Queer SF - February 2025
February 1, 2025
A Stage Over Ruthless Stars — JJ Clapton
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Queer; chronic illness
Aznan is a chronically ill high-school drop-out living on a space station with an illness that hates gravity. But he’s going to be a famous inventor...that’s if he can win the biggest tech competition in the system. Held at his space station’s circus and judged by titans of industry, it’s one massive showcase to demonstrate his homemade tech in front of a live audience.
To win, he’ll need his ex-best friend’s help. Kairo hasn’t spoken to him in three years, not since he left school to join the circus as an aerialist, but Aznan can handle that. Oh, and the local favourites just turned up dead. That, not so much.
Everyone’s saying sabotage. Murder and riches. A competition worth killing for.
And when a second team dies right in front of Aznan’s eyes, the official reassurances of glitches and accidents no longer hold. The body count is rising. The Grand Showcase is blasting closer. With nobody willing to stop the show, Aznan and Kairo must unearth the truth or risk their lives with one final act.
Link: Goodreads
Birk — MJ James
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic; non-binary MC
Series: Book 3 of Ember Town
Nymphs are female—or so Birk’s mother has always insisted. But after a conversation with Lucas, Birk finally found the language to express their true identity: they are non-binary, and at least one nymph isn’t female.
When Birk is unexpectedly outed, they’re cast out of the only family they’ve ever known. Alone in Ember, a town they’ve lived in but barely interacted with, Birk faces a world that suddenly feels much larger and far more intimidating.
Separated from their tree, which holds their soul, and with almost nothing to their name, Birk must learn how to survive. But in Ember, there might just be a new family waiting for them—one that accepts them for exactly who they are.
Link: Amazon
Nix and Tell — Ali Williams
Genre: Paranormal, contemporary fantasy
Rep: F/F
Series: Book 1 of Godstouched
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.
Chlo
I’ve spent my life fitting in, a tailor who can’t touch iron or steel, a Nix who avoids the river she was born to swim in. Making clothes instead of dragging people to the deep. But the river goddess Trisantona thinks I need love in my life, thinks it’ll be the one thing that will bring me back to her river. And she’s picked Violet, the one woman I can’t resist...
Welcome to the Godstouched Universe, where the Gods interfere in the lives of mortals, magic leaks back into our world, and love conquers all.
Link: Goodreads
February 4, 2025
This Ends in Embers — Kamilah Cole
Genre: YA fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 2 of Divine Traitors
Perfect for fans of Raybearer and Fourth Wing, this astonishing sequel to the bestselling novel So Let Them Burn doesn't hold back. After all, there are no easy endings in war—especially when sisters are forced to fight on opposite sides.
Faron Vincent was once the saint of San Irie. Now, she’s done the unthinkable: betrayed her country. Alone, disgraced, and kidnapped, Faron is forced to help Iya grow his bloody empire. With her soul bonded to a ruthless killer, Faron has become an enemy to her people… and she fears they might be right.
Elara Vincent—the new Empyrean—must undo the damage her sister has caused. San Irie has been brought back to the brink of war as Iya proclaims no nation will be safe from his brutal invasion. But how can Elara save her sister, her best friend, her country, and her world when she’s already cracking under the pressure?
This heart-pounding conclusion to the Divine Traitors duology pushes these unforgettable heroines to their breaking point and beyond. Because when the lines between hero and villain are blurred, deadly sacrifices must be made.
Link: Goodreads
A World Worth Saving — Kyle Lukoff
Genre: MG fantasy
Rep: Trans MCs
Covid lockdown is over, but A’s world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn’t exactly go well, and most days, he barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the house. But the low point of A’s life isn’t online school, missing his bar mitzvah, or the fact that his parents monitor his phone like hawks—it’s the weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings his parents all but drag him to.
