Happy August! With summer in full swing (too much swing, some might say), it's the perfect time to kick your feet up and dive into some new literature. As always, we've compiled a list of our most anticipated LGBTQ+ reads published this month — so dive in and find some amazing new books to add to your TBR pile!
Start your month off with Marie Cardno's twisted F/F fairytale, How to Get a Date with the Evil Queen, released on the 1st.
Sian's world thinks she's dead. Trillin's dimension wants to make sure of it. And the place they escaped to together just threw a dragon at them. All Sian wanted was a quiet moment to make out with her new girlfriend. Instead, she and the adorably monstrous Trillin find themselves trapped by a world whose fairytale magic has very strict ideas about who gets a happily-ever-after. Princesses exist to be rescued. Heroes do the rescuing. And monsters? Monsters get killed. In a world where happy-ever-after has teeth, Sian and Trillin are going to learn to bite back. How to Get a Date with the Evil Queen is a paranormal romcom featuring ridiculous gender and genre roles, big swords and a woman who doesn't know how to use them, and shapeshifting true love winning against all odds.
If paranormal's not your style, grab Angie Williams' contemporary lesfic, The Only Fish in the Sea, also coming on the 1st!
Crab fishing is in Remy Miller’s blood. Millers have been fishing off the coast of Oregon for three generations, so she’s heartbroken when her dad refuses to give her the chance to prove she can captain her own boat. When Julia Clayman, the beautiful daughter of a rival crabbing family, offers Remy a chance to run her own boat for the Claymans, she knows the decision could deepen the long-standing rift between their families. All Remy wants is the chance to live her dream, and the more time she spends with Julia the more her dreams include the chance for a happily ever after. But blood is thicker than the waters lapping the Oregon coastline, and old rivalries may mean Remy loses her career and her heart. Will love overcome the odds for this modern-day Romeo and Juliet?
On the 2nd, you can listen to the new audiobook of Bloody Spade by Brittany M. Willows, an urban fantasy with a splash of romance and a huge amount of queer rep, with ace, pan, and lesbian characters included!
In a world where magic has come roaring back from myth to reality, bringing with it malice-born monsters, a snarky cat-eared thief in possession of a corrupted legendary magic falls into the care of a softhearted girl with the power to purify it—but there’s a catch, and they’ve got more immediate troubles brewing on the horizon. The criminal organization Blackjack is trying to rip open the barrier between the mundane and magical realms by awakening more of these legendary suits, and it's up to the magical emergency response unit Cardplay to stop them before it's too late.
All Yesterday's Papers by S.S. Genesee releases on the 3rd, featuring a suspenseful Achillean historical romance.
Another body is found. Another one of Maurice’s victims. But as the law draws near, everything starts to change…
Kenneth thinks things are finally looking up in his life. He has a wonderful partner in Maurice, and a future that looks bright… or so it seems. As more murders occur, and the police learn more about the Western Michigan Serial Killer, Kenneth’s world begins to crack. Maybe his perfect lover isn’t as perfect as he thought.
Maurice spirals further and further out of control, losing sight of who he is—is he an immoral, murderous artist, or a sweet, caring boyfriend? How long can he hide the truth from Kenneth before it all comes crashing down, ending his life as he knows it?
Would Kenneth still love him if he knew?
[All Yesterday’s Papers is Book Two of the All Tomorrow’s Photos duology. It is not a standalone, and must be read after Book One. This duology is a dark MM romance story not intended for a young audience. Contains graphic depictions of violence(blood and gore), and explicit sexual content.]
On the 7th, we have our most anticipated read of the month: Under the Ice Skies (Jasyn and the Astronauts, #1) by the lovely Gwenhyver, an exciting myth retelling featuring all of our favourite things: swords, sorcery, and sapphics! Read our interview with Gwenhyver to find out more about this wonderful debut.
A sapphic swords & sorcery space adventure!
On a planet infected by ice, the power to create more is the last thing anyone needs…
Jasyn is an explorer with a talent for reaching for the stars and upending weather systems with her emotions. She spends her days dreaming of adventure, hiding her power of ice, and definitely not thinking about what it’d feel like to be the snow on her best friend’s cheek
Atalanta is an archer and a recluse with a skill for making Jasyn’s heart glow as bright as a filament-fruit. They’ve lived in each other’s orbit most of their lives, but she’s just as magical and mysterious to Jasyn as all the galaxies under the Seven Suns.
When their world is forcibly upturned, a journey of discovery begins. Venturing across their ice and blight-infested home-world, they discover the solution to their out of balance world lies in the skies. Of course, with a tyrant Ice King intent on closed sky-borders and Jasyn’s demise, they have to survive long enough to get there, first.
Under The Ice Skies is the first leg of the journey in the Jasyn and The Astronauts series — a sapphic, swords & sorcery in space reimagining of Jason and the Golden Fleece — an adventure fuelled by wonder and good intentions, while navigating weather fronts formed of feelings along the way.
