Place your preorders and library holds now, because these are the biggest and buzziest queer fantasy books out in the fall. I started writing this list as simply “the most-anticipated queer books of fall,” but I soon realized they were all fantasy novels! There’s something about fall that lends itself to fantasy reading, I think.

Several of these are sequels, because do we ever anticipate a new release more than when it’s the next installment of a beloved series? There are also some standalones by favourite authors. They run the gamut from cozy fantasy to military fantasy. Let me know in the comments what you’d add to this list!

The Court of the Dead: A Nico di Angelo Adventure (From the World of Percy Jackson) by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro (September 23)

The Sun and the Star was a big bestseller, and now it’s getting a sequel from the same writing team! It’s a real gift to see the biggest, most popular middle grade fantasy series of the moment center queer characters. I can’t say much about this one without spoiling The Sun and the Star, but it’s sure to be one of the biggest kids’ book releases of the year.

The Sovereign (Magic of the Lost #3) by C.L. Clark (September 30)

I’m so excited about this book, I could scream. This is my favorite fantasy series, and now we’re getting the conclusion. (I really can’t say anything else without spoilers.) That cover is not easing my nerves about how this high-stakes story will conclude.

Somehow, C.L. Clark has another sapphic fantasy out the same day, Fate’s Bane, which is also one of my most-anticipated releases of the year.

A Mouthful of Dust (The Singing Hills Cycle #6) by Nghi Vo

The Singing Hills Cycle is a popular fantasy novella series starring nonbinary Cleric Chih, who wanders Singing Hills and documents people’s stories—which means these books can be read in any order. In A Mouthful of Dust, Chih is looking to find out more about a legendary famine that reduced royals’ lavish meals to dust, but they end up trapped in a mansion with hungry shadows…

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (October 14)

One of my favourite subgenres is queer cozy fantasy, so I’m really looking forward to this one. Look at that cute cover! It has a flying cat! It follows Certainty, a struggling novice mage, who is paired with the brilliant and cold Mage Aurelia to help out in a small, non-magical town. As they work together, Aurelia and Certainty begin to question the Mage Guild’s hoarding of magic, which could be put to use to make the lives of the people in this town better.

The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri (October 21)

I loved The Jasmine Throne, so I’m excited to a) read the rest of the trilogy and b) read this standalone romantasy novel. It takes place in an England “fueled by stories,” where the witch Simran and knight Vina are fated to fall in a tragic kind of love, lifetime after lifetime. To make matters worse, an assassin is targeting stories like theirs. But this time, they’re determined to write themselves a better ending.

I want to give an honorary mention to Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree (November 11), the sequel to the sapphic cozy fantasy Legends & Lattes. This one has a different main character, so I’m not sure if it will be queer, but it’s high on my TBR either way!

Join All Access to read this article

Get access to exclusive content and features with an All Access subscription on Book Riot.

• Unlimited access to exclusive bonus content
• Community features like commenting and poll participation
• Our gratitude for supporting the work of an independent media company

The comments section is moderated according to our community guidelines. Please check them out so we can maintain a safe and supportive community of readers!

The post The 5 Most-Anticipated Queer Fantasy Books Out in Fall 2025 appeared first on Our Story Insight.

I really liked Chatham Greenfield’s previous sapphic YA novel, Time and Time Again, so I’m looking forward to this one, too. (Also, I love books that have fat queer people on the cover.) This cozy mystery follows Sadie and Cleo, who have been rivals ever since the day they were born. (Cleo won the “first baby born that year” title.) Now, they’re competing to become valedictorian, but when they’re framed for a series of vicious pranks, they have to work together to clear their names. And, of course, the more time they spend together, the more they begin to question if they’re merely rivals.

The post 3 of My Most-Anticipated New Sapphic Books Out in September appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The successor to Gideon the Ninth‘s “lesbian necromancers in space” tagline is here: this is “sapphic Moby Dick in space!” You likely know Alexis Hall from their queer romances, like Boyfriend Material and A Lady for a Duke, and this is their sci-fi debut. As you’d expect from that tagline, it follows someone hunting down a space monster. In this post-Earth universe, they rely on these creatures for fuel. I’ll just quote author Ruthanna Emrys’s review: “This is Hall’s best, weirdest, and most snarkily delightful book yet. Whether you like even-more-queer Moby Dick retellings, space whales, disaster bi drama, Jovian gaslamp science fiction, razor-sharp satire of capitalist theology, Locked-Tomb-style obscure jokes, Cthulhu cultist crew members, thematically-important infodumps about xenobiology—or better yet all of those things tied together in intricate perfection—this will be your jam.”

The post 5 of the Most-Anticipated Queer Books Out in 2026 appeared first on Our Story Insight.