At SOSAD, A and his friends Sal and Yarrow sit by while their parents deadname them and wring their hands over a nonexistent “transgender craze.” After all, sitting in suffocating silence has to be better than getting sent away for “advanced treatment,” never to be heard from again.
When Yarrow vanishes after a particularly confrontational meeting, A discovers that SOSAD doesn’t just feel soul-sucking...it’s run by an actual demon who feeds off the pain and misery of kids like him. And it’s not just SOSAD—the entire world is beset by demons dining on what seems like an endless buffet of pain and bigotry.
But how is one trans kid who hasn’t even chosen a name supposed to save his friend, let alone the world? And is a world that seems hellbent on rejecting him even worth saving at all?
Link: Goodreads
Station in the Sky — Caye Marsh
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Queer
Peace in the Sky
Peace-in-the-Sky awakens, captive, after a brutal head injury. With her fractured memories, she knows only that she must protect her daughter Anissa. Even if Peace-in-the-Sky manages to escape the fierce wasteland tribe holding her captive, she and Anissa face a journey through a blasted landscape inhabited by warring peoples scrabbling for subsistence. To find safety, Peace-in-the-Sky must use her developing power of the pillars-of-flame to clear their path. As her memory reveals the secret of her true nature, her body and mind deteriorate. But nothing can stop her from delivering Anissa to the promised paradise of safety and plenty, even at the expense of her life.
Station in the Sky
Donna, once Peace-in-the-Sky, awakens aboard Station-in-the-Sky and rejoins a society that had been her home for thousands of years before knowing Anissa. But she soon discovers her fellow stationers have lost sight of their original mandate to protect Earth. Instead, their new plans will threaten all of Earth’s inhabitants. As her memories return, she becomes suspicious her head injury was actually an attack by another stationer. Framed as being faulty, Donna must navigate the eccentricities of the other stationers without being caught, and covertly assemble proof of their plans before they realize she will do anything to keep Earth safe from their meddling.
Read both of Caye Marsh’s stories together in Station in the Sky!
Link: Goodreads
February 10, 2025
Monsters, Mayhem & Wild Magic — Noah Bodie
Genre: Fantasy romance
Rep: Trans bi MMC; M/F
Series: Book 1 of The Hexed and Hunted Series
In the harsh, forgotten village of Eyrei, Cerci Rivera, a determined intelligence operative with a troubled past, seeks the help of Ridge Thorne, a haunted monster hunter with a mysterious ability to hear the cries of the damned. As they navigate a world of magic, betrayal, and hidden truths, their growing bond is tested by their own secrets and the looming threat of a powerful enemy.
Together, they must confront their deepest fears and uncover the dark forces that threaten to tear their world apart, all while discovering that, sometimes, the most unexpected alliances can lead to redemption and love.
Link: Goodreads
February 11, 2025
Where Shadows Bloom — Catherine Bakewell
Genre: YA romantasy
Rep: F/F
Ofelia has lived her life dreaming of entering Le Château Enchanté—the mysterious court of the gods-blessed King Léo, where the shadow monsters that roam Ofelia’s home never trespass.
Lope has lived her life as a knight, defending Ofelia and her home from Shadows even as she dreams of escaping with Ofelia by her side.
When the Shadows venture too close, Lope and Ofelia are thrust into a journey that will lead them to the heart of the darkness haunting their home: the dazzling and deceptive Château Enchanté itself.
A mesmerizing daydream with a subtle edge of darkness that will leave you utterly unable to put it down, Where Shadows Bloom pits terrifying monsters, chilling secrets, capricious gods, immortal kings, and death itself against the unstoppable love between two girls.
Link: Goodreads
Casual — Koji A. Dae
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Bi MC
Valya’s neural implant is amazing.
Its game-like app, CASUAL, has managed her depression and anxiety, stabilized her mood, and helped the infertile Valya get pregnant. But new laws forbid her from using the device when she’s sole caregiver for her infant. Her gaslighting ex won’t help her, and she can’t afford a nanny, so her obstetrician insists that Valya wean off CASUAL before giving birth.
