising collection of 26 genre-blending fantasy, science-fiction, and horror stories from award-winning Australian author Ephiny Gale.
With fiction spanning from 2018 to 2023, the tales in Pick Your Potion are female-centric, mostly queer, and always intriguing.
Within these pages, you’ll find:
• “CurioQueens” (Aurealis Awards finalist for Best Fantasy Short Story): a girl navigates the consequences of playing an addictive and deadly magical board game.
• “Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner” (Aurealis Awards finalist for Best Horror Short Story): a woman struggles to survive a time-loop demon apocalypse while grieving her fiancée.
• “The Orchard” (Aurealis Awards finalist for Best Fantasy Novella): four children and one divorced adult compete for partial ownership of a hidden magical orchard.
• “Rewind” (shortlisted for Brave New Weird: The Best New Weird Horror): a girl takes extreme measures to escape her family’s rituals and the endless afterlife she dreads.
Heartwarming, heart-stopping and heartbreaking in turn, Pick Your Potion offers a full apothecary’s bar of speculative stories to sate the curious reader.
Also on the 3rd, enjoy Luana Ferraz's Party Trick, which promises a spicy polyamorous romance where everybody is queer!
In the first book of the Wild Flowers trilogy, we follow Laurie, an undecided college student grappling with the complexities of love and desire. In her early twenties, that phase where everything seems possible and nothing is out of reach, Laurie finds herself entangled in a web of emotions surrounding her best friend and roommate, Dylan.
Laurie harbors deep, not-so-secret feelings for Dylan, a situation that is only complicated by the reappearance of his long-time girlfriend, Sam. Laurie spends most of her time avoiding Sam and plotting how to make Dylan break up with her, as she deems the girl unworthy of her best friend's commitment. However, as the layers of her animosity toward Sam begin to unravel, Laurie is forced to confront her true feelings, realizing that her disdain may be a mask for a deeper, more forbidden attraction.
As Laurie's internal struggle intensifies, she must reconcile her burgeoning desires with the societal norms and expectations that threaten to keep her true self hidden. With passion and tension simmering beneath the surface, Party Trick explores the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and the undeniable pull of forbidden love in a journey that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the next installment.
If a middle grade historical story is more your style, try Cottonopolis by SF Layzell, which features a sapphic romance. Out on the 5th!
Life isn’t easy for 12 year old mill girl, Nellie Doyle. Growing up in poverty with younger siblings to feed in Little Ireland, Manchester in the 1840s, things only get tougher when her father loses his job and Nellie’s income becomes more vital than ever.
A little magic appears in Nellie’s life in the form of Chloe Valentine, a girl from a nearby workhouse, and a mysterious circus man who gifts Nellie with slips of paper he claims grant wishes. Nellie and Chloe attempt to use their wishes to do good, though they soon learn magic can have unfortunate consequences.
To right the wrongs, Nellie and Chloe pull together in this moving story of magic, first love and finding small moments of joy in hardship.
Scarlett Dunmore's How to Survive a Horror Movie also releases on the 5th. You don't want to miss this LGBTQ+ young adult novel!
Horror movie enthusiast Charley is determined to keep a low profile when she’s enrolled at a girls’ boarding school on a remote island. That is, until someone starts killing off her senior class! From elaborate scare tactics to severed heads in fridges, Charley has found herself at the centre of a teen horror movie. And that's not the only alarming thing that’s happening – she’s now seeing the ghosts of her former classmates!
Haunted by her peers, and with everyone beginning to suspect her, Charley decides to do something about it. She and her only best friend Olive are going to solve the murders and find out who’s killing off the class before graduation. Charley just needs those pesky ghosts to shut up and give her a hand…
A fast-paced tongue-in-cheek YA novel about two friends trying to survive senior year – literally! Perfect for fans of Fear Street, The Midnight Club and the SCREAM franchise.
