Queer SF - April 2025
April 1, 2025
A Drop of Corruption — Robert Jackson Bennett
Genre: Fantasy, mystery thriller
Rep: Bi MMC
Series: Book 2 of Shadow of the Leviathan
The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.
To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.
Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.
Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire’s greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.
Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.
Link: Goodreads
Where Shadows Meet — Patrice Caldwell
Genre: YA fantasy, paranormal
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 1 of Where Shadows Meet
You have no idea what I’ve done for love. Just as you have no idea what you may one day do.
Once long ago, a girl named Favre sacrificed her wings for love. Thana, the young goddess she so willingly gave them up for, sacrificed that same love for power. But everything has a cost.
Favre never got over the loss of her wings. And Thana’s choices led to a life of eternal night, and later, their destruction. Favre has bided her time ever since, waiting for the chance to resurrect the girl she loves who turned her into the creature she hates.
Now, a thousand years later, Leyla, the crown princess of the malichora—an ancient race that survives on human blood—must travel to the Island of the Dead when her best friend is captured during an attack on her nation’s capital. Along with Najja, a fierce, beautiful seer, and the last person she expected to help her, Leyla forges down a dangerous path, intent on saving her friend. But nothing is as it seems. The closer she gets to her goal, the more she risks awakening an ancient evil and destroying everything she holds dear.
Set in the aftermath of a war between vampires, humans, and the gods that created them, Patrice Caldwell’s devastatingly romantic fantasy debut, Where Shadows Meet, centers the heart-wrenching pain of loss and the struggle of self-discovery to ask: do we choose our fates, or do our fates choose us?
Link: Goodreads
Hiraeth — T.D. Cloud & Ambi Sun
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 4 of Tempest
The countdown is on to the long-awaited nuptials of King Ruari and his mortal-turned-fae lover Corbet, and the newly crowned Unseelie Queen Breena finds that the nightmares she’s grown to dread at night have little on the mounting, waking nightmare of her toughest political challenge to creating and presenting a royal gift worthy of her two dearest friends—not to mention one impressive enough to quiet the loudest of her Seelie naysayers.
Thank goodness she’s found help in the form of Shea, the Seelie Court’s unbearably blunt and woefully flirtatious royal artist.
But as friction builds between Breena and her opposition, as the nebulous tension between herself and Shea tightens, the nightmares only seem to grow worse. Her dreams imply terrible secrets about her past, secrets that tie her to Avenir, Aisling, and crimes almost too old to be remembered. Who is Breena? What is Breena? And when love meets duty meets the truth… will it matter to those closest to her?
The much-anticipated final installment in The Tempest Series, Hiraeth serves as the well-deserved (and hard-earned) happy ending for the characters who made it this far. A story of identity, acceptance, and yearning, Hiraeth provides closure to a book series almost a decade in the making while proving, once and for all, that the course of true love never does manage to run smoothly.
Link: Goodreads
Direct Descendant — Tanya Huff
Genre: Cozy horror
Rep: Sapphic
This cozy horror novel set in modern-day Toronto includes phenomenal characters, fantastic writing, and a queer romance—the perfect balance of dark and delightful.
Generations ago, the founders of the idyllic town of Lake Argen made a deal with a dark force. In exchange for their service, the town will stay prosperous and successful, and keep outsiders out. And for generations, it’s worked out great. Until a visitor goes missing, and his wealthy family sends a private investigator to find him, and everything abruptly goes sideways.
Now, Cassidy Prewitt, town baker and part-time servant of the dark force (it’s a family business) has to contend with a rising army of darkness, a very frustrated town, and a very cute PI who she might just be falling for… and who might just be falling for her. And if they can survive their own home-grown apocalypse, they might even just find happiness together.
Queer, cozy, and with a touch of eldritch horror mixed in just for fun, this is a charming love story about a small-town baker, a quick-witted PI, and, yes, an ancient evil.
Link: Goodreads
Faithbreaker — Hannah Kaner
Genre: Epic fantasy
Rep: Bi MC
Series: Book 3 of Fallen Gods
In the epic finale to the #1 internationally bestselling Fallen Gods trilogy that started with Godkiller, the fate of Middren hangs in the balance as mighty gods and mortal heroes clash in a final battle for supremacy.
War has come. The fire god Hseth is leading an unstoppable army south, consuming everything in her path. Middren’s only hope of survival is to unify allies and old foes against a common enemy.
Elo navigates an uneasy alliance with Arren; his friend, his enemy, and his king. Now they each must decide how much they're willing to sacrifice to turn the tides of war.
Meanwhile, Inara joins her mother on their ship, the Silverswift, to seek aid. Still grappling with her powers, Inara must reconcile who she is and where she belongs, while Skediceth has to question if their bond will be enough to keep them safe.
Kissen has no allegiance to the old ways of Middren. But, as she tries to find her family, she is forced to question what, and whose, future she is fighting for.
Link: Goodreads
Of Abrasion — S.J. Lee
Genre: Military science fiction
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 2 of Altered Earth
Miriam Tanner is in shock. After finding the severed arm of the woman she rejected despite her growing feelings, the Special Operations Group combat medic spirals while genetically engineered Altered refugees flood her human city. As tensions between the two groups escalate, her world shifts again with the nightmare news that the Apostates, Altered terrorists, have overthrown their government.
