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Shattering Dawn

If you’re a fan of romantic suspense, treat yourself to Shattering Dawn, an expert offering by one of the best authors in the business.
If you’re a fan of romantic suspense, treat yourself to Shattering Dawn, an expert offering by one of the best authors in the business.
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RomanceParanormal Romance

Rise and Divine

Review by Elizabeth Mazer

If you’re looking for spooky fun and adventure, there’s no better place to go than Thistle Grove. Author Lana Harper first introduced this wonderfully witchy town in Payback’s a Witch, and her latest entry, Rise and Divine, is the fifth and—alas—last story in the series. But man, what a note to end on!

If you’re not familiar with this series . . . for starters, you should probably read up. It’s a well-stuffed world (for my part, I’d have loved a character list) full of extensive, complicated relationships. But you mainly need to know that the Avramovs are one of the four families balancing the magic of Thistle Grove, and they do that by bringing the creep factor: dealing with the dead. The most dangerous tasks fall to Dasha Avramov, the family’s devil eater. If a demon latches onto you like a tick, she can set you free—but her close encounters with the dark side have a price. The world beyond the veil is impossibly seductive, and its pull makes it hard for Dasha to connect with the real, living world, including her ex-girlfriend and the love of her life, Ivy Thorn. Dasha’s struggles come to a head during the Cavalcade, a sacred Thistle Grove event, when someone foolishly knocks on the veil and something impossibly dangerous knocks back.

Harper always delivers on eerie atmosphere and warm heart. In her world, witchcraft is complex and interesting, with beautifully crafted details. But the real magic of this book lies in its rich, wonderful cast of characters. The romance between Dasha and Ivy is sweet and passionate, while the relationships Dasha has with other figures—the Avramov clan, the other families, a stranger with amnesia who has a crucial role to play—give the story depth and resonance, making us care deeply about what happens to Dasha and Ivy as they face off with the evil that threatens the town. Like Harper’s other creations, Dasha has a combination of wit and grit that makes her irresistible, and you’ll love Rise and Divine . . . no matter how sad you are to reach the last page and know it’s time to say goodbye.

Lana Harper brings Thistle Grove, her beloved paranormal romance series, to a close with the richly crafted, eerie yet warm Rise and Divine.
RomanceHistorical Romance

Hot Earl Summer

Review by Amanda Diehl

New York Times bestselling author Erica Ridley returns to her Wild Wynchesters series with a heroine who has a penchant for finding trouble and a shy, brainy hero pretending to be his cousin. Combine that pairing with a castle siege and the mystery of a missing will, and you have a delightful Regency romance that isn’t afraid to go over the top. 

The ownership of the Earl of Densmore’s castle is up for debate, and the notorious Wynchesters, a family of vigilantes and fixers with hearts of gold, are hired to get to the bottom of things. The previous earl’s will left the castle to the kind Miss Oak, who wants to refashion the estate into an orphanage. However, that document is missing, and the current Earl of Densmore claims he wagered the castle in a card game and lost. The search is soon on to find the missing will and determine if the earl possessed the standing to offer up the castle in the first place. 

Stephen Lenox, a talented but reclusive inventor, didn’t know that when he agreed to pose as his cousin (the aforementioned swindling earl) that he would have to deal with a host of people ranging from curious to annoyed to downright violent descending upon the castle and shouting something about a will. He’s clearly in way over his head, and Elizabeth Wynchester immediately appoints herself as his bodyguard. With a penchant for snuggling prickly little hedgehogs and for hiding a sword in her cane, Elizabeth isn’t afraid to take risks and flirt with danger. She may be the most lively and chaotic of the riotous Wynchesters, all of whom prove at every turn that Ridley’s series title is an apt one. 

Ridley’s reversal of the usual gender roles in a bodyguard romance adds an extra layer of fun to this opposites-attract courtship. The dashing Elizabeth is a tornado of energy and excitement, bringing her large and lovingly unmanageable family with her. Stephen, on the other hand, feels more at home alone, tinkering with his various inventions and gadgets. Having to answer for and try to rectify his cousin’s bad behavior, on top of managing a castle filled with nosy strangers, is his own personal nightmare. But Elizabeth knows just how to offset his anxiety, and helps him shoulder some difficult moments with her unshakable, uncompromising confidence. 

Fans of the previous books in the series will enjoy reuniting with familiar characters, and Ridley provides plenty of background information for newcomers to the series. No matter which camp readers may fall into, Hot Earl Summer is a wonderful and wacky romp.

Erica Ridley’s latest Wild Wynchesters romance is a wonderful and wacky opposites-attract love story between a dashing female bodyguard and a shy inventor.
RomanceHistorical RomanceContemporary Romance

What if ‘Downton Abbey’ was a gothic romance?

