Pride Month starts tomorrow! This is one of my favorite times of year, and one of the best ways to celebrate it is to read all the queer lit you can get your hands on. Queer romance is a personal favorite of mine, and whether it’s new to you or you’re just looking for more, here are some great reads I highly rec getting your hands on.
Casting Lacey by Elle Spencer
This is the romance I’ve been recommending to everyone and her mother since I read it, because it’s basically everything I’ve been dying to find in an f/f romance—funny voices I click with, off-the-charts chemistry, a later-in-life coming out, and a host of fun tropes from fake dating to costars. Now I just have to go back to Spencer’s first book, and cross my fingers she’s got many more to come! (For more great f/f romance, check out Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon, Perfect Pairing by Rachel Spangler, Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman, and Take Me Home by Lorelie Brown.)
Coffee Boy by Austin Chant
Austin Chant is official go-to for trans romance, and you better believe he can rock any pairing and genre. This is his first, and it’s a contemporary m/m workplace novella about a trans guy named Kieran whose internship for a political campaign gets a whole lot more fun when he starts hooking up with his prickly bi coworker. Make sure you also check out Chant’s fantasy work, the m/m Peter Pan retelling Peter Darling and the m/f Caroline’s Heart. (And for more trans guy romance, try E.E. Ottoman’s Documenting Light, Matthew J. Metzger’s What it Looks Like, and Dov Zeller’s take on Jane Austen Goes Yiddish, The Right Thing to Do at the Time. For more romance with trans women, check out Double Exposure by Chelsea Cameron, Hold Me by Courtney Milan, and in fantasy, Cinder Ella by ST Lynn.)
First Impressions by Christopher Koehler
Koehler was my intro to adult gay romance, and of all his work, this has the softest spot in my heart, because who doesn’t love the idea of a contemporary gay Pride and Prejudice with a hilarious cast of secondary characters? Couples who clash and learn to love each other are supremely my jam, and watching Henry and Cameron take that journey is loads of fun. Plus, when you’re done, you can get more Koehler by picking up his CalPac series from the very beginning. (For more great m/m contemporary romance in addition to most of the trans romance titles mentioned above, try Trouble & the Wallflower by Kade Boehme, Out in the Open by A.J. Truman, and  Off Campus by Amy Jo Cousins, or go historical with Cat Sebastian’s The Soldier’s Scoundrel or KJ Charles’s Think of England!)
