Queer SF - October 2025

01 Oct, 2025

October 1, 2025

Original Sin — G.D. Burkhead

Genre: Modern portal fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

Alice in Wonderland meets Dante’s Inferno in this tale of swords, sorcery, and sin.

College student Morgan Amell didn’t set out to be a witch, but when an ancient grimoire found in a local second-hand shop snags her attention and refuses to let go, she reluctantly dives into its secrets in the hopes of settling this strange obsession and maybe making her life a little easier.

What happens instead is a botched spell way above her novice skill level that sends her hurtling into Hell itself, specifically, the sprawling but unexpectedly orderly city-state of Dis, where the seven races of sin live colorful lives under the rule of the only other human before Morgan that their world has ever seen—the rogue Arthurian knight-squire Vambrace, forgotten by history but somehow ruling in the devil’s place as Archfiend of all demonkind.

Now Morgan must navigate sinful society, demonic royalty, treasonous plots, mythical conspiracies, one extremely sexy succubus, and the capricious whims of a man out of time obsessed with learning everything about her and her world, all while trying to keep her amateur magical talents secret on pain of death. Can she find a way to master her extremely limited sorcerous skillset and make her way back home again, or will she be eternally damned for failing her first ever magical pop quiz?

Link: Goodreads

The Seer Ablaze — Quinn Elmsworth

Genre: Fantasy, retelling

Rep: Sapphic

Series: Book 1 of The Viridian Curse

This sweeping, slow-burn sapphic fantasy is perfect for fans of the tragic romance of Ava Reid’s Fable for the End of the World and the lyrical prose of Nina Varela’s Crier's War.

A false seer. A reluctant queen. A mysterious healer.

False prophecies spill from Isolde's lips, as demanded by her grandparents. They exploit her unique Bond with the divine blue-green phoenix for their own gain. After the high king perishes, Isolde seizes the opportunity to control her own voice by raising the unwilling Princess Arturia to the throne with a false prophecy and an enchanted sword.

When the Griffin Kingdom starts waging war, Arturia shuts herself away from the public. But if Arturia fails as a queen, then Isolde will lose her power and possibly her life. She spins lie after lie to try to hold everything together at court while forging a friendship with a mysterious healer named Tristan. Facing indifferent gods, ruthless politics, and heartbreaking betrayal, Isolde must decide if she is willing to sacrifice her hard-won agency for the queen who snuck into her heart.

Link: Goodreads

Fracture — R. Sinclair

Genre: Science fiction

Rep: Bi

Series: Book 1 of Shattered Numbers

Most people would kill to escape death row. Meredith Dufresne—marked as ‘compliant and charming’ and a ‘low risk inmate’ in her stellar incarceration record, thank you very much—signs her life over to Thanatos Industries instead for the chance to terminate her sentence.

The job: taming a highly aggressive malignant AI.

The catch: it’s already killed 23 of its previous hosts.

Meredith isn’t stupid. Thanatos Industries is playing a dangerous game, and she’s an expendable piece. She can’t gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss her way out of this situation alone—and the bloodthirsty AI jammed in her skull can’t mansplain, manipulate, manslaughter his way to freedom without her.

The solution: team up with the highly aggressive malignant AI and hope he doesn’t fry her in the process.

What’s a little brain damage in the grand scheme of things, anyway?

Link: Goodreads

First Oaths — C.J. Tuma & Quinn Cameron

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: M/M

Series: Book 1 of The Bone Men

“We weren’t meant to burn our dead.”

After escaping the cult that nearly destroyed him, Kit Mosel has built a new life. He’s sure that no one in town knows his real name or what he did, until Penwell Oliver appears, desperate for help retrieving his father’s stolen remains from the very cult Kit fled.

Kit knows he should say no, but there’s something about Penny he can’t refuse.

Together, Penny and Kit plan to infiltrate the cult and earn their trust. Kit knows how to blend in and play their games, but Penny isn’t like him; he’s always been too soft. Too quick to trust. Worse, Penny draws attention from people who would gladly hurt him just to punish Kit.

The deeper they go, the more Kit unravels. Penny isn’t just a liability—he’s a temptation. A reminder of everything Kit thought he didn’t deserve. And in a place where weakness is punished and love is weaponized, wanting each other could cost them both everything.

Link: Goodreads

Fimbulvinter’s Fires — A.M. Weald

Genre: Apocalyptic science fiction horror romance

Rep: Queer

Worlds and hearts will be set aflame…

Within moments of his escape pod crash-landing in a night-clad frozen forest, musician Asher Hollin is frostbitten, bleeding, a thief, and a killer. If not for technology looted from a dead prison guard, he’d be long dead, either from hypothermia or from being attacked by battleaxe-wielding not-quite-human marauders.

Without hope of rescue from those he'd fled, there's only one choice: keep going. Fight. Survive for those who didn't. Somewhere out there is food, shelter, civilization. Indeed, just as the darkness threatens to consume him, help comes from an initially unwilling source.

Compassion and a yearning for companionship spark an unlikely relationship, but a lack of understanding of language and culture endangers Ash and everyone around him.

Inspired by the tale of Ragnarök and its harbinger, Fimbulvinter’s Fires combines achillean love stories with first-contact sci-fi, survival horror, and apocalyptic tragedy: a heart-pounding yet tender tale of compassion, survival, and the lengths we’ll go to protect those we love.

Link: Author’s Website

October 2, 2025

Son of the Morning — Akwaeke Emezi

Genre: Paranormal romance

Rep: Black Southern MC; queer

From New York Times bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi comes a steamy paranormal romance set in the Black South—a bold new foray that takes us on a journey of magic and fantasy, from the whispering creeks outside the city of Salvation to the very depths of Hell itself.

Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.

Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he’s not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn’t—that she isn’t human either.

Enter: Leviathan. As Lucifer’s most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee’s attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.

Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power in this astonishing, seductive, and wildly original fantasy.

Link: Goodreads

Vapormage — Zoe Landon

Genre: Science fantasy

Rep: Queer; non-binary MC

Linnute is a land of mundane magic, of schoolhouse sorceries and summons on every street corner. And then there are the Vapormages, Cymona’s beloved battle mages, masters of overwhelming spellcraft.

For vapormage Kell Rusalka, their latest assignment should have been simple enough: cross the border to the north, do some secretive scouting, and make sure another war doesn’t start. Easy.

After running into a murderous magical bird, a sword to the throat, and a pack of zombie hounds... maybe it’s not so easy. And the second day will only get worse.

But Kell’s not the first person to be cast aside by the powerful, whether that’s the god-like Guardians or the mortal men who claim to serve them. If they’re going to bring peace to their home, they’ll need their fellow nobodies to help them dig through not only the history of their warring world, but Kell’s own lost past.

Everyone claims to want peace. But one man’s peace is another man's trouble, and trouble does what it wants.

Link: Goodreads

Shy Trans Banshee — Tony Santorella

Genre: Humorous fantasy

Rep: Gay MC; trans woman secondary character

Series: Standalone in established universe

Brian, Nik and Darby—three friends practiced in ennui, binge-drinking, hooking up with strangers and fighting supernatural crime (when Brian’s not committing it as a werewolf once a month)—have been sent by Abe Van Helsing (yes, one of those Van Helsings) to try to track down a colleague who has gone missing in London. As they putz around the city, following any leads that might help them find their British counterpart, they uncover a clairvoyancy smuggling ring, located right in the heart of the financial district. Who’s kidnapping all the fortune tellers in Soho and why? And is it coincidence, fate or something more sinister altogether that Maeve, a timid trans woman taking time out of her job to track down her birth mother, turns up on the gang’s doorstep… and has the uncanny ability to know just what’s going to happen next?

Link: Goodreads

October 7, 2025

Heart of Iron — C.M. Alongi

Genre: Urban fantasy

Rep: Queer; non-binary MC

Series: Book 1 of CaFae Latte

Fresh out of prison, Jennifer Charles (JC) is desperately trying to turn their life around and make things right, and seems to find a golden opportunity in CaFae Latte as an under-qualified but talented baker.

However, they soon learn that, as dark and unfortunate as their own history is, it pales in comparison to their kind Fae boss, Violet. Old enemies come to Blackwater and kidnap her, intent on dragging her back to the Fae Realm for capital punishment. And to add insult to injury, they frame JC for the crime.

With their one chance at a new life on the line, JC teams up with Violet’s protege Cyrus and the local witch Nicole to get their boss back and clear their name.

Meanwhile, Violet would like to remind her captors of how she earned the nickname, “The Iron Witch,” or “She with a Heart of Iron.”

Link: Goodreads

Herculine — Grace Byron

Genre: Horror

Rep: Queer; trans woman MC

Manhunt meets Lord of the Flies in this blistering horror debut following a young trans woman after she arrives at the all-trans girl commune founded by her toxic ex-girlfriend, only to discover that demons, both literal and figurative, haunt her fellow comrades—and she’s their next prey!

Herculine’s narrator has demons. Sure, her life includes several hallmarks of the typical trans girl sob story—conversion therapy, a string of shitty low-paying jobs, and even shittier exes—but she also regularly debates sleep paralysis demons that turn to mist soon after she wakes and carries vials of holy oil in her purse. Nothing, though, prepares her for the new malevolent force stalking her through the streets of New York City, more powerful than any she’s ever encountered. Desperate to escape this ancient evil, she flees to rural Indiana, where her ex-girlfriend started an all-trans girl commune in the middle of the woods.

The secluded camp, named after 19th-century intersex memoirist Herculine Barbin, is a scrappy operation, but the shared sense of community among the girls is a welcome balm to the narrator’s growing isolation and paranoia. Still, something isn’t quite right at Herculine. Girls stop talking as soon as she enters the room, everyone seems to share a common secret, and the books lining the walls of the library harbor strange cryptograms. Soon what once looked like an escape becomes a trap all its own.