On the 10th, dive into Elena Abbott's Hunt of Her Own, a paranormal romance with lesbian main characters and side characters, transgender and non-binary side characters, and a bisexual side character.
Danaan Rias is a witch without a coven, forbidden from using her magic. When her magic begins to act out of control, she realizes she can no longer stay hidden from the world. Learning to live her life, she meets Ashly and learns to love too.
Ashly Mercer is a monster hunter. The youngest daughter of a proud family, she’s sacrificed most of her life to the whims of her parents. While fighting for a life on her own terms, she meets Rias and discovers possibilities she never considered.
As fate brings these two women together, their bond is put to the test. Ashly must decide if her life as a hunter is more important than the woman she wants to spend her future with, as Rias learns what it is to truly live, in spite of her past.
Together their paths lead back to the supernatural sanctuary of Terabend.
Also on the 10th comes Eule Grey's Let the Bite One In, a fantasy with a lesbian romance.
Throw a hungry vampire a steak.
Life has never been better for Kitten and Blonde, paranormal investigators and beer enthusiasts. Finally, there’s time for a rest instead of always rushing into the spirit world to solve ghostly disputes. Even Penny, the grumpy office cat, is purrfectly happy.
Everything’s good until the vampire sisters of Whitby fly in for a visit. Enigmatic Em is well known throughout Yorkshire as a defender of women’s rights and for her hefty right hook. But the minute she laments about a lost vampire, things go bats-up. It’s a twisted tale… Is Em thirty or three hundred? One fact is indisputable—she’s hot. Mave pushes aside her doubts and accepts the case. The pay’s good; the perks are even better—everyone likes a day on Whitby Beach. Count Dracula is a fun myth, right?
Wrong. As soon as Mave starts digging, the nightmares begin: a woman trapped on a train, unsettling aromas, a watchful, hooded figure. It sucks. Even butch Lisa gets her spook-on, and Penny accompanies Mave everywhere, as if she senses malice creeping inevitably closer.
Never tell a witch and her familiar no. Mave discovers strength and powers she didn’t know existed. Meanwhile, a timeless love story hurtles to a fearsome battle for the vampire crown and a woman’s soul.
Dracula. Betrayal. Atonement. Sibling love. When the blood hits the fan, will Kitten and Blonde be strong enough for the final Countess-down?
Hate to Love You, a contemporary romance by Shannon O'Connor, is released on the 12th.
Two unlikely roommates, hot summer nights & a forbidden sapphic romance.
Ryleigh:
When Alana suggested I move into the second house on the Lovers Estate, I took her up on it. Even though that meant sharing the space with Alana’s little sister, who happened to hate my guts.
Wrenn:
Of course my older sister just had to open her big mouth and invite her friend to stay with me. It was bad enough having to see her in my sister’s wedding, but to see her at my kitchen table? I thought after we hooked up that it might be the start of something, until the next morning when I woke up alone. Now all she wants to do is talk about what happened and I just want to avoid her.
Ryleigh and Wrenn are sure they still hate each other but as the summer nights heat up, so do their feelings.
On the 13th, grab Thawing the Nightmare by Alyssa Louttit, a YA fantasy with an aroace MC and side characters that are bi, gay, lesbian, and trans.
It's winter time at the Towers of Nine School of Magic Study and Practice. But something lingers in the air hidden amongst all the snow. While Serafina's relationships have survived the whirlwind that was her mother's visit, something has changed. The gears of fate have been set in motion and even Red seems on edge. It seems that what little peace Serafina has carved for herself here is coming to an end. Will her tenuous faith in herself remain once she returns from winter break? Perhaps this dream was a nightmare all along.
Dani Finn is back on the 14th with The World Within, a lesbian and trans fantasy romance with nonbinary and asexual side characters.
Lila’s life is almost perfect.
She’s finally opened her luxury sex shop and wellness center in a rehabilitated ancient temple. The painted faces are lining up to buy the new alchemical vibrators and unwind in the spa and baths. And she gets to work with her two best friends every day.