Following on the 8th is Text Appeal by Amber Roberts, an adult M/F romcom with a bi MC and a queer supporting character.
When a friend suggests text message–based sex work as a stopgap between jobs, Lark is dubious. She’s all about sex positivity, but carrying out sexual fantasies—even digitally and anonymously—with complete strangers is daunting. How will she explain how she’s earning a living—especially to Toby, her good friend and longtime hopeless crush?
Still, she needs the money, and after a few (embarrassing and hilarious) false starts, she actually starts to like sexting—especially with one particularly charming and nerdy client who keeps popping up in her DMs. But as Lark and Toby grow closer, she finds herself with a decision to make: tell Toby she’s a sex worker—and try to forget the anonymous client who has her struggling to separate work from real feelings—or keep the secrets that are piling up in her inbox.
Sure to appeal to readers of Helen Hoang and Jen DeLuca, Amber Roberts’s Text Appeal celebrates women in STEM, friends becoming lovers, and finding lasting love in the digital age.
On the 23rd, read Katy Haye's new novel, Protector, featuring a gay romance in a queer-normative fantasy world!
Does a repentant assassin deserve to find peace - or love?
Prince Talal has met his soulmate and gained a blessing exactly as prophecy foretold. He's never been happier. Kit has never felt more lost. Raised to despise Talal's religion, he believes soulmates a heresy, while his blessing is more of a curse.
Time away from court should give them both chance to understand their soulmate bond and strengthen their connection. Instead, Kit's demons dig their claws into his troubled mind. Talal knows he is a new man, but persuading him of the fact is a different matter. Must he accept that there are some wrongs even a prince cannot right?
Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh by Rachael Lippincott releases on the 29th!
What if you found a once-in-a-lifetime love…just not in your lifetime?
Audrey Cameron has lost her spark. But after getting dumped by her first love and waitlisted at her dream art school all in one week, she has no intention of putting her heart on the line again to get it back. So when local curmudgeon Mr. Montgomery walks into her family’s Pittsburgh convenience store saying he can help her, Audrey doesn’t know what she’s expecting…but it’s definitely not that she’ll be transported back to 1812 to become a Regency romance heroine.
Lucy Sinclair isn’t expecting to find an oddly dressed girl claiming to be from two hundred years in the future on her family’s estate. But she has to admit it’s a welcome distraction from being courted by a man her father expects her to marry—who offers a future she couldn’t be less interested in. Not that anyone has cared about what or who she’s interested in since her mother died, taking Lucy’s spark with her.
While the two girls try to understand what’s happening and how to send Audrey home, their sparks make a comeback in a most unexpected way. Because as they both try over and over to fall for their suitors and the happily-ever-afters everyone expects of them, they find instead they don’t have to try at all to fall for each other.
But can a most unexpected love story survive even more impossible circumstances?
On the 30th, grab Blue Moon Magick by Ali Williams, a sapphic paranormal romance featuring a plus-sized MC!
The last thing Mia Baroni needed was a Goddess to upend her life. Luna keeps on trying to get her to go out at night and cavort by the light of the moon, and doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of a 9 to 5 job. But there’s something haunting in the Goddess’s eyes, and Mia can’t help but want to chase it away.
Welcome to the Godstouched Universe, where the Gods interfere in the lives of mortals. Blue Moon Magic is a sapphic romance between a human and a goddess, with a guaranteed Happy Ever After.
Closing August on the 31st is A Vermillion Curse by DC Guevara, a romance-fantasy with an array of queer characters in a Dungeons & Dragons-style setting.
Former scholar turned mercenary Ryesand Valafar rummages through a ransacked city for banned religious texts, seeking information about ancient and dangerous magic. While investigating an abandoned temple, he encounters a threatening woman with a price on her head high enough to fund his research. Wanted by both the crown for her involvement in the dead king's occult studies and a menacing cult, Cressida Benoit searches for a way to get rid of a brand that scars her in the besieged capital in order to make her grand escape.
An encounter with a demon leaves her in bonds. When this unlikely pair of opposing personalities discover that they have similar objectives relating to the outlawed religion, they agree to work together to find the place where all dark magic stems from. This proves to be a difficult task when their journey is tracked by a war commander set on bringing them to justice, a family they must escort back to a circus, and the growing tension rising between Ryesand and Cressida, serving as a distraction from their individual goals. In the midst of shifting rulers, villages, disarray, and a scattered court of decadence - falling in love was never in the cards.
Also on our radar:
The Flight Risk by Macon Leigh, out 8th | contemporary | sapphic
Merchants of Light and Bone by Erika McCorkle, also out 8th | fantasy
Reality in Check by Emily Banting, out 12th | celebrity romance | sapphic
Against the Current by Lily Seabrooke, out 15th | sapphic romance
Night of the Living Queers anthology by Wednesday Books, out 29th | YA horror
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