LGBTQ+ Books I’ve Recently Added To My TBR

Hi all!

If you’ve been following my blog for any amount of time, you’d know that I tend to read a lot of queer fiction, any genre. And I recently added a whole bunch of queer books to my Goodreads TBR — some of these books just recently came out, some came out years ago, and some won’t be out till later this year or even next year. But, regardless, I thought I’d share the books I added to my TBR in case anyone finds a new favourite!

You’ll see that I tried to add what specific pairing type and representation each book has, but in books that aren’t out yet /  have only been out for a while, that proved quite a challenge, which is why you’ll see a lot of “potentially [rep]” in this list. Big thanks to the amazing reviewers who go out of their way to describe in detail what representation is found in a book — whether it be sexuality, race, gender, or disability. I’ve recently found that not a lot of people think mentioning a specific rep is important in a review (which is so frustrating), so thanks to the wonderful people who do!

A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson

Pairing: m/m
Representation: black gay MC, gay love interest,
Age group: adult
Genre: fantasy

Long after the Towers left the world but before the dragons came to Daluça, the emperor brought his delegation of gods and diplomats to Olorum. As the royalty negotiates over trade routes and public services, the divinity seeks arcane assistance among the local gods.

Aqib bgm Sadiqi, fourth-cousin to the royal family and son of the Master of Beasts, has more mortal and pressing concerns. His heart has been captured for the first time by a handsome Daluçan soldier named Lucrio. In defiance of Saintly Canon, gossiping servants, and the furious disapproval of his father and brother, Aqib finds himself swept up in a whirlwind romance. But neither Aqib nor Lucrio know whether their love can survive all the hardships the world has to throw at them.

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Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson 

Pairing: m/f
Representation: bi love interest, potential ace character
Age group: young adult
Genre: fantasy & magic

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

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The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

Pairing: f/f
Representation: sapphic characters (book not out yet, not sure of exact rep)
Age group: young adult
Genre: contemporary retelling

The Larkin family isn’t just lucky—they persevere. At least that’s what Violet and her younger brother, Sam, were always told. When the Lyric sank off the coast of Maine, their great-great-great-grandmother didn’t drown like the rest of the passengers. No, Fidelia swam to shore, fell in love, and founded Lyric, Maine, the town Violet and Sam returned to every summer.

But wrecks seem to run in the family: Tall, funny, musical Violet can’t stop partying with the wrong people. And, one beautiful summer day, brilliant, sensitive Sam attempts to take his own life.

Shipped back to Lyric while Sam is in treatment, Violet is haunted by her family’s missing piece-the lost shipwreck she and Sam dreamed of discovering when they were children. Desperate to make amends, Violet embarks on a wildly ambitious mission: locate the Lyric, lain hidden in a watery grave for over a century.

She finds a fellow wreck hunter in Liv Stone, an amateur local historian whose sparkling intelligence and guarded gray eyes make Violet ache in an exhilarating new way. Whether or not they find the Lyric, the journey Violet takes-and the bridges she builds along the way-may be the start of something like survival.

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Deposing Nathan by Zach Smedley 

Pairing: m/m
Representation: bi MC
Age group: young adult
Genre: contemporary

Nate never imagined that he would be attacked by his best friend, Cam.

Now, Nate is being called to deliver a sworn statement that will get Cam convicted. The problem is, the real story isn’t that easy or convenient—just like Nate and Cam’s friendship. Cam challenged Nate on every level from the day the boys met. He pushed him to break the rules, to dream, and to accept himself. But Nate—armed with a fierce moral code and conflicted by his own beliefs—started to push back. With each push, Nate and Cam moved closer to each other—but also spiraled closer to their breaking points.

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Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett 

Pairing: f/f
Representation: sapphic
Age group: young adult
Genre: contemporary

Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle.

But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic–the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience–have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims.

Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them.

To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined.

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You First by J.C. Lillis 

Pairing: m/m
Representation: potentially gay MC and love interest
Age group: adult
Genre: superhero romance

When sort-of-superhero Levon Ludlow meets Jay Jantzen on a bench beside their college quad, he knows he’s met a kindred spirit. Levon can talk to animals, but only pests and nuisances no one wants to talk to. Jay can manipulate and freeze water, but only thirty-two ounces at a time. They fall in love fast and hard, bonding over their mundane powers and pledging to be content with a small and safe life in Levon’s beloved hometown.

But thirteen years in, Levon knows that small and safe are no longer enough for his partner. Jay’s been on a self-improvement kick, honing and expanding his powers on the sly. And when Jay gets recruited by a super headhunter for a job three thousand miles away, their long-term relationship is tested like never before.

With the dubious advice of some irksome animals—and the help of an unexpected new mentor—Levon tries his hardest to boost his own powers, catch up to Jay, and salvage their bond. But the more he learns about himself, the less clear-cut his choices seem. Can they save their relationship—and if they want different things, should they even try?

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Fail Seven Times by Kris Ripper

Pairing: m/m/f
Representation: polyamory, gay MC, bi love interest, (maybe) straight love interest
Age group: adult
Genre: romance

Justin Simos knows a few things for sure: he’s gay, he’s an unrepentant jerk, and he’s in love with his best friend—and his best friend’s girlfriend.

Alex and Jamie aren’t like other people. They aren’t fazed by his moods. They laugh at his critical analysis of nineties cinema. They definitely want to have sex with him (…again), and Jamie wants a go at him with her favorite flogger. Despite the fact that the they’re perfect together, they want him to join them.

Justin doesn’t have words for this thing between the three of them, but he knows romance isn’t supposed to be part of it. As long as he ignores his feelings, maybe they can have fun. Keep it simple. Don’t fail.