While trying to untangle the commune’s many mysteries, the narrator contends with disemboweled pigs, cultlike psychosexual rituals, and the horrors of communal breakfast. And before long, she discovers that her demons have followed her. And this time, they won’t be letting her go.

Link: Goodreads

The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder — Kiri Callaghan

Genre: Cozy fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

“For all intents and purposes, we are still blissfully separated from the mortals, but there have been… complications.”

When a rise in London’s supernatural crime puts Fey society at risk of discovery, the Winter Council turns to an unlikely solution: Avery Hemlock, the changeling they sentenced to 500 Years of Nightmares. Inherently lacking social grace and missing approximately two centuries of world knowledge, Avery must find a way to acclimate and solve the case or lose her probationary freedom.

After being left at the altar and dropping out of medical school, Saga Trygg attempts to rekindle her faith in life, humanity, and witchcraft. But when her new neighbor, Avery, accidentally reveals the Fey that have been living among humanity all along, Saga realizes magic is far more than prayers, intention, and candles.

Each faced with navigating an unfamiliar world, the two form an unexpected partnership—but shortly into Avery’s investigation, they discover the threat might be closer to Saga than either of them imagined, and Avery will do anything to protect the first friend she’s had in more than two hundred years.

Link: Goodreads

A Feast for the Eyes — Alex Crespo

Genre: YA supernatural thriller

Rep: Queer

Four teens must track down a local cryptid that’s feeding off secrets, before their own hidden truths are exposed.

On the dreary Oregon coast, a beast who feeds on secrets—known as the Watcher—lies in wait. When Shay and her girlfriend Lauren get into a fight over whether to go public with their relationship, they awaken the creature. Although Lauren is badly injured, the girls escape with their lives but can’t shake the feeling of the creature’s eyes tracking them.

Meanwhile, aspiring photographer Zoe is desperate to put together a portfolio worthy of earning a scholarship to attend art college. Her photography teacher praises her skill, but urges her to select more daring subjects for her submissions—a tall task when Zoe’s camera acts as a barrier between herself and the rest of the world.

As rumors swirl about Lauren’s injuries, Shay remains steadfast in that the Watcher is to blame. She asks for Zoe’s help in snapping a photo of the local legend. Proof would help Shay get her life back on track and would certainly be daring enough for Zoe’s scholarship. Together with their friends Jack and Parker, they set out to expose the Watcher before its ever-creeping eyes cast the secrets they’re keeping from the town—and each other—into the light.

Link: Goodreads

Blood, Sweat & Queers — Margaret Hall (ed.) & Jamie Ryu (ed.)

Genre: Vampire love stories

Rep: Queer

Blood, Sweat & Queers is an anthology dedicated to queer vampiric love stories coedited by Margaret Hall, a scholar of vampire literature, and Contrarian Publishing’s Jamie Ryu.

Vampires in literature have always been an allegory for socially divergent identity. The three foundational texts of English-language vampiric literature (The Vampyre, Carmilla, and Dracula) contain varyingly obvious depictions of homoeroticism, featuring texts written by authors many historians believe to have been somewhere on the queer spectrum. Under the auspices of their influence, the vampire has come to represent subversive carnal desire itself, be it the unrelenting, hungering want of Count Orlok in Nosferatu, or the desperate yearning of Anne Rice’s Lestat de Lioncourt.

The ache at the core of every vampire, which can only be momentarily sated by the total consumption of another's essence, spits directly in the face of conservative conceptions of love and lust. There is nothing well-behaved or polite about a vampire's appetites, and throughout history, vampire fiction has been used as an outlet for the underserved and the repressed to access the gnawing need within them to connect.

As attacks against the LGBT+ community run rampant and times grow more uncertain, it's time for the vampire to rise once again.

Link: Goodreads

Crafting for Sinners — Jenny Kiefer

Genre: Horror

Rep: Sapphic MC

A queer woman must fight her way out of a big-box craft store run by a diabolical religious cult in this gripping survival horror novel by Jenny Kiefer, author of This Wretched Valley.

Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job as a cashier at New Creations—a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in the town.

In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed by a New Creations cashier. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store—and attack her. When Ruth is forced to stab out one of their eyes with a knitting needle, she realizes she's facing far bigger trouble than a simple shoplifting charge. As Ruth fights for her life, she plunges deeper into the tangled web of the New Creationists, who are hiding a terrible secret that threatens not only her, but the entire town.

This relentless horror novel will have you on the edge of your seat as it hurtles towards a breathtaking conclusion. Will Ruth escape? Or will the shocking secret at the heart of the cult die with her?

Link: Goodreads

Coven of the Elder Blossom — Daryl Marez

Genre: Historical fantasy

Rep: Queer

IN 1960s GREENWICH VILLAGE, A DIVERSE COLLECTIVE OF QUEER WITCHES FINDS THEMSELVES AT THE HEART OF A GROWING STRUGGLE.

Known as the Coven of the Elder Blossom, the group draws strength from enchanted flowers, a sacred inheritance passed down through generations, enabling them to weave ancient rituals with modern resilience. Their sanctuary, Blossom Books, comes under threat from the Magical Detection Unit (MDU), a ruthless organization bent on eradicating practitioners of magic. Celia, the fiercely protective leader, battles to shield her chosen family from the MDU’s relentless pursuit while grappling with internal fractures and rising external pressures.

The unexpected arrival of Jamie Raleigh, a curious and spirited newcomer, unsettles the coven’s delicate equilibrium, forcing them to confront shifting alliances and their vulnerabilities. Amid the turbulence of the Stonewall Riots and the broader gay liberation movement, the circle is swept into a wider fight for equality. As threats close in from all sides, they must adapt, unify, and wield their collective power to preserve their magic and their identities.

Link: Goodreads

Cinder House — Freya Marske

Genre: Gothic fairy-tale romance

Rep: Bi MC; M/F

Sparks fly in Cinder House, a Gothic fairy-tale romance from bestselling author Freya Marske. Perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher, this Cinderella retelling is filled with yearning and a gorgeous queer romance.

Ella is a haunting.

Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father’s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters.

Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died.

Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched.

You think you know Ella’s story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince.

You’re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.

Link: Goodreads

No Charm Done — Tori Anne Martin

Genre: YA fantasy romcom

Rep: Sapphic

May the best witch win in this sapphic enemies-to-lovers romcom, where rival witches hex for the affections of the new boy in school… but are vexed by their interest in each other.

Welcome to Thornhaven, a quaint coastal town where witches hide in plain sight.

Lily Allerton is descended from Thornhaven’s most illustrious magical family. When her tarot cards tell her that acquiring a boyfriend is essential for a successful senior year, she decides to do whatever it takes to bag the cute new boy at school—including overcoming her total lack of interest in him. Determined to make her parents proud, appear “normal” (the fact that she’s never liked a boy is a closely guarded secret), and stay on top of the popular-kid food chain, future valedictorian Lily makes sure that nothing stands in the way of her goals.

But Chrysanthemum Quinn might.

When Chrys moved to town three years ago, she had high hopes that she’d no longer be the outcast with weird powers—hopes that Lily quickly dashed by ostracizing her from the other witches at school. She was too poor, too grunge, and too sarcastic for Lily’s tastes, with a major resting witch face. Nothing like a proper Thornhaven witch. Since then, she and Lily have despised each other and competed relentlessly. Chrys is going to beat Lily for valedictorian—and if Lily wants the new boy, then Chrys is going to win him first.

But when Lily’s and Chrys’s attempts to hex each other create a curse that threatens the town, they’ll have to put aside their animosity to stop it… and reckon with some deeply buried emotions. Because breaking the curse will take more than magic—it’ll take acknowledging that it’s not the boy either of them wants.

Link: Goodreads

Vampires at Sea — Lindsay Merbaum

Genre: Horror comedy

Rep: Queer; non-binary character

Immortal beloveds Rebekah and Hugh are on vacation! Against a backdrop of ongoing war, this pair of chic emotional vampires from San Francisco sets off on a queer Black Sea Cruise, eager to relax, join an orgy, and feast upon their fellow passengers’ desires and sorrows. When Hugh becomes enchanted by an alluring–and possibly magical–non-binary social media influencer named Heaven, Rebekah’s reality capsizes. As she comes to terms with a future she never imagined, Rebekah begins to question her past, much of it lost to time. Ultimately, her journey becomes one of self-discovery, and acceptance of her true nature.

A smutty, super-queer horror-comedy featuring unbridled narcissism, Vampires at Sea is a hilarious and satisfying snack!

Link: Goodreads

Hedge Witch — Siobhán F. Murphy

Genre: YA fantasy, dystopia

Rep: Queer

Series: Book 1 of The Hedgefall Chronicles

The Censor controls the story. She’s ready to write a new one in ink and blood.

Back when Elise was a child, magic was locked behind the Hedge and everyone was safe. But twelve years ago, the Hedge fell, and now the government battles to suppress dangerous magic users. But if magic is so evil, why is Elise’s dad risking everything to hide a book about it?

When her father is arrested by the Censor, all Elise is left with are a few chapters, handwritten by a young witch named Malvada who lived in the shadow of the Hedge twelve years ago. As Elise chases answers, it slowly becomes clear that Malvada’s book may hold more than clues to the lost history of magic. It might be the spark of a revolution.

If Elise can unite all the chapters, she may have the power to bargain for her father’s life. But she’ll have to outwit not just the government, but also a magical terrorist group. Who can she trust? And how many betrayals lie between her and the truth of Malvada’s story?

Link: Goodreads

Her Wicked Roots — Tanya Pell

Genre: Gothic horror, retelling

Rep: Queer

In this queer retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne classic gothic story Rappaccini’s Daughter, a young woman is lured to a lush estate owned by a botanist who might be hiding dark secrets.

Cordelia Beecher is on the run. In search of her missing brother Edward, she has fled the oppressive charity school she was raised in, desperate to find the only family she knows. Using clues from his past letters, she sets off for the sleepy town of Farrow but everyone there claims to have never heard of Edward—not even the man he was supposedly working for as an apprentice.

