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Such Pretty Flowers
by K. L. Cerra
What happens: While investigating her brother's apparent suicide, Holly begins to stalk his girlfriend, Maura, a magnetic, black-eyed florist with a penchant for carnivorous plants, and is drawn into Maura's sinister and sensual world, soon feeling a dark attraction to the one woman she shouldn't trust.
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The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen
by KJ Charles
What it's about: The leader of the Doomsday smuggling clan, Joss Doomsday, to save his sister from a hanging offense, blackmails Sir Gareth with the secret of their relationship to force him to recant, but is unable to stary away from this well-mannered gentleman and the danger and mystery he brings.
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The New Life
by Tom Crewe
A brilliant and captivating debut, in the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom.
What happens: In late 19th-century London, after Oscar Wilde is arrested, two men, who have collaborated on a book in defense of homosexuality, must decide if publishing their project is bravery or foolishness as they risk ostracism, imprisonment, their safety and the safety of the people they love.
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Dykette
by Jenny Fran Davis
Named one of the Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2023 by Vogue
Named a Best Book of 2023 (So Far) by Cosmopolitan
Named a Best Book of Spring 2023 by Esquire
What happens: When a professionally creative, erotically adventurous and very dysfunctional 20-something lesbian couple is invited to the country home of older, richer and more prominent lesbians for the holidays, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges. 80,000 first printing.
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Homebodies
by Tembe Denton-Hurst
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, USA Today, them, Bustle, PopSugar, New York Post, Women's Health, and The Millions
What happens: A young black woman who discovers she is being replaced at her flashy media job writes a detailed letter outlining the racism and sexism she's endured which goes viral and launches her into the public zeitgeist.
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Confidence
by Rafael Frumkin
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 from Vulture, Elle, LitHub, Electric Literature, BuzzFeed, Our Culture, and Crimereads.
What happens: A pair of best friends and occasional lovers who meet at a last-chance camp before juvenile detention embark on what they hope is a lucrative career in scam artistry with Nulife, a company that promises consumers a lifetime of bliss.
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Endpapers
by Jennifer Savran Kelly
What happens: Dawn Levit, a bookbinder conservationist working at the Met in 2003 and dealing with her gender identity discovers a love letter hidden in the endpapers of a 1950's lesbian pulp novel and tries to track down the author.
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Rosewater
by Liv Little
A TODAY and LGBTQ Reads Most Anticipated Book of 2023 * A Goodreads Buzziest Debut Novel of the New Year * An Electric Lit Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of Spring 2023 * A Bustle Most Anticipated Book of Spring & Summer 2023 * A Nylon April 2023 Must-Read Book * An Ebony Required Reading Pick for April
What it's about: Evicted from her social housing in south London, 28-year-old Elsie turns to her childhood friend, Juliet, for help, and among Juliet's mismatched cushions and shelves lined with trinkets, Elsie is able to breathe for the first time in years, discovering what she's been searching for has been there all along.
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Small Joys
by Elvin James Mensah
"This funny and bighearted debut is an ode to queer friendship and chosen family. . . . A tender and generous novel about finding your people, getting vulnerable, and celebrating every joy--big or small."--BuzzFeed
What happens: While working at a dead-end job at a movie theater, college dropout Harley attempts to take his own life, but is interrupted by his new roommate who takes him under his wing, showing him everything that makes life worth living until their friendship becomes complicated, which causes him to falter once again.
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Brother & Sister Enter the Forest
by Richard Mirabella
Opening like a fairy tale and ending like a nightmare, this cannonball of a queer coming-of-age novel follows a young man's violent relationship.
What it's about: Willa grudgingly takes in her brother, Justin, who is spiraling out of control, unable to manage his sobriety and the ongoing effects of a brain injury suffered when he fled a terrifying act of violence committed by his first boyfriend.
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Graveyard of Lost Children
by Katrina Monroe
Katrina Monroe is a Minnesota author!