In attempts to ensure humankind’s survival, Miriam and her team embark on missions to turn the tide of a looming war. But as the stakes rise higher, she’s in danger of not only losing herself, but the fight for victory.
Can Miriam and Echo change the course of the war?
Of Abrasion is the thrilling second book in the Altered Earth dystopian military speculative fiction series. If you like complex characters, fast-paced twists and turns, and human dynamics, then you’ll love S.J. Lee’s descent into chaos.
Link: Goodreads
Reluctant Witch — Melissa Marr
Genre: Fantasy romance
Rep: F/F
Series: Book 2 of A Course in Magic
After discovering she’s a witch and being whisked away to the magical land of Crenshaw, Ellie wants nothing more than to spend time with her new wife, Prospero, who has magically altered Ellie’s memories to convince her of exactly that.
Prospero herself is guilt-wracked after erasing Ellie’s memories and being forced into a sham marriage with the woman she loves for real. But Crenshaw is dying, poisoned by Prospero’s enemies who want their community to return to the human world, and she will do anything to save it.
The most powerful witch in anyone’s memory is in Prospero’s home, in her bed, with no idea that she’s a prisoner there... yet.
As the very fabric of their world is being destroyed, Ellie and Prospero must find a way to work together and save the world, and themselves.
Link: Goodreads
Unsex Me Here — Aurora Mattia
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Trans MC
Unsex Me Here is a prayer book tied together by the strings of a corset. Glamorous ramblers, haunted by the sense of another world drawing near, wander in and out of its inexplicable twilight. From a West Texas town with a supernatural past to a stalactite cavern in the birthplace of Aphrodite, from hotel rooms to gardens to the far horizon of a thought, they seek the source of the disturbance in their minds. Heartbreak is not so far from rapture; holy babble is another kind of gossip. Every pilgrimage is as dense with symbolism as it is refined by desire.
Link: Goodreads
The Coven Tendency — Zoe Hana Mikuta
Genre: YA fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
Zoe Hana Mikuta delivers a bloody and unrelenting fantasy about young witches dangling on the edge of love and obsession, of magic and madness, of life and death (and death and death and death).
Just like her mother and her mother’s mother, 18-year-old Vanity Adams is destined to lead a lavish life under the patronship of the Museum, someday taking her place as its premiere necromantic Spectacle and the centerpiece of their weekly soirees thrown for the City’s elite.
But until that day, Vanity (and the other young witches of the Museum) is isolated from the outside world and purged of her magic—magic being particularly unstable for teenagers and often leading to antisocial conduct, mood swings, bloodlust, delusions, and, most concerning, a habitual, violent obsession with one another.
To all of this, Vanity thinks: Well, whatever. Better than being confined to the Sanatorium with the less fortunate witches, imprisoned in a chemically induced coma as her blood is harvested to make World, the City’s favorite designer drug. At least she’ll be dead someday, there’s always that. And at least the Museum has Arrogance, Vanity’s twin sister, who just might remember how to do magic, and who just might be where our story begins…
Link: Goodreads
Holy Terrors — Margaret Owen
Genre: YA fantasy
Rep: M/F; aspec MCs
Series: Book 3 of Little Thieves
It’s been nearly two years since Vanja brought down the cult she started, and she’s still paying the price. As the Pfennigeist, she bucks the law in order to help the desperate and haunt the corrupt all across the empire—and no matter what, she works alone.
But an impossible killer is tearing through royalty, and leaving Vanja’s signature red penny on every victim. Suddenly the Pfennigeist is no longer a folk hero but a nightmare. When even the Blessed Empress falls, the empire’s seven royal families must gather to elect her successor within a matter of weeks, or risk the collapse of reality itself… even though it puts every house in the killer’s sights.
Vanja tells herself she’s wading into the royalty’s vicious games only to save the name she made, and the loved ones also in jeopardy. But the Order of Prefects has also put their sharpest official on the case, the one who swore he’d always find Vanja—until she broke his heart. Journeyman Prefect Emeric Conrad may no longer be the boy Vanja knew, but they’ll have to work together one last time to have any chance of surviving the deadly catastrophe coming for them all.
With bloody conspiracy, sinister magic, and old adverseries closing in, it will take everything Vanja has to save not just the people she loves, but the future she’s fought for. In this thrilling final chapter of the Indie Next series Little Thieves, New York Times-bestselling author Margaret Owen shows us the pain and beauty of choosing which demons to face, and which to forgive.
Link: Goodreads
Deadstream — Mar Romasco-Moore
Genre: YA horror, paranormal
Rep: Queer
Rear Window meets The Ring in this sinister YA thriller, in which a teen girl witnesses the livestreamed murder of a popular online streamer by a paranormal entity… and could be its next victim.
After surviving a car accident that claimed the life of her best friend, Teresa is now terrified to leave the safety of her bedroom. Since then, her only solace and window to the outside world has been the online community she found through streaming.
But one night, the safe world Teresa created starts to break down. A shadowy figure appears in the background of her favorite streamer’s video, and his behavior mysteriously changes over the next few days before he dies in front of thousands of viewers. Teresa finds herself at the center of a life-and-death investigation as the world tries to figure out what or who this figure could be… especially as it begins appearing in the other people’s streams, compelling them to “open the door” and let it in—including Teresa’s own. In order to save herself and the rest of the internet from this relentless entity, Teresa must venture outside of the mental and physical walls she’s created. But will she be able to conquer her fears before anyone else loses their life?