With nowhere to go, Cordi turns to Lady Evangeline, a local botanist who owns the magnificent Edenfield estate. The benevolent lady of the manor has made it her mission to take young, often traumatized, women into her employ and protect them from man’s world of wicked desires and deceits. Hired as a maid and companion to her enigmatic daughters, Prim and Briar, Cordi quickly settles into Edenfield. Even as her relationship with Briar blossoms, Cordi can’t help but suspect that there are secrets in the estate…and when she stumbles across evidence that Edward was once there, she’s determined to find answers.

Link: Goodreads

The Salvage — Anbara Salam

Genre: Historical horror

Rep: Sapphic

It is 1962, and Marta Khoury, a trailblazing marine archaeologist, has travelled to Cairnroch, a small island off the east coast of Scotland. An arctic shipwreck containing the remains of a famous Victorian explorer has been towed back to the island at the behest of his wealthy descendants. Marta’s job is to retrieve valuable artefacts from the vessel, deep beneath the freezing Scottish waters. But on her first dive, Marta becomes convinced she has seen a ghostly figure lurking in the wreckage.

When Marta discovers objects from the vessel have inexplicably disappeared, she must work to uncover their whereabouts before her boss—also her ex-husband, discovers their absence. As a series of unsettling and strange occurrences begin to unfold, Marta’s work trip turns into a long winter as the worst snowstorms of the century sweep in and trap the islanders, and their ghosts, in an icy wilderness.

Link: Goodreads

A Seething Heart — T.O. Tate

Genre: Horror, retelling

Rep: Queer; non-binary MC

Series: Book 3 of Shardfall (stands alone)

SHOW ME THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY TO HEAVEN

On the unpredictable waters of the Great Lakes, the cargo ship Squall sails from port to port in a world torn apart by a mysterious illness. Orris is an oddity, born wrapped in thorny vines that have lain silent inside their body for decades. Since then, they’ve dedicated their life to caring for those in the last stages of a mysterious illness known as sliversickness, well aware that someday soon, they too will die.

After the death of the Squall’s captain under suspicious circumstances, Orris finds themself in the middle of a struggle for power between their lover Hunter and his stepfather Charles. Rumors of ghosts creep through the Squall’s passageways, and Hunter’s behavior becomes more and more erratic. Everyone looks to Orris to help him, worried that he, like so many others, has fallen ill. But as vines begin to stir inside their chest, Hunter kills Orris’s father, leaving vengeance as their only option.

Link: Goodreads

A Hunter’s Dream — A. Trujillo

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Gay

Hunters have one mission: to discover the evils of the world and eliminate them.

Bastián, born into the storied Asturias family and a member of a prestigious guild, holds his responsibilities in the highest regard. When tasked with investigating the rumor of an oni infiltrating the royal family of Yasunai, he must journey to a foreign land filled with unknown demons and trickster spirits. But an untrustworthy crew, a hostile nation, and his own internal monsters may prove more difficult than anything he’s ever experienced.

His travels bring him face to face with the frail, enigmatic Prince Eisuke, which causes him to question his long-held beliefs. With the full moon drawing ever closer, Bastián is faced with a choice: fulfill his responsibility as a hunter or risk everything for a burgeoning love.

A Hunter’s Dream explores the boundaries between duty and desire, love and destiny, and the power of embracing one's true self.

Link: Goodreads

A Mouthful of Dust — Nghi Vo

Genre: Fantasy, horror

Rep: Queernorm world; non-binary MC

Series: Book 6 of The Singing Hills Cycle (stands alone)

Hunger makes monsters in this dark new tale in Nghi Vo’s Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle.

Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes.

Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly... because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.

The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, and the Ignyte Award, and has won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award.

The novellas are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order.

Link: Goodreads

Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World — Mark Waddell

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Queer

WARNING! Under no circumstances must employees strike a deal with unauthorized personnel on Dark Enterprises property. Such behavior could result in death… or the end of the world.

Colin is a low-level employee at Dark Enterprises, a Hell-like multinational corporation solving the world’s most difficult problems in deeply questionable ways. After years of toiling away in a cubicle, he's ready to climb the corporate ladder and claim the power he's never had.

The only problem is, he’s pretty sure he’s about to be terminated. Like, terminated. That's tough, because his BFF has just set him up with a great guy. In fact, maybe he's a little too great. And asks a lot of questions...

When Colin meets a shadowy figure promising him his heart’s deepest desire, he can’t resist the urge to fast-track his goals. In return for a small, unspecified favor, he asks for the one thing that will improve his life: a promotion.

But that small favor unleashes an ancient evil. People in New York are disappearing, the world might be ending, and Management is starting to notice. Getting to the top is never easy, and now it’s up to Colin to save the world. It's the ultimate power move, after all.

Link: Goodreads

Queen Demon — Martha Wells

Genre: Epic fantasy

Rep: Gay MC; sapphic MCs

Series: Book 2 of The Rising World

From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes the remarkable sequel to the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling novel, Witch King. A fantasy of epic scope, Queen Demon is a story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.

Dahin believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs’ Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there’s something he isn’t telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.

Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch?

And can he trust his companions to do what’s right?

Follow Kai to the end of the world in this thrilling sequel to the USA Today-bestselling Witch King.

Link: Goodreads

October 8, 2025

Dove’s Eyes — Kienn Nguyen

Genre: Neo-western horror

Rep: Ace, bi, transmasc, lesbian

Bentham, Wyoming. A deserted ghost town built upon abandoned coal mines. Once windtorn woodrot, now a private penitentiary set in a reformative community pledged to clinical testing.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Wayne Sykkes truly believed he had found the cure for all sin. But one year into testing and Belle Rivera, twenty-four, was found dead. Bloodied in the underbrush. A sprig of hyssop pressed to her lips.

Enter Corey Handler Delgado. Fallen angel scorned. Five years ago he was nothing more than a scruffy detective. For an act of brutal justice he was arrested in the attempted murder of an innocent man.

One call and the charming doctor has convinced him to take a second chance. Insists that he can be saved. But something is wrong.

Something is wrong with this town.

Something is wrong with this body.

Something is wrong with this cure.

Cora isn’t dead.

Link: Books2Read

October 9, 2025

Savage Blooms — S.T. Gibson

Genre: Fantasy romance

Rep: Queer, polyamory

S. T. Gibson, the queen of erotic fantasy romance, returns with this ravishingly dark trilogy of gothic manors, faery magic, and forbidden desires set in the foreboding Highlands of Scotland.

For as long as Adam can remember, the legends passed down from his world-traveling grandfather have called him to a crumbling manor in the Highlands. His closest friend Nicola longs for the same adventure, as well as for Adam himself. She’ll follow him just about anywhere—even to the remote wilds of Scotland—if it pushes the pair to surrender to their shared attraction.

But when a storm strikes and strands them unexpectedly, Adam and Nicola find themselves at the mercy of the eccentric owner of the infamous house, Eileen, as well as her brooding groundskeeper, Finley.

Trapped by the weather, and bound by ancient faery magic, Nicola and Adam get more than they bargained for as they become entangled in Eileen and Finley’s world of mind games, deceit and forbidden desire. As ancestral sins are unearthed, Adam and Nicola will have to reckon with the spell Eileen and Finley have cast over them—and whether or not they even want to be free.

Link: Goodreads

Gladiator, Goddess — Morgan H. Owen

Genre: Historical romantasy

Rep: Sapphic

A sapphic, feminist romantasy, set in the age of ancient Rome.

The Roman Goddesses have grown weary of the rule of Gods and men. They seek to change the fortune of the world by backing a brilliant young woman.

In Pompeii, Gia dreams of being a female Gladiator, but there is no such thing.

When she wins the favour of Claudia—the beautiful daughter of the Emperor—her star begins to rise in the arena, but so does the risk to her life.

Together, the girls must battle conspiracies to overthrow the Empire, and their growing feelings for one another. Feelings the Goddesses had not planned on.

Link: Goodreads

October 10, 2025

The Traitor & the Wretch — Jasmine Walls

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Queer

In a world of heroic prophecies and terrifying gods, can a couple of two-bit henchmen lie, steal, and kill their way to a happy ending?

KNELL was just another nameless cultist trapped under the thrall of the Great One, Bringer of Chaos and fully expected to die on the battlefield. Much to his surprise he’s still alive, but not for long unless he can escape before his distinctive chaos-tainted looks get him captured and killed.

PERCY was the former right hand man of the Prophesied Hero. Disillusioned and bitter, he turned traitor during the great battle against the risen chaos god in an attempt to prove this Hero false. Instead, he lost his hand and became the most wanted man in the kingdom.

These two unlikely allies must work together to survive pitch-black tunnels full of mutated creatures, angry mobs, old enemies, and their own haunted pasts. They’ll find unexpected strength in each other—and the possibility for more—if they don’t end up dying before they can make it out of the kingdom.

They weren’t meant for a happy ending, but rules are for good guys and they’ll do whatever it takes to change their fates.

THE TRAITOR & THE WRETCH is an illustrated novel written by Jasmine Walls, illustrated by Rowan MacColl, with cover art by Amy Phillips.

Link: Bonedust Press

The Forest and the Flame — S.C. Wolf

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Queer

Series: Book 1 of the Essence of the Earth Trilogy

One perfectly content apothecary. One prince with something to prove. And the ancient, forgotten magic that can unravel it all.

Living a quiet life in a forgotten village, far away from the annoyances of civilized society, Alyssia thrives as an eccentric apothecary. Harvesting the medicinal bounty of her Woods and training her lively and bright apprentice is everything she could possibly want.

Deeply mired in those annoyances of civilized society is Kedren, the spare heir with a reputation for debauchery and dereliction of duty that couldn’t be further from the truth. If he could only get the nation to see his sister, the crown princess, as the power-hungry and cruel woman she truly is, he may be able to pull his kingdom from the brink of war.