We’re more than halfway through the year, and there are still so many excellent queer books coming out in 2025. My list of upcoming releases I want to pick up is unconquerable, but I thought I would share with you ten of the books I will be prioritizing the most. I’m in my sapphic fantasy era, apparently, but I’m also looking forward to reading trans satirical horror, a queer video game memoir, trans essays, and a gay Palestinian take on Mrs. Dalloway.

Exclusive content for All Access members continues below.

Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky (July 29)

I loved Mattie Lubchansky’s previous graphic novel, Boys Weekend, a satirical trans horror story, so I can’t wait to pick up her newest one. Simplicity follows a trans man living in the walled city of New York in 2081. He’s hired to do an anthropological survey of the cult of Simplicity in the Catskills. He’s charmed by this community, but he begins to have visions of monstrous and beautiful creatures—and then members of Simplicity start to go missing.

A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper (August 12)

First off, that cover is perfectly creepy. This horror novel follows Carmen and Blanca, who are getting bored of their kinky sex life, until they discover a play called The King in Yellow. Reading it will drive you mad… but sample just a few pages, and you’ll experience euphoria. As they play on the razor’s edge between pleasure and the void, Carmen starts to yearn to escape into the world of the play. Queer Lovecraftian erotica horror? Why not!

Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color by Denne Michele Norris with Electric Literature (August 12)

This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May (August 26)

One pattern I’ve seen in queer lit this year is gothics, and I’m here for it. I especially can’t resist a sapphic gothic like this one. Thora is a widow looking to start a new life studying botany at a prestigious university. There, she is intrigued by a woman tending to the garden beneath her window at night. She learns that Olea has an ailment that keeps her confined to the garden, and as their relationship intensifies, Thora becomes obsessed with finding a cure. Tanya Pell, author of Her Wicked Roots, calls this a “queer fairy tale of toxic romance that echoes with longing.”

Three Parties by Ziyad Saadi (August 26)

Queer Palestinian refugee Firas Dareer has planned his 23rd birthday party meticulously, setting it up to be his opportunity to come out to his friends and family. But despite his best efforts, things are already falling apart, with several scandals amongst the guests threatening to overshadow his day—and that’s not to mention the love triangle he’s currently in. This novel takes place over the course of a single day, a la Mrs. Dalloway.

Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games by Kawika Guillermo (September 2)

I don’t play many video games, but I watch a lot of video essays about them. What can I say: I love media criticism. In this memoir, Guillermo explores the roles video games have played in his life as a queer mixed-race person from a religious family. He writes about how they can be a source of frustration and comfort, escapism and connection. He also discusses how video games can reveal things about our world.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White (September 9)

I loved The Spirit Bares Its Teeth and Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White, and now he’s making his adult debut. Given how dark and gory his YA horror is, I can only imagine what his adult horror will be like. In this, Crane is one of the last humans on Earth, living only to serve the alien hive. There have been some upsides to the end of the world, though, including that he’s been able to transition and has met Levi. But when Levi gets him pregnant and the hive demands Crane give birth, Crane will do anything to stop it.

Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark (September 30)

I loved The Unbroken by C.L. Clark, and book two in the series was even better, so I will read anything they write. Strangely enough, they have two books out on the same day: this standalone novella and The Sovereign, the final book in the Magic of the Lost trilogy. I’m most looking forward to The Sovereign, but I will be reading both. Fate’s Bane, a “tragic sapphic adventure,” follows two women from rival clans who fall in love. They could be the key to ending the feud—but it would come with a terrible price.

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (October 14)

One of my favourite subgenres is queer cozy fantasy, so I’m really looking forward to this one. Look at that cute cover! It has a flying cat! It follows Certainty, a struggling novice mage, who is paired with the brilliant and cold Mage Aurelia to help out in a small, non-magical town. As they work together, Aurelia and Certainty begin to question the Mage Guild’s hoarding of magic, which could be put to use to make the lives of the people in this town better.

The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri (October 21)

Aaand one last sapphic fantasy book. I loved The Jasmine Throne, so I’m excited to a) read the rest of the trilogy and b) read this standalone romantasy novel. It takes place in an England “fuelled by stories,” where the witch Simran and knight Vina are fated to fall in a tragic kind of love, lifetime after lifetime. To make matters worse, an assassin is targeting stories like theirs. But this time, they’re determined to write themselves a better ending.

Join All Access to read this article

Get access to exclusive content and features with an All Access subscription on Book Riot.

• Unlimited access to exclusive bonus content
• Community features like commenting and poll participation
• Our gratitude for supporting the work of an independent media company

The comments section is moderated according to our community guidelines. Please check them out so we can maintain a safe and supportive community of readers!

The post My 10 Most-Anticipated Queer Books of the Rest of 2025 appeared first on Our Story Insight.