Link: Goodreads
King’s Legacy — L.C. Rosen
Genre: YA magical realism
Rep: Gay MC
Series: Book 2 of Tennessee Russo
Tennessee Russo has done more difficult things than this before.
He’s evaded traps, found lost treasures, become kind of famous, gotten over a bad relationship, and survived all that. Filming a new season of his artifact-hunting reality show for a major international streaming service should be easy, right? His archeologist dad even said Tennessee is in charge of what artifacts they go after. Plus, Ten’s awesome best friend (and sometimes more), Gabe, gets to come along on the adventure.
But here’s the thing: Tennessee wants to hunt down a long-lost gift that King David gave Jonathan. Queer history, especially of Biblical figures, isn’t easy for some people to believe or accept. Tennessee has done his research, and he knows where the clues point. But what happens when the producer of the show threatens to misrepresent not just Ten’s ideas, but his identity?
To tell the true story of his queer legacy, Tennessee will have to race through Rome and Paris, stand up to the actual Vatican, crack ancient puzzles, and maybe hardest of all, reclaim the power of being his authentic self. Along the way, author L.C. Rosen delivers the excitement, romance, and magic of a wildly fun adventure.
Link: Goodreads
April 3, 2025
A Ballad for Slayers & Monsters — Rita A. Rubin
Genre: Fantasy, paranormal
Rep: Sapphic
Kas of Veldenier is a Slayer, a travelling monster hunter for hire.
Claudia of Trulio is half-human, half-vampyric. Half monster.
They should be nothing more than enemies. But when the long-lost remnant of the dragon Ombral turns up, and with it the possibility of unleashing the dragons to wreak havoc on Vil Tresar as they did long ago, Kas and Claudia’s paths converge. Through a shared desire to keep the dragons from returning, they embark on a quest to see the remnant destroyed. Along the way, they will encounter fearsome monsters as well as a burgeoning desire for each other. Can a monster and a monster slayer truly find love together?
Pursuing them from the shadows is Serisa, a vampyric who wishes to see the world burn. And she will need the remnant to make that wish a reality…
Link: Goodreads
April 4, 2025
Call Forth the Moonlight — Z.M. Celestaire
Genre: Fantasy, ecopunk
Rep: M/M
Deubrise is a land blessed by the breath of the slumbering gods. Magíq lives within nature, powerful and beautiful. Few else can harness it besides the gryphons that reside in the mountains near Nico De Falco’s home, and the rare magíqon like Nico’s little sister. But magíqon are shunned and feared by modern society.
To protect himself from such treatment, Dr. Ackerleigh Sebring keeps his magíq a secret. Yet his “radical” teachings of magíqal history gets him fired from Ravensbourne University. Desperate, he finds a gamekeeper job caring for an imprisoned gryphon. Finally, he can be his whole self.
That is, until Nico follows a misguided impulse and frees the gryphon, injuring Ackerleigh accidentally.
Their fates—and feelings—become entangled in their determination to protect the sacred magíq of the gryphon. Ackerleigh and Nico will stop at nothing for the sake of liberation.
Link: Goodreads
Falconguard — Robert Winter
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 2 of Falconsaga
The Norns have prophesied that Altair and his huldufólk guardian Magnús face a glorious destiny or a hideous death.
Together, Magnús and Altair have already survived near-lethal attacks, but the dangers ahead of them grow ever darker. The Yule Cat, a man-eating trollwife and her brood of dangerous children, ghosts, and other horrors out of legend chase the elf, the human, and their cohorts across the north of Iceland. Time is running out to break the sorcery that keeps Altair from learning who—and what—he really is. The invasion foretold by the Norns looms ever closer, and Magnús knows he is fated either to lose Altair, or to meet his own doom.
The stakes rise as they finally begin to understand the danger to all of Iceland posed by the Black Priest. But they cannot waiver. In the face of betrayal and murder, Magnús of the Hidden Ways must guard Altair the Falcon, or all is lost.
An elf afraid of opening his heart, and a human who is heir to an awesome power: Only by embracing their shared destiny can they save Iceland… and each other.
Link: Goodreads
April 6, 2025
Storm and Sea — Tereza Kane
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 1 of Storm and Sea Saga
Atreus has carved out a quiet, stable life among humans on the island of Baia Vita, earning their respect while hiding a dangerous he is Mer. Exiled by his own people for the color of his scales, he has learned to navigate life as an outsider, finding solace in the rhythms of the fishing village. But his fragile peace is shattered when Nyel, a naïve and determined runaway Mer fleeing the suffocating traditions of his home, lands on the island.
Nyel’s arrival disrupts everything Atreus has built. Though they clash at first, their growing friendship—and the flicker of something more—forces both men to confront the prejudices and traditions that shaped them. But their personal struggles are interrupted when a powerful criminal family begins stripping Baia Vita’s bay of fish, threatening the village’s survival. As starvation looms, Atreus and Nyel must join forces to save the humans they’ve both come to care for. Yet, with their secrets on the verge of exposure, they must tread carefully. After all, the very people they hope to protect might destroy them first.
Storm and Sea is a heart-wrenching novel by Tereza Kane. If you enjoy found family, mythical creatures, and LGBTQ+ representation in fantasy, you’ll love this captivating tale of acceptance, betrayal, and finding a home in the unlikeliest people.