Chasing shadows for a scrap of proof against the princess leads Kedren deep into Alyssia’s Woods, where the discovery of a mysterious green flame ignites a wildfire of events that tears their lives apart and puts the two of them on a path of revenge and revelations that just may save the world.

Link: Goodreads

October 13, 2025

The Wolf Bane — Sadhbh Frost

Genre: Fantasy romance, weird horror

Rep: Lesbian, trans, non-binary

Series: Book 1 of Societas Aenigmatum

Since her divorce, Dale has locked herself away inside her gloomy apartment, losing herself in work. Helping a stray dog one night draws her into a high-stakes fight over a beautiful nonbinary runaway.

Cassiopeia is wolf-touched—host to an animal spirit that is claimed to bring power and wealth. Locked in a centuries-old family curse, they only seek a life outside of their destiny and life-long captivity. Seizing an opportunity to escape, they find themself lost and alone in the city.

Armed factions descend to fight each other for control of the wolf-touched. Their growing connection can’t protect Cassiopeia and Dale, but an offer of sanctuary comes from strange beings with an agenda of their own.

Trans for werewolf romance blends with modern fantasy, action, mad science, and weird horror in The Wolf Bane, a story about building trust and ripping the opposition into pieces.

Link: Itch.io

Mosswood Apothecary — J.P. Rindfleisch IX

Genre: Cozy fantasy

Rep: M/M

A struggling alchemist. A small town with ancient secrets. And… a mysterious shadow ferret?

Botanical alchemist Rowan Mosswood didn’t expect much when he finally graduated, so a remote research assignment in Frostfern Valley seemed fitting. With his reputation in tatters after a public alchemical mishap, and his discipline of magic considered antiquated, Rowan agrees to the university’s terms: fix up an old greenhouse, study the mysterious loss of magic, and send regular reports. If he can manage all that, his student debts will disappear.

The assignment sounded Mundane enough, a wrist slap to be endured—until Rowan discovers the greenhouse is falling apart, the crops refuse to grow, and a wily shadow creature has taken up residence in his new home. As if that weren’t complicated enough, there’s a too-handsome-for-his-own-good carpenter who seems determined to help… and fluster… Rowan.

With strange magic stirring in the forest, stubborn townsfolk to win over, and a year-long deadline ticking down, Rowan must decide whether to focus on the assignment or the life he’s beginning to build in Frostfern.

Mosswood Apothecary is a cozy queer fantasy brimming with botanical magic, slow-burn romance, queer found family, cottagecore vibes and small-town charm.

Link: Goodreads

October 14, 2025

When Shadows Burn — Todd Brown

Genre: Supernatural thriller

Rep: Queer

Some houses whisper. This one screams.

In the heart of Raven’s Cross, Virginia, the decaying Scott house looms. Its broken-window eyes watch a town desperate to forget. When Roxy, a teenage girl, vanishes into a sweltering night, long-buried fears erupt, and suspicion turns savage. The townspeople turn on the newcomers, blaming them for what they refuse to face in themselves. As polite smiles crack and old grudges resurface, Raven’s Cross’s genteel mask begins to slip, revealing the rot beneath.

Timothy Michaels came to town chasing a story. A true crime podcaster investigating the haunted legacy of the Scott house, he never expected to be pulled into something so immediate—and so dangerous. Alongside unexpected allies, Tim begins to unearth a legacy of complicity and cruelty—one the town would kill to keep buried. Because, in Raven’s Cross, the shadows don’t just linger. They burn.

Link: Goodreads

Call and Response — Christopher Caldwell

Genre: Speculative short story collection

Rep: Queer

In these deftly written stories of the fantastic, Christopher Caldwell unravels the complicities of personhood and gender, slavery and war.

Saints and sailors, scoundrels and surfers.

Caldwell’s characters appear in contrasting duets—first notes during the initial half, and then again in counterpoint, when the dominoes fall in the second half.

In addition to collecting incredible stories previously published in venues like FIYAH, Strange Horizons, and Uncanny, Call and Response also features the original short story “The Lonesome Sea.”

Link: Neon Hemlock

A Fate Unwoven — Rachel A. Edwards

Genre: YA fantasy

Rep: Queer

A heretical storyteller partners with an ancient spirit to undo the magic that subjugates her to the crown, in this chilling debut fantasy filled with monsters, dark rituals, and corrupt deities.

The Emperor of Wyrecia is dying, and 17-year-old Lena has just gained the power to control fate itself, binding her to the young prince Dimas as the empire’s next Fateweaver. Hunted by the empire’s most ruthless soldiers, Lena escapes with a handsome smuggler toward enemy territory. But a former lover betrays Lena, and her magic becomes agony—compelling Lena to submit to a gilded cage.

Still, an ancient spirit offers hope: to sever her bond to the throne, Lena must unroot a ritual hidden beneath the palace. As Prince Dimas struggles to forge friendship with Lena and bring his empire under peaceful rule, sinister cultists unveil a twisted plan to unleash an ancient evil that could tear the realm asunder. With every step Lena takes on her quest to freedom, she uncovers a troubling imperial past that tarnishes the nation’s matron goddess. Perhaps the oral histories passed down to Lena are not foolish heresy, after all.

Link: Goodreads

The Works of Vermin — Hiron Ennes

Genre: Fantasy, horror

Rep: Queer

He was sent to kill a pest. Instead, he found a monster.

Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty.

In this complex, chaotic city, Guy Moulène has a simple goal: keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he’ll take on any job, no matter how vile.

As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny creatures that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is different: a centipede the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice.

Guy doesn’t have a choice.

Link: Goodreads

Local Heavens — K.M. Fajardo

Genre: Science fiction, retelling

Rep: Queer

A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.

New York City, 2075. Filipino-American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions—shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.

When Nick meets alluring new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem—and as a corporate- sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.

As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite—and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable—he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love, or truth? Heart, or soul?

A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald’s classic tale of glamour, desire, and desperation, Local Heavens examines the guardrails of morality… and the price of desire.

Link: Goodreads

The Gilda Stories — Jewelle Gomez

Genre: Historical fantasy, science fiction

Rep: Black lesbian MC

Before Buffy, before Twilight, before Octavia Butler’s Fledgling, there was The Gilda Stories, now as a new Penguin Classics hardcover, a Penguin Speculative Fiction Special.

First published in 1991, The Gilda Stories is a groundbreaking speculative fiction vampire novel that begins in 1850s Louisiana, where a young Gilda escapes slavery and learns about freedom while working in a brothel. After being initiated into eternal life as one who “shares the blood” by two women there, Gilda spends the next two hundred years searching for a place to call home.

Taking only blood as sustenance, killing as a last resort, Gilda moves through the centuries up to the dystopian future of 2050. Gomez’s classic, with a Black lesbian heroine, has endured as an auspiciously prescient book in its explorations of Blackness, radical ecology, redefinitions of family, and the erotic potential of the vampire story.

Link: Goodreads

Dead & Breakfast — Kat Hillis & Rosiee Thor

Genre: Cozy paranormal mystery

Rep: M/M

Series: Book 1 of Dead & Breakfast Mystery

The new vampires in town are sinking their teeth into solving a murder…

Married odd couple Arthur and Sal are totally normal. They wear sunscreen, not because the sun can kill them, but because even the undead need a skincare regimen. They eat garlic whenever they want, though it gives Sal indigestion. They can talk to creatures of the night, but only the raccoons that rifle through their garbage. Really, they don’t bite… except into delicious baked goods.

Ready to settle down and stay out of trouble, the two have opened a bed & breakfast in the idyllic, if not-so-paranormal-friendly, town of Trident Falls, Oregon. But trouble finds them when the mayor is discovered dead in their begonias with two puncture wounds in his neck. With the help of a werewolf barista, the elven town coroner, and a very human city manager, Arthur and Sal will need to prove they aren’t literally out for blood by catching a killer…

Link: Goodreads

Witchlore — Emma Hinds

Genre: YA contemporary fantasy

Rep: Non-binary MC; M/X

At Demdike College of Witchcraft, Orlando is an outcast. Not just for being the only shapeshifter in a college of witches. Not just for being a really bad shapeshifter, with no control over their magic or when their body switches between male and female forms. But because their girlfriend Elizabeth died—and it was Lando’s fault.

Then charming new boy Bastian arrives with a proposition: he knows a spell that can raise Elizabeth from the dead. It’s dangerous but Lando will try anything. But as Lando’s attraction to Bastian grows, questions start to arise. Who is Bastian? What does he really want? And who will survive the resurrection spell?

For fans of V.E. Schwab and Rainbow Rowell, Emma Hinds’ Witchlore is a spellbinding contemporary fantasy where the passion is as real as the magic.

Link: Goodreads

The Princess Knight — Cait Jacobs

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: M/F; bi MCs; queernorm world; disability

A princess desperate to win back the prince who broke her heart follows him to his kingdom’s prestigious military academy—and in doing so, falls in love, saves the realm, and continues to look fabulous in this delightful debut fantasy.

Domhnall and Clía are an ideal match—or so everyone says. They are prince and princess of neighboring kingdoms. An alliance the gods will smile on. Until Domhnall ruins everything by refusing to propose.

Heartbroken but determined, Clía makes the perfect plan: Follow Domhnall to Caisleán Cósta, the military academy he’s attending. Show she can protect her kingdom. Secure the betrothal. Sure, the castle has a brutal reputation. But how hard can dueling really be?

Warrior Ronan promised himself he’d never lose his focus. He fought and sacrificed for his place at Caisleán Cósta, and he has no time for blonde princesses who waltz into arenas like they’re attending a ball. Even if she and her otter-like pet are… well, cute.

He doesn’t want to be intrigued by Clía. But her hunger to prove herself is something he understands. He tells himself there’s no harm training her. Even if his heart does race around her. Even if Domhnall is his best friend.

But as they say, love is a battlefield—and unfortunately for them all, a very real war is looming on the horizon. It’s a fight that will threaten all their kingdoms… and test all their hearts.