Despite a will to quit and a supportive new love interest in her birthing class, disabling CASUAL turns Valya’s anxiety into full-blown panic attacks. Her psychiatrist offers to enroll her in a controversial clinical trial that would place a tandem implant in the baby and allow Valya to keep hers active. Valya must decide whether she should attempt parenting without CASUAL or install a minimally tested device in her vulnerable child.
Casual is a stark and cutting glance at a near future that looks uncannily like our present, exploring themes of bodily autonomy and the struggle for mental health in a world increasingly divided.
Link: Goodreads
The Desert Talon — Karin Lowachee
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 2 of The Crowns of Ishia
The exciting sequel to the gunslinging, dragon-riding world of The Mountain Crown.
Sephihalé ele Janan sits in a prison cell in the southern island of Mazemoor, dreaming of escape. After months in a provisional prison for fighting for the imperial Kattakans, Janan is sponsored by another refugee who was once a part of his scattered family. Yearning to build a life on his sister’s land with the dragons their people revere, the peace Janan seeks is threatened by a ruthless dragon baron who covets both Janan’s connection to the earth and the battle dragon to which he is covenanted.
The conflict may drive Janan to acts of violence he hoped to leave behind in the war, and bring more death to the land Janan now calls home.
THE DESERT TALON is a story of two groups of people who, despite a common ancestry, have diverged so far in their beliefs that there appears to be little mutual ground—and the conflict may well start to unravel the burgeoning hopes of a country, and a man, still recovering from the ravages of war.
Link: Goodreads
Silver Blood — T.L. Morgan
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: M/M
Cyrus Beldon was born to kill vampires. Or so says his indomitable family legacy.
For generations, the Beldon hunters have kept the peace between humans and vampires, navigating tense diplomacy with the elite Honorable Families and eliminating threats when needed. Cyrus is content to leave the hunting and slaying to his capable older siblings, but when his oldest brother is murdered by Honorable vampires in a shocking break of the truce, Cyrus becomes determined to find out why his brother was not merely killed, but turned into a bloodthirsty creature known as a Wild vampire.
Cyrus’s hunt for information on the monster that became of his brother leads him to discover an experiment suggesting that recently-turned vampires can have their humanity restored, and with this revolutionary possibility within his reach, Cyrus dares to hope for a future in which he can save vampires instead of killing them. He traces the studies back to one of the five Honorable Families, and with the help of studious and infuriatingly proud Lucien Vista, Cyrus delves into vampire biology to seek the core cause of Wild turns—and a cure for them.
Amid multiple high-profile murders, rising tension between the Beldons and the Honorable Families, and dangerous sparks between Cyrus and Lucien, the truce is at a tipping point, and Cyrus and Lucien must decide how far they are willing to go to keep the peace between their families—or if it’s already too late.
Link: Goodreads
The Hunter and Her Witch — Rachel Sullivan
Genre: Paranormal
Rep: Sapphic
Hunter Sarah left her religious witch-hunting family behind for the freedom to be herself. Simplicity is her mantra now, as she lives and works alongside her found family of supernatural women. The day Sarah shows up at a witch’s property to build a yoga studio, though, her mantra skips a beat.
For witch Oriana, leaving her abusive ex was her first step toward a new life. Moving to Obsidian Falls and becoming a yoga instructor quickly followed. Her dismal romantic track record is proof she needs to focus on anything but love. But the moment she sets eyes on a member of the supernatural construction crew building her studio, she knows her heart didn’t get the memo.
When Oriana’s ex shows up, and Sarah’s inner Hunter responds, their painful pasts collide in a waterfall of revealed secrets and fears come to life. They must decide if their love is worth building, or better left behind.
Link: Goodreads
(S)Kin — Ibi Zoboi
Genre: YA fantasy
Rep: Sapphic MCs
From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for.
Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors. While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother.
Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask.
But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.
Link: Goodreads
February 12, 2025
Radiant — Jordan Willis Bright
Genre: Historical fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 1 of Words of Power
In Gilded Age New York, Perry Threadgill, a research librarian at New York Public Library, is pulled into a world of magic, murder, and intrigue when he is attacked by a two-hundred year old vampire. Previously untapped magic allows Perry to fend off his attacker, and leaves him wondering if everything he knows about the arcane is fact, not myth. Alain Paillart, vampire and member of the New York elite, finds himself inexorably drawn to Perry and the series of magical murders that surround him. Can they solve the murders before Perry is the next victim, and will Alain’s secret dash all hope of a happy ending?
For fans of Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light or KJ Charles’ The Magpie Lord, Words of Power offers queer romantic, magical escapism in an alternative New York.
Link: Goodreads
February 13, 2025
Hungerstone — Kat Dunn
Genre: Horror, historical fantasy, retelling
Rep: Sapphic
Lenore is the wife of steel magnate Henry, but ten years into their marriage the relationship has soured, and no child has arrived to fill the distance growing between them. Henry’s ambitions take them from London to Sheffield, and with his success hinged on a hunt, an old tradition looms over the home; the hunt is a time to settle old scores. If a bullet finds a human home, then it is only that they were foolish to become prey.
In the weeks leading up to the hunt, a carriage accident near their remote home brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore’s life. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night, Carmilla who will not eat meals with the family, Carmilla who stirs up a hunger deep within Lenore. Soon girls from local villages begin to fall sick before being consumed by a terrible hunger...
Set against the violent wilderness of the Peaks and the uncontrolled appetite of the industrial revolution HUNGERSTONE is a compulsive feminist reworking of CARMILLA, the book that inspired a captivating story of appetite and desire.
Link: Goodreads
Name Her Holy — Aubrey Ennis
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic; chronic illness
Where the weave between worlds thins, a long buried shadow rises from its grave among the stars and seeks vengeance on the Vale.
A Herald has been named to mark its ascension—a woman resurrected by The Seeker’s hand and placed in the pious care of the Vigil Order. A once disgraced daughter of her noble house, Kye Liatris is crowned a living saint, one tasked with stopping the coming cataclysm. Kye has lived on borrowed time since, aiding the Vigil while quietly enduring worsening ailments.
When a strange blight brings death to the valley of Jude Arendell’s home village, she finds herself swept up in the Vigil’s fight. But in taking up her mother’s sword, Jude learns that her family legacy was not as it seemed.
As stars extinguish and the threads that bind the Vale swiftly unravel, so do the long trusted stories of history past. Now Kye and Jude must decide whether to follow their divine callings or scorn the gods and place their trust in each other.
Link: Goodreads
The Brass Wyvern — Bronte-Marie Wesson
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 1 of The Blessed Imperium
How, exactly, do you steal a dragon?
The holy city of Muqdah is falling. For days, the priests of the First Temple have argued amongst themselves—despite the cracks growing in the city’s magical shields. But fighting the Imperial army could mean the sacrifice of Muqdah’s dragons. Only one among their number believes it worth the risk...and the lone voice of a pregnant woman falls on deaf ears.
In the great Imperium, a slave named Zuri escapes into the night. Arriving on the doorstep of the Brass Wyvern, she discovers kinship, safety—and an unexpected purpose. When the bedworkers there hear of her captors’ caged dragon, a plan is hatched: free the beast, right history’s wrongs.
As Imperial magic and ancient bloodlines collide, an oppressed people start to make their voices heard. But not everyone sees eye-to-eye on justice, and a royal heist is easier said than done.
The Brass Wyvern is a witty fantasy epic with anti-colonialist vibes, queer love, feminine rage, found family, and of course—sweet, sweet revenge.
