June is Pride Month so we're celebrating with some new and noteworthy fiction that features LGBTQ+ authors and characters. If you're looking for more backlist titles, check out some of our previous Pride lists for more recommendations!
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Dead dead girls
by Nekesa Afia HISTORICAL MYSTERY. After a raid on a Manhattan speakeasy in 1926 Harlem, Louise Lloyd is given the opportunity to avoid jail by helping to solve the murders of several local black girls, in the first novel of a new mystery series. |
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With teeth : a novel
by Kristen. Arnett CONTEMPORARY FICTION. From the author of the New York Times-bestselling sensation Mostly Dead Things: a surprising and moving story of two mothers, one difficult son, and the limitations of marriage, parenthood, and love If she's being honest, Sammie Lucas is scared of her son. Working from home in the close quarters of their Florida house, she lives with one wary eye peeled on Samson, a sullen, unknowable boy who resists her every attempt to bond with him. Uncertain in her own feelings about motherhood, she tries her best--driving, cleaning, cooking, prodding him to finish projects for school--while growing increasingly resentful of Monika, her confident but absent wife. As Samson grows from feral toddler to surly teenager, Sammie's life begins to deteriorate into a mess of unruly behavior, and her struggle to create a picture-perfect queer family unravels. When her son's hostility finally spills over into physical aggression, Sammie must confront her role in the mess--and the possibility that it will never be clean again. Blending the warmth and wit of Arnett's breakout hit, Mostly Dead Things, with a candid take on queer family dynamics, With Teeth is a thought-provoking portrait of the delicate fabric of family--and the many ways it can be torn apart. |
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Milk fed : a novel
by Melissa Broder CONTEMPORARY FICTION. Transitioning from her Jewish faith to dieting to maintain an illusion of existential control, Rachel bonds with an Orthodox woman at a frozen yogurt shop before embarking on a journey of food, desire and spiritual fulfillment. |
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The unbroken
by C. L. Clark FANTASY. Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than shethought. Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne. Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren't for sale. |
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A master of djinn
by P. Djèlí Clark HISTORICAL FANTASY. In 1912 Cairo, a new world where the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities maintains an uneasy peace, the Ministry’s youngest agent, Fatima, must stop an imposter who threatens to tear apart the very fabric of this new Egyptian society. |
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How to find a princess
by Alyssa Cole ROMANCE. When a threat to her grandmother’s livelihood pushes Princess Makeda to agree to return to Ibarania, she is taken on a transatlantic adventure complete with a beautiful investigator named Beznaria, a crew of lovable weirdos, a fake marriage, and one-bed hijinks on the high seas. |
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Lone stars
by Justin Deabler CONTEMPORARY FICTION. Invited by his husband to share his ancestral history with their son, Julian reflects on generations of his Texas family and how it was shaped by immigration, the Vietnam War and other historical events. |
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The heiress : the revelations of Anne de Bourgh
by Molly Greeley HISTORICAL FICTION. A reimagining of the story of Jane Austen’s mysterious character depicts a rejected young heiress who fights a life-long addiction before discovering health and passion in the London home of her cousin, Colonel John Fitzwilliam. |
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The prophets : a novel
by Robert Jones HISTORICAL FICTION. A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. |
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Stone fruit
by Lee Lai CONTEMPORARY GRAPHIC NOVEL. An exhilarating and tender debut graphic novel that is an ode to the love and connection shared among three women and the child they all adore. |
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Persephone Station
by Stina Leicht SCIENCE FICTION. On the backwater planet of Brynner, at Persephone Station, a community of android refugees, all female, are hiding since they were able to awaken their AI and escape servitude. But the Serrao-Orlov Corporation is nothing if not tenacious, especially about it's proprietary AI's, and it wants their property back. However, Persephone is run by Rosie, and they are in charge of an organized group of beneficent criminals and assassins, along with a bunch of worn mercenaries who have a thing for doing the honorable thing, despite the odds. And in a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation, the odds are not going to be good, but it would be a glorious fight. Award-nominated author Stina Leicht has created a visciously feminist take on The Magnificent Seven by the way of Blade Runner and Westworld. |
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Winter's orbit
by Everina Maxwell SCIENCE FICTION. Summoned before the Emperor, Prince Kiem-a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild-is commanded to renew the empire's bonds with its newest vassal planet. The prince must marry Count Jainan, the recent widower of another royal prince of the empire. But the Jainan suspects his late husband's death was no accident. And Prince Kiem discovers that Jainan is a suspect himself. But broken bonds between the empire and its vassal planets leaves the entire empire vulnerable, so together they must prove that their union is strong while uncovering a possible conspiracy. In the shadows of a secret past and an insecure future, Kiem an Jainan must come together to protect both of their worlds. |
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One last stop
by Casey McQuiston ROMANCE. Cynical August starts to believe in the impossible when meets Jane on the subway, a mysterious punk rocker she forms a crush on, who is literally displaced in time from the 1970s and is trying to find her way back. |
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Yes, daddy
by Jonathan Parks-Ramage THRILLER. Follows an ambitious young man who is lured by an older, successful playwright into a dizzying world of wealth and an idyllic Hamptons home where things take a nightmarish turn. |
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Detransition, Baby
by Torrey Peters CONTEMPORARY FICTION. A trans woman, her detransitioned ex and his cisgender lover build an unconventional family together in the wake of heartbreak and an unplanned pregnancy, in a book by the author of the novella, Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones. |
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Honey girl
by Morgan Rogers ROMANCE. After completing her Ph.D. in astronomy, a young, straightlaced, Type A personality black woman goes on a girls’ weekend to Vegas to celebrate and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t even know. |
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The guncle : a novel
by Steven Rowley CONTEMPORARY FICTION. When Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP) for short, takes on the role of primary guardian for his young niece and nephew, he sets “Guncle Rules,” but soon learns that parenting isn’t solved with treats or jokes as his eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility. |
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We play ourselves : a novel
by Jen Silverman CONTEMPORARY FICTION. After a blistering public shaming, a promising young playwright heads to Los Angeles to reinvent herself and work on a semi-documentary about a group of teen girls who have a Fight Club inspired by the book and film. |
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Sorrowland
by Rivers Solomon SCIENCE FICTION. Fleeing from the strict religious compound where she was raised, Vern, in the safety of the forest, gives birth to twins, and to keep her small family safe, unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of. |
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Filthy Animals
by Brandon Taylor SHORT STORY COLLECTION. Interconnected stories set among Midwestern artists and creative types center around a young man trysting with two dancers in an open relationship in a new work of fiction by the author of Booker Prize finalist Real Life. |
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The chosen and the beautiful
by Nghi Vo HISTORICAL FICTION. Treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, Jordan Baker, queer and Asian, has the world of illusion, magic and mystery at her fingertips but the most important doors remain closed to her until she can figure out a way to open them. |
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The ruthless lady's guide to wizardry
by C. M. Waggoner HISTORICAL FANTASY. A charming historical fantasy with a tender love story at its core, from the author of Unnatural Magic. Hard-drinking petty thief Dellaria Wells is down on her luck in the city of Leiscourt--again. Then she sees a want ad for a female bodyguard, and shefast-talks her way into the high-paying job. Along with a team of other women, she's meant to protect a rich young lady from mysterious assassins. At first Delly thinks the danger is exaggerated, but a series of attacks shows there's much to fear. Then she begins to fall for Winn, one of the other bodyguards, and the women team up against a mysterious, magical foe who seems to have allies everywhere. |