Link: Goodreads

The Flowers I Deserve — Tamara Jerée

Genre: Gothic fantasy

Rep: F/F/F

Weeping luna is as common as wildflowers, and in the northern kingdoms, assassination by its floral poison is rampant. Those born with immunity are coveted by heretic clerical orders and the endangered aristocracy—and shunned by a superstitious society.

One so gifted, or cursed, Carlotta embraces her newfound power as the currency to deliver her from a land in the grip of drought. Luxury and beauty, glimpsed only through the portal of her late mother’s letters, become an easy trade to consider in exchange for her life. And looming always in her imagination is the symbol of it all—King Emelia, a demon who rose to power under mysterious circumstances. Rumor claims her to be a monstrous woman like the poison girls who serve and adore her. Yet in the warnings of evil, Carlotta sees her own reflection.

Once initiated into the world of sensual indulgence and ancient magic within the castle walls, however, Carlotta finds that not even a king’s devotion is enough to sate her. As the castle’s ghosts coalesce, Carlotta must also confront what her own dead want for her and, even at the heights of her seduction, what she truly wants for herself.

Link: Goodreads

When They Burned the Butterfly — Wen-yi Lee

Genre: Historical fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

A fierce, glamorous sapphic fantasy reimagining the secret societies of postcolonial Singapore, for fans of Jade City, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and the feverish intensity of RF Kuang’s Poppy War trilogy.

Singapore, 1972: Newly independent, a city of immigrants grappling for power in a fast-modernizing world. Here, gangsters are the last conduits of the gods their ancestors brought with them, and the back alleys where they fight are the last place where magic has not been assimilated and legislated away.

Loner schoolgirl Adeline Siow has never needed more company than the flame she can summon at her fingertips. But when her mother dies in a house fire with a butterfly seared onto her skin and Adeline hunts down a girl she saw in a back-alley barfight—a girl with a butterfly tattoo–she discovers she’s far from alone.

Ang Tian is a Red Butterfly: one of a gang of girls who came from nothing, sworn to a fire goddess and empowered to wreak vengeance on the men that abuse and underestimate them. Adeline’s mother led a double life as their elusive patron, Madam Butterfly. Now that she’s dead, Adeline’s bloodline is the sole thing sustaining the goddess. Between her search for her mother’s killer and the gang’s succession crisis, Adeline becomes quickly entangled with the girls’ dangerous world, and even more so with the charismatic Tian.

But no home lasts long around here. Ambitious and paranoid neighbor gangs hunt at the edges of Butterfly territory, and bodies are turning up in the red light district suffused with a strange new magic. Adeline may have found her place for once, but with the streets changing by the day, it may take everything she is to keep it.

Link: Goodreads

The Keeper of Magical Things — Julie Leong

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

An almost-mage discovers friendship—and maybe something more—in the unlikeliest of places in this delightfully charming novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Teller of Small Fortunes.

Certainty Bulrush wants to be useful—to the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice, to the little brother who depends on her, and to anyone else she can help. Unfortunately, her tepid magic hasn’t proven much use to anyone. When Certainty has the chance to earn her magehood via a seemingly straightforward assignment, she takes it. Never mind that she’ll have to work with Mage Aurelia, the brilliant, unfairly attractive overachiever who’s managed to alienate everyone around her.

The two must transport minorly magical artifacts somewhere Shpelling, the dullest, least magical village around. There, they must fix up an old warehouse, separate the gossipy teapots from the kind-of-flaming swords, and above avoid complications. The Guild’s uneasy relationship with citizens is at a tipping point, and the last thing needed is a magical incident.

Still, as mage and novice come to know Shpelling’s residents—and each other—they realize the Guild’s hoarded magic might do more good being shared. Friendships blossom while Certainty and Aurelia work to make Shpelling the haven it could be. But magic is fickle—add attraction and it might spell trouble.

Link: Goodreads

He’s So Possessed With Me — Corey Liu

Genre: YA horror

Rep: Queer

Jennifer’s Body meets Heartstopper in this terrifying, tender, and bitingly hilarious supernatural horror about a boy who must save his best friend from a demon that wants to steal his heart—literally.

Ren says he’s in love, but Colin knows better.

Sure, he can’t remember much about how it all began. But he remembers dancing at a club he and Ren were too young to dance in. He remembers the boys who harassed them on their way home. He remembers a ghost emerging from the trees, and a white hand reaching for Ren through a thick fog. What Colin can’t remember is what happened next. Only two things are clear to him: Ren is different now, and the new guy vying for his heart is not who he claims to be.

With the help of two unlikely allies and a cranky old medium, Colin must learn to conquer his self-doubt and save his best friend from a love that could cost him his life.

Equal parts campy and bewitching, Corey Liu’s debut YA novel explores predation, isolation, and what happens when a childhood dream of fairytale romance turns into a deadly nightmare.

Link: Goodreads

My Lips, Her Voice — L.L. Madrid

Genre: YA horror, mystery

Rep: Sapphic

Copper City’s bloody history is steeped in ghost stories and whispers of serial killers, but three girls have caught the attention of something far more sinister.

A grandmother tormented by visions tried to warn the town, but no one listened. Now, a haunted inheritance has passed to her granddaughters, Audrey and Mara. When Mara’s body is discovered in the old mine, Audrey fears her grandmother’s premonition is manifesting.

The nightmare begins as Mara’s spirit returns—lurking under Audrey’s skin, hellbent on vengeance and desperate to rekindle things with her former girlfriend, Zadie. Willing to hijack Audrey’s body to get what she wants, Mara drags them both into a deadly pursuit.

When another girl in town goes missing, Audrey, Mara, and Zadie know the killer has struck again. In a fight to solve Mara’s death and uncover the mystery of disappearances in Copper City, the girls soon find themselves at war with each other. How do you survive long enough to hunt a murderer on the loose if the person inside you might kill you first?

Link: Goodreads

The Leaving Room — Amber McBride

Genre: YA fantasy novel in verse

Rep: Sapphic

Gospel is the Keeper of the Leaving Room—a place all young people must phase through when they die. The young are never ready to leave; they need a moment to remember and a Keeper to help their wispy souls along.

Gospel assumes that there are countless other Leaving Rooms because many children pass, but she suspects they are not like her Leaving Room which is small (like a walk in closet)with shelves full of tiny jars that hold the memories of those who have gone.

When a random door opens and a Keeper named Melody arrives, their souls become entangled. Gospel’s seriousness melts and Melody’s fear of connection fades, but still—are Keepers allowed to fall in love? Now they must find a way out of the Leaving Room and be unafraid of their love. They must claw their way back to their bodies because there is so much more life to explore—together.

Link: Goodreads

A Nest of Magic — Kate Moseman

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

There once was a town where nothing ever happened—until, one day, it did.

Corinthia, the librarian of Shadow Ridge, doesn’t fall for mysterious strangers. She doesn’t go for long walks in the woods. And she most certainly does not believe in magic.

She has her books, her rescued hound, and her Cabinet of Chocolate—everything she needs for a cozy evening alone, thank you very much.

But when a bet with her best friend leads to a hike in the maze-like nature preserve behind the Shadow Ridge Library, she meets a mysterious woman who challenges everything she thought she knew about her town, her destiny, and her heart.

She doesn’t believe in magic… but magic believes in her.

Link: Goodreads

The Forsaken and the Fated — Camilla Raines

Genre: YA fantasy romance

Rep: M/M

Series: Book 2 of The Hollow and the Haunted

In this thrilling sequel to The Hollow and the Haunted, Miles and Gabriel find themselves ensnared in a web of dark magic beyond their wildest imaginings. Time is running out to change their future, and the dead are hungry...

With Gabriel missing and the death premonition still unbroken, Miles and Charlee race to work out where he is. Armed with the grimoire, they might stand a chance of breaking the curse on Gabriel’s family and preventing his death—but only if they can find him.

Miles’s parents are furious to learn he’s been helping Gabriel—and they don’t even know the half of it. Miles is sure understanding the feud between their families is key to lifting the curse. Plus, he’d like them to get to know the boy he’s hoping he’s maybe, sort-of dating.

With new premonitions changing everything they thought they knew and the dark power of the grimoire whispering in their ears, Miles and Gabriel are running out of time. Both their lives are on the line, and danger might be closer to home than they realize…

Link: Goodreads

The Graceview Patient — Caitlin Starling

Genre: Gothic horror

Rep: Sapphic

Misery meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this genre-bending, claustrophobic hospital gothic from the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence.

Margaret lives with a rare autoimmune condition that has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can—until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial.

The conditions are simple, if grueling; she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most of, but not all of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital.

Unsure of what’s real and what is just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview’s halls.

Link: Goodreads

Kill the Beast — Serra Swift

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Bi MCs

The Witcher meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this debut original faerie tale of revenge, redemption, and friendship―for fans of T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and cozy fantasy with a dash of gritty adventure.

The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and―even more surprising―retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

When the witch Ragnhild decrees that Alderic and Lyssa must gather the other ingredients to forge the weapon together, or else the spell will fail, Lyssa gets more than she bargained for. Alderic is ill-equipped for the task at hand, and almost guaranteed to get himself killed.

But as the two of them search for the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa's better judgment, they begin to forge a blooming friendship―one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.

Link: Goodreads

An Amateur Witch’s Guide to Murder — K. Valentin

Genre: Contemporary fantasy

Rep: M/M

Mateo Borrero has ninety-nine problems, and all of them hinge on the fact that his terrifying and currently-missing bruja mother trapped a demon in his body when he was born. His mother forbade him from ever using magic, but now that she’s gone, magic’s his only marketable skill, and he’d really like an exorcism—which costs money he doesn’t have. What’s the harm in making a quick buck by calling himself an Occult Specialist and chanting a few half-remembered spells in his crappy Spanish?