So why is there an empty place in her chest?
Enter Avisse, the delivery woman, a single mom with a quick smile and eyes that flash from hard to soft in an instant. There’s a spark, and a kiss, and a promise of dinner next time Avisse is in town.
Until then, Lila’s got her hands full with the shop, not to mention the mystic portal she’s discovered in the temple basement. What lies beyond will turn their lives—and the World Within—inside out.
This steamy sapphic fantasy romance stars a transfeminine heroine and includes meditation magic, alchemical trans healthcare, and family lost & found.
The World Within is intended for an adult audience. Content warnings include explicit, consensual sex scenes, occasional dysphoria, societal transphobia, and child peril.
It’s set in the Weirdwater universe and includes some characters from The Living Waters and Unpainted but is meant as a standalone.
Enjoy another sapphic romance on the 17th, this time from Ami Spencer. Binding Bricks includes pansexual and non-binary rep!
When your lost chance reappears…
Grace Khan is disappearing.
Ten years ago, burdened by the devastation of losing her best friend to a life which didn't include her, she got swept up in a marriage she should never have agreed to. Now, with the relationship barely more than a contentious cohabitation, she dedicates all her energy to her son, the only light in her otherwise dull and uninspiring life.
Until across the crowded school playground she sees Mica Davenport. The lost love which has haunted her life with ifs and maybes is back, and their presence relights a fire in Grace that she thought was long extinguished.
While Grace and Mica navigate the potential of rekindling their friendship, they both also have to face the hand those missing years has dealt them. While Mica argues with themself about getting close to Grace again, Grace has to rediscover who she is outside of being a mother. Quieting the voice of self-doubt which has become her constant companion proves harder than she anticipated, especially when the person offering their unwavering support also reminds Grace of her biggest regret…
We can't wait to read The Spiral of Life by Francesca McMahon on the 22nd. Read our interview with Francesca to find out more about this YA fantasy here!
The first lesson Eilean MacAlistair learned in blacksmithing: First, you harden, and then you temper.
Otherwise, your metal will break.
The same is true with life.A few years back, Eilean didn’t temper herself, and she broke someone. Badly. Hospital badly.
Her family had to flee Scotland because of her, but now they’ve returned, and 17-year-old Eilean’s life feels like a forge with the temperature rising around her. Mamó is sick, her family is straining at the seams, and magic is real!
An Otherworld has been calling to her from beneath Loch Lomond.
When she answers, Eilean discovers a world of blacksmiths in ballgowns, cruel cyclopses, and chronically critical kelpies.
Because she didn't have enough problems to deal with already.
Will Eilean be able to temper herself against everything in this strange new world, and withstand the weight of her past? Or will she break once again?
Find out in the first adventure of Eilean in the Otherworld, The Spiral of Life, a young adult fantasy inspired by Celtic folklore.
Dive into the world of superheroes with Diane Billas's YA novel, Superficial, on the 24th. This one features a pansexual and demisexual main character, with pan, lesbian, and non-binary side characters.
Embark on a thrilling adventure with Lea and Jake as they navigate the unexpected twists and turns at the biggest superhero fan convention of the year. When Lea finds herself trapped in an elevator during the event with superstar Jake, also known as The Amazing Boy, they realize something sinister is afoot. With everyone at the convention frozen, including Lea’s friends, Lea and Jake must team up to unravel the mystery behind the villainous acts plaguing Philadelphia. As they race against time, Lea grapples with whom to trust, while Jake uncovers startling truths about his own identity. A pulse-pounding journey filled with friendship, betrayal, and the ultimate quest for justice, will Lea and Jake save the day, or will supervillains prevail? Dive into this gripping tale that will leave you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
If a Greek myth retelling is more your cup of tea, Michelle Kulwicki has got you covered with At the End of the River Styx, also out on the 24th. This YA romance includes bisexual MCs!
Before he can be reborn, Zan has spent 499 years bound in a 500-year curse to process souls for the monstrous Ferryman—and if he fails he dies.