It’s finally spring here in the northern hemisphere, and I’m already thinking about summer books. I keep a running list of upcoming queer book releases I’m excited about, which means I’m always living a few months in the future, at least in terms of my TBR. So, I thought I’d share five of the queer books out this summer I’m most looking forward to. Publishing has a funny way of defining seasons, but I’m counting books out from June to August.

It includes an F/F multiverse love story, a trans satire about volleyball players, toxic lesbian vampires, a dystopian graphic novel with a trans guy main character, and a bi4bi genderqueer apocalyptic YA thriller.

The comments section is moderated according to our community guidelines. Please check them out so we can maintain a safe and supportive community of readers!

The post My Most-Anticipated Queer Books of the Summer appeared first on Our Story Insight.

It’s most anticipated books of the year season, and I’m here to add my list to the mix! For the last few weeks, I’ve been wading through endless tabs of lists, recommendations, and sources for upcoming queer books—and I’m not done yet. This is definitely not a comprehensive list of 2025 queer releases. In fact, I plan to follow this up with several genre-specific 2025 queer books lists, because I have… oh, about 350 titles noted down so far, and that’s before we start getting into fall new releases, which also happens to be the biggest publishing season.

All that is to say that it was very difficult to narrow this down to just 15—it was supposed to be 10—new queer books out in 2025. (Well, at least out in the first half of 2025.) These are mostly by established authors, like the newest from Torrey Peters, Julian Winters, V. E. Schwab, Nicola Dinan, and Becky Albertalli. There are some debuts that have already managed to get a lot of buzz, though, like Emily St. James’s debut novel.

I Think They Love You by Julian Winters (January 28)

You might recognize Julian Winters from his previous queer YA books, including Running with Lions and Right Where I Left You. This is his adult romance debut! When his CEO father announced his retirement, Denz told a little white lie in an attempt to convince him that he’s committed enough to take up the position: he said he was in a committed relationship. Yes, it’s a fake dating story! And what’s worse is that the only person available at such short notice is his ex, Braylon, who is hoping to use Denz’s connection to the mayor for his promotion. Things get confusing when their fake relationship begins to come a little too naturally.

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (March 4)

Trang Thanh Tran’s queer, anti-colonialism YA horror debut of 2023, She Is a Haunting, made a big impact. So, I’m very excited to pick up their newest YA horror novel, which has a nonbinary main character. Noon lives in Mercy, Louisiana, which has been flooded since the hurricane. A strange red bloom spreads across the water, and mutated animals lurk beneath. Then people begin disappearing, and Noon has to team up with the corrupt harbormaster’s daughter to find the monster responsible. As the blurb says, “Noon must hunt the monster… or become one.” This promises some very creepy body horror moments!

Woodworking by Emily St. James (March 4)

Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters (March 11)

It’s hard to overstate how influential Torrey Peters’s critically acclaimed 2021 debut novel Detransition, Baby has been; it quickly became one of the most popular and well-known trans novels ever written. Needless to say, her follow up is highly anticipated! It includes three short stories and a novel. Stag Dance follows a group of lumberjacks who plan a dance that requires some of them to volunteer to dance as women. I’ll let the description say the rest: “When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.”

Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch (March 11)

2024’s The Nightmare Before Kissmas is a fun, silly M/M romantasy that’s Red, White & Royal Blue meets The Nightmare Before Christmas. In 2025, we have a new book in the Royals and Romance series, this time starring a spare prince of Christmas (of course) and the crown prince of St. Patrick’s Day. Kris is investigating the theft of Christmas joy, and a shamrock leads him straight to Loch, the prince of St. Patrick’s Day and his rival in their university days. As the two of them butt heads, Kris realizes Loch has been framed and, even more inconveniently, that there’s more than rivalry between them.

Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory (April 8)

Jasmine Guillory is a beloved romance author best known for her The Wedding Date series, and now she has an F/F romance coming out! Avery is almost 30, newly single, and ready to start casually dating, especially women. The only problem is that she doesn’t have a lot of confidence in her romantic life. Taylor, on the other hand, is a heartbreaker who has plenty of casual romantic experience. She offers to tutor Avery in the art of flirting. She needs the distraction, because she just took up her best friend on a bet that she can’t go two months without sleeping together. But as much as Avery and Taylor assure their friends this arrangement isn’t serious, Taylor is beginning to worry that she’s ruining the best chance she’s ever had at a real relationship.

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin (April 22)

This one looks so weird, and I’m so excited for it! Meet Baby, an orchid growing in the mall whose hunger can only be sated by one thing: Neve, the florist he adores. If he could only devour her, he’d be able to grow big and strong and be satisfied. Meanwhile, Shell has just left her fiancé and started working at the flower shop on a whim. She quickly begins to fall for Neve. It’s a cute workplace romance! What could go wrong? The description says it’s a “story about possession, and monstrosity, and working retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow.”

