21 Queer Books for Your Pride Month TBR

Two potion shops, one heated rivalry…until hate bubbles over into something else.

Any adventurer worth their sword knows about Ambrose Beake. The proud, quiet half-elf sells the best, and only, potions in the city—until a handsome new shopkeeper named Eli opens another potion shop across the street, throwing Ambrose’s peace and ledgers far off balance.

Within weeks, they’re locked in a war of price tags and products—Ambrose’s expertise against Eli’s effortless charm. Toil leads to trouble, the safety gloves come off, and right as their rivalry reaches a boiling point…

The mayor commissions them to brew a potion together.

The task is as complex as it is lucrative, pushing both men to the limits of their abilities and patience. Yet as the fires burn and cauldrons bubble…they find a different sort of chemistry brewing.

Set in Regency England, The Gentleman and His Vowsmith is a sparkling historical fantasy filled with arcane magic, deadly conspiracies and an irresistible queer romance. Perfect for fans of Freya Marske, Alexis Hall, and Bridgerton mixed with magic, mayhem and murder.

Lord Nicholas Monterris is trapped. The only heir to a declining dukedom, Nic is destined for a marriage of convenience. What he didn’t expect was for his bride to be Lady Leaf Serral, daughter of his father’s hated rivals. Now they must all be locked inside mouldering Monterris Court for the duration of the contract negotiations, along with head negotiator, master vowsmith Dashiell sa Vare—beautiful, perfect Dashiell sa Vare—an old flame Nic has neither forgiven nor forgotten.

What could go wrong?

Only a dead body turning up mere hours after they lock the doors. The first could be an accident, but a second death reveals something sinister is unfolding at Monterris Court, and long-buried secrets begin to surface. As accusations fly, Nic must work with his former lover and his future bride to uncover the killer before they become the next targets.

A reluctant necromancer, a man killed before his time, and the crime that brings them together.

Felipe Galvan’s life as an investigator for the Paranormal Society has been spent running into danger. Returning home from his latest case, Felipe struggles with the sudden quiet of his life until a mysterious death puts him in the path of the enigmatic Oliver Barlow.

Oliver has two secrets. One, he has been in love with the charming Felipe Galvan for years. Two, he is a necromancer, but to keep the sensible life he’s built as a medical examiner, he must hide his powers. That is until Oliver finds Felipe murdered and accidentally brings him back from the dead.

But Felipe refuses to die again until he and Oliver catch his killer. Together, Felipe and Oliver embark on an investigation to uncover a plot centuries in the making. As they close in on his killer, one thing is certain: if they don’t stop them, Felipe won’t be the last to die.

Marius Valstar doesn’t know which is worse: the dead body in his greenhouse or the naked fae prince on his desk.

The only rakes of interest to Marius are garden tools. Not fae princes. Certainly not the arrogant, selfish fae prince he has the misfortune to have a history with.

But when Prince Rakken turns up naked and bleeding in Marius’s college the same day a body appears in his greenhouse, scruples must take second place to solving a murder that could unravel the delicate balance between humans and fae.

Marius’s own developing magical powers are more hindrance than help – as is Rakken’s bloodied past. Forced to work together, they must forge an uneasy alliance if they are to track down the killer. But how can Marius trust the man who represents everything he’s trying to avoid?

A Rake of His Own is a steamy m/m gaslamp fantasy featuring a melodramatic fae prince, a beleaguered botanist, and an enemies-to-lovers romance. It occurs chronologically after the events of The Stariel Quartet, but can be read as a standalone.

A lyrical historical fantasy adventure, set in 1932 Spain and Germany, that brings to life the world of the novellas collected in Los Nefilim: Spanish Nephilim battling daimons in a supernatural war to save humankind.

Born of daimon and angel, Diago Alvarez is a being unlike all others. The embodiment of dark and light, he has witnessed the good and the horror of this world and those beyond. In the supernatural war between angels and daimons that will determine humankind’s future, Diago has chosen Los Nefilim, the sons and daughters of angels who possess the power to harness music and light.

As the forces of evil gather, Diago must locate the Key, the special chord that will unite the nefilim’s voices, giving them the power to avert the coming civil war between the Republicans and Franco’s Nationalists. Finding the Key will save Spain from plunging into darkness.

And for Diago, it will resurrect the anguish caused by a tragedy he experienced in a past life.

But someone—or something—is determined to stop Diago in his quest and will use his history to destroy him and the nefilim. Hearing his stolen Stradivarius played through the night, Diago is tormented by nightmares about his past life. Each incarnation strengthens the ties shared by the nefilim, whether those bonds are of love or hate . . . or even betrayal.

To retrieve the violin, Diago must journey into enemy territory . . . and face an old nemesis and a fallen angel bent on revenge.

Dragons. Art. Revolution.

Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint.

One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers.

But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics.

What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight…

In the Watchful City explores borders, power, diaspora, and transformation in an Asian-inspired mosaic novella that melds the futurism of Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station with the magical wonder of Catherynne M. Valente’s Palimpsest.

