As a great poet once said, August slipped away into a moment in time — and it's time for a whole new batch of books to add to our TBR! As we fall into autumn (pun intended), let's take a look at some of the most exciting queer fiction coming this September.
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First on the 1st, check out contemporary fantasy A Love Less Travelled by E.H. Timms for trans, nonbinary, ace, and queerplatonic rep!
When star-crossed lovers Maria and George thought they had lost everything, they called on the goddess of love for help. She answered. Whisked away from their feuding families, and fostered by Professor Smith of Olson College, they have a chance to get things right this time: right names, right genders, right friends. But only if they can stop their past from haunting them.
Rien Gray brings us Double Exposure on the 4th, featuring a bisexual nonbinary MC, a bisexual cis MC, and lesbian side characters.
Jillian Rhodes lies to everyone she meets. As one of the world's best art thieves, a life of infiltration and con artistry has left her flying solo, which is exactly the way she likes it. When Jillian is hired to steal a collection of photos belonging to the late—and deeply controversial—Russell Key from the Art Institute of Chicago, everything should be business as usual. Except she has two problems: first, fellow master thief Sloane Caffrey also has their eye on the photos. Second, Sloane is her smoking hot ex.
Three years have passed since a messy breakup, but Jillian and Sloane have been getting vengeance on each other ever since. When the Key theft becomes their latest competition, love and loathing ride a fine, shaking line.
Trying to destroy each other should be simple. But confronting past mistakes is hard, especially when the entire job is starting to look like a setup to put Jillian and Sloane behind bars...
Get stuck into paranormal romance The Fall That Saved Us by Tamara Jerée on the 5th, featuring a Black lesbian MC.
Nephilim—humans with direct lines to the angels—are natural demon hunters. All nephilim, it seems, except Cassiel. The weakest among a family touched by archangels, she’s abandoned her angelic inheritance for a mundane life as a bookseller. But even in the noise of the city, she remains burdened by the strict tenets of her old life. And recently, something far more sinister haunts her. Avitue is a succubus out for revenge—though she has little say in the matter. As part of the greater demons’ plan to ruin Cassiel’s family for slaying a duke of Hell, Avitue’s been sent to claim a particular nephilim soul, one she’s told will pose little challenge. It should be an easy seduction. Quick, fatal. But Avitue is surprised to find her own pain reflected in Cassiel, a nephilim deemed fallen by her own family’s standards. By choosing trust, they reveal the lies that bind them, but as unwilling participants in an eternal war, trusting each other is the most dangerous thing they can do.
We are super excited to read Providence Girls by Morgan Dante, also releasing on the 5th and promising a horror romance between a lesbian and bi woman!
Love changes you. So do the Outer Gods.
Now: Alone in a cottage, Lavinia writes to the woman she loved.
Fifteen years ago: Middle-aged Lavinia Whateley escapes her hilly Massachusetts town when the townsfolk decide to sacrifice her on Halloween. After almost dying in the woods, she's saved and housed by the stoic and mysterious Asenath Waite, or Azzie. On the coastal outskirts of East Providence, they start to fall in love.
However, things change when Azzie, with her secret past and the strange "scars" on the side of her neck, begins to transform into an eldritch creature of the deep.
On the 7th, dive into lesbian romance Teaching Hope by Sienna Waters.
It’s time to learn a lesson...
American high school teacher Ava Stanford has been betrayed in the worst way possible. So she takes a temporary job at a village school in England. She’s definitely not running away, but even she admits she’s got nothing to go home to.
School receptionist Hope Perkins is hardly at her peak. She’s a single mum, living with her own mother, and battling her ex for custody of little Alice. It’s not exactly the life she pictured in close-knit Whitebridge. Add in a new neighbor, who hates Hope’s cat, and things couldn’t get much worse.
But when a miscommunication results in child-allergic Ava teaching six-year-olds, it soon becomes clear that the only thing standing between her and disaster is Hope. And as irritating, annoying, and downright rude as Hope finds Ava, she soon starts to develop other feelings too.
Opposites definitely attract, and with cats galore, children running riot, interfering mothers and blue-haired bookstore owners, it’s hard to escape Whitebridge unscathed. Because once a town adopts you, you’re there for good. Providing Ava finally lets down her guard enough to let Hope in, that is.
Fancy a MM romantasy? Mary VanAlstine brings Deny Me, The Nightshade Boy on the 8th!
Lilydale, and its dangerous resident faeries, looms over the city of Saint Paul as a constant reminder to Micah Stillwater that he’s only half-human. He’s been doing well denying his Fae side until he meets Andrew Vidasche and accidentally charms him into a kiss. Andrew suspects that Micah is more than he appears since he already knows the dangers of Lilydale. If Micah wants to protect his human life and his romance with Andrew, then he must stop denying his own Fae nature and harness the magic in his blood.
On the 15th, grab In The Ring by Sierra Isley, featuring a Jewish bi MC.