Link: Goodreads
April 7, 2025
The Misfit Mage and His Devilish Desires — MN Bennet
Genre: Paranormal romance
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 3 of Diabolic Romance
Wally and Bez have survived a city bent on slaughtering them and a vengeful demon stalking them inside a dimension-traveling villa. Now, these two must enter Hell itself in order to save the world. Well, all the worlds, actually.
Life in their private oasis has allowed Wally time to train his newly acquired devil’s essence. Bez has also learned to accept the calmer elements of the day-to-day without fear of looming threats. But news of Wally’s Diabolic ascension has traveled, and now, he’s invited to step into the Hell realm of one of the mightiest devils to reign over the universe. If he declines the invitation, it means signing a death sentence for everyone in their world as devils don’t take kindly to rejection. But one misstep in Hell will cost Wally and Bez their lives.
Bez refuses to lose Wally. He’d much rather see the world burn than risk Wally’s life, but since his insufferable boyfriend insists on doing the so-called right thing, Bez serves as his guide in Hell. There’s not much Bez can do against a devil, but he can protect Wally from saying or doing something that’ll offend. In order to survive, they’ll have to flip their roles: Wally will have to walk into Hell with the confidence of a devil and take charge in a way he’s never done before, while Bez will have to hold back his impulsivity and strategize their way through this deadly party.
Link: Goodreads
April 8, 2025
No Such Thing as Duty — Lara Elena Donnelly
Genre: Historical fantasy
Rep: Queer
In the waning days of World War One, William Somerset Maugham—novelist, playwright, and spy—is sent to Romania to serve allied interests in the fight against Austro-Hungary while dying of tuberculosis. His handler sets him to recruit mysterious Carpathian nobleman Walter Roşu to the cause. But Roşu is more interested in William than the war, and William struggles to fulfill his duty in the face of death and desire.
Link: Neon Hemlock
Don’t Sleep With the Dead — Nghi Vo
Genre: Historical fantasy, retelling
Rep: Queer
Series: Standalone in established universe
From award-winning author Nghi Vo comes Don't Sleep with the Dead, a standalone companion novella to The Chosen and the Beautiful, her acclaimed reimagining of The Great Gatsby.
Nick Carraway―paper soldier and novelist―has found a life and a living watching the mad magical spectacle of New York high society in the late thirties. He’s good at watching, and he’s even better at pretending: pretending to be straight, pretending to be human, pretending he’s forgotten the events of that summer in 1922.
On the eve of the second World War, however, Nick learns that someone’s been watching him pretend and that memory goes both ways. When he sees a familiar face at a club one night, it quickly becomes clear that dead or not, damned or not, Jay Gatsby isn’t done with him.
In all paper there is memory, and Nick’s ghost has come home.
Link: Goodreads
April 9, 2025
Motes of Inspiration — Claudie Arseneault
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Asexual, aromantic, non-binary, lesbian
Series: Book 5 of The Chronicles of Nerezia
Fate and friendship brought Horace, Rumi, Keza, and Aliyah together in Rumi’s sentient self-propelling wagon. They seek the forest haunting Aliyah’s dream, hoping for answers about the elf’s past and unique abilities—but first, they need to traverse a world haunted by Fragments, dangerous shards that can possess travellers and react to Aliyah’s presence.
They’ve reached Virze, a marvel of art and engineering and a city in which all acts of creation are beloved. A perfect occasion to explore and rest before the next leg of their journey… except that Rumi desperately wants to avoid his hometown and the demons of his past.
When the Wagon crew realises half of those might be fears of his own making, however, they refuse to leave. But between the curse that ran him out of town and the source of his engineering skills, Rumi has been keeping even more secrets than they’d expected. He’ll need all their support to face the loved ones left behind and prove to all, himself first and foremost, what he is truly capable of.
Link: Books2Read
April 15, 2025
Chaos King — Kacen Callender
Genre: YA fantasy
Rep: Trans, queer, polyamory
Series: Book 2 of Infinity Alchemist
Ever since he rose up against his father and saved New Anglia from destruction, Ash has been struggling to adapt to his new life. He has nightmares every night, haunted by strange black orbs and his screaming dead mother. Ash is sure she’s trying to warn him that the world is still in danger, and becomes determined to find a way to speak to her again―but communicating with the dead isn’t easy, even for an alchemist as powerful as Ash.
It doesn’t help that violent anti-alchemist sentiment is spreading across New Anglia. When Ash is captured by a radical group, inspired by his father’s legacy, he must decide if alchemist rights can be trusted in the hands of the Houses, along with his partners Callum and Ramsay―or if Ash must follow the path his father laid for him, and become the leader of an alchemist revolution.
Can Ash keep his relationships together and stop the world from falling apart?
Link: Goodreads
Somadina — Akwaeke Emezi
Genre: YA fantasy
Rep: Queer
From the National Book Award finalist and author of Pet comes a novel set in a magical West African world, about a teen girl who must save her missing twin while learning to navigate her own terrifying new powers.
Somadina and her twin brother, Jayaike, are practically the same person: they finish each other’s sentences and make each other whole. When the twins come of age, their magical gifts begin to develop, but while Jayaike’s powers enchant, Somadina’s cause fear to ripple through her town.