Link: Goodreads
February 14, 2025
The Viscount St. Albans — Natania Barron
Genre: Historical fantasy
Rep: M/F, queer
Series: Book 2 of Love in Netherford
Sense and Sensibility and Vampires
Silas Drake, the Viscount St. Albans, is one of the most desirable bachelors in approaching thirty, wealthy, and poised to inherit his father’s seat in Parliament. His aunt, the dowager viscountess, insists he marries well, and soon—or she’ll take matters into her own hands.
But his love belongs to Viola Brightwell, who is a commoner of modest means...and a vampire. Newly transformed after the recent battle to save Netherford, Viola rages in a locked room in Silas’s mansion, wrestling with the violent passions of her new affliction.
As Silas struggles to balance the demands of his rank with the desires of his heart, he finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy by ancient and terrible powers...
Link: Goodreads
Dame Ophis — Merlina Garance
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
She has many names: Lady of the Oak. Dame Ophis.
Few are those to know her real one: Sinha.
When wounded knight Cerris crosses through the forest on her way back to the castle, she doesn’t expect a surprising young woman to offer her shelter, nor to heal her.
Things take a complicated turn when Cerris realises who she is dealing with.
She is supposed to kill Dame Ophis. The only problem is, she might have fallen in love with Sinha.
Link: Goodreads
Yelen and Yelena — C.M. Rosens
Genre: Dark gothic fantasy
Rep: M/F, aromantic, bisexual
Series: Book 1 of Gothick Fantasia
ONCE UPON A TIME...
In a rural corner of the Provinces simmering with civil unrest, Laundress Yelena’s village is plagued by a dangerous fungal rot oozing from the forest. When she is falsely accused of dark sorcery and evicted from her cottage so her landlord can sell up, Yelena is forced to leave her home and loved ones behind, and entrusts herself to the wind-borne voices of the restless dead to see where they lead her.
Yelen is a forgotten tyrant, turned into a monster hundreds of years ago after accepting a cursed flower, and left to stalk his enchanted castle all alone. Despite becoming a better person over the centuries, Yelen’s aromanticism means he can never fulfil the ‘mutual romantic love’ condition of the curse, and to his relief, he will never have to return to form of the power-hungry brute he once was...but he craves companionship and an end to his lonely existence.
When the wind leads Yelena to Yelen, she discovers a kindred spirit in the aromantic, bi-attracted monster, and their relationship quickly escalates. But being a guest in a cursed castle with a lonely, amorous Beast is not all fun and games—while exploring, Yelena makes a disturbing discovery about the source of the rot, and starts showing symptoms of infection herself.
Can Yelen and Yelena work together to find a lasting cure for the rot seeping beyond the castle walls, or will the curse claim another victim?
Link: Books2Read
February 18, 2025
Wooing the Witch Queen — Stephanie Burgis
Genre: Romantasy
Rep: Bi FMC; M/F; past F/F
Series: Book 1 of Queens of Villainy
Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.
When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…
Little does Saskia know that the “wizard” she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he’s in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?
Link: Author’s Website
The Diplomacy of the Knife — C.M. Caplan
Genre: Fantasy, steampunk
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 2 of Four of Mercies
Petre Mercy’s had a rough time since he rode home on a cyborg horse. He’s lost a hand that’s been replaced with a mess of steel and piano string, broke his thyroid-powered sword, and helped ignite a civil war that’s engulfed the countryside.
His sister, The Queen, has ordered him to root out any traitors in Mercy House. But Petre can hardly ferret out the truth from his siblings, let alone a vast network of spies with counterplots. And every day more turncoats move against him.
If he has any hope of putting down this uprising, he’ll have to work with a sister he’s still learning to trust. But his enemies are one step ahead of him at all times. And they’re hiding in the last place he’d think to look.
Link: Goodreads
Cursebound — Saara El-Arifi
Genre: Romantasy
Rep: M/F; F/F
Series: Book 2 of Faebound
United by war.