The city of Ora uses a complex living network called the Gleaming to surveil its inhabitants and maintain harmony. Anima is one of the cloistered extrasensory humans tasked with watching over Ora’s citizens. Although ær world is restricted to what æ can see and experience through the Gleaming, Anima takes pride and comfort in keeping Ora safe from all harm.

All that changes when a mysterious visitor enters the city carrying a cabinet of curiosities from around the world, with a story attached to each item. As Anima’s world expands beyond the borders of Ora to places—and possibilities—æ never before imagined to exist, æ finds ærself asking a question that throws into doubt ær entire purpose: What good is a city if it can’t protect its people?

The discovery of lost letters between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, describing historical events that never happened, sends shockwaves through the academic world. Meanwhile, a citywide surveillance program is coming to New York on a groundswell of dirty money and dead bodies. To hard-nosed Brooklyn reporter Nell Bluth, the two mysteries couldn’t be more different.

Then she finds the missing link. Seelie Rose, a transgender runaway and the eyewitness to a murder, has a priceless secret in her pocket and a ruthless assassin on her trail. Nell and her partner Tyler are drawn into a centuries-old vendetta, a conspiracy dating back to the Revolutionary War…and witchcraft.

A secret war is raging on the streets of New York. It’s a battle to control the narrative of history itself, and the winner rewrites the world. Three unlikely heroes will have to outrun and outwit every obstacle in their path; with time running out, they’re the last hope to save the past, the present, and the future. And if they can’t, they won’t live to see tomorrow.

When the saints fail, the sinners step up.

Cruel gods rule the steam-powered city of Chime, demanding worship and tribute from their mortal subjects. Kayl lost her faith in them long ago, and now seeks to protect vulnerable and downtrodden mortals from their gods’ whims. But when Kayl discovers powers that she didn’t know she had—and destroys a mortal’s soul by accident—she becomes Chime’s most wanted.

Quen’s job was to pursue sinners, until the visions started. Haunted by foreboding images of his beloved city’s destruction, Quen hunts soul-sucking creatures made of aether who prey on its citizens—and Kayl is his number one target.

To ensure Chime’s future, Kayl and Quen must discover the truth of Kayl’s divine abilities before the gods take matters into their own hands.

For a city that bows to cruel gods, it’ll take godless heathens to save it.

The Thirteenth Hour is the first book in The Cruel Gods series—a gaslamp fantasy featuring magical portals, gothic cosmic deities, quaint Britishisms, and steampunk vibes. This is an adult book containing strong language and mature themes that some readers may find disturbing. For a full list of content warnings, visit Trudie Skies’s website.

It’s hard to prove Mom wrong when she’s found Mr. Right…

Dumped by his boyfriend and stuck in an unfulfilling job, jaded NYC ghostwriter Sam Carmichael can’t be more miserable. Until the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday when his mother, Gloria, arrives with a present from the past.

Years ago, exasperated by Gloria’s matchmaking, Sam promised his mother that if he wasn’t coupled up by thirty-five, he would do whatever she wanted to find a boyfriend. Sam was joking; his mother was not.

Gloria swoops in creating new dating profiles, re-doing his wardrobe, and setting him up with a parade of bizarre matches. When his mom zeros in on sexy and passionate artist, Finn Montgomery, Sam intends to prove her wrong and stop her interfering for good. But when it comes to finding love, does mother really know best?

A boy of the night-time streets. A girl of libraries and learning.

Druisius, the son of a merchant, is sixteen when an order from his father that he can neither forgive nor forget drives him from home and into the danger and intrigue of the military.

Eudekia, a scholar’s daughter, educated and dutiful, is not meant to be a prince’s bride. In an empire at war, and in a city beset by famine and unrest, she must prove herself worthy of its throne.

A decade after a first, brief meeting, their lives intersect again. When a delegation arrives from the lost West, asking Eudekia for sanctuary for a princess and support for a desperate war, Druisius is assigned to guard them. In the span of a few weeks, a young captain will capture the hearts of both Empress and soldier in very different ways, offering a future neither could have foreseen.

A stand-alone novel that can also serve as a second entry point into the Empire’s Legacy series.

Wild Wish was trained to do one kill.

Saved from a lonely backwater existence by a global war, Wish couldn’t believe her luck when she got into the Blood Scouts. Now she gets to share tents with an all-female platoon of night-stalking, giant-slaying, boat-sinking, battle-swaying legends in the making.

The problem is, they keep dying.

And they’ve been given their worst assignment yet.

The enemy Dread Corps are combining magics deep within the nightmare lands of Low Slane, to unleash a weapon that could sway the entire war. It’s up to the Blood Scouts to stop them – with a journey that gets more dangerous with every step.

Far behind enemy lines, death hangs in the air. Monsters lurk around every corner.

Are Wish’s skills – and positive attitude – enough to keep her Blood Scouts alive?

Or will the cost of survival finally break her?

Get ready for the first epic entry in a new series, and a new world, of dark military fantasy from Phil Williams. Start reading today!