This my favorite time of year, when the air gets warmer, the flowers bloom bright, and the books get so extremely gay with the coming of Pride month that my cup runneth all the way over when it comes to choosing what to highlight!
Archangel’s Ascension
Author: Nalini Singh
Released: May 6, 2025 by Berkley
Genre: LGBTQIA, Paranormal, Romance, Urban Fantasy
Series: Guild Hunter #17Aodhan and Illium. Adi and Blue. Sparkle and Bluebell. Friends become lovers, their future a wild unknown.
Finally reunited in New York, they must now learn to navigate the monumental shift in their relationship. But for these two members of Archangel Raphael’s legendary Seven, there is no time to rest. As they investigate a case for the Tower that echoes the darkness from Aodhan’s past, they will be forced to confront not only the scars that mark them both, but the promise of a vast power that flickers in Illium.
The threat of ascension has haunted and troubled Aodhan’s Blue for too long, the forces of change immutable and without mercy…and uncaring of Illium’s fierce wish to remain part of the Seven. Change is a constant in an immortal’s life, and this new horizon will bring with it both terrible heartbreak and a joy extraordinary enough to reverberate through time…
Look, it’s Nalini Singh. I’m just here to draw attention for all the Archangel’s Light fans that Illium and Aodhan are back because if you somehow miss this I do not want to responsible for the consequences. This is book seventeen in the Guild Hunters series and I think we can all agree it’s a welcome one!
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Author: Gabriella Gamez
Released: May 6, 2025 by Forever
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceWhen a late bloomer goes viral for coming out, she decides to use her newfound fame to get her first kiss—with the help of a sexy bartender.
Librarian Angela Gutierrez has never been kissed. But after posting a video about her late bloomer status and ace identity, she’s finally ready to get some firsts out of the way. Using her new influencer status to come up with a scavenger hunt idea in which the winner earns her first kiss, Angela realizes she may need some help to pull off the event. Enter Krystal Ramirez, hot bartender and Angela’s unrequited crush of five years. Despite vowing that romantic love isn’t for her, Krystal seems awfully determined to help Angela pull off the scavenger hunt and find true love.
There’s just one the connection between Angela and Krystal is getting stronger and stronger the more they hang out, until Angela isn’t sure she wants to go through with the scavenger hunt after all. But Krystal is convinced that she isn’t capable of love and before long, Angela realizes she’s falling head over heels for a woman who may never love her back.
It’s a fascinating thing to read some Romance novels these days and feel like they were written for an entirely different generation, in a totally modern and current way. Between the interweaving of social media and the main character’s personal journey being the search for the right microlabel under the ace umbrella, this one definitely feels freshly drafted for Gen Z. Also, if you’re a mutual pining fan, trust me when I say you can feel it from chapter 1.
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Author: Ashley Herring Blake
Released: May 13, 2025 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Clover Lake #1A small-town waitress and a Hollywood star’s worlds collide in this new romance by Ashley Herring Blake, USA Today bestselling author of Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date.
Once upon a time, Ramona Riley was a student at a prestigious art school, with dreams of landing in Hollywood as a costume designer to the stars. But after her father’s car accident, she had to quit and return to her small New Hampshire town, Clover Lake, to help take care of her younger sister. Twelve years later, Ramona is still working at the town’s café, all but given up on her dream. But when a big-budget romantic comedy comes to Clover Lake to film, she wonders if this could be her chance. There’s only one problem—Dylan Monroe, her first kiss and Hollywood’s favorite wild child—is the star.
Dylan Monroe has always lived an unconventional life, having famous rock icons for parents. But she wants to prove that she’s not some chaotic, talentless nepo baby, that she has actual skills, that she’s just a normal person. To do that, Dylan takes on a project at a charming lake town—she even works at the town’s café (very quaint), shadowing a local waitress there (very cute), and asks her to take Dylan around to do Normal People Things.
But Dylan soon realizes it’s not just some small-town waitress she’s getting to know—Ramona Riley is someone she’s met before, someone who remembers her even more vividly. Before long, however, reality hits them, and both women must decide if the spark between them can fan the flames of their individual dreams, or if it will extinguish their light.
Sapphics rejoice! Any day Ashley Herring Blake returns with a new romance is cause for celebration, and though Bright Falls may be over, she is clearly still serving up the goods in her brand-new Clover Lake series, and we all know how well she does an Opposites Attract.
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Author: Lyla Lee
Released: May 27, 2025 by Forever
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceWhen her seven-year long relationship suddenly falls apart, relationship advice columnist Gemma Cho is convinced that real love doesn’t exist. As a bisexual woman who’s had zero luck with both men and women, she’s ready to give up on her own romantic prospects when she gets paired up with Celeste Min, a world-renowned photographer, on a highly visual, potentially career-saving piece on modern love.
Celeste is extremely talented, sexy, and gay, and would be the perfect collaborator and rebound for Gemma if it weren’t for one major fact: she’s Gemma’s ex, the one that broke her heart in college and moved to a whole another country before Gemma could even make sense of what went wrong between them. Despite working on a project together about what constitutes love and romance in the modern age, when it comes to their own affairs, both Gemma and Celeste are tripping over each other’s feet…and into each other’s arms.
Heightened by their shared love for love and the unmistakable sparks that still fly between them, Gemma and Celeste struggle to keep their relationship strictly professional. For the sake of her career, Gemma needs this piece to do well. And for the sake of what’s left of her beaten up hopeless romantic heart, she wants to fall head over heels for Celeste again. But can she trust Celeste to feel the same this time around?
