June has arrived, the rainbow flags are flying, and our TBR piles are looking more colourful than ever! This Pride Month, we have so many incredible queer books coming out that we’ve had to round up a second blog just to fit them all in. Have no fear if you don’t spot a title you’re looking forward to here — Check out Emma’s Spring Queer blog here for even more LGBTQIA+ recommendations spanning April, May, and June. But first, let’s dive into the fantastic queer books arriving this Pride Month! 🌈📚
Orlando by Jules Scheele
9781917355247 | Avery Hill Publishing | PB | Out 18th June | £16.99
A graphic novel adaptation of Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s classic novel that examines the changing ideas of gender and sexuality.
Virginia Woolf’s classic novel Orlando tells the story of a poet adrift in time; he starts out his life as a nobleman in Queen Elizabeth I’s court, and her story concludes as a thirty-six year-old woman in the present. Jules Scheele’s graphic novel adaptation of this important queer work tells the complete story of Orlando’s journey through history that examines the shifting and changing ideas of gender and sexuality, and plumbs the depths of the human heart. Taking us through love affairs, betrayals and exiles, struggles against conformity and poetry through the ages, Orlando is a fantastical adventure filled with satirical wit. A powerful and essential graphic novel adaptation of a vital British classic.
For the Bride by Becca Grischow
9780143138426 | Penguin Books | PB | 2nd June | £12.99
A sapphic enemies-to-lovers romance that follows a Type-A maid of honour and a Type-B bridesmaid, who must put aside their animosity to plan the wedding of the summer.
On the surface, Alice has her life together. She’s got a job in music she loves; she’s firmly sober; and she’s grateful to be back in the good graces of her ex-girlfriend-once-best-friend-now-literal-only-friend Gin. Just in time, too, because Gin’s getting married this summer! If only the maid-of-honor wasn’t Renee Roberts: Type-A, the opposite of her in every way, and a long-time Alice-hater who’s clung to her animosity like a leech. Alice has her own stuff to figure out. She still loves music, but her career feels directionless. She’s grieving the loss of her father just a year ago, to alcohol. And then she finds out that her mother’s started to date her father’s ex-bandmate, which sends her reeling…and with the wedding just around the corner, she doesn’t want to bother Gin about any of it. It’s pure chance that Renee runs into Alice, just when she needs someone the most-and suddenly, everything shifts. Neither of them are what they assumed the other to be. Over the days and nights they’re spending helping Gin throw a DIY summer wedding of epic proportions, Alice and Renee discover that though they have nothing in common-that might be precisely what each of them need. Heartfelt and hopeful, For the Bride is a banter-filled sapphic romance with deep emotional resonance about found family, second chances, and finding love in the unexpected.
Muneca by Cynthia Gomez
9798217047574 | Putnam | HB | Out 2nd June | £25.99
A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.
It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic. Armed with a plan to break the spell and earn a handsome reward, Nati works her way into the house as Violeta’s caretaker, and immediately discovers her suspicions are true. But who cursed Violeta? And why? As feelings between the two women bloom into romance, Nati grows more and more reckless, and is forced to face her own ghosts ones she hoped would stay gone forever. Riveting and richly layered, Muneca explores how far one will go to save the person they love even if that means damning themselves. Cynthia Gomez fills her debut novel with moments that chill your bones and warm your heart, a razor-sharp examination of deep-rooted issues that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.
Trixie and Katya Coloring Through History by Trixie Mattel & Katya
Illustrated by Aly Bellissimo
9798217182817 | Plume | PB | Out 2nd June | £17.99
A colouring book romp through history with the magnetically popular drag queens and New York Times bestselling authors Trixie and Katya.
Trixie and Katya Coloring Through History takes our queens through different eras and reimagines famous historical figures as-played by Trixie and Katya in 44 fierce, fun-to-colour illustrations. From the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles to a sailboat on the Nile; Trixie and Katya are here to make history fierce.
Staying Power by Zena Sharman
9781834050164 | Arsenal Pulp Press | PB | Out 25th June | £19.99
A remarkably frank memoir about interdependence, grieving, and parenting as a queer femme that doesn’t leave out the messy or the erotic.