What happens: Thrown down a well by her mother as a baby for fear of being a“changeling” Olivia Dahl is about to give birth to her own daughter and begins to worry that she has inherited her mother's demons.
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This Unlikely Soil: Stories
by Andrea Routley
What is it: This sophomore collection from Lambda Literary Award finalist Andrea Routley, is a quintet of linked novellas exploring the failures of kindness and connection among a rural west-coast community of queer women. Funny, incisive and at turns heart-breaking, these stories assert a powerful new voice in contemporary Canadian fiction.
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After Sappho
by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Various women follow their own singular paths in this excellent debut novel, an unusual hybrid of fiction and nonfiction.
What is it: A series of vignettes taking pace from 1892 to 1923 intertwines the reimagined lives of Rina Faccio, Romaine Brooks and Virginia Woolf as they explore their creativity, education and forge queer identities.
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The Late Americans
by Brandon Taylor
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE, ELLE, OPRAH DAILY, THE WASHINGTON POST, BUZZFEED AND VULTURE
What happens: During a volatile year of self-discovery in the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, three friends, as each prepares for an uncertain future, head to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives, a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered.
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Liar City
by Allie Therin
What happens: An empath discovers the butchered bodies of three victims and agrees to work with a shadowy government agent in the first novel of a new series by the author of the“Magic in Manhattan” series.
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The Humble Lover
by Edmund White
From National Book Award-honored author Edmund White, a wildly hilarious and irreverent novel about a rich older man who falls in love with a young ballerino.
What happens: An 80-year-old modern-day aristocrat sets his sights on August Dupond, the soloist in the New York City Ballet, and as they start a relationship and August moves in, messy entanglements and fierce rivalries ensue, in this unforgettable, outrageous tragicomedy that explores the many layers or love and sexual desire.
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The Fake
by Zoe Whittall
A scammer as alluring as she is elusive irrevocably upends the lives of two strangers in this gripping novel from the acclaimed author of The Best Kind of People.
What it's about: Suffering from prolonged grief after the death of her wife, Shelby meets cancer survivor Cammie in her support group who is unlike anyone she's ever known, but soon her intuition tells her something is off and discovers she's fallen victim to a scammer.
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| Weyward by Emilia HartStarring: the captivating and unique Weyward women, whose lives affirm the power of desire, sex, personal freedom, and a legacy of magic that transcends centuries.
Read it for: "a tale of magic and female empowerment" that is also an "atmospheric, gripping read" (Booklist).
What to read next? One Thousand and One Nights by Hanan al-Shaykh or The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey by Serena Burdick. |
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| White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly LinkWhat it is: a lightly illustrated collection of fairy tale re-tellings -- inspired by French folklore, the Brothers Grimm, and Scottish ballads -- that deftly combines realism with speculative elements.
As in tales of yore: These "enchanting, mesmerizing, brilliant" stories draw readers into a "world [that lingers] like an especially intense dream" (Kirkus Reviews).
For fans of: Helen Oyeyemi, Carmen Maria Machado, or Karen Russell. |
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| The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlaneAustralia, 1883: A small, remote farming community pulls together to find a missing boy, but racial tension, ulterior motives, and personal secrets may prove as treacherous as the vast terrain they must search.
Read it for: a sweeping novel with a large cast of well-realized characters that vividly portray the scope of colonial life in Southern Australia.
Try this next: Benevolence by Julie Janson. |
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| Commitment by Mona SimpsonWhat happens: Walter, Lina, and Donny -- teen siblings in 1970s California -- lean on one another after their devoted single mom succumbs to debilitating depression. From turmoil emerges resilience, tenacity, and an enduring commitment to one another's joy.
Read it for: a warm-hearted, "kaleidoscopic portrait" of "sacrifices that keep a family together even when it's coming apart" (Kirkus Reviews).
Try this next: Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Dakota County Library
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