"A gritty, graphic glimpse of the physical and mental realities of anxiety with a streak of romance (...) The well-drawn and likable characters invite empathy, and the subject matter will intrigue readers who are drawn to edgier works." - Kirkus Reviews
Rose Berman is losing her mind.
At least, that's what everyone at school seems to think. Plagued by panic attacks that started after her mother's suicide, Rose is the target of frequent teasing and rumors. The only people who understand her are her quirky therapist and her ex-girlfriend, now bestie, Gemma. But when the star quarterback takes "teasing" too far, the school's tattooed, cigarette-smoking time bomb ― Elliott King ― steps in and punches him in the face. Rose's therapist recommends she try out a sport to manage her anxiety. She can't help but think of Elliott―maybe if she could punch like him, she'd feel safer and stronger. She sticks out like a sore thumb at the boxing gym, but she soon finds power in the sport and a reprieve from her panic attacks. As their worlds intertwine, Rose and Elliott are forced to face their most daunting opponent outside the Ring: their growing feelings for each other.
But Midtown Ring isn't just a gym. As Rose falls deeper into the world of boxing, she learns Midtown is a front for a late-night, underground fight club where Elliott King is the headliner. Surrounded by violence and destruction, Rose's anxiety begins to spiral. She starts hallucinating, just like her mother did before her death, leaving her to wonder if everyone at school might be right. If her newfound physical strength can't keep her grounded in reality, she may be doomed to walk the same path as her mom.
Also on the 15th is Halli Starling's Always There For You. Read our interview with Halli here!
A new town, a new start, and finally opening the wine store of her dreams. Amelia has picked the small town of Breakwater to be her new home, and her new beginning. Even as her chronic pain sometimes gets in her way, she won't let anything keep her wine store and tasting room from opening.
And now that her best friend Hadley is with her, everything is perfect.
What Amelia won't speak aloud is how much she adores and cares for Hadley -- how much she truly loves the woman she's known since they were kids inspecting bugs and reading together in one of their backyards.
Hadley thinks the town of Breakwater is the perfect spot for Amelia and her new lease on life. And she's thinking about settling down herself, after years of traveling around the world and taking on odd jobs and having flings with beautiful women. But she always, always comes back to Amelia and now is her chance to tell her best friend exactly how much she cares.
It's hard to be brave, especially when it comes to affairs of the heart. But together, they can weather the storm and find what they've always been searching for.
It's a good day to be gay on the 15th, with another new release from Victoria Wlosok. How to Find a Missing Girl is a highly anticipated YA thriller!
For fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Veronica Mars, this whip-smart thriller follows a sapphic detective agency as they seek the truth behind a growing trail of missing girls in small-town Louisiana.
A year ago, beloved cheerleader Stella Blackthorn vanished without a trace. Devastated, her younger sister, Iris, launched her own investigation, but all she managed to do was scare off the police’s only lead and earn a stern warning: Once she turns eighteen, more meddling means prison-level consequences.
Then, a year later, the unthinkable happens. Iris’s ex-girlfriend, Heather, goes missing, too—just after dropping the polarizing last episode of her true crime podcast all about Iris’s sister. This time, nothing will stop Iris and her amateur sleuthing agency from solving these disappearances.
But with a suspicious detective watching her every move, an enemy-turned-friend-turned-maybe-more to contend with, and only thirty days until she turns eighteen, it’s a race against the clock for Iris to solve the most dangerous case of her life.
On the 17th, read Swallow You Whole, the first book in the gothic fantasy horror series, Gentlemen Demon, by Sirius.
HELL IS REAL, AND IT IS HERE.
When Violet Clifton sealed her pact with an opportunistic demon, it was her husband’s name she signed on the dotted line. Now that his soul has been claimed, she finds herself forming a new deadly alliance. The demon is willing to wear her husband’s face, and in compliance with this charade, Violet will not have to remarry. Yet her contract states that she must sign away more souls in order to maintain the bargain. It should be easy enough, as long as she can find more souls to harvest, and she is more than willing to put anyone—including her sickly nephew—on the chopping block.
GOD IS REAL, AND HE THINKS WE’RE SWINE.
Elliot Dosett’s fragile health is swiftly declining. His wealthy father wants to send him to a hospital and be rid of him entirely, but Elliot will fight tooth and nail against his fate. In his desperation, he calls out for a demon, only to find that the one who answers may not be entirely what he expected. They strike a bargain for his soul, but the devil fools with best-laid plans when a visit from his aunt Violet turns things sour.
HELL IS CATCHING UP.
Henry and James are two demons who have laid claim to the same soul. Now they are facing an audit from the depths of Hell which could have disastrous effects and upend everything they’ve worked for. They are willing to plot, scheme, and tempt their way through to the other side, but outsmarting Hell may take more than an act of Satan—it may take an all-out miracle.