Betrayed by destiny.
Cursed by love.Yeeran was born for war but is unprepared for love. She has left her new lover, the Queen of the fae, to return to her homeland, only to find that her former lover now threatens war against the fae.
Left behind, her sister Lettle is determined to break the curse that binds the fae to their realm. When a stranger appears in the city, Lettle is convinced he’s the key. But the Fates that once spoke to her have fallen silent.
Can Lettle and Yeeran discover the secret behind the curse—and unite these two worlds before they destroy each other?
Link: Goodreads
The Antlered King — Marianne Gordon
Genre: Dark fantasy
Rep: Sapphic MCs; gay side character
Series: Book 2 of The Raven’s Trade
Hellevir’s gift to raise the dead once thrust her into the center of a court filled with backstabbing and treason, where she became duty bound to protect Princess Sullivain, the sole heir to the kingdom’s throne and target of many rivals eager for the crown. But the more Hellevir risked to keep Sullivain alive, and the more deeply she fell in love with the princess, the greater the cost became—for Hellevir’s power can only be granted by the strange figure who rules the afterlife, and there is always a price to pay.
Now Hellevir may have risked too much, and Sullivain has become obsessed with consolidating power to vanquish her foes once and for all—by whatever means necessary. Cast out to the fringes of a country on the verge of civil war, Hellevir is torn between protecting her heart or giving what little she has left to finish what she started. Yet, her connection with Sullivain runs deeper than the mortal world, and saving her friends and family might mean risking the woman she is still bound to by soul and blood.
To stop a war, Hellevir must unravel the last of Death’s riddles and decide, once and for all, who deserves to live, what a life is worth, and whether she can pay the price. This explosive finale to the Raven’s Trade duology is sure to satisfy fans of dark fantasy and queer romance.
Link: Goodreads
Reverent: An Anthology of Divinity — Quinton Li (ed.)
Genre: Speculative anthology
Rep: Queer
A collection of stories, poetry and non-fiction dedicated to the divine.
Divinity exists in everything. Divinity exists everywhere.
In the past, present and future. In the minuscule and the grand. From fantastical realms and worlds of depth to what lives and suffers in our very own reality. From the gods above, to the girl sitting by your side. Divine.
It’s all divine. And this anthology is but a capsule of what divinity means in the interpretations and eyes of these authors.
This anthology is for mature audiences due to themes and explicit content.
Link: Goodreads
February 20, 2025
Alpha Woman — Raquel Raelynn
Genre: Paranormal shifter romance, omegaverse
Rep: Sapphic; bi, pan, gay characters; BIPOC characters
Nestled in a secluded forest cabin, Misoa finds herself unexpectedly swept into her first heat. Unaware of the werewolf blood coursing through her veins, she becomes the target of an assertive alpha woman, Seiban, who insists they are destined mates. Faced with a choice to flee or embrace the intoxicating connection, Misoa grapples with her own desires as the mysterious woman offers to quell the fiery yearning within her. Will Misoa escape the allure of the wild or surrender to her supposed mate?
Link: Author’s Website
February 21, 2025
Remember Me — TJ Baer
Genre: YA paranormal
Rep: Gay MC
After years of being the quiet, “weird” gay kid with no friends, seventeen-year-old Alex Sato is counting the days until graduation. But when the ghost of handsome, popular soccer star Noah Thornbridge appears in Alex’s English class one morning, Alex grudgingly agrees to help him solve the mystery of his death. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of Noah’s body, and the last thing he remembers is hiking through the woods with two of his friends, who are also missing.
With Noah’s friends’ lives on the line, Alex must push aside his introverted tendencies and better judgment to chase Noah into the woods that claimed him. There, Alex will face more than just the danger of following in Noah’s ghostly footsteps. He’ll face the greatest challenge of his life: not falling in love with a dead boy.