Enter Topher, a naive nepo baby with a curse that keeps killing people around him. Most importantly, he’s rich, and too clueless to clock that Mateo–and his (absolutely-not-the-assistant) astral-projecting best friend Ophelia–have never actually had a client before. Lifting Topher’s bad luck curse should be simple, but as luck would have it, nothing is simple, and Topher–who Mateo sort of, kind of likes–might be at the center of a deadly magical conspiracy.

To make matters worse, the more magic Mateo does, the stronger the demon inside him grows and the more he wants to eat people. But would caving to the urges of an ancient evil really be that bad if it helps him get a payday?

Legends and Lattes meets A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer in this hilarious and charming contemporary fantasy readers won’t want to miss.

Link: Goodreads

October 15, 2025

Fools Rush In — Sarah Clowder

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Bi MC; eventual polyamory

Series: Book 1 of the Fools Rush In Trilogy

Leslie Glynore only wants one thing: to be able to retire from the paladin life. The problem? She’s done something Very Bad but can’t remember what. To get her fully funded retirement, she has to do something Very Good for the Church. All while stuck with Alik Visk—her always-glaring, eyepatch-wearing Knight of a partner, who hates her and makes her want to do anything but good.

Fortunately for Leslie, their Commander has a mission that no one else is available to take:

Please return the goddess home.

It sounds like the perfect way to end her career, but nothing is ever that easy. Will she be able to face her own demons while stopping actual ones from breaking loose? Or will she run away like she’s always done in the past?

Link: Author’s Website

The Wish of a Dragon — JD Rivers

Genre: Science fiction fantasy

Rep: Gay (main MC), bi (second MC), demi (third); lesbian, aro, nb side characters (everyone is queer)

Series: Book 2 of Otar’s Universe

Otar comes to on a dingy space station and discovers two things: First, he's missing a good chunk of his memories. Second, Andres, his lover, has disappeared. Before he can retrace his steps, a knock at the door demands a debt be repaid—one Otar can't remember.

Captain Veil Dreamcatcher is in search of the dragons with only ruins to guide him. Otar agrees to help in exchange for a reduced debt and information about Andres. On their travels, Otar realizes Veil is as adrift in this world as he is. Both are on a quest for the impossible: finding the ones they have loved and lost.

All the while, the shadows are watching with red glowing eyes.

Link: Books2Read

October 17, 2025

Unbroken — Jordan L. Hawk

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: M/M

Series: Book 4 of Rath & Rune

The hunt for the evil Books of the Bound nears its end, as Ves and Sebastian track an elusive killer who can raise the dead.

Librarian Sebastian Rath has Bound himself to three of the four necromantic Books created by his ancestors. Only the Book of Blood remains—and it’s in the hands of an elusive killer.

Someone is murdering members of the Widdershins Horticultural Society using the Book’s magic. In order to stop the killings and Bind the final Book, Sebastian and Ves must find their way through a forest of lies and deception. But the danger is closer to home than they think, and more than one killer has Sebastian in their sights.

Link: Bookfunnel

Songs of Broken Bells — Lilly Lockwood

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: M/X; F/F

Series: Book 1 of Voices of Val’hoon

Líadan’s magic has been hidden for the last fifteen years, kept tamped down by an emotion suppressing potion. But one can only hide from their fate for so long. When a chance encounter in the forest reawakens her magic, a hungry flame intent on destroying everything in its path, the life she has cultivated within the Amstelvoort is uprooted.

Vasil, Líadan’s best friend and the one sworn to end her life should her magic reawaken, breaks his pact and vows to keep her safe, even if it means turning against his own people. Spurred by a timely letter, they travel to a nearby village to meet with Minno af Friegha, a devotee of the saint of truth, and Aila, the supposed daughter of the god of entropy, in the hopes that they can find a way to get Líadan’s unpredictable magic in check—or better yet, extinguish it altogether.

Things do not go to plan, however, as things are often wont to do, and the four unlikely allies are thrown into a race against time as Líadan’s flame grows hungrier and the dark forces responsible for her creation draw nearer.

Link: Books2Read

October 20, 2025

Ophelia — S.M. Namkoong

Genre: Historical gothic horror

Rep: Sapphic

After a brief stint in Italy working under a master painter, Lawrence Stoner returns to America craving inspiration. Drawn to the wild coast of Maine, she takes up residence in a seaside hut, hoping to secure a commission from one of the wealthy summer elites.

Shortly after putting out an ad, Lawrence receives an invitation to dine at Ashmore Hall. Despite the whispered warnings and ghost stories, Lawrence accepts and is immediately captivated by its enigmatic and beautiful mistress, Ophelia Aldane.

The number of dead continues to rise, but Lawrence finds herself hopelessly ensnared in Ophelia’s web of allure. As those closest to her begin to fall prey, Lawrence feels Death drawing nearer with every passing day. Lawrence must confront the darkness or risk being consumed as well.

Set amid the glittering excess of the Roaring Twenties, Ophelia is a gothic tale of desire, deadly beauty, and the price we pay for obsession.

Link: Goodreads

October 21, 2025

A Legacy of Blood and Bone — Millie Abecassis

Genre: Historical fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

For fans of Shannon Fay’s Innate Magic and Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House comes A LEGACY OF BLOOD AND BONE—a spellbinding debut set in an alternate Belle Époque France, brimming with intrigue, dangerous magic, and a swooning, slow-burn sapphic romance.

“Blood is life. Bones are strength. Flesh is control. Skin is death.”

Every blessed family knows this mantra, and Aubeline—gifted with blood magic and heiress to the powerful Sterraux line—is no exception.

When her father dies unexpectedly, Aubeline inherits the title of Countess. But her brother Renan soon challenges her claim, demanding the title of Count for himself—and quietly coveting guardianship of their young niece, Damarisse.

As sinister forces gather around Renan and his allies wield forbidden, deadly power, Aubeline must seek out unlikely companions to protect Damarisse, expose her brother’s true intentions, and stop a catastrophe that could unravel their world.

She never expected her greatest ally to be Damarisse’s new private teacher, Vinnie—a clairvoyant woman cursed with uncontrollable visions. Nor did she expect to fall in love with her, defying every rule of polite society and risking everything for a chance at love in a world built on blood and secrets.

Link: Goodreads

The Devil She Knows — Alexandria Bellefleur

Genre: Paranormal romance

Rep: F/F

A down-on-her-luck woman makes a deal with a crafty demon to win back her ex-girlfriend after a proposal gone awry, only to discover the girl of her dreams might be the devil she knows, from nationally bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur.

Samantha Cooper is having a day from hell.

In less than 24 hours, her life has unraveled, leaving her single and with nowhere to live. Adding insult to injury, she’s trapped in an elevator with a gorgeous woman claiming to be a demon.

Daphne is not at all what Samantha expected from someone claiming to be an evil supernatural entity. She’s pretty, witty, dressed in pink, and smells nice. And she’s here to offer Samantha a deal she can’t refuse. Six wishes in exchange for one tiny trade—Samantha’s soul. There’s a glaring loophole in their contract, one Samantha fully intends to exploit so she doesn’t fork over her soul. After all, she only needs one wish to win her ex back.

Hell-bent to gather the last of the one thousand souls she needs so that she can be free of her own devilish deal, Daphne grants each of Samantha’s wishes... with a twist, so that Samantha is forced to make another.

As Samantha’s wishes dwindle and Daphne offers her glimpses into the life she thought she wanted, the unlikely pair grows close. Perhaps the girl of Samantha’s dreams is actually the stuff of nightmares, but Samantha and Daphne will have to outsmart the Devil himself if they want a chance at happily ever after.

Link: Goodreads

Witches of Honeysuckle House — Liz Parker

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Queer

Haunted by a curse that kills someone close to their family every 13 years, two sisters must come together to break the spell and save that which they hold most dear.

Florence and Evie Caldwell have long disagreed on how to break their family’s curse, and tension has been high since their mother’s death thirteen years ago. Honeysuckle House, the family estate where every Caldwell has lived, now only houses one of the sisters. Evie has crafted it into an enchanted bed and breakfast, while Florence runs a magical bookstore in town, refusing to even set foot inside Honeysuckle House.

But when the house starts behaving dangerously and catches fire, Florence and Evie must set aside their differences and dig into past generations of their family and the town’s history before the curse claims someone they love.

Honeysuckle House is an exploration of sisterhood, family, and the places we call home, perfect for readers of The Crescent Moon Tearoom.

Link: Goodreads

The Great Tree of Iris — Jess Skultety

Genre: Epic romantic fantasy

Rep: Sapphic; queernorm world

Seven unlikely companions. Five libraries. One hidden prophecy.

The Great Tree of Iris: a place of unmatched healing power for humans. Top scholar Lia Tovar protects the Tree in honor of her dead father, but she has visions of its tragic demise. When Rory Elatha, an elf from the hidden city of Kyrali, arrives seeking experts to save the decaying, sacred sunflower fields, Lia suspects their situations are connected. For once, her books cannot help, and she answers the call.

To save the Tree, Lia must learn to trust six allies: a youthful jeweler, a haunted scholar, a vibrant secret-keeper, an inkdelver on a mission, a wizard seeking a friend, and a dragon looking for home.

When they discover one part of a deadly prophecy, Lia, Rory, and their party search desperately for a way to challenge fate. But as more natural disasters arise in their race across the continent, Lia must decide if she can let Rory into her heart, and if that will free or destroy her.

Link: Goodreads

October 22, 2025

The Rising Dark — Celia Thorn

Genre: Paranormal romance

Rep: Sapphic

Series: Book 1 of Sisters of Twilight

She would kill for you.

Michelle's perfectly ordinary life is thrown into chaos when she’s attacked one night by a terrifying monster straight out of a horror movie. The only thing that stands between her and her demise is Lavinia: tall, gorgeous… and a vampire.

She would worship you, if you let her.

To keep Michelle safe, Lavinia whisks her away to stay her band of sword-wielding vampire warriors. Every day they strive to find out who is trying to kill Michelle and why; and every day, Michelle’s feelings for her chivalrous rescuer grow. But Michelle is just a regular nurse, and Lavinia is a beautiful, centuries-old Sister of Twilight with a vow to protect the innocent. To get their happily ever after, they’ll have to navigate their differences, and slay some demons in the process.

