Happy holi-gays! We'll be making the yuletide gayer than ever this December with all of the new releases coming this month. Whether you're looking for gift ideas or just fancy hibernating with a new book, this list has plenty of recommendations to keep you entertained all winter.
On the 1st, dive into a coming-of-age mystery featuring gay representation with The Lost Past of Billy McQueen by Neil Alexander.
The past has never left Billy. It's just been waiting for him to come and find it...
It's been over thirty years since Billy last called Northern Ireland home. Back then, his secret love for schoolfriend Conor was the only shining light that kept him going during troubled times. That is, until their romance was tragically cut short when Conor disappeared without a trace.
Now a phone call draws Billy back home when his mother falls into a coma. While sorting through old belongings, he stumbles upon an envelope bearing his name. Inside, he finds a mysterious note and a mixtape left by Conor - dated the very day he disappeared in 1989.
But who sent it? Why did his mother keep it hidden? And what really happened to Conor?
As Billy sets off to find the answers to a mystery that's followed him for years, he soon realises that uncovering the truth about his lost past may come at a high cost. But laying the ghosts of that past to rest might be the only way to finally set himself free...
From the author of The Vanishing of Margaret Small comes a compelling and deeply nostalgic coming-of-age tale that promises to touch your heart and stay with you long after the last page. Packed with humour and tenderness, it's perfect for fans of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, The Keeper of Stories and A Tidy Ending.
On the 3rd, grab Figure You Out by Hannah Danielle and K.F. Starfell for an urban fantasy MF romance with bisexual main characters, lesbian side characters, and enby rep.
Cassiopeia Varner has been living the life of her dreams for five years, and it’s all away from the grasp of her controlling father. She’s got everything she’s ever wanted. Everything except Tal. She hasn’t seen her best friend in five years, not since the night he left her at the train station to flee their hometown on her own.
Talien Vale has worked hard to overcome the destruction of his family name at the hands of the Varner empire, all for the sake of the generations-long feud between Brunswick’s founding families. He’s done his best to put the past and his broken heart behind him. That is until his past shows up in the form of Cassiopeia Varner in the middle of the night over winter break.
Talien is faced with having to decide between his heart’s only desire and succumbing to the threat that is her father’s wrath, while Cass’s only goal seems to be to rekindle whatever it was between them without her father knowing.
The 4th is a big day for us because our very own Ivy H. Marikova is debuting her amazing short fantasy story, Tide Breaker's Curse, promising sapphic female rage!
Zale Aboron has spent his life sailing across the world to cleanse it from monsters plaguing both lands and seas.
Monsters that know how to wield revenge against even the purest of hearts.
When Zale’s crew and their families fall into a pattern of unexplained deaths, it becomes clear that they have brought home more than just treasures from their they are cursed. The doomed fate of their loved ones is a heavy burden to bear, especially when the charming Marea steals Zale’s heart with just one smile.
Will the Tide Breaker captain break the curse in time to save his loved ones? Or will the unforgiving sea god feast victorious?
Laura Winter releases Storm & Sacrifice on the 5th. This fantasy romance includes a bi MMC, lesbian side characters, and other queer rep, too!
I was fifteen when my mother was killed by King Azemar Xeris. I’ve kept hidden for years, working the mines and keeping my head down.
Until I wake up on an altar, about to be a sacrifice for a dark ritual I don’t understand, with icy blue eyes glaring down at me.
I don’t make it far in my escape when Prince Xeris apprehends me, accusing me of crimes at the mine I’m certain I didn’t commit. But apparently, there have been other victims of these sacrifices, and I may be the only survivor.
To clear my name, I’ll have to work with the prince to find the killer and the purpose of this ritual. If only I could shake his familiar blue eyes.
The Autumn Equinox and Blood Moon are approaching, and I’m determined to be the last to suffer in this ritual. Even if I must work with the prince who has turned a blind eye to his kingdom’s suffering for years.
I just hope I’m not working with the very male who tried to sacrifice me.
Also on the 5th comes Jaime Munn's Flicker (A Witchlight Novel), promising an urban fantasy with a sapphic protagonist of colour and a queer wolf pack.
No sleep for the witch…
Guess who's back, witches?
Witchcraft comes with its share of thorns, and Asbelia—an almost goddess—is the sharpest of them all. Now, she’s bringing the darkest twists back to town.
For Nilla, being a witch isn’t all fun and games. Not with a relentless stalker from the veiled world, where witches are just the appetiser and darker creatures lurk in the shadows. When Asbelia warns her to watch for something shaped like danger, Nilla doesn’t expect to find creepy shadow keys—or for her best friend to come terrifyingly close to a fatal encounter.
Nilla Hayes is back! (As are her werewolf girlfriend Sofia, her not cat familiar F.C., her bestie Livia, the queer wolf pack that has her back and holds all her IOUs, and of course her fairy stalker…)
Get ready for the next wild ride, witches! Dive in with FLICKER now.
If splatterpunk horror with dark romance is more your style, try Debasing Seth by Aiden E. Messer out on the 7th, which includes a bi MMC.
My name is Seth Malame, but feel free to call me whatever the hell you want; see if I fucking care.
A tall, sinewy 21-year-old punk cokehead with turquoise hair and piercings. Spooky, eh? Yeah, you have no fucking idea.
When I'm not fighting or stabbing my clients, I live a peaceful life in Switzerland, working as a drug dealer and a whore. My lovely girlfriend, Clara, isn't a fan, but hey! At least my best friend, Enoch, doesn't mind. He always treats me like shit; it's hot as hell. I love it. I really wish he would fuck me, but he says I don't deserve it yet.