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ The Housekeeper’s Secret

Downton Abbey gets a dark and delicious twist in The Housekeeper’s Secret by Iona Grey, a historical romance spanning the years just before and during World War I. Running from her past, Kate Furniss hides as the housekeeper of Coldwell Hall, an isolated house on the moors of northern England. She feels relatively safe until a handsome young footman, Jem Arden, joins the servants’ ranks. She can’t afford to lose her heart, but Jem is irresistible—even as he conceals his own mysterious purpose. In this haunting and heart-rending story, Grey skillfully captures the isolation of the location, the powerlessness of the servant class and the growing sinister atmosphere at Coldwell Hall. A variety of perspectives and time shifts enrich the story, as well as Grey’s depictions of the desperation of warfare. Readers will breathlessly wait to learn the fates of Kate and Jem in this fabulous story.

Viscount in Love

Eloisa James pens a delightful historical gem with Viscount in Love. Viscount Dominic Kelbourne has just become the guardian of his eccentric, recently orphaned niece and nephew, and he counts himself lucky to be on the verge of getting married—until his fiancée elopes. His ex’s sister, Victoria “Torie” Sutton, takes an interest in the twins, and could be persuaded to marry Dominic for their sake. Problem solved? But Torie, a passionate artist with her own eccentricities, wants to be a true and beloved wife, not a convenient nanny figure. James dazzles with her cast of appealing characters in this laugh-out-loud romance; the twins especially shine as they compile an ever-growing list of topics prohibited from polite discourse. Don’t miss this one.

Cross the Line

Simone Soltani revs up the always-popular “brother’s best friend” trope with the fast, fun Cross the Line. Recent college graduate Willow Williams is desperate for a job, so she takes on the temporary role of social media manager for Formula One driver Dev Anderson, her childhood crush and her brother’s BFF. She’ll accompany Dev to races all over the world, and while the job is everything she could want, trying to keep control of her feelings for Dev presents a challenge. Flirty, sexy and downright dangerous, ladies man Dev doesn’t make things easier. But despite their chemistry, he knows that succumbing to his and Willow’s attraction for each other might break family ties—and their own hearts. Readers will enjoy the friend group surrounding the starring pair as well as details of the glamorous Formula One world as they root for Dev to win the races and the girl.

Iona Grey’s The Housekeeper’s Secret is a dark delight, plus Eloisa James kicks off an adorable new Regency series.
RomanceContemporary Romance

How Rainbow Rowell learned to stop worrying and love prom

Behind the Book by Rainbow Rowell

For someone who only went to one school dance, I can’t seem to stay away from them in my books. Almost all of my characters go to prom. (Or homecoming. Or, in the case of my British characters, a leavers’ ball.)

In my new novel, Slow Dance, a flashback to prom sets the stage for the grown-up love story at the heart of the book—seeing the main characters all dressed up at 18 tells you everything you need to know about them at 33. 

I love writing about prom.

I also love writing about weddings. And Christmas dinners. And first days of school.

“In a novel, prom is even better than a wedding.”

Shiloh, one of the main characters in Slow Dance, would be very disdainful of this. Prom is a false holiday, she’d say. (Holidays are false holidays, according to Shiloh. She’s a skeptic.) She refers to prom as a bundle of meaningless traditions that produce manufactured sentiments.

“It’s just a ritual,” Shiloh says in the book. And Cary, her best friend and the boy she’s secretly in love with, replies, “Rituals are all we have.”

I started out a Shiloh. But I’ve become a Cary.

As you get older, you realize that red-letter days are few and far between. Birthdays feel smaller every year—and almost nothing calls for ceremony. (There’s a real ceremonial dry spell between your wedding and your funeral, and the latter will be wasted on you.) As an adult, you almost never get really dressed up to commemorate the beginning or end of something. You almost never have an excuse to wear flowers. The days start to run together. . . . Without any rites, time is just passage. 

Prom, even more than graduation, is the American coming-of-age ritual. And I say this, knowing that many, if not most, prom experiences suck! Prom has everything: music, costumes, girls holding hands and crying. Prom is one of the only production numbers you get in life. It’s no wonder that adults organize second-chance proms, and that countries that never had proms have adopted the tradition.

It’s no wonder that authors like me can’t resist them.

Read our review of ‘Slow Dance’ by Rainbow Rowell.

In a novel, prom is even better than a wedding. (Slow Dance has both, by the way; I went all in.) It’s pageantry plus adolescence. You get to dress your characters up and dim the lights. You get to layer drama on top of drama on top of revelation. Who will they go with? Who will they dance with? What disco ball epiphanies await them? (Alternately: Who will stay home? Who’ll stand by the wall? Who will feel empty at the end of the night?)

Prom is a way to bring a story to a fizzy peak or a dizzy low. Shakespeare ended so many of his lighter plays with weddings only because he didn’t have prom at his disposal. 

Shiloh is right: Prom is about manufacturing sentiment. Especially in a work of fiction.

But Cary is more right, I think. Rituals like prom “allow us an outlet for actual sentiment.” They set the stage for us to feel something.

Picture of Rainbow Rowell courtesy of the author.

“Shakespeare ended so many of his lighter plays with weddings only because he didn't have prom at his disposal.”
RomanceContemporary Romance

The Pairing

Review by Katie Garaby

In Casey McQuiston’s The Pairing, two former flames, one food-and-wine tour across Europe and an unhinged hookup competition make for a delicious and decadent queer romance. 