Link: Goodreads
Two Thousand Promises — Jocelynn Drake
Genre: Paranormal romance
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 5 of Kings of Chaos
He promised me forever…but she came to take my soul.
Huli had dedicated his entire existence to making himself into something worthy of Xiao Dan.
But as he stood on the brink of claiming the vampire’s heart, an evil deal he’d made centuries ago was coming due.
Min wanted Xiao Dan’s soul.
Would he lose Xiao Dan when he confessed his ugly promise? And could he stop Min before it was too late?
Two Thousand Promises is the fifth and final novel in the Kings of Chaos series. This book contains a reluctant vampire who is finally giving in to the thousand-year seduction of a sly fox spirit determined to claim his mate, a nosy family who wants all the spilled tea, snark, angst, magic, found family, brotherly bickering, chaos, cuddles, secrets, and an endless love.
Link: Goodreads
February 25, 2025
The Prince’s Heart — Ben Chalfin
Genre: Romantasy
Rep: M/M
Red, White, and Royal Blue meets The Goblin Emperor in this enchanting LGBTQIA+ romantasy set in the mystical realm of Soeria, where a prince must choose between duty and heart.
In the heart of Soeria, where royal bloodlines carve the paths of destiny, Prince Darien Garros, the kingdom’s beloved second son, faces the age-old clash between duty and desire. For years, Darien has dodged the court’s expectations to find a suitable match, yearning instead for a love that values the man behind the crown. His longing seems answered in Tag Leara, whose charm and genuine affection ignite a hope Darien dared not admit.
Yet, fate is a fickle master. A sudden tragedy propels Darien into a role he never sought, challenging his deepest convictions. As the weight of legacy and the whispers of power threaten to suffocate him, Darien confronts the ultimate test. Torn between the call of his blood and the pull of his heart, he stands at a crossroads that could reshape the future of Soeria itself.
With every choice comes a price, and Darien must decide: Will he follow the stringent demands of royalty, or will he choose the perilous path of love? In a world where allegiance and affection collide, Prince Darien’s story is a testament to the enduring battle between the crowns we bear and the hearts we hold dear.
Link: Goodreads
Wings in the Valley — Aud Connelly
Genre: Cozy fantasy romance
Rep: Queer; polyamory; amputee/prosthetic user
Fauns farm the valley. Harpies hunt it.
Inspired by The Hobbit, Wings in the Valley takes the cozy vibes of Legends & Lattes on the road in an enemies-to-lovers romance that slow-burns across the continent and back, as our heroes learn some problems can’t be solved with swords or sorcery.
After losing his hoof in a harpy attack, Feliks Redwine, a faun of the Redwine Tribe, has devoted himself to defending his tribe’s vineyard from the nightly harpy raids. When a fire-breathing dragon appears without warning and crashes into the harpy’s mountain roost, obliterating the flock, the fauns celebrate the resounding end of the conflict between the hoof folk and their winged adversaries—until the dragon’s smoke casts their farmland into perpetual shadow.
To save his people, Feliks leaves the valley in search of a hero to slay the dragon poisoning their homeland. Unbeknownst to him, he has company on his journey. Honey Rabbit, the sole surviving harpy, has no nest and no flock elders to guide him. Overhearing the fauns’ plan to rid the valley of the dragon gives Honey the chance for revenge where there was once only loneliness and grief.
Faun and harpy strike a deal: Honey will protect Feliks on the road, and Feliks will find somewhere safe for Honey to live and raise his flock’s last egg. With Honey’s help, maybe Feliks can save his people—if he can lay an old grudge to rest, and not break an egg before it has a chance to hatch.
Link: Goodreads
Redundancies and Potentials — Dominique Dickey
Genre: Science fiction, time travel
Rep: Queer
All redundancies and potentials must be disposed of in accordance with Agency guidelines. This ensures that we can continue to use TimeFax to protect our communities, and better the lives of future generations.