I'm going to do whatever it takes to be allowed to suck his dick.
Whatever it takes.
What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould is set to release on the 10th, and sounds great for fans of lesbians and YA horror!
Yellowjackets meets Girl, Interrupted when a group of troubled teens in a wilderness therapy program find themselves stranded in a forest full of monsters eager to take their place.
Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her1 foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction―one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they've all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways―and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness―they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.
Devin is immediately determined to escape. She’s also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there’s something strange about these woods―inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn't be there flashing in the leaves―and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other―and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.
Atmospheric and sharp, What the Woods Took is a poignant story of transformation that explores the price of becoming someone―or something―new.
The 12th brings Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto, a science fiction/fantasy featuring lesbian rep.
HAMMAJANG | adjective. Definition: In a disorderly or chaotic state; messed up. Chiefly in predicative use, esp. in all hammajang. Etymology: A borrowing from Hawaiian Pidgin. Source: Oxford English Dictionary.
Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person - costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most.
And it's all Angel's fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station - of home - to spend the best part of a decade alone.
But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find none other than Angel waiting - and she has an offer.
One last job. One last deal. One last target. The trillionaire tech god they failed to bring down last time. There's just one thing Edie needs to do - trust Angel again - which also happens to be the last thing Edie wants to do. What could possibly go all hammajang about this plan?
Ocean's 8 meets Blade Runner in this trail-blazing debut science fiction novel and swashbuckling love letter to Hawai'i about being forced to find a new home and striving to build a better one - unmissable for fans of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.
Gift a graphic novel this year! On the 17th, grab How Could You by Ren Strapp and dive into queer romances between college friends!
Falling in love? Scary. Falling for your best friend? Terrifying. Naming all the ways your heart hurts? Impossible.
College upperclassman Molly Song is set on getting over her ex this semester, but it's hard when she dumps you via email and posts all over social media about cozying up with her study-abroad roommate. After convincing her friend, Lou Kingston, that they should go to parties and find rebound girlfriends, Molly learns she should be careful what she wishes for when she starts to develop real feelings for someone she’s not sure feels the same way.
Meanwhile, Molly and Lou’s exes, Yona and Olene, have left their pasts behind as they study abroad in France. Together they see springtime in Marseille, find new friendships, and uncover new personal truths. Will their whirlwind trip bloom into a whirlwind romance, or will their journeys to self-discovery put them on different paths entirely?
College is a time to find yourself, but what could you stand to lose along the way? Lessons of the heart abound in How Could You, a queer debut graphic novel from Ren Strapp, perfect for fans of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me and Heartstopper.
Alexis Hall is back with Something Extraordinary, literally, on the 17th, as we travel to another queer regency romance.
From the author of Boyfriend Material comes the absurdist adventure of two friends determined to avoid marriage to unsuitable people as they race through Regency England to marry each other instead.
Sir Horley Comewithers isn’t particularly interested in getting married, especially when his match is a perfectly respectable young woman. Sir Horley is, after all, extravagantly gay. But he’s resigned to a fate there’s no point resisting—until a dear friend does it for him.
Arabella Tarleton has no interest in romance, but even she can see that Sir Horley’s nuptials are destined to end in a lifetime of misery. Well, not on her watch. And what are friends for, if not abducting you on your wedding night in an overdramatic attempt to save you from a terrible mistake?
Their journey to Gretna Green is a hodgepodge of colorful run-ins and near misses with questionable innkeepers, amateur highwaymen, overattentive writers, and scorned fiancées. Then again a bumpy road is better than an unhappy destination.
But when it comes to marriage, Belle and Sir Horley are about to discover that it’s not what you do or how you do it but the people who you choose to do it with that matter most.
We can't wait for Melissa Rakestraw's debut, Child of Draco, to hit shelves on the 21st. Find out more about this sapphic high fantasy in our interview here.
Shunned by her family, Nora DuPont has spent her life searching for happiness within the shadowed corners of her mother’s grand estate. That is until the chance for a different life arises when Princess Gabriella is kidnapped by a dragon on her wedding day. With a reward that can change Nora’s life forever, she sets off on a journey of a lifetime.
But Nora quickly finds that rescuing the princess is only the beginning. When ancient beings awaken and forces of prophecy begin to set in motion, Nora must decide between the life she wanted, a world that never wanted her, and a love she never believed possible.
Lucinda Wicked is making the season dark with Reckless Passions & Dangerous Alliances, out on the 25th. This sapphic biker romance promises butch x femme characters.
Eva seeks refuge in the city's heart, only to find a captivating enigma named Nikki. A chance encounter ignites a spark, but Nikki's truth electrifies - she leads the Infernos, a notorious biker gang shrouded in mystery.
Forbidden desires simmer as Eva delves deeper. The city whispers of Nikki's power, yet Eva can't resist the pull. Threats rise from the shadows, rivals exploit Nikki's attachment, igniting a war. Nikki shields Eva while tightening her grip on power, forcing Eva to witness both the protector and the predator within her.
Loyalties blur as a bond forms, forged in secrets and trust. But a hidden enemy emerges, a rival plotting Nikki's downfall. The Infernos face a brutal showdown, testing love and empire. Sacrifice reveals truth as Nikki makes a heart-stopping choice, and Eva, transformed by danger, rises to the challenge
A new order dawns. The city awakens to Eva and Nikki, their love forged in passion and sacrifice. But whispers linger, hinting at a deeper mystery that binds them. Can their love face the darkness beneath the surface?
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