In their nearly two decades of friendship, Kit and Theo have been many things to each other: childhood besties, first crushes, romantic partners and now, estranged exes. After a devastating breakup four years ago, mid-flight to the European foodie tour of their dreams, neither has heard a single word from the other. Theo has found their groove as a bartender and aspiring sommelier, Kit graduated from pastry school in France and both have left a wake of lovers in their path. With a month left before the voucher for the trip they never took expires, Kit and Theo both rebook the tour—only to find that great minds think alike. But time heals all wounds and both characters are completely over each other. So much so that when Theo makes a bet with Kit on who can hook up with their hot Italian tour guide first, it feels like a perfectly reasonable thing to accept. And heck, why not go all out with a full-on hookup competition? But as this “friendly” competition heats up, Theo and Kit find it hard to ignore what they’re really craving.

Two exes actively hooking up with other people doesn’t exactly sound like the traditional road to a Happily Ever After. But The Pairing is what happens when an immensely talented and much-beloved author levels up. McQuiston deftly crafts a complex love story, one that not just any writer could pull off, and the result is testament to their talent. The care Kit and Theo have for each other is clearly evident, manifesting in the tender way they handle their day-to-day travels together and discussion of their competition. While they may be actively sleeping with other people, they are never far from the other’s thoughts: In one particularly sexy scene, Theo and Kit find themselves on adjoining patios with their lovers, apart but together, the sounds they know so well fueling them towards their finish. Theo and Kit’s relationship is delightfully queer and nontraditional, playing with gender roles in and out of the bedroom, so it makes sense that their path back to each other would be similarly unconventional.

A Bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is best accompanied by a Campari spritz and a cornetto alla marmellata di albicocche, ideally whilst seated in a little Italian cafe. But regardless of the location, you will devour this book with unbridled gusto.

A bacchanalian romp from Monaco to Pisa to Paris, The Pairing is a testament to Casey McQuiston’s talent.
RomanceContemporary Romance

Slow Dance

Review by Elizabeth Mazer

A chunk of the chapters of Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance begin with the word “before.” Before, when they were high schoolers in Omaha, Nebraska, Cary and Shiloh were “odd couple” best friends. Quiet and focused, Cary was the straitlaced Navy ROTC kid. Shiloh was the theater nerd, the counterculture girl who could never sit still—but never quite knew where she wanted to go, either. And yet, they were inseparable. The kind of joined-at-the-hip friends who seemed destined to end up together, if they weren’t together already. But in the present day (read: 2006), they haven’t spoken in 14 years when Cary comes back to Omaha for a mutual friend’s wedding. Cary’s path led exactly where he expected: He’s now a Navy officer. Shiloh’s path led her somewhere she didn’t expect: She’s a divorcée with two kids, living in her mom’s rundown house. She and Cary have even less in common than they did before. The one thing that hasn’t changed is how much they love each other. The only difference is now, they might finally be ready to do something about it.

How Rainbow Rowell learned to stop worrying and love prom.

Rowell is the author of several beloved bestsellers for adults (Attachments) and teens (Eleanor & Park), and if I had to pick one word to describe her prose, it would be “sharp”: Every line is witty, insightful and uncompromising, with nothing airbrushed or glossed over. Shiloh and Cary’s lives, while often funny, are genuinely messy: not in a shallow, sitcom kind of way, but in a real, brutally honest way that makes the laugh catch in your throat. Because while both main characters are clever and funny, charming and appealing, the situations they’re in are also painfully relatable. They grapple with difficult family dynamics and deeply personal insecurities. Slow Dance isn’t just a story about two people who love each other. It’s about two people who like each other, who get each other and who come through for each other even when everything seems screwed up. It’s a romance that’s chaotic, fraught, emotionally charged—and beautifully real.

Witty, insightful and uncompromising, Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance is an emotionally charged and beautifully real romance.
RomanceHistorical RomanceContemporary Romance

Tessa Bailey scores with an incredibly hot, grumpy-sunshine hockey romance

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ A Shore Thing

In Joanna Lowell’s Victorian romance A Shore Thing, dashing bicycle store owner Kit Griffith teams up with botanist Muriel Pendrake for a multi-day biking contest to prove that women can ride as well as men. While this premise is delightful enough on its face, the story gains complexity and poignancy when the reader learns that Kit is trans, having recently left a sisterhood of female artists behind to live life true to himself. Muriel is surprised, but that doesn’t stop her from falling hard for the charming Kit, who swears he’s an affairs-only kind of lover. Through discussions of art, nature, community and identity, these fascinating characters grapple with the obstacles of their time and circumstances—all while on a one-of-a-kind road trip. Thought-provoking, heartwarming and possessing an entertaining cast of secondary characters, this romance is a winner all-around.