If dark fantasy is your style, get ready for the second book in R.P. Dunwaters' Book of Payne series, Vision of Ruin, releasing on the 21st. You can read our interview with the writing duo here!
Mariela Rossi’s only desire was to be a supportive wife to Eleanor Payne, High Priestess of Ebroth.
But when Eleanor’s rash actions at the Harvest Festival incite the wrath of the High Priestesses of Dienna, Mariela finds herself pushed into the spotlight.
Left behind, Mariela must lead the survivors of Blackridge in picking up the broken pieces of their village, all while learning to navigate new clairvoyant powers of her own.
Just as it seems the village is on the mend, a terrifying vision foretells the new horror that will befall Blackridge. And there’s only one way to prevent it from coming true:
Mariela must put an end to Eleanor’s reign of destruction.
But will stopping her wife be enough, or are the people of Ebroth now trapped in a war they have no hope of winning?
Cosy MM mystery, anyone? Dahlia Donovan's Honey Mead Murder also releases on the 21st.
Get ready for a charmingly quirky romance with a twist of murder mystery in Honey Mead Murder!
Follow the heart-warming story of George Bernard Sheth, a devoted pug and bee lover, who has been secretly crushing on a local mead brewer. But when a customer dies during a mead tasting, Murphy Baird, the brewer, finds himself at the centre of a police investigation.
As the two navigate the murder mystery, they find themselves falling deeper in love, all while trying to stay alive long enough for their first date. With meddling friends and unexpected plot twists, "Honey Mead Murder" is a must-read for anyone who loves a good MM romance and a thrilling mystery.
On the 22nd, grab A.A. Fairview's paranormal romance, Crystals and Contracts: a le Fay Romance.
"My landlord is going to hate me for what I’m about to do."
I’ve never had a father and never wanted one either. To my dismay, I do have a father, Arthur le Fay–a crime lord witch. Afraid for not just my safety, but the safety of my friends and coven, I have no other choice but to make a deal with a devil. A little drastic? Maybe, but it’s certainly effective.
At least it would be–if the devil would agree to make a deal with me!
Now I have a devil in my apartment and no idea what to do about the le Fays. I just want them to leave me alone… or maybe I want them afraid of me. Fear is one hell of a motivator. But no amount of fear will get this devil of mine to behave. He’s much more partial to exchanges, my body for his benevolence. Nothing good can come from feelings, especially when he insists he has none.
One of our new favourite authors, Merlina Garance, is blessing us with Just Stu on the 24th. Catch up with their Leicester Trilogy and read Garance's guest article here!
John, 41, settles in Leicester after his divorce, with hopes of becoming the best version of himself as he builds a new life. He makes friends, starts doing yoga, and joins an RPG campaign. Only one day, he realises he might just have fallen in love with his best friend. Oops. In this slow paced tale of falling in love over time, follow these characters on their journey to self discovery and acceptance, and found family.
This is a story about love in all its forms: friendship, romantic, the family we are born with, and the one we end up choosing.
Roxie Voorhees brings us some western horror on the 26th with THE LONGEST THIRST.
The closest-opening tale of Lillian and everything she'll sacrifice to do the right thing.
When Lillian killed her father, getting the blood out of her dress was the least of her worries. The Native woman on her left will soon prove to be a blessing, or a curse. Just as hope all but evaporates on the cracked earth of the Mojave, a beacon of light shines in the center of a silver mining town, Calico.
Born into the rigidity of classism, Lillian struggles with the welcoming hospitality of the town and its inhabitants. Convinced this respite is brief, she prepares to return the woman to her people, and flee her crime. Even so, Calico softens her heart and Lillian soon feels she belongs.
But a stranger gallops into Calico. His presence commands obedience, and soon he finds what he is looking for,
Lillian.
And they have unfinished business.
On the 27th, Aiden E. Messer brings us Pet, a a dystopian splatterpunk horror with a range of queer characters.
In the aftermath of an apocalyptic event that sets the world ablaze, Caleb and Nivitha find themselves thrown into a harsh, unforgiving new reality. They must face their fears, adapt to the dangers of their environment, and decide whether to trust others or isolate themselves.
Caleb, social by nature, quickly makes a new group of friends among the survivors.
Nivitha, determined to protect her younger sister Asha, guards herself against the remaining humans, regarding them as potential threats.
They both soon learn just how cruel this new world can be. Between murder, torture and hunger, uncertainty is the only constant.
* Includes illustrations by the talented @pasteks *
Also on our radar:
Cherish by Kris Bryant | lesfic | 1st
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White | YA horror | 5th
Fly With Me by Andie Burke | lesfic | 5th
This Spells Disaster by Tori Anne Martin | sapphic witches | 12th
The Borrow a Boyfriend Club by Page Powars | YA trans gay romance | 12th
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner | lesfic | 19th
The Wayward Souls of Avalon and Lonely Planet Hotel by A.L. Davidson | ongoing webseries
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