Always an outsider, Somadina now faces blatant—and dangerous—hostility. And things go from bad to worse when her brother—the one person she trusted—vanishes. Somadina knows that no matter the dangers, she must track him down. Even if it means entering the Sacred Forest. Even if it means grueling, otherworldly travel she may not survive. Even if it means finding the hidden places where those closest to the spirit world don’t dare to go. Does Somadina have the strength—within both her body and her soul—for the trying journey ahead?
National Book Award finalist Akwaeke Emezi masterfully weaves a tale of family, identity, and the power of the past, in a world where the extraordinary is ordinary.
Link: Goodreads
Notes From a Regicide — Isaac Fellman
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Queer; trans MC
Notes from a Regicide is a heartbreaking story of trans self-discovery with a rich relatability and a science-fictional twist from award-winning author Isaac Fellman.
When your parents die, you find out who they really were.
Griffon Keming’s second parents saved him from his abusive family. They taught him how to be trans, paid for his transition, and tried to love him as best they could. But Griffon’s new parents had troubles of their own – both were deeply scarred by the lives they lived before Griffon, the struggles they faced to become themselves, and the failed revolution that drove them from their homeland. When they died, they left an unfillable hole in his heart.
Griffon’s best clue to his parents’ lives is in his father’s journal, written from a jail cell while he awaited execution. Stained with blood, grief, and tears, these pages struggle to contain the love story of two artists on fire. With the journal in hand, Griffon hopes to pin down his relationship to these wonderful and strange people for whom time always seemed to be running out.
In Notes from a Regicide, a trans family saga set in a far-off, familiar future, Isaac Fellman goes beyond the concept of found family to examine how deeply we can be healed and hurt by those we choose to love.
Link: Goodreads
The Gentleman and His Vowsmith — Rebecca Ide
Genre: Historical fantasy, mystery
Rep: M/M
Set in Regency England, The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide is a queer historical fantasy of magic, murder, high heat and humour.
Lord Nicholas Monterris, the last remaining heir of a crumbling ducal house, must marry to save his family from complete decline. His father chooses Lady Leaf Serral, eldest daughter of his greatest rival, at which point Nic is sure it can’t get any worse. Until he learns the head negotiator is to be Dashiell sa Vare, an old flame he has neither forgiven nor forgotten, a man their rigid class structure forbids him to love.
Locked in the mouldering grandeur of Monterris Court (a house more haunting manifestation of dynastic ambition and ancestral guilt than home), the first dead body is troubling. The second, a warning that someone doesn’t want the contract to go ahead. But while Nic and his wife-to-be team up to banter their way through a secret murder investigation, it’s Dashiell he can’t stop thinking about. What would be worse? To love and have to let go, or to wholly deny the yearning of one’s heart forever?
Perfect for fans of Freya Marske and Alexis Hall, The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide is the perfect blend of gothic and romantic—including a locked room murder mystery, forbidden love and otherworldly automatons.
Link: Goodreads
The Lie That Binds Them — Matthew Ward
Genre: Epic fantasy
Rep: Sapphic MC
Series: Book 3 of the Soulfire Saga
Set in a world of ancient myth and dangerous magic, The Lie That Binds Them is the heart-pounding conclusion to Matthew Ward's Soulfire Saga, where a thief dares to seek vengeance against an immortal king—and finds herself on the path to war.
The kingdom of Khalad is ruled by a new and brutal despot and its rebels scattered across its vast lands. With folk hero Vallant missing, Kat is now the leader of the rebellion.
When an assassination attempt rattles the kingdom, Kat turns to a powerful new ally for help. The cost of victory will be high, but time is running out to save Khalad.
Link: Goodreads
April 17, 2025
Some Body Like Me — Lucy Lapinska
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Sapphic
As the world falls apart around them, piece by piece, Abigail Fuller spends humanity’s final days looking after her husband David.
But that’s not true, not really. Abigail isn’t David’s wife. She’s not even human. She’s a replacement, built in the image of the real Abigail, who died sixteen years ago.
When the law changes in three weeks, Abigail won’t need to be David’s wife any longer. She won’t need to be a woman, or a human, if she doesn’t want to be. She’s going to be able to find out exactly who she is.
But if she’s not Abigail Fuller, who is she?
Both tender and powerful, Some Body Like Me explores the boundaries of sexuality and the indefinable human capacity for love at the end of the world. Perfect for fans of Emily St John Mandel, Kazuo Ishiguro and Sequoia Nagamatsu.
Link: Goodreads
April 20, 2025
Venom Bound — I.S. Belle
Genre: YA paranormal romance
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 2 of Blood Tethered
“Kiss me.”
“It’d hurt.”
“It hurts when you don’t kiss me.”
Theo Fairgood is still the golden boy, even if he doesn’t have a heartbeat these days.
Kade Renfield is still trouble, even if he’s too busy getting his blood sucked to cause much havoc.
It’s a new year, and things are looking up. The boys are on track to solve the mystery of Theo’s transformation and the strange link tying them together. What’s more, they’ve grown reluctantly fond of each other since the horrifying events of last year, and they’re getting worse at hiding it. For the first time in their lives, they have somebody they can truly be themselves around. The walls both boys built around themselves are crumbling down.
Then tragedy strikes. Theo’s walls fly right back up, more determined than ever to uncover his sire and take him down once and for all. But to figure out who his sire is, they’ll have to decide who they can trust. Enemies lurk in the shadows. Old friends lend a hand or hack it off at the wrist.