LOVE IN FOCUS is a second chance sapphic rom com that will appeal to fans of THE BOLD TYPE and DELILAH GREEN DOESN’T CARE.
Lyla Lee is one of the most quietly prolific authors in the business right now; how many others can claim a chapter book series (Mindy Kim), Middle Grade series (Gigi Shin), collection of queer Young Adult Romances (including the upcoming The Cuffing Season, which realeases in November), and a sexy Sapphic Adult Romance? (And all with Korean main characters, by the way, which is particularly groundbreaking in the queer Adult Romance space.) This one also happens to be a very fun read, a light and modern second-chance romance full of longing, but also lots of post-breakup feels that’ll make you want to kick one of Gemma’s exes where the sun don’t shine. (You’ll know the one.)
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Author: Jennifer Moffatt
Released: May 27, 2025 by St. Martin's Griffin
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceSparks fly in this summer romp for fans of Casey McQuiston when dancers at a Catskills resort try to pull off the perfect show, and find happiness and a place where they belong on the way.
Archer Read is 27 and desperate to find his place in life. Five months ago, he quit his soul-destroying accounting job in Ohio and moved to Manhattan with dreams of making it on Broadway. And now he has nothing to show for it but a string of rejections. Even for a ray-of-sunshine like Archer, hope can only go so far. A musical revue at Shady Queens, a queer-friendly resort in the Catskills, is his last chance to break into show biz—otherwise, it’s back to Ohio, broke and hopeless. He arrives ready to dance his heart out, only to find he’ll be working with his teenage celebrity crush, the Broadway star Mateo Dixon.
What is Mateo doing working at Shady Queens? Besides barking orders and glaring at everyone…when he’s not absolutely smoldering at Archer on the dancefloor. As Archer tries to forget his teen crush and get to know the real Mateo, he’s caught up in a romance with his hot, temperamental bunkmate, Caleb. Between Mateo’s baggage and the dance crew’s drama—partying, flirting, breaking up, getting back together, then breaking up again—it’s no surprise when the show starts to fall apart. Archer quickly discovers that when it comes to dance, sometimes you can’t leave all your problems backstage.
Filled with colorful side characters, about a million Broadway references, and enough drama for a high school summer camp, Flirty Dancing is a delightful romantic comedy that shows love, like art, is worth a little sacrifice.
How fun does a gay take on Dirty Dancing, complete with the Catskills setting, sound? Between the queer-friendly resort setting and the promised drama of a love triangle, I am into every single thing about this. (And note that you can find even more Moffatt later this year, as the third book in her Falling Hard series releases in July.)
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Looking forward to reading D.P. Clarence’s Going Solo, his second book after The Paper Boys, which was very British, very funny, a bit reminiscent of Alexis Hall but still its own thing.
So far, I only have one queer romance on my May tbr: Jesse H Reign’s THE LEGEND NEXT DOOR (May 8). It’s the second book in her Totally Pucked series of m/m hockey romances. THE LEGEND NEXT DOOR is more a hockey-adjacent romance with one MC being a former NHL player (and single dad) who moves into the house next to the other MC. Reign has become a go-to writer for me, and I’m looking forward to this one.
I’m so behind on Guild Hunter; all the rest are on my TBR, particularly Ramona Riley.
KJ Charles is coming out with one on May 29th. It’s called Copper Script and it’s a 1920s Romantic Suspense with a skeptical Metropolitan policeman and a graphologist (a person who can read personalities through handwriting.)
KJ Charles’ COPPER SCRIPT was an instant preorder for me, and I’ve added FLIRTY DANCING to my wishlist. Con Riley also has a new book coming out: SECOND STORY.
Not yet listed but in the pipeline in May from JMS Books is my new contemporary sports M/M romance TOTALLY THROWN, in which two former figure-skating rivals team up to train after their pairs partnerships end, then take a boundary-breaking swerve after Skate Canada changes its rules to allow same-sex teams. (Note, the book is fiction but the rule change is real!) If that sounds interesting, head over to JMS Books LLC and bookmark author Alexandra Caluen.
JMS always offers a preorder discount, has frequent sales, and you get an actual book file, not a “license.” 🙂
A PROMISE IN DUST AND WIND, Book 2 in Layla Moran’s M/M Mail Order Husbands series is out May 18. I read the first one (THE RANCHER’S MAIL ORDER HUSBAND) because it was set in the late 19th century with modern standards for sexuality. This one appears to be the same. There were some editing and continuity issues in the first book, and it was lower angst and lower steam than my usual reads, but these are unusual times. Free for KU members.
AJ Truman has a new series that just started (I guess technically April but still) that I’m looking forward to, starting with GROSS MISCONDUCT. One thing I like about his books is that he’s a man writing MM romance, which frankly is pretty uncommon…
DiscoDollyDeb I did not know there was a new Jesse Reign. Score!!
Delicious: An MM/MMM Charity Anthology comes out 5/27 – contributing authors include Charlie Novak, Beth Bolden, Annabeth Albert, E.M. Lindsey, Katherine McIntyre and others.
Clare Ashton came out with her third book in the Oxford series, Discovering Nicola on May 1st. Double-bi-awakening with characters in their late 50s, who are frank about their bodies and their enjoyment of their stage of life. The book had me laughing and crying in equal turns all the way through. Highly recommend, even if you haven’t read the first two books in the series!
A Suitable Stray (For an Outguard and an Assistant) by R. Cooper drops tomorrow! Fantasy Romance in the Suitable ‘Verse (on the borders of Fae lands, kinda middle ages, class politics.) Poly MMM. Black Cat librarian protagonist.