Just One Taste

Just One Taste by Lizzy Dent is a love letter to Italy and its cuisine as much as it is a love story between two Brits on a research trip to the sun-drenched country. When Olive Stone’s estranged father dies, he upends her world by leaving her his Italian eatery in London and the task of finishing his cookbook. That means a four-week trip alongside her dad’s sous-chef, the gorgeous Leo Ricci, who had reason to expect the inheritance to come his way. Dent takes the readers on a sensual vacation to four regions of Italy as Olive and Leo absorb the sights, smells and tastes of their surroundings while mulling over what to do about the struggling restaurant and their growing feelings for each other. This pleasure-filled, delicious romance will inspire dinner reservations at a fave Italian place—if not a food-centered trip abroad.

The Au Pair Affair

Tessa Bailey offers up another smiley, swoony and supremely sexy romance with The Au Pair Affair. Readers of Fangirl Down, the previous entry in Bailey’s Big Shots series, will already know pro hockey star Burgess Abraham, who enjoys his reputation on the ice as “Sir Savage,” his relationship with his 12-year-old-daughter, Lissa . . . and not much else. That is, until the titular au pair—Tallulah Aydin—enters his life. Grad student Tallulah is 11 years younger than Burgess, and has big trust issues for a very good reason. But Bailey makes the pages burn as usual, with a gruff, rough-talking man who surprises the heroine with the lust he inspires—and the love. In order to find their happy ending, the pair must consider Lissa’s feelings, whether the non-sporty Tallulah could ever become a rabid hockey follower and, most of all, if Burgess can envision a full, adventure-filled life off the ice. The Au Pair Affair is an energetic romp with wisecracking friends, but it also has a sizzling, distinctly sexual energy. Don’t be surprised if you need to fan yourself.

Plus, two swoony trips (a Victorian seaside bike ride! a food tour of Italy!) round out this month’s romance column.
RomanceParanormal RomanceHistorical RomanceContemporary Romance

The 15 best romance novels of 2024—so far

List by the editors of BookPage
STARRED REVIEW
June 25, 2024

The 15 best romance novels of 2024—so far

Surprise, surprise: Rom-coms still dominate. But moodier contemporary romances are on the rise and historicals are venturing into less-commonly seen eras.
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Book jacket image for Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell

Readers of Christa Comes Out of Her Shell will fall in love with both the romance’s quirky heroine and her larger-than-life family.
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Book jacket image for Birding With Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb

Birding With Benefits

Sarah T. Dubb’s refreshing Birding With Benefits is the rare romance with a couple in their 40s.
Read more
Book jacket image for Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young

Out on a Limb

Hannah Bonam-Young will make you a believer in the oft-loathed surprise pregnancy trope with Out on a Limb.
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You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian jacket

You Should Be So Lucky

A romance between a baseball player and a journalist in 1960 New York City, Cat Sebastian’s latest is as enjoyable as it is emotional.
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Surprise, surprise: Rom-coms still dominate. But moodier contemporary romances are on the rise and historicals are venturing into less-commonly seen eras.
RomanceHistorical Romance

The Mistress Experience

Review by Katie Garaby

In The Mistress Experience, the final chapter of Scarlett Peckham’s wildly fun Society of Sirens series, courtesan Thais Magdalene brings the fight for women’s rights to her bedroom and winds up finding her very own happily ever after. 

The infamous Thais fetches a pretty penny for a single night in her bed and sees no customer twice. And so to raise enough money to finally open a women’s institute, she and her fellow activists who make up the Society of Sirens decide to auction off a month-long engagement of her services. Lord Alastair Eden, who bids on Thais by proxy to ensure his privacy, is the lucky winner. Confident in nearly all aspects of his life except for the bedroom, Alastair wants Thais to teach him how to please his future wife. Neither of them expect to develop feelings. (Do they ever?) But Alastair finds bawdy, kind Thais surprisingly charming, and Thais finds much to admire in the shy, proper nobleman. Is their attraction strong enough for them to defy society’s expectations—not to mention their own ideas of what they deserve and where their duty lies? 

Peckham is known for her nontraditional heroines, and has never wasted time trying to fit her leading ladies into a neat and tidy happy ending. (Think open marriages and paramours who live in separate houses.) Thais’ pursuit of a more traditional HEA involving marriage and children might therefore initially come as a surprise to readers. But Peckham stresses that these supposedly conventional choices have always felt out of reach for Thais, who started working in a brothel at 9 and was first auctioned off by age 14. Although Thais hasn’t lacked attention from men, she has lacked kindness, care and being seen for more than what she can offer in the bedroom. Thais and Alastair are perfect foils for each other, and it is such a joy to watch her needle the prudish lord. In one early scene, Alastair cooks for Thais, and it’s so sweet that it’s hard to not be a complete pile of goo by the end. This book is full of similar loving, simple acts of kindness (but is also still so very sexy), and readers will undoubtedly fall hard for both main characters.

The Mistress Experience is a sparkling conclusion to an already dazzling series. I only wish we had more sirens to look forward to.