Aster works for the Agency, a private police force that uses time travel to stop crimes before they happen. Unlike most operatives, Aster and her sister Isadora can time travel without a TimeFax machine. Which would be pretty great… except that everyone, even Aster’s own clone, keeps lying to her.
As everything she’s believed about the Agency and her life starts to unravel, Aster has to decide who to trust, if the Agency is worth saving—and whether she really wants to see the whole timeline.
Link: Neon Hemlock
Vessel of Woven Night — Kellen Graves
Genre: Fantasy romance
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 4 of Rowan Blood
Avren has been left ashen after the disastrous events at the Midsummer Games, where Ryder Kyteler took far more than Daurae Asche through the veil. With seemingly little they can do but wait for the oracles to find a way through, Saffron’s apprehension grows as he’s soon plagued by nightmares of someone crying out for his help; someone who sounds too much like the missing daurae.
When a second tear through the veil is suddenly reported in the nearby town of Erelaine, Saffron is certain Ryder is behind it, and sees it as a chance to catch the man and use him to get through the veil to rescue those taken. But Erelaine isn’t the only place the veil is being manipulated, and soon a trail of ravaging damage fractures through Alfidel. Ryder is searching for something, and Saffron doesn’t know what would be worse—him finding whatever it is, or the consequences of his devastation to the veil in the process.
Not only is Saffron determined to capture Ryder, he fears what could be so important that has Ryder taking so many risks. But catching up to him is easier said than done while traveling under the watchful eye of his royal entourage, with the pervasive nightmares keeping him awake at night, the growing tensions between himself and Cylvan, and being forced to navigate delicate political expectations as Alfidel’s future Harmonious King. Throughout it all, Saffron uncovers that the chaos brewing in Alfidel, even Ryder Kyteler himself, may be sown from seeds planted centuries prior.
Link: Goodreads
The Wildest Things — Andrea Hannah
Genre: YA fantasy, fairy tale retelling
Rep: Sapphic
In this sapphic Snow White retelling, if Snow is to save her kingdom from being ravaged by the Blight, she’ll have to kill the Evil Queen’s daughter…if she doesn’t fall in love with her first.
When her glass coffin unexpectedly shatters, Snow White awakens to anything but a dream. The land is rotting. The animals have mutated. In the twenty years that have passed since Snow bit into the poisoned apple, the kingdom of Roanfrost has transformed from a luscious wild land to a blight-ravaged nightmare. In search of answers and a way to restore her kingdom to its former glory, Snow sets out on a dangerous journey that will test the strength she never knew she had.
Friends will become foes.
New alliances will form.
The Queen with the blood red lips will stop at nothing to seize her power as well as her heart.
If Snow has any chance to survive and restore not only her kingdom, but all of Garedenne, her only option is to become the Seasonkeeper and access the life-giving magic that will heal the plague. But the path to becoming the Seasonkeeper is more treacherous than she could ever imagine—because the wild things have awakened and Snow’s darker impulses yearn to set them free.
Link: Goodreads
But Not Too Bold — Hache Pueyo
Genre: Gothic fantasy romance
Rep: Sapphic
The Shape of Water meets Mexican Gothic in this sapphic monster romance novella wrapped in gothic fantasy trappings.
The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House―Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides.
Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's death, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.
But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.
Link: Goodreads
Blightshade — Alison Wright
Genre: Dark fantasy
Rep: M/M
Lorne’s magic is rotting him from the inside out.
As the only Curse Crafter in the city of Veil, Lorne Atwater is already out of place in witch society and as a mysterious blight rots his magic, he’s only growing more volatile. So, Lorne cuts all ties, hides within an illusion of perfection, and searches fruitlessly for a cure.
But vengeful curse victim Sacha Finch corners Lorne into an impossible break Finch’s curse in exchange for a cure to the blight.
For the chance to save his magic, Lorne must confront the relationships he’s severed, expose his diseased magic, and face the very monster who blighted him.
Link: Goodreads