In the midst of this new chaos, Kade finds himself plagued by visions of the last people locked into this burning ritual. It’s a strangely familiar story, and it doesn’t have a happy ending.
It wasn’t an accident that Theo was turned into a vampire. It’s not a coincidence that his touch burns Kade. This story started a long time ago, and the next chapter might destroy them both...
Link: Goodreads
April 22, 2025
The Corruption of Hollis Brown — K. Ancrum
Genre: YA romantic fantasy thriller
Rep: M/M
From acclaimed author K. Ancrum comes a queer romantic thriller in which the lives of Hollis, a boy in search of meaning, and Walt, a spirit with unfinished business, collide when Walt takes possession of Hollis’s body… and maybe his heart. For fans of Adam Silvera and Aiden Thomas!
Hollis Brown is stuck. Born to a Blue-Collar American Dream, Hollis lives in a rotting small town where no one can afford to leave. Hollis’s only bright spots are his two best friends, cool girls Annie and Yulia, and the thrill of fighting his classmates.
As if his circumstances couldn’t get worse, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger named Walt results in a frightening trap. After unknowingly making a deal at the crossroads, Hollis finds himself losing control of his body and mind, falling victim to possession. Walt, the ghost making a home inside him, has a deep and violent history rooted in the town Hollis grew up in and he has unfinished business to take care of.
As Walt and Hollis begin working together to put Walt’s spirit to rest, an unspeakable bond forms between them, and the boys begin falling for one another in unexpected ways. But, it’s only a matter of time before Hollis’s best friends begin to notice that something about Hollis isn’t quite… right.
With the threat of a long overdue exorcism looming before them, will Walt and Hollis be able to protect their love and undo the curse that turned their town from a garden of possibility into a place where dreams go to die?
Link: Goodreads
Saint Death’s Herald — C.S.E Cooney
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Pansexual MC; queerplatonic F/F; secondary F/M/F
Series: Book 2 of Saint Death
Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones is the necromancer that Doédenna, god of Death, has been praying for.
True, she’s always been more interested in books and pastries than in creating abominations and raising armies of the undead. But still—she lives to love and serve Saint Death. And damn it duodecifold, Saint Death needs her! Lanie has many talents—her powers of death magic are growing more complex and stranger every day—but first and foremost is her ability to lay the unrestful dead to their unending slumber.
Unfortunately for Lanie, the most restless of these “unrestful dead” happens to be her own great-grandfather, the powerful necromancer Irradiant Stones. After having escaped from his temporary prison, he is possessing people from all over the realms, sucking them dry of their magic and discarding their bodies when there’s nothing left to take, growing stronger and stronger all the time. His ultimate goal? To return to the icy country of Skakmaht, where he died, and finish conquering the North for his own. First the North—then the world! After Irradiant takes care of his pesky great-granddaughter Lanie, that is: the only person on Athe who can stop him.
Lanie must embark on an epic road trip across the realms to stop him. With her unlikely companions—an undead flying tiger rug, her Falcon Defender best friend, and a former-foe-turned-ally who has every reason to hate her family—Lanie must first journey across Leech to parlay with its Witch Queen and her shapechanger subjects. Then she’ll venture into Umrys-by-the-Sea, where gutter children are going missing at an alarming rate and the King’s Saint is too afraid to leave the palace. Always one step behind her devious grandfather, Lanie will have to breach the heart of Skakmaht itself to stop him before he possesses a body that will make him well-nigh invincible: that of Samu Skrathmandan, the most powerful sky wizard Skakmaht has ever known.
Link: Goodreads
Advocate — Daniel M. Ford
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 3 of The Warden
Aelis de Lenti is back on her home turf, but it’s not quite as welcoming as she remembered....
Recalled from Lone Pine to investigate claims of murder by magic against her mentor—legendary Warden Bardun Jacques—Aelis takes to the streets of the grand city of Lascenise, and plumbs the deepest secrets of the Lyceum to clear his name. Certain of her success, she doesn’t count on thieves, subterranean labyrinths, or the assassins that dog her steps from the moment she leaves her tower.
Behind all of it lurks a ring of unknown wizards who can seemingly reach anyone with their magic. Without knowing who she can trust, Aelis must gather what allies she can to unravel the web of intrigue, murder, smuggling, and theft originating in the halls of magic power. With an old friend from her college days, a war-haunted gnome thief-catcher, and the advice of her imprisoned advisor, Aelis races to save lives and expose a conspiracy that seeks to change the face of the world.
Link: Goodreads
Eat the Ones You Love — Sarah Maria Griffin
Genre: Dark contemporary fantasy, horror
Rep: Queer
A twisted, tangled story about workplace love affairs, and plants with a taste for human flesh.
During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Shell Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to make a change and bring some good into her life, so she goes inside and takes a chance. Shell realizes right away that flowers are just the good thing she's been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine.
An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody he eats – can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves.
This is a story about possession, and monstrosity, and working retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow.
Link: Goodreads
Errant Wings — S. Jean
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: M/M
Wings aren’t supposed to be this much trouble...
On their sixteenth birthday, foundlings grow wings—either angel wings or devil wings—and their value to the city depends on which one.
To Asher, devil wings mean the freedom to do what he pleases: using the city as a canvas for his graffiti art; being with his loving, devil-winged boyfriend; riding the dark, glittering streets without a care in the world.