A romance between a bawdy courtesan and the shy nobleman who wins a month with her, The Mistress Experience is a sparkling conclusion to an already dazzling series.
RomanceNonfictionFictionPopular FictionContemporary RomanceBiography

‘Challengers’ readalikes

Feature by the editors of BookPage
Apples Never Fall jacket

Apples Never Fall

Challengers was all about competition and the drive to be the best. Competing with lovers and friends is one thing, but what if the conflict was within your own family? Apples Never Fall stars a tennis dynasty, made up of two retired stars—Stan and Joy—whose four adult children also played professionally. When Joy disappears, Stan is suspected, and Amy, Logan, Troy and Brooke must decide if they believe he’s innocent. No one does drama like Australian author Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret), and this apple is as juicy as it gets. Bonus: You can get this one on a screen too. The TV adaptation is currently streaming on Peacock, and stars Sam Neill and Annette Bening.

Carrie Soto Is Back

Carrie Soto would definitely understand Tashi Duncan, and by that we mean they would immediately try to destroy each other. (They’d probably become friends eventually, but only after almost reducing each other to rubble.) The ferociously determined tennis player at the center of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel decides to come out of retirement to one-up Nikki Chan, the new star player who just broke Carrie’s record amount of Slam titles. If you came away from Challengers wanting more Tashi, this is the book for you.

The Divine Miss Marble

If Challengers made you want to know even more about what it’s like to be a woman in tennis, Robert Weintraub’s biography of Alice Marble, one of the very first tennis greats, can scratch that itch. The Divine Miss Marble chronicles the ups and downs of her life in thrilling detail. Marble won 18 Grand Slam championships between 1936 and 1940 and rubbed elbows with Hollywood stars like Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, but her influence extended into the late 20th century as she coached greats like Billie Jean King.

Sudden Death

Did you leave the theater thinking, that was fun, but I wish the tennis matches were weirder? Have we got a book for you. Álvaro Enrigue’s bawdy, bizarre tennis novel kicks off with a match between Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo and Italian painter Caravaggio, and just gets weirder from there (at one point, they’re playing tennis with a ball made of Anne Boleyn’s hair). The author interjects metafictional asides that skewer the conquest of Mexico and other topics, and the book doesn’t shy away from violence, either. We can guarantee one thing: You’ll never read anything else like it.

Wicked Beauty jacket

Wicked Beauty

Let’s be real: The steaminess of the Challengers trailer, and the chemistry among its three stars, was a huge contributor to the film’s successful opening weekend. If you’re looking for a read with a similar spark, Katee Robert is the author for you. Start with the third installment in her Dark Olympus series, which reimagines Greek mythology. Wicked Beauty puts the Iliad’s Achilles and Patroclus into a polyamorous relationship with Helen of Troy. The sex scenes are scorching hot (a Robert trademark), but as in Challengers, the emotional connections are equally complex and valued.

Couldn't get enough of Challengers, director Luca Guadagnino's sophisticated and steamy story of a tennis pro love triangle? We've got some reading material for you.
Science Fiction & FantasyRomanceNonfictionFictionAudioTravelSatireMemoirLiterary FictionLifestylesLGBTQ+LGBTQ FictionHistorical RomanceHistorical FictionFantasyFamily SagaCozy MysteryContemporary RomanceComing of AgeBiography

Your Pride reading list for 2024

List by the editors of BookPage
24 LGBTQ+ books for 2024.
STARRED REVIEW

June 1, 2024

Your Pride reading list for 2024

Call your queer bookclub—we’ve rounded up the 24 best LGBTQ+ books of 2024 so far!
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NonfictionLGBTQ+Biography

The Other Olympians

Review by Anne Bartlett

The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin—dubbed the “Nazi Olympics” for providing an international platform to the genocidal regime—produced lasting memories, including the triumphs of Black American track and field star Jesse Owens and the “Boys in the Boat” rowing team that beat Germany in a dramatic upset. Less remembered is the wide speculation at the games that Helen Stephens, a U.S. runner who won two golds, might actually be a man.

She wasn’t. But the phony controversy was symptomatic of a panic in the Olympics establishment. Not long before the 1936 games, two top track and field athletes who had competed in international competitions as women said publicly that they were men (we would say now that they had come out as trans). A handful of Olympic leaders, including Nazi sympathizers, immediately drew the wrong conclusions and called for mandatory medical exams to determine sex prior to sports competitions.

In The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, author Michael Waters sensitively tells this forgotten history and reveals its modern resonances. The book connects the struggles of those two athletes, Zdenek Koubek of Czechoslovakia and Mark Weston of Britain, with the relatively open attitude toward queerness in pre-Nazi Central Europe, the resistance within the early Olympics movement to women’s sports, and the failed effort to boycott the Berlin games.

The Other Olympians is full of surprises for contemporary readers. For example, anyone who mistakenly thinks Christine Jorgensen was the first person to have gender affirming surgery will learn very much otherwise. But Waters’ detailed description of the outspoken Koubek’s life before and during his transition is the heart of the book. He emerges as an overlooked pioneer.