My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner (April 29)

The author of Mistakes Were Made, Something to Talk About, and Cleat Cute is back with a new queer romance, this time with a nonbinary love interest! Elsie has been engaged to her college boyfriend for a year when she learns he’s planned their wedding and honeymoon, and it’s happening in a week. Surprise! That’s the wake-up call she needed to realize she never wanted this marriage, and now she’s off to that non-refundable Caribbean honeymoon with her best friend, Ginny. Ginny has been in love with her for more than a decade, and they make Elsie a deal to encourage her to speak up for herself more: for this week, Elsie can have anything she asks for. Ginny just wasn’t expecting Elsie to ask for them. As you’d expect from that magnificent cover, this one is spicy!

Grand Slam Romance 3: Farewell to Babes by Emma Oosterhous and Ollie Hicks (May 13)

Fans of this magical girls-meets-sports story graphic novel series will be counting down the days until the third and final volume in the series! There’s romance, drama, and magic galore. In this volume—spoilers for the first two books—we get to see if this throuple has what it takes for a serious relationship or if it’s more true lust than true love.

So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro De Robertis (May 13)

Caro De Robertis is an award-winning writer best known for their literary fiction, including queer novels like Cantoras and The Gods of Tango. In this nonfiction collection, they draw on hundreds of hours of interviews to create an oral history of a generation of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and Two-Spirit elders of color. This looks like a powerful work that will add to the canon of trans history.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling (May 20)

Caitlin Starling is the author of one of my favorite horror books, The Luminous Dead, so I am eagerly anticipating this one. The Starving Saints is a medieval horror story set a castle under siege whose food supply is running out when they’re saved by Constant Lady and her Saints, who offer “intoxicating feasts of terrible origin.” Those behind the walls begin to give in to the pleasures and excesses they offer, forgetting the enemy at their door. Three women at Aymar Castle see what’s really happening here and the danger the saints pose, but “they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other.” This looks like a wild ride, and I can’t wait to get into it!

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan (May 27)

Nicola Dinan’s debut novel Bellies received a lot of critical acclaim, including winning the Polari First Book Prize, and now she’s back with her sophomore novel, Disappoint Me. Max is a 30-year-old disillusioned trans poet who decides to reinvent her life after a fall down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party. Vincent is a corporate lawyer who bakes in his free time; dating him seems to offer the perfect entry point into heteronormativity for Max. But he has baggage involving a whirlwind romance he had during his gap year in Thailand, and it threatens to upend Max’s attempt at “bourgeois domesticity.”

Be Gay, Do Crime: Sixteen Stories of Queer Chaos edited by Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley (June 3)

Look, sometimes a title is enough to become a most anticipated book, and this one nails it. These stories explore queer people turning to crime, whether “unintentionally, as a means of survival, as protest, as rescue, or to right injustices big and small.” There are hoax phone calls, assassination attempts, queer elders robbing a bank to save their bungalow, and more. The authors include Anna Dorn, Emily R. Austin, Francesca Ekwuyasi, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Myriam Gurba, Myriam Lacroix, SJ Sindu, Venita Blackburn, and more.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (June 10)

This is maybe the most anticipated queer book of the year, given V. E. Schwab’s popularity. She is the bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the Shades of Magic series, and many others. In her Instagram announcement for the book, she said, “The toxic lesbian vampires are coming,” and that’s enough to sell me on it. She also says this book is “a reckoning — both with myself and with my work” and that it’s a departure from trying to make herself and her stories “smaller, more palatable.” I can’t wait to see what that means. This follows three women in different time periods and locations — 1530s Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1830s London, and 2019 Boston — whose immortal lives become intertwined.

Amelia, If Only by Becky Albertalli (June 10)

Of course, we can’t leave off the newest from the author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Amelia has a bit of a parasocial relationship with bisexual YouTuber Walter Holland, and she knows they’d hit it off if they were ever to meet. So, when he hosts a meet and greet nearby, she convinces her friends to go on a road trip together to get there. Along the way, she realizes those butterflies in her stomach might actually be for her cynical, perpetually single best friend Natalie.

Those are 15 of the most-anticipated queer books of 2025, but that’s only the beginning! I’ll be sharing more anticipated queer books by genre in the coming weeks, and I start every month with the new queer books out that month, so be sure you’re subscribed to the Our Queerest Shelves newsletter to keep up with those. Below, I also have a list of 17 new queer books out this week for All Access members. Sorry to your TBR!

17 New Queer Books Out January 14, 2025

Content for paid subscribers continues below.

The comments section is moderated according to our community guidelines. Please check them out so we can maintain a safe and supportive community of readers!

The post 15 of the Most-Anticipated Queer Books of 2025 appeared first on Our Story Insight.