But when his wings finally sprout, already three years late, they’re angel wings. Now, the city expects his obedience. His freedom. His everything.
Bowing to the system and being a proper angel wing is the last thing Asher wants, except now with every plan he’s ever made in pieces, he doesn’t know what to do or where he belongs. He’d rather burn it all to the ground, but that’s not an option…
Or is it?
Link: Goodreads
When the Tides Held the Moon — Venessa Vida Kelley
Genre: Historical fantasy, romance
Rep: M/M
In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale.
Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River.
More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.
Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both.
Link: Goodreads
Iron Tongue of Midnight — Brittany N. Williams
Genre: YA fantasy
Rep: Queer, polyamory
Series: Book 3 of the Forge & Fracture Saga
It all ends with the Fae Queen.
Unrestrained by the fractured Pact and its fragile peace, Titanea and her forces grow stronger each day. The Fae openly terrorize London while King James hides in the countryside, protected by the children of the Orisha. Seventeen-year-old Joan Sands must banish the Fae, just as her ancestor did nearly two thousand years ago, but first she’ll have to unravel the mystery behind the original pact.
Armed with a magical sword and the power to manipulate and create metal, Joan gathers allies and enemies in unlikely places as the world she knew slips further away. But the children of the Orisha struggle to wield their magic for war, and Joan clashes with the elders who refuse to trust the fate of the world to a child, regardless of her Orisha blessings. All while her two loves, Nick and Rose, grow closer to each other, a prospect more momentous and alluring than Joan ever could have imagined.
When a spirit bent on annihilating all who worship the Orisha is unleashed, Joan discovers the unsettling truth behind the original pact. Faced with the lies of the past, the frightening power of the Fae, and a mortal king whose dangerous whims hold her community hostage, Joan must Is the old world worth saving or is it time to forge something frighteningly new?
Lauded by Locus Magazine as “vividly expressive, riotously queer, beautifully Black, and wildly creative” this thrilling story delivers an unforgettable finale—and a heroine unlike any other.
Link: Goodreads
Down in the Sea of Angels — Khan Wong
Genre: Dystopian fantasy, time travel
Rep: Queer
An intense and thoughtful time-travelling dystopian fantasy where three individuals, psychically linked through time, fight enslavement, exploitation, and environmental collapse. A great read for fans of Emily St. John Mandel.
In the year 2106, climate change has altered the world, transforming borders, cities, and socioeconomic structures. Additionally, a cosmic event known as the “Bloom” has awakened psionic abilities in a small percentage of the population.
One such individual is Maida Sun, who possesses the ability to know the history of objects she touches. In the course of her new job with a cultural recovery project in San Francisco, she comes across an object that plunges her into the lives of Li Nuan, a sex-trafficked girl in a Chinatown brothel in 1906 longing for freedom, and Nathan, a tech-designer and hedonist in 2006 seeking greater purpose.
When a chance encounter with a political leader’s watch reveals a plan to eliminate psions—people like her—Maida must find a way to stop his agenda before it gains traction.
Flashes of the past and glimpses of the future provide Maida, Li Nuan and Nathan clues to help their own situations as they, each in their own way, confront exploitation and fight for liberation while living under the specter of environmental collapse.
Link: Goodreads
Tales From Beyond the Rainbow — Pete Jordi Wood
Genre: MG fairy tale anthology
Rep: Queer
Epic stories of love, adventure, and resilience featuring LGBTQ+ narratives and heroes, published as a collection of queer classics for the first time.
These are the fairy tales that history forgot—or concealed. Ten tales in which gender is fluid and where queer stories can have a happy ending. Some are rare examples of LGBTQ+ folklore, like “The Dog and the Sailor,” which features a male protagonist who meets his own handsome prince. These stories include folklore from Europe, Asia, and the African savanna. Vibrant illustrations from an international group of artists enhance the multicultural identities showcased here, including artists from India, Germany, Cape Verde, Russia, Canada, China, and more. They remind readers that folk tales are our tales, and invite them to be whoever they want to be. Researcher Pete Jordi Wood has combed through generations of history to collect and adapt these ten unforgettable stories celebrating LGBTQ+ themes and characters.
This title is already included on the Puffin Classics list, indicating its importance in preserving the ancient folklore of queer histories.
Link: Goodreads
April 25, 2025
A Body Not Her Own — Eileen Farren
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 1 of The Perennial Cycle
Every generation, Eos is reborn. Every generation, she dies at his hand.
The women of Nora are dying. Hunted, for over two hundred years, by an immortal man seeking to kill the Goddess Eos and her reincarnations.
As the current reincarnation, Enid’s death was predicted. Being brought back to life wasn’t. Caught between the weight of her past lives and her second chance, Enid finds herself tasked with the impossible: kill the Immortal Man and end his violent hundred-year streak before countless more women are slain.
To ensure her survival, she is assigned a bodyguard—the flirty and infuriating Elven woman named Locke—to guard her on her journey and see her assignment through to the end. An ancient rage is simmering under the surface of her skin, demanding blood. Death. Vengeance. Enid only has to stay alive long enough to satiate it.