Koubek, Weston and other trans and queer people profiled here never wanted to compete against women after their transitions. Yet an entire regimen of sex testing was built on the unfounded belief that men were somehow masquerading as women to participate in sports contests. Decisions made in the late 1930s created sports competition rules that still exist today, as debate over trans athletes rages in school board meetings, courtrooms and legislative sessions. Waters doggedly chronicles where the debate originated and calls for what he believes is overdue change.

The Other Olympians doggedly chronicles the lives of pioneering trans athletes and the historically fraught 1936 Olympic Games.
NonfictionSocial ScienceLGBTQ+

Morally Straight

Review by Deborah Mason

Mike De Socio loves the Boy Scouts. In Morally Straight: How the Fight for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Changed the Boy Scouts—and America, De Socio, an Eagle Scout, details how Boy Scouts gave him, a nerdy misfit, the space to thrive. He is also queer, coming out while in college in 2015, the same year that the Scouts lifted its ban on gay leaders and two years after it had lifted the ban on gay Scouts. De Socio learned he was not alone: Boy Scouts had provided a safe haven for many other queer Scouts, a haven that was repeatedly taken away because of a policy that they had no idea even existed.

Taking its title from the Boy Scout Oath, Morally Straight weaves detailed journalism and De Socio’s deeply personal memories in its recounting of the effort to lift bans on LGBTQ+ Boy Scouts and their leaders. It starts with the story behind Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, the 2000 Supreme Court case that allowed the Scouts to discriminate against queer boys and men.

At the heart of De Socio’s book is the work of Scouts for Equality (SFE), an activist group formed in 2012 after the Scouts expelled lesbian den leader Jennifer Tyrrell. Headed by Zach Wahls and Jonathan Hillis, two straight Eagle Scouts, SFE evolved into a broad-based alliance of LGBTQ+ and straight Scouts, parents and supporters that eventually persuaded the Scouts to rescind their policies.

Under Wahls and Hillis’ leadership, the SFE became a juggernaut. In their early 20s, both men  were uniquely qualified to take on the BSA. The son of two lesbian mothers, Wahls was already a LGBTQ+ activist and the author of My Two Moms. Hillis was a prominent youth leader at the BSA’s national level. Ironically, both credit the Boy Scouts with developing the moral courage and leadership skills that made SFE possible.

Morally Straight is both clear-eyed and optimistic. BSA is now a broader tent, accepting gay, trans and even female Scouts. But, as De Socio’s own experiences show, it still grapples with how to give its members the space and tools to remain true to who they are.

Morally Straight weaves detailed journalism and author Mike De Socio’s deeply personal memories in its recounting of the effort to lift bans on LGBTQ+ Boy Scouts and their leaders.
NonfictionMemoirLGBTQ+

Pretty

Review by mónica teresa ortiz

As the Texas legislature attempts to ban books; dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion; and threaten LGBTQ+ people with draconian laws, poet and author KB Brookins’ debut memoir, Pretty, arrives when we need it most. Brookins is a Black, queer and trans writer and cultural worker whose previous work includes two poetry collections, Freedom House and How to Identify Yourself With a Wound. Pretty details their experience navigating gender and Black masculinity while growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, exploring how they have moved through a world of cisgender Black and non-Black people, from their biological parents to their adopted family, from classmates to lovers, and from their gender transition through adulthood.

Brookins spent their youth challenging binary spaces and expectations. From early childhood to the present, they have desired to be seen as pretty, and this book is the search to find out what that means for them: “Though not gendered, we often associate prettiness with womanhood, femininity, and objects we see as dainty,” they write. “I’ve never been interested in womanhood, but I’ve always wanted to be treated softly, like a fat pleasantry to the eyes.” Through often striking prose and imagery, Brookins questions the restrictions involved in those associations: “When I was femme, my prettiness was canceled out by Blackness. When I was butch, my prettiness was seen as invalidating my masculinity. Who taught us that masculinity can’t be pretty? Who taught us that Blackness was devoid of prettiness and delicacy?”

While Brookins searches for answers to these questions, they continuously remind us of how hostile the U.S. is to Black and trans people: “As the perception of me changes before my eyes, I realize that it is a specific sadness—embodying patriarchal masculinity in a country that wants your blood more than it wants you to breathe.” We need words and stories like this. By describing their movement through the world, Brookins simultaneously critiques the conditions that oppress Black and racialized people who seek radical self-acceptance, and refuses the state’s malicious attempts to criminalize gender and sexuality.

Pretty offers far more than just pretty words—Brookins tells their side of the story as an act of resistance against those who would silence them. This book is as much a story of self-discovery and survival as it is a love letter to their younger and current self.

As Texas threatens LGBTQ+ people with draconian laws, KB Brookins’ memoir, Pretty, is an act of resistance against those who would silence trans writers.
RomanceContemporary Romance

Experienced

Review by Eric A. Ponce

A romance is all about the final payoff: After pages of will-they-won’t-they teasing, readers anticipate the moment when everything falls ecstatically into place and our lovers end up together. Kate Young’s Experienced takes this model and twists it, leading readers on a wholehearted, fun exploration of dating and love in the 21st century. After her girlfriend Mei suggests they take a break so the newly-out Bette can casually date and get the full single experience, Bette goes on an awkward odyssey of first dates. Her journey is silly and relatable, and stays away from romance cliches—although that isn’t to say that the book doesn’t end happily.