Except Justin’s not great at simple, and real damn good at failing. He’s not brave enough to be with them, and trying might destroy everything. It’s too big a risk. He can’t be this strong, passionate person they see him as…unless maybe he already is.

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Something Human by A.J. Demas

Pairing: m/m
Representation: gay MC and gay love interest
Age group: adult
Genre: historical fantasy romance

They met on a battlefield and saved each other’s lives. It’s not the way enemies-to-lovers usually works.

Adares comes from a civilisation of democracy and indoor plumbing. Rus belongs to a tribe of tattooed, semi-nomadic horse-breeders. They meet in the aftermath of battle, when Rus saves Adares’s life, and Adares returns the favour. As they shelter in an abandoned temple, a friendship neither of them could have imagined grows into a mutual attraction.

But Rus, whose people abhor love between men, is bound by an oath of celibacy, and Adares has a secret of his own that he cannot share. With their people poised for a long and bitter conflict, it seems too much to hope that these two men could turn their fleeting happiness into something lasting. Unless, of course, the relationship between them changes the course of their people’s history altogether.

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The Third Mrs. Durst by Ann Aguirre

Pairing: f/f/m
Representation: polyamory, bisexual MC and bisexual love interests
Age group: adult
Genre: contemporary, crime, thriller, mystery, romance

Marlena Altizer Durst lives in her husband’s shadow. He controls her every move—what she wears, the food she eats, and the friends she’s allowed to make. If she disobeys, there are… consequences. And he has all the power, so nobody would believe her.

Her Cinderella story has been well-documented and it seems that she leads a fairy-tale life. But nobody ever wonders if Cinderella was happy after she married the prince. Marlena has traded freedom and safety for luxurious imprisonment, and most days, that seems like a bad bargain. Death may be the only exit she’s allowed. Just like his first wife. And his second.

Unless she flips the script.

And gets away with murder…

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A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland

Pairing: no central pairing
Representation: gay characters, bi characters, ace character, multiple characters of colour
Age group: adult
Genre: fantasy

In a bleak, far-northern land, a wandering storyteller is arrested on charges of witchcraft. Though Chant protests his innocence, he is condemned not only as a witch, but a spy. His only chance to save himself rests with the skills he has honed for decades – tell a good story, catch and hold their attention, or die.

But the attention he catches is that of the five elected rulers of the country, and Chant finds himself caught in a tangled, corrupt political game which began long before he ever arrived here. As he’s snatched from one Queen’s grasp to another’s, he realizes that he could either be a pawn for one of them… or a player in his own right. After all, he knows better than anyone how powerful the right story can be: Powerful enough to save a life, certainly. Perhaps even powerful enough to bring a nation to its knees.

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After the Eclipse by Fran Dorricott

Pairing: f/f
Representation: lesbian MC, bi love interest
Age group: young adult
Genre: contemporary, thriller, mystery

Two solar eclipses. Two missing girls.

Sixteen years ago a little girl was abducted during the darkness of a solar eclipse while her older sister Cassie was supposed to be watching her. She was never seen again. When a local girl goes missing just before the next big eclipse, Cassie – who has returned to her home town to care for her ailing grandmother – suspects the disappearance is connected to her sister: that whoever took Olive is still out there. But she needs to find a way to prove it, and time is running out.

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This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Pairing: f/f
Representation: sapphic characters (not specified)
Age group: adult
Genre: sci-fi

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

And thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more.

Except discovery of their bond would be death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

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The Circle by Mats Strandberg and translated by Sara Bergmark Elfgren

Pairing: f/f
Representation: mixed race Iranian lesbian MC, bi MC
Age group: young adult
Genre: urban fantasy, magic

Minoo wakes up outside her house, still in her pajamas, and is drawn by an invisible force to an abandoned theme park on the outskirts of town. Soon five of her classmates—Vanessa, Linnéa, Anna-Karin, Rebecka, and Ida—arrive, compelled by the same force. A mystical being takes over Ida’s body and tells them they are fated to fight an ancient evil that is hunting them. As the weeks pass, each girl discovers she has a unique magical ability. They begin exploring their powers. The six are wildly different and definitely not friends . . . but they are the Chosen Ones.

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The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

Pairing: no central pairing
Representation: gay MC, black characters
Age group: adult
Genre: dark fantasy

A dark lord will rise. Such is the prophecy that dogs Ringil Eskiath—Gil, for short—a washed-up mercenary and onetime war hero whose cynicism is surpassed only by the speed of his sword. Gil is estranged from his aristocratic family, but when his mother enlists his help in freeing a cousin sold into slavery, Gil sets out to track her down. But it soon becomes apparent that more is at stake than the fate of one young woman. Grim sorceries are awakening in the land. Some speak in whispers of the return of the Aldrain, a race of widely feared, cruel yet beautiful demons. Now Gil and two old comrades are all that stand in the way of a prophecy whose fulfillment will drown an entire world in blood. But with heroes like these, the cure is likely to be worse than the disease.

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The Warrior’s Path by Catherine M. Wilson

Pairing: f/f
Representation: lesbian MC, lesbian love interest
Age group: adult
Genre: historical fantasy

Tamras arrives in Merin’s house to begin her apprenticeship as a warrior, but her small stature causes many, including Tamras herself, to doubt that she will ever become a competent swordswoman. To make matters worse, the Lady Merin assigns her the position of companion, little more than a personal servant, to a woman who came to Merin’s house, seemingly out of nowhere, the previous winter, and this stranger wants nothing to do with Tamras.

Have you read any of these books? Which queer books have you read recently and loved? Let me know!