Link: Goodreads
Children of Solitude — Michael G. Williams
Genre: Cosmic horror
Rep: Gay MC
This Appalachian cosmic horror novel tells the story of a gay man who must return to his ancestral home in the mountains of Western North Carolina after his mother’s death to clean it out and sell it off. Navigating feelings of grief and anger, he finds her house is haunted and her nosy neighbors always watching him—and one of those neighbors happens to be his favorite adult performer. While he develops a new romance and oversees his mother’s funeral, tension builds as the characters’ circumstances go from ominously creepy to terrifying.
Michael G. Williams is a queer native of Appalachia, winner of the 2020 Manly Wade Wellman Award, and cohosts Arcane Carolinas, a podcast about folklore, myths, and modern weird in North Carolina, South Carolina, and the wider region. This LGBTQ Southern horror story is set in a place exactly like the author’s mountain hometown in the Southeastern United States with shades of Lovecraft. Packed with regional folklore, original bluegrass compositions, and occult horror, it weaves an unforgettable ghost story featuring seduction, cults, murder, sacrifice, and paranormal phenomena.
Link: Goodreads
April 27, 2025
Price of a Thousand Blessings Volume 1 — Ginn Hale
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 1 of Price of a Thousand Blessings
Cymin’s final tournament representing the East Deity for Lux Temple promises to be thrilling and bittersweet. After it’s done, all his skill and power must feed a Storm Tower to protect the world from fei’lux storms. But before his conscription, he intends to put on a dazzling show and enjoy his last glorious outing.
The streets are thronged with cheering crowds, and the grand procession shimmers with spells. Film stars and government ministers claim the best seats in the stands. And most exciting of all, the legendary Wraiths of Saigrath promise to attend this Spring Exhibition after centuries of absence from the world. Cymin can’t wait to meet them.
But when disaster strikes the celebrations, Cymin risks his own life and destroys a priceless artifact to prevent a massacre. His action not only plunge him into the battle between foreign provocateurs and his own nation’s spies, but captures the attention of the mythical Wraiths--one of whom has been searching for him in secret for hundreds of years.
Link: Goodreads
April 29, 2025
Manzakar — R. Laham
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Pansexual, queer
Series: Book 1 of The Slave-Soldier Series
The Gohari are a race of nomadic, pansexual people with inherent magic who are suffering at the hands of the Kingdom of Anzor’s angry god, Cenk. By harnessing the nomads’ skills in horsemanship and archery, Anzor has built a powerful, elite class of slave-soldiers who are above and beyond any other kingdom’s the Manzakars.
Sold into slavery to save his nomad family from starving, Tikran becomes a Manzakar believing that they are warriors of justice. However, as he campaigns in Gohar, the land of his birth, he realizes that not only is Anzor using the Manzakars to persecute the nomads, but it’s also exploiting the Gohari by enslaving them and stealing their magic—the Essence—to be the most powerful kingdom on the Continent. As the most celebrated Manzakar in Anzor and the king’s personal bodyguard, Tikran must decide if he’s willing to forfeit his dreams of glory—as well as his own life and the lives of those he loves—to stand up for what he believes in and fight for the oppressed people of Gohar.
Link: Goodreads
Love at Second Sight — F.T. Lukens
Genre: YA romantic fantasy
Rep: M/M
When a teen has an unexpected vision about a future murder, he must juggle newfound interest from the supernatural community with trying to prevent the murder from happening in this new romantic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author F.T. Lukens.
Tired of being known as the artsy oddball, fifteen-year-old Cam Reynolds hopes to fly under the radar when he changes high schools as a sophomore. It shouldn’t be too hard, considering he’s a human going to school with kids who have super-cool paranormal powers, like his best friend and witch, Al, and longtime werewolf crush, Miguel.
Then Cam has a psychic glimpse of the future in front of most of the student body, seeing a gruesomely murdered teen girl from the point of view of the killer. When Cam comes to, he knows two things: someone he goes to school with is a future murderer and his life is about to change. No longer a mere human but a clairvoyant, one of the rarest of supernatural beings, Cam finds himself at the center of attention for the first time.
As the most powerful supernatural factions in the city court Cam and his gift, he’ll have to work with his friends, both old and new, to figure out who he can trust. Because the clock is ticking, and Cam and his friends must identify the girl in the vision, find her potential killer, and prevent the murder from happening. Or the next murder Cam sees might be his own.
Link: Goodreads
Awakened — A.E. Osworth
Genre: Science fiction fantasy
Rep: Queer; non-binary MC; other trans characters
A coven of trans witches battles an evil AI in the magical coming-of-middle-age romp about love, loss, drag shows, and late capitalism.
On a morning much like any other, 30-something queer Brooklynite Wilder makes a miraculous discovery: suddenly, as if by magic, they can understand every language in the world. Dazed and disconnected, Wilder is found and taken in by a small coven of trans witches who have all become Awakened with mystical powers of their own. Quibble, a handsome portal traveler, Artemis, the group’s caretaker and seer, and Mary Margaret, a smart-ass teen with telekinetic powers all work to make the cagey and suspicious Wilder feel at home, both within their group and with the knowledge that magic is, in fact, real.
Just as Wilder is finding their footing, a malicious AI threatens to dismantle the delicate balance of the coven and the world as they know it. The group scrambles to stay united as they question whether any consciousness—be it artificial, material, or magical—is too dangerous to exist.
Awakened is a hilarious, thought-provoking reflection on the ways that we are responsible for creating our own realities, a story of finding community, and a meditation on what it means to have a body.
Link: Goodreads