Bette tries to be chill about the break. After a bit of confusion and hurt, she decides the best course of action is to actually get some dating experience. With her roommate Ash and Ash’s token straight-guy boyfriend Tim, Bette begins crafting her dating app profiles. They choose the best pictures—though Ash and Tim have to convince Bette that she really does look hot in some of them—and write cool, ironic responses to the prompts. Soon after, Bette starts dating a lineup of strange, sexy characters running the gamut of British lesbian baddies. The most memorable is Bette’s first date, Ruth, a PhD student and experienced casual dater who gives Bette the recipe for success and, in a twist of fate, helps her realize what she really wants from a relationship.

Chapter titles that count down to the date when Bette and Mei are supposed to get back together lend Experienced a sense of anxiety and longing that will be all too familiar to 21st century daters. Young’s charming British English pairs with a young millennial’s quirky, anxious interiority for a fun, surprisingly profound read. Romantics, if you’re lonely or even if you’re happily in love, this novel will be a treat. 

Kate Young’s charming British English paired with her young millennial protagonist’s quirky, anxious interiority makes Experienced a fun, surprisingly profound read.
FictionLiterary FictionComing of Age

Blessings

Review by Laura Sackton

Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s debut novel is a quiet but profoundly moving coming-of-age story about a young gay man in mid-2000s Nigeria. It’s an at first straightforward novel that deepens as it progresses, building toward an ending befitting its protagonist—a young man continually moving through different versions of himself.

Blessings opens in 2006 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. When Obiefuna’s father catches him in a moment of tenderness with another boy, he immediately sends him away to boarding school. Life at school is strictly regulated and often violent. Older boys abuse and terrorize the younger boys without consequence. Obiefuna, fearing that his sexuality may be discovered at any moment, does what he thinks he has to in order to survive.

Though the novel continues to follow Obiefuna through his early years at university, his time at the boarding school takes up the most space and carries a hefty emotional weight. At times it may feel as if the story drags, but the beautiful and complicated third act reveals that Ibeh knew exactly where he was going all along. He captures the uneven importance of memory and experience, the way certain events can haunt a life without our knowledge. Obiefuna’s relationships to himself, his family, his lovers and his country change dramatically over time, a shift that Ibeh weaves almost invisibly into the prose.

Interspersed between chapters from Obiefuna’s point of view are ones told from his mother Uzoamaka’s perspective. These feel less immediate and vivid, but do add a poignant narrative layer, giving readers a glimpse into what goes unspoken between mother and son.

Blessings is an excellent work of queer fiction, full of characters who are neither good nor bad, but simply human beings in constant flux. Ibeh writes cruelty onto the page alongside tenderness, crafting scenes of domestic gay love with the same attention and detail he gives to scenes of emotional and physical violence. He offers us a precious glimpse of the world as it truly is for so many queer people: not tragic, not perfect, not all suffering or all joy—but worth living in and telling stories about.

Blessings offers a precious glimpse of the world as it truly is for so many queer people: not tragic, not perfect, not all suffering or all joy, but worth living in.
FictionLiterary FictionHistorical Fiction

The Safekeep

Review by Lauren Bufferd

The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden’s debut novel, is set in 1961 rural Holland. At 30, Isabel is living in the house where she was raised after the death of her father forced the family’s move from the city and into a furnished house their uncle Karel found for them. Isabel lives a circumscribed and watchful life, guarding her dead mother’s things, suspecting the maid of theft and fending off the attentions of a flirtatious neighbor. Of her brothers, Louis and Hendrik, she is closer to Hendrik, although she disapproves of his friend Sebastian, suspecting a deeper connection. Of Louis and the steady stream of girlfriends he introduces to her, she thinks even less. Until Eva.

The siblings meet Eva at a dinner out. With her clumsy manners and brassy dyed hair, she hardly impresses, and Isabel is shocked when Louis brings her to the house, telling Isabel that Eva must stay there while he goes away on business and showing Eva to their mother’s room. Even under Isabel’s watchful eye, things begin to disappear—a spoon, a bowl, a thimble. More alarming to Isabel is the overwhelming attraction she feels to Eva, an attraction that spills into an obsessive, intensely depicted sexual relationship.

Van der Wouden may be familiar as the author of the 2017 essay “On (Not) Reading Anne Frank,” which explored what it means to be a Dutch Jewish writer and her complicated relationship to Frank’s legacy. As Isabel and Eva’s connection unfolds, van der Wouden’s true subject comes into view: how ordinary people were implicated in the ethnic cleansing that took place during World War II. Even in peacetime, Isabel and her peers are quick to notice people who appear different, with a fierce disgust that Isabel risks turning on herself as she comes to terms with her sexuality. A novel of redemption as much as revenge, The Safekeep has the pacing and twists of a thriller, while delving into the deeper issues laid bare by the Holocaust.