The Rising Dark is the first book in a sapphic paranormal romance series about a Sisterhood of sword-wielding vampires finding love.

Link: Goodreads

October 23, 2025

The Lookout’s Ghost — A. Knightley

Genre: Paranormal romance

Rep: M/M

Reece West

I don’t believe in ghosts. I also don’t believe in cottage cheese as a main food group, but sometimes in life, we are forced to confront when we’re wrong.

Thankfully, I was only mistaken about the ghosts.

At thirty-four years old, I’m arguably too young to have a midlife crisis, but a life-changing diagnosis followed swiftly by a caustic breakup seems to have done the trick. Reeling, I’ve traveled home to Ponderosa, Idaho, Gateway to Nowhere, to spend the summer high above the forest in a remote fire lookout tower.

An escape from the maelstrom my life has become should be good for me, right? Except solitude is difficult to come by when you aren’t actually alone. Despite its name, the very last thing I expect to find living with me in Dead Man’s Lookout is, well, a dead man. Especially not one as shockingly kind, attractive, and funny as Charlie Randolph.

The only problem is, he’s maybe, probably, a serial killer. Or is he?

Suddenly, I’m thrust into a decades-old cold case involving six murdered hikers and one (not so) missing fire lookout. When history begins to repeat itself, falling for a ghost is the least of my concerns. But nothing is ever as it seems in Ponderosa, and I’m not sure if Charlie and I are strong enough to weather the truth when we realize Death isn’t lurking in the shadows—it’s already inside.

Link: Goodreads

Reborn in Ash — Gabrielle Steele

Genre: Epic fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

Series: Standalone in established universe

Magic abandoned humanity millennia ago. Now it returns, bringing ruin to a wanted thief, and her chance for redemption.

When ash fell like snow, everyone it touched grew ill with fever. Most died. Ada Renwick didn’t. She endured the ash plague, food shortages, and brutal riots, only for one merchant’s greed to threaten her livelihood. To keep her jewellery business afloat, Ada turned to thievery. Now she wants revenge.

Breaking into the merchant’s manor, Ada discovers unfamiliar gems that carry a shocking truth. Earth magic hides within them, and she can wield it. But the first time she does, she makes a mistake that leaves a man dead.

Sickened by her crime and hunted for it, Ada runs. Yet, using magic feels as natural as breathing. She’ll do anything to keep it, even join a war she wants no part of. It’s not until Ada meets a woman who can wield fire magic that she realises some things are worth fighting for.

But fire burns anything that gets too close.

Link: Goodreads

Spellfire — Agatha Willow

Genre: Cozy romantasy

Rep: F/F

Luna swore she would never go back to Grimoire High School. Now, she’s a successful witch with her own line of spellbooks, and she has no need to return to the small town she grew up in.

But when her beloved teacher Professor Herringbone passes away and leaves Luna her prize spellbook library, Luna is forced to return. She’s not planning on staying long, but then she runs into former queen of Grimoire High, Amelia Hexford, now headmistress. When Amelia begs Luna to stay, Luna’s so flustered by the woman, who’s even more beautiful than she remembered, that she accidentally agrees to stay for the semester.

Amelia was always too cool for Luna at school, they barely even spoke. But now, Luna’s stuck in Amelia’s world again, and the staff room is a small place to hide in. As the unlikely pair spend more time together, Luna and Amelia might just find themselves spellbound by something other than magic…

Link: Goodreads

October 24, 2025

Stormcaught — Thea Hawthorne

Genre: Fantasy romance

Rep: M/M

Series: Book 0.5 of Riversent

A grumpy, reclusive scholar. An unexpected houseguest with a shadowy past. And a cottage with only one bed.

Everything Ethram has ever had in his life, he has lost. His family. His health. His courage. Ever since his accident in the dark of the university archives, he just wants to be left alone. He is content to quietly fade away with his history books and his tumbling-down cottage.

Until the storm. Until the stranger.

Ky arrives on Ethram’s doorstep wounded, rain-drenched, and fey enough to be dangerous. Taking him in is reckless, but Ethram is a historian, and is far too intrigued by the promise of a mystery to turn him away.

Ky’s secrets run river-deep. He is a threat, bringing danger stalking closer every day. And despite his arrogance, he is strikingly thoughtful, coaxing Ethram’s cottage garden back to life. He gives Ethram everything Ethram is too afraid to want…a warm bed, a companion, a home. And that is another kind of danger.

Because Ky is not meant to stay in the mortal world—and loving him might be Ethram’s greatest loss of all.

Stormcaught is a darkly cosy MM novella with a grumpy historian and a mysteriously monstrous houseguest. It is a prequel story to All Woven With Ivy, though it can easily be read as a standalone. It contains gentle pining, fantasy academia, cottagecore cosiness, and low spice with fade-to-grey scenes.

Link: Goodreads

October 27, 2025

Shadow Throne King — Kai Butler

Genre: Romantasy

Rep: M/M

Series: Book 3 of Emperor’s Assassin

As the Imperium crumbles beneath our feet, will I be able to keep hold of Tallu?

The imperial generals who so loyally served Tallu’s monstrous father have declared war on us and fled the capital. The enemy nation of Krustau claims to have Empress Koque and Prince Hallu, the second son of Emperor Millu. If that is true, Krustau would have claim to the Imperium's throne.

Unable to risk the possibility that Tallu’s brother could fall into the wrong hands, Tallu and I must confront a greater threat than either of us could dream of. Will Tallu’s secrets lead to our loss or will he finally trust me with the truth he can barely whisper in the dark?

Link: Goodreads

October 28, 2025

The Wards Will Fall — Oleander Craw

Genre: Fantasy serial

Rep: M/M

Maxwell helps maintain the wards keeping monstrous spirits at bay. But when a swarm of spirits overwhelms his garrison’s defensive wards, Maxwell flees to seek help for his people.

Far to the north lies an isolated country wrapped in powerful magic. They haven’t communicated with the outside world in hundreds of years, but if anyone can save Maxwell’s people, it’s them.

But Maxwell didn’t escape the night the wards fell unscathed, and he’s no longer as alone in his own head as he thinks...

A serialized fantasy novel that releases a chapter weekly on Mondays. Completely free to read. First five chapters posted publicly. Subscribe to the newsletter to read the rest!

Link: Author’s Website

Hazelthorn — CG Drews

Genre: YA horror, dark fantasy

Rep: Queer

Evander has lived like a ghost in the forgotten corners of the Hazelthorn estate ever since he was taken in by his reclusive billionaire guardian, Byron Lennox-Hall, when he was a child. For his safety, Evander has been given three ironclad rules to follow: He can never leave the estate. He can never go into the gardens. And most importantly, he can never again be left alone with Byron’s charming, underachieving grandson, Laurie.

That last rule has been in place ever since Laurie tried to kill Evander seven years ago, and yet somehow Evander is still obsessed with him.

But when Byron suddenly dies, Evander inherits Hazelthorn’s immense gothic mansion and acres of sprawling grounds, along with the entirety of the Lennox-Hall family’s vast wealth. There’s just one caveat: He must choose a new guardian from amongst Laurie’s scheming, backstabbing relatives to help manage the estate until he turns eighteen.

Except Evander’s sure his guardian was murdered, and Laurie may be the only one who can help him find the killer before they come for Evander next. Perhaps even more concerning is how the overgrown garden is refusing to stay behind its walls, slipping its vines and spores deeper into the house with each passing day. As the family’s dark secrets unravel alongside the growing horror of their terribly alive, bloodthirsty garden, Evander needs to find out what he’s really inheriting before the garden demands to be fed once more.

Link: Goodreads

Dead Hand Rule — Max Gladstone

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Queer

Series: Book 3 of The Craft Wars

Great powers clash and epic action unfolds in book three of the Craft Wars series.

The time until the endtimes is ticking away. If the world has any hope to survive, it must come together now.

The foundations of the world are quaking. Markets crash and cities burn as a new god struggles to be born. Ancient hunters skitter across space, eager and hungry. Dark forces conspire to undermine that could stand in their way. Divided, the world of the craft is certain to fall.

In Alt Coulomb, the great powers of the world gather in conference. Empires, divinities, and corporate concerns take seats at the table. Untold wealth and inexhaustible might is on offer, but coalition will not come easily. Can these forces come together to save the world? And if they do, what parts of it will they choose to save, and for whom?

Link: Goodreads

The Everlasting — Alix E. Harrow

Genre: Fantasy, time travel

Rep: Queer

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part—even if it breaks his heart.

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters—but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.

Centuries later, Owen Mallory—failed soldier, struggling scholar—falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives—and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.

But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend—if they want to tell a different story—they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

Link: Goodreads

Moth Dark — Kika Hatzopoulou

Genre: YA fantasy

Rep: Queer; genderfluid LI

From the bestselling author of Threads that Bind and Hearts that Cut comes a brand-new compulsive romantasy about a girl obsessed with the dark and the shadowy magical prince she falls in love with, perfect for fans of Holly Black and Laini Taylor.

The dark has come alive...

Six years ago, vicious creatures began to crawl out of the dark crevices of the world, and with them Sascia’s fascination with the darkness was born. Now eighteen, that fascination has become an obsession, and while exploring an area known for its connection to the Darkworld, Sascia sees a person climb out of the darkness. But Nugau is no ordinary person, they’re a genderfluid elf prince with one mission... to kill Sascia.

Except, the second time they meet, Nugau is younger and doesn’t recognise Sascia. And the third time, Nugau stumbles out of the darkness with poison running through their veins, expressing their undying love for her.

Piecing together the puzzle, Sascia makes two shocking the timelines of her world and Nugau’s are not linear, and she is inexplicably enmeshed in a war between humanity and elves. But with their worlds at battle, is it worth fighting for each other?