In Portland, Bastian is grieving. He survived a car accident that took his mother and impulse-purchased a crumbling bookstore with the life insurance money.
But in sleep, death’s mark keeps dragging Bastian into Zan’s office. It shouldn’t be a problem to log his soul and forget he ever existed. But when Zan follows Bastian through his memories of grief and hope, Zan realizes that he is not ready for Bastian to die.
The boys borrow time hiding in the memories of the dead while the Ferryman hunts them, and Zan must decide if he’s willing to give up his chance at life to save Bastian—and Bastian must decide if he’s willing to keep living if it means losing Zan.
Another book out on the 24th isThe Lovers by Rebekah Faubion, another sapphic romance.
A second chance at love is in the cards for two women working a stylish California wedding in this charming debut romance. If Kit Larson believes one thing, it’s that the cards never lie. She’s seen it proven time and time again as a tarot reader and mystic influencer. But unfortunately the cards didn’t warn her about her most recent breakup or her parents’ divorce, so when Kit is offered a gig at another influencer’s boho-chic Joshua Tree wedding she accepts for the distraction. And distract it does when she finds out her high school crush, Julia, is the wedding planner. Julia Kelley is her agency’s most sought-after wedding planner, and for a good reason—she's a perfectionist. Control means never showing others the vulnerable, blobby mess she really is deep down inside. Having an ex-girlfriend in the bridal party is a problem, sure, but reconnecting with the beautiful tarot reader who broke her heart as a teenager is so much worse. Kit’s cards once told her that she and Julia were Twin Flames, two halves of the same soul. With wedding events pushing them together, their spark reignites . . . and so does a chance at being lovers.
On the 26th, Elle Machray's Remember, Remember comes out in paperback, and promises an alternative history with m/m and female/gender-nonconforming relationships.
Gunpowder, treason and a plot to destroy the British Empire…
**AN OBSERVER TOP 10 DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2024**
‘Couldn’t put this book down. Beautiful, tender, and ruthless’ HANNAH KANER
‘Luscious and raw’ BRONWYN ELEY
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1770. Delphine lives in the shadows of London: a secret, vibrant world of smugglers, courtesans and small rebellions. Four years ago, she escaped enslavement at great personal cost. Now, she must help her brother Vincent do the same.
While Britain’s highest court fails to administer justice for Vincent, little rebellions are no longer enough. What’s needed is a big, explosive plot – one that will strike at the heart of the transatlantic slave trade. But can one woman, one fuse and one match bring down an Empire?
An incendiary alternative history, Remember, Remember is a gripping story of conscience, conspiracy, queer identity and courage in the face of injustice.
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'One of the most anticipated debuts of the year … Prepare to have a good cry while simultaneously punching the air' STYLIST
'An explosive re-imagining … rich and memorable' STACEY THOMAS
'Characters you love and root for' LUCY BARKER
‘I don’t know if my heart will quite recover’ ELVIN MENSAH
‘Deliciously evocative and atmospheric’ HAYLEY NOLAN
‘Powerful and hopeful . . . I cried buckets!’ JESSICA BULL
Abdi Nazemian's YA novel, Desert Echoes, also releases on the 26th.
From a Stonewall Honor–winning author comes a propulsive, moving story about human resilience and connection. Perfect for fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, The Great Godden and If You Still Recognise Me.
Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. They struggle to understand Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset ... but only Kam returns.
Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash, but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship – and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again.
Also on our radar:
Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist by Ali K. Mulford and K. Elle Morrison | paranormal rom-com | sapphic | out on the 3rd
The View from the Top by Rachel Lacey | romance | sapphic | out on the 3rd
Spells to Forget Us by Aislinn Brophy | YA paranormal romance | sapphic | out on the 17th
Love and Sportsball by Meka James | sports romance | sapphic | out on the 24th
The Dating Countdown by N.G. Peltier | romance | sapphic | out on the 26th
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