In Yael van der Wouden’s mesmerizing debut, The Safekeep, Isabel lives a circumscribed life in her dead mother’s house until her brother’s girlfriend comes to stay, alarming Isabel when an obsessive attraction develops between the two.

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Call your queer bookclub—we've rounded up the 24 best LGBTQ+ books of 2024 so far!
RomanceHistorical RomanceContemporary Romance

Behold: a bird-watching romance

Feature by Christie Ridgway

★ Birding With Benefits

Birding with Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb is a refreshing love story about growing, changing and the natural resistance to both. Fortysomethings Celeste and John are a bit tattered by life. They’re prepared to walk their paths alone until a mutual friend asks Celeste to partner with John at a bird-watching event. On a whim, Celeste decides to continue doing so for the entire six weeks of a contest John’s entered. He’s undeterred by her inexperience and delighted by her enthusiasm, and the commitment-wary pair grow closer, finally succumbing to their attraction. Can their friends-with-benefits relationship end painlessly once the contest is over? Filled with everyday moments and a marvelous sense of place—the author’s hometown of Tucson, Arizona—readers will lose their own hearts to playful Celeste and solid John, both authentic, well-meaning people you’d like to join for a coffee or a hike. Middle-aged characters don’t star in a lot of romances; how fabulous that these two get top billing in this top-notch romance.

Wake Me Most Wickedly

Felicia Grossman’s Wake Me Most Wickedly is a genderswapped spin on Snow White set in the Jewish community of 1832 London. Hannah Moses has dedicated herself to giving her younger sister a better life, and is building a sizable dowry for her by selling secondhand goods and information to unsavory characters. Simon Weiss is similarly loyal to his brother, a banker trying to secure a spot in the gentile world through baptism and marriage. When Hannah and Simon meet, sparks fly and trouble begins. Simon is sure of himself and his feelings, but Hannah knows she can be nothing to him beyond an occasional lover thanks to her criminal activities. Grossman’s second Once Upon the East End romance is a wonderful story filled with adventure, love and, above all, passion.

All’s Fair in Love and War

A Regency governess gets a man in Virginia Heath’s All’s Fair in Love and War. Continually passed over for employment due to her plain-spoken ways, Georgina Rowe can only say yes when a desperate naval officer needs someone to watch over his rambunctious nephew and nieces. Harry treasures order and stability and Georgina provides—well, not that. Not only does she have unconventional views about how children should learn, she’s personally challenging his vow to never fall for a woman again. After a career-disrupting engagement years before, Harry savors his solitary state and how it allows him to pursue his ambitions unfettered . . . until he realizes how much he enjoys family life and the irrepressible Georgina. Readers never tire of a down-on-her-luck heroine and a hero who needs to lighten up, and Heath provides both in this entertaining romp along with puckish children, busybody servants and mischievous dogs.

Sarah T. Dubb’s charming, mature romance delights our columnist, plus the latest from Felicia Grossman and Virginia Heath.
RomanceHistorical Romance

You Should Be So Lucky

Review by Dolly R. Sickles

Cat Sebastian’s latest queer historical romance is a love letter to resilience and the power of bravery. Set in 1960 New York City, the same midcentury journalism milieu of Sebastian’s 2023 novel, We Could Be So Good, You Should Be So Lucky tells the story of shortstop Eddie O’Leary and journalist Mark Bailey, both of whom are in a slump.

For the last year, following the death of his longtime partner, Mark has been on sabbatical from his role as an arts and culture journalist at the Chronicle. But his break is up and his first assignment is writing a highbrow sports feature about Eddie, a struggling player on the new baseball team in town, the New York Robins.

Eddie’s dealing with the worst slump of his career and desperately misses his old team in Kansas City, Missouri, both for the friends he made and the privacy a smaller stage afforded. No professional athlete or public figure really ever has privacy, but a gay baseball player in 1960 has a reason to keep secrets. That being said, Eddie is still surprisingly open and upbeat, the sunshine to Mark’s grumpiness.

One of Sebastian’s hallmarks is excellent character development, and how she uses her characters as a window into a book’s setting. We learn about the New York Robins and the Chronicle through the actions of Mark and Eddie. It’s very enjoyable to spend time in the presence of these likable, relatable characters, but their emotions and experiences will also grab readers by the heartstrings.

Eddie needs to stay at least somewhat closeted to continue playing baseball, and Sebastian does an exceptional job of outlining the difficulties of living and loving as a gay public figure. Mark’s late partner had political aspirations that required the two of them to pretend to be platonic roommates. Mark knows how to keep the personal parts of his life private, even when the pressure of maintaining that discretion is overwhelming. As their relationship evolves, one of the central conflicts is how Mark can balance his feelings for Eddie with his desire to avoid having to hide them.

Like baseball fans throughout history, You Should Be So Lucky roots for victory—even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

A romance between a baseball player and a journalist in 1960 New York City, Cat Sebastian’s latest is as enjoyable as it is emotional.

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