Link: Goodreads

Cry, Voidbringer — Elaine Ho

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Queer

In a broken system, do you save yourself or fight for the people you love?

With the godspower waning, the queen of Ashvi has had to find another way to bolster her fight against her imperialist oppressors. The solution: wrenching children of other cultures from their homes and conscripting them into service.

Hammer was one of those children. Now, she’s a jaded soldier waging Ashvi’s perpetual war, thinking only of her own survival. But when she accidentally rescues Viridian, a child with rare and potentially devastating powers, her priorities shift. The girl appears to be the answer to the queen’s prayers—the perfect weapon to restore her kingdom’s ancient borders, even if the colonized cities they reconquer don’t want her version of liberation. Can Hammer protect Viridian from the system that broke her… before the girl’s power is unleashed on the world?

Cry, Voidbringer is a gripping saga of how far one will go for freedom and control—and how easily it can all be taken away.

Link: Goodreads

An Unlikely Coven — AM Kvita

Genre: Contemporary fantasy

Rep: Queer, sapphic

Series: Book 1 of Green Witch Cycle

After seven long years, Joan Greenwood has been called home.

As the only one in her elite family of witches who cannot manipulate magic, her return to New York City is lukewarm at best. But it’s upended by the disastrous news that someone has created a spell that can turn an unmagical human into a powerful witch.

While her family covets the ability to create a new generation of witches, Joan is wary of such power in the hands of her conniving relatives. When her best friend—who happens to be a vampire—confesses he has secretly, accidentally, saved this human-turned-witch from an uncertain fate, Joan is thrust headfirst into a desperate race to undo the spell before it kills its unwilling host.

But as the different factions of the magic world hunt Joan across the city, she gathers a new family of allies to help her. Soon, her race to the truth draws her deeper into the heart of the city’s magic, through uncertain alliances with a (very attractive) family rival, and far beyond the limits of everything she thought her own magic was capable of. Only now does Joan see... her power could rewrite the rules of the magic world-or bring the entire city to its knees.

This debut contemporary fantasy features a lovable cast of queer, BIPOC characters, witty writing, and a sapphic slow-burn romance. An Unlikely Coven is perfect for fans of A Discovery of Witches, An Unkindness of Magicians, and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

Link: Goodreads

All the Stars in the Daylight Sky — Maya MacGregor

Genre: YA romantasy

Rep: Agender MC; queer side characters

In this spellbinding romantasy, an agender teen stumbles into the fae world and finds love and belonging—but at what cost?

Eighteen-year-old Cam bounces between houses in Texas and Scotland and has always thought that’s why they don’t feel at home in either place. A recent autism diagnosis followed by a fight with their mothers add an extra layer of real-life stress, only amplifying their struggle to belong. However, things take an unexpected turn when they cross paths with members of the fae deep in a Scottish forest. With the Gaelic wisdom from their Granaidh (Grandma), Cam understands that they have been noticed by the fae, and that this means that their life is suddenly in grave danger.

Cam must make a choice: face the danger, or join the fae and never see their family again. With their human ties fraying even further, the allure of the fae’s acceptance tugs at Cam’s heart, but are they ready to say goodbye to their family forever?

From the acclaimed author of The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, this is a lush, lyrical romantasy novel set at the crossroads of belonging and the magical realm of the unknown.

Link: Goodreads

Familiar — Cara Nox

Genre: Urban fantasy

Rep: M/M; gay MC, bi LI

Series: Book 1 of Occult Misadventures (stands alone)

After years of helping his father fight the monsters that killed his mother, Jules is ready to step out of his role of being a glorified errand boy for his dad and his vampire-hunting crew.

But when the idea is quickly shot down for the second time, Jules lets one drink to blow off steam domino into accidentally becoming a vampire’s familiar overnight.

And the biggest problem is that he can’t remember what happened.

With tensions high after his father discovers the possibility of a vampire spy in their midst, Jules scrambles to keep his mark a secret and prove himself to the entire crew by hunting down his vampire, following every clue that feels familiar.

Link: Author’s Website

Oblivion’s Hymn — A.J. Peterson

Genre: Fantasy

Rep: Sapphic

Series: Book 1 of Divine Songs

In a world where magic is ruled by bargains, how much would you pay for the thing you want most?

Echo’s shapeshifting has been a curse all her life. The secret police hunt her for her magical blood, and the rest of the world believes she’s a monster. To prove them wrong and escape capture, Echo bargained with a god to become a famous bard. But when she didn’t uphold her end of the deal, he took her singing voice away. Now the police are closing in, and her childhood friend, Rhienne, is the only one loyal and reckless enough to help get her voice back.

But Rhienne’s lust for power has her in trouble of her own. Her mother is dead, her scheme to steal magic from the head of the secret police failed, and time is running out before the gods come to collect her soul. If she can’t resurrect her mother—who has a history of finding contract loopholes—Rhienne belongs to the God of the Void forever. Using Echo’s innate talents might be Rhienne’s last chance at freedom.

Echo and Rhienne will search continents and dimensions for power strong enough to thwart their enemies and undo their mistakes. But the gods have their own plans to maintain balance. One way or another, they always get what they’re owed.

Link: Goodreads

Redneck Revenant — David R. Slayton

Genre: Urban fantasy

Rep: M/M; gay MC

Series: Book 4 of Adam Binder

Adam Binder’s life has never been better. Sure, he has no money, no car, no home to call his own, and he’s worried about creating a future with his boyfriend Vic, but he’s closer to his family than ever before. He’s also Page to the Elven Court of Swords, and that appointment is not without its perks—like the invisible sword strapped to his back.

But on Halloween night, Adam’s life takes a disturbing turn. Annie, his brother’s long-lost wife, turns up on her husband’s doorstep alive and well, with no memory of her death. But is it really Annie, or a Trojan horse from some new magical enemy?

To uncover the truth, Adam will need help from those he loves most—as well as a couple of friends at Rogue Community College. As he navigates a perilous maze of magical politics and battles terrifying creatures from beyond the known realms, Adam will discover a secret darker and more unsettling than anything he could have imagined.

Link: Goodreads

October 29, 2025

A Wild and Hungry Place — E.E. Ottoman

Genre: Horror

Rep: Queer

Cricket is trapped.

When she was wed, her dreaded mother-in-law laid a blood curse on her, and now that her husband is dead, fully intends to commit her to an asylum… or worse.

To save her life, Cricket flees to a small New England town and throws herself upon the mercy of a man she has never met.

Gabriel Throckmorton is not happy when Cricket turns up on his doorstep, but he does grudgingly agree to help her break the curse. Cricket expects the process to be difficult, but she has no idea how many secrets are waiting for her in the forest just beyond the garden wall.

There is a ghostly woman who visits Cricket in her dreams. Whether to seduce her or to ask for help, Cricket isn’t sure. Then there is Throckmorton himself, with a garden full of poisonous plants and a predator’s smile. The two of them awaken desires in Cricket that she has never experienced and threaten to reveal secrets she has long kept hidden.

When she discovers bones in the forest, a strange hole in the ground that exudes a frightening power, and townspeople driven to terrible violence by deep and wild magic, she begins to think she might be in over her head.

Link: Goodreads

October 30, 2025

Lord Death — Alyssa Page

Genre: Horror

Rep: Queer

Series: Book 2 of Portrait of a Dead Girl

The bigger the sinner, the sweeter the blood.

It’s a fresh start for Belle, Florence, and Lyren, all of them now free from the wickedness of the demon Goddess Velveteen. Her insidious presence was banished with the destruction of her portrait, the portal that she used to travel between the living plane and the Netherworld.

Or so they believed.

Lyren Deth struggles to navigate his new marriage, parenthood, and his royal responsibilities, all while investigating the corpses piling up at his door. With their eyes missing, abdomens torn open, and flowers blossoming out of their wounds, Lyren is desperate to find any leads to who the killer may be. He teeters the edge of sanity, his mind shifting to complete disarray as he attempts to solve the mystery before another victim ends up on his table.

It isn’t until strange puncture wounds appear on his collarbone that he realizes something far more sinister may be at play.

Evil lurks within the halls of Hellthorne Manor, starved and ready to devour its prey, along with their bones, blood, and heart.

Link: Goodreads

The Isle in the Silver Sea — Tasha Suri

Genre: Romantasy

Rep: Sapphic

From World Fantasy Award-winning author Tasha Suri comes The Isle in the Silver Sea, a heart-shattering romantasy of sapphic longing, medieval folklore and a love that spans the centuries.

In a Britain fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes.

Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen’s court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires, when to give in is to destroy each other?

As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given to them.

But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?

Link: Goodreads

October 31, 2025

Lemon Balm — Artemis Quinn & Auden Eris-Everen

Genre: Contemporary fantasy

Rep: Queer; non-binary MCs

Series: Book 1 of Tales From the Night Garden

Cypress Borne is 22 years old, a dashing young non-binary lad with a fairly easy life in New York City. That is, until their routine is interrupted by a vicious dog attack. Their life turns upside down—blackouts, unexplained fits of rage and lost time plague him. Two years of medical tests, therapy, and a life that’s spiraling down the toilet later, they navigate their way through the panic attacks and the hopelessness to an old, derelict, and a seemingly abandoned church in the woods. Little do they know, the church isn’t abandoned; rather, occupied by a vampire hoping to die and rotting in a coffin.

Acanthus Sylene believes that a fine wine should never have an age attached, and neither should a fine being. Nonbinary in such a way that gender is completely irrelevant, Acanthus has lived a very long life and is frankly exhausted by it. Embroiled deeply into the politics of the World of Shadows, they have abandoned their duties to The Night Garden, a refugee path that they forged. But something changes when a lost, scared, ignorant werewolf shows up on their doorstep.

Both of these supernatural beings are looking for answers. Somehow, instead of finding their place in the world, they find each other. However, in the process of finding and growing with each other, they may have put their entire lives—and The Night Garden—at risk.

Link: Author’s Website

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