Staying Power, Zena Sharman’s memoir in essays, is a beautiful and honest journey of care work, grief, parenting, and chosen family in the wake of intergenerational trauma. Exploring the lessons and inheritances of being raised by survivors of complex traumas, the book challenges the notion that one must be healed in order to parent well and celebrates the transformative power of queer family-making beyond gay marriage and assimilation into the nuclear family. The book, which recounts the author’s experiences of raising three children in a four-parent queer family, asks, ‘If leaving has helped you survive, how do you learn to stay?’ Sharman finds answers in queer kinship, femme erotics, leatherdyke lineages, and the radical possibilities inherent in doing mother work outside of motherhood, recognizing that sometimes you fight the thing you want most. Staying Power is a moving, deeply personal account of one person’s journey of unlearning independence through an experiment in queer collective care.
The Perfection Campaign by Jill Vanneman
9798896363262 | She Writes Press | PB | Out 9th June |£16.99
Born with a cleft lip into an upper-middle-class, conservative family obsessed with image and success, Jill Vanneman was subjected early to a ‘perfection campaign’ aimed at erasing flaws. Told with unflinching honesty, moments of wit, and emotional depth, this coming-of-age story unfolds against the backdrop of 1980s America — a time and place where being a lesbian could cost you your job, your family, and your sense of self. As she grows into adolescence, college, and early adulthood, Jill begins to question not only her place in her family but also her sexual identity. Her journey leads her through turbulent relationships, professional achievements shadowed by internalized shame, and a heartbreaking attempt to reconcile with disapproving parents. Gradually, through therapy, spiritual exploration, and painful introspection, Jill learns that healing doesn’t come from perfection but from embracing the flawed, fierce truth of who she is. A raw, deeply personal memoir of family expectations, social shame, and a relentless drive for perfection, The Perfection Campaign is a compelling testament to resilience, identity, and the high cost — and ultimate liberation — of living authentically.
Landscape In Lavender by Brooks Kolb
9798896363804 | Sparkpress | PB | Out 23rd June | £16.99
A heartfelt coming-out and coming-of-age story of a young man uniting his divided self and finding proof of eternal love’s existence.
In this earnest, hopeful memoir, Brooks Kolb explores the conflict between his personal and professional identities as he traces his round trip journey from Seattle to Paris, Philadelphia, London, and San Francisco against the backdrop of the 1970s sexual revolution and the devastating AIDS pandemic that followed. During his travels, Brooks becomes a landscape architect, comes out of the closet, crosses racial barriers to win lasting love, loses that love, and finds belonging. Along the way he learns that freedom demands that one construct their own morality in the face of social ostracism, that loss is an inherent attribute of love, and that the need to belong can be just as urgent as the need for love. Heartbreaking but ultimately inspiring, Landscape in Lavender will charm readers across generations — LGBTQ+, cisgender, and straight alike — who struggle, or have struggled, to live a truly authentic life.
A Smile Like Yours by Emily Thomas
9781525311451 | Kids Can Press | PB | Out 2nd June | £16.99
For fans of Heartstopper and Bloom, a sweet YA graphic novel about first love — and navigating life when you see things differently.
Rhys Moore is worried as he starts his first year of university. And not just about the usual things. Rhys has face blindness, which means he struggles to recognise and remember people’s faces. He has ways of coping, but they don’t always work, so he isn’t sure how to manage being around so many new people. There is one bright note, though. Malcolm. He’s caring and kind, and he’s empathetic when Rhys finally reveals his disability to him. Could Malcolm be just what Rhys needs to get through the year? Emily Thomas’s debut graphic novel offers a delightfully fresh take on falling in love and learning how to truly see another person. It’s both a compelling queer romance and a pitch-perfect coming-of-age story that keenly captures the ups and downs of university life. Readers are sure to be swept up in the romance as Rhys navigates his new feelings and experiences. The book deftly explores themes of disability, friendship, love, mental health and queer identity. A note about prosopagnosia, known as face blindness, and an author’s note are included at the end.
